Infestation

- 19 -

For Banks, it all happened in slow motion and it took a few seconds to sink in how much had changed in so little a time. He ran to the gunwale and looked over; somewhere, somewhere deep, a blue shimmering luminescence dropped away from them into the darkness. Everything left of the drilling rig went with it, including the broken canvas and wood remains of the kayaks they’d used to come aboard. There was no sign of the chopper, or its crew.

The anchor chain had finally given way at the weak spot where they’d been cutting but in being dragged overboard, it had torn a chunk of the keel away with it. There was also the fact the boat was limping along at the whim of the wind. At the moment, it looked like they were headed straight for the bay where the harbor and post office sat, but it would only take a slight change for them to be heading into open water.

And then we really would be totally fucked.

He looked across the deck to where the cargo bay doors lay open, bent, buckled, and spread-eagled. There was a black hole there he didn’t want to look into.

But someone will have to. And it will have to be done soon.

He walked back over to what was left of his squad; he saw the same worry in their eyes he was sure must be in his own.

Get them moving. And do it fast, before they have too much time to think.

“Sarge, McCally, watch the bloody cargo bay. I need to call in a strike on this boat.”

Svetlanova spoke first.

“Not the boat. The rig. Down there on the seabed, they’re still coming through the hole we drilled. They’ll keep coming through until the breach is shut. That’s where the big ones are.”

“Let them stay there,” McCally said. “I want off this fucking boat.”

“We can’t,” Svetlanova said. “They crawl. They travel in swarms on the seabed. Don’t you see? How do you think those ones you met first got ashore?” She turned back to Banks. “If you’re calling in a strike, make it a big one and make it on the rig, what’s left of it, down on the bottom.”

“Listen to the lass, Cap,” Mac said weakly. “She kens what she’s on about.”

Banks nodded. He’d already made his mind up anyway.

“As I said. Watch the cargo bay, lads. I’ll call in the strike.”

He got the phone out of his pocket and punched in the code.

“Pick up aborted catastrophically,” he said. “Calling for wildfire, at this location, ASAP.”

“How big do you need?”

“Everything you’ve got,” Banks said.

“Bad?”

“As bad as it gets.”

“Wilco,” the voice at the other end replied. “Wildfire in one hour from this mark. Good luck.”

Banks looked at his squad.

“You heard? We’ve got incoming.”

“How do we get off the boat?” McCally asked as Banks put the phone away. He still had his weapon trained on the cargo bay but, thankfully, there had been no movement from the darkness below.

“We don’t. Not yet,” Banks replied. “If the boat’s going to hit the shore, we need to clear it of those bloody isopods first. If we’re lucky, they all buggered off with the big one chasing the chopper. But we need to check.

“We’ve got an hour.”

“Good luck, Cap,” Mac said. “But there’ll be no running about in the dark for me. I’m done in here.”

He slumped at Svetlanova’s side and his legs went from under him. Hynd was at his side in a second and between the sarge and the woman, they got Mac back inside to where he’d been sitting earlier, at the foot of the steps inside the door to the deck.

He looked up and managed a wan smile.

“I think I’ll sit here for a while, see what happens.”

“I’ll stay with him,” Hynd said.

“No,” Banks replied, feeling like a shit but knowing he was right to make the call. “I need you and McCally with me if we’re to clear these vermin out.”

“Then I’ll stay with him,” Svetlanova said.

Banks really needed to keep the woman close; she was the mission now, all that was left of it. But he couldn’t leave Mac to die alone; not after he’d already left Nolan to the same fate earlier.

“Okay; keep the weapon,” he said to Svetlanova. “And come and find us when you can.”

He turned to Mac.

“Look after her, big man. Like you said afore, she’s a keeper.”

“Aye,” Mac said. “My maw is going to be so pleased to meet her.” He spoke again as Banks turned to leave. “And Cap… waste those fuckers. Waste them all.”

Banks let McCally and Hynd have a last word with Mac. He moved away along the corridor, standing over the dead isopod that almost filled the walk space. It had leaked stinking green goop again on the floor and he took care not to stand in it. As he remembered the shots that killed it, he realized he knew something else: he had a surefire way of finding out if there were any beasts still on board. All he had to do was turn on the phone and they’d come running.

A plan started to form but he wasn’t sure he liked it.

We’re going to need more firepower.