The Stone Man - A Science Fiction Thriller (38 page)

He stood glaring at us, jaw set, and we felt suitably chastised. I nodded sheepishly, not happy at being spoken to like that but shamed because he was right. Lives were at risk. We didn’t have all the information, and we weren’t helping. The time to challenge David was when we were presented with the whole situation, not when we knew only half of it. We should have gotten in the air first, then asked en route. I tried to ignore the more important fact highlighted by his response—that people would definitely die—by reminding myself that we would help more people live by finding the targets. It didn’t really work.

The door opened behind us and Straub appeared, looking shocked that we were all still stood there. David saw her, shook his head at us and began walking again. We fell into step, and shortly after that the four of us were airborne, again with two soldiers as escorts.

Paul and I were silent during the flight, which took around an hour and half by my reckoning. David and Straub were in constant radio contact with various people, liaising with different aspects of the police and military as they scrambled to prep for the whole length of the two trajectories, the ones of which we knew the end points. We could only hope that the third Stone Man, the one also heading northwest, wasn’t going much further than Birmingham; its trajectory was, for the first part at least, the same as the other Blue. Paul and I stared out of the window, watching the UK pass below us like a toy landscape as the pull in our bodies slowly grew. Paul’s nose had begun to bleed again, although he had waved off Straub’s concern over it, and had been wiping it with the hem of his T-shirt ever since. I can’t speak for Paul, but as I endured the physical assault, I tried not to think about what we were doing, as the creeping, nagging thoughts questioning the morals of what we were doing began to work their way into my consciousness. Yes, we were potential lifesavers, heroes if not heroic in our demeanour; but mainly we were the point men for an assassination mission, and the targets were not terrorists or guerrilla revolutionaries, but ordinary people. If Patrick was anything to go by, they already knew that their death was coming, sensing several days in advance that something had been sent to claim them, and we were as much a part of that now as the Stone Men themselves. Hell, we wanted to help them do it quicker. They’d been sent to do a murderous job by someone, and so had we. Telling ourselves that we were doing it for the safety of others didn’t help, and knowing that my role in all of this made me feel important as well as guilty sickened me to my stomach. I couldn’t help it though. You have to understand.

Once we were nearing Edinburgh’s airspace, David finally addressed us; by this point, the shakes, racing heartbeat and light-headedness were back, nearly at the level they’d been at on the way to Patrick’s.

“We’re nearly there,” he said. “You two need to start doing your thing, and directing the pilot. He can hear you through your headset mic. Once we’re over the right street, he’ll land us as near as possible. Our pickup is on standby.”

We nodded—the pull was so strong that we already knew it wouldn’t be a problem—but I thought it was too soon.

“We should hold on until we’re right over Edinburgh,” I said shaking my head. “We’ve been cut off by one of them, and I think it’s because they knew someone actively tuned into them last time. I think we should spend as little time tuned into them as possible. Let’s wait until we’re right over Edinburgh.” David held my gaze for a few moments before shrugging sulkily and turning away. Obviously, he didn’t want to admit it, but he knew I was right. Finally, a point for me over David.

Once we were closer, I took the lead in directing the pilot, letting Paul keep his eyes shut and try to ride it out as best he could. He took this role gratefully, and I felt he’d earned it; hadn’t I been the one swanning back and forth between Britain and America, having the hedonistic time of my life, whilst he’d been at home with nightmares and a wife who was running out of patience? It got harder and harder to speak as we drew nearer, but I gritted my teeth and got on with it, giving directions with a weak, shaking voice. I kept releasing my grip on the signal intermittently, hoping it would make me harder to spot. Either way, we remained connected, whether it was due to my approach or not. I was not cut off at any point, and we steadily homed in on the target. One thing that did concern me slightly was the fact that I hadn’t flashed into the eyes of any of the Stone Men yet. Not that I wanted to, of course, and it might have been mainly to do with the fact that the original had been walking, and for a long time, before I first found myself seeing out of its head ... but I still found myself thinking, again, that they didn’t like us snooping, and had taken more precautions this time.

By sheer, dumb luck, once I’d identified the street—which would later be revealed to be Lismore Avenue—there was a bowling club two streets over. Although the green would be ruined, and the current game abandoned once a military helicopter plonked itself down in the middle of it, the players would have something to talk about for years to come. It seemed that not even the televised Second Arrival could prevent the people of the Postal Bowling Club from playing on match day. Clearly the evacuation either hadn’t begun yet, or hadn’t reached these streets.

Straub called off the pickup as we were so close, and instructed the waiting unit to rendezvous with us on Lismore Avenue, but then took another look at myself and Paul and thought better of it. Even though it would have been about a thirty second walk, she clearly either didn’t trust us to make it in our current state, or thought it would take too long.

Once the pickup team had cleared the bowlers from the green, the chopper set down and we disembarked, with Paul and I having to be helped to step down from the chopper. We were bundled into a waiting jeep, bodies shaking and teeth wanting to burst, and after the seconds-long drive we were slowly cruising along Lismore Avenue. Parked up ahead was a military APC, which we knew contained an armed unit. There was one lone soldier stood outside it to dissuade onlookers, but already we could see faces staring out from the windows that we passed. Just like before, all the military vehicles looked immensely out of place in such a suburban setting. 

“Just tell us when we’re outside,” said Straub, gently but firmly. “Tell us which one.”

On cue, we both raised our hands once the Jeep drew alongside the correct building, but it wouldn’t have been necessary; it was the only house with the curtains fully drawn. Like Patrick, they clearly knew their number was up. It made the place seem creepy, foreboding. Suddenly it became the locked down house of the crazy old inventor, or of the family that no one ever sees come and go, whilst the strange thudding and chopping sounds come from inside.

Either way, inside that house was the man or woman we had been sent to try and take to their murderer. Even in my current state, I felt cold and sick. This was awful. Truly awful.

“Can you see where he is? Like before? Can you see where in the building he is?” asked David rapidly—he knew all the details of our previous excursion—and we stared through our tired, wincing eyes at the front of the house.

Like before, the pull had become so strong that we had that strange effect of half-seeing, half-feeling the figure inside. This time they were easier to spot. This time they weren’t lying on the floor.

“He’s … sitting, right?” said Paul, looking at me.

“Uh huh,” I agreed, trying to make out more of the image. “Looks like he’s on a chair. He’s sitting very still.”

“He? A man again?” asked Straub, pulling out her walkie.

“No … no, I don’t know,” I babbled, frustrated with both the effort and the question. “I mean
they
are sitting then, whatever sex they are. If it’s a woman though, she’s a stocky one.” Meanwhile, the other soldiers got busy ‘evacuating’ the neighbours (read: removing witnesses) and loading them onto a newly arrived truck. They were each brought out over the next few minutes, featuring the expected complainers and shouters, but they were moved without real incident and extremely quickly at that. Straub and David were silent whilst this went on, apart from the odd ‘hold position’ reminder over the radios to the other waiting men, who were now in a line along the terraced row of houses. I sat quietly and tried to ride it all out, to shut it all off as much as possible whilst my body rebelled against me. I thought Paul might have been trying to get my attention, but I was having none of it.

“Okay,” she said, and began to raise her walkie to her mouth.

“Wait,” said Paul, suddenly lunging forward. “I can feel something—”

“You’re done here, Winter,” said David, already stepping out of the jeep and heading to the APC, from which several soldiers were already emerging and beginning to converge neatly by the house door. It looked like David didn’t take any chances on the front lines. He addressed the soldier driving the jeep; whatever David’s job title, it clearly held some rank. “Take these two up the street, around the block, wherever, and keep an eye on them until further notice.”

“Hold on,” said Straub, still seated and talking to both the soldier and David. “I have the authority on this operation.” Silently, I rejoiced, loving the one-up on David even in my fragile state. She turned to Paul, but her face was, as usual, all business. She was, I noted again, a thorough professional. “What is it, Mr Winter? Be
extremely
quick.” I saw David bristle, then watched as he turned to the ranking soldier stood nearby and started to bark questions.

“
We
have to go in,” said Paul to Straub, meaning the two of us. He slurred his words slightly as he spoke, his mouth slower to react than he wanted it to be. “We have to make contact. There’s something … Andy, can’t you feel it?” He didn’t make eye contact with me, and I knew why; I had absolutely no idea what the fuck he was talking about. So far, this situation was exactly the same as before in terms of the pull and the abuse my body was enduring. What the hell was Paul playing at?

“Don’t try me, Mr Winter,” said Straub, terse and stern. She was clearly about to end this interaction, and we’d been extremely lucky to get this much time. “If you’re trying something on, you really will regret it, I promise.”

“They’ve bloody changed something, I’m telling you
they’ve changed something
,” said Paul, his voice rising to a shout as he suddenly leant out of the jeep and shouted at the advancing soldiers. “
Stop those men!
” he screamed. “
If they go inside, they’ll kill the target!
”

“
Halt!
” shouted Straub, and the advancing men did exactly as they were told, but she grabbed Paul’s T-shirt and yanked him back into the jeep, a movement that he either allowed or couldn’t resist in his weakened state. With both of them sitting, he looked like a giant compared to her, but it didn’t matter; her blazing eyes made me cower, and I wasn’t even the guy they were being trained on. Straub, finally, had nearly lost it, and I should have known what it would take to cause this; somebody interfering with her professionalism, and at a moment when it really counted.

“You fuck with my operation one more time, Winter, and I will have you beaten to within an inch of your life!” she growled, her face inches from his. “No one will know about it, I guarantee it, and that will just be the start of how badly I will ruin your life, as promised, up to and including incarceration in the worst human-rights-free hellhole of a prison I can find on this planet, so tell me right know
what the fuck you’re playing at.
”

Paul didn’t bat an eyelid at any of this, though. He’d grabbed my hand, hard, and was now too busy frantically pointing at the house and shouting. I’d never seen him like this. He was so frantic that he was almost whining.

“I knew it! I couldn’t see it for certain until I grabbed your hand for the connection, Andy, but they’ve changed something! They’ve changed the perimeter, they’ve changed it! We were wrong,
the perimeter is already there and it’s different!
Andy, can’t you feel it? Feel
around
the house, stop trying to feel
inside
it! They’ve changed it just like they’ve cut us off from the other Blue!” He looked at Straub, his eyes wide and pleading as his trembling free hand balled into a fist. “They don’t want us interfering, I don’t know why but they don’t! Those men cross the perimeter,
the target dies too early
, I’m telling you! Andy, tell her!”

I looked at Straub, her anger already fading, hesitation growing. This was new, it was unexpected, and at the same time it was dawning on me it was also dawning on her; the military had banked on everything being the same as last time, and it suddenly wasn’t. From the very start, this was different. New Stone Men … they should have expected more new additions to the situation. And here was one of them.