Frank Schatzing - The Swarm

'So why are you spying on us?'

'Rubin made a mistake that night,' Li said insistently. 'He had no right to hit you. Our surveillance systems are here for your safety. We kept the military side of the mission secret because we didn't want to unsettle the rest of the team and distract you from your work.'

'And what exactly is the purpose of our work?' Johanson was almost touching Li, staring into her eyes. 'To make peace – or be duped into providing you with all the necessary information to launch a military offensive that you've been planning from the start?'

'We had to keep both options open.'

'How far has Mick got with the military one?'

'He's had a few ideas that seem promising, but nothing concrete.' Li took a deep breath. 'I'd like to ask you in the interests of international security not to tell any of the others what you've heard. Give us time to tell them ourselves. It would be wrong to jeopardise their work when billions of people are depending on it. Soon we'll be able to cooperate as one team on both options. You've achieved the seemingly impossible – you've given our enemy a face. Once the message is ready, there'll be no more need for secrecy. And when we start working together on a weapon, we'll do so in the hope that we'll never have to-'

'Do you know what, Jude?' hissed Johanson. He was so close now that there wasn't room to pass a hand between their faces. 'I don't believe you. As soon as you've got your bloody weapons, you're going to use them. Don't you see what will happen? They're amoebas , Jude! Millions and billions of single-cell organisms . They've been around since the beginning of time. We haven't even begun to understand their role in our ecosystem. There's no way of knowing what will happen to the oceans if you kill them. There's no way of knowing what will happen to us if you kill them. But quite apart from anything else: we won't be able to stop what they've started . Are you too blinkered to see that? How do you think you're going to get the Gulf Stream flowing without the yrr? What are you going to do about the worms?'

'When we've finished with the yrr,' said Li, 'we'll start on the worms and bacteria.'

'What? You want to pick a fight with bacteria? This whole planet is made of bacteria! You can't seriously intend to exterminate microbes. Exactly how deluded are you? You might think you rule the world, but if you were to go around exterminating microbes, you'd kill this planet. You'd be the ones destroying the Earth, not the yrr. You'd wipe out all the marine life and then-'

'So darned what?' Vanderbilt erupted. 'You pathetic, ignorant, stupid, know-it-all asshole of a scientist. Who gives a toss if a few fish die, so long as we survive-'

'But we won't!' Johanson was yelling now. 'Don't you get it? Life is interconnected. And we can't fight the yrr – they're superior to us. Fighting microbes is futile. Even normal viral infections defeat us – but that's not the point. Humans only survive on this planet because Earth is ruled by microbes.'

'Sigur…' Li implored him.

He turned round. 'Open the door,' he said. 'As far as I'm concerned, this conversation is over.'

'Fine.' Li nodded, tight-lipped. 'Show Dr Johanson out, Sal.'

Peak hesitated.

'Is there something wrong with your ears, Sal? Dr Johanson has expressed his wish to leave.'

'Are you sure we can't change your mind?' said Peak, sounding helpless and strained. 'Then maybe you'd see that it is the right decision.'

'Just open the door, Sal,' said Johanson.

Peak stepped forward reluctantly and pushed a switch on the wall. The door slid open.

'And the other door, if you don't mind.'

'Of course.'

Johanson walked out.

'Sigur!'

He stopped. 'What now, Jude?'

'You've accused me of failing to see the consequences of my actions. Who knows? Perhaps you're right. But make sure you face up to the consequences of yours. If you tell the others, you'll endanger their efforts to make contact. Maybe we didn't have the right to lie to you in the first place – but you need to consider whether you've got the right to tell the truth.'

Johanson turned round slowly. Li was standing in the door of the control room. 'I'll certainly give it my careful consideration,' he said.

'Then let's strike a deal. If you hold off until I've had time to find a solution, we can talk it through this evening. And, in the meantime, neither of us will do anything that might cause problems for the other. Can you see a way of co-operating with my proposal?'

Johanson's jaw was grinding. What would happen if he dropped the bombshell? What would happen to him if he aimed her down point-blank?

'Done,' he said.

Li smiled. 'Thank you, Sigur.'

WEAVER

All things considered, she would have preferred to stay on the well deck. Anawak was still doing his best to lift Greywolf's spirits, which made her feel doubly disinclined to go. Her feelings for one man made her want to stay with him; the grief of the other made her reluctant to leave. She couldn't bear to see Greywolf so overwhelmed with sorrow. Yet what Johanson had told her was even more disturbing. The more she thought about it, the more ominous his memories seemed. Deep down she felt that they were all in grave danger.

And by now Rubin would be back at the lab.

'I'll see you later,' she said. 'Stuff to do.'

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew they sounded false. Too casual.

Anawak's brow furrowed. 'Stuff?'

'Oh, you know, bits and pieces.'

She was rubbish at this kind of thing. She hurried up the ramp and into the passageway. The door to the lab was open. As she walked in, she caught sight of Rubin talking to Oliviera. They were standing by one of the benches. Rubin turned to her. 'Hi. You wanted to ask me something?'

Weaver pushed the switch on the wall, so that the door closed behind her. 'I wondered if you could explain something.'

'You picked the right man.' Rubin grinned.

'That's good to know.' She joined them. Her eyes scanned the bench. All manner of equipment was littered over it, including an upright holder filled with scalpels of varying sizes. She said, 'I don't suppose you'll have any trouble telling me why there's a hidden lab up there, what you're doing in it, and why you knocked out Sigur?'

HANGAR DECK

Johanson was seething with rage. He was too furious to know what to do with himself, so he ran to the hangar deck and inspected the wall. In his memory he knew exactly where the door was, but there was still no trace of a camouflaged passageway. It was a waste of time looking for it: Li had already admitted that the lab existed. But he wasn't prepared to let it lie.

Suddenly he noticed long streaks of rust in the grey paint of the bulkhead. Or, rather, he'd always known that they were there, but he'd never paid any attention to them because peeling paint and corrosion were not unusual on a vessel. Now it dawned on him that rust had no business on a new warship – and the Independence was brand new.

He took a few steps back. The pipes on the left stretched up along the bulkhead, leading to a long streak of rust. Above that was a fuse box, surrounded by flaking paint.

He'd found the door.

It was incredibly well concealed. He would never have spotted it if he hadn't been looking; so determinedly. Even when he and Weaver had searched for it earlier, they'd fallen for the artful disguise. He still couldn't make out the contours, just an apparently random collection of details that in combination hid a door.

Weaver!

Would she have got to Rubin? Should he call her off, in line with what he'd said to Li?

Breathing heavily, he paced up and down the empty deck, unsure what to do. Suddenly the ship took on the aspect of a prison. Even the gloomy hangar with its yellow lights seemed oppressive.