Spiral (32 page)

Half an hour later the call came in. It was Eddie. Parry stood beside Drake as he spoke on the satphone. When the call was over, Drake briefed his father.

“We’re onto something. Eddie found Limiters and teams of compromised soldiers manning checkpoints on the roads into the industrial estate. The area was completely tied up, but he and his men have cleared a way in.”

“Sounds promising,” Parry said.

“It gets better. Eddie’s on the estate with some of the Old Guard. They’ve been surveilling a sizable factory where the Limiters are thick on the ground, and there’s also a high degree of vehicle activity. They’ve seen at least two refrigerated trucks make deliveries of what could have been meat — the last one’s just gone in. So it could be food for the Warrior grubs. I reckon we might have struck the mother lode.”

“What’s Danforth’s take on it?” Parry asked.

“He agrees that the Dark Light usage is exceptionally concentrated at that location. He thinks it’s a go. He’s sending Eddie the schematics for the factory right now.”

Parry took a second to make up his mind. “Everyone!” he yelled across the floor. “We’re in business.”

“THIS IS CUSHY. I COULD
get used to the corporate life,” Rebecca One joked as she sipped her Diet Coke through a straw.

“Sure could,” Rebecca Two agreed.

The Styx twins were in the boardroom, lolling around in the upholstered chairs with their feet on the table.

Rebecca One ran her eye over the plates of sandwiches that she and her sister had barely touched. “I’ve had all I want of these.”

“Me, too. Would you please clear the table and bring us a couple of ice creams, Johan?” Rebecca Two asked. She watched Captain Franz as he collected the plates, then headed for the kitchen.

Rebecca One slammed her Coke can down on the table. “Will you stop treating him with kid gloves? You don’t
ask
him to do things for you — you
tell
him. And he’s a Topsoiler — don’t use his first name,” she said. “I worry about you, you know. You’ve got to sort your act out.”

Slurping her drink, Rebecca Two made no response.

With a back swipe, Rebecca One sent her Coke can hurtling across the room. “Doesn’t matter anyway. We’ll probably have to dispense with him sooner rather than later.”

Rebecca Two avoided her sister’s gaze.

Captain Franz returned with two tubs of ice cream. Rebecca One took hers but then threw it straight back in his face. He barely blinked as it struck him. “This is vanilla. I wanted chocolate. Get me a chocolate one right now!”

“You didn’t say what you wanted,” Rebecca Two pointed out as Captain Franz shuffled away.

“Are you for real?” Rebecca One said. “It’s up to
us
to show the Heathen who’s boss.” She was shaking her head in exasperation, when her cell phone suddenly rang. Taking her feet from the table, she went to her coat to retrieve it.

“I don’t know this number,” she said, as she examined the display. “And who would be calling me right now, anyway?” After a moment’s deliberation, she answered the phone. “How did you get m —?” she snapped, then fell silent.

“So who is it?” Rebecca Two tried to ask as her sister continued to listen to the caller without saying a word.

Captain Franz had returned with the tub of chocolate ice cream, but Rebecca One waved him away. She was frowning. “How do I know you’re on the level?” she asked. A few moments later, she seemed satisfied with the answer. Still listening to the caller, she cupped a hand over the phone’s microphone. “Get your coat,” she whispered to her sister.

“What for?” Rebecca Two demanded, but her sister ignored her, already heading for the door.

Out in the corridor, Rebecca One again cupped her hand over the mouthpiece and spoke rapidly to her sister. “Get Franz to bring the Mercedes around to the back. Tell him to keep the engine running.”

Rebecca Two almost exploded, she was so curious. “Why? What’s going on?” she hissed.

But her sister was moving down the corridor at speed as she wrestled her coat on. “Tell me what you want out of this,” she said into the phone, as they turned a corner. They came face-to-face with the Limiter guarding the doors to the warehouse.

Rebecca One beckoned at him with her free hand. “Your pistol — quick,” she ordered him with that hushed urgency people use when they’re mid–phone conversation.

The Limiter obediently unbuttoned the flap on his holster and passed the gun over.

“Silencer. That’s good,” she said, with a glance at the suppressor on the barrel. “No, sorry . . . nothing,” she replied quickly to the caller. “Just dealing with something here.” Her voice became hard with authority. “All right, I’m convinced, and you’ve got yourself a deal. You have my word on it — scout’s honor ’n’ all that. We’ll see you soon.”

She ended the call. Without missing a beat, she raised the handgun to the Limiter’s chest and discharged it at point-blank range.

“What the . . . ?” Rebecca Two leaped back as, right in front of her, the Limiter sank to the floor. “What did you do that for?”

Rebecca One barely drew breath to reply. “Executive decision . . . no time to explain now,” she said.

Stepping over the Limiter’s body, she threw open the doors. As the humidity and the stench of raw meat from the warehouse enveloped them, Rebecca One was already racing inside. “Find Alex and Vane,” she shouted to her sister. “And fast!”

Parry took the first party down in the elevator. He’d told everyone to change from their Arctic Issue parkas into a variety of other less conspicuous clothes that had been provided to them back in the Complex. But as they entered the BT Tower reception area in their Sherpa jackets and thick corduroy trousers, they resembled a Victorian climbing party about to set out on an expedition.

Terry Finch was beside the revolving door as he kept a careful eye on Mortimer Street outside.

“You dealt with the staff, then?” Parry asked, speaking loudly to the old man as he ran his eyes over the rather drab area and the abandoned reception desk. “The Emergency Order obviously did the trick.”

“Well, . . . they’ve gone to a Starbucks around the corner until I give them the say-so to return,” Terry answered.

Parry frowned. “You don’t sound too sure — was there a problem?” he pressed the old man impatiently.

“One of the security gentlemen wanted to check with head office, so I stuck the official document in front of him.”

“And that worked?” Parry asked.

“No, he wasn’t buying it, so I drew my Webley on him,” Terry said with a mischievous grin, taking a revolver from the holster in the small of his back. “That worked like magic.”

“Riiiight,” Parry exhaled, his frown growing even more pronounced. He looked from Will to Drake. “Make sure you’ve got your tranquilizer pistols handy,” he said before he addressed Mrs. Burrows. “And, Celia, can you keep a
nose
out for any trouble heading our way? I need to know what’s waiting for us around the corner,” he told her.

“A very nice Italian restaurant about three hundred yards up on the left. The calzone’s making me feel quite ravenous,” she said, smiling.

“Why doesn’t anyone
ever
give me a straight answer?” Parry grumbled just as two old minibuses pulled up on the yellow line outside. The rest of the party had descended in the elevator, and one at a time, they exited onto the street and loaded their gear into the backs of the vehicles.

The driver of each minibus didn’t speak as they threaded their way through London. Will saw for the first time just how far things had gone in the capital. Other than the groups of soldiers and policemen stationed around the place, Euston Road itself appeared to be quite normal and the traffic relatively heavy. But as he glanced down side roads, it was a different story. He spotted the odd burned-out car and huge piles of household rubbish that hadn’t been collected in weeks. Fire engines blocked the entrance to Regent’s Park, and beyond its gates whole rows of large white buildings blazed away.

They took a right off Marylebone Road and raced through several back roads because the driver of the first minibus had spotted trouble up ahead. Then they emerged at the start of the Marylebone Flyover and sped up the incline.

They had all turned their radios on so they could hear Parry’s directions as he spoke into his throat mike from the first minibus, which was also carrying Stephanie, Sweeney, and the Colonel. “I’ve received a report that there’s a disturbance in Shepherd’s Bush, and the army is out in force there. So we’re going to leave London on the M3, then cut across country to the M4. We’ll maintain radio silence from now on, unless there’s a hiccup.”

“Hiccup?” Mrs. Burrows asked as there was a click and their earpieces went ominously quiet.

Drake swiveled around in his seat beside the driver to answer her, glancing at Will, then Chester and Mr. Rawls in the process. “My old man means if they hit a problem, they’ll open up with their weapons and take the heat so we can bug out. One of the vehicles
has
to make it through.”

“Gosh! I’m so glad I came with you,” Chester piped up.

One of the first to be born, the Styx Warrior larva was barely recognizable as the stumpy little maggot Vane had cradled in her arms only days earlier.