Pandemonium

10:07 A.M.

Geoffrey found himself in a brightly lit room with rows of lab counters crammed with scientific instruments both archaic and modern, microscopes and laptops, notepads and iPads, baby bottles and juice boxes. The entire right wall of the long room was dominated by a window. In front of the window stood Otto Inman, Katsuyuki Fujima, and Dimitri Lagunov. Two armed guards escorted Geoffrey into the room and positioned themselves against the wall opposite the window.

Otto turned around and saw Geoffrey first. “Oh, my God, dude,” he moaned. The round face of the ponytailed scientist was ashen, his eyes hollow. “It happened.”

Geoffrey approached the window, which looked onto a rectangular room the size of a tennis court. Three illuminated chandeliers hung over explosions of green and purple splattered on the floor. On the other side of the glass Geoffrey saw a camera moving on a horizontal track that ran above the window. Apparently it could be slid from side to side and rotated up and down on a pivoting arm.

“Watch out!” Dimitri shouted as Katsuyuki rotated the camera down.

Dimitri stopped the camera just before it crashed into the glass.

Otto looked at Geoffrey with baleful, hollow eyes. “We’re f*cked,” he said. “And that psycho isn’t going to let us go.”

“Please, please!” Dimitri said. “We need your help, Dr. Binswanger.” He clasped Geoffrey’s hand in his own ice-cold hands, which Geoffrey noticed were shaking.

Geoffrey stared back into his eyes and let go of his hands as he spoke words that only came out in a whisper. “How could you?”

“I am the one who requested your help, Dr. Binswanger. I never dreamed that we could actually get you, of course.” His eyes apologized with sudden tears, though his face was blank. “Maxim is very persuasive.”

“Tell me what is going on,” Geoffrey demanded, closing his eyes.

Dimitri smiled weakly. “This is the maternity ward of Pobedograd.” The scientist swept a thin hand across the window nervously. “Relatives could view their babies here after delivery—that was the idea. I decided to use it as an observation chamber.”

“For what?” Geoffrey took a few more steps toward the window. On the floor inside the “maternity ward,” he noted color splatters made up of thousands of tiny protruding fins. Each fin had three straight edges, and none was larger than a playing card. Together they formed three rosettes of petals tilting like solar panels to catch the light of three chandeliers above them. Each circle of geometric scales was tinted green in the center surrounded by rings of yellow and red and finally purple at the edges. “Oh, God,” Geoffrey breathed, recognizing the growth’s characteristics. As he moved closer, he saw a stream of fast-moving white bugs branching down the other side of the glass, rolling with disk-shaped bodies.

Otto nodded at him. “Disk-ants.”

“From Henders Island,” Katsuyuki said.

Geoffrey stumbled, dizzy as he leaned against a lab counter behind him. He saw the flying creatures looping through the air around the chandeliers inside the maternity ward. One landed on the window and tried to drill into the glass with its yellow abdomen. “Drill-worms,” he sighed.

Katsuyuki nodded.

The dissolved remains of what looked like two people were sprawled on the left side of the maternity ward. Their outlines formed natural reeflike blooms of clover, purple hives, and budding Henders “trees.” It was not a dream, a nightmare, or a posttraumatic flashback, Geoffrey realized. It was the last thing he wanted or ever believed he would see again.

A wave of nausea overcame him as he turned away, and the chill of shock spread over his body. He saw a five-gallon glass water container on the lab counter in front of him. Inside, Henders wasps, drill-worms, and resting disk-ants suddenly jumped and pressed against the glass at him. A steel ring was fixed to the mouth of the bottle on top. A length of glass tube reached up to another valve. Three extensions of retreating air locks had been added.

“We’re trying to see what poison works on them,” Dimitri explained. “So far we haven’t found one. Please, Dr. Binswanger. Help us.”

“You brought Henders organisms here.” Geoffrey grabbed Dimitri by the shoulders. “Why?” His head was spinning as he broke out in a cold sweat and a molten rage simultaneously.

“Please, Doctor!” Dimitri said. “Are you feeling all right?”

Geoffrey looked at the armed guards in the room behind them, who were pointing their guns at them, and he lowered his head. “So,” he said. “A WMD lab?”

“What?”

“Is that what this is? These species!” Geoffrey sneered. “Was Maxim hoping to sell them to the highest bidder?” he screamed. “Or was he planning to use them himself? Do you think this is like selling off plutonium or old missile parts? This isn’t a dirty bomb! This isn’t a suitcase nuke! This is the end of the world, you goddamned fool! It’s ten times more dangerous than ten times the world’s WMDs!”

“He’s right,” Otto said.

“Yes,” Katsuyuki nodded.

“Help us!” Dimitri said. “We think that it breached this containment chamber.”

“You think? I just got back from the power plant!” Geoffrey shouted. “This stuff just ate five men, and at least a dozen more only a few days ago! It breached the containment chamber, all right, and it’s breeding in Sector Four!”

Dimitri bowed his head. “Forgive me.”

“That’s above my pay grade!”

Otto shook his head. “We’re f*cked.”


9:19 A.M.

“Newspapers are confirming that Alexei has been kidnapped.” Galia said coldly, “They are now saying that the kidnappers will cut off one hand unless you comply immediately with their ransom, Maxim.”

Maxim combed his fingers through his long black hair, spreading it back from his widow’s peak. The Russian magnate was strangely composed as he replied: “I will activate power plant. We will exterminate these pests. Tell those murderers they have seven days to release my son before what happened to Kremlin happens across all eleven time zones of former Soviet Union.”

“Maxim!”

“They will use those seven days to try and bargain with me, so that they can locate and attack us. But they will be too late. We will be secure and impenetrable by then, Galia. No one can leave now.” Maxim reached for the hatch to the lab. “Do what I ask or I will have you killed.”

Galia’s eyes teared as he no longer recognized his friend. “Do you not see what is happening to you?”

“Shut up!”

“You have become him!”

“Don’t you ever—!” Maxim sputtered. “I do what I must do, Galia! They will kill Alexei anyway, even if they have not already. They are liars, Galia! They are barbarians! Never forget that! They will give in only if they are overpowered and defeated. That is Alexei’s only chance! That is our only chance. Where is Nell Binswanger?”

“We have not been able to locate her.”

“Find her now! And bring her here.”


9:20 P.M.

Dimitri clutched Geoffrey’s arm urgently. “Doctor, please,” he said. “We have no wish to destroy the world. You must tell us how we can control them.”

Geoffrey laughed tragically, glancing at Otto hopelessly. “They can’t be controlled. Where did you get them? Why?”

“Maxim has access to exclusive dealers.…”

“The island was sterilized with a nuclear bomb,” Geoffrey scoffed. “That should have been enough! Are there more?”

“No,” Dimitri said. “Only one sample was available.”

Otto shook his head, nauseated. “That’s all it will take.”

“Where did they come from?” Geoffrey pressed.

“I think I know,” Katsuyuki said. “It may be why I was invited here. A small colony of Henders organisms was recently discovered on an uninhabited island north of Japan.” The scientist shook his head sorrowfully. “We don’t know exactly how they got there but apparently some species from Henders Island had colonized the island. We thought that we eradicated them in time. But before authorities discovered the infestation, somebody must have collected some specimens.”

“How?” Geoffrey asked.

“A crab fisher retrieved a sample,” Dimitri said. “Two of his men died trying to collect it. All of this came from one sealed metal suitcase.”

“Did they sterilize the island?” Geoffrey asked.

“Yes,” Katsuyuki assured him. “I was on the team sent ashore to make sure. It caused an international incident, which you may remember. The Japanese government claimed they had used the island for war games: target practice.”

“Oh, yeah,” Otto said. “I remember seeing that on the news. Russia was super pissed off.”

“How did you sterilize it?” Geoffrey asked.

“Poison gas and a bombardment of incendiary devices.”

Geoffrey was only slightly reassured.

“It worked,” Katsuyuki confirmed. “After the third try, that is. Don’t worry, nothing will live on that island for a million years. Unfortunately, we didn’t get there fast enough.” Katsuyuki looked at Dimitri.

“These species use a variety of reproductive strategies,” Dimitri said. He sounded like a scientist and not at all like a terrorist, Geoffrey thought cynically. “Some seem to have life cycles that allow cloned procreation at different stages of development. This and other reproductive processes seem to be why so many life-forms emerged from such a small sample.”

“You still haven’t said why,” Geoffrey said. “Why did you bring them here? What kind of monster would say yes to jeopardizing the human race and every species of life on Earth as we know it?”

The hatch swung in and Maxim entered. He pushed the door closed behind him and turned to the scientists silently.

“Maxim, what have you done?” Geoffrey demanded. “Do you have any idea how dangerous these species are?”

“That is why you are here,” Maxim said. “I want you to make that repellent you described.”

“So that you can turn the power on down here?” Geoffrey asked. “If you pump perpetual heat, light, and humidity into this petri dish, you’ll be feeding the hell that will end the human race and everything else on the face of the Earth!”

“The power plant must be activated before we seal off Sectors Three and Four,” Maxim said. “When we have power, Dr. Binswanger, we will be able to fumigate those sectors with poison and eradicate these animals. Without independent power, we will be trapped down here in the dark. The city will die, and it will be only a matter of time before they escape to the surface and do everything that you claim. There is no choice. Tell me what you need, and I will provide it.”

“Where’s my wife?” Geoffrey said. “You promised me she could call outside.”

“All of that’s over now, Doctor,” Maxim said. “Your wife will be joining you shortly. And you will stay here as long as it takes.”

“Then it was all lies,” Geoffrey said. “All of your promises.”

“They can still be true, Geoffrey. But if you fail, we will die together here. That is a promise I cannot break.”

“Why? Why did you do it? Tell me that at least!”

Maxim spoke to his armed men instead and left them.

Dimitri glanced at the armed guards and whispered. “Pobedograd is only one of a whole network of subterranean cities and bases that Stalin connected by underground railroads from Metro-Two.”

“What’s Metro-Two?” Otto asked.

“A famous Soviet subway system under Moscow that is not supposed to exist,” Dimitri said.

“You mean the train tunnel in Sector Seven … goes all the way to Moscow?” Geoffrey asked, glancing at the others.

“Maybe,” Dimitri said. “Theoretically. And from there, it may go to cities all across Eastern Europe. During Stalin’s reign, every satellite of the Soviet Union had underground shelters.”

“What in God’s name for?” Geoffrey asked.

“He was a deeply paranoid man,” Dimitri said. “I think he may have actually wanted the world to end. So that he could move into this city where he could finally be in complete control.”

Geoffrey looked at Dimitri. “If even one Henders organism reaches the surface—”

“I know,” said Dimitri.

“—through a train tunnel or a storm drain or a sewer or a ventilation shaft or a freaking crack in the sidewalk of East Berlin,” moaned Otto.

“If it happens, we are done, we’re dinner, we’re dinosaurs,” said Geoffrey. “This little containment facility is already leaking like a sieve. And I don’t know if the nants have dug through the plumbing or the ventilation systems or electrical conduits or the insulation of the wiring that stretches all the way to the power plant; but they have breached Sector Four, and it’s only a matter of time before they breach the rest of the city.”

“What’s your advice?” Katsuyuki asked.

“What’s my advice?” Geoffrey asked. “The only chance we’ve got is to throw a nuke in this place, slam the door, and run like hell.”


9:18 A.M.

Sasha and Ivan ran through a low tunnel that wormed through solid rock.

“Nobody knows about this place!” Sasha bragged, giggling electrically as her voice echoed. “It’s my super-secret bedroom.” Her flashlight flickered. “I need new batteries for my flashlight,” she grumbled, smacking it against her leg as they came to a patch in the tunnel where the walls, floor, and ceiling were oddly translucent in the darting glints of Sasha’s torch. She stopped. “OK! Are you ready?” Sasha jumped up and did an excited fist pump. “It’s so cool.” Ivan barked, eyeing the plate filled with sausages that Sasha was carrying in one of her hands. “Ivan!” She pushed him away and dramatically pressed on the left wall.

Nell was startled to see a small square sink around her little hand and then pop out, swinging open. Inside the depression was a little knob. Sasha reached in and turned the knob, pushing in a door that swung inward.

Inside was an invisible room.

Nell wouldn’t have thought it was a room at all except for the bed in the middle of the floor. The entire chamber was carved into a vast, flawless extrusion of crystal.

A little over ten feet wide and thirty-five feet long, the crystal box extended into the Pandemonium sea, twenty feet beneath its surface. Sasha had thrown a lavender rug on the crystal floor before the bed, but otherwise the floor and walls were decorated only by churning and darting undersea creatures.

Ivan rocketed into the room first, and Sasha followed. They both ran across the transparent floor fearlessly and jumped onto the bed. “Come on, Nell!”

“OK.” Nell stepped into the room as a drift of pink hydras and blue squids darted under her feet.

“This’ll be your room now,” Sasha said. “I hope you like sausage. These are really for her, Ivan! Sorry. At least until I can get you some better food. Oh, and here’s some carrots I got from Dennis. One for Ivan, such a good dog!”

Ivan snapped his jaws over the extended carrot like a tiger shark.

“There’s actually a bathroom, too, over here,” Sasha said. “You just go plop down a hole into the water and you can watch the beasties eat it! I’ll bring you more toilet paper. They eat the toilet paper, too.”

Nell sat on the bed, looking up at the silhouettes of alien creatures locomoting through the water above. She had to close her eyes and process it for a moment. “Your father doesn’t know about this place?”

“No! There’s lots of things he doesn’t know about.”

“Doesn’t he care where you are? Where you sleep?”

“He’s busy all the time. I haven’t stayed with him very much. Only the last two months, actually. And when I was a baby, but I don’t even remember that! He’s so guilty, he lets me do whatever I want.”

“I see.… Well, what’s going on, Sasha?”

“You really want me to tell you?”

“Yes!”

“Well. There were two nice scientists named Mike and Nancy, like you and Geoffrey. They were here before you got here. They were my friends. The thing is, I can see everything that’s happening from Papa’s desk. You know, on the monitors. When he’s not there, of course. When he was in the lab, where Geoffrey is now…” Sasha frowned suddenly as instant tears filled her eyes. She pressed her lips together, trying to hold in some sudden grief. “I saw what happened,” Sasha whispered. “They went into the room where the beasties are. They were going to look at something. I saw them through the window as they went in. And something bit them. And Papa told them…” Sasha bowed her head. She was silent for a moment. “He told the guards to shut the door!” she shouted. “He didn’t let them out!”

Nell stroked her head.

“I don’t trust Papa since then!”

“I see. Where is Geoffrey? Do you know?”

“He’s in the lab, too, now!”

“Where is the lab?”

“On the other side of the city, where Mike and Nancy were. I don’t want you to go there, Nell!”

“But your papa said Geoffrey will be back in a little while now.”

“No. I don’t think so! Papa’s guards won’t let him go. I saw them pointing guns at the other scientists there!”

Nell gazed into the alien sea all around her. “Then what can we do?”


8:18 A.M.

“Come on, Doctor.” Dimitri cranked open a door in the wall opposite the viewing chamber. “Let me show you our quarters, since we’ll all be staying here for a while.”

Geoffrey followed Dimitri through the hatch into a long room with boarded windows and two rows of beds.

“Choose any bed. Fresh linens are stacked over there. We have a bathroom with running water and plenty of canned food. This part of the hospital was meant to be a delivery and recovery room, but it is our dormitory now.”

Geoffrey dropped onto the nearest bed, holding his head in his hands.

“If it’s any consolation,” Dimitri whispered. “I think they can’t find your wife.”