Terminal (40 page)

‘I'm doing my best, Jiggs retorted. ‘Considering there
are
a couple of damned big columns in the way,' he added under his breath, as he backed the tank off to take another run up the steps.

This time he was more successful. With an almighty crash, one of the columns toppled over, and although the tank was lifted up on one side by what was left of the shattered column, it was still heading for the tall oak doors with some
momentum. There was a loud crunch and both doors were knocked clean off their hinges. ‘We're home, James,' Jiggs said, standing on the brakes.

‘Remind me not to let you drive again,' Drake said to him, before turning to Elliott. ‘Okay, we're really exposed here in the daylight. Let's do whatever you've got to do, then head out as quickly as possible. And I hope this isn't just some wild frolic.'

Drake followed Elliott as she climbed through the hatch in the turret, then leapt down from the tank. After checking the interior of the cathedral was clear of any Styx, they sprinted down the nave. On reaching the area under the huge dome of St Paul's and the Whispering Gallery, Drake continued on for some way in the direction of the altar before realising he was by himself. He turned to find Elliott had stopped directly under the dome.

‘This is it,' she said, closing her eyes.

Drake frowned. ‘What is? I don't get it. What could be here that's going to be of any help to us at all?' he demanded, the desperation evident in his voice.

‘I honestly don't know,' Elliott replied, opening her eyes and holding the sceptre before her.

Drake came back towards her. ‘But this is a cathedral – what are you looking for here? And why here, in particular? What's so special about this place?'

‘I really don't know yet,' Elliott admitted. ‘Will thought it was to do with ley lines – which might be why this has always been a holy place.'

Drake lost it at this point. ‘
Ley lines? A holy place
! What sort of New Age claptrap is that? I know we need a bloody miracle, Elliott, but that's so f …'

He never finished the sentence because Elliott, with both
hands gripping the sceptre, twisted the shaft halfway along.

‘What's this?' Drake breathed, as he and Elliott noticed the most bizarre phenomenon. It was as if the light on them and the ground around them had gone through some sort of spectrum shift.

This effect was becoming more pronounced by the second, until they found they were in the dead centre of a hemisphere of shimmering azure light, some forty feet across. The edge of the hemisphere was fluxing and shifting in the same way that an oil film does on water.

With no warning, a strong wind swept through the interior of the cathedral, strong enough to send pews scraping across the floor and hymn books flapping into the air like untidy birds taking to the wing.

It was followed immediately by an immensely loud creaking and cracking sound, as if the whole fabric of the building was coming under strain.

‘Get down!' Drake shouted, peering above them.

In less than the blink of an eye, the dome of St Paul's lifted off.

And, just as quickly, it had completely vanished from sight.

‘What did you just do?' Drake demanded, as he had his first glimpse of blue sky above. He moved towards Elliott, ready to protect her from the pieces of masonry and timber that were dropping to the ground around them, but it proved unnecessary. None of it had actually fallen within the blue circle where they were.

Drake continued to peer above him, completely bemused. ‘Where did it go?' he mumbled, shaking his head in sheer disbelief. It was as if some giant being had simply lopped off the top of a boiled egg with a spoon.

Elliott merely shrugged. ‘We saw something like this before, at the pyramid.'

As he continued to shake his head, Drake was still trying to take it in. ‘Well, you got me.' Then he laughed. ‘Against all the odds this building survived the Blitz, and we've just trashed it!' He turned his attention to the shimmering blue bubble surrounding them. ‘And what's with the light show?'

Elliott shrugged again, not offering any explanation. Instead she was peering around as if she was disappointed, as if she'd expected more.

As the L94 in the tank began to hammer away from the front steps, Drake was brought back to the seriousness of their situation. ‘Okay, that's it,' he decided. ‘We're sitting ducks in here. Time to get going.'

As if to prove his point, something swooped in through the open roof. The first Armagi touched down, and fortunately didn't attack immediately, giving Drake the time to empty a magazine from his assault rifle into it. Pieces spun off the creature like chunks of flying ice before it dropped to the ground.

Several more Armagi landed on the cathedral floor, but as Drake changed magazines, they didn't seem to be attacking.

He cocked his rifle, watching them as they remained stock-still. ‘What's wrong with them? Why aren't they coming for me?' he asked. Still not one of the Armagi made a move, as if they didn't want to step into the circle of blue light.

Drake and Elliott exchanged glances, neither speaking for the moment.

More and more Armagi were landing inside the cathedral but still they didn't advance. ‘I know you're safe from them, but I'm not. What's going on?' Drake asked.

‘Maybe it's because of this light,' Elliott suggested.

Drake shrugged, glancing across to the entrance of the cathedral. ‘I bet it won't keep us safe from Limiters. That tank is our only way out of here, but how can I possibly reach it now? I can't shoot our way through all those,' Drake said, scanning the motionless Armagi. All of a sudden, he sat down, as if all his energy had deserted him.

Elliott realised what an effort it had been for him, and that he was in real trouble from the radiation sickness. She immediately went over to him.

‘Save yourself if you can,' Drake pleaded with her. ‘Look at me. I'm done for anyway.'

‘What in God's name is that?' Parry shouted into the headset as his helicopter led the formation over London.

He and everyone on board were mesmerised by what appeared to be a tornado against the morning sky. It seemed to begin as a dark spout just above the level of the rooftops before broadening out into a spinning dark cyclone reaching up towards the clouds.

‘Some sort of explosion?' the pilot suggested.

‘That's not any blast pattern I've seen before,' Parry replied, as pieces of debris began to drop all around them. ‘Anyone got any bright ideas what's going on?'

‘I can't help you with that, but there was the mother of all energy spikes just then,' Danforth reported, as he watched the LED display on the device he'd been using to locate the beacon signal.

‘Jesus!' the pilot cried, as a large section of lead roof plummeted uncomfortably close, and he swerved the helicopter a
little after the fact. The falling debris wasn't very dense, but a direct hit from some of the more substantial pieces of stone or timber would have been enough to bring down a helicopter.

‘Everyone still with us?' Parry asked, as he turned to check the other helicopters hadn't been damaged.

Eddie was watching the fallout scattering the streets below, some of it striking the buildings. ‘But what could have caused this?' he wondered out loud.

‘I think we're about to find out,' Parry replied, pointing at what still remained of the strange phenomenon ahead. ‘Isn't it directly on our bearing, Danforth?'

‘You could be right,' he replied. ‘The beacon's been stationary for a while now, and it appears to be at the epicentre of whatever that is.' He checked the LED display again. ‘And we're almost over it … in a thousand metres … five hundred … and X marks the spot!'

‘Good Lord!' Parry burst out, as their helicopter skimmed straight over St Paul's cathedral and they saw the gaping hole where the dome should have been.

‘That's one of our tanks on the steps,' the pilot observed.

‘I saw it. And someone's picking off Armagi using the tank's chain gun,' Parry said. ‘All right – whoever it is down there, they're on our side and I'm sure they'd be grateful for some help.' He spoke over the radio to the other helicopters. ‘I want two-man sniper teams put down on top of the buildings around here, and make it snappy.'

‘No! What are you doing?' Drake cried weakly, as Elliott began to cut into her forearm.

‘Close your eyes and keep still,' she said, bringing her arm up to his face. ‘I'm going to cover you in my blood. It worked for Will, so I don't see why it won't work for you.'

Drake did as she'd told him, and she began to smear her blood all over him. ‘This situation is a bit different, you know – we're going to be knee-deep in those overgrown prawns once we step outside this light ring. It's not like we're just avoiding a couple of them along a street,' he said.

‘I know that,' she replied.

Drake was silent for a moment before he spoke again. ‘You've been a good friend. You were always there for me in the Deeps when I needed you.'

‘Don't get all over-the-top with me, and let me finish wiping my blood on you,' she chided him, laughing.

They moved to the edge of the blue bubble, and had just got themselves ready to go when the tank engine fired up. It began to reverse towards them, smashing pews under its tracks as it came. The engine stopped again, and Jiggs opened the hatch a few inches, peering out.

‘Thought you could do with a lift,' he said, looking around.

The Armagi in the cathedral were almost all completely still, although every now and then one of them would open and close its wings like a resting bird.

‘Good timing,' Drake said, and with Elliott supporting him they edged through the shimmering border of blue light.

‘Hey, that's trippy,' Drake muttered.

Elliott was quiet, keeping watch on the Armagi, who were following their every movement.

As they reached the tank, both Elliott and Drake stopped for a moment. One of the Armagi hadn't managed to get out
of the way in time and had been pinned under the tank, its head crushed by the track. It was the strangest thing to watch because the Armagi was continually transforming into the long thin body of a Styx and then back into an Armagi, over and over again. It was trying to regenerate, but the point at the back of its head that Martha had identified was under pressure from the tank track, and it was stranded somewhere between its two forms.

‘Nice,' Drake muttered sarcastically. ‘Now you see one monster, now you see another.'

‘Come on,' Elliott urged him, supporting him as they skirted around the shape-shifting creature and then clambered up onto the tank.

Once the two of them were safely inside and the hatch had been secured, Jiggs looked at Elliott and then at the blood smeared all over Drake. ‘So the masking trick really works. Your blood fools them.'

Without waiting for either of them to speak, he inclined his head towards the controls for the chain gun. ‘I don't want to worry either of you unnecessarily, but you should know that we're almost out of rounds. And we've been making a hell of a racket here, so we need to make ourselves scarce before any Limiters decide to join the party.'