Warhead by Andy Remic

children.
    —Children sob for parents.
    — And a terrible final silence descends.

    Screen fades to black; TEXT [scrolling L > R/ silver lettering FONT LUCIDA SANS]: SPIRAL are a group of rogue soldiers working throughout the world to bring down your New World Government—the very World Government which saved YOU from the biological horrors of the HATE biological virus and the accidentally detonated military nuclear warheads. SPIRAL kill indiscriminately in their war of terror. EVERYBODY out there has the potential to discover a SPIRAL agent ... EVERYBODY out there has a duty to their fellow men, women and children—a duty to wipe this FILTH from the planet. Do the RIGHT thing, call the NEX AGENCY NOW! on 0999 999 999 or text/cube your information. All information is treated in the strictest confidence.

    Audio:
    — Soft violin music; a haunting and harrowing solo, lilting and gentle.
    —DON’T BE AFRAID—PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN AND OUR MODERN WORLD ... HELP THE NEX ANTI-SPIRAL UNITS TO HELP YOU—HELP THE NEX TO RIGHT THIS TERRIBLE DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF WRONG.
    SCENE DISSOLVES TO SILVER

CHAPTER 4

ASSASSINATION

    T he low sleek alloy Manta skimmed over the churning waves, spray spitting up over the cockpit, the speed filling Carter with exhilaration and a sense of freedom.
    As dawn broke the Manta banked right, heading north. Carter’s euphoria gave way to a sense of foreboding. Nicky had smiled and nodded, filling him with the reassurances he needed; she had taken Joseph in her arms, his head snuggling to her chest as he fell instantly into a deep sleep. She had smiled, as if to say, ‘There, you see?’ Carter had reluctantly thrown his pack into the black craft and used the recessed steps to mount up into the cockpit—closely followed by Ed in his worn old GPs.
    ‘Now, you look after my little boy,’ Carter had called down.
    ‘Just get out of here and save your friends ... Jesus, if you can’t trust Joseph with me, then you can’t trust him with anybody!’
    Carter nodded, closed the cockpit canopy, and within a minute was airborne and screaming low over the Med.
    Now, heading inland and with the weather turning bleaker and wilder by the minute, Carter thought back to that conversation and his own deep-rooted suspicions born from the loss of love: the loss of his Natasha, Joseph’s mother.
    ‘You OK?’ came Ed’s gravelled voice from the copilot’s seat behind.
    ‘Yeah. Just worried about my boy.’
    ‘He’ll do fine, Carter. It’s yourself you should be worried about. This is no easy gig.’
    ‘Yeah, London fucking gangland with a wanted face like mine. All I need. Maybe I should paint my arse orange and stand on top of Big Ben! I’m sure that would present a less obvious target.’
    They swept low over rain-drenched forests and rolling fields through the gloomy autumn ice-light. Below, nothing moved—no man, woman or child could be seen, no cars on the roads, no pedestrians standing on pavements and staring up as the Manta cruised past.
    Occasionally they spotted—on the radar or ECscans—columns of armoured vehicles; Nex-led convoys of tanks and FukTruks, usually ferrying infantry across the countryside that had become a desolate wilderness.
    HATE had seen to that.
    A wonder of military, biological and chemical design, the HATE virus—when released over non-urban areas—would spread to the concrete outskirts of major towns and cities, killing all in its path. In effect, it would force populations into heavily built-up conurbations — herding humans (and certain types of animal) into areas where they could be either easily policed or easily exterminated.
    HATE, invented by a team of American, British, Russian, Japanese and German military scientists, had ironically been used by Durell against the very people whom it had been developed to protect.
    Spiral operatives maintained their freedom of movement through this poisoned world by the use of Spiral-developed anti-HATE drugs. But as with any