Alien Storm (32 page)

“Let go of the rock, Bright!” he cried out. “I'm ending this right now! I'll press the trigger!”

Bright pointed his hand at Alex and blue electricity shot from his fingers, blasting the boy back against the wall. With a cry of pain, Alex landed on the floor, smoke rising from his body where the electricity had touched. Bright hit him again, sending more electricity surging through his body for several seconds. The bomb trigger flew from his hand and rolled across the floor towards Sarah's feet…

Still in a trance, she reached down and picked it up. She turned it over in her hands as if trying to remember what it was. Finally, she placed her thumb over the red button.

“Sarah, no!”
the Entity screamed from Major Bright's mouth. “
You will not do it. You will—”

Her eyes became focused again. She looked at Bright and the meteorite fragment under his hand.

“Don't ever tell me what to do,” Sarah said. “Either of you.”

She pressed the trigger.

The C4 pack strapped to the back of the meteorite was small, but as it exploded it had the effect of breaking the fragment into a thousand pieces that flew outwards in every direction. Sarah was thrown backwards by the force of the blast, shielding her face as razor-sharp shards of rock flew all around. The noise was deafening, followed by a cacophony of shattering glass and plastic caused by rock shrapnel embedding itself in the computer screens that covered the walls.

As the noise subsided, Sarah lowered her hands from her face. Her forearms were criss-crossed with tiny shrapnel cuts, but nothing serious. The floor was littered with pieces of meteorite, ranging from the size of her finger to a quarter metre in length. The beam in the centre of the room had extinguished and where the meteorite fragment once hung in suspension, there was now only empty space. There was no sign of Major Bright either. Carefully getting to her feet, Sarah took a few steps towards the centre of the room. Then she saw the major…

…sitting with his back propped against the far end of the chamber where he'd been thrown by the explosion. The position in which he'd landed was oddly casual, as if he'd merely sat down for a rest. Major Bright's eyes shattered the illusion, however – they were blank and staring, locked on the floor between his splayed legs. A slender meteorite shard almost as long as Sarah's forearm was embedded in the major's chest – straight through the ribcage and into his black heart. Blood pooled across the floor from his corpse.

Sarah looked away from the horrific scene and took a deep breath. She quickly put aside her shock, however, as a vibration went through the entire building. Moving over to where Alex was lying, she checked his body to make sure that none of the flying shards had seriously injured him and then eased him into a sitting position.

“Bright?” he asked weakly as his eyes flickered open. “The Entity?”

“Both taken care of,” Sarah replied. “With one bomb. Your bomb.”

“Does this mean you trust me now?”

“I'm thinking about it,” she said wryly. The Spire shook again. She looped her arm under Alex's and helped him to his feet. “We need to get out of here. This entire building is going to collapse.”

They moved to the main computer terminal, which had suffered the worst of the explosion – the screens were completely shattered and smoke was rising all around. As they stood before it, the computer began its final message.

“Complete…structural…collapse…in…four…minutes…”

“Do you think it's finished uploading the virus data?” Alex asked, still leaning against Sarah for support.

“I don't know,” she replied. “Let's get to the jet. We'll do it the quick way.”

Robert!
she called out with her mind.
We need a teleport!

There was no response.

Robert!

Again nothing. Sarah exchanged a worried look with Alex. “Something's blocking my communication with him.”

Alex felt it too. The building vibrated again and they started to the jet the long way – down the steps from the meteorite chamber and across the room with the sleeper modules, all of which were now empty. The jet was three floors above – Sarah estimated they could make it if they were fast, but Alex was still weak from the battering he'd taken. The lift was just ahead of them…

The doors slid open and a massive figure stepped out. It was broken and bloodied, but still alive and looking at them with pure malice in its thoroughly insane eyes.

Nikolai Makarov.

“Going somewhere?” he hissed.

38

Sarah and Alex backed away as Makarov advanced towards them.

“It will take more than a dive off a building to kill me,” he said.

Sarah shook her head in disbelief. “How could you…”

Makarov held up his hands – the formerly long nails on his fingers were ripped to the bone. “I've got a good grip,” he said. His shattered, twisted body shuffled along, completely transformed from the man Sarah had met just a few days before. Here was the price of greed and uncontrolled ambition. The price of allegiance with the Entity. Makarov must have read her expression, because he stopped in his tracks.

“You dare to pity me!” he said. “The greatest power in the universe flows through my veins!”

Sarah drew herself up and faced her attacker. “You know, Makarov, I've met your Entity and I've worked something out. You think it's a great power, Bright thinks it's a god, but I know what it really is. It's a parasite. A parasite that spreads across the universe infecting every life form that it comes across.”

A ghastly grin spread across Makarov's maw, revealing jagged, broken teeth. “You can't fight the inevitable. You'll join us or die.”

Now it was Sarah's turn to smile. “Oh, didn't you realize? We destroyed the meteor storm. And I just blew up your meteorite fragment. So no more link to the Entity for you.”

Makarov's eyes flickered as he processed the information, then they widened with anger. He threw himself at her and Alex, teeth gnashing in a blind fury. They dodged to one side and he smashed into a sleeper casket. Makarov spun, blood pouring from his forehead. Sarah cursed inwardly: every second they were delayed brought them closer to the destruction of the building. They had to get moving.

With a howl, Makarov grabbed one of the overturned caskets and heaved it in her and Alex's direction. They avoided the missile by ducking to the floor. The casket smashed against the wall, showering them with plastic and components. Sarah grabbed Alex's arm and pulled him back.

The voice of the computer rang out through the chamber: “Warning, complete…structural…collapse…in…three…minutes…”

“We don't have time for this,” Alex said as Makarov circled for another attack.

Sarah felt suddenly more exhausted than she ever had in her life: the meteor storm, the Entity, Bright, and now Makarov to fight once more. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for one final battle.

“Let's all go to hell together,” the Russian hissed, sensing her prepare.

Sarah backed away with Alex, but stopped as she sensed someone appear behind her. Looking round, she saw her brother.

“Need a lift?”

Robert threw his arms around her and Alex. The corridor faded away…

…and they teleported into the windswept chamber containing the stealth jet. The engines were powered up and humming, but the wreckage of the light aircraft they'd flown into the Spire was still lying in a crumpled mess in the centre of the runway.

Sarah grasped her brother's hand. “Well done!”

“I had a funny feeling you needed help,” he said.

“Just over two minutes until the building comes down,” Alex reminded them, checking his watch. They stumbled towards the waiting jet.

Nestor appeared from the back. “Commander Craig is out for the count,” he said urgently. “He collapsed while he was trying to prep the jet. He isn't going to be able to pilot.”

“Don't worry about it,” Sarah said. Leaving Nestor and Robert to help Alex on board, she ran up the steps at the back of the jet. “Octavio, Louise – get out there and clear that mess off the runway.”

As they ran past, she moved over to where Wei was crouched over the unconscious body of Commander Craig.

“There's no way he can fly us out of here,” Wei said.

”He doesn't have to,” Sarah replied, kneeling down and placing her palm on Craig's cheek. In that instant she was connected with the commander's unconscious mind – a myriad of unconnected thoughts and images. Wei watched with fascination as she took a breath and removed her hand.

“What did you do?” he asked.

She gave him a wink. “I just took a flying lesson.”

With that, she ran through to the cockpit and took the pilot's seat. The jet was powered up and ready to go. As she looked over the array of readouts and switches they all made perfect sense – courtesy of the knowledge she'd harvested from Commander Craig's mind. Nestor appeared in the doorway.

“Take the co-pilot's seat,” Sarah ordered. “I might need you to help out.”

“You can fly a plane now?”

“Benefits of my enhanced powers,” she explained. “Looks like we've got something to thank the Entity for.”

Through the front window of the plane, she watched as Louise and Octavio raised their hands at the wreck of the other plane and pushed it off the side of the building.
Good work, you two
, she sent to them.
Now get in the jet. We're out of here
.

As they ran across the runway, she fired the boosters and grabbed the joystick. In the back of the plane, she heard the door slam shut as Octavio and Louise got on board. The runway stretched ahead.

“I hope you know what you're doing,” Nestor said from the co-pilot's seat.

“So do I. Otherwise, this is going to be a really short flight.”

Sarah pressed forward on the stick and the jet started to roll forwards. Then, without warning, it skidded to a halt. She looked round the controls wildly, trying to work out what she had missed.

“Makarov!” Nestor cried, pointing forward.

Sarah looked up and saw the Russian standing before the runway. His arms were outstretched as he held the jet in a telekinetic field. His final grasp at control. Their eyes met.

Let us go, Makarov
, Sarah told him.
It's over
.

His answer spat hatred.
Never
.

From the depths of the building there was a tremor that signalled the terminal stages of the Spire's collapse. The tremor continued to grow in strength as the building began to implode. Through the window of the plane, Sarah saw realization dawn upon Makarov that his Spire was about to destroy itself. His eyes widened in desperation. She pushed the engine throttle to full and the jet broke free of Makarov's control, hurtling towards the open wall of the chamber so fast that he was unable to avoid it. Sarah fancied she heard his scream as the undercarriage of the jet ran over him, but knew that had to be her imagination, the sound of the engines was so loud. Then the jet hit the narrow runway, carrying on inexorably towards the point of no return – open air just fifty metres ahead – even as the Spire began to list to one side.

The jet made the end of the runway and seemed to drop, but Sarah pulled back on the joystick with all her might. Beside her Nestor gave a cry as the nose of the plane pushed upwards. The jet angled round as it climbed. Sarah took a second to glance out of the side window and grinned with satisfaction at what she saw.

The Spire was falling.

Yuri led the group of dazed men, women and children across the snow plain as a great rumble split the air. A few of the miners stopped to look back, but he waved them on frantically.

“Keep moving, you fools!” he cried, pushing one of the men on. However, he couldn't help but look back himself…

The lowest levels of the Spire seemed as if they were literally being swallowed up by the ice, sending up a great cloud of dust as the soil beneath the permafrost was disturbed. He cast his gaze up the length of the building as every piece of glass shattered simultaneously, filling the air with millions of shards that glittered in the morning sun.

As he watched, fascinated by the terrible destruction, Yuri saw a dark, bat-like object fall from the centre of the building. He followed its path down to earth, vaguely realizing that he was watching the demise of Nikolai Makarov. What remained of the man hit the crumpling lower levels of the building and was swallowed up in the deluge of glass and steel.

Finally, a mighty whine filled the air, a sound of metal shearing against metal. The central structure of the Spire broke in several places like a fractured bone and the tower toppled towards the north. It hit the ice with a ground-shaking boom. A cloud of snow and dust was thrown hundreds of metres into the air, momentarily obscuring the crash site.

As the Spire came to rest, Yuri looked round at the group of miners and their families and laughed.

“It's over.”

Someone cried out, pointing out towards the ice as a dark figure very much like a robowolf came barrelling towards them. But Yuri held up his hands to show it was okay…

Laika bounded up, almost knocking him off his feet.

“Okay, okay!” he laughed, patting her head. “I'm glad to see you too!”

Laika looked round the group, searching for Sarah and Alex, but Yuri shook his head. He pointed to the white exhaust trail cast across the blue sky by the stealth jet as it climbed.

“It's okay, girl,” he said. “They made it.”

39

Commander Craig's eyes flickered open and he looked around the cabin. He saw Robert crouching beside him and frowned. “Who's flying this plane?” he asked, trying to sit up.

“Don't strain yourself,” Octavio replied. “Sarah has the stick.”

“What the—” Craig began, but gasped with pain as he tried to move.