Alien Storm (27 page)

Sarah thought for a moment. “How about that plane sitting at the back of the village. Can you fly it?”

“The supply plane?” Yuri said. “I can fly, but that machine hasn't been used in months. It probably won't even start.”

“You built a robot from spare parts, Yuri,” Sarah replied impatiently. “You can get a plane working, I'm sure. Get us in the air and I'll get us in the Spire—”

She stopped talking as a wave of dizziness swept over her and she had to lean on Alex for support.

“Don't feel so good,” she said as she fought to stay conscious. The effects of her near-death encounter with the Entity and the extreme cold of the water under the ice were finally winning the battle.

“Yuri, help me!” Alex said and struggled to hold Sarah on her feet. “She's going to pass out…”

That was the last Sarah heard.

Half an hour later, Alex lay back in a bed in one of the empty cabins. The mattress was surprisingly soft and the thick blankets amazingly snug after the cold, damp trek across the plain. In the corner of the room a coal burner flickered, providing heat that would last them through till dawn, Yuri had assured. He looked at the glowing light cast around the wooden walls and felt his eyelids become heavy. He would have surely fallen asleep within seconds, but decided to take one last check on Sarah.

She lay in the bed across the room from him, where they had covered her after she had collapsed from exhaustion, her body covered by a thick set of blankets. All that was visible was her face, which had a softness in sleep that wasn't always apparent when she was awake. Alex guessed she'd been through a lot – during his time with her and the others, he'd pieced together the stories of their first encounter with HIDRA and their life on the run in Australia. He'd had it tough with his Uncle Pete, but it had been a walk in the park compared to Sarah's journey.

“I'm sorry I got you into this,” he said as he stood over her, thinking of how he had been the one to bring them to Makarov.
How could I have ever trusted him?
he thought, but already knew the answer. He'd wanted to trust Makarov – because back in Australia he needed someone to trust. One thing was for sure, he was going to make it right – by helping Sarah Williams rescue her brother and the others from the Spire.

“Enjoy your rest,” he said. “We've got a war to fight tomorrow.”

With that he went to his own bed, got under the covers and was asleep within less than a minute. Across the room, Sarah Williams smiled in her sleep. Although she was outwardly unconscious, her mind was in fact incredibly active…

…reaching out, imagining her thoughts passing through the walls of the cabin and out across the deserted centre of the village. She projects further, back through the mountain pass, across the plain and over the silent buildings of the copper mine. Finally, the structure of the Spire hoves into view, massive and alien amidst the empty landscape – a finger pointing towards the night sky.

Now Sarah senses the unmistakable influence of the Entity. The alien is projecting an invisible shield around the entire tower, blocking all her attempts to communicate with those inside, and vice versa. Cautiously, she probes the barriers thrown up by the powerful being's mind, aware that if she is not careful the Entity will be alerted to her presence. At last, she finds an area of weakness and pushes into the layers of alien thought, like walking through thick fog with her arms outstretched, expecting at any moment to come up against something solid
.

She reaches into the tower and searches upwards, looking for the one mind that she knows is connected enough with her to communicate from such a distance. She finds her brother lying asleep in a room she has never seen before – a hard looking place that reminds her more of a jail cell than the bedrooms they were first given by Makarov. Reaching out to Robert, she makes contact with him…

“Robert.”

His eyes snap open, but he isn't awake yet. Robert looks around and is surprised to find himself standing on a vast, snow-covered plain rather than lying in the bed he collapsed into less than an hour before. A harsh winter sun shines down from the ice-blue sky. Despite the freezing appearance of the surroundings, he feels no cold
.

“Where is this?” he asks, wonderingly
.

“A place where our minds can meet,” Sarah says, approaching him across the snow. “A constructed reality.”

Robert turns and runs to her, throwing his arms around his sister. “Sarah! Makarov said you were dead.”

“I was. For a while. Now I'm back.”

Robert looks around and marvels at the reality Sarah has created for them in her mind. “It looks so lifelike. Can Makarov see us?”

“I'm shielding us from him,” Sarah replies. “He hasn't sensed us yet.” She looked at Robert with concern, noting his sunken eyes – he looked dead on his feet. “How are you doing?”

Her brother smiles weakly. “Things have been tough here. Makarov wants us to swear some oath of allegiance to the Entity. He wants us to give up our powers to it. We're not giving in, but it's getting hard.”

Sarah touches his shoulders. “Listen. You do what you have to do to survive. Alex and I are coming to get you out of there.”

She quickly tells him about her plan to destroy the meteorite fragment
.

“The meteor storm is timed to hit midday tomorrow,” she continues. “We've got to stop it somehow.”

“Destroy the beacon?”

Sarah shakes her head. “That's not enough. Even if the signal is shut down, the meteorites will still be headed for earth. We have to take control of the beacon and use it to deflect the storm.”

“Just tell me what you want us to do,” Robert says with determination
.

Sarah smiles at her brother and strokes a hand through his hair. “I just need you and the others to hold on a little longer for me. Look for the dawn tomorrow – we'll be coming. Do you think you can break out of your cell?”

Robert bites his lip. “Makarov has us guarded by Ilya and about a hundred robowolves.”

“All I need you to do is distract his attention while we get close to the Spire.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I'm coming after you. I made a promise I'd never leave you, didn't I?”

Robert grins. “You'd better keep it.”

“I know things have been hard these last four months, Robert,” she goes on. “But as soon as we get out of this it's going to be easier. I know I've made mistakes as a leader—”

“You're a great leader,” Robert interrupts. “You saved us from Bright. You knew that Makarov wasn't right from the very beginning. You were right to be suspicious.”

“I know. But it's time we started trusting some people again. Like Rachel Andersen.”

“You're going to contact HIDRA?” Robert asks with surprise
.

“If we can't defeat Makarov they're the only people who know enough about the fall virus to—”

Sarah stops talking as she becomes aware of another, powerful presence in the empty world she has created. Looking round, she sees a pair of eyes in the sky to the east – wide and blazing with hate
.

Makarov
.

“Get out of here,” Sarah orders her brother, shielding her message from the Russian's prying mind. “Tell the others. Tomorrow at dawn we bring Makarov's tower down.”

Robert begins to protest, but his sister gives him a look like their mum used to when she wasn't going to take any debate
.

“Be careful,” he says, planting a kiss on her cheek before fading quickly away. Sarah turns to the horizon, realizing she doesn't have much longer before the shield blocks her out again. She returns her attention to the Spire itself. For the first time she can sense more than just the minds of Robert and the others – now she can read the electronic thoughts of the robowolves, the commands emanating from the central computer and the beacon signal itself, beaming out deep into space
.

Her power has grown
.

She goes deeper into the computer system, pushing through command instructions and programs in search of some way to control the beacon
.

“Sarah Williams! How are you not dead?”

Makarov's voice cuts through her mind like a laser, but she ignores it. Already the walls are coming down, shutting her out of the Spire. In the final seconds, she manages to take control of the computer's communication system to send a single, desperate message…

32

Makarov paced back and forth before the illuminated control desk in the meteorite chamber.

“Security has been breached,” he hissed. “How did this happen?”

The computer answered emotionlessly, “The girl, Sarah Williams, managed to break through our firewall using her mental powers—”

“I know what she did!” Makarov snapped back. “Is the meteor beacon still operational?”

“She was unable to access the beacon control,” the computer answered. “However, she subverted the communications array for a period of forty-six seconds.”

“To what purpose?”

“To transmit an audio message towards a ship in the Bering Sea. The vessel's identification code lists it as the HIDRA Ship
Ulysses
, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. The ship is currently three hundred kilometres off the southern coast of Chukotka and on an approach course. It is safe to assume the signal reached them.”

Makarov took a deep breath. “Are we in striking distance of their position?”

“Negative. The
Ulysses
is not equipped with long-range missile capability. It does however carry a fleet of thirty hovercopters capable of staging an attack on our location.”

“Recommendation?”

“Use the beacon to block communications in a three-hundred kilometre radius. Launch the drone fleet for a pre-emptive strike on the
Ulysses
to knock out their airborne capability.”

Makarov smiled. “Good. And send the ship to the bottom of the ocean while you're at it.”

“It shall be done, sir.”

Makarov watched as the computer activated the fleet of fifty drone-fighters on the 10th floor of the Spire. The drones were pilotless jets especially designed to defend the Spire against an airborne attack. In less than half a minute the launch doors on the 10th floor had opened and the first wave of drones blasted off into the night sky.

Makarov turned at a growl from the door to the control chamber. Balthus nudged Octavio into the chamber and then retreated to the entrance.

“What is it?” Octavio asked. “The others are getting suspicious. I think they know I haven't been suffering the same—”

“Robert Williams has been in contact with his sister,” Makarov interrupted angrily. “He continues to plot against me even though it places the lives of your entire group at risk.”

“How could he do that?” Octavio replied. “She's dead, isn't she?”

Makarov slammed his palms on the control deck. “Somehow she escaped!”

Octavio backed away, but stopped as Balthus growled dangerously from the doorway.

“I have reached the end of my patience with Robert Williams and his sister,” Makarov hissed. In the LCD glow of the command screen, he suddenly looked as ancient as a mummified corpse. “You have until tomorrow to persuade the others to submit to me. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” Octavio answered, trying to disguise the fear in his voice. He thought that Major Bright was the meanest person he'd ever met, but he had nothing on Makarov.

“Now, get back to your cell and get the others in line,” the Russian snarled, “or at dawn tomorrow I'm going to have them thrown off the top floor of the Spire one at a time. Starting with Robert Williams.”

In the flight briefing room of the
Ulysses
, Rachel Andersen stood before thirty hovercopter pilots who were waiting expectantly to find out why they had been called together at two a.m.

“We received a distress signal,” she told the group.

Commander Craig hit a control and the audio message that had been sent to them from the Spire began to play out over the speakers.

“This is Sarah Williams to HIDRA,” the message began. “Nikolai Makarov is holding my friends hostage. He is also in contact with an alien power that is sending a meteor storm towards earth. Tomorrow at dawn I am going to launch an attack on Makarov's tower to rescue my friends and try to deflect the storm. You must send forces to support us. If the meteor storm hits, the entire world will fall under the control of the Entity.” There was a pause. “Rachel, if you're listening – we need your help…”

The message went to static and a murmur went up around the assembled pilots. Rachel silenced them by raising her hand.

“The meteor storm is scheduled to hit us in less than eight hours,” she said. “This is our chance to deflect it from earth. Commander.”

She stepped aside as Craig addressed the pilots. “We're launching an immediate attack on Makarov's tower. It's located on the Chuckchi Peninsula, almost three hundred kilometres from here.”

Behind him a map appeared on the big screen showing the location of the Spire in relation to the HS
Ulysses
in the Bering Sea.

“There's just one complication,” he went on. “We've detected a series of aircraft launched from Makarov's position. We can only assume Makarov has found out about the distress signal and has launched a counterstrike against us. We estimate at least fifty jets.”

“He's got his own air force?” one of the pilots asked incredulously. “Who is this guy?”

“He's the guy we have to take out to save the world, Lieutenant,” Craig snapped back. “That's all you need to know right now.”