Fading Light

by Nick Cook

  Gem opened up to us as we sat together. She told us so much – from the time she’d touched some dead sunflowers and a tingling sensation had passed through her. Then she’d seen the colour flowing back into the sunflowers and they bloomed again in seconds. Then things had got seriously weird for her. She’d been working late at uni on a paper when her demon had first appeared. Convinced she was going mad she’d given up her degree and headed home only to find herself pursued by the demon. Then Mathews had abducted her from the heath, and, having hypnotised her, he’d taught her how to control the demon and get the thing to attack us. When Gem started talking about her parents, her voice wavered. As the tears ran down her face, Domino came and gently rested his head on her lap.

  Then it was the chance for me and Chloe to tell our stories.

  By the time we’d finished, Ethan wore a dazed expression on his face. ‘So you’re telling me that our whole world is on the brink of destruction, and all that stands in the way is your dad with his thing called Waverider, and –’ he pointed to my phone on the table – ‘an AI called Sentinel?’

  I nodded. ‘That, plus the other Awoken.’

  ‘But let me get this right – you two are the only ones who’ve had any real training to fight these Shade?’

  Chloe narrowed her eyes. ‘Your point being?’

  ‘Nothing, other than I’d imagine you’d get very long odds for taking on an army straight out of a horror movie.’

  She crossed her arms. ‘If you want to duck out, just say so.’

  Ethan held up his hand. ‘Cool it, sister. I’m not saying anything like that. After all, I’ve always had a thing for the underdog, haven’t I, Domino?’ The dog tilted his head sideways to look at Ethan. ‘So, yep, you can sign me up for your army.’

  Gem ran her fingers back through her hair. ‘That goes for me too.’

  ‘You both really mean that?’ I asked.

  Gem and Ethan both nodded.

  ‘But you realise there’s every chance you could be killed?’ Chloe asked.

  Ethan shrugged. ‘If you hadn’t noticed, we’ve both been through quite a lot already. Besides, going by what you have said, if we don’t take any action, we’ll all be dead anyway.’

  ‘And, Gem, you feel the same way?’ I asked.

  She looked up from patting Domino. ‘Of course I do.’ Her eyes grew stony. ‘I want to make the Shade pay for what they did to my parents.’

  I nodded. I knew everything about that kind of need for vengeance.

  ‘I don’t know about the rest of you, but waiting around here for the others to make contact is going to drive me slowly crazy,’ Chloe said. ‘There must be something more productive we can do.’

  ‘We could go to the police and tell them what’s happened?’ Ethan said.

  Chloe grimaced. ‘That’s a no-no, I’m afraid, Ethan. The Shade’s influence is everywhere. We’ve lost the one good man who tried to help us do exactly that before – Inspector Clarke.’

  ‘So you’re telling me there’s no one else who can help us?’ Ethan asked.

  I stared at him. ‘Ethan, you’re an utter genius.’

  ‘Pardon? Not that I’m disputing that, but how exactly?’

  ‘General Hammond.’

  ‘Who?’ Chloe asked.

  ‘He was the retired guy Claire was going to take us to meet before the Shade stuck their noses in. She told us that General Hammond was well connected and could help us. We should contact him to ask for his help.’

  ‘But how will we find him?’ Gem said.

  A text appeared on my phone’s screen. Normally this would be easy for me to deal with, but with this power cut, and with the mobile network shut down, I have no way of running any online searches.

  Ethan stared at us, his forehead creasing. ‘What was that guy’s name again?’

  ‘General Hammond. Are you going to tell us he’s a personal friend of yours?’ I asked.

  ‘No, but I saw something about him on a leaflet I found near the British Museum. He’s organising a display of Chinese statues there.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Chloe asked.

  ‘Yep. There were posters about it at the Tube station that I was selling Big Issues outside.’

  ‘Talk about a lucky break,’ Chloe said.

  ‘I think we are more than owed that, especially after what we’ve been through,’ I replied. I sat up straighter. ‘Do you know when this exhibition is?’

  ‘Not sure, but soon I think.’

  ‘Oh, you’re talking about the Terracotta Army exhibition,’ Gem said. ‘Before my world went crazy I’d been planning to go and see it. I’m pretty sure it starts this week.’

  I glanced across to the table where Albert had been sitting and grabbed the newspaper he’d left behind. I began flicking through and found an article in the What’s On section, next to a full-page advert for the exhibition. I laid the newspaper flat on the table and we all started to read.

  The Terracotta Army Returns to the British Museum

  It is with mounting excitement that the British Museum is preparing its Reading Room to house the Terracotta Army once again. This collection of magnificent clay statues is kindly on loan from the Republic of China.

  General Hammond, responsible for the negotiation and organisation of the exhibition, spoke to us.

  ‘I am delighted that the Terracotta Army is returning to London. This is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to witness these truly magnificent figures. What’s more, I am pleased to announce that all proceeds will go to a number of cancer charities.’

  General Hammond is currently helping to oversee the unpacking of the figures from their transport crates at the British Museum, after they were delayed in transit. However, he is confident that the show will be ready for its VIP opening on the 12th August, as planned.

  Chloe sat up straighter. ‘That’s tomorrow!’

  ‘So all we have to do is go to the British Museum, track down General Hammond and tell him what the Shade have been up to,’ I said. ‘He may even be able to help us find the DEC.’

  Domino stirred and huffed in his sleep.

  Ethan smiled down at his dog. ‘Which is all great, but I think before anyone does anything else we need to follow Domino’s example and get a good night’s sleep in while we still can.’

  I glanced at the window and the fog gathering outside. ‘But we need to find the DEC as soon as possible.’

  Chloe pointed her spoon at me. ‘And if we run into the Shade when we’re this exhausted, Awoken or not, we won’t stand a chance, will we, Jake?’

  ‘You do look wasted, Jake,’ Gem said.

  I flung my hands up. ‘OK, OK.’

  ‘I’ll point the ladies to the women’s dormitory and then we’ll head up to the men’s, Jake,’ Ethan said.

  I gestured with my chin towards Domino, still fast asleep under the table. ‘And what about our mutual friend here?’

  ‘Sally will pretend not to notice him if he stays where he is. She’s good like that.’

  Despite my efforts to stop it, a yawn escaped my mouth.

  ‘Told you,’ Gem said with a smile.

  I gazed into her dark eyes that seemed so familiar. Maybe we’d known each other in another life?

  She peered at me. ‘What are you thinking?’

  ‘Stuff.’

  ‘Right…’

  Chloe looked between us, her expression unreadable. And then she smiled.

  I really wasn’t going there with Chloe yet.

  ‘Time to call it a night,’ Ethan said.

  I ignored Chloe’s wink as I followed Ethan towards the stairs.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The following morning, in a packed dining room, I joined the others already tucking in hungrily to breakfast. I noticed there was a distinct lack of daylight coming in from the line of windows.

  Ethan handed me a bowl of porridge. ‘I grabbed this for you.’

  The oats had a distinctly grey tinge to them. ‘Thanks…I think.’
/>
  Chloe stared at her own bowl and poked around it with her spoon. ‘Looks like wallpaper paste and tastes worse.’

  ‘Give it here then and get yourself some cornflakes,’ Ethan replied. ‘But I promise they won’t fill you up like porridge does.’

  ‘Be my guest,’ Chloe said. She shoved her bowl towards Ethan and headed back to the serving hatch.

  Gem shook her head as she scraped her own bowl clean. ‘I’m with you, Ethan, when it comes to porridge. I use to live on the stuff as a student – that and pasta bakes.’

  ‘Oh, you were at uni then? Studying what?’ I asked.

  ‘Economics, until I started to have all the hallucinations. Thanks to that, I had to drop out. I thought I was losing my mind.’

  ‘Sounds a bit familiar,’ Ethan said.

  My phone buzzed. An unintended consequence of the mass Awakening, I’m afraid, Sentinel messaged.

  Gem’s mouth tightened and she raised her chin towards the door. ‘Guys, I don’t want to worry you, but I think I can remember those two from when I was hypnotised.’

  We turned to see two suited men standing in the doorway. The shorter one had a pockmarked face; the taller man had a thin and angular body. They started to scan the crowded canteen.

  I tensed. ‘Damn it, that’s the same guys we ran into at the Royal Festival Hall. So much for us being safe here.’

  Ethan gave me an apologetic look.

  Chloe headed back to the table with her bowl of cornflakes. ‘Hey, what’s wrong with you guys?’ she asked as she sat down. ‘You all look spooked.’

  ‘Look over there, and keep your voice down,’ I replied.

  Chloe glanced back, spotted the men and quickly looked away. ‘Genesis?’

  I nodded.

  ‘Is there another way out of here?’ Gem whispered to Ethan.

  ‘There is, but the moment we try to leave, they’re bound to spot us.’

  ‘So we need some sort of diversion,’ I said.

  ‘Leave it to me,’ Ethan said. He gave Sally a discreet wave.

  Sally crossed her arms as she reached us. ‘We don’t do table service, you know.’

  Ethan hunched his shoulders forward. ‘Sally, I need a favour.’

  ‘What is it this time? I thought I’d done you a pretty big favour last night, not noticing that you’d sneaked Domino in here yet again.’

  Ethan grimaced. ‘Just as well you love me, hey, Sally?’

  ‘Yes, it is. So what’s this favour you were after?’

  ‘See those two dodgy men near the door? Careful, don’t stare.’

  Sally glanced at the doorway. ‘By the look of them they’re not police officers, so that’s a good start.’

  ‘All you need to know, Sally, is that they’re dangerous and after us.’

  ‘In that case, I’ll ring the police.’

  ‘That’s the last thing you should do,’ I said.

  Sally narrowed her eyes on all of us. ‘Because?’

  ‘The less you know, the better,’ Chloe said.

  Ethan cupped his hands together and made puppy eyes. ‘Just trust me, Sally.’

  A smile crept across her face. ‘Of course I trust you, Ethan Daniels. There’s not a bad bone in your body.’ She gazed over the top of her glasses at the rest of us. ‘I don’t know what sort of trouble you’ve got yourselves into, but I’ll do what I can to help.’

  ‘Oh, thank god,’ Gem said.

  Sally’s eyes twinkled. ‘Praise the Lord indeed.’ She cast a thoughtful look towards the men. ‘Ethan, you slip everyone out of the back while I keep our guests entertained. Perhaps I’ll persuade them to make a donation to the shelter.’

  Ethan gave her a massive smile. ‘You, Sally, are a complete star.’

  ‘Nice to be appreciated, but you’re sure you’ll all be all right?’

  Ethan nodded. ‘We’ll do our best.’

  ‘Good. May the Lord look over you.’ She gave us all a sweeping smile and, turning, grabbed a collection tin from a counter. She marched up to the men and shoved the tin under their noses, rattling it. Within moments she had the guys hunting through their pockets for change.

  ‘Good old Sally,’ Ethan said. ‘OK, now’s our chance.’

  As quietly as we could, we sneaked out via the kitchen and through a rear doorway. Moments later, we were following Ethan and striding away along a foggy alley.

  Chloe buttoned her jacket up. ‘We should shift now so we can slip past any Shade we run into, Jake.’

  ‘Shifting – is that what you were doing in the sewer?’ Gem asked.

  ‘Yes, and, as you saw, it makes us invisible in this world – or the Real as we call it.’

  ‘But what about Ethan and me?’ Gem asked.

  My phone buzzed again. You will be able to do it for yourselves eventually, but there is a shortcut that you can take for the time being.

  ‘What’s the shortcut?’ I asked.

  I discovered this after studying data from Ember when you shared your view of the Light Web with Chloe. It seems there is an easier way to share your gift with another Awoken – if you hold their hands, you will be able to channel your ability directly into them.

  ‘Just like when I grabbed on to you, Ethan, and you could see those ghosts,’ I said.

  ‘Right,’ he replied.

  ‘Sounds so obvious; why haven’t we tried it before?’ Chloe said.

  Sometimes the most straightforward solutions are the ones easiest overlooked, Sentinel added.

  ‘Isn’t that the truth.’

  I hadn’t missed the lack of hostility towards Sentinel in Chloe’s tone. Hopefully, rescuing Gem had been a tipping point in their future relationship.

  Ethan scooped up Domino. ‘So he can be invisible too,’ he said. We all gave him a questioning look. ‘But if I’d realised I was going to have to keep carrying him everywhere, I’d have found a flipping chihuahua.’

  Chloe shook her head at Ethan as she took his hand in hers.

  I reached out to Gem and she took my hand as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

  ‘Are you ready, Gem and Ethan?’ I asked.

  They both nodded.

  ‘OK, Chloe, let’s introduce them to the Shadowlands.’

  We both shifted and Gem’s hand gripped mine harder as the view of the world changed around us into the thermal wavelength.

  ‘Wow, this is incredible and freaky all at the same time,’ she said.

  ‘Whoa!’ Ethan added.

  ‘You wait until I show you the Light Web,’ I said.

  ‘The what?’ Gem asked.

  ‘It’s hard to explain. You’ll have to see it for yourself when we have more time, but I promise it will blow your mind.’

  ‘This is already doing a pretty good job of that,’ Ethan said.

  ‘Enough of the oohs and aahs – we should get our arses moving,’ Chloe said.

  Ethan pointed to the end of the alley. ‘Shit. One of our friends is about to find us.’

  At the end of the alley, stood the shorter man with his back to us. He stood out as a cold, dark spot in the thermal greys around him – definitely infected by the Shade. We watched the guy take a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket. He struck a match and lit one.

  We all froze as he glanced straight down into the alley for a moment, the tip of his cigarette glowing red in the fog. But he looked through us without reacting and moved away.

  ‘That confirms our invisibility is working fine at least,’ Chloe whispered, her tone tense.

  ‘Follow me,’ Ethan said. We crept to the end of the alley and peered round the corner. We were right next to the suited man, who was leaning against a black Range Rover with a golden Genesis Security logo on its door. The vehicle’s lights shone in the fog.

  A long howl echoed along the street and a second one answered in the distance.

  As we all froze, Gem’s fingernails dug into my hand. Wolves.

  The taller guy charged out of the shelter’s entrance. ‘Th
ey were definitely here only a moment ago,’ he said to his colleague.

  ‘I thought that woman in charge said she hadn’t seen them.’

  The shorter man shook his head. ‘I slipped a few quid to an old guy when her highness wasn’t looking. He described them all exactly. Look what he gave me…’ He thrust an army jacket under the nose of the other man.

  I saw Ethan’s face tense immediately. It was his coat.

  ‘The guvnor ain’t going to like it when he hears how they got away,’ the short man said.

  ‘They won’t have got far. The Hunters will track them down anyway,’ the taller man replied.

  The shorter guy nodded. He took a long last drag of his cigarette before stamping it out on the pavement. ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes when they get caught. Those things will tear them limb from limb. Especially that big one with grey eyes. Vicious bugger, and as mad as hell when I last saw him, because that Awoken lad had got away.’

  They had to be talking about Gavin and me.

  The taller man sighed. ‘They can’t have got far,’ he repeated.

  ‘I hope not because the guvnor will tie concrete blocks to our ankles and lob us into the Thames if we don’t catch them.’

  The taller man wiped away a bead of sweat from his forehead and nodded.

  Ethan pulled gently on Chloe’s arm and pointed along the road into the swirling fog. With him guiding, we all crept away.

  A short while later, we stood before the unlit entrance to Temple Underground Station. Its steel shutters had been pulled across the entrance and a chalked sign was tied to its door. It read: ‘Station closed for track maintenance. Please use the alternative bus service provided.’

  I sighed. ‘In this fog, I don’t think we’ll be catching a bus any time soon.’

  ‘Don’t worry, we’re still going to use the Tube,’ Ethan said.

  Chloe drew her eyebrows together. ‘Can’t you read? The station’s closed.’