Enemy Invasion (43 page)

”How are the patients?”

“Doing well. The antidote has been a success and Fincher is working on a version to treat the previous fall virus victims.”

“What are you going to do with that?” Alex asked, meaning the mysterious symbols that had appeared on her arm following the incident with the Entity. Upon their return to the base,
Dr. Fincher had instantly recognized them as instructions for the creation of a chemical compound. Sarah had insisted the compound would be a cure for the strain of the fall virus in the spider
bites and she’d been right.

She ran her fingers over the symbols on her arm and remembered her last moments in the construct, standing with Daniel and the strangers on the beach. She wondered what was happening to all
those beings on all those other worlds now they were finally free of the Entity. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m kinda getting used to them.”

“You should see some of the tattoos the HIDRA grunts rock up with after a weekend on the town,” Lt. Kaminski said, appearing in the doorway. “That’s nothing.”

Sarah smiled and looked at the screens, her attention caught as one by one they flicked to the same image: blurry footage that looked as if it had been taken with a handheld camera. The
scrolling titles below the BBC screen read:
BREAKING NEWS – leaked video footage of “superhuman” team responsible for saving London
.

“Oh, damn,” Kaminski said quietly as they watched the twenty-second movie play out. It had clearly been taken with some kind of distance lens and showed the hovercopters touching
down on the runway at the HIDRA base. The image zoomed in to show Sarah and the others, less than an hour after their defeat of the Entity and looking grimy and worn-out, emerge from the machines
and be escorted into waiting ambulances.

The screens kept on playing the video in a loop, either full screen or as an insert while people talked in the studios. Images of Major Bright (“
Rogue military commander implicated in
city assault
”) appeared intermittently. One channel had isolated Sarah, Alex and Louise’s faces from the video and had them superimposed in the background with the caption
“
Friends or foes?
”

“Well, this is going to be a little bit more difficult to cover up than the last one,” Alex said.

Sarah nodded. “They know who we are now.”

“And they’ll start demanding answers,” Kaminski said. “God knows what we’re going to tell them.”

“How about the truth?” Alex suggested.

“I wish it was that simple,” Kaminski replied, before disappearing down the corridor. Alex shrugged and looked at Sarah.

“Perhaps it’s not a bad thing,” he said. “People should know what happened. What almost became of the world.”

Sarah didn’t take her eyes from the screen. “Maybe there are some things they’re better off not knowing.”

“I don’t believe that.”

She looked round at him. “Well. I guess we’ll soon find out, won’t we?”

Alex nodded, then said, “There was just one thing I wanted to ask you…”

“Yes.”

“Back in the power station, when you kissed me…”

“When I transferred the information about how to fly the helicopter to you,” Sarah corrected. “We had to be in physical contact for me to be able to do that.”

“Right,” Alex said. “I was wondering why you didn’t just grab my hand or something.”

Sarah coughed. “Well, I thought…it seemed the easiest way to get your attention. I needed you focused. Did you mind?”

“No! It was great!”

“Great?”

“I mean, it was very effective… As a means of transferring information.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

Alex finally said, “If you’d ever like to…um…”

“Transfer information?”

“Yes. If you’d ever like to transfer information again, I wouldn’t mind. I mean, that would be fine by me.”

Sarah gave him a quick glance. “I’m sure it would.”

“If you wouldn’t mind, that is.”

She thought for a moment and then smiled. Their enemies were defeated. Her friends were safe. Maybe it was time, like Commander Craig had told her that last day on the
Ulysses
, to stop
worrying so much.

“No,” she said. “I don’t think I’d mind at all.”

A little distance from the plane, they stopped. May rubbed her hands together and blew on them.

“I’m not going to miss this cold,” she said.

Hack grinned. “Tell me about it. You’d think a country this freezing would actually have decent central heating. But, oh no…”

She laughed, but then became serious. “You can come with me, Hack. Mum and Dad said they want to meet you. We have a spare room where you can stay for as long as you want. And it’s
summer in Western Australia right now. Beaches, barbecues. I’ll teach you how to surf.”

Hack thought it over for about the hundredth time. Then he shook his head. “I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I’ve still got stuff to do here.”

“What about your grandfather? Isn’t he going to miss you?”

Hack laughed. “He’s flying out next week. First time he’s been off his island in about fifty years. I think he’s quite excited about it.”

May laughed and said, “Try to look after yourself, huh? I won’t be around to patch up any cuts and bruises in future.”

“Yeah.”

Behind them the sound of the jet engines rose. They embraced hastily and May ran towards the plane. Hack waved to her as she went up the steps, but she didn’t look round – mainly, he
sensed, because she didn’t want him to see the tears in her eyes.

A few minutes later the jet blasted into the morning sky as Hack watched from the edge of the runway. He followed its path until it was just a speck in the distance, eventually becoming aware of
someone standing beside him.

Aren’t you supposed to be in sickbay?
he asked, glancing at Robert.

By the time they miss me, I’ll be back. Are you okay?

Hack nodded and they started back towards the main buildings of the base. “I never thanked you properly for saving us,” he said as they walked. “May and I owe you our
lives.”

Robert shrugged as if it was nothing. Then he said, “Well, there is one way you can pay me back.”

“Yeah?” Hack said.

“I’ve been stuck on the lower dungeon level of
Portal War
for the last two months—”

“Trying to find the proton shield?”

“Yeah! How did you guess?”

Hack shook his head. “All the newbs go looking for that one…”

“Yeah… Wait a minute.
Are you calling me a newb?
”

“Yeah, I’m calling you a newb. Everyone knows the proton shield isn’t in the dungeon. Look, you have to double back to the control room on level 5 and… It’s
probably easiest if I just show you…
newb…
”

“Patient number 345,” Fincher said into the control panel and the robotic arms went to work, retrieving the chosen casket and carrying it towards the platform.

Sarah stepped forward and checked the window, confirming that it was her father, Daniel. The read-outs on the side indicated a perfectly stable coma, as always. Dr. Fincher laid out an aluminium
case on the panel and flipped the lid, revealing a syringe gun and vials of liquid. He slotted one of the vials into the gun.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Sarah?” he asked. “There are plenty of other patients whose families have given us research permission. We don’t know how your antidote
is going to affect victims of the original fall virus, or even if it will have any result at all.”

To answer his question, Sarah pressed the release code on the side of the casket. Magnetic locks shot open and the lid rose slowly, revealing her father lying inside. He was draped in a sheet,
covering the sensors attached to his body. She reached out and touched his hand.

“It’s what Daniel would have wanted,” she said. “He never ran away from a fight.”

Fincher nodded and offered her the gun. “Would you like to do the honours?”

Sarah took the instrument and placed it against Daniel’s upper arm where she knew the vein was.

“Come back to us, Dad,” Sarah said as she pulled the trigger.

Epilogue

It was one of those incredibly bright, crisp winter’s days. The frost was still on the ground as the two limousines pulled through the automatic gates at the edge of the
estate and started the two-kilometre drive through the woods down towards the Georgian mansion at the centre of the grounds. As they passed the lake, the cars stopped. Presently the back doors of
the vehicles swung open and an assortment of teenagers piled out, taking in their new surroundings.

Sarah Williams walked to the edge of the road and looked across the lawn at the three-storey building up ahead. It looked like something out of a period drama – all high windows and stone
steps leading up. Her friends stood alongside her and it was a moment before anyone spoke.

“I thought we were going to the city,” Alex said.

Octavio sniffed and added, “This place looks…educational.”

Colonel Rachel Andersen emerged from the other limo and walked towards them, smiling at the confused looks on their faces.

“What is this?” Hack asked, leaning against the car.

“This is your new home,” Rachel said. “I thought you could all use a little more space to run around in.”

“It looks ancient,” Louise said and beside her Wei nodded sceptically.

Rachel grinned. “Just on the outside. We’ve added some modern features for all of you.” She reached inside her pocket and produced a set of keys. “Why don’t you go
and check it out?”

She tossed the keys and Nestor was the fastest, snatching them from the air. He looked round at Sarah, who shrugged.

“Race you,” Nestor said and started running across the grass, closely followed by the others – even Octavio, who hesitated just a moment for show. By the car, Robert looked at
his sister and shook his head.

“When will they learn?”

He disappeared and in the distance Sarah saw him reappear instantly on the steps in front of the building. She smiled and turned to Rachel.

“What is this?” she asked.

“The leaks to the media have made it increasingly difficult for us to keep you at HIDRA,” Rachel continued, referring to the small army of reporters camped out around the perimeter
of the base. “You’re not prisoners, but that’s how we’re having to keep you at the moment.”

“And that’s bad for publicity, right?” Sarah said wryly, thinking of some of the nastier news headlines she’d seen online. The world seemed torn between portraying them
all as saviours or as dangerous forces that should be locked up underground.

“Something like that,” Rachel said. “Which is why we’ve decided to relocate all of you. With you and your parents’ agreement, of course.”

Your parents.
It was something they were all having to get used to again – most of the kids in the team had lost their family to the fall virus, but now, with the antidote, they
were all making slow but steady recoveries at the HIDRA UK base. And being back on the scene, their parents naturally wanted a say in what their kids were up to – even if those kids had
changed a lot since they’d seen them last. A door on the other side of the limo opened and Daniel eased himself out, leaning on a stick for support (over a year in the sleeper casket had
weakened his muscles).

“What do you think?” Rachel asked him as he cast his eyes over the mansion rising before them.

“Well, it’s not as nice as my flat in Melbourne,” he said wryly. “But I guess it will have to do. I’m just glad you picked somewhere discreet.”

Rachel laughed. “Trust me, this place is isolated enough not to attract attention. To the outside world it’s a school – a charitable organization set up by HIDRA to educate
those children affected by the fall virus.”

“A school?” Sarah said.

“I’m putting Dr. Fincher in charge of the institution, but there’ll be proper teachers and everything else you and your friends need. And there are more like you out there, as
you know. Kids who need help and guidance with their powers to make sure they don’t run off the rails.”

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Dr. Fincher running a school?”

“Okay, okay,” Rachel said. “So there’d also be the opportunity to engage in some…extra-curricular activities. If you want to.”

“The Entity is dead,” Sarah said. “So is Major Bright. What else is there for us to do?”

Rachel stopped walking. “The moment the fall virus came to earth, the genie was let out of the bottle, Sarah. We’re identifying increasing numbers of kids with virus-related powers
every month, all over the world. Not all of them are intent on using their powers for good.”

She handed Sarah an iPhone showing a series of security pictures. They showed a military base of some kind with soldiers being blasted left and right by what appeared to be a pair of
fourteen-year-old girls.

“That’s a US military facility in Kandahar Province,” Rachel explained as Sarah flipped through the pics. “A team of superhumans hit them last week – ripped through
the defences and made off with over ten million dollars’ worth of equipment – equipment that showed up on the black market three days ago. The security footage suggests they had a
teleporter, a psychic and two pyros.”

Sarah handed the phone back. “They’ve teamed up.”

“And they’re not the only ones,” Rachel said. “There’ll be more.” She paused for a moment, then said, “We’re only asking you to consult, not get
involved in another fight or—”