Enemy Invasion (33 page)

“Do you know how to fly this thing?” Alex asked Sarah as he put May in the back of the Black Hawk. Behind them, Louise was holding off the advancing mercs by deflecting their bullets
and throwing anything that wasn’t bolted down at them.

“I’m not going to fly it,” Sarah said. “You are.”

Without warning, Sarah leaned in and placed her lips against his in a kiss. As they made contact, Alex had the strangest sensation of learning a vast amount of information in a matter of seconds
as Sarah pushed the know-how she’d previously extracted from the pilot’s head into his.

“Now get the others out of here,” she said, pulling away.

He looked at her without responding, a stunned expression on his face. She punched him hard on the shoulder.

“Wake up, Alex!”

Alex came to his senses and grabbed her arm as she started across the landing pad. “Where do you think you’re going?”

She met his eyes. “Bright and the Entity will never let you out of this building unless I give them what they want.”

“And what do they want?”

“Me,” she replied. “The Entity wants to join with me like it has with Major Bright.”

Alex shook his head. “That’s crazy. You can’t surrender—”

“It’s the only way. You have to get Hack and May as far away from the hypersphere as possible – and you’ll need them to destroy the robospider swarms.”

“But what about you?”

“The Entity thinks it can control me,” Sarah said defiantly, “but I think differently. Somewhere in its consciousness is a cure for the fall virus. A cure for Robert and all
the others who’ve been infected. This is the only way we’re going to get it.”

“And what if you aren’t strong enough?” Alex asked. “What if you become part of the Entity for ever?”

“Then you’ll just have to find a way to kill me.”

Alex looked away. “You planned this all along, didn’t you? You knew you weren’t coming back with us the moment we boarded the stealth jet.”

Sarah placed her hand on his and gently pulled her arm free. “It’s the only way, Alex.”

“I’m not letting you go—”

“Please, Alex. The others need you now.”

Sarah! He’s coming!

It was Louise’s voice calling urgently from where she and Wei were fighting off the mercs. Both Sarah and Alex looked round and saw Major Bright stride through a wall of flame. Louise
threw a computer tower the size of the man at him, but the major brushed it aside like it was made of cardboard.

PLAYTIME’S OVER, CHILDREN,
he said with a smile.

Sarah looked at Alex and said, “You know what to do.”

With that, she ran towards Louise and Wei and ordered them back to the helicopter…before turning to face Major Bright.

35

“Sarah,” Major Bright said. “You finally made it.” He held up a hand and the mercs ceased fire.

“Let my friends go,” Sarah said, glancing back at the landing pad. “Then I’ll give you whatever you want.”

Bright laughed. “You’re in no position to bargain.”

“And I’m not talking to you, Major.”

A look of confusion passed over Bright’s face… His eyes went blank…

Sarah,
the Entity said.
I told you this was inevitable.

I see that now. Let my friends leave.

Why? The end of their world is at hand. You only prolong their agony by saving them.

Do it for me… And I’ll cooperate. I know it’s me you need, not Major Bright and not anyone else in this building.

You overestimate your importance to my plans.

Do I?

Very well,
the Entity said finally.
I will not stop them leaving the base. Once they are outside, however, they are on their own.

Sarah nodded. Eyes still blank, Major Bright raised his right hand and held it out to her, palm up. Sarah hesitated.

Well? Do we have a deal or not?

Taking a deep breath, she placed her hand in his… His fingers closed around hers…

And the world began to melt away…

“What’s she doing?” Louise demanded. “We have to help her!”

“No,” Alex said, flipping a series of switches on the ceiling of the cockpit. The giant blades began to turn. “She told us to get out of here.”

“But we can’t—”

“This is the only way,” Alex said, looking Louise hard in the eyes. “Do you understand? Sarah is doing this so we can escape.”

Louise opened her mouth to argue, but Alex cut her dead.

“Do you think I can stand the thought of leaving her behind?” he said, turning his attention back to the Black Hawk controls – an array of buttons and switches that were oddly
familiar (thanks to the information Sarah had placed in his head) and yet at the same time completely alien.

Seeing the tears forming in his eyes as he worked the helicopter controls, Louise finally accepted what he was saying. She reached out and touched his shoulder. “We’ll come back for
her.”

“Yes, we will.”

In the back, Hack brushed the hair out of May’s eyes. She was lying on the floor of the helicopter, barely conscious.

“Is she going to be all right?” Wei asked at his shoulder.

“She’s going to be fine,” Hack snapped back, but he wished he could be so certain. Being plugged into the hypersphere was like a slow death, every drop of energy being drained
in the service of creating the Entity’s machines. It had been bad enough for him, but in her weakened state, May had been pushed to the very edge.

Outside the helicopter, the mercs were keeping their distance while Sarah and Major Bright stood hand in hand, unmoving. Whatever was happening between them was unseen – passing between
their minds. As Hack watched, he caught sight of a single figure moving along the wall of the station, bent low and keeping to the shadows so as not to attract attention.

Marlon Good.

“Look after May,” Hack told Wei, jumping out of the helicopter.

“Where are you going?” Wei protested.

Hack ripped an emergency crowbar from a bracket on the side of the chopper. “I’ve got someone to take care of.”

He moved swiftly to intercept the fleeing American, who was too preoccupied with his escape to notice. Hack swung the crowbar across the back of his knees and Good went down with a yelp of pain.
As he rolled over onto his back, Hack smashed the iron bar across his protectively raised right arm.

“No!” Good cried.

Hack hit him again, and again…then jumped on him, pressing his knees into his ribcage and forcing the crowbar down across his throat. Good struggled, but it was a weak effort.

“You’re hurting me!”

“Good!” Hack exclaimed, pressing down harder with the crowbar. Marlon Good choked and flailed at his attacker with his hands, but Hack grabbed a fistful of his hair and slammed his
head against the concrete. Although he was no fighter, he’d learned to defend himself well enough on the backstreets of his grandfather’s village.

He slammed Marlon Good’s head against the floor again.

“Enough, enough!” Good spluttered, tears and snot pouring down his face. “Just let me go. All this killing is a mistake! I just wanted to have fun! It was supposed to be a
game!”

It was supposed to be a game.
Remembering everything that had been inflicted upon him and May, the words only made Hack angrier.

“What?” he spat, hitting Good again. “Your game not so much fun any more, huh?”

“I… This is wrong… I just want to get out of here…”

Repulsed at Good’s snivelling, Hack reached into the man’s shirt and ripped free the trigger on the chain – a silver rectangle with several buttons and a keypad. “Show me
how to unlock the collars.”

“Uh-uh. You’ll kill me.”

Hack held the trigger in front of Good’s face and put his thumb over a red button on the side. “What happens if I press this?”

“Then your neck explodes.”

Hack held up the trigger as if he was about to press the button…

“Wait!” Good cried. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Hack bent over his prisoner so their noses were almost touching. “At this close range, the explosion would rip you apart as well. How about it?”

“Nice bluff. I don’t buy it.”

“I’ll do it,” Hack said. “If it’s the only way to stop you, I’ll do it.”

Good’s eyes widened. “What about the girl? She’s wearing a collar too. You’ll both die.”

“We’re willing to sacrifice ourselves to stop your plans. To keep our families safe.” Hack waved the trigger in front of Good’s face. “We’d die heroes.
Probably make a film about us and everything. Cool, huh?”

“You’re crazy,” Good said, sounding as if he actually believed it.

“Last chance.” Hack began to depress the red button…

“435892!” Good yelled. “That’s the release code! 435892!”

Hack took a deep breath. What choice did he have? He thumbed the six-digit code into the keypad. His collar began to beep shrilly…

Hack closed his eyes, waiting for the explosion…

With a click, the collar snapped open at the back and fell into his hands. He laughed with relief.

“Now get out of my sight,” Good said, squirming on the ground.

Hack weighed the open collar in his hands. “You know what? I think it’s about time you tried out some of your own technology…Marlon.”

He placed the collar around Good’s neck, clicking it shut at the back.

“Wait!” the American cried, twisting round into a kneeling position, as Hack ran in the direction of the waiting helicopter. “Don’t leave me like this! Where are you
going? We can work together! We’ll be bigger than Microsoft!”

Hack raced across the landing pad, where the rotors of the helicopter were running at full speed now. Jumping into the back, he found May sitting up – her explosive collar in her lap,
open. She looked at Hack and, seeing that the collar was gone from his throat also, managed a weak smile.

“Where’s yours?” she asked.

“Marlon Good is trying it out for size,” he replied.

May nodded…and clicked her collar closed. It emitted a beep as it twinned with the other...

“Time to get out of here!” Alex yelled from the cockpit. He pulled back on the stick...

Hack looked round. “Sarah?”

Alex shook his head. Outside, Major Bright’s hand opened and Sarah’s fingers slipped from his. The major blinked like someone awaking from a sleep and looked round in surprise.
Before him Sarah stood with her eyes closed still, as if in a trance. Bright looked over her shoulder and saw the Black Hawk powering up for take-off…

“Open fire!” Bright screamed at his men as the vehicle began to lift into the air. “All weapons!”

The mercs, who had been holding off, awaiting orders, now let loose with everything they had. The air became alive with flying metal. The chopper tilted to one side as Alex struggled with the
stick. On the floor in the back, everyone held on for dear life as one of the walls loomed dangerously close to the blades. Bullets ricocheted off the fuselage and a few tore through the floor as
mercs ran from cover and fired upon them.

They’re going to tear us apart!
Wei cried as a round flew through the floor between his legs…

On the ground, Sarah Williams’s eyes opened. She looked over the mercs firing upon the helicopter and said one word:

“
No.
”

Every mercenary in the power station was instantly thrown back several metres. Major Bright rounded on Sarah and pulled a pistol from his belt.

“That would be a very stupid thing to do,” she said as he levelled the gun at her head.

“What are you?” Bright demanded. Sarah Williams’s outward appearance had not changed in the slightest, but her eyes… They were infinitely old and full of malice. Major
Bright lowered the gun.

“You understand what I am?”

Bright waved the gun at the chopper. “Why are you letting them escape?”

“Because I made the girl a promise. Don’t worry, Major. You can kill them later.”

Bright shook his head and watched the Black Hawk pull out of the spin. Now it rose swiftly, through the open roof of the power station and into the sky.

We’re not home yet,
he replied.
One of those bullets has ruptured the fuel line. We’re not going to make it more than a few kilometres.

As if to prove his point, the engine juddered and the rotor blades gave a dangerous screeching sound as they slowed.

Just put us down somewhere safe,
Hack said.
I’ll see what I can do to fix it.

“Right, somewhere safe,” Alex yelled back. “The whole city is swarming with robospiders. There’s a small army of mercs on our back. Should be easy.”

As the others began to argue about where to put down before the Black Hawk fell out of the sky, Hack moved closer to May, who was sitting against the back wall, the collar in her lap.

“We need to get rid of that,” he said. “It’s still live.”

“I know,” May replied softly. The detonation warning sounded on the side of the collar as it approached the limits of safe distance from its twin. “I’d say we’re
almost a kilometre away by now, wouldn’t you?”

Her eyes met his and sparkled with some of their old life.

“I’d say so,” Hack replied. “We could just let it go off.”

May shook her head. “No. We’re better than him.”

As the beep rose to a whine, May threw the collar out of the side of the helicopter. Caught on the wind, it arced through the air like a frisbee and came to rest on the top of a
building…

“I want them tracked down!” he ordered. “I want them dead!”