The Lure

35 Death Squad

Gibson shambled reluctantly into the refectory. The entire team was present and the table was laid with toast, hard-boiled eggs, butter and jam. The croissants looked and smelled fresh, but only Shtyrkov was eating. Gibson’s face twisted in tension, but only for a moment. Svetlana poured him a coffee.

‘Can’t be long now, Charlee.’ Shtyrkov was grinning and Gibson believed that the man had finally lost his mind. ‘Not once they find Hanning has failed to deliver.’

‘I looked further down the signal, about two minutes into it, using Tom’s algorithm — and found another genome, would you believe it? Another billion bytes or so.’ Gibson was speaking without enthusiasm. ‘It doesn’t match anything in the snp database.’

‘Meaning?’ Shtyrkov asked.

‘It’s definitely non-human. Not even primate.’

‘Drosophila? Nematode?’

Gibson shook his head emphatically. ‘It’s far more complex. Whatever it is, it’s biologically more advanced than anything on Earth.’

‘More complex equals superior?’

‘Put it this way. Until I knew more about this entity, I wouldn’t want to meet it on a dark night.’

Svetlana pushed her uneaten egg away, an angry gesture. She was close to tears. Shtyrkov squeezed her hand.

Gibson said, ‘I know. Here we are, frantically working to the last minute for the good of all mankind, and mankind is about to squelch us.’

Shtyrkov asked, ‘I wonder how they’ll do it?’ He seemed detached, almost cheerful.

‘Why don’t we just open the door and run out?’ Svetlana asked.

‘Calm yourself, child.’

Gibson sipped his coffee. It was the best he had ever tasted. Every sense was tingling. He wondered if this was what Shtyrkov was feeling, or whether the temporal lobe stuff was finally getting to him, or whether it was just his impending execution. ‘They don’t give the Nobel Prize posthumously.’

‘Charlee Gibson. For once in your life forget earthly baubles. This discovery is beyond any prize.’ Shtyrkov raised his coffee cup to Gibson. ‘You are a very imperfect man, Charlee, but you have done something wonderful. Your reward is immortality.’

‘I hope Tom and Freya make it,’ said Gibson. ‘I want my immortality.’