Acolyte (38 page)

‘What are they doing?' said Jonah. ‘That's where Never ditched the other holdall. You think they've spotted it?' He waited, tense, but nobody moved to where the bag had been hidden.

‘Whatever it is,' mulled Kendrick, ‘it's something he wants us to see.'

Andreas held out his hand towards Rico. Jonah could just make out the shadow Rico carried, as it began to shift: agitated, perhaps even excited. Rico stepped to Andreas and allowed his master to take his hand then he fell to his knees, an expression of absolute joy on his face. He closed his eyes, as if in prayer. Andreas stood over him and took Rico's head in his hands. He started to bend down over him, then opened his mouth. The mouth touched the top of Rico's head and continued to open, wider, wider. Jonah watched as every part of the skin across Andreas's face opened too, each opening like a mouth, and all the mouths disgorged a wet, living darkness over the kneeling victim, flowing over the head, reaching the shoulders before Rico's legs began to kick out in useless desperation, the deep black tar flowing onward as the body thrashed against it.

Jonah watched, unable to look away, as the kicking of the legs gradually slowed, then stopped, and the dark engulfed them.

At last, the black was retracted into the mouths. One by one, they began to close. Andreas stood upright, facing the door Jonah watched through. It was a show, as Kendrick had said; Andreas had decided to let them see how he fed.

The last of the mouths was closing now: dark holes where his eyes should have been, his face returning to an approximation of itself, enough to allow it to smile at Jonah and Kendrick before
Andreas turned and walked on, leaving a blackened mound of gore and bone steaming on the floor.

Jonah turned to Kendrick. ‘And you think we could kill
that
?' Jonah said.

‘Yes,' said Kendrick. He sounded almost distracted, and Jonah said nothing, wondering if the hopelessness of their situation was more than Kendrick could accept. After all, what choice did they have? Embrace their fate and look on as shadow stole over the world and took everything? Even if all reason was against them, they had to believe. They had to believe in
something.

At the sound of Never moaning in pain, Jonah turned to see Sly wrapping the bandage around his torso, Annabel lifting him enough for her to get under his body.

Two more passes with the bandage and Sly looked up. ‘He's still unconscious,' she said, her eyes firmly on Jonah. ‘He'll come round soon, though. The pain won't let him stay under much longer. A wound like that, the body treats as a continuing attack. It can override everything. I've seen people sprint with their intestines trailing behind them. We need him to stay calm and keep still.' On cue Never groaned, his legs shifting, an arm raising to his face. Sly went to her kit and took out a hypodermic syringe. ‘Everyone hold him down while I—'

With a yell, Never's eyes opened and he tried to move. Immediately, Kendrick and Jonah crouched beside him. It took all four of them to pin him down.

‘You're going to be OK,' said Jonah, tears falling. ‘You're going to be OK.'

For a few long seconds, Never fought them. At last he stopped struggling but his body was still tense. ‘No,' he said, his voice horribly weak, taking very short breaths. ‘Wait … I …' His face screwed up in agony for a moment.

‘Jonah,' Sly said, ‘you hold down this arm. I need to prep the morphine.'

Kendrick restrained both Never's legs as Jonah shuffled to
beside Sly. He gripped Never's right arm as Sly took a vial from her kit.

‘It's time you rested, Never,' Jonah said.

‘Don't …' Never managed. He turned his head towards Sly. ‘Don't you … fucking dare knock me out.'

‘It'll ease the pain, Never,' she said, ‘but it won't knock you out.' The syringe was filled and ready.

‘Promise me.'

‘I promise.'

With a nod from Never, Sly gave him the morphine. After a few seconds they could feel the tension leave him. Sly gestured for them to let go.

A smile worked its way onto Never Geary's face.

‘I gave him plenty,' said Sly. ‘He'll be a little high for a while.'

‘I know something you don't know,' said Never, in a sing-song voice. Everyone was silent, and Never's ghost-white face smiled. ‘I have a present for you,' whispered Never, looking at Sly. His right hand came up, and went down the front of his jeans.

Jonah saw Sly's eyes widen, but the look of vague disgust that crossed her face wasn't there long. It was replaced by something approaching awe, as Never pulled his blood-smeared hand out and held up the security card, grinning.

‘Happy birthday,' he said.

Sly and Kendrick stood with their ears to the door for several minutes, the room in silence except for the occasional mutter from Never about how he actually felt pretty
good.

He didn't
look
good, of course. To Jonah, he looked about as bad as was possible, his skin ghostly pale, smeared in blood; his eyes unfocused but still with an edge of desperation.

Finally, Sly and Kendrick exchanged a look and stepped away from the door.

‘Just the two guards in the room,' whispered Sly. ‘Andreas said the rest were heading for Lab Two.'

‘Can that card get us past this door?' asked Kendrick. ‘There's no reader.' He pointed to the side of the door; there was only a panel with a single blank button.

‘That's a door release,' she said. ‘For normal use they need one in here, but it's disabled.' She pressed it; nothing happened. ‘See? Now watch this.' She took the still-bloody security card out of her back pocket and held it up so the tiny black square device and cables attached to it were visible. ‘This isn't just a card,' she said. ‘Observe.' She checked the base of the door panel, and connected one of the cables. ‘Diagnostic port. That's all it takes.' On the black square, a green light flashed twice. ‘The door-release button is now active.'

‘Simple as that, huh?' mumbled Never. He grinned.

Sly nodded at him and smiled. ‘Simple as that.' She looked at Kendrick. ‘If we're going to do this, we do it now. Agreed?'

‘Agreed,' said Kendrick. ‘Jonah, do the guards out there carry shadows? Last thing I want to do is get into a fistfight with one of those things.'

Jonah nodded. ‘I think all of them did,' he said. ‘Small ones, except for the two men dressed in black.'

Kendrick sighed and looked at Sly. ‘We need them unconscious as fast as possible.'

‘Alive?' said Sly.

Kendrick shrugged. ‘They could be useful, but see how it goes.'

Sly made Jonah and Annabel drag the still-amused Never right to the back of the holding room, where she checked his wound again. She seemed satisfied that the padding was enough to stem the bleeding.

‘You three stay here,' she told them. ‘Whatever happens, just keep out of the way.' She went to the door, then took five slow steps backwards.

‘What are you doing?' said Never, looking dazed.

‘Watch and learn,' said Sly. She nodded to Kendrick and took the stance of someone preparing to run.

Kendrick raised his fist and started to hit the door repeatedly. ‘Anybody hear me?' he shouted. He kept shouting until the window cover slid down and an irritated face appeared.

‘What?' said the guard.

‘I need to piss.' Jonah saw Kendrick's hand, poised on the door release.

‘I don't care,' said the guard, and pulled the cover closed.

‘Suit yourselves,' said Kendrick. ‘But if you don't at least get us a bucket, we'll make sure it leaks out under the door. You're the ones who'll have to stay here in a room that stinks of piss.'

There was silence for a moment. Jonah could see Sly tensing in front of him. The window cover slid back down.

‘The next time I open this fucking door,' said the guard, ‘it'll be
to shut your fucking mouth for good, understand?' The guard held Kendrick's eye for a few seconds, then started to shut the window cover. As he did, he turned his head, speaking to his colleague. ‘Can you believe the—'

That was as far as he got.

Kendrick pushed the door release; in the same motion he raised his leg and kicked at the door with an almost explosive force, stepping immediately to the side as Sly hurled past him and launched at the other guard; the man was wide-eyed with shock, Sly already in the air, her boot connecting hard with the side of his head. Jonah felt his own hand come up to his mouth at the sound of the impact. He was sure he'd heard something crack.

Kendrick followed her through the door, out of sight to where the first guard must have fallen. Jonah heard the sound of another impact; then Kendrick and Sly were both back in the storage room, perfectly calm, armed with the guns they'd taken from the guards.

It had lasted all of four seconds.

‘I think I love you,' said Never, gazing at Sly. ‘Can we have dinner? If we both live?'

Sly raised an eyebrow. ‘If we both live, I'll
buy
you dinner.'

‘Right,' said Never, eyes narrowing. ‘But will you be there when I eat it?'

‘One step at a time, Geary,' said Sly. ‘One step at a time.'

*

Sly and Kendrick brought Never out of the holding room along with a box of T-shirts. She removed some and arranged them on the floor, lying Never on top. Meanwhile, Kendrick moved the guards into the holding room. They didn't look like they'd be regaining consciousness any time soon, but Sly disabled the door release again anyway.

Then Sly sat in front of one of the computers on the table in the middle of the room. ‘We have camera access,' she said, after a little typing. ‘And building schematics, including for Lab Two.
They look incomplete, but more up to date than the ones we had before.'

‘Good,' said Kendrick. ‘We go back to the original plan: get to the generator in Lab Two and disable it. If Tess is right, we have to be sure Andreas has started the process before we interrupt the power. Jonah, you're coming with me. If we cross paths with anyone, I want a heads-up on who has those fucking
leeches
on their shoulder.'

Jonah nodded, and looked across to Annabel. He'd been half expecting Kendrick to drag him along. The look on Annabel's face told him she'd thought so too; scared, but resigned.

‘What about Tess?' said Jonah.

‘We worry about her later.' Kendrick raised radios he'd taken from the guards. ‘We'll pick an unused channel and communicate with these. Sly, you stay with Annabel and Never.'

Sly scowled. ‘Like hell I will.'

He handed Sly a radio. ‘I need you here to manage surveillance and security, OK? Guide me.'

Sly turned to Annabel. ‘You capable of typing and talking?'

Annabel nodded. Sly looked back at Kendrick. ‘Nice try,' she said, ‘but I'm coming with you.'

*

‘That'll do,' mumbled Never. He was covered in a foil blanket Jonah had found in the security room's first aid kit, and had pleaded for Jonah to place one of the PC monitors on the floor beside him, showing the schematics, in case he could be useful.

Sly was sitting in front of one of the other PCs.

‘Bring up some security camera feeds,' said Kendrick.

The monitor wall still showed the feed from the outside cameras, well lit. Several of the camera shots changed to indoor corridors, some dark.

‘Seems like there are some lost signals in the recreation and
habitation areas,' said Sly. ‘But as far as I can see, there's nobody around.'

‘Everyone's asleep on that side,' said Kendrick. ‘The route to the Lab Two entrance is all we need. What about the cameras within Lab Two? I want to see what Andreas is doing.'

Sly tried, then shook her head. ‘I think it's a separate system. We should be OK, though, the way down to the generator is right inside the entrance.'

Kendrick took the last radio from the charging rack. He set the channels and threw it to Annabel. ‘Time to go,' he said.

‘Stop him overexerting,' Sly told Annabel, nodding towards Never. ‘I've left another shot of morphine ready for later. He can have it in forty minutes minimum, an hour would be safer, but he'll start complaining long before then.' She handed Annabel the guard's gun, Annabel taking it with trepidation. ‘With luck nobody will come,' said Sly. ‘But keep an eye out. If things go bad, take a patrol vehicle and get yourself to the rendezvous.'

Annabel nodded, but Never stayed quiet. ‘Good luck,' said Annabel.

‘You too,' said Sly. ‘And hang in there, Geary.'

‘Plan to,' said Never.

‘You ready?' said Kendrick.

Jonah nodded. He looked at Never, his friend's face death-white save for the smears of his own blood; he looked at Annabel, who smiled at him. Surely she felt it as well as he did: there was a finality here. Managing to stop Andreas would be difficult enough; getting away alive was surely more than they could hope for.

‘Just stay behind me,' Kendrick told Jonah. ‘Be silent. Keep close.' He pulled open the door, stepping out, looking around. Jonah followed, Sly taking the rear.

The door closed behind them. The lock went red.

The smell in the corridor was different to the one they'd left behind. The reek of burning from Never's injuries was one thing, but out here there was something even worse: something with an acrid, almost rotting edge to it. Jonah could see the remains of Rico at the far end of the corridor, steaming slightly. It was right beside the cleaner's trolley and the garbage sacks where Never had hidden the holdall. As they approached, the stench grew ever stronger.

‘There,' said Jonah.

By the mound of gore was a thick, spreading residue. It had reached the garbage sacks, where one strap from the holdall was barely visible.