Майкл Крайтон - The Andromeda Evolution

*** APPROVED STANDARD ISSUE MANIFEST—ALL TEAM ITEMS ***

Tropical loadout as determined by Marine Corps Jungle Warfare Training Center (est. Okinawa, Japan). All items stowed in Umlindi all-weather backpack, Tarahumara attachment, chest-mounted heavy recon kit bag. ATTIRE to incl. standard-issue civilian jungle dress, USMC-approved boots, Merino blend socks x4, tactical wind shirt, rain gear. TOOL and TOOL ROLL to incl. machete, whistle, compass, flashlight, fire starter, multi-tool, all-purpose utensil, leather gloves, trowel. SLEEP SYSTEM to incl. hammock w/ bug screen and rain fly, mountain serape, cordage.

Local guides to carry SURVIVAL KIT / COOKING KIT / TRAUMA KIT / WEAPONS KIT.

*** APPROVED SPECIAL MANIFEST ***

NIDHI VEDALA, MD-PHD

Aerosolized cellulose-based Andromeda inhibitor, 200 oz. Based on subject’s Wildfire research and developed in cooperation with Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Delhi campus. (Protected by US top-secret classification and IIT Act in the Republic of India.) Contains no latex elements. Mimics the Andromeda nanostructure to remain invisible to known microparticle varieties (AS-1 & AS-2). Multiple interleaved layers are self-cleaning, providing a low-viscosity surface that repels liquid, dust, etc. Totally inert, indigestible, and requiring infrequent reapplication.

HAROLD ODHIAMBO, PHD

Projectile-tipped seismic sensor package, 16 count. Single-use deployment, locally networked and AI-enabled. Developed under Kenyan government research grant KIR-2300B and designed for detection of wildlife migration, geological activity, and criminal poaching. Fine-tunable for surface or subsurface events, with innate machine-learning capability for pattern recognition and noise cancellation. Additional specialty loadout, incl.: compact infrasound detector; soil moisture meter; portable core saw.

PLA MAJOR PENG WU

Chinese-made Dyclone-Wa portable field science and engineering kit—including packable light microscopy; portable autoclave; mass spectrum analyzer; gas and liquid chromatograph; pH meter; refractometer; microcentrifuge; wireless data logging and backup; satellite upload capability; twenty-seven built-in sensors and autosampler; and automatic sensor testing and calibration. Appropriate for field experimentation across multiple disciplines.

JAMES STONE, PHD

Palm-size “canary” self-charging mini-drones, 12 count. Charging base station integrated into portable backpack. Mounted with five-axis radial blade, four propellers with redundant, interchangeable parts. Sensor package: miniaturized laser rangefinder (submillimeter precision); low- and high-res camera imaging; gyroscopic inertial measurement unit; toxin-detecting environmental sensors (including AS-1 and AS-2 detection). Capable of concerted real-time map-building; collision avoidance; three-dimensional path-finding. No extra payload capacity.

SERGEANT EDUARDO BRINK, US ARMY

Day 2Wildfire

In a disaster . . . individual personality does not matter. Almost everything you do is going to make it worse.

—MICHAEL CRICHTON

Dawn Discovery

ON WHAT WOULD BE THEIR FIRST AND ONLY NIGHT OF decent rest, the group of four scientists and twelve guides successfully camped beside the nameless river, sleeping in hammocks covered by mosquito netting. They were exhausted, despite having hiked for a mere six hours and covering fewer than ten miles. No problems were reported by Sergeant Brink in his official logbook or by Nidhi Vedala in her morning status notes.

But something happened during the night.

Upon reviewing the personal field diary of James Stone (a decidedly low-tech waterproof notebook and pen recovered after the incident), a paragraph stands out: “Slept fitfully. Woke from the dream, as usual. Thought I saw someone in dark but can’t be sure. Guides seem spooked. Caught Matis searching the tree line for something. Said nothing when asked about it.”

In the aftermath of the incident, every surviving Matis scout blended untraceably back into the FUNAI-protected tribal villages and river shanties deep in Terra Indigena. Only one scout, Ixema, was eventually located, having spent his wages in a single day in the nearby gambling city of Leticia. He returned to where he had been contracted, looking for another payout. A sum was agreed upon, in exchange for information about the journey.

Of the first night in the jungle, Ixema would say only one thing: “In the morning, something was wrong.” When pressed as to what exactly had happened, he admitted someone had left footprints around the camp. Several items were moved, but nothing had been taken.

Finally, after much prodding, Ixema added one detail.

Whoever had come in the night had also left something behind. Something Brink ordered the Matis to quickly remove from view, before the scientists could see it. Ixema described the head of a skinned monkey, brown eyes large and round in a skull covered in pink flesh, fangs bared in an agonized grimace.

And its mouth, open as if screaming, was filled with gray ash.

Twenty-Mile Perimeter

THE FOUR SCIENTISTS AWOKE TO FIND THE MATIS already breaking camp. The smoking remnants of last night’s campfire had been doused, and the scouts were quietly divvying up the scientists’ heavy equipment. Without a word, two heavily tattooed Matis frontiersmen set off in single file into the trees, shotguns slung over their shoulders. Their pale, flashing machetes were quickly swallowed within the dim jungle.

Watching them go, Vedala approached Sergeant Brink where he stood among the remaining scouts and porters.

“Where are they going?” she asked.

“Directly toward the anomaly. We follow in twenty minutes. Get your people packed and ready.”

In response, Vedala walked to a waterproof hard-case lying on the slick mud of the jungle floor. She felt a sense of growing unease. The team was drawing nearer to the anomaly, and yet she had no idea what level of lethality to expect. Her only hope was that the inhibitor spray worked as well in practice as it did theoretically.

Shaking off her unease, she cracked open the hard-case and retrieved several aerosol canisters. Passing a canister to Brink, she began spraying her arms, torso, and legs in short bursts, explaining: “This inhibitor solution protects any surface from contact with the Andromeda nanostructure. Apply it over your clothes and on your exposed skin. Give it to your men, too. Tell them to think of it as sunscreen. It should last a few days.”

She closed her eyes and held her breath, spraying her face. Without a word, Brink headed over to his guides. Once he had moved away, Vedala opened her eyes and pulled out the government-issued Iridium satellite phone.

Quietly, she tried to raise General Stern at Peterson AFB.

Under the omnipresent tree canopy, the finicky phone didn’t register a single connection bar. Wary of wasting the batteries, Vedala gave up quickly. Further communication would be impossible until they found a break in the canopy. That likely wouldn’t happen until they reached the clearing beside the anomaly.

Rendezvous with command was still set for noon on the following day, and until then, it appeared the team would be on its own.

The two lead scouts had left behind an easy-to-follow trail of hacked plants—saplings and branches cut off at sharp angles, which looked oddly like spear points waiting to impale anyone who strayed from the path. Sergeant Brink and several of his Matis companions soon set off in single file, followed by the scientists, safely sandwiched between scouts in front and porters behind.

The day’s march progressed largely without incident.

Armed with detailed topographic map information collected by the Abutre-rei, Brink and his guides were able to lead the group around steep hills, avoiding sudden drop-offs and choosing to cross the many river tributaries at shallow points or where huge trees had fallen to create impromptu bridges.