Life Goes On by Tayell, Frank (large ebook reader txt) 📗

“It is a coincidence,” Hawker said. “If the target was those politicians, they would have attacked Hobart before the planes took off, or Canberra after they’d landed.”

“Your voice of experience would be more comforting if we’d not just survived an internationally funded coup,” Tess said.

“Which brings us to Baker,” Anna said. “Congratulations on his capture. Have you learned anything from him?”

“The sisters provided him with a mercenary bodyguard,” Tess said. “The soldiers were from the same group who were watching over Lignatiev and Vaughn. They had orders to kill Baker if the coup failed, but he made it to his panic room. So far, he’s confessed to everything. He facilitated, and funded, the coup. He’s confirmed that it was partly organised by a pair of narco-barons, two sisters called Herrera. We believe one is a chemist. They operated out of northern Colombia on the Caribbean Sea. Baker gave us the co-ordinates. It’s close to Punta Gallinas, the most northerly cape in South America, and not that far from the resort-island of Aruba. These sisters had influence in local, and regional, governments across the world. I don’t know how extensive, and how much was rumour, or how far to believe Baker, but it sounds like they were working with people in the U.K, the U.S., and had connections in Russia, India, and North Korea.”

“Not countries you usually hear mentioned together,” Anna said.

“Except when listing nuclear-armed powers,” Hawker said.

“North Korea doesn’t count, does it?” Leo said. “Not in the kind of exchange we’ve just experienced.”

“It might,” Tess said. “I know from the investigation before the outbreak that the cartel had been making a major push into France. That was at street-level, but safe to assume they’d set their aim higher, too. It could be they had agents in every nuclear power.”

“Did you say you have co-ordinates?” Leo asked, taking out a tablet.

“Sure.” Tess pushed her notebook across to him. “Baker has a lot more to tell, but he’s deliberately taking his time so as to push off the date of his trial. If we want to speed him up, he’ll need to be given a deal.”

“My vote’s for telling him whatever he needs to hear to get him to talk,” Hawker said.

“You mean—” Anna began. “Actually, no. There are some things best not even said aloud.” She closed her eyes. “What a week. Between the outbreak and the atomic genocide, every ship in the world became a refugee vessel. Over three-quarters of the world’s shipping made it into the Pacific or the Indian Ocean. The military ships had been gathered into giant fleets centred around U.S. nuclear-powered carriers, and those were deliberately targeted. Ships in harbour were sunk by the tsunami. Ships at sea lost power due to the electromagnetic pulse. Others were overwhelmed, or sunk, during the naval battles. Unless a ship sails into a harbour, we must assume it is lost.”

“Do we have any ships?” Tess asked.

“A small fleet was ferrying refugees and supplies between Papua and the smaller Indonesian islands,” Anna said. “Forty-seven vessels, all small cargo freighters. They appear to be intact. Or they were, as of fourteen hours ago. Otherwise, it’s a bare handful. A few submarines, a few military vessels, a few small cruise ships which were being repaired in Perth. Under two hundred in total.”

“More will have survived,” Hawker said. “Plenty will be able to repair their systems and get underway.”

“I hope so,” Anna said. “But we have no way of assisting them, or refuelling them. If they don’t sail into harbour, we must assume they are gone.”

“What about planes?” Tess asked. “One arrived from Mozambique this morning, and one from Lombok yesterday.”

“We can’t refuel overseas runways,” Anna said. “We have only two tanker-ships in the entire ocean. New Zealand lost its major refinery to a plane crash and fire. There were zombies on the plane, and they survived the crash. This created a delay in the fire-fighting efforts. While we have been assured the outbreak was eliminated, there are ten million people in New Zealand now. Until they can build a replacement refinery, we need those tanker-ships to maintain a rudimentary sea-bridge. It’ll be at least a month before the vessels can be deployed elsewhere.”

“Does that mean Oswald wasn’t lying?” Tess asked. “The war, the relief effort, whatever we were calling the attempt to retake the world, is over?”

“Effectively, yes,” Anna said. “We had reservists, retirees, and conscripts crammed ten to a cabin and twenty to a corridor sailing for Hawaii and then Baja California, where we hoped the U.S. would be providing military support. The ships are gone. The conscripts are lost. We don’t know where that military equipment is, and we have no way of retrieving it. We will have to replace it. This will require new factories, and shipyards, but the people must be fed, and protected, first. We will focus our efforts on assisting Papua, Indonesia, and New Zealand, and together we shall assist recovery nearby before we dream of setting foot in the Americas.”

“You’re right,” Tess said. “It has been quite a day.”

“Leo, do you think this lab in Colombia could really be where the virus was made?” Anna asked.

“It was made somewhere,” Leo said. “Without more information, that’s all I could say.”

“Leo, you and Dr Avalon wanted to go to Manhattan to collect samples from patient zero, and to Britain to pick up their vaccine, because you need those to make this weapon, yes?”

“They would help,” Leo said.

“It’s possible without them?” Hawker asked.

“Yes, but it will take us longer,” Leo said. “It’s the difference between weeks and years.”

“So you really can make a weapon that will kill the zombies?” Hawker asked.

“Sure. Or Flo can,” Leo said. “But developing something which’ll kill a zombie when you