GM

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Something was changing in Hangar 17. For the first half hour the swarm had spread out across the field, leaving a fan-shaped trail of destruction behind it. Now its progress had begun to slow, its area of operation already beginning to contract. In the area of flattened rice Dr Whitelock looked down on, there were large patches of the crop left untouched. And there were bodies, dozens of them.

The green light on the roof of the observation booth flashed and Rachel Whitelock condemned another of the creatures to an icy death in the holding jars. Sample Six, time-stamped to match up with the dozens of photographs taken by the ceiling-mounted cameras and the mass of data taken by the sensors throughout the hangar. She stowed the collection pipe in its holder and knelt at the edge of the walkway. The characteristic tangle of shredded and stripped grasses lay where the locusts had been active. But deeper, down on the glistening floor of the drained hydroponic channels, she could see bodies scattered among the remains of the rice. There weren’t dozens; already there were hundreds.

The temptation to remove the helmet to get a clearer view was powerful. She even reached for the zip before a cold tingle ran down her spine and the remains of Dowty and Shaw swam like ghosts before her eyes. The swarm had ignored her as it rolled over the walkway like black fire, but they could easily turn around as soon as they sensed exposed human flesh. They’d done it before in the disastrous L103 tests. Two men had died and Whitelock herself had paid a high price to get the experiment even to this stage. But this was only the beginning.

The mesh of steel fibres in the glove made fine control difficult and it took several attempts to get hold of one of the bodies. She rocked back and held the creature up to the visor.

‘What do you see?’ Huppert’s voice in her ear made her jump and she almost lost hold of the insect.

‘Well, its eating days are over,’ she said.

‘How bad?’ She winced as the earpiece crackled.

‘Not too much. The head’s missing, but there’s no other damage.’ She looked towards the ever-diminishing swarm. They were still advancing on the observation booth at the centre of the hangar.

‘Bring it in,’ Huppert said.

Another pulse of green light flashed out across the paddy. Dr Whitelock dropped the headless locust into an open pocket on the outside of the suit and got to her feet. With the collection nozzle back in her hand she stepped down into the field and advanced on the swarm.

Looking out across the destruction she could see just how much their behaviour was changing. At the current rate of contraction all the creatures would meet about thirty feet from the observation booth, where their attack would finally burn itself out. Fifteen thousand starving locusts would have destroyed barely ten per cent of the crop. Even the most optimistic models had not predicted that. If the results scaled, a super-swarm of eighty million locusts could be destroyed in just over five hundred acres.

With the nozzle of the collector fully extended she pressed the button on the control panel. There was a whoosh of air, but no familiar clunk. She took a step forwards and tried again. This time there wasn’t even an intake of air.

‘Problem?’ Huppert said in her ear.

‘No.’

‘You need to get a sample. We’re T plus thirty seconds.’

‘I’m getting it.’

She drew the nozzle back in on itself and looked down the open end. There did not appear to be any blockage. Again she pressed the button, and again there was no sound of air being sucked into the chamber.