by Seth Patrick
Jonah placed his hand on the glass, and Pru looked at him. They could recognize each other’s fear.
The sound grew until he was overwhelmed by it. He sagged, leaning on the glass window and on Annabel for support.
He felt movement again, behind him. Something huge, dark and predatory loomed into his mind, then shot past. He fell to his knees, gasping for air. There was a smell, suddenly. A stench of rot.
Annabel helped him up, and he stared down into the chamber again, desperate to see.
Pru was staring at Andreas’s body. Tess was talking to her, concern in her face.
Jonah looked at Andreas. The whispering continued, words within it but hard to distinguish. The words grew louder, until at last he could make them out.
We see you, the words said.
Andreas’s hand twitched, clutching repeatedly until the arm fell from the table. One of the medical staff called out and ran across. Others joined him.
All Jonah’s strength fell away. The Elder had come through, but something had followed it.
The shadow is here.
His vision darkened. He caught Will Barlow’s face, a trace of a smile, of cold triumph. Barlow’s eyes moved up until he was looking right at Jonah.
We see you, the whisper said again.
Jonah fell.
33
‘Is he OK?’
It was the guard’s voice, impatient rather than concerned. Jonah opened his eyes and tried to stand, panicked.
‘Steady!’ said Annabel, holding him. ‘He fainted. That’s all.’
Jonah looked around, disoriented. They were in the corridor now, not the observation room.
‘They brought you out,’ explained Annabel. ‘Didn’t care for the disruption.’
Jonah was given a few moments to recover, then he and Annabel were led towards the stairwell to be taken down to their office prison. As they turned a corner, Jonah saw a group of people exit a door. Medical staff, with Tess and Pru Dryden among them, heading in the other direction.
Jonah broke away and ran towards them, the guards too slow to stop him.
‘Tess!’
She stopped, clearly tired but not distressed. Pru, on the other hand, looked ill.
‘Jonah,’ Tess said. ‘Please, stay here, I’ll talk to you in a moment.’ She continued on with the medical staff, talking to them. Jonah caught Pru’s eye, though, and she stayed where she was.
‘You heard it,’ Jonah said to her. ‘You sensed it.’
She was pale. She said nothing, lowering her head.
He leaned in and whispered to her: ‘Get out of here, Pru. Get out.’
She looked up at him, confusion and fear in her eyes, then walked on.
Tess returned. ‘You saw what happened? A reflex movement. No cause for concern.’
‘Something was there, Tess. At first, when your Elder came through, I felt something good pass through us all. It was real.’
‘And it wasn’t malevolent, Jonah.’
‘No. It wasn’t. I believe you, Tess. I believe what you told me.’ She smiled at him, still wary. ‘But after the revival … something else came through. The same thing I’d seen before, Tess. The same thing Eldridge warned you about. Couldn’t you sense it?’
Tess’s smile dropped. ‘Enough, Jonah. There was nothing. You’re wrong.’ She walked away. He didn’t think she was lying; she really hadn’t felt it. He’d assumed any reviver would have been able to, but he and Pru were the only ones who had. He wondered why. Recent exposure to the BPV variant, perhaps, or maybe the Unity process itself had damaged Tess’s abilities?
‘Pru Dryden sensed it too,’ he called, but Tess wasn’t interested. ‘Ask her. And watch Andreas, Tess. Watch him.’
Then Will Barlow emerged from the same door. He looked at Jonah, and Jonah could tell: he knew. He knew about it all. Of course he did. Who had guided the process all this time, steering everything to this point? Who had chosen the reviver for the job? It must have been a reserve group, revivers this creature could use.
Jonah wondered how long Barlow had been engineering events. The whispering that had plagued Victor Eldridge had surely been embraced by Will Barlow long ago.
Barlow walked on, then turned for a moment, smiling. For once, the smile reached his eyes, and Jonah shivered at the darkness he saw in them.
* * *
‘Christ, Never,’ said Annabel as the door was closed and locked behind them. ‘What the hell happened to you?’
There was a long angry scrape down Never Geary’s neck, dotted with red where the scrape was deep enough to bleed.
‘That’s nothing,’ Never said. ‘Get a load of this.’ He pulled up his shirt. All down one side, the same deep scratches. ‘I had to rush back. I almost got caught. It’s amazing how much faster you can move if you ignore personal safety. How did your entertainment go?’
Jonah looked him in the eye.
‘Oh shit,’ Never said.
‘But why now, Jonah?’ said Annabel. ‘They’ve done it so many times. What was different about this one?’
‘I don’t know,’ Jonah said. ‘Maybe it needed the Elder to get through. Whatever the reason, I felt the same creature again. And I think it’s inside Michael Andreas.’
* * *
By 6 p.m., Jonah was watching the clock, thinking that Andreas would surely be awake by now. The tension among the three of them was intolerable.
Then at eight, Tess came.
‘Michael wants to see you,’ she said. Jonah found himself frozen. Annabel got up. ‘Just Jonah,’ Tess added.
He looked at his friends, and they looked back. Their expressions didn’t fill him with confidence: people looking at a condemned man. ‘Wish me luck,’ he said.
With a guard in tow, Tess took Jonah up to the top floor – the sixth – in an elevator. Jonah raised an eyebrow when they emerged. What he’d seen of the building so far was tailored for use as a working research facility. The top floor was clearly the executive upgrade, luxury on display, ready to impress visitors with the sheer profitability of the whole biotech venture. The corridor they emerged into seemed huge, and was decked out in polished steel and black granite. It was broken up by obsidian double doors, all of which had been latched open. Mirrors at either end gave it the impression of stretching to infinity.
‘Did you watch him, Tess?’ Jonah asked.
She smiled at him with confidence. ‘He’s doing well. In every way.’
Jonah was keeping his eyes peeled for any rooms that might have exterior windows, in case he could see how the building was situated. Annabel had known the rough location of the facility, but if they did manage to get out, what they did next depended entirely on what surrounded the building. Busy road nearby, then no problem. Isolated, private location? Not so good. Being on the lowest floor, any glimpses outside they’d managed to steal had shown little but the corner of a parking lot and a wall of trees and shrubs.
Half way along, one spacious room had its doors open. Inside, tables were being loaded with upturned champagne glasses. Huge windows on the far wall caught his eye, a grand piano angled in front of them. Most had their blinds closed, but one gave the glimpse he needed. Buildings. Roads. Traffic. Sparse, but at least the facility wasn’t stuck out in the boondocks.
‘Champagne, huh?’ said Jonah, his voice flat. ‘Looks like Unity parties hard.’
‘We’re saying good-bye to many good friends tonight. Most of the people who’ve helped us won’t be coming to our retreat. And for those of us who are, it’s one last fling before we leave our old lives behind for good.’
He gave her a non-committal look, but there was a knot of fear in his stomach. Part of it was the thought of seeing Andreas. Part of it was fear for Tess.
They reached the door at the end of the hall. The guard walking with them stood with purpose to one side of it.
‘Please,’ said Tess to Jonah. ‘Michael’s been up talking to us all for some time now, and he needs to get some sleep before toni
ght. He wanted to see you again and apologize. You don’t appreciate how much your negativity hurts him.’
He wondered if she’d told Andreas about Jonah’s reaction after the revival. ‘I’ll be gentle.’
They entered. Andreas was lying fully clothed on top of a bed and stood when they came in.
Will Barlow was standing in the corner. He gave his usual half-smile to Jonah, but Jonah’s eyes were fixed on Andreas’s. He looked tired, certainly, but Jonah saw nothing wrong in those eyes. Nothing lurking. Maybe … maybe Tess was right.
‘Jonah,’ Andreas said, smiling. He held out a hand, but Jonah didn’t take it. It might be the only way to know, he thought, but he wasn’t ready for that.
‘If you’ll excuse me, Michael,’ said Tess. ‘I’ve got things to sort out for later. Promise me you’ll get some rest.’
‘I promise,’ Andreas said. ‘You go on.’
Jonah watched her go, not wanting to be left here on his own. The door shut behind her.
‘When do you let us go?’ Jonah asked.
Andreas sighed. He seemed nervous and disappointed. ‘Can’t you see this isn’t a bad thing, Jonah? There’s no reason to be afraid of us.’
‘When do you let us go?’
Andreas shook his head. ‘All right, all right. Tonight, Unity celebrates completion. At midnight, I’ll present myself to the others. We’ll be complete as a group for the first time and will let our old selves enjoy the moment, with a drink and a dance. Frankly, though, I’ll be begging off early and going to bed. Everyone else in Unity is ten years younger than me and right now I’m feeling it…’ The fond smile that appeared on Andreas’s face was falling on barren soil. Jonah was watching with nothing but suspicion. Andreas sighed again. ‘We leave tomorrow. You leave the next day, and you’re free to tell whoever you like. Tell them everything.’ He sat on the end of his bed and rubbed at his forehead. ‘Jonah, I wish I could explain this to you, just how important these few days have been. How important they will be. For everyone.’
‘I thought you didn’t know that yet.’
‘We … we don’t understand the importance yet, Jonah, not fully, but this … This is first contact, don’t you see? Whatever they have to tell us.’
‘First contact. With a dead race.’
‘They went to extreme lengths to preserve their knowledge for others. This will change everything, if you could just—’
‘Are you done with me?’
Andreas visibly gave up. ‘Yes.’ He stood and held out his hand again. ‘No hard feelings, Jonah. Please.’
Jonah looked at the hand. He didn’t glance Barlow’s way, but he had an uncomfortable feeling that Barlow was enjoying this.
He reached out and took Andreas’s hand in his.
Darkness.
Smoke surrounded him.
The cities are burning, a voice said.
He heard screams. The smoke began to clear.
The sight was shocking. He was in the open, a vast dark wilderness. Wind screeched around him. The sky was black. Far ahead, tall glass pillars, huge pillars that must surely be buildings but like none he’d ever seen, stood wreathed in flame.
He looked down. People running far below him. He couldn’t make out their faces, faces that didn’t make sense somehow.
A great hand reached out and down. The hand was a claw. Whatever it touched, smoke billowed from the contact. The people screamed.
Stretched out on the desolate ground before him was a vast shadow.
He wanted to turn his head and see what was casting it, but then he realized: the shadow was his own. The claw was his own. He opened his mouth and cried out, the roar of triumph enough to make the ground shake.
The shadow has come, a voice said.
Jonah released Andreas’s hand. The vision had taken only an instant, he knew. It had been raw and real, and deep fear had come with it. For the voice had been Lyssa Underwood’s, and the shadow was the creature that had spoken through Alice Decker.
The final confirmation. Tess was wrong. He looked into Michael Andreas’s eyes and the creature was there.
Andreas stared at his own hand, clenching it until the knuckles whitened.
Jonah stepped back. He looked at Will Barlow now, who was awestruck, taking in the change that had come over Andreas.
‘Is it … done?’ Barlow asked.
Andreas brought his head up slowly and turned to Barlow. ‘I’m weak,’ he said, almost trying out the words. ‘He’s strong. He resists, even though he doesn’t know it. Patience. Tomorrow. Perhaps sooner. And then always.’
Jonah watched them, frozen, dimly aware that it was Andreas’s true self that was being referred to. Barlow knelt, took Andreas’s hand and kissed the back of it.
They both turned their eyes to Jonah, eyes filled with contempt and arrogance.
Andreas faltered, then stepped back to sit on the bed.
Jonah felt the door handle at his back. Instinct told him not to turn his back to them, but a deeper instinct was shouting at him to run. ‘Whatever you are,’ he said, ‘you’ll be stopped.’
Barlow laughed. ‘Really? By what? Tess and her friends? They forgot what they were. Lost and silent in the dark, the eons stripping them of identity. I want to see their faces when they remember.’ He stepped forward.
Jonah’s fear became terror, his legs threatening to fall from under him. He turned, grabbed the door handle and yanked it open, running out straight into Tess, her hand reaching up to the door.
‘Jonah?’ she said, startled. ‘I was coming back to…’ She trailed off, looking past him, her face creasing with worry. Jonah turned and saw Andreas slumped on the edge of the bed, half-supported by Will Barlow. Andreas’s eyes were open, confused, but the creature had gone from them. For now.
‘Help me,’ said Barlow to Tess, and she ran to Andreas’s aid.
‘What –’ she started, but Barlow shot a look at Jonah.
‘It was Miller. He was ranting at him, Tess.’
Tess looked at Jonah, disappointment verging on anger.
‘Tess,’ Jonah began, ‘I have to tell you what—’
‘Don’t even start,’ she said, walking through and closing the door in Jonah’s face, leaving him in the corridor with the guard.
Jonah went to open it again, but Barlow came out, shutting it fast behind him.
Barlow spoke to the guard at the door. ‘Take him back. Lock him up. They talk to nobody, not even you, understand?’ He turned to Jonah. ‘You should be ashamed, Miller. Ashamed.’
And knowing that the guard wasn’t looking at him, Will Barlow smiled his triumph at Jonah, and in his mind Jonah could hear again the victory roar of the creature on those blackened wastelands.
* * *
When Jonah returned, Annabel half-ran to the door to embrace him. He saw the relief in her eyes, and in Never’s. Relief that he had come back at all.
As he told them what had happened, their faces lost colour with every word.
‘Andreas – the real Andreas – is fighting it,’ he said. ‘The moment that fight is lost, I think we’re out of time. How’s your plan, Never?’
‘It’s all we have, is how it is. We wait until the building’s at its quietest, say three or four. Then we cross every finger. Jonah, what the fuck is Andreas? The vision you had – was that of what’s going to happen?’
Jonah thought of the huge glass pillars on fire, and of the faces below him that he couldn’t make sense of. ‘I think that happened a very long time ago, Never. The cataclysm Andreas spoke of. When their own world was destroyed.’
‘“Knowledge preserved”,’ Annabel said. ‘That was how Andreas put it. Warnings for those who would listen. Perhaps the warnings were about this creature.’
‘Well,’ said Never. ‘That’s a brilliant fucking warning.’
Jonah shook his head. ‘They were out there longer than we can imagine. Maybe they were a lighthouse, there to warn others off. But after long enough, after they forgot thei
r own purpose…’
‘They became a beacon,’ said Annabel. ‘Drawing us in.’
* * *
They waited. All Jonah’s requests to speak to Tess were ignored.
They turned out their light and pretended to sleep, waiting in fear as midnight approached, the time Andreas would present himself to the Unity group.
‘If ever there was ominous timing,’ Never said as the hour came and went.
Jonah wondered if Andreas was still himself. Tomorrow, the creature had said. Perhaps sooner. And then always.
They could hear the guard posted outside their locked door, laughing with other guards; cans of beer opening, relaxing as the end of their odd assignment drew to a close. Payday getting nearer.
At one in the morning, the guards discussed doing building rounds. Every hour on the half hour, they said, and sure enough at one-thirty the guard outside the door left, returning after fifteen minutes. The same thing happened an hour later.
When the guard left at three-thirty they made their move.
They quickly stuffed their sleeping bag decoys. With Never taking the lead, the up-and-over into the neighbouring office was fast and quiet, a feeling of edgy commitment in the air as they took their turns.
The plan was simple enough. They would make their way to a store room Never had noted while being led to the showers, and jury-rig a small fire in a trash can or other container to create as much smoke as they could manage.
They waited until they were certain there was nobody around before moving from the office.
Jonah took the door handle and was about to open it.
‘Wait,’ whispered Never. Jonah stayed still, listening. A moment later he heard it too. Footsteps. He did as he was told and waited. The office they stood in was dark, and his face was in shadow, but he had a good view of the corridor. A woman walked past, white-coated and purposeful.
‘Late worker?’ he said. There was something familiar about the woman but he couldn’t place her. Striking features. Almost beautiful, but her eyes too close together, her nose too long and thin. He shrugged off the feeling; shrugged off too the mild hint of thirst that followed it.
