Doom 3™: Maelstrom

2145

INTO HELL

33

HAYDEN STARTED LOOKING AT THE IMAGES coming on from all the marine units, many of them wiped out by now.

One of the creatures—what looked like a head mounted on legs, with a jaw that snapped at the legs of panicked soldiers—made his stomach tighten, ready to vomit.

Some of the images came with names supplied by the grunts fighting the…

These, for example, ticks. Ticks from hell, thought Hayden.

Then another image, something with two heads, vaguely human-looking even though it crawled on the ground, scurrying. Some grunt called it a maggot as he recorded its image. Belly up, its inside exploded by a grenade.

Hayden looked out the window. His assistant still sat at her desk. A half-dozen well-armed marines stood guard outside. And though it was a craven thought for a military man of Hayden’s experience, he felt good knowing that he had a wall of that much firepower between him…and what was now roaming free through all of Mars City.

He had heard the exchange between Campbell and Swann too. And though he was tempted to tell Swann to ask the Aramda to land, he knew that could be the one thing that would transform this disaster into—what?—perhaps something that could end humanity.

I have to stay cool, Hayden told himself. Too much at stake here. Can’t panic. Must not panic.

He moved to the next video. Seeing something that looked like a wall of flesh, and…tusks? Or what the hell were they? He saw the things hanging from the bulbous creature’s head quickly wrap around the necks of two soldiers at once, instantly squeezing them to death.

It took six men to bring it down. What if there were an army of such things?

Stay calm, Hayden told himself. Calm, cool, he told himself, over and over.

“You knew about this?”

Kellyn MacDonald tried to not let his fear show, with Betruger towering over him.

The head scientist of Mars City laughed. “Of course. What do you think, MacDonald, that I couldn’t see what was happening, where our experiments led?” He leaned down. “And how important they were? No, I’m afraid I knew exactly what we were doing.”

“And the others?”

“Your…compatriots? A few I took into my confidence, but most had to be kept just like you. Shocked, concerned, confused—while the process went forward. Unfortunately, those others had to be sacrificed but they were good”—a smile filled Betruger’s face—“coconspirators…for a while.”

“What the hell have you done?”

Betruger tilted his head and arched his eyebrows. “How astute. What the…hell indeed, Dr. MacDonald. But I’m guessing that is a rhetorical question from you? You have”—Betruger gestured at the bloody slaughterhouse that was Delta—“seen all this happen. You’ve seen them, right. You’re a smart man. You can guess what the ‘hell’ happened.”

MacDonald shook his head. “You’re completely insane.”

“Really? Seems like I’m the one who will survive all this. And this, Mars, is only the beginning. And I will be there to see it all, to participate.…”

At that moment Betruger raised his left hand as if reaching for something bright and wonderful amid the smoky ruins of the lab. And MacDonald saw it was no longer a hand. Fingers still protruded out of what now resembled the large pincers of a crab. Betruger himself looked at it.

“Oh—interesting, hm? Trying it on. There will be other rewards too. Many other rewards…”

Betruger was actually relishing being turned into a monster. That was even more horrible than the transformation itself.

“You have the same planned for me.”

It was a statement. But surprisingly Betruger shook his head. “Oh, no. I knew, of course, that you were here all the time. I could sense it. But it felt good to have you, one of my closest colleagues, observe all this. Now you have served that purpose. And—”

He clicked two ends of the claw together.

“—that purpose has come to an end. There is only one more purpose you can serve now. With all the dwindling numbers…not many like you left alive here, and so—”

Betruger reached down with his claw and grabbed MacDonald’s left leg between the ankle and knee. Then, the pain excruciating, overwhelming, the claws closed. Over his own screams, MacDonald heard a snap.

“There, now for the other one.”

The pain from the broken bone, the lower mangled leg, completely masked the same thing occurring to his right leg. He howled, his voice shrieking.

“Yes, scream away, Dr. MacDonald. Because, you see, soon from over there will come some new ones. Hungry. And you will be here, alive, waiting. Their first meal.”

MacDonald flailed, shaking his head as if that would somehow stop the flow of words.

“And for now, I must of course join the others. Mars City is only our beginning. But our end—”

He started walking away…and kept talking without turning back.

“—our end will truly be something wondrous, amazing, eternal. Eternal, Dr. MacDonald….”

“Hold on there, Counselor…”

Campbell entered the control room for the Comm Center. Everything looked perfectly normal, save for Elliot Swann sitting at a console.

Elliot Swann turned to Campbell.

“I—I have the Armada in contact, Jack. I could send a message right away.”

Campbell took a step. He was tempted to simply blast the console and end all debate about summoning the Armada for a rescue. But even though he suspected that there was a backup system that could get online, he wanted to do this without rendering Mars City incommunicado.

“They’re waiting, Jack. They could be here in hours. Get us the hell off here.”

“Right, Swann. Get us off, and whatever else we might bring with us. Then what? Take us back to Earth? That sound good, Swann?”

Swann looked away as if he might be considering the repercussions of an Armada landing for the first time.

“Now tell me—does that sound like a good idea?”

Swann turned back to him, staring at the BFG-9000, which was pointed in his general direction. Not that Campbell planned on using it.

He saw Swann gulp. His eyes sunken. The man’s fear almost something he could smell.

“Wh-what are we going to do, Jack? What the hell are we going to do?”

Campbell felt that Swann had at last pulled back from the precipice and was ready to listen. “We have to secure Mars City, Swann. We have to try and stop this—contain this—before we let anyone come here. You understand that, don’t you?”

Swann nodded. True acceptance or merely some rote reflex? It was hard to tell.

“But who’s left?”

“There are plenty of people left. Plenty,” Campbell lied. “Whole squads back at Transport and Reception. Other teams are securing Alpha. But we have a real big problem.”

Swann’s dark eyes were locked on him.

“This all comes from Delta Lab. And that, well, that area is not secure. Something is still going on—”

Swann started shaking his head, “I don’t think…God, I really, really don’t think—”

Campbell pulled his right hand off the BFG and gave Swann a strong back slap. Swann’s haunted eyes popped open wide.

“Listen, Swann, let me do the thinking, okay? You see, if we don’t stop what’s going on in Delta, then nobody will get out of here—or off Mars. Nobody.” He paused to let the words sink in a bit. “So you have two choices. You can go back to Reception. A long trek. Might see some of the uglies along the way. In fact, you probably will. Or”—he tapped the gun—“you can come with me. Me and my”—Campbell grinned, using a line from a vid from over a hundred years ago—“little friend. You do know how to shoot, right?”

Swann nodded. Campbell guessed that Swann wouldn’t be much use in a firefight. But one way or the other, he wanted the panicked lawyer away from the Comm Center.

Campbell took a breath. “So what’s it going to be?”

Swann cleared his throat; then, as if he had been glued to the contoured chair before the control panel, he stood up.

“I’ll go with you, Jack. You’re right. We have to stop it.”

Campbell patted Swann on the back. “Good man.” He grabbed his PDA. “There’s a spur of the monorail near here. And it will take us right there. Take this—” He handed Swann a machine gun. “Safety’s off, so be careful. All set?”

A nod, and then Campbell led the terrified Elliot Swann out of the control room, thinking, If the poor bastard only knew how scared I am too, he wouldn’t move an inch.

34

KANE STOPPED FIRING, BUT HE HEARD MARIA let off a few more blasts at the latest things to try and stop them.

In what was becoming standard procedure for them as they fought their way forward to Delta, they stood back-to-back to cover a 360-degree arc.

“Think they’re dead enough?”

Maria shrugged. He imagined she was as exhausted as he was, but both of them resisted using more stims. Diminishing returns, Kane knew, and could lead to a collapse.

“So,” Kane said, looking at the pile of bodies around them, “mind telling me where these zombies got chain saws from?”

“Sure, as long you tell me how the chain saws became part of their bodies.”

“Guess it makes them easier to use.”

“Seriously—under Delta there is a massive warehouse that’s used by the excavation teams. Looks like these former grunts went in there, maybe running from the blast, and this is what happened.”

They stood there for a second, and the moment of giddiness at being alive began to fade. “The key thing,” Kane said, “is that these things can just—I dunno—affix things to their bodies.”

“That’s insane.”

“Yeah, but if it’s true, if it’s what you might call a ‘rule,’ then we got to be prepared for anything.”

Only now did she turn and look at him. “I thought I was.”

He laughed, the sound so human, so good. “Guess you are.”

They had activated the Delta reactor, restarting the main and backup controls. The place would be powered. The chain-saw zombies had been a momentary distraction.

“Okay, guess we’re ready, then. And Delta?” he asked.

She turned and pointed to a door at the end of the room, across the sea of dead chainsaw zombies. “There. It’s an observation room, and my PDA shows direct access to the lab.”

Kane nodded and together, taking care as they moved, they headed to the last barrier before entering the rear section of Delta Labs.

“Goddamn,” Kane said. “Door is locked. What do we—”

But when he turned around he saw Maria picking through some of the dead corpses.

“What are you doing?”

She turned, her face all scrunched up, and waved a PDA at him. “I’m guessing that one of these things had the right security clearance.”

“Good thinking.”

She brought the PDA up to the security lock. “Okay—here goes.”

Kane waited. The lock glowed red, then turned to green. “Open sesame.”

“Once we walk in,” Maria said, “we’ll technically be in Delta. At least that’s what the schematics show.”

He grabbed the handle and pulled the door open….

The room was empty; still, they kept their guns leveled, ready. “Everyone moved on?” Kane said.

“Guess so.”

They walked through the small room, a lab of some kind. Half the ceiling lights were damaged, but there was enough of a milky glow to see this small lab—and something standing in the center of the room.

Kane walked up to it.

TELEPORTER STATION 5, it said.

“Teleportation. Is that what they were doing? Do you think—”

But Maria had walked to the far wall, and stood at a glass window. “Kane, come and look at this.”

He walked up to her, and he could see what was obviously the main Delta Lab. A massive room, with at least three more of the teleporter stations. Bodies all over. But no creatures. At least, not yet.

One of the teleporters looked on fire, a liquid fiery glow filling it, shifting, fluttering as if caught in some unknown breeze; it lit the room with a brilliant yellow-red glow.

“What is that?” Maria said.

“Not sure we want to know. But we have to get in there.” Kane looked left and right, but he could see no doors, no potential entrance.

“There’s got to be a way.”

Maria also started to look around, but the empty smaller lab only led out. If there was a way between this room—an observation station of some kind—into the other room, it wasn’t clear.

“I don’t see anything,” she said.

“Me either. Does that mean we have to go back and—”

“Help…” The sound was a croak, almost not human. But Kane couldn’t imagine any of the creatures asking for such a human thing as help.

“You heard that?” he said to Maria.

She nodded. “I’m trying to locate it. Not sure—”

“Please…”

She turned back to the observation window and tapped it.

“There! It’s coming from inside there.”

Kane came and stood beside her as they scanned the room. Until—

“God, I see him.” She said. “Poor bastard. Over by that table.”

Kane spotted a man sprawled on the ground by an overturned lab table. He could also see that something had been done to his lower legs.

Kane raised a hand to the man, who acknowledged the move with the slightest tilt of his head. The room’s intercoms still worked.

“Is there a way into the lab from here?”

The man cleared his throat, a low gravelly sound as he struggled to talk. “Yes. There is. Y-you…need to come quickly. There’s no…time.”

Kane answered: “What do we do?”

The man pointed to one of the teleportation pods standing quiet. Then his finger pointed, just past Kane, to the pod in the observation room.

“You have to use…the teleporter. Use it…to come here.”

Maria answered quickly. “No. That can’t be safe.”

“Listen…” the man said, struggling to get the words out. “It is safe for short distances. We—we tested it with humans. It was safe…up to a point.”

“Kane, I don’t like it.”

“You can use it to get in here. That short distance…always seemed safe.”

Maria came closer to Kane. “Come on—we’ll go the other way in.”

Kane looked at her. “You see that.” He pointed to the other pod, the one that glowed like an open wound of color and heat. “My guess is that has to be stopped. And we sure as hell can’t do it here.”

The scratchy voice from within Delta: “You have to hurry.”

“Right.”

Kane walked over to the teleporter and looked at the controls. “I’ll go through, and you go find another way into Delta.”

“This is crazy.” Then, to the man in the other room. “Talk me through how to use this.”

The man coughed, and then slowly began to explain how to use the device that would transport Kane into the other room.

Kane pressed a button. The screen in front of him flashed: TELEPORTATION SEQUENCE INITIATED.

Then: TRANSMISSION IN 60 SECONDS.

A timer counted down as Kane stepped into the chamber. He smiled at Maria. “Meet me on the other side. When you can. Maybe I’ll have the whole thing shut down by the time you get there.”

“I don’t like this.”

A matching screen told Kane he had thirty seconds. “Tell you the truth, neither do I. But not much choice.”

He put a hand to the thick clear hull of the pod. “Just wish me luck.”

Maria raised a hand to the pod shell, matching Kane’s, and shook her head. “Good luck, Kane.”

And then the chamber filled with a brilliant white cloud, followed by thin spears of electricity that erupted from the center of the chamber.

Maria had closed her eyes. And when she opened them, Kane was gone.

35

KANE HAD CLOSED HIS EYES TOO. After all, he thought, if I’m going to be transformed into a zombie, maybe with bits of my weapons attached to my body, I’d rather not watch it happen.

But when he opened his eyes, everything looked to be in the right place, and outside of a slight ringing in his ears, he didn’t feel any different. Did it not work? he thought for a second. But looking up, he saw that he was in Delta, and he saw the other chamber, the swirling vortex of yellow and red, close by.

He opened the chamber door and stepped out, hurrying to the man on the ground.

“Okay, what can you tell me about what’s happening here?”

The man’s eyes looked at Kane’s. “I will. I—I’ll tell you everything you need. But when I’m done…I want you to hand me your gun.”

Kane looked at the man’s legs. The bottoms twisted into complete uselessness.

“Agreed?” the man insisted.

“Agreed.”

The man looked at the fiery chamber. “My name is Dr. Kellyn MacDonald. The experiments done here opened a portal to…someplace else. That”—his finger pointed at the molten swirl—“is the opening. Things have come from there, and those who have been touched by it…become changed. But”—MacDonald’s eyes drifted back to Kane—“you have seen them.”

“Yes. And I want to stop it. I need to shut it down. Can you tell me what to do, how to—”

The man nodded. He raised his other hand, and Kane saw that the scientist had his fingers tightly wrapped around a PDA. “It’s in…here. All you need. Read it. Then—”

His eyes went wide as the man’s head exploded as a shell of some kind hit it. Kane rolled to his right.

So stupid, he thought. Letting my guard down. So damn stupid.

As he rolled, he tried to get his shotgun into position. But he could hear blasts tracing a path toward him. He caught a glimpse of what was shooting at him.

A living skeleton, covered with skin—and with what looked like twin cannons or small rocket launchers perched on its shoulders, shooting at Kane.

No—not on the thing’s shoulders, but part of them.

Kane raised his shotgun, but the thing was easily a few seconds ahead of him, taking a step that made its leathery skin ripple. Kane might get off a volley, but he was about to be blown to bits.

Which was when the thing’s head erupted after a concentrated blast of a dozen machine gun bullets hit it, passing through the skull and out the other side.

The skeleton demon stood there a moment as if pondering what just happened. Then it collapsed, falling full-length before the prone Kane.

“Moraetes,” he whispered.

“I figured if it was okay for you”—she nodded in the direction of the teleporter—“then it’s good enough for me.”

“I didn’t see that thing appear.”

“It came from there.”

“Yeah. It’s a portal. To God knows where.”

“It came out just as I finished beaming over.”

“Feel okay?”

She smiled. “I think so. And you?”

“Yeah.” Now he turned back to MacDonald. “We were too late to save this guy, but—” Kane got up and walked to the dead scientist. He leaned down and removed the PDA from the man’s death clutch. “—but maybe he can save us all.”

He hit the PDA, and the screen came to life, the last entry already on the screen. Maria walked over.

And they read the last entry of Dr. Kellyn MacDonald together.

Mars City PDA

Dr. Kellyn MacDonald

Personal Folder, Security Enabled.

Checked and Opened_03_13_2145 18:23:10

I don’t know how much time I have. I expect I will be dead soon, and the only hope for telling what I know—what I believe—will be this document. If it’s not found, it could all be lost. Humankind itself might be lost.

Know this: the things that now roam Mars City come from a universe away, a place as real as our universe but a place of nightmares and horror. I have seen them emerge, crawling out from the portal that Betruger’s experiments created, eager to feed off the life they find here, and eager to reach beyond Mars City.

If they were to gain an opening to Earth, then it would surely all be hopeless. And I have seen what no one else has: how the creatures come out and are shaped. As if they can sense our fantasies, the terrors, the images that have haunted us since we first huddled in caves—and they become those horrors. Our own imagination becomes our worst enemy, used by these beings. Is there a limit to what they can become? I have not seen any such limit.

And now the material found at Site 3 all becomes clear. How the great Martian civilization faced extinction—complete and hopeless—when somehow they opened a portal to that universe. They could not save themselves. But they could stop it. They created something that could rival the power of the evil that threatened to possess this universe, the evil ready to turn Mars into a world of death and horror and destruction.

We called it U1. The artifact that was discovered at Site 3, something that Betruger started calling the Soul Cube, is a remnant of the long-ago civilization. Except it wasn’t merely a dead artifact from that lost civilization. The true souls, the opposing force of their existence, became channeled into this device, making a weapon which could finally rival in power the terror from beyond.

But now this Soul Cube—that dam against the wave of madness—is gone, taken into the portal, taken into the other universe so that the beings here are free.

Time. There is no more time. It may already be too late, but if you read this, know one thing: only if you are armed with that ancient weapon can you truly stop them and close the portal. Without it, then the battle is truly finished.

And if you get back to Earth, please, please tell my family that my last thoughts were of them, and

Folder Closed and Locked_03_13_2145 18:23:10

Maria spun around.

“What?” Kane said.

“Thought I heard something back there. Something moving.”

They both stood still, looking around the lab. At any minute they knew something else could emerge from the portal.

“At least we know what to do.”

She looked up at him. “You do? And what the hell is that?”

Kane stared at the swirling maelstrom that was the gateway to another world. “I have to go in there. Get this Soul Cube. Use it—somehow. Stop this.”

Maria looked like she was about to argue with him, but then they both heard a sound, and their weapons flew into position. Kane spotted something scurrying between tables, navigating the maze that was the destroyed lab.

“Hey!”

Maria looked at him, perhaps wondering why he didn’t shoot.

“Come out.”

And then she saw the small head pop up over the edge of the table.

36

MARIA WATCHED THE SMALL BOY COME OUT from behind the table.

“It’s okay, son. You remember me?” Kane said.

“You know him?”

Kane took a step toward the boy and then crouched down. Maria saw him smile at the kid. “You scared, son? What’s your name?”

The boy looked around the room. Maria had to wonder how much the boy had seen. His eyes looked haunted. Kane put out a hand and gave the boy’s hair a gentle tousle. She thought he’d recoil at the touch, but he stood there.

“Theo.”

“Theo.” Kane looked at Maria. “I guess, Theo, you’ve been running around a lot. Hm? Seen a lot of things?”

The boy nodded, and Maria could see that the boy was on the edge, so close to crying. Crying, perhaps screaming.

“Well, we’re going to get you out of here, Theo. Back to where there are people. Lots of people.” Another glance at Maria.

“Wait a minute, Kane. What are you saying?”

Kane continued to crouch close to the boy. “You can take Theo back. While I—“

The boy’s eyes went wide. If he had been about to cry, he now let out a scream instead.

The portal had been quiet. But suddenly, things got busy.

Three zombies, guns molded to their twisted torsos, had stepped into the room. Then something leaped into the room, towering over the zombies. The thing’s helmet-shaped head had eyes that darted left and right, taking in whatever was alive in the room. It made hissing noises that somehow the once-human zombies understood.

Kane pulled Maria and Theo back to the wall, the three of them pressing tight against the far end of Delta.

“Should we shoot?”

“No. They haven’t seen us—yet.”

Two other things crawled out of the portal, legs and arms acting like the appendages of a crab, twin heads, snapping left and right, now answering the hisses and groans of the tall creature that seemed to be directing them.

And then the zombies turned in a line and started heading to where Maria stood with Kane and the boy. The crawling things also scurried, one left, one right.

They were surrounded, and Maria knew there was no way they could survive the attack. The tall creature howled, and its squad of monsters started the attack.

“Now we shoot—” Kane said. Then: “Stay behind me, Theo.”

Side by side, Maria and Kane fired, shotgun blasts merging with machine guns. Too-close quarters and too much movement to use the grenades. But all the shells were not nearly strong enough, the volleys not nearly enough.

In seconds it would be all over.

A cannonlike firing filled the room, the blasts immense, a sound Maria couldn’t identify.

She turned to see two people—men who had come off the transport. And one of them held the biggest damn gun that Maria had ever seen.

She kept firing, but it seemed ineffectual compared to the display of firepower from the massive gun as it literally blew off chunks of the creatures. The tall creature tried to direct its now-beleaguered force to focus their attack on the newcomer.

But it was too late, as the cross fire from Maria and Kane added to the damage inflicted.

It was such an amazing sight, she almost felt like grinning.

Finally, the guy with the big gun targeted the commander of this legion from hell and fed a steady stream of rocket projectiles into the thing’s open, howling maw.

Until the room filled with the smoke of gunpowder and the stench of the things bleeding out on the lab floor. And the skirmish was over.

Then the man with the mighty big fucking gun approached them.

His name was Campbell, the UAC security guy sent up here by Kelliher. And the other man—so scared that he could barely stand—was the lawyer. Could be a lot of lawsuits coming out of this mess.

Kane was finishing briefing them on what MacDonald’s PDA told him had to be done.

“So, someone has to go in there?”

Kane nodded. “Yeah. Me.”

For a moment the two men were eyeball to eyeball. “Maybe I should,” Campbell said. “And bring this.”

“I’m not sure any weapons will make it through—Christ, I don’t know if I will. But I didn’t come this far to have someone else finish the job.”

“Then why not both of us?”

Kane took a breath. “I’m not sure I’ll live walking into this thing. Not sure if any of these”—he held up his two guns—“will get through. And if I don’t make it, that will leave you. Still here, alive with that”—he pointed at the BFG—“to do something.”

Campbell smiled. “Tell you one thing, Lieutenant…”

Lieutenant. Been a while since he heard that….

“…you’ve got balls.”

Kane grinned. “Or maybe I’m just stupid.”

Maria shook her head. “You do take risks….”

Kane turned to her. He was ready to argue with her again, but he could see Maria had her hand on Theo’s shoulder, the boy practically melted into her. Okay, he thought, she knows what to do.

“C-can I go with them?” Swann asked, moving closer to Maria.

Campbell laughed. “No, Counselor. You stay right here with me. It’s a big gun here, but I wouldn’t mind another. Capisce?”

Kane turned and looked at the portal. He brought MacDonald’s PDA up to his face and looked at the image of the Soul Cube. “If there’s a way to bring this back…I will.”

“And I’ll be here making sure nothing is waiting for you when you come out.”

Kane took a breath. “Sounds like a plan. Maria, I’ll see you back at Reception.”

“You better.”

He would have liked to give her a hug, maybe another kiss. But that moment had moved on. It was time for him to enter the portal.

Kane turned away from them. “Best everyone stand back. Not sure what effect my entering may have.”

“Good luck, Kane,” Campbell said.

He hesitated a moment. The glowing swirl before him looked as if it could consume him. All this might be over for him in a matter of seconds. He waded into the center of the vortex, each step feeling leaden. His heart raced, and as his breathing became faster, he smelled the stench coming from the portal, a smell unlike anything he had ever experienced, even after so many years of fighting and bloodshed.

He didn’t let his pace slacken. He hadn’t, of course, admitted to them how scared he was. Perhaps the most frightening moment of his life.

Step after step, until there remained only one more step, into the swirling pool of fiery red and yellow.

He put his boot into the lower end of that swirl, and then he allowed his forward momentum to carry him forward.

Kane was immediately sucked into it with a violent vacuumlike gasp that pulled him from Mars, from this solar system, from this very universe….

37

MARIA WATCHED KANE VANISH AND THEN SHE looked at Campbell, who—she could see—obviously knew better than to say any false words of encouragement. “Okay….” She gave Theo’s shoulder a squeeze. “Guess we’re ready to go, hm?” She looked down at him. Theo didn’t nod, didn’t do anything, just stood there, glued to her side.

“Got your weapons all set? Ammo good?” Campbell asked.

“Fully loaded,” she said. “You guys…do what you can to make sure that Kane gets out of there alive, okay?”

“You got it.”

A last nod, then Maria started out of Delta, holding Theo close.

The force of entering the portal sent Kane flying into what felt at first like empty space. An intense nausea attacked his gut, and he coughed and hacked as his body spun, spitting out remnants of the water he had been drinking.

Instinctively, his hands went to his eyes to protect them from the blinding light. But that left his ears unprotected, and the roaring sound here—wherever “here” was—was similar to the noise that filled Mars City during each of the outbreaks, but louder, more piercing, causing horrible pain to his ears.

What was happening?

There was nothing solid around him, just the light, the noise, the smell, his own wrenching heaving into the air. But then Kane felt himself accelerating, and suddenly the sound lessened, and the smoky swirl of light gave way to something ahead as he was thrown onto hard ground, his hands falling from his eyes, his head smacking hard against the ground.

He was here. The other place.

I’m in hell, Kane thought. Sweet God…I’m in hell.

For a moment Kane stayed prone, looking at the world before him with his now-uncovered eyes.

The walls themselves glistened more like skin than stone. His hands, pressed tight against the ground, felt some give, as if that “rock” too was actually something else. The smell that had him retching so badly now completely filled this place. And though the roaring noise had subsided, a mix of screams and howling came from everywhere.

He got to his knees, looking for his weapons. Had they somehow been destroyed? But he looked left and saw a pile of weapons…as though everyone else who’d been here had also had them ripped away.

Kane got to his feet and grabbed his shotgun and machine gun, as well as the belt with his remaining grenades. At least he was armed.

Then a single high-pitched shriek filled this area, and the smaller spider-things—the trites—jumped on him, four, five of them, covering him, digging into his flesh. Two had locked on his arms, the legs closing viselike, making it impossible to aim his guns.

One of the trites crawled up his side, and now came close to Kane’s head and neck.

So it ends like this, he thought. A few seconds in hell, and then the bold brave attempt ends.

No way.

He flung himself against one of the walls, feeling the skinlike texture but also making two of the trites squeal with the pressure. His left arm suddenly came free, his hand tight on the gun stock, finger on the trigger.

Had to do this carefully, to make sure he didn’t end up blowing pieces of himself into the air. The first blast sent chunks of the creatures’ flesh spraying all over Kane’s face.

He heard their squeals—perhaps they knew that they had lost the initiative. If there wasn’t one of the big spider creatures around, he might just survive this.

More blasts, until there was just one trite left, on Kane’s leg. He looked at the head protrusion as it tried to gnaw on his skin.

Kane put the gun barrel right up to the thing’s head and fired, sending pieces of it flying all over the room.

As soon as the attack ended, Kane sat down. He had a nasty new gash on his right leg, which, added to his other injuries, was—at the very least—going to make him hobble.

He dug out a small packet of gauze from his side pack. Two more stim injections were there too. He hesitated. That would leave only one, and that one he might need later.

He stuck the gauze on the wound, poured some antibiotic on the bandage, and then quickly taped it up, all the while looking around. The screams that filled this place continued, a mad keening that was the background noise of hell.

And when done, he quickly but painfully stood up. The right leg felt wobbly. I’m falling part, Kane thought.

He leveled his guns so both muzzles pointed dead ahead. After a while he lost any sense of how many things he had fought. He was down to one grenade, and he had reloaded three, maybe four times. His lower right pants leg dripped red, the bandage not doing much of anything.

Still he marched on.

There might come a time, he thought, when he would recollect the horrors he saw. But for now, everything was meant to be seen and forgotten. He just followed the stench, the smells, the constant red light that seemed to creepily caress the skinlike “rock” of the ground, the walls, the ceiling of this subterranean madhouse.

And is there something above this…some world above these caves and tunnels? Or is this the whole world?

Every now and then he talked to himself, especially when he had killed something and had to walk over the oozing remains. Sometimes something simple, like Good-bye. Other times, almost as if angry, Don’t you ever, ever try to kill fucking me…Do you understand? Then, shouting to the endless tunnels and caves: “Do you understand?”

He moved forward mostly on instinct, through the twisting nightmarish landscape. But the sounds, the screams, told him something was ahead.

Then he came to a tunnel opening, an immense one. The jumble of rocks and fire and creatures that filled it seemed to stretch forever.

He saw something that made him recoil, and he felt his eyes tear up. Just maybe, he thought, I can’t take any more.

It was something akin to a corral. Jagged stone and rocks, shaped like rocky spikes, made a huge oval “fence.” The fence surrounded humans, two dozen or so, all ages, all sexes, screaming, shaking.

And these other things walking around it. Guards? Was there any sense to anything he was seeing?

Then, as Kane watched, a headless creature with ragged bony protrusions covering its massive shape came up to the human corral. Kane watched as it speared one of the humans, and then it brought the human, still writhing, close to it and—somehow, some way—an opening appeared, and the human vanished inside the thing.

Kane’s breathing became faster.

He looked to the right. More of the things stood there, perhaps waiting their turn to feed. And he looked at some of those waiting creatures he had fought before, the lumbering thing with tusks waddling around, and also the tall demonlike creatures with guns melded to their shoulders.

Then Kane saw it. On a table, standing there, beside what looked like an empty thronelike stone chair. Guarded, surrounded…

The Soul Cube.

Kane counted seconds in his head. Giving himself moments to think, to plan. But then those moments all vanished when he looked sharply left, then right.

On either side, a floating head, the teeth looking like nails, the eyes milky pools. Guards of a different kind, and they had spotted him. And now they screeched out a warning, and all within the chamber turned and saw him.

38

DEEP INSIDE MARS

DR. AXELLE GRAULICH FELL TO HER KNEES. And for the first time she felt as if she knew what was happening now. After all, she could even hear the voices in her ears. The ancient sibilant sounds, the words that meant nothing.

But coupled with the swirling walls around her, the sounds told her that this place was indeed—now—ancient Mars. Dead for millions of years, maybe more, now somehow alive.

And those who used to inhabit the planet here, who vanished without a trace, were attempting to tell her what was happening.

“Please,” she said, her hands rising up. “Tell me, speak to me.”

The chorus of sounds were unintelligible. Now even the walls, which once sported symbols and marks, pulsed in time with the voices. She knelt there, knowing that they were trying to speak. The lost world of Mars was attempting to communicate.

She closed her eyes, thinking that if there was a way to communicate, a way she could understand, they would find it—and she should kneel in this place, which might not even exist, and wait, and listen.

UAC HEADQUARTERS

Ian Kelliher looked at the golden Labrador retriever circling the pod chamber, confused and scared, instinctively knowing that something was very wrong.

A voice in his ear: “Mr. Kelliher, we’re ready, sir, on your command.”

Kelliher hesitated. For the first time the laboratory here would attempt to replicate what happened on Mars, what Betruger had done. Was it the right thing to do? How could he be sure?

“Mr. Kelliher?”

“Okay. Doctor, whenever you are ready. Begin the transmission.”

Two scientists went to a control station. Other UAC labs and offices around the world monitored the experiment also, getting all the data, ready to analyze every moment of what was about to happen. Will it tell us everything? Kelliher wondered. Or nothing?

One of the vid screens open before Kelliher showed a close-up of the transporter screen. The distance from that to the target pod was the same critical distance as in Betruger’s last, fatal tests. Theoretically, the same thing should happen.

Kelliher shifted in his seat. The screen flashed a new message: BEGINNING TELEPORTATION SEQUENCE. That message flashed for a bit; then it was replaced with:

TRANSMISSION IN 10…9…

Another stray flicker of doubt filled Kelliher’s brain. But at least he could tell himself that now it was too late. No turning back.

…8…7…6…

He thought of his father’s warning. And the fact that Mars had gone off-line again. No comm connection in hours. Was there anything left up there?

…5…4…3…

Then a small PIP opened on the right screen.

An icon showing Mars. Below it the message:

MARS CITY COMMUNICATION RESTORED.

Kelliher leaned forward. Mars back online. He’d hear what happened. And—

He looked at the dog inside the pod, now with both its paws raised up on the smooth, clear wall of the chamber, scratching, maybe moaning.

Mars online, just as this experiment was about to happen.

…2…1…

A voice in his ear from the UAC headquarters’ satellite communications control. “Mr. Kelliher, we have contact, but we’re getting strange power surges all—”

Kelliher started to speak. Not to his Comm Center, but to the scientist deep below the ground. But the countdown had run its course, and it was—of course—too late.

DELTA LAB

“You okay, Swann?” Campbell asked.

Swann nodded. “Just great. Fucking great.”

“Hey, no need for foul language. See, it’s nice and quiet here.”

Swann shook his head. “I wish you had let me go with them, back to Reception.”

“And leave me alone?” Campbell laughed. “You ain’t much help, but I’ll take what I can get. We will be here when Kane comes out.”

“If he’s even still alive; if he can even come back from there.”

Campbell looked away. “We better hope he does. For everyone’s sake. So we just sit here, and—” He stopped. There was a rumbling, almost like that of the tracks of a tank, or an armored vehicle. He looked at Swann, whose face brightened.

“Reinforcements!” Swann said.

Campbell listened. Yes, a lot like the sound of tank treads. But there were other sounds too, enough to make Campbell say: “I don’t think so—”

And they both turned to the entrance to see what was heading into the lab.

Maria had one hand on Theo’s shoulder, and they moved as one, his body joined to hers as they walked down the corridors.

“You okay?” she said.

“Yes.”

“We have a ways to go, Theo. You understand?”

“Yes.”

Maria took a breath. She never saw herself as the nurturing kind of woman. And she was pretty sure that kids weren’t in her future. Now she tried to think what would reassure this boy, who had seen so much that was beyond belief, beyond understanding.

“You just stay nice and close, okay?” She gave his shoulder a slight squeeze. “We’ll be all right.”

But she didn’t believe that at all.

The shrieking of the floating heads, yammering at Kane, became just one more thing to ignore. He quickly found out that a shotgun blast sent them flying away like balloons that had air escaping.

But the others below, the ones that now saw his arrival—different story there.

He realized too that he was in so much pain now that he didn’t give a damn how much more pain he felt. Just add it to my plate, he thought.

Kane saw that the humans, the wretched creatures being plucked from the stone corral, looked up at him. Were they beyond hope? Did they think that they could survive, could be…saved? Does anyone ever really come back from hell?

He moved down the stone hill, strange gases shooting up, spraying him with a near-scalding steam.

Fuck it, he thought. Just keep moving.

He kept telling himself one thing: the chair was empty. Whatever, whoever, occupied that chair was gone. And that might be the best goddamned chance he had.

He didn’t let that other thought sink in, the one that was really just too absurd to think about: that what he was doing might shape the fate of humanity.

For now, this was simply the thing that had to be done, the mission, the goddamned operation—that’s all. And if there was one thing he knew about himself, once he signed on to a mission, he succeeded or he’d die trying.

Axelle. Kneeling in the great opening. Knowing now that this had once been a massive ceremonial hall, a place of science and religion for all those who lived here, back when Earth was still a toxic sea.

The sounds somehow clarifying, not into words but into images, nearly hallucinogenic in their clarity, their intensity. For the first time, she saw them, the beings who once called this home.

The sudden tears made her eyes go blurry. To see them, the first human to know that there was a time when others were here, and to know what they looked like…

Would she ever be able to tell people of their faces, the somewhat humanoid shape, but also so distinct, eyes and mouth never seen before? The way their limbs moved, as if each were saying—

No! she realized with a jolt. That movement was part of the way they communicated. And still—with only images and icons and feelings and flashes of the scene—they who were gone, who had vanished from here, quickly tried to tell Axelle their story.

She knelt there still, as if in prayer. Listening, and then wondering—

When they are done, whatever will I do with all they told me?

39

“NO,” SWANN MOANED. “MY GOD—”

Campbell backed up, the BFG ready in one hand and a shotgun in the other. They each had a few grenades. He looked at what came into the room, flanked by a small squad of other creatures, each seven, eight feet tall, with guns molded to their shoulders.

“Campbell, we have to get—”

“Shut the fuck up, Swann.”

The thing leading the squad roared to stop. One for the books, Campbell thought. The books of the perpetually insane and demented.

It was nothing less than a small tracked vehicle, a near-tank whose turret, as one moved up to it, resolved into the shape of a human. They were one thing, one being. And worse: Campbell knew who the being was. Or rather—used to be.

Sergeant Kelly—who had been the last bulwark stopping the hordes from Delta from getting through to the rest of the complex. Now, quite obviously, turned into one of them.

Not just one of them. Maybe there was some kind of twisted status in that Kelly was like this: part machine, part fucking tank, and part marine turned zombie. All these insane thoughts in an instant.

And in the next instant, Campbell started firing the BFG as rapidly as he could.

UAC HEADQUARTERS

Ian Kelliher knew that something bad was happening. He watched as his team tried to stop the transmission, but—whether due to fail-safe procedures or whether the system had somehow locked—the transmission continued.

At the same moment he could see the warnings about power surges throughout the UAC buildings, and then messages appeared warning about frequency spikes being sent out of the building.

The UAC network was probably more secure, more protected than even that used by the Pentagon. And yet—at this moment of transmission—signals filled with power surges, massive data packets, and who knew what else had simply…left the building.

Where the hell had they gone? Could they even find out? What was in them?

But soon his attention snapped back to the scene in the lab, the frantic scientists running around, and now the other chamber, glowing, the golden Labrador about to reappear. The test that caused all the protections of the fabled UAC network to fail…and allowed something to get out.

Kelliher felt sick. Instinctively he put a hand up to his mouth. He didn’t want to see what would appear. But he knew he had to look.

And yes, the lab would get all the data from the “experiment.” They might be able to analyze what had happened on Mars, what was still happening.

Something started to appear in the chamber.

Kelliher thought: Have to contact the President. The fool. And Hakala. Need to speak to him. Need to plan, oh God, need to plan.

The chamber filled with the familiar yellow-red glow.

The scientists, knowing that they had been too late to stop the transmission, now gathered near the chamber.

The scientists and Kelliher waited. Because in seconds, they’d all be able to see what had just been sent across the room, traveling the distance that they knew somehow changed the teleportation process.

It was a countdown of a different kind. One he wished would never end.

But then—on the screen—he could see…

Maria stopped. Two of the commando zombies, armed with standard US Space Marine issue, started raising their guns even as they walked toward them.

Maria did two things fast: she looked down at Theo. If he bolted it could be a bad thing. But he stayed by her side, his eyes looking dead ahead at the lumbering creatures.

Then she quickly looked back to make sure that there weren’t other things trying to get them in a trap. She couldn’t see anything behind her….

She did notice two small trites crawling in and out between the legs of the zombies. Could that mean there was one of the larger spiders around somewhere?

She waited just a second until their guns looked ready to fire, and then she pulled Theo to the right. The blasts from the zombies sprayed the center of the corridor with shells. Now Maria began firing, one-handed, drilling holes in the skulls of the things, sending sprays of whatever passed for blood and brain into the air.

“Close your eyes, Theo!” she shouted above the blasts.

The spider things started shrieking. A warning? Panic?

The trites were harder to hit as they started racing down the hallway, caroming off the sides crazily to avoid being hit. They behaved smarter than the zombies—that is, unless something out of sight was controlling them.

But when they crisscrossed, their tactical maneuver bringing them into the center of the hallway, she could target the center and have a good chance of hitting one. Which she did, and one trite exploded under the barrage.

The other kept up its crazy jumps back and forth. But now Maria could concentrate on just that one. And with only meters left separating them, she finally started hitting the protrusion atop the spiderlike carapace.

The trite slid to a stop, motionless at their feet.

She took a breath, and then looked down at Theo. “You can open your eyes now.”

He looked up at her. “I never closed them.”

She nodded, thinking that the boy had been changed by everything he’d seen. And where will those changes lead?

“Ready to go on?”

He nodded, and Maria, her hand still on his shoulder, led them down the hallway.

The mass of creatures, the mix of zombies and demons, the things shaped like a land walrus, slow and dull but deadly, the floating skull heads, shrieking and snapping—

They all acted to stop Kane, though maybe what was happening was unexpected. The idea that someone would actually get here.

Surprise, surprise.

Amid his blasts, the satisfying hits that ripped holes in the things and sent others flying backward, Kane shot out a section of the hellish corral, and the humans—gibbering, insane probably, but still human—started crawling out.

More confusion for these guardians of the Soul Cube.

The confusion was good, helping Kane reach the cube. He scrambled up the last few feet, dodging blasts from the demons with their small cannons molded to their upper torsos.

Maybe it was his lack of fear, the fact that nothing he saw could scare him. Or perhaps it was his sense from so many battles on Earth that surprise can indeed be everything. Maybe it was the lucky break of freeing the crazed beings, the human food, the living morsels they fed upon, that probably somehow powered them.

Or perhaps it was all three of those things.

But Kane now reached the stone chair, molded to fit a massive creature that wasn’t there—and beside it, the Soul Cube.

He grabbed it. And in that moment he felt its power. The responsibility. The cries. The sacrifice of millions. All funneled into this item that stopped the invasion from hell last time.

Kane spun around quickly. Some of the freed humans looked at him for help. They could be a liability. But if being human meant anything, it was the ability to care for others, to give a damn for your fellow creatures.

The defenders of this cavern swirled around him in confusion, easy targets. Kane tried to say the words to the freed humans: Follow me.

But his mouth was too dry, with only the dusty taste of his own salt, blood spatters, and who knew what else.

When he started moving back to the opening, it was more than clear to those few humans left what they should do.

For Axelle, the terrible story was clear. The proud and wonderful Martian race sacrificing itself, channeling all its power, what we would call their “souls,” into this device that was part extraordinary weapon and part fantastic mystical device. They all had to do it so that it could be wielded by one of them, one lone hero. Each and every one, feeding the weapon.

Abandoning their planetary existence to stop this. To seal the evil away with this ward of psychic power that was a million years—if not more—beyond our comprehension.

A sacrifice for the ages.

And the images and sounds that filled her head told her that, with the cube removed, gone and taken back to the other universe, there was no hope.

Ahead, she could see the reflected glow. The opening, the massive open wound that would lead to the place of monsters and madness.

And then Axelle had one hopeful thought: I have survived until now, in this nether region between Mars and some death universe. It has to have been for a purpose….

Such a human delusion, a voice inside her head suggested.

But she pushed that voice away and clung to the thought, delusion or not.

40

UAC HEADQUARTERS

WHAT WAS ONCE A GOLDEN LABRADOR RETRIEVER was now yet another new creature that had never been seen before. The lower jaw protruded as if it had—Pinocchio-like—grown, curving up like the maw of a prehistoric creature.

And there, on the dog’s back, another opening, a two-foot-long gash lined with teeth, opening and shutting, each shutting signaled by a terrible snap.

The dog’s paws now three-toed claws, each ending in perfectly curved hooks.

The dog reared up and began to scratch at the chamber wall. All the scientists recoiled. The chamber wall should be able to resist nearly anything. But for a second it looked as if this thing might smash through the explosive-resistant polymer material. And wouldn’t that be fun?

“Kill it,” Ian Kelliher ordered. “Kill the damn thing now.”

They had a number of different methods to do that, but the lead scientist in the lab down below went for the most direct method. He threw a switch, and the chamber became filled with electric spikes dancing around, spearing and skewering the monstrosity until it finally stopped its incessant clawing at the chamber wall. And lay down, dead.

Nobody said or did anything for a moment.

Then Dr. Adoni said: “Sir, we got all the data. We can begin—”

Kelliher shut off the audio.

They got all the data. But in that moment, the very moment of the transmission, something was sent out of the lab…and around the world. To where, to how many places, and God, what was it that was sent?

Kelliher sat in the room, the screens now all quiet. And planned what he had to do next.

The radio was on, and Campbell could hear the chatter in his ear.

But above that he heard the clanking of the treads that were now the tanklike lower part of Sergeant Kelly’s body.

He started firing, sending a steady spray of the massive shells at the rolling monstrosity.

And the thing could still speak as Kelly screamed with each blast that hit it, yelling above the blasting gun, “Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly…reporting for duty!”

“Jeezus,” Swann said.

“Fire your damn gun,” Campbell ordered.

Campbell leveled the BFG right at Sergeant Kelly’s head when he was blindsided by a shell that hit his left shoulder, the blast sending him flying to the ground.

Something to the side, he thought. I wasn’t watching. Must have come at me when I wasn’t looking….

Now he could see what it was: one of the tall demons, guns on its shoulders. It could have kept firing, but it stood there, waiting.

The treads kept clacking away, closer. The voice, again, “Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly…reporting for duty!”

Campbell noticed that Swann was beside him, dead. Didn’t even hear that blast, Campbell thought. He tried to raise the BFG, but now it was too heavy.

And he knew why the demon just loomed over him, waiting. He was Kelly’s to kill.

Campbell tried once again to move the gun, and then he tried to dig out his handgun. He felt his fingers touch the gun handle, and then the tanklike tracks stopped. And then the blasts from Kelly made everything vanish.

Maria walked with the boy out to Reception, and everyone standing there turned and looked at her.

For a minute she wondered if they might think that she was one of them. Her face was spattered with blood, and Theo’s clothes were in tatters, his eyes hollow. She stood there and waited. Would they just stare at her, stand there—and goddamn it, that’s all?

But a soldier walked over to her. He looked from Maria to the boy, then back to her eyes. What stories do my eyes tell? she thought. Are the nightmares so easily read in my eyes?

Then the soldier turned and bellowed at the waiting crowd. “Medical, get the hell over here.” He turned back to Maria and Theo, speaking to both of them. “It’s going to be okay. You’re safe now. It’s all going to be all right.”

Words of reassurance.

And Maria didn’t have the energy left to tell him how hollow those words sounded.

Kane climbed back to the opening, taking care to retrace his steps. And with every creature he killed he saw how the artifact he carried, the Soul Cube, glowed, as if the death of these things powered it.

And when one of the guardian creatures tried to attack Kane, he could fire the cube at it, watching the way a starlike burst sliced into the creature. The guardian screamed out at the contact, and reared back as the ancient weapon cut into it.

The humans Kane had freed scrambled to keep up with him. But he couldn’t pause to help them. They had to get out on their own, because what he had to do was more important.

He tried not to wonder if Delta would still be guarded when he came out. Could he go from Delta, and leave Mars City, to take the Soul Cube back to where it belonged? Did he have enough time, enough energy, left to do that?

He turned again to fire at creatures scrambling after him. As each one fell, and the cube began to glow stronger, they seemed to hold back. If something was going to stop him, it wouldn’t be them.

The cave—alive with voices—took on a deeper glow as a swirling vortex appeared before Axelle and like an iris began to open.

The voices in Axelle’s mind screamed out with each widening of the bloodred iris.

There’s nothing I can do, Axelle wanted to say. I can only watch this. And she knew what it was. She knew that before her eyes, the ancient opening to hell was being reborn.

What would come through that opening?

Kelliher repeated the name…“Campbell?”

There was no answer from Mars City, though the radio communications were up and running. General Hayden tried again to speak to Kelliher, and again Kelliher let the general’s voice hang in the air unanswered.

Then: “Karla, do you have the President’s office?”

“Yes, sir. Just waiting on you, then they will patch you through directly to the President.”

“Good. Let’s do it.”

Kelliher wondered how the President would react when he heard what Kelliher would ask for, what he wanted to happen to his dream for the UAC—his dream really for the future of humanity—Mars City.

He waited, and then an image of the President appeared, already looking as though he knew something really bad was ahead.

“Mr. President…” Kelliher began.

41

KANE REACHED THE OPENING, THE PORTAL that led back to Delta. He could see that it now seemed smaller, as though with time it were losing energy. Only temporary—soon to be replaced with something more permanent. If he let that happen.

He heard people yelling behind him—the survivors. But he couldn’t stop and wait—so he just stepped in—

—and through to the other side.

To where Campbell should have been standing with the massive gun. Instead Kane, stepping out of the open chamber, saw Swann, half his body blown away, sprawled near the open chamber door.

And Campbell? Kane scanned the room and thought: Need that gun, buddy. Could really use that gun where I’m going.

He spotted another body halfway across the lab, close to the wall. Campbell, looking like someone went to town with him, drilling holes everywhere.

Then a noise filled the room, an incessant clacking echoing in the empty lab.

Kane spun around to see…

What was once Sergeant Kelly, now some kind of horrific tank creature. Bad enough, but worse was that Kelly held the BFG in his one hand that still looked normal.

“Private, attention!” The words garbled, guttural. Then Kelly screamed them again. “Private!”

Now the BFG, wavering in the hand of the Kelly creature, started chewing holes in the metal floor.

Two skeletal demons appeared, one armored only with its claws, the other with cannonlike guns part of its body. They came at Kane from the other end, and he realized that he had walked into a classic pincer movement. But none of the creatures seemed to have noticed what Kane held in his hand.

As Kane rolled right, sliding to the ground to avoid the burst from each end of the pincer, he heard a voice in his mind as the cube glowed: Use us!

He aimed the cube at one of the demons and pressed the artifact where it glowed. And suddenly a star-shaped burst of light flew out of the Soul Cube, directly for the center of the demon, annihilating it.

In just one shot, Kane thought. The other demon hesitated, and Kane turned back to Kelly, now maneuvering its armored body at Kane, ready to bear down.

The Soul Cube glowed again, and Kane pressed the spot.

And now, fed by the force of the creatures he had killed—and whatever the great Martian race did to create this weapon—he watched another brilliant star rocket out of the Soul Cube and smash into Kelly’s upper torso. This time the burst punched a hole in the flesh, and Kane could see right through the plate-sized cavity.

Kelly’s eyes blinked, and then his tank lower torso ground to a halt. His left hand dropped the BFG.

Kane fired one last blast from the Soul Cube, and Kelly’s upper torso was blown off the tank.

Kane ran up and grabbed the gun, a massive weight, even with the heavy shoulder strap bearing some of the load. And with the gun held in his right hand and the Soul Cube in his left, Kane left Delta Lab, the portal already closing behind him, and hurried to the nearby exterior access, to leave Mars City…and to face whatever waited for him at Site 3.

THE BATTLE CRUISER NEAR MARS

Captain Hakala sat in his chair as the signals from both Mars City and Earth began filtering into the ship’s comm system.

The messages that had built up during the silence started arriving at a dizzying rate. He had a number of his analysts on the data, looking at what was happening on the Red Planet, floating before him, as well as messages from Earth.

But a live contact suddenly cut through the flow.

His communications officer came up to him. “Mr. Kelliher, Captain. On a secure line.”

Hakala wondered if there would be a delay or any distortion. Sometimes when the comm system rebooted, it took a while before instantaneous conversations could take place.

“Mr. Kelliher.”

“Captain, status report on your battle cruiser?”

“Sir, we are prepared to land for the planetary evac on your—”

“No, Captain. The battle-ready state?”

“All weapons systems active and fully engaged. I have landing parties all equipped. We’re ready for whatever we find down there.”

“Missile warheads, Captain?”

Hakala stopped. Missiles? What was Kelliher talking about?

“Mr. Kelliher, I haven’t readied the missile teams, or plotted any target trajectory, sir. I’m afraid I’m a little confused. What exactly—”

“Captain, you will be getting a confirming order from the President of the United States, coauthorized by Defense Secretary Simmons. You are to plot and target the planet for an immediate attack.”

“Attack? Sir? Those are our people down there. Civilians, scientists, other marines. You can’t—”

“Perhaps I’m not making myself perfectly clear. You will have orders to plan the destruction of Mars City, the obliteration of everything on that planet. You will carry out those orders without question, and on my immediate order—or your superiors will have you replaced. Am I clear now?”

Hakala looked at the screen showing Kelliher, and he wondered, What the hell happened on Mars? He had thought the Armada had come to reinforce the brigades there, perhaps transport civilians off the planet. Now they were to destroy it?

Was what had happened exclusively on Mars, or did something also happen on Earth?

“Yes, sir. I understand. I will order all preparations to be made, bringing the missile systems into readiness and ready for your command.”

“Good. You should be receiving your confirming orders in minutes. And in approximately sixty minutes, I will give the command.”

Hakala took a breath. Sixty minutes, and every living thing on the planet below would be destroyed.

“I will stand by, sir.”

Kelliher’s screen flashed off, and Hakala sat there for a moment, numb.

Kane placed the EVA helmet on and twisted it tight. He checked that the HUD inside showed the two canisters of air, and that the outside reading systems worked fine.

He stood inside the airlock, ready to make his way to Site 3. There were other ways to the excavation area, he imagined, but he thought, I’m new here. So this way will have to do.

And there was one thing to do before leaving.

“Maria Moraetes,” he said. A bit of squelch in the earpiece. Then he was connected. “Maria, you okay?”

“Kane, where are you? We’re fine. What happened?”

“Much to explain, Maria. But not now. You and Theo got back to Reception okay?”

“Yes. Kane, your voice sounds muffled, almost—“

“Got a helmet on. Have to step outside for a while.”

“Outside? Out on the surface?”

“Listen, Maria, I can’t talk any more. We don’t have the time. But if I’m successful—and I will find a way to let you know—then it will be safe for the Armada to come. Tell Hayden. It will be okay. But only if I succeed.” A breath. “You understand what I mean?”

Would Maria know the implications of Kane not returning, and what it meant to Mars City? Absolutely, he thought. “Maria, I’ll come back if I can.”

A hesitation at her end. “You better.”

“So—” Now a long pause from him. “Bye for now.”

“B—” she started.

But he had already turned the radio off. He wanted no signals being picked up as he made his way to the excavation site. He engaged the airlock.

42

KANE WALKED PAST THE DEAD SCIENTISTS, their bodies twisted in their EVA suits. Compared to many, they’re actually the lucky ones, he thought.

He gave the BFG’s shoulder strap a small heft, trying to work it up closer to his neck. And in the other hand, the Soul Cube, its glow a bit reduced now. Clearly, the more creatures that were taken out, the stronger it became.

And the voices? Though they were now quiet, Kane could feel them with him. He thought, Someone, someday, will write the history of the great Martian civilization and its amazing sacrifice. That is, if anyone here survives.

Deep into the cave now, Kane saw the markings that filled the excavation site’s walls, all incomprehensible, icons with no meaning, swirls and squiggles darting in every direction.

He saw how, the deeper he went, the brighter they became. Though his march deep into the cave seemed to have no impact on the Soul Cube, perhaps the cave itself was responding?

He looked down at the cube, then the BFG, wondering: Would they be enough? The time to find that out drew close.

At the site of the last excavation point, the cave gave way to an opening that led sharply down, and then twisted away even deeper into Mars.

Not very inviting, Kane thought. Once he stepped into it, he would more than likely slide down until he reached whatever was at the end of the twisting tunnel.

But now the cube seemed to flash brighter, as if sensing that it was close to where it belonged. The artifact, dubbed U1 when found, might be the only thing that saved Mars. Kane leaned over the edge, wondering if he could carefully navigate his way down. His bones and muscles hurt in so many places, it almost didn’t matter what body part he favored.

There was no easy way down. He took a step, almost like a diver stepping into the abyss of the deep ocean, and in the next moment, weapons clasped tight, he was tumbling head over heels, rolling into the unknown.

Kane came to a stop and scurried to his feet, imagining that a deadly welcoming committee might be there. But this part of the tunnel was still empty. He could see that it led to a great glowing area ahead, as if lit by a thousand flickering candles.

With his first step, he heard the voices again, the words alien, the sounds unknown to the human ear, and yet…they conveyed fear, and hope…and a mix of emotions that nearly clouded Kane’s head.

He walked, nearly limping, into the great room ahead, the sound of the voices swelling.

He wanted to speak back to them, to say, I will try. Because, after all, that’s all I can do.

He repeated that mantra in his mind a few more times. I will try.

Then something from his past emerged, a different mantra from so many battles in the past, some bit of combat propaganda drilled into new recruits from day one of their admission into the corps.

Failure isn’t an option. Damn right, Kane thought. Damn right.

Axelle opened her eyes. She looked down at the cave floor, now so many feet below.

What happened? she thought. Her body was wrapped in a tight webbing that held her arms and legs in close. But her head was free, and she could look around the room.

And she saw it—the portal, swirling, growing—and only then did she wonder: Why am I here? Why am I still alive?

Kane stopped in the room. Only seconds to take it all in, this massive room with what looked like a map of glittering stars from unknown constellations high above him.

And the opening, the portal, pulsing, growing with every tornadolike swirl. The real path to hell, the roadway to doom, now being made permanent. No creatures yet, he thought. Maybe there was still time.

But then he looked up and to his right—and saw her.

A woman floating, levitating in the room as if hung by a thousand invisible lines. Her body was wrapped tight, nearly cocoonlike. But she could look down at Kane, could see him, her eyes looking down so amazingly peaceful from her floating prison.

She was breathing. There was air here.

He took off his helmet. “I’ll help you!” he shouted up to her, taking a fateful step in that direction.

She quickly shook her head and started shouting at him.

“No. You have to stop that. The way they did—one armed with all the souls of Mars. But—but—it’s here!”

The words registered as Kane tensed. It’s. Here.

A pair of winged demons, small, with infantile heads, fluttered up to the woman. Their claw hands dug at the webbing, exposing her body, but she still floated. Then their infant heads split open, exposing massive teeth.

Kane raised the BFG and started blasting, but as he caught the first two, another pair flew close, then two more, blocking her. The woman screamed, and Kane raised the Soul Cube, thinking it was already too late to save her.

It’s. Here.

In that moment he recognized this for what it was. A trap.

He spun around, and there, behind him, so close, towering over him, undaunted, a full thirty feet tall—

A demon like none Kane had seen. One arm ended in a cannon, and while its protective carapace shifted as it started to aim and fire, the cannon blasts blew into the ground near Kane.

He barely dodged the first blast, and he kept rolling on the ground, awkwardly rolling over the BFG, but knowing that to stop moving would make him an easy target.

The mammoth demon—the thing that must have occupied the throne in hell—took a leap in Kane’s direction, and when it landed, the ground shook.

Kane saw other things coming out of the vortex. The party was beginning, and he was on the ground, nearly atop his gun, useless.

The woman’s screams had ended. But her word of warning, that millisecond of warning, had saved Kane’s life. Now what would he do with that chance?

The Soul Cube spoke again in a single voice, the meaning clear even if there were no actual words: Use us…use us!

Kane stood up for his final battle.

The demon waved one six-foot arm in the air, directing its new arrivals, all taking positions in this room, and soon to fill the planet, and eventually this very universe.

Use us.

A few eager imps appeared and started circling movements around Kane, toying with him. But he spun around with them as if in an ancient dance, finally holding the BFG up, the trigger held as the gun fired, kicking some imps back against the wall and punching plate-sized holes in others.

Others from the mammoth demon’s troops hesitated, seeing their brothers cut down. Everything alive—no matter with what kind of life—wants to stay alive, Kane thought. Even things from hell.

But the giant demon used that feint to move close, its carapace again shifting, rearranging its layers of plate armor. The cannon arm locked into a position, clear and straight, perfect for aiming.

Kane ripped off his last grenade and tossed it, hoping to send it right down the wide bore of the demon’s gun. But he missed, and instead the grenade detonated at the demon’s feet. But the blast made the cannon arm fly up, screwing up its perfect aim.

Other than that, the grenade hadn’t at all penetrated the armorlike plates on the thing’s body.

Can it talk? Kane wondered. Communicate? Or does it have the empty single-mindedness of a warrior ant, ripping an opponent apart for food?

Now, in the only time left—these few seconds before the creatures in the room would be emboldened to swarm and kill Kane and more cannon shots came—Kane raised the Martian Soul Cube.

The life force of the entire planet was embedded inside it, a ward against evil that transcended time and space.

Kane held the artifact up. He aimed at the giant demon king—if that’s what it was—and began firing.

The first starlike blast from the cube caromed off the armor, and Kane thought that even this great weapon was useless against the demon.

A half dozen trites—the front lines of their final attack—had scurried to Kane’s legs, looking to grab on and close their viselike legs on him.

He couldn’t be distracted. He thought of what he told Maria: If I come back, it will be safe. If not…

Then, as if trying to get his completely exhausted mind to focus, the unspoken words again, so clear: Use…us!

He fired the Soul Cube again, and this time he saw a star blast create an opening in the layers of armor plating. Like any machine or vehicle, this monster had its weak point. The blast alarmed it and it looked down, and Kane saw liquid rocket out.

“Yeah, hurts like a bitch,” Kane said. And hearing his own voice made him feel somehow stronger. “Have another.”

Another blast from the cube rocketed out, and this one too found a weak spot. The demon fired a cannon blast, but even with the trites holding on, Kane stepped away.

He took a moment and aimed the BFG at the trites, taking care not to blow off any parts of his own body. One had crawled up to Kane’s midsection, and Kane let the BFG dangle from his shoulder, grabbed his handgun, placed the muzzle right at the head of the thing, and fired.

He quickly returned his attention to the giant demon. It waved its arms again, signaling those who had arrived. But the other creatures, the foot soldiers of demons and imps and trites, moved slowly.

“Just you and goddamn me,” Kane said.

The Soul Cube glowed at its brightest, and Kane fired it again. Another shot found its mark, this time near the knees of the thing, more metal and machine than demon’s skin. But still an opening was found.

The creature fell to one knee, and now Kane could see the thing’s head tilt. He wondered: Is this the ruler, or just a grunt, some lieutenant from hell about to pay the price for an invasion gone wrong?

“Say good-bye….”

Another star blast from the cube raced to the thing’s head, to the open maw gasping from the wounds it had received.

And that head exploded, sending chunks of the thing, along with the metal parts of its body, flying into the air.

The room was still full of creatures. But now, this part…this part would be easy.

He turned and started firing, and kept firing, screaming with each kill, relentless in this ancient room.

43

WHEN THIS GREAT CEREMONIAL ROOM OF THE Martian civilization was filled with the dead bodies of the invaders, Kane walked up to the portal, still twisting, swirling.

He wasn’t sure what to do, and the woman who had saved him from the demon’s attack was gone. The cube itself glowed with massive power, but told him no secrets.

He fired at the portal, and a bright flash disappeared into it. Kane watched it shrink, like a slug recoiling from salt. Okay, that seemed to work.

Then another, and another, until, like a spider-web swept away in some forgotten corner, the portal was gone. The room was quiet.

And the Soul Cube? Quite clearly that should stay right here, Kane thought. In this warren of caves, to make sure that hell never tried to come to Mars again.

He took one last look at the room. Probably a good idea to recommend that this cave be sealed. Though he had to wonder: What were the chances of that?

His fatigue, his total exhaustion, along with dozens of wounds small and large, made the idea of getting back to Mars City seem impossible. But then he told himself: I seem to be doing pretty well at the impossible today.

Walking slowly, taking care not to bend in places where it would cause even more excruciating pain, he headed back.

The climb up to the surface almost stopped Kane. Then he remembered that his supply pack came with a utility knife. Not much of a knife, but enough to dig into the soft wall and ground to help pull himself up. And when he saw Mars City, he actually started to hurry.

He opened his radio link. “Okay, Maria. You can organize mop-up in there. No more creatures will be coming. I’m guessing some of them there…may have disappeared.”

No answer. Complete silence.

“Maria? Maria, you getting this?”

He switched to another frequency. “Is anyone picking this up? Come in? What the hell—”

What lay ahead? he wondered. What had happened while he was gone?

He shut the airlock door and waited while the system removed the thin gas of the Martian surface and replaced it with air. He took off the helmet. When the display screen flashed CLEAR FOR REENTRY, Kane opened the door to Mars City.

He would have a long way to go, but at least he was inside.

He tried his radio again: “Is anyone here? Anyone picking this up?”

He walked with the gun barrel pointed down; he’d remember that, the gun down, his guard down. More concerned about the others than himself. “Is there no one on the damn radio?”

He moved down the corridor and came to a T. He turned left, which would lead him past the Marine Command Center and eventually to Mars City Reception.

“Kane! Kane, you there?”

It was Hayden. “General, yes, I’ve just—”

“Yes, we know, Kane. Most of the creatures are gone. Whatever you did worked. Only the infected humans remain. And only a few of them. It’s over. We alerted the Armada. Your radio wasn’t picking us up for some reason.”

Good, Kane thought. It’s over. And there was no need for a Plan B. And he could well imagine what that was.

“Moraetes, sir. Is she—?”

“What, don’t you—”

The Armada was coming. All was good. And sometimes, that’s when bad things can happen.

Kane heard the repetitive shots of a chain gun and saw his lower right leg get blown off. He screamed as blood gushed from the massive wound below his knee.

Through the pain, he saw the crazed lone zombie with its gun, moving closer, ready for another shot. Which was when the zombie was cut down, arms flailing as an incessant rain of shells was fired into it.

Kane closed his eyes. Sleep, he thought.

“Kane, Kane!”

He opened his eyes. A stim needle was sticking out of his arm.

He shifted his gaze, and saw Maria. He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but nothing came out.

“I bandaged the wound. You lost a lot of blood. Going to get you to Reception. They have a med team…going to meet us.”

Then he remembered. He tried to form the words. “My…leg.”

Maria’s eyes, he could see, were wet. She shook her head.

“Nothing left,” said Kane. “I’m all shot up. I’m sorry, so—”

She looked around. “I gotta get you out of here. Not safe. Even with most of the things gone.”

He nodded. She started to pull him up, all that deadweight. “No,” he croaked, “too…heavy.”

“Yeah. I know. Heavy.” She grunted, working her right shoulder under his left arm. When she had him, and could barely carry him down the hallway, she said, “You owe me, Kane. You goddamn owe me….”

And with those last words, he closed his eyes.