Terminal (41 page)

Parry and his men were on top of an office block overlooking St Paul's. From behind the parapet at the very edge of the roof, they'd seen the Challenger reverse into the cathedral and out of sight. And now huge numbers of Armagi were arriving, but stopping on the cathedral forecourt as if waiting for something, waiting for a command.

Parry was just about to consult with Eddie about the situation, and particularly the way the Armagi were behaving, when his satphone went off.

‘Hi Parry, it's me, Bob,' the caller said.

‘Bob, can this wait?' Parry told him. ‘I'm a bit tied up at the moment.'

‘It can't,' Bob replied.

Parry frowned. ‘Okay – go ahead.'

There was a slight delay before Bob spoke again. ‘Just a courtesy call. I thought you should know we're about to send a nuclear missile your way.'

‘What! Here?' Parry gripped the satphone so tightly the plastic casing creaked. He waved frantically at Danforth and Eddie to switch their headsets over so they could listen in.

‘Yessir. One of our subs in the Atlantic has been given the firing sequence and is waiting for the final order from the President. That means you've got around fifteen minutes to get the hell out of Dodge.'

‘Can I ask why you're doing this?'

‘Sure, although rather have me try to explain the situation, I want you to see something. I'm breaking every darned rule in the book, but I'm going to give you a secure link to look at. Are you near a screen there?'

Danforth moved to the nearest laptop, where one of Parry's men was working, and typed in the link address as Bob reeled it off. An aerial image came on screen. It was clearly from a drone flying at some altitude. ‘Right, it's up,' Parry confirmed. ‘What do you want to show me?'

‘Hold on,' Bob said.

The drone changed course and then Parry saw the need for urgency. Along a stretch of the Thames around Canary Wharf,
huge numbers of Armagi had come together and were moving in dense columns across the ground. As Parry watched the video feed, the light reflecting from these columns of creatures made them look like runnels of molten silver as they reached the riverbank and slipped straight into the Thames.

‘That's the story all the way along the river from Canvey Island to the estuary. A mass transit's currently in progress,' Bob said. ‘And we've been tracking their movements once they're in the water, and they're migrating out to sea. Our best guess is that this is an invasion force on its way to the rest of the world.'

‘The cell breaks open, and all the new viruses spill out,' Parry recalled.

‘What was that?' Bob asked, not understanding.

‘Something my son used to say about the Styx,' Parry replied. ‘So, Bob, I agree there's no question that the Armagi are on the move, but is the threat that great?' Parry asked, trying to see if there was any reason he could find to divert the missile attack. ‘I mean, why aren't the Armagi airborne? That way they could spread more quickly.'

‘For reasons of stealth, I guess. They're harder to detect in the water,' Bob answered. ‘Or, maybe, by swimming they're conserving energy, so they can cover greater distances. Say to the US, for example? That's what one of our scientific advisers is suggesting anyway. But your guess is as good as mine.'

‘And precisely who's approved this strike?' Parry said, his voice uncompromising. ‘By what authority is this being done, because I hope it's not the good ol' US playing world policeman again all on its tod?'

‘Er, Parry, I have no idea what most of that meant, but it's actually strike
s
, plural – there's a series of nuclear strikes
scheduled. And, basically, every nation in the world has endorsed the action,' Bob answered. ‘The US Senate and the Pentagon … Russia, all the Arab states … and there's unanimous consensus from the European Military Council, and throughout the whole of Eastern and Central Asia except for … er … Kazakhstan, who don't seem to be able to make their minds up. So we've effectively got full and unconditional global consent for a preliminary hit in London, followed by a join-the-dots sequence along the Thames, your southern coastline and your international waters.'

‘You make it sound so clinical,' Parry said. ‘This is my country you're talking about.'

‘Sorry, but like us, the rest of the world doesn't want the contamination to spread any further than Engl—' Bob started to reply.

‘You've got to buy me some time,' Parry interrupted him sharply. ‘Can you delay the strike?'

‘And why should I do that?' Bob challenged.

‘I'll give you the address for another satellite link and we'll get a camera on the situation where I am. We believe some of our people made it back from the inner world, and something very strange is taking place. We may be close to getting some new information that can help us,' Parry said.

Bob wasn't convinced. ‘You're not giving me anything I can use at this end.'

‘I haven't got anything yet,' Parry admitted. ‘But you'll see from the video feed that the Armagi are congregating here in huge numbers, but then they're not moving. Seems that something's drawing them here, and – who knows – this latest development could be a game changer.'

‘Look, I'll see what I can do,' Bob said hesitantly. ‘But I
need something concrete from you, and yesterday.'

‘Understood. Bob, I'm going to hand you over to one of my men for a moment, but stay on the line,' Parry said, passing the satphone to the soldier at the laptop. Then he immediately went back to join Eddie and Danforth at the parapet. ‘As if we don't have enough on our plate already.'

Drake had stretched out on the cabin floor with a rolled-up tarpaulin for a pillow. His eyes were closed and his face was so drained and pallid he appeared more dead than alive.

‘I wish there was more I could do for him,' Jiggs whispered to Elliott as they looked at Drake with concern.

‘Please don't talk about me as if I'm not here,' Drake said, keeping his eyes shut, but managing a grin.

‘Didn't think you were still with us, old man,' Jiggs laughed.

‘Two fish in a tank,' Drake mumbled. ‘One says to the other, “How do you drive this bloody thing?”'

‘That bad?' Jiggs groaned, exchanging glances with Elliott. They both knew Drake only too well – the worse the situation, the worse the joke.

‘'Fraid so,' Drake mumbled. ‘Now, can we just fire up this bloody thing and ride it out of here?' he begged. ‘Maybe making ourselves a new door at the other end of the building in the process, as no doubt there'll be more prawns out front by now.'

‘No!' Elliott burst out, with such vehemence Drake opened his eyes. ‘I can't go. Not yet.'

Tucked down against the parapet by the edge of the roof, Parry was using his binoculars to try to see inside the cathedral where the tank had reversed. ‘We need to know who's in that Challenger, and what they're doing here. Because whatever they're up to, it's acting like a magnet to the Armagi.'

Eddie nodded in agreement. ‘No question that they seem to have diverted from their original route to the Thames, and instead they're beating a path here.'

Danforth had been running another check on the signal from the beacon and its direction. ‘Maybe it's an obvious thing to say, but my money's on the tank for the VLF signal – it has to be where it's originating,' he said.

Parry had switched his attention to what was left of the cathedral's domed roof as he thought out loud. ‘That wasn't a conventional explosion. Something very strange happened here, and I just pray that we're on to something we can use to get ourselves out of this corner, or at least buy a little breathing space.' He was silent for a beat before he added, ‘But we're running out of time. We need to get someone inside the building for a recce.'

Danforth cleared his throat. ‘I'll go. I can get some comms up and running with whoever's in the Challenger. I'm the obvious choice to do it.'

‘It's unlikely you'll make it through with that lot to contend with,' Parry said, peering down at the ever-increasing hordes of Armagi.

‘In the scheme of things, I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference if I stay up here or try my luck down there. As it stands, the chances of us coming through this aren't very promising,' Danforth said.

Parry grimaced as he shot a glance over the London
skyline. ‘I'm afraid you're right – the choppers are too far out. Even if I ordered them back right now, it's doubtful that any of us could get clear of the blast radius.'

‘So why not let me go down there and have a recce round the place?' Danforth asked.

‘I'm not going to try to argue you out of it,' Parry replied, glancing at his watch. ‘Take a couple of my best men – travel light, so you don't attract too much attention. You can use the pedestrian subway to get as close as you can to the cathedral, then you're going to have to play it by ear.' For a moment they all focused on a point twenty feet or so from the entrance to the cathedral where a London Transport sign marked a flight of steps leading down under the pavement.

Danforth rushed off to put some equipment together in a shoulder bag and, minutes later, he and a pair of SAS soldiers emerged onto the street at the rear of the office block. All three of them checked the immediate area for Armagi but there were none in sight. The creatures seemed to be concentrating themselves directly around the cathedral, which made life easier for the moment, but would cause Danforth problems as he got nearer.

With one soldier positioned behind him and one in front, Danforth began to edge along the wall of the building, all three of them hugging it and moving as quietly as they could.

Once they'd reached the corner, the entrance to the pedestrian subway was in spitting distance and, on the assumption that no Armagi had wandered down there, it would bring them up at the cathedral forecourt in no time at all. Danforth was trying not to think about the last twenty feet he'd need to cover, through the throng of creatures. He didn't delude himself that this whole exercise had the smell of a desperate suicide mission.

He was almost at the corner when a shout rang out from behind.

‘Danforth!'

Danforth and the two soldiers spun around.

Chester was standing there, his shotgun pointing straight at Danforth. Martha was beside the boy, her crossbow also levelled at Danforth, while Stephanie was standing several paces behind, looking very frightened.

‘Chester, this isn't a great time,' Danforth replied, keeping his voice low.

‘I've been wanting to talk to you,' the boy growled, ‘about what you did to my parents.' He advanced towards Danforth, showing no fear despite the fact that the two soldiers had their assault rifles trained on him.

‘Do you want us to remove them?' one of the soldiers asked Danforth.

‘Remove
us
?' Chester said, his lip curling viciously.

‘Hold on,' Danforth said, shaking his head. ‘Chester, we seriously don't have time for this. The US is lining up a nuclear strike on us here in London. We need to g—'

‘Remove us?' Chester repeated. He turned his head towards Martha, and gave her a small nod.

Like a streak of white lightning, the Brights struck the two soldiers hard, lifting them in the air and hurling them both against the wall. As they slipped down to the pavement, their bodies were twisted and broken.

Danforth had his hands up around his head. ‘That was unnecessary,' he said, his voice even despite what had just happened. ‘And I see you
are
using Brights. I was wondering what saved me from those Limiters when GCHQ was hit.'

‘You're next, Danforth!' Chester said. His eyes were mad,
his face contorted with his hunger for revenge.

‘No!' Stephanie cried, not able to take her eyes from the two dead men. ‘What are you doing? You didn't need to …' She didn't know what to think about Chester's crusade against Danforth, but to kill two men who had happened to get in the way was more than she could live with. Stephanie's eldest brother had joined the army in the months before all the troubles started, and she couldn't help but picture
him
slumped there, his blood smeared down the wall. She took a shallow breath as waves of nausea hit her. ‘This has to stop,' she said.