The Terminus Read Free Page A

although her welling tears strengthened his growing conviction that
they shared a common purpose.
    “Can’t God the
Man do something?” he asked her.
    Instead,
Arthry replied:
    “God said if
he didn’t return himself with the time-specs he’d send the only person he could
trust… unless...”
    “Time-specs?”
interrupted Gary.
    “The ones
you’re wearing. Things are happening in the Terminus. The Agenda! You’re in
with them, aren’t you? God told me to beware of traitors. You must be the one
we’ve feared for so long. The one sent by them to kill him.”
    “Time-specs...
Agenda? No idea what…”
    “Don’t try to
fool me! Monsters, the lot of ’em! What hold’ve they got over you, ay? Except
for a possible spy in our midst, nobody here has a clue what they’re up to…
apart from them taking control of the Hatcheries and blanking out surfacers’
brains. So why did you kill him?” Arthry’s hand reached for something stuck
into his belt. “You know who the spy is, right?” he continued, his eyes now
glacial. “Trouble is, my little friend, they didn’t brief you well enough. And
you’re a hopeless liar!”
    Sweat broke
out on Gary’s forehead. If only Mike were with him. He was an ace
bull-shitter... although Mike preferred the term ‘factual embellishment’.
    “Um…
H-Hatcheries… er… wh-what are they ?” he stuttered.
    Acid silence
followed, finally broken by Beetie whose large, warm eyes never once abandoned
Gary. They were his only hope of ever returning alive to Mike and Regent’s
Park.
    “The
Hatcheries? It’s where we all come from,” she explained. She was trying
to help him but seemed frightened. “Me and Blinker, we came from the same
Hatchery. Brother and sister… see?”
    Bugger! Not
related, then! A strained smile flickered across Gary’s face as he tried to
imagine clucking, humanoid hens scratching away in the ‘Hatcheries’. What the
girl said next wiped the smile from his face:
    “We’ve all had
our memories wiped out, so what goes on there is a mystery. Our brains are
re-conditioned before The Agenda lets us out.”
    “But how can
you be so sure London’s doomed?” Gary asked, sickened by the thought of such a
gorgeous girl having her memory erased. “Why would The Agenda wanna destroy
London, anyway?”
    Arthry replied
for her:
    “That’s what
God meant to find out. From the future. Now he’s disappeared and you’ve turned
up instead, from the past you say, wearing his time-specs!” The man threw
Beetie a stern glance. “Tell me this,” he continued. “How can webe
certain you’ve not been sent by The Agenda to kill God and flush us out?
And who’s their spy in the Retreat?”
    “No idea!
Anyway, what prevents The Agenda from just coming here?”
    “Stupid
questions won’t get you anywhere, Gary!” Arthry stood, revealing for the first
time his full size. Something flashed in his hand. “The gee-rats keep The
Agenda guys away, as you’re well aware!”
    “Gee-rats?”
    “Giant rats.
Genetically-modified is the correct term. All over the place in the tunnels out
there. Hungry as hell!”
    Gary shivered.
He hated even normal-sized rats.
    “Wouldn’t get
in here, would they?” he asked, scanning the walls for holes.
    A smile
reappeared on Arthry’s face. He pointed to a row of sacks full of large blue
pebbles.
    “Gee-rat
poison. Anyway, they have their uses. Fancy a steak?”
    “Yuk! You
don’t actually…?”
    “Gotta eat
something!” The smile vanished. “Prove to me you’ve not been sent by The
Agenda, or give me the name of the spy, and I may let you live.”
    “This is
ri-ri-ridiculous,” Gary stammered, seeking eye contact again with the girl
again.
    “I’m only a
schoolboy. Like I said, I found these bloody specs on a park bench and thought
I’d try them on. Look, for God’s sake…”
    “God?”
interrupted Arthry, taking a step towards Gary. “You killed him... took the
specs, and when Blinker found you, you were