Instinct (2010) (21 page)

In the lab behind her, a torch beam was waving frantically through the darkness. A moment later, the
light switch was turned on. Harry was standing under the flickering bulbs which were coming to life in Lab 7. He turned off the torch and stood staring at the shield like it was his own gravestone.

‘Major,’ Laura said, tugging on Webster’s sleeve.

He looked up to see what she was pointing at and felt an icy wash pass through him.

He turned his gaze to the corridor. None of the other scientists had noticed that Harry was behind the glass.

‘Everyone in the canteen, now!’ he yelled.

‘You best stay the hell in this elevator while we get your mom out,’ Garrett warned Andrew as they continued to plummet.

‘Yes ma’am,’ replied Andrew, knowing he didn’t have to do anything he was told. While they looked for their friends, he was going to find his mum.

The elevator slowed. It had to decelerate so much, Carter and Garrett knew they still had a good twenty seconds to prepare.

‘OK, Garrett. We’ve got to grab whoever we can and get them into the elevator before Bishop stops us. We see him, I sit on his ass till you get the others, and then I let him go.’

‘Roger that.’

‘And get his mom early. We don’t want him going out on his own.’Andrew pretended he hadn’t heard and stood facing the doors. Carter moved him to the back of the elevator and stood poised next to Garrett.

They had travelled in the lift often enough to know how fast the doors opened, so they readied themselves for the exact moment they would be able to spring out.

The elevator slowed to a stop. There was a beat to wait, then the doors
shhsssssshhed
apart fast.

Carter and Garrett jumped forward, spotting the
glass at the last fraction of a second. Turning sideways, they just managed to skid to a stop and avoid running into it face first.

‘What the hell is this?’ asked Garrett

‘The Inshield.’ Carter sounded worried. ‘It’s the security system that comes down if any of the wasps escape. It means nothing can get to the surface, including this elevator, until everything’s guaranteed safe.’

‘The wasps are out?’ gasped Andrew.

‘Maybe. There could be other reasons for it. We need to see what we can find out before we think about panicking,’ said Carter.

‘Should we try the phone?’ asked Garrett.

‘It goes up to Taj. Somehow I don’t think he’s going to be much help right now.’

‘So we’ve got to stay in the elevator until they sort things out? Could be worse.’

Carter was silent. He didn’t mind delivering bad news to Garrett – she could take it – but he didn’t need Andrew to be more scared than he already was.

He looked around the small space they filled and realized they would both know sooner or later, so he might as well say it now.

‘Yeah, well, the real problem comes in stage two.’

‘What happens then?’ asked Garrett.

‘Everything this side of the glass freezes.’

‘What’s up?’ asked Bishop. The scientists were safely out of the way in the canteen, so he went to find out what had spooked Webster.

A flick of the head in Harry’s direction was all it took.

‘Oh, good God,’ said Bishop quietly. ‘Do what you can. I’m going to call Paine.’

Laura looked expectantly at Webster, but he could only shake his head.

‘We’ve got to do
something
,’ Laura said.

Webster remained silent.

‘But it won’t be long before Heath’s wasps try to get into this lab.’

‘We’ll deal with that when it happens.’

In the lab, Harry looked at the gene sequencers and took notes of the latest readings, jotting them down on a clipboard.

As he walked towards the last one, he suddenly froze.

‘What’s he doing?’ asked Laura. She and Webster watched as Harry turned round very slowly to face the back wall. His brow lowered in concern as he walked cagily towards it.

‘This doesn’t look good,’ said Webster.

Harry tapped at the wall. With no knowledge of
what had happened in the holding bay, he leaned into the cool plastic with nothing more than curiosity. He had no idea the noise that had drawn him had anything to do with the wasps.

‘We’ve got to warn him,’ said Laura. She waved, but Harry was facing away from her, and any sound she could make would have no way of penetrating beyond the Inshield.

Harry put his finger up to a place where he could feel a firm vibration. As he did so, that inch of wall was ripped away, replaced by the enormous jaws of a furious wasp.

With a hole in the wall, the sound was able to blast through: the wingbeat of a mutant wasp was drilling angrily at Harry’s eardrums.

It had actually touched him, and the revulsion Harry felt at the contact made him stumble backwards into the sequencers.

‘Oh, shit,’ said Laura.

Harry was frantically searching for some sort of weapon. As in the holding bay, an antenna probed through first, followed by the mandibles.

The wasp was widening the hole just enough to get its head through when Harry ran towards it with a spray gun. He pumped the trigger and covered the insect in a fine mist of concentrated hydrochloric acid.

It had just the effect he had been looking for: the wasp’s face melted as if it had been pushed into a fire.

‘Go on, Harry!’ Laura yelled. She turned to look at Webster, who did not share her enthusiasm.

‘What is it?’

He was looking at the wall. It was covered in holes, each filled with the antenna or jaws of a wasp. Some were widening enough to accommodate a head.

Harry had noticed too, and was spraying as fast as he could, but then he looked back at the first hole. The acid was eating away at the surrounding plastic and the gap was growing larger.

Desperately, he searched for another weapon. He soon found a canister of liquid nitrogen and some rubber gloves. If he couldn’t melt them, maybe freezing would work.

He splashed a little nitrogen over each hole, and it acted like glue: the insects were stuck to the wall by their frozen legs. In a fury, they tried to free themselves until the effort tore their legs off.

‘Looks like he’s stopped them,’ said Laura.

‘Yeah,’ replied Webster quietly. ‘But even if they don’t get to him, I can’t see how we can get him out before we freeze it. If we lift the Inshield, we release the wasps.’

‘But you can’t just leave him there.’

‘I
know
,’ said Webster. ‘I know.’

In his office, Bishop was psyching himself up to make a call he would have crawled over several dead bodies to avoid. He picked up the receiver, breathed deep and dialled the three digits that connected him directly to the Pentagon office of Tobias Paine.

As usual, the phone rang only once before Paine answered in his distinct patrician tone.

‘Steven Bishop. A rare displeasure.’

Bishop laughed this off. ‘Good morning, Tobias.’

‘Forgive my weariness, Steven, but I can’t remember a time when you’ve called me with good news.’

‘I guess that’s because it’s never been necessary to let you know when the place is running smoothly.’

‘I suppose not. So, what’s the trouble this time?’

‘Well, it was all a result of attempting to make further progress in efficiencies, both, uh, economically and in minimizing our exposure as a facility.’

‘Yes, yes. Feel free not to bore the living shit out of me if you can possibly manage it.’

‘Uh … Sorry. Well, getting right to it, Dr Heath’s created some superwasps that are advanced far beyond any of the previous iterations. They’re larger, more aggressive and more intelligent.’

‘Wonderful. I thought you said this was bad news.’

‘Well, it would have been fine if we’d managed to harness them, but before that happened they turned on Dr Heath and killed him.’

A pause. ‘Go on.’

‘So I tried to get the reserve entomologist out here – the Brit? Laura Trent?’

‘Wasn’t there some kind of
issue
with her?’

‘She’s got a young son, so I couldn’t persuade her to join us.’

‘So?’

‘So we kidnapped him to blackmail her into making the trip.’

‘I assume you’re not calling to inform me of a simple change in personnel.’

‘Not exactly. The wasps got out. They’ve eaten through the walls and we’ve had to …’ his voice shrank ‘… deploy the Inshield.’

Silence. Then, ‘I see.’

‘So we’re just trying to work out the best course of action …’

‘Allow me to assist you with that task. I want you to evacuate all non-military personnel.’

‘We’re already looking at that.’

‘Then I want you to raise the Inshield and let the grunts deal with the wasps.’

‘Raise the Inshield? But these wasps have already killed three soldiers. The idea that the ones who are left will be able to provide any resistance is –’

‘Shut up, Steven. Freezing MEROS and restarting it again? That will take until next year. Do you have
any idea how that will go down here? We have operations Fleming and Harper in the next month alone. How do you expect me to tell Jonathan that we have to cancel them because a few wasps got out and, rather than try to deal with them, you just wet your pants and ran away?’

‘Tobias, it’s a little more serious than that. I wouldn’t be calling if there wasn’t a very real and imminent threat.’

‘A threat to what? Yes, Dr Heath has died and that is a …’ he searched for the word ‘…
shame
, I suppose, but a few soldiers? That goes with the territory.’

‘But Tobias –’

‘If there are any further developments, call me again. Otherwise: do your job.’

‘Tobias –’

‘Am I understood?’

‘Yes, Tobias.’

Bishop left his office in time to meet Laura and Webster coming back down the corridor. Wainhouse was making frantic gestures towards the elevator.

Webster hurried towards him, with Laura following close behind. As they reached the end of the corridor, she saw Andrew standing helpless behind the glass.

On the side that was going to be frozen.

With everything else that was happening, Laura had been grateful that she did not have to worry about her son. Now that single source of comfort had been wrenched from her and replaced with the cold darkness of its opposite.

She was torn between her instinct, which was to let the twisted rush of dread take over, and her need to make Andrew believe that this was not going to be as disastrous as it appeared.

In the end, she brought her hands to her face to mask the fear in her eyes, then realized how bad that looked and took them away again.

Shit,
she thought,
shit shit shit shit shit.

‘Please tell me there’s something we can do about this,’ she said to Webster. She was trying in vain to keep her voice steady.

Before Webster could think of a reply that could possibly help, Bishop appeared behind them.

‘What the hell are they doing in there?’

‘We’re trying to find that out,’ said Webster.

‘Please tell me there’s something we can do about this,’ repeated Laura.

‘While we’re on lockdown, the elevator can’t go back up,’ Webster said.

‘But everything on that side of the glass is going to be frozen.’

There was a damp pause before Bishop spoke. ‘No one expected this to happen.’

Laura moved to the glass in front of the lift. Andrew looked ashen. The initial waves of fearful shock were still pounding through her, so her attempt to appear calm came out only as helpless confusion.

Meanwhile, Bishop took Webster aside.

‘Paine said to evacuate non-military and lift the shield, let your guys deal with the wasps. Obviously, that’s changed now.’

‘Yep. I think we’re going to be lifting the shield with no evac, otherwise no one’s going anywhere. Dealing with the wasps just went from hard to damn near impossible.’

Bishop agreed, like he was revealing a secret under torture. ‘We’d better check on Harry.’

They walked up the corridor to Lab 7. Through the Inshield and the glass, they saw him facing the hole-ridden wall, looking for the next wasp that fancied its chances against him.

Some of the jagged gaps were blocked with frozen wasp heads. By splashing liquid nitrogen on the parts that had come through, Harry had created a macabre series of ice-sculptures which were strangely fascinating to look at. Cruel eyes peered out over vicious jaws, some with legs trying to prise their way forward; others with thick, lengthy antennae probing ahead.

But there would be no more of these. Harry’s nitrogen had run out; he would have to search the lab for other means of defending himself.

The problem was that all the other harmful chemicals were corrosive, and he could see from the large, melted gap he had sprayed with acid there would be no point in using any of those.

His only other option was physical: he had smashed a beaker and was now armed with a jagged blade of glass, which he was using to stab the wasps that poked their heads through the wall. However, there were now so many of them, and they were smart enough to learn and adapt their behaviour. They would break down as much of the wall as possible, then take refuge in the cavity when Harry approached.

He knew it was only a matter of time before they made it through.

Catching a reflection of Bishop and Webster in the chrome piping at the back of the lab, he turned and saw their frustrated and despairing expressions.

Bishop shrugged hard and mouthed,
What the hell –?
, to which Harry replied with a
What am I supposed to do?
look of his own. Bishop closed his eyes, shook his head
and walked off towards the barracks. Webster stayed to mouth,
Hang on. We’re going to get you out of there.

Hurry
, was the silent reply.

The remaining inhabitants of MEROS had gathered in the mess room of the barracks.

The soldiers Webster and Wainhouse were making sure they had access to the kind of weaponry that would come in useful if the wasps managed to get out.