by Taylor, Dan
“So, this man that is killed by the train. He is Bayhollow, and you are the man with the switch?” asked Abel. Callum nodded in response. “So, who in this analogy is the train full of people?” Abel asked.
“The train full of people is North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Republic of Congo, Somalia, rebels around the globe. Those whom live in oppression under vindictive governments. This is not the first outbreak as I am sure my new reporter friend knows. This is the first one that has not been covered up. The first one in a first world country on HIVE’s home territory. We could not go to the police. HIVE has spies everywhere. We would be found and dealt with. Only by exposing them publicly for the world to see can we finally bring them down. An act of evil to destroy an even bigger evil.”
Abel thought for a moment. “That makes sense. You couldn’t go to the police or government because of the spies. Exposing them gives them nowhere to hide.” He raised his finger and wagged it back on fourth, “Just one more thing. Now they are exposed why are we running? And where is Dr Schaf Leitner?” he decided to play along.
“It is not over just yet. We are all wanted people now and the CIA, MI5 and HIVE will be searching for us. We think there is a true cure. Top scientists have been working on this for a long time. These are my friends I mentioned. We need to meet them and Schaf will be meeting us there,” responded Calum.
“A cure!” piped up Klutz who had been listening intently. “We have to get there fast, I am already starting to feel some hunger pangs and I am trying to ration out our… snacks.”
“Abel?” Lydia asked, “I don’t think we have a choice. I think we have to go with Callum and Klutz to Storny, Stormany…”.
“Stornoway,” Interjected Callum.
“Thanks, Stornoway. We are too deep into this now. We must see this through to the end. If we can stop an even bigger tragedy, we have to do it. I have too many questions as I am sure you do.”
Abel knew he should turn himself in. This was way out of control. He looked a Lydia’s soft, pleading smile and melted, “Fine. But for the record, I do not buy any of this ‘the ends justify the means’ nonsense. There is always another way. What you have committed Callum is mass-murder and when this is over, I will arrest you personally and you will see justice.”
Callum smiled which ran a chill down Abel’s spine.
Klutz slurped up a slither of meat and spoke as he chewed. “One thing still doesn’t make sense. You said Dr Leitner was helping you with this. But when I saw him, he had nothing but disdain for you. He tortured you get more of the virus. I was the one who had to hook you up to the machine and give you more of the virus so you weren’t a raving lunatic with a smile plastered on your face.”
“Klutz is correct. There is a Leitner shaped hole in your story Callum,” stated Abel a little bit annoyed he wasn’t the one who had the gotcha moment. “Also, this car we are driving and the bag of clothes were not placed her by you. You didn’t know what the car looked like when you got those keys. We were walking around the car park with you pressing the key to work out which car you needed. This isn’t your plan, you are just playing a part in it.”
“Well spotted Detective Klutz and PC Abel.” Callum said whilst smiling in the rear-view mirror to Klutz. He couldn’t have known that Abel had waned to be a detective but this irked Abel anyway. “Schaf is paranoid about spies. He did what did because he needed to keep up the act that he was on HIVE’s side. It was not coincidence that the equipment was left out and the chains were not quite strong enough to keep Klutz tied down. There were HIVE agents in the tent most of the time and cameras watching us always. He did what he had to do to make sure our mission was a success. My friends in Scotland are the ones who left the car and the bag. They, with Leitner, came up with the plan and now the plan is to return to them.”
“So, who are they, your friends?” Lydia looked up from her laptop for a split second to ask.
“The call themselves, The Fishermen of Stornoway. I will explain everything on the way.”
Chapter 49
Delta One opened his eyes. He had gone through extreme agony like he had never experienced, which was saying something considering the battles he had been in. His twisted body was no longer twisted, his broken bones had set, his bruises softened and his cuts had clotted. He had died and been brought back. His awakening was both physical and mental. The truth about the worker bee serum had left him embarrassed and ashamed. Nobody makes him feel like that and gets away with it. It was HIVE’s fault that Six and Three were dead. They never stood a chance against the Patient Zero and he was sure General Holt had known this all along. He had loved working for HIVE. The honour and pride he had felt was now tainted with this fresh betrayal. The serums had made him almost superhuman but all along they hadn’t trusted him enough to let him wield this power fully. Dr Schaf Leitner had lifted the veil from his eyes and he could see HIVE for what it truly was. A cold, uncaring machine operated by the powerful to keep themselves powerful. Delta One looked down at his hands and clenched his fists. The doctor had been correct about the power of the virus. He felt just as sharp and strong as he was when he juiced up on worker bee. Maybe ever stronger. He was startled by a loud gurgling sound. It was his stomach. He was hungry, starving even.
Dr Leitner was stood in front of him holding out a large, wet, steak like piece of meat. Greedily, Delta One snatched it from him and ate. As he took bites, he prayed it was not Delta Three or Six he was eating.
“Don’t worry Delta One. This is not a part of your friends’ corpses. I wouldn’t do that to you.” Leitner smiled with a shark like grin, anticipating what Delta One was thinking, “A lot has been happening whilst you were reanimated. The base was attacked from the infected, Callum and Klutz have escaped with a police officer and a journalist who were being kept by HIVE for observation. The base and infection zone are back to being separated. The fences repaired and the infected are once again kept inside their zone. There have been casualties unfortunately.” Leitner pointed at the slab of meat which was now almost all eaten. “That meat should be enough to keep you satisfied for a while. We need to pack some more for the journey.”
“Journey? What are you talking about?” asked Delta One. It took a few attempts to get his words out almost like he was teaching his brain how to speak again.
“Don’t you remember. Just before you died, we decided that we would go after Callum. You wanted revenge for what he did to you team.”
Delta One scratched his head and nodded. He did not know where to direct his anger. The infected HIVE employee who killed his team or the company for putting them in a situation they knew they would lose.
“Do you feel well enough for us to go?” asked Leitner.
“Right now?” Delta One questioned.
“Yes, we have to go right now. If we are going to catch them.”
A bead of sweat ran down Dr Leitner’s brow. With his new powers, Delta One could smell its saltiness which stung his nose and made him salivate. Delta One noticed that although smiling wide there was a panic in Dr Leitner’s eyes which were darting up and to his left. He had seen this look before on a mission. It was in Afghanistan. His squad were going door to door looking for insurgents. Behind one door a woman in a hijab was smiling at him and telling him that nobody, except her, was home. But her eyes told a story of panic. They told him to ignore what she was saying because she was in danger. He pulled her out the house to reveal three men with Kalashnikovs and a table with an IED they had been working on. Leitner’s eyes were telling him there is more he needs to say but is unable to. His eyes were pointing to the top left of the tent where a camera blinked a red light.
“Follow me Dr Leitner. We have to report in with the General. He is going to want a debrief on what happened here.” Delta One placed his black full-face helmet on and they walked through the decontamination showers and out the tent. Once outside they both ran away from the debrief room and to the helipad. The camp was still abuzz. Troops were runni
ng with stretchers, others in hazmat suits were clearing infected corpses. No one even noticed them as they made their way across the base.
Delta One spoke clearly to Leitner as they were running, “Once we are inside the helicopter, you tell me where we need to go. I also want a full explanation as to what exactly is going on here. This whole operation has stunk of coverups and political crime since it started. As for a ‘snack’ as you put it, I intend to make Patient Zero my final meal before ending my life, again. There is no use talking me out of it. I have made up my mind. It is not natural being this way. It’s great to feel this powerful all the time, but the hunger will take over I know it. I don’t feel human anymore and I cannot live with that.”
They made a quick stop in a small building that checks in and out vehicles. Callum knocked out the soldier there with one punch, before grabbing the keys to a fully fuelled Wildcat Mk1. Within minutes they were up in the air and HIVE and the British Army were none the wiser.
“Ok, old man. Where we heading?” Delta One Buzzed into his headset.
“Stornoway in Scotland. Now as you requested, let me explain what is going on.”
Chapter 50
The helicopter blades spun rhythmically and loudly. The air was cool and the speed at which they gained altitude gave Dr Schaf Leitner vertigo. He closed his eye and tried to not look out the window. In his head set he heard Delta One tell him it would take around two and half hours to reach Scotland but that they were likely to be tracked by HIVE. This wasn’t a problem. They would be gone long before HIVE had any idea what was going on. Leitner held down the button to allow him to talk. He didn’t want to be interrupted while he explained how they had gotten in this situation. He kept his eyes closed.
“It started decades ago. In the fifties. I was a younger man then and was a part of a scientific team working on new threats Britain had gained after World War II. The Soviet Union had ended Hitler’s regime and, in the process, become their successor as the enemy of the West. I am talking of course about the Cold War which, as a British Army veteran, I am sure you know a lot about. I say a lot because there are secrets which I know that most do not. Secrets I am unfortunately a part of.
As I said, I was working on new threats. Not working on preventing them, but on creating them. Specifically, in the now outlawed, biological warfare. It sounds bad now but at the time it was nothing new. This kind of warfare has been happening for thousands of years. Tribes would put dead bodies in wells to poison towns, Scythians would dip their arrows in manure to spread infection and even Hannibal fired containers filled with poisonous snakes at his enemies. However, this was never a major threat until the sophistication of biological agents made by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan using Anthrax, Syphilis and Cholera. I had learnt a lot from my time in Germany and so was recruited by the British Government to help produce weapons which could obliterate populations, if needed. Everyone knew about the nuclear arms race but behind the scenes there was a biological arms race too.
I was a part of Operation Cauldron. A team of the best scientific minds working on weaponizing the Bubonic and Pneumonic Plague, Brucellosis and a whole host of other viruses and diseases. We were based in Stornoway on a large floating pontoon the size of an aircraft carrier. Inside the pontoon, was our scientific equipment and thousands of test subjects. Guinea Pigs and Monkeys. These subjects would be sprayed with clouds of these diseases. We would set off bombs that would disperse the spores and record our results.
We were on this very secret and offshore site as to not infect any of the British population. However, there was the problem of fishing vessels. Most would keep clear as we had constant warnings about the site being restricted. But there was one ship, a large Fleetwood trawler called the Carella, who ignored our warnings as we were setting off tests. A large spore of a biological mix I had personally made came in contact with their ship. We rushed to help them but it was too late. On board their ship was a deck hand called Fergus Anderson. He initially checked out OK but after a few hours was experiencing headaches, fever and bleeding of the gums. He suffered a fatal heart attack and died in front of us. But he did not remain dead. It was the Captain of the Ship, Captain Harris, who spotted it first. About thirty minutes after his death, the body was shaking violently. I knelt down besides the body and listened to his heart. It thudded wildly like a set of drums. There was no rhythm but it beat beat beat beat beat. We would not let him go to a hospital. It was far too dangerous. What if he infected the population? He was instead taken aboard a nearby Naval Ship whose medical team pronounced him dead hours later. They had made it look like he died from the virus, but I knew they had killed him. He was far too dangerous to be left alive.
The whole incident was covered up. Fergus Anderson had officially died by drowning, when some rigging on the ship fell and knocked him in the water. The crew had to keep silent. They were threatened and they kept their vow to not breathe a word of what happened to anyone. After all, they did not want to be the reasons we lost the Cold War.
The project after that was disbanded. I had killed an innocent man but what really caught the governments attention was how I had done it. I had created a virus which could kill and bring someone back to life. Wouldn’t that be useful. To have soldiers who could come back to life after they have been killed? So, I and the other scientists, were off the team and thrown into a new team. One which could not be linked to the government. A new organisation that prized itself on secrecy and security. That company was, and still is, HIVE. Hostis inficiat vici exhorresco ‘Infect the enemy and conquer with fear’. I have been perfecting that virus, along with making some other new human enhancements, ever since. I got upset when I heard the papers called it brain-dead madness. For decades we have internally called it Emerald Wasp Serum. For years we have been developing the serum as way to enhance humans to create a better species. About a decade ago I found out the truth. I began to get suspicious of HIVE’s intentions so I planted recording equipment in meeting rooms and listen in to conversation between the HIVE elite. They wanted to use the virus to decimate populations. They want to sell the virus to dictators and government leaders who they think will use the virus to benefit their cause. Prime Minister Ken Lockhart for example, has massive stake in HIVE. If the UK government were to secretly release the virus in the middle east, they could use HIVE to expand their territories overseas. They could make it look like the UK were saving countries in need and most HIVE employees would believe this too. This madness has to be stopped. You have seen what this virus is capable of. Both the great and evil potential it has in the right or wrong hands.”
“So why are we going to Stornoway, you might be asking. The reason is because that is where I told Dr Callum Jamison, Patient Zero as you know him, to go. I told him that after he released the virus and infect the hotel that he must make his way to Stornoway by any means necessary. I have to say, he hasn’t disappointed.” Dr Leitner opened his eyes and gave Delta One a cold stare. Beneath his mask Delta One was stunned. Leitner released his grip on the comms button to allow Delta one to speak.”
“You did this.” He waved an arm around him making sure to keep the other on the controls. “You murdered all those people. You turned me into a cannibal monster.”
“We have exposed HIVE for who they are. The world will have to pay attention. We did not mean for so many to get hurt. I did not mean for you to get hurt. But you should not think of yourself as a monster. You have an incredible gift now. What has happened to you is a jump start in evolution. The dinosaurs were wiped out to bring the age of the mammals, the big chill forced humans to use tools and think, the black death gave rise to the renaissance. Now I’m not saying that humans need to be wiped out but you are now only equal to two other individuals. Callum Jamison and that Klutz boy. If they leave the people of Bayhollow alone then some of them will also be like you. The age of the super-humans is upon us and you are one of them.”
“You’ve gone mad,” replied Delta One in disg
ust.
“On the contrary I am saner than I have ever been. So are you. You are now awakened to who HIVE are. You must feel as if you can see clearly now for the first time. This goes further than you think. General Holt and Prime Minister Ken Lockhart are mere puppets for HIVE. HIVE is a honeycomb of different companies based all over the world. The HIVE you know specialises in security. The HIVE I know in Biological warfare. But their reach extends further than that. Technology, aerospace, weapons, media. They are a black glove whose grip on the world gets tighter and tighter. But there are those that oppose them. That is where we are going. We must find the Fishermen of Stornoway.”.
Chapter 51
Ken Lockhart looked at himself in the mirror. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and fixed his hair into a neat parting. These last two days had been more than difficult and more than he was willing to take. This out of control ship needed to be set back on course. He sat down at his desk and prepared himself for the call he was going to make. He ran through what he wanted to say in his mind several times and took long slow breaths. Why did he get involved with HIVE in the first place and why with the man he needed to phone? He looked around his office and remembered. He was in the highest seat in the country because of this man. The whole campaign was rigged in his favour because of this man’s actions. The leader of the opposition had stepped down because of health problems, secrets of other parties had been exposed, he had been given unlimited funding to play with, and only so much that was put on the books. Ken knew he had sold his soul to devil for position and power. So why did he feel so powerless now?