Three men in light summer clothes ran the show. One of them was sitting in the car with the windows rolled down, apparently listening to the radio. In fact he was using a radio, or would be when it was required. Another soldier sat at the table, 'casually' watching the road where it zig-zagged up into the wooded heights. He wore binoculars round his neck but only rarely used them. The third member of the team carried a guitar. He perched on a stool in the shade of a pine, his broad-brimmed hat giving him a little extra cover as he strummed an inadequate, mainly tuneless tune out of his instrument, which was in fact capable of far more serious music. He was the team's 'minder,' and the sound-box of his guitar housed a deadly 9mm machine-pistol.
So far, the man in the car had registered their call-sign and reported their situation only once, clearly and succinctly stating that they were 'In situ…'
Also at midday, Liz's Warrant Officer Class Two 'Red' Bygraves, and the tech Jimmy Harvey, had bought 'day visitor' tickets at Xanadu's gatehouse reception desk. By I p.m., having 'cased the joint' but oh-so-carefully, they were sunbathing on opposite sides of the main pool. Both men had taken an armful of local morning newspapers with them, with front-page spreads that dealt with the incursion of Asiatic Plague; these had been left in strategic locations where they were bound to be picked up and read. Of course the resort had its own newsvending outlets; Trask's news-sheet ploy was intended as a supplementary incentive once his evacuation scheme got in gear.
As for the scheme: that was simplicity itself.
At precisely 1:15 p.m. Bygraves got up and strolled round to Harvey's side of the pool, stepping carefully around or over the many tanned bodies lounging there. The two men were 'total strangers/ of course. Jimmy Harvey saw Bygraves coming, adjusted his dark glasses, and stretched his arms up above his head, letting the sun caress the pale underarm areas. And:
'Christ!' said Bygraves, going down on a knee beside him, staring at the dark, purplish blotches under Jimmy's arms.
'Eh?' Harvey sat up. 'What?'
'Sir/ said Bygraves, 'would you mind if I examined those marks, that pustule?'
'Marks? Pustule?'
'Under your arms, sir. Because if they're what they look like…'
Harvey glanced under his arm, looked concerned. 'Is that something new?' he said. And, 'Who are you, anyway?'
'Doctor Bygraves/ said the other, prodding beneath Harvey's left arm where he obligingly lifted it. And by now the people at the poolside were interested in what was going on.
'A doctor?' Harvey was starting to look worried.
'Specializing in communicable Asiatic diseases/ Bygraves nodded. 'I'm up here for the day, before reporting for duty in Brisbane. And while I don't want to frighten you, right now it looks like I'll have my work cut out!' He pushed Harvey's arm down by his side and asked: 'How long have you been up here?'
'Just a fortnight/ Harvey was on his feet now. Tm taking my summer break. So what the hell's wrong?'
But 'suddenly' Bygraves became aware of the people gathering to watch the show. And he leaned closer to Harvey, bending down to whisper in the smaller man's ear.
'What?' Harvey yelped.
'But haven't you heard the news, read the newspapers?' Bygraves looked astonished, and more than ever worried. 'You say you've been up here for two weeks? Then it's here. It has to be here! Have you seen any rats? Have you noticed any other people with these marks? Jesus, it could be in the water!'
'Plague?' The word burst loudly from Harvey's mouth. 'Hey, did you say plague? But how in hell can I have—?'
'Don't say it!' Bygraves cut him short, glancing anxiously at the concerned faces all around. 'Listen, we have a serum. It isn't that serious if you get it seen to early — but I do mean right now! All of the medical facilities in this area have been supplied with the antidote. Unfortunately I don't have any with me, and this isn't a registered medical centre. So I can't give you any shots that will help here in Xanadu, but—'
As he set off in a hurry, with Harvey in tow, back around the pool to his sunbed, a small, anxious crowd began to follow on behind. Harvey caught up, grabbed his arm and said:
'But?' His jaw was beginning to flap. 'But what?'
Bygraves picked up a briefcase, went to open it and 'accidentally' spilled some of its contents: pamphlets describing the symptoms of Asiatic Plague, a new strain of bubonic. They fluttered to the crazy-paved pool surround and were quickly picked up by the gathering crowd.
And looking hopeless, frustrated, Bygraves said, 'Look, I think we're probably too late to stop it spreading through this place, but you are already short on time.' Pulling on a pair of shorts over his swim trunks, he said. 'I have to get you out of this place now. And as for the rest of you people/ he glanced at the milling, gawping faces all around. 'This thing will work its way through this place like wildfire! So pass the message: you should all get out, go home, report to your hospitals, doctors, medical facilities — and you should do it now!' Then, to Harvey: 'My car's this way.'
'But my clothes…!' Harvey, whose clothes were in fact in their vehicle, started to protest.
'It's your clothes or your life!' said Bygraves, pushing a way through the crowd.
Ten minutes later they were out of there, and fifteen minutes after that the general exodus began. And Red Bygraves was right: the thing worked its way through Xanadu like wildfire…
By that time Ben Trask and David Chung were at the observation point. They were on hand to greet WO II Bygraves and Jimmy Harvey when they came tearing down the road from Xanadu in a cloud of dust and heat-shimmer, pulled into the lay-by and braked to a halt behind the other car.
'How did it go?' Trask was anxious; he sluiced sweat from his brow, glanced up and down the road. Up there the mountains, and down below the coastal plain reaching to the vastly curving horizon of the South Pacific. Normally it would be a beautiful, exhilarating view, but Trask had no time for that right now.
'Some people were piling into their cars even as we pulled out of the place,' Jimmy Harvey said, keeping well down and out of sight inside the car. The dust was still settling. 'I think we made a good job of it. Thank God for amateur dramatics, eh? Would you believe I once played Romeo?'
Trask looked down at him and couldn't help but smile. 'No, but I'd believe a munchkin!'
'Eh?' Harvey grimaced as he pulled a blob of purplish cosmetic putty from under his left arm.
' The Wizard of Oz,' Trask answered. 'Probably before your time. How about the place? How did it look?'
'Like a resort.'
'Nothing odd about it?'
'No.' The other shook his bald dome of a head. 'Unless you
consider all those well-heeled people and all that tanned flesh odd. But me? I felt like a right whitey from Blighty!'
Trask shook his head, chewed on his upper lip. 'Why is it I'm not happy?' he asked of no one in particular. 'Why is it so quiet? I don't know… but something doesn't feel right.' And to Jimmy: 'Time you got some clothes on, and wear a hat. We're out of here as soon as people start to exit the place, or we'll get snarled up in the traffic. That is, if people start to exit the place!'
The locator David Chung was at the side of the road. Lowering binoculars from his eyes, he called out, 'Ben, here they come! A whole stream of cars on the high zig-zag up there. Ten minutes and they'll be here.' He came at a run across the lay-by's gravel surface.
WO II Bygraves had changed his T-shirt, put on a baseball cap and sunglasses. He slid out of the driver's seat and Trask got in. Now Bygraves would take over as the commander of this sub-section, making its numbers up to four. And they'd be here until they were ordered on up to Xanadu. There were sufficient armaments in their vehicle to start World War III.