Authors: Mark Walden

Earthfall: Retribution (27 page)

BOOK: Earthfall: Retribution

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‘Liz said you were out here,’ Jay said as he walked up and stood beside his friend.

‘I miss her so much,’ Sam said. ‘I keep asking myself, why couldn’t it have been me?’

‘I know what you mean.’ Jay looked at the ground. ‘I keep wondering if I’d made it to the top of the tower and if I’d been there when you confronted Talon, maybe . . . I dunno . . . maybe things would have turned out differently.’

‘We were stupid,’ Sam said, shaking his head, ‘thinking we could take Talon on like that. He was a trained soldier, a veteran of God knows how many battles. We never stood a chance. I should never have tried something so risky.’

‘Hey,’ Jay said, looking Sam straight in the eye, ‘it’s human nature, man. You want to kid yourself that there might have been something you could have done, some way you could have fixed the roll of the dice, but that’s all crap.’ He turned back to Rachel’s grave. ‘And you know she would have told you exactly the same thing.’

‘You’re right,’ Sam said. ‘Still can’t help but feel that I led her to her death, though.’

‘So you led us,’ Jay said with a shrug, ‘that’s what you do. We all had a say in the matter. Any one of us could have said no at any point, but we didn’t. You know why? Because we trust you and nothing that’s happened is going to change that. I get it, man. Being the leader in a situation like this sucks, but someone’s got to do it. And right now that someone’s you. If it hadn’t been for you, Rachel and your dad, the body count could have been ten figures, Sam. Don’t ever forget that.’

Sam looked down at Rachel’s grave. ‘Price was still too high,’ he said, his head suddenly full of all the things that he had wanted to say to her, but now never could.

‘Yeah, I know. Come on inside,’ Jay said. ‘It’s too cold to be mooching around out here.’

‘Yeah, OK, just give me a minute,’ Sam said. Jay looked at him for a moment and then nodded before walking off towards the dormitory block.

Sam looked down at the two graves again and thought of everyone they’d lost: Tim, Toby, Jackson, Kate, Adam, his father and Rachel. Too many good people.

‘I’m sorry,’ Sam said quietly as he knelt down and placed his hand on the loose soil on top of Rachel’s grave. He stayed like that for a moment and then got to his feet, turned and walked away.

‘So you have no idea what triggered your transformation,’ Stirling said as he shone the ophthalmoscope into each of Sam’s eyes in turn.

‘No idea,’ Sam replied. ‘I wasn’t even consciously doing it. It just seemed completely natural, like I’d always been able to do it.’

‘Fascinating,’ Stirling said, placing the instrument down on the bench. ‘And you’ve not been able to do it since?’

‘No,’ Sam said, shaking his head. ‘The only thing I can think is that Talon must have form-locked me in that final confrontation. If my father was still alive, maybe he could tell us more, but I haven’t the faintest idea what Dad did to me.’

‘You have my sympathies,’ Stirling said. ‘Your father was a genius, but, more than that, he was a good man.’

‘I still don’t know how I feel, to be honest,’ Sam said. ‘I mean, I believe what he told me, that my family weren’t just some sort of elaborate cover to mask his true identity, but that doesn’t change the fact that he spent years lying to all of us.’

‘In his defence, he didn’t really have a choice,’ Stirling said. ‘Shirt up, please.’

‘I suppose,’ Sam said, lifting up his T-shirt as Stirling pressed the cold metal of the stethoscope to his chest. ‘God only knows what I’m going to tell my mum and my sister, if we ever find them.’

‘When,’ Stirling said, ‘not if. And if you want my opinion you shouldn’t tell them anything when that time comes. Sometimes secrets are best kept.’

‘You should know,’ Sam said with a crooked smile.

‘I have kept my share in my time,’ Stirling said. ‘Well, as far as I can tell, you’re perfectly healthy. The only thing that’s unusual is your arm, but you knew that.’

Sam held his arm up in front of him and it morphed from its golden form to looking like a perfectly normal flesh-and-blood arm.

‘Little trick my dad taught me,’ Sam said. ‘Helps cut down on the weird factor.’

‘Your injury is nothing to be ashamed of,’ Stirling said, ‘and neither is your heritage. I believe that at the moment of his death your father transferred
something
to you. I can’t be sure what it was, but I knew Daniel better than most and I know that he rarely did anything without a good reason.’

‘You mean Suran,’ Sam said, raising an eyebrow.

‘Suran, Daniel Shaw, Andrew Riley, truly, what does it matter?’

‘I suppose,’ Sam said. ‘Think I’ll just go with Dad.’

‘Very wise,’ Stirling said with a smile.

‘What have you done with Talon’s men?’ Sam asked. They had found Talon’s human soldiers unconscious on board the Mothership after their commander’s death. They had proven just as impossible to awaken as any of the rest of the planet’s sleeping population.

‘I had them moved to the Sleeper dormitory,’ Stirling replied. ‘I don’t believe we have anything to fear from them now that Talon is dead. Their implants are still active, but without him issuing any commands I suspect that they are now no different to any other Sleeper. Don’t worry, I shall be keeping a close eye on them.’

‘Good,’ Sam replied. ‘If you don’t need me any more, I’m going to go and sleep for a week.’

‘I may have some further tests to carry out,’ Stirling said, ‘but they can wait for now.’

‘Thanks,’ Sam said, grabbing his jacket and walking out of the lab, heading across the darkened compound to the dormitory block.

‘Hey, you,’ a voice said from somewhere behind him. He turned and saw Mag sitting on top of the fallen Grendel that still lay in the middle of the compound.

‘You decided if you’re staying or not yet?’ Sam asked as she leapt down on to the ground and walked towards him.

‘Depends,’ Mag said. ‘Do you want me to?’

‘Of course I do,’ Sam said. ‘We all do.’

‘Think I still make some of the others a little nervous,’ Mag said with a wry smile.

‘You worry too much,’ Sam said. ‘Besides which, we don’t know how safe it is up in Scotland any more. The Vore are still up there and they’re still spreading. Stirling has some ideas about how we can slow them down, but you would be better off here.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Mag said, walking alongside him towards the dormitory block. ‘I’m not going anywhere. This place is even starting to feel a bit like home.’

‘Funny, isn’t it?’ Sam said. ‘But I know exactly what you mean.’

‘I’m going to go and get something to eat,’ Mag said as they approached the entrance to the block. ‘You coming?’

‘Nah, I’m just going to bed. I’ve not been sleeping brilliantly since . . . well . . . since everything,’ Sam said.

‘Fair enough,’ Mag replied. ‘I’ll see you in the morning. Jay’s said he’s going to teach me how to shoot properly.’

‘Sounds good,’ Sam said with a tired smile. ‘See you later.’

He walked inside and made his way to his room. He was just about to step inside when Nat came round the corner at the far end of the corridor.

‘Hey! Sam! Hold on a sec,’ she shouted, jogging towards him. ‘I’ve got something for you.’

She reached into her pocket and handed him a sealed envelope.

‘Adam went and got it,’ she said as he took the envelope. ‘He was going to give it to you on your birthday, but, well, I figured you might want it now. You look like you could use a little cheering up.’

‘We all could,’ Sam said with a sigh. He tore open the envelope and pulled out the photograph inside. It was a picture of him with his mum, dad and sister, that had once sat on the sideboard in the living room of their old house.

‘You remember when he was asking everyone their old addresses and making jokes about what we must all have been like before the invasion . . . well, he might have had an ulterior motive.’

‘Thanks,’ Sam said, looking at the photo with a sad smile. ‘Really, this means a lot.’

‘You OK?’ Nat asked, seeing the haunted look in his eyes.

‘No,’ Sam replied, ‘but I will be.’

Nat gave him a quick hug and then walked away as Sam stepped into his room. He locked the door behind him and went over to the old battered mirror that hung on the wall. He slid the photo of his family under the edge of the frame, just beneath the Polaroid photo of him, Jay and Rachel standing in front of the Grendel that had once patrolled the compound outside. All three of them were pulling stupid faces at the camera and laughing. He let out a long sigh and stared at his tired-looking face in the mirror. A moment later his face began to shift subtly, his skin growing paler as glowing blue lines spread from the corners of his eyes back over the crested ridges of his skull.

‘That’s going to take some getting used to,’ he said, looking at the half-human, half-Illuminate face that stared back at him. He had lied to Stirling earlier; the truth was that he’d been concealing his true appearance since the final battle with Talon. He told himself that it was because he didn’t want anyone to worry about him, but the reality was that he didn’t want to tell them. He had no idea what change Suran had caused in him in his dying moments and now there was no one alive who could give him any real answers.

‘What did you do to me, Dad?’ Sam said, reaching out and touching the photo of a grinning Andrew Riley. ‘What did you do?’

The Voidborn stood, its head bowed in front of the black cloud that swirled endlessly in front of it.

‘Were the Illuminate destroyed?’ a voice from within the cloud said.

‘Yes, my master,’ the Voidborn replied. ‘Though the child of the Illuminate still lives.’

‘For now,’ the voice said.

‘Do you wish us to attack the captured vessels?’ the Voidborn asked.

‘No, that pleasure shall be mine,’ the voice replied. ‘Have the rest of our forces prepare for my arrival.’

‘Is there any message you would like me to pass on to them, my master?’

‘Only that the final hour is at hand,’ the voice replied. ‘My journey nears its end. Their Primarch comes.’

By Mark Walden

Earthfall

In the H.I.V.E. series