by A. G. Taylor
“Make it stop!” Wei cries out…
Nestor’s hand begins to slip from Sarah’s grasp…
The circle starts to break…
Fighting the pain, Sarah directs her strength into keeping them together. Even though they try to pull away physically, she will not allow it. She holds them in the circle just as surely as Makarov had paralysed their bodies earlier.
“Just a little more,” she assures them.
“You’re letting it kill us!” Octavio screams.
Unexpectedly, it is Major Bright’s voice that comes through next. “You’re not dead yet, boy! Finish it, Sarah!”
The Entity howls with rage and the pain and pressure on their brains increases… For a moment it seems their heads will be crushed in the grip of the vice-like alien mind…
Focusing again, Sarah throws everything she has into the beacon. Now the meteors are speeding towards a single point. A collision occurs between the lead meteor and three others directly behind it. They create a cloud of flying rock that explodes across the void…
A fourth rock flies in and is ripped apart…
The cloud grows as one after another of the meteors zooms in and is pulverized by the massive forces.
The storm is destroying itself.
“Sarah,” the Entity whispers, its voice becoming fainter as its missiles are destroyed. At last the psychic assault diminishes and the pain in their brains begins to fade.
“You’re beaten,” she replies with grim satisfaction.
The Entity laughs. “Nothing happens without my consent. This is not over between you and me…”
Its voice fades.
The last of the meteors flies into the cloud and disappears. Sarah looks at the dust forming a silvery streak across space and…
…opened her eyes, as did the other members of the group. They stared at one another with amazement. Around the room she could see from the drained expressions on the faces of the others that they had experienced the agony of her battle with the monstrous alien force. For a moment there was only stunned silence, then Louise broke the spell.
“You did it, Sarah!” she exclaimed.
“We did it,” Sarah corrected, rubbing the bridge of her nose to alleviate the residual ache from her fight with the Entity. Alex touched her arm with concern, but she smiled at him to show she was okay. He looked just as exhausted as she felt. But it wasn’t over yet. From somewhere within the Spire there came a rumble. This was followed by a vibration that went through the walls and floor, as if something had shaken the building to its very foundations. The Spire, the technology, the beacon and even the architecture of the building was intimately linked to Makarov and the Entity. Now, with one of them dead and the other defeated, the building’s stability was severely compromised.
“We don’t need the beacon any more,” she told Nestor. “Take the others and free the miners and their families. Yuri, take them to the bottom of the Spire.”
The Russian placed a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for giving me the chance to put things right here.”
Sarah smiled. “Give Laika a hug from me. Now get going.”
“What about you?” Nestor asked as he started to move.
Sarah nodded to the fragment. “I have to finish things off here. Commander Craig is piloting the stealth jet out of here, so as soon as the miners and other workers are safe, get to the landing strip three floors above.”
Without another word, Nestor left Sarah, Alex and Major Bright in the meteorite chamber. He led the others quickly down the steps and into the larger area below, moving to the nearest sleeper casket and pressing the button to open the lid. As it swung up, he removed the skullcap from the head of the bearded man inside. Almost immediately, the sleeper’s eyes flickered open and he sat bolt upright, speaking quickly in Russian. Yuri ran to the miner’s side and started reassuring him. Nestor turned to Louise, Wei and Octavio as another rumble went through the Spire.
“Wake them all up!”
The building shuddered again and somewhere a window exploded in a shower of glass. A fourth, even deeper rumble went through the building. The floor shook hard enough to send the caskets skittering across the floor.
Octavio looked at the ceiling and guessed what was happening. “I get the feeling Makarov’s tower isn’t so stable without the Entity holding it together.”
“Then let’s make this fast,” Nestor said and they started moving around the caskets, waking the sleepers one by one.
Inside the meteorite chamber, Sarah turned her attention to the Spire’s central computer.
“Something interesting?” Major Bright asked, moving next to her. She gave him a quick, wary glance – the man who had tried to imprison or kill them so many times. A wry smile passed across his lips, as if he read her thoughts.
“War makes strange bedfellows, doesn’t it?”
Sarah ignored him and was pleased when he wandered away, examining the walls of the chamber. She didn’t want him standing over her shoulder while she tapped the secrets of Makarov’s computer. Alex appeared at her side.
Can we just blow up this place now? He cast a look at Bright. The sooner we get out of here, the better.
Not yet, Sarah replied as she moved to the main computer terminal. There must be something on here about the fall virus. Makarov manipulated it to harness the psychic power of the sleepers. Perhaps there’s the information we need for an antidote.
She passed her hand over the terminal and the screens lit up.
“Hello, Sarah,” the computer said. “How can I help you?”
“I want you to upload all the information from your memory about the fall virus onto the central computer of the stealth jet,” she ordered.
“That constitutes over a million terabytes of data,” the computer replied impassively. “The transfer will take several minutes. My systems are not working at optimum level. May I ask…” The computer’s voice became slurred and deep at this point. “Where is Nikolai Makarov? I do not…detect his signature…in the Spire.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Alex asked.
“The sleepers are being disconnected. We’re removing its power source.”
Another rumble went through the Spire. The computer spoke with agonizing slowness, “This building…is unsound…”
“Just transfer the data,” Sarah ordered.
“Yes…Sarah…”
Over the next minute the computer set to work while Sarah paced impatiently before the terminal. Finally, Nestor’s voice sounded in her head. We’ve opened all of the caskets. Yuri is taking the miners and their families down the stairs to ground level.
Good, Sarah replied. Get the others to the stealth jet. Alex and I will be along in a minute.
Just make sure you are.
As Nestor signed off and she sensed them leave the chamber outside, a voice Sarah hoped never to hear again sounded from the direction of the meteorite fragment. The Entity.
Sarah. Join with me.
“I sense…” the computer continued in the same laboured drawl, as if every word was an effort. “The structural integrity…of the Spire…has been compromised. A fatal collapse will occur…within the next eight…minutes.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Sarah said as the alien voice spoke again.
Sarah. This is your time. It’s not too late!
She looked round at Alex, but he showed no sign of having heard anything. Bright, however, had moved so close to the light beam he was almost standing inside it. As he reached up with his hand to touch the still-spinning rock, Sarah cried out.
“Major, no! It’s not safe!”
The Entity’s voice sounded in her head for a third time. Sarah, are you really going to let Bright usurp your place beside me? How disappointing.
Oblivious to the communication from the Entity, Bright looked round at her. “Not safe?” he said. “Not safe for you, maybe.” He turned back to the meteorite and looked at it with awe in his eyes. “I thought that I had
found real power when I was first injected with the serum. How wrong I was. Now I can sense true power. When it fought us for control of the beacon…it was like being in the presence of a god.”
With that, he laid his palm on the surface of the meteorite fragment and the extraterrestrial artefact ceased to spin. Instantly, Bright’s body went rigid, as if held in the grip of an electric current. His head slowly turned to face Sarah. When his lips moved, it was the Entity who spoke:
“Sarah. This is your last chance. Join me or see your friends destroyed at the hands of the major.”
Sarah walked into the centre of the chamber. “Let him go. It’s over! The meteors are destroyed. Makarov is dead. There’s nothing left here for you now.”
Like a puppet under the control of the Entity, Bright cocked his head on one side and his features contorted into a frown. “But I am immortal. Defeat me today and I will be back tomorrow. Or next year. Or next century. I will always be here.”
“And there’ll always be someone like me to fight you,” Sarah said defiantly. “Leave earth alone.”
“Such spirit. I would have made you a queen. Ruler of the world.” Bright reached out towards her with his free hand. “To join me is to live for ever.”
Alex watched in horror as a strange, vacant look passed over Sarah’s face. She took a step towards the meteorite fragment, as if under the spell of the Entity’s hypnotic words.
Sarah…
With a cry, Alex threw himself between her and the beam, holding the trigger aloft.
“Let go of the rock, Bright!” he cried out. “I’m ending this right now! I’ll press the trigger!”
Bright pointed his hand at Alex and blue electricity shot from his fingers, blasting the boy back against the wall. With a cry of pain, Alex landed on the floor, smoke rising from his body where the electricity had touched. Bright hit him again, sending more electricity surging through his body for several seconds. The bomb trigger flew from his hand and rolled across the floor towards Sarah’s feet…
Still in a trance, she reached down and picked it up. She turned it over in her hands as if trying to remember what it was. Finally, she placed her thumb over the red button.
“Sarah, no!” the Entity screamed from Major Bright’s mouth. “You will not do it. You will—”
Her eyes became focused again. She looked at Bright and the meteorite fragment under his hand.
“Don’t ever tell me what to do,” Sarah said. “Either of you.”
She pressed the trigger.
The C4 pack strapped to the back of the meteorite was small, but as it exploded it had the effect of breaking the fragment into a thousand pieces that flew outwards in every direction. Sarah was thrown backwards by the force of the blast, shielding her face as razor-sharp shards of rock flew all around. The noise was deafening, followed by a cacophony of shattering glass and plastic caused by rock shrapnel embedding itself in the computer screens that covered the walls.
As the noise subsided, Sarah lowered her hands from her face. Her forearms were criss-crossed with tiny shrapnel cuts, but nothing serious. The floor was littered with pieces of meteorite, ranging from the size of her finger to a quarter metre in length. The beam in the centre of the room had extinguished and where the meteorite fragment once hung in suspension, there was now only empty space. There was no sign of Major Bright either. Carefully getting to her feet, Sarah took a few steps towards the centre of the room. Then she saw the major…
…sitting with his back propped against the far end of the chamber where he’d been thrown by the explosion. The position in which he’d landed was oddly casual, as if he’d merely sat down for a rest. Major Bright’s eyes shattered the illusion, however – they were blank and staring, locked on the floor between his splayed legs. A slender meteorite shard almost as long as Sarah’s forearm was embedded in the major’s chest – straight through the ribcage and into his black heart. Blood pooled across the floor from his corpse.
Sarah looked away from the horrific scene and took a deep breath. She quickly put aside her shock, however, as a vibration went through the entire building. Moving over to where Alex was lying, she checked his body to make sure that none of the flying shards had seriously injured him and then eased him into a sitting position.
“Bright?” he asked weakly as his eyes flickered open. “The Entity?”
“Both taken care of,” Sarah replied. “With one bomb. Your bomb.”
“Does this mean you trust me now?”
“I’m thinking about it,” she said wryly. The Spire shook again. She looped her arm under Alex’s and helped him to his feet. “We need to get out of here. This entire building is going to collapse.”
They moved to the main computer terminal, which had suffered the worst of the explosion – the screens were completely shattered and smoke was rising all around. As they stood before it, the computer began its final message.
“Complete…structural…collapse…in…four…minutes…”
“Do you think it’s finished uploading the virus data?” Alex asked, still leaning against Sarah for support.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Let’s get to the jet. We’ll do it the quick way.”
Robert! she called out with her mind. We need a teleport!
There was no response.
Robert!
Again nothing. Sarah exchanged a worried look with Alex. “Something’s blocking my communication with him.”
Alex felt it too. The building vibrated again and they started to the jet the long way – down the steps from the meteorite chamber and across the room with the sleeper modules, all of which were now empty. The jet was three floors above – Sarah estimated they could make it if they were fast, but Alex was still weak from the battering he’d taken. The lift was just ahead of them…
The doors slid open and a massive figure stepped out. It was broken and bloodied, but still alive and looking at them with pure malice in its thoroughly insane eyes.
Nikolai Makarov.
“Going somewhere?” he hissed.
38
Sarah and Alex backed away as Makarov advanced towards them.
“It will take more than a dive off a building to kill me,” he said.
Sarah shook her head in disbelief. “How could you…”
Makarov held up his hands – the formerly long nails on his fingers were ripped to the bone. “I’ve got a good grip,” he said. His shattered, twisted body shuffled along, completely transformed from the man Sarah had met just a few days before. Here was the price of greed and uncontrolled ambition. The price of allegiance with the Entity. Makarov must have read her expression, because he stopped in his tracks.
“You dare to pity me!” he said. “The greatest power in the universe flows through my veins!”
Sarah drew herself up and faced her attacker. “You know, Makarov, I’ve met your Entity and I’ve worked something out. You think it’s a great power, Bright thinks it’s a god, but I know what it really is. It’s a parasite. A parasite that spreads across the universe infecting every life form that it comes across.”
A ghastly grin spread across Makarov’s maw, revealing jagged, broken teeth. “You can’t fight the inevitable. You’ll join us or die.”
Now it was Sarah’s turn to smile. “Oh, didn’t you realize? We destroyed the meteor storm. And I just blew up your meteorite fragment. So no more link to the Entity for you.”
Makarov’s eyes flickered as he processed the information, then they widened with anger. He threw himself at her and Alex, teeth gnashing in a blind fury. They dodged to one side and he smashed into a sleeper casket. Makarov spun, blood pouring from his forehead. Sarah cursed inwardly: every second they were delayed brought them closer to the destruction of the building. They had to get moving.
With a howl, Makarov grabbed one of the overturned caskets and heaved it in her and Alex’s direction. They avoided the missile by ducking to the floor. The casket smashed against the wall, showering them wi
th plastic and components. Sarah grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled him back.
The voice of the computer rang out through the chamber: “Warning, complete…structural…collapse…in…three…minutes…”
“We don’t have time for this,” Alex said as Makarov circled for another attack.
Sarah felt suddenly more exhausted than she ever had in her life: the meteor storm, the Entity, Bright, and now Makarov to fight once more. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for one final battle.
“Let’s all go to hell together,” the Russian hissed, sensing her prepare.
Sarah backed away with Alex, but stopped as she sensed someone appear behind her. Looking round, she saw her brother.
“Need a lift?”
Robert threw his arms around her and Alex. The corridor faded away…
…and they teleported into the windswept chamber containing the stealth jet. The engines were powered up and humming, but the wreckage of the light aircraft they’d flown into the Spire was still lying in a crumpled mess in the centre of the runway.
Sarah grasped her brother’s hand. “Well done!”
“I had a funny feeling you needed help,” he said.
“Just over two minutes until the building comes down,” Alex reminded them, checking his watch. They stumbled towards the waiting jet.
Nestor appeared from the back. “Commander Craig is out for the count,” he said urgently. “He collapsed while he was trying to prep the jet. He isn’t going to be able to pilot.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sarah said. Leaving Nestor and Robert to help Alex on board, she ran up the steps at the back of the jet. “Octavio, Louise – get out there and clear that mess off the runway.”
As they ran past, she moved over to where Wei was crouched over the unconscious body of Commander Craig.
“There’s no way he can fly us out of here,” Wei said.
”He doesn’t have to,” Sarah replied, kneeling down and placing her palm on Craig’s cheek. In that instant she was connected with the commander’s unconscious mind – a myriad of unconnected thoughts and images. Wei watched with fascination as she took a breath and removed her hand.
