Alien Storm (7 page)

“Well done, Alex,” Makarov said in the headphone he had placed in his left ear. Alex looked down at the iPod. Now that he'd stopped running, the ridiculousness of taking orders from a broken MP3 player occurred to him. In the window, the playlist even read Nikolai Makarov. “No need to speak out loud. Direct your thoughts to me and I'll hear.”

What now?
Alex thought back, glad of the fact he wasn't going to have to speak out loud to the iPod in public.
I want to know what's going on here
.

Makarov sighed as if they were wasting time with questions. “Plenty of time to explain everything later, Alex. Right now you need to—”

I'm not doing anything until I get some answers
, Alex answered firmly.
I've been chased, tricked and ordered around all day. I'm not going anywhere until you give me an explanation. Just who are you? And what do you want?

The iPod was silent for a second, but then it sprang into life again.

“I'm just like you, Alex,” Makarov explained. “Except I was exposed to the fall virus many, many years ago. Since then I've been able to cast my mind to distant places and control things remotely. My skills have given me riches and power, but now I have a different concern. I have a mission and I want you to be part of it.”

Where are you?
Alex asked.

“Far away,” Makarov replied. “What's important now is that you find the others like you in Melbourne.”

Why?

“Because people like us have to stand together,” Makarov explained. “At the moment we're scattered, weak – you're going to help me bring us together, Alex. There's going to be a war and it's going to be us against them.”

Alex shook his head, trying to process the information he was getting.
War? What war? Perhaps you're confusing me with someone else, because I'm just a kid—

“Who has the power to make himself invisible,” Nikolai Makarov interrupted. “I think that makes you pretty special, don't you? There are six others, Alex. They don't know it yet, but they're in imminent danger – I have sensed it. Go to them, help them and I'll get you all out of Australia.”

Alex looked round as the train pulled into the station. He guessed he didn't have anything better to do – and there was nothing left for him in Melbourne.

Just tell me where to go
, he replied.

The battered Range Rover drew to a halt at the crest of a hill overlooking the city. The driver's door opened and the equally battered Eco staggered out into the fresh air. He'd been driving non-stop for hours and now they were finally at their destination:
Melbourne
. Major Bright emerged from the passenger side and surveyed the city spreading out before them.

“It's bigger than I expected,” Eco said. The city seemed to stretch on for ever into the distance. Most of Melbourne was a flat expanse of suburbs and highways, with the centre marked by a towering spike of skyscrapers huddled together. It sprawled away from them, shimmering in the heat of the afternoon. “How will we ever find the children you're looking for?”

During their flight from the desert, Bright had spoken about how the children in the city were essential to his plans. They were the key to his powers. But now Eco couldn't see how they could find them in a city of five million people. Bright, however, didn't seem concerned. He raised his hand to the view and splayed his fingers.

“I sense them in the north,” he said quietly. “They cannot hide their thoughts from me. Six of them.”

Eco looked to where he pointed. “What are we going to do?”

“Together they're strong,” Major Bright replied. “But capture one of them and the rest become weaker.”

“How do you intend to do that?” Eco asked.

Fire leaped around Major Bright's outstretched fingertips. In seconds his hand was aflame.

“First I'll divide them,” he said. “Then they'll fall.”

9

The sun hung low in the sky as Sarah entered the botanical gardens near the ANZAC shrine in the centre of Melbourne. She walked in the direction of the lake. The place was practically deserted, apart from a few people enjoying the last of the afternoon on picnic blankets laid out on the grass. From the way people had moved aside on the pavements as she walked from the train station, Sarah knew her giant-disguise was holding up – she projected it into the minds of the people around her in a five metre radius. However, the strain of maintaining the pretence was starting to give her a headache again.

Keeping to the shadows created by the trees and staying on the smaller paths through the park, Sarah allowed the image to slip away with relief. Although she was getting stronger, as they all were, using her powers for an extended period left her drained. She checked her watch and doubled her pace.

Dr. Rachel Andersen, the head of HIDRA in the region, was already sitting on the bench that overlooked the lake. She didn't look round, but Sarah knew that she sensed her presence. Sarah was also aware of at least four people stationed in the trees and bushes around the lake, hidden from sight.

“You didn't come alone,” Sarah said as she took a seat on the end of the bench.

Rachel nodded. “Protection.”

“For you or me?”

Rachel laughed. “For both of us. There are some dangerous people out there.”

“Major Bright,” Sarah said, seeing the scene from the desert playing out in Rachel's thoughts – the sandstorm, the crashing hovercopters.

“Hey, I thought you said you weren't going to do that mind-reading thing all the time!” Rachel protested with mock anger.

Sarah blushed a little. “Sorry. Sometimes it's difficult not to.”

The woman nodded her understanding. They'd known one another since the original crisis with Colonel Moss and Major Bright, when Rachel had merely been the head scientist at HIDRA. When she found out about Colonel Moss's intention to turn Sarah and the others into super-soldiers, Rachel helped them escape and eventually took Moss's role as commander. Sarah well knew that Rachel's only interest was finding a cure for the fall virus, but she also knew she had to be cautious – as an organization, HIDRA was just too big, too complex, to read or predict.

“Have you considered Bright might come after you?” Rachel asked.

“I was hoping HIDRA would have caught him by now.”

“We're closing the net,” Rachel replied, a little shortly. “He's tougher than we anticipated.”

“I know,” Sarah replied. “I've fought him.”

“We'll get him. He must be running very short of serum by now. With no fresh blood, he has no way to manufacture any more.”

“Which brings us down to business,” Sarah said. She held out the red box and Rachel took it. The woman didn't bother to open the lid, knowing that the insulated container contained six vials of blood extracted from the children. Each vial could contain a cure to the fall virus and bring the thousands of coma victims back to life.

“Thank you, Sarah,” she said, holding the box on her lap. “You don't know how much this means to us. Of course, our research would proceed more quickly if you all came in—”

Sarah held up a hand. “Don't, Rachel. We're not returning to HIDRA.”

Rachel sighed with exasperation. “But we can provide you with everything you need: food, shelter, education. What about the younger ones? How are Louise and Wei? When was the last time they went to school?”

Sarah looked away over the lake. As soon as they reached Europe, she intended to enrol Robert, Louise and Wei in the best private school possible. From the diamonds, they had enough money to last for years; now all they needed was new identities, which was where the new passports came in.

She looked back at Rachel, who was waiting expectantly for her reply, and felt a pang of guilt. She and her friends were planning to vanish off the face of the earth, safe for ever from anyone who knew their secrets. But as much as she liked the woman, Sarah realized she couldn't tell her – finding the viral cure would always come first with Rachel and they both knew it. And while Sarah desperately wanted to see HIDRA find a cure for the sake of her father and the parents of her friends, she also needed to protect the freedom of her group.

“They're doing fine,” Sarah said firmly. “They'll be better when they know where their parents are.” Both Louise and Wei had lost parents to the fall virus coma – and then HIDRA had “mislaid” their sleeper caskets. Her own father, Daniel, had only escaped the same fate because they had fled with him before he succumbed to the coma.

Rachel sighed. “Believe me, we're trying to find them. Colonel Moss deliberately lost the details of significant patients.”

“Like the parents of children he wanted to control?” Sarah said bitterly.

“There's thousands of John Does among the sleepers,” Rachel acknowledged. “We're DNA testing them all, but it's going to take time.”

“Okay,” Sarah said. She knew Rachel was trying her best in difficult circumstances.

“Is there anything we can help you with?” the woman asked, placing a hand on Sarah's arm. “Do you need food, supplies? How about Daniel – is he still stable in his sleeper casket?”

“He's fine,” Sarah replied. “We're fine.” The last thing she wanted was to become dependent on HIDRA. At the moment Rachel was in charge of things and her intentions were good, but she knew that could change without warning if another military man like Colonel Moss was put in control again.

“Just catch Major Bright,” Sarah said, rising from the seat. A strange feeling passed over her as she did so – a sudden dizziness that came out of nowhere. She steadied herself against the bench. She sensed danger. Not for herself, but for the others back at the apartment.

“Are you okay?” Rachel asked with concern in her voice.

Sarah backed away. “Something's happening… Or something's going to happen.” She frowned as she tried to understand herself. “Trouble. Don't follow me.”

Rachel stood quickly. “Let me help!”

But Sarah was already gone, running into the darkness of the nearby trees.

Rachel's earpiece crackled. “Do you want us to follow her, sir?” one of the HIDRA agents asked from his hiding place. “We have men in position.”

“No, stand down,” Rachel ordered. “I promised her before we wouldn't try to find their hiding place. And it's about time HIDRA started keeping its promises.”

She looked in the direction where Sarah had gone and said a silent prayer for her safety.

Nestor was fixing dinner by the time his brother finally decided to come in off the balcony. Leaving the door standing wide open, he strode across the lounge. Louise gave a cry of annoyance as Octavio kicked past her, but he ignored it, grabbed a spare set of keys from beside the TV and went in the direction of the hallway.

“Where are you going?” Nestor demanded, blocking his way out of the apartment.

His brother sighed and jangled the keys in his hand. “I'm sick of sitting around here like a little kid. I'm going out to have some fun.”

“Sarah said—”

Octavio laughed. “
Sarah said… Sarah said…
She gives the orders now, does she? Just like Colonel Moss used to. Get out of my way.”

Nestor didn't budge. “That's not fair. I'm not going to let you put us all at risk.”

“What's going on here?” demanded Robert, going to Nestor's side.

Octavio's face flushed red with anger. “All I want is get out of here for a couple of hours. And there's nothing you can do to stop me.”

Isn't there?
Louise said threateningly. The three boys looked round and saw her standing in the middle of the lounge, eyes locked on Octavio.

I'm not afraid of you
, Octavio replied, swallowing heavily.
I'm not afraid of any of you!

Louise gave no response, but a strange smile passed across her face, as if she'd been waiting for this moment for a long time. Her unusual eyes – one coloured blue, the other green – flashed with excitement, just like they did when she was playing one of her computer games. A deadly stillness fell over the room as the two faced one another.

“Hey! Look at this!” Wei's voice from the balcony cut through the silence. Everyone breathed again.

“I said come here!” Wei yelled a second time, real urgency in his voice. All four of them ran to the balcony, and looked to where the Chinese kid was pointing.

On the fifth floor of the tower directly opposite, one of the apartments was blaze. Fire leaped at the window and black smoke was starting to drift upwards into the twilight. Seconds later there was an explosion that ripped out the window and a great chunk of the wall. Bricks rained down onto parked cars below and the sound of people screaming in panic became audible.

Wei gave a whistle of amazement and everyone looked round at him.

“Why's everyone looking at me?” he asked indignantly. “Every time there's a fire I get the blame!”

Robert raised an eyebrow. “We're just remembering the last apartment you burned down.”

Louise leaped to his defence. “That wasn't Wei's fault! The cooker was faulty.”

There was a second, muffled explosion from the other side of the tower. The flames were starting to spread up through the decaying building to the floor above.

“It must have found a gas pipe,” Nestor said quietly. “The entire tower could go up. What do we do?”

Robert shrugged, unable to tear his eyes from the terrible scene below them. From the seventh floor the sound of people yelling for help could be heard. A woman smashed a window and looked out desperately, but it was far too high to jump. Behind her it was possible to see the light of the spreading fire in her apartment. She shouted something they couldn't hear.

“What do we do?” Nestor said again, sounding helpless.