Z. Apocalypse

by Steve Cole

  Eve looked at the floor.

  ‘It’s those misfiring circuits in Keera’s brain.’ Mr Adlar sounded frustrated. ‘Keera’s desperate to think for herself, but the circuitry still wants her to obey her programming. And that battle’s gone on in her head since her fit in Washington.’

  ‘I don’t get you,’ said Adam.

  ‘When Keera broke off from the White House attack and went after you, she demonstrated free will.’ Mr Adlar started up the U-R software on the nearest computer. ‘That conflict with her programming basically blew a fuse in her head.’

  ‘She’s tough as hell, bounced back from the initial trauma,’ Eve jumped in. ‘But the more she’s done her own thing, the more the interface between mind and machine has been hurting her brain. Killing more and more cells.’

  Adam sighed. ‘Zoe said before it was like lights going off in Keera’s head . . .’ He turned to Zoe for confirmation, and saw that she had rolled right up to the pterosaur, reaching out to Keera’s damaged wing.

  ‘Zoe!’ Eve jumped up. ‘Get back, love, we’re not ready.’

  ‘Keera’s ready!’ Zoe snapped. ‘She knows . . . knows we want to talk.’

  Keera’s eyes snapped open and fixed on Adam.

  ‘I’m switching on Think-Send,’ Mr Adlar said calmly. ‘Non-essential personnel, keep well back from Keera! Charlie, monitor life signs, please. Eve, are you ready to record this?’

  ‘Ready.’ Eve jumped into her chair, flicked a line of switches. The other scientists retreated to the walls of the tent, watching in fascinated silence.

  ‘Blue . . .’ Zoe jumped in her seat, threw her head back. ‘It’s like Keera’s seeing nothing but blue . . .’

  ‘Brain activity increasing,’ someone called; Adam recognized the same white-coated man who’d hooked him up in the lab at Patuxent. ‘Heart rate steady.’

  ‘Thank you, Charlie.’ Eve stuffed half a sandwich into her mouth as the computer screen beside her filled with flecks of light and static. ‘Jeez, something’s coming through already . . .’

  Mr Adlar looked at Adam. ‘Ready to talk?’

  ‘Ready.’ Adam felt a buzz in the back of his head. A fierce feeling of pins and needles started to radiate through his body as he met Keera’s dark gaze.

  ‘Here we go,’ Eve breathed, as a deep blue permeated the flickering screen.

  ‘Give me this,’ Zoe called, distantly. ‘Give me the sky. Freedom.’

  I can’t yet, Adam told her in a thought. There’s still something in the way. Your prime directive—

  Zoe gasped, as if she were the one feeling pain. ‘Can’t talk.’

  ‘It’s like before,’ Eve fretted. ‘Keera’s thoughts are filling Zoe’s mind.’

  ‘It’s like the two of them are linked,’ Mr Adlar agreed.

  ‘Can’t talk,’ Zoe said again.

  ‘You can,’ said Adam, out loud.

  ‘Can’t. Metal in head.’

  ‘Heart rate increasing,’ Charlie called.

  You are stronger than the metal in your head. Adam closed his eyes and concentrated. Me and Zoe are here. We’ll help you.

  ‘Can’t . . .’

  You can. You knew me from halfway across Washington because—

  ‘You fly through my thoughts,’ Zoe breathed. ‘From first day.’

  Right. Because you got more than just my brainwaves when Geneflow trained you. You got a part of my spirit. He opened his eyes, glanced at the screen. Still static. And so you should know that when someone tells you not to do something, it makes you want to do it even more . . .

  ‘Yes.’

  So tell me. Prime directive. He tried to shut out the rush and whirr of his dad and Eve’s equipment, the beeping of monitors, even the rustle of canvas in the icy wind. Come on, Keera. If you can beat the metal in your head now, you’ll beat it for good. You’ll get strong again.

  ‘Wow.’ Charlie sounded tense. ‘Big spike in brain activity.’

  ‘Image changing,’ Eve hissed. ‘I’m getting something else.’

  Adam looked. The screen was a mistier blue. A dark shape, tubular with stubby wings, was just visible.

  ‘What is that?’ asked Adam.

  ‘Interference . . .’ Zoe shook her head. ‘Frequency . . . jamming . . . all communications . . .’

  ‘Her heart rate’s going through the roof. I don’t know how safe it is to continue—’

  ‘We have to, Charlie.’ His dad sounded unhappy and strained. ‘What’s she showing us, Ad?’

  ‘The sea,’ Zoe said dreamily. ‘We’re under the sea.’

  Adam saw the shadow on the screen grow larger, more substantial. A whale, maybe? A sea-monster?

  Think harder, Keera, he urged her. Get Geneflow out of your head and there’ll just be me . . . Please, Keera, show us. Show me.

  ‘Think. Think to block it. Won’t hear . . . Won’t receive . . .’ Zoe was nodding her head. ‘Fail-safe. Fail-deadly. Fail-safe. Fail-deadly.’ She went on repeating herself, like a faulty CD.

  ‘Zoe?’ Eve sounded worried.

  ‘Keera’s life stats are off the graph,’ Charlie called.

  Eve banged her fist on the desk. ‘We need to stop this.’

  ‘A few moments more,’ Mr Adlar pleaded.

  ‘That poor animal’s mind is breaking down,’ Eve snapped, ‘and it could take Zoe’s with her!’

  The pterosaur began to jerk and twitch. The sinister, tubular shape loomed again on the screen. Dazzling yellow beams burst from inside it, the screen flared like it was going to explode.

  Then Keera threw open her jaws and screamed. Zoe cried out too as she was thrown backwards out of her chair.

  ‘No!’ Eve shouted, and pulled a whole bunch of wires from the console. Sparks spat and the screen went dead. While Mr Adlar stabbed at switches, trying to power down safely, Adam yanked off his headset and ran with Eve to help Zoe, who lay on her back, arms spread wide like they were wings.

  Keera was lying motionless save for the rapid rise and fall of her battered chest, her eyes closed, curled up in a heap.

  ‘Vital signs settling,’ said Charlie. ‘It’s OK. Keera’s out of danger.’

  Eve was too busy checking over Zoe to comment. ‘Pupils dilating,’ she reported. ‘I think . . . Zoe? Sweetheart, can you hear me?’

  ‘Mum?’ Zoe smiled faintly, closed her eyes again. ‘We have the sky back . . .’

  ‘Excuse me?’ said her mother.

  Mr Adlar came up behind Adam, put both hands on his shoulders, and puffed out a sigh of relief. ‘You know, I think we just watched mind beating machine.’

  Adam nodded shakily. ‘But does it bring us any closer to beating Geneflow?’

  Chapter 21: Zee No Evil

  THE CAMP’S DOCTORS had decreed that for Adam and Zoe there could be no more excitement till morning. Both needed bed rest, and that was what they were going to get. Even so, Zoe had refused to leave Keera’s side for a couple more hours, until she was certain the pterosaur was OK. And Adam had lingered too, his head hot and buzzing with all the beast had left behind.

  How long will it take Oldman and his experts to make sense of that stuff Keera shared? Adam remembered closing his eyes in the near-darkness, longing for sleep to come and soothe away the images. But it was broken sleep, so full of wearying dreams it made the night seem like a marathon.

  Finally, grave male voices filtered through his senses.

  ‘ . . . The apparent sighting of “living weapons” in the skies over Iran has created fresh turmoil in international relations.’

  ‘Yes,’ a second voice agreed, ‘Israel has accused its Middle Eastern neighbours of attacking their parliament amid sensational claims that the Russian Federation has funded and supported these hostilities in association with the People’s Republic of China . . .’

  The voices clicked off. Adam opened his eyes to find Zoe’s fingers at the off switch of a digital radio on the table beside her. The two of them were alone in the hospital tent. Thin daylight skulked at
the edges of the canvas walls; the clock read five thirty a.m.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said softly. ‘Didn’t mean to wake you. How’re you doing?’

  ‘Better than the world is, by the sound of things.’ Adam pushed himself up in bed and winced. ‘Ow. Headache.’

  ‘Typical whingeing pom,’ she said, mock-annoyed. ‘Every news channel is full of experts telling us we’ve never been closer to global catastrophe, and you moan about a headache.’

  ‘I’m just a wuss, I guess,’ said Adam wryly. ‘How about you?’

  ‘I’m OK, now I know Keera is doing a whole lot better.’ Zoe smiled for real now. ‘Can you believe it, Adam? We got through to her. Now that the Geneflow tech in her brain’s been switched off, her cells will recover. Accelerated healing’s already kicked in.’

  ‘It’s amazing the way the Z. animals can do that . . .’ Adam noticed the time and trailed off. ‘Hey, I just thought – poor Zed. He’ll be out in the forest still, he’s been waiting for more than a day.’

  ‘Well, he won’t have to wait much longer.’ A figure stalked into the room, bundled up in a big trapper’s hat, several scarves and a huge fur coat that made him look like a big fuzzy barrel.

  Despite the disguise, Adam recognized him at once. ‘Dr Marrs!’ But his welcoming grin stiffened as he processed the doctor’s words. ‘What do you mean, Zed won’t have to wait much longer? How did you know he was near?’

  ‘Where did you even spring from?’ added Zoe.

  Marrs waved away their questions. ‘Detestable cold,’ he grumbled. ‘I flew here direct from an emergency meeting of the United Nations Science and Ethics committee in sunny New York – although frankly, right now “United Nations” is a contradiction in terms.’ He mopped his furrowed brow with one of the scarves, as if suddenly finding it too warm. ‘Happily, the gathering I’ve just attended was more productive – an analysis of the information you freed from Keera’s brain, and matters arising.’

  ‘What have you found out?’ Adam asked. ‘If you’re here at five thirty a.m., it must be something big. What’s Zed got to do with it?’

  ‘If I might get a word in edgewise, I’ll explain.’ Dr Marrs smiled. ‘I thought you’d be interested to learn the nature of that mysterious shadow-thing in the blue.’

  Zoe sat up. ‘I thought it was just a whale or something.’

  ‘We believe it to be a nuclear submarine.’

  Adam and Zoe swapped dumbstruck looks.

  ‘Do you remember what Keera said when she showed you that image?’

  ‘Uh . . .’ Zoe closed her eyes and her lips moved lightly as if whispering to herself. ‘Interference,’ she said. ‘Shouldn’t receive. Fail-safe. Fail-deadly, again and again. That was about it, wasn’t it?’

  Adam shrugged. ‘Sounds like gibberish.’

  ‘Fail-deadly is a term used in nuclear military strategy,’ said Marrs. ‘You may have heard of a fail-safe mechanism – a device that ensures that should a piece of technology or a system fail to perform correctly, no harm is caused to the user. Have you?’

  ‘Nope,’ said Adam.

  Marrs frowned. ‘Well, anyway, a fail-deadly device is quite the reverse. Should the system fail to perform, there will be automatic and overwhelming destructive consequences.’

  Zoe looked like she was trying to get her head round it. ‘Has this got something to do with nuclear war?’

  ‘It has.’ Marrs looked grave. ‘A country’s nuclear submarines must surface regularly to receive communication from their controllers. At a time when war seems imminent, they surface more regularly. In the event that no communications whatsoever are detected, the sub crews can only conclude that a nuclear attack has wiped out their homeland while they were out of contact beneath the sea.’

  ‘Oh, God,’ Zoe muttered. ‘And so those subs then retaliate by firing their nuclear missiles?’

  ‘That’s what I’d call an epic fail-deadly.’ Adam shook his head blankly. ‘But how does that fit with Keera’s prime directive?’

  ‘You know that the Z. dactyls can dive deep under the sea?’ said Marrs. ‘A nuclear sub could easily detect an enemy craft in local waters – but Keera and her kind would show up on radar as organic marine life, no threat at all – particularly as all attacks so far have come from the air.’

  ‘Interference, shouldn’t receive . . .’ Zoe’s voice had grown husky. ‘This neural transmitter thing in Keera’s head – could it block a nuclear sub’s communications?’

  ‘It could indeed,’ said Marrs.

  Adam grasped the implications. ‘So Keera’s prime directive was to dive down and target a nuclear sub, then block its communications gear so no signals can get through.’

  Zoe nodded. ‘The captain thinks a nuclear war has happened when really it hasn’t, and fires off a ton of missiles.’

  ‘Not realizing he’s actually making a first strike,’ Marrs agreed. ‘Launching the first missiles that will drag every nuclear power into war.’

  ‘But, come on . . .’ Adam felt sick. ‘There must be special checks or something the subs can make to be sure they’re not messing up?’

  ‘Ordinarily, I’m sure,’ Marrs agreed. ‘But remember, after recent events, the likelihood of imminent nuclear war has never been higher. And who knows how many pterosaurs Geneflow possess? If they target fifty or one hundred nuclear subs, all it takes is for one of them to believe the worst has happened . . .’

  ‘The sub’s crew will fight back, and start the war themselves.’ Adam remembered Josephs’ words back in Russia: tensions must continue to rise . . . ‘Geneflow must be waiting for world relations to get even worse before they launch.’

  ‘But the attack could come any minute.’ Zoe stared at Marrs. ‘Can’t we warn everyone?’

  Marrs smiled patronizingly. ‘I can’t see China and Russia standing down their nuclear weapons because we ask them nicely, can you?’

  ‘Then how are you going to stop them?’ said Adam.

  ‘That’s what we are trying to organize now,’ said Marrs gently. ‘And you do understand we must clutch at any chance to prevent this. Any chance at all.’

  Adam’s eyes narrowed a touch. ‘Like, going to Zed for help?’

  ‘To your remarkable friend and a lot, lot further.’ Dr Marrs tightened his scarf about his neck. ‘Perhaps you’d allow me to show you?’

  Adam stood alone in the gloom of the Finnish forest. He stared up at the shaggy spikes of the tall firs all around and called out, trying to keep the shake from his voice. ‘Zed? Zed, can you hear me? I need to talk to you . . . Need to ask you something.’

  There was no reply, no distant crunch of branches or beating of wings to signal the creature’s imminent arrival. Just the low moan of the wind as it tugged down the temperature a few more degrees. Adam glanced behind him towards the armoured truck he knew was parked just a few hundred metres away. He wondered if his dad and Dr Marrs were still wrangling inside it as they had been all the journey from the camp.

  ‘I can’t believe you left the briefing early to coerce my son into doing this.’

  ‘I don’t believe in patronizing the young, Bill. I needed to explain the situation as it was.’

  ‘You scared the hell out of him and Zoe. No kids should have to go through what they’ve experienced. They’ve been used by both sides—’

  ‘If the situation wasn’t so desperate I would naturally accept your concerns. But the thought of what they will experience if we don’t do this . . .’

  Adam called out again: ‘It’s all right, Zed, this isn’t a trick or anything. The soldiers are only here to look after me and Dad. I need to ask you to work with them as well as us.’

  A fresh gust of wind rustled the branches and a dark green shimmer stained the air before Adam, as Zed appeared. Taken by surprise, Adam backed away a few steps. Zed’s tail snaked around behind him, its tip touching his spine.

  ‘No soldiers,’ came the guttural growl.

  ‘They promised me they won’t hurt yo
u,’ said Adam softly. ‘And I believe them. They need you. The whole world is in big trouble and it’s going to be game over, unless . . .’ He couldn’t really believe what he was saying, it sounded too fantastic. But he remembered Dr Marrs’ words:

  ‘How does the entire world come to find itself at the mercy of a small organization with no nuclear weapons of its own? In the main, because Geneflow have conjured the impossible from thin air – living weapons, a threat against which our traditional defences are wholly inadequate. Our only chance is to fight fire with fire – turn their own creatures against them . . .’

  Adam took a deep, shivering breath. ‘See . . . it’s like this, Zed. The only way to stop Geneflow is to send in soldiers under the Russian radar and stop Josephs and her buddies for good. Stop them before they push the human race into a nuclear war – and take whatever’s left of the planet for themselves.’

  Zed stared down at him, breathing softly, black eyes cold and bright.

  ‘I wish I didn’t need to ask you,’ Adam went on, ‘but we could really use your help getting inside their underground city. See, you can go into stealth mode, sneak up on the base – Geneflow don’t know that you’re around. You’d be, like, the military’s secret weapon to help them get inside.’ He looked up at Zed, searching out emotions in the colossal, scaly face.

  He found none.

  ‘Listen . . .’ Adam tried another tack. ‘I know you hate humans. But you’d be getting back at Josephs – the one who hurt you. Who hurt me. Don’t you want to get back at her . . . back at all of them? If we can’t stop them, it’s looking like the end of the world.’

  But even as he spoke, he knew that both times Zed had gone near a Geneflow base he’d almost died – battling his own vicious clone the first time, torn half-apart by Brutes the second.

  It’s me, Adam thought guiltily. It’s because of me he’s been hurt so badly.

  ‘World ends.’ Zed pushed his shoulders up as if in a shrug. He lowered his face a little closer to Adam’s. ‘We . . . fly away.’

  Adam half smiled, sadly. ‘Wish we could, Zed.’