Page 12 of Breaking Danger (Ghost Ops #3)

Okay. She was going to lay out her observations. “So the virus knocks out the neocortex and the cerebrum. Essentially what is left is the limbic brain. It’s reverse ontogeny. Basically, they are almost insects, hence the swarming behavior. Their behavior, no longer human, is essentially stigmergy.”

Catherine and Elle were nodding thoughtfully.

Mac, Nick and Jon all said, “What?”

“Stigmergy. It’s a sort of indirect coordination.

An action in a crowd stimulates emulation and reinforces crowd behavior.

Some headed instinctively north and others followed suit, though they are unaware of following any of the other infected consciously, because they no longer have a consciousness.

They only have primitive instincts. But if there are enough of them—and I postulate about four hundred in one place at one time—they will unconsciously coordinate their actions.

Jon was looking at the scanner, basically a field of red, the number of infected with raised temperatures almost beyond the scope of the drone.

He tapped the scanner, the field widened further, without reaching the edges of the field of red.

“I’d say we’re looking here at about ten thousand people.

Ten thousand…things,” he corrected. He nudged her with his shoulder.

“Tell them about the other things you’ve observed. ”

Sophie nodded. “I suspect they have lost some of their vision, particularly in the dark. Conversely, I think their olfactory sense has increased exponentially. I think they smell the uninfected. Therefore, any masking odors could be protective. Perfumes or anything that covers our natural body odor might help.”

“That’s really useful,” Nick noted. “Thanks.”

Jon nudged her lightly again. “Tell them what you think about their life expectancy.”

Sophie nodded. “I think there’s a definite limit to how long they can live.

Their metabolism is out of control. Median body temperature is 101°—a high fever—and median heart rate is 180.

There are very few elderly infected left on the streets.

At least, I haven’t seen any elderly in a full day of observation.

Their bodies couldn’t sustain the high fever and the increased heart rates.

They are also starving. They are unable to feed themselves, except…

” she swallowed and waited a minute for her voice to even out.

“Except for the bits of humans they are biting off, which seem to me more acts of uncontrollable aggression than hunger. Actually, I haven’t seen any feeding behavior at all.

I don’t even know if they are smart enough to drink water. ”

“They have no instincts for self preservation?” Mac asked.

“None, from what I have been able to ascertain. They’re walking time bombs. Walking dead, actually.”

“Zombies,” Jon muttered.

She shook her head. “No, they are not zombies. They are very much alive—but they are dying, all of them. Quickly. We just need to save as many people as possible from the infection and hope that when the last one is gone…” Her throat hurt.

Her voice wobbled. She cleared her throat.

“When the last one is dead, let’s hope there’s still something there for us to rebuild. ”

“Well,” Mac said briskly, “we’re working really hard on that.

Jon—” he switched his gaze to the man standing beside her, “we’re monitoring all radio bands.

The civilian internet is down. Ours is still working, of course, but that doesn’t help people outside our network.

But we’re finding pockets of uninfected almost hourly and some of them have radios.

Lucius has been advising them on how to make their homes as secure as possible.

We’ve got a map of everyone and we’re scheduling pickups.

The more people arriving here, the more people can go out in secure vehicles to rescue them. ”

“You have enough food for everyone?”

“Yeah. And Snyder and his men are going to go back down to their gated community and make it impregnable, so that can be a staging area for the refugees. They have stocks.” Mac’s eyes went back to hers. “So, Dr. Daniels?—”

“Sophie, please,” she murmured.

He dipped his head. “So, Sophie. You bring us that case so we can start manufacturing the vaccine and we’ll start a mass immunization campaign. Let’s see if we can save the world.”

Save the world. Sounded good. “Yes, sir.”

“We have projections that the swarm should hit your area around fifteen hundred hours tomorrow. There are still lots of infected in your area and we think they will join the swarm. Once it’s past, you should have a clean shot at getting to the helo.

Everything will be waiting for you when you arrive. ”

“Boss—is the infection spreading to other states?” Jon asked.

All of a sudden, Sophie realized that she had no idea whatsoever what was happening outside California.

“Unclear. Marines are stationed all along the border. Our drones show us they’re stringing barbed wire along the border, too. They’re going to contain the disease at the cost of writing California off.”

“What’s the rest of the country saying about that?”

Mac gave a huge sigh. “Not much. There’s been a massive news blackout. No reporters are allowed near the borders and the governors of Oregon, Nevada and Arizona have instituted a curfew. Also, residents within a 50 mile radius of the border are being evacuated.”

“What about boats? California’s coastline is 840 miles long,” Sophie asked.

“From what we can see, there are Coast Guard cutters from one to three miles out along the coast. All boats are being turned back.”

Anger flashed in her. “If people are operating boats they are not infected!” Sophie said angrily. “They are turning back people fleeing from a massive pandemic! That’s cruel.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mac and Nick said at the same time.

“We’re being abandoned to our own devices.” The truth sank into Sophie. Her entire country was deserting her.

Elle huffed out a breath. “Well, it looks like we’re not going to have any help. We’re on our own here. We’re going to keep locating uninfected and bringing them up to Haven, just as quickly as we can. And you, Jon, you’re going to bring us what we need to make a vaccine.”

Elle’s eyes brimmed as she looked at Jon. She reached out a hand and Sophie ached to take it though they were separated by hundreds of miles. “And Sophie. We need her. She’s a brilliant virologist.” Two silver tears tracked down her pale face. “And my best friend. Bring Sophie back to me, Jon.”

Jon’s hand cupped her shoulder. He was holding her so tightly it almost—but not quite—hurt. “Count on it, Elle. We’ll make it, I promise.”

That was crazy. It was going to be almost impossible to make their way out of the city.

Sophie doubted whether they could make it across the street.

Jon was in no position to make such an insane promise.

They were going to do their best, but the odds were almost outrageously stacked against them.

On principle, Sophie didn’t like to make promises she wasn’t absolutely certain could be kept and she opened her mouth to say so, but the look of relief that flooded Elle’s face kept her back. Elle believed in Jon, absolutely.

Actually, all four of them looked…relieved. As if something had happened and they could lay at least this problem to rest. But nothing had happened except that Jon had promised the impossible. How could they look so relieved?

And then she looked up at him, at his perfect but cold and hard features, the look of a man who was absolutely certain of himself and his abilities and for an instant, even though she knew better, she was relieved too.

“Okay,” Mac said. “We have the swarm leaving your area around 1800 hours tomorrow. It will be nautical twilight, and night vision can be used, so that’s when you exfil to the helo, Jon. We clear on that?”

“Yes, sir.” Jon’s deep voice was so certain.

Sophie took in a deep, shaky breath. Everyone seemed so certain they had a fighting chance.

She wasn’t going to jinx this. If there were even a chance in a million they might make it to the helicopter and then might make it back to Mount Blue, where there was a lab which might have everything they needed to produce a vaccine quickly and they might distribute it…

A lot of mights there. But if there was a chance that it could be done, she had to believe it could be done. Otherwise…

No. The alternative was too horrible to contemplate.

Mac nodded. “Bring Sophie and the vaccine back home, Jon. We’re counting on you. Over and out.”

A big hand reached out to switch the hologram off and suddenly there was silence in her living room. Only a few screams could be heard, from a distance.