After Life (Power Reads Book 2) Read online

  ‘Saw them when I was scavenging for water,’ she replied. ‘Couple of water rats or something. They didn’t even run from me, probably never seen a human before. I hit them over the head and that was it.’

  Marcus felt renewed resolve pulse through his veins as he got up onto his knees. Kerry plucked the two cooked rats from their spits and they ate the roasted meat. It tasted to Marcus finer than the best steak, the calories pushing back the fever wracking his body as his immune response attacked the sickness trying to permeate his body. The food also cleared his mind a little.

  ‘Nature’s fighting back,’ he said. ‘Other species are developing resistance to The Falling. That’s why the government are trying to finish us off, to eradicate humans in favour of holosaps.’

  ‘Before everybody who’s left sees rodents, horses and who knows what else running happily around outside city walls. The government would fall overnight,’ Kerry agreed.

  ‘There’s just one problem,’ Marcus said as he picked the bones of his meal clean. ‘Why bother? If there’s a cure, then both holosaps and humans can live on together?’

  ‘Power,’ Kerry replied. ‘Isn’t that what it’s always about?’

  ‘But how can the holosaps survive without human support? There won’t be any more new people being born, no further physical science being done. There has to be more to this than just power.’

  Kerry refilled their canteens with purified water and stamped the fire out beneath her heel.

  ‘I don’t know, but I figure they’re smart enough to have formulated a plan that will work. Right now all I care about is letting what’s left of the world know that we’re alive, immune and that they can be too, and to hell with power.’

  Marcus tossed the rat carcass aside and despite the fever coursing through his body he forced himself to stand upright. ‘Good, let’s get it done.’

  Kerry watched Marcus for what felt like a long time. Then, she stepped forward and flung her arms about his neck and kissed him firmly on the lips. Marcus caught his breath as her kiss ended and looked down at her.

  ‘I thought I was just some fun?’ he said.

  ‘You were,’ she smiled. ‘Now you’re just a whole lot more fun than before.’

  ‘Sick, tired, smelly and having just eaten a dead rat?’

  ‘Just like me. We go well together, don’t you think?’

  Marcus picked up his bag as Kerry released him, and moments later they struck out together toward the distant airport. Marcus struggled alongside her, sipping water and hoping to hell that his fever would break soon.

  They stuck to the edge of the freeway, moving carefully between wrecked vehicles and whispering any exchanges to avoid being detected by sensitive digital ears.

  ‘The heat might help cover our approach from infra–red cameras,’ Kerry said as they moved.

  ‘I wish I could believe that,’ Marcus replied. ‘They could have drones up in the air, or Wasps. They’ll see us moving from above.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s our approach they’re worried about,’ Kerry replied. ‘I remember reading about some big general once, maybe Washington or somebody, who said that it was underestimating an opponent that lost more battles than anything else.’

  Marcus chuckled bitterly. ‘You really think there’s any danger of them underestimating us? We’ve got no weapons, no plan and no escape route.’

  ‘That’s my point,’ Kerry whispered back. ‘They’re letting us come to them because it’s easier and they believe themselves to be undefeatable. They think we’re nothing.’

  ‘We are nothing, compared to what they’ve got.’

  ‘No,’ Kerry insisted, ‘they’re nothing compared to what we’ve got.’

  ‘And what the hell is that?’

  ‘A better reason to survive,’ Kerry replied. ‘I thought you were manning–up for a bit back there?’

  Marcus snorted. ‘I’m staying reasonable too.’

  ‘You’re sounding like Dr Reed.’

  ‘Now that’s just nasty.’

  ‘You ever think about him?’ Kerry asked.

  ‘Only the number of ways I’d like to murder him, if he were still properly alive.’

  ‘That’s kind of what I mean,’ she replied. ‘We can’t kill them, but only because nobody has ever tried to think about what that actually means.’

  ‘There’s no getting near the Re–Volution servers,’ Marcus confirmed.

  ‘I didn’t mean that,’ Kerry said, ‘I meant whether holosaps are actually alive.’

  Marcus rubbed his temples and skirted a crumpled length of chain–link fence laying across grass the colour of straw. ‘I don’t think I can handle a metaphysical conversation right now.’

  Kerry looked across at him.

  ‘I know, but I was thinking in just general terms. I mean, have you ever seen a holosap laugh like they mean it?’ Marcus looked up at her as he slowed. ‘Or cry?’ she added.

  Marcus thought back across the years and shook his head.

  ‘I guess not,’ he admitted. ‘I always got the odd feeling that I was looking at…’

  He broke off, unable to find the words. Kerry finished them for him.

  ‘A hologram,’ she said, ‘a moving picture that had no true depth.’

  ‘No,’ Marcus said. ‘I always felt that I was looking at somebody with no soul.’

  He saw Kerry shiver involuntarily.

  ‘They’re not right,’ she said. ‘I don’t understand everything about them, about how their brains work or how they’re created from their dead former selves, but I always figured that something was lost between the living person and their holosap.’

  Marcus nodded as words tumbled without thought from his mouth. ‘People aren’t people when they have no fear of death,’ he said.

  Kerry took one more pace and then stopped in her tracks. Marcus looked at her and then ahead down the cluttered freeway with its swaying reeds and abandoned vehicles, thinking she had seen spheres or Wasps charging their way.

  ‘What?’ he asked.

  Kerry did not move for what felt like an age but then she turned to him and hugged him tightly again.

  ‘You’re a genius too,’ she whispered.

  ‘I am?’

  ‘Now we go together even better. Smelly, but smart. Come on,’ she urged as she grabbed his hand and pulled him onward. ‘You just figured out how to defeat everything that they have.’

  Marcus let her tug him along with her firm grip and her bright smile, unable to understand what the hell she was talking about but hoping that she was right.

  ***

  36

  London

  The journey back toward the city was conducted in silence.

  The rover in which Arianna sat chugged its way north, followed by four more and a large troop carrier packed with boxes of equipment, the contents of which Icon refused to divulge.

  ‘They’re weapons,’ Han had said a short while before.

  He sat behind her in the rear of the rover, Myles beside him. Malcolm, Icon’s right–hand man, drove the rover and shook his head, the loose folds of his hood briefly revealing the side of his skull–like face.

  ‘Would you be surprised if the boxes did contain weapons?’ he challenged. ‘We’re on the open road driving toward the last standing city in the country, which has a well–armed military and police force determined to eradicate people like us with extreme force.’

  ‘Enough to take out a battalion?’ Myles asked.

  ‘I hope so,’ Malcolm replied.

  Han turned to look at Arianna. ‘How are you doing?’

  Arianna sighed ‘As well as can be expected, which is to say I’m fairly terrified.’

  ‘Good to know.’

  She looked over her shoulder at him and he grinned, one hand reaching up to squeeze her shoulder. ‘I’m right here. We’ve got your back.’

  ‘Who’s got yours?’ she asked.

  Han was about to answer but Malcolm spoke across him.
/>   ‘The plan remains the same. Arianna will undergo the procedure to expose the holosaps from within and hopefully find the kill–switch at the same time. Icon and the men will maintain a secure perimeter around the site in case of any interruptions. If the process fails, we perform an armed egress away from the city. Hopefully, this will all be over within a couple of hours.’

  ‘It’ll certainly be over for Arianna if the procedure fails or the military figures out where we’re all at,’ Han pointed out. ‘They’re not going to be able to resist hitting your people hard, probably with an air strike of some kind.’

  ‘We’re ready for them,’ Malcolm replied.

  ‘Are you sure about that?’ Myles asked the driver. ‘The government can still put a thousand troops on the ground at a moment’s notice, not to mention the police and air support. If this goes bad, and it well might if Arianna’s true identity is exposed while she’s uploaded, they could use her to locate us.’

  Malcolm inclined his head as he drove.

  ‘Then we will have our chance to stand and fight them, something that has been too long coming.’

  ‘A suicide mission might suit whack–jobs like you,’ Han said, ‘but right now our best bet is to let Myles and me get back into the city and report everything we’ve learned.’

  ‘We don’t trust you to do that,’ Malcolm growled back. ‘And who would you report to? Your superiors?’ Malcolm laughed. ‘They would shoot you on sight and…’

  ‘Not everybody in the city is the enemy,’ Han shot back.

  ‘That’s enough!’ Arianna snapped, silencing both men. ‘This has to end somewhere, at some time and right now is the best opportunity we’ve got. None of us want to go through with it, least of all me because I have to endure the small matter of dying, so why don’t you all shut up and let me think about what I’ve got to go through for any of this to be worth it, battles or not.’

  She heard rather than saw Han slump back into his seat. Malcolm looked briefly across at her, a strange look on his disfigured face, but he drove on without another word.

  They reached the city soon after, Malcolm following Icon’s vehicle to a narrow street barely a mile south of the water. Decaying tower blocks loomed over narrow streets strewn with debris, the rusting hulk of a double–decker bus lying on its side nearby and almost entirely consumed by vines and weeds.

  The vehicles pulled in behind one of the crumbling tower blocks, to shield them from view of the city to the north. Arianna climbed out as Icon walked toward her and gestured to an open doorway at the rear of the tower block, little more than a gaping black hole.

  ‘It’s in there,’ Icon said. ‘Malcolm will organise the sentries and distribute the weapons, just in case. I’ll accompany you upstairs.’

  ‘What about Han and Myles?’ Arianna asked.

  ‘They stay here under armed guard,’ Icon replied. ‘Best place for them.’

  ‘Best for whom?’ Han challenged.

  Icon whipped a pistol from his belt and aimed it at Han. ‘Best for me. You’re within a mile of your fellow officers guarding Westminster Bridge, detective, and I’m not about to take the chance that either you or your partner here will make a run for home.’

  Han ground his teeth in his jaw but said nothing as Malcolm and two more of Icon’s men flanked him and Myles.

  ‘Keep them to the rear,’ Icon ordered. ‘If they move, shoot them.’

  The vehicles pulled away, probably to avoid identifying the building in which they would be hiding. Arianna watched Han and Myles being led away by Icon’s men. ‘That wasn’t what we agreed,’ she said to Icon.

  ‘I know,’ he replied without rancour, ‘but twenty five years of surviving has taught me to trust nobody.’

  ‘And yet you trust me to walk into the holosap’s lair and not report your position?’

  Icon smiled as he walked her toward the tower block. Icon’s men fanned out toward sentry posts scattered around the perimeter of the building.

  ‘I think we both know that’s not your intention,’ he replied. ‘We both want this to be over with.’

  Arianna followed Icon to a cold, stone stairwell that climbed up into the tower block. She was more than surprised when Icon bypassed it and headed toward an equally uninviting stairwell that went down into the darkness. He waved her to follow him.

  ‘Just in case the detectives are able to break free,’ he explained. ‘One airstrike and this building would be demolished with you inside it. The basement offers protection from that.’

  ‘You mean we can enjoy being buried alive together instead of incinerated?’

  ‘At least we will stand a chance,’ Icon replied. ‘And their drones and helicopters can’t detect us down here.’

  The stairwell descended down toward the basement, the walls plastered in old gang tags and graffiti that had smeared and faded as water leaked down from above to stain the plaster and brickwork. The air felt damp and cold as Arianna followed Icon into what must once have been a maintenance bunker, a large but now silent boiler occupying one side of the room. On the other was a series of lights glowing from the power provided by a small diesel generator vented through a now–redundant air conditioning unit. The power was hooked up to what looked to Arianna like a heart–bypass machine, a ventilator and numerous monitors. Three fan–heaters struggled to maintain a meagre pocket of warm air around a pair of medical gurneys over which stood a middle aged man wearing small round spectacles and a face mask that only partially concealed his ruined jaw and neck.

  On one of the gurneys lay Lynda, her arm patched where her blood had been taken.

  ‘Doctor Tyree,’ Icon greeted him. ‘This is Arianna.’

  Tyree’s face looked close to normal, only a vague patchwork of scars beneath a surgical mask lining his neck and left jaw, but his stance was like that of a crippled pensioner and one leg dragged slightly behind him.

  The doctor gestured Arianna to a vacant gurney. ‘There is not much time.’

  ‘You’re not even going to buy me dinner first?’ Arianna managed to quip.

  The doctor smiled beneath his mask. ‘I know you’re nervous but don’t worry. This procedure is standard during heart and brain operations. It’s very stable.’

  Arianna sighed as she climbed onto the gurney and lay back as Lynda climbed off the other gurney. Doctor Tyree placed straps around Arianna’s wrists and ankles.

  ‘To prevent you from falling off the gurney,’ the doctor explained as he worked. ‘We re–initiate heart rhythm using an electrical impulse.’

  ‘Don’t skimp on the voltage.’

  ‘You’ll be fine,’ Icon said as he looked down at her. ‘I must go now to ensure that the doctor’s work remains uninterrupted.’ Icon leaned in closer, his ruined face only partly concealed by his hood. ‘Arianna, if you think that you’re in danger, get out. The doctor will pre–arrange a signal for you, a way to connect with him and ask for extraction. Use it. Enough people have died over all of this. I don’t see any sense in losing another.’

  Icon whirled away and swept from the basement. As she watched him go, and the doctor rolled up her left sleeve and prepared a syringe with a needle that seemed thinner than a human hair, Arianna wondered briefly if the cold, bare basement room would be the last thing she would see with her own eyes.

  ‘What will I see?’

  Her question slipped out seemingly of its own accord as the needle slipped in. Arianna did not look at the doctor, instead staring at the featureless ceiling as she heard his reply.

  ‘They say you see a light, a tunnel of light, but before you can reach the end it turns into patterns that resolve themselves once again into the world around you. You’ll be fine, Arianna.’

  A sudden, further question leaped into Arianna’s mind.

  ‘How long will I have before they realise who I am?’

  Doctor Tyree shrugged. ‘It’s doubtful you’ll have more than a few hours, Arianna, but just you being in there will be enough for us to complete o
ur attack. By any means, as we like to say.’

  Alarm pulsed through Arianna’s chest and her eyes flew wide as she looked at the doctor.

  ‘Attack?’

  Before she could call out for help she felt her body go numb and darkness fell like a heavy shroud around her.

  ***

  37

  The darkness took on a new shape.

  Arianna was not aware of the precise moment when she realised that she was awake and aware again. An incessant beeping noise infiltrated her awareness and echoed through an immense blackness around her. Then, slowly but surely, the basement came back into focus.

  For a moment she could not identify what was different about it, but then she realised. She was no longer on the gurney but was in fact above it. She felt a further jolt of surprise as she realised that she was both on the gurney and above it, looking down at herself as the doctor worked on the bypass machine close to her side. She saw blood, her blood, flowing through clear tubes, but she quickly noted that her chest was not moving, the respirator was not working and the blood was flowing only slowly.

  One of the monitors read a flat–lined heart rhythm and a body temperature of less than sixteen degrees. The doctor turned and poured a bag of ice into the bypass machine, keeping Arianna’s blood chilled.

  ‘I’m dead.’

  She did not speak the words, but none the less she heard them clearly. Everything seemed hyper detailed, her senses super charged. She could hear the doctor’s breathing, the rustle of his shirt beneath the white laboratory coat he wore, the brush of his skin against the icy–cold plastic bags.

  The colours in the otherwise dull basement seemed deeper than any she had ever witnessed, and she wondered for a brief moment how she could see anything if her eyes were closed. The realisation that she could not have any eyes as her body was lying beneath her caused her to look at herself.

  And realise that there was no self.

  She had no body and was merely a point of existence hovering in the air. She wondered if this was the essence of her, her spirit or her soul or whatever those who believed called them. Then she recalled that she too believed in such things and a great joy flushed through her, an overwhelming sense of relief that, somehow, all of this time, she had been right.