Finn, Carla and Nico were stuck. Exhausted. Sweat poured off them.
The white cells had congealed into such a thick, hot custard that they were being cooked with every forward stroke. Soon they ceased to be swimmers and became miners as they were dragged further and further down into the mass of cells.
They couldn’t possibly keep it up, they’d die of exhaustion. Nico stopped them first.
“Don’t give up – we’ve got to reach the edge. But just stop a moment. Rest …”
“The edge of what? What’s happening?” asked Carla.
“It’s an inflammatory response. The immune system. It can’t identify what it’s being attacked by, so it’s going into overdrive to isolate the dead Tyro. It’s cutting off the whole area. Crushing it and cooking it. Sending in these cells to die and set like concrete. Forming an abscess.”
“How far away are we from the edge of it?” Finn demanded.
“Depends … If the body thinks it’s a blood infection, it will bury us deep,” said Nico.
“What can we do?” asked Finn.
Nico, sweating in her helmet, looked empty of energy and ideas.
“If we can reach the outer edge, we could burst it,” she said.
“Burst it?”
“Just like a balloon,” said Nico. She thought again of her children, of them playing. There was no way she was going to take this lying down.
“C’mon, kids. Let’s dig!” she said.
They began to dig, like moles, like ancient miners buried alive, dragging themselves through the hardening clay, the walls pressing in on them, harder and harder, the heat boiling them in their suits, their air tanks dragging them back, away from life.
Finn tried not to think about the crush, the claustrophobia. As long as he kept moving, as long as his limbs felt they were propelling him forward, he could keep it at bay. But over the next ten, twenty minutes, the digging became useless, the abscess harder, hotter. And soon the three of them were straining for nothing, stuck fast and pressed together, in their own hell.
“This is no good. We can’t go any further …” admitted Nico. Then, “Wait, what about your flares?” she said, suddenly hopeful.
The radioactive flares! One of those would get them out. It would also see them removed – resized – and then … killed in front of Kaparis.
But anything was better than this.
“Mine was taken away,” added Nico.
Finn checked his belt. Nothing.
And Carla checked hers.
Nothing.
“I guess the Tyro crew don’t get issued any flares,” concluded Finn.
For a long while none of them spoke.
Movement!
Henri crept from his hole.
Since the comms link to the Carriers had gone down, all watchers had been on high alert. Was the fault technical, or was it more sinister? If it was technical, surely they’d send Santiago across the valley?
Just then, he saw a figure tacking up through the trees on the winding hunter’s trail. But this wasn’t Santiago. This creature didn’t lollop and bound like an animal. This thing was smaller and darted forward in fits and starts. Faltering.
When it stopped altogether, Henri drew his machine pistol and slid expertly down the slope. He ended up standing over a small injured ragged girl.
“Angel …” Olga breathed, and held out a note to him, her hand shaking.
Kaparis was exhausted too. Sweating. The hours of pain, the overkill of sensation was taking its toll.
The Big Swiss Cheese repeated a test he’d been trying for the last hour. He placed a soft ball in Kaparis’s right hand. “Once again. Try and squeeze the ball, sir.”
The ball trembled in Kaparis’s hand. His blood pressure climbed.
“You can do it, Master,” said Heywood in an anxious whisper.
Then the ball simply rolled off his open palm and hit the floor.
“ARRGGHH!” Kaparis roared in frustration.
He had been warned he might require years of physiotherapy and rehabilitation, but he had dismissed these concerns out of hand. He was a man of will and of science.
Across the operating theatre, Hudson and Santiago hung from the arms of the Siguri, heads beaten and bowed. Again and again, the questions had been the same: “Who was in the shaft with you? Who sent you? What were you doing?” And again and again, Santiago wailed and Hudson said nothing.
Kaparis felt hot. Outraged that the G&T had got so close – with an idiot bespectacled schoolboy (Hudson instantly recognisable after months under surveillance). There must be a whole conspiracy against him. He would root out and destroy every last bit of it. He would lay waste to every Carrier – then flee.
But not yet. Not when he was so close.
Hot, hot, hot. He couldn’t think straight. He wanted to close his eyes and, at the same time, he wanted no part of such weakness. He roused himself and made Hudson and Santiago his most heartfelt pledge.
“As soon as I can move these hands, you will be the first I destroy. I’ve killed Infinity Drake and I’ll kill you and that ghastly hunchback too!”
Hudson felt his heart jump. Was this true? Was this a taunt?
“Doctor?” said one of the Big Swiss Cheese’s nurses, trying to get his attention. “Look!”
The nurse pointed to Kaparis’s neck. The soft flesh beneath his chin had begun to swell.
Kaparis was so hot, he decided to close his eyes, just for a little while …
Just then, a message came through from the Vitalis.
-.-. .-. . .-- / -- .. … … .. -. --. / -- --- – .. …- . / ..- -. -.- -. --- .-- -. / …- .. – .- .-.. .. … / – --- / .. -. …- . … – .. --. .- – .
“Crew missing … Motive unknown … Vitalis to investigate …”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked a puzzled technician as the surgical team went to work to bring Kaparis round.
Finn … thought Hudson, and felt himself relax again.
The three of them could hardly move now, helmets pressed together in the burning hell of it.
“We must keep going,” Nico told them, but reality was setting in as hard as the abscess they were trapped in. They were giving up.
Finn felt bleak, crushed.
They said nothing, nor did they try and move. Finn could see the air regulator readout projected against the inside of his helmet: 47% LCA19 REMAINING. APPROX. 125 MINUTES.
Three hours. Three and a half.
He had come all this way, Finn thought, all the way across the top of the world, to fulfil an unwanted destiny, to kill the giant …
Now the giant was killing him.