The warrant officer, despite his injuries, seemed more composed than Larsen or I. But the paleness of his freckled skin gave away the severity of his wounds.
“Yeah. We got lucky: it says the virus only can be contracted through bodily fluids. Something about membranes.”
“Mucous membranes. Yeah, that makes sense. Many viruses aren’t very hardy. A little light, a little air, and they’re dead. Besides, if you’re developing a virus as a combat system, you want as much control over it as possible.”
“Here’s what it says: ‘Subject initially infected by injection.’”
“That’s about what I thought. It’s designed to create a super soldier, not an uncontrollable outbreak.”
Larsen jumped in now. “Then how did the crewman get infected to begin with?”
“We’ll probably never know,” I replied. “There are lots of ways. If there were a spill of whatever was stored in the locker, he might have gotten some on his hands, then touched his eye or nose or mouth. All it takes is carelessness.”
“And look what happened,” Larsen said, amazed.
Loose lips sink ships, I thought. The inappropriateness of the joke made me laugh in spite of myself.
“The other thing is, you’re only half-right about the purpose of the virus,” Campbell said after a few awkward seconds. “In the summary here, it says it first was developed to be a defensive weapon, for use on friendly troops.”
“Right. Making them stronger, faster, et cetera.”
“Except there were some serious problems, the biggest being insanity. The more time passes after infection, the more nutso the subjects become. I mean, not just slightly crazy, but psychopathic.”
“Not someone you’d want in a foxhole with you,” Larsen said.
“These guys just start killing indiscriminately, it says. And worse, their hormones get all out of whack-go through the roof, really-so they’re looking to screw, too. Killing and fucking machines.”
Campbell’s chest was heaving now. Whether it was from the effort of speaking or his reaction to what he was saying was impossible to tell. I knelt by him and rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Relax. You’re doing great.”
Larsen crouched and patted his arm. After managing a thin smile at both of us, Campbell continued.
“So instead, they decided that the best use of the virus as a weapon would be to send someone into enemy territory-even a civilian city-and have them infect themselves with an injection. Then they get loose. Start killing. And raping. So they spread the virus. And there’s more killing.”
“Fuck,” Larsen spat. It was as if even hearing the idea of such warfare had contaminated his mouth.
“So that’s two things we were wrong about,” I said, “but nothing catastrophic. And it explains some things, like why the Serpent… that is, the infected host, would be wearing the remains of a Korean navy uniform.”
“But I thought we had accounted for all the crew,” Larsen said. “I had Grimm double-check after Miller and Martin disappeared, and there were thirty bodies, same as before.”
“Maybe there was someone on the boat who wasn’t listed in the manifest.”
“Go on, son,” Larsen said. It was as if he had been listening to my thoughts. “Is there anything else we should know?”
“Uh, well, the insanity is connected to the brain enhancements. As the neural-is that the right word?” I nodded and he continued. “As new neural connections form, they get fucked up. So although the result is a higher IQ, like eighty to one hundred points higher, they’re all out of whack.”
“What about its other capabilities?” I asked. “There’s got to be others.” It’s not that my concern for Campbell’s health wasn’t still there. Seeing him squeezed into the bunk, pale and fragile, was painful. There was a sense of trust, a gossamer bridge between us that I had managed so far not to wreck. But there was a scientist in me who no longer cared about that. I wanted to hear more. I wanted to hear everything.
“You know it’s stronger. That happens almost right away. Its senses all are much better than normal. But the biggest change, and the one that takes the longest to happen, is the skin.”
“The skin?” Larsen said. I’m not sure how my intuition arrived at the place it did, but I knew what Campbell was going to say.
“Yeah. It changes, too. It can slowly adjust to its surroundings, like a chameleon. The, uh, pigmentation chemicals change. They become sensitive to electricity and can be controlled by the body.”
“What you’re telling me,” Larsen said, “is that this thing, besides being stronger than a normal person, smarter than a fucking rocket scientist and totally insane, is also invisible?”
“I don’t think so. Not invisible. It seems to be more like camouflage, like fatigues you don’t have to wear.”
This was disturbing. It also explained how the virus’ host had sneaked up on all its victims and stayed out of sight when it decided not to fight.
“So you think it has all those capabilities now?” I asked. “Does it say how long it takes for everything to set in?”
“Yeah, that was one of the first pages I looked at.” He paused and flipped back a few pages in the notebook. “Uh… strength increases first, accompanied by a drastic rise in caloric intake, within fifteen to twenty minutes of infection. The mental changes come next, within thirty minutes to an hour. That’s when the insanity starts to appear, too.”
I stood up, backed away and leaned against the cool, metal wall. Larsen and Campbell both stared at me.
“I think I see it all.”
“See it all?” Larsen had stood up now, too. He looked ready to shake an answer out of me.
“It’s a Korean sailor. He wants us off the submarine because it’s his submarine. We’re invaders, the enemy. He also wants to get to shore, you know? Because he knows there are women there. But… oh.”
“But what?” Larsen said.
“There might also be another reason why he’s trying to kill off all of you. Not just because he wants you off the submarine. But because you’re competition.”
“Competition?” This time it was Campbell speaking, bewildered and frail.
“Yeah. Competition. For me. I’m the only woman on this boat, and he wants me.”
X
We were back in the control room, except for Campbell, who was napping in the captain’s quarters. I had reneged on my threat to take away the documents and notebook, but I didn’t think he had the energy to do more research. And despite our concerns for his health, neither I nor Larsen would have been upset if he finished translating all the reports.
Larsen now was trying to come up with a plan. He and Grimm were sitting at the nav table, I was standing nearby, and Ridder continued to steer the boat without comment or complaint.
“We know what it wants,” Larsen said.
“How? The Serpent’s insane. Didn’t you just tell me that?” Grimm replied, sitting back and crossing his arms, his nose pointed at Larsen like a fleshy spear.
They had been going in circles for at least fifteen minutes.
“Myers is an expert, OK? She knows insanity; she can give us a better idea of its motivations than anyone else on this ship.”
“My theory is just a sketch. I don’t want either of you to get carried away thinking I can read this guy’s mind,” I interjected. The discussion had started with a report from me but degenerated into an argument between the lieutenant and Grimm, who now seemed to be the next-highest-ranking SEAL.
Grimm pointed to me, but kept his eyes on Larsen. “See? She even says she’s not sure. We shouldn’t risk everything on a hunch.”