by Darrell Pitt
I could see again.
Running ecstatically across the field, I followed a helicopter as it disappeared over a stand of trees. Beyond the trees I could see the wreckage of the spacecraft. Somewhere over there was Brodie and the rest of the team. Climbing over a fence, I raced through the sparse wood until I reached the other side.
People were everywhere. Alien beings were everywhere. The army was trying to secure some sort of order. A system was in place, but just barely. At least there were survivors. I pushed through a field of people. I could see ambulances on the other side of the field.
“Axel!”
The voice came from behind me.
Brodie.
Tears filled her eyes as she pushed past two army officers. An instant later she was in my arms and her lips were against mine. After what seemed an eternity, I drew back from her and examined her face. I never wanted to leave her again. I wanted to spend the rest of my life gazing at those beautiful features.
So I did not hear the cry from behind me the first time, and it only registered dimly with me when they spoke again.
“That’s him!” the voice said.
I turned. It was Agent Palmer from The Agency. Fury filled her face. Her hand was pointed directly at me. Soldiers flanked her on both sides.
“That’s him,” she snarled. “I want him arrested immediately!”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Morgan Le Fay adjusted the controls on the console and examined the readings. She gave a satisfied grunt. The quantum resonator supplied by the Tagaar was working perfectly. It would still take some time to calibrate the systems, but there was no reason why her adjustments to the Solar Accelerator would not succeed. She stepped back from the equipment.
The inside of the building looked like any high tech laboratory with banks of computer screens lining the walls. The only outstanding feature in the room was the mixing chamber. It looked more like a World War II concrete bunker than something that belonged in a lab. A series of titanium rods like the fingers of a giant hand were located on one side of the chamber. On the other side lay the bowl that accelerated the energy stream. When the Accelerator was activated, the rods would slide across into the chamber and begin the build up to –
A pulsating sound came from outside the building.
Frowning, Morgan stepped from the building into the afternoon light. A Tagaar warship – uncloaked – was coming in to land.
“Now that’s something you don’t see every day,” she said.
She waited till it had landed and watched Graal and his men disembark. Something had gone wrong. She could see that immediately. Still, there was no reason why her plan would be affected. Graal marched up the stone path to the installation as his men quickly vacated the spacecraft to fan out down the hill.
“Hello, Graal,” Morgan said. “What a lovely surprise.”
“How are your plans progressing?” he asked.
Always the conversationalist, Morgan thought.
“Very well,” she answered. “I will be ready in a matter of hours.” She looked past Graal. “What are your men doing? I thought –”
“Our plans have changed,” he interrupted.
“In what way?”
“The Earthlings know we are here on Earth. This makes your own weapon all the more important.”
“Thank you.”
“I was not showing gratitude. I was simply stating a fact.” He glanced across the island. “Our instruments show this island’s communications have been cut off from the mainland.”
Morgan nodded. “I installed a dampening device.”
“Good. My men can hunt in peace.”
What a vicious species, Morgan thought. It’s a shame they look so damn ugly. We could have made a good match.
The alien followed her into the main laboratory. He glanced around at the equipment, his eyes finally settling on the Tagaar modules that now interfaced with the Solar Accelerator.
“How exactly does this weapon work?” Graal peered closely at Morgan. “I find it hard to believe a human could create such a device.”
“I’ve been around.” Morgan smiled sweetly. “This is an experimental base designed to study the flow of electrons from the sun. For some time the scientists have been experimenting with grabbing a stream of electrons and feeding them into the Accelerator chamber.”
“With what purpose?”
“To supply energy. Once the stream is tethered to the Accelerator, it sets up a continuous link back to its source.”
“The sun?”
Morgan nodded. “The idea is to accelerate the flow so that an endless supply of free energy is available.”
“It sounds very primitive.” Graal scrutinised the equipment. “Surely fission is a better system.”
“That technology hasn’t been invented yet.”
“I see.” He peered at the quantum resonator connected to the computer. “And why did you need our equipment?”
“Your device will enable me to boost the input into the chamber and then feed it back at the sun.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that I can build a massive explosion on its surface.” She paused. “You are probably familiar with an EMP?”
“Electromagnetic Pulse?”
“Exactly. The detonation of an EMP can knock out electricity across an entire city. Once the power fails, so does communication, transport and everything else that holds a civilisation together.” She pointed to the mixing chamber. “The Solar Accelerator will create an explosion on the sun’s surface so massive that electricity across the planet will be knocked out for months.
“The human race will be reduced to savagery. Chaos will reign.”
Graal nodded approvingly. This woman annoyed him with her confidence, but he admired her complete lack of ethics. It was rare to find in a species, and even rarer in a woman.
“Millions will die in the short term,” Graal said. “And many more millions in the ensuing weeks. When the Tagaar arrive we will be greeted as heroes as we help to ‘rebuild’ this world.” It was a brilliant plan. A scheme worthy even of a Tagaar. He peered closely at the woman. “Are you sure you are human?”
“Please,” Morgan tittered. “A girl’s got to have some secrets.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
I was in trouble. Big trouble. No sooner had Agent Palmer seen me than I was arrested and taken to a military vehicle. Chad was already in the back, handcuffed and furious. He looked up as I was pushed inside and handcuffed to the seat opposite him.
“What do they think they’re doing?” he demanded. “We just stopped that ship from crashing. We just –”
“I know,” I agreed. “We also just kidnapped the Premier of Russia and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. They might be unhappy about that.”
Chad clamped his mouth shut. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but at that moment a military commander appeared at the doorway of the truck. He was a square-jawed man with a grey crew cut. He looked so solid he could have been carved from granite. A realisation slowly struck me as he climbed into the back of the van. He was from the military. The American Military. Most of the people milling around the crashed spacecraft were soldiers. And Agent Palmer was flanked by soldiers. It seemed that the connections between The Agency and the US Government had become far closer than we could have imagined.
The man sat down on the bench next to me. “I am General Clarke,” he said. “And you’re the boys who have caused us so much trouble.”
“You should be pinning medals on us!” Chad said. “Not arresting us.”
“I’d say the chances of you boys receiving a medal are about as likely as Amelia Earhart becoming President.” He shook his head. “You’re both in serious trouble.”
“You can’t hold us,” Chad said. “We can break free any time we want.”
“I know about your powers,” the general said. “And you know you could simply break free of those handcuffs. You really do have
powers far beyond those of mortal man.” He looked at me. “But trust me when I say that we could retaliate with enormous force. You don’t want to have the might of the United States war machine against you.”
“But –” I began.
Clarke held up a hand. “I know why you pulled this crazy stunt. That’s all been explained to me. And it’s true you saved thousands of lives today.”
“If that ship had hit the Earth –”
“All right. You saved millions of lives, but you also stole a deadly weapon. You infiltrated Russian airspace. You attacked Russian armed forces. You kidnapped the Premier of Russia, Alexi Kozlov. You –”
“It was me.” I shot a look at Chad. “It had nothing to do with Chad. I was the one who broke those laws. He had nothing to do with this.”
“We both know that’s only partly true,” General Clarke said. “For any one of those offences you could go to jail. Considering everything you’ve done – son, are you all right?”
He was staring at the front of my shirt. I looked down. There was blood on my shirt. I touched my face with my cuffed hands. I was having a nose bleed. Before I could speak, the world began to spin and then everything went dark.
When I awoke I found myself in a hospital bed. I sat up with a groan. My head hurt again. There were other beds in the room, but they were empty. A man hurried in with a chart. It took me a moment to recognise him. Then I realised it was Doctor Williams from The Agency. He had been doing tests to discover why my powers were intermittent. I started to climb from the bed.
“Hey there. Not so fast.”
He pushed me back onto the bed.
“What happened?” I asked.
“You tell me. Apparently you passed out in mid-conversation.”
He asked me a series of questions and wrote down my replies on his notepad. When he asked me if I’d been exerting myself over the last few days, I simply laughed and fell silent.
“Out with it,” he demanded. “In detail.”
So I told him about the flight to Russia and everything that had happened since. He looked downright worried when I told him about my temporary blindness. When I finished speaking he simply shook his head and laid down the clipboard.
“I was afraid this would happen,” he said. “Your powers have been in a constant state of flux since you were modified. Now I think you’ve exerted yourself so much that you’ve…well…”
“What?”
“You’ve fried your circuits. You’re in danger of giving yourself a stroke, a brain haemorrhage or worse if you continue to use your powers.”
I felt the color drain from my face. “That’s…that’s not possible.”
“Not only it is possible, but it’s likely.” He shook his head. “You’re a time bomb waiting to happen.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Does that doctor-patient confidentiality agreement –”
“Apply? Of course.”
“Then please keep this to yourself.”
The door opened and Brodie burst in.
“Axel!”
We had our second reunion in as many hours. She climbed onto the hospital bed and held me close as I contemplated what the doctor had told me. A stoke…brain haemorrhage…was there any good news? I asked her again about the events of the last few days. After she filled me in, she took my hand and looked into my eyes.
“You shouldn’t have done it,” she said.
“What? Tried to save you?”
“But the Russian Premier –”
“I couldn’t shoot him,” I said. “I couldn’t use the Stonekiller on him. I wanted to, but it just wasn’t in me.”
“Good.”
“But I would have done just about anything to save you,” I said. “You’re the girl I love.”
She kissed me again. That made everything worthwhile. Almost.
Tears filled Brodie’s eyes. “We’re on the move again.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t you know –” She stopped herself. “Of course you don’t. We’re on board an American Military Craft called the Helix. It’s like a Flex, but about a thousand times larger. We’re on our way to Scotland.”
“What?”
“Ferdy was able to hack into the Tagaar communications system for a short time,” she said. “Before he was cut off, he heard a conversation regarding a woman by the name of Morgan Le Fay.” She went on to explain about the woman’s plan to use a worldwide EMP. “The Tagaar have thrown up a shield around Cargall Island. British forces have tried to break through, but they’ve failed. They want us to help.” She gripped my hand. “That includes you.”
“Us? Me?” I rolled my eyes. “I get to risk my life all over again before going to jail?”
Brodie looked miserable. “Jail is still on the cards, but this is so serious they’re willing to release you. Temporarily.”
“Great.”
She gripped my arm. “You don’t owe them anything.”
“I know.”
“You could break out of here. You could leave and never come back.”
“And what about you?”
Brodie looked down. “The others need me. This is big. If Morgan Le Fay isn’t stopped…it could mean the end of everything.”
The end of everything. On the other hand, if I did help, it might mean the end of me. Still, we were a team. I wouldn’t let them face something like this without me. I let out a long sigh, released Brodie and climbed out of the bed. As I struggled my shoes onto my feet, Doctor Williams re-entered the surgery. He looked at me with astonishment.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded. “Get back into bed.”
“No can do,” I said. “Duty calls.”
“But –”
“I’ll take it easy.” I didn’t want him spilling the beans about my health. “I promise.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
My mind whirled with conflicting thoughts as I escaped the sick bay with Brodie and we made our way through the Helix. My place wasn’t in a hospital bed. I needed to be with my friends if they were going into action. My head felt better and I wasn’t about to exert myself – if I could help it.
The Helix was an amazing vessel. The size of a battleship, it was shaped like an enormous square bug with supporting legs protruding from each corner. It seemed equally capable of both horizontal and vertical flight. I felt a sea of eyes turn to me as we entered the bridge.
It looked like General Clarke had just started giving a briefing to the rest of the team. Chad was there, but didn’t look happy. Dan and Ebony looked slightly rebellious. Ferdy –
Well, he looked like Ferdy.
“Axel,” the general said. “Thank you for joining us.”
I nodded.
“We’re on our way to join with NATO forces to breach the defences around Cargall Island,” he explained. “A woman known as Morgan Le Fay has taken control of the island with the Tagaar.”
“Morgan Le Fay?” Ebony frowned. “Isn’t that the name of the woman from Arthurian legend? From the Knights of the Round Table?”
“It is,” the general confirmed. “It is either a woman using her name –”
“Or it’s the real thing,” Chad said. “She must be old.”
“Very.” Ferdy nodded solemnly. “Although not as old as Redwood trees –”
“General Clarke,” I said. “I’ve got a couple of questions.”
He nodded.
“How does The Agency fit into all this?” I asked.
“The US Government has entered into an arrangement with The Agency,” General Clarke said. “That organisation is now working through us.”
An arrangement? I didn’t like the sound of that, but who was I to argue? Within hours I would probably be placed into a cell and wouldn’t see the light of day till I was old and grey. If The Agency wanted to enter into a deal with Burger King there was little I could do about it.
“And what’s so special about Cargall Island?” I ask
ed.
“Cargall Island houses an experimental device called a Solar Accelerator. Scientists have been trying to develop a free and endless supply of energy. We believe Morgan Le Fay has modified it to produce the Electromagnetic Pulse.”
“But how?” Dan asked. “And isn’t Morgan Le Fay supposed to be a witch? How did she become some sort of super scientist?”
“The Morgan of legend was supposed to be Merlin’s sister,” the general confirmed. “We suspect she’s actually some type of alien or modification. Regardless, it appears she has forged an alliance with the Tagaar.”
“General,” an aid called from one of the bridge stations. “We’re approaching Cargall Island.”
He nodded. “I’ll ask you all to remain on hand. I believe other mods will be joining us within minutes.”
We could see the island growing closer with every passing second from our position on the bridge. It was a tiny speck in the enormous sea. A flotilla of various sea craft were surrounding the island. It looked like they were firing directly at the body of land, but their shots were hitting a pale green dome. Nothing was getting through.
“The barrier looks powerful,” Ferdy said. “More powerful than the Great Wall of China. The wall was started in the year –”
“Ferdy,” Chad said. “You got any ideas about how to bring that thing down?”
“Preliminary information suggests that the shield is generated by a squadron of six Tagaar ships in flight around the island,” Ferdy said. “If any one of the ships can be disabled, it may weaken the dome enough to be penetrated.”
Another group of people hurried onto the bridge. Most of them looked like scientists, but Agent Palmer was with them. She gave me a curt nod.
“How quickly the jailbirds fly their cage,” she said.
Obviously she was still annoyed with us.
At that moment a beam of yellow light sprang forth from the island and pierced the dome. Several people on the bridge cried out as the column of light spat high into the sky and disappeared out of sight.
“Morgan Le Fay has begun the detonation sequence,” Ferdy said, peering at the yellow light. “Ferdy needs to examine the data coming from the sensors.”
