Fading Light

by Nick Cook

  Here goes nothing. With a mental breath, I slid into the stone. Atoms vibrated around me like angry wasps, making my whole body tingle. For a simulation, the attention to detail that Sentinel had included was unbelievable. The next moment, I was through to the other side. Seriously freaky, but amazingly cool too.

  Chloe was fast asleep and tucked under her duvet. I spotted a pair of golden eyes staring at me from her bed. Midnight raised her head and gazed at where I was floating in the corner of the room.

  Can you see me? I thought to myself.

  Midnight let out a low mew.

  The hairs rose on my arms. I’d read stories about animals sensing events before people did, such as earthquakes long before they hit, but spotting an Awoken projecting their consciousness via a simulation into another person’s bedroom? Surely that wasn’t possible. But I was sure Midnight could sense me. How? It was a question for another time.

  Chloe murmured in her sleep and turned over to face me, her eyes still closed. She looked so cute and peaceful lying there. I had the strongest urge to reach out and touch her, although of course I couldn’t. Were we really just friends or was there a possibility of something more between us?

  She murmured again. ‘Ethan,’ she whispered, a smile playing across her lips.

  I felt something coil inside me. Who? I sighed at myself. Oh, come on, Jake, you can’t have it both ways…

  And it wasn’t as if I’d be able to ask her about a guy in her dreams – without making it obvious that I’d been spying on her in her sleep. Yes, that wouldn’t sound creepy at all.

  I floated away through the wall and back outside. Apart from giving myself a serious talking-to, I needed something to distract me…

  The trees whipped around the edges of the garden and large bushes slapped against the studio’s windows.

  I did a quick mental inventory. My light-line back to my physical body felt nowhere as tight as it had on my previous attempt. OK, I needed something a bit more ambitious, plus I wanted to lay down a challenge for Chloe to match…

  But who’s Ethan? If I’d had a hand, I would have slapped my own stupid cyber-presence face. Chloe’s dreams were her own business, just like the one about the mysterious beautiful curly-haired women I’d had…

  I gazed out at the raging storm’s light show and felt a slow smile fill my physical face back in the tower. The storm could blow all it liked, but there wasn’t a lot it could do to a mental projection. Anyway, hadn’t I earlier fantasised about riding this storm?

  Decision made, I started to rise up towards the clouds scudding overhead. I gathered speed as I shot skywards like a jet fighter. A hundred metres, two hundred…

  The light-line tethering me back to my body started to pull tighter and tighter. A stinging pain burned through my nerves like molten metal.

  You can do this, Jake… I told myself.

  My blood thundered in my ears as lightning arced around me. I strained against my leash like a dog pulling from its owner and rose even higher. I felt a stabbing pain building behind my eyes and a ripping sensation inside me. The next second, the tension of the tether vanished, and I was released like a balloon, hurtling upwards high into the sky, hundreds of metres in the blink of an eye. The nausea disappeared, replaced with icy panic.

  What the hell had I just done?

  I glanced down, expecting to see the light-line cut and flapping around like a broken kite string. Instead, I saw it had been split into even finer blue strands of light, like a rope that had unravelled. Each of the strands weaved through the connections of the Light Web, finding its own way back down to the island below. The tower itself, where my body still sat, was now a speck beneath me.

  Panic gave way to a sense of utter euphoria. I knew, was certain even, that I could go anywhere that I wanted to now, even right around the globe – once Sentinel had finished integrating the rest of data.

  I put my new-found freedom to the test and began swooping and gliding like a bad-tempered gull ripping up the wind. Chloe was going to be so green when I told her.

  From this height, the Light Web rippled over the Channel Islands and stretched away over the sea. There was a large, ghostly outline of the nearby French coast, its whole landscape stretching away. It reminded me of something Allan had once shown me – a light pollution map of Earth taken from space. But it was the scattered white knots of light on the island beneath me that really stood out. In a rush, I realised exactly what I was looking at…individual people’s energy fields. And there were thousands and thousands of them too, especially in and around the towns.

  I felt the back of my eyes prickling. So many people, so many lives to be protected against the Shade. And Chloe and I were on the front line of that battle – with our altered DNA, we’d been literally created for this fight.

  I hovered silently, taking it all in. I felt very, very tiny in the middle of all this life, life that we were meant to protect.

  Far beneath me, a speck of light caught my gaze. It was moving through the sea and approaching the islands.

  Was someone stupid enough to be out at sea in this storm? Maybe it was just a seal or a really big fish… But there was something about the way that it was being tossed on the waves that gave me a bad feeling. Whatever that thing was, it seemed to be at the mercy of the sea’s fury.

  I sped down towards the point of light, my feeling of dread growing as I drew closer. Then I finally made out exactly what it was…a small fishing boat with an open cabin – absolutely zero protection against the waves breaking over the boat. The only person on-board, a guy in yellow waterproofs, was slumped over the wheel. His hooded face stared ahead as the massive rolling waves drove the boat straight towards the rocky shore of Alderney. The guy pulled something from a box and pointed it at the sky. A moment later, a red flare sped past me and blossomed into a burning point of light below the clouds.

  In a heartbeat, my eyes snapped open and I was back in the tower. I stared out to see the flare about two miles out. It was being hurled at the island by the same hurricane wind that was also speeding the man’s boat towards us.

  ‘What’s that?’ Kelly said from behind me. She was standing at the top of the stairs holding a tray of hot drinks.

  ‘Someone is out there, in the ocean. They’re about to be smashed to bits on the rocks,’ I said, fighting the feeling of disorientation at being back in my own body.

  ‘The crazy idiot!’ The tray of coffee shook in her hands as she put it down. ‘There’s no way the Saint Peter Port lifeboat could reach them in this.’

  ‘But someone has to be able to help him.’

  ‘Nobody can, not in this – not even the rescue helicopter now the wind is at full hurricane strength. This sort of weather even shuts down the emergency services.’

  ‘But he’ll be killed when his boat hits the rocks.’

  Kelly’s eyes lingered on mine and the hardness vanished from her eyes. ‘Come on, Jake. Let’s just pray he gets thrown clear and we have a chance to haul him out of the sea.’

  I knew that she was telling me what I wanted to hear. At best it sounded like a long shot. But I couldn’t just stand here and do nothing either.

  Adrenaline burned through me as I raced after Kelly. We hurtled down the stairs and into the hallway.

  Kelly opened the door. Rain roared into the house, dousing the small fire that had been glowing in the fireplace into a puff of steam.

  The wind that I’d so effortlessly slipped through moments ago punched into me like a charging rhino now. Kelly and I staggered backwards as it hit us and soaked our clothes.

  I leant forward into the hurricane and pushed myself outside beside Kelly. The storm, an unstoppable force of nature, pummelled into my flesh and screamed into my ears. The ground vibrated beneath my feet as stinging icy spray drove into my face. My nose and mouth flooded with the taste of brine. Even the heavy sculptures screeched as if they might bend with the sheer strength of the wind.

  Kelly, head bowed, pushed
on and across the garden towards the lane. I gritted my teeth as I did my best to follow her. Several times I started to slide backwards, but the thought of that guy on the boat made me dig deeper. I fought the storm with everything I had, taking one staggering step after another.

  At last we reached the lane that led down to the harbour. Despite the hedgerows being whipped around, the embankment either side of the road gave us some welcome relief from the shrieking wind roaring overhead.

  A second flare bloomed out – only a mile out from the island.

  ‘Come on!’ Kelly shouted.

  We raced down the lane that was now a river of rainwater.

  As we neared the harbour, the sound was incredible, continual detonations of surf slamming on to granite walls. But despite everything that the hurricane was throwing at the island, the boats within the harbour were all still afloat, including Moon Dancer bouncing up and down in the swell. Like Eaglehurst, the harbour had been built to withstand the worst of storms in the English Channel.

  In the wild sea beyond, I caught a glimpse of a white speck on the peak of a wave. It disappeared down the other side into the next massive trough.

  ‘No way will that boat be able to navigate through the harbour entrance in this storm,’ Kelly shouted over the wind. ‘It’s going to be reduced to flotsam in a less than a minute.’

  I stared at her and then back towards the boat speeding towards the harbour. The guy on-board must have known what was about to happen – and that he could do nothing to stop it.

  ‘We have to do something!’ I called to Kelly.

  She gripped my shoulder. ‘There’s nothing we can do, Jake.’

  My eyes stay glued to the small craft as rain peppered me like icy bullets. I wouldn’t, couldn’t let this happen.

  The wind roared and my heart roared with it.

  Without even meaning to, I shifted into the Light Web. But what could I do? Without the backup of Ember, I couldn’t just project my consciousness…

  But there, in the middle of a full-blown hurricane, the shreds of the puzzle came together: the light-line; why it had felt as if I were really there when I’d been using Ember; why Midnight had sensed my presence in Chloe’s bedroom… It was because part of me actually had been there – my consciousness at least, if not my physical body. And if CIA psychics, without any sort of kit, could spy on another country from halfway around the world, then why not me.

  I ignored everything and, using the mental discipline honed by hours of staring at a damned candle, threw my consciousness out into the storm.

  At once, I saw a blurry version of the harbour wall speeding beneath me. I felt like whooping. It was working! It might not have been as sharp as within Ember, but with Sentinel augmenting my mind, this was still completely useable.

  I raced onwards towards the boat and spotted the shimmering white aura of a man slumped at the bottom of the open cabin that was steadily filling with water.

  At that moment, a monstrous wave grabbed the boat and hurled it straight at the left-hand harbour wall. The boat started to flip forward as the waves surged over its prow, getting ready to pull it down into the depths. The man’s hand let go of the boat’s wheel and he tumbled forward, mouth wide, hood ripped back. And in that split second my eyes locked on to Inspector Clarke’s face, water surged up around him.

  Clarke, the police inspector from Stoneham? How could he possibly be here?

  Clarke was being sucked beneath the foam, all the fight gone from him.

  If only I could lift… Another impossible idea took hold.

  Hadn’t I just bent the wings of a solid-bronze eagle? So pebbles had once been a challenge, but if I can move metal now…

  I concentrated, wrapping everything that I had around the inspector’s energy field and heaved.

  In that frozen second the harbour wall rushed towards the boat and water flooded over Clarke’s mouth…

  Every death due to Zoom and the Shade was suddenly focused in my mind in that moment. Not another life, not today.

  I threw every mind-numbing candle lesson into trying to lift Clarke. There was no me, no Light Web dance of energy blazing around me, no furious storm, no boat tumbling towards destruction…just me and an old friend who was about to die unless I could help him.

  I heard Kelly gasp.

  ‘What on earth?’ her voice said from close by.

  I ignored her, my skull burning as if it were on fire as I heaved at Clarke’s body. He burst free of the waves and we both soared up away from the boat.

  The moment unfroze as the craft smashed into the wall, the hull exploding into a million pieces. My blue light pulsed around Clarke, an extended cocoon of my aura, and we both sped back over the boiling harbour waters towards the physical me, my face twisted in agony.

  Beside me, Kelly gawped up at us.

  The Light Web started to fade as I hurtled towards them. Then the points of light flared in my vision and I saw myself collapsing as I lost consciousness.

  Chapter Six

  A deep throbbing sensation reverberated through my mind. It felt as if someone had been busy kicking me in the head. Something warm was being pressed down on to my chest as the wind howled outside—

  My eyes snapped open. ‘Clarke!’

  ‘Shhh, he’s being looked after,’ Chloe said.

  Dad leant in over me. ‘Oh thank god you’re finally awake after a straight fourteen hours of being unconscious. You had me worried sick there.’

  My mind raced up to speed and I struggled up from my bed, dislodging the warm lump off my chest. Midnight yawned and jumped down to give me the stare that only pissed-off cats can give.

  Sheets of rain slammed against my bedroom window. Distant surf rumbled like an ongoing earthquake. So the hurricane was still in full force.

  Someone had lit the small fireplace in my room, and along with numerous candles, the cosy light and warmth had pushed back the steely gloom of the storm.

  Dad sat on the edge of my bed. ‘Clarke is alive thanks to you.’

  ‘You mean I actually saved him? That wasn’t some sort of crazy dream?’

  ‘Oh, it was real all right,’ Chloe said. ‘Kelly hasn’t stopped babbling about it. And Sentinel wants to know how you were able to graduate from being barely able to lift a pebble to levitating a whole man!’

  ‘I gave it everything I had. And now I have the mother of all headaches to pay for it.’

  Dad shook his head, smiling. ‘A price worth paying, hey?’

  ‘No question, but how’s Clarke doing?’

  ‘Much better,’ Dad replied. ‘Kelly asked a good friend of hers, a local doctor called John, to come and check him over. John is with Clarke now.’

  ‘And he’s lucky to be alive. He would’ve drowned out there without your help,’ Chloe added. Her expression tightened.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked.

  ‘Nearly drowning turns out to be the least of Clarke’s problems. He’s got deep slashes in his arm. It looks as if something attacked him.’

  ‘As in a Shade?’

  ‘That’s our guess, although we made up a cover story of a propeller strike for the doctor’s benefit. Unfortunately, Clarke is still out cold, so he hasn’t been able to tell us what really happened.’

  ‘Whatever the reason he’s here, it has to be major to risk travelling through that storm,’ I replied. ‘How did he know where to find us?’

  ‘Another question we need to ask him when he wakes up,’ Dad said.

  We heard footsteps approaching and my door opened. Kelly and Allan came in, Allan rubbing his arm.

  Chloe sprang up. ‘Any news?’

  Allan raised his chin. ‘John has just given the inspector a blood transfusion as he’d lost quite a lot of blood from his wound. Luckily for him, I’m O negative, the universal donor type, so I volunteered.’

  A man in his mid-forties with blond hair appeared in the doorway behind them.

  ‘Hi, John, are you all finished with our guest?’ Kelly as
ked.

  ‘Yes, but I’d be happier if we could get him to the hospital on the mainland.’

  Kelly shook her head. ‘Not in this weather.’

  ‘Well, it’s not ideal, but thankfully he’s doing fine by himself now,’ John replied. ‘He’s conscious, but will need lots of rest to recover properly.’ His eyes lingered on Allan. ‘How are you feeling?’

  Allan’s face flamed. ‘It was just airless in there, that’s all.’

  ‘Why, what happened?’ I asked.

  The corners of John’s mouth twitched. ‘One drop of blood and Allan nearly fainted.’

  Kelly tried to hide her smile as she suddenly found the view of the storm outside very interesting.

  ‘Anyway, I’d better be getting back to my youngest, George,’ John said. ‘He’s been having trouble sleeping recently after recovering from the Zoom virus. I don’t want to leave him alone longer than I have to in this weather.’

  Chloe’s mouth thinned, as it did every time she heard of someone who’d suffered from the virus.

  Kelly turned back to John. ‘Let’s go via the kitchen. I’ve got a bag of root vegetables from the garden with your name on it – a small thank-you for everything you’ve done.’

  ‘Any time, Kelly.’

  She hooked her arm through John’s and disappeared out of the door with him.

  ‘I’d better make myself scarce too,’ Dad said. ‘I need to press on with Waverider.’

  ‘Thanks for checking in on me,’ I said.

  ‘Hey, I know I’m a man obsessed at the moment, but you take priority – even over saving the world.’

  I gave him a crooked grin. ‘Good to hear.’ And I meant it. Maybe I hadn’t become as invisible to Dad as I’d thought.

  Chloe turned to me after he’d gone. ‘I’m desperate to talk to Clarke.’

  ‘Me too, especially if he ran into the Shade. That has to mean bad news.’

  ‘Isn’t that the truth,’ a voice said from the doorway.

  Clarke, one arm tightly bandaged and the other clutching the doorframe for support, stood peering in at us. ‘Is the doctor gone? I had to pretend to be asleep to stop him fussing over me.’