“Lucya! Wait for me,” he called, jogging after her. Every foot fall sent a little puff of ash into the air. Lucya didn’t have her gas mask on, and seemed oblivious to the dangers the ash posed. Ewan’s own mask muffled his voice, but as the wind had dropped, there was no other noise and she heard him calling. She let him catch up to her, impatient to get inside.

“Here,” he said, handing her a torch that he had detached from his belt. “You’ll need this. And put your mask on. If you breathe in this ash, you’re no use to Jake or anyone else.”

“Come on, we’re wasting time.”

The two of them trudged on through the grey powder. It had only been a matter of hours since Ewan and the others had left the base, but he had the impression the ash was deeper than before. Some of the footprints had been partially covered.

“I think this stuff has been drifting in the wind,” he said. “We need to be careful. If the wind gets up again it could drift more and get quite deep.”

“I don’t plan on hanging around that long.”

They crossed the rest of the distance in silence. When they rounded the giant pillar, Ewan let out a gasp.

“I guess I won’t need this after all?” Lucya said, waving her torch in the air. A wide shaft of light spilled out of the doorway, falling across the ash and making it sparkle like snow under moonlight.

“It might be best if you stay behind me,” Ewan said, putting himself between Lucya and the doorway. “If there are people inside, we don’t know what kind of state they will be in—mentally, I mean. They could see us as a threat.”

“I think you’re being a bit dramatic, navy boy. I reckon Jake put the lights on for us.”

“I hope you’re right, but I’m still going first.”

“Whatever. Let’s just get a move on!”

• • •

Janice Hanson stood in the doorway in a state of shock. She had just witnessed the horrific final moments of Nurse Kiera Stevens. She tried to speak, but found her mouth had gone completely dry.

Mandy became aware of her presence, and snapped out of her own stupefaction.

“Janice,” she whispered.

The pathologist tore her eyes away from the mess on the bed and looked at Mandy. She spotted the water and pointed to it, wordlessly. Mandy understood at once and handed it to her.

“Did you…see?” Mandy asked.

Janice took a swig from the bottle, and nodded.

“What does it mean? The antiviral doesn’t work?”

“That’s one possibility,” Janice said, finally finding her voice again. “Another is that Kiera’s condition had deteriorated to the point of no return.”

“She died more quickly than Scott. And you said Scott was already sick, that the others would hold out longer?”

“Yes, and the antiviral looked like it was working, to start with. Let’s not jump to conclusions though. Kiera is only one case. We need more test subjects before we can say whether or not there is a problem with the drug. Did you administer the other dose? The second one we left here after injecting Kiera?”

“Yes. A man down the hall. He was admitted this morning. You said you wanted to try it on someone who was in the early stages.”

“Right, that’s good. We need to go and see him now, see how he’s doing.”

Mandy nodded. She led Janice out of the cabin and along the passageway.

The cabin they were looking for was not far away, just a few doors down from the one Kiera had been in. Which made the discovery of what was inside even more startling.

“Oh, Jesus!” Mandy said as soon as the door was open. The stench hit her even before she saw the mess on the bed.

Janice held it together better; she was more used to dealing with death.

“I assume from your surprise that there was no scream when this happened?”

Mandy shook her head. She was leaning against the door frame, trying to regulate her breathing.

“Could you have been somewhere where you just wouldn’t have heard?”

The nurse shook her head again. “I was with Kiera, or just outside her door. I didn’t want to leave her. If he had screamed like she did, I would have heard it.”

Janice walked slowly around the bed. In the middle lay a black oily puddle, surrounded by a confusion of bones and shreds of muscle tissue. The man’s head, as much of it as remained, had become completely detached. Eyeless sockets stared at the women.

“You say he was admitted this morning?”

“Yes,” Mandy confirmed. She had regained her composure, and had entered the room to better see what had happened. “His legs became paralysed. It’s how all the other cases start. His son alerted me to his condition. He got some of the last of the painkillers, but that was all we could do for him. I felt sorry for the son, so when you left the second dose, and as Kiera looked like she was doing better, I decided to try it on him.”

“I need to take a sample of his blood down to the lab. Kiera’s too. We have to find out what the hell is going on here, because right now I’d have to say it looks like the antiviral is speeding up the effects of the virus.”

• • •

“This place is amazing! We never had a base like this. Ours looked more World War Two, and early era Cold War. This one is modern, clean.”

“How long were you in the Russian Navy, Lucya?”

“I served five years. And I loved every minute of it.”

The two of them were descending the stairwell. With the lights on, the base did indeed seem modern, almost friendly. It had the atmosphere more of an office block than a military installation. Some carpet on the floors and a few windows and it would have been impossible to tell the difference.

“So why did you leave? If you loved it so much?”

“Oh you know, the usual reason. I wanted to see more of the world. That’s what they promised me when I joined up. See the world, they said. But really, they meant see the Barents Sea.”

“Yeah, that sounds familiar.” Ewan nodded slowly. “The Royal Navy said more or less the same thing. See the world, make a difference, all that. And to be fair, for a couple of years we did get about a bit. But then, like you, we ended up patrolling. Same old same old. I probably would have moved on if I hadn’t had the chance to become a dolphin.”

“You mean a submariner?”

“Yes.”

“Surely you see even less of the world down there?”

“Yes, for the most part. But it’s different. It’s hard to explain. We’re more of a team on the Ambush. Like a family. Everyone is completely dependent on everyone else. And we know that we’re the last line of defence, too. The ultimate deterrent. Keeping the peace.”

“We’re like a family on the Spirit of Arcadia too, but I suppose it’s not really the same. Being cooped up in that tiny space, it must be difficult.”

“You get used to it. And we do get to go to some interesting places. Here, level three. This is as far as the stairs go.”

They exited into a brightly lit corridor that looked exactly like the one on level one. Ewan showed the way to the lift shaft.

“Jake’s down here.” He pointed to the hole in the bottom of the lift car. “Follow me.”

He climbed through the rip in the floor and descended the ladder hidden underneath. Lucya watched, eyebrows raised, and followed when he called her from the bottom.

The two of them emerged from the shaft into the hidden level’s main tunnel. The lights were on there too, taking the edge off the intimidating nature of the industrial space.

“Ah, now this? This is more like what I’m used to!” Lucya looked around, impressed. “This would be the height of luxury for us.”

“Come on, this way. He’s down here.”

• • •

“You said it was harmless, Vardy. You said that it was deactivated!” Janice was enraged. She stood up from the microscope and pointed at it. “Look! Take a look yourself!”

He did as she asked, without saying a word.

“You see what I mean? Oh sure, your mutated vaccine is attacking the virus. And then it’s annihilating the healthy cells too!”