Dan Abnett - Border Princes

‘I didn’t…’ the driver began. ‘I didn’t see you. Are you…?’

People were gathering. Mr Dine was still on his feet, still glancing to and fro in a twitchy, panicky way. He realised he was the focus of particular attention suddenly. He looked down.

His legs had stopped the van dead. Ramming him had been like ramming a deep-seated bollard or a gate post. The bumper, number plate and grille had folded in around his thighs. The leading edge of the bonnet was crumpled like a bed-sheet. Dirty fluid gurgled out of the split radiator and pooled under the front wheels.

‘Jesus flippin’ Christ!’ the driver stammered. ‘How the-’

Mr Dine stepped away from the arrested vehicle. Bent bodywork groaned as his legs came out of the form-fitting impression. The bumper fell off.

No fix. Still no fix. The pull was wrong. Still no definitive focus from the upload, despite the fact that his body was now accelerating to full combat investment, hyping to maximum.

In another ten seconds it would automatically switch over to battledress. That was something that could not be allowed to happen in plain sight.

‘Excuse me,’ he said to the chubby driver.

‘But you can’t… you should go to hospital and-’

‘I have no further time for this digression.’

Mr Dine started to move. By the time the gathered crowd had realised the man in the black suit was shoving his way through them, he had somehow — inexplicably, in the opinion of many — already vanished.

The recorded voice said, ‘The phone you are calling is out of range or has been switched off. Please try again later.’

Gwen cancelled the call. Her head was throbbing so much, she was having difficulty accomplishing even simple tasks. It felt like a six-inch nail had been driven in through the top of her skull. She wanted to cry. She wanted to lie down. She wanted to cry and lie down.

Fiddling with the master control box, James let out a dull moan. His hands were visibly shaking.

‘Gwen, I can’t do it. I can’t work it. I can’t think straight.’

‘I know.’

‘Gwen, can you see the blue lights?’

‘No,’ she lied. ‘Try again.’

He looked up at her. His eyes were horribly bloodshot. Dots of sweat clung to his forehead and made his hair lank. ‘I can’t. I can’t. I can’t get the foetus to align.’

‘The foetus?’

‘The focus, focus.’

‘It’s OK. Just try one more time.’

‘One more climb? Climb what?’

‘I said time.’

‘No, you said-’

‘James! Please!’

He bent back over the control box.

Gwen held up her mobile, blinking away tears. She willed it to ring.

It rang. She answered. ‘Tosh?’

‘Gwen Cooper. Good to hear your voice.’

It was just a whisper, desperately far away, deep in a well.

‘Jack!’

‘My phone died. I’m using Tosh’s, but her battery is fading fast too. Something here is sucking energy up. Something hungry.’

‘Jack-’

‘Listen to me, Gwen. I don’t have long. It’s gone dark here. Pitch black. Scary dark. We’re both feeling pretty wretched, headache and nausea. I guess if this place leeches power out of cellphone batteries, it leaches power out of organics too. Anyway, we’re not doing too good, all told. And there are footsteps out there. I can hear them too now. Circling the chapel in the dark. Creepy. This is not-’

‘What? Jack?’

‘This is not how I pictured my demise.’

‘It’s not going to be your demise, Harkness. We’ll get you out of there! We’ll-’

‘Gwen. You’re a good girl, but I know when I’m beat. I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other, and seen a lot of strange stuff-’

‘Don’t you go all Han Solo on me now, you bugger! I get enough of that from Rhys! We’re getting you out of there!’

‘How?’

Gwen looked at James.

‘How?’ Jack repeated down the line. ‘Gwen, you still there?’

‘Yes.’

‘How are you going to get us out of here? I don’t even know where here is. All I know is there are footsteps coming closer and they ain’t friendly.’

‘We’ll find a way.’ She had a lump in her throat. ‘We’ll find something.’

A moment passed before he said anything. ‘Gwen, I made a bad call today. Learn from that. I rushed in here with Tosh, and it was a bad call. Dumb. I don’t know what I was thinking. Major error of judgement. Something was affecting me, something… putting me off my game. I don’t mind paying for that, but I hate the fact that Tosh is paying for it too. Error of judgement. Not like me at all. Never rush into a situation unsecured. These are the things you have to remember. The things you have to learn.’

‘Why?’

‘When you take over. Recruit and rebuild. It’ll be down to you. You’ll need to learn from my mistakes.’

‘Take over? Torchwood?’

‘No, the Cyncoed Choral Society. Yes, Torchwood.’

‘Jack, there won’t be any Torchwood without you.’

‘There damn well better be, girl. The Rift won’t police itself. I’m counting on you-’

Static wilted his voice. A dry buzz. A flicker of rasping voices lacking any real words.

‘Jack?’

Buzzing, buzzing.

‘… come back and haunt you forever, you hear me?’

‘Jack?’

‘Did you lose me there?’ Jack’s tiny voice asked. ‘I lost you. God, it’s dark, Gwen. You wouldn’t believe. Footsteps. I didn’t think I could get scared like this any more. Battery’s so low. I think it’s about to fake out.’

‘Say again? Did you say “fake”?’

‘No, I said fade.’

‘You said fake. I heard you. Jack, you said you had a headache. Headache and nausea. Is it like last Thursday at the riverside? Jack, is it like that?’

‘I suppose, but-’

‘Jack, listen to me. We’re up to our necks here. Somehow, I don’t know how, the Amok is affecting us again. Either that, or there’s another one loose. Splitting headaches. We can barely thick.’

‘By which, of course, you mean “think”,’ called James.

‘Right. Think. If you weren’t so deep in shit, we’d bail on you and head back to the Hub. Try and sort it out.’

‘You should do that. Right now. Leave us and sort it. If the Amok — or an Amok — is operational, it’s priority one. Not us. You hearing me, Gwen?’

‘Oh, shut up and listen! I can barely cling two words together-’

‘Uh, “string” maybe?’ advised James.

Gwen put her hand over the mouthpiece. ‘You’re not helping, you know that? Work harder.’

James shook out his neck and turned back to the box.

‘Jack?’

‘Still here, caller.’

‘Jack, I think you can feel the Amok’s effects too. Your headache. Behind the eyes, is it?’

‘In this life, ultimately everything is behind the eyes.’

‘Spare me the cock philosophy.’

‘You meant “cod” there, right?’

‘I know what I meant! Jack, if you and Tosh can feel this like we’re feeling this, how bloody far away can you be? You’re not lost. You’re… right there.’

‘Faraway, so close, huh?’

‘Does it make sense?’

‘Kinda. You got a game plan?’

Gwen thought about that, which was especially hard. Crying and lying down still seemed like the best offer going. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’ve got a game plan.’

‘So let’s hear it before my battery expires.’

‘The Amok… The Amok is calling us. It’s hooked us and it’s calling us. It wants us to obey it. It wants us to go and find it, wherever it is.’

‘Fair point. I can feel it too.’

Gwen bunched her left hand into a tight fist. ‘So… give in.’

‘What?’

‘Give in. Answer the call. Follow it.’