Toxic (25 page)

She objected once again. She didn’t like that plan.

“They may choose a completely different plan. This wouldn’t be the first time.”

Masters pointed his flashlight to a plaque beside the door.
Research Laboratory – Authorized Personnel Only
.

“I’ll bet that curiosity or hope will overcome fear. The cure which you’re talking about might be on the other side.”

J
ave remained seated on one of the cargo area benches during the return flight to the Dubai HQ. Naakrit had spent the time in the cockpit, without changing the orders of the T-J, which was configured in autopilot mode.

The Primark had really planned to eliminate him. Even though the emissary had predicted this sort of maneuver, it had come much earlier than expected. The reptilian was acting like a warlord, which was what he really was deep down. That allowed his instinct the freedom to express itself, far from the Commercial Collective where conflicts were resolved in a much more civilized fashion.

He stretched his limbs and felt his cellulose joints dilate and then relax. His radioles penetrated out through his outer skin but only found air high in oxygen. They retracted right away. Jave closed his ocular slits.

When he reopened them, the landing skids squealed on the metal of the platform.

The noise of the over-revved motors and the mechanical clinking interrupted his meditation. Jave got up. A dash of light appeared in the back of the cargo area. The hot desert wind rushed inside. Naakrit, who he hadn’t seen exit the cockpit, walked forward on the ramp just in front of him.

“We have something new,” he heard.

Kjet was waiting for them not far from the elevator tube. As soon as they set foot on the platform, the Primark’s loyal lieutenant came to meet them according to the customary protocol which said that the second in command welcome his commander. The exchange of whistled words was brief. The trio then went down to the operations room together a few seconds later. On the central visualization area, Jave silently observed the ship in the middle of the virtual space, framed by rivers of information. The holospheres lit up the shadows of mercenaries at work. The scene, relayed by the pair of marauder drones, didn’t show any particular movement on or around the ship, which was unmoving in the middle of the ocean. Kjet called up a sequence in the foreground. Two hours earlier, a small sailboat was moving close to the ship.

“The humans entered through a sort of airlock, a rear panel which opens to the sea.”

Naakrit turned towards Jave. “Since they’re searching for the same thing as us, we can assume that there’s a significant probability that this is Site B.”

Kjet added another detail in favor of this statement.

“According to the tera-servers, it’s an old military vessel, refitted before the invasion. Apparently, it’s back in service.”

Jave observed the information and images attentively.

“The summaries of the bio-scans reveal the presence of numerous infected on board,” the officer continued. “They’re grouped at the front.”

“How many healthy products?”

“Seven in total.”

“So, the vessel is infested.”

Jave stayed silent. The conclusion seemed hasty to him and as always, the details took on a capital importance for untangling the chain of events.

“An airlock you say?”

“Basically, emissary Jave. It lowers to allow smaller vessels to access the interior basin.”

“Was it already open when they arrived?”

Kjet agreed with a whistle of his tongue.

“While their common sense is telling them to run from the infected, these seven are walking around a place which is infested,” Naakrit retorted.

“Do you wish to prepare an intervention?” his lieutenant proposed.

The Primark headed towards the projection.

“The Nairobi operation is going to quickly mobilize much of our material capacity. Delivering compliant products remains our main preoccupation. We can’t tolerate the slightest delay. Business is the priority, even more so taking into account the supply difficulties. I need to reassure our clients.”

“And if they find the cure?”

“It’s simple; we’ll capture them.”

“They could destroy it to stop us from getting it.”

“You’re admitting then that that’s exactly what they’re looking for. I wonder what makes them think that it’s not some sort of rumor.”

The emissary remembered the notebook held by the survivor. The humans knew of the existence of Site B. On the other hand, he didn’t know how they had located it. This detail hadn’t escaped the Primark either.

“They went there directly if I believe the data. By what streak of luck did they find out about it?”

Naakrit turned towards the Lynian.

“They already possessed the coordinates,” Jave recognized, not expecting such a surprise.

The humans were showing themselves to be very resourceful and secretive too. He liked that.

“It seems clear to me that we can’t ignore a situation which, if it reveals itself to be true, would have a major impact on our operations on this planet. The existence of a cure would change our luck.”

Naakrit then gave orders to his lieutenant. “A T-J with a mini-commando and a support drone. There are only seven of them, so the opposition will be very weak. This should be a rapid excursion.”

Immediately, Kjet put his hands on a desk topped with an interactive glass panel. His claws grazed over the alert bubbles. The messages disappeared immediately. From one moment to the other, communicators buzzed almost everywhere around the planet. Many mercenaries who had been previously stationed at the HQ were participating in the preparations at Nairobi airport for the establishment of the manufacturing chain. First of all, a portion of them would have to come back to Dubai, which would give the humans time to explore the military ship, Jave guessed. However, the timing would still be very tight.

“I want to attend the intervention,” he interjected.

“Of course. We’ll accompany the assault team.”

The conversation came to an end. Naakrit stopped beside him before leaving the room.

“I want to capture them and interview them personally, one by one. I hope that you don’t have a problem with that.”

“No, Primark.”

R
eestablishing electricity on board revealed itself to be more difficult than they had imagined. Convincing the others to help them had been the first stage, and not the least of them. Taking refuge behind his pride – and his fear – Hector had been against them getting off the boat. Elaine and Masters had put their cards on the table: yes, they were taking a risk. The grunts which they heard didn’t leave behind any doubt, and not to mention there were the aliens. Bruce had joined Elaine and Masters, excited or intrigued by what he would find in the laboratory. The scientist, his curiosity sparked, wanted answers on the L-Ds. So, Alva was left.

The singer seemed to be solely capable of softening the harshness of the Colombian, and maybe even capable of bending him to her will, Elaine predicted. She had the power of manipulation over men and knew it. That made her dangerous in turn. The debate went on and on until the nurse decided to go up to the bridge, exhausted by the never-ending discussions.

Alva had then declared, “We’ll find the girl and then get out of here.”

That was a start.

The colonel was right, Elaine told herself, groping around in the dark. This ship had come right out of a museum. After an exhausting climb up the wobbly ladders, each one steeper than the next, she came to fresh air, followed by Bruce and then the marine. The burning door which she leaned on made her cringe. The sun, already at its highest point, was heating the deck. She shook her hurt hand.

“It’s a real furnace in here.”

She wiped her forehead. The sea mirrored thousands of glimmering reflections. They stretched out around them as far as the eye could see. Elaine put her hands to her forehead like a visor. The clear sky mingled with the ocean at the horizon. There, the blues mixed like eternal lovers.

“The bridge is located on the upper levels. We get there by taking these stairs,” Masters indicated.

Two wet armpits stained his cream-colored t-shirt.

“Even though they remodeled it, it really shows its age,” Bruce remarked.

The crude light revealed a reality which the varnish and successive maintenance didn’t manage to hide. Under the grey paint, rust was spreading like cancer. It ate away at the metal, appearing in the form of holes, brown marks or blisters on the paint. In some areas, it stretched across entire walls. The colonel warned everyone to be careful.

The bridge took them by surprise. It didn’t have any computers or screens. A thick rust stood out in front of the window. A heap of dials and manometers covered the consoles, which had come straight out of a black and white war film.

“My God, this piece of junk was just teleported from the previous century,” the young biologist muttered. “How did they navigate without a GPS and an electronic guidance system or satellite uplink?”

Masters’ dimples grew deeper. “By using maps, a compass and a sextant. The old way. They don’t teach you anything in school nowadays?”

“Yeah, I hope we’re not going to have to rely on candles for light.”

“There has to be a panel,” the soldier added. “Rather large, full of dials and buttons.”

Everywhere she looked, Elaine saw nothing but dials and switches of all imaginable sizes. Dew observed the front of the ship from the window, beside the helm and strangely still, as if listening. Then Alva yelled, “There! Come see! I’ve just found something.”

Elaine saw her in front of a wall covered with a window which she was rubbing clean with the back side of her sleeve.

“At least we have a ship plan.”

An electrical panel took up one part of the wall in the neighboring room. The three men planted themselves in front of it, speechless in front of the technology as old as time, which sparked an amused look from the diva. Their multiple attempts to turn the lights on once again failed miserably. They moved the switches one after another, heads turned outwards with the hope that something would light up. Quickly discouraged, Hector left the room, swearing in Spanish, followed by Bruce, who at least tried for a few more minutes before throwing in the towel.

When she entered the room in turn, Elaine saw Masters sitting, a blue binder on his knees.

“The procedure is explained here,” he said. “Of course nowadays we have tablets and databases that you can consult with keywords. That is, before the fucking L-Ds infested us and the aliens invaded.”

When everything still worked, the world provided solutions in one click. His index finger slid along the yellow paper, page after page. They needed to re-learn the basics, without their electronic crutches which were now useless.

“There’s definitely a circuit or some sort of master switch.”

“In the machine room,” Masters confirmed, “but we’ll have to apply the complete procedure, without messing up.”

“The machine room…”

The idea of delving into the depths of the ship made her sweat. They hadn’t yet located the source of the grunting. The nurse let herself fall on a frayed leather chair facing the colonel.

“I got lost on a ship like this one once, though it had screens almost everywhere and air conditioning as well. The paint was the same, almost down to the shades. All of the marines and visitors wore a badge with a chip allowing for them to be identified and located.”

“What did you do with yours?”

“It didn’t work. My dad gave shit to the person in charge of IT that day. The team looked for me for more than two hours.”

“Where’d they find you?”

“In the machine room. I had imagined the place to be noisy and full of dirty tough guys in blue uniforms. In reality, there were computers in every corner and the electric motors purred like cats. It could have been the base’s Laundromat.”

Masters smiled.

He ripped a sheet out of the binder.

“There’s also one on board here. With a bit of luck, we could get it back up and running again.”

He left the room and called the others. The master distribution panel was located in the room beside the machine room. A cabinet that ran along a wall contained two handles to switch up. With the help of a pencil, the soldier traced the path to follow on the plan to reach it. The line wound through passageways and levels. The journey chilled the audience.