The God Complex: The Book Of Alan, Destroyer Of Worlds

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Gabe sat in the control room of his EX and glared through the peaceful sunrise at the end of the world. The skyline of east London, the part he could still see from the shuttle hanger, looked old and hollow.

He rubbed the creeping sleep from his tired face and downed the last of his coffee: cold and bitter. No matter how hard he tried, his thoughts returned back to Cain.

All that time and effort he'd dedicated to Gabe in those early days of EDEN, 'was it really just to send him to his death to win a place on Abaddon's luxury shuttle?' Gabe didn't want to believe it, but it was the only explanation that made sense; that explained Cain's excessive hatred towards him and how vengeful he'd become for ending the mission.

He thought of how close he'd come to dying for EDEN, of the kids who did and his brother Nate, how he might still be alive if it weren't for EDEN. His jaw clenched.

It was time he found out just how rotten EDEN was, after all, Cain already wanted him dead so what did he have to lose?

He rubbed his tired face once more and picked himself up in search of coffee and redemption.

'You can't call it that, the other shuttles will pick on it. Now I've lost count, where was I?' Monkey shuffled the papers sprayed over the kitchen table.

'Four hundred and sixty-eight cases of old Kentucky bourbon,' said Jaibles.

'That's right, four hundred and sixty-eight cases of old Kentucky bourbon; one thousand, nine hundred and twenty-six jars of pickled gherkins; nine thousand packets of freeze dried bacon; three thousand, seven hundred and sixty-nine packets of freeze dried noodles; two thousand, seven hundred kilograms of beef jerky; one thousand, nine hundred and eighty-six tubes of toothpaste; nine hundred and ninety-three bars of soap; two thousand, four hundred and nine packets of wet wipes; four thousand toilet rolls; fourteen packets of socks and one bottle of washing up liquid... I think we're packed.'

'Gabe, you're awake?' said Jaibles cheerily as he leaned back in his chair, his eyes bright against the pristine white lights in the kitchen.

Gabe made a beeline for the coffee and filled his cup.

'You look rough mate, did you even get any sleep last night?'

'We need to take them all down,' said Gabe bluntly. 'Cain, Abaddon, EDEN, all of it.'

'Slow down Treacle,' said Jaibles, 'we're with you on Cain, none of us want to wait around for him to turn up with the Military police, but Abaddon? That's a suicide mission.'

'I've heard of people going after Abaddon,' said Monkey looking up from his list. 'It never worked out well for them.'

'Exactly,' said Jaibles, 'also you don't even know for sure he was behind what happened back at EDEN, or even if what Cain told you was true. Let's not go taking everyone down without a little proof of guilt first, a little corroborating evidence, maybe a witness or two?'

'Professor Dawkins,' said Gabe.

'What about him,' said Monkey.

'He's been there from the beginning and do you remember how strange he acted during that training seminar? Something was bothering him and I bet I know what.'

'He's also the head of the EDEN Space programme. We're not going to be able to just knock on his military shuttle and ask him a few incriminating questions.'

'Don't you get it? Cain's after me, which means he's after you now too. As soon as he knows I'm on this shuttle, none of us will be safe. You saw how easily he killed Rose in training and now he heads up the Military Police. What do you think they're going to do when we kill their Captain? Whichever way you cut it, the full force of EDEN is coming after us, so we might as well get to them before they can get to us.'

Jaibles and Monkey fell silent.

Gabe sat down in front of them. 'I don't know what possessed you to come back for me.'

He put his coffee down on the cold metallic table and rubbed his tired face once more and started to pace the floor.

'I owe you both everything and in coming back for me all I've done is put you in danger, so this is my responsibility to make things right and I won't stop until we all get our lives back - a fresh start where we can rejoin the fleet or go space pirating without forever looking over our shoulder at every shuttle that approaches.'

Gabe could see the worry on their faces.

'Look, either Cain's story about EDEN was a lie and he made it up to get at me, or it's not and this goes all the way up to Abaddon. If that's true then our best chance of getting at him is now, while we're off their radar.'

Gabe flopped back into his seat. 'I can't promise this will end well but one way or another they're coming for us, so either we end this permanently, or we might as well stay here on Earth, because we're already as good as dead.'

'He's right,' said Monkey

'Alright, alright,' said Jaibles, 'We'll find Dawkins and see what he has to say, but if it's nothing and it's not some huge conspiracy and it's only Cain, then we find a way of stopping him quietly, agreed? Because if we're forced to spend the rest of our lives hiding in deep space, I'll kill you both before the toilet paper runs out.'

He got up and gave the seated Gabe a comforting bear hug. 'But it's good to know we've got ourselves a little guardian Angel looking out for us,'

'That's it! I know what to call the shuttle,' said Monkey elated.

Without warning, the shuttle filled with a deafening grinding noise that shook the foundations. Monkey scrambled to save the documents from the upturned coffee that now flowed and bounced against the vibrations as Jaibles reached out to steady himself waiting for the tremors to simmer and fall.

'Christ Monkey, what have you done to the engine? Yelled Jaibles.

'That's not coming from the engine,' said Monkey jumping up with an arm full of papers and running out of the kitchen.

When Gabe and Jaibles caught up with him he stood at the door of the hangar watching the remains of Canary Wharf disappear into a cloud of smoke and dust as east London erupted into violence. They quickly ducked for cover underneath their shuttle as the next tremor sent loose brick and dust raining down upon their shuttle and there they waited out the aftershock.

'Gather what you need,' said Monkey, 'It's no longer safe here.'