MONOLITH (34 page)

When the Golem took its first step towards them it was with a fluidity of movement that neither expected.

Perhaps, Jess told herself, she had expected some stiff and spastic movement, as if the sheer bulk of the creature prevented anything other but when it moved it moved with ease.

It took one long stride, the sound of its foot against the carpeted floor of the corridor a dull thud.

For interminable seconds both Jess and Hadley stood still, rooted to the spot by what they were seeing. Because what they were witnessing was not just the stuff of nightmares it was the embodiment of a legend. Of a myth made reality. What they were witnessing should not have been, all the laws of nature were against it and yet, as they stood watching, a thing made of clay and shaped so roughly to resemble the form of a man, now moved towards them. The fact that it was expressionless made it even more terrifying because at least if there had been rage or fury etched on the dark features then they might have sparked feelings within those who saw it. But that blank, formless face was devoid of any humanity. Both in looks and intent and that lack of any human features just served to make it more terrifying. It was pure re-animated power. And it was intent on just one thing. Their destruction.

The Golem struck out with one huge arm, the appendage slamming against the wall nearest to it with such incredible strength that paint fell away and the plaster beneath cracked.

It was that movement that finally galvanised Jess and Hadley.

They turned and ran towards the end of the corridor, towards the exit doors that they had come through not more than an hour earlier. Only when they reached them did they turn to see that the Golem was still pursuing them, each heavy footstep shaking the ground beneath them it seemed. It moved with a speed Jess would have thought impossible for such a creature but its gait was unhurried. It reminded her of a spider advancing on its prey. Neither hurries because neither needs to. Each of its strides brought it closer and its arms were still outstretched before it but now bent at the place where the elbows would have been.

Hadley dropped the nail gun momentarily and took the hammer from her, swinging it madly and smashing it against the metal bar that held the exit door in place.

He struck it again and again, the sound ringing in his ears and echoing inside the corridor.

Jess turned and glanced back in the direction of the Golem. It was less than twenty feet away now.

Hadley hammered at the door with even greater urgency.

‘Come on,’ Jess said, breathlessly. ‘Come on.’

The Golem drew nearer.

Hadley struck the door again, driving his foot against it too.

Jess saw the Golem bump against the wall to its right, scraping one arm against the paintwork there and leaving a gouge in the plaster. It straightened itself up and continued towards them with the same unstoppable intent. Never increasing its pace, its sightless eyes fixed ahead and pinned on them Jess imagined.

Hadley struck the door again and it creaked, the bar loosening. He hit it again and again, beads of perspiration forming on his forehead such was the effort he was expending.

He struck it again, the doors opening a crack.

‘Come on,’ he roared, driving his foot against the doors, gasping triumphantly as they swung open.

He turned to see that the Golem was only ten or so feet from them now and he almost pushed Jess through the open doors and out into the stairwell beyond. She turned to head downwards but Hadley shouted to her.

‘No,’ he roared. ‘Go up.’

She hesitated for a moment then did as he instructed, taking the stairs two at a time in her haste, stumbling more than once as he bolted up behind her.

And below them, moving at the same unearthly speed and with the same unstoppable purpose, the Golem followed.

It negotiated the steps without difficulty considering the stiffness and inflexibility of its form. Each impact of its heavy feet caused the stairwell to shake and the sound gathered until it seemed to be deafening. Occasionally it collided with the metal balustrade that ran alongside the stairs and the loud clang rang out like a tuneless bell. Jess looked back to see it climbing higher.

‘It’s still coming,’ she said.

Hadley didn’t answer her.

‘Where the fuck are we going?’ she demanded breathlessly.

‘We’ve got to get up high,’ Hadley told her. ‘Get that thing to follow us to where we can destroy it.’

‘We can’t destroy it,’ she hissed, almost stumbling again as they clambered up the stairs but Hadley grabbed her arm and pulled her along with him.

‘If we can get close enough we can,’ he said, defiantly. ‘If we can destroy the scroll that gives it life. We’ve got to get that scroll.’

‘We’ll never get close enough to it,’ Jess gasped.

‘If we get to the roof we can,’ Hadley said.

They continued to climb.

Below them, the Golem followed.

***

‘I know where they’re going,’ Andrei Voronov said calmly, not even looking at the man with the goatee beard who looked distinctly agitated.

‘Two security men have already been killed,’ the man protested.

‘I told you to keep them clear,’ Voronov snapped. ‘Just make sure no one else tries to stop them. Let them get to the roof.’

The bearded man opened his mouth to say something but Voronov raised his hand to silence him. He took another sip from the glass he was holding.

‘We’ll be waiting for them,’ he murmured.

Jess thought her lungs were going to burst.

She was sucking in air as best she could and was amazed at how Hadley kept going without a complaint but she was having difficulty breathing as they reached the next floor. She glanced to one side and saw that they had got as far as the thirtieth. And all the time, behind them, moving inexorably and unhurriedly, the Golem followed. On the odd occasions when Jess had dared to stand still for split seconds to get her breath she had heard its lumbering progress beneath them.

Despite the chill in the stairwell beads of perspiration had formed on Hadley’s forehead and top lip and he wiped them away periodically, taking deep breaths of his own and sometimes pulling Jess along with him when it seemed she could go no further.

They clambered up another five flights, each step now causing pain in their calves and thighs too. But the thought of what was behind them drove them on. The knowledge that if they stopped they would have no chance.

‘How much further?’ Jess gasped.

‘Not far,’ Hadley panted, still struggling on. ‘Come on.’

Jess gripped the handrail tightly for a moment then looked back, peering down through the gaps in the stairs towards where the Golem was.

She could see it’s dark bulk moving ever higher and she thought, for one terrifying moment that it had increased its speed. But how was that possible she asked herself. It could only move at that same stiff legged, unbroken, robotic pace.

Couldn’t it?

She stumbled and fell to her knees but she hauled herself upright again and despite her desperate need for breath and the growing pain in her legs she forced herself onwards.

Another five floors climbed.

It seemed to her that Hadley too had increased his pace, desperate to reach the roof as he had told her. But exactly why that destination was so vital she had no idea. In her current state she could do nothing other than gasp for breath and run on with little more than terror and instinct driving her. She knew she couldn’t go back down so she went up. What awaited her on the roof she did not dare contemplate.

And behind, the Golem still came on.

As they reached the fortieth floor Jess felt fresh energy flowing through her. A second wind of sorts but still her legs felt as if they were burning and she feared that the pain was cramp. A vice like muscular pain that seemed to be growing more intense now with every tortured step.

‘Come on,’ Hadley gasped.

She tried to answer him but could not find the breath for the words.

Instead she concentrated on forcing herself higher, her aching feet and straining muscles barely able to support her now. Each step was an effort but she knew that effort must be made. There was no other way. The alternative was too terrible to consider. But there was a part of her that just wanted to collapse onto the cold stone and lay there helplessly allowing the pain and the breathlessness to subside. Just remain still even thought the Golem was close. Part of her would have been content to accept that fate and whatever the creature would do when it reached her but something deep within her that she could only assume was the basic human desire for preservation somehow enabled her to continue.

Forty-one floors now.

Hadley was still slightly ahead of her, his own feet dragging now, his own arms tense and taut as he hauled himself up by gripping the balustrade, looking as if he was afraid to let go of it in case he fell.

Forty-two floors.

From below them that ever present sound of heavy feet against stone. The inexorable approach of the thing that would kill them if it caught them. The sound filled the stairwell and Jess’s ears and throbbed inside her head like a migraine.

The sign that proclaimed they had reached the forty-third floor seemed, in Jess’s tortured vision, to glow like a beacon. There was another smaller and narrower flight of stone steps that led up from this highest point of the Crystal Tower and it was towards these that Hadley now moved, dragging himself up them and urging Jess to follow him.

He drove his foot against the door that was blocking their way and it slammed back on its hinges.

Cold night air swept through the open doorway and Jess stumbled through the narrow space to find that they had finally reached the roof.

She dropped to her knees but Hadley hauled her upright and stumbled towards the parapet of the building. There was a fence around the very extremities of the roof and it was towards this that Hadley moved, finally leaning against it and glancing over the edge.

The precipitous view made Jess’s head swim. It seemed as if they were high in the clouds looking down upon the rest of the world as if they were the only people alive. Forty-three floors below on the streets of the capital, only the barely glimpsed lights of cars showed that there was even anything down there. People were invisible at such a height and in the gloom. They might as well have been standing on a platform made of shadows.

And then Jess heard the sound.

For one ridiculous second she thought that it was applause. Someone slowly clapping their hands together but she dismissed that fanciful thought, explaining it away because she couldn’t breathe properly or think straight. But, as the sound continued she realised that her initial assumption was correct.

The sound she heard was indeed clapping.

And it was coming from the other side of the open roof, from the man who was advancing towards them flanked on each side by others clad in dark suits.

‘You made it,’ Andrei Voronov said, flatly. ‘My compliments. A climb of that magnitude could not have been easy.’

Jess looked at him, his words blown and tossed on the breeze that was whipping across the open roof. She swayed uncertainly for a moment, fearing that the wind would grow so strong it would blow them both over the edge of the towering monolith but she shot out a hand and gripped the guard rail, her gaze now fixed on the dimly lit outline of Voronov who stood twenty feet or so from them.

‘I should applaud your persistence,’ he intoned. ‘Not just tonight but since you began this crusade against me.’

‘You won’t get away with this,’ Jess panted. ‘Too many people know we’re here. The police know.’

‘It doesn’t matter who knows you’re here,’ Voronov said. ‘This ends now. Here. Tonight. All you ever had was wild ideas. That is why no one would believe you. And very shortly it will all be over.’

He glanced to one side, a loud crash ringing through the night.

The Golem had reached the roof.

The Golem stood motionless for a moment then it strode towards Jess and Hadley.

Jess looked at him for a moment.

‘I can stop it,’ he said, his gaze fixed on the advancing creature.

Jess shook her head, looking at him again but then at the Golem and also at Voronov who was watching impassively as the creature closed the distance on its intended victims.

Voronov was watching intently, apparently amused by the tableau before him. He could see that the Golem was very close now.

When it had come within five feet Hadley shoved Jess away from him, almost knocking her over. He himself made no attempt to move.

‘Run,’ he roared, his eyes still fixed on the Golem.

Jess backed away.

The Golem reached Hadley and lifted him as easily as a child would lift a rag doll, raising him into the air before it, its arms tightening around him as it did. He felt as if a huge vice had been fastened around his torso and one arm, the strength in those clay limbs was incredible and they closed effortlessly. He tried to shout but could not draw the breath to do so as his lungs were constricted.

Like a rabbit in the grip of a constricting snake he could do nothing other than wait for the end.

Ribs shattered under the crushing pressure, his lungs began to rupture. Blood filled his mouth but he didn’t struggle, instead he looked straight at the Golem and, with is free hand, he reached towards the open maw that was its mouth. Inside that black space he could see what he sought. The scroll that had been placed there so carefully by its creator was clearly visible now and with one shaking hand, Hadley reached for it.

The Golem tightened its grip and Hadley grunted as his upper body seemed to collapse in upon itself but he clung to consciousness long enough to grab the scroll, feeling the parchment between his fingers.

Voronov saw what he was doing and he took a step forward but it was too late.

Hadley pulled the scroll from the creatures mouth, holding it between his shaking fingers.

The Golem shuddered briefly then was still.

Jess sprang towards Hadley, taking the scroll from him, seeing the blood pouring over his lips. Lips that bore the semblance of what seemed to be a smile.

She held the tiny piece of parchment in her hand and stood defiantly before Voronov who had frozen as surely as the clay monster before him.

‘You don’t know what you’re doing,’ he hissed.

‘I know exactly what I’m doing,’ Jess said. ‘Whoever holds this scroll has control over the Golem. Whoever puts this scroll into its mouth is the one who commands it.’

One of the security men pulled the automatic pistol from inside his jacket and swung it up, the barrel aimed at Jess.

‘No,’ Voronov snapped, noticing that Jess was now holding the parchment at arm’s length. It waved in the strong breeze, threatening to slip from her fingers. If she loosed her grip even slightly it would be lost forever.

‘Tell him to put it down,’ Jess called.

Voronov and his men stood motionless and Jess thought that she saw something like fear flicker across the billionaire’s face. Then, very slowly, she pushed the scroll into the Golem’s mouth.

‘Live,’ she whispered.

The Golem turned its head towards her and Jess felt her entire body shaking. It opened its arms, Hadley’s body falling to the ground at its feet. She looked down at him and saw that he wasn’t moving. Blood covered his chin and cheeks and more of it had spilled down onto his chest. If he was breathing then she certainly couldn’t see it. Instead she turned her attention back to the Golem, watching as it turned to face her.

Voronov backed away slowly, his eyes also fixed on the clay monolith.

One of the security men opened fire, squeezing off two shots in the direction of the Golem.

The first hit it just below the left shoulder, drilling into the clay. The second clipped its head, blasting a piece of the dark material away but the creature didn’t move. It remained before Jess, its face blank and expressionless.

‘Obey me,’ she said.

The Golem moved towards her, one small step then it turned to face Voronov and his men.

‘Kill them,’ Jess said, softly.