Final Days

‘So what exactly is it you want to do?’

Saul looked and, suddenly and irrationally worried that someone nearby might overhear what he was about to say, and cry out in accusation.

‘I’m saying we ourselves need to destroy the gates at the soonest opportunity. Right now, if possible.’

He waited for what felt like a long time before she finally replied.

‘You can’t be serious,’ she said finally.

‘I’m entirely serious. Just think about the tens of millions out in the colonies who’ll wind up dead if we don’t do this. We’re talking survival of the species here, Olivia.’

‘We could still save some people—’

‘No.’ He shook his head violently. ‘At most you’d save a few thousand, if even that. There are billions more who are going to wind up dead, either way.’

When she spoke again, her voice sounded neutral, carefully controlled. ‘And how exactly do you intend to do this?’

‘We can use the Emergency Destruct Protocols to collapse the wormholes.’

‘Wouldn’t work,’ she replied immediately.

‘Why not?’

‘You need a minimum of two people, to activate the codes simultaneously, or it won’t work, and it’s not like they hand those codes out to just anyone who asks for them. You’d need special clearance from an executive committee, and I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.’

Saul thought for a moment. ‘Fair point. In that case, who does possess that kind of clearance?’

‘Not many people, for a start,’ she replied. ‘I’d guess a few dozen at most.’

‘Then maybe we need to try and find some of them. We need to track them down.’

‘Jesus.’ She laughed. ‘You really think it’s going to be that easy?’

‘No, I don’t,’ he replied. ‘That’s the one thing I don’t think. But I don’t know what else I can do.’

‘I’m not sure I should even consider helping you do this,’ she said, with a touch of outrage in her voice.

Saul punched the air in frustration, barely able to contain his anger. ‘Listen to me, goddammit. I’ve been through hell ever since you came asking me for help, so unless there’s some genuine flaw in my logic, some reason why we shouldn’t do exactly what I just described, I can’t see why the hell you wouldn’t want to help mequo;

‘All those people—’

‘Are never going to make it into the Array alive,’ he said. ‘Believe me, I’m here right in the thick of it, and nobody’s going in who isn’t being allowed in. The whole place is surrounded by soldiers, tanks and drones, and I’ve already seen more dead bodies than most people get to see in a lifetime. It’s a war zone, Olivia. No other word for it.’

Another trumpet-like blast from the sonar tanks a way off in the distance briefly drowned out the clamour of the crowds.

‘Do you realize what I’d have to do to find out who has that kind of clearance?’ she said. ‘You’re asking me to hack into the ASI’s own databases.’

‘To which,’ he reminded her, ‘you have privileged access as an ASI employee yourself.’

‘That makes no difference. It’d set off a trail of security alerts leading straight back to me.’

‘I think we’re long past the point where we need to worry about stuff like that. There are much more important things to consider than what happens to either of us, Olivia.’

‘Okay, okay,’ she said, sounding defeated. ‘But I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to locate that kind of information, even assuming that I can find it.’

‘All I’m asking is that you try.’

‘You really do sound like a callous son of a bitch, you know that? Between you and Mitchell, I don’t know which one of you has changed the most.’

Saul stiffened as he remembered Donohue’s unfinished warning. ‘What about Mitchell? How has he changed?’

She made an exasperated sound. ‘Why?’

‘Just humour me.’

‘Nothing I can really put a finger on, okay?’

‘Please,’ he said, ‘just try.’

‘There’s just something about the look on his face that sends chills through me. I don’t know how else to describe it. Maybe that’s because I know what happened to him. Anyway, why? Is it important?’

‘I don’t know,’ Saul replied. ‘Go and find out what you can, and get back to me straight away. We can talk about Mitchell later.’

They spoke for another minute or two, but there was a new brittle quality to Olivia’s voice, as if she no longer quite trusted him. The rain eased off as their call ended, the sun finally breaking through the clouds. Thousands of faces were now turned upwards, while Saul himself leaned, exhausted and weary, against a roadside bollard.