Terminal (5 page)

The MO stepped aside, revealing the Styx secured to a stainless steel gurney by several restraints. He'd been discovered in the debris after the attack on the power station and helicoptered to the base for examination. He was bare to the waist, and his appearance – his rake-thin body and severe features – gave the impression that he was nothing more than a Limiter.

‘He hasn't regained consciousness yet?' Parry asked.

‘Still out for the count,' the MO replied, ‘although all his injuries have healed.'

‘They've what?' Parry said, as he leant against the glass partition so he could study the man's head. ‘That's incredible. You're right. No trace of any wound at all.' When the man had been brought in, his skull had been crushed on one side, and the enormity of that injury combined with the others he'd suffered made it seem unlikely he'd last for very long.

‘So, unless a run-of-the-mill Styx has miraculous powers that mean a major injury heals in hours rather than months, then what we've bagged ourselves here is an Armagi,' the MO suggested.

‘They haven't, and it would appear that we have,' Parry said, his eyes flashing with excitement. This was the break he'd been looking for – an opportunity to evaluate what they were up against. ‘The Styx do have amazing powers of recuperation, but nothing like this. So I have to agree he must be an Armagi. Have you found anything else unusual about him?'

The MO grinned. ‘From my external examination, he has a heart, lungs – all the body organs you'd expect, and in the right places. The only anomalies I've found are in his throat, where there's some sort of extra gland, and beside it a small protuberance I can't explain.'

Parry guessed immediately what that was likely to be. ‘It's an ovipositor. Eddie told us that the Armagi could breed like the Styx females, so they probably impregnate hosts in the same way.'

The MO pinched the Armagi's bicep. ‘And the density of his muscle fibre is off the scale. The man weighs a bloody ton, which is why it took four troopers to carry him in here. But
all that pales into insignificance in relation to what I'm about to show you.' The MO went to a bench behind where the man was laid on the gurney, and raised one end of a long stainless steel dish so Parry could see the contents.

‘My God!' Parry exclaimed. He wasn't sure whether he was more shocked by the fact that the MO had lopped off the Armagi's arm just below the shoulder, or that the Armagi had apparently grown a completely new one.

‘Quite so. You asked for incontrovertible proof,' the MO said, grinning. ‘So I began with some small incisions to his skin, which healed within seconds, and worked my way up to the removal of an entire limb. And, lo and behold, it grew back in around three hours, and appears to be right as rain again.' The MO paused for effect. ‘And if you think that's impressive, here's something else I've just discovered.'

Beside the amputated arm on the bench was a device in a khaki-painted crate which the MO switched on. ‘I know it's not very scientific, but I came across this ancient piece of interrogation kit in the stores,' he said. ‘Of course, it's only fit for a museum of human rights now that the Geneva Convention precludes the torture of POWs, but I'm not sure it would apply to these combatants.'

The MO picked up a metal probe connected to the device by a cable. ‘I've set the charge at 200 volts,' he said, then extended it towards the Armagi and touched his forearm.

A small spark sprang across from the probe to the Armagi's skin when it was close enough. The MO didn't stop there, pushing the probe hard against the Armagi's arm. ‘Note the lack of a normal reaction at this voltage,' the MO said. He was right – there was no convulsion of the muscles as there would have been with a human being, even when unconscious.

Instead the most curious thing happened. Spreading out from the probe where it made contact, the skin was becoming silvery and crystalline, as if diamond-shaped scales were spreading across the arm. Then the whole limb suddenly became transparent, and began to transform into something else altogether.

‘We think it's changing into a wing,' the orderly beside Parry said. Parry had to agree – the arm was flattening all the way up to the shoulder, and it certainly did appear to be more than a little bird-like.

The MO removed the probe, and the limb lost its translucency and immediately reverted to its original form. ‘So they shape-shift, and electrical impulses are somehow involved. Like nerve impulses, I presume.'

‘The Major has experimented with a range of different voltages,' the orderly said, holding up his clipboard to show Parry the small sketches he'd made. ‘We got a wing as you started to see there, and also something like a flipper.'

‘Sea, air and land,' Parry remembered. ‘Eddie told us that they can transform into different entities with different morphologies to suit whatever environment they're in.'

‘Yes, what we've seen here would bear that out,' the MO said.

Parry's brow was furrowed as his mind raced. ‘So …' he began, ‘… is this their Achilles' heel? Can we use electricity to defeat them?'

‘Good suggestion. Why don't I up the ante and see what some more juice produces?' the MO replied. ‘I'll ramp it up to 500 volts.' He went over to the device on the bench and twisted one of the dials as far as it would go, then extended the probe towards the Armagi's hand. An even brighter spark arced when the probe was close to the skin, and the lights
flickered in the room.

‘There it goes,' the orderly said, as, the limb again began to turn transparent. But this time the fingers merged together, and what had been the hand elongated and thickened, with three vicious-looking claws appearing at the end.

‘I've no idea what that is,' the orderly said, as he frantically tried to sketch this new configuration.

Something caught Parry's eye. ‘Major, behind you! The arm!'

The severed arm had transformed too, taking on precisely the same form, complete with the three deadly-looking claws at the extremity. It was too long for the stainless steel dish and had tipped it over, so the limb flopped onto the bench, like a dead fish.

‘Cut the current! Now!' Parry yelled as the severed limb twitched beside the dish.

In his haste the MO dropped the probe. Stooping to retrieve it, he'd just straightened up when the Armagi transformed completely.

In the blink of an eye, it suddenly had three pairs of limbs branching from its thorax, like an enormous transparent arachnid. The limbs thrashed, tearing the leather constraints binding it to the gurney as if they were tissue paper.

The MO didn't stand a chance as he regarded the creature with a stunned bewilderment.

His head came off with one short sweep of the Armagi's forelimb. The three claws were as deadly as they looked.

Then it sprang from the gurney and hit the dividing window with a resounding clang. Its claws penetrated the tempered glass, deep enough that it could hang from the partition. Then it struck at the glass again, as if it knew it
wouldn't take long for it to break through.

‘Burn out!' Parry yelled at the top of his lungs.

‘Burn out?' the orderly stammered, frozen into inactivity by the huge spider's head with compound eyes that were staring straight at him through the window.

Parry didn't wait for the orderly, instead flipping up the cover on a panel under the intercom, and twisting the key in it. Then he slammed his palm against the large button beside the key.

The isolation chamber was instantly filled with a solid wall of fire. It was a safety feature installed to sterilise it in the instance of a mishap with a biological sample.

Parry and the orderly watched as the Armagi turned black, and fell back into the inferno.

‘Christ, oh Christ,' the orderly was whimpering.

‘The severed arm was affected … even though the current was being applied to the Armagi's body,' Parry said.

The orderly could barely cope with what he'd just witnessed, let alone understand what Parry was trying to tell him. ‘But the Major …' he gasped.

Parry seized him by the shoulders. ‘Pull yourself together, man. If there's a similar form of communication between the Armagi themselves, then our specimen might just have compromised our location. There might be others on the way!' He grabbed the radio from his belt. ‘EVAC!' he yelled into it.

 

 

 

Chapter Two

^‘
I
look a right wally in this,' Will said, catching his reflection in a shop window as they laboured along in the intense heat, their Bergens stuffed with all the bedding and towels they'd helped themselves to.

‘Yes,' Elliott replied absently, her nose buried in a map that she'd found on one of the Limiters.

‘Oh, thanks,' Will muttered. He paused to adjust the canary-yellow hat with a floppy brim that Elliott had picked out for him in the department store.

‘No, I mean it looks just fine,' she said. ‘It does the job and keeps the sun off your face … and, anyway, who's going to see even if you do look like a willy?'

‘
Wally
,' Will corrected her quickly, then surveyed the bodies in the street. ‘Can't we go back to our base? This place gives me the creeps, and it's just crazy to spend so long out when it's so bloody hot.'

Elliott gave him a sympathetic nod, then dangled the map in front of him. ‘Okay, but I just want to check something first.' She glanced at the map again before pointing straight ahead. ‘It's this way.'

She strode off, not only laden down by her Bergen and long rifle, but carrying an additional two rifles she'd insisted on taking from the Limiters. For a moment, Will watched her go, and the way her hips swayed as she walked. She was growing up so quickly, and with her tanned skin and her long black hair, she'd never looked more beautiful. In the same way as the Styx seemed to be able to adapt to any environment they were in, Elliott was flourishing in their new home in the inner world.

And Will had her all to himself.

He allowed himself a smug smile, then the sweat running down the small of his back reminded him where he was. He wasn't happy about spending any longer in the city than was absolutely necessary, but he always found it difficult not to let Elliott have her way.

Will happened to glance at what appeared to be a luxurious hotel judging by the canopy over the entrance. A flock of the most obnoxious-looking vultures was perching on the red-and-white striped awning, their mean little grey eyes intent on both him and Elliott. ‘You're out of luck, boys – I'm not dead yet!' Will yelled at the birds. Wiping his brow, he indicated Elliott up ahead. ‘Though if she has anything to do with it, I should stick around!' he added.

There was no way that Elliott could have missed the comment, but she kept doggedly leading them both on. Soon they found themselves in an area with a different feel to it. There were no shops here, but rather austere terraces of five-storey buildings, many of which appeared to be offices or government departments from the engraved brass nameplates at their entrances.

As Will and Elliott progressed down yet another of these
unremarkable streets, they both heard the tapping sound. The rhythm wasn't regular, but as they drew to a halt and listened, it didn't let up. In this eerie place, it was more than enough to put them on their guard.

As Elliott pointed up ahead, Will acknowledged with a single nod of the head. She was right that the sound seemed to be coming from their side of the street, although it was difficult to pinpoint precisely where as it reverberated off the buildings opposite. As Elliott silently cocked her rifle, edging cautiously along the pavement, Will kept his distance, his hands tight around his Sten.

Elliott reached the second-to-last building of the terrace, then crouched and brought her rifle up. Discarding his Bergen, Will had stepped off the pavement and into the road, where he was using the discarded vehicles as cover, all the time keeping an eye on the facade of the building. He realised how efficiently he and Elliott worked together; there was no need for them to speak as each knew instinctively what the other was going to do in any given situation. The first time Will had witnessed that level of empathy was as he'd watched Elliott and Drake out on patrol in the Deeps. Will suddenly thought of their friend, who had to have perished when the nuclear device exploded, and the pang of grief was so intense that it made him take a sharp breath.

As Elliott heard it and turned towards him, Will avoided her gaze. He took up position at the front of a car, then concentrated on the upper windows of the buildings where the sound seemed to be originating.

There was no sign of anybody there, but the tapping didn't let up.

Just as Will expected her to, Elliott now moved from the
pavement, stepping slowly backwards as she trained her scope on each window in turn. Will was covering her with his Sten when, all of a sudden, she stopped and gave a small chuckle.