Zombie Fever: Evolution by B.M. Hodges Page B

declining your offer of evacuation.”
    One of the cabinet members began to wail and the minister sitting next to him pulled his face into her bosom.
    “However, staying is our decision and our families do not deserve the same fate. They are now being assembled in a secure location and will be sent to your vessel within the next hour. Take care of them, kind sir, and we thank you for your assistance.”
    Prime Minister Cheung gestured to have the connection severed as more ministers broke out in sobs.
    Bertrand was again left in the gray light of the holoscope terminal as the screens powered down.
    He detested spending so much time playing multiple roles of ambassador, politician and subordinate. If only I had been more cautious with the field tests of IHS-2, I would still be in full control of Operation Earth-Friendly with complete authority over how to administer the project.
    But look at the bright side, he mused . All evidence of my involvement will be nothing but irradiated dust by this time tomorrow. Even if Sergeant Jayden fails to retrieve the girls, they won’t live long enough to expose Vitura’s involvement, let alone fall into the hands of Tomas. While capturing the girls and Tomas would be a bonus, he was in the clear either way. He would be able to ease back in to Operation Earth-Friendly and, one country at a time, inoculate the deserving and wealthy, unleash zombie fever on the rest and save the Earth from humanity’s disastrous unchecked population explosion.
     

 
     
    Chapter Nine
     
    Punggol Jetty and Marina
    Punggol, Singapore
     
    Behind the restaurants, Tomas found the abandoned offices of the jetty’s management. There was a maritime map of Singapore pinned on one of the walls and it gave him an idea. With his finger, he traced the blue line of the Selatar River as it snaked into the interior of Singapore, ending outside Bukit Timah near Bishan where Abigail and Jamie lived.
    It had been an hour since their scheduled rendezvous and Tomas felt he had waited long enough for the girls. With each passing minute, the chances of escaping Singapore safely with the girls diminished. Either they were trapped somewhere on the island or they were already dead. He had no choice but to venture into the interior. Somehow he felt oddly optimistic that Abigail was alive and that he would find her.
    He stepped out of the office and stealthily jogged to the enormous barn-like structure across the parking lot, its large ramp descending into the water where the freshwater river met the strait. The barn was constructed out of sheet metal and was packed with pleasure boats and water skis under different states of repair. He treaded lightly, remaining vigilant to the danger of errant zombies who may have wandered inside and became disoriented in the maze of Bayline slick riders and Yatoshi wave skimmers.
    He wished he could take a wave skimmer up the river. The trip would take ten to fifteen minutes at the most. But they were incredibly noisy and he didn’t intend to draw any unnecessary attention. So he searched for non-motorized water vehicles which he found in the aisle closest to the ramp. There, he found what he was looking for: a canoe tipped upside down and resting inside a five-man dragon boat.
    He hoisted the canoe out of the larger vessel and carried it over above his head down the ramp, gently setting it down with its hull halfway in the water. Then he jogged up the ramp and, after searching through the canoe paddles, settled on one of the wooden dragon boat paddles. It was longer, roughly fifty inches long, with a horizontal grip at the top of the vertical handle that made a “T.” He swung it around a few times and, satisfied that it would make a decent weapon, pushed off in the canoe.
    A waxing gibbous moon had risen above, nearly as bright as a full moon. It was a clear night and Tomas could see for some distance, but he wasn’t sure whether that was for the best since the infected would be able to