At precisely that moment, between the sheets of a bed in a hotel room, Mr. Harvie was learning the extent of his secretary’s loyalty to the business while Mrs. Harvie was waiting impatiently in their luxurious two-story home, glancing frantically at her watch and the dinner she had so carefully prepared that had already been cold for ten minutes.
Several blocks from there, a father was giving a healthy beating to his son for having gotten too close to the Hyde Park Fog as an unscrupulous thief was taking advantage of his chance to take off with the car the worried parent had left running when he’d found his son in the street and decided to use his right hand to instill in him a little respect for rules.
At the other end of the city, in the face of the ambassador’s rather unfruitful visit to London, Gordon and Nathan were engaged in a heated discussion over the advisability of reinforcing the borders with the North.
What all these people, and so many thousands of others, had in common besides the fact they all lived in London was that they immediately stopped whatever they were doing at the very same moment and went outside to witness one of the most incredible events of their lives since the Wave. And that moment was when a deafening tremor struck the city, causing vibrations to spread across the ground like waves over the surface of the water.
It started softly and subtly, slowly gaining in intensity. The first to notice it were the animals. Vast flocks of birds flew through the sky, obscuring the full moon with a blanket of wings. With their innate sense of direction disrupted, they made abrupt changes in their flight paths, crashing into each other. Dogs burst into the streets, their howls breaking the silence of the night. Cats ran terrified, the fur on their backs standing on end as they bounded between the cars, contributing to the general chaos. Some areas of the sewers and the subway lines were inundated with rivers of rats madly scurrying in all directions to the piercing sound of their own shrieks. All this came together to create a general state of panic among the downtrodden inhabitants of London’s underground city.
Not long after, the tremors reached the limits of human endurance, and it was from that moment on that the insanity began to spread like a virus throughout the city. The ever-increasing vibrations had everyone staring downward as if searching for the source of the tremors while at the same time doing whatever they could to keep their balance and remain upright. People several floors above ground level who were still unaware that something unprecedented was going on below them had quite a shock when suddenly everything around them began shaking. In those areas of the city where the phenomenon hit the hardest, furniture was moving with a life of its own. Chairs were bouncing across the floor and tables were sliding around until finally landing against something big enough to stop them. All over the city, objects tumbled to the floor. But the inexplicable tremors weren’t satisfied with such an insignificant level of destruction, and so spread into the walls and ceilings and entire building structures so that bookshelves would eliminate whatever had been placed on them, walls would eject their paintings, pictures, mirrors, and other decorations, and ceilings would cast off lighting fixtures and chandeliers.
All this was accompanied by a constant rumbling that was gradually increasing, keeping time with the rhythm of the vibrations.
The vast majority of citizens came to the most logical and intuitive conclusion that their minds—presently assaulted by panic—could offer them to explain what was happening: an earthquake must have been unleashed in the middle of London. Consequently, many of them reacted as would be expected. They sought protection under tables or in door frames, and most of them were overwrought with fear. People flooded the streets, completely out of control, unconsciously imitating the patterns of behavior previously displayed by the animals. Fearing for their lives and the safety and well-being of their loved ones, they behaved impulsively, throwing reason to the wind.
The city became the stage for a chaotic, disorganized scene of alarming proportion. The unscripted players in the impromptu spectacle tore off in all directions, causing more destruction than the supposed earthquake. All over the city, vehicles that had slammed into each other or into storefronts and businesses sat burning. Double-decker red buses were flipped over in the middle of the streets as the passengers fought to escape through the broken windows. Injured people lying all over the ground were being trampled without anyone even stopping to notice. Fires were breaking out in every corner of the city, causing the people inside buildings to attempt to climb down the outside facades in a desperate attempt to save themselves—often falling to their death.
The situation continued to deteriorate until suddenly the tremors that had been shaking the city stopped completely. For several seconds people exchanged incredulous glances, as if they were expecting someone to confirm it was all over. Little by little they began to realize the magnitude of what had happened. They were surrounded by a sea of devastating chaos in the midst of which desperate voices called out for help. Initially, not many people offered help to those who needed assistance. They instead seemed compelled to discuss with anyone who happened to be near them what they thought had happened. Fanatics of the numerous sects and religions that had been founded after the Wave loudly proclaimed the end of the world had arrived. Whether or not it was, in fact, the end of the world, all were reliving their worst memories, fearing this was a second Wave that had come to shatter Earth once again.
As people looked to the sky, they began to discover at least part of the answer to what had happened. Like a chain reaction, other people saw the gaping mouths and pointing fingers, and they too looked up. The vision of a ten-story building covered in windows slowly rising above the city was not an easy one to accept. Those who were witnessing it stood staring, dumbfounded, shocked into a deafening silence. It was, quite simply, inexplicable and yet it was happening right before their eyes. They were not dreaming. The building was ascending, gaining more height with each passing second. In less than two minutes it had surpassed the other buildings around it—all at least fifteen stories high.
But this was not the only levitating building. In other parts of the city, four other identical buildings were rising up in the same way, at the same speed, in perfect synchrony. Out in the streets, there was not a single soul who understood what was happening. Questions echoed as people shared their bewilderment aloud, but no one even tried to venture a guess. The most curious onlookers walked toward the bases of the buildings, hoping to find some kind of platform there that was lifting them up. Their surprise increased all the more as they realized there was nothing supporting the buildings from below; they were rising up as if a gigantic invisible crane were pulling them ever upward. The buildings finally stopped moving when they were some sixty-five feet off the ground.
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The cigar slipped from between his lips when the tremors struck Jack Kolby’s luxury penthouse. In spite of his multiple facets and his gift for business and human relations, Jack was no different than anyone else when it came to dealing with an earthquake. As soon as his furniture started to show signs of life by moving around the room and his chandelier smashed to pieces on the floor, Jack took shelter beneath a table and waited relatively calmly for the violent shaking to end. The glass in his windows imploded and the cold night air invaded his comfortable home.
Outside he could hear voices, the grinding, crunching noise of cars crashing, and the blasts of small explosions. Finally emerging from his makeshift hide-out, he ran over to the window. From his penthouse’s vantage point on the twenty-fifth floor, Jack Kolby watched with his heart in his throat as the disturbing scene unfolded below. He felt every bit as lost and powerless as the rest of the inhabitants of London as he watched the buildings ascending as if by magic. Jack was, without even realizing it, the first mortal to understand what was happening. He saw three buildings rising up in the air and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would be two more doing the same thing. And he knew exactly which buildings they were without even needing to see them.
They were the five buildings that belonged to the Tech Underground Corporation. Rick had shown him on a map how they encompassed an area whose center point was Trafalgar Square.
When the buildings stopped climbing and hung suspended in air, a loud explosion was heard throughout the city. The windows that had covered the suspended buildings fell away, revealing that Rick’s assumption had been correct; these were no office buildings. Five gigantic black rectangular buildings levitated silently above thousands upon thousands of astonished eyes that could not look away. Jack remembered Rick saying he hadn’t found anything suspicious during his investigations in Trafalgar Square; he now understood there was nothing to find there, though it had only taken a few seconds for that situation to change radically. Jack also remembered the bizarre methods by which the T.U.C. had acquired the five pieces of land on which to build its enormous black edifices and camouflage them as office buildings. The most baffling circumstance of all had been the pregnancy of a woman who’d had her uterus removed thirteen years prior. All these details, converging in his head for no more than a few seconds, provided him with the answer to the burning question that had so completely obsessed Rick. The five supposed buildings were nothing other than five monumental pillars. As incredible as it seemed, the T.U.C. had constructed a portal of titanic proportions in the middle of London—right under their noses.
The final conclusion came to him without much effort. If they’d sent a one-hundred-man expedition through a portal with pillars not more than three feet high, it was clear this portal of colossal dimensions had been built to send through a much higher number.
He ran from one side of the penthouse to the other from which he could see out over Trafalgar Square. Before he even looked, he knew the Fog would soon be springing forth from the square and his eyes would remain fixed on that spot until he could see who—and above all, how many of them—would come through it.
The enormous black buildings began spinning, immediately producing a metallic whir. As they gained velocity, their shape appeared cylindrical and the blackness blurred into a indeterminate color. The whirring lasted less than a minute. When it stopped, a dark black cloud rose up out of nowhere in Trafalgar Square. The Fog began to expand, covering more and more terrain and engulfing everything in its path as the terrified citizens tried to flee. Once the thick black mist had made its horrifying appearance, the monumental floating pillars no longer attracted anyone’s attention.
The Fog’s central nucleus was moving in all directions and was slowly but steadily growing in size. Tongues of smoke lashed out from all sides, making irregularly-shaped circles before disappearing back into the center of the cloud, providing it with a greater and greater reach. Thousands of people who, for one reason or another, could not get away from it in time fell victim to its dark interior. Spectators on either side of the Thames saw it coming, preceded by the desperate screams of the people who were throwing themselves onto the frozen river as they tried to escape. The thick ice cap managed to hold their weight, and after the frantic sprinting—severely impeded by all the slipping, falling, and pushing—people began to make it to the opposite bank. The Fog tenaciously and ruthlessly continued advancing until it finally came to a stop in front of the first buildings on the other side of the river. The number of people and blocks of the city that had vanished beneath its mantle was incalculable.
On Regent Street, a large number of Londoners collapsed in exhaustion and relief when they realized the Fog had stopped expanding and was therefore no longer chasing them. Panic still gripped their bodies and minds, since just moments before they had truly believed the Fog would not stop until it had consumed the entire city in its darkness. Their fears reappeared even more forcefully when a new tremor shook the pavement beneath them. Anyone still standing lost their balance and fell to the ground. A crack started in the middle of the street and rapidly spread outward until it was a crevice that had reached the sidewalks on both sides of the street, causing the collapse of two buildings that generated a cloud of dust and debris that immediately enveloped the area. A section of the pavement had buckled to a height of nearly six feet. Those who had been standing on it now tumbled backwards, colliding with other people and dragging them down the newly created slope. People were sputtering and coughing as they attempted to brush the dust off themselves. And the ground continued to softly rumble.
From the crevice that had split the street wide open emerged the shape of a woman. At first, her exact outline was hard to make out clearly. She moved forward determinedly and then stood still, staring directly into the Fog. As if obeying orders, the cloud of dust dissolved around the unidentified woman and every detail of her imposing appearance could now be appreciated. She was a tall woman with long, straight black hair and eyes as black as the night. Wearing a black leather vest with two vertical slits in the back, her expression was gravely serious and her gaze full of intensity. No one could look away from her. Every part of her anatomy contributed to a body of perfect proportions crowned by a face of supernatural beauty. This supremely lovely being redefined the very concept of beauty for those who beheld her.
The mysterious woman spent a few more seconds scrutinizing the Fog. Her penetrating black eyes were pointed directly at its core, as if she could see something in the mass of blackness churning up before her. She then took a step forward and two immense, dark wings burst forth from her back, forming a gigantic “U” above her shoulders. Those who were watching her did a double take, and some recoiled slightly though no one moved away. They were bindingly hypnotized, incapable of tearing their eyes away from something so stunningly beautiful.
The sound of feet marching at a constant rhythm could now be heard coming from the depths of the crevice and rapidly approaching the spot from which the unknown woman had emerged.
“Get back,” Nilia commanded in a firm, steely tone to the Minors around her.
