Final Days

Peggy shoved Saul forward again, and this time they broke into a run.

Bailey suddenly made an oof sound, after they’d covered a couple of dozen metres, before collapsing to his hands and knees. At first Saul assumed he’d tripped over something, but then the colonel slid to one side, his jaw slackening. Blood began pooling under his chest, and quickly spread out across the tiles.

Peggy gaped down at him, her eyes round and wide. He’s been shot, thought Saul, realizing he had heard a sound like a wet cough from smewhere far away across the concourse, just before Bailey had collapsed.

Peggy swung her Cobra all around, but there was nothing for her to aim at. If the attacker was Mitchell, he was thoroughly hidden.

‘We need to keep moving,’ hissed Saul, and began backing towards the elevators. ‘We’re too exposed. He can pick us off easily while we’re out in the open.’

‘No!’ she yelled, spinning around until the Cobra was directly trained on him. ‘Stay right where you are.’

Saul glanced towards the barricades, fifty or so metres away, and saw Mitchell materialize next to Merrill, with alarming suddenness. He drew a knife across Merrill’s throat and the trooper collapsed, blood spurting out from his neck in a gruesome arc.

There was no sign of Jessup. Already dead, Saul guessed.

Peggy must have seen Mitchell too, for she fired off her Cobra, explosive rounds digging cavities in the tiled floor at the precise spot he had been standing. But Mitchell was already gone, speeding back towards the central courtyard and the deserted restaurants surrounding it.

‘Isnard,’ Peggy yelled across the concourse, her face twisting in panic, ‘where the fuck are you?’

Saul heard more gunfire, followed by screams.

‘Peggy,’ Saul tried again, ‘if you want to stay alive, we need to get to those elevators now.’

She glanced at him blankly, as if she’d forgotten he was there. ‘Okay,’ she said, ‘let’s go.’

They started running again, Peggy sprinting ahead of him. That subsonic rumble had intensified, he thought: it was definitely a little louder. He prayed that didn’t mean it was already too late.

The door of one of the elevators slid open at their approach, and Saul allowed himself to hope that his lifespan might still be measured in more than just seconds. Then a shadow flew past him, slamming Peggy against the wall adjoining the elevator, and he then realized it was already much, much too late.

Mitchell had one arm tight around Peggy’s neck. She uttered a small cry, like a bird, in the moment before Mitchell snapped her spine. As she dropped in a lifeless heap at his feet, he stepped back, his chest heaving from exertion. There was a Cobra slung over one shoulder.

‘So you gonna thank me for saving your life?’ Mitchell panted, wiping a forearm across his brow.

Saul forced himself to meet Mitchell’s calm blue gaze. ‘What are you waiting for?’ he demanded. ‘Aren’t you going to finish the job now?’

‘Saul,’ Mitchell’s voice was almost gentle, ‘hey were going to kill you, is what it looked like to me.’ He nodded towards the departure area. ‘Didn’t you listen to one damn thing I said? We’ll be transformed, and so will the colonies. Then we can live for ever. I just wish Jeff and Olivia could have been here to share in it.’

‘You’re out of your fucking mind,’ Saul shouted. ‘Back there you said you wanted to kill me.’

Mitchell laughed. ‘That was when I thought you posed a significant threat, but now you’re unarmed and defenceless. Look,’ he said, gesturing towards the departure area, with a radiant smile on his face.

Saul looked, and saw a heat-haze like shimmer make the air tremble at the top of the escalators. The low rumble had given way to a kind of ululation, like the wordless moan of a million massed voices, and growing incrementally louder by the second.

‘If you’re not going to kill me, that means you’ll let me go?’

‘No, I want you right here with me, because I can’t take any chances on you doing something stupid, not now. Come on.’

Mitchell stepped closer and took a grip on Saul’s upper arm. Saul tried to break loose and Mitchell yanked him closer still, twisting his arm behind his back, and then putting a stranglehold on him before pushing his face up against the wall.

‘Saul,’ he hissed in his ear, ‘be reasonable. I know you don’t believe me, but I’m genuinely trying to help you.’

The ululation had begun to infiltrate Saul’s brain, like a score of icy needles working their way into his skull. He was finding it harder to concentrate, to even think.

He realized that an icon was blinking in one corner of his eye. How long had it been there without him noticing?

Seeing it was from Amy Rose, he activated the link.

‘Let’s go,’ said Mitchell, stepping back while dragging Saul along with him, his other arm tight around Saul’s neck.

Barely able to breathe, Saul tried to break loose, but the slightest movement sent shards of agony shooting through his shoulder. Mitchell was meanwhile dragging him towards the escalators, closer to the strangely shimmering air.

‘Saul?’ he heard Amy say inside his head. ‘Give me a sign that you can hear me. I can see you, but where is he taking you?’