‘This is Lim Tianyu,’ Kohei said.
‘Pleased to meet you,’ Lim said.
‘Sure.’
‘Lim is part of Alpha Defence’s medical team, right, Lim?’
‘I have that privilege.’
‘Medical?’ Ollie said. ‘For defence?’ This wasn’t making a whole lot of sense, which wasn’t good.
‘Lim has been researching cocoons.’
‘Research?’
‘My team has been looking into reversing the process,’ she said. ‘And we have had some very promising results.’
‘You’re fucking kidding me!’
‘No. The process is at an experimental stage, but in order to advance it, we need to move up to full human testing.’
‘Oh, bloody hell. You’re talking about Gran and Bik, aren’t you?’
Kohei shrugged. ‘Somebody’s got to be first. This is their chance, Ollie. Otherwise, they’re going to be sent off to a green zone refuge, along with all the millions of others we’re holding on to. So you tell me. Even if London survives into tomorrow, how confident are you that the government population recovery programme will get around to them before we defeat the Olyix and send them packing?’
‘You bastards. What if it doesn’t work?’
‘Truthfully,’ Lim said, ‘I give the process a seventy-five per cent chance of providing them a full recovery into a regrown body.’
‘And what odds did you have of forcing Nikolaj to make that happen?’ Kohei asked mildly.
Ollie knew what his answer was going to be. Of course he did. It was just that saying it out loud – admitting it – was another defeat. But then he’d lost the game of life the day the Legion took their first payment from Jade. ‘You take them off Earth to do this,’ he said weakly.
‘My laboratory is in the Delta Pavonis system,’ Lim said.
‘So Lolo can confirm we’re playing straight with you,’ Kohei said. ‘Ollie, I need an answer. Time is not our friend today.’
‘Okay. I’ll do it.’
*
Leipzig fell as Kohei walked Ollie up to the deployment room they’d set up on the Greenwich tower’s third floor. The news splashed into his tarsus lens while he was still on the stairs. A single shield generator had been brought down by darkware, simultaneous with a power shortage from physical sabotage against a cable. In ordinary times, the secondary power supply would have responded instantaneously. But components overstressed by two years of abuse were too degraded, the darkware threw sand in the eyes of the management G8Turing, and the rerouted power dropped out for too many milliseconds. The generator blew, kicking off a cascade as the remaining generators were unable to compensate.
Orbital spysats watched the protective wall of artificially solid air burst apart. Seconds later, the Deliverance ships switched off their energy beams. It made little difference. The ravaged air outside crashed down like a deluge of electrified magma. It was as if the city was struck by an earthquake. Millions of windows shattered, roofs collapsed, walls fissured. The taller buildings swayed alarmingly. Some began to topple, falling amid a thunder of dust clouds that spun into ferocious whirlwinds as storm air roared in to scour every road.
Civic sensors revealed people staggering along the streets, barely able to stand in the hurricane-force squalls, their screams lost in the cataclysm’s howl. Airborne debris became shrapnel, slicing into skin. Desiccated grass and barren trees started to smoulder.
Every network link into Leipzig went out at once as the remaining portals into the city were switched off. Kohei was obscurely pleased about that. He’d seen what happened after a city shield collapsed – the humans hunted, subdued and collected. He didn’t need to see it again.
Yuri’s icon splashed across Kohei’s lens. ‘Did you see Leipzig?’
‘Yeah,’ Kohei said. He gave Ollie an uncertain glance; it wasn’t as if they could motivate him any harder by allowing him to access the feed.
‘According to our latest intelligence, there’s a new type of Olyix warship on its way. They’ll be here in another five days,’ Yuri said. ‘We don’t want to leave it that long before we launch Strikeback, but it’ll be another day before everything we need is in position. If you’re going to shut down the sabotage against London, it’ll have to be soon.’
‘I’ve got all my teams in position. We just need Ollie to do his stuff. Another thirty minutes max.’
‘Okay. Well, good luck. I’m really sorry to put these restrictions on you.’
‘I get it. Don’t worry.’
‘Look, if Ollie screws up, get yourself back here to Delta Pavonis.’
‘Thanks for the offer, chief, but there are a lot of people down here who deserve to get out. Not just me.’
‘Don’t be a martyr, Kohei. There’ve been so many over the last two years that nobody will ever notice another. Besides, your wife is expecting you.’
‘Yeah.’
‘One thing. Whenever you do come out here, I’m not going to be around, so I just wanted to say how much I appreciate what you’ve done. You’re an excellent security operative, Kohei.’
‘What do you mean, “not around”?’
‘We all have a part to play.’
‘Didn’t someone just say something about being a martyr?’
‘I’m not. You’ll find out eventually. But we won’t ever see each other again.’
‘Chief,’ he implored.
‘You’re a good man, Kohei. I trust you to save London. Now goodbye.’ And Yuri’s icon vanished.
‘Shit!’
Ollie gave him a worried look. ‘What?’
Kohei paused, realizing his arms were trembling. Then he looked at the stupid young man’s face. Ollie had been given several new peripherals Lim had brought, created by some fancy new technology developed by Alpha Defence. The units were supposed to be undetectable, but they’d had to rush the implantation. As a result Ollie was clearly in pain, his face hot and sweaty, grimacing constantly.
‘Nothing,’ Kohei replied as cheerfully as he could.
‘Didn’t sound like it,’ Ollie said sullenly.
‘You’re not the only operation I’m running, sonny. Don’t flatter yourself.’
The deployment room had a three-metre portal set up. A
