‘Can’t say I did, Major.’ The Land Rover lurched as it came over the lip of the final crack in the road. Adams put his foot down, and eventually selected a higher gear.
‘I hope, when all this is done, you can find yourself some sort of life here. I’ll do my damndest to make sure that happens. I mean,’ said Thacker, ‘Government ministers take my telephone calls. That has to count for something.’
‘You can hope so.’ Adams was gripping the steering wheel tight as he negotiated one tight turn after another.
Then, just after they swept past the first abandoned checkpoint, they came across an Ankhani, walking down the road toward them.
‘Damn!’ yelled Adams, trying to find the brakes.
They hit it square on, the bonnet taking its tentacles out from underneath it. The bloated body smacked against the windscreen and burst, black liquid spraying out like thrown paint. The windscreen itself starred and bowed inwards, frost forming on it, but the glass just held.
The Land Rover squealed to a halt, and Thacker grabbed his rifle before getting out to inspect the damage.
There was smoke coming from the engine. When Thacker looked closer, the bonnet itself had split, and ichor was leaking in. The impact had dented the bumper by far more than he would have expected.
‘For something with no bones, they seem pretty solid.’
Adams opened his door and leaned out. ‘Behind you.’
Thacker crouched and turned. Two more Ankhani emerged from around the next corner. They saw him at the same time as he saw them. He shot at them, and missed. They ducked back out of sight.
‘The place is crawling with them. We have to get to the machine.’ Thacker jumped back in. ‘Can you see around that mess?’
‘Mostly,’ said Adams. ‘I take it I don’t stop until we get there.’
‘I think you’ve got it. Try not to run any more of them over, no matter how tempting. One more hit like that, and we’re walking.’
Adams drove on, slowly and steadily. There was no sign of the Ankhani save for frost-blackened gaps in the hedge. ‘Shouldn’t you report this?’
‘Yes, but I’m not going to. I want those in charge to concentrate on Jack, not get distracted by a few monsters. When they’ve dealt with him, we can mop up the rest. Listen, Adams: do the Ankhani see us as a threat? Are they scared of us?’
Adams, dodging his head around the broken part of the windscreen and spilt ichor, took a moment to answer.
‘They seemed wary. But they didn’t seem to be scared of death. I think if there was a chance of a meal, they’d have a go. Getting shot was just one of those things, like they’d just lost a few farthings at cards.’
Thacker rubbed his chin, found more blood on it, and traced the sticky trail upwards to his head. He wiped as much as he could away with his sleeve. ‘I was hoping for a more human reaction: asking too much, I suppose.’
They passed the second checkpoint. There were more burnt holes in the hedgerows. Thacker began to feel uneasy. Adams voiced his own concern.
‘Just how many of the buggers are there?’
‘When you went through for Jack, how many did you see?’
‘Hardly any. A dozen, two dozen maybe.’
‘We killed hundreds last night. I wonder if I’ve done the right thing.’
The final checkpoint was just before the main drive. Three Ankhani were clustered around the body of a small deer. They were breaking brittle pieces off, holding them for a moment, then throwing them away. As they heard the engine rev, they turned sharply, then ran off in three different directions.
‘What’s the plan?’ asked Adams.
‘Drive to the machine, as close as we can. Put the boxes of grenades next to it, and blow them all up.’ Thacker checked his rifle, then Adams’ gun. ‘Not much of a plan, but if it doesn’t work, we’ll have to think of something more imaginative.’
Adams turned into the driveway.
There were Ankhani as far as the eye could see.
Thacker gaped.
‘They’ve spotted us. What do I do?’ said Adams.
‘There must be thousands of them.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘I…’
‘Major? Oh damn it all to hell.’ Adams started forward, picking up speed, working his way through the gears.
The Land Rover shuddered with each blow. Some were glancing, merely throwing the vehicle off to one side and causing Adams to wrestle with the steering wheel like he was in the teeth of an Atlantic gale. Others were head on, and it was like charging concrete bollards. The windscreen froze over, cracked and cracked again until it was a single web of white lines that was impossible to see through. The side windows were streaked with frost and smears of black blood that blocked out the light just as thoroughly.
‘I don’t know where I’m going,’ shouted Adams.
‘Keep it straight.’ Thacker banged out a section of windscreen with his rifle butt. He saw the remains of the hall dead ahead, before he had to duck. A spray of liquid splattered his seat, and he sat up again. ‘Almost there.’
There was a massive lurch to the right, and another to the left as Adams tried to compensate. Thacker was thrown forward, then back.
‘Lost a wheel.’
They were slowing, slowing.
‘Another ten yards, Adams.’
The speedometer read less than twenty. Thacker thought that it was over, that it had all been in vain, when suddenly they were airborne. The engine raced, and the front of the Land Rover tipped down.
They hit hard. The windscreen finally gave in a cascade of fragments. Thacker and Adams hit their spines going down against cab coming up. The dashboard was a blaze of red lights.
There was the briefest moments of peace, as they surveyed the ruins of Henbury Hall from an intimate vantage point. A cloud of ash and brick dust started to settle around them.
Something scuttled across the top of the vehicle. Thacker brought his rifle up and sent three rounds past his own ear.
Adams was wrestling with his door catch. The mechanism had jammed.
‘Out through the front. I’ll cover you.’
Adams threw his gun out, then himself on to the shattered bonnet while Thacker raked the roof of the Land Rover. Hot metal flew everywhere, hurting him. The noise was deafening, the situation desperate.
‘Come on, man!’ shouted Adams. ‘Now!’ He put the butt of his rifle to his shoulder and fired single shots, miserly with his ammunition.
Thacker heaved himself out, rolled off into the still-warm ash and blackened timbers. ‘Where’s the machine?’
‘We landed square on it.’
Thacker finally realised that they’d driven through the stump of the front wall and fallen through to the cellar. Dickson had managed to remove enough of the debris to expose the machine, and now the wreck of their transport lay directly on top of it.
The Ankhani had gathered around the rim of the cellar. There were far too many to kill.
He looked for another way out, and saw it in the strange, vision-warping pool of darkness that hovered above the rubble. The machine was on its side. So was the door to the Ankhani’s world.
‘Adams? They’re going to rush us any second.’
‘What are we going to do?’
Thacker reached out and grabbed Adams by his arm. He was all skin and bones, and he let Thacker spin him around so that he was between the him and the door.
Thacker jumped, pushing Adams in front of him. They fell.
Chapter Nine
One moment he was falling down, then falling sideways. He was totally unprepared for the abrupt twist in vertical and landed face first in the grey dust of the Ankhani’s world.