Coldbrook(102)

‘I don’t think I want to.’

‘The last few pages are very confused. Painful to read. So much self-doubt as she denied what she was seeing, what the Inquisitor was doing to her. As he was luring her. It’s as if she was trying to keep hold of herself, but also being torn in other ways. And one day . . . she vanished.’

Silence descended, and Jonah glanced at the other three people around the table. Drake and Moira displayed a sadness that seemed to fit their hard faces well: a familiar emotion. Holly was staring down at her hands.

‘Bill Coldbrook died,’ Jonah said. ‘I took over his work.’

‘And have you ever felt watched?’ Drake said, leaning forward again.

‘Yes,’ Jonah said. ‘And so did Bill. I think that made him paranoid and drove him to suicide.’

‘And now an Inquisitor is after Jonah,’ Holly said.

‘They take you,’ Drake said. ‘That’s what Kathryn seemed to imply. Across secret bridges and through unknown wormholes those bastards have created with technology that must be so similar to yours, or ours. They take you back and convert you. And then you go out as one of them and oversee the destruction of another Earth.’

‘This was meant to be so special,’ Jonah said.

‘Countless Earths think that.’

‘So those things helped us to make the breach?’ Holly asked. She sounded hurt, and Jonah felt the same. He thought back to Bill before his suicide, what he had accomplished, the breakthroughs he had made, and Jonah tried to see where the tipping point had been. It had still taken them ten years after Bill died to complete the project, and there had been several failed attempts. But they could never have succeeded without Bill’s radical, groundbreaking work as their foundation. And somewhere in that foundation had been a rock cast by something alien.

‘It’s pure evil,’ Jonah said.

‘So you have to fight it!’ Holly said. ‘It might not be over.’

Holly felt a rush of hope. Drake had shown her views of her own blighted world in the casting room, and Vic had confirmed those images in their short conversation. But now they had a chance – a challenge – and they had to grasp it and make it work.

And Vic was coming back.

‘We need access to Mannan,’ Jonah said.

Moira and Drake leaned in close to each other, whispered something that no one else could hear: urgent, serious. Then Drake stood and shook his head.

‘Not here,’ he said. ‘We can’t bring him here.’

‘We don’t need to.’ Jonah stood as well, walked around the table and stood in front of the man from another world.

He held out his hand.

After a moment’s hesitation Drake took it, and smiled. ‘That’s something I thought I’d never do,’ he said. ‘Shaking hands is so . . . mannered. It’s something we only ever see in memory casts.’

Holly found Drake compelling, almost hypnotic. He carried himself well, and had a natural grace and intelligence. But she realised now that there was something else – he was completely out of place here, no matter how relaxed he seemed.

‘You must go through,’ Holly said. ‘You have to, Jonah. I’ll stay here and wait for Vic and the others. I can check the systems, make sure the repair holds, run some diagnostics on the core. And I’ll try and figure out how to get them down here when they arrive.’

‘Perhaps Moira can stay with you?’ Drake suggested. ‘She services our casting-field generators. I’m sure she’d be fascinated with your technology.’

‘Yes!’ Moira said.

‘Of course,’ Holly said. ‘She saved my life. I owe her a tour, at least.’

‘I’ll leave this with you,’ Jonah said, placing his satphone on the table. ‘Marc thinks they’re three or four hours out.’ He waved her over and they embraced. ‘Get them in safe and sound. The girl’s precious. She might be priceless.’





3


Jayne felt the churu settling into her joints and bones, seizing them, a shadow in her mind that was grinning in anticipation at her having to move again. Worse, they were now all talking about her. Sean had tried slipping off her headphones, thinking she was asleep. But she’d slapped his hand away, felt his chest moving as he laughed softly, realising more and more how strong she was. Or, at least, how strong she wanted to be. Leaning against him was the only thing that made her feel remotely safe, and she sensed their mutual respect growing. She knew what he had seen of France on the guy’s laptop screen. And he was still trying to protect her.

‘Because Jonah said they have someone immune on their side, too,’ Marc said. ‘That’s why we need to get to Coldbrook.’

‘So what happens when we get there?’ Sean asked.

Marc was silent for a while and Jayne lifted her head to look back, grimacing against the pain. Marc had turned in his seat and was looking down at her, tapping one finger against his headphones.

‘Fuck you all!’ Jayne said. ‘You talk about me, I’m gonna hear it. You have no idea what the f*ck I’ve been through, and who I’ve seen die, and thanks for rescuing us and everything, but you are not gonna talk about me as if I’m not here. Or as if I’m a . . . a f*cking animal, to be experimented on.’