Juggernaut

‘Technicians, including myself, already had reservations about the Spektr project. The more we studied the pathogen, the more we became convinced it could not be safely contained. My colleagues were dedicated biochemists. Men of science, not prone to fancy. Yet we began to speculate that the parasite possessed some glimmer of sentience, a strange insect cunning. Some nights, as I lay in my bunk, I convinced myself the infected body parts racked in jars in our freezers contained some kind of hive mind, possessed by a single harmonious purpose: to reach out beyond this valley and infect a major population centre. I began to fear and hate the thing I saw writhing and blossoming each day; the sinister cellscape beneath the lens of my microscope. Metallic fibres as they branched and spread, slowly infiltrating human nerve cells. I began to suspect, during long hours I spent alone in the lab, that we under-estimated this organism. Maybe it was studying us.

‘It seemed Jabril experienced a similar epiphany. He understood the destructive potential of EmPath. He was intoxicated by the holocaust the parasite could unleash. I ordered that Jabril be watched. I told Karl, one of our Russian goons, to observe him and report erratic behaviour. When the time came, when Jabril was of no further use, he was to be shot in the back of the head and thrown into the lime pit. Until then, he was vital to the operation of the camp. Troops followed his commands without question. But he continued to drink heavily. I judged he was becoming a liability. He was simply too curious. He was fascinated by the virus.’

‘Tell me about the Hellfire. Is it intact?’

Ignatiev’s voice, tired, defeated: ‘It’s still sealed in the case, ready to fly.’

‘Good.’

‘What was the target site?’ asked Ignatiev. ‘If we delivered the virus, what would you have done with it?’

Long pause.

‘The target was a UN refugee centre outside Mosul,’ said Koell. ‘Inmates call it “New Medina”. Fifteen thousand displaced families in a tent city. No good to anyone. No good to themselves. Blast dispersal. We would wait for optimum wind conditions. Late evening, as the air settles and cools. The missile would be launched from a drone and tracked via GPS. We would detonate at five hundred feet, directly over the Red Cross inoculation clinic at the centre of the camp. Thirty acres of tents arranged in a rigid street-grid. A perfect environment to test the efficacy of the weapon.’

‘You sick motherfuckers.’

‘We would have men on site. Have them pose as volunteer doctors from Saudi Red Crescent. They would wear bio-suits and film the outbreak. Take blood samples, track the speed of infection. When they judged the test had run its course, when the pandemic began to threaten their personal safety, they would drive from the camp and steps would be taken to contain the situation.’

‘You couldn’t halt the spread of infection,’ said Ignatiev. ‘The virus would quickly pass beyond the camp and out into the world.’

‘We would drop a massive fuel bomb. It would erase the entire camp in a moment of cleansing fire.’

‘You’re a fool. An absolute fool. I’m happy to die. I mean it. I consider myself blessed. You can’t comprehend the horror you will unleash. You’ll turn the surface of this planet into hell. I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to be alive when it happens.’

‘Is that it? Nothing left to tell?’

‘Kill me. Please. I’ve talked long enough. I’ve told you everything I know. Just kill me. Let me sleep.’

‘But what about the freezer? How do we release the lock?’

‘It is a simple biometric mechanism.’

‘All right.’

‘If you truly want to serve your country, you will destroy every trace of this virus.’

‘Fuck America. A single litre is enough to switch off the human race. No one has ever had that kind of power, held it in their hand.’

‘You’re out of your fucking mind.’

Koell walked into camera shot. He held a hypodermic gun. He fired the gun into Ignatiev’s bicep.

‘Damn you,’ murmured Ignatiev. His eyelids drooped, his head sank to his chest and his breathing slowed to a halt.

The recording came to an end.

Koell leant forward and closed the laptop. He refilled Gaunt’s whisky tumbler for the fourth time.

‘Are you clear?’ asked Koell. ‘You know what you have to do?’

‘Yeah. I got it.’

Gaunt stood before the virus vault. A steel freezer.

CAUTION

LIVE BIOLOGICAL AGENTS

He typed the entry key. He swiped the card.

Ocular scan required

He reached into his backpack. An eyeball floating in a small jar. Pale iris and a tuft of optic nerve.

He held the eyeball to the L-1 Ident iris scan. A brief wash of red laser-light.

Thank you, Doctor Ignatiev.

You are clear to enter.

Hum and clack. Bolts retracted. Gaunt unlatched the door and hauled it open. Icy exhalation. A torrent of nitrogen fog cascaded from the freezer, washed across the floor and engulfed his boots. Skin-prickle chill.

The fog slowly cleared.