James Rouch - Plague Bomb

Leaving the window, he crossed to his desk and picked up the internal telephone. His own operator responded instantly, but there was a perceptible delay before the section he asked for answered. He made a mental note for future reference and action.

‘Rozenkov… I shall want a transcript of all transmissions from GRU headquarters made in the next hour. Have them sent to me as fast as they are decoded… then get the extra men you need!’ He made another note, and the need for a shake-up of the Radio Traffic Interception section moved higher in his list of priorities, taking second place behind the obtaining of a GRU liaison officer.

‘Pity those bloody civvies didn’t stay put in that holiday village, or whatever it was. If they had we’d have been on our way home by now.’ On the major’s instruction Burke had slowed the Marder to a walking pace as the road topped a ridge, and brought it to a halt in a hull-down position while the officer, their NCO and the girl went forward to reconnoitre the route ahead.

‘Anybody want a hand of cards while we’re waiting?’ Rippling the thick greasy deck, Dooley looked around, but there were no takers. ‘Come on you mean bastards. You can’t take it with you.’

‘Ain’t that the truth.’ Swallowing the antibiotic and painkiller Thorne had handed him, Ripper pulled a face at the plastic tainted taste of the tepid water he used to wash them down. ‘But if I ain’t takin’ it with me, I sure don’t see any reason for makin’ a gift of it to you before I go.’

Taking care not to bump the wide lens of the powerful infra-red camera against the sides of the hatch, Boris lowered it to the bench, before climbing down himself and starting to stow the equipment.

‘Managed to get any good dirty pictures with that recently? Anything saleable?’ Reluctantly returning the cards to his pocket, Dooley took out a well-thumbed back copy of Forum and began to flick through it, having to squint closely to see the detail of small photographs illustrating an article on lesbianism. ‘If you could use all that fancy gear to get a few shots like this,’ he held the small booklet open towards the Russian, ‘we could make a few bucks. You know, that’s a business I wouldn’t mind going in for when I get out.’

‘I thought you were off to Florida to offer your services to all the wrinkled old widows. There can’t be much of a market for pictures of them.’ Burke shuddered at the thought. ‘Horrible, all wispy grey hair and sagging tits.’

‘Yeah, well I am still going there, but I can have a sideline can’t I?’ In the poor light of the compartment Dooley was having to strain his eyes to see the pages, and gave up. ‘Anyway, I don’t go for the real elderly crows, just the nice plump mature ones, those still able to remember what it was like, and fancy a refresher course with an Adonis like me.’

‘I think you can forget about doing either.’

Watching the contamination monitor, Clarence saw it edge a fraction higher as a gust of wind buffeted the APC on the exposed ridge. Another couple of points and they would have to put on the respirators. The prophylactics they took in such quantities could not be guaranteed to work in so polluted an atmosphere. ‘We would just be lying to ourselves if we ever imagined we’re going to get out of the Zone, except in a box.’

‘You’re wrong.’ Revell stamped the dust from his overshoes before entering. ‘Looks like the Russians let fly with all this chemical muck without licking their fingers to test which way the wind was blowing. Some of it came right back in their faces. This saturated area extends much further on their side than they’ve admitted. There’s a village just over the hill, and it’s definitely not West German. A couple of miles back we must have crossed into Czechoslovakia. Did the infrared camera register anything interesting?’

He’d been waiting to be asked, and Boris handed over the clearest of the three frames he had taken. The heat sensitive film had captured the small town in merging shades of muted red and blue. Some particularly distinctive individual buildings, like churches, could be identified, but of much more interest was the sprinkling of darker red spots, most of them on their own, but some in clusters, or lines. ‘I tried to count them, but there are so many?’

‘What are they?’ Having pushed in for a look, Andrea found she could not interpret the images.

‘Well a couple of them might be weak sunlight reflecting from glass, or bare metal. That large one,’ Boris indicated a red smudge, ‘is a petrol station. The underground storage tanks hold heat quite efficiently. But most of them are bodies. Decomposition will be keeping their flesh at a higher temperature than their surroundings. Those registering most strongly will be inside vehicles, be rotting more slowly.’

‘That is excellent. For once the war has been carried behind the iron curtain. I am pleased.’ Without asking she took the picture and examined it closely, trying to estimate the number of dead. ‘The Russians and their puppets have so far always fought the war beyond their own borders, I am very happy that this time their people have suffered.’

‘You evil bitch.’ Clarence could have hit her. ‘Those aren’t combat troops lying down there, that’s women and children.’

‘The communists have never hesitated to slaughter indiscriminately, you know that better than most, your own family…’

‘Be quiet, don’t say it.’

Although the sniper said the words so softly they were hardly a whisper, Andrea stopped in mid sentence. They looked at each other, her overspilling hatred meeting his coldly calculated determination, and each found its match.

‘Shouldn’t we be moving?’ Ripper lay between the two silent antagonists and the tension over him was like an axe poised to drop. ‘Hey, now don’t you start nothing, I’m in the middle. See, I’m wounded.’

It was Andrea who broke the deadlock, but not to finish what she had been saying. Her voice was almost mechanical in its delivery. ‘There is no longer any hurry. Only one road leaves the town on the far side, and it is under water. The traitors will be going no further, we have only to go and… collect them?’

Revell had been about to intervene when Ripper had spoken first, now he was glad he’d not. Inevitably he would have sided with her, and it would not have gone unnoticed. Even the eye contact that she and the sniper had maintained for so long had torn at him. ‘Let’s go. I want all ports manned. Thorne, get into the turret and pull the co-ax machine gun. Try rigging the flamethrower for use from there. The hoses should reach if you take it easy with the traverse. I haven’t seen any, but it’s possible the commies were waiting for them down there. I don’t want us to bumble unprepared into any welcoming party that might be in progress.’

‘Don’t worry, Major.’ Once again the bulky cylinders caused havoc and confusion as they were dragged half the length of the cramped interior by Thorne.

‘If they are, it’ll hot things up for them.’

‘There they are.’ Burke was first to spot the Range Rover, parked in the middle of the road a hundred yards ahead.

A figure crouched beside the vehicle and as they approached stood, took a cautious step back, then hesitantly waved. Still clutching a wheel brace he held that half welcoming, half nervous pose then as the distance between him and the approaching APC shortened he saw the faded West German emblem on the Marder’s front, threw down the tool and ran.

‘After him.’

The moment it took them to throw open the heavy rear door, and the penalty of having to run in the cumbersome NBC suits was too great a disadvantage to overcome. The man took the steps of a church four at a time and slammed the massive iron studded door before the squad reached the foot of the flight.