Off With Their Heads (3 page)

*

Protima managed to get a cab that took her halfway to her hotel, but the driver refused to go any further, saying it was too dangerous. Protima tried hailing other cabs, but nobody stopped. As she walked along the road, she saw that the policemen outside had disappeared. Some small shops across the street were being looted and an old man was lying on the ground. There seemed to be no law and order in sight, and she realized that she was alone and defenseless in the middle of a city that had given into terror and anarchy.

A commotion began further down the street and a man staggered onto the street. His clothes were torn and he was bleeding from a gash on his neck. He cried out to her for help but before she could cross the street, he fell to the ground. A woman emerged from the bushes behind him. She was covered in blood, with the shuffling gait of the infected, and her eyes were vacant and yellow. She shrieked as she saw Protima and began to cross the road to reach her. The wounded man, whom Protima had assumed to be dead, sat up and turned towards her. His eyes had a similar blank expression and he too screamed and got up to chase Protima.

Protima was now running as fast as she could, her heart hammering. She stumbled and fell, scraping her right knee on the pavement. She turned to see the bloodied couple still following her, and she scrambled to her feet, ignoring the pain in her knee as she started running again. After a few minutes, she stopped to catch her breath, and saw that the couple were now far behind. Protima bent over, her breath coming in jagged gasps, thankful that the infected did not seem to move very fast. Protima saw an abandoned bicycle and began pedaling it, hoping that getting back to the hotel would mean at least some period of safety for her to consider what to do next.

As she rode, she saw all around her the signs of a city that was tearing itself apart. Several pillars of smoke rose above the city’s skyline and people were running all around, and every now and then she got terrifying glimpses of groups of the infected, hunting people down like packs of wild animals. There were no policemen or troops in sight, though Protima wondered what good they would have been against an enemy that could not be killed.

She finally met a small group of policemen huddled near a shop. The officer had a pistol in his hand, and the four constables with him were carrying rifles. The officer waved her down.

‘Miss, you can’t go that way, the entire neighborhood is crawling with Biters.’

‘I need to get to the Taj Hotel.’

The officer shook his head sadly. ‘Miss, from what I hear, there are Biters running wild around there. Why don’t you go home?’

There was no longer any home for her. Protima got on the bike and rode in a different direction, no longer sure of what she would do or where she would go. When she had learned of the plan outlined in Stan’s documents, she had agreed with his assessment that the men who had planned this were playing with fire. But now having seen firsthand what the infection did to people, she feared there was no real way to contain it. Like a wildfire, it would consume everything in its path before it burned itself out.

She had been so lost in her thoughts that she almost did not notice the black SUV just a few meters behind her and closing fast. It careen towards her and she swerved out of the way just before it could hit her bike. The front windows were down, and she could see the driver and one more man. Both were Caucasian, wearing dark suits and wraparound sunglasses. She had seen many men like them during her time in Washington. Government agents.

At first, she thought nearly knocking her down was an accident but then the driver leaned out. In his hand was a pistol. Protima was so startled that she lost her balance and the bike hit a bump on the sidewalk, sending her sprawling to the ground. That saved her life as the man fired and the bullet slammed into the wall over Protima’s head. The man was shouting something, but Protima’s ears were still ringing from the gunshot and she could not fully understand what he was saying.

Protima sat against the wall, shocked. No US government agents would be openly shooting at someone in the streets of Delhi.

The driver stopped the SUV and got out, walking towards her, the gun pointed at her. The second man remained in the car, but he now had a gun pointed at her as well. The man stood over her and said, ‘Dr. Protima, I believe you have a package for us.’

Realization dawned on Protima as she recalled the confrontation she had with Appleseed back at the embassy. She stood up gingerly, feeling her ankle. The man’s expression was inscrutable behind his dark glasses.

‘Who are you? What right do you have to attack an American citizen?’

The man smiled. ‘Look, Doctor, I don’t want this to be any more difficult than it has to be. You’re in way over your head here and you have no idea about just how far my bosses can go to get the material you have in your hands. Just give me the damn package and you won’t hear from us again.’

It would be tempting to hand over the package, but could she live with the knowledge that she had done nothing? Tens of thousands had already died, and God alone knew how many more would die before it was all over. Her heart pounding, she took a step back. ‘Young man, I have no doubt you could take this from me, but I will not hand it to you.’

The next thing Protima knew, she was on the ground, her head splitting with pain and warm blood flowing down the side of her face. The man raised his gun again.

‘Look, lady, I don’t take any pleasure in hitting old women, but I do need to do this.’

He leaned down to grab the package from Protima’s hand. That was when his partner screamed from inside the SUV.

‘Greg, they’re coming. Hurry up!’

*

Protima looked beyond the man in front of her to see a crowd of at least twenty of the infected converging on the car. A couple of men in bloodied and tattered suits were mixed up with men and women wearing the rags of slum dwellers. They all had that vacant expression and many of them had blood from other victims running down the sides of their mouths. The man inside the car fired again and again, and three or four men went down, only to get back up within seconds. The man inside the car was screaming as he was pulled out and the crowd tore into him, clawing at him and biting into his face.

‘Goddamn Biters!’ the man in front of Protima growled. He shouted into his earpiece. ‘We’re under attack by Biters. Are there any other Zeus units nearby who could help?’

Zeus. Protima had heard that name before somewhere, but she had no time to think as some of the infected now came around the car towards her. The man in front of her pointed his gun at the approaching crowd, shooting several times till his magazine emptied. All he did was enrage them further, and they began to emit a high-pitched screech as they surrounded him. Protima took advantage of the situation to get back on her bike, and she pedaled away, forcing herself not to look back even when she heard the man’s screams and cries for mercy.

Now all around her she saw signs of the infection spreading. There were several dead bodies littering the street, and two of the infected wrestled down and killed a large man who had tried to fight back. She realized that while they first tried to infect others by biting them, any significant resistance led them to kill their prey.

Tears were freely streaming down Protima’s face as the world fell apart. When people at the highest levels of government had brought about such a catastrophe, what hope did a frail old woman like her have of fighting back?

Two more of the infected crossed her path, and she turned her bicycle sharply to the right to avoid them. Biters. That was what the man who had attacked her had called them. She wondered, as the infection spread around the world and more and more people fell to it, would people give it a name? Some terrible infections in the past had been trivialized by the names they had been given – bird flu, swine flu. What would this scourge be called? Would there even be enough people left to give it a name?

Now, further away from the open spaces around the Embassy, she had entered a congested market. Khan Market, if her memory served. The closely packed shops and cars parked in front of them had made it a deathtrap. Hundreds of Biters milled around and a few corpses lay around the front of the shops. A small group of policemen had tried to make a stand and Protima almost gagged at what remained of them – little more than the bloody shreds of their khaki uniforms.

The front wheel of her bicycle caught on something and her bike buckled under her. She was thrown forward, landing hard on the ground. The wind knocked out of her, Protima scrambled to get up, but slipped and fell again. She had attracted the attention of a few Biters and they were converging on her. She felt around and found a rock the size of her fist. The nearest Biter was now no more than a dozen feet away, a thin man with half his face ripped off wearing a bloodied and torn suit. Protima threw the rock as hard as she could, and it hit the Biter squarely on the head. He staggered back, but then he looked at her with vacant, red eyes and screamed, blood tricking down the sides of his mouth. Four others joined him and they came towards Protima.

Protima tried to scream for help, but not a sound came out. She tried to get back on her feet but a cold, clammy hand grabbed her leg. Suddenly, someone else grabbed her and yanked her back. Protima pulled away, but whoever was holding her was too strong. She found herself looking into the face of a young man wearing large rabbit ears on top of his head.

‘Come on!’

He pulled her behind him on his bike and as the Biters roared in anger, he rode away at high speed.

For several seconds, Protima did not say anything. Instead she just clutched her unlikely savior, thankful for her narrow escape. Finally, the man spoke.

‘Look, I need to get to my girlfriend’s place. Where can I drop you?’

Protima’s mind was a blank. Where could she go that was safe? Was anywhere safe any more?

The man spoke, a tinge of irritation in his voice. ‘You must have a home or a family somewhere?’

Protima started to say something but all that came out was a stifled sob. The man stopped the bike and turned to look at her, his voice considerably softer.

‘I’m sorry. Things are crazy and I just want to make sure she’s okay. I’ll drop you wherever you want, just tell me where.’

Protima got her first good look at him and realized that he was very young, perhaps a college student, with kind eyes.

‘Young man, you have done quite enough for me. Just drop me ahead near the India International Center. It doesn’t yet look overrun and I can see a lot of policemen in front of it.’

He took her near the gate and as she dismounted, he smiled.

‘There must be something really important in that packet you’re carrying. You didn’t let go.’

Protima looked at the bundle of documents she was carrying. Having failed to give them to Gladwell, did they really matter any more? Given how deep the conspiracy ran, would it have mattered even if she had been able to meet him? She wished the man luck as he rode away.

A dozen police constables stood in front of the India International Center. Normally the venue of high-profile conferences and meetings, it was more than likely that there were high-level government officials or diplomats stranded inside. That would certainly explain the security, though Protima doubted the policemen would be much use. Several of them were huddled around a radio, and they looked terrified.

One of them saw her approach and beckoned her. ‘Come inside, but I doubt any place is safe now. Not after what’s happening around the world.’

Protima thought he meant the spread of the infection and she told him of what she had seen in the city. When she mentioned that the Biters seemed to be killing those who tried to resist being converted, she saw more than one of the policemen visibly blanch. The one who had spoken to her pointed to the radio and said, ‘ It’s not just the bloody monsters, the whole world seems to have lost its mind.’

‘What do you mean?’

When Protima asked him what he meant, he answered, a haunted expression in his eyes.

‘Some elements in the Pakistani army launched nuclear missiles against our forward areas. It seems that Iran also launched missiles at Israel. It’s not clear what exactly is going on but I think a nuclear war is either breaking out, or is taking place as we speak.’

Protima stood, chilled by what she had heard. The conspiracy behind the spread of the infection was one thing. Did laying waste to large parts of the world through nuclear exchanges also figure as part of the ‘depopulation’ plan? And if it did, what hope was left at all for anyone?

*

Protima walked into the complex. People wandered around as if dazed. There were a few foreign diplomats, several people who had gathered for a book discussion and many members who had come with their families for lunch. Now they were trapped in a city that was fast becoming a slaughterhouse. Some people huddled around a TV in the library. The news was on, and the anchor was facing the camera and reading from a prepared script. All pretense of normality had been discarded – her clothes were crumpled, she wore no makeup, and the dark circles under her eyes were obvious. As someone off-camera prompted her, she began reading.

‘The infection is continuing to spread, and many cities are now totally cut off from all communication with the outside world. After the nuclear strike on Tel Aviv and retaliatory strikes on Tehran, the Middle East is in the grip of an all-out war. The Chinese government has for the first time publicly accused the United States of being behind this crisis by using illegal biological agents, a charge the US has denied. Tensions in the waters of Taiwan are high after two Chinese planes were shot down after approaching a US carrier. Closer to home…’

The woman paused and looked up at the camera, her eyes betraying just how horrified she was at the news she had been handed.

‘Closer to home, rogue elements in the Pakistani military took advantage of the chaos to launch tactical nuclear weapons at two forward operating bases of the Indian Army. The Prime Minister has condemned the action and said that India will react with appropriate measures.’