Exodus Code (34 page)

The air in the clearing was rank with sulphur and ash. Jack tasted rotten meat and sour milk and ginger, the taste of the mountain. Then the gunfire ceased.

‘Cash!’ yel ed Dana. ‘Anderson’s coming.’ Then her comms went silent.

‘Jack,’ said Cash, leaning him against the ruined wal of a brick cairn. ‘You’re going to have to do your best to go on without us. Hol is and I wil hold this clearing for as long as we can.’

Jack nodded, guessing what Cash was saying to him, but the words felt like water on his face, splashes of yel ow wrapped in despair. Jack kept brushing his hands over his cheeks, nodding that he understood. When he looked at his hands, he saw that his tears were pink.

Accepting Gaia’s offer of support, Jack linked his arm through hers. Then he turned and saluted Cash, who’d taken a position at the mouth of the canyon, tucking himself under the jungle’s canopy.

‘Remember,’ said Jack, choking the words out, ‘make their progress difficult, but don’t shoot to kil . They’re only fol owing orders.’ Cash nodded and returned Jack’s salute.

Jack winked and blew a kiss to Hol is, who caught it in his fist. With Vlad and Gwen tottering behind, they climbed the final metres to the basin of the sacred mountain.

THE DARKNESS ENGULFED the rag-tag gang as soon as they emerged from the canyon pass and onto the plateau. Eva lost her footing and fel , tumbling off the path and into a tangle of trumpet trees bordering the steep ridge. Vlad abandoned Gwen and slithered down the hil side after her.

‘Are you OK?’

She smiled, nodded and reluctantly broke free, scrambling to catch up with Jack, who was slumped a body’s length from the lip of the massive mountain basin. Eva could barely make out Isela up ahead already marking out their positions with a ceremonial feathered brush, the peak of her markings leading down into the mountain. Like her mother, the higher the motley crew had climbed, the more compliant Isela had become, the mountain’s sway over her as strong as it was over her mother. At this altitude, a thin sheen of ice coated the edges of the rocks surrounding the basin itself, the mountain etched in silver.

‘Jack, where’s Gaia?’ asked Eva Jack struggled to his knees, pul ing the night-vision goggles he’d taken from one of the guards from his pocket. ‘Give these to Cash,’ he said to her. ‘He may need them.’

Jack’s eyes were red-rimmed, bloodshot and he wanted nothing more than to have the cacophony of noise in his head be silent if only for one minute, one second, one beat of his pounding heart.

‘Jack!’ This time Eva screamed. ‘Where’s Gaia? We can’t lose her. Not now.

’

‘She’s right there.’

Eva heard a low growl and in terror dragged Jack from the edge of the basin against an outcropping of rocks as a mountain lion, a sleek black puma, pounced from the jungle landing next to Isela. The puma was bathed in a faint yel ow light, transforming the plateau into a movie newsreel, the crew, Gwen and Jack, players on a sacrificial stage.

‘Oh my God,’ said Eva, backing away from Jack and closer to Vlad and Gwen.

Isela put her hand out and gently stroked the puma’s neck. It nuzzled against Isela for a beat and then it turned, darted to the rim of the basin and roared, the sound bouncing off the steep rock wal s and waking the mountain.

Seconds later, the ground began to shake violently, throwing Vlad, Eva and Gwen to the rocky ground where they frantical y crawled to the massive boulders for something to anchor themselves against. A flaming fissure broke from inside the basin and shot up along the edge of the mountain, circling it once, twice. And then the fissure shot out across the plateau fol owing the area Isela had marked with the ceremonial feathers, creating three interlacing fiery circles, the peak of the third one descending into the flaming rim of the mountain itself.

The puma leapt from the edge and landed in the centre of the top circle.

The entire mountain trembled, a thunderous roar bursting from the bowels of the Earth, spewing ash and rock out across the plateau.

Gwen scrambled forward, grabbing Jack by the arms. ‘Do you know what you’re doing?’

‘Each circle represents the three worlds that must be kept in balance for the Earth to survive. The world above, the world below and the world here and now. I was wrong. I thought that the Helix Intel igence – the astral force – was our enemy, that it was trying to break free, but she’s not. She needs this sacrifice, needs our genetic and cel ular codes to heal herself. If Renso had let her have me al those years ago then we wouldn’t be here now.’

Gwen had been here before. She’d seen Jack walk into the shadow of a demon and stare into a void in the heart of the Earth. And always – when anyone else would show fear, panic, or indecision – suddenly, this most heavy-hearted of men would become cold and rational. He’d clench his jaw and square up to the universe.

Jack squeezed her shoulder. ‘Gwen Cooper, you know the dril .’

‘You bloody idiot,’ said Gwen.

‘Yup.’ Jack nodded, kissing her.

Gwen brushed his hand and stepped away, walking on wobbly legs with as much determination and dignity as she could muster to the boulders where Vlad and Eva were clinging, shaken by the worsening tremors. She dropped behind the safety of the jagged outcropping next to Vlad and Eva. With images of Rhys and Anwen in her mind, Gwen prayed for a tomorrow. She glanced back at Jack, calmly waiting, and then she cleared her throat. ‘Come on, kids,’

she said. ‘Let’s get out of here before the world ends.’

Jack was about to step into the circle that was burning next to his feet when Captain Anderson charged out of the canyon pass and fired a vol ey of shots into the air.

‘Hold it!’

The puma leapt from the lip of the mountain, flew across the air and knocked Anderson back against her men. With her massive paws on Anderson’s shoulders she roared, opening her mouth as wide as the smouldering circles themselves.

Cash broke through the dense jungle brush and fired at the massive cat that was about to swal ow Anderson whole. The shot hit the puma’s hind leg. It howled. The ground thundered and shook in response, throwing anyone stil standing off their feet. Fissures were shooting out across the plateau from every circle, crumbling and crushing anything and anyone in their path.

‘No!’ yel ed Jack. ‘Don’t shoot her.’

The puma leapt off Anderson and pounced into the lead circle. Jack turned and watched as Gaia now stood in the centre of the blazing rings, blood dripping from a bul et wound in her thigh.

‘I don’t know what weirdness is going on here,’ said Anderson, scrambling to her feet, ‘but give me the girl and you can al go about your private orgy when she and my unit are clear.’

Jack turned and stared in horror as Isela began sinking into the earth, being pul ed towards the edge of the basin next to him.

‘No, Isela! Not you,’ he screamed, his throat raw. ‘You don’t have to be part of this.’

‘But the sacrifice must be three,’ choked Isela, the smouldering ash thickening around her. ‘Gaia, the puma from the darkness of the underworld, you, the
cóndor
from the heavens, and someone of the Earth, bound intimately to our world. There is no one else. It must be three. That’s the prophesy.’

Overwhelmed with the intoxicating fumes, Isela col apsed to the ground, silver veins shooting out of the mountain, darting along the smoking crevices and binding Isela’s feet, then her legs in threads of silver light.

Suddenly Jack realised why the hydrothermal vents had been pulsing out the ecto-hormone; it needed to find the third sacrifice, the female whose connection to the Earth was strong, and who would be a worthy sacrifice.

But not a child. The universe could not take another child. He would not al ow it to take a child again.

The pulsing veins of silver were whipping themselves round Jack’s ankles, and he felt himself welcome them, the sensation as wonderful as he now remembered it. Renso stepped into the circle with him, wrapped himself in his arms, kissed his lips, then took his hands in his. Jack tasted lemons and felt every fibre of his being ache with longing.

‘Get that girl out of there, now!’ screamed Anderson, shooting into the sky because she didn’t know what else to do.

Jack was being sucked into the ground, being tugged towards the dark abyss of the basin. He turned to the outcropping of rocks where Vlad and Eva were hiding and watched in terror as Gwen shot out from their grasp, sprinted across the clearing, hit a sheet of rock and leapt from it, landing in the circle next to Isela.

‘Gwen! No,’ screamed Jack. He tried to clamber towards her, but his feet were encased in the earth, wrapped in the tightening silver veins that were dragging him fast towards the rim of the mountain. He threw himself flat on the ground and stretched out his hands towards Gwen.

Behind him, the ground opened and the mountain swal owed Gaia, her descent marked with a thunderous boom that bounced across the mountain peaks.

Anderson dropped her gun. Loosening her rappel ing wire from her kit, she dodged the widening crevices on the plateau to get to Gwen, who ripped at the tendrils and veins, freeing Isela from the earth’s grip. At the edge of the circle, Anderson shot the hook into the trunk of a smouldering Kapok tree, tossing the other end to Gwen, who hooked it onto Isela’s belt. Anderson slammed her palm on the switch and the winch dragged an unconscious Isela from the circle of fire into Anderson’s arms.

‘Gwen, what are you doing?’ screamed Jack, most of the lower half of his body mummified in silver threads, the pain and the pleasure indistinguishable.

‘What any good mother would do,’ she sobbed, her eyes stinging from the sulphur and the burning chemicals in the rock, ‘saving the world for my children.’

A fissure shot from the lip of the mountain into the circle, pul ing Gwen to the ground, the silver veins quickly mummifying her. She stretched out her hand towards Jack, their fingers touching for a second, for the briefest moment in time.

‘You made my world a better place, Jack.’

The earth shook, the circles tightened around Jack and Gwen like fiery lassos, pul ing them over the lip and into the vast gaping abyss.

*

Rhys woke up suddenly, and stared in horror at the television in front of him.

The news channel showed the picture out at sea, of the chimney of rock growing around the fountain of water appearing to spin out of control, rising higher and higher above the jet and then folding in on itself, fal ing down like a pile of building blocks, fal ing in on itself and the sea, sending an enormous wave crashing out towards Swansea.

He was about to turn for the stairs, run to Anwen and carry her down to the basement, when a tower of silver threads, like electrical filaments, shot up from the sea, spiral ing around the disintegrating chimney and then exploding like a flowery burst of bril iant fireworks, blasting the remnants of the chimney in a mil ion points of light.

The Ice Maiden

Off the coast of Miami, two weeks later
‘PERMISSION TO COME aboard, Captain,’ said Jack, climbing off a classy speed boat being driven by an expensively dressed sailor.

‘Are you sure that’s what you want?’ asked Hol is, steadying the boat as Jack climbed out and onto the
Ice Maiden
’s platform.

‘Permission granted,’ said Cash from the deck above.

Jack laughed and embraced Hol is. ‘I’m more than sure. Besides I’ve been missing your po’boy sandwiches.’

‘I could go for one of them too,’ said Sam, leaning over the portside next to Dana.

‘I’m al about sharing,’ laughed Jack.

‘It’s going to be a long noisy voyage, I can tel ,’ said Cash, grinning and slapping Jack’s back. ‘Glad to have Torchwood on board.’

Climbing up the ladder to the
Ice Maiden
’s deck, Jack hesitated. He had a sudden memory of the horrible climb out of the smoking volcano where he’d lain, broken and mummified for days, waiting in agony for the Earth, the mountain and his body to heal, believing then that with Gwen’s sacrifice his heart never would.

And then he’d rol ed over the lip of the basin into the hazy ash-fil ed sunlight and he’d seen her, sitting on a deckchair next to Vlad and Eva in the cracked and swol en clearing, waiting for him as they had been every day since the mountain had taken him.

When Jack had walked out of the white haze, Vlad nudged Gwen who scrambled out of the deckchair and raced into his arms.

Suddenly, Shel ey morphed at Gwen’s side, looking in every way identical to her, including a chromosome sequence that Vlad had coded into the avatar mimicking Gwen’s genetic code, using the information in Jack’s notebook.

‘Fuck – me!’ said Gwen, who had very little memory of the previous few weeks.

‘That program is now ful y functional,’ said Shel ey.

‘Luckily,’ said Vlad, leaning over and kissing Eva, ‘I don’t need it.’

To bring Captain Jack and
Torchwood
alive in these pages was a distinct privilege if a bit daunting. We may have an inside track on the Captain, but
Torchwood
’s creator, Russel T Davies, remains the Titan in the
Torchwood
universe and ours. We salute you, sir.