‘Sure, and they always renege on them. No, if anyone’s going outside, it should be me,’ Drake argued. ‘I don’t have that long. If they waste me, it’s purely a timing difference.’
‘No, you don’t understand,’ Elliott said, examining the glowing sceptre, then locking eyes with Drake. She was only beginning to understand it herself. ‘I need to go out there. It’s the only way to stop this madness. I really think I can stop it.’
Jiggs suddenly sat bolt upright. ‘Listen to this,’ he said, indicating a speaker by his head and then leaning over to turn the volume up. ‘It’s being sent over to the tank’s shortwave radio.’
The radio signal wasn’t that strong and there were occasional drop-outs, but the message was clear enough: ‘… speaking to the occupants of the Challenger inside St Paul’s. I don’t know who you are, but you’ve got one of my VLF beacons with you. Be aware that the commander has received confirmation that the US military are intending to hit London and the South East with nuclear warheads in a matter of minutes. If it’s in your power to influence the situation, then you need to act, and act now.’
‘That’s Danforth,’ Drake said, frowning at Jiggs.
‘You won’t be able to respond to this. I’m transmit-only from a nearby location. I repeat, I am speaking to the occupants of the Challenger …’
‘But whose side is he on now?’ Drake posed. ‘Didn’t he jump ship to the Styx?’
‘In which case he’s trying to trick us to go outside,’ Jiggs reasoned.
‘But he isn’t, is he?’ Drake said. ‘He’s not telling us to do anything other than help, if we can. He’s not telling us to leave the tank so the Styx get us. He’s telling us that there’s a nuclear strike coming. Why would he do that?’
Drake’s mind was working overtime. ‘And the reference to “the commander” is in the message because he believes there’s someone in this tank who knows Parry. It’s meant for us.’
‘And Parry has connections at that level in the Pentagon,’ Jiggs put in.
Drake took a breath. ‘Okay, sounds like the tock is clicking and we haven’t got anything to lose … any of us.’
‘You mean the clock is ticking,’ Jiggs corrected him.
‘Whatever. And I’d really rather not ruin this wonderful suntan with more radiation. I’ve already had more than my fair share for this year,’ Drake muttered, placing his hand on the locking handle of the main hatch. He turned to Elliott, fixing her with a stare. ‘Do you mean what you say about going out there? You’re prepared to meet them?’
She nodded grimly. ‘I have to go out – not just because of Will, but because I need to stop this.’
‘Right, let’s you and me join the dance,’ he said to Elliott.
The Limiters had hauled Will back to the Bentley. They threw him on the bonnet, flipping him over onto his back. He was moving dazedly, and trying to speak but not making any sound.
‘Leave him. I’ll take it from here,’ Hermione told the Limiters. She extended one of her insect limbs, pinning Will down on the bonnet with her pincers against his chest, although he was in no state to go anywhere.
As soon as Drake and Elliott had jumped from the tank, the Armagi stepped back so that there was a passage all the way down the nave to the main entrance. Keeping very close to each other, the two of them edged along it, the Armagi keeping their distance. It was more than just Elliott’s blood protecting Drake this time.
And as the two of them emerged from the cathedral and out onto the top of the steps, the Armagi on the forecourt also parted so that there was a corridor all the way to the car. Drake and Elliott could see who was waiting for them at the Bentley … and see Will spreadeagled on its bonnet.
‘My son,’ Parry said, as he’d watched Drake emerge from the cathedral and step into the daylight. ‘He’s still alive!’
‘And my daughter too,’ Eddie said, as he spotted Elliott at his side.
‘He doesn’t look good,’ Parry observed as he increased the magnification on his binoculars to see his son more clearly.
‘They must know Will’s as good as dead? So why are they both putting themselves in the firing line like this?’ Eddie said. ‘Unless they know the situation is desperate.’
‘Danforth must have done his stuff,’ Parry said. Changing to a separate frequency on his radio headset, he asked, ‘You managed it, then? Where are you?’
Danforth was halfway up the stairs to the entrance of the subway, pressed up against the wall, a radio transmitter still in his hands. All he could see out on the pavement were the lower limbs of the numerous Armagi assembled there. ‘I couldn’t get all the way,’ he replied to Parry, but I’ve done what I can. I tried to send a message to the tank’s shortwave receiver, and I just pray they heard it.’
‘I think they did. My son and Elliott appeared outside the cathedral a few seconds ago,’ Parry said, and checked his watch. ‘Keep in touch. We haven’t got long.’
‘Ah, my two jolly renegades,’ Hermione said to Drake and Elliott. ‘I assumed it had to be you, going by the reports from the British Museum. My guys,’ she said, waving an arm at the sea of Armagi, ‘gave me a description of you.’
Drake and Elliott slowly made their way down to the bottom of the steps at the front of the cathedral.
‘You don’t need that weapon,’ Hermione told Drake. ‘Lose it now, or the boy gets his throat torn out.’ She pressed her claw down on Will’s chest and he moaned loudly.
Drake shrugged, then threw down his Beretta. It rattled across the pavement, the only noise in the whole place.
‘Good. Now don’t be bashful. Come and join in with the fun,’ Hermione ordered them.
With the two Limiters now on either side of them, the Old Styx and Rebecca Two were standing together beside the Bentley. They said nothing – the Styx woman was clearly running the show.
‘Right, that’s far enough. Stop there,’ Hermione ordered Drake and Elliott. ‘Was there anyone else in the tank with you?’
‘What do you want to talk about?’ Drake asked her.
‘Answer me first,’ the Styx woman insisted, then almost immediately let the point go. ‘No, I see that it was just the two of you.’ Drake and Elliott wheeled around to see a Limiter at the entrance of the cathedral behind them. He’d obviously been inside to check the tank.
If either Elliott or Drake was in a less desperate predicament, they might have marvelled at Jiggs’ ability to completely blend into any situation he found himself in. As it was, there wasn’t time to dwell on it.
‘Tell us what you want,’ Drake repeated.
‘I don’t want anything, and you’re in no position to ask for anything, are you?’ Hermione replied. ‘I just thought your half-breed bitch would like a front row seat as I consummate my union with her beau here.’
‘Let Will go,’ Drake said.
‘Oh, I intend to,’ Hermione said. ‘In two shakes of a puppy dog’s tail.’ She was rather difficult to understand as the tip of the fleshy tube poked from her mouth and twirled energetically. As she threw herself on top of Will, the tube extended fully from between her lips and pushed its way deep into his mouth.
Drake and Elliott watched in horror as the muscles in the ovipositor contracted, and a large egg sac quickly squeezed down it. Will was coughing and choking and trying to resist, but then it was done.
The eggs had been deposited deep inside him.
‘That’s for slaughtering all my babies in the warehouse,’ Hermione said, as she straightened up and wiped away the fluids that dangled in glutinous skeins from her black lips with the back of her wrist. ‘Oh, I’ve been saving that pod for a red-letter day like this. Only the very bestest and greediest Armagi will do for naughty Billy Burrows. The little darlings inside him are so ravenous, they’ll be gobbling up his insides before you can say … eat your heart out.’
Elliott was white-faced with shock, but Drake was shaking with anger.
‘We did what you asked. We left the tank and came
out here,’ he growled, striding forward. ‘You could have spared Will that suffering. So help me, I’m going to take you apart with my bare hands, you abomination!’
Hermione cackled unpleasantly. ‘God, you flesh bags are so petulant and so bloody t-e-d-i-o-u-s.’
With a whiplash motion of her raised insect limb, she made a sound like someone snapping their fingers.
Two shots rang out almost simultaneously with each other, their reports echoing from the buildings.
As the bullets caught him in mid stride, Drake dropped onto one knee. He clutched his hand to his chest, blood pouring from the twin wounds.
‘Drake!’ Elliott was beside him in an instant, helping him down to the pavement.
‘He’s hit,’ Parry said, hardly breathing as he spoke. ‘My son’s down.’
There was crackling over the radio but no one said a word, waiting for Parry’s orders.
Eddie reached a hand out to him, taking hold of his arm for a moment. ‘I’m sorry, Parry, but …’ he whispered.
‘Oh, yes,’ Parry said, struggling to make himself focus. ‘All positions … hold your fire.’ He was watching as Elliott knelt beside his mortally wounded son, a small figure amongst all the Armagi.
‘That’s why they’re so relaxed,’ Eddie said. ‘They’ve got men in position in the buildings all around. Those shots weren’t from any of the Limiters on the ground.’
‘You’re right,’ Parry replied, and wasted no time in addressing his men again over the radio. ‘Did anyone get the location of those Styx sharpshooters? Check all the facing windows, and check them carefully – there are bound to be several teams round the place, maybe even on the floors below you. On my orders, I want them taken out. Got that – I want every single one of them slotted.’
Eddie met eyes with Parry, who nodded once. One had lost his son, the other was likely to lose his daughter.
Then they again turned their attention to the cathedral square.
The situation was so tense that no one on the roof with Parry noticed as Captain Franz slipped away, then ran all the way downstairs to the street.
‘You idiot,’ Elliott said tenderly, as she cradled Drake’s head in her lap. ‘You knew how it would turn out. So what did you do that for?’ she asked, tears trickling down her face.
Drake grimaced as the pain gripped him. ‘To buy you some breathing space to …’ he whispered, ‘… to do whatever you’re going to do. Do it now, girlfriend, and do it for me … for all of us.’
‘But I don’t …’ she began, catching herself as she saw how close to death he was.
He started to choke.
‘I can’t think of a joke,’ he said.
He let out his last breath.
Elliott carefully lowered his head to the pavement and rose to her feet, a look of sheer determination on her face.
And no one noticed as she took advantage of the opportunity Drake had given her, sliding a hand beneath her coat to the small of her back. Neither Hermione nor any of the other Styx had any idea what was tucked into her belt. But Elliott knew what she had there; she could feel it, feel the sceptre, as if it was willing her to take it out, willing her to use it.
She began towards Hermione.
Hermione gave Elliott a sneering glance. ‘I just need to deal with this half-breed bitch, then we’re all done here. Nice to tie up some loose ends, and not before time.’ Hermione turned to Rebecca Two and the Old Styx. ‘Any reason you can think of why we need her alive?’
Neither Rebecca Two nor the Old Styx said anything.
‘Fine, then it’s night-night and sweet dreams for the Drain Baby,’ Hermione announced.
She raised her insect limb, ready to snap it again.
‘Your sister died the worst death you can imagine,’ Elliott suddenly said to Hermione, a cold smile on her face. ‘Vane would have been covered in buboes, all over her body. You can’t imagine the pain when they burst from the pus and blood in them, but what got her in the end was the fluid in her lungs. From the lesions. She would have drowned in it.’
Elliott threw a glance at the Old Styx. ‘Every single one of your men in the inner world went that way. You see, there’s a virus down there, and it’s still there, spread by the birds.’
‘That’s as may be,’ Hermione said, her words clipped with her anger. ‘But who cares, because this world is almost back in our hands again.’
Elliott ignored her, speaking instead to Rebecca Two. ‘And let me tell you about your sister,’ she said. ‘She was burnt to a crisp by the nuclear explosion. Jiggs found her, but when he tried to examine her, one of her arms just broke off. She’d been turned to charcoal.’
Rebecca Two said nothing, averting her eyes as Elliott took another step towards Hermione.
‘And you … what’s so messed up is this world has always been in your hands,’ Elliott said. ‘There’s no need for any of this.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Hermione snarled.
‘You won’t remember – no Styx does – but many millions of years ago, our ancestors came to this solar system in a huge ship.’
Hermione gave a derisive snort. ‘Ship? What ship?’
‘The ship that you’re … we’re … everyone’s standing on right now.’
‘What – you mean the Earth?’ Hermione said, her voice rising with incredulity.
‘That’s right,’ Elliott confirmed. ‘You see, all that time ago, some of the atmosphere leaked out from the centre, and we came Topsoil to put things right. But we never made it back, and with no one to helm the ship, it drifted into orbit around the sun. We were never meant to stay here.’
‘That’s a very imaginative little tale – trying to buy yourself some time, are you?’ It hadn’t escaped Hermione’s notice that Elliott was including herself in references to the Styx. ‘And you evidently think you’re one of us now? It’s a little late in the game to switch teams.’
Ignoring the remark, Elliott indicated the massed ranks of Armagi all around her. ‘In the beginning we looked more like that … and Styx and humans worked and lived together inside the ship, because we’d brought them on the journey with us.’
‘I really don’t need to hear any more of this drivel,’ Hermione said, snapping her insect limb as she’d done before.
The noise, like the single click of a castanet, reverberated around the place. But, to Hermione’s bewilderment, none of the Limiters had taken a shot. Elliott was still standing there.
The girl smiled at Hermione’s confusion. ‘We only began to resemble humans after our last Phase … to resemble the species that we’d bred and reared to serve us. Pretty ironic, isn’t it?’
Hermione snapped her limb again, and then again, growing more and more irate.
What she hadn’t seen was the Limiter sharpshooters being sniped. Parry had given the order, and his men on the rooftops had successfully put the three Limiter teams out of action before they’d had a chance to fire even a single shot at Elliott.
Hermione had stopped clicking her limb and was frowning.
‘Anything wrong?’ Elliott asked her.
‘You! You’re wrong!’ Hermione screeched, swinging to the Old Styx and then the two Limiters on the cathedral steps. ‘And you,’ she shouted at them. ‘Do the honours, will you, and shut this tiresome bitch up once and for all? She’s boring me stiff.’
The Old Styx produced a handgun at the same time as the two Limiters brought up their long rifles.
There were sounds like distant whispers.
The Old Styx was thrown forward onto the ground, a neat hole in the back of his head. Rebecca Two jumped back from beside him in surprise.
And the two Limiters on the cathedral steps were also knocked off their feet by powerful sniper rounds from Parry’s men.
‘Damn,’ Hermione muttered, as if their deaths were as bothersome as breaking a fingernail.
Elliott knew the sound of a silenced sniper rifle only too well. She realised then that she wasn’t alone, that sh
e had friends out there.
She raised her hand above her head, calling out, ‘Don’t shoot her!’ She pointed at Hermione. ‘Leave her to me!’
‘Get back in the car, you little fool! Don’t just stand there!’ Hermione screamed at Rebecca Two, who showed no sign that she was going anywhere. Hermione scowled at her, then turned on Elliott. ‘At least I can rely on the Armagi to do what I tell them.’
She began to beat her insect limbs together, faster and faster.
Not a single Armagi moved a muscle. They were simply standing there in their droves, watching.
‘What is wrong with them?’ Hermione complained.
‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ Elliott said, ‘They won’t attack me because I’m the same as you. I have your blood in my veins. I’m just as much Styx as you are.’
‘If you want anything doing properly, you have to do it yourself,’ Hermione grumbled.
The Styx woman launched at Elliott.
But the girl didn’t just stay put.
She went to meet Hermione.
As they came together, Hermione lashed at Elliott’s eyes with her insect limbs, but she got more than she’d bargained for.
Elliott cried out, the skin tearing apart between her shoulders.
And from the base of her neck, a pair of insect limbs snapped open to their full length. Like something newborn, they were speckled with blood. And they were also brown and far lighter in colour than Hermione’s shiny black legs.
But they were every bit as strong.
Elliott’s new pair of limbs caught Hermione’s in their pincers, stopping the Styx woman in her tracks, and effortlessly holding her off.
Hermione was speechless.
‘Parry,’ Bob said over the headset. ‘Two minutes to impact.’
‘You’ve launched already? Aren’t you watching the video feed?’ Parry rumbled. ‘You have to abort.’
‘Sure, we’re watching, and we’re sharing it with the governments of all the other countries throughout the world,’ Bob replied. ‘But there’s been no change to the status. Our drones are showing that the Armagi are still moving out to sea.’