The Swarm: A Novel

by Frank Schätzing

  ‘By the time they deployed the crabs they seemed to have learned from that mistake,’ said Oliviera. ‘The crabs stayed stable.’

  ‘What do you mean, stable?’ Rubin pursed his lips. ‘They died almost as soon as they reached land.’

  ‘That’s irrelevant,’ retorted Johanson. ‘Their mission had already been accomplished. These creatures are all destined for an early death. They’re not trying to colonise our world. It’s purely an attack. Whichever way you look at it, humans would never fight a war like this. Why approach from the sea? What possible reason could anyone have for manipulating the genes of organisms that live several kilometres underwater - like vent crabs, for instance? You won’t find any humans at work here. All this is designed to discover our weak points. They’re experimenting - and, more than that, they’re trying to distract us.’

  ‘Distract us?’ echoed Peak.

  ‘Yes. The enemy is attacking on all fronts at once. Some of the attacks cause nightmare scenarios, others are more of a nuisance, but the main thing is, they succeed in keeping us busy. They’re needling us, which means we don’t notice what’s really going on. In our eagerness to limit the damage, we’re blind to the ultimate threat. We’re like circus clowns, balancing a series of plates on poles. All the time we’re running from one pole to the next to keep the plates spinning and stop them crashing to the ground. As soon as we’ve spun the last plate, we have to rush back to the first. But the number of plates exceeds our powers of juggling. We won’t be able to cope with the volume of attacks. Individually, whale attacks and disappearing fish stocks wouldn’t be much of a worry. But taken together, they fulfil their purpose, which is to paralyse and overwhelm us. If the phenomena continue to spread, governments are going to lose control, other states will take advantage of the situation, and there’ll be regional, maybe even international, conflicts. The trouble will get out of hand, and no one will be able to stop it. We’ll undermine our own strength. International aid organisations will collapse, and medical supply networks will be overstretched. The barrage of head-on assaults serves to mask what’s silently unfolding in the depths, and soon we won’t have the technology, energy, know-how or even the time to prevent it.’

  ‘Prevent what?’ asked Vanderbilt, in a bored voice.

  ‘The annihilation of mankind.’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘Isn’t it obvious? They’ve decided to deal with us in the same way that we deal with pests. They want to wipe us out.’

  ‘I’ve heard enough of this bull.’

  ‘Before we wipe out all the life in the sea.’

  The CIA chief lumbered to his feet and pointed a trembling finger at Johanson. ‘That’s the biggest pile of crap I’ve ever heard. We summoned you here to deal with a crisis. Are you trying to tell us that those, uh, dogooding aliens from The Abyss have come back to wag their fingers at us because we’ve been misbehaving?’

  ‘The Abyss?’ Johanson thought for a moment. ‘Oh, I see. No, I wasn’t thinking of creatures like that. They were extra-terrestrials.’

  ‘It’s the same kind of crap.’

  ‘Actually, no. In The Abyss the alien creatures come from space. The film makes them out to be a nicer version of humans. They’re supposed to have a moral message. The main difference, though, is that those aliens aren’t interested in toppling us from our throne at the top of terrestrial evolution, which is what any intelligent species that had developed in parallel to us and that shared our planet would want to do.’

  ‘Dr Johanson!’ Vanderbilt pulled out a handkerchief, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. ‘You’re not a professional snoop like me. You don’t have the benefit of my experience. You’ve done a great job in keeping us entertained for these past fifteen minutes, but the first thing you’ve got to do when you’re trying to get to the bottom of a mess like this is to ask yourself who gains. Who stands to gain? That’s how you get on the scent. Not by poking around like—’

  ‘No one stands to gain,’ said a voice.

  Vanderbilt heaved himself round.

  ‘That’s just it, Vanderbilt.’ Bohrmann had risen to his feet. ‘Last night Kiel finished modelling the scenarios for what’s likely to happen if further continental slopes collapse.’

  ‘I know,’ Vanderbilt said brusquely. ‘Tsunamis and methane. We’ll have a spot of bother with the climate—’

  ‘No,’ said Bohrmann. ‘Not a spot of bother. It’s a death sentence. We all know what happened fifty-five million years ago, the last time enormous quantities of methane were released into the atmosphere—’

  ‘Know? Come on, it was fifty-five million years ago.’

  ‘We reconstructed what happened - and now we’re predicting that the same thing will happen again. Tsunamis are going to hit the coastlines and wipe out coastal populations. Then the surface of the Earth will get warmer, and it will keep getting warmer until we all die out. That’s everyone, Mr Vanderbilt, including the Middle East and all your terrorists. The dissociation of the hydrate reserves in the western Pacific and off the east coast of America would be enough to kill us all.’

  There was a deathly hush.

  ‘And there’ll be nothing,’ said Johanson softly, looking at Vanderbilt, ‘absolutely nothing you can do. You won’t even know where to start. And because you’ve been dealing with all those whales, sharks, mussels, jellies, crabs, killer algae and invisible cable-munching monsters, you won’t have had time to prepare. In fact, you won’t even have been able to peek under water, because all your divers, dive robots and other gadgets will have disappeared.’

  ‘How long will it take for the atmosphere to heat up sufficiently to pose a threat to humanity?’ asked Li.

  Bohrmann frowned. ‘A few hundred years, I guess.’

  ‘That’s OK, then,’ growled Vanderbilt.

  ‘On the contrary,’ said Johanson. ‘If these creatures have launched their crusade because we’re threatening their habitat, they’ve got to get rid of us fast. A few hundred years are nothing in the context of the history of the planet, but mankind has inflicted incredible damage in no time at all. So they’ve quietly decided to go one step further. They’ve stopped the Gulf Stream.’

  Bohrmann stared at him. ‘They’ve what?’

  ‘It’s stopped already,’ Weaver spoke up. ‘OK, so maybe there’s still a weak current, but it’s practically gone. The world had better start bracing itself for another ice age. It’s going to get seriously cold within the next century. It may come sooner than that - in forty or fifty years’ time, or perhaps even earlier.’

  ‘Hang on,’ Peak called. ‘Methane’s going to heat up the planet. We know that for a fact. The climate might shift. But how does that fit with the Gulf Stream causing an ice age? What the hell happens then? Do two catastrophes balance each other out?’

  Weaver turned towards him. ‘I’d say they make things worse.’

  If at first it seemed that Vanderbilt was alone in vehemently rejecting the theory, over the next hour the situation changed. The assembly split into two camps that were locked in bitter combat. Everything that had happened was rolled out and picked over again. The first anomalies. The rampaging whales. The circumstances leading to the discovery of the worms. It was like watching a rugby match, as arguments were tossed back and forth, then knocked out of play by rhetorical elbows, allowing one side to surge forwards, flanked by the opposition, then thwarted by its tricks. But behind all the manoeuvring was an impulse that Anawak recognised: some people couldn’t countenance the existence of a parallel intelligence that challenged the supremacy of mankind. They didn’t voice their outrage, but Anawak - versed in debates about animal intelligence - could hear it. An undercurrent of aggression entered the debate. The split caused by Johanson’s theory wasn’t merely scientific; it created a schism within a group of experts who were, first and foremost, people. Vanderbilt counted Rubin, Frost, Roche, Shankar and a hesitant Peak on his side, while Johanson was backed by Li, Oliviera, Fenwick, Ford, Bohrmann and A
nawak. At first the intelligence agents and diplomats looked on in silence, then one by one they joined the scrum.

  It was astonishing.

  Johanson would never have expected it, but the professional spies, arch-conservative defence advisers and counter-terrorist experts were almost unanimously on his side. One commented, ‘I’m a reasonable kind of guy. If I hear something that seems to make sense, I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. If the alternative explanation has to be pounded into shape before it fits the mould of our experience, it seems to me that it’s unlikely to be true.’

  Peak was the first to desert from Vanderbilt’s team. Frost, Shankar and Roche followed suit.

  In the end, an exhausted Vanderbilt suggested they take a break.

  They left the room and headed for the buffet, where fresh juice, coffee and cake awaited them. Weaver squeezed in next to Anawak. ‘You didn’t take much persuading,’ she said. ‘How come?’

  Anawak looked at her and smiled. ‘Coffee?’

  ‘Yes, please. And milk.’

  He poured it and handed her the cup. Weaver was only marginally smaller than him. Suddenly it struck him that he’d liked her ever since he’d set eyes on her, when he’d seen her on the forecourt of the Chateau.

  ‘I suppose not,’ he said. ‘It’s a well-reasoned theory.’

  ‘Is that all? Or does it have something to do with you believing in animal intelligence?’

  ‘I don’t. I just believe in intelligence in general. Animals are animals and people are people. If we could prove that dolphins are as intelligent as we are then, logically, they wouldn’t be animals.’

  ‘Do you think that’s so?’

  ‘No. And if we judge them by human criteria we’ll never know. Do you think humans are intelligent?’

  Weaver laughed. ‘If you’re talking about one human, yes…but lots of them together make an unenlightened mob.’

  That was his kind of answer. ‘Exactly! And the same applies to—’

  ‘Dr Anawak?’ One of the intelligence agents was hurrying towards him. ‘You’re Dr Anawak, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You’re wanted on the phone.’

  Anawak frowned. They weren’t directly contactable in the Chateau, but there was a number for relatives to call in case of emergencies. Li had asked the delegates to distribute it with caution. Shoemaker had the number. Did anyone else?

  ‘It’s in the lobby,’ said the man. ‘Or would you like me to have the call transferred to your room?’

  ‘No, that’s fine. I can come right away.’

  ‘See you later,’ Weaver called after him.

  He followed the man through the lobby. A row of makeshift telephone booths had been erected in a side aisle.

  ‘Take this one, right here,’ said the man. ‘I’ll get the call put through to you. The phone will ring. Answer it, and you’ll be connected with Tofino.’

  Shoemaker.

  Anawak waited. It rang. He picked up. ‘Leon,’ said Shoemaker, ‘sorry to disturb you. I know you’ve got important stuff to do but—’

  ‘No problem. Thanks for dinner last night. It was great.’

  ‘Oh, yes…Right…Well, I’m afraid this is important too. It’s, um…’ Shoemaker sighed. ‘Leon, I’ve got some sad news. We had a call from Cape Dorset.’

  It was as though someone had pulled the carpet from under his feet. He knew what was coming.

  ‘Leon, your father’s died.’

  He stood motionless in the phone booth.

  ‘Leon?’

  ‘It’s OK, I…’

  But it wasn’t OK at all.

  Li

  ‘Extra-terrestrials?’ The President seemed remarkably composed.

  ‘Not exactly,’ said Li. They’d been through this countless times already. ‘Not extra-terrestrials, inhabitants of our planet. A rival species, if you like.’

  The Chateau was hooked up via satellite link to Offutt Air Force Base. In addition to the President, the delegation in Offutt was made up of the defense secretary, the assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the secretary of Homeland Security, the secretary of state and the director of the CIA. There could no longer be any doubt that Washington would suffer the same fate as New York. The city had been evacuated, and practically the entire cabinet had decamped to Nebraska. The retreat inland had gone largely to plan: this time they’d been prepared for it.

  Li, Vanderbilt and Peak were participating in the briefing from the Chateau. Li could tell that the Offutt contingent loathed being stuck at the air base. The CIA director longed to be back in his office on the sixth floor of the agency’s headquarters on the Potomac River. He secretly envied the director of Counter-terrorism who had flatly refused to evacuate his staff.

  ‘Get your people to safety,’ he’d ordered him.

  ‘This isn’t a natural disaster, this is a planned attack,’ the reply had come. ‘A terrorist attack. We need those guys in the Global Response Center to stay at their computers and keep working. Their role is crucial. They’re our window on terrorism, and they’re not going anywhere.’

  ‘New York is under siege from biological killers,’ the CIA director had countered. ‘Don’t you know what’s happening there? Washington won’t be any different.’

  ‘The Global Response Center wasn’t created so that it could close its doors at the critical moment.’

  ‘Sure, but those guys could die.’

  ‘Then they’ll die.’

  The defense secretary was also wishing himself back in his spacious office at the Pentagon, and the President was by nature the sort of person who had to be held down to prevent him commandeering a plane and flying back to the White House. People could say what they liked about him, but he wasn’t a coward. In fact, he was so unflinching that some of his critics suspected he was simply too stupid to experience fear.

  Offutt Air Force Base had all the facilities to serve as a seat of government, but they’d had to flee there. And that, Li figured, was why the idea of intelligent oceanic beings had met with instant approbation. The thought of fleeing from a human adversary, whose offensive had left them stymied, was too much of a humiliation for the administration to bear. Johanson’s theory cast events in a different light. Retrospectively it cleared the intelligence agents, the Department of Defense and the President of blame.

  ‘So what do you think,’ the President asked the council, ‘is this possible or not?’

  ‘What I personally believe doesn’t matter either way,’ the defense secretary said tersely. ‘The scientists at the Chateau are the experts. If they think this is the explanation, then we need to take it seriously and consider our next step.’

  ‘Take it seriously?’ Vanderbilt echoed incredulously. ‘Aliens? Little green men?’

  ‘They’re not aliens as such,’ Li put in patiently.

  ‘I guess it presents us with an entirely new dilemma,’ said the secretary of state. ‘Supposing the theory’s right. How much do we divulge to the public?’

  ‘To the public?’ the CIA director queried. ‘Nothing. The whole world would be plunged into chaos.’

  ‘It already is in chaos.’

  ‘That’s not the point. The media would hang us out to dry. They’d say we’d gone nuts. They’d never believe us. They wouldn’t want to believe us. The existence of another intelligent species would shake the foundations of what it means to be human.’

  ‘That’s a religious issue.’ The defense secretary made a dismissive gesture. ‘Politically speaking, it’s irrelevant.’

  ‘Politics are irrelevant,’ said Peak. ‘There’s nothing out there but suffering and fear. You should take a trip to Manhattan and see for yourself. People who’ve never been to church are praying on their knees.’

  The President gazed thoughtfully at the ceiling. ‘We need to reflect,’ he said, ‘on what the Lord’s intention might be.’

  ‘With all due respect, sir, I wasn’t aware He was part of this co
uncil,’ said Vanderbilt. ‘He isn’t even on our side.’

  ‘That’s a pretty bad attitude, Jack.’ The President frowned.

  ‘Good, bad, what does it matter? I judge an opinion on whether it makes sense. Everyone here seems to think there’s some truth to this theory. Which makes me wonder if I’m the dope or—’

  ‘Jack,’ the CIA director warned him.

  ‘Oh, I’d be happy to concede that it’s me - once I’ve seen some proof. I’m not going to believe in this gang of bad guys in the water until I’ve spoken to the little schmucks in person. But until then you need to think seriously before you dismiss the possibility of a large-scale terrorist attack. We can’t afford to let down our guard.’

  Li laid a hand on his arm. ‘Jack, why would terrorists attack us from the depths?’

  ‘To make people like you believe we’re being bullied by E.T. And it’s working, for Christ’s sake - it’s actually working.’

  ‘We’re not stupid, you know,’ the national security adviser said irritably. ‘No one’s going to let down their guard. Frankly, Vanderbilt, your terrorism obsession isn’t going to get us anywhere. We can search all we like for crazed mullahs and stinking rich arch-villains, but in the meantime the continental slope’s going to cave in, our cities will be flooded and innocent Americans will die. So what do you suggest we do?’

  Vanderbilt crossed his arms. He looked like a smouldering Buddha.

  ‘You know what, Jack?’ Li said slowly. ‘I think you just made a suggestion.’

  ‘Namely?’

  ‘To talk to the little schmucks. Make contact.’