Chapter 399: Missile Command

Chapter 399: Missile Command

My initial thought was to get out of the city. Flossie had dragons under her command, so that seemed a pretty straightforward solution.

The ship was still a fair way off, a black spot in the blue sky, so Id be able to set my escape plan in motion with plenty of time to spare.

What if I couldnt get away for some reason? Who would I be facing? Someone who could get a ship in the air, which suggested a great deal of power. They may have even made improvements, put a spoiler on the back and go faster stripes down the sides. If they were a real fuccboi, LED lights under the hull.

Why had they come now? It probably wasnt a random timing. It never was. What had I done recently? Gone into the spire and found Maurices notebook. Was that what they were after?

Worst case scenarios rolled through my mind.

I dont consider myself to be a paranoid person. Sure, I have anxiety issues that make me dread the horrible fate waiting for me around every corner, but its at a very low level, thrumming away in the background like a bus engine vibrating your seat as you wait for the traffic light to change.

What I do have, however, is a very keen sense of possible futures and how they might negatively impact me.

For example, if Im about to walk down a flight of stairs it might suddenly occur to me that I could trip and fall. And if that were to happen, my neck might get broken and then what would I do?

Im in a car crash and cant get the door open, while flames rise from the engine, what are my options?

Im arrested by the police and dont have an alibi, how can I prove my innocence?

At this point you might think, actually, mate, you are paranoid. But thats not it.

We all occasionally have that fear we might fall down the stairs, but it isnt the falling and being crippled part that weighs on my mind, its the coming up with possible escape routes that obsesses me.

What if Im lying there unable to move and no ones around to help me? What would I do? At which point, I start thinking of all the possible ways I could get out of such a predicament.

I tend to do this a lot. It doesnt usually prepare me for anything since those situations are rare and thinking about them makes them even rarer I am very careful walking down stairs when Im alone.

My point is, I spend a lot of time thinking about this sort of shit. I guess I enjoy it in a morbid kind of way the solution often resolves into finding a way to kill myself rather than hanging around until I starve to death. I know, I have a lot of fun hobbies.

The main reason I began to think like this was that when you live alone at a young age, with no family to speak of, falling down the stairs can be a death sentence. No ones going to miss you. No one is going to check up on you. But theres usually a way to save yourself, at least in theory. Theres no reason to give up just because youve reached the end of your rope. You at least have a rope to work with.

The ship approaching the city triggered that response in me. I had no idea who was flying it or what they wanted. Could be reinforcements coming to my aid for all I knew. More than likely, though, it was someone with bad intentions and they had a flying ship to back them up.

Who do you think it is? asked Jenny.

I dont know, I said, but my guess would be the Council of Four. It was their ship, originally, so they would be the most likely to reclaim it and have the ability to get it in the air. It could be the fairies, but they dont seem the type to need airships to get around.

I didnt even have to think before I answered, my natural inclination to assume the worst possible outcome did the work for me.

What do you think they want? asked Jenny.

Probably this book. I waved Maurices notebook at her. Peters the only one whos managed to get inside the spires so far. It wouldnt surprise me if the Council wanted the same sort of access and a way to work out what the spires can do. And then probably use them to do it.

Should we destroy the book, then? said Jenny.

I dont think we have a minute.

Thats alright, I said. I do.

I hit pause and everything froze. I floated over my body with all the time in the world to work out what to do. It might still not be enough.

The first thing that occurred to me was that if this attack was to get hold of Maurices book, that would be hard to do if they destroyed it. Was I wrong about their intentions? Did this have nothing to do with the book after all?

The second thing that occurred to me was that the book shouldnt have still been in my hands.

It was not only in my ghost-like grip, I was able to open it. How? Only very special objects could move here, like my sword. The book was just a book, wasnt it?

Had Maurice found a way to allow it to exist here? How? And what exactly was it made of?

These questions could wait. I now had plenty of time to read the thing, maybe even take notes and do the suggested worksheet. If I memorised it all, I could destroy the original. No, that wasnt going to happen. I couldnt even remember my own mobile number, two hundred pages of Maurices musings werent going to find much purchase in my brain.

Around me, everything was stuck in place. Vines grew everywhere, even from the ship. In fact, there was one big vine coming out of the back. If I cut it off, the ship might lose contact with its remote control driver. Unfortunately, the ship would still fall on the city and make a terrible mess.

I began the slow plod through Maurices notes, skipping the parts that I couldnt make out clearly. It took me until about page three to start getting bored.

Not that there wasnt some interesting stuff in there, but it had that dry, factual feel to it that only textbooks can produce. I woke up a little when I hit a section on Shrine Island. There was mention of godsbane and something called a grim mushroom. There were some diagrams that looked vaguely like the small shrine where Id found Richina.

He had a clear picture of the island, but not very clear handwriting and extremely poor focus. There was a page about a gate that could be opened on the island, followed by two pages about why the TV show Stargate shouldnt have been cancelled and how crap the follow-on series were. It made me smile to have him back, if only in written form.

It seemed you needed to fire up all seven spires to activate the gate, and one of them was inoperative, as Id seen. This was the main problem in getting the gate to work, and what Maurice had been working on. There wasnt an answer, at least not in his notes.

The rest of the book contained the list of runes. If I could have got the spire to work, I might have been able to do something about the ship. In this form, I might be able to pass through a spires walls, but then what? I needed my actual body to press things and even my ability to manipulate objects with black goo wasnt going to be of much use applying pressure.

Still, it was worth testing if only for science. I floated off with the ship pointing down like a missile and everyone looking up aghast. The nearest spire was the broken one, but it had the same walls as the others, so it would prove if I could phase through them or not.

I passed through the thick black walls with no problem. This was good to know. Even if I couldnt get my body inside, I could still have a look to check everything inside was intact and in working order.

I floated up in order to see where the nearest spire was. As I passed through the room at the top of the spire, I noticed the runes were glowing. They were very much active, and humming slightly. I reached out to touch one, and it grew even brighter.

Sometimes, wandering around and poking about is the best way to find answers, and also old pound coins no longer in circulation and broken pens.

I opened Maurices book and looked up the instructions for Nuke. It took me a while to find the correct runes without Dudley there to help, but there was no rush. When I finally pressed all the runes, a screen appeared showing the city. I could move it by using my finger like on an iPad, and zoom in and out by pinching. I could probably take the image anywhere, but my target was already on the screen.

I touched the ship, which did nothing apart from put it at the centre of the shot. Then I tapped it twice and a countdown started. Ten seconds. And it had already started.

If it worked here while time was stopped, would it still affect the real world? I wasnt sure, but I left the spire and headed back to my body, counting as I went.

I got back with three seconds left. The ship began its final descent, the people looked panicked. I raised my finger and pointed at the ship like I was aiming a gun and said, Bang.

A white light fell from the sky and the ship disintegrated into a billion splinters over the city. Everyone looked at me with disbelief, unable to process what had just happened.

It would only take a second to explain what Id done, but where was the fun in that? I knew a far better way to handle it. I put my finger to my lips and blew.