‘See?’ said Nina, pulling her husband’s gun hand firmly downwards. ‘They can handle everything from here.’ The pair of them resumed their retreat up the hill.
‘It’s time to go,’ Cross said, still speaking over the PA system. He picked up the case. ‘Mr President, if you’ll come to the helicopter?’
Eddie and Nina were now out of Dalton’s earshot, but his agitated body language told them he was still worried. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Cross’s amplified voice assured the politician as he, Dalton and their entourage, including the human shields, started towards the helipad. ‘We won’t be stopped at the airport.’
Eddie watched them with growing suspicion. ‘Why’s he so fucking confident?’
‘I don’t know,’ Nina replied, her own unease growing. ‘But I think we should get out of here.’
‘We need to tell the cops what’s going on.’
‘The only place they can land is over there.’ She pointed towards the cove to the south-west. ‘If we meet them, they can contact the airport and stop Cross from leaving, can’t they?’
‘Yeah, that was the plan. But…’ Eddie stared after the cult leader as his group reached the helipad. ‘Something’s not right.’
Norvin opened the helicopter’s doors. Dalton was first to scramble aboard, Anna and Simeon following. But Cross remained, signalling for his white-clad guardians to face him. ‘My followers,’ he said, ‘my friends: you have all had faith in me, faith in the word of the Lord and in the prophecy of the Book of Revelation. I will find the fourth angel, I will see that Babylon falls. But another prophecy must be fulfilled, here, today, right now. Revelation chapter six, verse ten: “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”’
‘Doesn’t he ever shut up?’ complained Eddie.
Nina waved for him to be quiet, trying to remember what followed. ‘I don’t like this…’
Cross continued his recital. ‘“And it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”’ He opened the case. ‘Miriam. Will you take the second angel?’
Nina watched with rising concern. ‘What’s he doing? Why’s he giving it to Miriam?’
‘Who’s she?’ Eddie asked.
‘One of his followers — she’s just a kid, an innocent. Why is he…’ A horrible possibility occurred. ‘Oh my God.’
‘What?’
She looked at him in alarm. ‘The angels — Cross thinks that for him to learn God’s secrets, all four angels have to be released. But one was already released, in Iraq, so they don’t have to be broken at the same time.’ Possibility became certainty, and as her gaze snapped back to the helicopter, it seemed that Cross was looking past Miriam directly at her, almost taunting. ‘He’s going to do it here! Miriam, don’t!’
She was drowned out by Cross’s amplified voice. ‘Miriam has taken the angel,’ he announced, kissing her on both cheeks before entering the helicopter. Norvin was last aboard, closing the door. Some of the other villagers were filing towards the helipad with a clear mix of emotions from worry to near-rapture. ‘Now may God’s will be done!’ The aircraft took off, rising vertically at full power before heading west.
‘Miriam!’ Nina cried again, as futilely as before. The young woman, tears glistening on her cheeks, raised the statue high above her head. The other cultists cleared a space around her.
‘And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,’ boomed Cross. The helicopter was rapidly disappearing, but his voice remained. ‘And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying…’
He paused. Nina used the moment of silence to scream Miriam’s name again, begging her to stop—
‘Neither shall there be any more pain.’
Miriam’s mouth opened in a silent cry… then she threw the statue to the ground.
22
‘No!’ shrieked Nina. But it was too late.
The angel shattered against a rock — and a sickly yellow gas erupted from the meteorite fragments exposed at its core. Miriam screamed as the glutinous vapour swallowed her, the cloud expanding with frightening speed.
Some of the cultists at the helipad stood their ground, while the nerve of others broke and they fled. It made no difference. The gas consumed them in moments, people flailing in agony before vanishing into the opaque mass.
Eddie and Nina broke through their shock and ran. Behind them, panic spread through the congregation at the church, faith wavering and breaking at the sight of death rolling towards them.
The cloud reached the houses, swirling and slithering around them like a liquid snake. An elderly woman tried to run but tripped and fell; her husband hesitated, then went back to help her, only for both to succumb to the toxic gas as it swept over them. Some followers ran into the church in the desperate hope that its walls would provide sanctuary. Seconds later, all were dead. Others raced for the jungle, but anguished screams cut through the air as they were caught one by one.
‘What the fuck is that stuff?’ Eddie gasped.
‘Something you don’t wanna get near!’ Nina replied. ‘Through that gate, there!’
They sprinted for the opening. One final choked wail reached them, then the Mission fell silent.
Eddie threw open the gate, letting Nina through. She was already short of breath, clutching at her abdomen. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked as he caught up.
‘No!’ she snapped. ‘I’m pregnant and running from a huge poisonous cloud! I am not okay!’
‘Love you too,’ he said, managing a brief grin, which vanished as he looked back. The looming mustard-yellow miasma was still rising behind them. ‘How far’s this dock?’
‘Just down here!’ Nina saw water between the palms ahead.
‘And there is a boat, right?’
‘Yes, there’s a boat! What, did you think I was planning to swim out of here?’
‘Five more months of this, just five more months…’ Eddie told the jungle. She glared at him, but forgot her anger as they cleared the trees and saw the jetty. The boat was still there. ‘I’ll get it started!’ He ran ahead to the jetty, quickly unknotting the mooring rope and jumping aboard.
Nina reached the dock. ‘Eddie, look!’ She pointed at the bay’s entrance. Two boats were carving through the sea towards it. ‘It’s the police!’
Eddie spotted them — then with alarm saw something closer. The death cloud had broken through the trees and was roiling along the edge of the bay, towards its mouth. ‘Shit! It’s going to cut us off!’ He looked around, finding that the cove had no other exits to the ocean.
Nina clambered into the boat as Eddie tugged at the starter cord. The engine clattered, then roared. He shoved the prow away from the jetty, then revved to full power, swinging out into open water.
The police boats were almost at the cove’s mouth — but so was the gas. Oozing across the shore, it rolled the last few dozen yards over the rocks and dropped lazily down to the incoming waves. ‘The water!’ Nina exclaimed, seeing a change in its movement. The thick, oily mass appeared to be reacting on contact with the sea, becoming thinner. ‘Cross said water stopped the reaction — it might absorb the gas too!’
‘Not quick enough,’ Eddie realised. He had already judged how long it would take their boat to clear the bay, and unless the cloud completely vanished, they wouldn’t make it.