Earthfall (19 page)

‘The Voidborn,’ Sam replied, ‘that’s what Fletcher said they were called.’

‘Yeah, you said,’ Rachel replied. ‘I still think our name’s more accurate.’

‘He said some other things – seemed pretty crazy at the time, but . . .’

‘Like what?’

‘Well, he said that this has all been planned for a long time and that this planet has always belonged to the Voidborn. You don’t think that could be true, do you?’

‘No, I don’t and frankly I would have thought you’d know better than to let a creep like that get under your skin.’

‘Yeah,’ Sam said, ‘maybe you’re right. But there’s more to this than we know and Stirling hasn’t told us everything he knows.’

‘He’s always been pretty secretive,’ Rachel said. ‘I wouldn’t be that surprised if he does know more than he’s letting on. It doesn’t mean we can’t trust him.’

‘I suppose. I never expected there to be humans working with the Voidborn. It’s just freaked me out a bit. I mean, how many people like Fletcher are out there?’

‘Let’s hope not too many,’ Rachel said. ‘Try not to worry about it. Just be glad that we all got out of there in one piece.’

‘Yeah, you’re right. It did look a bit hairy for a while.’

‘I think that might be understating it just a bit.’

‘Maybe a tiny bit,’ Sam said, laughing.

Just ahead Nat’s torch lit up the heavy steel doors that served as the underground entrance to their bunker. Nat leant against the wall while Jay banged three times on the door with his fist. A moment later the narrow panel set in the door at eye level opened and a pair of eyes appeared.

‘Password?’

‘Password is “Let us in, Jack, before I break your fingers”, OK?’ Jay replied.

‘Well, when you put it like that,’ Jack replied. A moment later they heard the sound of heavy bolts being drawn back and the door swung open.

‘Welcome home.’

Stirling was absorbed in studying a computer-generated simulation of the waveform of the Voidborn control signal when his concentration was broken by a knock on the door of his quarters. With an irritated sigh he walked across the room and opened the door to find Anne standing outside.

‘Jay, Rachel, Sam and Nat have just got back,’ Anne said happily. ‘They’re in the Ops Area now. They look like they’ve been to hell and back. Nat’s been wounded in the leg and they sent me to come and get you so that you could have a look at it.’

‘OK, just let me save what I’ve been working on and I’ll come straight down,’ Stirling replied. He closed the door and headed back over to his terminal. He was just about to shut it down when an alert window popped up with a pinging sound. The small window read:

UNRECOGNISED TRANSMISSION SOURCE

Stirling frowned and opened up the custom-written signal analysing software and set it processing. He turned off the monitor and headed back towards the door. There was no point waiting; it usually took the triangulation equipment several hours to isolate the source of a new transmission somewhere in the city. Just as he put his hand on the door handle the terminal pinged again. He returned to the terminal with a frown on his face. There was no way that it could have completed the analysis that quickly. He switched the monitor back on and examined the results.

SIGNAL SOURCE LOCATED

Stirling read the coordinates listed below and felt his blood run cold. The signal was definitely alien in origin and the source was less than a hundred metres from where he was standing at that precise moment. He looked at the signal strength and felt a moment of panic. Whatever was sending that signal wasn’t just telling the world its precise location – it was screaming it. He ran out of the room and down the corridor to his lab. He flew through the door at such a speed that he startled Will, who was sitting at one of the benches performing a secondary examination of a piece of the Hunter.

‘Is everything OK, sir?’ Will asked. He had never seen Stirling so panicked before.

‘No, it isn’t,’ Stirling snapped. ‘The signal tracker that Jacob took on the mission to Wembley the other night – where is it?’

‘It’s in the storeroom,’ Will said, ‘but why do you need it?’

Stirling didn’t bother to reply; he simply ran through the lab to the storeroom door at the far end. He dashed into the cluttered room and desperately scanned the shelves for the object he needed. After thirty seconds he saw it and grabbed the small black box off the shelf and activated it. He punched in the wavelength characteristics of the signal he’d found and waited for several long seconds as the machine searched for it. A moment later the device pinged and the display indicated that it had a firm lock on the signal. The direction and range indicator confirmed Stirling’s worst fears; it was coming from somewhere inside the base. He ran back through the lab and out into the corridor. He followed the arrow on the display indicating the direction of the source and realised that it was situated below his current location.

‘Ops,’ Stirling said under his breath, and sprinted through the double doors at the end of the corridor and flew down the stairs, taking them three at a time. He nearly sent Anne flying as he charged through the door into the Ops Area and saw Jackson standing off to one side as the other kids crowded around Sam, Jay, Nat and Rachel, peppering them with questions about what had happened on the operation that night.

Jackson looked over in surprise as Stirling ran towards them, his instincts telling him that something was very, very wrong the moment he saw the expression on his friend’s face.

‘What is it?’ Jackson snapped as Stirling approached.

‘Move,’ Stirling shouted, pushing the others out of the way as he walked towards the four battered-looking members of the Ops Team. The regular beep that was coming from the device increased in frequency as he walked up to them one by one. As he moved towards Jay, the device began to beep faster and faster Stirling swept it up and down him, from head to toe.

‘Turn round,’ Stirling said.

‘What’s going on, Doc?’ Jay asked, looking confused. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I said
turn round
!’ Stirling barked.

‘OK, OK,’ Jay said, holding his hands up and turning his back on Stirling.

Stirling swept the tracker down Jay’s back and the beeping got faster and faster until he reached the empty ammo pouch hanging on the back of his belt. The beeps became a constant high-pitched tone and Stirling popped the pouch open and reached inside, pulling out a small black crystalline disc.

‘What the hell is that?’ Jay asked, looking over his shoulder.

‘That is a Threat transmitter,’ Stirling said, dropping the disc on the floor and stamping down on it hard. The squealing from the tracking device stopped immediately. Stirling looked at Jackson. He didn’t need to say anything.

‘Jack,’ Jackson snapped. ‘I want a rifle issued to everyone in the facility, NOW!’

‘Everyone?’ Jack asked. ‘But . . .’

‘I don’t care if the nearest they’ve ever been to a real weapon is a water pistol,’ Jackson barked at him, ‘just do it!’

‘Yes, sir,’ Jack replied, running towards the armoury.

‘What’s going on?’ Jay asked, sounding slightly bewildered.

‘Fletcher,’ Sam said, shaking his head. ‘When the Grendels smashed into the Voidborn recycling centre and you got knocked out – he must have planted that thing on you, then.’

‘What did you just say?’ Stirling asked.

‘Voidborn is what the Threat call themselves,’ Sam explained.

‘No, before that. Did you say “Fletcher”?’ Stirling said, his eyes narrowing. ‘Oliver Fletcher?’

‘Yeah,’ Sam replied, ‘and he seemed to know your name too.’

Stirling gave Jackson a fleeting glance that seemed to carry a lot more meaning for them than it did for the others.

‘Right, well, we can all have a lovely little chat about this later,’ Jackson said. ‘Right now we have to assume that Threat forces are inbound to this location. I need everyone ready to fight.’

‘Shouldn’t we just run?’ Rachel asked. ‘We’ll never be able to hold them off for ever.’

‘We don’t need to,’ Jackson said. ‘We just have to delay them while Doctor Stirling takes care of something. That much we
can
do.’

‘How long have we got till they . . .’ Sam fell silent, his question unfinished.

Through the heavy steel doors at the far end of the room they could all hear the sound of something approaching. Hunters. Lots of them.

Stirling ran into his quarters and over to his terminal. He launched the crash backup of the base’s servers and watched impatiently as the machine calculated the time remaining. After a few seconds a message flashed up on the screen.

TIME REMAINING: 4M 38S

He ran back out of the room and into the lab where Will was still continuing his examination of the dead Hunter, clearly oblivious to what was happening downstairs.

‘William, I need you to report to the Ops Area,’ Stirling said as he hurried towards the secure cabinet bolted to the far wall.

‘What’s going on?’ Will asked, looking surprised.

‘Our location has been compromised,’ Stirling replied. ‘Threat forces will be arriving any minute. I need you to go to Ops and help them hold the main entrance while I prepare for evacuation.’

Will just stared back at him, mouth hanging open.

‘Now, please, William,’ Stirling said punching the combination in to the keypad on the front of the secure cabinet.

‘But I can’t fight,’ Will said. ‘I’ve never fired a gun in my life.’

‘William, if those things get past Ops before we’re ready for evacuation, we’re all dead,’ Stirling said calmly. ‘You can die up here or die down there, but at least that way you get to take a few of them with you.’

‘Yes, of course,’ Will replied, looking slightly dazed. He turned and walked out of the lab as Stirling opened the doors of the cabinet and pulled out the silver canister that contained their one real hope against the Voidborn. He placed the cylinder in a padded backpack, which he slung gently over his shoulders.

He hurried out of the lab, headed back to his quarters and checked the display on the terminal screen.

TIME REMAINING: 3M 27S

He opened a command console and began to type furiously. A few seconds later another window popped up with a password entry prompt. Stirling’s fingers flew over the keyboard once more and a final window appeared.

FACILITY DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVE. REMOTE DETONATION PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED.

From somewhere below him he heard the sound of gunfire.