“I’ll think about this Mr Delacroix. Give me a number where I can contact you next week.”
Chapter 45
As Zlatan and Lydia cowered in the wooden building, they watched anxiously as the torch beam approached. Through the cracks in the timber they could only see one person. A man, bare to the waist, carrying a shotgun, but accompanied by a very large dog. The man circled the entire main part of the house before heading for their refuge.
Zlatan told Lydia to stay put and keep quiet. He then shouted that he was coming out.
“I not have gun and we lost. We not want harm you and we only like a sleep place for a small time. I have hands on head and I going open door.”
“Open the door but stay where you are.”
The dog had not made a sound as yet and was ordered to lie down. He opened the door with one hand and then quickly placed it back on his head. Zlatan apologised for hiding in the building.
“We not mean to take anything of you, but you close door in our face without chance to tell you we desperate. We only ask to sleep.”
“Where did you come from? Are you running away from the police? There’s nowhere around here for another five miles.”
“We escape exclusion zone, we were in danger. They kill us if we go back. We do nothing bad. But they try to take us back, only because we have virus. You help us?”
“There’s been all kinds of talk about what’s going on in that place. I don’t want to be infected by you, or get into trouble for helping you. I want you to go, right now.”
“Please, we need only some hours, we cannot sleep since we escape. We go in peace just after sleep.”
“I told you to go. Now beat it.”
The man raised his shotgun. Zlatan lied to him in desperation.
“My wife is with baby. I not knowing what to do.”
“There’s a deserted mine shaft up the road, about two miles from here. You can shelter there. Now go, I won’t tell you again.”
He gave an indecipherable command to the dog and it began to snarl. Zlatan nodded and summoned Lydia to join him. They were ushered on to the road again and the man retreated to his abode. Zlatan said they should hurry along the road and find the mine shaft as quickly as possible. Once they saw the entrance, he made sure it was safe and told Lydia to stay there until he returned.
“Why are you always giving me orders? You aren’t my keeper. Where are you going?”
“I just want to see if I can find anywhere better than this. A place which isn’t known by the locals.”
She settled down and fell asleep within a few minutes. She was awoken by Zlatan’s return. He was carrying a shotgun and told her to come outside. On the road was an SUV with the engine running. In the back she saw the body of both the man and his dog, each without their head.
“Have you lost your mind? What the hell were you thinking? It’s a fuel station, the police will be on to this in no time. You’re scaring me, Zlatan, maybe we really should split up.”
“I keep trying to tell you, we are losing our minds! That’s what it’s all about. We’ve crossed over and we have to fight to prevent the onset of phase two. I burned the heads and cleaned up the guy’s house. We need to drive to some place where we can dump the car, but we should keep the bodies as food, and we’re going to need the gun. Now, come on, forget about going our separate ways. You won’t last a day on your own.”
“Food! There’s no way I can eat human flesh, it’s gross. I want to take my chance on my own. Leave me, and just go in your bloody vehicle.”
“Lydia, you still don’t get it do you? It’s us or them. When hunger gets to the point of rage you’ll eat anything. Our only chance is to stay on the run until we find someone we can trust, either human or deviant. At this moment they both have to be treated as enemies. If we can delay phase two of this infection the humans may come up with a vaccine or a treatment of some kind. If you’re seriously hell-bent on staying on your own tell me right now, I’m leaving.”
*
Eugene was asked once more if he would sign the pledge to remain silent with respect to the entire programme of containing the virus. He remained steadfast.
“This isn’t about me, you are deluding yourselves that you still have some control in this situation. It’s gone beyond anything we’ve dealt with before. Every hurdle we’ve put in its way has been overcome without any diminution of its potency. This is uncharted territory and you just won’t accept it. My father has breached your ability to prevent the outside world from being blindsided with lies. You won’t be able to maintain your bubble of secrecy much longer. If you accept that I’m prepared to give verbal assurance that I won’t personally disclose details of your strategy, tactics, and censorship of this unmitigated disaster, will you authorise my departure? The investigation into your failure to deal with this threat is for the politicians, not me. If you persist with detaining me without legal justification, my father will ultimately fry your arses in court. He has the resource, influence and determination to demolish your huff and puff, and blow your house down. Don’t ask me to sign any piece of paper which adds to this flagrant deception of the public and those who are supposed to represent them. It’s your call.”
“We would ask you to retire from the chamber so that this issue can be discussed by the panel. We will consider what you have said and reconvene tomorrow.”
“Fine. You need to include the other microbiologists who’ve been prevented from returning home because they don’t agree with the methodology of tackling the spread of the virus. You know there is no legality in holding us against our will. We are all of the same mind insofar as we can overlook your precipitant action as misjudgement, which you can claim has since been reviewed and rescinded.”
There was a lot of whispering and gesticulating as Eugene rose to exit the chamber. His reading of the body language persuaded him to call their bluff again.
“You said we would reconvene tomorrow. I’m afraid that isn’t good enough. You really ought to bring my colleagues to the chamber now. We can wait outside until you are ready to hear the form of words we can offer to assuage your concern that we’ll be publicly critical of your handling of this operation in Australia.”
More huddles and jabbering preceded agreement that the other microbiologists should be summoned.
*
Brinkmanship prevailed as Lydia climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV. They sped along the primitive dirt track road, continually scanning the landscape. Cresting a rise, they were confronted with another vehicle. It was stationary and skewed across the track. It appeared to be abandoned. Zlatan left the SUV engine running as they approached the other vehicle. There was no one inside, no signs of an impact, and the keys were still in the ignition. Lydia tugged at Zlatan’s arm.
“There’s a body in the scrub over by those bushes.”
“I see it. I’ll check it out, you get the keys from the SUV.”
Zlatan’s stealthy approach to the body came to a halt. It was the upper half of a human. He ran back to the SUV and grabbed the shotgun. Lydia declined to inspect the remains but Zlatan insisted that she stayed close to him. A sixth sense prodded him and he began to scan the entire three hundred and sixty degrees of the horizon. Each clump of bushes was assessed as he turned slowly in a clockwise direction. Suddenly he paused.
“Lydia, check that group of bushes over there, do you see anything? Don’t hover, just keep scanning and coming back to it.”
“It looks hot.”
“Right. There’s someone in there. Stay close.”
“Let’s just leave.”
“No, there’s something strange about the heat signature.”
They carefully circled towards the target, the gun was cocked and ready for use. They were both breathing heavily in the direct rays of the breaking dawn. In a microsecond a massive adult kangaroo bounded from its cover at incredible speed. Zlatan only had time to swing the shotgun up to his hip, by which time the marsupial was alm
ost upon them. Lydia screamed involuntarily as the shotgun discharged its power. It blew most of the abdomen of the creature into the dust. The stricken kangaroo’s death throes echoed eerily in their ears. They backed off a few yards, spattered with blood, but able to meet the pleading eyes of the victim.
“Lydia, we must have disturbed this kangaroo while it fed on the poor bastard from the abandoned vehicle. It had a similar heat signature as an infected human, but not the same. Let’s get out of here in case there are more of them. This situation is worse than I thought it was.”
They scurried back to the SUV and screeched past the abandoned car, leaving a billowing dust cloud in their wake.
Chapter 46
Even though Julien hadn’t given up hope, he was quite surprised that the call from Brandon Mitchell came within three days rather than a week.
“Ok, Mr Delacroix. You said you knew very little about the situation in Australia. More to the point, you never mentioned Japan in your call. As you may know, because you were in Osaka a few years ago, there are numerous Australians here as residents and students, and even more Japanese in Australia, as residents and citizens. I have a good job in this country and I don’t want it screwed up. I’m willing to speak with your son on my terms, the first of which is that you are the conduit. Secondly, and you can pass this on to him, he should try to find out more about this virus before we engage in any dialogue. A clue – there are a small number of returning students in Japan infected with this same virus. The authorities, as much as they can, are playing down fears of a pandemic. It sounds to me like they are following the example set by this multi-national task force in Australia. I haven’t yet been allowed to examine any of the infected people, but from what I’ve heard through the grapevine, it is a completely different type of virus to anything we’ve ever seen on this planet. I share your son’s concern, but what can be done about it is not clear. When he returns to Lyon you can call me back on this number. That’s the best I can do for now.”
“Thank you, Brandon. There seems to be an implication that this virus is already jumping continents as well as species. I’ll certainly contact you as soon as Eugene gets back.”
*
Eugene was released with his friends and was reunited with his phone.
“Hi, Dad, I’m ready to head back now. I need to check the flights and then I’ll let you know my arrival time.”
“Can you talk this time?”
“Yes, there were a number of difficulties last time we spoke, but all is well now. I’m on my way to the airport. So, I’ll call you again from there.”
The line went dead and Julien’s instinct was that there was still something wrong. He had wanted to tell Eugene about finding Brandon Mitchell, but never got the chance. He was tempted to call him right back but then realised when he took the first call, Eugene’s name flashed up. So it was his mobile. He would wait for his son to call again.
*
The two fugitives at last found a ravine into which they could dispose of the car. It was deep and yet had lots of verdant growth at the bottom. They put the SUV in neutral and took off the handbrake, then pushed it as hard as they could until it gathered its own momentum. They heard it bounce off the nearside of the gorge a couple of times and then they peered over the edge. To their relief it couldn’t be seen.
“What do we do now?” asked Lydia.
“Eat.”
“I told you, I’m not eating that man.”
“Fine, leave him to me then.”
She sat watching Zlatan with horror. The sight of him salivating began to affect her digestive juices. It was a completely involuntary reaction and she started to peel the skin from the dog, made easier with a hacksaw blade from the toolbox of the now defunct SUV.
“We must take only the most essential tools with us and then throw the box into the ravine.”
“Whatever you say, Zlatan. Where exactly are we going?”
“We’ll know when we get there. It would be really helpful if we could find refuge with another Beta. Of course it would only be temporary if they were in phase two. That would mean one of us would need to become dominant, you or me, and at least one Beta out of the three would die. But the reward might be safety for a few days or maybe a week. Let’s get back to the track but be ready to take cover at all times.”
“What about these… these corpses?”
“If you can’t eat any more we have to throw them into the ravine. They’re too heavy to carry and anyway, we must avoid being seen with raw meat. It’s a pity, because we could have sliced off enough to keep us going for a couple of days.”
*
Brandon Mitchell’s account of Homo Diversitus having been identified in Japan was not a one-off event. Air travel, being perceived as such a necessity for mankind, had laid ‘eggs’ all over the planet. Some died suddenly, some incubated longer than others, but some eluded capture until they killed and became bolder, hunting in urban and suburban territory. Graphic reports of the police bringing down cannibals in broad daylight were much more difficult to suppress than similar happenings in the outback. The eventual acceptance that cities offered much more effective breeding grounds for the virus fuelled anger and protest. It should have come as no surprise that those who’d crossed over would seek out safe havens in ghettos, social dropout enclaves, camps for the homeless, and no-go areas in general. Homo Sapiens had missed a trick. Homo Diversitus had announced its fight to survive.
*
Julien was greatly relieved to see his son making his way through the throng of passengers in arrivals. He was quite tearful as he embraced Eugene.
“Let’s find a quiet spot and share what we know over a coffee.”
“Ok, Dad, lead on and I’ll follow. I suppose it’s better if we don’t talk about this back home, well your home, as I don’t yet have one.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant. The virus situation is pretty much on everyone’s lips right now. Anyway, we have a responsibility to keep the family up to speed with the precautions we all have to take to avoid infection, and those recommendations may change over time. I was actually referring to your struggle to get here. That’s in the past but are you able to tell me more?”
“You may have guessed, as I implied on the phone, I gave verbal assurance that I wouldn’t disclose any information which would point the finger of accusation at the Australian strategy in handling the viral threat. It was no big deal because I knew their failure would eventually come out from elsewhere anyway.”
“It’s become a lot worse than that. You’ve been sheltered from the global situation while you were in the outback. I made delicate enquiries via people I knew from the time when I was tackling the asteroid. It appears it’s already too late to keep the lid on public reaction and panic. Just about every civilised country has reported cases of infection. This may not have been the case if warnings had been issued from Australia earlier on the ways in which the virus could spread. People automatically think that avoiding contact with others would limit the risk, but nobody was told that eating fresh imported vegetables was a clear and omnipresent danger. Anyway, what’s done is done. We have to call Brandon Mitchell, so we’re having this coffee to see if you are being followed. You were prevented from leaving Australia when you decided you’d had enough, but are you sure it was only about keeping public hysteria and outright panic to the absolute minimum?”
“Yes. What else could it be?”
“Is there no possibility that some of those in command out there weren’t as incompetent as they seemed to be? Could they have been among the first to be infected?”
“I doubt it, because…oh shit, I see what you’re getting at. There was indeed zero tolerance of any leaking of information that those infected could visually recognise others in the same condition, and that clean subjects cannot. That edict was issued from the very top without any discussion or consensus.”
“Well then, it is certainly something we have to bear in mind, start
ing now. Here are my car keys, it’s parked at a gas station. We’ll take a taxi together and stop for fuel at my regular station to fill up. You go to pay inside and I use the toilet. There’s a rear door to the left of the pay point, and my car is out back. It has blacked out windows, so just drive slowly to the motel I’ve scribbled on this note and I’ll meet you there later. When I return from the toilet, hopefully any tail will follow the taxi to my apartment. Within an hour of getting back home, I’ll call your motel from a public phone and we can arrange to speak with Brandon from there.”
“What did he say when you spoke with him?”
“He wasn’t inclined to speak with you, but he told me he wasn’t allowed to examine infected Japanese people returning from Australia. After some consideration he said he would talk with you through me. I think this is only an initial precaution for him to feel comfortable with the situation. I guess he might think that every mistake involved with this virus originated from the outback, including suppression of the truth. If that is the case, he would have justification in seeing you as part of the problem. I think I convinced him of the opposite, but we have to tread carefully.”
Chapter 47
After the family reunion and fielding as many questions as he could, Eugene explained that he and his father had to make a call. The women retired to Geraldine’s ground floor apartment to ask Sophie’s advice on new furnishings, including some pictures.
It seemed to take a long time for Brandon Mitchell to answer. Finally, it was re-directed and he picked up.
“It’s Julien Delacroix, Brandon. I have Eugene with me at last. Do you still wish to proceed through me?”
“For now at least. Tell him to give me his understanding of where the Australian idiots are with respect to actually formulating plan B. He should realise I don’t need to know any more about their disastrous efforts to merely curb the spread by a simple vaccine and quarantine approach. That’s history even though they are clinging to the hope that we’ve seen the worst of what this thing can do.”
There was a break in conversation while Eugene tried to articulate the situation through his father.