'What's your name?' Johanson asked abruptly.

'What?' The soldier's gaze wobbled. Then he raised his gun and pointed it at Johanson.

'No!' screamed Weaver.

Johanson looked into the barrel of the gun and spoke softly: 'Could you tell us your name, please?'

The soldier hesitated.

'We need to know your name,' said Johanson, in the tone of a friendly parish priest.

'MacMillan. I'm… My name is MacMillan.'

Weaver realised what Johanson was up to. The best way to bring someone back to normality was to remind them of who they were.

'Thank you, MacMillan. Good. Now, listen, we need your help. This vessel is sinking. It's imperative that we go through with our last experiment. It could save us all.'

'All of us?'

'Do you have family, MacMillan?'

'Why do you need to know?'

'Tell me where they live, MacMillan.'

'Boston.' The boy's face crumpled. He started to cry. 'But Boston's-'

'I know,' Johanson said urgently. 'Listen, there's something we can do to stop all this. To stop everything – even in Boston. But we need your help. And we need it now. Your family's lives could be hanging in the balance with every second we waste.'

'Please help us,' said Weaver. 'Please.'

The soldier looked from one to the other. He snuffled and lowered his gun. 'Will you get us out of here?' he asked.

'Yes.' Weaver nodded. 'I promise.' What the hell are you talking about? she thought. You can't promise anything. Not a thing.

The secret laboratory seemed unscathed. The floor was covered with broken glass, but otherwise everything seemed to be in its rightful place. A few monitors flickered in the background.

'Now, where would he have put those cylinders?' Li wondered aloud.

She slid her gun back into its holster. The room was deserted. She'd expected to see a blue glow emanating from the miniature tank, but then she remembered that Rubin had tested the toxin – very success fully, as he'd assured her. She peered through one of the portholes. Nothing. No organism. No glow.

Peak wandered among the benches and cabinets. 'Over here,' he called.

Li hurried over. A stand had toppled over, leaving a collection of slim, torpedo-shaped cylinders in a heap, each just under a metre long. They picked them up one by one. Two were noticeably heavier than the others, and Li spotted the markings on their sides. Rubin had drawn on them in permanent ink. Look, Sal,' she said, mesmerised. 'I'm holding the new world order in my hands.'

'I see.' A test-tube rolled off the side of one of the benches and shattered with a tinkle. 'In that case let's get the new world order out of here.'

Li let out a peal of laughter. She passed a cylinder to Peak and walked out of the lab with the other. 'In five minutes' time I'm going to send the yrr into the underworld forever, you can depend on it.'

'Who're you going to take down with you? Is Mick still alive, do you think?'

'I don't give a shit about Mick.'

'I could come.'

'Well, that's incredibly generous of you, Sal, but exactly how were you planning to help? The last thing I need is you bawling your eyes out because you can't stand the thought of me killing a lump of blue slime.'

'That's different and you know it. There's a hell of a difference between-'

They were almost at the companionway. Someone was approaching from the opposite direction, running with his head down.

'Leon!'

Anawak stopped abruptly. They were very close. Only the entrance to the companionway lay between them.

'Jude, Sal…' Anawak stared at them. 'What a surprise.'

What a surprise. It was pathetic. The man couldn't act even though his life depended on it. From the moment Li had looked into his eyes she'd known that Anawak knew everything.

'Where've you been?' she asked.

'I'm… Well, I can't find the others so…'

She was running out of time. Maybe he was looking for his friends, or maybe he was up to something. It didn't matter. Anawak was in the way.

Li drew her gun.

Flight Deck

Crowe had been behind Shankar as they walked out on to the roof, but then she'd been stopped. 'Wait there,' said a man in uniform.

'But I've got to-'

'You'll be in the next group.'

Two Super Stallions had left the deck already and two more were waiting beside the island, one parked in front of the other. Shankar turned to her as he ran with the group of soldiers and civilians towards a chopper. The enormous flight deck was sloping more dramatically than ever, but it was so big that it looked as though the foaming, raging sea was tilting, rather than the ship.

'I'll see you later,' shouted Shankar. 'You'll be on the next flight.'

Crowe watched as he hurried up the ramp that rose under the tail and into the belly of the Super Stallion. A glacial wind lashed her face. The evacuation was going pretty much to plan. So she'd just have to be patient. But where were the others? Leon, Sigur, Karen…

Maybe they'd left already.

It was a reassuring thought. The hatch closed behind Shankar. The rotors spun faster.

Hull

Barely thirty metres below the flight deck the flood of seawater was pushing up against the bulkheads of the forward cargo compartments and the lower troop berthing. A single torpedo floated in the water. It had been released when the submersible exploded but its charge hadn't detonated. That was unusual, but by no means unheard of. After being propelled by the water into one of the munitions magazines, it had sunk into a metal storage cage that had been partially wrenched out of position and now was shifting up and down in the darkness. It rolled gently from side to side, advancing centimetre by centimetre, in line with the vessel's inclination.

The bulkheads stood firm, but the cage screeched and groaned with the pressure. The struts to which it was still attached began to buckle under the strain. Fine fracture lines opened in the steel of the magazine's wall. One of the sturdy attachment bolts was being dragged out of its fixing, its thread stripping under the strain…

With an almighty bang it was free.

The tension that had been building was instantaneously released. The cage jerked up, as the bolts shot out and the partition collapsed. In the turmoil, the torpedo was catapulted towards a spot that bordered on the cargo holds at the bow, the vast living quarters for the marines and the empty vehicle deck below the lab.

It was one of the most sensitive intersection points on the ship.

This time the explosive didn't fail.

03 LEVEL

'No,' said Peak. He dropped the cylinder and turned his gun on Li. 'You can't do that.'

Li's pistol was still trained on Anawak. 'Sal, I've had enough of your insubordination,' she hissed.

'Put the gun down.'

'For Christ's sake, Sal! I'll have you court-martialled, I'll-'

'On the count of three I'm going to shoot. I'm serious, Jude. I'm not going to stand by and let you keep killing people. Now, put the gun down. One… Two…'

Li exhaled noisily and lowered it. 'Are you happy now?'

'Drop it.'

'Why don't we just talk this over and-'

'Drop it!'

An expression of pure hatred filled Li's eyes. The weapon clattered to the deck.

Anawak glanced at Peak. 'Thanks,' he said, and hounded to the companionway. He disappeared down it and his footsteps faded. Li swore.

'General Commander Judith Li,' Peak said solemnly, I'm relieving you of your command on the grounds of insanity. From now on you will follow my orders. You may-'

The ship gave a terrible lurch and plunged forward. Peak thudded down, rolled over and scrambled up. Where was his gun? Where was Li?