Fading Light

by Nick Cook

  John placed his hands on George’s shoulders. ‘I have to admit most of this is going over my head – and I say that as someone who thought he knew a few things about science.’

  Dad waved his arms. ‘All right, all right, let me explain. It means that when an Awoken like Jake or George uses this machine, they can counteract the effects of my original DEC experiment – the condensing of dark energy that allows the Shade to create a portal to the Void.’

  John raised his eyebrows.

  ‘You’ll get your head around it eventually, trust me,’ Allan said.

  John peered at Waverider. ‘So you’re telling us that this machine can save our world when an Awoken like Jake or George operates it?’

  ‘According to my calculations, and as long as the portal is less than twenty metres across, Waverider should be able to collapse the DEC field and any portal connected to it. Anything bigger than that and we would need a scaled-up version of this machine. Something about the size of a cargo container could protect a larger area, a city even. That is as long as you had a big enough power supply and someone with the Awoken gift to channel it.’

  Allan leant against the wall. ‘So what do we do now?’

  ‘Two things. First we need to locate the DEC experiment that the Shade may be preparing to get operational in London,’ Sentinel replied. ‘Then we should start building larger versions of Waverider as soon as possible, so that new Awoken can use them to fight against the Shade.’

  John tightened his grip on George’s shoulder. ‘Hang on, no one said a thing about fighting. I’m certainly not going to allow you to put my son in harm’s way.’

  ‘I completely understand your desire to protect George, but I’m afraid that every single person on this planet is in danger,’ Sentinel replied. ‘But before you concern yourself too much about George, don’t worry – he’s far too young to put on the front line of this battle.’

  I nodded. ‘That’s down to the likes of me. And I for one will do everything I can to make sure that George comes to no harm.’

  George stared up at me, wide-eyed, as I caught the pained look that Kelly shot me. Then she slowly nodded – a whole conversation passing between us without the need for any words. A child potentially put in harm’s way, but with what the future held she knew we had no other choice.

  John sighed. ‘George, what do you think about all of this?’

  ‘I want to help them, Dad, even if I don’t get to wear a cool outfit.’

  Everyone smiled and I immediately felt the tension in the room notch down a fraction.

  Allan tapped the top of his walking stick. ‘This is wonderful and everything, but first of all we still have the DEC in London to shut down. So apart from the fact we’re stranded on this island, and the major issue of rescuing Chloe’s consciousness, how are we going to track down this new DEC? The last time I looked, London was a pretty big place.’

  He was making a good point, but we already knew what to do. ‘We look for an absence of data somewhere in London – a hole like the one that appeared around the old science park. That will tell us where the DEC is, because the hole is caused by the intense dark energy field of the machine – right, Sentinel?’

  ‘You’re correct, Jake. However, we also need to start making plans to build the network of Waveriders. That’s going to require considerable resources and skilled people, which is unfortunately not something that we can achieve by ourselves.’

  ‘So then we need someone to help us,’ Allan said.

  ‘But who?’ Kelly asked.

  For a moment everyone was silent.

  ‘Probably someone who can provide scientists to throw at this…’ I voiced my thought out loud.

  ‘Normally I’d say we should approach the government, but that’s not an option. Shade has too much influence over them,’ Dad replied.

  ‘Another government then?’ John said.

  ‘Still not an option. We don’t know how widespread the Shade are across this planet by now. Don’t forget they’ve had years to prepare for this moment.’

  ‘But couldn’t you go to the same person who you dealt with when you first set the DEC up?’ I said. ‘There was that letter you sent to the chief scientist, Claire Baxter. Would she be able to could help?’

  ‘She is certainly someone I trust, but she also still works for our government,’ Dad replied.

  ‘Actually, she used to work for the government. She resigned,’ Sentinel said.

  ‘But why?’ Dad said. ‘She’s utterly brilliant at her job.’

  ‘Claire stood down after the original DEC disaster,’ Sentinel said. ‘Much like you, she blamed herself for giving your project the green light in the first place.’

  ‘But that wasn’t her fault.’

  ‘Just like it wasn’t yours,’ I said.

  Dad cast me a scowl. ‘I’m not sure I’m ever going to see eye to eye with you over that; however, Claire is an old friend and she’s also incredibly principled.’

  ‘Which is exactly the reason why she resigned, according to the records,’ Sentinel replied. ‘That suggests she’s highly unlikely to have been affected by the Shade. Also, according to all the background checks I’ve just run on my stored database files, she still has all the right contacts to help us build a network of Waveriders.’

  ‘Do you work for MI5 or something?’ John asked Sentinel.

  ‘Oh, he’s so much more than that,’ Kelly replied.

  Allan frowned. ‘I hate to rain on everyone’s parade, but we still have the problem of the huge storm that’s trying to tear this island apart. This all hinges on us getting to London, which we have no way of doing at the moment.’

  George frowned. ‘Er?’

  It was only then I noticed the utter silence outside. ‘Listen.’

  ‘To what?’ Kelly asked.

  ‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘Allan, could you open the blinds?’

  He nodded and pulled the cord. We all stared up at the blue sky overhead. With a puzzled expression, Kelly opened the door.

  A calm had descended over Eaglehurst, although the storm was still visible in the distance. Walls of cloud spun around the patch of clear sky above us and the edge of the storm still thrashed at the far-out sea.

  John peered at us. ‘I don’t understand – what’s going on?’

  But I had a hunch. I withdrew my hand from the DEC machine that I’d kept in place the whole time. At once the storm came rushing back in, rain hammering on the window. The wind screamed into the studio, throwing loose papers into the air, until Kelly slammed the door shut.

  ‘I thought so – Waverider is counteracting the hurricane and creating our very own eye of the storm,’ I said.

  Dad slowly nodded as the papers settled around us. ‘I think we’ve just found our way off the island, Jake.’

  Chapter Eleven

  I passed Kelly another crate from the back of the Land Rover. The storm had eased off a little, but the waves were still crashing against the outer wall of the harbour hard enough to keep showering us both in spray. The ongoing storm had also taken the internet offline again and that hadn’t helped us at all in planning for the trip ahead.

  Over the pounding thunder of the sea, I heard a loud muttering coming from a group of fisherman watching us. They’d been shaking their heads at us for the last fifteen minutes as we loaded up Moon Dancer. Luckily for us, our fan club hadn’t been there when we’d lowered Chloe’s unconscious body down to the boat. She was now safely nestled into a bunk that was set up with a drip to keep her hydrated, courtesy of John.

  It had been agreed, despite much reluctance from John, for us to take Chloe’s body with us. Then, when I freed her consciousness from the Shade, it would flow back into her mind, according to Sentinel. That was the theory, but with so many ifs and buts in the way, whether it really worked was another matter entirely.

  Kelly clambered up from the boat on to the quayside and wiped the heavy rain from her eyes.

  I jerked a thumb over my s
houlder towards the fishermen. ‘What’s their problem?’

  ‘They’re convinced we’re going to sink the moment we leave the harbour,’ Kelly replied.

  ‘And will we?’

  ‘The waters immediately outside the harbour are rough, but it’s the sea further out that’s going to give us real problems, at least until your dad’s machine is online. Talking of which…’ She gestured towards the cabin door as Dad and Allan emerged through it.

  ‘We’ve got the batteries ready. We’re good to install Waverider when you are,’ Dad said.

  I raised my chin at the large plywood box still on the quayside and Kelly nodded.

  From across the harbour, the fishermen cast their eyes over the crate, probably convinced that we were smuggling something. And I guess, in a sense, we were.

  Our plan was to transport Waverider and sail up the Thames with it on-board. Kelly had told us she’d done that particular run a hundred times on Moon Dancer. Then we were going to moor up in a harbour she knew, right in the heart of London. From there, Sentinel’s ability to communicate with us would be restricted to what he called his micro mind, because we would only be running on half a dozen laptops, which we’d already loaded. As we approached London and hopefully picked up the internet again, he would begin the search for a hole in the data network that would indicate the specific whereabouts of the new DEC. Obviously, without DT3, which was just too big to transport, I couldn’t use Ember for remote viewing. Instead, we’d be relying on any intelligence we could gather on the ground. It would be down to me to try to locate Chloe’s consciousness in whatever hellhole the Shade had imprisoned her inside, by scanning for her green energy signature in the Light Web. Of course, it would only be there if she was still alive… But, as I kept reminding myself, the Shade were all about leverage and Chloe would almost certainly be used for that, if only to lure me into another trap. I was going to have to stay extra sharp.

  I grabbed the rope handle fastened to one end of the crate as Kelly took hold of the other one. My shoulders strained as we lifted the box together and hoisted it to the edge of the quayside.

  ‘Ready?’ Kelly called down to the others.

  ‘Just be careful,’ Dad shouted back as the yacht rocked away from the harbour wall with the swell. ‘If Waverider gets broken, we don’t have the spares to repair it.’

  ‘Don’t worry, we’ll lower her down nice and gently – won’t we, Jake?’ Kelly replied.

  ‘I’ll do my best.’ I gazed at the crate. If I could lift a person as I had when I’d saved Clarke, then surely levitating a crate would be possible? I glanced across at the fishermen still watching our every move… No, that wasn’t going to happen under their suspicious eyes.

  I planted my feet slightly apart. ‘Ready when you are, Kelly.’

  She took a deep breath. ‘Let’s go for it.’

  We swung the crate out together and rested it against the top of the ladder.

  My muscles shook. ‘This thing weighs a ton.’

  Kelly grimaced. ‘I know. We’re going to need to time this carefully with the pitching of the boat. Get it wrong and it will end up at the bottom of the harbour.’

  I tensed up even more.

  Dad and Allan reached up for the crate as we slid it down the rusty ladder towards them.

  ‘Wait until the boat pitches back into the wall before we lower it all the way to the deck,’ Kelly said.

  I nodded as Moon Dancer rolled away. Then the yacht pitched back, slamming against the rubber tyres fastened to the wall hard enough to send vibrations through my feet.

  ‘Now!’ Kelly shouted.

  Together we quickly slid the crate the last metre down the ladder. Dad and Allan grabbed it with outstretched hands. But the wind howled and caught Moon Dancer, forcing her to roll away again from the wall. The rope tightened in my grip, almost ripping the crate away from Dad and Allan as they hung on to it.

  ‘Give them some slack,’ Kelly called out.

  I let the rope slide through my fingers, burning as it touched, and Dad and Allan finally grabbed hold of the crate properly.

  I whistled as they lowered it on to the deck, then blew on my stinging palms, even though my self-healing ability was already reducing the red rope burns to a faint red mark.

  Kelly, far more sensibly, had been wearing gloves. She slapped me on the back.

  ‘That was close,’ Clarke’s voice said from behind us.

  We turned to see the inspector walking towards us, with John supporting him. George was just behind them, peering at the crate Dad and Allan were dragging inside the yacht.

  ‘What are you doing out of bed, Inspector?’ I asked.

  John shook his head at Clarke. ‘Stubborn doesn’t begin to describe this man.’

  ‘And I keep telling the doc here that I’m going with you and that’s the end of the matter.’ Clarke glowered at John.

  ‘To point out the blindingly obvious, you’ve been badly injured, if you hadn’t noticed,’ Kelly said.

  ‘Maybe, but you’ll need my contacts if you’re heading into London. If Langton and his cronies have smuggled a DEC into the capital, Red is bound to know something about it. Not so much as a mouse farting slips past his attention.’

  ‘I’ll have to take your word for it,’ I said.

  He nodded, rolled his shoulder and winced. ‘Besides, this is nothing that a few painkillers can’t sort out. Isn’t that right, doc?’

  John sighed. ‘As I was saying, oh so very stubborn.’

  Kelly shook her head. ‘You’d better come aboard then, before John changes his mind.’

  She helped Clarke on to the ladder, and Dad, standing below, guided him on to the boat.

  ‘So you’re all clear about George’s training while we’re gone?’ I asked John.

  ‘As we’ve discussed, I’ll take him for daily lessons with the AI on that computer cube device you’ve left running at Eaglehurst.’

  ‘“That AI” prefers to be called Sentinel,’ I said. ‘Part of his consciousness will also be with us on the boat, within a micro mind, but the bigger part is being left behind here with you.’

  ‘Got it.’ John shook his head. ‘I still can’t believe this is all really happening.’

  ‘You’ll get there in the end, but I warn you, it’s quite the road trip,’ Kelly said. She eyed the waves beyond the far harbour wall. I did too.

  Although smaller than the night before, the waves were still rolling in like a series of hills.

  ‘If we’re going to catch the tide, we’d better get going,’ Kelly said. She walked up to John, tilted her head to one side and kissed him on the lips.

  John gave her a startled look. George was staring up at her.

  ‘I’ve been wanting to do that for such a long time,’ Kelly said.

  ‘You have?’ John asked, blinking.

  ‘Yes, I have. We’ll sort out a proper date, where you can wine and dine me, when we get back. After all these years, I’m done with waiting for you to ask me out.’ She beamed down at George, who was now grinning. She tussled his hair and clambered down to the yacht.

  John gave me a what-the-hell-just-happened stare as I shook his and George’s hands.

  I shrugged. ‘Kelly’s a bit of a force of nature sometimes.’

  ‘She always has been,’ John replied, scraping his hand back over his hair.

  I clambered down the ladder and leapt on to the moving deck. As my feet hit the soaked floor, I skidded towards the railing.

  Kelly grabbed on to me. ‘Steady there, Jake. I know you’re desperate to go diving again, but maybe not in this weather, hey?’

  I laughed. ‘Maybe not.’

  Above us, John slipped the ropes from Moon Dancer’s moorings. Allan, also an experienced yachtsman, crossed to the helm with his stick and started up the engine. Slowly, with a growl, the propeller churned the water and we began to move away from the quayside towards the mouth of the stone harbour.

  The crowd of fisherman seemed to have
grown. Their expressions said only one thing: ‘You’re all going to die.’

  ‘Good luck!’ John shouted down to us.

  Kelly waved back. ‘We’ll send you a postcard.’

  A slow smile filled his face and he blew her a kiss.

  Romance seemed to be so much easier for everyone else. Maybe I needed to start taking notes from Kelly.

  As soon as Moon Dancer’s nose left the shelter of the harbour, I realised what we were in for. If it had been pitching before, inside the protection of the harbour walls, it was nothing compared to the wild-water ride ahead of us. The boat slid up hills of water and plummeted down into troughs. I quickly began to regret the extra helping of scrambled eggs I’d had for breakfast.

  Kelly turned her face towards the spray. ‘Isn’t this utterly fantastic!’

  ‘I’m not sure that’s the word I’d use,’ I replied, trying not to hurl as nausea swirled in my gut.

  I stayed on deck until everyone on the quayside had become specks. We finally lost sight of them as Moon Dancer passed the headland.

  Allan shouted over the roar of the wind as it started to increase. ‘OK, time to crank that machine of yours up, Martin. I don’t much fancy our chances if we hit the rougher waters without it.’

  Kelly pointed towards a white foamy line of snarling waves in the distance. ‘And they aren’t that far away now. Jake, raise the jib sail.’

  I felt my palms go slick as I took in the spray sweeping over the deck. ‘Only one sail?’

  ‘Yes – the wind’s too strong for any more canvas.’

  Despite the awful conditions, the training Kelly had drummed into Chloe and me instantly kicked in. I clipped my harness on to the safety line and carefully worked my way to the front of the yacht under a constant barrage spray. I hauled the jib sail up as salt burned the back of my throat.