All we can do is press on and try to find Josh.
We are now flying closer to the Thames, going deeper into the epicentre of the outbreak and as we do, the number of Rabids we see seems to diminish somewhat. We could be kidding ourselves or maybe we’re just not seeing them, but the number roaming the streets does look like it’s going down. Are the Rabids moving outwards, looking for better hunting grounds? Has this part of the city started to exhaust its supply of fresh prey or are Dan and I just clutching at straws?
The one thing we haven’t seen is a sign of troops on the ground; has the army just abandoned this part of the city? There has been the odd piece of military transport on the ground, but all lifeless. We have seen only two helicopters in our vicinity; more are flying farther out, but here there’s nothing. They were obviously here, that is plain from the number of explosions that have hit the streets, buildings and cars below. Dan and I know full well what they look like.
St Paul's Cathedral is coming up on our left. This too, I'm afraid to say, is ablaze, smoke pouring from the top of its famous dome. The 300-year-old building survived the Blitz of the Second World War when everything around it was bombed and burnt. St Paul’s survival was seen as a sign from God in the darkest days of the war; if that was true, then God has deserted the Cathedral now. So, has he deserted the city entirely?
In front of St Paul’s, the skyscrapers of the City of London, its financial heart, seem to be faring considerably better. The Lloyds building is burning which doesn’t surprise me after my conversation—which feels like a lifetime ago—with Stacey's Dad, Jim, earlier today.
The tall skyscrapers, of the City, however, including the Leadenhall Building that her parents are trapped in, look to be mostly intact. Perhaps there is some hope for Stacey's parents, although the situation inside the building could be very different.
Across the river, South London seems almost normal by comparison, even with the fog of smoke that has settled over it. Military hardware and troops are visible patrolling the South Bank, but something tells me all is not as well as it first looks. There are at least two tell-tale fires burning that I can see, and helicopters are hovering over that side of the city as they were over North of the river earlier today. Colonel Reed said that the virus wouldn’t be contained, and it looks like he was right.
“Boss, they have just shot one on the beach trying to get out of the water in front of the Tate Modern.”
“How the fuck did it cross the water?” I ask.
“You got me, I don’t know, surely they can’t swim?” Dan replies.
“I don’t think we can put anything past these things, Dan.”
“No, I don’t think we can.”
Dan’s and my headphones come to life again with another voice and neither of us is surprised to hear Colonel Reed's voice coming through them. Dan gives me a look as if to say we are in for a major bollocking.
"Colonel Reed to Andy Richards, are you receiving, over?" He sounds angry and agitated, and who can blame him?
For a second, I debate whether to just ignore him. I know what he is going to say and nothing he utters is going to dissuade me from carrying on to try and find my son. But the Lynx containing Emily and the others will be touching down shortly if it hasn't already, so I need to try and get him back on-side.
"Receiving, Colonel. Andy here, over."
"Andy, what the hell do you think you are playing at?" the Colonel rants.
"I apologise, Colonel. I have to find my son and there was no other option, over."
"Find your son? Find your son, man? Are you insane? Your son is not a child, man, he is a serving soldier in Her Majesty's Army and doing his duty, which—I might add—is no concern of yours. You have taken it into your own hands to look after yourself and your own family, thus jeopardising the safety of others around you. You have accosted an RAF pilot, stolen a Lynx helicopter, and—where is Sir Malcolm's safe that you promised? The General has got my balls in a sling here, Andy!" he says. He really is irate.
"Sir Malcolm's computer is on the first Lynx. We couldn't get the safe out in time, over."
"So, you have let me down! Just as I thought! Did you even try, man?"
"Colonel, they were breaking through. I wasn't going to put everyone's lives at risk. If the files you need aren't on the computer, I will go back for the safe if it is feasible, over."
"And when will that be, after you have finished your little crusade? Those files are vital to this country, possibly to the world, and you have sacrificed them for one person, just because he is related to you? How is one man so special that we should—"
I have heard enough and go on the offensive, cutting him off. "Colonel, that person is my son, and yes, I place his safety above anyone else’s. Is that what you want to hear? Now, I will get the safe if needed, and if you want to help, may I suggest that you see if you can get information on my son’s battalion, over."
"You have got some bloody cheek!" the Colonel shouts. He has lost all self-control.
"That’s as may be, Colonel, but there it is. That is where we are at. I am going after my son, and the quicker that happens, the quicker we can go back for the safe; the decision is yours."
My earphones go quiet for a moment.
"I'll see what more I can find out. Stay on this channel. And God help us all."
"Keep me informed on the results with the computer, Colonel," I insist.
"Understood, over and out."
I look over at Dan and see that he is trying his best to hide back a snigger, something that he is failing to do. Strange snorts emanate from his throat.
“What the fucking hell are you finding so funny?” I ask him in all seriousness. I am not really in the mood.
“I was just thinking that the Colonel does have a point, to be fair to him.”
“And what point is that?”
“That you have a bloody cheek. You’ve just basically fucked the Colonel—and everyone else—over, and then you convince him into giving us more intel again.”
I try to think of an argument against it, but I can’t, I just feel a smile spreading along my face. “Okay, agreed. He might have a fair point.”
And we both start laughing.
Our laughter soon subsides, however, since, in front of us, the four spires of the Tower of London are now clearly visible. We pass the Walkie Talkie building on our left and HMS Belfast sitting on the river to our right. Thankfully, no smoke comes from the old Tower, in fact from this distance, the area seems disturbingly quiet and I don't like the look of it. Colonel Reed has already said that there has been no communication with Josh's battalion for at least the last couple of hours, and at the moment, there seem to be no troops or movement that would indicate they are still there.
Taking us in lower and breaking right, we fly over the shore of the river, giving us a clearer view of the Tower and its grounds. A Challenger tank is stationed on the wide walkway between the Tower grounds and the river, in line with Traitors’ Gate in the middle of the Tower’s outer walls. The tank’s long main cannon is pointing in our direction but does not move. The tank is abandoned, looking like an exhibit being displayed outside at a war museum or something. There are numerous Rabids around the Challenger, however, and in the surrounding area, most shuffling along in no particular direction as if they have lost their aim and energy.
We are close now, and almost all at once, the Rabids stop their shuffling and lift their heads looking; something has got their attention. They are all following a new sound that has caught their interest, the sound of the Lynx coming towards them. I take the Lynx across the front of the Tower and then around between the Tower and Tower Bridge, circling around the grounds. Taking it nice and steady, we fly following the outside of what was once the Tower’s moat. Now long devoid of water, an expanse of grass borders the outer walls and turreted defences of the Tower.
What we see does not give us any confidence that Josh's battalion is still in control of the Tower insi
de or outside its walls. Rabids are all around the grassed moat, and the noise from the Lynx is getting them excited. They are moving quicker now as if the Lynx’s noise recharges their energy levels. They climb onto anything they can, onto benches, onto the smaller outbuilding and the Challenger, trying to get closer to us, some jumping up into the air towards us, arms reaching up as we pass over them.
They are inside the Tower's walls too, both the outer and inner walls, dozens of them and they now seem to be trapped in there. Did the Rabids surge to get over the outer wall as they did to break into the Orion Building, or was a gate open? Rabids are jumping at and up the walls at the front by the closed entrance gates, in some futile attempt to get out so it doesn’t look like they got through an open gate. Now, the high walls trap them and there aren't enough of them inside to build high enough to get back out.
The Tower’s inner grounds are teaming with Rabids and inside the inner wall, they are running manically everywhere, over the greens and all around the famous central White Tower. Many of the buildings that surround the Tower seem overrun. Queen’s House certainly is; the half-timbered Tudor house’s windows are smashed and the doors wide open. The Tower itself seems to be sealed up, the wooden stairway that leads to the main entrance into the Tower has several Rabids on it and more are at the door at the top of the stairs, clawing at the heavy wooden door, trying to get inside.
Bodies are strewn across the ground, too many to count, inside both walls. Josh's battalion must have put up quite a fight in there but from what we are seeing now, that battle was ultimately lost.
What fills me with dread, though, is that many of the Rabids that roam are dressed in army uniforms, body armour and all. Some still have their helmets on whilst others have their rifles swinging around their bodies like unwanted toys. A deep fear grips me; any one of these Rabid soldiers could be Josh but no matter how much I strain to see, they are too far away to tell from this distance to see if he is amongst them.
“Don’t jump to any conclusions, Boss.” Dan is obviously seeing and thinking the same as me but trying to stay positive for me.
“The last we heard from him was that he was guarding the bridge,” I manage to say to Dan as positively as I can.
I take the Lynx around a full circle of the Tower’s grounds. Josh had last reported that he had been tasked with guarding Tower Bridge now directly in front of us. The two halves of the bridge’s roadway are fully raised, pointing up towards the sky, I presume to stop anyone or anything crossing the bridge over to the South side of London. Tower Bridge also has two enclosed walkways that cross the expanse at the top of the bridge, hung between the bridge’s two tall towers. Could Josh have been posted or taken refuge up there?
Slowing the Lynx down as we reach the bridge, I hover to the left, bringing us around until we are directly above the roadway leading onto the bridge; we are looking down at the first arch entry onto the bridge, with the North side tower looming behind. Bodies are piled on top of each other, the roadway at the bridge's mouth stained dark red from the litres of blood spilt onto it. The mouth itself has a hastily erected wall of sandbags across it, totally inadequate for anything more than a small attack on it, which was clearly not the case here.
My imagination sees Josh and his Company taking cover behind the sandbag wall, trying to repel the Rabids as they attacked. There would have been no retreat with the bridge’s roadway up!
“They couldn’t have defended that position for any length of time. If it was me down there, I’d have got out of there as soon as,” Dan volunteers.
“Me too, mate. But did they, and did they in time?”
In hope more than expectation, we hover higher towards the top of the bridge’s tall ornately-spired North Tower, looking for any sign that there might be somebody up there, although if there were, surely they would have taken the walkway across to the other side? We fly right around the top and hover to get the best look that we can into the walkway, but there isn’t any sign of life up there.
Out over the river, I hover the Lynx steadily and get my phone out of my pocket, asking Dan to try and raise Colonel Reed again. I have no new messages, nothing from Josh or Catherine. I have to assume that the first Lynx has landed safely, so concentrating on Josh, I try ringing him but again only get the annoyingly familiar message that it has not been possible to connect the call. Dan doesn’t have any better luck trying to raise the Colonel either.
“There is only one place that we are going to find Josh, mate, and that’s inside the Tower,” I tell Dan. “What do you think?”
“It is possible that some of his battalion are holed up in there somewhere, and it’s the only place we have left to look, Boss.”
“You saw how many hostiles are inside the walls. Do you think it’s do-able, Dan?”
“I don’t see why not, Boss. I can clear the grounds with the Mini back there before we land.” Dan seems keen.
“The Tower could be filled with them also, Dan, it’s a big risk," I say not wanting Dan to feel compelled to take that risk for a boy, not even his own flesh and blood.
"This is why we are here, Boss, we knew there would be a risk. This is the task we’ve taken on. I say we see if Josh is in there." With that, Dan pushes himself up, heading to the helicopter’s hold. "I'll prepare the Minigun; let’s do this."
The General Electric M134 Minigun is a six-barrelled rotating machine gun capable of firing between 2000 and 6000, 7.62 x 51mm rounds per minute. The awesome firepower of the gun belies its relatively compact size, making it ideal as a door gun for a smaller helicopter like the Lynx, and it’s just as effective in larger ones.
Dan pulls the hold door open on the opposite side to my pilot’s seat, sliding it back, noise and wind from the rotors comes blasting into the hold. He then rotates the Minigun out into its position, pointing out of the hold. He checks the gun over, checking its electrical power and ammo. He then straps himself into the seat mounted behind the gun, puts on his earphones and fires a small burst from the gun into the river as a test.
"Set, Boss," comes through my headset and Dan turns, giving me the thumbs-up. The look on his face is almost eager for the fight, which I completely understand and return that same look to him.
"Here we go!" I tell him.
Re-gripping the stick, I accelerate towards the second South Tower of the bridge, then swoop up and around the tower, bringing the tail around and flying back toward the Tower of London.
Chapter 17
The very short flight back over the Thames is spent trying to prepare myself for what we might find at the Tower, and I pray Josh will be alive and safe. By the way things looked from the air on our previous flyby, however, I need to prepare myself for the worst. Should we find him infected and changed, will I be capable of doing the unthinkable?
As we approach the Tower, before taking the Lynx lower to engage, I slow to scope the situation on the ground inside the walls once more, looking for the best position to mount our attack.
Ideally, I am looking for the largest concentration of Rabids so Dan can dispose of them before they can scatter. We need to get this done as fast as possible, but the grounds of the tower cover a large area with many other buildings, some of them massive, around the perimeter.
While there is no particular concentration of Rabids that I can see, Dan points to the rear of the Tower where a lot are clustered around the entrance to the Waterloo Block and the concrete concourse in front. Something must be drawing them to that block, which as the home of the Crown Jewels is highly secure, although I am sure the jewels would have been moved, probably taking priority over anyone trapped in there.
The area looks as good as any to start our attack, so dipping the Lynx's nose, I take us in.
Flying over the outer and inner walls, we are about ten feet above the height of the White Tower, hovering slowly across the grounds. Rabids are drawn to the sound of the helicopter, excited by the prospect of fresh meat. We see them running out of the buildings
that surround the perimeter of the inner wall, running towards the ground below us. This is gathering them into a larger group but not all of them; some are just staggering around and seem oblivious to our arrival, while others just stand still like statues watching the Lynx, as if waiting, waiting to see our intentions.
"Boss, the noise is drawing them in," Dan's voice comes through my earphones.
"Hold your fire, Dan, let’s get as many as we can together. They are like moths to a flame!"
"Affirmative, waiting for your order," Dan responds.
"Some are holding back, mate, be aware," I tell him.
"I see them."
Slowly, I fly the Lynx, manoeuvring around the West side of the Tower, giving time for as many Rabids as possible to follow, and the ones that do are hysterical. Fighting breaks out between themselves to get into the best position, some of them seeming to forget us completely; one pair fall to the ground in a frenzy, clawing and biting at each other.
Coming around the Tower, I take the Lynx between the Tower and the Waterloo Block, flying sideward above the concourse that separates the two buildings. The Rabids follow us down the concourse, with more of them joining from different directions; there must be a hundred or so in the group now. We pass the main entrance to the Waterloo Block with the Fusiliers Museum coming up behind us. How ironic it is that this fight is going to happen in front of a Museum dedicated to the Fusiliers, when so many of them are below us, infected with a virus that has turned the soldiers into something inhuman.
“I think we’re set, Boss.”
“Yep, agreed; just give me a second.”
I position the Lynx directly above the Museum, near enough in the middle of its flat room which hangs between four small turrets. We are now at a height just about level with the top of the Tower.
With the number of targets there are below, Dan has no chance of shooting them all if some or all scatter when he engages, no matter how many rounds his Minigun churns out a minute. A second shooter to clean up as many as possible that try to escape would be a big advantage, but all I can do is watch from the pilot’s seat and be ready to move.
Capital Falling Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 17