Red Dragons

by K W Frost

  ‘However, that is the worst possible case. I think we can limit casualties if we have a simultaneous assault from above and use the gun ships at the windows. The glass in the Sky Tower is specifically reinforced. Being a complex polycarbonate in structure, it’s capable of withstanding extreme pressures. If the troops actually fired into the tower there is no guarantee that the bullets would penetrate. If and when the bullets did manage to penetrate, the chances of the splintered or shattered glass causing greater injuries are very high. Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that.’

  ‘If so doubtful then why do it?’ asked Stulz.

  ‘Scare tactics to buy time,’ Woody explained, ‘it would take a very brave man to see a helicopter gun ship point a forty millimetre machine gun at them and for them not to care if it’s going straight through the glass.’

  ‘I see. You do have a point.’

  ‘Hopefully it’ll give the assault troops time to break in from above before they realise that they won’t be firing.’

  ‘Yes, thank you,’ replied Gray.

  ‘How are the on-ground preparations going?’ asked Thomson,

  Turning, Woody indicated to an assistant. The officer covered the end piece of their microphone and spoke to Woody.

  ‘The undercover agents are about to go in now, sir.’

  ‘Tell them to be careful, quiet and no fuss, but no hold ups either,’ Thomson commanded before turning to the table. ‘Ten plain clothed police officers are to go in and quietly move all people away from the lower floors of the Sky Tower. We are unsure if the insurgents in the tower have contact outside. It’s possible that they could have someone watching for activity at the bottom of the tower, so everyone will be checked. Once everyone is clear, we’ll bring in acetylene torches and cut our way into the stairwell. We can presume that they will have jammed the door in some way. Again, we’ll have to go carefully because the place could be booby-trapped. Once inside the tower, a special bomb disposal unit will lead the mission upwards. If I was going to cut myself off from below, I know I’d have a sensor-activated bomb somewhere in the stairwell. Powerful enough to kill a lot of people and certainly enough to destroy a portion of the stairwell to make it impassable.’

  ‘How long do you estimate that could take, Woody?’ asked Harrison.

  ‘Difficult to tell, a minimum of one and half to two hours? Probably a lot longer. It’s not a job to be rushed if we don’t want to cause an explosion.’

  ‘Too bloody long,’ muttered Hikinui.

  ‘We’ll also have electronic and electrical experts that will try to bypass the lift controls from the bottom,’ Woody continued. ‘Opinion has it that if they have the lifts locked open at the top there’s little that we can do about it.’

  Once Woody had finished explaining the plans there was silence in the room for a few seconds. Everyone recognised the harsh realities of the situation.

  Thomson was first to break the silence again.

  ‘Right there we have it,’ he said. ‘Any suggestions? Anything else we can do?’

  Silence.

  Thomson turned to his American counterpart.

  ‘Mr Smaille?’

  ‘I’m sorry but I can’t think of anything else,’ he replied. ‘You’ve covered all the bases as far as I can see. If there’s anything you find the team needs from American intelligence services you only need to ask. We want to help.’

  ‘Thank you, Mr Smaille, but at the moment I’m not sure what you can do,’ said Thomson quietly.

  He knew he was in a no win situation. His only option was to rely on a man he had only known for less than an hour. He didn’t like not being in control. There must be some other option still.

  ‘There is one thing that you can do,’ Gray offered.

  ‘What’s that, Mr Wardell?’ Thomson said quickly.

  ‘Help Child as much as you can.’

  ‘Of course, but what can we do now?’

  ‘We must keep listening, maybe he can tell us.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Thomson nodded, ‘we’ll keep at least two sets of headphones listening at all times, as well as keeping the speaker going. Now, let’s get back to work. I want to know who the target is, plus anything else about this Lah Wah place.’

  ‘There is one thing that we can do, sir?’ suggested Hikinui

  ‘Oh yes and what’s that, Matai,’ replied Thomson. Matai was Sergeant Hikinui’s first name. He thought it suited him with his being as tough as the native hardwood tree.

  ‘We can provide Child with backup.’

  ‘Backup how?’

  ‘Child has shown us that it’s possible to bungee down to the tower. I want to follow him.’

  Thomson looked slightly puzzled and then resigned.

  ‘We’ve been through this before, and you can’t go. If you did then the government loses its deniability.’

  ‘Yes, sir, do I understand,’ Hikinui stated firmly. ‘This is why I want you to accept my resignation, taken immediately.’

  Hikinui was deadly serious. He was going to do the right thing.

  Thomson looked hard at Hikinui for a moment.

  ‘If I did accept your resignation today, what would you do then, Matai?’

  ‘I would provide backup for Child. I have a sick feeling in my gut about sending him out on his own. I want to go and help,’ Hikinui said passionately. ‘If Child can do it then so can I. I would get the helicopter to take me up and drop me down, just as they did with Child.’

  ‘And if you drop and miss, you die. You could also ruin it for Child,’ Thomson countered.’

  ‘I think the risk is acceptable, sir.’

  Thomson turned to Gray, still feeling doubtful.

  ‘How long did Child think it would take for him to reach the outdoor observatory?’

  ‘At least half an hour… but hopefully no more than 45 minutes,’ Gray replied.

  ‘Right then, Matai, we’ll reassess your offer in half an hour from now. I might accept your resignation then.

  Thomson turned to the silent table.

  ‘Now does anyone have any other ideas for helping Child?’

  Harrison took a sip of his coffee. It was cold and bitter. He had forgotten to add any sugar. It did help stimulate his brain though.

  ‘We could prepare another fireworks diversion and make sure it’s ready for, if and when a distraction is required?’ suggested Harrison

  ‘Good idea,’ supported Stulz.

  ‘Already being worked on,’ said Woody. ‘We only went through half the available fireworks earlier, so they’re preparing the second half of the display. The pyromaniacs who run those things say that the next display will be even better as they’ll have more time to prepare. So, yeah, we’ve got that bit organised.’

  ‘Well that’s it then,’ Thomson finished. ‘Any other ideas are welcome, but for now it seems that we need to place our faith on Child.’

  Eight minds turned yet again to the lone man out in the darkness, clinging to the top of the tallest building in the country.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  The Australian Prime Minister, Alex Frayward, leant on the rail that lined the outside observatory, casually watching the final flickers of the fireworks die out. Like all the other politicians he had been attracted to the brief but fiery display. He turned to his New Zealand counterpart, Prime Minister Susan Dellow.

  ‘A nice little display there, Susan,’ he said loudly.

  Putting on her politician’s smile, Dellow hid her inner concerns. She thought that she knew every major detail of the APEC visit, yet there had been no mention of a fireworks display on the waterfront tonight. It had looked good and no harm was done, but she wondered who had authorised it.

  ‘Just a little item really, it does look quite spectacular from up here though, doesn’t it!’

  ‘Very impressive,’ Frayward nodded.

  Dellow looked at the people walking around on the outside deck in the freshening wind. Most were making their way back inside, but a few ha
rdy souls were still braving the worsening weather. From the south-east a dark, murky line blocked out the stars.

  As Dellow stared out at the murky line, in the distance a blinding bolt of lightning flashed against the dusky sky. Gesturing with her hand she turned to Frayward. ‘Perhaps we should go inside, it looks like it’s about to rain. Besides, hors d’euvres are about to be served.’

  Facing into the wind blowing in from the sea, Frayward nodded.

  ‘I think you’re right, let’s go in,’ he said warmly, leading the way back indoors.

  Perched high above the people milling around the observation deck, Child was also becoming increasingly concerned about the incoming front.

  Since his landing on the top of the tower, he had been steadily making his way down the spire. It wasn’t overly hard. Using a standard climbing technique, he was moving only one limb at a time, testing each hold before releasing the next. Right hand, right foot, left hand, left foot. It was slow, methodical work, and provided he didn’t look down it didn’t matter how high he was.

  It took some minutes for the rumble of thunder to register on Child’s brain. Then, glancing over his shoulder, he saw a flash of lightning and heard the crack of the thunder strike. Looking down he saw that he had made good progress down the tower and was now just above the first standing area around the tower shaft. In less than a minute, Child was standing on a platform that circled the shaft of the tower. It was barely one metre wide but to Child it felt comfortably stable.

  Child gazed out towards the approaching weather front. He knew it was going to get intensely windy and wet very soon. Being at the top of the tallest structure in the city didn’t seem advisable, yet here he was. Child immediately began to climb down the metal rungs set into the tower shaft, hoping to get as low as possible before the bad weather set in.

  Surprisingly, the front seemed to hold off and Child made it down to the next landing. The tower was widening now, and the next layer down had a profusion of wires sticking out about two meters around its circumference. This was as high as you could climb inside the tower, and there was a door showing from the outside. Child knew that this hatch was routinely locked and required a key to open it. This precaution was in place not to protect from anyone getting into the tower, but rather to prevent any wayward adventurers from climbing up inside the tower and getting out.

  Metrological equipment was also kept up at this level of the tower. Most of the equipment jutted out on metal pipes to keep it clear from any interference from the steel structure of the tower. The barometer, thermometer, wind speed and rain fall gauges all had their place, but there was one that particularly interested Child: a pollution sensitive gauge. This device measured the level of hydrocarbons, especially methane, in the atmosphere. It jutted out into the ever-increasing wind.

  Child reached behind him to grab the end of the strong cord, which he had carefully wound into a pouch and attached to the back of his belt. Using his fingers, he found the end that had been taped on the outside of the pouch. Pulling the end of the cord up and off, Child then brought the end around to his front. Carefully, Child removed the tape and pushed it onto the tower in front of him.

  He briefly wondered if it would still be there the next time the equipment was checked, and what the technician would think if they found it. It would certainly give them something to think about.

  Taking two feet of loose cord, Child folded it in half to make a loop. Next, he clicked the carabiner and a metal figure of eight onto the front of his abseiling harness. Grasping the cord tightly, he threaded it around the figure of eight. He now had the high-friction knot used by abseilers to control their descent. Pulling through two arm lengths of extra cord Child looked at the twenty millimetre pipe he was going to use as an anchorage point. Confident that it would hold him, he put two loops around the pipe and then attached the free end back onto his belt with a bowline knot. With a couple of half hitches he tidied up the loose end.

  Child climbed out, holding onto the stay with his left hand. Locking his right hand holding the cord hard under his buttocks, he slowly lowered himself until all the ropes were tight. Then, by simply keeping his legs pushed out at right angles to the tower and moving his right hand up and away from his body, Child could control his descent. He had only gone three metres when the wind hit, signaling the arrival of the bad weather front. The first gust picked Child up and tossed him off the tower.

  Only the instinctive tightening of his grip prevented Child from falling.

  Carefully, Child manoeuvred around to the northern side of the tower and found some shelter from the main force of the wind. Only then did he continue climbing down the tower.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Back at the police headquarters, everyone’s concern about the bad weather had been increasing, ever since they heard the first thunderclap through Child’s microphone. Powerless to help, they remained calm and waited.

  Ten people crowded around the table now. Ritson and Samantha had returned from dropping Child off, and the helicopter waited on top of the building. The speakerphone held most of the room’s attention, although Gray and Smaille were also intently watching the live broadcast from the Sky Tower.

  ‘Sir, we have progress,’ reported a nameless operator.

  ‘What, where?’ barked Thomson sharply.

  ‘The pedestrian level entrance has been cleared, and they’re about to started cutting through the door now. Depending on how it has been secured they could be through in half an hour, sir,’ the operator explained.

  ‘Good, thank you,’ replied Thomson. ‘We need someone down there,’ he added, almost to himself.

  A silence settled over the room. No one wanted to leave but they needed someone who knew the true situation. Someone local who could coordinate everyone and who was capable to accompany the riot squad up the thousands of stairs. In the end there was only one choice.

  ‘Inspector Harrison, you need to get down there,’ commanded Thomson.

  Harrison opened his mouth to argue, but no words came out. Everyone was looking at him. Snapping his mouth shut, Harrison nodded and turned towards the door. They all watched Harrison as he walked away.

  He was passing through the doorway when Thomson called after him.

  ‘Thanks Harry… also, I want you in full riot gear as well. You have to be one of the first people up the tower. I want all the Asian delegations under protection as soon as possible. You need to surround them with a human wall and then we’ll get them out of there. And I want all the Asian chefs isolated and neutralised. If you happen to get the wrong chef, we’ll apologize later. Got that?’

  Harrison looked back at Thomson and nodded sharply.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ he replied crisply.

  He then turned on his heel and left the room.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Up inside the Sky Tower, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mrs. Dellow, circulated and played the charming host. As the only woman to head a Pacific Rim country, she had a certain edge, and was almost non-threatening to the other male leaders.

  Dellow moved to where a small stand had been set up, and she gently tapped the edge of her crystal wine glass, gathering everyone’s attention. Dressed in a light blue, semi-formal gown which clung to her fuller figure, she was an impressive woman. She had already made several speeches this week and most had been pre-prepared political rhetoric. Her speech tonight was only going to be a few minutes long, but it would be the most important of the week.

  Looking out at the attentive faces in front of her, Dellow prepared to speak. The national leaders stood at the front, with their advisers appearing almost by magic at their sides.

  Waiting for a leader to speak in a relatively small space, with few of their normal entourage hanging around, was a new experience for some people in the room. Dellow had deliberately set it up this way.

  ‘Gentlemen, and lady,’ Dellow began, acknowledging the sole female adviser from Australia with a nod in her direction. �
�We have a unique opportunity here tonight. My government and I personally wanted to create a space, enabling more effective dialogue and deeper understanding between our nations. In this regard, developing personal relationships and confidence among leaders is something that our country would like to see enhanced. I want to get to know all of you much better.’

  Some of the faces in the room smiled openly at Dellow’s last comment, and some even chuckled slightly.

  ‘We need to understand each other,’ she continued with a smile. ‘We need to acknowledge each country’s perspective. Understand their needs and wants, and work out what we can do for them, not just what they can do for us.’

  Dellow paused to smile around the room at the assembled leaders.

  ‘As one famous American President once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. So, we do need to ask each country just that — how can we help you?’

  Dellow look around the room, noting that she still had everyone’s attention.

  ‘We need to get to know each other, for how can countries relate to each other, if their leaders cannot? We are a small nation and cannot, and will not, dictate terms to other countries. We do believe, however, that even a small voice can make a big difference. We want to help the world, not through aggression or domination, but by cooperation and compassion. That gentleman, is why we’re gathered here tonight. Cut off from the outside world for the evening, we now have a few hours to ourselves — hours that are rarely given to national leaders, a few precious hours to sit and speak honestly to each other- no notes being taken, no one interpreting discussions, no legal advisers stifling conversations. Pausing for effect, Dellow felt an almost relaxed mood in the room.

  ‘Yes friends, we have a rare opportunity tonight,’ she continued, ‘to be honest and frank with acquaintances, who are also leaders of nations. So, let us talk and circulate now — we must grasp this opportunity while we can. Tonight, we can create a friendship that could change our nations, and lead the world along a new path of moving forward together.’