Текст книги "Noah's Ark: Contagion"

Автор книги: Harry Dayle

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Текущая страница: 16 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

“Yes?” he grunted.

“Hi. My name is Doctor Janice Hanson. I think you might possibly be the most important person on board this ship.”

Janice had rarely used her title since she had retired, but she knew from experience that it often helped command respect, or at the very least a level of attention that was more difficult to attain without it.

“Well of course I am,” the man replied. “What of it?”

“Sir, this may sound like a bit of a strange question, but have you recently undergone surgery?”

“Of course I have!”

“Was it transplant surgery?”

The man rolled his eyes and sighed, wheezing slightly as he did so. “Kidney. Didn’t he tell you this already?”

Janice could feel the excitement rising inside of her. She had found her man.

“And you’re taking medication? To stop your body rejecting the new kidney?”

“Hmph,” he grunted. “If you ask me, it’s nothing of the sort. I feel perfectly fine. The kidney was donated by my own son, why would I reject it? You doctors, fill me up with drugs to keep me under control. I know your game.”

“Could I look at them? The drugs, Mr—”

“Sanderson. Tom Sanderson. You can call me Mr Sanderson.” He shuffled off into his cabin. “Well come on then, if you’re coming. And close the door behind you; you’re letting the warm air out.”

Janice didn’t need to be asked twice. She scuttled in after him, following him over to a bedside cabinet. Tom pulled open a drawer to reveal half a dozen little white-and-blue boxes. Janice grabbed one, hardly daring to believe what she was seeing.

“Orthoclone OKT 3. You’re injecting?”

“Don’t be ridiculous! That’s what the doctors are for. Doctor Lister has been administering my injections. Once a day, every day. He’s a good chap. If it wasn’t for him signing me off, they wouldn’t have let me come on the cruise. Promised he’d look after me, he did. Company man, see. Haven’t seen him today. That’s why you’re here though, isn’t it? He sent you, to give me my injection?”

“Mr Sanderson, it will be a pleasure to give you your injection. And then, if you don’t mind, I will take some of your Orthoclone down to the medical centre. You’re about to save a lot of lives!”

• • •

Surgeon Lieutenant Russell Vardy was not prone to panic. His training and experience in the armed forces had prepared him for stressful situations. All of that capacity for remaining calm under pressure was being tested to the limit as he watched Captain Jake Noah writhe and flail on the bed. He hadn’t personally witnessed the last moments of Kiera’s life, but it didn’t take years of medical practice to know that Jake was on the brink of death.

He had done all he reasonably could. From somewhere, one of the remaining nurses had produced a tranquilliser, although it had had little effect. Russell had tried to make his patient comfortable, and now he looked on, utterly helplessly, as Jake’s body destroyed itself, cell by cell.

“Vardy!”

He looked up to see Janice galloping down the corridor. She arrived in the room, breathless and sweating. Unable to speak, she thrust a box into the surprised doctor’s hands.

“Orthoclone? This is powerful stuff, Janice. We wouldn’t use this without a course of glucocorticoids first. The risk of cardiac arrest is too high. A shot of this could kill him.”

Janice, still trying to catch her breath, looked at Jake, then at Vardy. She didn’t need words, and he understood at once that she was right. Without the drug, Jake was as good as dead. There was nothing left to lose.

Vardy sprang into action. The box contained single-use hypodermic needles in sterile packaging, as well as five tiny vials filled with the drug. With steady hands, he prepared a dose.

Jake’s twisting body presented the same problem Kiera’s had, just hours before, but Vardy wasn’t messing around. He grabbed the captain’s neck and with a deft action, pierced the skin and pressed down on the syringe. The clear liquid disappeared into Jake. Vardy extracted the needle, and let out the breath he hadn’t until then realised he was holding.

“Do you know how long before we’ll know?” Janice said, wheezing.

“No idea. I suggest you stay with him. I’m going to get a dose of this into Miss Levin. And then I need to get the machine configured to make more of this stuff. Where did you find it?”

“Long story. But there’s more. Enough to treat another twenty of the most urgent cases while we wait for your machine to do its thing.”

Twenty-Nine

JAKE’S HEAD FELT like it had been removed from his shoulders, spun at high speed in a liquidiser, then poured down his own neck. He liked the feeling; it meant he was probably alive.

He was vaguely aware of sound. The sound had structure. His brain made an attempt to decode it, make sense of it. It was hard work. As much effort went into focussing and directing his attention as went into the actual processing of the noise.

Eventually something clicked into place. It was voices. The sound he could hear was voices. He knew how to understand voices, he just had to remember. The knowledge was scattered among neurones that seemed to have become disconnected. The effort required to forge new pathways between them was too great. His thoughts spun, and everything faded away.

The next time he became self-aware, the pain was no longer restricted to his head. His whole body felt as if it was on fire. He liked this feeling even more, because it meant he probably still had a body. He had the impression that time had passed. During that period, his neurones must have got together to form some kind of order because now he could think a little more clearly. When someone next to him spoke, he could discriminate individual words, although deriving any kind of meaning from them was still beyond his capacity. It wasn’t long before the strain of trying once again overloaded his exhausted mind, and the world he was briefly aware of faded away a second time.

The third time Jake came round, the pain was agonising. He didn’t like it any more, and it made him grunt and moan.

“He’s awake! Did you hear that? He made a noise!”

The words ricocheted around inside his head. He didn’t hear them clearly; they were accompanied by the kind of white noise he associated with a badly tuned radio station, or a poorly maintained ship-to-shore radio.

Ship-to-shore. The thought sparked something inside him. He was on a ship. His ship.

That single observation was a key. It unlocked a flood of memories from childhood through to the moment he had found Russell, Janice, and Mandy working in their deck two laboratory. A tsunami of memories so potent that it threatened to overwhelm him yet again. But the world didn’t fade away. The agony was too intense. The waves of pain pulsing through every molecule of his wretched body meant there was to be no further respite in unconsciousness.

“Jake, can you hear me? It’s Janice. You’re in the medical centre.”

He wanted to respond, to make her understand that yes, he could hear her. He wanted her to know he was in terrible pain. If only he could make some part of his body bend to his will, she would understand and would help him.

He fixed his attention on his eyes, pouring every ounce of effort he could muster into opening them. Surely, he thought, the physical effort of opening an eyelid was far less than any other bodily movement he could attempt? It might have worked, had he been able to gather a minimum level of concentration, but his body had other ideas. The constant stabbing, burning, piercing pain battered its way into his thoughts, leaving no room to mount a positive action.

The frustration he felt caused another grunt, an involuntary reflex that forced air through his windpipe.

“You were right! I heard that! He definitely made a noise. I think we should up the dosage of the tranquilliser.”

“Agreed.”

There were more words, technical words, but he didn’t hear them because mercifully, the pain had started to abate. And with it, his grip on reality.

• • •

He forced open his eyes.

“Jake?”

He blinked.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

It was a fair question, and he hadn’t yet assessed himself adequately to give any kind of answer. He remembered waking up before, and the pain that went with that. Time must had passed since then; how much he had no idea. Now, his whole body ached as if he’d just swum the English Channel with a life raft tied to his waist. It was a strange thought, because he seemed to remember that he had been swimming with a life raft.

“Lu…” He tried to speak and found that it was more difficult than he recalled.

“Lucya is going to be okay. She’s on the same medication as you. She hit her head, but it wasn’t serious.”

His eyes were slowly adjusting to the light. He could see a figure standing over him. Two figures. Vardy, and Janice. They were both here. Why were they here? Shouldn’t they be helping the people with the virus?

“Vi…rus,” he managed.

“There’s a cure, Jake,” Janice said. “Sort of. It’s not perfect, far from it in fact. But it will get the job done. We’ve been testing your blood for the last two days. The virus is inactive, and the mutated antiviral too. Your body is flushing them out. Another week and they’ll be entirely gone.”

“Others?”

“Yes, we’re treating the others too. Thanks to the machines you found on the base, Russell has been able to synthesise more drugs in much greater quantities. It’s going to take a long time, but we are going to beat this virus.”

Jake grunted. He had a thousand questions, but now wasn’t the time. All he really wanted to do was sleep.

Thirty

JAKE HADN’T MOVED for hours. He knew he should try and walk; the doctors had insisted it would help. Getting his blood moving would help flush the virus out of his system, and it would also help rebuild the muscle tissue he had lost when the infection had swarmed through his body, boosted by the well-intentioned but ultimately deadly antiviral. But he didn’t want to move. He wanted to remain exactly where he was, sitting right next to Lucya.

He had been sitting there most of the day every day since he could get out of bed. It had been eight days since Janice had found the miracle drug, the drug that had been under their noses the whole time. His recovery had been remarkably rapid, but he knew it would be a long road back to full health.

Besides, he was lucky: he had survived. Maryse, Scott, Kiera, and David had all lost their lives to the dreadful virus, as had seven others whose names he hadn’t known. At least five more patients, including Grau Lister, were still in a critical condition. The effects of the virus were so far advanced, so much damage had been done to their internal organs, that it was far from certain that they would ever recover.

Lucya had also been lucky, at least as far as her injection of antiviral was concerned. The dose she had self-administered had been very small, and therefore had done little to reinforce the virus already present in her bloodstream. Ironically, her collapse and subsequent lack of consciousness had helped her. Without any physical exertion causing her heart rate to increase, and in turn pump the antiviral around her body more quickly, it had remained confined. The immunosuppressives had done their job, shutting down the T cells so vital to the survival of the invader, leaving it to flounder and die. They had done nothing to bring her back to consciousness though. In fact it seemed they had plunged her into a coma, which was one of the side effects that Vardy had warned of.

Jake had maintained his vigil by her bedside, keeping an eye on the monitoring equipment that Ewan and his colleagues had salvaged from the second lab in the base.

The submariners had been busy during the last week. Ewan had paid him regular visits and kept him up to date on events. Coote had taken charge—temporarily, Ewan assured him—and had organised rolling missions to the base to bring back supplies. The storm had abated and they had been able to bring the ship and the submarine closer in to the shoreline. By releasing more of the Spirit of Arcadia’s inflatable emergency life rafts, they had brought over not only a number of medical supplies, including the machines that were monitoring Lucya, but also food supplies to replenish the empty kitchens. Head Chef Claude Dupont had avoided the virus and was now revelling in his role as one of the most important people on the ship, preparing protein-rich rations for everyone. He saw it as his professional duty to get the population back to peak fitness via their stomachs. Jake was reflecting on all of this when a familiar voice jerked him out of his reverie.

“Captain Noah! How are we doing, old chap?”

“Not bad, Coote, not bad. I wish I could say the same for Lucya.”

“She’ll pull through, you mark my words. She’s made of strong stuff that one. You’ll see, the two of you will be supping vodka on the sun deck before you know it. I might join you, although mine’s a single malt.” Coote touched the side of his nose conspiratorially.

“How’s the plan to get into the dry dock? Ewan said you were sending a task force to get the undersea door open and take the Ambush into the base.”

“That is indeed the idea. You found us enough food in there to keep this ship supplied for months, but it’s going to take us months to bring it across if we rely on the rafts. It makes more sense to load up the Ambush in dry dock and then transfer it over in bulk. As you know, the door can only be opened from the inside. As you also managed to find a way to get the power on in the base, the task should have been a simple one. Ralf led a team over there to flood the dock and get the door open…” Coote’s voice trailed off.

“What is it? Something went wrong, didn’t it?”

“Not wrong as such. This isn’t easy. We knew a lot of those people…”

“What people, Coote? What’s happened?”

“You will recall that you and the original landing party were surprised that nobody from the base had taken shelter in the underground levels, as the asteroid passed over?”

“Yes, of course. It looked like there had been people there up until the last minute, but that they had just…disappeared.”

“Those people, rest their souls, had taken shelter in the dry dock. It made perfect sense, of course. The underground dock is made from very thick, very strong reinforced-concrete walls. Designed to withstand a direct strike from a torpedo. It was by far the strongest area in the base. I would have done the same thing; ordered all personnel to take shelter in there as soon as it became apparent the threat that the asteroid posed.”

“They didn’t make it, did they? I would have heard by now, if there were survivors. Did they suffocate?”

“Worse, I’m afraid. The dock has certain defensive features. If the systems believe it is under attack, it opens the flood gates. Literally, opens the flood gates. It fills with water so as to match the pressure outside and allow any submarine within to make a fast exit. The asteroid triggered the system.”

Neither man spoke for a moment. Each was overwhelmed by the thought of hundreds of people, maybe even thousands, escaping certain death, only to then be drowned in the very place that had saved them.

“Do you know…how many?” Jake asked finally.

“No. It would be difficult to count. It’s been more than three weeks since the asteroid; the bodies were not well preserved. The members of the committee who were up to it met briefly and agreed that we should continue with the plan. There is nothing we can do for the dead. Ralf’s team are in the process of flushing the dock in readiness for our arrival.”

“What about our electricity? From what I hear, the last time we disconnected the Ambush from this ship we nearly blew the place up.”

“Your engineer chap, Martin, assures us he has things under control. He’s on top form by the way, recovered from his little accident.”

“Yes, I saw him yesterday. He called in, to see Lucya, really.”

“He’s been working with a certain Mr Sanderson, who I understand is something of a hero now himself. They have made improvements to the electrical connection between our vessels that will allow the Spirit of Arcadia to more easily switch to diesel power. So I’d say it’s all under control, old boy. Nothing to worry about.”

“Sounds like it,” Jake said, unable to keep the slightest hint of bitterness out of his voice.

“Now then, old chap, don’t go thinking we’re managing fine without you! Your antics down in that base saved every one of us. Had you not found power, food, and most importantly those rather marvellous machines, the chances are hundreds would have died before anyone went back to explore further. And besides, this ship needs you. The people need you. You inspired confidence before, and now with stories of your heroic swim across the loch you have reached almost celebrity status.”

Jake turned a shade of pink, but said nothing.

“Well, it is time I left you. You have more visitors waiting outside, one of whom is very eager to see you both. So I shall say goodbye for now.”

Coote shook Jake’s hand, smiled kindly, and opened the door. Ewan came into the room, and behind him was Erica.

“Jake!” she shrieked. “They wouldn’t let me come and see you. They said you needed to sleep a lot.”

“That’s true, but I’m glad you’re here, Erica.” He gave the girl a hug. He really was pleased to see her, to his own surprise.

“What about Lucya? When is she going to wake up?”

“Soon, I hope. Very soon.”

Erica approached Lucya cautiously. Ewan nodded at Jake, then slipped back outside, leaving the three of them alone.

“Why has she got all those wires all over her?” Erica asked.

“They’re there to tell us when she wakes up.”

“Can I touch her?”

“Of course you can.”

The girl tentatively took Lucya’s hand in her own.

“Hi, Lucya,” she whispered. “Um, it’s me, Erica.” She waited for a response, and when none came she looked uncertainly at Jake.

“She might be able to hear you,” he said kindly. “The doctors think so anyway.”

“You have to get better soon, okay?” the girl said, looking back at her. “Everyone else is getting better. Captain Jake found the machines to make people well again. Everyone is talking about it. And he found food, too! I’ve just had lunch. Beans on toast with brown sauce and little sausages. It was yummy! When you wake up, you can have cakes, and chocolate, and tea, and loads of nice things.”

Erica’s face fell. “Daddy would have liked all that food. He liked eating. He said the best thing about coming on the ship was all the food we could eat. I think he would have been happy now.” Her eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them back, brave beyond her years. “Lucya, please wake up soon. You have to wake up so you can look after me. Mummy died, then Daddy died. You said you and Jake would look after me, so you can’t die, okay? You mustn’t, because then there won’t be anyone else!”

Her emotions got the better of her and, no longer able to hold them back, tears cascaded down her face. Jake grabbed her and pulled her close to him.

“It’s okay, Erica,” he whispered in her ear. “Lucya’s going to be okay, I promise.”

Jake closed his eyes, feeling terrible at making a promise he knew he couldn’t possibly guarantee. All he knew was right now, that’s what the little girl needed to hear. He stroked her hair, trying to reassure her. As he did so, he became aware that she was no longer sobbing. She sniffled, rubbed her eyes, and her face lit up, as if she had witnessed a miracle. He followed her gaze, and understood at once what had changed. Lucya was watching them both, eyes wide open, and a faint smile on her lips.

Epilogue

“ARE YOU SURE I can’t persuade you to stay on board, Mandy?”

“It’s tempting, Jake. But this is another kind of opportunity. Six weeks ago we thought the planet was a goner, and now we get to start a whole new community. That’s an amazing thing.”

“This community will miss you. You were amazing, you know?”

“Aw, shucks. I was just doing what I trained to do. Besides, Grau is getting better every day. I saw him walking about this morning. He’ll be off the crutches in no time, you’ll see.”

Jake and Mandy stared out over the loch in silence for a while. It was a beautiful morning; the sun had just broken over the tops of the mountains and was spilling onto the water, painting it a shade of emerald. From behind them came the sound of children playing on the sun deck.

“Do you really think there are more survivors, somewhere out there?” said Mandy.

“I’m certain. Those two headless bodies came from somewhere, didn’t they? And the rafts?”

“Maybe they were from the base. Maybe a few got out before the rest…you know.”

“They probably didn’t decapitate themselves though, did they? Somebody must have done that. And that somebody could be part of a bigger group.”

“That’s what worries me. What if they’re mad, or evil, or both?” Mandy turned to look at Jake, her hair dancing around her face in the gentle breeze. “Isn’t it safer for the ship to stay here, in the loch?”

“We’ll be fine, Mandy. We’ve got the protection of the Royal Navy. I don’t want to tempt fate, but I feel like we’re meant to survive somehow. It’s like we’ve been chosen. We were spared by the asteroid, and now we’ve come through this whole virus. I’m not a religious man, but it almost feels like someone is looking out for us. It’s as if we have a mission, a purpose.”

“Like setting up satellite communities of volunteers in old military bases?”

“Maybe. Why not? If that virus had finished us off, it could have been the end of us, the end of mankind. This way we get an extra chance. Two communities means double our odds of survival.”

“I hope you’re right. And I also hope you find out what happened to those dead men.”

A young voice called out, making them both turn round.

“Mandy! Lucya said you’re going soon. Is it true?”

“Hi, Erica. Yes it’s true. But I wasn’t going to leave without saying goodbye!” She bent down and picked up the girl, a big smile on her face. “Hey, Lucya, how are you feeling?”

“Good, thanks. I had my check-up with Janice this morning. She says I’m fighting fit and ready for duty.”

“So we might get lost after all, if you’re navigating!” Jake teased.

“Aren’t you scared about living underground, Mandy?” Erica asked.

“No, not scared exactly. It’ll be strange, not seeing the sun. But we’re going to start clearing lots of space outside, getting rid of that nasty ash. So we won’t be underground the whole time.”

“I don’t think I’d like it,” the girl said, screwing up her nose and making a face. “What if the lights stop working?”

“We’ve got some very clever engineers who are going to be living with us, so if anything like that happens, they’ll know how to fix them.”

Erica considered this, and seemed satisfied with the answer. “How many children are staying here?”

“Twenty-five,” Mandy said. “And seventy-five grown-ups.”

“Will they have to go to school? Lucya says I’ll have to go to school soon. If there’s no school, it might be better staying here! What do you think?”

“All the children will go to school, Erica. And the mums and dads will go to work. We’re going to be like a proper little town. And you’ll go off exploring, on the Spirit of Arcadia. You might find more little towns, or even make some new ones, just like we’re making a new one right here.”

“Jake says we’ll come back and see you again.”

“Well I hope so! And when you do, I want to hear all about your adventures, okay?”

“Okay!”

She put the child back on the deck and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“I have to go now. I’ll see you soon. Now you look after Jake and Lucya, okay?”

“I will, I promise.”

The nurse straightened up. A little way along the deck a sailor was waiting patiently.

“That’s my ride,” Mandy said. “I’d better not keep them waiting. Don’t want to miss the last raft!”

“You take care, Mandy,” Lucya said. “Thank you, for everything.”

The women embraced, then Lucya turned away. She didn’t want Erica to see her crying.

“Jake, take care of yourself.”

“You too, Mandy. And good luck. All being well, we’ll be back here in three months. I’m looking forward to a cocktail on a terrace, overlooking the loch, okay?”

“It’s a deal, Captain Noah. Gosh, I hate long goodbyes. I’m outta here. I’ll see you soon, guys!”

Mandy sighed, turned, and left without looking back.

“Where are we going to go, Jake?” Erica asked, looking up at him wide eyed.

“We’re heading south. Somewhere warmer.”

“Will we find more people?”

“I hope so, Erica. I really do.”

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