Warhead (49 page)

The surface of the Dreadnought was perfectly flat under Durell’s boots and veined with tiny minute tracings of silver almost invisible to the human—or Nex—eye. Durell strode purposefully forward, towards the far edge of the construct block, and halted a few feet from the two-kilometre drop. Below him, the northern plateau of Ethiopia spread out, a vast and breathtaking landscape. Jagged mountains faded into distant haze, their dark volcanic rock like teeth raised from the core of the world. Valleys spread away from Durell and he breathed deeply, surveying this scenery from his seat, from this throne of the gods.

How fitting, he thought. Ethiopia—the starting point of mankind’s evolution. And soon to be the starting point of Nex evolution. How perfect. How
neat.

Durell turned and moved towards the ramps which led down past various airlocks and into the Dreadnought itself. Around him lay a scatter of narrow towers trailing off into the distance, and many sections of the Dreadnought’s roof stepped down into squares with huge controlling banks. Other parts of the Dreadnought’s vast surface contained cones dipping below the surface with Gravity Displacers set at their bases. Durell moved to one of these and peered down into what looked like nothing more than a tiny dark hole at the central footing of a steep inverted conical slope. He shivered involuntarily. The GD looked like a tiny black mouth.

As Durell moved back towards the ramps, another helicopter dropped from the skies and touched down. Its engines were killed, clicking softly as the rotors slowly
whumped
to a halt. Alexis stepped out, her gaze fixing instantly on Durell as she moved towards him with precise steps and a gentle sway of her hips that was not lost on Durell.

‘Carter has found Constanza, in Tibet. Squads are attempting to neutralise the problem. And a report has just come in across the EC network—one of the K-Labs in Norway has been infiltrated, although we suspect all the terrorists were slaughtered by Sleeper Nex there. I do not see how they could have escaped. We do not have names, as yet.’

‘The K-Labs,’ said Durell, his head tilting thoughtfully. ‘That is—interesting. What news on the rest of Spiral—and their ragtag upstart companions, the REBS?’ ‘There’s a lot of activity.’

‘I would expect nothing less.’

‘We have discovered the core of Spiral regrouped in Scotland, but by the time our scouts arrived they had already fled. We suspect they are being organised into tactical units, probably with the aim of attacking either the Dreadnoughts still located above the Earth, or maybe even the EDEN depots—if they can retrieve coordinates,’

‘That would explain the K-Lab infiltration.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Durell smiled then, his hand moving out to stroke Alexis’s cheek. ‘Don’t call me sir. You make me feel
lessened.
Will you walk with me, down to my quarters? I feel a ... need.’

‘Of course. But what of Carter? Do you not wish me to scan the reports—to discover the outcome?’

‘In time,’ said Durell smoothly. ‘They all move like flies to the centre of my web. There are no surprises any more, my dear—no surprises. Let them find the Evolution Class Warhead. Let them bring it to me. And we will see what fight is left in Spiral ... see what fight is left in
Carter.’
He smiled then, a dark, dark smile, his copper eyes glittering.

Alexis watched him, awed.

‘Soon it will all be over,’ said Durell, and disappeared below the deck of the Dreadnought. Alexis paused for a moment, turning to look off across the vast and breathtaking Ethiopian plateau. Then she took a deep breath of the fresh, pure air, and followed Durell without a sound.

The TV-ProjU sparkled into life with a digital buzz of humming phosphorescence. Images spun and leapt, dissolving and then reanimating into the mercury logo of HIVE Media Productions ...

Audio/Vid mix:
a mellow croon of comforting music.—a subtle mix
of violins and harp, soothing and pulsing, floating towards the audience on a wave of beauty—and invoking images of nostalgia and a deep-rooted hope.

—
It is nearly time.

—
It is nearly here ...

—
EDEN will answer ALL of your prayers ...

Scene [slow pan R > L]:
a rolling plateau of rich dense vegetation.
A mid-sized family saloon parked on a slope, a fluffy blanket laid out on the grass. A woman, dressed in a smart business suit, face professional and yet beautiful in a businesslike way: she is laying cutlery out neatly, as close by Daddy plays football with little Billy and two little girls paddle in a nearby stream, tiny nets in their eager grasping hands as they giggle uncontrollably, plunging the nets into the water, chasing a shoal of glittering fish.

—
Remember a time when everybody was free?

—Remember a time before HATE?

—Well, EDEN is finally complete
—
this wonderful antidote to HATE has been fully tested and will kill all and any remains of
the
harmful HATEful bacteria which still linger after our terrible global military accident...

Scene zooms in (x3):
little girls giggling in the stream as they catch a tiny fish in one of the nets. The fish wriggles, gasping for air, but it cannot break free of the mesh confines despite its spirited struggling. The girls giggle and giggle. Their eyes are wide and bright and healthy. The fish puffs and pants, gills working hard to prevent asphyxiation ...

—
Tomorrow, when the unmanned aircraft fly low overhead, don’t be frightened. Don’t run away and hide. Step out into the bright new world and breathe deeply as EDEN is pumped into every corner of the globe ...

—EDEN will bring us freedom!

—
EDEN will bring us life! And everybody deserves
that
luxury.

Screen zooms in past the giggling girls; focuses on the rhythmic working of the fish mouth—open, close, open, close, open, close…

TEXT [scrolling L > R/silver lettering FONT LUCIDA SANS]:
DON’T BE A LITTLE FISH. DON’T GET CAUGHT IN THE NET. EMBRACE EDEN. WE ALL DESERVE A BETTER FUTURE—WE ALL DESERVE TO BREATHE THE FRESH MORNING AIR—WE ALL DESERVE A RETURN TO LIBERTY.

SCENE DISSOLVES TO RED

A
s the Nex squads hit the ground inside the ruins of Spiral_R, fast-ropes flapping and snapping around their lithe black-clad figures, Carter’s Browning HiPower began to buck in his outstretched fist, fire spitting from the muzzle. His dark eyes focused with a grim finality on te relentless enemy he had fought for what felt like an eternity.

Bullets slammed into the heads of three Nex, flipping their bodies backwards in mushrooms of exploding blood-mist. Mongrel, sprinting up beside Carter, slid to a halt and opened fire. Constanza too had stopped, falling to one knee as she tracked the abseiling bodies. Her shots riddled the fast-dropping Nex to make them twitch in spasms of pain before plummeting from their helicopter umbilicals to lie crumpled on the hard ground.

‘This way,’ snarled Constanza.

‘She an incredible shot!’ said Mongrel, showing a professional appreciation.

Carter said nothing, sliding a fresh mag into his Browning as the small black attack helicopters banked and started firing. Mini-gun rounds struck the remains of the Spiral base and spat up clouds of powdered stone.

Carter and the others ran and took shelter behind a pile of rocks. They could hear the whirr and whine as the lead chopper dipped low, runners almost touching the marble, and eased forward towards their hiding place, rotors thumping.

Carter pulled a HPG from his pack and tugged free the pin. Mongrel stared at him dumbly. His colleague was standing there calmly with a primed grenade in his fist.

‘W—’ said Mongrel as Carter, moving in a blur, leapt out in front of the small black helicopter and hurled the grenade. Within a second he was back, lying prone and with his hands and arms covering his head. An explosion erupted, melting alloy, consuming the Nex pilot and sending a wave of fire rushing past the rock piles mere inches to Carter’s left. The heat scorched the hairs on the left side of his head, and singed his left eyebrow.

There were screams of stressed metal as two of the helicopter’s rotors detached. One came crashing into the heap of stones bending with terrible pain-filled squeals and slamming along in huge whirring powdered grooves, to clatter on the floor by Carter’s boot where it skidded along away from him. The other was thrown like a spear to pierce the cockpit of another helicopter, decapitating its two Nex occupants in diagonal spinning razor slices, sending the machine veering wildly out of control until it crashed into a third. Both choppers, locked together, plunged to the ground. Fuel ignited. A mushroom of flame boiled skywards and black smoke rolled out and up, filling the central courtyard of what had once been Spiral_R with a suffocating cloud laced with threads of fire.

The smoke made Carter, Mongrel and Constanza choke, and Constanza led them coughing down a stone-paved corridor and into the remains of the main Spiral_R building through shattered glass doors, one of which hung on broken steel hinges.

They halted for a moment, panting and wiping streams of tears from their blackened faces. Mongrel slapped Carter on the shoulder. ‘Neat, buddy,’ he gasped.

‘What?’

Mongrel grinned, rubbing at his red-rimmed streaming eyes. ‘Three choppers with one grenade! That good use of resources. Simmo would have been proud of you, Carter boy.’

‘Proud of me?’

Bullets flew from the smoke, smashing into alloy pillars and the shattered remains of the glass doors. Without a word, Constanza broke into a run. Carter and Mongrel followed close, leaping a low desk, racing past the huge oval of granite bearing bright steel letters proclaiming SPIRAL R—TECH DIVISION, and then disappearing into a matrix of corridors that spread out from the reception area and tunnelled into the mountains.

Within moments, they were deep within the sprawl of the complex that was dimly lit by solar-powered emergency lighting, much of which was flickering and faulty after long tech-free years of neglect.

Constanza suddenly stopped and turned to face Carter and Mongrel. ‘There’s something else,’ she said.

‘Something
bad
else?’ snapped Mongrel.

‘Not all of the diseased people from my army were actually
in
my army.’

‘What you mean, woman?’

‘Occasionally, some of the diseased bastards went on pilgrimages, holy searches for enlightenment—call it whatever you want. They would head off into the mountains and they never returned.’

‘Let me guess,’ snarled Carter. ‘Some of them ended up in here, right?’

‘It was never confirmed,’ said Constanza softly, brushing her long dark hair from her face. She shrugged. ‘Just thought I’d warn you. We’ve got a long way to go in here—and I need you alive as much as you need me.’

Once more they set off at a run as Mongrel muttered, ‘Fucking great. Nex battalion behind, and a lot of loony cannibals ahead. Can it get any worse?’

‘Mongrel,’ panted Carter, ‘shut the fuck up.’

Spiral_R had seen much small-arms fighting. As the two Spiral men followed their guide, they couldn’t help but notice the heavy scars that the place carried on its infrastructure. Bullet holes riddled walls and doors; huge scorch marks from grenade blasts lay across tiles, panels and Titanium-III wall sections.

They arrived at a mammoth site of HighJ detonation where the corridor suddenly effectively ended, a severed artery, with only ragged girders protruding out over a deep black chasm. A cold breeze drifted up from this giant gash. Across from the group, a distance of perhaps thirty metres, they could see the corridor begin once again. Carter and Mongrel exchanged worried glances as they looked at the damaged beams they would have to cross.

‘Come on.’ Constanza drew her pack straps tight, shouldered her Agram K50 sub-machine gun, and leapt onto the nearest length of blackened metal which measured only a few inches across. Her arms came out to either side, to help her balance, then she began to walk slowly, placing one boot carefully in front of the other, head lifted and gaze fixed on the opposite edge of the blast-severed corridor.

Carter watched, heart in his mouth, as halfway across Constanza had to turn to her right, moving carefully, and step between two broken beams. As her boot touched down, there was a creaking sound and the girder seemed to move slightly. Distantly, there came a sound of stones loosening and then falling into a void.

Mongrel took a step back. ‘I not do that, Carter.’

‘Yes, you can.’

‘I fucking tell you, Carter, Mongrel not able to do that.’

‘Well, what are you going to do? Head back on your own?’

‘That very good idea. In fact, that
superb
idea! Mongrel go back, you get Manta, come pick me up at the Spiral_R entrance in ten minutes, eh?’ He grinned but a deep fear lurked in his dark eyes as his hands fumbled with the straps of his pack.

Constanza reached the other side of the chasm. She turned, staring at the two men. ‘I suggest you don’t spend to long contemplating the drop,’ she said. ‘Those Nex weren’t far behind. We need to move.’