Alien Storm (9 page)

“There was a fire in the building opposite,” Nestor said. “We decided to help.”

He went on to recount the events of the last hour, up to Wei's call for help and coming back to the apartment to find him and Robert gone.

“We found this,” Octavio said, handing Sarah a scrap of paper.

She turned it over in her hands and read the handwritten message:

Sarah Williams – I have two of yours. Bring samples of all your blood to the ANZAC shrine tomorrow at dawn if you want to see them again. Come alone
.

No HIDRA
.

Major Bright
.

She crumpled the note in her fist and looked out the apartment window. In the building opposite, smoke was still rising as a fire engine hosed down the burned-out floors. In the distance police sirens grew louder. Their hideout suddenly wasn't looking so
low profile
any more.

“What do we do?” Louise asked, her voice breaking. “He took Wei. I shouldn't have left him.”

Sarah walked over and put an arm around the younger girl's shoulders as she began to cry.

“It's not your fault,” Sarah told her, before looking round at Nestor. “The truck HIDRA gave us is still parked in the garage round the corner, right?”

He nodded.

“Get everything we need from here,” she continued. “We take the truck and go within the next five minutes.”

“What's the plan?” Octavio asked.

“The plan? We're going to get Robert and Wei back.”

Octavio jerked his head at the door to the apartment. “The corridor is swarming with reporters since our adventure at the fire. One of the neighbours must have recognized us and given them the address. What do you want to do about them?”

Sarah gritted her teeth. “If they get in the way, we'll deal with them. Right?”

Louise wiped the tears from her eyes. “Right.”

An hour later, Rachel Andersen stood in the middle of the decrepit apartment on the top floor of the block and wrinkled her nose. The place smelled damp, unhealthy. Sarah and the others were gone.

“How long did you say they've been living here?” Rachel asked Lt. Kaminski, her personal assistant at HIDRA.

The stocky, red-faced soldier checked his notes. “Landlord says the lease was signed three months ago. A big guy paid six months up front. Look at this place. It should've been torn down a decade ago.”

Rachel walked out to the balcony and looked down at the car park. It was deserted now except for a few police circling the crumpled remains of a TV van.

“Some reporters attempted to follow them when they left the scene,” Kaminski explained, appearing beside her on the balcony. “That's when the van imploded. They didn't try to follow after that.”

Rachel smiled to herself.
Louise
. She walked back into the apartment and through to one of the bedrooms. Here Daniel's sleeper casket lay against the far wall. She checked the readout on the side, confirming that he was in a perfectly stable coma, before picking up the envelope taped to the lid. Her name was on the front. Inside was a sheet of paper with a message hurriedly written on it:

Rachel… Sorry we couldn't stick around longer, but things are getting crazy here. Perhaps we'll all meet again when this is over. Look after Daniel for us. Find a cure. Sarah
.

Rachel patted the side of the casket. “Good to see you again, Daniel,” she said. “I wish the circumstances were better.”

Lt. Kaminski appeared in the bedroom doorway.

“Have this sleeper transported to the HIDRA base,” she said, indicating the casket. “Make sure he gets the best treatment we can give.”

Alex walked the edge of the car park between the apartment blocks, avoiding the police officers patrolling the area. Parked near the entrance to one of the buildings was a black military jeep with an insignia bearing the name HIDRA. As he watched, a tall woman and a soldier emerged from the building and entered the jeep.

“We're too late,” Makarov told Alex via the iPod as the jeep pulled away. “The other children have gone, but I know where to find them.”

What happened here?
Alex asked, looking up at the burned-out wreck of the building opposite.

“A man called Major Bright,” Makarov replied. “He seeks to steal the children's powers for himself. He's kidnapped two of them and the rest have fled. They need your help badly now.”

Alex frowned.
If they're all so important, why are you talking to me? Why don't you help them directly?

“Because they wouldn't believe what I say,” Makarov replied. “They've learned to distrust the motives of others. But coming from another like themselves, they have a better chance of listening. I have foreseen it.”

Alex gritted his teeth.
So, I'm just a way to get to them, right? You're using me. Just like Uncle Pete did
.

“No, Alex,” Makarov assured him. “I can't do this without you – I'm too far away and things are moving too fast. You're my man on the ground.”

Right
, Alex thought sceptically, but he had to admit, he wanted to trust Makarov. In the previous few months he'd lost his parents and then suffered with Uncle Pete and Stella. He needed someone to believe in.

“Trust me,” Makarov said, and Alex wondered if the man had read his deeper thoughts. “When you are with the others I will bring you all to me. I have a place where people like us can live in freedom and use our powers for good. Maybe even find a cure for the fall virus. Wouldn't you like that, Alex?”

Use our powers for good. Find a cure
. The phrases hit home with Alex. Uncle Pete had made him a criminal – now it was time to be one of the good guys.

Putting his head down as a police officer walked past, Alex headed off to continue Makarov's rescue mission.

12

Wei woke in a dark place with a start. Instinctively, he tried to rub his eyes and found that he couldn't move his arms. He was sitting on a steel chair with his wrists bound with rope behind the padded back. A metre away, Robert was tied to a similar chair. His head lolled on his chest.

Robert?
Wei thought across to him.
Robert, are you okay?

Robert gave no response. Wei looked around the darkened room. The walls were lined with benches and rusting tools. It was some kind of workshop, but it clearly hadn't been used in years. The atmosphere was cold, making him shiver through his thin T-shirt.

The door to the room opened, metal scraping on the concrete floor. Major Bright strode in, while his accomplice, Eco, hovered nervously by the doorway.

“What have you done to him?” Wei demanded as Bright put his hand on Robert's chin and raised his head. Satisfied that his prisoner was unconscious still, Bright allowed Robert's head to drop back down again.

“Just given him something to help him sleep,” Bright replied. “We can't very well have him teleporting all over the place, now can we?”

Wei shivered again, from fear this time as much as from the cold.

“Chilly?” Major Bright asked with mock concern. He crouched before Wei so their eyes were level. “Well, in case you're thinking of heating things up in here – a word of advice. That rope binding your wrists has a non-flammable wire filling. It won't burn. And there's an added incentive not to use your pyrokinetic ability. Do you smell that?”

Wei sniffed and noticed for the first time the stench of petrol fumes. Looking down, he saw the concrete under his and Robert's chairs was wet.

“You're both sitting on petrol,” Bright went on. “One spark and…boom!” He spread his hands to make his point. “So be a good boy now.”

As the man stood, Wei clenched his teeth to fight back the tears that were forming in his eyes. He asked, “Are you going to kill us?”

Major Bright looked round on his way back to the door, as if surprised. “Kill you?
No, no, no
. I'm going to make sure you're very well looked after, Wei. I know that our present surroundings” – he waved his hand around the room – “are less than desirable. But I promise I'll find a better place to keep you when Sarah comes through with what I want. Somewhere you'll be safe, Wei, just like when we were all at HIDRA.”

“Sarah will never give in to you!” Wei exclaimed.

Bright raised an eyebrow. “As long as I've got you and her brother, I'm betting she'll do whatever I ask.”

With that, he walked out the door. Eco lingered just a moment longer, looking from Wei to Robert. Wei opened his mouth to say something – to plead with the boy for help – but Eco swung the door shut hurriedly.

Alone in the room apart from the unconscious Robert, an uncontrollable sob escaped Wei's lips.

“So, what do we do now?” Nestor asked. He sat on the edge of the bed in the motel room Sarah had checked them into half an hour before. They'd managed to slip away from the scene at the apartment block with the help of a diversion created by Louise.

“I thought that was obvious,” Octavio answered from the faded armchair by the television. “We contact HIDRA. They're the only ones who can take on Major Bright.”

Louise gave him a hard look.
You'd like that, wouldn't you? If you're a good boy, they might even give you your old room back. I bet all your toys are right where you left them—

Don't push it!
Octavio snapped back.

“Enough!” Sarah said. She turned from her place at the window and stole a look at the clock – midnight. It was dark outside now and the motel car park was deserted, but she wanted to keep a lookout anyway. Just in case they had been followed.

“We're not going to HIDRA,” she said.

Nestor nodded in agreement. “Major Bright's note was clear – no outside involvement. Especially HIDRA. We can't put Wei and Robert at risk like that.”

Octavio shook his head. “All this is Robert's fault anyway.”

Sarah frowned, but controlled her anger. “What was that?”

“I said, all this is Robert's fault,” Octavio persisted. “If he hadn't teleported us over to the fire, Bright wouldn't have been able to snatch Wei. Can't you see? The fire was a diversion. Classic military strategy: divide and conquer. And who do we know with military training? Well?”

For a moment they were all silent.

“My brother's a hero and he saved people's lives today,” Sarah said finally. “You all did. If you hadn't rescued that girl, Octavio, she would have died in the fire. Do you really wish you hadn't been there?” She took a breath. “Now the main thing is to get Robert and Wei back.”

“How do you intend to do that?” Octavio demanded.

“We beat Major Bright before, we can do it again,” Louise interjected, still angry at Octavio's earlier comments. “We'll fight him together.”

Sarah shook her head. “Not this time, Louise. Bright wants blood and he asked me to bring it alone. I'm going to give him just that.”

The room erupted in protest. Nestor's voice cut through.

“We work as a team, Sarah!”

“Robert is my brother,” she replied.

Nestor rose from the bed and walked towards her. “And he's our friend. So is Wei.”

“It's too dangerous,” Sarah said firmly. She was about to go on when a heavy knock on the door silenced them all. Holding up a hand, she moved to the peephole in the door and looked out. No one was standing on the other side.

Who's there?
Octavio asked.

Ignoring him, Sarah flipped the lock and opened the door swiftly, sticking her head out and looking round the car park. The place was completely deserted. Her main concern was the truck, but looking over to where it was parked, she saw no one nearby. Taking a final look around, she closed and locked the door.

“Must've been the wind,” she said with a shrug. “And the answer's
no
. I give Bright what he wants, free Robert and Wei and then we get out of here. He clearly needs more of the serum Colonel Moss created, but we still have the tickets and passports. We'll be on the other side of the world before Bright realizes we're gone.”

A low chuckle came from the corner of the room, near the bathroom. “That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard,” a male voice said.

Everyone looked around, eyes finally coming to rest on Octavio. He raised his hands.

“Hey! Not me!” he protested.

Sarah took a step towards the corner. “Say that again?”

“That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard.”

Sarah looked at the others and could see the same thing in their minds.
Invisible
. She remembered the news story about the bank from earlier. They had an intruder in their midst. The only question was whether he was on their side or Major Bright's. Sarah decided to even up the chances of catching whoever it was.

Louise, turn off the lights!
she snapped.

The younger girl jumped at the light switch, throwing the room into darkness.

“Go!” Sarah yelled. Herself, Nestor and Octavio piled towards the corner of the room, grabbing at whatever they could in the darkness.

“I've got him!” Nestor cried triumphantly.

“Okay, Louise!” Sarah exclaimed as she found what she thought was a foot and held it down firmly. “Lights on!”

When the lights came up, Nestor and Sarah were surprised to find themselves pinning Octavio to the floor. Nestor hastily removed his hand from his brother's mouth and Sarah let go of his ankle.

“Idiots!” Octavio snapped.

Nestor mumbled an apology, but was unable to suppress the smile forming at the edges of his mouth. Sarah rolled her eyes and looked round. In the chair where Octavio had previously sat, someone was beginning to appear – a boy her age. At first he looked like a faded image in an old photo album, the kind her mum used to bring out from time to time when they were young. Gradually, the image sharpened, became deeper and fleshed out. The boy was brown-haired and his thin face was drawn, as if he was very tired or had been living hard for a while. Within twenty seconds he was as clear and visible before them as any normal person. In one hand he held an old-model iPod and had a white earphone stuck in one ear.