The Undertakers Gift by Trevor Baxendale Read Free Book Online Page B

‘Besides, not even Captain Jack can do this job all by himself.’
    ‘You’d be surprised,’ he said, with a sad smile of his own. His eyes were staring into the past. Maybe even to a time before she had been born.
    ‘If there is a temporal fusion device buried somewhere in Cardiff,’ Jack began, ‘then we are truly staring into the abyss, Gwen. If it’s activated, then the chain reaction will destroy everything and everyone. The lifetime of this planet could be measured in hours, minutes, seconds and I can’t do a damn thing about it.’
    Gwen swallowed. ‘Will it be quick?’ she asked quietly.
    He shook his head. ‘No.’

TWELVE
    Ianto called it the Hokrala Document.
    It was a fairly ordinary-looking letter, until you inspected it really closely.
    On one side, beneath the Hokrala corporate logo, were several lines of alien script. The markings looked like a series of tiny, jagged dots and dashes and slashes, all tied together in endless knots, varying in size and boldness. Which was probably what English looked like to aliens, Ianto guessed.
    Ianto was about to scan the letter into the translator when he noticed something that made him raise the letter up to the light of one of his monitor screens.
    A watermark.
    It wasn’t the Hokrala logo. This was an altogether different symbol: it was like nothing Ianto had ever seen before, or wanted to see again. A weird, convoluted design that reminded him of a Celtic knot, although there was something distinctly biological about the design, and something utterly violent. He tried turning the paper this way and that in the light, but he couldn’t make any real sense of the mark at all. All he knew was that it left him feeling slightly queasy.
    He was feeding the document into the translator machine as Jack and Gwen came out of the office.
    ‘How’s it going?’ Jack called over. ‘What’s that bad boy got to tell us?’
    ‘Maybe we’ll just get away with a fine,’ said Gwen, and Jack smiled dutifully.
    The Hokrala Document was held beneath a transparent plastic screen. Above it was a monitor unit with a number of words all jostling around into position, as if they were hurriedly trying to line up for an inspection.
    ‘This is the computer’s best guess at a translation,’ Ianto said. ‘The programme is based on a series of interpolative linguistics algorithms that—’
    ‘It’s a covenant,’ said Jack tersely. He tapped the screen as a series of words assembled. In the light of the workstation his face looked drawn and white. ‘An agreement if you like, or an arrangement. . .’
    The words kept shifting as the computer tried to assimilate the alien language and suggest the appropriate corresponding words in English. Sometimes it failed to settle on a word and the letters kept fluctuating.
    ‘Who with?’ Gwen asked.
    Jack’s finger traced a line. ‘It says here: the Supreme Powers.’
    ‘Supreme Powers?’
    ‘That’s what it says.’
    ‘And who or what are the Supreme Powers?’
    ‘I’ve no idea, but they sound kind of important.’
    ‘It could be a translation glitch,’ suggested Ianto. He rattled a few keys. ‘It could simply refer to an umbrella organisation, perhaps – the body which controls Hokrala Corp?’
    ‘Maybe,’ said Jack flatly. He pointed at another section. ‘What’s that say?’
    Ianto peered closer as the letters jiggled around and the words danced in and out of sense.
    ‘Unbounded. . . unending. . . No – limitless. Erm. . . vengeance. Retaliation. Retribution.’
    ‘Limitless retribution?’ Gwen echoed.
    ‘Not a fine, then,’ said Ianto.
    Gwen pointed at the translator screen. ‘Wait a second. Look. It goes on. . . It’s more specific: it’s a warning. Is that “murder”? It moved too quick.’
    Ianto tapped some keys again and squinted. ‘No, it’s “assassination”. Oh. Your conman friend was right after all, Jack. They are sending an assassin to kill you.’
    Jack straightened up. ‘That