disease. It may just have been some exotic chemical enzyme that reacted with the salt or oxygen in the human bloodstream. There were no samples taken, and no evidence other than the mine manager’s written records and a few grainy black and white images of the victims, or what remained of them.’
Maria must have seen something in the set of Alex’s jaw. ‘Yes, I know. I’m sorry, but I really hope that your friend
She stepped around in front of him, forcing him to stop. ‘This is critical for both of us — the CDC and the military. You see, we need to understand the disease before we can safeguard against it. But there are other interested parties…Well, you can imagine what would happen if you inserted some of that microbe into a detonating warhead over a densely populated city.’
Alex nodded. ‘I can assure you, I’m not down here to try to find a new weapon, Maria. And I think you’re pretty confident that the Paraguayans drilled this infection up to the surface, and that’s what’s responsible for the quarantine.’
She held his eyes for a moment longer, then gave another shrug of her shoulders, stepped out of his path and walked alongside him again. ‘Unfortunately, that is what I believe, Captain Hunter. Planet Earth has plenty of secrets — hidden in dense jungles, in deep waters, and buried far under the earth. We just keep tripping over them and tearing them out. The Paraguayan site is a fairly deep drill, over a mile, so it fits the historical profile. The images Dr Weir sent were the first we’ve actually seen of the microbe’s physical profile. The accompanying descriptions of the total cellular destruction and necrotising effects on human tissue, its transmission rate…yes, at this stage I have little reason to doubt.’
Maria nodded, apparently more to herself than to Alex. ‘You know, these diseases are usually old. Primordial really. They should never meet us, and they infect humans only by accident. But when they do, their effect on life is usually devastating. It’s strange; it’s like they don’t belong on our world at all.’ Maria’s eyes looked to carry the fatigue of experience when she spoke.
Alex felt the knot in his stomach grow tighter. ‘With our current medical technology, can it be stopped, or cured?’
‘Stopped? Yes, probably. I’m here to see to that, and to ensure it never makes it to the wider population. But cured, inoculated against, denatured, attenuated…?’ She stopped and searched Alex’s face for a few moments, her lips compressed as if she was fighting to keep a secret. After another long moment, she said in a hushed voice, ‘Have you heard of the Ten Protocols, Captain Hunter?’
Alex’s brow furrowed and he shook his head. ‘No.’
‘I’m not surprised. Your commanding officer probably doesn’t even know about them. Hell, not even my son is authorised for that level of information clearance and he works closely with me.’ She drew in a long breath as if deciding where to start. ‘There are real threats to our way of life. Not just the guys across the water building a bigger or dirtier bomb, but sometimes from the very planet itself. There are terrestrial threats, and sometimes even extraterrestrial threats.’
She looked over her shoulder to see where everyone else was, before going on.
‘In the mid-1950s, a small asteroid fell to Earth off the coast of Japan, just a mile out from a small fishing town called Minamata. Within a few weeks, the population had developed physical deformities, retardation and eventually full cellular mutation. The public story was that a chemical factory had polluted the region’s waterways with heavy metals, but that was a cover story to buy time. Japan, with the assistance of the United States, sterilised over fifty miles of ocean. It worked…that time. Whatever it was that came down in that meteorite, and somehow leaked out, was cauterised, for good. After that, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council developed a secret set of rules — a blueprint to deal with extraordinary threats to the human race. They’re called the Ten Protocols, and are known only to prime ministers and presidents and anyone at the rank of three-star general or above. The only one I know about is Protocol 9, which deals with extra-, intra- and interterrestrial biological threats.’
Maria’s jaw tightened and she donned a more businesslike persona. ‘My job is to review the situation and provide a risk assessment on the contagion. If the bio-hazard represents a threat to a populated area, any populated area, and is deemed intractable, uncontrollable, hopeless, then…’ She stopped and swallowed.
Alex waited for her to go on.
‘Then…total evacuation and total human isolation,’ she finished. ‘Miles of forest classed as a no-go area for a generation.’
‘That’s it?’ He looked hard at her and saw that her eyes were watering. Something about all this didn’t feel right.
‘Yes. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, so these people aren’t deprived of a chunk of their land.’
Alex grunted and gave a small nod.
He walked in silence for a while, his mind turning over what she’d said. No-go zones were notoriously hard to enforce — more so in a third-world environment. He’d leave it for now…but still…it just didn’t sound right.
He had one more question. ‘Could the quarantine order be responsible for the camp’s communication blackout?’
She made a face. ‘I can see why a blackout might be ordered or requested in certain circumstances, but as we’re still in an investigatory stage and all information is vital…’ She rocked her head from side to side, as if mulling it over. ‘No, if I were a betting person, I’d put my money on a technical malfunction or something a lot bigger than a microbe…maybe with two legs.’
‘I agree,’ Alex said. ‘I think we both need to get there as quickly as possible. Can you manage?’ He looked down at her and smiled.
Maria wiped her nose and winked at him. ‘Anything you can do…’
SEVENTEEN
‘
Aimee couldn’t blame him. The Paraguayans were devout, and after what Tomas had seen in the isolation cabin, she wasn’t surprised he felt he needed a spiritual top-up. By now, all the men would probably be delighted to attend a mass and have an opportunity to pray for anything that would get them home. Or, at least, get them anywhere but here.
She watched the priest enter the camp — there was something about the way his body moved, unnaturally fluidly, that made her feel uneasy. Or maybe it was the way he spoke that gave her the creeps, lowering his jaw just enough to allow the words to dribble out from behind his beard. The priest sighted her and stared for a few seconds before turning back to talk to the men. Aimee could have sworn that one of his eyes remained on her as his head turned, acting independently of the rest of his body. She recalled the same effect the last time he had visited the camp.
The light was fading now, and some of the men moved around the edges of the camp lighting small fires to give comfort from the coming dark. They, too, stopped what they were doing and wandered over to Father Gonzalez. He moved from group to group, nodding and listening as he went, sometimes reaching out to take a hand or touch a man on the head as though giving a blessing. Aimee could tell by the way the men reacted that he was winning them over. If he said to them,
