Instinct (2010) (24 page)

She stopped, her thoughts mired in the memory of those few hours, then looked up again.

‘The relief I felt when I discovered that he was alive was overwhelming. I need him. I mean, I can’t go on without him. And we didn’t ask for this.

She took a deep breath. ‘The way I see it, the choice we have is simple: consign him, and Carter and Garrett, to a certain death and live with the knowledge that it happened despite our chance to choose otherwise. Or take a risk to save them. Should the worst happen, I am certain that, with the help of Mr Bishop and Major Webster, we will be as prepared as possible to deal with that.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Webster.

‘Uh, of course, Dr Trent,’ said Bishop.

‘Thank you. I suppose what we need now is a show of hands. Who would agree with Mr Bishop, Major Webster and myself that we should attempt to save these three lives?’

With varying degrees of enthusiasm, all hands were raised.

‘Great,’ said Bishop after a pause. ‘Well, like I said, we don’t know if this will work, but we’ll give it our best shot.’

Laura nodded to confirm there was no way back for Bishop, and went to explain the plan to Andrew.

‘They’ve been gone a long time, don’t you think?’ said Mills, half to Madison, half to himself.

‘Twenty minutes? Yeah, I’d say so, fuckburger. What say you abandon the dumb plan and untie me? And while you’re at it, maybe the kid would like some fresh air.’

Mills glowered at Madison. ‘For calling me fuckburger, you can stay put, but, sure, I’ll take the mask off the kid.’

He only needed to bring the mask halfway off Jacobs’ head before his expression changed from cocky to a bloodless grey.

‘Jacobs, what the hell are you doing in there?’

‘Mills, you simple sonofabitch. I may be the same height as that kid, and I may be flat-fucking-chested, but you must be the dumbest piece of shit in this jungle to have got that wrong. How many times did I have to say, “It’s Jacobs”?’

‘You can’t make out anything through those masks. It sounded like you were saying “Don’t make me” or something. Look, I’m sorry.’

He continued to untie the ropes, leaving Jacobs to shake out her burning wrists to the sound of Madison laughing to the point of asphyxiation.

‘Hey, Mills! Are you sure it’s me? It could be Webster,
or maybe Bishop in a Madison suit. Or even your mom. Ha! You dumb asshole!’

‘This isn’t helping you get untied any faster, Madison.’

‘I know, but I wasn’t expecting anything anytime soon, and that is the funniest thing I’ve seen since Garrett put that snake in your bio-suit.’

‘OK, Madison, shut the fuck up. Jacobs, apologies again, but the question stands: do you think they’ve been gone too long?’

Jacobs paused to indicate that, even if she answered this question, Mills was a long way from forgiven.

‘Yeah, it’s been a good while. Best go ask Taj.’

‘But he’ll know we’re doing something wrong.’

‘Mills, he just finished a half-hour of coughing from the CS gas you exploded under his nose. I think he already knows there’s something wrong. If there’s something going on down below, then he’ll also know about that.’

Madison laughed even more. ‘Hey, Mills, this is definitely not the day to take an IQ test. What did you have for breakfast, a fucking lobotomy?’

Mills was starting to fume. Jacobs could tell from having been on missions and in barracks with him that he was about to snap and, sure enough, he gave Madison a noisy, open-palmed
crack
round the face.

‘Speak again when you’re spoken to, taxi-driver,’ he said over his shoulder, as he and Jacobs headed to the open entrance of MEROS. Now it was Madison who was fuming.

‘Would you think we’d need to threaten Taj?’ Mills asked Jacobs as they walked through the muggy jungle air. He was ramming home the loaded clip of his Desert Eagle in an attempt to stop Jacobs thinking he was an incompetent prick.

‘Could be,’ said Jacobs. ‘Just leave it to me,’ she added quietly.

When they got within ten feet of the door, it snapped shut with a solid locking noise. Mills pushed and pulled at it, but with no success. Jacobs tried her security pass, and all the entry codes she had ever used, but it soon became obvious they were the reason the door was locked and it wasn’t going to open anytime soon.

‘OK, Jacobs, what now?’

Bishop was on the phone to Taj again, explaining the new plan.

‘Sure I can do that, Mr Bishop, sir, but I’m guessing that we’re talking about some split-second timing here.’

‘That’s right, Taj. I don’t know how fast the shield will raise and lower, so I can’t just say give it five seconds or whatever. We’ll have to watch from down here and let you know what to do.’

‘You got it. Just give me the word.’

‘OK, stay by the phone. I’ll begin the freezing process as soon as I’ve made sure everyone down here knows what they’re doing.’

He replaced the receiver and hurried to the barracks.

‘OK, people. As you can see, this area is not secure, so I’m going to ask you all to move to the safety of my office. We will have complete communication access to the outside world there and, yes, that does mean the Pentagon, although I’m sure it won’t come to that. Major Webster, I am going to need you to assist both in getting everyone out of the elevator as quickly as possible, and in relaying to me the position of the shield so that I can tell Taj when to lower it. OK. If you’re all ready, let’s go.’

Everyone collected their belongings and moved across the corridor. This gave them another chance to
see the wasps, two of which were now able to get their wings through the Perspex.

For Wainhouse and the scientists, this was the first time they had a good chance to see the bastards up close. Even though their everyday lives involved the control of giant insects, these were terrifying enough to wipe away years of desensitization to such horrors.

The thorny legs, as thick as cigarettes, gripped the rough edges of the glass. It was all too easy to imagine them taking hold of flesh, making it ready for the sting or the jaws.

And what jaws they were. Strong, sharp and thoughtless, driving through whatever they needed to destroy until it was no more.

Susan turned away, trying to reduce their chances of infecting her nightmares. The others shifted along, feeling the fear scrabbling through their guts as they were drawn irresistibly to look.

The relentless way in which the wasps set about removing the barriers to further killing was truly fearsome. The Perspex was becoming a series of ragged, melted holes which were growing larger by the second. It would not be long before the wasps would be able to fit their abdomens through, then butt up against the brittle glass of the Inshield.

Bishop opened a control panel on the wall of the corridor and set the co-ordinates to freeze the areas on the other side of the shield.

‘You’d better hurry,’ said Webster, eyeing the progress of the wasps.

‘No shit,’ murmured Bishop. He jabbed in the last number and set the freezing to begin. ‘It should take about five minutes. I told Carter to signal when the temperature gets too low for them. That is when you need to be there to drag them on to this side of the shield.’

‘Roger that. And Dr Trent?’

‘Will remain in my office with everyone else. What we really don’t need is a combination of motherly distress and female panic. I’m going to use the phone in my office, but I’ll bring it out here so that I’m as close to you as possible. I may even be able to see the elevator myself. Shit!’

One of the wasps was through and bumping up against the Inshield. It only had a couple of feet to get up some speed to fly as hard as possible into the sapphire glass.

Webster wasn’t concerned. ‘It’ll be frozen before it can –’

A crack spread through the glass. Webster drew his Glock.

‘Get back into your office right now,’ he said evenly to Bishop. Bishop did as he was told, as Webster kept his eyes on the wasp.

Another bump, and the crack widened. This time it was audible, a soft thump followed by a small crinkle.

‘Freeze, you bastard,’ Webster said under his breath.

A third impact, this time from another wasp. Now there were two, then three butting up against the Inshield.

The cracks were inching across the glass towards each other.

Bump,
chinkle.

Bump,
chinkle
.

Bump,
chinkinkle.

At last, the cold was beginning to fog the glass, but would the Inshield hold?

A softer bump this time – barely audible. Webster couldn’t be sure, but the wasps seemed to be less purposeful, more aimless.

Then one dropped to the floor.

Webster took this as a sign that he could check on the elevator.

Carter and Andrew were wiping the glass to make sure they could see and be seen. If they were aware of how close the wasps had come to breaking through, it wasn’t clear.

Webster signalled to Bishop, who dialled up to Taj and told him to stand by. Meanwhile, the wasps continued to fade behind the greying condensation.

The insects were slipping from indistinct shapes into mere shadows, and Webster could tell that they were first panicking, then moving more and more slowly, stumbling around or flitting short distances. Most of them had made it through the Perspex to the Inshield and, as they dropped to the floor, they were forming a heap against the bottom of the glass.

There was no way of knowing whether any others were safe further away, insulating each other for protection as they had done before but, in the immediate
vicinity, these wasps looked as if they were responding perfectly.

Bishop looked at Webster, who was staring at the insects.

‘How’s it going?’

‘They’re dropping like flies.’

Laura had made her way out of the office and was now standing in the doorway, anxious for any news.

‘What did he say?’

‘It’s going fine. Please get back inside.’

Laura passed the information on to Wainhouse and the scientists, who were waiting in expectant silence. Carter and Garrett were looking at Andrew, for anything that might signal the need for action.

‘OK, kid, there’s no need to be a hero. Just tell us if you feel drowsy or there’s pain anywhere,’ said Garrett.

Andrew replied through a juddering breath of white-grey cloud. ‘I–I–I’ll let you know, G–G–G–Garrett.’

Another minute passed in silence. The tension was flowing through them like electricity.

Breathing quickened. Hearts thumped harder. Fists curled tight enough to make them shake.

Then Andrew gave the signal. He could only manage the words, ‘I feel –’ before passing out.

Carter whipped round and hammered on the glass. Half a second later, Webster signalled to Bishop.

‘Taj, raise the glass now.’

‘Yessir.’

Almost immediately the shield whined and rumbled its way out of the floor, inching into the ceiling. They all willed it on, praying for it to move faster so they could get out of there alive.

Then, just as it started, it ground to a snarling halt.

The sound of a slow-motion car crash echoed around the corridor, its piercing scrape ripping through the air before scratching and grinding over nerve endings and eardrums.

They could hear that the motor was still engaged in a straining effort to continue. It sounded like pain.

‘Taj, are you still lifting?’ snapped Bishop.

‘Sure, Mr Bishop. Is there a problem?’

‘I think the cold is jamming the mechanism. Keep trying, and if there’s anything you can do to up the power, do it now!’

‘Sure thing – increasing power.’

The grinding got louder until they feared the cogs and gears were going to wrench each other apart.

Garrett desperately tried to revive Andrew. Webster could only think to join Carter in getting his fingers under the shield to try and raise it.

Bishop watched as every atom of effort appeared on Webster’s face in a network of inflated veins covered in a sheen of scarlet.

Then the loudest grinding scream suddenly gave way to a great
CRUNCHUNCH
. A gear snapped, sending the shield shooting up to the ceiling.

Carter was standing face to face with Webster, trapped in a millisecond of confusion.

The pile of frozen wasps now had nothing holding it back. Hard, slippery insects fell into the corridor, sliding across the floor in all directions. One reached as far as Bishop, who leapt back as if it were a grenade.

Carter flipped Andrew over his shoulder and ran into Bishop’s office with Webster and Garrett right behind.

‘Taj, drop the shield! Quick as you can!’ They heard the gears reverse as Andrew was brought to Laura.

She grabbed his cold, still body. He felt dead. She looked up at Garrett, fearing the worst.

‘His pulse is fine. He’s just passed out. Keep him warm,’ said Garrett.

She turned to help Carter and Webster deal with what was happening outside.

‘What about these?’ yelled Bishop, pointing at twenty wasps lying frozen on the floor in front of him.

They were either dead or about to react to the absence of the freezing air and rejuvenate, but Carter, Garrett and Webster weren’t waiting to find out which.

They started kicking the wasps, as if they were so many oversized hockey pucks, back to where they came from.

Moving the insects was easy; the problem was the Inshield. Whether it was the intense cold, or the workings of a system that was rarely used, it had stuck fast three feet from the ground.

The guttural, piercing screech of the gears had restarted, providing a terrible soundtrack to the soldiers’ efforts.

They soon got almost all of the wasps back to the other side. Just four were left when they heard the noise of the shield’s motor being joined by another sound: the
barurummmm
of a large set of insect wings powering to life.

Looking over to where the noise was coming from, they saw a disorientated but rapidly thawing wasp stuttering into the air close to where Webster stood.

Immediately, it was joined by more.