Kingdom: The Complete Series (62 page)

“
Got
it.”

Mark struggles out of
the rubble collapsing around him, and the King appears through the dust and
smoke and punches him in the gut. Rather than go for flair and technique, Mark
roars and grabs him around the waist, tackling him to the ground like a
wrestler. The King gets him in a headlock, and Mark uses his weight to drive
his shoulder into the King's solar-plexus, winding him. Lying on his back, the
King plants his knee in Mark's gut and drives it up again and again, bringing
bile up in Mark's mouth.

Mark plants his hands
on either side of the King and pushes himself off, getting free of his assault
and crashing through the roof, into fresh air. The King jumps and follows him
as Mark urges himself upwards into the air, the King latches onto him and
twists like an acrobat.

He puts all of his
strength into it and spins Mark, dragging him by the cape and throwing him
through the shattering glass of the Buchanan Galleries, sending escalators and
pillars collapsing on to the struggling, drunken hero.

The King lands with a
heavy thud, and swaggers outside the café, dusting himself off and grimacing at
the marks on his suit. He looks at the blue bubble of energy, and the squad
crouched around the bomb inside it.

He grins, and walks
towards them.

Time snaps back for
Jamie and the Trespasser, and Jamie's nose is bleeding where it wasn't before.
Trespasser One works feverishly, sliding his combat knife under a shaped charge
and trying to pry it loose. The King stands on the other side of the barrier,
and Gary grimaces as he gives it a playful tap.

“
It's
ok,” says the King, his voice muffled by the barrier. “The explosion will
vaporise you before you even feel a thing. There's nothing to be afraid of.”

Stacy's eyes have
rolled back into her skull, and tears of blood are welling beneath her lids;
she doesn't have long left. Even Donald's nose is bleeding trying to help her.

“
We're
losing Stace,” says Cath. “Hurry up.”

“
I've
nearly got it,” says Trespasser One, the urgency making his voice shake.
“Nearly...”

The King looks at the
group for a moment, as though pondering something, then he slams his fist
against the forcefield.

Gary cries out, blood
spurting from his nose, and the group huddle around him in defence.

The King punches it
again, and Gary openly sobs, blood burning out of his eyes.

“
I
can't -” he gasps. “I can't keep it -”

“
It's
ready!” shouts the Trespasser. “Cathy, Jamie, somebody, get us away!”

Cathy and Jamie link
hands with everybody, and Gary lets the forcefield down.

The King punches thin
air where the energy shield was, and laughs, walking through it towards the
squad.

They vanish.

In their place is a
burning geyser of molten plutonium, rocketing out of one end of the bomb casing
as the rest of it detonates

There's an explosion
like a missile strike, and the King grimaces and cries out in shock as the
liquid metal covers his body, burning his skin away and scarring him. It knocks
him to the ground with the blast wave, searing his skin.

Not a nuclear
explosion.

Barely even an
explosion at all.

The King gets to his
feet and wipes himself down, grimacing at the molten metal clinging to him. His
shirt and suit are ruined, and he tears them off to see his skin knitting
itself back together across his chest. Standing in nothing but his trousers and
shoes, he spreads his arms wide and walks through the burning crater where the
bomb once sat.

“
Not
bad,” he shouts. “What did it cost you to defuse a bomb, eh? One bomb? There
are millions more out there, the Agency won't stop just because one failed.
You've bought yourself a day, maybe. At most.”

Glasgow greets him with
silence.

“
Well?
Is that it?”

The squad reappear a
moment later inside the Buchanan Galleries, on the bottom floor, around a pile
of debris with a cape draped over it. Stacy is limp, catatonic in Trespasser
One's arms, and Jamie lets go of Chloe's hand to pull the cape from the rubble.

“
Mark?”
he says, keeping his voice low. “Mark, mate, come on. We did it, we need to get
out of Glasgow.”

Trespasser One sets
Stacy down, and Donald rolls up his sleeves and lays his hands on her forehead.

“
Her
head feels like it's full of fire,” he whispers. “She nearly pushed herself too
far.”

“
Brave
girl,” whispers Mark, as Jamie helps him to his feet. His face is swollen and
bruised, dripping blood. He pulls his flask out and empties the last of it into
his mouth, tossing it aside. “She just saved thousands of lives. Be sure to
tell her when she wakes up.”

Jamie claps his
shoulder. “Team effort man. You can tell her yourself once we get out of the
city.”

“
Yeah,”
says Mark, laughing. “Yeah, no.”

“
What?”

He starts to walk away
from them, towards the glass doors. Outside, the King is shouting challenges to
them. His voice carries in through the rubble.

“
This
bastard has done enough damage,” he says, and stops and turns. “I have to end
this. Whilst I still feel like I can.”

“
Mark,
wait,” shouts Trespasser one. “You can't bloody breathe in space, wait until we
can get you an oxygen mask or something.”

Mark smiles, and turns
back to them as he leaves. “The King won't wait. It's been a hell of a ride
guys.”

He turns and leaves –
and as he expected it would, everything turns grey and stops, all the life
draining out of the world.

Jamie's hand is resting
on his shoulder.

“
Mate,”
he says. “Come on. You're drunk and you're angry.”

Mark turns to face his
friend, rubbing his sore face.

“
If
you've got a working idea to beat the King, tell me now. Otherwise, let me do
this.”

“
You
know you won't come back. If the ocean nearly killed you, you've got no chance
trying to go into space.”

“
The
King needs to be stopped. There's no other way. You remember the Destroyer?
When I was terrified, about to jump out of that helicopter?”

“
Yeah,
I remember.”

“
You
stopped time, and you told me that I had a rare opportunity; that for once, I
was the right man, in the right place, at the right time.”

Jamie gives him a sad
nod, looking at the floor. “Yeah.”

“
Well,
that's where I am now.”

“
Yeah
but – you don't have to die doing it. You'll get better at flying. You can do
this later, when we have a suit for you or something.”

“
And
how many bombs will drop during that time? How many cities will be turned to
ash before I feel like I can do this? This happens now, while I'm still stupid
enough to go through with it.”

“
Don't
die. I mean it, mate. Don't bloody die.”

“
I
might -”

“
Well
don't. If you aren't going to make it, bail out. The world needs a superhero,
not just to throw idiots like the King into space. Look at what he did in just
a month or two, with that kind of power; he's not even started yet, and he's
changed the world forever. Imagine what you can do with your power -”

“
We're
all powerful, Jamie -”

“
Yeah
but not like
you,”
Jamie jabs a finger into his chest as though he's
insulted. “You've got a power
none of us
can imitate, or stand in for.
You can't be hurt, Mark. You can stand up in public and say whatever the hell
you want, and who can stop you? You can point to the corrupt and tell people
they're bastards, and guess what? Nobody can stop you. You can walk into a
boardroom and arrest the bastards funding shit like the Kingdom project. You
can do so much more than just punch psychos.
That's
your power, Mark.
You get to be fearless. You get to be an example.”

“
Jamie,
I have to drink to use my powers -”

“
Then
tell the world that! What was it Stacy used to say to you? If you were
diabetic, people wouldn't begrudge you taking insulin. It's a medical fact that
you need to drink, or you'll die. So tell the world that, and then look:
they've nothing to use against you. You can tell people to stop being cruel to
each other and they have to listen to you, because they can't just make you go
away. You
can't
be ignored.”

Mark says nothing – he
just nods, taking it in.

“
So
don't -” begins Jamie, and he stops and takes a breath. “Don't you bloody die.
Don't throw your life away for some arsehole psychopath worth a fraction what
you are. You come back, ok? We've got work to do.”

Mark takes Jamie's hand
and shakes it firmly, then embraces his old friend.

“
I'll
try my hardest, mate.”

“
You
always do,” whispers Jamie, and breaks away from him. “Ok, go be a hero.
Idiot.”

Mark laughs, and Jamie
returns it, then lets go of his shoulder.

Colour returns to the
world, and Mark turns with his cape swirling behind him, and walks out the
door.

Sunlight floods
Glasgow, warming the tarmac and sparkling off the Clyde.

The King stands at one
end of the street, near the ruined shop and the crater, and watches Mark emerge
from the galleries. In his ruined suit trousers, and his scarred torso, the
King looks like a street fighter. Then Mark's armour catches the sun, showing
every dent and scrape, and the gold in his cape lights up with the sunlight,
creating a beaming silhouette around him that blinds the King.

“
Well,”
shouts Mark as he takes a breath. “I guess it was always going to end like
this, eh? Opposing forces and balance and all that.”

“
Shame.
You could've made a real difference.”

“
I'm
still going to.”

“
So
what, do we talk each other into an early grave or what?”

“
No,”
says Mark, and smiles, strolling closer, until he can see the hollow darkness,
the pain at the edges of the King's eyes. “No, because I'm an idealist and I
want to give you one last chance.”

“
Well
that's awful naive of you,” sighs the King.

“
Last
chance, King. Hand yourself over. Turn yourself in, and we can end this
peacefully. No more death – and you don't have to endure what I'll do to you.”

“
I
don't think you can do
anything
to me, Mark.”

Mark nods. “Then I
guess that's that, Paul.”

The King's eye twitches
a little at the use of his real name.

“
I
guess that's that,” he growls.

“
I
am sorry, by the way.”

“
Whatever.”

Mark takes a breath,
and begins walking towards the King, tensing his muscles, focusing his mind on
something positive, a memory, a place, a time.

Stacy and him, floating
above the clouds, kissing as the sun rose.

He smiles, and the King
snarls, and they leap at one another for the last time.

Trespasser One lifts
his antiquated phone to his ear.

“
This
is Trespasser One, Command are you there?”

“
You
defused the bloody bomb didn't you -”

“
Yeah
ok, whatever, we're not wiping out Glasgow. Listen, Mark is going to try and
take the King into space and throw him into the sun – he's our only chance of actually
beating the King, and he's probably not going to manage it. Turn your jets
around and have them come back, Mark will need back up.”

“
I
do not take orders from -”

“
Shut
up Command. Just shut up. This is not negotiable, so just shut up. Drop it. Order
the planes back. Then get a radar lock on Mark and monitor his speed, let me
know how he's doing. If it starts to drop rapidly, we're going to need to try
and catch him. Fire up a chopper and arrange tanks of whiskey, just trust me.
We might need to spray him down with it.”