Alien Storm (22 page)

“I see two empty chairs,” Makarov said finally, continuing to scrape the knife across the piece of toast. “Can someone explain to me why that is?”

The children looked at one another.

He knows
, Louise thought.

Robert jumped from his seat. “What have you done with my sister?”

Nestor stood by his side and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Easy, Robert. This isn't going to get us anywhere
.

Makarov laid the knife down on his plate and looked up for the first time. His eyes were like black pools – bottomless and strange.

“I'm confused,” Makarov replied. “I rescue you from the clutches of people who would hurt you. I bring you into my home, feed you and give you everything you could want. Yet you insist on breaking my rules. Prying into my business. I told you not to go below the 90th floor—”

Robert shrugged off Nestor's hand and moved quickly round the table. Makarov lifted a casual hand and flicked a finger in his direction. Hit by an invisible force, Robert flew backwards and landed heavily on the grass several metres from the table.

“Robert!” Louise cried, then looked round at Octavio and Wei.
Enough of this. Let's get him!

The others made to rise from their seats, but suddenly found themselves rooted to the spot, completely unable to budge.

I can't move!
Wei thought desperately. Louise struggled against the invisible force as well. Makarov's psychic power was holding them in place.

Robert got to his feet and ran at the table again, but only got a metre before he also froze in place like a statue. Looking slowly around the paralysed children, Makarov picked up the toast and took a bite from it.

“It seems I've been giving you all too much of a free rein,” he announced. “Spare the rod and spoil the child, as my father always used to say. Well, from now on you'll learn that my rules are not to be taken lightly. There will have to be punishments for disobedience.”

At Makarov's side, Ilya, the Russian boy from the training zone, teleported into existence. Meanwhile, out of the trees surrounding the edge of the park, the dark shapes of twenty robowolves stalked silently forwards. The robots stood guard a few metres from the table, their red eyes locked on Robert and the others.

Makarov cast an eye over them and nodded approvingly. “The Spire can be a heaven for those who obey my rule. A hell for those who do not.” He smiled nastily. “Sarah Williams fled. She has deserted you.”

Robert made a choking noise and his vision swam with tears. He wanted to throw himself at Makarov, to kick and tear at the man, but it was as if concrete had been poured over his body. He tried to yell with frustration, but found even that was impossible. Makarov had all of them in the grip of his mind.

“I sense you all trying to fight against me,” Makarov told the group, “but as you can see, I'm far too powerful. I was perfecting my mind-control techniques when your grandparents were in nappies. Furthermore, I have an alien with a brain the size of a planet on my side.”

Robert looked across at Nestor, who was powerless other than to roll his eyes in desperation.
He's crazy
, Robert thought to him.

No arguments there
, Nestor shot back.
What do we do?

I don't know
, Robert replied, suddenly wishing more than anything in the world that his sister was with them. Sarah hadn't given up on them. Makarov was lying – he sensed it.

“You should feel privileged,” the Russian continued, clearly enjoying his captive audience. “You are the first to experience the next stage of human evolution. In less than two days, meteorites will rain down on every major city, carrying the virus to all parts of the world. Below, the majority of humanity will live as slaves to my master, the Entity. Meanwhile, we, the immune, will rule as kings in the clouds.” He leaned back in his chair with a contented sigh, but then his face darkened.

“Of course, we have the matter of your group disobedience to deal with first,” Makarov said, looking up at the swirling snow around the pyramid and then back to the unmoving children around the table. He smiled broadly, revealing brilliantly white teeth. “I'm afraid I'm going to have to make things a little less comfortable for you all around here. Maybe then you'll begin to appreciate how lucky you are to have me.”

25

If anything, the blizzard seemed to grow in intensity as Alex and Sarah approached the buildings. They had to hold hands to stop from losing one another in the wall of snow that was being driven towards them. Occasionally Alex would look back, expecting to see the red eyes of one of their pursuers approaching through the pulsating mass of white, but nothing had yet appeared. It was only a matter of time before they were overtaken, however. Visibility was down to just a few metres, so it was impossible to tell how far they had travelled or how far it was to their destination. For all he knew, they could have wandered off track in the storm and were heading round in a circle.

Sarah pulled on his arm and yelled something inaudible above the howl of the wind. Alex looked round to where she pointed and made out the shape of a chain-link fence. They'd made it to the perimeter of the factory. Spurred on by this knowledge, they doubled their pace. They reached the fence and followed it along for a minute before coming to a gate swinging open in the storm.

As they moved through into the factory area, Alex looked up at a towering sign written in both Russian and English:

MAKAROV INDUSTRIES COPPER MINING – WARNING, DANGER AREA

Do you think it's safe?
he sent to Sarah, who shrugged.

Safer than being out here. Let's get inside!

He wasn't about to argue. Ahead, the factory buildings loomed above them like dark giants – hardly welcoming, but the best offer they were going to get in the storm. They staggered towards the nearest structure and found a door. Alex tried the handle, but it was locked. The door itself felt flimsy and rotten, however. Taking a step back, he aimed a kick just under the lock and the door flew open with a crack of metal against wood.

They staggered into a small, windowless room, bare except for numerous items of cold weather gear hanging from hooks on the opposite wall. Sarah pushed the door closed to hold back the storm. They collapsed on the floor, exhausted from the trek across the plain.

“Boots!” Alex cried as he spied a rack of clothing. Pulling himself to his feet, he grabbed a pair of heavy boots with a thermal lining from a hook, tossed them to Sarah and took some for himself. They eagerly shed their sodden trainers and put on the dry footwear. Alex found gloves, scarves and hats for them as well.

“I'm actually starting to feel warm again,” he said as he pulled the scarf around his neck.

Sarah clapped her gloves together to get the blood flowing. “Come on. Let's see if we can find someone in this place.”

Alex put a hand on her arm as she moved to the internal door. “Take it easy. You saw the sign – Makarov owns this factory.”

Sarah acknowledged his point with a nod. “Okay. Let's go slow. If it looks like trouble, we fade out, alright?”

“Alright.”

She opened the internal door and they stepped out onto a metal walkway. It overlooked a factory floor that stretched on for hundreds of metres into the distance. Everything was on a massive scale: furnaces the size of houses stood idle, while huge pouring vats hung silently from the ceiling. What light there was came in through grime-covered skylights high above. Alex hit a bank of light switches by the door, but nothing happened – no power. The factory was deserted.

Dead.

“Looks like we're the only people home,” he said, picking up a heavy-duty torch from a shelf by the door and turning it on. He swept the wide beam across the silent machinery below.

“Come on,” Sarah said, moving to the steps leading down onto the factory floor.

“If there's no electricity, there's no phone either!” Alex replied as he followed her.

Sarah turned on him. “You got something better to do?”

Alex shrugged and waved the torch around the shadows. “No.”

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Are you scared?”

“No way!” Alex called after her as she started off between the rows of smelting furnaces. “I just don't like the idea of wandering around a factory owned by Makarov. It doesn't seem like a sensible place to hide out when we're being chased by a pack of his robots.”

Sarah gave no response, so there was nothing to do but follow.

They carried on between the machinery in silence. The stillness of the place was strangely oppressive and Alex began to think he actually preferred it out in the storm. High above their heads, metal chains dangled from the sides of catwalks between the machines. They clattered against one another in the breeze blowing through the factory. Where a giant sliding door stood open on the far wall the snow billowed in, creating a high drift that covered much of the machinery there. All around, in the aisles between the furnaces and work stations, tools and protective equipment such as helmets lay abandoned.

“Looks like this place was cleared out in a hurry,” Alex whispered, tapping his boot against a discarded wrench the size of his forearm. “What do you think happened here?”

Sarah looked around. “I'm betting the local meteorite strike—”

She stopped speaking abruptly and grabbed Alex's arm, dragging him to the side of one of the smelters. He opened his mouth to protest, but she placed a finger to her lips.

Quiet! There's something here. Look!

Alex peered round the side of the furnace. In the distance, at the top of the snowdrift, the unmistakable shape of a robowolf stood framed against the swirling blizzard. As its head turned left and right, the searing crimson eyes scanned the factory for any movement below.

Do you think it saw us?
Alex thought, turning back to Sarah.

She shook her head, but bent down to pick up a wrench from the floor.
I don't think so, but we should be ready for it
.

Alex nodded and removed an oversized hammer from a hook on the side of the smelter. He stole another look in the direction of the drift. The robowolf had gone.

It disappeared!
he told Sarah urgently.
Perhaps it moved on
.

Doubtful
, Sarah replied, backing away. She didn't see the movement in the aisle behind her, but Alex did.

“Sarah!” he cried out as the robowolf leaped from the shadows towards her, eyes flashing brilliantly. Alex threw the hammer with all his strength at the charging metal beast. The tool hit it full in the face, sending it off course just enough for Sarah to leap to one side. As the robot passed, she brought the wrench down on the back of its neck. With a howl, the robowolf rolled forward, completely out of control, finally smashing headlong into the side of the furnace. The clang of metal against metal reverberated around the silent factory.

“Run!” Sarah cried as the robot struggled to right itself. She and Alex tore round the side of the smelter and sprinted down the wide aisle that bisected the factory, heading in the direction of the snowdrift.

“We have to get out of here!” Sarah said breathlessly as they ran. Behind them, the sound of the robowolf's feet pounding the concrete floor grew closer as it flew down the aisle after them.

“Then what?” Alex demanded, grabbing one of the discarded tools from the ground as they ran. He spun in time to see the robowolf throw itself at him. He swung the tool and connected with the side of the robot's head, jerking it round. The robowolf staggered to the left, but then slowly turned to face him again. Its eyes glowed an even deeper red – the right pupil flickering on and off as if damaged from the blow. The robot advanced towards him, slowly and deliberately, herding him back towards one of the machines. Concentrating hard, Alex began to fade out, but realized that it would be several seconds before he attained full invisibility.

“Sarah, get out of here!” Alex yelled, but she shook her head, coming up behind the robowolf with her wrench raised.

“Not leaving you!”

She swung her weapon, but the robowolf anticipated the attack this time, wheeling round and to the side. As the wrench swung uselessly through the air over the robot's head, it struck out with its right foreleg, knocking Sarah down. Alex leaped forward, but the robowolf extended its claws and swiped at him. He let out a cry of pain as the talons ripped into his upper arm, drawing blood. Staggering back, he became fully visible again, unable to keep his concentration because of the pain. As the robowolf advanced, he could have sworn he saw something like a smile pass across its metal jaws. Alex pressed himself against the side of another furnace and tensed, preparing for the next blow…

“Don't move, boy!”

Both Alex and his attacker looked round as one at the sound of a thickly accented Russian voice, deep and commanding. A tall man, dressed in a thick coat with a hood that obscured his face, stepped around the side of the furnace. In his gloved hands he held a sledgehammer raised high above his head. Before the robowolf could evade the blow, the man brought the sledgehammer down squarely on its skull. The robot staggered as the head of the tool smashed through its metal cranium, exposing the wires and circuitry of its brain. The man swung his weapon up and down again with a grunt of effort, hitting the robowolf in the same spot. The skull of the robowolf detached from the body and cartwheeled across the aisle.

Stunned, Alex and Sarah looked from the robowolf's collapsing body to one another and then to the stranger. Their rescuer tossed the sledgehammer into Alex's arms, causing him to stagger under the weight. Without a word, the man produced a large hook from the belt of his coat and stood over the body of the robowolf. He drove the hook through the wolf's steel-plated back leg and used it to start dragging the carcass down the aisle.