The grenade shot across the control room, hitting a console in the opposite corner. Technicians were sent flying by the blast, one man backflipping through the broken window like a rag doll. Chase ran for the door, firing another grenade to take out a second set of controls. He saw Mitchell scrambling across the floor and was about to send the final shot at him, but a nearer console blocked his aim - if he fired, he would be caught in the blast himself. Instead he jumped through the door and unleashed the last grenade at the big screen on the wall, the computer map vanishing in a storm of pulverised liquid crystal.
He raced down the stairs into the hold. The man who had been blown out of the window was draped brokenly over the first ring above him. Chase ignored the gruesome sight and sprinted along one side of the generator, tossing the rifle away.
Shielding his eyes from the arc-welder brilliance of the electrical bolts, he ran towards the platform holding Nina.
‘Shut it down!’ Mitchell screamed at one of the surviving technicians. ‘It’s overloading, shut the goddamn thing
‘I can’t!’ the man protested. ‘It’s self-sustaining! The system’s locked into its last command - it’s just going to keep on building up power until it blows. The only way to stop it is to take out the superconductor!’
‘Or the person holding it,’ Mitchell growled, looking through the swirling smoke towards the far end of the chamber. The glow of Excalibur was clearly visible - as was Nina, still locked to it.
He hunted for his gun. It lay under a burning console, flames blistering its casing. ‘Maybe you were right about it being too easy to break, Eddie,’ he said, before darting to the window. A glance down into the hold told him that Chase had abandoned his stolen XM-201, his handprint not in the gun’s memory.
But Mitchell’s was.
‘Do whatever you can to stabilise the system,’ he snapped at the technician as he ran for the door.
The temperature was rising fast as more bolts of electricity sizzled across the generator, but what Chase hadn’t been prepared for was the smell. The stench of burning paint and melting plastic assaulted his nose and eyes, everything the arcs touched outside the magnetic rings instantly flashing into flames. Some of them came too close for comfort as he ran along the hold, forcing him to stop until they died away. His vision was blotched by vivid after-images of nearby strikes.
He held back as another bolt stabbed at the wall, molten blobs of metal spitting out from it, then dashed past and reached the crane. ‘Eddie!’ Nina warned from above. ‘Jack’s coming after you!’
Chase looked back. Mitchell had retrieved the rifle and was running along the hold in pursuit. But he held his fire, not wanting to risk hitting another magnet and making the situation worse.
There was a panel near the platform’s base. Chase worked the controls. With a hydraulic whine, the platform descended. Nina came into full view as it dropped the last few feet. He saw the bandage on her right thigh. ‘Jesus! What happened?’
‘That son of a bitch shot me, that’s what happened! Get me out of this thing!’
Hunching down out of Mitchell’s line of fire, Chase climbed on to the platform and examined the clamp round Nina’s hands to find a catch. He pushed it; the restraint sprang open. Nina pulled out her hands and Excalibur’s light instantly disappeared. But the generator kept working, electricity zapping angrily around the hold. She reached into the frame to release the sword, unlocking the clamp holding it in place.
‘What’re you doing?’ Chase demanded.
‘We can’t let Jack have it! He was going to blow up the
He looked confused. ‘The starship?’
‘Yes, the starship,’ she snapped sarcastically. ‘The
Chase saw Mitchell running towards them, not far away now - but his line of fire was still partially blocked by sections of the generator. ‘He won’t shoot the mag—’
Mitchell fired.
Some of the spray of bullets bounced off the generator, but they didn’t damage it, hitting with dull thumps rather than sharp metallic cracks.
Others hit softer targets.
Chase felt as though he’d been kicked in the stomach. Another painful blow slammed into his right shoulder as he was knocked backwards, instantly numbing the limb. Nina took a glancing impact to her side, her injured leg buckling. She lost her balance and fell off the platform. Excalibur skittered away across the deck.
Mitchell’s boot smashed into his back, felling him again. The American jumped on to the platform and delivered another vicious kick, then clubbed him with the rifle. ‘Come on, you fucker!’ he screamed. Another kick. Chase groaned in pain. ‘See who’s the best now, won’t we?’
He stamped on Chase’s chest, grinding a heel into his ribs. Breathless, Chase tried to twist out from under him, but with only one arm couldn’t get enough leverage. Mitchell loomed over him, huge electrical arcs crackling around the ring above him like a malevolent halo.
But Chase wasn’t finished yet.
With a strangled roar, he smashed his fist into the only vulnerable target he could reach, the back of Mitchell’s knee. Mitchell lurched forward as his leg bent, and Chase delivered another punch, this time straight up between his legs into his groin.
Mitchell doubled over with a groan, stumbling against the frame. The pressure on Chase’s chest eased and he rolled from the platform to the deck. He looked up—
A boot smashed into his face, cracking the back of his head against the floor. Sickening stars exploded in his vision. Mitchell’s foot stamped down again, this time on his left forearm. Agony erupted from the old wound. Chase screamed.
Mitchell brought up the rifle and aimed it into Chase’s face.
He switched the ammo selector. No plastic bullets this time, just pure metallic death as his mouth contorted into a sadistic leer of victory.
A flash of light filled Chase’s eyes.
35
But it wasn’t from the gun’s muzzle.
Instead it was a streak of brilliant blue-white that sliced down to chop the XM-201 cleanly in two. The front half of the rifle barely missed Chase’s head as it clattered to the deck - with Mitchell’s severed right hand still clenching the grip.
‘How’s
Mitchell screamed, clutching the stump of his wrist as blood fountained from it. He stumbled back against the frame.
Nina swung Excalibur again. The blazing sword stabbed straight through Mitchell’s abdomen and embedded itself deeply into the carbon fibre frame behind him, only stopping when the cross-guard hit his stomach. She let go - and the weapon’s glow vanished, leaving him transfixed, unable to pull the blade out of the frame.
‘You wanted power?’ cried Nina, hobbling to the platform’s control panel. ‘Try fifty million volts!’
She hit the button.
The platform started to ascend towards the fierce bolts of earth energy lancing back and forth within the magnetic ring. ‘No!’ Mitchell shrieked, desperately tugging at the hilt with his remaining hand. It didn’t move. ‘
He crossed the streams.
The entire ring lit up with a surging storm of lightning. Mitchell burst into flames, instantly incinerated by the concentrated power searing through his body. More electrical arcs spat outwards, burning into the walls and ceiling with blinding force.
