“And they don’t know how to fight it—I don’t know how to fight it. Not yet.”
She turned back to look Noble in the eye.
“You will help me, won’t you? I know that if I can get back to the lab and that sample then I…”
Noble stopped her with a squeeze of her hand.
“I’ll be with you all the way,” he said. “But I’m not the only one who needs rest.”
She nodded, then surprised him by coming round the table to snuggle up next to him, laying a head on his shoulder.
Neither of them spoke.
They stayed that way for a while.
July 23rd - Weymouth
It was getting dark again by the time they arrived back in Weymouth after a long, detour-ridden trip in an extortionate taxi from Exeter. Suzie had been buzzing with nervous energy all the way, full of talk of the experiments she wanted to attempt on her sample. She only went quiet when the taxi came to a halt at the edge of town. Just ahead of them, military vehicles blocked the road.
“Looks like it’s the end of the line, folks,” the driver said.
Noble paid him, vowing to claim every penny back in expenses. By the time he got to the makeshift barricade, Suzie was already arguing with a stressed out soldier who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else but there.
“I told you, miss,” he said. “No civilians allowed in. The town has been evacuated for the public safety.”
He said the words as if he’d learned them by rote and had been reciting them far too often.
Noble could see Suzie’s ire rising.
“We’re on official business here,” Noble said. “We’ve just returned from a meeting with the Minister and have information that the Colonel will need right away. Or would you rather tell him yourself that you kept us waiting at the gate like beggars?”
Suddenly, the youth was all apologetic. He waved them through. Noble might have berated him for slackness if he’d had the energy, but the long trip from London had taken its toll on him, despite his nap on the train, and he felt like he needed to sleep for a week.
Suzie wasn’t about to allow any of that. She force-marched him to Nothe Fort and down into the lab. On the way, they saw several soldiers, none of whom paid them the slightest attention, and they also saw much evidence of a kelp attack that had stretched far from the shoreline and reached deep into the town. Several houses had been either caved in or burned to the ground in an obvious attempt to contain the vegetation. Noble was glad to get inside the solidity of the castle and only started to feel safe as they descended to the lab in the bowels of the building.
Suzie went straight to the bench. The jar containing the sample was still sitting exactly where they’d left it. Noble had a look in passing. The material inside the jar looked burned and charred, little more than ash.
“Are you going to be able to do anything?”
“I hope so. See if you can rustle us up something to eat and I’ll see what I can do.”
Noble found a makeshift canteen open two levels up. He got four sandwiches, two coffees, and an update on the situation from a weary squaddie behind the counter.
“Damn near got us, so it did,” the man said, his Scottish accent showing strong. “It took half the town before we got it pegged back and the bastard thing even crawled half way up the wall of the castle. I was shitting myself, I’ll tell you that, for nothing. And I’ll tell you something else—if it comes back, I don’t think we’ll be able to stop it.”
The castle felt somehow more oppressive and less safe as he made his way back to the lab. He found Suzie bending over the blackened mass of tissue, prodding it with a scalpel. He had to ask her twice before she would break off and take time to eat. Even then, her gaze kept drifting back to the charred thing on the table.
“Remember what the priest said in his journal?” she said between mouthfuls of bread and ham. “… after I have burned away more than nine-tenths of its matter, it has weakened. If I concentrate hard, I can catch glimpses of what the beast is thinking and feel its fear.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re planning what I think you’re planning,” Noble said.
She nodded.
“I’m going to put it to the Inquisition.”
For a time, Noble tried to pay attention to what Suzie was doing over at the table, but he slouched ever further into the chair, his head nodding to his chest. Again, he gave in and fell into a deep sleep.
He dreamed.
The winch starts to pull him back into the chopper, but he scarcely notices. The pain is throwing him into shock and he is no longer sure if what he sees is real or a dream induced by the searing heat of pain.
Right at the far point of the chopper’s turn he catches a glimpse of something glinting in the sun. Far away, almost on the horizon and shimmering in the heat, stands what looks like a city of glass… or plastic? Massive towers and turrets rise high above the sea and gargantuan black shapes slump through cavernous streets.
He hears Suzie’s voice.
The Shoggoths were made. Made as builders.
He came awake with a start. Something had him in a hold, something soft that pressed tight against him.
It’s got me.
He struggled, tearing away at his attacker… only to fully wake and realise he was trying to tear a sleeping bag. Suzie must have put it over him while he slept. He looked around, suddenly embarrassed, hoping that no one was watching.
He wasn’t alone, but Suzie hadn’t seen him. She was slumped in another chair, head drooped and breathing softly. Behind her sat the tall glass jar. The sample inside no longer looked quite so burnt. In fact, it seemed to have grown.
She’s been feeding it.
As if in response, the material surged inside the jar. Noble wasn’t in any mood for play.
Don’t you fucking dare.
He thought it rather than saying it, for fear of waking Suzie. But the kelp reacted as if struck, cowering to the far side of the glass. He remembered Suzie’s words.
“I’m going to put it to the Inquisition.”
It seemed she had done so, and with some success, for if he was not mistaken, what he was seeing now was fear. He bent forward.
“You don’t frighten me,” he whispered. “I’m wearing clean underwear.”
Something gripped his mind. He went away for a while.
He saw vast plains of snow and ice where black things slumped amid tumbled ruins of long dead cities.
Massive towers and turrets rose high above the sea and gargantuan black shapes rolled through cavernous streets.
And while his slumbering god dreamed, Noble danced in the twilight, danced to the rhythm.
He was at peace.
He might have been lost forever if Suzie had not slapped him, hard, across the cheek. Even then, he had to look away from the sample jar and blink vigorously before the miasma lifted from his mind.
“Are you okay?” Suzie asked, concerned. “I was going to tell you when you woke to be careful.”
He laughed softly.
“Thanks for the warning. But some good has come of it, I think. I’ve remembered something I saw just after collecting the sample—something the pain must have driven off at the time.”
He told her about the city of plastic and the slumping Shoggoths in the streets.
“Builders,” she whispered.