The Swarm: A Novel

by Frank Schätzing

  ‘That’s true,’ said Hvistendahl. ‘We did.’

  ‘Well, there you go then.’

  ‘We asked you,’ continued Skaugen, ‘to investigate the site and take advice on whether it was prudent to construct a unit that hadn’t been fully tested—’

  ‘You can’t do this to me!’ Stone said angrily. ‘That unit was approved.’

  ‘- then get it up and running on a trial basis. Yes, we were prepared to take that risk. Providing all the reports were in favour.’

  Stone leaped to his feet. ‘Which they were,’ he said, trembling with rage.

  ‘Sit down,’ said Skaugen, coldly. ‘I’ve got news for you. Yesterday we lost contact with the Kongsberg prototype.’

  Stone froze. Then he said, ‘I’m not directly involved in monitoring the prototype. I didn’t build the unit, just drove the project forward. What are you accusing me of? Of not knowing what’s going on?’

  ‘No. The seriousness of the present circumstances compelled us to reconstruct the exact chain of events leading to the building of the prototype. During our investigations we came across two reports that you seem to have…how shall I put it?…omitted to mention.’

  Stone’s fingers gripped the tabletop. He wobbled. Then he recovered himself. His face was expressionless. ‘I don’t know anything about it.’

  ‘One of the reports states that the exact location of the hydrates and gas pockets proved difficult to chart. It concludes that the risk of hitting a pocket was minimal, although it couldn’t be ruled out.’

  ‘The risk was negligible,’ said Stone, hoarsely. ‘For the past year the unit’s productivity has exceeded all our expectations.’

  ‘Negligible isn’t good enough.’

  ‘But we didn’t hit any gas pockets! We’re extracting oil. The unit works. The prototype’s been a resounding success - successful enough to convince you to launch a proper unit and this time make it official.’

  ‘The second report,’ said Lund, ‘states that you found an unidentified worm that colonises hydrates.’

  ‘For God’s sake, yes, all right. It was the ice worm.’

  ‘Did you examine it?’

  ‘Why the hell would I?’

  ‘Did anyone examine it?’

  ‘It was…Of course we examined it.’

  ‘The report says it resembled an ice worm. There was no conclusive verdict. It mentions large numbers of the creatures. Apparently their effect on the environment was unknown, although methane was detected in the water around them.’

  Stone’s face was white. ‘That’s not quite…not quite true. The worms were confined to a limited area.’

  ‘But in that area there were thousands of them.’

  ‘We built to one side of it. I didn’t think the report…Well, it wasn’t relevant.’

  ‘Were you able to classify the worm?’ Skaugen asked calmly.

  ‘We were certain that it—’

  ‘Could you classify it?’

  Stone’s jaws were grinding. ‘No,’ he conceded, after a long pause.

  ‘Fine,’ said Skaugen. ‘In that case, Cliff, you’re released from your duties for the moment. Tina will take your place.’

  ‘You can’t do that!’

  ‘We’ll discuss it later.’

  Stone turned to Hvistendahl, who avoided his eyes. ‘For Christ’s sake, Thor, the unit worked fine.’

  ‘You’ve been a fool,’ said Hvistendahl, levely.

  Suddenly Stone looked crushed. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to. I only wanted to get the unit up and running.’

  Johanson felt embarrassed for him. He’d wanted to be the first to launch a successful prototype. The subsea unit was his baby, a unique chance for him to further his career, so he’d decided to ignore the worms.

  For a while it had worked. There’d been a successful year of unofficial tests, then the official start, a production run and the conquering of new depths. It could have been Stone’s victory parade. But the worm had appeared again. And this time it wasn’t restricted to a few square metres.

  Skaugen rubbed his eyes. ‘I apologise for dragging you into this, Dr Johanson,’ he said, ‘but you’re part of the team.’

  ‘So I see.’

  ‘The fact is, things are off-kilter all over the world. Accidents, anomalies and so on. People are getting nervous, and oil companies are useful scapegoats. We can’t afford to make mistakes. Can we still count on you, Dr Johanson?’

  Johanson sighed. Then he nodded.

  ‘Good. That’s what we thought. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s entirely your decision. But since you may find yourself needing to invest more time in your role as scientific co-ordinator, we took the liberty of approaching the NTNU.’

  Johanson sat up. ‘You did what?’

  ‘We asked if you might take leave of absence. I also put your name forward to the government.’

  Johanson was dumbstruck. Then he recovered himself. ‘Hang on a minute—’

  ‘It’s a proper research post,’ interrupted Lund. ‘Statoil will provide the budget, and you’ll get all the help you need.’

  ‘I would have preferred to be—’

  ‘I can see that you’re annoyed,’ said Skaugen, ‘and I understand why. But I’m sure you’re aware of how critical the situation is out there. Apart from the Geomar people, no one is half as well informed as you are. You don’t have to accept, of course, but it’s in the public interest that you do.’

  Johanson felt sick with rage. He had a scathing retort on the tip of his tongue, but he bit it back. ‘I see,’ he said stiffly.

  ‘Do you accept, then?’

  ‘I couldn’t possibly refuse.’ He shot Lund a look, hoping it would slice her in two. She looked away.

  ‘Believe me, Dr Johanson,’ Skaugen said gravely, ‘Statoil is very grateful to you. You’ve already earned our utmost respect and admiration for everything you’ve done. But I’d like you to know that in me, at least, you’ve gained a friend. I’m sorry if we bulldozed you into this, but when this is all resolved you can run me over in any kind of vehicle you like. You can nail me to a cross, if it helps.’

  Johanson held the other man’s clear blue eyes. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I might take you up on that.’

  ‘Sigur, slow down, for God’s sake!’ Lund was running after him as he hurried down the path towards the car park. The research centre was surrounded by lawns and trees, idyllically placed on a hill near the cliffs, but Johanson wasn’t in the mood for pretty views. He wanted to get back to his office.

  ‘Sigur!’

  She caught up with him but he strode on.

  ‘Oh, come on, Sigur. Do you have to be so pigheaded?’ she yelled. ‘Do you seriously want me to chase you?’

  Johanson stopped abruptly and spun round. She almost ran into him. ‘Well, why not? We all know how quick you are. Quick to speak and quick to make promises. In fact, you’re so damn quick that you make plans for your friends without even asking.’

  ‘You self-righteous bastard. I didn’t want to interfere.’

  ‘No? Well, that’s reassuring.’ He didn’t wait for a reply but continued down the path.

  Lund hesitated for a second, then appeared at his side. ‘OK, I should have told you. I’m sorry. Honestly.’

  ‘You should have asked me.’

  ‘We wanted to, for God’s sake, but Skaugen charged straight in and you got the wrong impression.’

  ‘I got the impression that you bought me from the NTNU, like a packhorse.’

  ‘No.’ She tugged at his sleeve, forcing him to stop. ‘We were sounding them out, that’s all. We wanted to know whether hypothetically, they would grant you some leave.’

  Johanson snorted. ‘That’s not how it sounded.’

  ‘It came out all wrong.’

  Johanson glanced down at her fingers, which were still wrapped in his sleeve. She let go.

  ‘No one’s forcing you to do anything,’ she said. ‘If you change your mind, that’s fine to
o. We’ll deal with it.’

  Birds were singing in the background, and the chug of distant motorboats blew in on the breeze from the fjords. ‘If I change my mind,’ he said, ‘it won’t look good for you, though.’

  ‘I’ll just have to live with it. I didn’t have to recommend you. It was my decision, and…Well, I jumped the gun a bit with Skaugen.’

  ‘What did you tell him?’

  ‘That you’d do it.’ She smiled. ‘I promised. But that’s not your problem.’

  Johanson felt his anger ebb away. He would have liked to keep hold of it for a while longer to teach Lund a lesson.

  ‘Skaugen trusts me,’ said Lund. ‘I couldn’t meet you in the canteen earlier. He’d called me up there on my own to tell me about Stone and those hushed-up reports. It’s all Cliff’s fault. If only he’d been honest from the start, we wouldn’t be in this mess.’

  ‘No, Tina.’ Johanson shook his head. ‘He didn’t think the worms could be a danger, that’s all.’ He was defending Stone, even though he’d never liked the man. ‘He just wanted to get on with it.’

  ‘If he didn’t think they were an issue, why did he hide the reports?’

  ‘It would’ve held up the project. No one would have taken them seriously but Statoil would have done its duty and the project would have been delayed.’

  ‘But we are taking it seriously!’

  ‘Sure, but only because of the size of the problem. There was only a small patch of them when Stone found them, right?’

  ‘Hmm.’

  ‘A densely covered patch, perhaps, but a patch all the same. I bet it happens all the time. Small organisms often appear en masse, and how much damage can a few worms do? No one would have worried about it, believe me. When they came across the ice worm in Mexico, they didn’t ring alarm bells either, even though the hydrates were crawling with them.’

  ‘Sharing the reports is a matter of principle. The project was his responsibility.’

  ‘Yes.’ Johanson sighed. He looked out towards the fjords. ‘And now it’s mine.’

  ‘We need a scientific co-ordinator,’ said Lund, ‘and I wouldn’t trust anyone else.’

  ‘My God,’ said Johanson. ‘Are you feeling OK?’

  ‘I’m being serious.’

  ‘And I’ve said I’ll do it.’

  ‘Just think,’ Lund beamed, ‘we’ll be working together.’

  ‘There’s no need to put me off. So, what’s the next step?’

  She hesitated. ‘Well, you heard what Skaugen said. He wants me to do Stone’s job. Long-term, he can’t make that decision. He needs the goahead from Stavanger.’

  ‘Skaugen,’ mused Johanson. ‘But I don’t get it. Why gun down Stone in public? Why get me involved? To provide the ammunition?’

  Lund shrugged. ‘Skaugen’s got real integrity. Some say a little too much. But he gets tired of people turning a blind eye. He’s softhearted, though. If I asked him to give Stone another chance, he’d probably agree.’

  ‘I see,’ said Johanson slowly. ‘And that’s what you’re thinking of doing.’

  She didn’t answer.

  ‘How magnanimous.’

  Lund pretended not to hear him. ‘Skaugen’s left it up to me,’ she said, ‘but the subsea unit…Stone knows a hell of a lot about it. Much more than I do. Skaugen wants someone to take the Thorvaldson and find out why there’s no signal from the prototype. Stone should head the operation, but if Skaugen suspends him, it’s up to me.’

  ‘And the other option?’

  ‘Like I said, Stone gets another chance.’

  ‘To save the unit.’

  ‘If there’s anything left to save. Or to get it back in working order. Either way, Skaugen wants me promoted. But if he lets Stone off the hook, Stone keeps his job and goes on board the Thorvaldson.’

  ‘Which leaves you where?’

  ‘Well, I’d go to Stavanger and report to the board.’

  ‘Congratulations,’ said Johanson. ‘Your career gets a boost.’

  There was a short silence.

  ‘Is that what I want?’

  Johanson thought back to their weekend by the lake. ‘No idea,’ he said. ‘But you can have a boyfriend and a career, if that’s what you’re worried about. If you still have a boyfriend, that is.’

  ‘We…haven’t seen much of each other since - since you and I…’ She trailed off. When she spoke again, her voice was firm: ‘Hanging out in cosy old Sveggesundet or taking day trips to the islands isn’t normal life. It’s like being on a film set.’

  ‘But it is a good film.’

  ‘It’s like…Imagine going back to the place where you fell in love,’ said Lund. ‘As soon as you get there, it sweeps you off your feet. It’s all so perfect, and when it’s time to leave, you want to stay. And at the same time you can’t help wondering whether you really want to live in the most beautiful place in the world. I mean, would it still be so beautiful if you lived there? She gave an awkward laugh. ‘Sorry, I hate talking about this sort of thing.’

  Johanson searched her face for signs of indecision, but saw only someone who had made up her mind. She just didn’t know it yet. ‘Maybe you should go and tell Kare that you love him and want to be with him for ever.’

  ‘What if it doesn’t work out?’

  ‘You’re suspicious of happiness. I was like that once. It didn’t do me any good.’

  ‘Are you happy now?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘No misgivings?’

  Johanson flung up his hands in a despair. ‘Come on, Tina, everyone has misgivings. I just try to be honest with myself and with everyone else. I like flirting, wine, having a good time and being in control. I don’t talk much, but I don’t feel the need to. Psychiatrists would find me deeply boring. I want my peace and that’s all there is to it. My life suits me. But that’s me. My way of being happy is different from yours. I trust mine. You’ll have to learn to do the same. But you haven’t much time. Kare won’t wait for ever.’

  The breeze played with Lund’s hair. ‘If Stone goes out to the slope,’ she said, thinking aloud, ‘I’ll have to go to Stavanger. That’s OK, though. The Thorvaldson is ready to sail. Stone could leave tomorrow or the day after. The Stavanger job will take longer. I’d have to write a detailed report. So there’d be a few days spare for me to drive to Sveggesundet and…do some work from there.’

  ‘Some work?’ Johanson grinned.

  She pursed her lips. ‘I’ll think about it and talk to Skaugen.’

  ‘You do that,’ said Johanson. ‘But think quickly.’

  Back at the office he checked his inbox for messages. There wasn’t much of any interest. The final mail caught his attention when he saw who it was from: kweaver@deepbluesea.com

  He clicked on it.

  hello dr johanson. thanks for your message. i’ve just got back to london and all i can say right now is that i don’t have a clue what’s happened to lukas bauer and his boat. i can’t contact him. i’d be happy to meet up with you though. who knows? we may even be able to help each other. i’ll be at my london office from the middle of next week, but if you fancy meeting sooner, i’m heading off to the shetlands and could fix up something there. let me know what suits you. karen weaver.

  ‘My, my,’ murmured Johanson. ‘So journalists can be co-operative.’

  Had Lukas Bauer gone missing?

  Maybe he should request a meeting with Skaugen and tell him his theory. But there was no evidence to support it - just a nasty feeling that the world was coming unstuck and the sea was to blame.

  If he wanted to take the idea any further, he needed more evidence…He should hook up with Weaver as soon as he could. Why not meet her in the Shetlands? The flights shouldn’t be a problem, if Statoil was paying. In fact, it would all be very easy. Hadn’t Skaugen said he could nail him to a cross if he wanted?

  He didn’t need to go that far. A helicopter would be enough.

  Johanson leaned back in his chair and studied the clock
. He was supposed to be lecturing in an hour, and then he had a departmental meeting about some DNA sequencing.

  He created a new folder and entered a file name: The Fifth Day.

  It was the first thing that had come into his mind. On the fifth day of creation, God had filled the sea with living creatures…

  He started to type, and a chill swept through him.

  2 May

  Vancouver and Vancouver Island, Canada

  For the past forty-eight hours Ford and Anawak had been poring over the same sequence of data. At first total darkness. Then an oscillation from an audio signal outside the human range. Three signals in total. And finally the cloud. A luminescent, blue-tinged cloud. Out of nowhere it appeared in the centre of the screen and scattered outwards, like a universe expanding. The light wasn’t bright, more a faint blue glow; a dim, diffuse glimmer, just strong enough for the huge silhouettes of the whales to loom into view. It spread rapidly and filled the screen. The whales hovered in front of it, as if bound by its spell.

  Several seconds passed.

  Deep in the cloud something shot forwards like winding, twisting lightning. Its tapered point struck a whale on the side of the head. Lucy. The whole thing was over in less than a second. More flashes blazed towards the other whales, then the spectacle ended as abruptly as it had begun.

  Next the film seemed to play in reverse. The cloud collapsed in on itself and vanished. The screen went dark. Ford’s technicians had slowed the footage, then slowed it again. They’d tried everything they could think of to optimise the resolution and let in more light, but even after hours of studying the tape they were still no closer to solving the mystery of the whales.

  In the end Anawak and Ford decided to write their report for the emergency committee. They’d been authorised to call on the help of a biologist from Nanaimo who specialised in bioluminescence. It took him a while to get over his bewilderment, but then he backed their conclusions: the cloud and the flashes were organic. According to the expert, the flashes were caused by a chain reaction within the cloud, though he couldn’t say how they’d been triggered or what purpose they served. Their twisting motion and the way they tapered off towards the tip reminded him of squid, but a creature that size would have to be truly gigantic, and it was doubtful that giant squid could luminesce. Besides, that wouldn’t explain the cloud or where the serpentine flashes were coming from.