“As such?” Rashid asked. “Not feeling good about this…”
She looked at him earnestly and said, “It’s early days, but they sent back the salient facts for us to deal with this as safely as possible. The virus is a biological agent designed to be air-dispersed. It renders the population incapacitated. Such symptoms as rapid heartrate, thirst and hunger are common,” she read. “Sensory breakdown, sometimes leading to complete blindness. The Russian’s research, as far as Porton Down can decipher it, has tested it in animal trials, including strict vegetarians like gorillas, and found that when the hunger persists enough, they will eat flesh. In short, cannibalism.”
“Sounds like some horror flick,” Ramsay mused.
“Sounds like a bloody zombie apocalypse,” added Rashid.
“Apparently, the Z word was never mentioned, but Porton Down consider that after initial air-burst dispersal, it then goes on to be spread by saliva and blood.”
Marnie shook her head. “Jesus…”
“Allah and Buddha,” Rashid added.
“What sick minds invent such things?” Marnie said quietly.
“We do,” Ramsay said. “And the US. Or at least attempt to. A virus dispersed by air, just once, that can be spread by the population by the simplest of means. Hunger. Incapacitate, degrade, turn that person into the most primitive form, and instinct will prevail.” He looked at them both in turn. “Humans are pretty rubbish on the primal scale. We are intelligent. But we were born to be vegan, if you think about it. We do not have the natural tools - the claws or teeth - to kill, dismember tough hide and eat an animal. We had to evolve and turn to using weapons, traps, cutting implements and preserve or cook the meat. So, when someone has been returned to a primal state and has lost most function, all inhibition and has a terrible hunger, what will be their easiest prey?”
“Other humans…” Marnie said coldly. “But we don’t make such awful biological weapons. This is pure evil.”
Ramsay shook his head. “You are naïve, my dear. We have wanted a weapon like this, the Americans probably more so, ever since it was first imagined by science fiction writers in the fifties. The Russian’s simply beat us to it, that’s all.”
Rashid shook his head. He was a soldier. He had been trained to kill and outsmart his enemy, but the idea of weapons such as this was something he would never get his head around. His idea of what was intolerable in battle ended at conventional smart bombs. If chemical and biological agents were needed, then perhaps the war wasn’t ever going to be won, or even worth fighting in the first place. Time for the politicians to work harder. “Alright,” he said. “But who stole the laptop?”
Marnie put her phone away and frowned. “I’m convinced it was the man who Neil bumped into in the corridor. He was near my room, he would have seen the door ajar as he walked past.”
“Well, let’s go and find him,” he said. He turned to Ramsay and said, “And we can’t forget the asset. She will be hungry and thirsty.”
“But hopefully not too much…” Ramsay said thoughtfully. “Hopefully not too much.”
62
They had pushed it. Driven each other on. Not a long march by any means, but the ice and snow, the freezing air and the exposure to the water and elements afterwards had sapped them, drained them to their core. Caroline had recovered enough to walk, but not much else. She was quiet, subdued and concentrated solely on breathing. King knew she inverted into herself when she was scared, concerned or uncertain, so he did not push in getting her to talk. There were many concerns on his mind, not least secondary drowning – whereby water still in her system, her lungs and throat, collects and drips back into the lungs where it pools, and drowning happens all over again – as well as the effects of the adrenaline injection – sending too much to the brain resulting in brain damage. The heart and lungs themselves suffer from the effects of oxygen starvation, as well as the brain. But the cold had been Caroline’s saviour. She had held her breath for as long as she could, had passed out from the cold and starvation of oxygen, but had thankfully succumbed to just one intake of breath and sucked in the icy water, which in turn would have shrunk her lungs to half the size. The fresh water did not induce gag reflux in the same manner that seawater did, so there had been no multiple respiratory function to flood the lungs. King knew that his best bet would be to use the shot of adrenaline to kick start her heart, but the damage to the heart from the needle would also have been less because of the extreme cold, tightening and hardening the muscle of the heart wall. Like many things in his life, it had been a gamble. He would only rest easy once she had seen a doctor, but he had done the only thing he could have and right now, she was alive. Every fibre of King’s being had wanted to hold her, to say how much he loved her. He wanted to sweep her up in his arms and carry her, but it had been essential for her to get warm and this could only happen through exertion. Her muscles needed to work and pump oxygen around her bloodstream, and her lungs needed to work to drive the residue of water from them and oxygenate the blood. He had stripped their snowsuits off and put the dry clothes on over their wet underclothes. Once they got moving, the damp clothes warmed and created an insulated layer which
