“Sorry. This is all weird. I think I’m in shock. But I really do want to kiss you. Right now.”
She ducked towards John, seeking his lips, but he withheld them.
“Your timing’s terrible,” he told her, standing and pulling her up after him. “I have to use this ore now. And we’ll have to hole up in the basement. Once Dmitri’s body is found… Though I hope Valery will have the sense to try and keep things quiet. They’re here on false passports, after all.”
“We’ll get arrested.”
“Not if we stay in the basement until the machine is complete. And I can handle the police. Trust me.”
“That man’s dead,” Mimi said, as if it had only just occurred to her.
“He’s no loss to the world, believe me.”
John was dragging her down the stairs now, heading for the basement with grim determination.
Once the lights were on, Luana rose up from her corner cot, red-eyed and anxious.
“I have it,” he said to her, and she subsided with a sigh of relief, reburying herself under the blankets.
Mimi sat down on the chair John had secured her to on that memorable day and watched him busy himself with circuitry and computer coding. The mysterious ore which had caused so much fuss was crumbled between his fingers and rubbed on some filaments, causing the machine to start hissing.
“So close now,” muttered John, intent. “So close. Almost there. But I need time. They’re getting nearer.”
“Who are?” Mimi asked, still trembling to her considerable irritation.
“The Rixxar. On the outskirts of Neptune. They won’t take much longer. I have perhaps two days to get this machine working and the ozone layer fixed.”
“Two days?”
“That’s right. Hunker down, Miranda. It’s going to be a long forty-eight hours.”
Anna had no appetite for the cornflakes, and not just because of morning sickness. Her head had been a raging, aching mess since that first twinge on Liam’s sofa the night before last, and now she could barely see straight to read the headlines in the paper.
“That’s a weird story, isn’t it?” Liam commented, reading over her shoulder as he set a glass of orange juice down on the table beside the cornflakes bowl. “Dead body found in a laundry hamper at the Park Lane Hotel. No sign of the man he was sharing the room with. False ID. Do you think it was a crime of passion and the lover has fled the country?”
“No idea,” said Anna weakly. “It says they had a visitor to their hotel room, who gave the name of Valent Draxxar. What sort of name is that? Albanian or something?”
Liam shrugged. “Love triangle, if you ask me. One of those groups that like to nail each other’s dicks to a plank or something. Sex game that got out of hand.”
But Anna wasn’t listening. Her face had taken on that stony cast Liam sometimes noticed, and her eyes were far away.
“Valent Draxxar,” she repeated.
“Yeah. What about him?”
“When I said that, something twinged. Inside. Valent Draxxar. It happened again.”
“Do you need a doctor?” Liam was nonplussed.
“No…I need…John.”
“What?”
“I need to be near him.” She turned around to Liam, her eyes huge with fear. “I don’t know why. I just have to go to him. It’s the baby—it’s making me…”
Liam’s heart sank. “Anna, he doesn’t want you.”
“I know, but he wants the baby. And the baby wants him…needs him.”
She pushed the chair back and stood, seeking her handbag.
“I don’t think you’re thinking straight—”
“I know I’m not,” Anna said, on the verge of tears. “It’s not rational. It’s just…I can’t fight it. I have to go to him. He’s in danger. We’re in danger.”
“What has he done to you?” whispered Liam, but he had already picked his jacket up off the back of the chair and was dialling work to call in sick.
“I think I’ve got it. I think.”
John’s breath was short now; unshaven and red of eye, he wrote lines of code in a frenzy while the room hummed and throbbed around him.
“I’ve made pancakes,” Mimi offered. “You should eat.”
“I don’t need to eat. I need to finish this. Give the pancakes to Mother. Shit, they’ve passed Mars.”
Luana and Mimi munched the pancakes in silence. Luana was suffering terribly, her whole body constricted and rigid with tension.
“They won’t find us.” Mimi softly reassured the other woman.
“How you know? You know nothing of the Rixxar. They will find. And we will wish for death. They won’t kill us. They will keep us alive and in torment. That is their way.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“She’s sure,” John snapped. “Before we escaped we were hooked up to brainwave suppressors. They intensify pain and inhibit any kind of comforting chemical process. They took great pleasure in telling us that they would keep us connected to this device for the rest of our lives, keeping the level just below that which would induce unconsciousness, drip-feeding us so that we couldn’t escape by way of death. This would continue until I agreed to design a weapon that would obliterate worlds. Something I’m capable of, but not particularly keen to do.”
“Christ. Alien sadists.”
“Indeed. So you see what we’re up against.”
“I think I’m beginning to.”
Mimi swallowed hard, contemplating her perception of John, and how it was changing.
He glanced at her swiftly before returning to his engineering, and she thought she saw a speck of weary gratitude.
“You see that it was hard to understand why you were doing what you were doing, though,” she ventured. “And I still don’t get your urge to procreate. Couldn’t you leave it until the Rixxar were out of the equation, and find a girl who wanted you?”
“Time is of the essence,” muttered John. “If they take me, they won’t necessarily know about or take Anna. There is still a chance that Draxxar blood will survive.”
“It still sucks, what you did to her.”
John sighed.
“Do you want me to send her a bunch of flowers? What can I do about this now, Miranda? I’ve had to second-guess your human values since I arrived here. I got a few things wrong. It’s hard to learn a new language.”
“A new language?” Mimi was intrigued by John’s explanation, giving, as it did, the impression that perhaps he might be able to learn human mores after all. “Do you think you’re getting better at the new language?”
“Let’s say I’m still learning. But it’ll all be for nothing if the Rixxar make it through the ozone hole, which they will do in approximately forty minutes, so if you don’t mind, sit down and shut up.” He flashed her a tight smile, and she slumped back on Luana’s makeshift bed, trying to work up some appetite for the pancakes.
A frantic banging from the door upstairs filtered down into the basement. Mimi stiffened, half expecting it to be the Rixxar, or perhaps the police, investigating the goings-on at the Park Lane Hotel, even though John had reassured her about using a false name. All the same, they were bound to have CCTV, and it wouldn’t take long before he was identified.
“Oh God,” she said with an audible wobble. “Who’s that?”
“It’s Anna,” John answered without looking up.
“Anna?”
“Send her away. The last place she should be is with me. She needs to be as far away as possible. Tell her to use our joint account to take a flight abroad, somewhere sunny.”
“John, I can’t—”
“Just get rid of her.”
His tone of exasperated menace brought her to her feet and she stomped upstairs with bad grace.
Skirting round the side of the house, she found Anna and Liam squabbling on the porch.
“Hello,” she said guardedly, horribly aware that they probably hated her.
“You the new mistress o
f the house then?” asked Liam. “Nice gig, Mimi. Nice way to treat your best friend.”
She exhaled and squared her shoulders.
“I wish I could explain, I really do. There is so much you don’t know about Stone. I’m involved in this up to my neck, but there’s a lot I regret, and mostly it’s the way you’ve been treated, Anna.”
“I’m just collateral damage then,” Liam sniffed.
“Oh, stop whining,” she snapped. “Bloody obvious to anyone with half a brain that it’s Anna you want anyway.”
Anna and Liam shared a wild exchange of glances before glaring at Mimi once again.
“I need to see John,” Anna stated.
“I’m afraid he’s busy.”
“What are you, his secretary? You decide when he can and can’t see his wife? Back off, Mimi. I’m carrying his child. I have a right to see him.”
“Yes,” Mimi agreed, aiming hard for a conciliatory tone. “You do. But right now, he is unavailable. And, more than that, you’re in danger.”
“What? What the fuck? Mimi, you’re making this up!” Liam was scornful, but Anna’s face had paled and she seemed to understand that Mimi was not lying.
“What sort of danger? I’ve had this kind of awful feeling…”
“There are…forces…that are out to get John. They are getting close. If you are near him, they will take you down too. I’m sorry this all sounds so vague, but please believe me, you need to get away.”
“Get away?”
“For your sake, and the sake of the child. You have access to John’s money. Use it. Buy a ticket to Australia and lie low. Take Liam if you want. John won’t mind.”
Mimi was inventing John’s sanction for that part of the offer, but she was prepared to do whatever was necessary to get Anna safe.
Liam put a hand on Anna’s arm. “Australia?”
“Yes. You want to go there, don’t you? I remember you telling me you’d love to be a surfer dude. Here’s your chance. Take it. Let John pay for it.”
“Anna?” He turned to her, his eyebrows raised in hopeful query. Surely, Mimi thought, he would see that this is the most brilliant way imaginable to get her away from Stone and into his arms.
“But can’t I see him?” she whispered, strain clear in her voice.
“I know you don’t trust me, and you have good reason not to, but I am totally serious, Anna. I love you, I care for you and I want you out of danger. If you are away from John, you stand a much better chance than if you stay in London.”
“But why? Who are these people?”
“Anna, there just isn’t time to explain,” moaned Mimi. “Go to Heathrow. Get on the first plane to Oz. We’ll meet again sometime, and I can tell you everything then. But you must protect yourself and your baby.”
Mimi hoped beyond hope that she was projecting enough sincere desperation and fear to convince her friend.
“Anna, it’s a good idea,” urged Liam. “And you need to get away from him. After the way he’s treated you. A good holiday is the least you deserve.”
Anna convulsed in pain, bracing an arm beneath her stomach.
“If I get away, will this stop?” she asked, tears spilling from her eyes.
“I don’t know. But it will help.”
She turned to Liam. “Will you come with me?”
He bent down and put an arm around her. “Try and stop me.”
“You got rid of her?” asked John, terse as could be.
Mimi nodded.
“Is she leaving the country?”
“Uh-huh. Australia.”
“Australia. Good.”
“Liam’s going with her.”
John’s machinations halted for a moment as he shot Mimi a look of pure distaste.
“Liam? That useless berk is supposed to take care of my wife? He couldn’t defend a point of view, let alone my child.”
“I think you underestimate him. He hasn’t had to step up to the mark before, but he will. He loves Anna, you know.”
“Hmm.” John’s machine began to chug and roar. “I should warn the people of Earth about this really…but I just don’t have time.”
“What will it do?”
“In about half an hour, it will send beams of restorative ozone up to patch the holes in the sky. It won’t hurt anyone, but it might look a little alarming.”
“Do we have half an hour? Should we be reinforcing this bunker?”
“If they get through before this finishes its work, no reinforcement on Earth will keep them back,” John replied, grim.
Mimi went to stand beside him, staring at the strange-looking console, trying to contain her unruly thoughts.
“So,” she said softly, reaching and touching one of his hands. “This could be our last half hour…”
“Oh, you’ll be fine,” he said, brushing her off. “You haven’t mated, or conceived by me. They won’t want you.”
“Then if they take you, I’ll try and fight them.”
“Don’t make me laugh. What can you do?”
“I’d do anything and everything I could.”
“What, write a little story in your little paper? Thanks, but I don’t think that’ll cut it for the Rixxar.”
“John, don’t be so… Look, if they take you, I’ll be…I don’t know what I’ll do. I can’t bear to think of it.”
He softened a little, looking down at her.
“I’m touched. I think. Not sure how that’s supposed to feel, but something like this, I imagine.”
He took her hand and squeezed it, then held her against his chest. She threw her arms around his neck and sought his lips with hers, but he turned his face away.
“Not in front of my mother, eh?” he murmured. “Once the hole is fixed and the Rixxar deflected—then we have limitless time for all that.”
Mimi let herself be held for as long as she could, needing the contact and the warmth and the feeling of him, in case it never came again.
“All that,” she echoed. “When they’ve gone, John, I want to teach you our language. I want to teach you all the irregular verbs and conjugations, all the idioms and tense formations. By the time I’m finished you’ll be fluent. We’ll be able to speak together without any kind of barrier of understanding. Oh, I want that so much.”
John kissed the top of her head. “I want it too.”
He raised his voice. “Right, all we can do now is wait and hope. Mother. Are you all right?”
She moaned in reply, and he went to join her on the bed, holding her close, while Mimi rubbed his shoulders and nuzzled into his nape.
Up on surface level, people looked up and shielded their eyes from the strange beams that shot into the sky. The air did not change colour, but rather seemed to thicken in texture, so that parts of sky frosted over like shower doors.
The police investigating the mysterious disappearance of the murdered corpse of the false-passport carrying Russian were interrupted in their questioning of the night porter, stopping to look out through the hotel window at what was happening.
Rodney Merchant, in a meeting at a City penthouse apartment, raised an eyebrow that was as impressed as it was surprised. So there had been something in what Stone had been saying. Now he could await either the apocalypse or further millions in the bank.
Liam and Anna, on the Piccadilly line to Heathrow, did not see any of it, but Anna felt a stab of pain so intense that she moaned loudly, alarming Liam into rubbing her shoulders for her.
Chapter Thirteen
John leapt up and hunched over his machine, frowning.
“Has it worked?” Mimi queried tentatively, following him.
He put fingertips to his forehead, breathing heavily, then pressed the same button over and over, as if willing it to change the reaction this precipitated.
“John?”
“It’s worked,” he muttered.
“That’s…good?”
“I think…I think…no. The first one got through. Rixxar One is here. Somewher
e.”
Luana gave a high-pitched shriek of despair.
“Mother, Mother, he’s alone. It’s just him. The rest of them were shut out by the ozone layer. He can’t take us back.”
“But he can kill us!”
“He can’t kill us. He doesn’t have my matter transference device. He can only manifest here as…particles. He might be able to find us, but that’s all he can do.”
“And he can’t get away?” asked Mimi. “He is stuck here—as are you and your mother?”
“To all intents and purposes.” John turned away from the monitor at last and faced Mimi frankly. “But he might have honed his weapons since our escape. He may have arms at his disposal I have not yet experienced.”
“What can we do, Valent?” Luana was more haggard than ever.
“Wait.” He shrugged. “I don’t suppose it’ll be long before he tries to make contact. That pain in our heads… If he comes close enough, it will sharpen.”
Mimi fished into her handbag for paracetamol, but John shook his head.
“That won’t work. Do you feel it at all?”
“Slightly. A vague headache, that’s all.”
“Your link is weak. Anna will be feeling it. I hope she gets away.”
It was the first time Mimi had heard John express any kind of positive feeling for his wife; paradoxically, it made him more attractive to her.
“What will the Rixxar do?” she asked, reaching for John’s hand. He took hers and squeezed it absentmindedly, still focused on his monitor.
“He will try and find a way to get Mother and me back to our planet. Your fellow planetarians meanwhile will go to work on destroying my ozone patches. It will take a few years, but they’ll get there in the end. And then the Rixxar will return in full force.”
“Can’t you just repeat this process?”
“Yes. But that ore is expensive. And Rixxar One will do what he can to prevent us.”
“When will we hear from him?”
“I don’t know.” John raked his hands through his hair. “Perhaps never. All we can do is wait.”
“I can’t shift this headache.”
Anna leaned into Liam as they stood in the queue to check in their luggage—not that they had much. They had thrown a few essentials into one suitcase, reasoning that John’s credit card could pay for anything lacking once they made it onto antipodean soil.
Under His Influence Page 20
