by Nick Cook
The battle seemed to ebb and flow, but then the bigger wolf smashed Gavin to the ground. For a moment I thought he’d been killed, but then the smaller wolf got unsteadily to his feet, dark blood dripping from a large gash in its side.
Tears filled my eyes, but there was nothing I could do. ‘Help him!’ I screamed. But no one came.
The wolf gathered itself, muscles rippling beneath the fur that was crawling with shadows, and lunged again to finish off its opponent. But at the last moment, Gavin feinted to one side and managed to clamp his teeth round his opponent’s throat, bit down and tore a lump out. With a scream, the larger wolf collapsed and a second later a huge man was sprawled naked on the ground, blood pooling from the rip in his throat.
The smaller wolf raised his head towards me and fixed me with his grey eyes. Then he howled, dark seeds flying from his mouth, his body dissolving as the darkness fled him. Gavin was in human form once again, his body a mass of rips and cuts.
My throat felt as if it were full of razors as I tried to speak. ‘Are you all right?’
Gavin slowly shook his head as his face spasmed with pain. ‘No – I’m done, Jake.’
Chloe raised herself on her arms and stared across at her former boyfriend. He looked back at her with such love in his eyes that it brought fresh tears to my own.
‘Hi there, babe,’ Gavin whispered. ‘Looks as if I’m a bit screwed here.’
Chloe put her hands to her mouth.
‘He saved you,’ I whispered.
She looked at him and slowly nodded. ‘I always knew the real Gavin was still inside somewhere.’
Then tears filled Gavin’s eyes. ‘I’m so sorry, babe. All this time, I’ve been trying to fight them. Until now I’ve been too weak, but when I saw that wolf about to kill you…’ A jolt ran through his entire body.
Chloe knelt by him. ‘You were a hero at the end, Gavin, just like you were a hero back at the cottage when you fought the Shade controlling you long enough for us to get away. And that’s how I’m always going to remember you.’
Gavin smiled up at her, then his head slumped to the side.
Chloe kissed him on the forehead before drawing his eyelids closed.
And then, from the fog, six shadow wolves paddled towards us, closing us down in a ring.
I stared at them, raising my fists, because I could do nothing else.
Chloe lit a spark. ‘We’re not going down without a fight, hey, Jake?’
‘You are seriously amazing,’ I said.
‘So are you,’ Chloe replied. Her free hand wrapped round mine as the wolves closed in for the kill.
‘And let there be light!’ Dad’s voice shouted somewhere in the swirling gloom.
A blazing curtain of golden light surged outwards and boiled the fog away. The energy field rushed through the shadow wolves, making them cry out as black vapours burned from their bodies until there only dead people left lying twitching on the floor.
And then Dad and Claire were helping me to my feet and hugging me. But Chloe remained by Gavin’s side, tears rolling down her cheeks as she cradled his head in her lap.
I crouched beside her and wrapped my arm round her shoulders, desperate to take her pain away. ‘Chloe, there’s something I need to tell you about Ethan and Dave. Something that’s going to help with Gavin too…’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chloe and I sat next to the L3 as it hummed away inside the Millennium Dome. Dad and Claire were checking over its systems, Kelly helping where she could and doing her best to keep Domino out of trouble. Meanwhile, I’d held Chloe’s hand as I told her all about Ethan and Dave.
‘This is all so incredible, Jake,’ she said, her eyes streaming with tears. ‘Are you really sure about this?’
‘I realise how crazy it must sound, but at least now we know that part of the people we loved are still alive within the Light Web. Deep down, I’m not completely surprised. It’s almost as if I’ve known all along there was something about the Light Web that I wasn’t getting.’
‘Until now,’ Chloe replied, wiping away her tears.
‘Until now…’
She gave me a faint smile. ‘Just knowing that Ethan and Dad are looking over me will make a difference after everything that’s happened.’
‘It will…’ I watched one of the dead Enders being stretchered away by two army medics. ‘And I think it will help everyone, especially during a time like this.’
Prime Minister Carter and General Hammond walked into the Millennium Dome just then, flanked by bodyguards and followed by a group of people in suits.
The prime minister had his hand outstretched as he reached us and was soon shaking each of our hands energetically, including Dad’s, Claire’s and Kelly’s as they joined us. ‘This city, the whole world, owes you all a huge debt of gratitude for what you have done. Each and every one of you is a hero and when we have a moment that will be officially acknowledged. The queen has already been in contact with me to say that you’re all to be knighted. However, that’s for another day. Right now, is there anything that your country can do for you?’
‘How about a hot bath with plenty of bubbles?’ Claire asked.
Carter laughed. ‘Oh, I think we can arrange that. How does the Royal Suite at the Lanesborough Hotel sound to you? Their bathrooms are very luxurious.’
‘They should be – don’t they charge over twenty thousand pounds per night?’ General Hammond said.
‘Actually, twenty-six thousand,’ the prime minister replied.
‘I’m not sure any of our credit cards will quite cover that,’ Kelly said.
‘It will be the government’s pleasure to foot the bill, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lanesborough gives you the rooms for free. When people hear what you did here tonight, you’ll be the toast of the city.’
‘In that case, I’m not going to say no,’ Chloe replied with a smile.
I hitched my hands into the top of my jeans. ‘I hate to ask this, but I need to know. How many people died before we managed to the Waverider online?’
‘Straight to business as always, Jake.’ Carter’s expression became more drawn. ‘At least thirty thousand, I’m afraid.’ He looked at all of us. ‘I realise you will all no doubt be haunted by the events of tonight. I certainly know I will be. However, please keep in your heart just how much worse it would have been if you hadn’t succeeded here.’
We all exchanged glances and then nodded.
‘So what happens now?’ Dad asked.
‘The human race adapts, because that’s what we have to do,’ Carter replied. ‘On that subject, do you think it’d be possible to come up with a way of communicating with the other cities?’
‘With the dark energy field that’s enveloped the world, I think any form of signal would be disrupted,’ Dad replied.
‘Hang on, guys, aren’t we missing something obvious here?’ Chloe said.
‘What are you thinking?’ I asked.
‘A certain Shade technology that we already possess and that Sentinel had been working on cracking.’
I stared at Chloe and nodded. ‘Of course, the Lodestones. The Shade designed them to work within the Shadowlands using a quantum-entanglement technique.’
‘Do I need to remind you both that they were booby-trapped with that worm virus?’ Hammond said.
I shook my head. ‘Sentinel flashed out all that code before he died in order to make those devices safe to use.’
‘Then it certainly can’t hurt to try one,’ Claire said.
‘How many of these Lodestones do we have?’ Carter asked.
Dad gestured towards his makeshift lab in the Portakabin. ‘Only the one in there and the other back at Culham. We lost the other one when New York was…’ His words trailed away as he gave me a sideways glance.
Gem… Why hadn’t she come to me like the others in the Light Web? Because her energy patterns had been wiped out by the nuclear strike? The pain buried deep inside me pulsed. At some po
int I would lock myself in a room and howl. But not yet.
Chloe gazed at me, her eyes soft. She understood.
‘Jake, do you remember the activation sequence?’ Dad asked, bringing my attention back to the conversation.
‘Yes.’
‘So let’s give the Lodestone a go to see if it works. Maybe we’ll find out how the others in Culham are doing, as that has to be under the Shadowlands by now too.’
We were soon crammed into the Portakabin as Dad dug the Lodestone out from beneath a pile of tools on his workbench.
With everyone’s eyes on me, I rested my fingers on the cube’s surface for a moment. As always, it felt slightly cool to the touch. I began to press the different surfaces in order, each one lighting up with a glowing red rune. I finished the sequence and then the wait began. Ten seconds…a minute…five minutes ticked past – but still nothing happened.
‘It was worth a try,’ Claire said.
Chloe shook her head. ‘I honestly thought this was going to work—’
‘Hello, is anyone there?’ a young boy’s voice said.
With a hum, an aperture opened on the top of the stone. A column of light rose into the air and George’s face appeared.
Disbelief swept through me. How could this be possible?
His holographic head moved to look at us and George’s eyes widened. He turned away and yelled, ‘Dad, come here quick!’
John’s face appeared by his son’s as they looked out at us. ‘You’re OK!’
‘We are – and so are you by the looks of things,’ Kelly said. ‘So how are things back in Culham?’
‘We’re all good and our L2 is working perfectly. But you’re the first people we’ve heard from since the Shadowlands hit.’
‘And what a cool way to talk to talk to each other,’ George added.
We all laughed.
‘Unfortunately, these are the only two Lodestones we have in our possession, but at least it’s a start,’ Dad said.
‘Do you think you could replicate the Shade technology and build more devices like this?’ Hammond asked.
‘We could certainly try, although I’m not guaranteeing any results,’ Dad said. ‘Shade technology is different to anything we’ve ever encountered before.’
Claire shrugged. ‘However big the challenge, thanks to the protection of the Waverider fields, we now have all the time we need to dissect their workings.’
‘It’s just a shame there isn’t a Lodestone in another major city so we can communicate with the people there,’ General Hammond said.
‘Yes, it’s not as if we can venture out into the Shadowlands beyond the cities to relocate it,’ Carter said.
The answer sprang into my mind. ‘Moon Dancer!’
‘I’m not sure I understand,’ Carter replied.
Kelly was staring at me. ‘That’s bloody genius, Jake.’
‘Can someone please explain to me what you’re talking about?’ the prime minister asked.
Dad was nodding towards me too. ‘It’s the name of the yacht that the original prototype Waverider was installed on.’
Within the hologram, John’s eyes widened. ‘In other words, you could install an L1 unit on anything from a horse and cart to a spaceship. And we easily have enough spare parts from the L3 here to build one.’
‘And that would mean a vehicle under a Waverider’s protection could travel out through the Shadowlands between cities,’ Chloe said.
‘But those trips would also need Awoken on board,’ General Hammond replied. ‘And there aren’t exactly a lot of you to spare at the moment.’
But a plan was already crystallising in my mind. ‘That’s not necessarily true. We didn’t have time to recruit everybody whose genes have been altered by the Zoom virus. We can start screening people here in London – and I bet there are plenty more Awoken waiting to be discovered in every other city in the world.’
‘It sounds to me as if the future of the human race is already looking a fraction brighter than it did a moment ago,’ Carter said.
Chloe shrugged. ‘Well, when you have some pretty bloody clever and talented people in the same room, that’s when the magic really starts to happen.’
‘Isn’t that the truth,’ John said over the hologram as his image started to break up.
Dad peered at the Lodestone with a concerned expression. ‘Looks as if we have some interference on the line.’
I examined the cube, but all the runes were shining a steady red. ‘I can’t see anything obviously wrong.’
Chloe’s hands flew to her mouth. ‘What if the Shade have detected this broadcast?’
Before anyone could answer, John’s face disappeared. Then time stopped – because a woman’s head had replaced John’s. The curves of every feature locked into my heart.
‘Gem?’ I whispered.
‘Jake? Jake, is that you?’ Gem’s hologram replied.
I could only nod, as everyone else exchanged startled looks.
Carter put his hands on the workbench and leant forward to peer at her hologram. ‘You’re the Awoken who was leading the New York team aren’t you?’
‘I am.’
‘So how on Earth did you manage to escape New York before the nuclear missile struck?’
‘You don’t understand – I’m still in New York.’
Thoughts whirled through my head as I tried to process what she was saying. ‘You mean New York is still standing?’
‘It most certainly is,’ Gem replied.
‘But how did it survive the nuclear blast?’ Hammond asked.
‘Ironically, we can be thankful to the singularity itself,’ Gem replied. ‘It absorbed nearly all the energy from the blast, and the rest was fed on by shadow crows, making them multiply rapidly.’
‘We know that, but we saw the Waverider dome over New York disappear,’ I said, shock vibrating through me, and still not able to process that she really was alive.
Gem’s face tightened. ‘It was truly awful, Jake. The brief electromagnetic pulse from the blast took out our L3. We fought with everything we had as the Shade swarmed over us, but then there was a strange burst of crazy static and time stood still.’
‘You mean figuratively?’ Dad asked.
‘No, I mean literally. The next thing we knew, someone had repaired the L3 and it was back online.’
Chloe stared at me. ‘It has to be Ethan in the Light Web – probably with Dave helping him. He’s the only person who could have pulled that off.’
I slowly nodded, letting my face fill with a smile.
Gem looked confused.
‘What do you mean about Dave helping?’ Dad said.
‘Oh, I promise we’ll explain it – and so much more,’ I replied.
‘But I don’t understand,’ Carter said. ‘We scanned New York for a long time after the Shadowlands hit and didn’t see the energy dome appear.’
‘I think that’s because the dark energy flowing out of the singularity grew so thick around here that there’s not even a hint of any sky above us now,’ Gem said. ‘If we can’t see the sky, it’s little wonder you can’t see us.’
I found myself staring into her eyes as a storm of emotions rose up through me. In that moment it was as if we were the only two people in the world
Chloe coughed. ‘OK, everyone, let’s give these two a moment.’
‘But we need to start making plans now we’ve re-established communications with New York,’ Carter said.
Chloe crossed her arms and glared at him. ‘And that can wait another ten minutes, or however long these two need. Do we understand each other, or are we going to have a problem?’
‘I think you’d better listen to Chloe, Prime Minister,’ General Hammond said. ‘You really don’t want to get on the wrong side of her.’
The prime minister smiled. ‘You may be right there. Take however long you both need.’
Chloe herded everyone away as I continued to just stare at Gem and she at me.
‘Now
you two really talk to each other and sort everything out between you once and for all,’ Chloe’s voice came from behind me.
I turned briefly and saw her hanging back in the doorway, the others gone. ‘We’ll try our best,’ I replied.
Chloe gave me a beaming smile as she closed the door behind her.
My eyes drank in Gem’s beautiful face. I’d thought I’d never see it again. ‘There’s so much I want to say to you – that I need to say to you, Gem.’
‘Me too, Jake. Do you know what kept going through my head when I was fighting for New York and thinking I might die?’
‘What?’
‘That I love you, Jake Stevens, with my whole heart. I thought I wasn’t going to get a chance to tell you that – to tell you just how much I love you.’
‘Well, I need to make something clear too, Gem. I think I loved you from the first moment I met you. Unfortunately, being the idiot that I am, I didn’t dare let you in for risk of hurting you.’
Gem’s eyes blossomed with tears. ‘This is so not fair – now we’re thousands of miles apart from each other. We’re never going to be together again.’
A beam pulled at my face. ‘Actually, Gem, I think we may have just come up with a plan to fix exactly that problem…’
Chloe, Dad, Kelly, Claire and even Domino waited on the quayside in St Katherine’s Dock. The last time I’d been here, we’d been attacked by the Shade.
I loaded the last box of provisions onto Moon Dancer, Kelly’s boat that she’d insisted on giving me as a gift.
‘Are you really sure you want to try this?’ Dad asked.
‘I have to, Dad. Gem is waiting for me and I need to get to her, whatever it takes.’
Claire hooped her arm through Dad’s. ‘Which is entirely the right thing to do.’
‘And if anyone deserves a chance of finding happiness, it’s you, Jake Stevens,’ Kelly said. ‘You’ve been putting everyone else first for so long.’
‘I’m not so sure about that,’ I replied.
‘I am,’ Kelly told me. ‘You had a major hand in saving so many people and this world owes you. More importantly, you owe yourself some you time.’
‘You make this sound like a gap year and I’m going travelling to find myself.’
