Hellboy: Unnatural Selection(88)

"You think we'd be safer down there, on the ground, with all that we've seen?"

Hicks looked away, fought against the shuddering controls. "I'll keep us up as long as I can," he said.

Hellboy touched his arm. "Good man. And good flying. I thought we were screwed for sure."

Back in the cabin Jim still had his eyes closed, and Liz had succeeded in lighting a cigarette. Her hand shook so much that she could barely take a drag. "I am never, ever, ever going onboard an aircraft with you again," she said.

"Me?" Hellboy said. "You blame me?"

"Got to blame someone." She concentrated on the cigarette, got it between her lips, and left it there.

"Well, let's hope there's nothing else between us and Blake," Hellboy said.

Liz stared through a haze of smoke. "You think?"

Hellboy looked away, down, back the way they had come. In the distance he could see a swath of smoke rising above the London Docklands. He hoped he was not yet looking at the ashes of world leaders.



* * *





Thames Estuary — 1997



TO BEGIN WITH, SHE opened the passenger door and thought about jumping.

The giant bird's claws had ripped through the car roof and were now curled against its underside, and Abby had to squeeze past them. The driver's door was buckled and bent, but the passenger-side door swung open easily enough. The car shuddered as it opened, and the bird carrying her looked down to see what its catch was doing.

This is from him, Abby thought. He's sent it to get me. He knows I'm coming. I've lost the initiative, and now he's totally in control again. It won't harm me now. He'll leave that till later.

She wished she had a gun to test that theory.

The bird had flown fast. London was below them now, an untidy map of streets and river, houses and tower blocks, parks and parking lots. They were a mile up, maybe more, and the air up here was freezing. She could jump, she supposed. But if Blake was that keen to have her, the bird would likely drop the car and pluck her from the sky. And she'd rather spend the journey in relative comfort than clasped in the creature's rough claws.

She almost went anyway, seeing the Thames far below and remembering how she'd tried to end things in a similar river in another city. But since then she had grown and developed, become a person, and with the help of Abe she had started to make a life for herself. She had made herself better than Blake had made her, and that counted for something. Terrified though she was at what the night was yet to bring, she would not let desperation defeat her.

And besides, with this bird's help she was going exactly where she had intended. She thought of the New Ark and its inhabitants, the dark places deep within its holds where things that should never be had been resurrected ... and she was one of those things. She thought of the Voice locked in the room in the depths of the ship and Blake striding through his domain with the arrogance of a father believing himself perfect. She wished, more than anything, that she had stayed behind to kill him.

London soon passed away below them, and she realized that the bird was following the course of the river. Over the Docklands area they passed above a stain of smoke and fire, and she wondered whether it had anything to do with what was going on today. She thought so. The world was a changing place, and with change came chaos.

The river widened as it approached the sea. Abby glanced at her watch. It was almost four o'clock. The bird began to drop, spiralling down as if to disorient her, losing altitude at a startling rate. She tried to look out the windows but saw only sea and land, sea and land, juggling position as if the bird could not decide upon its final destination.

It was only as they were preparing to land that she saw the New Ark, dilapidated and rusting, adrift and seemingly empty. All holds were open, all doors ajar, and there was no activity at all on deck.

The great bird lowered the car into one of the open holds, and Abby was home.



* * *



"So what the hell is that?" Liz asked.

Hellboy looked where she was pointing. A huge bird was flying high overhead, a bulky shape suspended beneath it. "It's a rukh carrying a car," he said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, like I'm supposed to know that."

He watched the bird move downriver. It was going faster than them, following the Thames, as if it had a purpose. "Hey, Hicks, look up and to your right. See it?"

"Jesus."