Enemy Invasion (39 page)

The place was eerily still. No mercs moved around outside. The crowds of slave people had moved away from this area as well.

Hack opened the helmet of his battlesuit and took a breath of fresh air, as did the others. “It’s quiet down there,” he said. “Do you think they know
we’re—”

He stopped dead at a terrifying sight from the river beyond the power station. The five spider swarms were crossing the Thames, churning the water as they converged on the base.

“Yes, I think it’s safe to assume they know we’re here,” Alex said as the swarms breached the side of the Thames. On dry land each swarm seemed to shrink suddenly, as if
the millions of spiders were folding in on themselves. “What’s happening?”

“I’ve seen this before,” Hack said, remembering back on the island when the swarm had formed into a single spider. “The Entity is reconfiguring the spiders to protect the
base.”

Within seconds they had reformed into five gigantic spiders, each towering several storeys tall. Three of these spiders climbed the side of the power station, taking up positions around the open
roof, while the other two scuttled round to the open ground at the front of the base.

Wei said what everyone was thinking: “Suddenly these battlesuits don’t look so big.”

41

By the time they reach the underside of the rig, Sarah’s arms and legs are burning with fatigue, but she knows they cannot stop. The explosions have long since ceased
on the surface of the water above. Either the gunners from the rig believe they have been killed or have realized their weapons are ineffective against an enemy approaching underwater.

Breaking the surface, Sarah and Daniel swim towards a platform at water level and clamber up the metal steps on the side. They crouch and Sarah looks up. The underside of the main rig
platform is at least fifty metres above – accessible by ladders stretching up along the side of the four support legs.

Daniel removes the breather from his mouth and says, “Come on, we have to keep moving.”

Sarah nods, although all she really wants to do is sit down and rest – preferably for a week. Instead, she runs to the nearest ladder and starts climbing, closely followed by
Daniel.

“When we reach the top, let me take care of the guards,” Daniel says behind her. “Your job is to find the Entity. It’s somewhere up there.”

They are halfway up the ladder when a shot rings out. A bullet ricochets off the metal rungs. A uniformed guard has appeared at the top of one of the ladders and is taking aim with a rifle
again…

Daniel removes one of the shuriken and throws it with a single, swift motion. The star-shaped blade blurs through the air, hitting the guard dead in the chest. Sarah watches, wide-eyed, as
the man falls all the way to the lower platform and bounces off into the sea.

“Keep moving!” Daniel hisses.

Sarah doubles her pace, her earlier fatigue forgotten, as more gunfire erupts from above. Daniel responds with volleys of throwing knives and stars, fired off with deadly accuracy. More
guards fall. Reaching the top, Sarah finds herself on an empty level with stairs leading up at one end – obviously to the upper areas of the rig. She instinctively knows that’s where
she has to head…

The Entity is waiting.

Movement to one side alerts her to the presence of a guard. She rolls, removing one of the throwing knives as she does so. The metal floor where she was just crouching lights up as bullets
glance off. The guard aims again… She throws the knife, but it whistles past his head…

The guard’s eyes bulge from the sockets as the end of a sword blade bursts from his chest, straight through his heart. The sword withdraws smoothly and the guard falls, revealing Daniel
standing behind him, a full-length samurai sword in his hands.

“Sarah,” he says urgently, going to her side as an alarm starts to howl. “Just go for the Entity. I’ve got your back.”

With a nod, she runs for the stairs leading up, even as the guards come running from all directions…

I don’t know if this is a good time to say this,
Wei said,
but I’m afraid of spiders.

We all are,
Louise replied.
Now.

Alex was up front, so he reached their attackers first. One of the spiders swiped its leg at him, knocking his suit to the floor. Pinning him, it raised another leg high, clearly aiming to drive
the ultra-sharp point right through the body of the battlesuit.

No!
Louise leaped onto the spider’s back and, wrapping the thick arms of the battlesuit around its thorax, yanked its head back. The spider howled with rage, red eyes blazing. Wei
ran in and grabbed another leg, yanking it away as Alex rolled to safety. The spider hit the ground as its partner circled menacingly to one side. Wei drew back one giant foot of the battlesuit and
brought it down on the head of the spider he and Louise had trapped. The blow didn’t even make a dent.

It’s going to take more than this to defeat them,
Alex said.
Our suits are made out of iron. They’re made out of alien metal, remember?

The Chinese kid nodded his helmet and turned back to the spider Louise had pinned. Its eight legs flailed wildly, but she held firm.

Get out of the way when I say,
Wei instructed, putting his hands together.
Now!

Louise’s battlesuit jumped back, releasing the spider as a beam of fire with the intensity of a laser burst from Wei’s hands. The beam hit the spider in the head and burned through
the incredibly hard matter. The machine thrashed on the ground, trembled mightily and then to everyone’s surprise split into two, right down the middle. Louise and the others backed away as
the two separate halves of the spider sprouted extra legs and scuttled back to regroup with the other sentry.

Great,
Louise said.
How do we fight them?

Everyone looked at Hack, who shook his head.
I don’t know if we can.

Over the side of the power station the other three spiders appeared and began to crawl down towards ground level. They moved slowly, deliberately – taking their time, as if knowing their
prey wasn’t going anywhere.

Wait,
Alex said, remembering the clonebot.
Hack, do you think you could deliver a virus to these things?

Sure,
he replied.
If I had one.

Alex continued,
Dr. Fincher said he was getting close to perfecting something that would shut down the nanites in these machines.

Whatever we do, we’d better make it fast,
Louise said, looking around as the two smaller spiders circled to the back, cutting off their retreat.
I think they’re gearing up
for the kill.

Alex nodded.
Hack, contact the HIDRA base and get a copy of the clonebot. The rest of you hold off the spiders for as long as possible.
He put his battlesuit down on one knee and placed
the splayed fingers of both hands on the ground, like a runner preparing for a sprint start.

What are you going to do?
Hack asked.

I’m going after Sarah,
Alex replied as he powered forward, running directly at the spider blocking their path to the entrance of the power station. The spider rose up as he
approached, but Wei blasted it back. Running past, Alex made the ramp of the station and carried on through the doors…

…into a volley of bullets fired from the platforms surrounding the interior of the base. Rolling to one side, he took cover behind a post as a rocket flew from a launcher in the hands of
one of the mercs. The shell exploded against the wall. Alex looked round as the battlesuit HUD picked out seven remaining mercs taking cover at strategic locations inside the base. Major Bright
crouched at the far end of the building, a weapon in his hands. And in the very centre of the base, next to the glowing hypersphere, stood Sarah.

Momentarily taken aback by the sight of Sarah standing out in the open, undefended, Alex emerged from his cover and looked at her. The mercs stopped firing as she raised her hand and walked
towards him. He approached also, until they were standing just a couple of metres apart. In the suit, he towered over her.

Sarah,
he said.
Are you all right?

She looked up at him and nodded, expression impossible to read. Then she reached out and placed a hand on the arm of the battlesuit.

Sarah, we have to—

In a show of supernatural strength, she dug her fingers into the metal of the battlesuit and yanked the machine round. Alex gave a cry of shock as his suit was thrown across the floor of the
base and came to a rest on its side before the hypersphere, which was now shining brilliant silver. Placing one hand against the ground, Alex pushed his battlesuit into a kneeling position and
looked back at Sarah. She raised a hand and pointed directly at him. All around, the mercs took aim on his exposed position.

Alex shook his head at her. “Sarah, no.”

“Kill him!” she yelled.

42

The upper levels of the rig are made up of one chamber after another. They’re like the rooms of a museum, crowded with glass display cases containing all manner of
strange and wonderful sights: stuffed animals, some familiar, some completely alien; elaborate suits of armour, some designed for human body shapes, others sporting multiple arms, legs, or even
heads; weaponry ranging from simple swords to guns to cruelly-shaped implements that look like a cross between the two.

The cases explode as Sarah runs through another chamber. On the balconies above, guards are firing automatic weapons – strafing the room below indiscriminately. She dives for cover as
another pane of glass shatters, showering her with shards. Inside the broken case a suit of samurai armour disintegrates as it is flayed with bullets. Behind her, Daniel dispatches another pair of
guards with his sword, then starts fighting the enemy on ground level.

“Keep moving!” he yells, pointing to the far wall as he rips the sword through another guard’s stomach. Sarah looks where he is indicating and sees a set of silver doors set
into the wall. A lift.

Having seen it’s an effective weapon, she grabs one of the samurai swords from the shattered case and runs for the lift at the other end of the floor. A few metres away, the doors begin
to close, but she puts her head down and leaps through as they slide shut. Breathing heavily, she leans against the mirrored wall of the lift car as it begins to rise, shocked by her own
reflection: drenched with sweat, hair matted from the sea, wild eyes, the sword clutched in both hands as if she would use it at a moment’s notice. She hardly recognizes herself.

Who am I?
she wonders.
To win this battle, what have I become?

The lift slows…

…and the doors slide open…

…onto a blandly pristine hospital corridor. Stepping out of the lift, Sarah blinks at the surprising surroundings. The acrid smell of bleach in the air reminds her of other such places
she’s been in the past. The ICU where her mother died of cancer. Robert’s sickbed at the HIDRA base. Even the white rows of caskets housing her father and the other sleepers.

The Entity is trying to manipulate me
, she realizes.
Using my memories to throw me off balance.

A dark-haired woman in a spotless uniform bearing the name
Nurse Bowen
appears at her side. Seemingly unworried by Sarah’s general appearance and the fact she is holding a
samurai sword in one hand, the nurse says, “You’re cutting it fine for visiting hours, you know.”

Sarah barely looks at her as she scans the closed doors along the corridor. “Huh?”

“You’re here to see your grandfather, I take it?”

“My grandfather?”

“He’s in one of our private rooms,” the nurse says, gently taking Sarah’s arm. “I’ll show you.”

Sarah allows herself to be led down the corridor to a numberless door.

“Now, you must promise not to get him worked up,” the nurse says, opening the door. “He needs his rest.”

“Don’t worry,” Sarah replies. “I’ll make sure he gets plenty of rest after this.”

“That’s nice, dear.” The nurse backs away as Sarah slips into the room…

Inside, the room of her “grandfather” is as bland as they come: walls painted magnolia, brown curtains drawn over the window, a vase of wilting daffodils on the bedside table. In
one corner a television on a bracket is showing a daytime soap with the sound turned down. Surrounding the bed, monitoring equipment flashes and bleeps, all linked up to the ancient man lying under
the covers. As Sarah approaches he wakes from a half-sleep and looks at her in confusion for a moment, before recognizing her face.

“Ah, Sarah,” he says. “You’ve finally come to visit me.”

She tightens her grip on the handle of the sword, which feels suddenly massive and unwieldy – an alien weapon to her. In the confines of the cramped private room, it feels ridiculous to
be standing there with it in her hand.

“Well, are you just going to stand there all day?” the old man asks, patting the side of the bed.

Self-consciously, Sarah approaches and sits on the mattress. After a second’s consideration, she leans the sword against the bedside table, point down.

“You weren’t seriously thinking of using that, were you?” the old man asks. “Look at me. I’m no threat to you.”

She meets his eyes and says, “I’m not fooled by this. I know what you are.”

The Entity smiles, yellowed teeth flashing. “I’m dying, Sarah. If you really want to kill me, all you have to do is pull out a few leads.” He waves a hand around the
machines monitoring his heart and lungs.