The Swarm: A Novel

by Frank Schätzing

‘Of course!’

  ‘We’re going to close down the coastline. I want to see drones patrolling our shores, and troops in protective clothing on stand-by with flamethrowers. From now on, anything that tries to crawl out of the sea is going to get barbecued.’ She stood up. ‘As for the whales, it’s about time we stopped acting like frightened kids. I want our vessels to be able to sail when and where they like - and that means every single boat, without exception. Let’s see how they respond to psychological warfare.’

  ‘What are you going to do to them, Jude? Give them a good talking-to?’

  ‘No.’ Li gave a thin smile. ‘I’m going to hunt them down. Those whales and their masters need to be taught a lesson. To hell with animal conservation. From now on, they’re going to get shot.’

  ‘You want to take on the IWC?’

  ‘No. We’re going to blast them with sonar - and keep blasting them until they leave us in peace.’

  New York, USA

  Right in front of him, a man collapsed and died. Peak was sweating beneath his heavy protective suit. Breathing through an oxygen mask, he looked out through bulletproof goggles on a city that in the course of one night, had been turned into hell.

  The sergeant sitting beside him steered the jeep slowly along First Avenue. Entire blocks of the East Village seemed deserted. Every now and then they’d spot a group of people being herded together by the military. The main problem was that no one could be allowed to leave the city until they knew for certain that the illness couldn’t be spread. It didn’t seem contagious. In fact, the scenes around them reminded Peak of a large-scale poison-gas attack. But still he felt doubtful. Many of the victims had coin-sized sores on their bodies. If New York was in the grip of killer algae, they weren’t just releasing clouds of airborne toxin: they were clinging to the skin of their victims too. Theoretically, that meant they were present in bodily fluids. Peak was no biologist, but he couldn’t help wondering what would happen if a diseased individual were to kiss a healthy one and pass on their saliva. The algae could survive in water, were comfortable in a wide range of temperatures, and multiplied, as far as he could tell, at an incredible speed.

  The aim was to quarantine New York and Long Island in such a way that the diseased and the healthy would all be treated fairly. They were working flat out to achieve that, and at first the mood had been optimistic. New York seemed prepared. After the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, the mayor at the time had created the Office of Emergency Management, OEM, to tackle any future crisis. At the end of the nineties, it had carried out the biggest emergency drill in the city’s history by simulating a chemical-weapons attack, calling on over six hundred police, fire-fighters and FBI agents to ‘save’ New York. The drill had gone without a hitch, and the Senate had authorised generous additional funding. Suddenly the OEM had found itself the recipient of fifteen million dollars to spend on a bombproof armoured command centre with its own air supply, big enough to house forty highly qualified workers, who were waiting in anticipation of Doomsday. It was built on the twenty-third storey of the World Trade Center shortly before 11 September 2001. Now, the OEM was still rebuilding itself, and it certainly wasn’t capable of dealing with the crisis. People were falling ill and dying too fast for anyone to help.

  The jeep swerved to avoid dead bodies and approached the junction with 14th Street. Cars sped by, honking frantically. People were trying to leave the city, but they wouldn’t get far: the roads were closed. So far the army had only brought Brooklyn and parts of Manhattan under any kind of control, but at least no one was able to leave Greater New York without authorisation.

  They drove on, passing military blockades on either side. Hundreds of soldiers were sweeping the city like alien invaders, faceless behind their gas-masks, lumbering and misshapen in their bright-yellow NBC suits. The OEM team was out in force as well. Across the city, bodies were being loaded on to stretchers and taken away in military jeeps or ambulances. Crashed and abandoned vehicles blocked the roads, cutting off access to parts of the city. The perpetual roar of helicopters echoed through the canyons of the streets.

  Peak’s driver trundled a few hundred metres along the sidewalk and stopped outside Bellevue Hospital Center on the banks of the East River, where the provisional command centre was housed. Peak hurried inside. The foyer was crowded with people. Panic-stricken eyes turned towards him, and he quickened his pace. Photographs of missing people were thrust in his direction, and shouts and cries besieged him. Flanked by two soldiers, he crossed into the secure area and marched towards the hospital’s IT centre. A tap-proof satellite link connected him to Chateau Whistler. After a few minutes, he had Li on the line.

  ‘We need an antitoxin, and we need it now.’

  ‘Nanaimo is on the case.’

  ‘We can’t wait that long. New York is out of our control. I’ve seen the plans for the drains, and you can forget about pumping the city dry. You may as well talk about draining the Potomac.’

  ‘Do you have sufficient medical supplies?’

  ‘We can’t treat anyone! We don’t know how to help them. All we can do is give them immuno-modulating medication and pray for the algae to die.’

  ‘Listen, Sal,’ said Li, ‘we’re not going to let this beat us. We’re almost a hundred per cent certain that the toxins can’t be transmitted from person to person. There’s almost no risk of contagion from the bodies. We’ve got no choice but to wipe the bugs out of the system. We’ll douse them in chemicals, burn them, plead with them - whatever it takes.’

  ‘Well, go ahead,’ said Peak, ‘but it won’t do any good. OK, the wind will probably blow away the toxic cloud, but as for the algae…Don’t you realise that every single person in this city will have helped themselves to water? They’ll have showered, done the dishes, had a drink, topped up the goldfish bowl and God knows what else. People have been washing their cars. The fire service has been putting out fires. This whole city is covered with algae. They’re contaminating the buildings, swarming through the air vents and the air-conditioning. Even if we’ve seen the end of the crabs, I don’t know how we could ever stop the algae reproducing.’ He struggled for breath. ‘I mean, Christ, Jude, there are six thousand hospitals in America, and less than a quarter are prepared for a crisis like this. How are we ever going to isolate so many people and get them treated before it’s too late? The Bellevue can’t cope, and it’s huge.’

  Li was silent for moment. Then she said, ‘OK. You know what you have to do. Turn Greater New York into a prison. Don’t let anyone in or out.’

  ‘But they’ll die if they stay here. We won’t be able to help them.’

  ‘I know. It’s terrible. But we’ve got to think about everyone else. From now on, I want New York to be an island.’

  ‘How am I supposed to do that?’ Peak sounded desperate. ‘The East River flows inland.’

  ‘We’ll think of something. But in the meantime…’

  Peak didn’t hear the explosion: he felt it. The ground shook beneath his feet. There was a muffled rumble and Manhattan trembled in the shock waves, as though there’d been an earthquake.

  ‘Something’s exploded,’ said Peak.

  ‘Find out what it is. I’ll expect your report in ten minutes.’

  Peak ran to the window, but there was no sign of trouble. He signalled to his men, and hurried out of the room, back along the corridor and towards the rear of the hospital, where there was a view across Franklin Drive and the East River towards Brooklyn and Queens.

  He looked left, following the river upstream.

  People were running towards the hospital. About a kilometre away he saw an enormous mushroom rising in the sky. It was hovering above the site of the United Nations headquarters. At first Peak was afraid that the building had exploded. Then he realised that the source of the cloud was closer than he’d thought.

  It was billowing from the entrance to the Queens Midtown Tunnel, which crossed beneath the East River and connected Manhattan
to the opposite bank.

  The tunnel was on fire.

  Peak thought of all the cars that littered the city - the pile-ups on the roads, the vehicles that had collided with shop-fronts or streetlights. He thought of all the drivers who’d collapsed at the wheel. He didn’t need to be told what had happened in that tunnel, and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time.

  They ran back into the building, through the foyer, heading for the jeep, their movements hampered by the protective clothing, but somehow Peak managed to swing himself over the side of the vehicle and they accelerated away.

  Three storeys above them, Bo Henson, the deliveryman who’d done battle with FedEx, passed away.

  The Hoopers had already been dead for hours.

  Vancouver Island, Canada

  ‘So why Whistler? What are you doing there?’

  It was supposed to be an excursion back to normality, but so far it was nothing of the kind. For the first time in days Anawak was sitting in Davie’s Whaling Station, talking to Shoemaker and Delaware, who were draining a couple of cans of Heineken in his honour. Davie had closed the Station until further notice. His land-based expeditions had failed to catch on. The idea of watching animals held no appeal. If the whales had turned against humanity, who could trust bears? Besides, there was no telling what the Pacific might spring on them, now that Europe had been flattened by waves. Most tourists had abandoned the island already. As Davie’s manager, Shoemaker was taking care of the Station on his own, trying to keep the place afloat by calling in old debts. ‘I’d give anything to know what you’re up to,’ he repeated.

  Anawak shook his head. ‘It’s no use bugging me, Tom. I promised to keep my mouth shut. Can’t we talk about something else?’

  ‘Why can’t you just tell me? It must be a really big deal if—’

  ‘Tom…’

  ‘The thing is, Leon, I’d like to know when to get the hell out of here,’ he said, ‘in view of the tsunamis and so on.’

  ‘Who said anything about tsunamis?’

  ‘We don’t need you and your fancy committee to tell us what’s going on. People aren’t stupid, you know. Ships are capsizing, people are dying in Europe, and now we’re hearing horror stories about a plague in New York.’ He leaned forward and winked. ‘What do you say, Leon? The two of us, we saved those people from the Lady Wexham, didn’t we? Come on, buddy, I’m with you guys - one of the gang, part of the team.’

  Delaware took a sip of beer and wiped her mouth. ‘Oh, stop pestering him. If he can’t tell us, he can’t tell us, OK?’

  She was wearing a new pair of glasses with round orange-tinted lenses. She must have done something to her hair, thought Anawak. It had lost its frizziness and swept her shoulders in silky waves. In fact, even with her oversized teeth, she looked pretty. Really pretty.

  Shoemaker raised his hands, then let them drop back helplessly. ‘You guys should sign me up too. I mean it, Leon. I could be useful. And it would sure beat sitting around here and wiping the dust off the guidebooks.’

  Anawak didn’t feel comfortable about being so secretive. The role didn’t suit him. He’d kept quiet about his own life for so many years that any kind of secrecy was beginning to get on his nerves. It occurred to him to tell them the truth, but then he remembered the look in Li’s eyes. She always seemed friendly and supportive, yet Anawak sensed that she’d be seriously angry if she found out.

  He glanced around the office. All of a sudden he realised how distant the Station had become in the short time he’d been away. This wasn’t his life any more. So much had changed since he’d patched things up with Greywolf. He felt as if something decisive was about to happen; something that would turn his life upside-down. It was like being a kid on a roller-coaster - it had started moving, and he couldn’t get out. The fear and horror were tinged with an indescribable sense of elation and expectation. The Station had been a kind of wall around him, but now he felt as though he was in the open and everything was bearing down on him with an intensity he wasn’t accustomed to - too loud and too bright.

  ‘Well, you’re going to have to keep on dusting those guidebooks,’ he said. ‘You know as well as I do that your place is here, not with a bunch of scientists who’d never let you get a word in edgeways. Besides, Davie would be lost without you.’

  ‘Was that supposed to be motivating?’ Shoemaker asked.

  ‘Why should I have to motivate you? I’m the one who’s been told to keep my mouth shut and not talk to my friends. Why don’t you try to motivate me?’

  Shoemaker twisted the beer can in his hands. Then he grinned. ‘How long can you stay?’

  ‘As long as I like,’ said Anawak. ‘They’re treating us like kings. We’ve got our own private helicopter service, day and night. I only have to call, and they’ll be here to pick me up.’

  ‘You’re getting the full royal treatment, huh?’

  ‘Well, they do expect us to work for it. In fact, strictly speaking, I should be working right now, in Nanaimo or at the aquarium or wherever - but I wanted to see you.’

  ‘You can work here too, if you have to. OK, I’ll motivate you. Come round to dinner tonight. You’ll have a big fat steak to look forward to, and I’ll fry it myself. It’ll taste like pure heaven.’

  ‘Sounds good,’ said Delaware. ‘What time?’

  Shoemaker gave her a funny look. ‘I’m sure I’ll have room for one extra,’ he said.

  Delaware frowned. Anawak wondered what was going on, but promised Shoemaker he’d be there at seven. It was time for them to get moving. Shoemaker headed over to Ucluelet for a meeting with Davie, while Anawak set off down the high street in the direction of his boat, glad to have Delaware to talk to. She might be a pain in the butt but, somehow, he’d missed her.

  ‘What was all that about?’ he asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You know, about dinner tonight. I got the impression that Tom wasn’t too keen on you bringing a friend.’

  She fiddled with a strand of hair and scratched her nose. ‘I guess there’ve been a few changes since you went away. I mean, life’s full of surprises, isn’t it? Sometimes you can’t even believe it yourself.’

  Anawak stopped in his tracks. ‘Go on, then.’

  ‘Well, the day you went to Vancouver - you disappeared overnight and never came back! No one knew where you were, and a few people got worried. And one of those people was, uh…Jack. So Jack called me up - well, actually, he wanted to talk to you, but you weren’t there, and so…’

  ‘Jack?’ asked Anawak.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Greywolf? Jack O’Bannon?’

  ‘He said you’d had a chat,’ Delaware continued hastily. ‘And I guess it must have been a positive chat. Or, at least, he was pleased about it, and he just wanted to, um, talk to you some more…’ She looked him in the eye. ‘It was a good chat, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Well, what if it wasn’t?’

  ‘That would be a bit awkward because, you see…’

  ‘OK, fine. Jack and I had a good chat. All right? If you’ve finished tying yourself in knots, maybe you could get to the point.’

  ‘We’re going out,’ she said quickly.

  Anawak’s mouth opened and closed again.

  ‘He drove up to Tofino - I’d given him my number because I thought he was kind of cool…I mean, well, you know I always had a kind of sympathy for his point of view, and…’

  Anawak tried to stay serious. ‘A kind of sympathy. Well, yes, of course.’

  ‘So he came over. And we had a drink at Schooners, and then we went down to the jetty. He told me all kinds of things about himself, and I told him a bit about myself. And you know how it is - we talked and talked and then…out of the blue…Well, you can guess the rest.’

  Anawak grinned. ‘And Shoemaker isn’t happy.’

  ‘He hates Jack!’

  ‘I know. And you can’t blame him either. Just because Greywolf has taken a liking to us - well, you in particular - doesn’t ch
ange the fact that he behaved like an asshole. I mean, let’s be honest here: he behaved like an asshole for years. He is an asshole.’

  ‘No more than you are,’ she blurted out.

  Anawak nodded. Then in spite of all the wretchedness in the world, he laughed. He laughed about Delaware’s awkward explanation, about his grudge against Greywolf, which had really been anger at the loss of a friend, and at himself. He laughed so hard that it hurt.

  Delaware cocked her head. ‘What’s so funny?’

  ‘You’re right,’ chuckled Anawak.

  ‘What do you mean, I’m right? Are you feeling OK?’

  His hilarity was edging towards hysterics, and he knew it, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed like this - if he ever had. ‘Licia, you’re priceless,’ he said, between gasps. ‘You’re so darned right. We’re assholes. Absolutely! And you’re seeing Greywolf. Oh, man, I can’t believe it.’

  Her eyes narrowed. ‘You’re laughing at me.’

  ‘No, no, I’m not,’ he spluttered.

  ‘Oh, yes, you are.’

  ‘I swear I’m not. It’s just—’ Suddenly he thought of something and his laughter dried up. ‘Where’s Jack at the moment?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ She shrugged. ‘At home, maybe.’

  ‘Jack’s never at home. I thought you two were together now?’

  ‘For God’s sake, Leon, we haven’t got married. We’re just having a bit of fun. I don’t keep tabs on him.’

  ‘No,’ murmured Anawak. ‘He wouldn’t like that anyway.’

  ‘Do you want to speak to him?’

  ‘Yes.’ He put his hands on her shoulders. ‘OK, listen to me. I’ve got a few things to sort out, but try to find him, would you, Licia? Before dinner, if you can. We don’t want Shoemaker going off his food. Tell him I - I’d be pleased to see him. No, I’d love to see him right now.’

  Delaware smiled uncertainly. ‘OK…Men are weird—I mean, honestly. And you two are just as weird as each other.’

  Anawak went on board his boat, checked his post and dropped in at Schooners, where he got himself a coffee and talked to the locals. During his absence, two men had died. They’d defied the regulations and gone to sea in a canoe. In less than ten minutes, a pack of orcas had capsized them. The remains of one man had been washed ashore later, but there was no trace of the other, and no one felt like looking.