Red River Seven by A. J. Ryan

Author:A. J. Ryan [, A. J. RYAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2023-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The sat-phone began chirping when they were a short distance from the bridge. For the first time, Huxley felt an urge to ignore it; let it burble away for however long it took for their unseen tormentors to deactivate the engines. Pynchon read his mood, giving a half-apologetic grimace as he reached out to depress the green button. “Got no choice. You know that.”

“Do you have casualties?” the phone-voice asked with its customary lack of inflection.

Huxley ran a hand over his head, memory pain pulsing once again. Perhaps he’d had a bad experience on hold once upon a time. “No.”

“Do any of the others display signs of confused thinking or unwarranted aggression?”

“No.”

“Describe the condition of the other boat.”

“Extensive internal damage due to small arms fire. No survivors. Two bodies. Kahlo and Turner. Murder–suicide. Both were infected.”

“Did you retrieve anything of interest or value to your mission?”

His eyes flicked towards the microscope, strapped into one of the chairs. “No. We didn’t have time.” He hadn’t discussed this lie with the others beforehand but none of them piped up with an objection. “Bunch of Diseased turned up. Looked like they took exception to our presence. Acted in concert to stop us, in fact. Any idea what that’s about?”

He didn’t expect an answer, so the length and detail of what followed came as a surprise. “While most Diseased succumb to delusion and death within four weeks of infection, others do not. Some continue to act independently, while others form groups that display hierarchical and predatory characteristics. All remain violently aggressive in response to what may be perceived as territorial intrusion.”

“If they’re doing that, they can’t be completely crazy. Some part of them is still capable of thinking, communicating.”

A short pause, a single click. “Your empathy is misplaced and irrelevant to the success of this mission.”

“Your mission.”

“Also yours. Your participation was fully voluntary.”

“So you say. We have no way of knowing if that’s true.”

Another click. “Further discussion on this point is irrelevant. The boat is approaching a stretch of deeper water where it will deactivate during the hours of darkness. You are instructed to rest but maintain a watch to ensure security. The boat will reactivate at dawn when further instructions will be provided.”

“Yeah,” Huxley muttered when the familiar clicks and silence followed. “Fuck you too, I guess.”

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