The Day of the Nefilim (29 page)

“Then execute a few.”

“Already happening.”

“Then get rid of more. No one is going to miss them. It just means less mouths to feed.”

“Very good. Are there any more railway carriages?”

“Where do you need them?”

“Central Europe, India, and Australia, and Mexico. That’s where we need them most.”

“I’ll see. If they can be found, I’ll see that you get them. It’s having the locomotives converted to the grid that takes the time. How are the Nefilim behaving?”

“No problem at all. They’re playing their part.”

The Secretary-General smiled. “They don’t have much of a choice, do they?”

“No. The ones who came over to us did a good job of rounding up the others.”

“I’m glad to hear it. But if they betray their own kind that easily, we have no reason to trust them.”

The Vice-Secretary nodded agreement and changed the subject. “We’ve been having some trouble with the power supply.”

“I’m not surprised. That’s the purpose of this call. What’s been happening? Weapons failing?”

“Among other things. Transport systems as well. Not much at first, but more of it today. It’s only in a few locations so far.”

“Is it a big problem?”

“Not yet. Nothing that a few forced marches won’t overcome. And we’re just resorting to more traditional methods of dispatching surplus prisoners. But we wouldn’t want to get any more of it. What’s going on?”

“We’ve got some gremlins in the works, Theo. It’s the mutants and their friends. There’s another power system, interfering with the Nefilim grid. I’ll get all the relevant information sent to you, but the short version is that we need to dismantle the other system. If we don’t, things will get much worse.”

“Now, young Thead has let us down,” the Secretary-General continued. He was supposed to get us that time ship, but it’s been wrecked. We know he’s with some of his friends and some mutants, and they’re all with some rebel Nefilim, in one of their fliers.”

“I’ve heard that there were some Nefilim that had gone over to the mutants. Or do you mean loyal to their home planet?”

“Neither. As far as we can tell, there are some that have been with the mutants all along. They’ve been hiding underground with them for god knows how long. Which would explain why they’ve eluded us so far. We’ll get them when the time comes.”

“What’s Thead got to do with this mutant system?”

“His friends have been helping the mutants set it up. If we can get them and the mutants they’re with, we can find out exactly what it is, where its control points are, and how to destroy them.”

“Very good. Do you know where Thead is now?”

“Yes, of course. He’s wired; we’ve been tracking his movements. They’re in a Nefilim flier, heading north. I want you and Alexis to intercept them and take them alive.”

“Can Thead be trusted?”

“It doesn’t matter. But I must say, he performed the first part of his mission well enough. He got rid of that insufferable General for me. And I don’t suppose that we can really blame him for their ship being destroyed. For that, we would have to talk to one of our own trigger-happy pilots, but he’s dead, I hear. You’ll need to be careful, Theo. I’m told that Thead’s friends made a real mess of a Nazi base in the Antarctic.”

“Did they, now?” The Vice-Secretary was impressed. “It was an uneasy alliance between us and the Nazis, but they did have their uses. I never had any problem with them.”

“Me neither, actually. But we’ve got more to worry about than a few eccentrics living under the ice, even if they do have some good technology. How’s your sister?”

“She’s well. She’s here, actually, but she’s busy conducting an interrogation. She sends her love. As do I, of course.” The Vice-Secretary bowed his head and put a hand on his chest as if he was swearing some kind of oath.

“Ah, Theo, you and Alexis are everything to me.”

“And more,” smiled the Vice-Secretary. “I’ll expect the information.”

“And remember, we need them alive.”

The Vice-Secretary pouted but said nothing as he reached out and cut the connection.

* * *

Alexis Gore had almost finished the interrogation when her twin entered the room.

“How’s it going?” he asked, stepping around the blood on the floor.

“Almost done,” Alexis replied, wiping her hands. “She hasn’t said anything, and I don’t think she’s going to. I was told she might have something for us on those refugees that are going underground in Poland.”

“We’ll get some more in, but it’ll have to wait until after we’ve done the little job Uncle Albert’s just given us. May I? You’re done here, aren’t you?” he said, cradling the prisoner’s head in his hands.

“Yes. What’s the job?” Alexis asked as Theo snapped the prisoner’s neck.

“He wants us to catch some freaks.”

“Freaks, freaks… which freaks?”

“Thead’s friends.”

“Ah, Thead! Stupid little fucker.”

“Why, how singularly observant of you, dear sister.”

“Hell yeah. When do we leave?”

“As soon as the info gets here.”

The presence of death in the room was making Vice-Secretary Alexis horny. She unbuttoned her shirt.

“You wanna do it to me, brother?” she breathed.

“Of course I do, little sister. Get over here.”

* * *

The information from Mount Weather arrived a few hours later. Thead was on a Nefilim ship that had left the Antarctic and was heading north, passing over South America.

“Too easy; just too damn easy,” Theo said as they walked towards the group of fliers they were going to take. They were met at the steps of the first flier by its Nefilim pilot.

‘
There are problems with the grid.’

“Well, fuck! Wouldn’t that be right? What does that mean, bonehead? Can we go, or not?”

‘I don’t know some of the words you use, but I assume that they are derogatory. Be careful, human. I could snap you like a twig.’

“But you won’t will you,” smiled Alexis. “Now don’t be a cunt, just answer the question. Please.”

The Nefilim looked at her for a few seconds before it replied.
‘Irregularities in the grid are increasing. We can leave, but there is no guarantee that we will get far. Also, it is not advisable to take all six fliers. That will put more load on the grid, and increase the chances of a breakdown. I suggest that we take three.’

The Vice-Secretaries thought for a moment, then agreed. “Whatever. It’s your toy. How many of our boys can we take?”

Minutes later, three fliers rose into the sky, each containing its Nefilim pilot and a cargo of humans.

“Where to, sister?” Theo was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat with his feet up on the controls.

Alexis, in one of the other fliers, was looking at the map that floated in front of her. A small glowing point showed Thead’s location.

“They’re about halfway across Brazil, still heading north.”

“Then let’s head them off up Mexico way.”

“Sounds ideal. Do we have to take them alive?”

“Afraid so. If we can, anyways. Ain’t that a bitch?”

* * *

RIO DE JANEIRO WAS IN CHAOS. Buildings in the city center were on fire. Large areas were already reduced to ashes. Streams of people were flowing out of the city, along the highways to the countryside.

Reina and Geoca looked down on the scene from the same viewport. Geoboy and Geogirl sat on Geoca’s shoulders and watched in silence. Bark looked over their shoulders for a moment, then went to Nibat.

“Can we get a better look at what’s happening on the ground? Can we go lower?”

‘There is no need. Is this what you want?’

One of the screens zoomed in on the ground below them, panning slowly as the ship passed overhead. Soldiers were herding the population out of the city. Wreaths of black smoke drifted across the columns of refugees.

A group of people, separate from the main column, lay in a field beside the road. They might be resting, or ill, Bark thought, until he realized from their contorted poses that they were dead. Then as if to underline the fact, soldiers opened fire on a group lined up beside a ditch.

Reina and Bark recognized the few vehicles on the road. They were the same as the one they had seen in New York during the Darkness, and they were carrying mixed crews of humans and Nefilim. If the idea was to make sure that the plebs knew who was in charge, it must surely be working well.

Further on, they passed over a small village. There were no Nefilim in sight, but soldiers were gathering the population together in the town square.

“I wouldn’t want to be down there,” said Geoca. No one disagreed with him.

“Just think how long you and Pig and our blue friend would last, Geoca, if this is how they’re treating their fellow humans,” said Bark.

“I’d be keeping my mouth shut, that’s for sure,” said Pig.

Geoca nodded. “Those of us who are caught won’t be faring well, but we know how to keep out of their way. We’ve been doing it for thousands of years, after all.”

They left the city behind and continued northwards, over the jungles of the Amazon. As they crossed Central America, the flier’s lights suddenly failed for a few seconds, and they dropped in altitude, falling along a gradient that was too steep for comfort. The ship corrected itself almost immediately, but a few minutes later the same thing happened again. This time it was worse.

‘The grid,’
thought Nibat.
‘It’s failing.’

“Will it get any worse?”

‘Wait, I’ll ask the ship.’

“The ship says it can see ahead,” said Pig, who had already asked it, “and that the grid to the north is irregular. Our Stream is growing there, and it is hampering the Nefilim grid, distorting it.”

“Will waiting benefit us?”

Pig slipped into his talking-with-the-ship state for a moment and then opened his eyes.

“The ship says that the grid is getting weaker. But if we can stop for a while, it will try to rearrange its power system so that it draws from the Stream instead of the grid. It’s not sure that it can be done, but it will try.”

‘Then we should stop, and let the ship try,’
thought Nibat.

“If we have to stop,” said Bark, “we should find the safest place we can. Somewhere out of the way, where we’re not going to be harassed.”

“But we should find it quickly,” said Pig. “Ship says that the way ahead is weaker, and more dangerous.”

They were somewhere above the Yucatan Peninsula.

“Then we’ll just take the first place we can find,” said Bark, and he and Nibat began looking on the screens for somewhere to land.

“Wait,” said Pig. “The ship says it has made contact with another flier. It is nearby, and there are people there. It’s on the ground, in a safe place. Here.” The ship passed the location to one of its display panels.

Ten minutes later, they were hovering above their destination. Hidden in dense jungle on the top of a high plateau was a small town, fifty or so buildings, all worn roofs and enclosed courtyards, interspersed with garden plots and uneven paths that had never seen a vehicle. Everything was as you would expect to find in an isolated country village, except for the Nefilim flier that sat at one edge of the town, where the jungle had begun to encroach. They landed beside a derelict building on the opposite side of town.

“The ship will set to work now,” said Pig. “It can’t help us, nor can we contact it, while it is busy.”

Leaving Nibat in charge of the ship, and Sahrin and the keeper who were still recuperating, the rest of them emerged onto a dusty street. A few dogs gave them cursory glances and then carried on with whatever they were doing. People had come out of their houses and stood in groups looking at the strangers.

“I wonder what they’re thinking,” said the blue woman. They were an unusual collection, after all; Bark, still in his traveling attire, a blue-skinned woman, a pig, a tall dark-skinned woman, a man with a hole in him, a nervous looking man wearing a white coat, and Anak.

Two men came up to the group and stood in front of them. They looked as though they were trying decide which one was the leader. They looked carefully at Anak, and moved closer to him.
Perhaps they were expecting such a visitor
, Bark thought. After all, there was a Nefilim ship here. From the way they looked at the alien and spoke in brief snatches of their own language between themselves, it was obvious that they were communicating with him.

“Can you tell us anything about the other ship that’s here?” Bark asked. “The one that looks like ours?”

The locals looked at him blankly, and then looked back to Anak.

‘
They say that they don’t speak your language,’
the Nefilim thought to Bark.
‘Leave it to me.’

Bark was confused. Never before had he had any trouble being understood by any race of people. That’s how it was anywhere in the universe. The various races had their own languages, of course, but they could all understand each other. It was just the way it was, and no one questioned it. On that level if no other, minds worked together. So he hadn’t been surprised that he understood everyone he had met here, and had been understood by them, that was just the way it should be – but now here were these people with olive-colored skin, broad faces with high cheekbones, and long, shining black hair shot through with beads and strips of colored cloth, and they couldn’t understand him. What was going on?

While the conversation between the Nefilim and the two men proceeded, Pig had noticed another pig, smaller than him and covered with white hair rather than black. It had its snout in a pile of vegetable scraps below a kitchen window, oblivious to the gathering that was going on only a short distance away. Pig went over to it. The other animal looked up and grunted.

“Hello.”

There was no reply.

“Can you tell me why there’s a Nefilim ship here in your town? Is it safe here?”

The pig looked at him again, and gave another grunt, this time a warning one, and put its nose back among the scraps.

Pig realized that it didn’t understand him. “Well,
excuse
me,” he said, and returned to the group, leaving the pig to its foraging.