Sam walked towards the Chinook helicopter, its huge double rotors already slicing through the air. Mason strode up the ramp to the interior, which was lit with blood-red light, swiftly followed by a dozen of his men who quickly stowed their gear and took their seats along the bulkheads. Sam followed, past the soldier manning the mounted heavy machine gun, and found himself a spare seat. The men moved with the practised efficiency of professional soldiers, barely glancing at Sam as he watched them finish their final preparations for take-off. A minute or so later, Mason finished talking to the pilots and turned to address his men.
‘Gentlemen, you should consider this a combat drop,’ Mason said. ‘Until we have firm evidence to the contrary we are going to work on the assumption that London is still in the hands of the enemy. You all conducted scouting missions into Edinburgh while the enemy Mothership was stationed there so I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the dangers we may face. We have plotted a course to avoid the Voidborn control nodes that may still be active en route, which should mean we don’t run into any of their airborne units, but you should still be ready for an emergency landing at any time.’
Sam and the others had done exactly the same thing on their way north. The Voidborn Motherships may have gone, but the automated control nodes that allowed the Hunter Drones to operate semi-autonomously and continue to care for the millions of Sleepers up and down the country were still active. Sam thought back to the first time he had seen one of the nodes in the middle of the pitch in Wembley Stadium surrounded by thousands of dormant Sleepers. They had learned the hard way that the Hunters would aggressively defend a node if it were attacked, turning from nursemaids to savage killers in the blink of an eye.
‘Any questions?’ Mason asked. ‘No? Good. Flight time should be just over two hours.’
Mason walked through the cabin to where Sam was sitting and looked down at him.
‘Once we arrive these two gentlemen will be taking care of you.’ Mason gestured to the two grim-faced soldiers that sat on either side of him. ‘You are not to leave their sight. Understood?’
For a fleeting second Sam wanted to tell Mason that he was more than capable of looking after himself, given everything he’d been through since the invasion, but he decided that it probably wasn’t worth it at that precise moment. From Mason’s perspective he was just a kid after all, and Sam tried very hard not to smile at the thought of his face when he realised that ‘kid’ had command of an army of tame Voidborn.
‘Don’t worry,’ Sam replied, ‘I won’t go wandering off.’
Mason walked back to the front of the compartment and took a seat next to the bulkhead that separated the cockpit from the passenger compartment. A few seconds later the thumping rumble of the rotors increased in intensity and the massive machine slowly lifted into the air. Sam watched as the lights of the base disappeared from view to be replaced by the pitch blackness of the post-invasion night. The next time his feet touched the ground he would be home.
Mag squatted on the corner of the roof of one of the darkened buildings that surrounded the landing pad. It had not been difficult to evade the guards patrolling the perimeter. Over the last couple of months she had become extremely adept at avoiding detection by anyone or anything. She watched as the helicopter with Sam on board lifted into the air and disappeared over the horizon. She had wanted to make sure that he had departed safely. He had been the only person that she had spent any time with since she had awoken to find herself transformed. The fact was he had made her feel human again and she realised now that she had almost forgotten how that felt.
She’d been more than a kilometre away from the base before she’d turned back. The nagging memory of Mason’s scent had made her return. He didn’t smell right, she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what was wrong about him, but she had learned to trust her heightened senses. They had saved her life on more than one occasion.
She was just about to head back off the base when the hangar doors on the opposite side of the landing pad began to rumble slowly open. She watched as a second helicopter, identical to the one in which Sam had just left, was towed out on to the pad by a small tractor-like vehicle. Mag frowned slightly as two soldiers walked out of the hangar, flanking a figure wearing wrist and leg shackles, with a black bag over their head. The soldiers pushed the prisoner up the loading ramp and a few seconds later the helicopter started to lift off. However, instead of pulling away it hovered in place above the pad. Then Mag noticed the cables dangling from the cargo hook on the machine’s belly.
A moment later the tractor reappeared towing a trailer with a large steel crate on the back of it. As the trailer drew to a halt beneath the helicopter, more soldiers ran out from the hangar and attached the cables to mounts on top of the crate. Suddenly there was a loud metallic clang from the crate as something slammed against the walls inside.
Mag felt a cold sensation in the pit of her stomach as the scent hit her nostrils.
The unmistakeable animal stench of the Vore.
The soldiers quickly finished attaching the cables and one of them gave a thumbs-up to the pilot, whose head was just visible, poking out of the cockpit window above them. A moment later the crate lifted up off the trailer, swinging beneath the massive helicopter like a pendulum as it began to climb into the air. Mag made a split-second decision as the helicopter began to turn towards her, heading for the perimeter fence. She leapt to her feet, sprinting across the gravel roof of the building, picking up speed. The crate passed by three metres above her and she leapt with all her new-found animal strength, slamming into the side with a bang, her claws fighting for purchase on the hard surface. She grabbed desperately for the top edge of the crate as the helicopter cleared the perimeter fence and began to pick up speed. There was a moment of panic as Mag felt herself starting to lose her grip, and she gave a low bestial growl, using every ounce of her strength to pull herself up. She flattened herself to the top of the steel box, holding tight on to the cable mounts as the wind speed increased. She realised she had no idea where the helicopter was headed or why they were transporting live Vore, but her gut told her that it was no coincidence that they had taken off straight after the helicopter carrying Sam. She closed her eyes against the stinging high-speed winds, praying that she would have the strength to hang on long enough for them to reach their destination, wherever that may be.
Rachel squeezed the trigger, the butt of her rifle kicking hard against her shoulder. The short burst tore a neat hole in the centre of the paper target at the other end of the firing range. In her mind’s eye the target was one of the nightmarish creatures they’d discovered in Edinburgh, charging towards her and then cut down in the hail of her bullets. She had finally given in to Dr Stirling’s repeated requests for more information about the things, but reliving the memories of that night had left her feeling angry and frustrated. She had always found the firing range an excellent means of stress relief, but even that wasn’t really working today. Nat approached as Rachel emptied her clip and placed the rifle down on the wooden counter in front of her, a tiny curl of gun smoke rising from the barrel.
‘Not lost your edge, I see,’ Nat said with a slight smile as she looked at the tightly grouped bullet holes in the target at the far end of the range. Rachel had always been the best shot of any of them, much to Jay and Jack’s frustration.
‘Just keeping my eye in,’ Rachel said. ‘Never know when the shooting’s going to start again.’
‘Yeah, I suppose,’ Nat replied. ‘Though I’ve kind of got used to things being quieter. Can’t say that I was ever a massive fan of the whole bullets and explosions side of things.’
‘Don’t tell Jack that – he might lose interest,’ Rachel said, raising an eyebrow.
‘I wish he would,’ Nat said with a laugh. They all knew that Jack had a crush on her, mainly due to the fact that he seemed to lose the power of coherent speech when she was around. Unfortunately for him it was also painfully obvious that Nat didn’t feel quite the same way.
‘I suppose Jay asked you to come and talk to me,’ Rachel said, picking up her rifle and walking towards the armoury.’
‘He’s just worried about you, you know,’ Nat said. ‘You all went through hell up there.’
‘We’ve been through worse,’ Rachel said. ‘Sam’s not the first person we’ve lost after all.’
Nat looked at her friend’s face. She was right, of course. They had all experienced more than their own fair share of tragedy over the past couple of years, but that didn’t change the fact that some losses were felt more acutely than others.
‘I know,’ Nat said, ‘but . . .’
‘Chosen of the Illuminate,’ the Servant said from behind them, and the two girls turned to see the golden-skinned woman walking towards them across the compound. Theoretically the former Voidborn could simply manifest anywhere she wanted out of thin air, composed as she was of a swarm of countless billions of networked nanites, but Sam had quickly made it clear that doing so made the humans around her uncomfortable.
‘Please, can we just stick to Rachel,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I don’t need the grand title, thanks.’
‘As you wish,’ the Servant replied. ‘My sensors have detected a human aircraft approaching at high speed.’
‘What?’ Rachel snapped, frowning.
‘Should I dispatch drop-ships to intercept?’ the Servant asked calmly.
Rachel’s mind raced. None of them had seen a non-Voidborn aircraft since the first day of the invasion.
‘You’re certain it’s not Voidborn?’ Rachel said.
‘Initial sensor mapping suggests it is a twin-engined rotorcraft of rudimentary design,’ the Servant replied. ‘It is significantly less advanced than Voidborn technology.’
‘A helicopter?’ Nat said, sounding unconvinced. ‘Are you sure?’
‘The drop-ships would allow us to make visual confirmation,’ the Servant replied. ‘The aircraft’s estimated time of arrival at the Mothership is seven minutes.’
‘Do it,’ Rachel said. She wasn’t prepared to take the chance that it was some kind of Voidborn trick. ‘And get Stirling out here, please.’
The Servant gave a nod. Moments later, far above them, the twin black triangles of two Voidborn drop-ships shot out of one of the numerous hangars that covered the upper surface of the Mothership, racing towards their target.
Mason stared out of the cockpit window of the Chinook. They were thirty kilometres from the centre of London, but even at that range the vast shape of the Voidborn Mothership was clearly visible floating above the city.
‘Sir,’ one of the pilots said, tapping the radar console between the two pilots’ seats, ‘we have two fast movers closing on us from the direction of the Voidborn ship.’
‘Hold your course,’ Mason said calmly. ‘We couldn’t outrun them if we wanted to. Let’s see how this plays out.’
A minute or so later the two triangular aircraft shot past the helicopter, one on either side. They banked back round, taking up flanking escort positions.
‘Stay on this course,’ Mason said. ‘Let’s not do anything to spook our new friends.’ The drop-ships looked identical to the ones that Mason had covertly observed flying above Edinburgh before the Voidborn Mothership had departed. The only difference that he could see was the colour of the light that seemed to dance just below the crystalline surface of their skin, which glowed yellow instead of green. A few minutes later the helicopter passed into the shadow of the Mothership and Mason turned back to the passenger compartment.
‘Mr Riley, would you please join me up here,’ Mason said.
Sam stood up from his seat and walked between the seated soldiers and up to where Mason was standing.
‘We’re approaching the area that you indicated was your base of operations,’ Mason said. ‘It would appear that you might actually have been telling the truth. You’d better tell the pilot where we should put this thing down.’
Sam felt a growing sense of relief as he saw the lights of the compound in St James’s Park glowing in the pre-dawn gloom. They were back on his territory now. He directed the pilot towards the clear area in the centre of the compound that was usually used as a landing site for the drop-ships. A minute or so later the helicopter hit the ground with a slight jolt and the ramp at the other end of the cabin whirred to the tarmac, the light from outside flooding into the dimly lit passenger compartment. The soldiers marched down the ramp, fanning out around the rear of the Chinook in a curved defensive line, weapons raised. Sam followed them outside and saw Jay and Rachel with their weapons raised, flanked by a pair of Grendels.
‘Oh my God,’ Rachel said, her eyes widening as she saw Sam walk down the ramp.
‘It can’t be . . . Sam?’ Jay said, his mouth dropping open with surprise.
‘Tell your friends to lower their weapons,’ Mason said.
‘As long as you tell your men to do the same,’ Sam replied.
Mason thought for a moment and then nodded.
‘Stand down,’ Mason said to his men. The reality was that even that much concentrated firepower would do little good against the Grendels anyway.
Sam walked past the soldiers and Rachel ran towards him, wrapping him in her arms and hugging him. When after a few seconds she pulled away from him, her eyes were wet with tears. She sniffed and wiped her face with the back of her hand, staring at him as if she couldn’t quite believe he was real.
‘We thought you were dead,’ Rachel said, shaking her head in disbelief.
‘If it’s any consolation,’ Sam said with a grin, ‘so did I.’
‘I don’t believe it,’ Jay said, grinning as he too hugged his friend. ‘How the hell did you survive? There were thousands of those things out there. There’s no way that –’
‘It’s a long story,’ Sam said. ‘I’ll tell you later.’
‘Who’s that?’ Rachel asked, nodding towards Mason, who was watching their reunion with interest.
‘That’s who we went up there to find in the first place,’ Sam said. ‘His name’s Mason and he and his men have been trying to keep the Vore from spreading outside the city.’
‘The what?’ Jay asked, looking confused.
‘Sorry, that’s what the creatures are called,’ Sam said, suddenly looking serious. ‘I have to speak to Stirling – he needs to know what those things really are.’
‘What do you mean?’ Rachel asked, suddenly worried by the expression on Sam’s face.
‘The Vore aren’t like the Hunters or the Grendels,’ Sam said with a frown. ‘That’s why I couldn’t sense them in Edinburgh before they attacked. They’re . . . or at least they once were . . . human. The Voidborn didn’t take the Sleepers with them – they turned them into the Vore.’
‘You mean . . .’ Rachel paused for a moment. ‘That’s obscene.’
‘We . . . we killed dozens of them,’ Jay said, feeling bewildered.
‘I know,’ Sam said, looking down at the ground, ‘but what choice did we have? It was kill or be killed. They were dead long before we got there.’
Sam noticed movement behind the Grendels and then Stirling appeared with William, Liz, Adam, Nat and Jack, all looking just as stunned to see him alive.
Mason watched for a couple of minutes as Sam reunited with his friends. Stirling glanced over in his direction and nodded. He walked over to Mason and extended his hand.
‘It’s good to see you again, Iain,’ Mason said, shaking Stirling’s hand. The pair of them had only met a handful of times in the decade leading up to the invasion.
‘You too,’ Stirling replied. ‘I hoped that the transmission we picked up might have had something to do with you. I take it that the Faslane facility survived the invasion.’
‘Yes, but we weren’t fully prepared,’ Mason replied. ‘I only have a fraction of the men we were supposed to be assigned. We’ve only recently been able to begin surface operations – we had to wait for Shaw to finish his work on these things.’ He tapped the implant on the side of his head.
‘Daniel’s with you?’ Stirling said, looking confused for a moment. ‘How’s that possible?’
‘What do you mean?’ Mason asked with a frown.
‘He was in London on the day of the invasion,’ Stirling said. ‘How on earth did he get to you?’
‘He walked,’ Mason said. ‘It took him weeks.’
Stirling looked as if he was going to say something else for a moment, but then he glanced over at the children who were huddled around Sam.
‘I take it you know that’s his son,’ Stirling said.
‘Yes, Daniel never really spoke about his family,’ Mason said. ‘I’d always assumed they’d been taken in the invasion. I had no idea his son was one of the implant recipients.’
‘He’s a lot more than just that,’ Stirling said, raising an eyebrow.
‘Yes, I’ve seen his arm,’ Mason said. ‘When he told me it happened while you were taking control of the London Mothership, I found it rather hard to believe. I don’t know how you did it, Iain, but this could be a pivotal moment in driving back the Voidborn. If you’ve worked out a way to take control of a Mothership and we combine your men with mine, we could start to turn the tide.’
‘It’s rather more complicated than that,’ Stirling said, looking slightly uncomfortable all of a sudden. ‘What exactly did Sam tell you?’
‘He told me you had an army,’ Mason said, frowning.
‘That was something of an exaggeration,’ Stirling replied.
‘What do you mean?’ Mason asked.
‘That’s our army,’ Stirling said, nodding towards the group of children who were gathered in the shadow of the hulking Voidborn machines.
‘You’re joking,’ Mason said, looking shocked. ‘Then how did you . . .’ He glanced up at the colossal vessel hanging in the air far above them.
‘Honestly,’ Stirling replied, ‘I have no idea. Besides which, it’s not entirely accurate to say that we control the Mothership. Sam’s the only one who it actually responds to. We didn’t assault the Mothership – we were captured and, during the ensuing confrontation with the Voidborn consciousness inside the ship, something happened that profoundly altered it. Now it obeys the boy’s instructions without question.’
‘How is that possible?’ Mason said, looking over at the grinning boy surrounded by his friends.
‘I think you should probably ask Daniel that,’ Stirling said. ‘He implanted the boy with some form of experimental nanites when his Voidborn implant started to expand uncontrollably. I’ve never seen anything like them before. He never told me how he developed them, but they saved the boy’s life. Ever since then the Mothership has been entirely under his command. The former Voidborn that controls it calls him Illuminate, whatever that means.’
Mason shook his head slightly, looking over at Sam. ‘I wish I could ask Shaw what he did to the boy that makes him so special,’ he said. ‘He left Faslane several weeks ago. I’ve not seen him since.’
‘Why would he do that?’ Stirling asked with a frown.
‘We had a disagreement on tactics,’ Mason said. ‘You need to know what’s happened in Edinburgh.’
‘Yes, I was hoping you could give me more information about these new creatures,’ Stirling said.
‘He calls them Vore,’ Mason said, glancing at Sam. ‘Which is as appropriate a name as any. They’re a plague, Iain, and I need your help to stop them.’
Sam collapsed into one of the armchairs in the common room, profoundly glad to be back in what he now considered his home. He’d spent the last few hours filling everyone in on the details of his escape from the Vore, meeting Mag and then being rescued by Mason’s men. Sam waved to Jay as he entered the room and his friend sat down in the seat opposite him, glancing at the soldiers who were sitting around checking their gear in silence at the other end of the room.
‘Not exactly chatty, are they?’ Jay said, jerking his head towards the new arrivals. ‘Don’t think I’ve seen one of them crack a smile yet.’
‘I know what you mean,’ Sam said. ‘They’re pretty good at the whole stone-faced warrior thing, aren’t they?’
‘You sure we can trust them?’
‘Yeah,’ Sam said with a nod, ‘suppose so. Though it wasn’t like I had a lot of say in the matter, actually. I might have just managed to survive our first encounter with the Vore, but I wouldn’t have made it through the second if it hadn’t been for them.’
‘Man, those things were grim,’ Jay said. ‘I don’t want to think about what would happen if they made it to London.’
‘Yeah,’ Sam replied, ‘we’ve got to find a way of making sure that doesn’t happen.’
‘Hey, guys,’ Rachel said as she sat down on the arm of Sam’s chair. ‘Why the serious faces? Thought we were supposed to be celebrating.’
‘We were just talking about what the Voidborn did in Edinburgh,’ Sam said.
‘And how we make sure they can’t do the same thing here,’ Jay added.
‘Yeah, I still can’t believe that they were the city’s Sleepers,’ Rachel said. ‘I thought my nightmares were bad enough already, but this . . .’ She trailed off, shaking her head.
‘Yep,’ Sam said, ‘the only advantage we really have is that they’re nocturnal. Maybe if we move the Mothership over Edinburgh temporarily we can use the forces on board to find the nests and destroy them.’
‘Whatever happens, hundred of thousands of people are dead,’ Rachel said.
‘Didn’t you say that you found a whole bunch of Voidborn that had been ripped to pieces just before you met your latest girlfriend?’ Jay said.
‘Mag isn’t my girlfriend,’ Sam said, rolling his eyes.
‘You want to be careful,’ Rachel said with a grin. ‘You’ll make Goldenboobs jealous.’
‘Please don’t call the Servant that,’ Sam said with a sigh. ‘If it hadn’t been for Mag, I would never have made it out of Edinburgh. Now you mention it, though, there’s something that’s been bothering me about what I found up at the castle.’
‘Yeah?’ Jay said. ‘What’s that?’
‘How did the Vore turn on the Voidborn?’ Sam said, frowning slightly. ‘Why create a weapon that’s as dangerous to you as it is to your enemies?’
‘Maybe they just lost control of them,’ Jay said. ‘You didn’t see any other dead Voidborn, did you? Could’ve just been an accident.’
‘Yeah,’ Rachel said, ‘never stopped us from developing biological weapons before the Voidborn arrived, did it? I doubt the Voidborn really care about losing a few Hunters and Grendels if it means they can wipe out an entire city.’
‘I suppose,’ Sam said with a sigh. ‘I just hope that they didn’t do it because of what happened here. If this was revenge for London . . .’
‘This isn’t on us,’ Jay said. ‘We just have to find a way to make sure they can never do it again.’
Sam glanced over at the door as Stirling and Mason walked into the room.
‘Sam,’ Stirling said, ‘Mason has asked if we would give him a tour of the compound. He’s keen to see the Voidborn drilling rig. He also asked if we would show him the Mothership. I said I thought that wouldn’t be a problem.’
‘I have to admit I’ve always been curious,’ Mason said. ‘I’ve spent most of my time avoiding the Voidborn – I wouldn’t mind the opportunity to see some of their technology up close without getting vaporised.’
‘You OK with this?’ Sam asked Stirling.
‘Yes, but it’s your choice, Sam,’ Stirling said. ‘It’s your ship, after all.’
Sam had never thought of the Mothership as belonging to him, but he supposed that it must seem a bit like that to the others.
‘OK, let’s give you the guided tour,’ Sam said, standing up. ‘You two coming?’
‘Nah, I’m good,’ Jay said. ‘I told Jack I’d go out on patrol with him. I’ll catch you later.’
‘I’ll come,’ Rachel said. ‘Been a while since I’ve been up there.’
They spent the next hour or so giving Mason a tour of their own hastily constructed facilities and the bizarre Voidborn structure that loomed over the compound, which contained the dormant Voidborn tunnelling machine. Then they walked back over to the Grendel that was keeping watch over Mason’s helicopter.
‘I need a drop-ship to transport us up to the Mothership,’ Sam said to the enormous creature. A moment later a golden cloud materialised in front of the Grendel, seeming to just appear from thin air. A second or two later the swarm of nanites coalesced into the familiar form of the Servant.
‘So that’s what the Voidborn look like,’ Mason said quietly to Stirling.
‘Yes and no,’ Stirling replied. ‘That’s the form the Voidborn chose to appear to us in when we first encountered it, when it was still hostile. The only difference was the colour.’
‘Fascinating,’ Mason said, staring at the Servant as she told Sam that the drop-ship he had requested was on its way and would be there shortly. ‘And you’re sure that the Voidborn couldn’t somehow take control back from the boy.’
‘Honestly, I have no idea,’ Stirling replied. ‘I strongly suspect that they would have done, if it was that easy to take it back.’
‘That . . . or the loss of one Mothership is inconsequential to them,’ Mason replied.
‘Yes, that possibility had occurred to me too,’ Stirling said.
Above them there was a deep throbbing roar as the drop-ship that Sam had requested landed next to the helicopter, its sleek alien lines making the human machine look awkward and ungainly. The hatch in the side of the drop-ship slid open and Sam followed Rachel up the boarding ramp.
‘After you,’ Stirling said.
‘Never thought I’d be climbing into one of these things voluntarily,’ Mason said with a grim smile as he walked inside.
Sam looked up at the giant crystalline structure at the heart of the Mothership, watching it pulse with the yellow waves of energy that powered the massive vessel. He had been here many times over the past few months, but even now his memory took him back to the first time he had seen it. Then it had pulsed with sickly green light and he had been on his way to his first true encounter with the Voidborn consciousness.
‘What’s the source of all this power?’ Mason asked.
‘The source of the ship’s power is the gravity differential of the event horizon of a singularity trapped inside an artificial pocket dimension that is linked to the power distribution system via a quantum tunnel,’ the Servant replied.
‘Sounds dangerous,’ Mason said, staring up at the crackling nimbus of energy that surrounded the massive black crystal at the very top of the power column.
‘On the contrary,’ Stirling said, ‘it’s actually remarkably safe, clean and efficient. I just wish I had the faintest idea how it works.’
‘Seeing as it’s the only thing keeping us airborne, I’m just glad that it does work,’ Sam said to Rachel as the Servant led them to the top of the spiralling ramp that ran round the crystal. Like much of the Voidborn technology, the intricacies of the Mothership’s design were still a mystery to them. The Servant seemed to understand the basics, but since she had lost her connection to the Voidborn she had lost access to any detailed explanation of why the Mothership worked the way it did or where the Voidborn may have originated. Sam was reasonably sure that it was all tied up somehow with his newfound status as Illuminate, whatever that meant.
The Servant raised a single hand as she approached the massive, intricately decorated black slab that barred the entrance to the Mothership’s central control room. The elliptical patterns on its surface lit up with yellow light as the slab split into triangular sections and slid into the walls and floor.
The control room was quiet and the pedestal upon which the Voidborn consciousness had once rested, while in its dormant state, stood empty. Mason strode over to the windows that looked out over the abandoned city and shook his head.
‘I’m still not sure I believe it even now I’ve seen it with my own eyes,’ he said. ‘It’s exactly what we need.’
‘What do you mean?’ Stirling asked with a frown.
‘Illuminate, I am detecting another aircraft on approach,’ the Servant said. ‘It appears to be identical to the one in which you returned.’
‘You keep calling him that,’ Mason said, slowly turning towards the Servant. ‘He is not the Illuminate, but I am.’
A moment later Mason’s entire body seemed to flare with blue light and his appearance began to shift. His military uniform morphed into a suit of interlocking white armoured panels. Seconds later an eight-foot-tall pale-skinned humanoid creature with glowing blue veins of light running back over the bald skin of its crested skull stood looming over them, looking down at their shocked faces with a sneer.
‘This vessel does not belong to you, human,’ the creature said, pointing at Sam. ‘You will return control of it to me.’
‘Who . . . who are you?’ Sam asked, his eyes wide with astonishment.
‘I am Talon, last warrior of the Illuminate, and you will do as I command,’ the creature said, taking a single step towards Sam.
The Servant moved with impossible speed, dissolving into her cloud form and sweeping in front of Sam before re-forming in front of him, both of her hands morphing into vicious outstretched claws.
‘I will not allow you to harm the Illuminate,’ the Servant said as behind her Sam, Rachel and Stirling slowly backed away.
‘I have no intention of harming the human,’ Talon replied. ‘In fact, I need him, for now at least. Besides, I believe he will give me control of this vessel quite voluntarily.’
‘Now why would I do that?’ Sam asked. Behind him, several of the larger black-skinned Hunters guarding the control room rose from the pit below the Voidborn control pedestal. The energy weapons mounted in their gleaming carapaces were aimed squarely at the giant armoured creature.
‘Because if you don’t I will release the creatures you call Vore into the city below,’ Talon replied, his eyes narrowing.
‘Good God, the second helicopter! You’re bringing those creatures into the city,’ Stirling said. ‘You can’t do that – millions will die.’
‘A small price to pay to defeat the Voidborn,’ Talon replied. ‘You pathetic humans have no idea what is at stake. You have one minute to make your decision, boy, before the countdown on the electronic locks sealing the Vore cage expires. The only thing that can prevent it is me transmitting the disarm code. The choice is yours.’
Sam’s mind whirled. Who was this creature, where had he come from and what was he truly intending to do with the Mothership? Too many questions, no time for answers. Sam felt a pit open in his stomach as he had a sudden horrific vision of millions of ravenous Vore swarming through the streets below them. The creatures that Talon had transported to London would only need to reach one group of Sleepers and their numbers would begin to expand geometrically. There would be no hope of stopping them. In that instant he knew that he had no choice. Talon might be bluffing, but some gut instinct told him that this creature was more than prepared to carry through on his threat. That was not a possibility he could contemplate.
‘It’s OK,’ Sam said, putting his hand on the Servant’s shoulder before stepping in front of her and looking up at the towering armoured warrior. ‘What do you need me to do?’
‘Let me in,’ Talon said, raising his massive gloved hand and pressing it to the side of Sam’s head. Sam felt a moment of disorientation and then he could sense Talon’s presence inside his mind as the light around him faded to nothingness. It wasn’t the horrific invasive feeling that he had felt when the Voidborn had entered his mind during their final confrontation. Instead he felt a sense of disembodiment, as if he were floating weightless in a black void. The voice that suddenly rang out seemed to come from all around him.
‘Control cannot be taken, it must be given,’ the voice said. It sounded like thousands of individuals speaking in perfect, uncanny unison. ‘That is the way of things.’
The voice sounded calm, soothing even, and yet something about it filled him with a mixture of awe and dread.
‘What do I have to do?’ Sam asked.
‘Simply exercise your will,’ the voice replied. ‘Grant us control.’
Sam thought for a moment about the idea of granting control of the massive vessel to Talon and that was it. His senses returned in a flood, the control room around him seeming impossibly bright for a moment as he collapsed to the floor unconscious.
‘Excellent,’ Talon said with a smile, turning to the Servant. ‘Your services are no longer required.’
The Servant gave a sudden horrible digitised shriek and her eyes flared with bright yellow light before she disintegrated, a cloud of dirty yellow dust falling to the floor where she had once stood. Rachel ran to Sam, picking his head up from the floor and cradling his limp body.
‘What have you done to him?’ she snapped at Talon as he looked down at them.
‘The boy was overwhelmed by his union with the Illuminate,’ Talon said. ‘It is not unusual for the experience to be too much for the fragile minds of unelevated species. He will recover in time.’
‘If you’ve hurt him I’ll –’
‘Do what, girl?’ Talon said with a sneer. ‘I have faced armies of Voidborn and seen civilisation after civilisation fall before them like grass before the scythe. What do I have to fear from one such as you?’
Stirling suddenly felt the mechanical tendrils of the Hunter behind him wrap around his arms, locking his limbs in their vice-like grip. Instinctively, he struggled for a moment, but he knew it was no use. The machine’s inhuman strength was far greater than his own.
‘Why are you doing this?’ Stirling asked, staring at Talon. ‘You want to destroy the Voidborn – so do we. We can work together.’
‘I do not need your assistance,’ Talon said as another Hunter moved towards Rachel, pulling her away from Sam’s unconscious body and restraining her also, despite her fruitless struggling. Talon moved towards the central control pedestal as the final Hunter looped its black tentacles beneath Sam’s armpits and hoisted his unconscious body into the air, the toes of his boots dangling just a few centimetres off the ground. The Hunters’ skin now throbbed with a pale blue light instead of yellow, a change reflected in the patterns of light that pulsed through the walls around them.
‘You will be detained for now,’ Talon said, and the cables that surrounded the control platform rose up and began to snake around him, slipping in between the plates of his armour and locking in place as they too began to throb with blue light. ‘Be thankful that you have been spared the fate of your companions below.’
‘What do you mean?’ Stirling yelled as the Hunters dragged them from the room. ‘What’s going to happen to them?’
‘That rather depends on whether they somehow manage to escape the Vore,’ Talon replied.
‘My God,’ Stirling said, ‘you can’t mean . . .’
‘I can’t risk the Voidborn recapturing the drilling site once the Mothership departs,’ Talon replied, glancing down at the glowing display mounted in the forearm of his armour. ‘I released the Vore five minutes ago.’