Third Transmission (22 page)

‘Okay,' Six said. ‘You want the soldier, or should I take him?'

The soldier was protection – the only bulletproof vest that was worth anything against the soldiers' ammunition. But he was also a signi?cant burden, weighing over a hundred kilograms.

‘I'll take him,' Kyntak said. ‘I've grown fond of him. He's like an especially warm scarf.'

Six nodded. ‘See you soon.'

And they ran in opposite directions.

Six figured the first place he should check was the cafeteria. It was spacious enough to hold everyone, for one thing. And it had big heavy doors, which could be easily barricaded with tables and chairs. It seemed a likely destination for the fieeing agents.

This had been a lousy day. Only – he looked at his watch – nineteen hours ago, he'd been running along the deck of a warship, acid rain burning holes through his skin. Between then and now, he'd been shot at and beaten up, and had watched dozens of people die.

Six had become accustomed to suffering. He could hardly imagine life without it. But he wasn't used to failure – and today had been ?lled with that too. He hadn't found the SARS. He hadn't found the nuclear warhead. He hadn't rescued Allich's prisoner.

But maybe, just maybe, he could save the other agents. Maybe he wasn't completely useless.

He pushed open the cafeteria doors. The fact that they were unlocked told him everything he needed to know. The place was deserted – tables and chairs and heat trays all empty, waiting for diners who might never return.

Six was about to turn away, go looking somewhere else. But something caught his eye. A shiver of movement near the entrance to the kitchens.

Even as his gaze snapped towards it, it was gone. Six couldn't tell what it had been. The corner of the cafeteria was completely still.

Whoever or whatever it had been, they must have heard him enter. And if it was a soldier, surely he wouldn't be hiding.

‘Identify yourself,' Six called.

Nothing. Silence.

Six took a step forwards into the cafeteria. The doors creaked closed behind him.

He could smell something odd in the air – the same odour as before. It reminded him of cooking, but he couldn't tell which food. Surely no-one could be making a meal?

Six walked past the tables and chairs towards the kitchen door. He saw movement again. A slight shimmering in the air, like the rippling effect that appears above blacktop on a hot day.

And suddenly Six could place the smell. It was butanethiol.

Butanethiol was a chemical compound that had an unpleasant stench, but was harmless in small amounts. For this reason, it was used as a safety feature in airborne compounds that were colourless and odourless – like natural gas.

Flammable gas.
Explosive gas
.

Six shoved open the door to the kitchens. The smell was overpowering in here, and the air all around him was warping and shivering. He saw that the gas nozzles on the stovetops had been ripped off, nullifying the auto-stop safety features. Gagging on the bad air, Six ran along the line of stoves, twisting all the valves back to zero, stopping more deadly gas from pouring into the room.

Had the soldiers done this? Was their plan to poison the air in the Deck, killing all the agents no matter where they were hiding? But that would take days, and surely –

And then Six saw the bomb.

It was small – a cube of only about thirty centimetres to a side. But it was clearly a bomb – it had a primer, a detonator, a power source. And it didn't need to be large. Not when flammable gas had stained the air all over the Deck, magnifying the blast a thousand times, turning the whole building into one giant explosive.

There was no timer. It could go off at any second. For a moment Six imagined that he could hear ticking – but that was ridiculous, as modern bombs almost never
had clockwork mechanisms. A bomb about to explode would beep, or vibrate –

Vvvt
.
Vvvt
.

Six stumbled backwards, eyes wide, jaw falling open. His mouth ?lled with the coppery taste of the gas, and he started coughing. He ran out of the kitchens and was halfway across the cafeteria before he realised that the vibration had come from the phone in his pocket.

He snapped it open. ‘Kyntak.'

‘I found the others,' Kyntak said. ‘We're barricaded in the –'

‘You have to get out,' Six said. ‘Right now. There's a bomb in the kitchens, right next to a massive gas leak.'

Kyntak was silent for a moment. ‘How long before it blows?'

‘No timer,' Six said.

‘Can you defuse it?'

‘Hang on.' Six took a deep breath, and ran back into the kitchens. He stared at the bomb through the wobbling air.

All the wires had been spray-painted blue. There was no way to tell which was which.

Six ran back out again. ‘No,' he gasped. ‘They've coloured the wires, and maybe trip-wired the mechanisms too.'

‘What about moving it?'

‘It looked like it had a pressure-sensor link to the table.'

‘Damn. I'll get everyone out the west exit.'

‘Except the soldier,' Six said. ‘Maybe as long as he's here, the bomb can't go off.'

‘Good thinking,' Kyntak replied. ‘I'll stay here with him. Otherwise, he could wake up and escape.'

‘I can't ask you to do that.'

‘You don't have to.'

Six could hear the wry smile in Kyntak's voice. ‘I'll meet you at the west exit,' he said.

‘Wait.' Kyntak spoke quickly. ‘If I'm keeping the soldier in the building, couldn't you cut random wires and defuse the bomb? Because it can't go off?'

Six thought about it. Maybe that was true. But him cutting the right wires in the right order sounded less likely than the soldier somehow surviving the blast. ‘No,' he said. ‘That feels too much like toying with fate.'

‘Your call,' Kyntak said. ‘See you at the exit.'

Six closed his phone, and headed for the door.

Outside in the corridor, Six was still watching for soldiers. There was a chance that some of them were still here – trawling the halls with purposes unfathomable to him.

Emptiness. Silence. Gas still detectable in the air.

Six walked down the corridor swiftly and stealthily. He glanced in Jack's of?ce as he passed it. No sign of Jack, or any soldiers.

Six wondered if he should take the lift to the ground floor, and then decided that was too enclosed. He would take the stairs.

Six paused just before he reached the corner of the corridor. He listened. No footsteps, no voices, no movement.

But that didn't necessarily mean anything. A time-soldier could be waiting for him, lead pipe in hand, knowing the exact second Six's head was going to appear around the corner.

Six rounded the corner. No pipe-wielding soldier.

He ran down the hallway, unpleasantly aware of the bomb he'd left behind. Would the presence of the unconscious time-soldier really protect the building? How long did Six have to get out?

The stairwell door was up ahead. He jogged towards it, eyes scanning the surroundings.

He pressed his ear against the door. Nothing but the groan of a distant air-conditioner, carried down from the roof.

He put his hand on the handle.

And
crack!
Something stabbed him in the back.

The first thing Six felt was the pain in his teeth as they slammed together against his will. The muscles in his arm tensed up and started shuddering, making his hands quiver. He smelled burning, and his eyeballs ached.

He was already on the floor by the time he realised he was being electrocuted. The pain in his back had been two needles, fired by an M26 Taser. He could hear the zapping sound it made, sharp and regular, like a CD skipping.

With tremendous effort, he turned his shivering head. How many time-soldiers were there? How far away? Could he stand, and fight them off?

But it wasn't time-soldiers. It was the Spades. Four of them, walking towards him. Two had guns drawn.

The Spade holding the Taser released the trigger, and the current ceased to blaze through Six's veins. His back slumped out of its arch, and a blob of foamy drool rolled out of his mouth and down his cheek.

‘I gave him a double dose,' the Spade with the Taser said. ‘He's down for a while.'

‘Boss,' another one said into her radio. ‘We got him.'

‘
Location?
' the radio squawked. Six recognised the voice – it belonged to the Queen of Spades. But now that he knew Vanish was inhabiting her body, the voice sounded alarmingly like his, too.

Maybe the Spades had been lied to. Got to warn them, Six thought. He slurred, ‘Your boss is Vanish.'

The Spade with the radio stared at Six for a moment. Then she held the radio up to her face again and said, ‘He knows.'

‘
Be right there
.'

They know, Six thought. And he's coming. Vanish is coming. I have to get out of here.

His head was still vibrating like an arrow that had just hit a bullseye. There was a humming in his ears.

‘What's that smell?' one of the Spades said. ‘Doesn't matter,' the one with the Taser said. ‘We'll be out of here soon.'

‘ETA?' the one with the radio asked Vanish.

‘
One minute
.'

Six tried to fiex his fingers. They were slow and clumsy, but they felt like they were responding. He tried his toes. They wriggled inside his shoes. He got to work on his wrists and ankles.

A normal human being might take hours to recover mobility after a blast from a Taser. Six had less than a minute.

‘He's moving. Fry him again,' a Spade said to the one with the Taser.

Then the stairwell door opened. Six's heart felt bloated in his chest. Vanish was early! He started dragging his left hand towards his pocket.

But it wasn't Vanish. It was Ace.

She looked down at Six, then at the Spades pointing guns at him. Her eyes widened, and one hand crept towards the gun tucked into the back of her jeans.

‘What's going on here?' she asked.

One of the Spades took aim at her. The other one with the gun kept it trained on Six. There was a moment of silence.

‘Ace,' Six said, his tongue still wobbly in his mouth. ‘Shut your eyes.'

He took his hand out of his pocket, clutching the flashbang Jack had given him. Then he shut his eyes and pushed the button.

Nothing happened.

One of the Spades said, ‘Hey! What's that in –'

BANG!

Even though Six knew it was coming, the sound was deafening. He'd pushed the flashbang across the floor away from his body, but the heat of the blast still stung the exposed skin on his hand and arm.

He opened his eyes. The Spades were hunched over, clutching at their faces. As the sound of the explosion faded, Six could hear them yelling in panic.

He clambered to his feet, still shaky and disoriented. Jack had said that the blast would confuse them for ten or twelve seconds. He grabbed Ace's hand and pulled.

She pulled back. ‘Stairs are right here,' she said.

‘I know,' Six said. ‘This way.'

He pulled again, and this time she followed.

Six was in no condition to outrun Spades in a stairwell. They'd have recovered and be after him before he'd staggered down two flights. And Ace wouldn't be strong enough to carry him at speed.

Instead, they ran towards Jack's office.

The yelps of pain behind them had become shouts of anger. ‘Where are they?' ‘After them!' ‘Which way?'

Six shoulder-barged through the office door, pulling out his phone with one hand and flipping it open. He hit the call button without looking as Ace followed him into the room and shut the door behind her.

The phone dialled rapidly. ‘Hello?' Kyntak said.

‘Get the soldier out of the building,' Six yelled, as he pulled open the door to Jack's safe. He swept the box of nuclear batteries out and slammed his fist
down on the plastic shelves inside, breaking them into halves.

‘But then –'

‘Just do it!' Six pushed Ace into the safe, dived in after her and yanked the door shut behind him. It sealed with a resounding
boom
.

The sudden quiet was incredible. The yelling of the Spades and their clattering footfalls vanished as instantly as a channel change on the TV. Now all Six could hear were Ace's breaths, quick and shallow, bouncing noisily around the suffocating blackness.

‘How much air is there in here?' she whispered. ‘Maybe three or four minutes worth,' he replied. He could feel her knees squished into his back, so he tried to shuffie forwards, only to realise that he was already pressed up against the door. He hoped she wasn't claustrophobic.

‘You really think they'll stop looking that quickly?'
Doonk. Doonk.
Fists pounding on the outside of the safe.

‘Not a chance,' Six said.

‘So what's the plan?' Ace asked. Her voice was controlled and even.

‘Any moment now, the Deck is going to explode,' Six said. ‘I'm hoping that the lead is thick enough to protect us, and that it happens before we run out of air so we can get out.'

‘What about the other agents?'

‘They've been evacuated. Don't touch the walls with
your bare skin, it's about to become very hot. If you can, curl into a ball to protect your face.'

He tried to remember what she was wearing. A T-shirt, jeans, boots. Her legs and feet would be fine – but her arms were naked. Six started wriggling out of his suit jacket.

Doonk
.
Thump
.
Doonk
.

‘Why is the Deck going to explode?' Ace breathed. Her words boomed in Six's ears.

‘Because the soldiers put a bomb in it,' he said.

He couldn't get the jacket off – his shoulders were too broad for the enclosed space. He gritted his teeth, stretching every tendon and muscle in his torso, but his arms wouldn't twist back far enough.