Web of Fire Bind-up

by Steve Voake

  Much later, as they lay on a bed of leaves in the warm darkness, Sam looked up at the palm fronds waving gently in the night breeze and realised that he was thinking about Odoursin and what was going to happen.

  ‘Skipper?’ he whispered.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘You know the Darkness that Firebrand talked about?’

  ‘What darkness?’

  ‘You know – Vermia, Odoursin, all of that.’

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘Do you think he’ll win?’

  ‘No,’ said Skipper. ‘Do you?’

  ‘No,’ said Sam. ‘I mean I don’t know. I hope not. But all this stuff about the Dreamwalker’s Child rising up against the Darkness. To be honest, I’m not sure I believe it. What could I do against someone like that?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Skipper. ‘But then things don’t always turn out as we expect. You of all people should know that.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Sam, ‘I guess I should, shouldn’t I?’

  There was silence for a while, and when at last he spoke again his voice sounded careful and sad.

  ‘You know the thing that really scares me? It isn’t Odoursin or his marsh dogs, or anything like that.’

  ‘What is it then?’ asked Skipper.

  ‘It’s you, Skipper,’ said Sam.

  ‘Me?’ said Skipper gently. ‘Why me? I’m your friend, Sam, remember?’

  ‘I know,’ said Sam, ‘and that’s what scares me. These past few weeks… well, I’ve had some of the best times ever… some of the scariest too, but definitely some of the best.’

  He swallowed hard and looked across at where she was turning a pebble over in her fingers.

  ‘You’re the best friend I ever had, Skipper. You taught me how to keep going when everything seemed lost. But now – now I’ve got this strange feeling that everything’s going to change again. And the thing is, I don’t want it to, Skipper. I don’t want it to be over.’

  In the darkness, Skipper reached for his hand. ‘Nor do I,’ she said simply.

  At first, Sam wasn’t sure if he had imagined the sound or dreamt it. He turned to check on Skipper, but could tell by her deep, regular breathing that she was fast asleep.

  He rubbed his eyes, sat up and peered into the darkness.

  There it was again: a rustling sound, as if something was moving through the undergrowth. There was definitely something out there.

  ‘Who’s there?’ he called in a terrified whisper, hardly daring to speak. ‘Who is it?’ He felt the hairs standing up on the back of his neck and he shivered. Don’t let it end here, he thought. Not here. Not now.

  And then an odd thing happened. It was as though all the cold fear inside of him suddenly warmed, melted and dissolved into a liquid heat that coursed through his body and filled him with a strange happiness. He couldn’t explain it. But all the dark worries and fears that had filled the depths of his sleep were at once swept away, and he felt the excitement of a small child once again, creeping down the stairs on Christmas morning to see what magic had been woven during the night.

  Without another thought he rose from his bed and began to walk in the direction of the sound, pushing his way through cool green leaves until at last he found that he was standing on the beach in front of the lake.

  The three coloured moons hung low in the sky. Their reflection shimmered brightly upon the surface of the water, bathing the whole landscape in a strange, eerie light.

  For a long time there was only silence.

  Then Sam realised that someone was standing beside him.

  He turned and saw that it was a man dressed in a simple woollen robe. Sam felt sure that he must be quite old, but it was hard to know for certain. His long dark hair was interwoven with silken threads of red and gold and he wore a necklace of green stones. Set into his left earlobe was the tiniest of sapphires.

  ‘Hello, Sam,’ he said. ‘I have been waiting for you.’

  He put his hand on top of Sam’s head and Sam felt as though a door inside him had been flung open after a long, dark winter. Every hidden corner was bathed in brilliant sunshine and all the dust, dirt and decay that had accumulated over the years was carried away on the heat of a summer wind. It was the most wonderful feeling.

  ‘Come and walk beside me,’ said the man.

  ‘How do you know my name?’ Sam said after they had gone a short distance.

  ‘I have always known you,’ replied the man, ‘and I have always been with you, although you may not have recognised me.’

  ‘Was it you on the marshes?’ asked Sam as they continued along the shore. ‘Was it you who changed me when I first arrived?’

  ‘I may have altered the way others saw you for a while. But I could never change you, Sam. Real change can only come from the choices that you make.’

  ‘Who are you?’ whispered Sam.

  ‘My name is Salus,’ replied the man, adding with a smile, ‘for now at least.’

  It was the oddest thing, but although Sam was certain that he had never met him before, this man didn’t feel in the least bit like a stranger. It was as though Sam had known him all his life.

  ‘Are you part of the Olumnus?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Part of the Olumnus?’ Salus repeated, and Sam noticed a twinkle in his eye. ‘No, I am not part of the Olumnus.’ He smiled and then added, ‘The Olumnus are part of me, and so are you. But perhaps we will not speak of these matters just yet. There will come a time when you are ready to understand such things, but for now we must concern ourselves with the present.’

  There was silence for a while as they walked along by the water’s edge.

  Then Salus spoke again. ‘You have done well, Sam. You and your companion have borne your troubles with great courage, and she has a strong heart for one so small. But, you know, these are times of great danger and there is still much work to be done.’

  Sam stopped and turned to look at him. ‘Please tell me,’ he said quietly. ‘Will I ever go home?’

  ‘Do you want to?’ asked Salus.

  ‘I think so. I mean yes. Yes, I do. Of course.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘But… if I go home it means I’ll never see Skipper again.’

  ‘Does it?’

  ‘But she doesn’t belong in the world that I come from.’

  ‘And do you belong here, Sam?’

  Sam shook his head. ‘No, but that’s because they made a mistake, isn’t it? Commander Firebrand showed me how it all happened, how they missed the horsefly and everything.’

  ‘Commander Firebrand is a good man, but there are many things beyond his knowledge. Sometimes the things that we may think of as mistakes are not really mistakes at all.’

  Sam was quiet for a while as they walked. Then he asked: ‘Am I dead?’

  Salus looked at him with serious eyes. ‘Do you feel dead?’

  ‘No,’ said Sam. ‘In fact, I’ve never felt so alive. But I think that in my world I might be. And if I am, then I’ll never be able to go home, will I?’

  His mind was suddenly filled with memories of the people and the life that he had left behind. He tried in vain to fight back the sadness that swept through him, but he could not stop it and tears began to well up in his eyes.

  ‘You know, Sam, sometimes we forget that rain must fall before the harvest can be gathered in.’

  Salus laid his palm across Sam’s chest and Sam could feel the beating of his heart beneath it.

  ‘This ache that you feel inside, Sam. It means that you will always be looking, always searching, never giving up. Sometimes we find our loved ones in the most unexpected places. But for now, you must follow where it leads most strongly.’

  He bent and kissed Sam gently on the forehead. ‘It is calling you home,’ he said.

  The next morning as they prepared to set off back to the airbase, Skipper said, ‘I had the weirdest dream last night.’

  High above them, a bird circled the mountain peak before catching one of the warm air
currents that rose unseen from the slopes and gliding silently away across the valley.

  ‘So did I,’ said Sam. ‘I guess there must have been something in the air.’

  Then they hoisted their packs up onto their shoulders and set off down the steep mountain track once more.

  Neither of them spoke of it again.

  Thirty

  It was six in the morning. Hekken looked out of the window into the grey dawn and watched the long convoy of tankers rumble across the tarmac to the waiting lines of sleek, blood-sucking mosquitoes. There were five hundred of them in total and in less than twenty-four hours, five hundred pilots would take part in the most important mission of their lives.

  Meanwhile the first tankers were beginning to pump the mosquitoes full of the glycogen-rich fuel which would power up their nervous systems and activate their muscles ready for tomorrow’s operation.

  Further down the airfield stood four long red tankers with a circle of armed guards around them. Although the tankers were stationary, their engines were running constantly in order to power the heating units that kept their precious cargo at a constant temperature of 37 degrees Celsius: the temperature of the human body.

  Deep inside the tanks, teeming viruses swam blindly through the warm blood, driven by an unconscious need to search out the human cells which would enable them to spread and multiply in their billions. Soon there would be new blood for all of them.

  Hekken allowed himself a brief moment of self-congratulation. None of this would have happened without his vision and persistence. Wasn’t he the one who had encouraged the scientists to work that little bit harder? Of course. He and no one else. Without his guiding hand the viruses would never have been ready by now. Admittedly, he had threatened their families a bit, and one or two people had disappeared in the process, but you couldn’t expect to make an omelette without breaking eggs.

  As for that idiot Martock, he would certainly think twice in future before trying to put one over on Hekken. Now that Odoursin had seen the success of the virus programme there would be plenty of opportunities to reduce Martock’s influence with the Council, Hekken would see to that. It shouldn’t be too difficult to persuade Odoursin that he needed an efficient, proactive deputy who could get things done. Not a piggy-eyed has-been like Martock. Hekken could see it now. He would get great pleasure from personally taking Mr Piggy on a one-way trip to the slaughterhouse.

  A knock at the door jolted him out of his reverie and he turned away from the window to see Warner, the section leader of the special forces, walk hurriedly into the room. Warner was a dark, muscular figure who was not given to shows of excitement and Hekken guessed that he must be in possession of some important news.

  ‘What have you got?’ asked Hekken.

  Warner smiled, which in itself was unusual. ‘We’ve found the boy,’ he said.

  Hekken’s eyes glinted. The fly in the ointment. ‘So I hear. Where is he?’

  ‘Over at the western airbase. We’ve inserted a four-man team who’ve been laid up in the mountains for a few days watching the area. Latest information is they’ve trained him up as a pilot.’

  ‘A pilot?’ Hekken was surprised. ‘That must mean they’re planning to use him against us. They must have wind of our operation. What’s security like there?’

  ‘Pretty tight – the perimeter’s well guarded.’

  ‘Any chance of an attack from the air?’

  ‘Not a hope, I’m afraid. Their air superiority in that area is total. We had to land our unit fifty miles away and then travel at night to avoid detection.’

  ‘You’re not being very helpful, Warner,’ said Hekken irritably. ‘You know the prophecy as well as I do. The boy is a major threat and needs to be removed. The whole success of our operation could depend upon this.’

  ‘I’m sorry, General. I didn’t mean to give the impression that it was impossible. But it’s a high-risk mission.’

  ‘Mr Warner, look out of the window. Everything we are doing is high risk. We are trying to influence the shape of the future here. If you’re worried about a few soldiers falling over and hurting themselves, then perhaps you ought to retrain as a nurse. Now can you get the boy or can’t you?’

  Warner had stood to attention while Hekken was speaking and now he snapped up a sharp salute. ‘Yes, sir, I believe we can,’ he said crisply.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Hekken. ‘In that case, do it, and do it now. Whatever it takes, get your team in there and deal with him once and for all.’

  ‘Deal with him?’ asked Warner uncertainly.

  ‘Yes, deal with him,’ repeated Hekken. ‘You know…’

  He pushed two fingers against his temple like a gun. ‘Blow his worthless brains out.’

  As Warner saluted and turned on his heel, Hekken walked calmly over to the window and looked out across the airbase. As the sun rose he could see that the months of planning had finally paid off. Down on the tarmac, his dreams were starting to come true.

  Thirty-one

  The auditorium was full of pilots in uniform and there was an excited buzz around the room. Sam sat in the front row with Skipper on one side and Mump on the other.

  Zip, who was next to Mump, leant across and offered Sam a stick of chewing gum. ‘I like to give Mump something to do with his mouth besides talking,’ he said. ‘Good bloke and all that, but he does tend to talk rubbish most of the time.’

  ‘Hey!’ said Mump, offended.

  ‘Shh!’ said Skipper. ‘The briefing’s about to start.’

  A hush fell across the auditorium as Commander Firebrand strode to the centre of the stage and the houselights went down.

  ‘Is he going to sing?’ whispered Mump.

  ‘Shut him up, someone,’ said Zip.

  ‘Good morning, everyone,’ said Firebrand, ‘and welcome to Operation Apocalypse.’

  He nodded to someone off-stage and the screen behind him lit up: a blue background with the words ‘OPERATION APOCALYPSE: PHASE ONE’ picked out in red.

  ‘Nice graphics,’ said Mump to no one in particular. ‘Tasteful.’

  ‘The information that you are about to see and hear is classified,’ Firebrand went on, ‘and for reasons of security the details of this operation have been kept from most of you until now. As you know, up to this point our mission has always been to preserve the balance of life on Earth.’

  Sam thought about the squadrons of wasps controlling fly populations and the footage he had seen of the wasp attacking the horsefly in his garden. Now that he was a trained pilot, he was determined to put his newly learned skills into practice. He would do whatever he could to prevent Odoursin from carrying out his terrible threat to mankind.

  ‘In recent months,’ Firebrand continued, ‘we have had to contend with Odoursin’s forces trying to upset that balance in their efforts to make things harder for the people of Earth. You have been on the front line along with our land and sea forces, making sure that they do not succeed. And up until now you have been very successful. However, we have received some information which could change all that. Allow me to show you why.’

  The image on the screen was replaced by an aerial photograph of Odoursin’s airfields showing the huge squadrons of mosquitoes lined up in their hundreds, stretching as far as the eye could see.

  ‘This photograph was taken from high altitude at 0800 hours yesterday morning. We know that Odoursin has been breeding mosquitoes for some time now, but this concentration of so many at one airfield is a very recent and worrying development. An even more worrying development, however, is this…’

  A strange image appeared on the screen that looked to Sam like some kind of curious yellow jellyfish.

  ‘This unusual-looking creature is a virus. Until recently, very little was known about it, but we have managed to access enough information from our spies in Odoursin’s camp to know that it is deadly to all human life. Odoursin’s scientists have discovered a method of transferring it to humans via mosquitoes, and once it g
ets into wild mosquitoes on Earth there will be no stopping it.’

  A wave of excited chatter flowed around the audience and Firebrand held up his hands for silence so that he could continue.

  ‘Even as we speak, this virus is being loaded onto mosquitoes ready to launch an all-out assault on Earth tomorrow. If the assault is successful, we will be powerless to halt the consequences. In less than a year, every single human will be wiped off the face of the Earth and everything that we have worked so hard to preserve will be lost.’

  There was another surge of shocked conversation around the auditorium and Sam felt his resolve hardening into cold anger. He clenched his fists and stared at the virus on the screen, the virus that would kill the people he loved. He knew that from this moment on there was no turning back. Whatever it took to stop this, he would do it.

  Once again Firebrand held up a hand to signal his wish to carry on.

  ‘We now know that Odoursin has been planning for many years to destroy what he sees as the human plague and then use Earth’s natural resources for his own ends. Once the humans are removed, the difference in scale will actually benefit him and his followers. Food and other resources will always be plentiful and no other species will have the intelligence or desire to challenge him.

  ‘Once he has achieved domination of the Earth in this way he plans to close the fabric gaps we use for access, consolidate his power base and build his Vermian Empire into an unstoppable force. Then he will return and annihilate us too, preventing any future challenge to his leadership. Make no mistake: Odoursin has a singular, ruthless vision of a new world order and, as far as he is concerned, nothing is going to stand in the way of him achieving it.’

  The image on the screen changed to a bird’s-eye view of the enemy airbase. Sam recognised the shape of the large building where he had fallen into the tank of mosquito larvae. Along with some of the other buildings in the photograph, it was marked with a red arrow, indicating that it was a target.

  ‘Your mission then is this,’ said Firebrand, using a pointer to identify the relevant locations on the photograph as he spoke. ‘One, to destroy the laboratories where the virus is manufactured. Two, to destroy the mosquito breeding tanks and the larvae in them. And three, to destroy the adult mosquitoes on the ground before they have a chance to take off. You will be working alongside a squadron of commandos from our land-based forces who will plant and detonate explosives and neutralise any opposition.