The Veil

by Torstein Beck

  ‘That’s why we’re here, to protect you.’ He looked over his shoulder. Bjork was poised at the edge of his cot, ready to launch himself to his feet. ‘Don’t you trust us?’ Ek said with a little laugh.

  ‘I don’t know, is there some reason you want me out there unarmed?’ Aaro narrowed his eyes.

  Ek’s smile faded as quickly as he’d gotten up. He cast a quick glance at Bjork, who looked as unsure as him. They weren’t ready to show their hand yet.

  Bjork gave a little nod and Ek let it go. ‘No, of course not,’ Ek said, grinning. ‘Whatever helps you concentrate on the task at hand.’ He held his hands up innocently.

  ‘Good. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.’ Aaro beamed.

  He pushed the case into the bag and followed Sorina to the back door, making sure not to bump Ek with his shoulder as he passed.

  She looked at him for a second, the look on her face telling him she’d just watched the exchange and her fears had been confirmed.

  Aaro was right.

  Ek didn’t know whether Aaro knew, and he couldn’t withhold the gun without giving it away.

  Aaro was just glad that he’d gotten the case. Now he wasn’t completely defenceless — they weren’t completely defenceless.

  Ek closed the hatch behind them and the tailgate started to lower. Aaro and Sorina pulled their masks on — old fashioned gas masks with a pair of filter cans on the front.

  The cold wind hit them hard, pressing their suits against their skin and chilling them to the bone instantly. The air was bitter.

  There were radios fitted inside the masks for communications with the trucks and crew and they could already hear chatter on the line.

  ‘The other team is just ahead of you,’ Ek said, his voice without emotion. ‘We’ve fed them the hull IDs they are looking for. Rendezvous with them and confirm the location of the first sub. Then they’ll help you find the next one.’

  ‘Got it,’ Aaro said calmly, trudging down the frozen road towards the harbour with Sorina in tow.

  The town surrounding was abandoned, and now, exposed to the elements and without upkeep, it was practically in ruins. Murmansk had once thrived, but during the war, conscription and parts-salvage had decimated the population and what little industry went on there. The town withered and most of the inhabitants moved south. The services and amenities started closing up and the harbour was designated as a nuclear dumping ground as it had been during the twentieth century. It was perfect for it the first time they used it and it was just as perfect the second time around — remote, with limited access via road or sea. There were still some die-hard residents left in the outlying villages and houses when the Varas showed up but the area was so far off the beaten track that no one even noticed the extermination. A sporadic call or two got through to the emergency services but they were ignored in favour of larger population centres. The people here were abandoned to die, just like the submarines.

  The houses had fallen into disrepair and those looking to salvage anything they could in the early days had stripped the meat from the bones like vultures. All that was left now were walls and overgrown streets. The trucks were parked just short of the port authority building and behind them were the subs. Black lumps in the bay.

  Aaro walked into the car park in front of the building and looked around. The town was larger than he’d thought it would be and it was unnerving to think that every building was empty. But then again, the wristbands they were given with a screen on them did say a hundred and ninety-three Rads.

  Less than a hundred would make you sick if you lived there. One to two hundred in a day would cause ARS, or Acute Radiation Syndrome, and would be lethal in prolonged circumstances. Between two hundred and a thousand in a single dose would make you seriously ill, with a bad prognosis. Extended exposure above two hundred would kill a human being. The suits would give them extra protection. Aaro just hoped it was enough. All the same, he wasn’t about to drag his feet.

  The readout in the truck had reached a hundred by the time they got to the town. It had steadily risen as they’d closed in on the port and now was teetering on two hundred. It’s why the trucks had stopped where they had.

  They had seven hours but Aaro didn’t want to spend a moment more out there than he had to. The entire place was dead. Not even the Varas dared venture here. He smiled at the thought. It would be perfect if it wasn’t for the radiation — total safety from them.

  Aaro kept pace with Sorina and they walked briskly towards the other two masked figures already nearing the docks — the other engineer and welder. They were checking hull numbers against a list.

  The temperature was just above freezing and the cold was brutal and endless. It was almost as ruthless as the Varas, and twice as incessant. By the time they met up with the others, Aaro’s hands were already numb.

  They were inside the Arctic circle here and it was easy to tell.

  Nils Ivarson and Thea Holme couldn’t have been any more different to look at, but dressed in their masks and sealed suits it was almost impossible to tell them apart unless they were side-by-side and you could pick them out based on height. Aaro couldn’t see their faces, just hear their voices in his head through the com. They gave a quick greeting to Sorina and Aaro but their disdain for the residual lethality in the air was apparent. They pushed swiftly on.

  The four of them checked twelve subs before they found the one they wanted, moored at the far end of a concrete jetty.

  The sub was huge — easily twelve metres across and ten times that in length. It sat quietly on the thin sheet of ice covering the still water in the bay. It looked tired and sad, rusting away in the farthest reaches of the world.

  The group of four took it in for a moment and then got to work. Nils beckoned to Sorina and then hurled his duffel bag across the gap and on to the top of the hull with a loud clang. Sorina did the same and then they stepped out onto the small overhang jutting off the jetty.

  There were iron rungs in the concrete, fastening points for a gangplank.

  Except there wasn’t one. It was long gone by now and there was no way across but to jump. The sub was tucked tightly into the side and secured by huge chains to stop any unwanted movement — by natural causes or otherwise — but the curve of the hull still meant there was a gap to clear. From the small precipice, it was a quick hop to the side of the sub where a ladder was cut right into the hull.

  Nils walked up without hesitation and stepped out across the gap. With a dull thud, his foot hit a rung and he was climbing. Sorina followed, albeit a little tentatively. Aaro watched her as she shuffled to the edge.

  Nils turned on the ladder. ‘Come on!’ he yelled through the comm.

  She nodded a little and readied herself before stepping backwards, her head shaking. ‘I can’t do it,’ she said exasperatedly. ‘I can’t.’

  ‘Are you kidding me?’ Nils yelled from the top of the ladder. ‘Get a move on!’

  ‘I can’t,’ she said, shaking her head. She looked at Aaro, as if for support. ‘I can’t swim.’

  Aaro raised his eyebrows under his mask — it was news to him.

  Nils swore loudly and it echoed through their heads. Berg, the gunner from the other truck, suddenly came on the line. ‘What’s the problem?’ he snapped.

  ‘Nothing, there’s no problem,’ Aaro said back, still looking at Sorina.

  ‘The hell there isn’t!’ Nils shouted again. ‘This bitch you brought can’t swim! She won’t make the climb.’

  ‘Hey, watch your fucking mouth!’ Aaro growled, pointing at Nils.

  ‘Guys, stop,’ Thea said sternly, raising her hands. ‘Sorina, you’ve got to go. We’re on the clock here.’

  ‘I can’t, what if I fall?’ she said shakily.

  ‘You won’t fall.’ Aaro stepped forward and laid his hand on her shoulder. He smiled but she couldn’t see past the mask. He tightened the shoulder strap on his bag and made the jump. It was a small gap over the i
cy water onto the ladder, but he could see where the fear might have come in. Falling into the water was as good as going toe to toe with a Vara. If he wasn’t trying to prove a point to Sorina, he might have hesitated himself.

  He climbed a few rungs and leaned backwards into space, reaching out with a hand, offering it to Sorina.

  ‘Jump,’ he said. ‘I’ve got you.’

  She hesitated again.

  ‘Come on, bitch. Before we all die of radiation poisoning!’ Nils spat.

  Aaro stayed quiet and kept his eyes on Sorina’s. He counted for her. ‘On three, ok? One, two, three.’

  She took a step and then jumped. Her arm hit his and he locked on. She swung into the hull and her foot slipped on a rung, the rubber squeaking on the steal. She almost slid into the water but Aaro held fast, her body thudding against the side.

  His shoulder jarred as he took her weight.

  He grunted as she searched for footing, his arm staining, but she found it quickly and came up the ladder behind him.

  They both mantled the sub and stood straight.

  ‘Yay, finally,’ Nils jeered, clapping. ‘Can we get on with it now?’

  And then Aaro lost it. In a second he was in Nils’ face. He snatched his mask out of the air and gripped the filter can, pulling his face towards his own. ‘Say another word and I’m going to break your fucking legs and throw you in the ocean, got it?’ Aaro snapped through the coms.

  Nils was silent, shocked by it, his hands out to the sides in submission.

  Aaro had no patience today. ‘Or maybe I’ll just pull your mask off and let you choke to death on the radiation,’ Aaro continued, shoving Nils away.

  He regained himself and cast a glance at Thea. Whether she objected or not, Aaro didn’t know, but she stayed quiet all the same, staring up at them from the dock.

  The hierarchy.

  While that reactor core was still in the sub, Aaro was more important than Nils.

  ‘I’d like to see you try,’ Nils muttered, as most cowards do, when he thought Aaro wouldn’t hear it. Except it was inside the mask and Aaro heard it clear as day.

  Aaro paused and turned. ‘What was that?’ he said coldly.

  ‘Nothing,’ Nils replied quickly.

  ‘Didn’t think so. Now, what is your job?’

  ‘Excuse me?’ answered Nils.

  ‘Your fucking job. The reason you’re here?’

  ‘Welder,’ he said bluntly.

  ‘Okay, and the job description for that involves welding, right?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Nils said quietly.

  ‘Good, so get to it.’

  Nils said nothing. He knelt at his bag and pulled out his torch and gloves. The hatches on the subs had all been sealed shut years ago and needed to be reopened.

  Sorina and Nils started on opposite sides and worked their way around while Aaro watched. Thea joined Aaro on the sub and they stood in silence.

  He wasn’t sure whether Nils and Thea were in on Berg, Ek, Bjork, and Strom’s plan, but he didn’t want to risk it. At least now, if it came down to it, he wouldn’t feel so bad about shooting Nils, the prick. Thea, he wasn’t sure about. They’d never said so much as two words to each other.

  An hour passed while they worked.

  Even in the thermal underclothes, the cold still made his bones ache. After the first twenty minutes, Berg had come on the line. ‘Hey guys, everything ok down there?’

  ‘All good,’ Thea replied happily. It was obviously put on.

  ‘Okay, we’re gonna check over some equipment so you won’t be able to raise us on the comms for a while. We’ll let you know when we’re back up, ok?’

  ‘Okay,’ Thea replied without batting an eye.

  Was it too casual though? Did she know what they wanted the radio silence for and was trying to be nonchalant? Or did she genuinely have no idea and thought it was perfectly innocent? He looked at her but her face was impossible to read behind the mask.

  And that was it. Silence from the trucks. Aaro envisioned them loading weapons and scheming about how to streamline the crew. They were unsupervised and would surely be switching over the fuel and ammunition, compiling them into one truck ready for the journey back. Making a plan for how it was all going to play out.

  He just had to keep his cool in the knowledge that he was armed. But then again they’d know that too — Berg, Strom, Ek, Bjork. And they were better armed. And trained.

  His attentions were divided between the task at hand and the problems that lay ahead. But at least he’d have some quiet to think now. How would they do it? They’d back one truck down on to the jetty so that the crane wouldn’t have to move the core too far. Maybe they’d conserve all the ammo. Load the truck, hold them at gunpoint, shut the door and drive off, stranding them there before they even knew what was happening.

  Everyone would rush to the other truck to find it empty of fuel and weapons and that would be that. If Aaro could get a look in while they were loading the core, and he spotted the weapons and supplies, he’d know. But by then it might be too late. He’d be inside the hornets’ nest. He might even get as far as to draw his Glock, but he’d have a just pistol against four trained soldiers, who’d without a doubt be armed to the teeth. It was long odds, even in a best-case scenario. He’d have to think of something else.

  Their schedule was tight so he’d have to do it at the right moment. Split them up, take them one at a time if he could. Maybe he could get Thea and Nils in on it, if they weren’t already. He didn’t want them turning on him as well. One on four was tough odds. Three on four wasn’t so bad. One on six was suicide. Sorina he couldn’t count on. He didn’t want to have to, either. There was no coming back from that.

  He sighed inside the mask. While he and Thea were working on the core, Sorina and Nils were to cut through the hull of the sub, making a flap large enough to fold down and unload the reactor. From there it was a quick trip down the ramp to the truck that would be waiting just outside. It had to be before then.

  Sometime in the next six hours, Aaro’s, Sorina’s and six others’ lives could be at risk. Robin and Alva, Sabina and Sam, Thea and Nils. They could all be dead before they left Murmansk. It would certainly make their story easier to pedal to Katarina when they got back if there was no one left to dispute it.

  Four heroes return and save Stockholm.

  Not a chance. Aaro refused to allow it.

  Over his dead body, he thought.

  Though, he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  THE BEGINNING

  2108 AD

  The path swept away from the water once more and wound into the trees. The curves were tight at speed but there was no option to let up. They emerged from a right-hander and the road straightened out, the trees thinning, the surface flattening.

  ‘What the hell?’ Aaro murmured as the headlights caught something up ahead.

  Lila’s arms tightened around him. ‘Aaro?’ she asked as he eased off the gas.

  ‘Yeah I see it.

  ‘What is it?’ She craned her neck over his head to get a better look, but in the darkness with only a dim headlight stretching into the distance, it was hard to make out.

  It was blank. He thought it might have been an overturned truck, the blank trailer blocking the road, but as they got closer, he knew it wasn’t.

  It was far away for what seemed like minutes, and then they were right on it. It rushed out to meet them — a blank grey canvas that cut right across the entire roadway. Aaro kept the throttle pinned as long as he could. If they had to find a way around he wanted to keep as much distance between them and their pursuers as possible.

  The last stretch had let them open a lead, but as soon as they slowed, he knew it would be lost.

  At the last second, he locked the back wheel and the bike skidded towards the blockade. The tyre screeched and the bike pulled sideways, clattering into it. Aaro righted himself and looked up at the concrete slab. It was blockade — ten
metres tall.

  It was flat and vertical, like the side of a building. No windows, or doors. Just solid concrete, sunk into the ground, running away from the path in both directions.

  He laid his hand on it and felt that it was cold and smooth. The realisation still hadn’t dawned.

  ‘What the hell?’ he murmured again.

  ‘What is it?’ Lila asked, entranced by the featurelessness of it.

  And then it was obvious. Running off in both directions, freshly erected and without respite.

  ‘It’s a wall…’ he said slowly, moving his hand across the surface.

  ‘A wall?’ Lila exclaimed. ‘A wall for what?’

  ‘My god. It’s the city. They’ve walled off the entire city,’ he said, his voice barely a whisper.

  ‘What? How are we going to get in?’ she said exasperatedly.

  He was about to answer when a howl rang out from behind them.

  There was no getting through, so Aaro did the only thing he could. He kicked it into first and took off again, skirting the wall. Keeping tight to it. To the side of the path, whoever had erected the wall had cleared a line of trees for it and as such a narrow corridor sat in its shadow, just wide enough for them to squeeze through. The broken ground was uneven but the cold had frozen it hard and they jolted along.

  His hands ached as they ploughed forwards.

  The wall was endless and turned out to be huge rectangular slabs twenty meters long each, laid end to end and sealed with more concrete at the joins.

  They must have been dropped in with helicopters. Big ones.

  But there had to be some sort of entrance. They wouldn’t close off the entire city without any exits, would they?

  The headlight bounced off the stumps and churned earth as they raced along, and then the trees broke and the bike jumped onto a flatter surface. They dropped from a bank and found themselves on a tarmacked road. It was blocked too, but stencilled on the wall there was a message: NO ENTRANCE. MAIN GATE ON E18.

  The E18 was the major road into the city, the one they were on to begin with. The one with all the people. It wasn’t far. If Aaro was right, and he hoped he was, it was a few minutes away at most.