Free Alien Disaster by Rob May Page B

all.’
    ‘I’m not giving it to anyone,’ Brandon said, ‘except the one person who’s still alive that can safely use it.’
    Kat and Jason gave each other blank looks. ‘Who would that be?’ Jason asked.
    ‘I’ll tell you in a bit,’ Brandon said.
    Lieutenant Hewson walked up to the foot of the dome, stopped, looked up and gave Brandon an ironic salute. ‘You’re a hard man to pin down, Brandon Walker,’ he said.
    ‘What do you want?’
    ‘You know what I want: the device that you took from the lab in London. You did us a big favour getting it out of there before the city got hit—hell, Brandon, you did me a big favour leading us on this merry chase—but we’re taking it off you now.’
    ‘You don’t even know what it does,’ Brandon challenged.
    Hewson shrugged. ‘I don’t care,’ he said. ‘My orders are to bring it in.’
    ‘Who are you guys?’ Kat shouted.
    ‘You really want to know? Alright then. We’re a secret division of the Secret Intelligence Service. Every country has one: a team devoted solely to exploring the possibility of alien life—and alien technology—here on Earth. We’re so secret that even the government doesn’t know we exist; have you heard of the term plausible deniability ?’
    ‘Yeah,’ Brandon said. ‘It means that the government can plausibly deny that they had anything to do with the hunting and terrorising of a group of kids.’
    Hewson stiffened. ‘It’s not you that we’re interested in,’ he insisted. ‘I’m a soldier, Brandon. Ex-SAS. I’ve killed terrorists, insurgents, fanatics … and now aliens. My job is to protect kids like you, not frighten you.’
    One of Hewson’s soldiers was monitoring what looked like a real-time map on his tablet computer. ‘Uh, Sir … we have a large unidentified object approaching from the south.’
    Brandon turned. The sun was in his eyes, but there was something immense hovering above the thin cloud layer.
    ‘Brandon!’ Hewson was shouting. ‘Get down here now!’
    ‘Oh my God,’ Kat gaped.
    The mothership—it was too big to be anything but a mothership—was almost a kilometre wide. It was a saucer with a spherical middle, making it look like a gleaming chrome version of Saturn and its rings. Rotating slowly, it lowered itself into position over the sea, about a kilometre offshore. The sunlight sparkled off it.
    ‘Would now be a good time to get to the boat?’ Jason asked.
    ‘Uh, yeah,’ Brandon decided. As one they hurled themselves over the safety barrier and slid down the south side of the dome. Jason led them down the ladder that led to the jetty beneath the pier.
    Brandon looked up and out to sea to see what the saucer was doing. An opening had appeared under the central sphere. From inside came a ominous blue glow. Brandon looked down at the boat.
    ‘Jason, this isn’t a boat!’
    ‘Get in, you idiot!’
    ‘It’s a pedalo!’
    ‘Then get in and start peddling!’
    Brandon hopped aboard—what choice did he have?—and he and Jason took to the pedals while Kat perched between them. ‘Hold on to this,’ Brandon told her, handing over the laptop case. Then with agonising slowness they began to put some distance between themselves and the pier. The cold dirty seawater splashed around them.
    Hewson’s men hadn’t followed them down to the jetty. Brandon glanced back and saw them running back down the length of the pier.
    Then the giant alien saucer fired its weapon.
    There was no noise, no beam of light, just a horrible hum in the air that battered Brandon’s eardrums. Then the water around their tiny craft swelled up and suddenly they were hurtling towards the shore.
    ‘What’s going on?’ Kat cried, trying to find a stable position between the pedalo seats.
    ‘Electro-magnetic beam!’ Brandon guessed. He noticed that the pier that they had just left was shaking violently. ‘They’re inducing an earthquake under the sea!’
    Jason swore. ‘We’re going to get smashed against the