She laughs and sprints down the corridor, past the scrabbling scientists, and on to the end of the passageway, following the trail of destruction and bitter-almond.
The old man is running for his life. She is so looking forward to seeing him again.
Ken shuddered and twitched. Red spittle frothed at the corners of his mouth, his hands flapped and skittered, the little shards of glass sparkling in the palm of his right hand.
‘What’s the wee bugger shooglin’ about like that for?’
Will frowned. ‘No idea.’
Ken’s head snapped back, smacking off the tunnel wall with a resounding thunk. Slowly the trembling eased and he slumped into himself. Not moving.
‘He snuffed it?’
Will took a step back and said, ‘Lets find out.’ He kicked the sagging figure in the chest as hard as he could. Ken bounced back against the wall and then slid gracelessly to the floor.
Brian spat a long, phlegmy, gob onto the back of Ken’s motionless head. ‘And there was me lookin’ forward to seein’ you beat seven shades of shite out of him.’
‘Damn it.’ Will kicked him again for luck.
Nothing.
Dead or unconscious. Either way, he wasn’t fighting back.
Will reached up and keyed his throat-mike. ‘Lieutenant Brand, this is Hunter. Where’s your team?’
‘Sherman House. Where the hell are you? We’ve searched the whole lower floor and we can’t find an entrance to that damn lab.’
‘We were on the forty-seventh floor when they zapped us, and we woke up in the lab. Easiest way to get us down here would be the lifts.’
‘Floyd, get that lift console jimmied open.’ Emily’s voice was curt and businesslike. ‘We’ll be there as soon as we can.’
‘Thanks I-’ But the connection was dead. She’d cut him off. ‘Great.’
Brian gently lowered Jo to the tunnel floor, then fumbled about in his pack for a med-kit. ‘We need tae get her to the hospital. Her arm’s fucked, and Christ knows what they’ve pumped her full of.’
Will nodded, and sank down beside Jo, stroking her swollen cheek. When he’d told her to leave him in Kelvingrove Park, he’d thought she’d be the one to escape…And now look at her. It was all his fault, he’d got her involved in this. With that bastard Peitai.
‘Will?’
He looked up to see Brian staring at him. ‘Yes…Right. Emily’s upstairs, we’ll take the Dragonfly.’
‘Good. I’ve had about enough of this shitehole for one day.’
‘Call Cat and tell her to get back here. I don’t want her wandering about on her own when Emily’s lot come charging in, all guns blazing.’
Brian stood and clicked his mike. ‘Cat?’ He paused and tried again. ‘Cat? Can you hear me?’ He shook his head, pulled his earpiece out, peered at it, then stuck it back in. ‘Everythin’s buggered…Constable MacDonald, do you read?’
He scowled at Ken’s twisted body. ‘If any of your bastards have hurt her, I’ll kill them!’ He threw a kick into Ken’s ribs, hard enough flip him over onto his back. The body groaned.
‘Did you hear that?’ Brian knelt and felt for a pulse. ‘The wee shite’s still alive. Happy days!’ He grabbed Ken by the lapels and backhanded him. Ken’s head snapped to the side, another groan. His eyelids fluttered, then opened.
Brian dragged him to his feet, singing, ‘Oh Kenny boy, the pipes, the pipes are callin’,’ as he slammed him back into the wall.
‘Brian, don’t.’ Will sighed and looked away. The initial burn had gone, leaving a bitter taste behind. The Network didn’t make people disappear, it hauled them into court. All above board and legal. ‘Read him his rights, he’s got an appointment with an operating table.’
‘After what this wee shite did to Jo? Halfheadin’s too good for him.’ He stuck his face inches from Ken’s blood-caked features and shouted, ‘Wakey wakey, Kenny, it’s time to get the shite kicked out of you!’
Ken still hadn’t said anything, but his eyes were wide, dancing back and forth, his cheeks twitching, teeth gritted. Brian slapped him again.
‘Your lucky day Kenny: two beatin’s for the price of-’
It was if someone had run a thousand volts through Ken’s battered body. He exploded off the wall, hands wrapping round Brian’s head, teeth snapping like a rabid dog. Sinking them into Brian’s cheek, ripping, tearing…
‘Aaah!’ Brian shoved him away. ‘Ya wee bastard!’
Ken spat out a chunk of Brian’s flesh, then lunged, going for the throat.
Brian whipped his head back and then forward again, smashing his forehead into Peitai’s nose. Crack. They both staggered off: Brian into the middle of the tunnel, blood pulsing out from the hole in his cheek, Petai groping along the wall. The maglev rail caught Brian in the back of the knees and he went down like a sack of tatties, banging his head off the floor.
Will grabbed Ken on the rebound and smashed his elbow into the little bastard’s face. Ken’s nose burst like an egg, but it didn’t even slow him down. He bared his teeth again and jumped, knocking Will off his feet. They crashed to the floor in a tangle of limbs.
Will scrabbled backwards, trying to get away from those blood-stained teeth.
Ken’s hands groped for Will’s cheeks and for a heartbeat the flashing emergency lights sparkled off the glass embedded in his right palm. The blood that dripped from the sharp, curved edges wasn’t clean and red: it was tainted with something green and viscous. Something that had turned Ken Peitai rabid.
Will stopped trying to fight off the teeth and grabbed the back of Ken’s injured hand, forcing it over on itself-trying to snap the wrist. Peitai kept coming.
‘BRIAN!’
Blood poured out of Ken’s shattered nose and the gash across his face. Lunging forward he sank his teeth into Will’s eyebrow. Sharp, stabbing pain.
‘Argh! Get off me!’ Will rammed his right thumb into Ken’s eye socket all the way up to the first knuckle. That got his attention. He let go of Will’s face with a gargled scream, and struggled to his feet, one hand pressed against his ruined eye, trying to hold the contents in.
Then he lurched back into the middle of the tunnel and staggered away into the dark.
Will picked himself off the floor and grabbed his stolen Thrummer. His torn eyebrow throbbed and stung, blood dribbling into his eye. He wiped it clean on his sleeve-grimacing as the fabric pulled at the wound-but it just filled up again.
Brian was still lying flat on his back, groaning and swearing.
‘Look after Jo.’ Will flicked on the Thrummer’s lightsight and headed off down the tunnel, following the sound of Ken’s footsteps.
Everything smelt of damp and mildew and hot copper and oil and death.
‘You won’t get away, you know that don’t you, Peitai?’
No reply.
Dark splashes of blood sparkled in the lightsight’s green glow, like slicks of oil. The little bastard was moving fast and Will had to jog to keep up. Whatever Ken had in his top pocket it had done more than turn him bug-crazy, it had given him a whole new lease of life.
The tunnel twisted off to the left and Will stopped for a moment, straining his ears, trying to tell where Peitai was. It wasn’t easy, but he could just make out the scuff-click, scuff-click of cowboy boots in the darkness.
The air was changing: he could feel it on his face as he moved. It was warmer here than it had been back at the platform, less musty-that meant the main line was close. He stopped again and listened…
Nothing but silence.
Either Ken had stopped running or that handful of glass and chemicals had finally killed him.