Warhead (56 page)

‘Wow!’ Mongrel beamed.

Constanza glanced down at the Warhead tracker. She frowned then, her smile dropping from her face. Carter saw the gesture and moved towards her, gaze falling on the scanner—a screen filled with tiny data streams.

‘What is it?’

‘Oh. I... I don’t know.’

‘Is there something wrong?’

Constanza ran her finger over the touch screen, scrolling through data, choosing different pathways, and then scrolling through more data. Then she scowled, expression going hard, and her stare swept up to meet Carter’s.

‘There is something wrong. With the Warhead.’

‘Such as?’

‘It’s moving off course. And ... oh. Shit.’

It was Carter’s turn to scowl. ‘What is it?’

‘The Warhead—it has deleted its targets.’

‘Deleted its ... you’ve got to be fucking
kidding
me, right? We’ve fought halfway across the fucking globe to get to this point—we’ve risked
everything
to launch that ECW. You make it sound like it has
chosen
to delete the targets ...’

Constanza nodded. ‘It must have! I don’t understand. They are targets that threaten Spiral, humanity—threaten the whole world as we know it. The machine is sentient, it has intelligence. I do
not
understand what has gone wrong ...’

Carter’s ECube rattled. He pulled it free and it unfolded neatly. Blue light danced from the tiny device, treating a figure of light atop its shell—a figure that Carter knew all too well. It was a man—a Nex—who filled him with hate, violence and despair.

It was Durell. A tiny avatar, sculpted from ECube light. ‘Mr Carter,’ came the low, gravelly voice. Durell looked up then, looked up into Carter’s face—and Carter felt his whole body go numb. Something was wrong here. Something was terribly
bad.

‘What the fuck do you want?’

‘I wish to offer you my congratulations.’

‘Meaning?’

‘You have launched the Evolution Class Warhead. You have launched
my
weapon of destruction.
My
sentinel of death.
My
obedient servant of utter and total annihilation.’

‘Fuck you, cunt.’

‘You think I lie? Constanza there will inform you of the coordinates. Even now, the Warhead is heading for 445.554.354.332. There it will find fuel and massive stocks of EDEN—and then disseminate it into a thousand missiles, each loaded with this, our deadly toxin. The Warhead will, over the next twelve hours, begin its multiple delivery of the most deadly biological poison ever known to mankind. The Warhead will wipe out the human race, Carter. And Spiral sent it.
You
sent it.’

‘That’s not possible.’

‘You know that it is.’

‘Why me, Durell? Why have you chosen me as your slave?’

‘You
are
mine, Carter. To love and to hold, to command and to destroy. You are right: you
are
my slave. And your determination to get the job done is an awesome sight to behold. Your will-power, and strength, and fury—they are the greatest of pure-breed gifts, and I am duly envious. Come to me, Carter. Come to Ethiopia ... I will patch through coordinates, you can join me and I will take you to the ChainStations with the Nex—we will start a new future on Earth, we will make the world good again, right again, a world without pain and suffering. We will finish what Spiral began. We will complete their dream. We will be the
new
Spiral, Carter; me, with you by my side. We will cleanse the Earth of its evil.’

Carter felt his strength leave him. He felt his head spinning as he tumbled down a well of confusion and despair.

I have condemned the world.

I have murdered mankind.

Carter did not doubt Durell’s words.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said softly.

‘You will, Carter. You will. Come to me. I will explain everything.’

The signal died, leaving Carter shivering in his seat. Mongrel was staring open-mouthed, and Constanza was scrolling madly through the Warhead scanner. When she looked up, both Carter and Mongrel knew what she was going to say before she spoke the words.

‘Durell is right. He has control of the Warhead.’

‘So we set-up?’ snarled Mongrel.

Constanza nodded. ‘All the time we thought we were going to destroy Durell’s EDEN store. But in fact, all we did was launch the weapon on his behalf. It was his greatest stalling tactic. He kept us busy on the wrong trail. We should have destroyed the Warhead, not armed it... We are truly lost now, Carter, truly beaten,
truly
without hope. How can we possibly fight such an enemy?’

Carter looked up. His eyes were a molten fury.

‘We can fight him with fists, and boots, and guns,’ he snarled. ‘He wants me to go to him? Then I will go to him. He wants me to meet the fucking Nex face to face one last time before the world dies? Then I will fucking meet him—and only God can stand in my way. Mrs Sheep? Land the Comanche. I need to speak to Jam.’

‘Bouvet Island is about ten minutes away. It’s uninhabited, according to my scanners,’ came Mrs Sheep’s deep voice.

‘That’s perfect. Take us there.’

Mongrel placed a huge hand on Carter’s shoulder. His eyes were filled with tears. ‘Carter, do you know what you doing, man? You going into lion’s den. For fuck’s sake, he wants you for reason ... Durell playing own tactical game—one where we always stumble behind, where we always chasing our tails. We should go after Warhead, try and bring it down ourselves. Try and stop it! That only way for us.’

Carter gripped his friend’s powerful arm. ‘That will be your task, mate. You must track down the Warhead and destroy it—before it delivers its payload to the world. And you must coordinate the DemolSquads—get them in to kick the living fuck out of the Dreadnoughts.’

‘Durell drawing you to mad bad confrontation. He know your pride make you deliver yourself to him. Don’t make it so easy, Carter old buddy. Don’t give yourself to him on plate—like lamb just waiting for the old slaughter. You must not do this!’

‘I will do what I have to do,’ said Carter. ‘And I will kill Durell—or die in the process.’

With growling, thumping engines, the two Comanches hummed low over the churning cold waves as night fell and darkness slowly swallowed the world ...

B
ouvet Island in the South Atlantic covered an area of 58.5 square kilometres and was covered almost entirely by glaciers. What little rock showed was a deep corrugated black, volcanic and dead. A cold wind whipped over the ice as the Comanches touched down, landing gear crunching and suspension dipping, hot engines ticking as they cooled and cockpits were opened. The weary Spiral agents climbed out into the freezing bleak wilderness.

‘Nice place,’ observed Mongrel dryly. ‘You
sure
there no natives here with guns, eh?’

‘It’s uninhabited,’ said Jam. ‘Let’s sort this out and get off this godforsaken lump of rock. It’s a place not meant human occupation, that’s for damn sure. So, Durell has control of the Warhead. That is a bitter pill. A savage blow. What are you thinking, Carter?’

‘I am going after Durell—alone. He has issued a challenge. I will accept his invitation.’

‘And the rest of us?’

Carter looked around the small group. ‘You and Mongrel must head out and try to stop the Warhead. Failing that, round up what DemolSquads you can and head for the Dreadnoughts—they’re easy enough targets. If you can put enough of them out of action I am sure that Durell will slow his plans to release the EDEN toxin. After all, he won’t want to kill thousands of his own Nex army.’

‘What about me?’ asked Sonia. She stared at Carter’s battered, bruised visage, lit only by the glow of halogen lamps from the Comanche. He looked like a man you most definitely would not want to cross.

‘I’ve had a thought about that,’ said Carter softly. ‘Jam told me that you spoke of getting on the air one last time—of trying to make the people of the world rise up against the Nex by exposing the truth about this EDEN poison. You and Constanza should attempt an infiltration of HIVE Media. Use the data cube you retrieved from Norway, from the K-Labs: if you can air the test video of the EDEN virus then you may just provoke an uprising, a rebellion. It’s not every day that your loved ones are about to be murdered. That sort of thing gives people a bit of fucking
motivation,
a bit of an incentive, yeah? Do you think you can do this?’

Constanza smiled over at Sonia, then nodded. ‘I think between us we can crack the HIVE systems; we just need to get past their heavy security. Then access their digital systems.’

‘Which is where I come in,’ said Sonia, her heart beating fast. She could play her part; she could put her life on the line for this climactic moment. In a crumbling world, she would be able, truly, to make a difference.

‘We will stop off in South Africa at a couple of SP_Plots, sort out weapons, ammo, supplies and choppers. I’m going to need my own transport for this mission.’ Carter’s brow was farrowed, his mind working at light speed, adrenalin flooding his system.

Mongrel took a deep breath and nodded to himself, as if coming to some mighty decision. ‘Carter, lad. I will come with you.’

‘No. I go alone,’ said Carter. ‘I work better that way.’

Jam took a step forward, his triangular ScorpNex head swaying. ‘Mongrel, you will be better employed gathering DemolSquads together—after all, they are
your
people. They take one look at my ScorpNex shell and their trust is shattered.’ He stared hard at Carter, then.
‘I
will go with Carter.’

‘I don’t need you,’ said Carter.

‘You do. I can get you past the Nex. I can get you past an
army
of Nex. After all, I know how they think; I am one of them. Whereas you ...’ Jam chuckled softly. ‘You are only human.’

‘Maybe I don’t need your help to get past them.’

‘You know in your heart that you do,’ said Jam. ‘And when it comes to the big fight, I have my own fucking scores to settle. With the Nex, with Mace, and with Durell. Look at me, Carter. Look at what they did to me ... I need payback. I need some
insect closure
.’

Carter nodded, stare fixed on the deformity of Jam’s genetically spliced body. ‘OK. We’ll make a dash towards South Africa, pick up a third chopper and go our separate ways. If we all switch to ECube F-channel 55724 then we can keep secure communication. Or as secure as the E Cubes ever can be. Any questions?’

The group all shook their heads. The cold wind blew across the black snow-crusted mountains, howling mournfully.

‘Then let’s do it,’ said Carter, eyes gleaming.

The exchange and pick-up of weapons, supplies and an extra chopper went smoothly, and the autopilot steered the Comanche north through rough storm skies. Jam watched the controls in the darkness with a steady copper gaze as Carter snatched some much-needed sleep ... And as he slept, he dreamed. It was a bad dream. It was a dream about Kade.

Carter stood on a mountain plateau, a flat section carved from the wall of a vast towering black mountain, which in turn reared above a world of dark graphite sand. Dust and jagged black rock squatted like bad memories under his boots, and the sky stretched away to infinity, speckled with trails of purple and yellow.

Kade stood beside a fire which burned within a small ring of rocks. The wind was howling through the mountains, desolate and haunting. Carter stared down at the flames, which flickered between a bright cold orange and a deep and bottomless black.

Kade had stolen Carter’s face, but his body was a touch larger than Carter’s own frame, more bulky, like a reflection in a slightly distorted mirror. The eyes were dark and brooding.

‘I have been here before,’ said Carter slowly.

‘Clever boy.’ Kade smiled.

‘I remember. You said this was your place, your world, your mountain.’

‘That is correct.’ Kade seated himself beside the fire. Now it burned with black flames that glittered like twisting eels in oil. Carter sat down opposite Kade, and looked around in wonder. He breathed cold air, and listened for long moments to the song of the wind channelled through the narrow high passes of the mountains.

‘You seem ...
different
,’ said Kade after a long silence.

‘Yes.’

‘You are not fighting me.’

‘I am tired of fighting,’ said Carter.

‘You are doing the right thing. Going after Durell.’

‘How so?’

‘It is the QIV processor that is controlling the Warhead, just as it controlled the earthquakes all those years ago. It was naive of Spiral to think that in a whole five fucking years Durell had not discovered the one weapon which could truly bring him down. It is the true role of any powerful dictator to seek out that which is his greatest threat—and Durell found it, and used the QIV to kill the sentient chip within. The QIV took over the Warhead and emulated its AI—enough to fool Constanza, anyway.’

‘Constanza, yes. How does she know you?’

‘She has met me.’

‘What?
How so?’

‘I will tell you. After you have killed Durell.’