“Run, Kaaro!” Aminat says.
Two soldiers left, but they are good. Aminat has been hit, but her armour holds. They are tough and agile, clearly worked together before. They seem to be everywhere, even though this should be close-quarters fighting, sidearms and bayonets only. She cannot get off a shot, but neither can they. There is little cover except cadavers, and she has to worry about her lover at the same time. She does not wish to fire at random in case she hits him. They have no such compunction, but risk hitting each other. It’s a stalemate, but only for now. Aminat can feel the fatigue in her muscles and knows she can only keep this pace up for minutes at most.
Why the fuck is Kaaro just sitting there? The commandos know about him and are wearing skin-tight body suits under their armour and breathing helmets. One of them throws a flash-bang, but Aminat’s helmet polarises the visor and noise-cancels. The dome is open behind them, and Aminat can see a way out, but Kaaro is being an asshole again. And the fucking dog is right beside him, tail tucked in, whimpering at the sporadic gunfire.
She takes a shot to the shoulder and it makes her drop her gun. She falls to the rotten ground to avoid fire. There are people crowding the opening in the dome. She squints. They are not cherubs, they are people. They rush the soldiers and hold them down. They get shot, but they ignore the wounds, even though they bleed.
They’re reanimates.
“Okay, now we go,” says Kaaro. “Are you okay?”
“I have to be. Jacques made us an exit. Let’s use it.”
The last they see of the soldiers is a hand struggling under a mound of reanimates lying on top of them.
Outside, the sky is full of war planes and drones not quite on bombing runs yet, but in formation, crawling, showing off the might of the Nigerian Air Force.
“We have to get to cover. We’ll be spotted soon.”
Kaaro grabs her arm. It hurts from the shot, but she bears it. “Anthony’s dead. You have to get Alyssa. You need to bring her back here and she needs to bond with Wormwood. It’s the only way any of us will survive this.”
He explains the conversation with Molara to her, the death of Anthony, his agreement to fight the plant creature, and she nods. “Why do these things always end with you teaming up with a former girlfriend?”
He shrugs and starts running towards the Beynon plant, holding his stupid dog. He has to leap over a woman who is dragging the front end of a horse that has been blasted in two by God knows what powerful force. She pulls it like a reluctant child, back facing the direction she travels in, trailing a long streak of blood. Aminat has never eaten horseflesh. She watches Kaaro recede, knowing he isn’t fit enough to sprint the two miles. Sedentary motherfucker, but she loves him.
Oh, how she loves him.
She heads for Ubar.
All the stations on the Rosewater train track are roughly a mile from the dome, and they circle it. The Ubar station is a further mile out, north-west, and if you keep going in that direction you’ll hit the east bank of the Yemaja, but not in the flood zone. Aminat commandeers a jeep and its driver, so she’s at the ministry of agriculture in fifteen minutes. She calls Femi throughout, but that bitch has gone dark again. In fact, she cannot reach Lora or Dahun or any of the people who should be “mission control.”
The ministry looks quiet, ordinary, but Aminat knows how dangerous it is, and begins to sweat. She checks her phone, makes sure that the right implant is switched on. She does not know what happens to those misidentified at Ubar, but she does not want to find out. She knows the building will be functional because it has always had an independent power supply. The gate still stands, and she walks through. It’s deserted, but the reception area looks like it’s been looted. The president’s portrait hangs askew, and someone has painted a black cross through his face and on to the wall. Broken glass on the floor and the smell of defecation. The lift stands amongst all of this, aloof, untouched. Aminat stands before it to be judged, and the doors shift open.
A disembodied voice says, “Drop your weapons, Agent.”
Aminat unslings her rifle and carefully places it on the floor. She takes the magazine out of her sidearm and leaves it beside the rifle. After a moment’s hesitation she drops the hunting knife beside the handgun.
The elevator takes her down the sublevels, down, down, until it slows and stops. She is in the lab level, and two soldiers await. One covers her while the other pats her down. They walk her to where Femi Alaagomeji waits.
“I’m glad you made it, Agent. I was worried you’d die of love.” Femi holds a glass of red wine. Her hand is on the control panel, and behind the protective screen, in the chamber where Aminat had seen scientists puree a guy, sits Alyssa Sutcliffe.
“Why is she in there? We already know this device doesn’t work,” says Aminat.
“That depends on what you want it to do. If disintegration is your aim…”
“Femi, you’re not making sense.”
“No, I’m making perfect sense. Think, Aminat. This, she, is the only leverage we have against the aliens.”
“So you want to kill her?”
“Not unless someone tries to take her away.”
“Why did you let me in?”
“Because you’re my agent, and because this facility is hardened. It’s the safest place to sit out the final phase of this ridiculous war.”
Something occurs to Aminat. “You’re the one who let the Nigerian troops in.”
“Yes, I showed them how to use Wormwood’s vents; and they know where each bunker is, thanks to me. Aminat, wake up; I trained you better than this. We walk in shadow and when the light between those shadows hits us, it is temporary until we can flit to the next shadow. I will stop this invasion and I’m willing to pay any price to get it done. Where’s Kaaro?”
“Why do you care?”
“I need to know where my assets are.”
“Asset? He hates you.”
“Maybe, or maybe he just wants to fuck me so bad, but knows he can’t. And maybe you need to learn that emotion isn’t important. He may hate me, but he spends his time doing my will, even if he doesn’t know that’s what he’s doing. Where is he, agent?”
“Killing the plant.”
“He’s going to get himself blown up,” says Femi. “Didn’t know he had that in him.”
“At least he’ll die on the right side of history,” says Aminat.
Femi points to Aminat, stabbing the air with her words. “Love makes you stupid, Aminat. I don’t mean you in particular. Love makes us stupid. Pull back and look at the whole picture. You are here to give the aliens what they want—Alyssa. Your boyfriend is going to try to destroy the only effective weapon against those aliens. And Jacques is about to surrender, saving thousands, maybe millions of lives. “Right side of history.” Bitch, there is only history if humanity is here to write it. You have it the wrong way around, Aminat. You should kill Wormwood and save the Beynon plant. But don’t worry. Auntie Femi is here to save the day.
“Despite all of that, I’m glad you’re here. In spite of your insipid emotionality and your questionable choice of men, I quite like you. You’ll survive all of this, and I’ll give you a medal, and promote you. Your one job was to get this asset to me, and you did it. The president will be pleased. There is no way out of here without my authorisation and she’s not getting out of that chamber without me releasing her, so sit down, get a glass and toast the end of the war.”
Alyssa has seen Aminat and raises her hand in a weak wave. Aminat responds, but feels hopeless. There is no plan, no eventuality hack to get her out of this. She wonders if Kaaro is walking into some trap because Femi does not seem worried about his mission. The walls vibrate even all the way down here.
“Don’t worry, nobody is sending bunker breakers to these coordinates,” says Femi.
“Can I talk to her?” asks Aminat.
“Be my guest.”
Aminat indicates to Alyssa the radio buttons.
“Are you okay? Do you need anything?” she asks.
Alyssa shakes her head.
“I can hear you if you speak,” says Aminat.
“I don’t have anything to say.”
“I’m sorry,” says Aminat.
The rumble seems closer and Aminat begins to doubt Femi’s assurance. Even the soldiers seem uncertain.
“Are you sure—”
The far wall in the chamber cracks from floor to ceiling all at once, before buckling and breaking apart, flinging some debris with such force that one chunk of masonry bounces off the screen and spiderwebs it. The transmitted force flings Aminat to the ground and shatters the wine bottle with the glass. One of the rifles goes off, but probably by accident or from fear. With shock Aminat watches Femi activate the test. The view of the screen is broken into multiple fragments, functionally opaque, but whatever the attack is continues. Metal groans, plaster falls and everybody screams, including Alyssa on the other side of the screen. No sounds of explosions, though. There is a winding, tightening sound, high-pitched, as if something is stretching, which reaches a crescendo and everything shatters. Aminat keeps her head down, with her hands wrapped around it, trunk curled up, foetal. It’s not a detonation, it’s a demolition, and when the noise dies down, and there are no girders or beams groaning, and the dust no longer makes her cough, Aminat looks up.
It’s not luck that has kept rubble from smashing her head open.
This roll-up is larger than the one that died in the woods. Its mouth alone is fifteen feet high when open, which it is. Alyssa stands at the entrance to that maw, hair flying back and forth with the breathing of the beast. It has curved itself to form a roof with its body, which saves not only Aminat, but Femi and the guards as well.
“I’m going to ask you to do something strange,” says Alyssa.
“I’ve done strange things,” says Aminat.
“You know the story of Jonah?”
“I am not getting inside that thing.”
“It’s a she, and getting in is the only way. She can take us all the way back to the surface. Here, there is only death and betrayal.”
“What about them?” Aminat points to her unconscious superior.
“They can come too. The creature is a gentle soul and wouldn’t leave without them anyway. I would have acted differently. Let’s make haste, the tunnels may collapse.”
“I have to tell you something,” says Aminat. “You need to go inside the dome.”
She tells the story to Alyssa as they both drag the soldiers and Femi into the roll-up’s mouth. There are blunt teeth the size of traffic bollards at various points all around, and it is dry, and smells of dust and earth. Aminat had expected saliva, but roll-ups tunnel by passing the earth and rock through themselves.
“Is this safe?” Aminat asks.
“We’ll soon find out.”
“Does it know where to go?”
“We’re communicating, Aminat. Have no fear.”
Inside the roll-up is warm, and they stay in what corresponds to a pocket in the cheek. It’s snug, but not exactly uncomfortable. Aminat is pressed against Alyssa in the dark. The unconscious ones lay at their feet.
“Did they hurt you?” asks Aminat.
“No. They took samples of everything, but none of it hurt. Your commander is committed.”
The movement begins, and the dust fills the close air as a train of rock and debris passes them. Pebbles break off and hit the passengers. Sometimes it is larger stones and Aminat is sure she has been cut and bruised, though not seriously. The creature moves at maybe five miles an hour, and the pulsing movement of its wall is coupled with the passage of heavy earth, the kind Aminat has only encountered at construction sites. Every five minutes or so an explosion of sparks breaks the darkness apart as the creature swallows an inexplicably live power cable. Aminat is starting to feel a rising claustrophobia when the darkness starts to abate. She swallows to equalise the inner ear pressure and strains her eyes to see anything at all.
They breach and Aminat has never been so happy to see the light. They break out just outside the dome. The roll-up keeps her mouth open so they can exit. Alyssa exchanges a moment with her, then the roll-up backs away into the soil, twisting on her own axis, leaving a crater with burst water mains and generous mounds of rubble in her wake.
Alyssa faces the opening in the dome.
“Do you need me to go with you, girl?” asks Aminat.
“I really don’t.” She walks into the dome like she’s been doing it all her life. She stops at the threshold. “Aminat, thank you for taking me to your friend’s house. I’m happy to have seen that side of humanity, the warmth, the loyalty. I have a favour to ask of you. If I don’t survive this will you find my husband and child and… comfort them?”
“Of course,” says Aminat. “But I thought you weren’t Alyssa Sutcliffe.”
“I am today.”
When she is swallowed in that darkness, Aminat drags the unconscious three out of the open, lest they attract bombs. This done, she runs towards the Beynon to find her lover.