The Infinity Bridge

part 21

A bright light spilled from the urn and across the grass towards Gaynor and Annie. It crept cautiously, like it was wary about the terrible process it heralded.

Annie and Gaynor sat watching Alpha press the various symbols on the urn. With each touch the hue of the light shifted slightly. Gaynor could feel pressure building in her ears, as if she was ascending within an aeroplane.

The rainbow glow illuminated Armitage’s sinister face as he observed Annie and Gaynor. Annie’s head was slumped wearily on Gaynor’s shoulder; it seemed as if all the fight and spirit had been sapped from her.

‘Why did you do it?’ Gaynor asked abruptly. ‘Betray your friends... and the world?’

Armitage regarded her coldly. He cast a glance at Alpha, who was hunched over the InfinityBridge, then replied.

‘What do I care for the world? I have cancer—lung cancer—I am a dead man walking.’

‘Then accept your fate. Why should the world suffer for you?’

‘I gave my life to the knighthood—I did not marry, had no children—and when I wanted something back... for Merlin to place my mind within a computer, like he has his own...’

‘He refused,’ Gaynor finished.

‘He thinks the Hidden will do it for him, put his twisted mind inside an android.’ Annie’s tone was soft yet deadly.

‘It is my reward. Eternal life in a perfect form, in a world run by new masters.’

‘If my grandfather...’ Annie began.

Armitage snorted. ‘You persist with your childish delusions. He is...’

‘All a grandfather should be and more,’ Gaynor said. ‘May the Gods forgive you for your evil, Armitage. Dispense your bile elsewhere.’

There was a pulse of energy and all three felt the air crackle with power. Armitage smirked and strode towards Alpha. He tapped a pistol in his hand.

‘Don’t let his words poison your mind.’ Gaynor stroked Annie’s hair.

Annie shifted uncomfortably; her hands were still tied with a cord. ‘He is correct, though. Albert Jones may be many things, but he is not my grandfather.’

‘He is not a relation, I agree, but there is far more to being family than that. I saw you in the village with him. I saw the look in his eyes. And grandfather or not, he loves you as if you were part of him.’

‘How can you be sure?’

‘Because I am a mother, and a sister, and a daughter. Because I know love, and I understand the pain he will be enduring at the moment. The pain of uncertainty: of not knowing whether someone is alive or dead.’