Z. Apocalypse (20 page)

‘What have you found out?’ Adam asked. ‘If you’re here at five thirty a.m., it must be something
big. What’s Zed got to do with it?’

‘If I might get a word in edgewise, I’ll explain.’ Dr Marrs smiled. ‘I thought you’d be interested to learn the nature of that mysterious shadow-thing in the blue.’

Zoe sat up. ‘I thought it was just a whale or something.’

‘We believe it to be a nuclear submarine.’

Adam and Zoe swapped dumbstruck looks.

‘Do you remember what Keera said when she showed you that image?’

‘Uh . . .’ Zoe closed her eyes and her lips moved lightly as if whispering to herself. ‘Interference,’ she said. ‘Shouldn’t receive. Fail-safe. Fail-deadly, again and again. That was about it, wasn’t it?’

Adam shrugged. ‘Sounds like gibberish.’

‘Fail-deadly is a term used in nuclear military strategy,’ said Marrs. ‘You may have heard of a fail-safe mechanism – a device that ensures that should a piece of technology or a system fail to perform correctly, no harm is caused to the user. Have you?’

‘Nope,’ said Adam.

Marrs frowned. ‘Well, anyway, a fail-deadly device is quite the reverse. Should the system fail to perform, there will be
automatic and overwhelming destructive consequences.’

Zoe looked like she was trying to get her head round it. ‘Has this got something to do with nuclear war?’

‘It has.’ Marrs looked grave. ‘A country’s nuclear submarines must surface regularly to receive communication from their controllers. At a time when war seems imminent, they surface more regularly. In the event that no communications
whatsoever are detected, the sub crews can only conclude that a nuclear attack has wiped out their homeland while they were out of contact beneath the sea.’

‘Oh, God,’ Zoe muttered. ‘And so those subs then retaliate by firing
their
nuclear missiles?’

‘That’s what I’d call an epic fail-deadly.’ Adam shook his head blankly. ‘But how does that fit with Keera’s prime directive?’

‘You know that
the Z. dactyls can dive deep under the sea?’ said Marrs. ‘A nuclear sub could easily detect an enemy craft in local waters – but Keera and her kind would show up on radar as organic marine life, no threat at all – particularly as all attacks so far have come from the air.’

‘Interference, shouldn’t receive . . .’ Zoe’s voice had grown husky. ‘This neural transmitter thing in Keera’s head – could
it block a nuclear sub’s communications?’

‘It could indeed,’ said Marrs.

Adam grasped the implications. ‘So Keera’s prime directive was to dive down and target a nuclear sub, then block its communications gear so no signals can get through.’

Zoe nodded. ‘The captain thinks a nuclear war has happened when really it hasn’t, and fires off a ton of missiles.’

‘Not realizing he’s actually making
a
first
strike,’ Marrs agreed. ‘Launching the first missiles that will drag every nuclear power into war.’

‘But, come on . . .’ Adam felt sick. ‘There must be special checks or something the subs can make to be sure they’re not messing up?’

‘Ordinarily, I’m sure,’ Marrs agreed. ‘But remember, after recent events, the likelihood of imminent nuclear war has never been higher. And who knows how
many pterosaurs Geneflow possess? If they target fifty or one hundred nuclear subs, all it takes is for one of them to believe the worst has happened . . .’

‘The sub’s crew will fight back, and start the war themselves.’ Adam remembered Josephs’ words back in Russia:
tensions must continue to rise
 . . . ‘Geneflow must be waiting for world relations to get even worse before they launch.’

‘But
the attack could come any minute.’ Zoe stared at Marrs. ‘Can’t we warn everyone?’

Marrs smiled patronizingly. ‘I can’t see China
and Russia standing down their nuclear weapons because we ask them nicely, can you?’

‘Then how
are
you going to stop them?’ said Adam.

‘That’s what we are trying to organize now,’ said Marrs gently. ‘And you do understand we must clutch at any chance to prevent this.
Any chance at all.’

Adam’s eyes narrowed a touch. ‘Like, going to Zed for help?’

‘To your remarkable friend and a lot, lot further.’ Dr Marrs tightened his scarf about his neck. ‘Perhaps you’d allow me to show you?’

Adam stood alone in the gloom of the Finnish forest. He stared up at the shaggy spikes of the tall firs all around and called out, trying to keep the shake from his voice. ‘Zed?
Zed, can you hear me? I need to talk to you . . . Need to ask you something.’

There was no reply, no distant crunch of branches or beating of wings to signal the creature’s imminent arrival. Just the low moan of the wind as it tugged down the temperature a few more degrees. Adam glanced behind him towards the armoured truck he knew was parked just a few hundred metres away. He wondered if his
dad and Dr Marrs were still wrangling inside it as
they had been all the journey from the camp.

‘
I can’t believe you left the briefing early to coerce my son into doing this
.’

‘
I don’t believe in patronizing the young, Bill. I needed to explain the situation as it was
.’

‘
You scared the hell out of him and Zoe. No kids should have to go through what they’ve experienced. They’ve been used by both sides
—’

‘
If the situation wasn’t so desperate I would naturally accept your concerns. But the thought of what they will experience if we
don’t
do this
 . . .’

Adam called out again: ‘It’s all right, Zed, this isn’t a trick or anything. The soldiers are only here to look after me and Dad. I need to ask you to work with them as well as us.’

A fresh gust of wind rustled the branches and a
dark green shimmer stained the air before Adam, as Zed appeared. Taken by surprise, Adam backed away a few steps. Zed’s tail snaked around behind him, its tip touching his spine.

‘No soldiers,’ came the guttural growl.

‘They promised me they won’t hurt you,’ said Adam softly. ‘And I believe them. They need you. The whole world is in big trouble and it’s going to be game over, unless . . .’ He
couldn’t really believe what he was saying, it sounded too fantastic. But he remembered Dr Marrs’ words:

‘
How does the entire world come to find itself at the mercy of a small organization with no nuclear weapons of its own? In the main, because Geneflow have conjured the impossible from thin air – living weapons, a threat against which our traditional defences are wholly inadequate. Our only chance is to fight fire with fire – turn their own creatures against them
 . . .’

Adam took a deep, shivering breath. ‘See . . . it’s like this, Zed. The only way to stop Geneflow is to send in soldiers under the Russian radar and stop Josephs and her buddies for good. Stop them before they push the human race into a nuclear war – and take whatever’s left of the planet for themselves.’

Zed stared
down at him, breathing softly, black eyes cold and bright.

‘I wish I didn’t need to ask you,’ Adam went on, ‘but we could really use your help getting inside their underground city. See, you can go into stealth mode, sneak up on the base – Geneflow don’t know that you’re around. You’d be, like, the military’s secret weapon to help them get inside.’ He looked up at Zed, searching out emotions
in the colossal, scaly face.

He found none.

‘Listen . . .’ Adam tried another tack. ‘I know you hate humans. But you’d be getting back at Josephs – the one who hurt you. Who hurt
me
. Don’t you want
to get back at her . . . back at all of them? If we can’t stop them, it’s looking like the end of the world.’

But even as he spoke, he knew that both times Zed had gone near a Geneflow base he’d
almost died – battling his own vicious clone the first time, torn half-apart by Brutes the second.

It’s me
, Adam thought guiltily.
It’s because of me he’s been hurt so badly
.

‘World ends.’ Zed pushed his shoulders up as if in a shrug. He lowered his face a little closer to Adam’s. ‘We . . . fly away.’

Adam half smiled, sadly. ‘Wish we could, Zed.’

‘Can.’ The brute head nodded. ‘Fly far.’

‘There’s . . . there’s nowhere far enough.’ Adam felt a faint prickle of tears at the back of his eyes. Zed was a miracle creature whose skills outshone those of troops and terrorists alike. He’d been trained with a thousand combat moves, he could defuse bombs and crack codes and commit countless acts of espionage. And yet while he knew so much, he understood so little.
It’s like I’m the dad trying to break bad news to his kid in a way he’ll understand
, thought Adam.
But
I’m
the kid
.

Trying to talk his friend and guardian into what could well be a suicide mission, Adam found a part of him desperate to take Zed up on his deal – to run away and just give up. There would be somewhere safe from the bombardment, wouldn’t there?
Some speck on the planet where life could carry on . . .?

The desolation
Adam had seen in the Geneflow simulation resurfaced in his mind. Suddenly he pictured the centuries-old forest and all its icy serenity exploding in the firestorm, the tall trees incinerated in a split second – nothing left, but ash shadows and scorched earth, poisoned and dead . . .

‘Are you scared, Zed?’ he murmured.

Zed looked past Adam towards the armoured truck behind the trees, a growl
building in his belly. Slowly, he nodded.

‘Course you are. It was my brainwaves that helped shape you – and
I’m
scared to death.’ Adam placed a hand on the cracks and scales of Zed’s gigantic tail. ‘I don’t like trying to be brave. But I guess . . . some things you can’t run from.’ Now it was his turn to shrug. ‘I don’t want to go on this mission and neither does Zoe, but we have to, yeah? Because
we’re the only ones who’ve been to the Geneflow base. And Colonel Oldman and his troops won’t have time to scope out the place for themselves, or set up weapons to try to break inside, ’cause once Josephs knows we’re coming she’ll send everything she’s got after us . . .’

‘Come.’ Zed moved his lips awkwardly, like he was chewing the words as he spoke them. ‘Have . . . to come.’

‘You’re sure?
You’ll come with us to Geneflow’s base?’ Adam felt an uneasy mingling of hope, fear and guilt. ‘Thank you. Oldman’s preparing the strike force at some old airstrip thirty kilometres from here. I have the coordinates written down . . .’ He trailed off, unnerved by the intensity of Zed’s stare. ‘Uh . . . you OK?’

‘You.’ The word was a sandpapered whisper. ‘Got . . . my back?’

Adam swallowed hard
and nodded. ‘Like you’ve got mine,’ he whispered back. ‘Always.’

The wind took the word and blew it into the conifer shadows. Then Zed flicked out his stubby wings.

‘It’s all right,’ Adam told him. ‘We’re not due to leave till dawn tomorrow. There’s last-minute stuff to test out or something.’ He forced a smile and pressed the paper with the coordinates written on it into Zed’s five-fingered
hand. ‘Thank you. I’ll . . . I’ll see you first thing tomorrow. Come and meet me at the airstrip. Yeah?’

With a flick, Zed folded his wings away and nodded.

Adam turned and stumbled away towards the truck, his legs like water, his mind spinning. He could tell the grown-ups that he’d done it. He’d got the ‘good guys’ their trump card – their surprise attack.
But now he wasn’t sure if he should
feel proud of himself – or ashamed.

I just hope Oldman plays things straight
, thought Adam.
And that setting up this mission isn’t the last thing any of us will ever do
.

Chapter 22: Good to Go

‘WON’T BE LONG
now.’

Adam stirred from his half-sleep. The driver of the all-terrain vehicle was a big, dark bear of a man, his voice drowning out its rumbling engines with ease: ‘The party should be happening just over the next hill.’

A tremor of anticipation shook Adam properly awake. Zoe was sat in the bucket seat beside him, quiet but alert. It was still dark outside
and Adam checked his watch: close to six in the morning. The news feed at the base had been filled with reports of anti-American demonstrations in Moscow and Beijing. Neither side would rule out the use of nuclear weapons.

Faint streaks of light were stencilling the dark. Dawn was on the approach.
We’ve taken an hour to cover thirty kilometres
, Adam reflected.
Wonder how quickly Zed would cover the distance
.

Wonder if he’s as scared as I am right now?

Zoe yawned noisily. ‘Is it too late to change
my mind and go back to the camp?’

Adam gave a hollow laugh. ‘Wouldn’t that be nice! But you heard what Oldman said.’ He thought back to when the Colonel had dropped in on them late last night. ‘We’ve been to Geneflow’s base. We’re expected to show them the way inside.’

‘If his spy-satellite
pix of the city hadn’t been so rubbish we could’ve marked the entrance on them,’ Zoe complained. ‘I don’t see why it takes two of us. You’ve got to go anyway to look after Zed, but me . . . I feel like a hanger-on.’

‘If anything happens to me, you’re the only one Zed will trust,’ Adam pointed out. ‘Anyway. Just sitting around waiting’s got to be as tough as taking part.’

‘Oh, sure. Easily.’
She looked at him. ‘Who d’you think you’re kidding?’

He smiled. ‘Not even myself!’

They managed a laugh between them.

‘Anyway, at least we’ll be going by plane,’ said Adam. ‘Not “beak class”.’

Zoe nodded. ‘I hope Keera will be all right on her own. Mum said she’s getting stronger all the time, but . . .’

‘She’ll make a miracle recovery. You’ll see.’ The transport rocked a little as it crested
the hill, and Adam peered out the window, ready to get his first view of the airfield. ‘Well,
we’re
here.’ He turned from
the tinted windows, frowning. ‘But where’s everybody else?’

Adam had expected his first glimpse of the strike force to be like something out of a movie; awe-inspiring hardware, fighter jets and assault helicopters gleaming in the fire of an enormous red sun, low in the sky
 . . . Dozens of troops, good to go in a heartbeat when the call to action came. The reality was as different as it was disappointing. A thin mist hung like a ghostly veil in the air, part-obscuring the long, wide airstrip. There were trucks and transporters and tankers and ground crew but—