Enemy Invasion (26 page)

He really believes he’s too important for Bright to betray him,
Hack sent to May, who nodded slightly.

He’s too much of an egomaniac to see how he’s being used.

Before they could say anything else, Good turned and started up the next set of steps to a platform above. The merc gestured for both of them to follow.

“Welcome to the command centre,” Good said as they stepped onto the upper level, a wide platform lined with workstations and banks of monitors along one side. At each workstation a
technician sat – twenty of them in all, each scanning CCTV footage of different parts of the city.

“We’ve hacked into the city’s security network,” Good said. “From here we can observe anything that happens within a fifty-kilometre radius.”

Hack scanned the images on the screens: roads, shopping malls, underground stations, even the insides of some buildings. For the moment the technicians seemed to be merely snooping in on the
security feeds for the city, but the controls before them suggested that when the time came they would be able to take over the entire system.

Why is Good telling us all this?
May asked at Hack’s side.

Because he needs someone to show off to,
he replied.
And because he thinks there’s nothing we can do to stop him.

I’d like to prove him wrong about that. Big time.

Hack stepped closer to the nearest technician and looked over his shoulder at multiple views of rush-hour traffic crawling into the city.

“How’s the convoy progressing?” Good asked the operator.

“We just picked them up heading past Croydon,” the man replied, not taking his eyes from the screens. “They’ll be here within half an hour.”

“Excellent,” Good said. “Let’s speed them along, shall we? Give them green lights all the way. And turn every other intersection in the city red.”

The operator grinned and started tapping away on the touch screen in front of him. Schematics of the traffic control system opened up and he began manipulating them at lightning speed.
“All operators, prepare to go live in 5…4…3…2…1…”

He pressed the screen and it turned from red to green, indicating full control over the systems he’d previously been merely observing. Along the line, technicians began working away at
their controls. The operator called up a screen labelled
Global Traffic Control Override
. He pressed a square flashing
Emergency Lockout.
On the screens, the traffic slammed to a
complete halt as lights went red and stayed like that all over the city.

“How are you doing this?” May asked, shaking her head at the scene of chaos unfolding on the screens. Within a few seconds the city had been brought to a complete standstill.

Good replied, “A few years ago, the British government installed an override system that could take control of all security, traffic and communications within the capital in case of a
terrorist attack. We’ve just taken control of that override. Right now, there’s security guys spread all over the city wondering why their CCTV screens have gone dead. If they only
knew.” He placed a hand on the operator’s shoulder and leaned over to look at the screen. “How are we doing?”

The operator grinned. “We own the city, Mr. Good. Traffic, police CCTV, even the Tube’s automated systems.”

“Listen,” said May, nudging Hack’s arm. He turned his head and strained to hear what she did. In the distance there came the faint sound of horns blaring as the giant traffic
jam locked the city down.

It’s starting,
he thought.

With the touch of a few buttons, the takeover of London had begun.

27

Sarah watched with concern as the medics from the HIDRA UK base laid her unconscious brother on a stretcher trolley and wheeled him off the stealth jet to the waiting
ambulance. She followed them down the ramp. Dr. Fincher placed a hand on her shoulder as the vehicle tore away across the landing strip towards the buildings in the distance.

“Robert will get the best care,” Fincher reassured. “Now you’re here, we can do a proper analysis of whatever’s attacking him.”

She nodded, but didn’t feel much better. Although the last injection had slowed the spread, the black mark from the spider bite had infected Robert’s skin all the way down his left
arm by the time they landed the stealth jet, just after 9 a.m. UK time.

“Come on,” Fincher said, leading her round the back of the jet to a jeep. “Let’s get you all some food and clean clothes.”

At the vehicle, Wei and Louise were already in conversation with two familiar faces: Nestor and Octavio. True to form, Louise and Octavio were already sniping over who had the greater
telekinetic ability.

“Well, I did levitate a tank last month,” Octavio was saying. “For ten minutes—”

Louise rolled her eyes at Wei. “Lame. Back at that island I used a tank like a fly swatter.”

Nestor gave Sarah a quick hug and said, “Just like old times, huh?”

“Yeah,” she said, looking around for the other member of their group.

“Uh, Alex had something to do,” Nestor said.

“Right. So he’s still mad at me then?”

“Are you still mad at him?”

Sarah shrugged. The last time they’d spoken there had been the usual argument about whether they should actively go looking for Major Bright themselves, or just leave it to HIDRA. Alex had
been of the firm opinion that there was no point in waiting for the major to find them – Sarah had disagreed, at that time. After everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours,
it seemed that Alex had been right – not that she found it easy to admit.

Then there was the added complication of how close they’d become following their adventure in Russia – having faced death together. The time they’d spent on the
Ulysses
had formed an even stronger bond between them, to the point that it became clear that Alex wanted to be more than just friends… At which point she’d had to disappoint him. It
wasn’t that she didn’t like him…it was just she didn’t have time for a
boyfriend
. She had Robert to look after…a cure had to be found for her
father…and her work with HIDRA tracking down other superhuman kids took up all of her energy…

Sarah realized this was an excuse, of course – she didn’t need Lesley the psychologist’s help to work that out. It was hard enough having to worry about Robert and her father
and her friends in general, without letting her feelings for Alex get any stronger. She just couldn’t stand the thought of losing another person she cared deeply about, so she’d pushed
him away.

Well, there’s no sense in worrying about that now,
Sarah told herself. After she’d informed Alex there was no way they were going to be girlfriend and boyfriend, or whatever
it was he’d got into his head, the arguments about the direction of the team began to get really bad. There was no going back to the closeness they’d shared before, even if she wanted
to. Still, if circumstances had been different – if their lives had been normal, if they’d just met at school or a party rather than fighting for their lives – maybe things could
have been different…

Seeing Nestor was waiting for an answer, she deflected the question by asking, “Is it always this cold here?”

Nestor grinned. “Most of the time. Come on. We’d better get you some food and somewhere to rest.”

As they went to the jeep, one of the ground crew swarming over the jet gave a yell from the back of the plane. He’d pulled out an object that had been embedded in the fuselage: a
half-metre long piece of jagged, black metal.

“It’s part of the squid!” Wei exclaimed.

“It must have come off when it swiped the jet,” Sarah said.

Dr. Fincher clapped his hands together. “Excellent! Get that to my lab immediately!” As the sample of alien metal was carried away, he turned to Sarah and the others. “Now we
can analyse what these machines are made of. Find out how they work.”

“And how we can fight them,” Sarah added.

“Louise and Wei were asking after you,” Sarah said from the doorway, by way of announcing her presence.

He jumped in surprise. The table-tennis ball went flying across the room.

“Yeah,” he said with an embarrassed cough. “I was busy.”

“I can see that.”

Alex put the bat down on the table. “I heard about Robert. I’m sorry.”

“He’s not dead, you know,” Sarah said.

Alex reddened. “I didn’t mean—”

“It’s okay. He’s in the intensive care ward on Level 3. He’d like to see you.”

“Sure. I saw the footage of that thing that sank the
Ulysses
. Looks like you had quite a fight.”

“We did,” Sarah admitted. “Bright and his accomplices have plenty more of those machines. Enough to take on any army. We need to find out what Bright’s up to and get to
him before—”

Alex cut her dead. “I thought you didn’t want to get involved any more.
Leave the fighting to the soldiers,
wasn’t that what you said?”

Sarah sighed and looked away. “Are you going to make me say I was wrong?”

“It would be a start.”

She took a breath, controlling her natural urge to start shouting. She wondered why it was that the people you care most about have the ability to wind you up so easily. “Okay,” she
said finally. “I was wrong. I thought that we could be part of HIDRA and not be involved in this war. I wanted to keep us safe, but you can’t hide from your enemies. They always come
looking for you. I’ve learned that now.”

“Is that your apology?”

Sarah raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s as much apology as you’re going to get.”

He cracked a grin and she actually found herself smiling too. The tension between them had broken.

“Fine,” Alex said. “The last time we met…uh, sorry for calling you a…”

Sarah raised a hand. “Forget it.”

“But—”

“Don’t make me mad at you all over again. Come on, we need to meet with Fincher.”

They walked side by side out of the rec room and towards the entrance to the lower levels of the base.

“So, now we’re a team again,” Alex said, “what do you want to do?”

Sarah gave him a quick, determined look. “I want to find a cure for my brother. And I want to stop the Entity and Bright. For good this time.” She paused as they walked past the
guards and into the lift for the lower levels. “But there’s something else I need to do first.”

Alex paused before he pressed the button for the level with the briefing room. “What?”

“I want to see Daniel,” she said. “My father. They moved him here.”

Without a word, Alex pressed the button for the level marked
Sleeper Containment
.

The lift whizzed down and opened onto a corridor that stretched ahead with many doors. Alex crossed to a panel on the wall and inputted Daniel’s name. A map came up, directing them to a
room three doors on the left, patient number 345.

“This way,” he said, leading her down the corridor.

“You know your way around,” Sarah said as they reached the door and he swiped his ID card for access. “You’ve been down here before.”

Alex didn’t look round. “My parents are here. They were transported from Australia for observation.”

They walked into another corridor that opened out into a larger chamber stacked with sleeper caskets – the sarcophagus-like containers used to keep the victims of the fall virus coma in a
perfectly stable condition. The caskets were stacked high along all sides of the room. As Sarah stepped onto a raised platform, like a viewing deck, she cast her eyes over the rows and shook her
head.

“I forgot there were so many,” she said. “There must be five hundred caskets in this room.”

Alex nodded. “And there are over twenty rooms like this.” He said Daniel’s patient number into a control panel on the deck and a pair of robotic arms emerged from the ceiling,
deftly removed a casket from the stack and lowered it so that it was directly before them. Sarah walked to the edge of the platform and looked through the casket’s window at the face of the
sleeper inside – Daniel, her father. His beard had grown out and he looked strange without his glasses, but otherwise he was just as she remembered. He had only been back in her and
Robert’s lives for a short time when the fall virus took him from them, but a strong bond had formed. He’d saved their lives.

“We decided to have him moved here a few months ago,” Sarah explained to Alex. “I was worried about having him on the
Ulysses
in case something happened to the
ship.”

“That was a good instinct,” Alex said. “You can lift the lid if you want. These new caskets allow that for a short time.”

“Okay.”

He bent down and pressed a couple of buttons on the side of the casket. The lid gave a hissing noise and then swung up. Sarah reached in and touched Daniel’s hand, which was warm.

I don’t know if you can hear me, Daniel,
she thought,
but we’re in the fight again. Robert’s in trouble too, but this being called the Entity has the secret to the
fall virus. I’m going to get it and bring you both back. Do you understand? I haven’t given up on you.

She waited a while, kneeling beside the casket, imagining that at any second she would hear his voice responding in her head. But there was nothing. The expression on his face, which was
strangely peaceful, didn’t flicker. A warning beeped on the side of the casket.

“We have to close the lid,” Alex said softly.

Sarah gave her father’s hand a final squeeze and then let it go. As the lid descended, she rose and turned to Alex.

“Okay. Let’s go meet the others.”

28

The raised area in the centre of the power station was a hive of activity. Mercs with machine guns stood guard at the base, while technicians scurried around the hypersphere,
attaching cables and sensors to its surface. They almost looked like doctors prepping a patient for surgery. Hack and May watched this work through the bars of a holding cage near the wall.
They’d been placed inside it when Marlon Good finally got bored of boasting about his achievements. The technicians began setting up two tables, one on either side of the hypersphere. Wires
extended from these tables to the sphere itself and off to a set of control panels.