Z. Apocalypse (25 page)

Zed turned away, apparently uninterested, pressing his raw body into the soothing snow.

‘Come on, Josephs, breathe out for me.’ As she did so, Oldman placed the wrapper over the wound. ‘Eve, can you apply the dressing?’

Keera made another chittering noise.

‘Let her die,’ Zoe whispered, as if translating.

‘She’s got to live,’
said Oldman, ‘so she can be put on trial.’

Mr Adlar nodded. ‘The whole world will hear the truth at last, straight from her mouth.’

At the sound of Mr Adlar’s voice, Josephs’ dark eyes seemed to focus. ‘You . . . I guessed it would be you.’ She looked between him and Adam. ‘I’d already ordered evacuation when your planes were
detected. Thought my creations would deal with you . . .’

‘We stopped
them.’ Mr Adlar frowned. ‘Why were you evacuating? What brought down the city?’

‘Our atomic reactor . . . and
you
.’ Josephs started to shiver. ‘Your clone barricaded himself inside with the son I permitted him . . . Forced the reactor core into meltdown . . . The build-up of heat in the containment units produced a massive steam explosion deep underground, destroyed the whole base.’

Oldman looked
at Mr Adlar. ‘Making this whole area radioactive?’

‘The bedrock below us will have absorbed a lot of it,’ Eve volunteered. Mr Adlar nodded uncertainly.

But Adam was jolted from his fears as Josephs looked up at him, eyes narrowed. ‘All this,’ she whispered. ‘Because of
him
.’

‘Me?’ Adam’s spine didn’t just tingle, it almost shook itself apart.
You made Dad see what he’d become
, his clone had
said.

Made him decide what he had to do about that
.

‘Oh, Dad . . .’ Adam turned to his father. ‘I was trying to tell you, back on the plane – me and that clone of me, in the Think-Send world, we
connected
. He helped me bring down the dinosaurs, and he . . .’ Adam swallowed as fresh tears threatened to form. ‘He knew he was going to die. He –
I
– must’ve been so afraid, but still he helped us
 . . .’

‘Easy, Ad,’ his dad breathed.

‘I don’t understand.’ Josephs moaned with pain as Eve tightened the bandage around her; already the thick white material was turning scarlet. ‘He’d been conditioned . . . He wanted what Geneflow wanted . . .’ She grimaced. ‘How could seeing Adam again break through that conditioning?’

‘You know so much, Sam,’ Mr Adlar said quietly, ‘but I doubt if you could
ever understand that.’

‘I made another Adam . . . made him stronger, better than before . . .’ Her voice was dwindling to a croaking whisper. ‘The two of you could’ve lived together in a better world. A world that makes sense.’

‘Whatever you did to me in there . . . I’d never share your idea of what makes sense.’ Mr Adlar’s lip curled. ‘You look at us like we’re walking, talking sacks of chemicals,
but we’re not. We’re
people
. We’re put here by chance, we’re shaped by happenstance, we blunder through life the best way we can. It’s not the design that makes us better – it’s that journey.’

‘Sentimental bull . . .’ Josephs sneered, a trickle of blood escaping her lips.

‘You call that bull?’ Eve shook her head as she applied a further dressing to the gory chest wound. ‘You’re insane.’

Josephs
coughed, and blood dribbled from her
mouth. ‘What’s insane . . . is to sacrifice yourself . . . for a world that’s already on the scrap heap.’

‘All right enough,’ said Oldman impatiently, wrapping a foil blanket around the hybrid’s broken body. ‘Josephs, I need to know more on your accomplices, your methods, the scientists you kidnapped . . .’

But then a whooshing roar of engines thundered overhead.
Adam glanced up to see what looked like three pencil-leads sketching vapour trails across the sky. Zed stirred uneasily, and Keera bucked and screeched, almost knocking Zoe over.

‘Fighter jets.’ Oldman saw Josephs close her eyes and shook her awake. ‘Hear that? The Russian military’s on its way. But I can protect you, see that you get a fair trial, if you only—’

‘You can’t judge me . . .’ She
shook her head, dark eyes shining. ‘You just better hope . . . my clones . . . don’t come looking . . .’

‘They’re dead,’ said Adam. ‘They’ve got to be.’

Josephs opened her mouth as if to say something more. But only thick, glottal noises came out as her breath bubbled in the back of her throat. Her eyes began to flicker shut.

The MiGs swept back in ear-splitting formation overhead.

‘Ground
forces will be here soon,’ Oldman muttered. ‘Josephs! Josephs, stay with me!’

But she was unconscious now, breathing shallowly. Though her features were alien and unsettling, she looked weirdly peaceful.

‘I . . . guess it’s a good thing we’ll be picked up soon,’ Eve said, looking up at the trails in the sky. ‘We won’t last long in these conditions, and with the risk of radiation . . .’

Adam
nodded, turned to the mountain of rubble that marked the Geneflow base like some chaotic gravestone, and wondered what trace remained of two lives deep beneath. A father and his boy who had never truly lived, but who might just have saved the world for untold billions who would.

Then he went to his dad and hugged him close. He saw that Zed, despite his battlescars, was watching the skies intently.
But for Adam, right now in this desolate backwater, the Russian troops weren’t the enemy – they were the cavalry.

‘We’re losing Josephs,’ Oldman said bitterly. ‘All that she knows . . . it’ll die with her.’

‘Maybe not,’ said Zoe. ‘I don’t know who those other survivors are, but that man there is called Thierry.’

Adam looked over to find her pointing to a balding hybrid with a wispy grey beard.
‘Yeah – he was Josephs’ right hand man. He’ll know everything about their plans.’

Oldman inspected Thierry, feeling for a pulse.
‘I don’t know what’s normal for your average alligator man. But aside from this head wound he doesn’t seem too badly hurt.’

‘For Josephs, on the other hand . . .’ Mr Adlar looked down at the architect of a world that would never be, dead now in her own congealing blood.
‘It’s over.’

For a few seconds, no one moved or spoke. Then suddenly, Keera jerked into life and shook out the vast, leathery sails of her wings. She was scarred and battered, but still so strong. As she stood there, the last of her kind, there was something about her that was almost majestic. She looked over at Adam, eyes bright but unreadable. Then she turned towards Zoe, and lowered her head
a little.

‘She’s going,’ Zoe murmured.

There was no parting cry, no hesitation, not even a backward glance; with Josephs dead, Keera’s hard-won freedom was hers to take. She took a few steps and launched herself into the sky.

Goodbye
, thought Adam, his mind full of all they had shared these last weeks.

He saw that Zoe was crying; her mum came to comfort her. ‘It’s OK, love. She’ll be all right
out there.’

‘Yeah,’ Zoe said quietly. ‘She will be, now.’

Zed broke the peace first, growling suddenly as if in warning. Alerted, Oldman pointed up at some
black specks in the sky. ‘Russian military helicopters incoming!’

‘Here we go then. Prisoners of war. This’ll be original.’ Eve looked up at Mr Adlar, and pressed her forehead against his chest. ‘Jeez, what a morning!’

‘You could say that.’
He put an arm around her. ‘Colonel Oldman, what do you think will happen? If the President is going to deny this mission took place . . .’

‘We’ll be fine,’ he said firmly. ‘There’s proof that Geneflow was behind the whole scam all around us. And old Doc Marrs packs some punch at the UN – he’ll be pulling strings for us.’ He looked down at the unconscious Thierry. ‘No one can deny we came up with
the goods today. The Russians won’t hurt us – they need to talk with us. And I’ve got plenty to say.’

Yeah
, thought Adam.
But you can leave Zed right out of it
. Adam crossed to join the battered dinosaur. Zed shifted a little as he approached, raised his head from the snow.

‘You’ve got to split,’ Adam told him. ‘There are more soldiers coming.’

Zed stared at him with his one good eye, but said
nothing.

‘They . . . they won’t hurt me,’ said Adam with something that at least approached conviction, ‘but they might try to hurt you, or capture you or
worse . . .’ He pressed his hand against Zed’s bleeding face. ‘So, you have to go.’

Zed snorted softly. ‘Hurts.’

‘I know it does,’ Adam nodded. ‘It must. With all you’ve been through I don’t know how you’re still standing. But even if you
just hide out round here for a bit, till you do your super-healing bit—’

‘Go.
Hurts
.’

Adam took his hand away, feeling helpless. ‘Dad, is there anything in the first aid kit we could . . .’

‘Hey, Ad?’ Zoe called. ‘I . . . don’t think Zed means that kind of hurt.’

‘Oh.’ Adam watched as the creature slowly heaved himself up. ‘I . . . I get you, Zed.’ He lowered his voice. ‘But I don’t want anyone
else to imprison you. You’re like Keera; you need to be free. And these soldiers . . . or Oldman even . . . they might try and use me to capture you.’

‘Not hurt . . . us,’ Zed snarled. ‘Never.’

‘We can’t always win, Zed. No one can.’ Adam felt cut-up inside. ‘You’ve got to promise me you’ll go now and never come back for me. Never.’ He looked up helplessly at the beast staring down at him. ‘Do
you even know what a promise is?’

Zed cocked his head as if quizzical. ‘Got . . . your back?’

‘Yeah . . . That was a promise.’ Adam tried to force a smile. ‘And you kept it, you helped to land
our plane, saved our lives. Now it’s my turn to save yours – by making sure you go, and
stay
gone.’ He chewed his lip furiously to stop the tears. ‘Don’t you see? That’s the only way I’ll know for sure
you’ll be OK – if you leave me and don’t ever come back.’

The hum of the helicopters was growing larger, stealing into the blue expanse of the sky as if claiming ownership. The sound seemed to break whatever spell had held Zed motionless. Without another word, he turned and pounded unsteadily away.

Then he leaped through the smoke still pouring from the blazing jet, the black pall stealing him
from sight.

Dimly, Adam felt fingers take his own; he saw that Eve had helped Zoe over to join him.

‘How about that,’ she muttered, tears drying now on her own face. ‘Boy meets dinosaur, boy falls in love with dinosaur, dinosaur leaves boy . . . The same old story, huh?’

‘Shut up.’ Angrily, Adam tried to pull his hand away. But Zoe’s grip was too tight, and the understanding in her eyes too
tender. He took a deep breath and forced a smile. ‘Shut up,’ he said again, more softly this time. ‘It’s a
great
story.’ He stared on into the wide blue heavens, picturing Keera and Zed as they began their journeys to freedom.

Stay safe, guys
, he thought.

The drone of the ’copters grew louder still as they
dropped out of the sky, whipping up the snow into a bitter wind. Well-armed black-clad
troops started fast-roping down to confront the misfit group invading their country – little dreaming that those misfits had most likely saved it from destruction.

Zoe looked at Adam. ‘The next few days are going to be tough.’

‘I reckon we’ve evolved thick enough skins to take it,’ he replied.

Mr Adlar nodded. ‘The truth – however incredible – will always get out in the end.’

And we’ll get out too
, Adam told himself firmly.
Ready to start again
.

He looked at Zoe. ‘What’s Russian for “extra-large pepperoni pizza, please” . . .?’

Chapter 27: Back to Life

ONE MONTH LATER
Adam sat with his dad in Princes Street Gardens, a swathe of peaceful green in the centre of Edinburgh. From his bench he could contemplate the blackened sandstone splendour of the city and the colourful parkland that endured alongside it, each enhancing the other’s appeal. For centuries the gardens had been overlooked by Edinburgh Castle – before Geneflow’s
clone of Zed had smashed the old building to rubble.

Happily, the castle was being rebuilt. For now, a cocoon of ugly scaffolding squatted on The Mound – but one day the stonework behind it would break free to stand proud again.

Adam sighed. His own cocoon was harder to spot, but he knew he’d wrapped it tight around himself this past year. To be caught up in something so big and so frightening
 . . . it had meant he’d shied away from real life. Become a loner.

Ironically, it was the seven days he’d spent under house arrest by the Russian government that
had seen the first cracks in the chrysalis appear.

The world’s press and TV had gone crazy for the story of how the world had been saved from disaster by such a small and unlikely band. And the role of the two children – the average
boy from Scotland and the lovely, crippled girl from Down Under, and their special bond with monsters – had caught the imagination of practically everyone on the planet. Once Oldman’s story and motives had checked out, and the nations of the world had taken the first steps back to a lasting peace, the Adlars, Eve and Zoe had been released into a media storm.

Of the four of them, Adam had actually
welcomed the attention most. He’d relished talking about the stuff he’d imagined no one would ever believe. Magazine interviews, TV and radio shows, live streaming broadcasts, he’d done them all – chiefly to rid himself of all the baggage he’d been heaving around and hiding behind.

Soon he’d be seeing Zoe again, and his fellow survivors from Raptor Island too. Like him, and like most of the kidnapped
scientists who’d made it above ground before Josephs’ reactor blew apart, they were down to give evidence against Geneflow in what would surely be one of the biggest criminal trials in history. Josephs might be dead but subordinates like Thierry had pulled through. Powerless now, trapped in their freakish forms and with the
world baying for their blood, they had cut a deal with the world’s authorities
– providing details of Geneflow’s hidden bases and secret benefactors around the globe, in exchange for a guarantee that death sentences would not be passed.