“Who’s that?” Tess asked.
“A Japanese admiral who was attached to their embassy,” Anna said. “He was a spy. Now he’s running military intelligence.”
“He was spying on us?” Tess asked.
“He described it as spying along a parallel stream to us, whatever that means,” Anna said. “Part of the fragile deal which gives Oswald, Canberra, parliament, us, final say in the day-to-day running of… well, of everything, is that we make this a global relief effort with a global command. There is a United Nations, and an international leadership. With most of our navy, most of our shipping, sunk, and our people dispersed or dead, we have little choice but to fill our top ranks with anyone who’s qualified.”
“I guess old flags don’t matter,” Tess said. “But the timing is coincidental, isn’t it? That this bomb goes off just as the planes containing most of parliament are flying overhead?”
“More than just coincidental,” Anna said. “But if this was a political mass murder, suspicion should fall on Oswald and myself. That’s why it’s imperative we avoid suspicion among our allies. Individually, they are a minority. Collectively, the number of refugees here is… well, we’re not sure, but we think the population has doubled in a month.”
“It is a coincidence,” Hawker said. “If the target was those politicians, they would have attacked Hobart before the planes took off, or Canberra after they’d landed.”
“Your voice of experience would be more comforting if we’d not just survived an internationally funded coup,” Tess said.
“Which brings us to Baker,” Anna said. “Congratulations on his capture. Have you learned anything from him?”
“The sisters provided him with a mercenary bodyguard,” Tess said. “The soldiers were from the same group who were watching over Lignatiev and Vaughn. They had orders to kill Baker if the coup failed, but he made it to his panic room. So far, he’s confessed to everything. He facilitated, and funded, the coup. He’s confirmed that it was partly organised by a pair of narco-barons, two sisters called Herrera. We believe one is a chemist. They operated out of northern Colombia on the Caribbean Sea. Baker gave us the co-ordinates. It’s close to Punta Gallinas, the most northerly cape in South America, and not that far from the resort-island of Aruba. These sisters had influence in local, and regional, governments across the world. I don’t know how extensive, and how much was rumour, or how far to believe Baker, but it sounds like they were working with people in the U.K, the U.S., and had connections in Russia, India, and North Korea.”
“Not countries you usually hear mentioned together,” Anna said.
“Except when listing nuclear-armed powers,” Hawker said.
“North Korea doesn’t count, does it?” Leo said. “Not in the kind of exchange we’ve just experienced.”
“It might,” Tess said. “I know from the investigation before the outbreak that the cartel had been making a major push into France. That was at street-level, but safe to assume they’d set their aim higher, too. It could be they had agents in every nuclear power.”
“Did you say you have co-ordinates?” Leo asked, taking out a tablet.
“Sure.” Tess pushed her notebook across to him. “Baker has a lot more to tell, but he’s deliberately taking his time so as to push off the date of his trial. If we want to speed him up, he’ll need to be given a deal.”
“My vote’s for telling him whatever he needs to hear to get him to talk,” Hawker said.
“You mean—” Anna began. “Actually, no. There are some things best not even said aloud.” She closed her eyes. “What a week. Between the outbreak and the atomic genocide, every ship in the world became a refugee vessel. Over three-quarters of the world’s shipping made it into the Pacific or the Indian Ocean. The military ships had been gathered into giant fleets centred around U.S. nuclear-powered carriers, and those were deliberately targeted. Ships in harbour were sunk by the tsunami. Ships at sea lost power due to the electromagnetic pulse. Others were overwhelmed, or sunk, during the naval battles. Unless a ship sails into a harbour, we must assume it is lost.”
“Do we have any ships?” Tess asked.
“A small fleet was ferrying refugees and supplies between Papua and the smaller Indonesian islands,” Anna said. “Forty-seven vessels, all small cargo freighters. They appear to be intact. Or they were, as of fourteen hours ago. Otherwise, it’s a bare handful. A few submarines, a few military vessels, a few small cruise ships which were being repaired in Perth. Under two hundred in total.”
“More will have survived,” Hawker said. “Plenty will be able to repair their systems and get underway.”
“I hope so,” Anna said. “But we have no way of assisting them, or refuelling them. If they don’t sail into harbour, we must assume they are gone.”
“What about planes?” Tess asked. “One arrived from Mozambique this morning, and one from Lombok yesterday.”
“We can’t refuel overseas runways,” Anna said. “We have only two tanker-ships in the entire ocean. New Zealand lost its major refinery to a plane crash and fire. There were zombies on the plane, and they survived the crash. This created a delay in the fire-fighting efforts. While we have been assured the outbreak was eliminated, there are ten million people in New Zealand now. Until they can build a replacement refinery, we need those tanker-ships to maintain a rudimentary sea-bridge. It’ll be at least a month before the vessels can be deployed elsewhere.”
“Does that mean Oswald wasn’t lying?” Tess asked. “The war, the relief effort, whatever we were calling the attempt to retake the world, is over?”
“Effectively, yes,” Anna said. “We had reservists, retirees, and conscripts crammed ten to a cabin and twenty to a corridor sailing for Hawaii and then Baja California, where we hoped the U.S. would be providing military support. The ships are gone. The conscripts are lost. We don’t know where that military equipment is, and we have no way of retrieving it. We will have to replace it. This will require new factories, and shipyards, but the people must be fed, and protected, first. We will focus our efforts on assisting Papua, Indonesia, and New Zealand, and together we shall assist recovery nearby before we dream of setting foot in the Americas.”
“You’re right,” Tess said. “It has been quite a day.”
“Leo, do you think this lab in Colombia could really be where the virus was made?” Anna asked.
“It was made somewhere,” Leo said. “Without more information, that’s all I could say.”
“Leo, you and Dr Avalon wanted to go to Manhattan to collect samples from patient zero, and to Britain to pick up their vaccine, because you need those to make this weapon, yes?”
“They would help,” Leo said.
“It’s possible without them?” Hawker asked.
“Yes, but it will take us longer,” Leo said. “It’s the difference between weeks and years.”
“So you really can make a weapon that will kill the zombies?” Hawker asked.
“Sure. Or Flo can,” Leo said. “But developing something which’ll kill a zombie when you inject it, isn’t the same as creating something we can use on a battlefield.”
“But it’s a start,” Hawker said.
“If you went to the actual lab where it was developed, wouldn’t that be even more useful than going to New York?” Anna asked.
“You want me to go to Colombia?” Leo asked.
“Obviously not on your own,” Anna said. “But if you found the lab there, you wouldn’t need to go to New York or England, no?”
“That really depends on what we find,” Leo said.
“We’ve received conflicting reports on how badly the Panama Canal was damaged,” Anna said. “But if we’re to one day restore a naval link with the Atlantic, it will have to be through the canal.”
“You want to send a ship north, to the canal, and see if we can force a passage?” Hawker asked.
“No, because if it is impassable, the journey will have been wasted,” Anna said.
“The report I have from Mozambique says three warships are anchored off the coast of…” She paused, reaching into her pocket to pull out a small notebook. “Inhambane. Two U.S. frigates, and the HMAS Adelaide, a Canberra-class ship which has a range of seventeen thousand kilometres, yes?” She looked to Hawker.
“I’m more familiar with planes, and mostly how to jump out of them,” he said. “But that sounds about right.”
“The ships were there to assist in the evacuation of Africa to Madagascar,” Anna said. “That evacuation failed over a week ago. The island was overrun. The remaining refugees have been evacuated. No purpose is served having three warships off that coast. You’ll take the Adelaide around Africa, across the Atlantic to Colombia, and then to the canal. Hopefully, you can sail through it and home. Or, if Leo and Dr Avalon decide, you can continue to New York. Even Britain.”
“Fuel allowing,” Leo said.
“Agreed,” Anna said. “And food and radiation, but there is a limit to how much planning we can do here.”
“If the Herrera sisters really did make the virus in a lab there, they could have an army with them,” Tess said.
“You’ll have one, too,” Anna said. “There are a hundred U.S. Rangers in Perth. Technically, only sixty are Army Rangers. The others are really C.I.A., evacuated from their postings in South East Asia. Bruce, will that be enough?”
Hawker slowly undid his tie. “Saying no won’t get me more, so it’ll have to be. The Canberra-class is a landing platform, not a frigate. Do you know which U.S. ships are there?”
“Sorry, no.”
“Then we don’t know what their range is,” Hawker said. “And we don’t know where this lab is? Whether it’s underground, even?”
“No,” Tess said.
“We’ve no satellite coverage, no recon photos,” Hawker said. “We don’t how well they’re defended. There will be casualties.”
“I know,” Anna said. “But my hands are tied. This information will have to be taken to the U.N. They will demand action. They will demand justice against those responsible for this horror. So would the people, if they were asked. They would demand to know why action hasn’t already been taken. Better to send a ship now, because if we don’t, they’ll install a different leadership who will, but the last thing we need now is the instability that would bring.”
“Let me take all three ships,” Hawker said. “With two U.S. frigates, I can guarantee the destruction of this facility. I can’t promise the lab will survive. Understood?”
“I’ll put it in writing that the priority is the neutralisation of the threat,” Anna said.
“Thank you,” Hawker said. “Then there are two issues I’d like to address. You’re the politician, ma’am. I’m your soldier and I’ll follow your orders, but I’m duty-bound to offer my counsel. First, fuel. The Adelaide does have the range to reach the canal from Mozambique if her tanks are full. I can’t speak for the frigates.”
“And I can’t help you,” Anna said. “But a ship’s captain is more likely to know where to refuel.”
“As long as you understand undertaking this mission is fraught with more complexity than it would have been a month ago,” Hawker said. “Second, if we can refuel in Panama, and don’t go north, it could be a month before we’re home. If we go north, it could be two months.” He turned to Leo. “If you’re so certain this weapon is possible, can you afford that much time away from a lab?”
“Flo has some theoretical work to finish before we can unpack the test-tubes,” Leo said. “I’d estimate that will take about a month.”
“Sure, but do you need to come with us?” Hawker asked. “This will be dangerous.”
“We don’t need to go if you can find someone better qualified,” Leo said. “I’m certain there’s someone, somewhere, but after the last few weeks, you’re as likely to find them digging a field as working in a lab.”
“If this is to be done, I want it begun tonight,” Anna said. “When we tell the new parliament, the new U.N., I want it to be too late for them to have an input. The last thing we need now is to have every soldier still alive put aboard every ship still left. Let’s not forget what just happened off Tasmania.”
“Sorry, this might seem obvious,” Tess said, “but is there a reason we don’t fly there?”
“No runways,” Anna said. “Inhambane is the most westerly that we know of that is still open. As far as I understand, no planes have arrived there from the north, or the west, in over a week. I suppose you could fly over this compound in a long-range jet and parachute, but I don’t know how we’d get you home.”
“Jumping out of a plane is where I draw the line,” Leo said.
“Then ship it is,” Anna said. “If I could send anyone else, I would, but I don’t know whom else I can trust, and we can’t afford to waste any more time. Gentlemen, thank you. I’ll give Tess the orders, and I’d like you to be in Perth by dawn.”
Hawker stood, and saluted. “Ma’am. Commissioner.”
“Do you really think those two can make a weapon?” Tess asked when she and Anna were alone.
“I don’t know, Tess, and I’m in two minds whether I want them to,” Anna said. “What if it works, but mutates the undead into something worse?”
“Fast zombies,” Tess said. “I really have to stop watching movies with your dad. Is that why you’re sending the scientists away?”
“No. Politics is returning, Tess. I’ve told Oswald not to tell anyone anything about the weapon, but you know how O.O. likes to brag. He’ll tell people that it’s being developed, so word will spread, and everyone will want progress updates and demonstrations. It will still take months before we’ve something ready to deploy. We can’t be so distracted we take our attention away from everything else we need to do to survive. Do you know Clive Oakes?”
“He ran my unit in Sydney. Didn’t he run for office?”
“He was a state senator until a few hours ago. He’s now in charge of policing for all of Australia. The New South Wales delegation insisted. I wanted to give the post to you, but it wasn’t my choice.”
“He’s a better candidate,” Tess said. “He was always more of an administrator than an investigator. A bit too fond of long sentences, both in his speeches and from the judges, but he’s a good bloke. Visited me a few times in the hospital before I moved back home.”
“Good,” Anna said. “Yes, politics is returning. We should be grateful. I will be grateful when I’ve had more sleep, but it means we have to consider what the public needs as much as what they want. They want a victory. I’m sending the hero who stopped the coup on a mission to hunt down the people responsible for the outbreak. That’s the headline we’ll broadcast in a couple of days. On your return, we’ll broadcast how you destroyed the cartel’s base in Colombia.”
“So this is purely propaganda,” Tess said.
“Not entirely,” Anna said. “These sisters committed a true crime against humanity. We should attempt to serve justice. Honestly, what other use do we have for warships and Special Forces now? We’re in retreat. We’ve diagnosed malaria in Broome and cholera in Darwin. Radiation is rising everywhere we can record it, and we still don’t know if the last bomb has been dropped. Things are difficult and will get a lot worse before they get better.”
“Are you still going on your goodwill tour of the refugee camps?” Tess asked.
“Starting tomorrow,” Anna said.
“Take my team with you,” Tess said.
“I already have bodyguards,” Anna said.
“My people are your management team. They’re loyal to you, Anna. Have Mick fly you.”
“Don’t you think that’ll give the impression of me as the girl being taxied around by her dad?”
“Not if Dan Blaze is the bloke pushing your chair,” Tess said. “His voice is famous, even if his face isn’t. Not a bad-looking bloke, either, when he’s not scowling. And his voice is something to—” She stopped, and coughed.
“What?
” Anna asked, leaning forward. “Go on, say it.”
“I’m just describing how others would see him,” Tess said quickly. “Who knows how they’d interpret him pushing your chair, but it’d be a good photo for them to gossip over. Distractions can be healthy.”
“I completely agree, Tess,” Anna said.
“Yeah, well, I’ll tell my team to find some suits. It’ll look like a political delegation rather than a paramilitary enforcement squad.”
“You don’t want to take them with you to the Atlantic?”
“I’ll have Bruce for company, Leo for entertainment, and Avalon to infuriate me,” Tess said. “The ships will be crowded with all those Rangers. My lot would only get in the way.”
“I’m promoting Bruce to colonel,” Anna said. “That should be sufficient rank to impress the Navy captains and the C.I.A. spooks, but you’re the government representative. You’ll have letters from Oswald, and from the U.N. Bruce will decide on the strategy, but there’ll be no contact until you return. I don’t know what decisions will have to be made, but they should be made by a civilian, not the military, or by the spies.”
“The C.I.A. can provide intel, Bruce will press the button, but I’ll pick the target,” Tess said. “I understand.”
“I’m sending you into the unknown,” Anna said “Look for ships, for people, for runways. Look for radiation and craters, too. Find out if we really are all that’s left of the world. But if you can’t come back with good news, just make sure you come back. Oh, and if I don’t see you before you depart, don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on Dan for you.”
Chapter 4 - Family Loyalties
Red Hill, Canberra, Australia
Outside Parliament House, Tess found Mick and her team next to the police cars in which they’d arrived. They were eating cake and drinking… she sniffed. “Is that coffee?” she asked.
“A gift from Mr Owen,” Mick said. “That bloke’s growing on me.”
“Where did you find cake?” Tess asked.
Life Goes On | Book 4 | If Not Us [Surviving The Evacuation] Page 6