Dadaeus gave a scornful laugh. ‘Such arrogance! Earth is doing just fine, as it happens.’
‘You will change your mind about that shortly, sir,’ responded Joya. ‘But first I would like you all to answer one question: what are “Luna” and “Leviathan”?’
This immediately put the dinosaurs on edge. They exchanged wary glances with each other but kept their jaws firmly shut. Not a peep came out of them. After a long pause, Dadaeus said, ‘And why should we tell you that?’
‘Your Majesty, if they are what I think they are, I will reveal to you a highly classified secret that relates to the survival of the dinosaur world. You will find it a fair trade.’
‘And if they aren’t what you think they are?’ Dadaeus asked darkly.
‘Then I will not tell you my secret. You can kill me or keep me here forever to protect your secret. In any case, you have nothing to lose.’
Dadaeus was quiet for several seconds. Then he nodded to the science minister, who was seated on the left side of the table. ‘Tell her.’
Inside the control centre of the Ant Federation’s high command, Field Marshal Jolie put the phone down. With a grimace, she turned to Supreme Consul Kachika and said, ‘Joya has been located. Two soldiers in the 214th Division saw her enter the imperial palace of Gondwana as they were returning from the mine-laying operation. It seems our suspicions were correct. She has defected.’
‘The shameless traitor! I dread to think what she’s told the dinosaurs.’ Kachika began pacing up and down the control room, wracking her brain for the best way to respond to this unwelcome twist. ‘Weren’t listening devices installed in the skulls of all of the dinosaurs in the palace?’
‘Joya destroyed the repeater we erected outside the palace. A team has been sent to fix it, but for now we have no way to eavesdrop.’
‘No doubt she went in there to betray the Ant Federation’s war plans.’
‘I would imagine so. Which puts our entire operation in jeopardy.’
‘What is the status of the mine-grain-laying operations?’
‘Operation Disconnect is 92 per cent complete. Operation Decapitate stands at 90 per cent.’
‘Is it possible to detonate the mines ahead of schedule?’
‘Of course! All of the mine-grains can be detonated either with a timer or remotely. We have already established a network of repeater stations to extend the coverage of the interrupt signal across the dinosaur world, which means we can detonate the mines that have already been deployed at a moment’s notice. Supreme Consul, it is time for decisive action. Give the order!’
Kachika turned to face the screen displaying the map of the world and gazed at the colourfully twinkling lights of the continents. After several seconds of silence, she said, ‘Very well. Let us turn a new page in Earth’s history. Detonate!’
The science minister had finished his account and Joya’s head was now awhirl with shock and dismay. For a long moment she felt as if she was on the point of collapse.
‘So, Professor, what’s it to be? Will you keep your promise and reveal your great secret to us, or will you be choosing… another route?’ Dadaeus bared his impressive fangs in a dangerous smile.
‘This is… This is just appalling,’ stammered Joya. ‘You’re monsters, all of you. But we ants are no better…’ She clasped a feeler to her quivering thorax. ‘You must act fast. Quick! You need to call the Supreme Consul of the Ant Federation immediately!’
‘You haven’t given us an answer—’
‘Your Majesty, there is no time to explain. They already know that I am here, and they may respond at any moment. The fate of the dinosaur world hangs in the balance, and with it the fate of the planet. You have to believe me! Make the call now. Hurry!’
‘Very well.’ The dinosaur emperor picked up the phone from the conference table. With an anxious heart, Joya watched as he flexed his thick finger and laboriously pressed one enormous button after the other. Then she heard the muffled sound of it ringing. After a few seconds the ringing stopped and she knew Kachika had picked up the rice-sized receiver at the other end of the line.
The supreme consul’s voice came through the receiver. ‘Hello, who is this?’
Dadaeus spoke into the phone. ‘Is this Supreme Consul Kachika? This is Dadaeus. Right now—’
At that very moment, Joya heard a chorus of faint clicks all around her, as if all of the second hands on a wall of clocks were moving in unison. She knew it was the sound of mine-grains exploding in the dinosaurs’ skulls. The dinosaurs in the room stiffened, and time seemed to stand still. The phone receiver tumbled from Dadaeus’s claws, falling to the table near Joya with a deafening clatter. Then all of the dinosaurs came crashing down, leaving Joya’s horizon disconcertingly empty. The tabletop shuddered for several moments. When it stilled again, Joya crawled onto the receiver. Kachika was still on the line.
‘Hello? This is Kachika. What is this about? Hello?’
Her voice caused the earpiece to vibrate, sending pins and needles through Joya’s body.
‘Supreme Consul, it’s me, Joya!’ she shouted.
But her pheromone speech was no longer being converted into sound, and Kachika could not hear her on the other end of the line. The palace’s translation system had been taken offline by the mine-grains. Joya said no more. She knew she was too late.
Shortly thereafter, the lights in the hall went out. Dusk had fallen outside, and the room was thrown into semi-darkness. As Joya began the long hike across the conference table, the rumble of traffic from the distant city faded and a grim silence settled in its wake.
By the time she’d reached the table’s edge and begun her descent to the floor, the soundscape had changed again. Now the hall began to fill with the shrill discordance of far-off panic, the frightful pounding of fleeing feet and the unearthly screechings of dinosaurs in pain. There came the intermittent wailing of police sirens. And then the first muted rumbles of faraway explosions. Inside the palace itself, however, all was eerily quiet, for every last imperial dinosaur had been exterminated by cranial mine-grains.
When Joya finally reached the window, she stared out at the gargantuan metropolis of Boulder City, now shrouded in twilight gloom. Thin columns of smoke rose into the dusky sky, and more and more kept appearing, orange flames gleaming at their base. The city’s skyline flickered in and out of view. As the fires multiplied, an infernal glow filtered through the window, throwing shifting patterns of light and shadow across the high ceiling above Joya.
17
The Ultimate Deterrent
‘We did it!’ Field Marshal Jolie shouted excitedly as the world map flashed red on her screen. ‘The dinosaur world has been crippled. Their information systems have been comprehensively disrupted. All of their cities have lost power, all of their roads have been blocked by vehicles disabled by mine-grains, and fires are spreading widely and rapidly.’ Her antennae were vibrating at speed now as she enumerated the Federation’s successes. ‘Operation Decapitate has neutralised 4 million leading lights of the dinosaur world, and the ruling bodies of the Gondwanan Empire and the Laurasian Republic have ceased to exist. The two great powers have been paralysed and dinosaur society is in chaos.’
‘And this is just the start,’ added Kachika. ‘Dinosaur cities are already having problems with their water supplies, and their food stocks will soon run out. That will be the tipping point. Vast herds of dinosaurs will flee the cities, but with no functioning cars and with all the roads blocked, they will be unable to evacuate in time. Given their voracious appetites, at least half the population will starve to death before they find food. Their high-tech society will be in tatters. The dinosaur world is regressing to a primitive, pre-industrial era even as we speak.’