Through the Killing Glass (16 page)

Satish shook
his head. ‘We will get ready, and we do need to tell people what happened to
Arun, but we need to wait.’

‘For what?’

‘For us to be
ready. I want all my recon teams back in the Deadland to act as a tripwire for
Red Guards and to give us some warning, and I want my SAM teams deployed before
we do anything that may get the Reds to act. But I can’t do that now, not with
the tensions in Wonderland. Let’s wait till nightfall and get my men deployed.
Then first thing tomorrow morning we can get Arun back here.’

Alice did not
like the idea of waiting for one more night, but she saw reason in what Satish
was saying. Armed troopers out in the streets now would likely only provoke
confrontation. She also needed to get word to Bunny Ears, and that would take
some time.

Suddenly Danish
stood up, excitement shining in his eyes.

‘I got it! I
can’t believe I never made the connection earlier!’

‘What?’

Danish grabbed
Alice by the shoulders, unable to stop himself from smiling.

‘I figured out what
the Americans have been trying to tell us. They would have seen Doctor Edwards’
last post and I’m sure they’re trying to get him out.’

Alice still had
no idea what Danish was talking about.

‘Netaji Subhash
Chandra International Airport was the name given to the airport in Calcutta.’

Vince completed
the thought for him. ‘And Dakotas would refer to airplanes. Old DC-3s. It makes
sense that without satellites for GPS or networks to run the navigation
computers, the first planes flying are the old propeller driven ones like the
Dakota. They must have made landings in Calcutta.’

Alice felt a
surge of excitement. The Americans had found a way to reach what had once been
the Indian subcontinent! They had found comfort in the radio broadcasts and web
posts they had shared with the Americans since they told them that they were
not waging a solitary war. Now there was a chance to make direct contact and,
critically, to get Edwards to a location where he could help create a vaccine
or a cure.

‘Vince, you
said you could get the helicopter to Calcutta, didn’t you?’

‘Yes, Alice. If
I top up all the tanks and carry a bit of extra fuel, I could make it quite
easily.’

‘Then you must
take the doctor and leave as soon as possible.’

Edwards stood
up, shaking his head.

‘Alice, an
attack on Wonderland is imminent. We cannot abandon you at a time like this!’

Alice
countered, ‘That is precisely why you need to get away as fast as possible. I
know that you need my blood sample and you are the only one who can help find a
cure or a vaccine with it. We cannot risk you being here when the attack comes.
Vince, take the doctor and get to Calcutta tonight.’

For a moment he
seemed to weigh the decision. Finally, he said, ‘I’ll do it.’

Then he was
gone, riding his bike as fast as he could to get to the airport to prepare for
the long flight.

To Arjun, Alice
said, ‘You need to make sure the doctor gets on the helicopter and leaves
safely. Danish, tell the Americans that we are sending someone to Calcutta in a
way that the Red Guards won’t understand even if they intercept the
transmission.’

Danish nodded.
‘If only I could disable the bloody bugs those Red Guards placed in our
computers I could have just messaged them.’

Next Alice
looked at Satish. ‘We need to get ready. The Red Guards may be here any time. I
doubt they will launch an all out attack at first. They have been winning this
war with deceit and stealth, and they will try to continue that. I expect them
to start patrols outside Wonderland and then perhaps start dictating our policies
and getting people to work on the old farms in return for their supposed
security. I’ll go and alert Bunny Ears and the others and get Arun ready; you
get your men to prepare themselves.’

***

Chen looked out
of his window to see the black transport aircraft landing at the far end of the
airstrip, well away from the prying eyes of the Red Guards at the base. Three
of them had already disgorged their passengers and he had been told there was
to be one more planeload. As soon as they landed, the passengers were met by Li
on the tarmac and then herded into the far end of the base. Hundreds of Biters
had been brought in for the coming operation and Chen felt a bit sick at the
thought of what was to come. He had dedicated his life to the Central Committee
under the illusion that the war against the Biters was necessary to protect
what was left of human civilization. It was truly a perversity that the same
Central Committee was now freely using Biters created in its labs to serve its
purpose. However, all these thoughts were buried in Chen’s mind, as Commissar
Hu was standing right behind him, having flown in the previous night to
personally oversee the operation – and while it had never been said aloud, to
ensure that Chen stuck to the plan.

'Comrade
General, are your men ready?'

Chen stiffened,
weighing in his mind how he should reply, since the question was about the
readiness not just of his men, but himself.

'Yes, Comrade
Commissar, we are ready, though I must confess some of the men have been
grumbling about policing duties in the Deadland when they had thought that
phase of the war had long ended.'

Hu chuckled.
'Your men should learn to play chess, Comrade. That war never came to an end.
We were just waiting for the right time to make our move. If my calculations
are correct, the puppet government of this so-called Wonderland is now
leaderless and their people are divided. Many of their youth, fed on our food
and clothed in our finest fabrics, will see security in embracing us, and once
more join our fold. Then, Comrade General, these savages will do as they were
meant to: serve us in the farms in the plains. Food will once again flow to the
Mainland, and our people will enjoy the prosperity of the people's revolution.
We will win this war with little or no bloodshed, Comrade.'

Chen said
nothing, but he knew that only politicians and fools believed that any war
could be won without bloodshed.

***

Alice watched
the helicopter take off and fly eastwards. She hoped Vince and Edwards would get
to their destination safely, but for now her concerns were more immediate.
Satish had been getting in touch with his men, telling them to be ready. In the
darkness of night, six missile teams armed with surface to air missiles and RPG
launchers had moved to the outskirts of Wonderland. Arjun had also begun
mobilizing his men. He knew that many of them had mixed feelings about Alice
and Satish after the Biter attacks and the Red propaganda, so he told them that
he wanted them to be on guard against any unrest caused by the power vacuum
left by Arun’s death. Despite the late hour, he had many of his men start
neighborhood patrols, which ensured that if there was any trouble he would have
a ready reserve of armed men to back up Satish’s teams.

Alice felt a familiar
buzz that she always seemed to feel at the prospect of upcoming battle. She had
been told she had a keen edge when it came to combat, partly driven by years of
training and living in the Deadland, and partly perhaps by her nature. Dr
Protima had told her that part of the infection that turned humans into Biters
activated the most primitive parts of their brain, making them
hyper-aggressive. At times Alice wondered how true that was for someone who was
only part Biter like her. Though she had kept it to herself, since her
transformation it took a conscious effort to think strategically instead of
impulsively in battle. That was what she was trying to focus on now.

'Alice, we
cannot really do much if half of Wonderland thinks we are the enemy. What do
you want to do about that?'

Alice turned to
face Arjun.

'I am on my way
now. You need to call a Council meeting and ensure as many people as possible
join.'

There were
still a couple of hours to go until sunrise and Alice pedaled her bike
furiously as she crossed over to the Deadland. She passed one of Satish's recon
teams hidden behind some bushes. She waved to them as she passed and while she
did not hear them, the men whispered to themselves that when the Queen was up
and about, battle would not be far behind.

She soon saw
that danger was much more imminent than she had imagined. The light of a fire
burned in the distance, and Alice ducked behind cover.

Poor stupid
kids, she thought, wondering just how green these conscripts must be to light
up a fire which would be visible for miles around. The thought that they were
probably only a few years older than her never crossed her mind. She looked
through the scope of her rifle and through the greenish glow of the night
vision optics she saw six Red Guards huddled around the fire. Part of her felt
sorry for them, but then in choosing to obey their orders they had sealed their
fate. In her young life, if there was one thing she had learnt it was the fact
that there was always a choice when it came to accepting tyranny. The cost of
saying no might come with hardships and sacrifice, but it was never acceptable
to say that there was no choice.

She would have
preferred to bypass the six Red Guards, but they were directly in her path.
Alice thought she could handle the six of them if she had the element of
surprise, but there was no way of knowing how many other such teams had been
inserted in the night in the name of providing security to Wonderland. Alice
allowed herself a grin as she remembered what her father had once told her:
that no matter how hard he tried subtlety was never going to be something he
could teach her.

Removing a
flash bang grenade from her belt, Alice began her slow approach. They were now
barely twenty meters away and in the darkness did not spot her coming. If
anything, sitting so close to the bright flame and staring at it had ruined
their night vision. It was this that Alice would use to her advantage.

Alice pulled
the pin on her grenade and threw it in a looping arc towards the men. The grenade
landed just feet away from them and exploded in a dull thump, momentarily
flashing more brightly than the fire.

The first two
died without knowing who had shot them as carefully aimed single shots took
them in the head or throat. Another Red Guard fired a wild burst from his rifle
but fell as another round hit him. The remaining three men were now firing
blindly, trying to pin down their attackers while they got their bearings.
Alice was firing on the run, and dropped one more. Then she was amongst the two
remaining men. The first fell like a chopped tree when Alice smashed his jaw in
with the butt of her rifle. The last man was now screaming in terror when Alice
pivoted on one foot and kicked him, sending him down. Without waiting to see if
there were other Red Guards in the area that would inevitably come to the scene
after seeing and hearing the gunshots, Alice ran straight towards the nearest
Biter tunnel entrance, removing the branches arranged against the old drainage
pipe and diving in.

It was as if
she had entered another world altogether. It had been months since Alice had
been inside the tunnels, but whenever she entered one, she could never forget
the day this had all begun. The day she had dived into a tunnel after a Biter
wearing strange bunny ears; the day she had discovered a strange subterranean
world where the Biters lived with their mysterious Queen; the day when Alice
discovered that her path in life was to take her very far from her settlement
in the Deadland.

It was dark
inside the tunnel and she lit a signal flare, holding it in her right hand.
With her left hand she took out the book and held it before her. She didn’t
have to wait long. Within minutes of walking, a Biter appeared before her. She
had been an old woman as a human, attacked and transformed in a hospital; even
now she had the needle of an IV drip attached to her right arm. Her face was
relatively unscathed other than a terrible bite mark to the neck, and when she
saw Alice she screamed and opened her mouth to bite. Alice held the book in
front of her face and screamed, ‘NO! I am the Queen and you will follow me!’

The Biter
retreated, bowing her head down. Alice proceeded down the tunnel. She could now
hear scurrying noises all around her in the tunnels. The word would have spread
that the Queen was among the Biters. After a few more minutes of walking, she
saw Bunny Ears sitting in a corner. Arun was beside him, absently chewing on
his fingers. Alice would have loved to be able to tell Bunny Ears to show up
with Arun where and when she wanted instead of having to take them with her,
but she knew such level of thinking was beyond Biters. Then again, Biters did
exactly as she wanted them to. They did not debate, they did not strategize,
and they did not have personal political agendas. All things considered, there
certainly were times when Alice enjoyed leading Biters more than humans.

Wonderland woke
up to find itself ringed by Red Guard patrols. More than once, helicopters flew
close to the city and then turned back.

‘Should I just
have one of them shot down to make a point?’

Arjun sniggered
at Satish’s suggestion. ‘I don’t doubt that time will come, but let’s wait till
we deal with our young rebels.’

More than a
hundred young boys had gathered in front of the Cabinet. One of them, wearing
clothes fresh from a Red Guard shipment, stepped forward.

‘Arjun, why are
you stopping us from joining the Red Guards?’

That morning
another transmission had come in announcing an incoming message from the
Central Committee. Commissar Hu had informed the people of Wonderland that the
heroic Red Guards had stepped in, braving the harsh Deadland and wild Biters to
provide security to their brethren in Wonderland. He had asked for a hundred
volunteers to come out of Wonderland help in the patrols.