Part 20 (1/2)

I let my gaze travel to the table. What lay on top was barely recognizable as human. Parts of the skin were gone, exposing muscle and, in the case of her left thigh, the bone. Tracts of skin along the side of the face had been stripped away. Her clothes were gone. I noticed the table on which she lay was smoking intermittently as acid from her body ate into the surface.

I glanced at Chris. The sight obviously left him shaken. He could have ended her torment in the moment before Fielding's people had taken over.

He hadn't. I tried to imagine how he must be feeling now. I failed.

Thankfully.

'What's happening to her?' Chris's voice was a whisper. Fielding said quietly, 'We're not sure. Several reactions are taking place in her body.

Calcium sulphate is being reduced to calcium oxide and sulphur. The sulphur is poisoning her as it replaces the oxygen in her system. Somehow sulphur dioxide is forming in there, and when it combines with water - for example in her eyes - it turns to sulphuric acid.' Fielding took a breath, looked away for a moment and then back. 'The doctors are trying to keep her alive using sodium hypochlorate and organic alkaline in combination, both externally and internally.'

'For G.o.d's sake, why?' Chris's voice boomed in the confined s.p.a.ce of the observation corridor. 'Can't you see she's in agony?'

'I should imagine she's in h.e.l.l. But she's the only one who knows how to make the serum.'

I looked back into the lab, at Imorkal, staring down at the dying woman, remembered him yanking information from my brain as I might take a toy from a naughty child. They were keeping her alive in the hope he could reach in and get the formula before she died. In the moment I realized this I also detected that she was looking at me. No. She was looking at Chris.

Her eyelids were gone now, one eye was missing as well. The other stared fixedly at Chris. Her mouth moved in a series of jerks. The commsystem brought the gurgling remains of her voice to us. '- b.a.s.t.a.r.d - cuh - killed - You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you could have killed me.

I looked away, said, 'Can't you take blood from us? We're cured., 'That was the first thing the doctors did. We have a solution which slows the rate of infection somewhat; but that only delays the inevitable.'

'The inevitable what?' I had a good idea what the answer might be. Fielding didn't disappoint me.

'The inevitable infection of the entire Earth.'

I blinked. The sentence was simple. Direct. Yet it meant nothing to me.

Fielding could have been describing a Neapolitan ice cream for all the effect it had on me. Chris was breathing fast. He was staring through the gla.s.s into the isolab. He seemed distant. I had never seen him scared before. At least I a.s.sumed he was scared. I was beyond terror. So I thought.

Chris licked his lips. 'I've seen this before. It's a terraforming virus. It's programmed to use what it can from an environment to recreate another.

Creation and destruction all at once.'

Fielding seemed about to speak when a red light flashed above the window. At the same time a siren cut loose.

A recorded voice said mildly, 'Attention. Seal breach in isolab One. Seal breach in isolab One. Evacuate adjoining areas. Repeat. Evacuate adjoining areas. Please remain calm.'

I noticed the personnel within the room go into an immediate panic. Too late. The doors their pressure suits were connected to slammed shut, sealing the tunnels to prevent exposure to the lab environment. It was obviously a measure designed to maintain the integrity of the lab and quarantine the doctors in case of infection. It did no good. In a matter of seconds their suits were blooming with yellow crystals.

I watched them begin to die.

One fetched up against the window. His suit was sprinkled with yellow crystals. Yellow powder puffed into the air as he hit the gla.s.s? The radio brought his voice to us clear as a bell. 'It's hot! The acid is hot! It's infectious! Get the h.e.l.l out and sterilize! Do it now before - The technician fell out of view. His face mask was melting from the inside. The scream was cut off as the radio circuit broke, remaining only distantly through the window. Distant but growing louder as the gla.s.s melted.

And as the gla.s.s melted a figure smashed its way through. Imorkal. He seemed unharmed, but his breath hissed painfully in his throat.

The recorded voice added mildly; 'Attention. Seal breach in isolab One.

Seal breach in isolab One. All adjoining areas are now hot. All adjoining areas are now hot. Sealing the lab unit for self-destruct sequence. Please remain calm. Your cooperation is appreciated.'

Beside us Fielding suddenly fell against the wall, a moan building in his throat.

'Get us ... out ... now...'

Chris and I grabbed an arm each. His clothes were beginning to burn. The air stank of acid fumes. My skin was on fire again. We staggered down the corridor with Fielding between us. Halfway to the end the door began to close. Imorkal moved ahead and blocked it. Motors whined then shorted out. The door froze.

The recorded voice said, 'Attention. Seal breach in isolation section. Main thoroughfare is now hot. Main thoroughfare is now hot. In accordance with regulation Zero-Zero-One-Alpha this vehicle will now be targeted for sterilization by nuclear device. Please remain calm. Your cooperation is appreciated.'

'Did you get it? The formula for the serum?' Fielding's voice was a harsh croak.

Imorkal nodded slowly. He seemed dazed. 'She is dead.'

Fielding said in a cracked whisper, 'We'll all be dead if that serum doesn't get to safe hands.'

'I am dying. More slowly than a human would but the process is inevitable.'

Fielding thought about that for all of thirty seconds. 'Get me to OpCon!' He coughed. 'Now!' Imorkal plucked him from our hands and strode off along the corridor.

OpCon was a mess of panicking technicians. Half the consoles had sprouted flowers of yellow crystal. I felt dizzy. The oxygen content of the air was shooting up. And there was a chemical stink I recognized as sulphur dioxide. Before long what happened to the rocks outside was going to happen here. As we watched a technician screamed and collapsed; bled acid out into her suit. Electrical systems blew out in a mess of sparks and smoke. Sprinklers activated immediately. The screams increased as the water mixed with sulphur compounds in the air to form acid? The stink was awful.

Fielding fought for air, told Imorkal to take him to the command console.

Panels in the low ceiling sprang open and breathing masks popped out?

Imorkal grabbed a mask each for himself and Fielding. I followed suit. The oxygen supply tasted of sulphur.

At the console, Fielding input some commands, brought the radio on line.

'Open Channel D. Authorization Fielding Zero-Zero-One-Beta. Field Command breached. Request urgent, repeat urgent, sterilization of this base and surrounding land to a radius of sixty miles by nuclear device.

Condition Black, repeat Condition Black. Agent Yellow is on the move. I say again, Agent Yellow is on the-' Fielding coughed. Blood sprayed out from behind the breathing mask. Water from the sprinklers sprayed over him. He choked back a scream, stared at Imorkal. 'You have to get the formula out.

You know that.'

Imorkal nodded.

Fielding looked at Chris and gasped, ' ”Creation and destruction, all at once.” It's not a virus. It's G.o.d.' He choked up the lining of his throat in a spray of blood.

Imorkal opened his third eye and looked at Fielding with absolute compa.s.sion. Fielding convulsed once and died, right there before us, in Imorkal's arms. If he'd lived another thirty seconds he would have heard a tinny voice on the radio confirm a full thermonuclear strike for thirty-one minutes' time.

Chris looked away.

Imorkal put Fielding down carefully, almost tenderly. I pulled Chris towards the airlock.

The HQ tore itself to pieces as we ran, blew apart moments after we pushed through the main airlock and into the night. For several minutes it rained bits of sulphur, bits of metal and bits of human bodies. Or what might have been human bodies. It was hard to tell. We dodged pieces of heavy machinery already blossoming with their own yellow stains. By now Imorkal was stumbling too. And Chris looked as if he'd been hit over the head with a two-by-four. At one point he half turned, stood staring as a burning jeep caught in the explosion, bounced across the road towards him. I pushed him out of the way a second before the jeep tore past in a gout of flame and yellow crystals and dissolving metal shrapnel.

Chris still wasn't going to move. 'Chris. Get up will you!' I pointed to the only chopper left on the ground. It was the one we had arrived on; parked, engine idling, a few hundred metres away beside the road. 'Chris,' I said again, urgently. 'The chopper.'

'Roz,' Chris said slowly, quietly. 'Roz, I'm sorry. I promised myself I wouldn't feel guilty. That was selfish of me. I should have known better than that?'