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"Oh yes, I'm sure a scientist has enough clout to make the government forget you dragged them into an interstellar war. That's a misdemeanor at most. Easily overlooked."
"India is eager to enter this war," said Wit. "They're as determined to wipe out the Formics as you are. China is eager for a solution to the gas. Having India develop the counteragent without China asking allows China to gain an ally without appearing weak. We didn't go begging to India, China can say. They proactively came to us. We didn't need their help, per se, but we'll gladly take it as a show of goodwill. This could birth a coalition, Shenzu."
"Be that as it may," said Shenzu, "if I help you, I would be going outside my chain of command. I would be court-martialed for treason. And if I accompany you to India, I would be tried for desertion as well. I would never see my family again."
"Then point us toward an airfield, and we'll be on our way," said Wit. "We'll say you tried to stop us, but we subdued you and escaped."
Shenzu said nothing for a moment. He looked down at his wrist pad and tapped at it for a moment. When he finished, he looked up and exhaled, as if coming to a decision. "Shaoguan Air Base is thirty kilometers southeast of us. It's a dual-use military, civilian airport in the town of Guitou. We will likely find a plane there."
"We?" said Wit. "You have a family, Shenzu. I don't want to be responsible for keeping you from them."
"If we don't stop the gas, my family won't live long enough to see me anyway. I'd rather they live and I go to prison than I do nothing and let them die."
"We'll tell the Chinese we took you kicking and screaming," said Mazer. "We'll say we had to gag you and bind you because you fought us every step of the way."
"And I never stopped singing the national anthem," said Shenzu.
"Or waving a little Chinese flag," said Mazer.
"How do we get to this airfield?" asked Wit.
"The Wujiang River," said Shenzu, pointing east. "We're close. The river runs straight southeast to the airport. I say we commandeer a boat and avoid the roads until we get Mazer another biosuit."
"If it's a military airfield," said Mazer, "how do we commandeer an aircraft without causing a scene?"
"No one will resist us," said Shenzu. "The airport fell five days ago. One of the hangars wasn't damaged in the attack, and my database indicates there is an aircraft still inside it." He looked uncomfortable. "But I should forewarn you. The army hasn't returned to the site since the attack. It won't be pleasant."
He meant corpses. Carnage. Bodies bloating in the sun for five days. The military was so overwhelmed with the fighting and so depleted of its resources that it couldn't even spare personnel to bury the dead.
They loaded their packs, grabbed their weapons, and hiked to the river. There were several large homes along the waterway with boathouses. Wit kicked in the door to one of the boathouses, and they found a small fishing boat with a decent-sized engine inside. Wit checked the fuel cell, judged it sufficient, then they loaded their gear, climbed aboard, and cast off.
They heard Chinese aircraft soaring by overhead and later spotted several Formic troop transports as well. But everything remained a few hundred meters up, and nothing dipped in their direction.
Mazer felt exposed without a biosuit. He was keenly aware that at any moment, a cloud of gas could drift into their path and envelop the boat.
He imagined, as he often did, two military officers going to Kim's home in New Zealand, their faces solemn, their hats tucked under their arms. They would be strangers to her, but she would know at once why they were there. We're so sorry, they would say. And Kim would stare at them and lean against the door frame to keep from collapsing.
Mazer should not have listed her as his next of kin. That had been a mistake. They were not married. He had wanted to leave the space blank, but the clerk doing the paperwork had insisted that he list someone. There were uncles and aunts and cousins, of course. Mother had family all over New Zealand. But they were strangers to Mazer now. After he and Father had moved to London following Mother's death, Father had made no effort to maintain contact with Mother's side. That had ended badly. Mazer's grandfather had insisted that Father give Mother a traditional Maori funeral, and Father had flatly refused. There were arguments, raised voices, harsh words, one of Mazer's uncles had moved to hit Father before being restrained. It was as vivid in Mazer's memory as the simple ceremony Father had held. It was just the two of them at the grave site. No minister, no words, no flowers. Just Father's cold hand in his and the silence between them and the smell of fresh-turned earth.
*
They docked the boat at a jetty at Guitou. The airport was close to the water. A faint, rancid, rotting smell permeated the air. It worsened as Mazer left the boat and approached the shore. When the airport came into view, he saw two long narrow runways, several hangars, and a control tower. To the east of the runways, the military had set up enough tents to house over one thousand men. There were tanks, ATVs, antiaircraft lasers, heavy-equipment transporters, EMP trucks, all the firepower needed to conduct a small offensive.
And all of it lay in ruins.
Corpses were scattered across the camp and airfield. Vehicles were overturned, burned out, and half melted. The runway was pockmarked with craters as big as a truck. The tower had burned down, leaving only its steel skeletal structure leaning dangerously to one side. Two of the hangars had completely collapsed.
No one spoke for a long moment. The smell was so strong Mazer thought he might be sick.
"They came at night," said Shenzu. "One of our antiaircraft gunners shot down a transporter, and the Formics retaliated minutes later with a swarm. The air was so thick with them at one point that in some of the satellite photos, you can barely see the ground."
"Did they gas this place?" asked Wit. "Is it safe for Mazer to even approach the hangar?"
Shenzu was holding a device in the air. "The gas has long since dissipated. All I'm getting are elevated traces of hydrogen sulfide and methane, both likely from the decomposition. As long as he doesn't touch anything, he should be okay. There are resupply trucks in the camp. We'll find an unopened biosuit there."
They made their way through the labyrinth of tents, heading toward the resupply trucks. Some of the tents had burned down; others had blown over in the wind and rain. Debris was everywhere. Pots, plates, helmets, weapons. Many of the soldiers had been roused from sleep during the attack and had run out of their tents in their undergarments. They lay in the mud among the soldiers in uniform, bloated and pasty and bleached by the sun.
All of the pathways were thick with mud. There were puddles with standing water everywhere, all of them coated with a thin layer of chemical scum.
