Enemy Invasion (37 page)

Hey!
Wei exclaimed, shoving him in the shoulder.
What’s the plan?

Alex looked at him angrily.
Why do I always have to come up with
… Then he stopped, looking round at the flimsy walls of the caravan. The main thing was that they were keeping the
majority of the mercs busy and away from the others. That’s all that mattered. Wasn’t it?

Think you could blow up this caravan?
Alex said.

Wei gave him a look.
What?

We have to get out of here somehow
, Alex continued.
How long do you think we can hold out like this?

Wei looked like he was about to argue, when abruptly the firing stopped. They looked at one another.

“That is not good,” Alex whispered now they could hear one another talk again.

One of the merc leaders shouted an order and there was a sound of metal pins being pulled. Seconds later a grenade flew through one of the open windows. And another. And another...

“That is really not good,” said Alex, eyes wide. “Tear this place up!”

Wei closed his eyes... Alex moved closer to him as the temperature inside the office increased. Wei held out his arms, one pointed towards the front of the office and one towards the back. A
fireball was forming on each hand that he allowed to grow until it was the size of a table and letting off intense heat. Then he let each of them fly in opposite directions...

The front and back of the caravan exploded, wooden walls splintering into a million tiny shards. Office furniture, papers and electronics became pieces of shrapnel flying out from the epicentre,
where the two boys huddled. The grenades went flying as well – exploding in mid-air. The noise was deafening. Alex stole a look up and saw mercs running for cover from the wave of fire and
debris. One grenade exploded near a group, sending them hurtling across the yard.

“Move!” Alex yelled, grabbing Wei and pulling him to his feet. All that remained of the office now was a raised floor with no walls. They were completely exposed, but the mercs were
still in disarray...

They jumped off the remains of the office and hit the ground running. The cover of a scrap pile was only a few metres away...

“HALT!” Bullets tore up the mud before them. Alex and Wei skidded to a stop and turned as another volley cut off their retreat...

Kotler advanced across the open area, Kalashnikov locked into his shoulder. Around him, his remaining elites turned their guns on the boys. They were surrounded.

Kotler smiled and gave an order to his men.

“Shoot them.”

The Black Hawk helicopter sailed across the yard and smashed down in the mud before the boys. They ducked as bullets glanced off the wrecked machine between them and their attackers. On the
other side, Kotler looked round in time to see what had just thrown the helicopter...

A four-metre tall robot made of re-formed junk and looking strangely like a gorilla was bowling towards the mercs. As the men turned their weapons on it, the battlesuit picked up a car and used
it as a shield. Then, when it was within a few metres of the first group of mercs, it twisted the car in its huge hands and used it like a club, swiping all three soldiers off their feet and into
the air.

“Fall back!” Kotler screamed and the men began to retreat. The robot slammed its fist into the earth, knocking a soldier down. Then it raised its foot and trod him into the
ground.

“Back to the vehicle!” Kotler yelled at the six remaining elites. “Use the heavy artillery!”

In the centre of the yard, Alex and Wei stood up and looked from the fleeing mercs to the towering robot in disbelief. As they watched, a section of the battlesuit’s chest folded open,
revealing the compartment inside where Hack sat. He was surrounded by wires and components and was grinning back at them.

“Finally managed to get this thing working properly,” he said.

“Wow,” Wei said.

A second giant stomped across the yard, followed by another. The breastplate of one of them opened in the same way Hack’s had – revealing Louise sitting inside.

“What are we standing around for?” she said to the open-mouthed Wei. “The mercs are getting away.”

“She’s right,” Alex said. “If we don’t fight them now, we’ll have to fight them all over again later.”

“Then let’s do it,” Hack said. He scanned the two vans up ahead using the battlesuit HUD. A thermal image showed up five remaining mercs, Kotler among them.
Kotler
. The
man who had abused them worst of all of Bright’s men. And the one who had promised to kill him and May when the time came. Hack opened the battlesuit’s left hand and punched the right
fist into it.

That isn’t going to happen
.

“You guys might want to sit this out,” Louise said to Alex and Wei on the ground. “Wouldn’t want to step on you.” The chest of her suit folded closed around her,
but as she moved off Hack placed a giant hand on her chest.

“Stay here and protect the others,” he said, voice piped through the mouth of the machine. “These are mine.”

Before Louise could protest, he headed off in pursuit of the mercs. Wei looked at Alex. “I
really
want one of those.”

They’re getting serious.

He sent his battlesuit stomping across the yard, knocking down car stacks as he went. A group of mercs peppered the suit shell with bullets. Hack opened the arms of the machine wide and brought
them together in a sweeping motion, crushing the soldiers together. They fell to the ground in a groaning, mangled heap – alive, but out of the action.

A rocket flew from beside the van and hit him full in the chest. It felt like someone had driven a bus at the outside of the machine. Hack cried out in pain as warning messages flashed across
the display. He realized that he was actually sensing mild pain around his body.
I’m telepathically linked with this machine,
he thought.
If it gets hurt, I feel it too.
Shaking
his head to clear his thoughts, he focused on the van: the merc was slotting another rocket into the launcher.

With a battle cry that echoed across the yard, he raced forward and kicked out. The foot of the battlesuit connected with the van. Three of the mercs disappeared, caught in the path of the
tumbling vehicle. A fourth dodged to one side, raising a launcher in his hand…

The rocket hit the battlesuit full in the face. Stars exploded in Hack’s eyes and he was aware of the machine’s knees buckling as he lost all control. Warnings blazed all
around…

Kotler stepped forward with his own rocket launcher, calmly took aim and fired…

The explosion ripped the right arm from the battlesuit. Inside the shell, Hack screamed in agony. It felt as if someone had ripped his own arm out of the socket. A message rang in his head:
Emergency – full system shut-down imminent – escape procedure activated…

The chest plate slid open automatically and Hack spilled out of the machine and onto the muddy ground. Minus an operator, the battlesuit staggered away and came to rest on its back. Still in
pain, Hack looked at the face of the robot and gave it a final order before the telepathic link was severed. The red eyes went dim…

Hack pushed himself up, running for the nearest available cover. He almost made it before Kotler grabbed him by the shoulder and drove him down to the ground.

“That’s far enough!” the merc leader hissed, pressing the barrel of a pistol into the back of his skull. Metres away, the only other remaining merc jumped on the broken carcass
of the battlesuit, rocket launcher still in his hand. The merc gave a whoop of triumph and started poking around at the exposed operator cavity of the machine.

“Get the others to shut down their suits,” Kotler ordered, his cold eyes glittering with satisfaction. “Tell them to show themselves or I’ll shoot you right
now.”

Everyone stand down,
Hack said, looking back to where Louise and May stood in the distance, still suited up, while Alex and Wei ran to catch up.
I can take care of this.

Yeah, looks like it,
Louise said.

Hack looked up at Kotler. “Two of you? Against the rest of them? You’d better run…if you want to live.”

Kotler sneered. “I make the threats around here.”

Hack shrugged. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

At that second the battlesuit sent him its final message:
Self-destruct ready… Activating…

Atop the battlesuit, the merc looked up as a high-pitched alert sounded. Kotler turned fractionally as the merc shouted, “Sir, I think it’s going to—”

The machine exploded, throwing its remains in all directions. Hack hit the ground and threw his hands over his face to protect his eyes.

He lay on his back for a moment, catching his breath as he looked at the sky. The storm clouds had passed and now there was blue up there. Rising to a sitting position, then to his feet, he
looked around and saw Kotler’s pistol lying in the mud. He picked it up and turned towards the merc, but saw that he would not need it. Kotler was lying face down in the mud, his body burned
from where it had taken the full force of the explosion. With a deep breath he tossed the pistol far into the junk pile.

“Are you okay?” May asked, as she ran over, having climbed out of her battlesuit. She looked over at Kotler. “You got him.”

“Yeah, I got him,” Hack said quietly.

“He would have killed you,” she said, taking his hand in hers. “He would have killed us both.”

“I know. That doesn’t make it any better though, does it?”

“Come on.” She led him over to where the others were waiting and they all fussed about for a while before he convinced them he was okay.

“I can’t believe it,” Wei said, looking around the group. “We beat them.”

Louise grinned from the open front of her battlesuit. “Yeah.”

“It’s not over yet,” May reminded them. “We still have to get back to the power station if we’re going to rescue Sarah. And now the mercs are out of the picture,
the Entity will throw everything it has at us. The only way we can stop it is to destroy the hypersphere.”

“Then we’re going to need more battlesuits,” Wei said, unable to keep the excitement from his voice. “Right?”

39

Sarah awakes to early morning sunlight streaming through the gap between the window and the screen. Rising, she opens the screen to crisp dawn air and notices that at
sometime in the night a new set of clothes has been placed next to the mattress. She picks them up to examine them: a black uniform fitted with multiple pockets that look designed to hold an array
of tools or weapons. She finds the weapons wrapped up in a cloth case on the floor: throwing stars, knives, utility items such as a mini-torch, and a set of nunchaku. The uniform fits perfectly,
designed to facilitate easy movement, while the soft material makes no noise as she moves experimentally around the room.

“What do you think of the outfit?” Daniel asks as she slips open the door.

Sarah smiles, remembering Alex’s uniforms. “It’s an improvement on the last one I was given, I guess.” She delicately removes one of the shuriken throwing stars from
the case. The edges are razor-sharp.

“Everything a budding ninja could want,” Daniel says.

“It looks as if you’ve been planning all this for a long time.”

Her father’s face darkens. “You have no idea. Being in this place is like…an eternity.”

Sarah looks at him and feels suddenly sad. “Has it been very bad for you here?”

“No,” he replies. “Because I knew you would come.”

She looks down. “Perhaps you’ve got too much faith in me. I’m not sure if I can use any of these weapons.”

“Don’t worry,” he reassures her. “If you need to, you’ll use them. And I haven’t got too much faith in you. You’re the only person to take on the
Entity. I believe that more than anything else.” He steps into the room and places his hands on her shoulders. “I know I wasn’t there for you and Robert when you were younger, but
neither of you gave up on me. I promise when all this is over, I’ll be a proper father to both of you.”

Sarah smiles at him, seeing there are actually tears forming in his eyes. “I know, Dad.”

Daniel steps away and coughs noisily. “Well, anyway… We move out in ten.”

With that, he leaves her to finish getting dressed. Spreading out the weapons case on the floor, Sarah removes several of the stars and slips them into her pockets. She takes a couple of
throwing knives and the torch, but leaves the rest.

In the next room she finds the family eating breakfast with Daniel. As she joins them, they look at her, nod and smile, but say nothing. When they finish the meal and the woman removes the
bowls, Sarah leans over so she can whisper to her father.

“Do they know?”

He raises an eyebrow. “They know you’re not part of this place. They’ve seen the different ones before.”

“Are they...”

“Sleepers,” he replies. “Just like me. Maybe not human, of course.”

Sarah looks at him in confusion.

“The construct links all of the victims of the Entity’s virus,” Daniel explains. “From millions of different planets. There are billions upon billions of beings here.
Only a few thousand from Earth, so far. We have to keep it that way.”