This Green Hell

THIRTY

‘Power’s dying,’ Casey Franks said. ‘The lights draw the least juice, but I reckon in an hour or so they’re going to drop out as well. Be dark in another hour — have you got enough lanterns in here?’

She rubbed her throat; it was moist and she knew the bandage needed changing again. She winced — still felt like she’d swallowed a fork, but at least she could talk above a whisper now. She had just completed a quick walk-through of the camp. The place was eerily quiet. Most of the men seemed to prefer the inside of their tents, and the ones that ventured out darted away from her in the gloom.

‘Dr Vargis? Did you hear me? I said …’ She winced and swallowed the pain.

Maria Vargis was hunched over a small electronic box on her table. ‘Yes, yes,’ she said without turning. ‘Please leave me alone.’

Casey looked around the room. Everything had been cleared off the bench tops save for a silver case, a small electronic box and some hypodermic needles. The laboratory resembled a messy storage shed; progress had obviously slowed.

She shrugged and turned to leave. ‘Very well, ma’am.’

‘Do you have children?’

The question stopped Casey in her tracks. ‘Ahh, pardon, ma’am?’

Maria swivelled and looked at her with red-rimmed eyes. ‘Do you have any children, Ms Franks?’

No one had called her ‘Ms’ for years — doesn’t sound right, she thought. She didn’t bother correcting the scientist, just shook her head slowly in response.

Maria Vargis looked at her hard for a few more seconds, then nodded and dropped her eyes back to the silver case and small black electronic box. Casey thought she hadn’t seen anyone look that tired outside of a battle zone.

She left, closing the door behind her. As she stepped down onto the woven matting, water squeezed up between the fronds, soaking her boots almost to her laces. Nice, she thought.

The authorisation was being formalised and the initiation codes would be sent to her within the next few hours.

A while back, Maria had also walked through the silent camp. Unlike Casey, she had peered briefly into several of the tents — and what she had seen had horrified her. Nearly every man lay sweating dark rivulets. The Hades Bug was continuing to spread, even though the vector controls had been deployed. There was no time to begin to determine how.

Maria sat at her desk, thinking. Only a few people in the world would ever know what was about to occur deep in the Paraguayan jungle. Many of the world’s satellites would be conveniently turned away; false data on earth tremors was already manufactured and awaiting distribution to any interested media outlets. Now, it all came down to her.

She sighed, feeling dead inside. She turned her head to look out the greasy window. It was never meant to get this bad, she thought.

Dusk usually triggered the sensors that switched on the lights around the camp’s perimeter. Tonight, however, instead of their white halos, the lights glowed a dull yellow for a few minutes then weakened to a shadowy golden-brown.

Maria grabbed a flashlight and rose wearily to her feet. She felt at least a hundred years old; dead tired but unable to switch off and sleep.

There’ll be plenty of that soon enough, she thought grimly.

She walked down the steps from her cabin and, like a ghost, Casey Franks appeared behind her. A man trotted towards them, the one who had organised the laying of the mat of fronds. He looked from Maria to Franks and seemed to decide that Maria was the point of authority.

‘Ahh, señora, many of the men will not come out of their tents. Those that do cannot find the dry wood, for the fires. Repelente contra insectos — you understand?’

She kept walking. ‘Yes, I understand. Use the wood from the cabins.’

It doesn’t matter, she thought. There’s only one way to stop it.

He frowned. ‘Las cabañas?’

‘Yes. Si, si.’ She waved him away and squelched on. The matting was seriously taking on water now.

She made her way to the refrigeration unit, stopping a few feet short of the metal box. There was no hum emanating from it. She squared her shoulders and flipped the lid open quickly.

She backed away involuntarily, into Casey Franks, and a shivery gasp escaped her lips. Michael was still there — but not all of him. He should have remained comatose from the drugs she had given him, but at some point he must have woken as his head was thrown back and his mouth open in a silent scream. The ice was gone, along with his extremities. His remains floated in a grey soup, and she was glad for the small mercy of the murky water.

She leaned forward to touch his forehead one last time, or at least close his dark, oily eyes. As a contagious disease specialist, she knew it was wrong even as she was reaching to do it. Her hand was inches away when a powerful grip on her forearm stopped her. Casey Franks pulled her back quickly, the force nearly spinning her around. The lid of the now useless refrigeration unit banged shut.

Maria collapsed into the powerful young woman’s arms and sobbed. Franks held her close, and Maria was grateful for the physical contact.

After a while, she stepped back and pushed the tangled hair from her face. ‘He was my only child,’ she said to the ground, unable to meet the HAWC’s gaze.

‘I liked him,’ was all Casey said.

Maria managed to look up and into the woman’s face. ‘Thank you.’

She turned and headed to her cabin. The decision was made. There was more at stake than just a few miserable lives in a jungle.