by Nick Cook
Too late, I flicked my wrist forward to let my own spark fly. But Daniel continued to move, the Shade inside him running the show now.
He punched his arm into the air and clenched his fingers into a fist. With a detonation of wild water, waves exploded over us, extinguishing ours fireballs and dragging everyone underwater and out to sea.
I kicked hard and broke the surface a moment later. Chloe, Ethan and the others bobbed around me, their faces shocked. Near to us, the woman who’d been smothered in flames floated face down in the water, a hole burned through her chest, the flesh at the edges scored and blackened.
‘Where the hell is he?’ said Ethan, splashing around to look back to the beach.
Jess pointed a shaking hand behind us.
We turned to see Daniel rising into the air on a pillar of water as he rotated to face HMS Iron Duke. He raised his arms like a conductor and a swarm of black dots rose from the frigate in answer.
Chloe gasped as the sea continued to boil around us. ‘A shadow hornet must have attacked the crew on the ship first, which means…’ Her face paled as her words drifted away.
My mind raced as I took in the implications. The hornets already had victims – lots of them – they’d had time to breed. ‘Guys, get everyone back to the encampment and prepare for an imminent attack.’
‘And what about you?’ Chloe asked.
‘I know we talked about doing everything together from now on, but this is one thing I need to do solo. If anyone can match Daniel’s TK ability, it’s me. With him under the Shade’s control, I’m our best hope to stop him.’
Ethan gave a sharp nod and splashed round to face the Mongoose squad. ‘Everyone who hasn’t mastered teleportation, hang on to someone who has. Aim for the emergency muster point in the top field near the stag sculpture.’
People started to grab each other. Jess took hold of the dead woman’s hand before reaching out towards Ethan.
My heart twisted. How many more would be dead before this battle was over?
There were flashes of white light as the group started to disappear one by one, until only Chloe remained in the rolling sea.
‘See you on the other side of this madness – or else, Jake Stevens,’ she said.
‘Understood. You too,’ I replied.
‘You got it.’
She vanished in a flash of light.
I clenched my fists, my mind focused, and floated up into the air as Daniel turned to face me. His dead marble eyes stared out towards the frigate in the bay.
The swarm moved towards the island within a thunder cloud of dark energy, but I had to deal with Daniel first. I tried to push away my worries about everyone in the encampment, knowing that they would all be rushing to the muster point, having trained for an attack such as this. Gone were my hopes of it never actually happening for real. I prayed that everyone’s training had been good enough to defend Eaglehurst… I’d join them just as soon as I could – if I lived through this encounter.
In the corner of my eye, I saw a ball of light hurtling up towards me and I darted sideways just as Daniel turned round on his bubbling column of water. His fireball sped past me, hissing as it passed, and raced away up into the sky.
I separated my hands and ignited my own plasma sun between them, heat radiating out from the ball of light and making my clothes smoke as water evaporated away.
If that’s really how you want to play… I thought.
I aimed it at the figure that had once been Daniel. He stared at me with dead eyes, his skin already blistered – no doubt from the pupa burrowing beneath his flesh. I hurled my plasma ball straight at him, praying for a direct hit, but he simply rose on his water column and my shot fizzed harmlessly into the swirling liquid beneath him.
In reply, Daniel flicked his wrists upwards and a massive waterspout shot up from the sea below, soon hundreds of metres tall.
I sped backwards as storm clouds began to boil outwards over the island. Daniel was just visible behind the spinning curtain of water as he swiped his hand downwards, sending hailstones the size of tennis balls raining down from the expanding cloud. Cries and screams drifted over as the deadly hail shredded tents across the encampment.
If I didn’t do something, he’d destroy the camp and everyone within seconds. I could already see at least a dozen Awoken lying dead on the fields. The shadow hornets swarmed towards the hundreds of Awoken squads gathered in the top field, who were meeting the attack with blazing volleys of thousands of fireballs.
The air whistled as a hailstone missed my head and I tore my attention from the encampment back to Daniel.
I grabbed the next plummeting ball of ice with my mind and threw it through the wall of water towards Daniel. He wasn’t fast enough to dodge it, and it slammed into his chest and hurled him backwards off his water column. He plummeted into the sea, his pillar collapsing in a fury of water as he struck the surface and disappeared.
At once, the giant hailstones sighed to a stop and the storm clouds above vanished.
I lowered my hands towards the area where Daniel had hit the sea, a plasma ball within them, ready to let loose.
The whole surface of the sea seemed to boil as three massive water-formed tentacles rose into the air.
One of the fluid tentacles whipped towards me and struck me like a whip. Every bone in my body vibrated as I was thrown sideways, the sea rushing up to meet me far too fast. It would be like hitting concrete as this speed. I gritted my teeth and lifted myself with my mind just enough to hit the surface at a shallow angle, skidding over the sea like a skipping stone. With every muscle screaming and my head pounding, I hauled myself back into the air like a fighter pilot pulling out of death dive.
Blank-eyed, Daniel rose out of the water and lifted his arms again.
I had to stop him – I had no choice…
I spread my fingers wide towards him and reached my mind into the chill of his Shade-contaminated body. I could feel the Shade pupa burrowing through him and growing fast.
Just do it!
I locked my mind round the bones, his sinews, the blood – the building blocks that had once made up the person we’d known as Daniel.
My stomach clenched and bitterness filled my mouth.
You must!
I tightened my focus and expanded the space between the molecules of his body…
With a sickening thud, Daniel’s body exploded into a red mist that splattered out across the surface of the sea like shark bait.
I felt like retching as Sentinel’s voice came through my eBud. ‘Jake, well done – but we have another serious problem.’
I hung my head. ‘Just tell me, Sentinel.’
‘I’ve detected that HMS Iron Duke’s systems have been taken over by the Shade. They must have gained control of some of the sailors on board.’
I spun round to stare at the frigate settling itself on the calming seas. I saw the gun swivel towards the island, but before I could react, two bursts of orange light blazed from the ship.
I threw my mind out desperately – towards the shells racing for the island. I managed to snag onto the edge of one projectile and shoved it slightly up, sending the shell speeding into the sky and away over the island. But then an explosion split the air and my mouth went dry, as I turned to see Eaglehurst in flames, no doubt having been struck by the second shell. The front of the building was merely rubble, and people were jumping out of windows, some on fire.
I stared, unable to process what I was witnessing. But that wasn’t all – two more booms shook the island, creating craters in the heart of our encampment, throwing up bodies that tumbled away through the air. The Shade hornets were swooping and attacking the squads fighting in the top field. How many Awoken had already been stung and had to be killed by their team members?
Hot fury rose through me. No more thinking, just doing.
I sped out towards HMS Iron Duke as its guns roared again and fresh shells headed for the island. But this time I was ready – I
pushed my mind into the molecules of air before them, condensing it into treacle. The shells slammed into the dense patches of air I’d created and slowed, curving downwards into the sea and ploughing two long lines of foam before they exploded with twin fountains of water.
Now to deal with the source…
I swept out over the glittering sea to the frigate. As I neared, I could make out crew members’ bodies scattered over the deck, their skin peppered with puncture wounds where the shadow hornets had emerged. The ship’s front gun turret turned to select a new target.
You bastards!
I gripped the turret with my mind, feeling the heat of it from the fired shells as a mechanism inside loaded the next round and the firing pin primed to stab the back of the projectile.
I mentally gripped the barrel, sweat dripping down my back as I clenched my teeth and twisted it sideways with a screech of metal. I felt the tickle in my mind of the firing pin slamming into the back of the shell.
The world roared as a massive flash came from the turret. With a boom and spout of orange fire, it exploded upwards and cartwheeled away to splash down into the sea, creating a huge plume of water a hundred metres high.
More bangs from the hull were accompanied by holes being ripped through the deck – the secondary explosion was blasting HMS Iron Duke apart.
‘The shell-loading magazine is about to explode. Get clear, Jake!’ Sentinel shouted into my eBud.
I started to hurtle back towards the island as a blinding flash came from the boat. With a scream of wind, the shock wave smashed into me, the roar numbing my ears.
I fought to keep control as the shock wave blasted past and the whole ship was lifted a few metres into the air. With a massive thunderclap of noise, HMS Iron Duke slapped back down, sending a huge wave hurtling outwards as the ship broke apart. Its prow tipped up the sky and began to slide backwards, as the aft section of the ship rolled sideways into the boiling sea.
But this was far from over. Above the sinking ship, a cloud of fog was building around the amassed hornets. This could only mean one thing: the Shadowlands were about to get a foothold on our doorstep.
Sentinel’s voice came through my eBud between bursts of static. ‘We’re about to lose DT3 – and Ember right along with it.’
I spun back to the island to see huge flames leaping over Eaglehurst.
‘And what about you?’
‘Don’t worry about me. I can rebuild myself from one of my micro minds. But Kelly’s been injured and someone’s already teleported her away to London for treatment. You need to get back here to help. The battle against the hornets is starting to turn in the Shade’s favour.’
‘Understood.’ I concentrated on my mental image of the muster point, burned into my mind after our many drills. With a burst of light, I found myself standing on an X marked out with pebbles in the top field.
As Eaglehurst burned in the background, a huge column of dark smoke rising the sky, an enormous crowd of Awoken gathered together.
Chloe and Ethan, together with their squads, had stayed close to muster point, and were hurling their fireballs up into the dark cloud of the Shadowlands that contained the swarming Shade hornets.
Throughout the field, the dead bodies of Awoken lay strewn. There were pops of light as people teleported away to the emergency evacuation point in London with the injured who might still be saved. Captain Ericsson and his squad blasted round after round from their Voletar rifles. But at least three of his SAS soldiers lay dead, their weapons still clutched in their hands.
Sentinel was right. The hornets were too numerous and it was only a matter of time until we’d be completely wiped out.
In the middle of the chaos, my mind became calm. I had a duty to every single person in that field – no, to the whole world – to make sure we won this. If we didn’t, the consequences would be terrible.
The hornets danced and swept like starlings massing – except they weren’t harmless birds, but each a black point of death that was probing our defences.
I scanned around, looking for anything that might even up this impossible battle. My gaze slid past the burning remains of Eaglehurst to the wood beyond.
The trees… And I was right back in the forest around Hopworth Science Park where I’d brought some trees to life with my TK ability.
I triple-tapped my eBud so I could address everyone at once. ‘Everybody into the woods, now!’
Without a single question, people turned and ran. John raced from the medical tent clutching George’s hand, while the unevacuated injured were carried on stretchers.
I reached a small clearing containing one of Kelly’s beehives as Captain Ericsson appeared on the opposite side. He nodded towards me as others raced into the glade.
I didn’t have long to do this.
I shifted into the Light Web and a lattice of energy flared into existence around me. Dropping to my knees, I plunged my fingers into the dirt.
Shouts and cries pierced the air as shadow hornets pursued Awoken into the trees, who tried to hit back by throwing fireballs. There were way too many Awoken to fit into the wood, but if this worked, I had that covered…
Already exhausted, my body buzzing with effort, I concentrated and reached down with my mind into the earth, to the roots of the trees. Then, like a lightning rod, I channelled the energy from the surrounding landscape into the trees around us – into the molecules that made up their trunks and branches.
A shudder trembled through the ground and, with a groan, saplings began to erupt round the edge of the wood, quickly growing huge – spears of wood racing up into the sky. Trees blossomed over the heads of the Awoken who hadn’t been able to make it into the original small wood.
But I hadn’t finished yet. I kept my energy tap wide open and the trees grew as huge as redwoods. With another mental pulse of energy, their branches began to knot together, the trunks closing up until all the Awoken stood under a massive dome of knitted wood, not a gap of light anywhere to be seen.
The countless Awoken lit up sparks in their hands to push back the sudden darkness.
Chloe stared at me as she manoeuvred through the crowd to reach me. ‘This is all your doing, Jake?’
I nodded, too exhausted to speak.
The few hornets trapped inside with us were quickly taken out by some of the squad leaders with brief flashes of plasma. Outside our wooden fortress, the remaining hornets buzzed furiously. But at least for now we were safe.
I dropped my head. I’d nothing left.
Ethan turned round and took in the transformed wood. He whistled. ‘Impressive stuff, mate. I think you may have saved all—’
His words were cut short by the noise of gnawing wood that seemed to surround us.
‘Talk about bloody talking too soon – it sounds as if those Shade hornets aren’t about to give up,’ Chloe said.
Captain Ericsson headed over to join us. ‘I could call in an air strike.’
‘No good,’ Chloe replied. ‘Unless they can get here in the next few minutes, it will already be too late.’
‘Besides, we’d be directly caught in the blast too,’ Ethan replied.
‘We may have no other choice if we are to stop them,’ Ericsson said.
Everyone exchanged tight looks.
I sucked in some air to stop my head spinning. ‘What we need is a weapon that would only affect the Shade and not us.’
‘Like a Waverider, for example,’ Chloe said.
‘But the nearest system is with Gem’s team at Culham – all the way over in Oxfordshire.’
‘Yeah, it’s not as if one of us can teleport something that heavy all the way back here,’ Chloe said.
I stared at her as an impossible idea took hold. ‘But what if a number of Awoken working together tried to teleport it? Could that work?’
‘A million things could go wrong with that,’ Chloe said. ‘Get it out of sync and half the Waverider could remain in Culham while the rest is teleported here.’
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br /> ‘We have to give it a go,’ I said.
‘I can teleport to Culham and try to bring the Waverider back with Gem and a couple of the Panda team,’ Ethan said.
‘Do it,’ I told him.
‘No problemo,’ Ethan said. He screwed up his eyes and vanished in a burst of light, no need for a photo as this was a regular jump for him.
‘I’m not sure we’ve got that long left – going by the rate those hornets are chewing their way through the trees,’ Chloe said.
I gazed across at one of Kelly’s hives. Maybe that could work… ‘Chloe, I’ve got an idea to give us a bit more time. You know your trick of controlling bees?’
She turned towards the hive too. ‘What about it?’
‘Could you try to control the whole hive and get them to attack any hornets who manage to get through? You just need to slow them down long enough for Ethan and Gem to get back here with the Waverider.’
‘Right, that’s going to be so easy!’
‘Just try, please?’
‘OK…’
Above us, a chink between two of the branches started to open as the mandibles of a hornet gnawed through my barrier. George pointed a shaking hand and let off a small fireball that vaporised it.
I gave him a nod. ‘Nicely done.’
He half smiled, half grimaced back, his eyes filling with tears as John knelt down and pulled his son to him in a dad’s protective embrace.
I pushed my hands further into the ground and flowed energy through the gap in the branches to close it again, but I knew I couldn’t keep going much longer.
‘So let’s do this,’ Chloe said. She approached the hive, everyone watching, and placed her hands either side of it as she shut her eyes. At once a buzzing came from inside the white wooden box and the bees began to swarm out of it. They flew around Chloe, settling on her until she became a crawling mass of insects from head to feet.
‘I think I may have accidentally invented a new beauty treatment,’ she said, trying to force a tight smile.
