Z. Apocalypse (2 page)

He could have laughed. The situation was like the set-up for some incredible game. ‘A boy’s father gets kidnapped by scientific terrorists making hyper-evolved dinosaurs . . . They want to use Think-Send to train and teach the creatures
they’ve created, but Dad won’t play ball. The bad guys threaten to hurt the boy – but one of the dinosaurs turns good and gets to him first. Boy and dinosaur find they think alike because Boy’s personality got caught up in the system. They work together to beat the baddies. But the terrorists won’t quit. They’re
hell-bent on making their mad plans a reality . . .’

Yeah, quite a set-up
. Adam swallowed
hard.
Only it’s not a game
.

It’s all real
.

He shuddered as a wave of nightmare memories washed over him:
T. rexes
force-evolved into
Z
. rexes, prehistoric predators at the peak of their powers . . .
Velociraptors
with freakily human minds . . . mutated sea monsters that tore whole ships apart with teeth and claws . . .

The door opened and Adam jumped. A slim officer walked into the room, handsome
and dark-skinned. His uniform was immaculate and well tailored, so that he looked more like a movie star than a military man.

‘Sorry for startling you.’ The man’s voice was a deep purr. ‘I’m Colonel Oldman, Special Activities Division. You must be the Adlar boys, fresh out of the UK. Welcome to Fort Meade.’

‘Thanks. I’m Bill, this is Adam,’ said Mr Adlar, shaking the colonel’s hand. ‘I’m originally
from Chicago myself, only moved to Edinburgh in my twenties.’ He paused. ‘And as a well-informed American citizen, I know that the SAD is the secret paramilitary unit of the Central Intelligence Agency.’

‘Then you don’t need me to tell you just how classified this entire operation is.’ Colonel Oldman
put a finger to his lips as if for silence, then smiled at Adam. ‘So, young man. You’ve played
sims like this before, right? Gonna get it working for us?’

Cheeks reddening, Adam nodded. ‘I’ll try.’

‘That’s all we ask of you, Adam. That’s all we ask.’ Oldman watched him closely. ‘We hear you’re a natural-born gamer, and we’re kinda counting on you. See, we think there might be something important on this disc, and all the evidence in this Geneflow case points to you being the guy to show
us what it is.’

Mr Adlar nodded curtly. ‘And this is why your people summoned us here, with barely a day to pack up and fly out?’

Oldman inclined his head in apology. ‘I appreciate the disruption to your lives bringing you here has caused. I only wish it hadn’t been necessary. But the Geneflow threat hasn’t gone away like we all hoped it would. Recent events have revealed certain . . . developments.’

‘Developments?’ Mr Adlar frowned. ‘Will you stop talking in riddles and tell us what’s going on?’

‘Mr Adlar, I assure you that you and your son will soon be briefed on the situation through the proper channels.’ Suddenly, Oldman’s manner had grown stiff as his uniform. ‘Now, if Adam’s been connected to the console as we requested, and we can capture what he sees on the computer . . .?’

‘It’s
all set up.’ With an air of reluctance, Mr Adlar switched on the battered U-R console. A red light glowed in its casing. Then he tapped at the computer keyboard, bringing up a window on the screen. ‘Ready to record sound and vision.’

Adam tapped his headset and smiled nervously at his dad. ‘Ready to try and get you some.’

Oldman crossed to the far side of the room and dimmed the lights.

For
a few moments, nothing happened. Adam felt his nerves fade away with the rest of reality as the world within the console worked directly with his senses.

Suddenly the meeting room didn’t exist, and he was no longer a skinny teenager, isolated and afraid. He felt a power surge through his body – a coldness harden his mind. Around him, everything was dark. He turned to try to take in details and
the world jerked and skipped –
Glitches in the software
, he realized dimly.
Concentrate. Be as one with this world
 . . .

Adam focused hard and his surroundings smoothed out, stretching on for ever, more real than anything his human senses could understand.

Human?

Here in this world, Adam knew he was no longer human. He was more than a beast; more than a bird. A single, dominating impulse burned
in his mind, driving out every other thought.

It was the impulse to kill.

In a dizzying blink Adam’s sight was dazzled by a vast orange sun, low and heavy on the horizon. He looked down to find the glimmering, rolling sea far below; with a thrill he saw that he was airborne. In the same instant, he felt the weight of his expansive, leathery wings, felt the warm currents of air caressing his
sinewy skin.

He spotted a ruined city sprawling in the distance, its details lost in the reddish haze.

A place to hunt.

He beat his wings harder, eager to reach the shore and the ruins. Soon he found that his sight was like the viewfinder on a camera; he could zoom in to get a closer look. Not that there was much to see but ash and rubble and charred, misshapen buildings. As he reached the
city, Adam’s eyes darted all around, scanning for the slightest movement that would betray the presence of a survivor.

Suddenly, on the edge of his vision, a shadow flitted through the debris. He blinked and zoomed in closer – and spied a human dressed in rags, slipping and stumbling over the rocks and masonry.

Eyes fixed on his new target, Adam shifted his weight, tilted his great wings and
swooped down, his body slicing through the air with incredible speed towards the lone figure. There was an open wound on the creature’s leg; he could almost taste the salty
blood on the wind. Violent urges swelled inside him as the programmed orders burned fiercely at the forefront of his brain.

KILL ALL SURVIVORS.

Adam felt his whole body convulse with the thrill of the hunt, the anticipation
of the taking of one more life. He let out a long, guttural screech of triumph. Terrified, the human creature whirled round to face him, its bruised, grimy face stricken with terror. There was nowhere for it to run.

KILL IT NOW.

Closing the last few metres, Adam splayed scythe-like claws, ready to seize his victim before ripping its body in two—

No. No, don’t
.

What was that voice? Saliva frothed
in his jaws. Was there another human to be killed?

I can’t do this. I’m Adam Adlar. Not a killer. This isn’t me. IT ISN’T ME
.

Adam’s skull felt ready to explode. An inhuman scream burst from his lungs as the world turned red and his victim’s face shattered into a million pixels . . .

Chapter 2: Caught in Carnage

WITH A JOLT
, Adam sat bolt upright on the couch, back in the darkened meeting room, panting wildly.
It’s over
, he realized.
It wasn’t real
 . . .

‘Ad?’ His dad tugged off the headset, tousled Adam’s sweaty hair. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Think . . . so . . .’ Adam’s heart slapped mushily against his ribs while his dad tore the electrodes from his clammy skin.

‘What
happened?’ Colonel Oldman sounded cross. ‘Was that the end of the simulation?’

‘I
made
it end,’ said Adam’s dad tersely. ‘You saw how distressed Adam was. I should never have let him do it. That sim was meant for animal minds, not human.’

The lights glared on again; Adam flinched, screwed up his eyes.

‘It’s clearly a training program for Z. beasts,’ Mr Adlar went on, ‘honing their instincts,
teaching them how best to hunt and kill people.’

When Oldman spoke again it was more quietly.
‘On the screen . . . Were we seeing . . . some kind of
pterodactyl
?’

‘Yes . . .’ Adam barely recognized the tortured croak in his throat as his own. ‘Dad, I
was
that thing . . . Flying. I was flying . . .’

‘I’m here, Adam, it’s OK.’

‘I wanted to kill . . . I was hunting people . . . had to kill everyone
 . . . everyone left.’

Oldman peered down at him. ‘Everyone left after what?’

‘I don’t know,’ Adam whispered. ‘Something bad. Something terrible . . .’

‘Easy,’ Mr Adlar whispered, trying to settle Adam back down on the couch. He sighed and looked up at Oldman. ‘I should never have agreed to this.’

‘You had no choice,’ Oldman said softly, the assurance sounding somehow sinister. ‘Now, while
I take this video footage to the Pentagon, I’d like you to meet with some of my colleagues on the National Security Council. They want to speak to you about Geneflow.’

‘Right now?’ Mr Adlar was growing exasperated. ‘We haven’t even checked into our hotel yet.’

‘Bear with me, Mr Adlar.’ Oldman gave him a tight smile. ‘Recent evidence has raised fresh questions. I just hope to God we can answer
them.’ He turned and opened the door. ‘I’ll have someone
escort you to a car in just a few minutes. They’ll drive you to DC, and back again afterwards.’

‘Back here?’ Mr Adlar said sharply. But he was talking to shadows; Oldman had gone.

Adam puffed out a breath. ‘Did he mean DC as in Washington DC?’

‘And National Security Council as in the men and women who advise the president of the United
States of America on what to do in a national crisis.’ Mr Adlar sat down on the couch beside him, looking dazed. ‘Nice to feel wanted, isn’t it?’

Adam closed his eyes and sighed. ‘It’s the biggest thrill of my life.’

An hour later, Adam sat in the back of the black SUV, watching through tinted windows the interstate clog with cars. From the overhead signs they had to be nearing Washington DC.

About time
, Adam thought. He had been playing his 3DS for much of the journey, but the constant stopping and starting of the car through the thickening traffic was beginning to make him feel sick. Besides, he reflected, once you’d played Ultra-Reality, even the most sophisticated hand-held or console felt uninspiring by comparison. It had been getting harder and harder to lose himself in gameplay,
to shut out his problems in the real world.

And now he was on his way to confront them head on.

They turned from 13th Street onto I Street Northwest – the city was a gridwork of letters and numbers and Adam counted three stately parks within six blocks. It felt a very tidy and grown-up city; a serious place for serious people.

‘Whereabouts is the meeting?’ Adam asked his father beside him.

‘The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, just west of the White House. Saw the outside on a school trip once.’ Mr Adlar looked at him. ‘How’re you doing now?’

‘I’m OK. Just wondering what this new evidence is all about.’

His dad considered him. ‘We know that Geneflow have been creating living terror weapons, and uploading human minds into the bodies of beasts. Perhaps now we’ll find out why.’

Adam nodded solemnly. ‘Can’t believe they’re using pterodactyls.’

His dad shrugged. ‘They’ve re-engineered
T. rexes
and raptors – perhaps they’ve experimented with flying reptiles too?’ He placed a hand on Adam’s and squeezed. ‘Try not to worry.’

Uh-huh. Right
. Adam tried to accept the intended reassurance, but all he could feel was the clamminess in his dad’s grip.
Time to change the subject
. ‘This
traffic’s a nightmare. Are we going to be late?’

Mr Adlar checked his watch. ‘No, we’re good. The meeting doesn’t start until seven, we still have a good forty minutes . . .’

But as the SUV turned onto 17th Street, there was a thunderous explosion from somewhere ahead. Their driver swore as the car jerked to a halt, almost crashing into the vehicle in front. The traffic ahead was gridlocked,
and horns were blaring.

Then Adam realized people were getting out of their cars, pointing up at the skies or running for cover. He felt a sick feeling rise in his stomach. ‘Dad, what’s going on?’

‘I don’t know.’ Mr Adlar looked grave. ‘Driver, do you see anything?’

The driver’s reply was lost beneath another boom that rocked the entire street like an earthquake. Crowds of pedestrians swarmed
past in the opposite direction, the air filling with their footfalls and terrified babble.

Adam craned his neck to look upwards, following their line of sight. He saw a massive shadow streak overhead, something impossibly huge in the sky – and his heart stabbed with sudden recognition.

‘Zed?’ Adam gripped his seat. ‘Dad, I think it’s Zed! Did you see?’

His dad stared up at the clouds. ‘Zed?
Are you sure—?’

‘Like he was in stealth mode . . .!’

Memories and emotions churned inside Adam. He had spent a good ten days trapped in the company of Zed, the first of Geneflow’s prehistoric recreations – a true-life
T. rex
who had been force-evolved all the way to a
Z
. rex, the Z standing for Zenithsaurus, or
lizard at its highest point
in plain language.

‘Geneflow cloned Zed, remember?’
Mr Adlar was staring out of his own window. ‘Whatever’s up there, I think there’s more than one . . .’

Adam squinted against the evening sunlight. Geneflow had given Zed the gift of adaptive camouflage – a chemical sweat secreted by the skin that deflected light and left the massive beasts practically invisible. A blur of brickwork as they sped past buildings, or ripples in the blue as they swooped
down from the sky – these were the covert clues that a creature was coming.

And with horror, Adam saw that a cluster of hazy shadows was now descending on DC.
So many . . . like an army
 . . .

‘Dad—!’ he began, but the sudden shattering sound of breaking glass drowned him out as a flying pickup truck crashed through the window of the McDonald’s opposite. Screams, panic and chaos built all around
as one car mounted the pavement and reversed wildly, trying to get away, ploughing a path through the hapless pedestrians. Adam hid
his eyes and heard a strained, authoritative voice above the din of the crowd as the driver switched on the car radio and sent the volume screaming with a sudden twist on the dial.