Meteorite Strike (25 page)

36

From her cell, Dr. Rachel Andersen listened to the sound of sirens and vehicles leaving the base. After a while, everything went quiet. She sat on her bed and looked at the wall. The end couldn't be too far away. Colonel Moss would send someone for her and that would be it. He had full control of HIDRA, but he couldn't let her tell the world everything she knew. The cover-up would involve her being
relocated
to a grave in the desert, no doubt – like he'd tried to do with Daniel Williams.

Eventually, footsteps approached the door.

“Dr. Andersen?”

She looked round at the soldier who was standing in the doorway and mentally prepared herself. She rose and faced him.

“Okay, let's get this over with,” she said, looking at the pistol on his belt. “I know why you're here. I guess Colonel Moss really doesn't like to get his hands dirty if he sent someone else to finish me.”

The soldier frowned at her, confused.

“Colonel Moss is missing, ma'am,” he said. “We lost radio contact with him two hours ago. Major Bright as well.”

Rachel blinked at him, trying to make sense of what she was being told. For the first time she registered that the man standing before her wasn't dressed in a Special Forces uniform – he was normal HIDRA.

“The colonel took his men into Esperinka after the escapees,” the soldier went on. “There's no one in charge here, miss. As you're the most senior officer, General Wellman ordered that you should take control. In fact, he's on the satellite phone from Paris right now.”

Rachel nodded, finally pulling herself together. She noted the name badge on his chest –
Lieutenant Viktor Kaminski
. He offered her the sat phone.

“The general only wants to speak to you, ma'am.”

“Okay, Kaminski,” she said, “fuel me up a truck and load it with supplies. You've got ten minutes.”

The lieutenant saluted snappily and ran from the room.

“General Wellman,” she said into the phone.

The voice on the end was urgent. “Dr. Andersen, I don't know what the hell Colonel Moss has been up to, but I'm relying on you to put it right…”

The sun was setting by the time they approached Esperinka. Rachel peered through the filthy windscreen at the smoke rising from the town in the distance.

“Dr. Andersen!” Lieutenant Kaminski exclaimed as he put his foot on the brake.

On the side of the road a line of mirror-masked soldiers was walking in the opposite direction. Their suits were dirty and torn in places, but all bore the unmistakeable black and gold insignia of Colonel Moss's Special Forces. Many of them were injured.

Rachel checked the sensor on the dash of the truck. Its display indicated that the air outside the vehicle was no longer contaminated by the airborne virus. The dust had settled. She pulled off her protective mask and rolled down the window of the truck so she could talk to one of the passing soldiers.

“What happened?” she called out to him.

The man looked up at her and flicked off mirror-mode on his helmet. His face looked exhausted, beaten.

“The colonel said there were only five of them,” he said with a shake of his head. “It was like going up against an army…”

“Where's Colonel Moss?”

The soldier shrugged. “Back there. Major Bright is…somewhere. I wouldn't go into that town if I were you.”

“Carry on up the road,” she said. “More relief trucks are on the way. And tell your men they can take off their helmets. The contamination period is over.”

Rachel motioned for the driver to carry on and they left the soldiers behind. Closer to the town they passed the smouldering wreckage of a helicopter. Kaminski shot her a look.

“It's okay,” she reassured him. “Just try not to look threatening.”

The driver swallowed and pulled the truck onto the main street. Slowly. The wreckage of the tank stood in the centre of the road. Only a few buildings from the main street were still standing. The rest were little more than broken frames now, as if they'd been through a hundred years' worth of storm damage in one day. The road was torn open, looking like an earthquake had hit. Rachel signalled for Kaminski to stop as she noticed someone sitting beside the tank. Colonel Moss.

“Wait here,” she ordered Kaminski as she jumped out of the cab. “Don't do anything stupid.”

“Don't worry,” Kaminski replied, scanning the devastated high street nervously.

Rachel walked towards Colonel Moss. The torn metal of the tank had been twisted and wrapped around his wrists so that he was held securely. It would take a metal-cutter to get him free. Rachel wondered what force could have manipulated the steel in such a way.
Louise.

Moss's eyes, still full of rage, followed her as she approached. He said nothing. What looked like a handkerchief had been stuffed in his mouth and secured with tape. Rachel stopped in front of him and bent to remove the gag.

“Don't do that.”

Rachel turned to see Sarah standing by the side of the road.

“Take that out of his mouth and I guarantee you'll want to put it back in again in two minutes flat,” she said. “He just won't shut up.”

Colonel Moss strained against his bonds and made a muffled whining sound against the gag. Rachel thought that Sarah probably had a point. Moss had said enough.

“What happened to Major Bright?” she asked.

Sarah looked up and waved her hand through the air. “Swept away. Into the desert. You might want to send some men to pick up what's left.”

Rachel nodded. The girl seemed different to the last time she'd seen her. There was no fear in her now.

“I'm in control of HIDRA,” she told Sarah. “It's safe for you to come back with me.”

Sarah held her eyes for a moment.

“Safe?” she said with a smile. “You mean you won't perform any more tests?”

“Not unless you want me to.”

“Why would I want you to?”

“We still have to find a cure for the fall virus, Sarah,” Rachel said, moving towards the girl. “I can make things different. We can save a lot of people.”

She froze as Sarah produced a dart-gun from the back of her jeans and held it up.

“That's far enough. I know you have good intentions, Rachel. I can read you. But what about in the future? When HIDRA puts another Colonel Moss in charge? When they reboot the weapons programme?”

“It won't happen again.”

Sarah shook her head. “You can't guarantee that.”

You're right, I can't,
Rachel thought. She looked around the ruins of the high street.

“Where are the others?” she asked. “Don't you think they should be given the chance to decide for themselves?”

Sarah looked over her shoulder. If she spoke to her companions, Rachel didn't hear it.

They emerged from one of the remaining shops. Rachel cast her eyes over the children who used to be HIDRA's prisoners. They were bedraggled and looked as if they hadn't bathed in a year, but they stood tall behind Sarah. She was surprised to see Octavio among them.

“They've already made their decision,” Sarah replied. Behind her, the others stood as one.

Rachel realized there would be no arguing with them, so she decided not to even try. She pointed at the truck she'd arrived in.

“There's food and medical supplies in the back,” she told them. “Plus something to help Daniel. Keep driving east and you'll hit the edge of the quarantine zone within an hour. I'll radio ahead. They won't try to stop you.”

Sarah looked at her sceptically.

“Special Forces aren't in control any more,” Rachel assured her. She pulled a mobile phone from her pocket and handed it to the girl. “Take this. Just in case you want to get in touch in the future. My number's in there.”

Sarah turned the phone over in her hand before putting it in her pocket. “Thanks. I'd like to come with you, Rachel, but HIDRA has a long way to go before any of us trust it again. Okay?”

Rachel nodded and took a final look at the children standing before her.

“Congratulations,” she said. “You did us all a service today.”

With that, she turned and started walking back up the street. The only sound was the muffled howls of protest from Colonel Moss.

“Get out, we're walking,” she ordered Kaminski when she reached the truck. “Radio the dome and tell them to send some transport to pick us up.”

“What about Colonel Moss?” asked the lieutenant as they walked out of town.

“We'll collect him later,” Rachel replied. “When we clear up the rest of the trash.”

They followed the path of the other soldiers back towards the base. After five minutes of walking Rachel stole a look back at the town.

The truck was gone.

37

They drove east.

Octavio took the wheel and he proved to be pretty good at it. Like Nestor, his legs were long enough to reach the pedals with ease. Louise and the others still looked at him without much trust, so he was glad of something useful to do.

The radio started broadcasting again. It gave advice on the locations of medical camps for people searching for friends and relatives. All over the neighbouring states, a mixture of Australian and international aid forces continued to care for the sleepers. It seemed that the spread of the virus had been limited to the quarantine zone, so HIDRA had managed to do one thing right. Nevertheless, over five thousand people had been affected by the fall virus within the zone.

Robert sat alongside Octavio as they bounced along, but after a while got bored. He thought of the others in the back of the truck and teleported there instantly.

“Hey, you're supposed to be keeping an eye on Octavio!” Sarah said as he appeared beside her.

“He's fine,” Robert replied, looking down at Nestor, who was lying on a stretcher. “How is he?”

“Sleeping,” Sarah replied. “Exhausted.”

“And Daniel?”

“He's doing good too,” Sarah reassured him.

She looked round at the sleeper casket hanging from the roof – it now contained their father. The read-outs on the side showed that he was in a perfectly stable sleep. The machine could keep him like that for years to come. Or until they found a cure.

Hey,
Octavio called to them from the front,
it's the HIDRA checkpoint!

Sarah and the others crowded forward to the window that looked into the cab. Through the front they could see the truck fast approaching a boom gate that had been set up across the road. Beside the gate, two soldiers in HIDRA uniforms waved at them to slow down. Sarah's heart leaped. It was the edge of the quarantine zone. Beyond was freedom.

I'm braking,
Octavio said.

Put your foot down!
Sarah commanded.
Smash through that gate!

But Dr. Andersen said…

Sarah sighed.
When are you going to stop listening to what they say at HIDRA, Octavio?

He only hesitated for a moment.

Okay…

The truck picked up speed as he pressed his foot down on the accelerator. Ahead, the soldiers started to wave even more frantically.

The truck smashed through the gate, splintering it into a million pieces.

Inside the truck, everyone cheered as they sped out of the quarantine zone. Sarah looked out the back at the wrecked HIDRA checkpoint and the shouting soldiers as they receded into the distance.

Goodbye, HIDRA.

The road to Melbourne stretched ahead of them.

* * *

They weren't there yet, however. A stolen military truck containing six kids and a sleeper casket could attract a lot of attention. The roads were clogged with convoys of aid and rescue vehicles. Sarah wasn't ready to answer questions until she'd decided what they were going to do.

So, taking the map, she sent them south, towards the coast. It was the long way round, but the others didn't argue. They were just happy to be away from HIDRA.

On the second day, they reached the ocean.

Octavio pulled the truck into a car park and they piled out of the vehicle, running to the edge of the cliffs that overlooked a series of massive rocks standing out to sea.

“The Twelve Apostles,” Sarah told the others. “I read about these back in England.”

They found a way down the cliffs to the beach. Robert, Louise and Wei ran around, enjoying their hard-earned freedom. Every now and then Robert would disappear, then reappear somewhere else. The others would chase after him in an unconventional game of tag. Octavio stood quietly off to the side, looking out across the water.

“He'll be okay,” Sarah said, seeing Nestor looking with concern at his brother.

“He feels guilty,” he said. “Helping the colonel.”

“He just needs time.”

Nestor nodded and walked down the beach to join Octavio. Robert appeared by her side. Literally appeared.

“What's up with those two?” he asked, looking at the Colombian twins walking by the water's edge.

“They've got some stuff to talk about,” Sarah replied as Robert sat down beside her. She took the mobile Rachel had given her from her pocket and unclipped the back. She removed the sim card and replaced it with Daniel's. When the card loaded she searched the memory for the name of his contact – Alexei.

“Who's that?” Robert asked.

“The guy who's going to take the diamonds off our hands,” she replied. “Daniel said he's trustworthy.”

Robert detected the uncertainty in her voice and looked at her questioningly.

“You think he'll try to double-cross us?” he asked.

“More fool him if he does,” Sarah answered with a grin. Her real concern was the idea of using the diamonds full stop. She seriously doubted they would bring any good in the long run, but she knew they had no choice. If they wanted their freedom, they would need money. Sarah keyed in a text message: HAVE PCKAGE – ON ROUTE TO MEL. Allowing herself just one more moment of hesitation, she pressed
send
. It was done.