Authors: A. G. Taylor
A stream of missiles flew from the underside of the jet, locked on the head of the squid. Seconds later they hit the eye, shattering the glassy lens. The beast howled once more and went into a
death roll, snapping the hull of the
Ulysses
in half as it went down for the last time. A series of explosions wracked the inside of the ship as the failing engines finally gave out. In a
matter of seconds, the deep claimed it, along with its alien attacker…
The force of the two giants sinking sent a massive ripple across the surface of the sea, threatening to engulf the speeding escape boats. Colonel Rachel Andersen stood at the
back of her boat and looked at the wall of water rising. She turned back to Lt. Kaminski, who was at the wheel.
“Is this as fast as this thing can go?” she demanded.
Kaminski shouted something that was lost over the sound of the two giant engines at the back. The hull of the boat slammed against another wave and the thirty or so crew members on board clung
to the side for dear life. David Wisher lay flat on the floor and was starting to turn green.
Behind them, the wave receded. They’d escaped the massive forces generated by the sinking ship. As the sea settled, Rachel felt a pang of sadness as she looked across the water at where
the
Ulysses
had been – now lost for ever to the depths.
The stealth jet ripped overhead, disturbing her thoughts. Rachel unclipped the mobile comm from her belt and switched it to the jet’s frequency.
“Sarah!”
“Are you okay down there?” the girl asked.
“Yes,” Rachel replied, shouting above the noise, “the remaining crew got off. Thanks to you.”
The jet circled overhead. “What can we do to help?” Sarah said.
“Kaminski has already put out a distress call. We’re heading for the nearest land. We’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” Sarah said. “We’re going after Bright.”
“Is there any point in telling you to be careful?”
“None. We’ll follow the tracker on Hack – it’s our only lead. Whatever Bright has planned, this is just the beginning.”
“I know,” Rachel said. “Good luck.”
The jet made a final pass over the emergency boats and the remaining hovercopters, before turning and heading east. Across the water Rachel heard a sound from the other boats: cheering. The
surviving crew of the
Ulysses
were on their feet, waving Sarah and the others safely on their way. Rachel tapped Wisher on the shoulder and he got to his knees.
“So, Mr. Wisher,” Rachel said. “Do you still want to take my command?”
He held up a hand as the boat hit another wave. “No!”
“Because if you want to take charge right now—”
“Keep your command, Colonel!”
“And the report?”
“Positive. It will be positive.”
Rachel smiled with satisfaction. “And my authority isn’t going to be challenged again? I get to run things how I see fit?”
Wisher nodded. “Just sort this out, Colonel. You can have anything you want.”
Rachel bent down so she was looking into his eyes. “Get me another ship.”
Hack dabbed at May’s sweat-covered forehead with a tissue from his pocket. Once again, connecting with the Entity to manipulate the meteorite rock had been a traumatic,
draining experience for him – but it had almost knocked the girl out. The demand on her power to change the very structure of the rock seemed to be so much greater.
“We need water and food and blankets,” Hack said as Major Bright appeared from the front of the plane.
The major looked at him with a hard expression, but then nodded his assent. “Fine. We must look after our prize possessions, mustn’t we?”
Hack looked away.
“There’s just one thing I need first,” Bright added. He removed a knife from his belt and flicked out a gleaming blade. “You’ve got something that I think we should
get rid of.”
Hack took a step back. “What are you talking about?”
Bright pointed the knife tip at where Robert had injected the GPS tracker. Before Hack could resist, two mercs stepped in and grabbed him by the shoulders, holding him firm.
“Don’t worry,” Major Bright said, advancing with the blade, “this isn’t going to hurt a bit.”
PART TWO
25
Nestor sighted on the target…took a breath…and followed through with the pool cue. The white ball shot towards the black over the top corner pocket, but at the
last second veered off course and rebounded against the cushion. It rolled back and came to a rest in the centre of the table, perfectly lined up for the black.
“Man, that’s too bad,” said his brother, Octavio, a tall kid with a head of dark, shoulder-length hair.
“I thought we agreed, no telekinesis,” Nestor protested, giving his opponent a hard look. “You moved it off course.”
Octavio shrugged and chalked the end of his cue. “All’s fair in love and war.” He lined up on the shot, but as he struck through, the black ball lifted into the air above the
table. The white rolled beneath it into the pocket.
“Hey!” protested Octavio. “Cheat!”
Nestor held up his hands to show it was nothing to do with him. The black ball continued to hover in the air. Then, the outline of a third boy appeared. Like Nestor and Octavio, he was fifteen,
but blond and lighter in complexion that the Colombian brothers. As Alex Fisher became visible, he tossed the black ball in the air and caught it again.
“Just thought I’d even things up,” he said with a grin.
Octavio threw his cue down on the table. “This game isn’t fun any more.”
“Because you never play by the rules,” Nestor said.
Octavio rolled his eyes and Alex suppressed a smile. Although they were twins, the brothers were about as different as two people could possibly be.
Dunking the black in the corner pocket, Alex said, “Come on. We’re wanted in the briefing room.”
“At this time of night?” Nestor said.
Alex shrugged. “You know as much as I do.”
“Great,” Octavio muttered as he and Nestor followed Alex out of the rec room. “Another lecture on HIDRA safety procedures, no doubt.”
“Those procedures are there to make sure we don’t get hurt,” Nestor replied.
“Do you have any idea how lame you sound? Really?”
As his two companions continued bickering (some days they never stopped), Alex led the way out of their quarters, which was a block on the perimeter of the HIDRA UK centre of operations in the
east of England. The centre was a disused RAF base that had been taken over by HIDRA some ten years before. There was an airstrip, hangars, storage facilities and barracks for the hundred personnel
stationed there. To the outside world, the operation looked innocuous enough, but the real action happened underground.
Alex led the way from their barracks to an inconspicuous building that looked a lot like a rusty shed. The September night air was cool and the moon full. It would have been a lot easier for all
of them to have lived in the main, subterranean part of the base, but the boys (like most of the other women and men from HIDRA stationed there) had requested quarters above ground.
It was nice to see the sky.
As they reached the building, the door swung open to meet them and a HIDRA guard with a machine gun appeared. Alex held up his hand and they were nodded through. The inside of the shed was
pretty much as you’d expect (rusting corrugated iron walls, dirt on the floor) with one exception: in the centre of the room stood a cubicle of gleaming metal with twin, automated machine gun
turrets on either side. Alex removed a card from his pocket and swiped it through a reader on the side. As always, when the reader beeped and the light on the side went green, he took a relieved
breath – he hated to think what the turrets would do to anyone trying to break in. Doors slid open to reveal the inside of a lift and the boys stepped in.
“Level 6,” Alex said as the doors closed. The lift descended at high speed.
The HIDRA UK base had twenty underground levels, partly refurbished from a decommissioned bunker from the cold war days of the 1960s and 70s. However, the technicians had been to work on the
site since then, massively expanding and refurbishing the network of rooms and tunnels hidden beneath the earth. The lift hummed to a halt on Sub-Level 6, the main command area of the base, and the
doors opened onto a light, ultramodern foyer. Halogen bulbs in the ceiling simulated daylight and there were even LED “windows” with incredibly realistic views of the East Anglian
countryside.
The boys crossed the empty floor towards a reception desk, behind which a bespectacled woman sat, her hair tied back in a prim ponytail. As they approached, she gave them a careful look over
before pressing a button on the desk. Glass doors to the right of the reception slid open. Alex had never spoken more than a few words to the receptionist (who never seemed to leave the desk), but
one of the soldiers on site had told him that she was one of HIDRA’s best sharpshooters and had a semi-automatic pistol strapped to the underside of the desk, right under a picture of her
kids. The glass doors that slid shut silently behind them were made of a polymer so strong that a tank would bounce off them.
It was safe to say that HIDRA UK didn’t want any uninvited guests.
The briefing room was the third door on the right: a circular chamber with giant screens along one curved wall and a ten-metre-long table in the middle – a black marble slab that reflected
the images of anyone sitting around it. Several of the key personnel from the base were already seated, including Dr. Fincher, HIDRA’s stick-thin head of science. As usual, he was dressed in
a white coat and looked harried, as if he’d been interrupted in the middle of some experiment or other.
“Nice of you gentlemen to finally join us,” a female voice said from one of the screens. They looked round at the image of Colonel Rachel Andersen as they took their seats. A caption
in the corner of the screen read
Live Link via Satellite
. They were used to regular video briefings with Rachel, but today she looked tired and there were smudges of dirt on her face, as if
she’d been in a scuffle. Yet her expression was as determined as ever.
“Sorry, Colonel,” Octavio said hurriedly as he took his chair.
Nestor sniggered into his hand.
Sorry, Colonel,
he echoed.
Yeah, Octavio’s really sorry, Rachel,
Alex joined in.
He loves a woman in uniform.
I’ll be a good boy. Promise.
Kiss kiss.
Octavio looked daggers at them both.
Idiots!
“Right,” Rachel said, casting her eyes over the audience and pressing a button before her. Screens lit up around the wall. “There’s been an attack on the HIDRA Pacific
Base.”
That got everyone’s attention. “Who was it?” someone asked on the other side of the table.
“Who do you think?” Octavio said. “Major Bright.”
Rachel nodded and brought up shaky footage of the
Ulysses
on the screen. It appeared to have been taken by a camera on a boat speeding away from the ship. Everyone watched in stunned
silence as what appeared to be a giant sea monster crushed the ship in its tentacles and then, with a series of explosions, dragged it beneath the waves. The footage paused on an image of a
dart-like object flying across the screen away from the wreck.
“The stealth jet,” Nestor said, pointing at the screen.
“Sarah,” Alex added quietly.
“That’s why you’re included in this meeting,” Rachel explained. “Sarah and the other superhumans on the
Ulysses
were involved in holding off that monster
long enough for most of the crew to escape.” Her voice softened a little. “I also know you had friends on the ship among the HIDRA personnel. We all did.”
“How many were lost?” Dr. Fincher asked.
“We’re estimating over forty casualties at the moment,” Rachel said. “The majority of the crew made it to the escape boats, however. A Korean military vessel in the area
picked us up and that’s where I’m speaking to you from. As soon as I can I’ll be en route to the UK base.”
“What about Sarah and the others?” Nestor asked. “Are they safe?”
“Yes. They were following Bright in the jet, but the GPS tracker went offline. We have intelligence that Bright and his men intend to strike somewhere in Europe. Judging by the monster
they sent against the
Ulysses
, they have the capacity to inflict some serious damage. We need to find out where and what they intend to do.”
“They’re clearly using some kind of highly advanced technology,” Dr. Fincher said thoughtfully. “Probably alien in origin.”
“The Entity,” Alex said and the doctor nodded.
Rachel addressed the HIDRA personnel in the room. “HIDRA Pacific is offline until further notice, so you’re the first line of defence. Until we find out what’s going on here,
everybody is on continuous duty. For those of you who haven’t familiarized yourself with the report on the Makarov incident, I suggest you do so at the earliest opportunity. Bright has killed
our people. This time he isn’t getting away with it. Dismissed.”
As people rose around the table, she turned her gaze on the boys. “The stealth jet is rerouting to your base until we find out Bright’s location. Sarah and the others should be with
you at dawn. Get some rest.”
With that, she started talking to Dr. Fincher as the footage of the
Ulysses
attack replayed. Octavio exchanged a look with Nestor and then both brothers turned to Alex.
What?
he demanded.
Looks like your girlfriend’s coming back,
Octavio said with a wink.
Nestor sighed.
Get ready for World War III.
If you two need some time alone, just let us know, okay?
Alex gave them both a withering look and rose swiftly from his chair.
Grow up. Both of you.
The twins cracked up as he stormed out of the room.
Sarah sat beside Robert, who was laid out on the table in the medical bay of the stealth jet once more. She’d given him another injection and he’d fallen into a
deep sleep, exhausted after the battle against the squid. Reaching out, she placed her palm on his forehead and immediately sensed his fervid, nightmare-wracked unconsciousness: dreams of spiders
and all manner of killing machines.