They synchronised their watches and rested until the following morning. Mercy and Rose parted company with Barnes on Constitution Avenue Northeast. Mercy led the way down 4th Street to Seward Square. The distant booming continued from Lincoln Park. The streets were trope free, most of the doors were plastered with tattered evacuation notices from the Fall two years previously. Some buildings were fire damaged, other areas were flooded.
Wildlife trails crisscrossed the overgrown public spaces. They spotted deer and racoon near Folger Park. Garfield Park was alive with pigeons and squirrels. Mercy’s stomach rumbled.
A catapult or slingshot would be useful here. Those MREs are OK but you can’t beat real food. What I wouldn’t give for a large plate of spaghetti Bolognese with lots of parmesan cheese… or hash browns, bacon and eggs… and soda, endless soda—
Mercy’s mouth watered, she smacked her lips then shook her head. She pushed food from her mind. They moved along Virginia Avenue Southeast and joined the heavily overgrown Virginia Railway Express tracks running under the freeway. They picked their way to 3rd Street Southwest and stopped just short of Federal Center Southwest Metro Station. Mercy knelt, surveying the street ahead.
Jesus, they’ve encased the Metro entrance in concrete—
“Looks like a fucking bunker,” Rose whispered.
“Yeah, visitors definitely not welcome. Check out the steam coming from that vent. There’s activity under there—” Mercy said.
“Looks like Barnes was right, they’re using the Metro for access to the Mall. They’ll be bringing in supplies underground—”
“That’s our way in then,” Mercy said. “Holy shit, wait—”
“What?” Rose tensed.
“Surveillance cameras, ahead. The place is riddled with them—” Mercy pointed up 3rd Street at a pole-mounted camera across from the Metro station. Another camera was visible at the next junction.
“Shit,” Rose said. “Did we miss any on the way here?” She glanced back, concern etched on her face.
Mercy scrutinised the street behind. “No, I think we’re OK. Let’s pull back, security’s too tight ahead—”
“It means we’re getting close,” Rose muttered.
They crept back to the VRE tracks and sat, despondent, in the long grass.
“Hope we weren’t seen,” Rose whispered.
Mercy kicked at the ground. “No, if we had we’d know about it by now. They’d be all over us like a rash—”
“Well, we’ve found out; yes, they’re using the subway and no, we’re not getting into one of those bunker stations. This whole area near the Smithsonian is sewn up tight as a racoon’s ass—”
Bunker stations—
“Wait a minute,” Mercy said. She turned to Rose. “Rose, that’s it… that’s fucking it, girl—”
“What—?”
“I’d forgotten, but remember Rick, the guy we rescued from the FEMA camp. The DC firefighter?”
Rose frowned then smiled, “Yeah… yeah, yeah—”
Mercy took out the map.
“Stadium-Armory Metro Station, Blue line. That’s what Rick said. That’s the line they were using. If Rick and his family got out of DC using Stadium-Armory we might be able to get into the Mall that way—”
Rose traced her finger across the map, “The next Metro down from Stadium-Armory is Eastern Market, we could check it out.”
Mercy shook her head, “No, Rick’s intel is our way in. Let’s stick to what we know, we were lucky not to get caught here with those cameras. They could have cameras around Eastern Market too. Let’s go straight to Stadium-Armory. Rick would’ve mentioned if there’d been cameras there—”
Rose nodded and spat on the ground as if to seal the deal. “That works. Next stop Stadium-Armory.”
Chapter 34
Stadium-Armory
An hour and a half later Mercy and Rose were at the junction of Independence Avenue Southeast and 19th Street Southeast.
“There it is, Stadium-Armory Metro Station,” Mercy said, checking the map.
“That’s about a hundred metres away,” Rose said.
“OK, so describe what you see,” Mercy whispered.
Rose took a deep breath. “Usual street crap, big hangar of a building, looks deserted; that’ll be the armory. What else? Yeah, well, the Metro Station… so, not a concrete bunker affair, not like the Federal Center Station. Don’t see any cameras—”
Mercy looked at the sky, “No drones either.”
Rose cracked her knuckles, “And no steaming vents.”
“Yeah, it looks disused. This is where Rick and his family would’ve gotten out. Blue line, he said, under the river to Capitol Heights Metro Station on the other side—”
“So, where’s the way in? Rick said something about a separate fire department access hatch in Capitol Heights. So, there must be fire department access here too, either that or he forced the entrance to the station itself.”
“Either way, we need to check the main entrance first,” Mercy said.
Rose looked at her watch, “You wanna wait until dark?”
“Let’s get closer, if there’s no cameras or drones I think we could risk it. Come on—”
They crept towards the Metro Station keeping to the long grass and weeds at the side of the road. They stopped twenty yards from the station’s entrance canopy.
“We’ll watch it for an hour, if there’s nothing suspicious we go in—” Mercy lay on her stomach and peered through the foliage at the Metro entrance across the street.
An uneventful hour later they broke cover and descended the steps to the Metro entrance. Steel accordion gates blocked the way. Mercy tried the lock, rattling the gates. “Heavy duty, that. We’d need plastic explosives to breach it—”
Rose flinched, “Yeah, well, we ain’t got none. Anyway, that’d be like waving a flag and saying: Here guys, we’re over here.”
“Well Rick obviously didn’t get access here. The Fire Department access must be somewhere else. Come on, back up to the street; let’s figure this out—”
They retraced their steps and looked up and down 19th Street.
Mercy narrowed her eyes and focused south, “So, if you’re gonna put a Fire Department access hatch somewhere it’d have to be where you could park your fire trucks… so you’re gonna need a lot of space—”
Rose pointed, “There, at the junction, there’s a whole corner concreted over. It’s set back from the road. Let’s take a look—”
They walked to the junction and searched the open area.
“Over here Rose, check this out,” Mercy said, kneeling down.
Mercy examined a large hatch embedded in the concrete.
“Look, scratch marks here and here. This must be where Rick and his family got in, the lock looks forced. I reckon we could lift one side up, here… give me a hand—” Mercy pulled out her knife and inserted it into the damaged lock. She levered the hatch up, allowing Rose to pull it open. They stared down a shaft, a ladder disappeared into the darkness.
“That’s got to be it,” Rose said.
Mercy swallowed, “Come on—”
They climbed into the shaft. Rose closed the hatch after them. They reached the bottom of the ladder five minutes later. Mercy lit the Zippo and proceeded down a concrete-lined tunnel. After twenty yards they emerged into a larger tunnel. Rail tracks extended in both directions, swallowed up by the darkness.
“Bingo,” Rose whispered. “Hang on, I’ve just remembered; I took a candle from Barnes’s stash.” She rummaged in her pack and pulled out a candle.
“Good job Rose,” Mercy said. She lit the candle.
The tunnel was cold and silent. Their breath misted in the damp air. Mercy shivered.
“Come on, this way should take us back to the city—” Mercy turned right and started walking along the tracks.
Twenty minutes later the tracks curved to the right. Mercy checked her map. “We should be nearing Eastern Market station.”
They rounded a corner and stopped. Mercy crouched and extinguished the candle.
“What the hell is that?” Rose said.
A lattice of red beams crisscrossed the tunnel thirty yards away.
“Shit. It’s some form of laser alarm system, part of their security perimeter. If we breach that they’d be on us in minutes,” Mercy’s jaw clenched, a dull ache gnawed in the back of her head.
Another fucking headache—
Rose stared at the array of red beams ahead. “There’s no way we’re gonna disable that thing without them knowing.” She slumped back against the wall.
Mercy sat on the tracks, her fists clenched. “There’s got to be a way—”
A deep rumble reverberated through the tunnel.
“What’s that?” Rose hissed.
“Wait, look—” Mercy pointed ahead.
The rumbling grew louder. Lights flickered on beyond the laser lattice. A cart appeared from a side passage and moved slowly and noisily along the far track.
“Come on,” Mercy whispered.
They crept closer to the laser lattice and watched as six carts emerged from the roughly-hewn side passage onto the main track. The carts were piled high with body bags. A deep boom resonated in the distance.
That shit’s coming from above—
“Oh my god. Those bags are coming from the tower in Lincoln Park. That’s the harpooned alphas right there, they’ve come down the chute into those carts. There’s loads of them—” Mercy said.
“They’ll be going to the Cobalt Biotech labs… under the Smithsonian. We’re this close—” Rose replied, she swore under her breath.
Mercy watched the carts disappear down the main tunnel. “I reckon we could hold on underneath them, the clearance is good. If we could just get through that laser wall—”
The overhead lighting went out. The distant booming from the side tunnel continued its hellish beat.
Feels like the mine—
Rose tapped Mercy’s shoulder, “Come on, this was only meant to be a recon mission. We’re not going to figure a way in today. Let’s get back to Barnes and debrief, we’ll see what he’s found out—”
They moved away from the laser barrier. Mercy lit the candle once they were at a safe distance.
We’ll find a way you bastards… we’ll find a way—
Chapter 35
Oblivion
The rendezvous with Barnes went off without a hitch. Two hours later they were sitting in a second floor room overlooking Folger Park.
“Yeah, there are regular NSA patrols this end of the Mall; usually six man teams. They do sweeps around the wall and into the surrounding streets. I didn’t see any trucks or vehicles down Constitution Avenue. I could scope out Independence Avenue tomorrow… I spotted a good OP—”
Mercy chewed her lip, thinking.
“So what did you see?” Barnes asked, handing Rose an MRE.
Rose brought Barnes up to date. He listened without interrupting, his face blank. Mercy stood near the window overlooking Folger Park. Rose finished her account and began eating. Barnes eyed Mercy’s back, a thoughtful look on his face.
“So… what’s it to be?” Barnes asked Mercy. His words hung heavy in the air.
“We’re going in by the Metro,” Mercy replied, still staring at the park outside. Her breath misted the window. “We’ll breach the laser security system, we’ll have between two to four minutes before they send a squad down to investigate. If we capture a couple of tropes we can make it look like they’ve wandered down the tunnel and triggered the laser alarm. The NSA will neutralise them, they’ll want to find out where the breach was. They’ll send a team down the tracks to do a sweep. We’ll be in by then. Rick said there were maintenance bays, places to hide along the tracks. We can lie low and catch a ride on one of those carts, they move slow enough. They’ll take us all the way in, under the wall—”
Barnes sighed. Rose stopped chewing her food.
Mercy turned to face them. “Go on, talk to me.”
“That’s… direct,” Barnes said.
Rose nodded, “I like it—”
Barnes smiled, “KISS. It’s a US Navy acronym. Keep it simple, stupid. It’s a good plan. It could work, but there’s a lotta variables in there—”
Mercy nodded, “Of course… we need to talk it through.”
Rose swallowed a mouthful of stew. “It’d be good to have better equipment; uniforms, torches, frags, more ammo. More food… more antiserum in case Barnes gets bit—”
Barnes tapped his breast pocket, “I got me a couple of vials from the two guys I capped.”
“OK, so we could use some uniforms and some new gear. Let’s set up an ambush… with planning we could take out a patrol. Speak to me—” Mercy sat on the floor and opened her MRE.
Barnes pulled at his beard then tapped the map, “Here. Union Station, we could draw them in here, set a fire as a diversion. We could capture a bunch of tropes, corral them in the station. There’s loads of them coming down the tracks from Baltimore, Rockville, Bethesda. If we could get a dozen tropes then lure the patrol into the station, we could spring the tropes on them. Boom, pandemonium. We can pick the NSA off as they fight the tropes. Easy—”
Mercy closed her eyes, thinking. She shook her head, “Not sure that’s KISS enough. They could call it in before they investigate. It’s pretty unusual nowadays for a building to go on fire. All that shit happened back in the Fall, not so much now. They’d know there’s likely to be people responsible. No, they could hold their position out on the street and radio for back-up, then we’d be screwed. Or they could send in those DARPA robots or drones. It’s a good plan, but I reckon the NSA would be careful. They’re experienced at this shit now. I don’t think they’d fall for that—”
“Rose? Any ideas?” Mercy asked.
“KISS,” Rose said, her voice thoughtful. “The Angels ambushed the Flyers once, back in Hell’s Kitchen. We had smoke; a burning tyre down one end of the street, to get their attention. We stationed sharpshooters on the first floor either side of the street. We had a couple of kids with shopping trolleys full of food as bait. Yeah, it drew them in alright. Then we wasted the bastards—”
Barnes tapped the map again. “Street ambush it is then, there’s only three of us though. Just saying. The potential for one of us… or all of us getting hurt is high, but if we get the timing right and we nail them in an effective crossfire we could pull it off. See here,” he tapped the map, “they patrolled this area today.”
“2nd Street, 3rd Street Northeast,” Mercy said, scrutinising the map. “OK, so 3rd Street looks promising. You think they’d patrol this same area again tomorrow?”
Barnes shrugged, “It’s possible, I saw other patrols way off down Constitution Avenue but this area is east of the top end of the Mall so it would make sense. We can watch what they do tomorrow and if it looks promising we could get in position ahead of them. My rifle is silenced. You could use my silenced pistol to take out the rear-guard and maybe the next in line, if you get close enough. Rose could be concealed ahead with an M16, and once the shit hits the fan she could lay down some fire on the lead guys.”
Mercy returned to the window chewing her food. “That’s it then, we’ll be flexible, we’ll adapt. At first light we’ll go and check out these streets, find the best ambush spots and wait, we’ll see what they do.”
Rose grunted as she lay down, “I meant to say we lost two of our girls to eight of them Flyer bastards in our ambush. It was a win, but it cost us. Those Flyers got the point of our ballistic therapy though. People only really respond to pain. The Flyers kept to their own turf after that—”
“Tomorrow it is then,” Barnes said.
They kept their eyes on the NSA patrol from the roof of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Barnes adjusted his scope. “They’re moving down 3rd Street Northeast. They’ll either turn right on East Capitol Street back to the wall or they’ll cross the junction and continue on
3rd Street Southeast—”
Mercy examined the map. “3rd Street Southeast is OK. How long do you think we’ve got?”
Barnes adjusted his scope. “There’s a lot of crap on the road. They’re moving slowly, checking random buildings. Reckon we’ve got… twenty minutes max—”
Mercy took a deep breath, “Barnes, you good to stay here?”
Barnes nodded, “Yeah, good field of fire from up here.”
Mercy looked at Barnes and Rose. “Just remember, nobody shoot until they rumble me. I’m the first to attack, from the rear like we planned. Let’s get out there Rose.”
Mercy and Rose left the library and crossed the road, ducking behind abandoned vehicles. Mercy took up position on the steps to a basement flat, at the top end of the street. Rose hid herself under a truck fifty yards down the street. Mercy checked her watch.
Five, ten minutes to spare. NSA are moving tactically, their men are roughly ten metres apart. I stand a chance of getting the sweeper at the back, maybe his buddy if he doesn’t turn around. After that it’s a crapshoot—
Mercy looked down at her jacket.
Wish I had some body armour. Shit this is insane, what are we doing? No, no, stick to the plan, keep your shit together—
The NSA patrol paused at the junction of 3rd Street Northeast and East Capitol Street Northeast. The soldier behind the point man pulled out a map and spoke into a hand held radio. A minute later the patrol was on the move.
They’re coming. Fuck, this is happening—
Mercy hunkered down on the basement steps and peered through a tangle of ivy and long grass onto the street. She clutched Barnes’s silenced Glock 19 and watched as the patrol passed by, thirty feet away. She counted the soldiers as they crossed her line of sight.
Four, five… six. Now—
Mercy crept up from the basement and ducked through the weeds to a battered SUV on the kerb. She took a breath, swung around the front of the vehicle and flanked the rearmost NSA soldier. He was looking at the library on the other side of the road.
Mercy took two steps towards him and aimed. He turned around, a look of surprise on his face. She squeezed the trigger twice. Her first silenced round caught him in the face, her second round entered his neck. He crumpled in a heap. Mercy ran onto the road and closed the gap with the next soldier, she stopped five feet behind him and aimed. She double tapped the soldier hitting him twice in the base of the skull, dropping him quickly. The next NSA soldier in line swung around and shouted out in alarm. Rose’s M16 exploded into action further down the street.
The Survival Chronicles (Book 6): Dark Mercy Page 24