Outpost

It’s anchored by a four-tonne pin. If we could kick the pin out of its socket then the cable would drop and Rampart would drift free.’

‘Be my guest.’

‘That stuff from the seismic research station. The explosives. There should still be a bunch of C4 left, yes? Couple of cases at least. Ghost hid it in the bunker. We could pack a big wad of plastic round each pin and touch it off. Fire the pin clean out of the coupling. It would be our last roll of the dice, but worth a try.’

‘Yeah. Fuck it. Let’s go out with a bang.’

Jane went looking for Ghost. She found him on C deck, the lowest level of the accommodation block. Dark, low ceilings. Pipes and discarded tools. The kind of place a grease monkey like Ghost would instinctively make his den.

Ghost was stripped to the waist. He stood over a table. He was strapping a couple of SCUBA tanks together.

Jane kissed him between the shoulder blades. She put an arm round his waist.

‘You okay?’

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Just got a little frustrated at myself. I got seduced by Hyperion. The luxury. You were right all along. We should have stayed here. Kept focused.’

‘I’ve got a plan. Fetch explosives from the bunker. Blow the lock-pins and release the tethers. Float our way out of here. What do you think?’

‘I think you’re stronger than me, and smarter than me, and if you want to give it a shot then I am along for the ride.’

‘Cool.’

‘So you want to head back to the island?’

‘One last time.’

‘Then I’ve got something that may help.’ He shouldered the SCUBA tanks. ‘Let’s go up to the helipad. I want to show you something.’

The helipad. Big as a basketball court. A big red H lit by a ring of floodlights. Ghost wheeled an office chair to the centre of the H and draped a parka over it. He helped Jane strap the SCUBA tanks to her back. Thick hose led to a spray gun.

‘Diesel pressurised with nitrogen,’ said Ghost. ‘Press that button on the barrel. That’s a butane lighter from the kitchen. The igniter. Gives you a little nozzle flame. The big trigger releases fuel. Watch yourself, all right? Brace your legs, and don’t pull the trigger unless you mean it.’

Jane stood twenty metres from the chair. She sparked the igniter. She adjusted her grip on the spray gun and pulled the trigger. A roaring, high-pressure jet of fuel-fire engulfed the office chair. Upholstery foam shrivelled and dripped. The plastic chair withered in a hurricane blast of flame.

Hunger

Nail and Gus sat by the fire.

‘I feel like a caveman,’ said Gus, prodding the embers.

‘That’s because we are living in a cave.’

‘I could use a big juicy bison about now. What do you reckon? The infected. They hate fire, right? Maybe we could cook the virus out of them.’

‘You want to eat a sailor?’

‘Right now I’m prepared to give it a shot.’

‘You are the sickest of fucks. So how are you feeling? Hunger aside?’

‘Parched,’ said Gus. ‘It’s fucking ridiculous. We can’t even go outside to grab some snow.’

He stroked the remains of his beard. Weeping blisters. Scorched stubble clotted with pus.

‘The burns feel like they are tightening up, you know? Like the skin is contracting. I’m frightened to move in case I split right open.’

‘Maybe you should lie still a while.’ Nail was preoccupied with his own misery. He was starting to sweat cold turkey. He didn’t want to talk.

‘The pain comes and goes. Ice helps.’

‘Maybe we should grease you up. I think that’s what you’re supposed to do with bad burns. Seal the wound.’

‘What’s she doing?’

Nikki stood at the bunker entrance, ear to the door. She was mumbling to herself.

‘Is she talking to them? Look at her. She speaks. She listens. She speaks again. She’s holding a conversation.’

‘Trying to work out how many of those infected fucks are out there waiting for us,’ said Nail.

‘Looks like she’s having a nice long chat with them through the door. They act in concert sometimes. You’ve seen that, right? Watched them out on the ice? What if she can read their thoughts? What if some people can actually tune in?’

‘Doubt it.’

‘Where’s her boat? If she made it back here she must have a boat.’ ‘Yeah.’

‘She’s insane, you know that, right? All that stuff last night. All that babble. Walking cities. Oceans of fire. She’s lost it.’

‘She sounds better this morning. She’s actually making sense.’

‘Do me a favour, all right?’ said Gus. ‘Don’t leave me alone with her. Just don’t leave me alone.’

‘I’m going to get some wood. Take it easy.’ Nail stood up.

‘Hey, Nikki,’ he called. ‘I’m going to fetch some more firewood. Care to join me?’

He led Nikki deep into the tunnels. They each held a piece of burning bed frame as a torch.

Damp concrete. Nail hadn’t been outside for days. There would quickly come a time when he wouldn’t want to leave. He would become habituated to the soothing silence of the passageways. A creature of the shadows.

‘Better watch our step,’ he said as they traversed damp, subterranean caverns. ‘This place is only half built. They might have dug vertical shafts.’

‘I think I might know this place better than you. These days I think of it as home.’