those men to place themselves within five miles of ground zero. I’ll send the pick-up coordinates, but you’ll have to get to them. God speed, Arcadian. Over.’
Alex turned back to Aimee, who mouthed,
He’d call Franks and tell her to evac immediately. She was injured, but she was tough; she’d run till she dropped if he ordered it.
Aimee spoke his name and he focused on her face, noticing the creases of worry etched into it. He nodded and smiled at her, but his mind still raced. He couldn’t do anything for anyone else at the camp, and he shouldn’t try. Still, even though he personally couldn’t buy them more time, he could get Casey Franks to ask Maria Vargis to allow a few extra hours to get clear. Then he and Sam needed to start steering their group away from the blast zone and towards their rendezvous point without their Paraguayan chaperone realising what was going on. Alex could imagine the response of any soldier if they found out a foreigner was planning to detonate a nuke in their backyard. It’d get ugly, and he had enough problems.
He’d update Sam, but that was all; he’d need the big man’s calm intellect if they were all going to make it out alive.
He called his second-in-command over, then pulled his GPS unit from his pocket pouch and checked their coordinates. If they changed course now, they’d make it.
Casey Franks listened calmly to Alex’s clinical briefing on the situation. She’d experienced all manner of things in her career with the HAWCs, and currently being in the vicinity of some wild necrotising bug, an insane priest and a potential nuclear explosion was just another situation to be dealt with.
‘Got the coordinates, boss,’ she confirmed. ‘By the by, Michael Vargis is dead, and Maria Vargis is zoning out. I’ll try to buy us some time and then move to rendezvous with you at …’ She checked her watch: it was just on 1800 hours. ‘Approximately 2200 hours. But you know what traffic’s like around these parts.’
She allowed herself a small smile. Alex would know what she meant:
She didn’t need to pack; she didn’t need food, more water or further armaments. If need be, she could live off the land. But she didn’t expect to be out there for long. The only thing she really needed was time. Her first call would be to Maria.
Maria wiped her eyes and sniffed. Any moment she expected to hear the peep of her secure comm device informing her that the initiation codes had been received. Then it was a matter of plugging them in and setting a countdown.
She felt a knot in her stomach and wondered whether she’d have the strength and courage to detonate. There would be innocent casualties. She wiped the steamy window to look out across the darkening camp. The braziers were glowing dark red and smoke was once again curling along the ground — it looked Gothic. If not for the heat, she might have expected Dracula to appear out of the mist.
This waiting was excruciating.
She got slowly to her feet. Maybe she’d take a walk over to say goodbye to Michael. It’d be her last chance.
Casey Franks spotted Maria standing in front of one of the isolation cabins. She wondered why; its last patient had long since succumbed to the foul disease.
Casey walked closer, and was about to clear her throat so as not to give the woman a start when the CDC scientist spoke without turning — as if expecting her.
‘I shouldn’t tell you this but you need to get out of here … now.’
Casey kept her expression flat as Maria turned to face her. The scientist’s hair hung in dripping bundles of rats’ tails and her face looked to have aged a generation in a day.
‘I’m going to burn it all,’ she said. ‘You need to be a
Casey didn’t move. ‘I know.’
Maria frowned for a moment, then closed her eyes briefly and nodded in understanding. She turned back to look at the cabin.
Casey spoke as gently as she knew how. ‘How much time can you give me?’
Maria snorted. ‘Unfortunately, that’s not up to me anymore. I’m afraid the question should be: how much time will
At first Casey couldn’t see anything in the camp’s gloomy lighting, but then she detected movement. There was a black, jelly-like substance inching its way up the support beams. ‘What the fuck is that?’
‘Seems our little Hades Bug is quite sociable — likes to join with its family. It’s not content to wait for a chance interaction with its food source anymore; I believe it’s about to start looking for it.’
The jelly bulged in dozens of places to form small black globes like glistening, dark grapes. They split vertically to reveal opaque pupils that bulged obscenely towards the women.
Maria turned back to Casey. ‘I can give you four hours. After that, everything will be ash. God speed, Lieutenant Franks.’
Casey looked from the slime to Maria and back again. She’d seen what that stuff could do to a human being when it was microscopic. If it was now growing and about to go hunting —
She had her extra time; now to use it. She turned away, bumping into Tomas who had come up behind her.
‘
Casey grabbed the little man by the shoulders and looked hard into his face. ‘Doesn’t matter — you need to go home now too, Tomas. You need to go fast. Understand?’
He frowned. ‘Go home,
Casey gestured around the camp, then made two fists and opened them with an explosion sound. ‘Big bang coming — go home now!’
Tomas looked around the camp too, confusion showing on his face.
‘Oh, come on, Friday,’ Casey muttered, more to herself than to the little man in front of her. ‘Ahh,
He walked slowly towards the green wall but kept looking back over his shoulder at her. She nodded, made shooing motions with her hands, and gave a final wave goodbye.
She pulled her GPS from her pocket and used it to locate Alex.
She sucked in a deep breath and winced at the pain in her throat. She tied a bandana cloth around the bandage, pulled out her longest knife, and then jogged to the edge of the clearing. She looked back at the scientist still standing in front of the hut. She waved, but couldn’t tell if Maria Vargis hadn’t seen her or was choosing to ignore her.
Casey Franks began to run, bullocking branches and fronds out of the way, and slashing at others with the razor sharp blade, as she picked up speed. Her feet kicked up sodden debris and mud as she sprinted through the darkening jungle. The mud stuck to her boots, some of it red … and some of it black.
After the strange soldier woman had left, Tomas stepped back into the clearing. He looked around and saw the other doctor woman standing in the drizzle. He decided not to interrupt her; she frightened him a little. It was just him and her now. All the men who were physically able to leave had over the last few hours. He would have left with them, but he knew that when
He smoothed out the now illegible piece of paper pinned to his chest. He’d wait for her. She would want
