The Day of the Nefilim (24 page)

The blue woman cast a lingering glance in Thead’s direction, her opaque eyes giving nothing away, and then followed Bark up the steps to the surface.

A few minutes later, the keeper returned. “Here,” he said, emptying the contents of a bag onto the table. “Put these on.”

Soon they were all dressed like him. “Not bad,” he said. “You could all pass for the real thing.” Whatever the real thing was, it involved white lab coats, loose white trousers, and shapeless rubber boots.

He led them into a short corridor, which terminated at a door. He placed his thumb on a panel and the door slid aside to reveal the intersection of several more corridors.

Something was going on. There were people walking everywhere, talking among themselves or shouting to one another in a strange language.

“What is this pla..?”

“Don’t say anything!” whispered the keeper. “Your voices – your accents – they will give you away. Now please, just follow me.” He led them through rooms full of computers and other equipment. There were more people there, all dressed in the same white coats, and working as though they were engaged in some frantic race.

The keeper led them into another area. It was empty.

“Administration,” he said under his breath. “Say nothing. They’re very careful here.” And so it turned out to be.

They were approaching an open elevator when two men lacking the ubiquitous white coats appeared from around a corner. They blocked the way, and spoke to the keeper in the language that neither Sahrin nor the Senator nor Thead understood.

The keeper replied with a sentence or two and gestured towards his three companions. He was using them as some sort of alibi. The strangers, obviously guards of some kind, appeared satisfied. One of them stood aside to let them pass.

Sahrin breathed a silent sigh of relief. Apart from her grenades, which would be dangerous if she used them down here, they had no weapons with them. They had almost passed the two guards when one of them grabbed Thead by the arm.

The guard spoke again, this time with a different and more demanding tone in his voice. When Thead said nothing, the guard tightened his grip and started to reach for his gun.

The keeper tried to place himself between Thead and the guard and started to speak, but they were having none of it. The other guard grabbed him and pushed him against the wall.

Something had to be done. While Sahrin and the Senator jumped the guard holding Thead, the keeper reached into his coat and pulled out a small device. He slapped it against the side of the guard’s head. The guard sighed and collapsed, staring blankly at the ceiling, his eyes wide open.

Sahrin had taken out a grenade. She held it in her closed fist like a knuckleduster and swung as hard as she could. The guard who had been holding Thead staggered backwards, then came lunging towards her. She hit him again.

They heard footsteps, several, running. The noise of the struggle had probably attracted attention somewhere, or perhaps they had been seen on some monitoring system. Thead was already heading down the corridor, away from whoever was approaching.

“Let’s move!” The Senator grabbed the keeper by the sleeve and dragged him after Thead.

The footsteps were closer. Sahrin grabbed the guard and spun him around. He was grappling for something on his belt. She pulled his trousers open at the waistband and pulled the pin out of the grenade with her teeth. “I’m sorry if this seems unfair.” She pushed the grenade down his pants, then pushed him away and ran to the elevator where the others were waiting.

She made it just as more guards appeared at the far end of the corridor. They started firing as the elevator door slid shut. Sahrin crouched down as bullets smashed into the plastic and metal around them, sending splinters flying. As the elevator started downwards, the explosion of Sahrin’s grenade shook the corridor. The firing stopped.

“A harsh measure, but that should shake them for a while,” said Thead.

“Thanks for your help,” said Sahrin, looking at him grimly. Thead’s courage seemed to be inversely proportional to the ability of his opponents to fight back.

The keeper had been hit. He was slumped down on the floor, sitting against the wall. His chest was covered in blood. “Look, I’ve been shot,” he said, as though he was only mildly surprised by the fact.

“Press hard on the wound,” the Senator said to Sahrin as he tore the keeper’s coat to make bandages.

“That won’t do any good,” the mutant said through a froth of bloody bubbles. “Don’t worry about me, I’m not important. Worry about the crystal. It must be put in place.”

The elevator slid to a stop.

“We should put the elevator out of action,” the keeper said as they got out. He was leaning heavily on Thead, who was relieved to have something to do.

Sahrin pocketed the gun she had taken from one of the guards and took out another grenade. She threw it between the closing doors. “But how do we get back up?”

“Don’t worry about that,” the keeper said. “I’ll show you when we’re done here.”

There was a muffled explosion, followed by the grinding of tortured metal as the elevator made its final stop. They looked around. They were surrounded by the base’s plumbing; heating, water, and power.

“Their systems are operating?”

“Sporadically, but yes. They’re in the process of changing over to the Nefilim grid,” the keeper replied. “That’s the reason for the activity you saw going on up there. There are some problems, and the work that is underway here will be adversely affected if the power supply is not made reliable soon. Through there.” He pointed to a doorway.

“Good work or bad work?” They were walking between rows of humming pipes.

“Good if you’re one of the scientists. Bad if you’re one of the subjects.”

“Who are they? Are they with the authorities… the… what is it… the UN?”

“No,” the keeper coughed. “But they know about each other. And they exchange information. They co-operate, but they don’t trust each other.”

“Are they mutant, then?”

“God, no. Apart from myself, the only mutants here are being experimented on. It’s here.” They had reached some large vats, and the keeper was pointing between two of them, towards a rock wall. “Please put me down there.”

Thead did as he was told. The keeper busied himself in a corner, pulling at a panel in the side of one of the vats. At first it resisted, but then it gave way, protesting with the sound of corroded metal.

The keeper coughed blood again. “Have a look. Get down here with me.”

The others squatted down and looked into the recess under the boiler. The only thing visible in the blackness was the top of a rusting iron ladder.

“It doesn’t go far down. There’s a ledge, about ten feet down. One of you must take the crystal down there and place it.”

“I’ll do it,” said Thead.

“No, I will,” said the Senator. “I’ll go.” He climbed into the opening before anyone could argue, turning around and placing his feet on the rungs of the ladder. He looked down. “It’s dark down there.”

“You’ll have to feel your way. Just next to the bottom of the ladder, two or three feet to your right, you’ll find a depression in the rock. It’s well defined; you’ll know it when you feel it. The crystal will fit into it.”

“I know, I remember the one in New York.”

“Good. And don’t move away from the ladder. The ledge is narrow, and it’s above a chasm. If you were to fall, we could do nothing for you.”

“Don’t worry,” said the Senator, disappearing into the darkness. “I won’t be doing any sightseeing.” He descended the ladder carefully, probing the darkness each time he transferred a foot from one rung to another. Eventually he found the ledge. With one hand firmly holding the ladder, he stood for a moment and fought off a wave of vertigo. He looked into the darkness, hoping that his eyes would become accustomed to the weak light coming from the opening above him.

He could almost, but not quite, make out shapes that were as insubstantial as ghosts. Swarms of tiny points of light swirled around him. Perhaps his mind was creating them out of the darkness. Not knowing what was around him made him feel uncomfortable. He shook his head, and told himself to concentrate. He dropped to his knees, and started searching. The rock was rough, and slippery with moisture that permeated the air and chilled his skin.

He found the cavity easily enough. Running his fingers around its inner edges, he could tell that it was the same as the one he had seen in New York, except that this one was full of ice-cold water that quickly numbed his fingers.

He took the crystal out of its bag and soon found that if he positioned it wrongly, it would almost, but not quite, fit. It would rock like a loose piece of machinery, or it would be too big, and refuse to go into the cavity at all. Displaced water spilled over the ground around him.

Suddenly, after what seemed like forever, he felt it jump into place, as though the rock was taking hold of it. A blue light appeared inside it, soft at first, then with greater intensity, skittering across its faces and twisting into spirals and whorls of light. It was quite beautiful, he thought, as the tendrils of light began to spread outwards, growing stronger with each second, turning from thin feathery trails into braids of luminescence that were as thick as his forearm.

It was done. He swung back onto the ladder and started climbing. Someone was calling him.

* * *

Sahrin had heard them first. Someone was coming. She scouted around and saw their searchlights scanning the aisles as they approached.

She ran back to the others. “They’re here!” She bent down near the top of the ladder and whispered as loudly as she dared. “Senator! Get up here now! We’ve got company!” A muffled reply came from below.

“The way to the surface is not far from here,” the keeper said. “This way.” Weak now, he raised a bloodied hand and pointed down one of the aisles.

“As quickly as you can, then,” said Thead, taking the keeper’s weight.

Sahrin hung back, waiting for the Senator and looking anxiously in the direction of the approaching lights. Just as their pursuers appeared around a corner, the Senator arrived at the top of the ladder.

“It’s done. It’s working.”

“Good! Come on, they’re onto us.”

The soldiers saw them and started firing, the beams from their guns weaving a web of light around them as they ran. Thead and the keeper had disappeared around a corner. Sahrin got there and dived behind a drum.

“Hurry!” she screamed at the Senator, and fired at the advancing guards. One of them dropped. Realizing that their fugitives were armed, the others took cover and started firing again.

The Senator had almost reached Sahrin when the full blast of a beam hit him squarely in the back. He flew forward into her arms. She pulled him around the corner. His back had been laid open by the blast. It was a mass of mangled and burnt flesh. Sahrin turned him over.

He was dead. Sahrin lowered him to the ground and took out two of her grenades.

“Eat this,” she hissed, pulling the pins and hurling both grenades down the aisle. She turned as they exploded.

There was no sign of either Thead or the keeper. She started running, looking down aisles as she passed them. Four, five… nothing. Just as she began to hear the sound of running footsteps behind her – fewer now, she must have taken out a few of them – she saw movement in the gloom at the end of a row of storage cabinets.

It was the keeper, leaning against the wall. She ran to him. “Where to, where to?”

“Here, right here,” he replied, and in the depths of a corner she saw the faint outline, just discernible, of steps.

“Lean on me,” she said, and she half carried, half led him onto the stairs.

“Stop… there’s a board, to hide the steps… they don’t know – no one here knows – that this is here.” Sahrin slid it across, hoping he was right.

“Where’s Thead?” she asked as they climbed towards a beckoning patch of daylight.

“He said that I should wait for you. To show you the way. Then he went up the steps. To see that the way was clear, he said.”

Great Maker,
Sahrin thought.
The guy is a worm.

A few minutes later, they emerged among some debris at the bottom of a pile of rocks. Sahrin helped the keeper out and laid him down in the snow. He was bleeding from his mouth now.

She stood up and swore softly. Of all the sights that could possibly have greeted her, this was the one she could have done without.

The ship had been destroyed. It was lying on the snow, its back broken, its hull shattered and its contents spread around it like confetti. Flames had consumed the bridge and were working their way across what was left of the deck. The masts were broken and protruding from the wreck at every possible angle, giving it the appearance of a dead insect impaled by toothpicks.

Sahrin squatted down beside the keeper, her eyes brimming with tears. There was no sign of anyone.

There was another crashed vessel as well. The prow of a flier was visible above the ridge of snow its impact had thrown up. It was burning as well, thin wisps of acrid smoke trailing upwards and mingling with the black clouds billowing from the ship.

Then she saw another one. It had crashed further away, close to the hills. The place was a battlefield.

What happened here?
Even as she asked herself the question, she was formulating an answer. Somehow, Bark must have taken down the two fliers before their own ship had been destroyed.

Which meant that there might be more of them.

And here she was, stranded on the ice with a dying stranger, and an underground base full of thoroughly pissed off people who were no doubt looking for her. And as far as she could tell, her friends were all most likely dead.

Thead. He had to be here somewhere, he had only come up a minute or two ahead of her. She turned, looking for him, and instantly her heart sank. She could see Thead, but the brightly colored saucer-shaped vessel hovering just above the snow a hundred or so feet away laid a greater claim to her attention.

It was the same as the ones that had crashed. She didn’t know for sure, because she had never seen one, but she could guess what it was. She’d seen the shape on steles and in ancient art in other parts of the galaxy. It was a Nefilim flier, or a disc of the sun, if you took the old translations literally. And Thead, his back to her, was walking towards a flight of steps that reached from the side of its glistening hull to the ground.