Vampire's Day (Book 2): Zero Model (12 page)

46.
Guesswork

“Eve, can I get coffee and breakfast for two?”

The early meeting had turned into a busy workshop, so breakfast and strong coffee would be useful.

“My man in this city said that yesterday morning and afternoon there was a fight in the port, plus a very large fire, which burned almost all the main warehouses. Here, you can see the destruction in this photograph.”
Mr. Lao handed to Nguyen the photo. “And, most interestingly, the Yankees took an active part in the incident. Their convoy entered the city, under the cover of helicopters, and they broke into the port and fought there.”

“Fought with whom, the Cartel? They are allies; they have everything under control…”

“I don’t know why. I don’t know the reason for it, and I don’t know how it ended. About three o'clock the Yankees came back, and everything was quiet until nightfall, but then it got dark, and they began to shoot again. Battles started all over the city. That was the last thing I received from my man, before I lost contact with him.”

Nguyen went to the window and looked at the morning city. All was calm.

“What do they say in the presidential administration and the Ministry of Internal Affairs?”

“They are pretending to know nothing. The Yankees are not commenting on what is happening.”

“The situation is very interesting.”

“Mr. Nguyen, what do you think will happen if it isn’t gang violence? Civil war? A coup attempt?”

“There’s something very serious happening, but I don’t think it is what you fear, Mr. Lao. It isn’t a revolution. I understand that you are responsible to your leaders in Shanghai for the fate of their giant investments in this country and therefore you are afraid of any changes in power, which could be arranged by the Americans. A new government may terminate the contract with your company on their orders. But the revolution would begin here, in the capital, or in one of the major cities on this side of the ridge.

“And all this happened over the ridge, in the territory that is actually beyond the control of central government. Plus a complete absence of any requirements, and information barrier imposed by the Americans. Typically, they prepare for such operations with powerful propaganda support, and here, on the contrary, there is complete silence. They are desperately trying to hide what is going on. No, it isn’t a revolution, there’s something else that we don’t understand yet. I think this is very serious, so I will give the order to gather all my men. I recommend that you tighten security on your assets, Mr. Lao.”

“I’ll give orders, wait…”

Mr. Lao took a small army-style phone from his pocket as it rang, and then listened attentively.

“Yes, of course, keep me posted. Call as soon as you have new information.”

“Who was it?”

“This was from the presidential administration. The Yankees have just made contact with the government. They say that there is a deadly epidemic in the valley, and there has been an urgent need to implement quarantine to prevent the further spread of infection. They have assumed defense of the airspace and waterways, and government forces are moving to close the mountain road, so the valley will be completely blocked. The president asks us for help, his troops don’t have enough mobility to quickly capture the passes, and we need helicopters.”

“Clearly, they need me. Do you believe them?”

The Chinese man nervously wiped his glasses.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to think. I need to ask headquarters for directions. If my management agrees, we'll hire your company for this operation. In the meantime, we need to know what's really going on. Do you have any idea how this can be done?”

“Aerial reconnaissance. I can send an unmanned scout into the valley, so that we can see with our own eyes. The drone is made in Israel, it doesn’t have any markings, and if the Yankees shoot it down, they won’t be able to guess who sent it.”

“Well, we will pay the costs. How much time will it take?”

“The drone will be above the valley in two hours.”

“Well, start it immediately. By that time I'll have all the necessary instructions.”

47.
In the same boat

“Colonel, I'm willing to admit an obvious fact - we have a serious lack of understanding that could threaten the successful implementation of the tasks ahead of us. And, in many ways, it's my fault. I want to leave our differences in the past; we need to cooperate if we want to solve the problem. Take this as a token of my apology.

Palmer put a bottle of amber dark liquid on Richardson’s table; malt whiskey, bottled thirty years ago.

“You know how to apologize, Miss Palmer,” replied the Colonel lazily, removing the bottle. “But even this whiskey isn’t enough for complete trust. I need information, complete information about what’s happening on my land, and I'm not interested in hearing about the secrecy levels and a limited range of access. If I don’t know what I need to know, we can’t work effectively, and you will lose my support. And without it, you wouldn’t last long, especially now, when we are cut off from the outside world. So, I ask you with the utmost courtesy – are you ready to cooperate?”

“Yes. I look forward to your questions.”

“Very well. Tell me about your precious ball. As I understand, this is a spacecraft lander?”

“Yes. It’s a lander from the orbiting laboratory for dangerous biological samples research. These samples were too dangerous to explore on Earth, so they were kept in space for many years; obviously they are mutated due to being exposed to solar and galactic radiation. To my great regret, the laboratory was destroyed in a collision with micrometeorites, and so the lander fell in a place it wasn’t expected to, and at a different time from planned. One of the samples has resurfaced, and is causing this epidemic.”

“What is this epidemic? What exactly did you develop?”

“I didn’t develop it, Colonel; the lab was launched into space at a time when I was in high school. But I was taught to work with this sample. In short – it is a viral weapon, affecting the central nervous system and causing irreversible destruction of the brain.”

“The result of this defeat will be the death of infected?”

“After some time, yes. But the death of the infected isn’t important; furthermore, it’s not desirable. Many deadly bacteria and viruses have been created, but this particular weapon works differently. The primary objective here isn’t killing, but encouraging the madness.”

“We fought with the infected this morning, and they didn’t look crazy - they managed to organize a competent ambush. How could madmen do that?”

“Perhaps madness is too strong a word. Mental instability and aggressive psychosis is more suitable. Colonel, imagine that you are fighting against a strong, well-organized state with a powerful army and industrial potential, such as Iran, Israel, China or Russia.

“If you use against them the usual types of biological weapons, such as typhoid, anthrax, plague, cholera or smallpox - some of the enemy’s soldiers and civilians will be killed or disabled. But they will be able to stop the spread of disease with stringent quarantine methods. It isn’t so difficult, especially for the army, and then the ill people will die out and the disease chokes itself.

“Now, Colonel, imagine that you have used this sample. Immediately detecting it will not be easy, because the number of deaths is small. But the infected soldiers cease to obey orders and begin to attack their own; pilots bomb their own city; and the civilian population will go out of control, creating a general panic and disrupting management. Over time, the infected will lose their ability for meaningful action and begin to die, but before that they will destroy the enemy structure from inside. According to our calculations, a spontaneous, merciless and senseless rebellion could cause much more damage than the most severe epidemic. You could see it with your own eyes - only a few armed infected, and the famously disciplined Cartel collapsed in a matter of hours, literally torn apart internally.”

“Your successes are really impressive, Miss Palmer, and I would be very glad for you, if this spectacular demonstration had taken place in Moscow or Beijing. But it happened here.”

“Yes, this is a regrettable fact, which we must deal with.”

“If this is by your design, then you should have an emergency backup plan in case the virus broke loose. Any vaccine or God knows what…”

“Colonel, it's a weapon, and weapons must be reliable and low in vulnerability. This infection was created to be most lethal, and hard to detect and destroy. Treatments for this disease don’t exist. An experimental vaccine was developed, manufactured in small quantities and closed in a safe. Now its production is running again, but it’s a slow process and the vaccine is still not enough for the people in the valley. And we don’t need the vaccine; we can quickly stop the disease by means of quarantine. We’ll stifle this plague.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Now it is important not to let the infection out of the valley, by closing the mountain passes. Bronson briefly outlined our position for me. The remains of the Cartel took the foothills, while the infected control the rest of the valley, capturing most of the villages and farms. Now they have attacked the last Cartel base and the surviving bandits, who aren’t yet infected, fled to the mountains. They shouldn’t be allowed to leave the valley, and if the infected don’t kill them, we need to step in; no one can pass through the mountains. If there are no more healthy people in the valley, the infection will stop its growth.”

“So, the valley will just contain us and the infected. What happens next?”

“As I said, the infection of the mind, caused by this virus, is irreversible; memory collapses primarily. We investigated several infected, and diagnosed extensive amnesia in each patient. Soon they will be completely deprived of their ability to use weapons and coordinate their actions. Thirty, maximum forty-eight hours, and all of them will turn into a herd of lunatics, not capable of the simplest actions and doomed to die of thirst and hunger. You can speed up the process of extinction, destroying the last food stocks and bombing wells.”

Richardson took a pause to ponder her words.

“So, lock down the passes, bomb the wells and wait until the enemy dies of thirst? But what do we do now? They haven’t yet lost their ability to think and continue to pursue the Cartel. And why did they attack just the healthy people - is that included in the action program of your wonderful virus, Miss Palmer?”

“No, we didn’t expect such a side effect. Apparently, it’s the consequence of mutations. To find out more I need to continue my research. This unexpected side effect requires careful study; it’s theoretically possible that the actions of the infected can be controlled.”

“I have little interest in your theories. I'm interested in the fact that when the infected have finished with the bandits, they will come here, because your virus causes them to attack just healthy people. They will have no other alternative, since we will be the only ones living in the valley.”

“Colonel, all we need is to survive the next two days, during which they can organize an assault. I don’t think that it will be difficult to repulse this assault with your forces in prepared defensive positions. And once our enemies have completely lost their minds, destroying them will be as easy as drowning puppies in a river. Their next attack will be where we take control - the infected will come to our bullets; we will not have to look for them.”

The Colonel smiled wryly, for the first time since the beginning of their conversation.

“You can describe the attractive prospects, Miss Palmer. Well, we will be pleased to slay these infected bastards. What then? How long will we have to be cut off from the outside world? We're not alone here. I have to account for two and a half thousand civilians, who have become a huge pain in the ass. I can’t wait to be rid of this pain, but your boss doesn’t want to help me.

“They rejected several of my requests, when I offered to evacuate the civilians. So I have to keep them here, and they will become a serious problem, especially if the crazies mount a strong attack.”

“Here I’m powerless, Colonel. I will not be able to influence my leaders. They are determined to eliminate the risk of spreading the virus and will not let us take out civilians until the quarantine regime has been cancelled. How long will that take? It's hard to say. I'm sure that in ten days there will be no more living infected in the valley, especially if we destroy the wells. But they will not immediately cancel the quarantine. Before then we will need to clean everything thoroughly, dispose of the bodies and burn the remains of the city, along with the villages. We're likely to be staying here for a month or more.”

“Great, just what I’ve always dreamed about. I recommend that your bosses spend this time trying to come up with a plausible explanation about what is happening, because when the civilians get to the first telephone, they will raise hell. Thank God, it will be not my duty and… Wait, I've just thought of something! We're always just talking about people, but what if…”

“Don’t worry about that; the virus is spread only from human to human, animals and birds aren’t able to spread it. Vultures don’t spread the infection, we have nothing to fear.”

“Well, that might be so, Miss Palmer, but I need guarantees. I demand that your experimental vaccine is sent here, my people need it more than others.”

“We will arrange the shipment as soon as possible, but I think it will be a couple of days.”

“The sooner, the better. It’s in your interest; we are all in the same boat.”