The operations room looked worse from a standing up position. The conference table had been tossed onto its side and was broken into several large pieces. From his trapped position he hadn’t been able to see past it, but now he could see that the girl at the far end of the room hadn’t fared as well as he had. The wall behind her had blasted apart, sending blocks of concrete straight at her: she wouldn’t have stood a chance. Her ragged body lay broken on the floor, her lifeless eyes open and staring.
Cindy and Thadeus didn’t seem to have suffered quite like the dead girl. He hurried over to Cindy and carefully brushed away the dust that had settled on her face. She was breathing quickly in shallow breaths. Bits of ceiling were strewn all around so it was impossible to tell what damage she’d had done to her. Remarkable constitution or not, Max wouldn’t put money on her surviving without some medical intervention.
He approached Thadeus with caution. The gun he’d used on Emma was nowhere to be seen but even so, Max knew the man didn’t need a weapon to be dangerous. With the toe of his shoe, he lifted the arm away from Thadeus’s face. He was unconscious but very much alive. Not bothering to check any further, he moved onto Irulal. At first, it took his mind a second to take it in. It was fair to say that she hadn’t come off as lightly as Thadeus. Her top half, from the waist up, was propped against the wall opposite the door, whilst her lower half was trapped across the room under a section of ceiling. She must have dragged herself there after the explosion, but then passed out from the injury.
Max reached out a hand to feel for a pulse. It trembled and he cursed his nerves. A cigarette would be fantastic right now. She looked so still, so innocent. He doubted this was how she had intended to check out. An ignoble death amongst aliens, far away from her people.
“Give us a hand would you,” a woman’s voice from the other side of the room called out. Max hurried to a pile of debris, and hunted for the source of the voice.
“I don’t see you.”
“Over here. Something’s over my face.”
Max followed the woman’s voice to the corner of the room, and found Linwood lying trapped under a chair. He lifted the chunks of concrete that was trapping the chair, and carefully helped Linwood to her feet.
Despite the damage to the room, Linwood seemed pretty cool and collected about it. Her hair was covered in dust and her skin a ghostly grey.
“Thank you,” she said. “You’re Max Harding right?”
Max raised an eyebrow. “You’re Linwood? Working for Thadeus?”
“Not exactly,” she said shaking her head. “I’m the woman who’s got to put away the toys. Linwood, Alice Linwood.”
“MI18?”
Now it was Linwood’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “You’ve heard of us?”
Max raised his hands in mock surprise. “I’m standing inside your secret base. It didn’t take much deduction to be honest. What in god’s name happened? What caused the explosion?”
Linwood stepped over to one of the walls. Exposed cabling and heavy trunking hung out through the new holes. “The power conduits have been overloaded.”
“Have you lot never heard of fuses.”
She didn’t smile. Max wondered if she realised he was making a joke.
“Who would do that?” Max asked. “One of your team?”
“Unlikely,” Linwood shrugged. “Too delicate a system to tinker with it. This place doesn’t have your typical power system. It’s complicated.”
“Your entire base is complicated. Take for instance the size of this place. I think we’re under the lake, but then again, it’s so impossibly large I’m not even sure we’re still under Southport.”
“Best not to think about it.”
“And those guns you carry. No weapon fires like they do. The technology just doesn’t exist.”
“So, what’s your point?”
“It’s alien.”
Linwood laughed. “So because you don’t understand something, you assume it’s alien?”
“Well, not everything I don’t understand, no. But I am standing in a room with a dead alien and a man who can flow silver from his body. I’ve suddenly become less sceptical.”
“Yes,” she said.
“Yes?”
“Yes, it’s alien. We put to use everything we can from whatever alien technology we get our hands on. It’s what’s kept our friend over there locked up all these years. Without it, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
Max’s head was spinning. Despite his guesswork, he hadn’t really expected the woman to admit it. He’d been hoping for a rational explanation, not confirmation that the Earth wasn’t alone in the universe.
“We need some medical help. My wife’s unconscious and her breathing’s all wrong. And then there’s Thadeus over there. He’s alive—” but before he could elaborate, Linwood raised her gun and fired a blast of white energy at the prone figure. The man glowed an intense white and when the light was gone, something about the way the man was now lying, told Max that Thadeus was dead.
“You weren’t friends with him either then.”
“He killed Emma. A lot of people have died because of him.”
Max nodded, and Linwood stepped closer to the dead alien instead.
“Are you sure she’s dead?” said Max. “She was shot earlier, lots of times, but she recovered.”
Again the gun came up and a blast of light spat out of the end. The body glowed even brighter than it had when Thadeus had been dispatched; Max realised with horror that the girl’s body was dissolving, melting away into a silver metallic substance.
“What’s happening?” Max said stepping away from the body.
“I don’t know,” said Linwood, her voice tainted with panic.
Instinctively, Max hurried backwards, scrambling away from the burning white body. Then the light vanished. His eyes blinked away the after image and it took him a moment before he could take a good look at what was left. But, the body had been vaporised.
“Is your execution spree finished now or are you moving onto civilians?”
“She was too dangerous to contain.”
“Why contain her? What was she going to do? Maybe she just wanted to leave.”
“It doesn’t matter. She was too much of a liability. We tried to work with her last time and she murdered several of my team when she escaped. She doesn’t think like we do. There’s no compassion there. Believe me, we’ve got off lightly.”
Max went over to Cindy. “If you think we’ve got off lightly, you don’t understand what compassion is.” Cindy’s breathing was still ragged but it didn’t seem any worse than a few minutes ago. “Cindy, can you hear me?” But Cindy seemed to be out for the count. “Irulal said she’d been doing work for Thadeus. Did you know that?”
“No,” Linwood replied. “Irulal was supposed to be dead. I thought she died a long time ago.”
“I got that. Thadeus thought he’d killed her?”
“Yes.”
“But where did she come from originally?”
“Her ship crashed. Debris washed up on the shore and we retrieved it. She was amongst the wreckage.”
“What kind of ship? Like a space ship?”
“Yes. She was one of the crew. She was injured and we took her into the base to treat her.”
“And you were able to patch her up?”
“Alien physiology isn’t easy. We had to make a lot of guesses, but she didn’t die on us, so we guessed we’d done something right.”
“So, all that’s happened now, is down to you and your team.”
Linwood glared at him.
“You have no idea. It’s oh so easy for you to judge me but you’ve been here for what? A couple of hours? I’ve been in this team for the best part of twenty years. So, what, you’ve seen a few things that have shook you up over the last couple of days. It’s nothing compared to what this team has been through. There are things out there that you don’t want to even pretend exist, because whatever you might dream
up in your nightmares is nothing compared to the real thing. The sky is full of nightmares and it’s people like me and Emma and Thadeus who have been placed to protect you. So, don’t judge me.”
Max didn’t know what to say. It sounded crazy. But he’d seen crazy today. He’d ran from crazy in the police station; he’d seen crazy at Sylvia’s house.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“’Thank you’ would be a start.”
“Thanks.”
She humphed and took a phone from her pocket. “No signal.”
Max bent and picked up Cindy, careful to support her head. Her breathing was no worse but she was very still. He didn’t like it.
“Show me the way out,” said Max, then seeing a steely look in Linwood’s face added, “please.”
Max followed Linwood as she walked the corridors. Ceilings were missing pieces and a few walls had been blown out like they had in the conference room and again Max wondered why the place hadn’t flooded.
“What were Irulal and Thadeus working on?” Max asked. “And what was that about releasing nanites?”
She stopped in the corridor. The shadows and lighting on her face made her look like she belonged in the dark.
Linwood hesitated. “I’ve been stupid. I should never have let him off his leash.”
“But they never finished the work. Irulal said as much. Thadeus never got the codes he needed.”
“No. But, she had a helper with freedom to come and go as she pleased.”
Max glanced at Cindy, getting heavier by the second in his arms. “I’m trying to keep up, but you’re way ahead of me.”
“They’ve released nanites. They must be inactive or we’d have started to see the effects by now. So that means they haven’t received any code yet. But, Irulal was up to something. She was working to her own plan at the end, Thadeus was irrelevant, but she would have needed someone who had access to the base and freedom outside. It seems that your wife was that someone. Maybe it was Cindy that overloaded the power systems.”
Max considered that possibility. How long had Cindy been wandering around the base before he’d come across her.
“But what good was Cindy?”
“She’s brought bodies to the base.”
“I’ve seen them.”
“The bodies have been infected and reprogrammed. The faceless people that attacked the police station must have come from here.”
“You can’t just reprogram people.”
“Not the people. The nanites inside the people.”
Her words started to sink in.
“But Thadeus said that they’d been releasing nanites into the population for years. Are we all infected?”
Linwood shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve no idea. He had no reason to lie.”
“Does that mean we’re all going to become faceless zombies?”
“The blanks who attacked the police station were not zombies. They were acting under instruction.”
“They were trying to kill me.”
Linwood raised an eyebrow. “Really? I presumed they just wanted to disrupt the police force. Create a massive distraction.”
“That’s not what it seemed like. They hunted me. And they were only the first.”
He told her about what had happened with Sylvia and again with Carla.
“The phone calls. They all got phone calls?”
“Yes. I spoke to someone.” Max tried to remember the voice he’d heard on the phone at Sylvia’s house. “I think it was Irulal.”
“She’s had access to the phone network.” Linwood looked like she’d just made a connection. “We need to get out of here. I’ve got to speak to Payne.”
“DI Payne?” Max shifted Cindy in his tired arms, and started along the corridor again.
“Yes, and yes I know that you know him. You’ll have the chance to catch up on old times as soon as we get to the surface. He’ll be waiting for me at the hatch.”
44
When Linwood unlocked and pushed open the hatch by the pier, Payne was waiting for her. Max clambered out after her.
“Are you going to arrest me?” Max asked Payne, standing before him like a petulant child before the headmaster.
“I think circumstances have moved on.” Payne patted Max on his shoulder.
“My wife’s at the bottom of the ladder. She’s hurt.”
Payne called over to a woman Max didn’t recognise. “Carter, are those paramedics still sat on their arses? Tell them to get down here. They’re going to need a stretcher and some lifting equipment.”
Carter called back. “I’ll get them,” she shouted.
“How are you?” Payne asked.
“Fine,” Max replied. “Wouldn’t say no to a smoke though.”
Payne shook his head. “Looking at you, the last thing you need is a lungful of smoke.” Then he turned to look at Linwood. “What the hell did you do?”
“It wasn’t us. Someone sabotaged the power systems.”
“Where’s Thadeus?”
“Dead.”
Payne nodded like that was the most reasonable thing he’d heard. “Are you OK? Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“You’re working together now?” Max asked cautiously.
“Pooling resources,” said Payne.
“I take it you don’t believe I killed Heather now?”
“Do you know who did?”
“It was Cindy. She’s able to impersonate me. I don’t know how.”
“Do you have any answers?” Payne said, looking straight at Linwood.
“Later, we’ve got work to do back at HQ,” then to Max she turned and said “You should get yourself checked over by the medics.”
Max wasn’t going to argue and made his way to the waiting ambulance. He breathed a great big lungful of icy air that chilled his throat. The lake’s surface rippled and broke the moon into silver daggers. Max shivered as he recalled the dripping he’d heard whilst trapped in the operations room.
Two ambulances had reversed down the slip-road and already Cindy had been taken away in one of them with Carter to keep guard over her.
He took some water from a paramedic and let her examine him whilst he stared out through the open doors of the ambulance. Payne huddled in conversation with Linwood, Nixon leaned against a pier leg and spoke into a mobile phone.
Max strained to hear Payne’s conversation but failed to hear a single word. Payne wiped his hand through his hair and shifted his weight from foot to foot. Linwood gesticulated and Max understood she was urging them to leave. Payne seemed unsure but he suddenly looked up at Nixon and with Linwood still in mid-flow, strode over and plucked the mobile out of Nixon’s hand.
Max stepped out of the ambulance, ignoring the protests from the paramedic.
Payne addressed Max, “shouldn’t you be going to the hospital?”
“I can help. What’s going on?”
Payne glanced at Linwood who shrugged her shoulders.
“You said there were phone calls when the blanks attacked?”
“Yes.”
“And each time, either the person taking the call was converted, or you were on the phone?”
“Yes. Linwood said it was Irulal. I think I spoke to her.”
Payne’s eyebrows knitted together in a furious tangle.
“The incident at Ainsdale yesterday? You’re aware of it?”
“Yes. A few people blacked out.”
“We found some unusual equipment at the telephone exchange at Ainsdale.”
“What do you mean, unusual?”
“It was growing inside a switching cabinet.”
“And you think that caused the blackout?”
“It’s our best guess.”
“It’s not a guess. It’s the only explanation,” Linwood said, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “I think someone working for Irulal—quite possibly Cindy—planted that equipment there. A signal was sent, and it caused the blackout.�
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“How could it do that?”
“You said that Thadeus had released nanites into the population—alien nanites, and they are waiting for an activation signal.”
Max scratched the stubble on his chin. “Irulal wasn’t ready. She didn’t have a cure.”
“She wasn’t working on a cure.”
“But why are you so bothered about a signal?”
Linwood sighed. “You told me she was working on something else. Something that Thadeus didn’t know about.”
“The Ainsdale exchange? It seems a little small scale for her, causing a blackout. Why?”
Payne spoke up. “But what if it was deliberately small scale? A trial run for something grander? She’s already demonstrated that she’s able to interact with the phone networks.”
Max’s mind raced. “She can blank people, convert them over the phone network. But, if she can affect people with the use of the networks, and the networks reach everyone—”
Linwood nodded. “That’s right. They’d be no hiding from her.”
“How many people have these nanites in them do you think?” Payne asked.
For a moment, no one spoke.
“Is she going to kill everyone? Convert us all to blanks?” Max said.
“It would be an impressive army.” Payne said.
Linwood looked doubtful. “What would she want with an army? That’s not her style. We’re missing something. We should go back to headquarters.”
“Shouldn’t we be going back down there and securing things?” Payne said.
“I’ll seal the hatch. Post some men here and that will do for now.” Linwood said.
“But, there are dead bodies down there. An alien dead body come to that.”
“Well they won’t mind us leaving them for a while then. We need to get back to the operations centre at HQ. I’m going to disable the phone networks.”
Max frowned. “You can’t do that.”
“I can. It should be straightforward. We can’t take any chances.”
“But she’s dead isn’t she?” Payne asked.
“You’re missing the point. You found one device at one telephone exchange. How many more did she plant? Who’s to say the signal isn’t already in the network, waiting to be transmitted?”
The Face Stealer Page 26
