The Infinity Bridge

Part 16

The pain in Nick’s shin was sickening and he had hobbled only twenty yards down the side street before the nausea hit him. He coughed and retched. His nails scraped down a brick wall. Nick frantically tried to keep moving.

Nick chanced a hurried look back towards the nightclub. The remnants of the front door looked like a leering mouth with jagged teeth. There was no android pursuing him yet—Annie must still be holding it off.

Violent shivers wracked his skinny frame as he passed where the black Range Rover was parked. He transiently considered hiding in there—curling up and trying to focus past the intense pain in his leg. But it was the first place the Hidden would look, and he had the SD card in his pocket.

The main street merrily continued its Monday afternoon, oblivious to the ordeal being played out a minute’s walk away. A group of Asian women chatted whilst their children larked around their legs. Their saris billowed in the cold wind. Two workmen crammed steaming pasties in their mouths and winked at a gaggle of teenage girls bunking school.

Nick slumped back against a shop window. For the first time in his entire life he wanted nothing more than to be normal, to be average. How blissful would it be to care for nothing except a smile from a pretty girl or a pair of designer trainers? No androids, no threats to the world, no death, no fear, no pain.

The pain from his leg came in dull insistent waves. Each motion sent white hot agony through his shin and thigh. His eyes pricked with tears. He needed to get to a hospital.

And tell them what? he thought angrily. If I tell them who I am there is a chance I’ll be found.

The Hidden—they held all the cards now. Annie was captured or dead. There were no more knights. Merlin was... well, Merlin was somewhere in cyberspace, but Nick had no idea how to find him without the specialised smart-phones. And as for Ben and Sam...

Nick felt sick—sick with pain; sick with fear; sick with fury. His eyes darted about the busy Birmingham street. The Hidden would be here soon, slipping through the crowds. He had no idea how to recognise them, but they were more than aware of what he looked like. Panic seized his chest and his breaths came rapid and shallow. The world was getting fuzzy, distant, and reassuringly numb.

Nick, get a hold of yourself.

An inner voice, but one that sounded worryingly like his mother’s.

You’ve finally found a cause worth fighting for and now you’re admitting defeat at the first setback.

First setback? I’ve got a broken leg, psychopathic android killers after me, my cousins are probably dead and I’m in Birmingham!

Boo hoo, his inner voice said. Then just lie down and cry and wait until they vaporise your specky head.

Nick flushed with anger. It was bad enough having Sam’s sarcasm and his mother’s attitude without his own thoughts being like this. He slowed his hyperventilation and tried to calm down his mind.