Extinction Game (44 page)

An hour passed before the door next opened, and two of the men who had brought us to the room entered, one of them pushing a trolley loaded with food. They left the door unlocked behind them as
they handed out paper cups of oily coffee and thin, moist sandwiches that tasted of grease and fat and little else.

Before they departed once more, one of the two men turned to me. ‘We need to talk to you, sir.’ He indicated the door with his head.

I regarded him warily. ‘About what?’

‘Why just him?’ asked Chloe.

‘Relax, lady,’ the man said. ‘We’re not Patriot agents. We just want you to tell us everything that happened, Mr Beche, all in your own words. We’ll be recording
it. That okay by you?’

‘Sure,’ I said, aware that saying “no” almost certainly wasn’t an option. I stood carefully, then looked around at the others. ‘I’ll see you in a
bit.’

‘Famous last words,’ said Selwyn with a faltering smile.

I wondered how Yuichi was doing, wherever he was.

I followed the man out while his companion took charge of the now-empty trolley, locking the door behind us.

‘Is that really necessary?’ I asked.

‘Orders,’ said the first man with a shrug. ‘They see you wandering around, people might ask questions. And we might have difficulty answering them.’

This time I was led upstairs. They took me into a room with a table, two chairs, a microphone and a large mirror on one wall that I assumed was one-way. My predecessor’s pages were sitting
on the table, arranged in a neat pile. According to the calendar on the wall, it was some time in August.

One of my guards closed the door, the other taking one seat before gesturing to me to take the other. ‘Relax, pal,’ he said. ‘My name’s Louie. Just tell me everything
that happened, right from the beginning. Can you do that for me?’

I swallowed away the dryness in my mouth. ‘Sure,’ I said. And then I started talking. But I was careful to omit any mention of Haden, and more than once I reached into my pocket to
confirm that the envelope he had given me was, indeed, still there. Then my fingers touched the memory card from Casey’s camera. I hesitated a moment before lifting it out and handing it over
to them, explaining what it was and how it had come into my hands.

I answered questions for another couple of hours after that. By the time they took me back downstairs and unlocked the door again, most of the others had curled up where they
could to try and get some sleep. Chloe opened her eyes and blinked as they brought me in.

‘What happened?’ she murmured.

‘It’s just like they said,’ I told her. ‘They asked me questions and I told them everything I knew that happened.’

I sank onto the vacant chair beside her, and she laid her head on my lap before closing her eyes again. Within seconds she was asleep. I leaned my own head back and closed my eyes, and it
wasn’t long before I had joined her.

I woke to the sound of the door unlocking. This time it was Mayer, in a fresh suit, and accompanied by Louie and the other guard. The others woke, grumbling and
stretching.

‘Sorry that took so long,’ said Mayer.

‘They kept us locked up like prisoners,’ I said.

‘I’m sorry about that,’ he said. ‘They just weren’t taking any chances.’ He gestured to the empty corridor behind him. ‘I need you all up and ready,
because we’re going for a ride.’

We shuffled after him and the two guards. They led us down an echoing stairwell that terminated in an underground car park. Light from the street above filtered down a steep access ramp. It was
bitingly cold and felt like late December or early January back home. I remembered the date on the calendar and wondered if perhaps it hadn’t been changed in a long while. I also
couldn’t help but notice that the air smelled of burning wood, as if there was a fire nearby.

Apart from two old and dusty-looking limousines that had to be at least thirty years old, the car park was empty. Louie guided us all towards one of the limousines, before pulling open the rear
door and gesturing to us to get in.

I paused by the door, my teeth chattering from the cold, and looked over at Mayer.

‘Go on,’ said Mayer. ‘I’ll be in the other car, right behind you.’

‘What about Yuichi?’ I demanded. ‘Where did they take him?’

‘He’s in there,’ said Mayer. ‘Just get in.’

I dipped my head and peered into the darkened interior of the limousine and saw a grinning Yuichi, his leg wrapped up in heavy bandages, a pair of crutches by his side.

‘Don’t look so surprised,’ he said. ‘Just get the hell in before you let all the warm air out.’

We piled in around him, laughing and chattering and suddenly I felt that everything was going to be all right after all. We got comfortable on two dark leather couches facing each other across
the rear compartment while Louie got in behind the wheel, the back of his head visible through a thick sheet of glass separating him from us. It wasn’t long before we were underway, driving
up the ramp and onto a broad avenue streaked with slushy snow.

The Washington skies were cloudy and dark, with little hint of sunshine. Everything looked grey and miserable. Even so, I marvelled at the sight of a city with people filling its streets; no one
smiled, however, and no one looked remotely happy. It might just have been down to the lousy weather, but I had not failed to notice that the clothes they all wore were dark and threadbare.

‘You notice something?’ Randall muttered. ‘I hardly see any other cars.’

‘Me neither,’ said Chloe, glancing out of the window.

There were indeed few, if any, other motorized vehicles. Most people seemed to travel on foot, although I saw one or two hardy souls pedalling past on rickety bicycles. Most of the shop windows
were as empty as Casey had described them, and I saw little in the way of advertising. At one point we skirted a park denuded of trees, their low, black stumps stretching across the unweeded grass.
I had already noticed the many trails of dark smoke rising from roofs and into the sky, and realized with a shock that people here burned wood for heat.

This, then, was the Authority.

At one point we passed several army trucks parked by the side of the road, along with a couple of limousines that looked more or less identical to our own. Men wearing suits with a similar cut
to those worn by the Patriot agents were kneeling in a row in the slushy snow, their hands on top of their heads, while uniformed soldiers stood watch over them. A body lay sprawled face-up in a
gutter, a dark stain across the white of its shirt.

We drove on out into the suburbs, which were hardly more joyful than the city; eventually we pulled up before a set of broad iron gates that swung open at our approach. Louie guided the
limousine down a long driveway that terminated before a building that might have been a private mansion, or might equally have been an embassy. The second limousine, carrying Mayer, drove on around
the other side of the building and out of sight.

After that, Louie ushered us through a marble-clad entrance flanked by stone angels, then guided us into a room that was clearly someone’s private office. A mahogany desk stood before a
set of French windows, while wood crackled and popped in a fireplace. Louie left us alone, and we stood waiting for a few minutes until a second door opened.

Mort Bramnik stepped through, accompanied by the same man who had argued with Kip Mayer just after we had crossed over to the Authority.

‘Senator,’ said Bramnik, clasping one of the man’s hands in both of his own. ‘Thank you. I’ll take it from here.’

The Senator nodded to us, then left.

‘Now will you
please
tell us what the goddam hell is going on?’ Winifred demanded.

Bramnik took a seat behind the desk and spread his hands on the varnished wood. ‘I’ve been talking with Kip,’ he said. ‘He told me everything you told him, as well as
showing me your predecessor’s written evidence, Mr Beche. It’s quite a story.’

‘Wallace Deans can tell you the rest,’ I said.

‘I’m afraid he died a few hours ago,’ said Bramnik.

I let that sink in. There were so few of us left now.

‘And Howes?’ I asked. ‘Is there any news about him?’

Bramnik nodded. ‘He’s fine. We sent a number of detachments back to the island just after you arrived, in order to place the Patriot agents under arrest. A lot’s been happening
since you came here.’

‘What’s going on with them?’ asked Chloe. ‘The Patriots, I mean. Are you going through some kind of a civil war, or is that just how you people do business?’

Bramnik shook his head. ‘Let’s just say there are elements in our government that believe strongly in one way of thinking, and others that feel strongly in the opposite direction. As
it happens, the group to which I belong managed to win the day. And that’s all that matters.’ He gazed around at us all. ‘It’s been hard work, keeping your presence here a
secret.’

I nodded past him, to the snowy gardens visible through a window behind the desk. ‘It’s the middle of August,’ I said. ‘It’s getting bad, right? How long do you
have, before the extinction event really kicks in?’

‘What are you talking about?’ asked Chloe.

‘When they interviewed me,’ I said, ‘there was a calendar on the wall. It said it was August.’ I turned back to Bramnik. ‘Snow and freezing skies in the middle of
summer? That’s a hell of a pickle you people are in.’

Bramnik leaned back in his chair. ‘You have no idea.’

‘So what’s the reason for bringing us to this place?’ I asked, indicating the office around us.

‘Because you deserve explanations.’ He looked around the others as well. ‘All of you. I’ve barely had time to scan the documents your predecessor left behind, Mr Beche,
but his discoveries and his insights are going to be invaluable to us.’

‘Who is “us”, exactly?’ asked Winifred.

‘I said there are groups struggling for influence within our government, and they have different ideas on how to handle our . . . current difficulties.’

‘What’s your approach?’ I asked.

‘I, and others like me,’ said Bramnik, ‘believe that working openly towards a common goal is the only way to ensure our survival, as a species as much as a civilization. The
Patriots had different ideas. For a long time now, Greenbrooke and his agency were in the ascendant here. They had growing influence over policy, and they wanted nothing more than to . . .
neutralize our mutual enemies. Myself and the Senator feel our best chance at long-term survival is by working with them.’

‘You’re talking about the Russians,’ I said.

‘We’ve got an ice age coming,’ said Bramnik. ‘The global temperature’s dipped too low, for too long. We have maybe ten years to figure something out, and
we’re not ruling out some kind of a mass evacuation, if we can ever get enough transfer stages running – and find somewhere safe enough to point them at. We thought the alternate
you’ve all been living on might be such a place, but when we investigated the mainland . . . well, let’s just say there’s a reason we stick to that island. But wherever we end up
going, assuming we can find such a place, and assuming evacuating the entire population of an alternate is even remotely feasible, we won’t be able to do it without the help of the
Soviets.’

‘You need somewhere with an intact infrastructure,’ I suggested. ‘Somewhere that’s lost its population, but is safe to repopulate.’

‘That’s just one possible option among a thousand,’ said Bramnik, ‘I’m not even joking when I say I’d be hanged if they knew how much I’ve told you. As
far as you or anyone else is concerned, you were never here.’

‘I want to thank you,’ I said, ‘for telling us the truth.’

‘No,’ said Bramnik, ‘thank
you
. I saw the video you handed over, of Casey’s confession. We know now exactly what he was planning. Without your help, things would
clearly have been infinitely worse for all of us.’

‘So what next?’ demanded Randall. ‘We just keep doing what we’ve always done?’

‘Why not?’ asked Bramnik. ‘The deal you’ve got is a hell of a lot better than any of the people you saw on the drive over here have. And, compared to most other places on
this alternate, they’re the lucky ones. Look – things will be different, Mr Pimms, I guarantee you. Better equipment, better backup, much more transparency and no more weapons
retrieval. But we still need data, or anything, really, that can help us figure out how to program safe destinations into the transfer stages. Maybe then you’ll be able to retire, and
we’ll be able to find some place safe for our people – but in the meantime, I’d count your blessings.’

The door opened and the guard named Louie entered. It was time for us to leave.

I was glad, to be honest. I’d been delaying telling the others about Haden for much too long.

We were driven back across town to the underground garage, from where Louie ushered us back upstairs to the transfer stage. I had the feeling it wasn’t the main stage,
though. It was hidden away in a building that was clearly decrepit and, so far as I could tell, deserted. I felt sure there would be others, perhaps tucked away in military bases.

We watched the ballroom fade from view and found ourselves back in the main hangar by the base.

For the first time, there was no rig technician on duty to greet us. Instead, there were unfamiliar men in military uniforms, all of them armed, although from the way they acted, it was clear
they had been expecting us.

We looked around at each other, then made our way unchallenged out into the morning of a new day. We didn’t have to look too hard to find evidence of fighting: there were bloodstains on
the concrete just outside the hangar entrance and bullet holes in the doors.

I motioned to the others to gather around me once we were far away enough from the hangar we wouldn’t be overheard, and pulled the envelope out of my pocket.

‘What is that?’ asked Chloe.

‘Haden gave this to me,’ I said, and for the first time told them about my encounter with him outside Retièn.

‘That’s impossible,’ said Randall, some minutes later. He looked shaken; they all did.