Toxic (34 page)

He walked up to the Colombian and kneed him violently in the stomach. Out of breath, Hector doubled over. Masters grabbed the butt of his pistol. The dozen junkies who accompanied their boss pointed their guns at him. Elaine put her hand to her mouth. The Latino rolled around on the ground.

“
Hijo de puta
... Why did you do that?”

“Don’t tell me that you’ve forgotten?”

“
Madre de Dios
... he left off, grabbing his stomach on the ground. I have your twenty kilos. What else do you want? Revenge?”

Xavier stood in front of the Colombian, who wriggled at his feet.

“I could send you down to hell, but we’re there already. In the end, it’s better you live.”

“So, take the coke and give us back the boy.”

“What’s so special about this guy? He doesn’t talk. He’s just meat for the L-Ds.”

“We did our part of the bargain.”

Elaine and Masters put down their bags without making sudden movements. Two men took them.

“Twenty kilos,” declared the leader of the band.

“Fifty – fifty, like promised,” Hector admitted.

He noticed the colonel and the nurse exchange forbidden glances. Hector clenched his teeth.

“Yeah. It’s still crazy to go so far to get what’s owed to you, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t know that you were still alive.”

“You see!” he exclaimed with a theatrical voice, raising his thin arms towards the sky. “I sure am alive. Neither the L-Ds or those fucking jackals on their fucking space ships will have my skin.”

Then, he put down his arms.

“I hope that they get what’s coming to them,” he said to Hector.

Xavier stepped back up onto the sidewalk in front of him. “Give them their chink. Let’s pack it in,” he ordered his gang.

The Asian was pushed unceremoniously in their direction. Elaine ran towards him.

“Dew! Are you all right?”

She hugged him to her. He smiled when she inspected him for injuries. Apparently, he hadn’t been mistreated. All that these people wanted was to get high to escape this world. That didn’t seem to her to be the worst way to deal with the terrible reality. And not the best either. If there was one.

The colonel offered his hand to the Colombian, who accepted his help. He managed to get up, but not without difficulty.

“
Hijo de puta
... That hurts.”

“I know it hurts. But if you had tried to dodge it, I understand. You got off OK.”

Hector grumbled a few swear words in his native language. After five minutes, he managed to take a few steps. They agreed on the collective decision to return to the boat and find a calmer area in which to stay. Staying in the druggie’s territory was out of the question. They walked behind Elaine and Dew.

“What’s your story with Xavier?”

“We escaped together. He lived in the cell beside mine. The situation turned into a nightmare when the guards abandoned their posts. Some of them took pity and freed the prisoners. But not all of them. The prison had been invaded by the creatures...”

“The aliens?”

“
No, los muertos
. Only those who were still locked in survived. The others were...”

The colonel closed his eyes.

“We were in the first cells, Xavier and me. One of the guards was eaten in front of us. Luckily, he had the right keys.”

“And the drugs?”

“A payment for my safety. Before all of this shit happened, him and his men protected me from black
gringos
and Puerto Ricans. I told him that I had forty kilos of pure Colombian coke hidden in a safe place and I would give him half of it if he guaranteed my safety. It was enough to rebuild his life when he got out of prison.”

“You lied?”

“
Sí, pero
... It was either that or naked in the shower.”

“So you fled. What happened afterwards?”

“We went to the stash, and then to another. He understood that I was taking him to the third one on the boat. And... we had a fight.
Los muertos
invaded the warehouse. I thought that they were going to eat him, so I got out of there.”

Masters meditated on his last words.

“This guy isn’t going to stay there. He thinks you’re lying and that there’s more coke for the taking.”

He flagged down Elaine.

“We have to hurry.”

The nurse nodded. They hurried their steps in the direction of the marina. The soldier glanced furtively towards the corners and the dark alleys that were potential sources of danger. They practically ran across the entrance to the port.

“We’ll set sail as soon as we’re on board,” Masters reminded them, wondering why Xavier’s band was refraining from attacking them. They were masters of this territory. They would fall upon them when they wanted. Then, he understood, seeing the far end of the quay. It was empty.

“
¡Mi barco!
” Hector yelled.

Elaine had an unbelieving look on her face. For a moment, the situation remained confusing. Were they too late? Had the junkies taken advantage of the negotiations to take over the semi-sub? The first bursts of fire resounded from the port office. They hurried to hide behind a wall. The nurse covered Dew’s face and told him to keep down.

“Where’s Bruce?” she asked.

A barrage of shots put holes in the front panel of an out of order vending machine right beside them. The Asian plugged his ears.

“They don’t know where the boat is. That’s why they waited so long. Bruce is a clever one... He understood before we did. Brave young guy.”

“I don’t follow you.”

“Bruce left the marina.”

Other shots hit the wall. They didn’t want to kill them. The colonel located the area that they were shooting from easily. Their enemies, knowing that they had greater numbers and were better armed, weren’t really trying to hide.

“On my signal, you run towards the gate near the middle of the quay. Do you see it?”

Elaine risked a glimpse, sneaking her head above the ledge. A new burst of short ensued. She just barely had enough time to gauge the distance. The objective seemed really far to her.

“We won’t make it.”

“Listen. They want us alive, and most of all Hector and you,” Masters pointed out.

“Me?”

“You’re a woman. You have value,” he stated, annoyed.

Elaine’s face hardened but she didn’t respond.

“On three?” he proposed.

Hector agreed. Elaine took Dew’s hand and grabbed it tight. The Colombian led the count. On zero, all four of them bounded and ran towards the wire gate a good hundred meters away. The shots doubled. Small impact clouds rose around them. Masters yelled at them to not stop and that they weren’t at risk. He got there first and armed his 45 to fire at the padlock, which burst into pieces. Then, he pushed the door open violently with a kick. One by one, the three companions followed the dirt path that also put them out of the range of their pursuers, who stopped shooting. Masters saw them running across the quay.

“We’re going to the end, quick, no time to lose!”

The path ended in a cul-de-sac. It led to a green lagoon surrounded by a cove.

“Where’s the boat?” Elaine asked.

Hector pointed to a group of bubbles a few hundred meters away.

“
¡Mira, allí!
”

A prow emerged from the peaceful waves that flowed through the canal.

“Everybody in the water!” Masters urged them. “We’re going to the boat and getting out of here.”

They got down to it without discussion. Elaine opted to bring up the rear to keep Dew in her vision. Hector and Masters swam faster. They reached the semi-sub first. Bruce helped them climb on board. The nurse climbed up last. When she turned around, the junkies came hurtling onto the narrow bank. She recognized Xavier. He raised a gun with a scope.

Elaine yelled, “Watch out!”

They heard the shot and instinctively got down onto their stomachs. Except for Hector.

He stayed up for a moment and then swayed. Then, his knees gave out and his eyes showed surprise while his mouth contorted in pain. He dropped down onto the deck and turned onto his side.

“Hector’s hit!”

The Colombian put his hands on the round roof of the cockpit. Sliding down, they left a long red streak on the immaculate surface.

A
round a half million infected, according to the information on the botcams, circled the base, which resembled a cell surrounded by an army of poisonous bacteria. Their number was growing from hour to hour. Safe behind their energy field, the mercenaries weren’t at risk. Teams worked without paying attention to the continuous uproar of grunts and wheezing that they heard, partially muffled by the distance and the virtual screen. The drones did their rounds, ready to vaporize any individuals that managed to sneak into the camp.

The event had no chance of happening.

Once the capital of an entire country, the city had been home to three million inhabitants before the invasion. More than ninety nine percent were now infected. Finding a test subject was simple: he just had to go down there to grab as many as he wanted.

Jave left his information landscape, which went out as soon as he crossed the wall of his virtual bubble. He spotted two reptilian officers backed up by a Squil and an Arthrosian – with a greenish looking shell – discussing in front of the multi-colored projections. He barely made out the shadows of the mercenaries inside their holospheres before leaving the command room. The airlock opened in front of him. He took the hallway and crossed over the main entrance to the complex. A humid heat met him on the other side. The ceiling of low clouds resembled a sickly, distended stomach floating above his head.

He didn’t see the cargo ships on the tarmac. The day’s operations monopolized the totality of the transporters and hunting drones. Yes, he told himself, the opportunity was perfect.

One problem kept all of his attention. Even though grabbing an infected person didn’t pose difficulties, on the other hand, how was he going to get a healthy one from the chain?

The mercenaries treated their products with maniacal care, a behavior made necessary by the finicky sanitary regulations. They respected them with the same care as a reptilian female with her babies. And maybe even more, considering that a female didn’t mark her offspring with information chips.

He would have to get creative.

The preparation of the terrain destined to become the supplementary domes had started during the night and was continuing. Dozens of land drones got to leveling the area and digging channels. Two octo-diems from now, the white prisons would all be ready to welcome healthy prey, quadrupling the capacity of the center. The victims emerged in groups. In this way, an embryo of industrialization got underway and Naakrit supervised operations. In person. The Primark was involved from one side of the chain to the other, verifying each link from capture to the final product. That left Jave more room to undergo his own experimentation. Bound to their duties, the mercenaries were looking elsewhere.

Jave took a tunnel that had once been used to move merchandise transported by what humans called airplanes. The remains of their airships of mid-tech design, according to the Collective’s terminology, were scattered at the far end of the runway, cleared away by the engineering drones. He entered a warehouse where several rows of containers were located. The emissary took out his flexible screen and his claw slid to one reference on the list.

He found the one he was looking for, three rows further down.

Each dome had botcams and hundreds of mini agrav cameras, which humans didn’t see because the ceiling created an optical illusion. The spy drones flew above a certain height and remained invisible. They filmed, scanned the bodies and transmitted their data, which was then stocked and processed, right here, inside these containers lying on the concrete floor. Jave opened a refrigerated compartment. He took out a card which he connected to his screen with the help of a string as slim as a radiole. The transfer lasted less than an octain of seconds, then he closed the compartment once again.

In the control room, one of the programs in charge of sending back non-conformities was shown via a red message bubble that slid onto the edge of the colorful landscape. The Squil grabbed it and spread its contents.

“
Knajt gre’ama hum
,” he signaled to the officer on duty.

“
Arknet, vrist!
” he whistled in return.

Following the procedure, verifying the information... He displayed the image of a black-skinned unit wearing an ample, patched blue tunic. The scanner did the equivalent of an echography at a distance. The anomaly appeared to him, very clearly, in the middle of a screen: the female was carrying her progenitor in her stomach. Why did these beings not lay eggs? Whatever it was, it was considered non-conformity. He marked the target.

The grey door of the dome opened at the programmed time. The humans sat there for their last meal, including the woman, who, starving, started to devour the contents of her plate. They all fell asleep after a few minutes and the chairs sent them towards their tragic destiny. Except for one. This one seat left the dining hall through a hidden hallway. The robot stopped right after the exit, before the Lynian. Jave lifted the motionless body and balanced it on his shoulders before lifting off into the night sky, carried by his agrav belt.