“One, one . . . one, one,” Gonzales said, his head falling forward onto his chest. “Eleven eleven.”
“Somebody fill me in,” Hawkeye said.
Madison stood straight again.
“It’s a number that millions of people in the world have started to see,” the scientist explained. “Do a simple Google search and you’ll discover that the number is being discussed in thousands of Internet forums. People see the number on any number of digital displays — clocks, car dashboards, radios, you name it. It’s not uncommon for the time displayed to be 1:11 or 11:11 after a power outage. The number also appears with anomalous statistical frequency on license plates, sales slips, and just about anywhere you might expect to see numerals. That’s why I said that it was probably not necessarily attributable to magnetism alone. That having been said, every human gives off an electromagnetic signature, so maybe Es Vedra is enhancing the phenomenon.”
“That’s correct,” came the voice of Joshua Amergris. “Many researchers have concluded that the number’s appearance is a classic case of Jung’s belief in acausal events precipitated by the collective human unconscious. Known to most as synchronicity.”
“What’s the significance of the number?” Hawkeye asked with exasperation. “We may be surrounded by hostile forces, and — ”
“Something hard-wired into the human brain is trying to call our attention to this number,” Ambergris interrupted. “Even if only at a subconscious level. Many believe the number to be a symbol of an imminent evolutionary leap for the human species.”
His head still lowered, Gonzales spoke in a garbled whisper. “Boren . . . in . . . eleven . . . eleven . . .”
Gonzalez’s chest heaved. He then exhaled, a long hiss escaping his colorless lips.
It was his last breath.
86TH FLOOR, JIN MAO TOWER, SHANGHAI, CHINA
The man sat behind his desk, dressed impeccably. He wore a navy blue Armani suit, gold cufflinks, and a pair of thousand-dollar loafers. His yellow tie was knotted perfectly. His room was ultra modern and dimly lit. Glass and chrome were accented with a mahogany desk, a teak library table, and soft leather chairs and couches. Of Chinese birth, he looked much younger than his fifty-four years would indicate. His former mistresses had believed him to be in his thirties.
A young Chinese man wearing a plain black suit entered the wooden double doors that offered admittance to the office.
“The data from Es Vedra has been successfully obtained, Mr. Yang,” said the younger man.
Li Soo Yang stood and walked to the glass window that represented the entire wall that allowed a spectacular view of the modern city of Shanghai. Still an hour before dawn, the lights of the city shone brightly. He clasped his hands behind his back. “Aiko?”
“Alive.”
“Have she left Savage Bay yet?”
“Regrettably, no. She is still encountering resistance.”
Yang turned back toward the interior of the room.
“Let me know when she and her forces are en route.”
“Very well,” said the younger man. He bowed and left.
Yang once again beheld the sparkling city below. He would bring salvation to the city’s population. Indeed, he would bring salvation to the world.
Chapter 24
OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA
Quiz eyed the enemy submarine on the flat-screen to the right of his station.
“Troops moving from the sub into Savage Bay,” said Quiz. “Approximately twenty commandos, fully armed.”
“Did you hear that, Mr. Hawke?” said Mrs. Caine.
“Affirmative,” said Hawkeye. “I imagine they’ll be coming through the cargo bay. That should buy us some time.”
* They could be going anywhere in the base. So many places to hide. Or die. Savage Bay is a real hell. *
You’re right. Not terribly optimistic, but right.
“Tracking their movements,” said Quiz.
“Another interesting development is showing on my instruments,” Touchdown said.
“Your developments have been decidedly negative,” remarked Mrs. Caine.
“As is this one,” said Touchdown. “I’m showing a radiation leak from the aft section of the sub. Only twenty-five rads, which is pretty harmless.”
“Is that why Dragons are leaving the ship?” asked Caine. “Is the leak perhaps more serious inside the ship?”
“Unknown. The Chinese may simply be venting a small amount of nuclear material from their reactor. Could be standard operating procedure.”
“Until further notice,” Caine said, “no operating procedure at Savage Bay will be regarded as standard. Take extreme caution, Hawkeye.”
Laughter came through the speaker.
“Extreme is what Titan does best,” said Hawkeye.
* The man has a point *
He always does.
TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY
“Where’s the passageway up into the mountain, Nigel?” Hawkeye was eager to find Dominique Caine.
“It should be within five meters of us,” the IT specialist replied.
“Look for a utility closet of some kind,” advised Cruz. “Anything from janitorial to storage to an electrical station.”
“There’s an ordinary wooden door right in front of us,” said Tank. “No keypad. Just a knob.”
The door read:
CIRCUITS 100-150
CAUTION
HIGH VOLTAGE
“Try it,” said Cruz.
Shooter opened the door, rushed into the room, assault rifle lowered. “Empty.”
Surprisingly, the electrical station had a back door — and it was wide open.
“An invitation?” asked Gator.
“If it is, we’re accepting,” said Hawkeye. “Let’s go. There’s company come late to the party down in the cargo bay.”
Hawkeye in the lead, the team entered the passageway, which sloped upwards at a thirty-degree angle. Long, broad steps were spaced ten feet apart. Light bulbs protected by wire mesh weakly illuminated the passage. The team advanced twenty yards up the gradual incline.
“Look out, Hawkeye!” cried Touchdown. “They’re everywhere!”
OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA
“Red avatars!” said Touchdown. “Now entering the angled passageway from several rooms and smaller corridors. Talk about hornets swarming from a nest!”
The renewed holographic display clearly showed Chinese forces converging on Titan Six.
“The Americans must have had one hell of a contingent here decades ago,” said Cruz. “So many rooms.”
No one responded to her remarks. All eyes were fixed on Touchdown’s flat-screen display.
TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY
Commandos emerged into the passageway in front of Titan Six — and behind.
Gator, Pyro, and Madison wheeled around and commenced firing.
Shooter, Tank, Hawkeye, and Battenford fired straight ahead.
“Crossfire’s a bitch!” called Pyro.
Eighteen Dragons opened up fire in the passageway. Nine commandoes - three lines with three soldiers each — fired with savage determination from the front; nine more attacked from the rear.
The sound of gunfire was deafening in the confined space. At Savage Bay, it was midnight on New Year’s Eve, and the Chinese soldiers were attempting to ring in an unholy New Year with deadly force.
“I’m hit!” cried Madison.
“Everybody drop on the count of three!” Hawkeye yelled.
The Dragons advanced. The first line of three in both the front and rear fell, dead in their booted tracks.
“One, two, three!” Hawkeye cried. “Now!”
The Dragons kept firing straight ahead, taking out the next line of their own forces on either side.
“Keep firing!” ordered Hawkeye.
Gator had time to swing his SAW into position and sprayed the last three Dragons with a barrage of deadly steel. Their arms flailed like out-of-control
puppets. Blood spattered everywhere.
Ahead, flowers of blood also bloomed in a dozen different spots on Dragon uniforms as a hundred bullets ripped through their bodies.
The acrid smell of gunfire filled the passageway. Shell casings rolled down the inclined steps in the eerie silence that suddenly hovered within the passage.
“Touchdown,” said Hawkeye. “Can we get up now?”
Silence.
“Touchdown?”
“Yeah, Hawkeye. You can get up. I show no other avatars.”
“You okay, Madison?” asked Hawkeye.
“They got me in the shoulder.”
“I’ve been hit in the same leg again,” Pyro said, staggering to his feet.
“Releasing additional pain killers and antibiotics into Pyro’s bloodstream,” Touchdown announced. “Extra clotting factor as well.”
Shooter shrugged as she shouldered her assault weapon.
Tank glanced at her nonchalance.
Shooter grinned. “Scenario forty-seven in Shotgun Alley.”
“But does Chantal get a bedtime story every night?” asked Tank.
“I’m a good mama,” Shooter said, pointing a finger at her comrade.
“That you are,” admitted Tank, smiling.
***
“Let’s find out what’s so special about this passageway,” said Hawkeye.
The team searched several rooms, most being living quarters. Up ahead, however, was a high-tech lab with stainless steel walls.
“Good Lord!” uttered Madison.
On wall-mounted plasma screens and holographic displays like the one in Ops, the iconic, spiraling double helix ladders for DNA revolved slowly, revealing the nucleotide base pairs of adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, abbreviated by scientists as A, T, G, and C.
“Did you know about this lab, Dr. Madison?” asked Hawkeye.
“No. This is an unwelcome revelation to me.”
Battenford examined one of the computers. “These aren’t even connected to the off-grid network I spoke of a few minutes ago. Only to the mainframe on Level One.”
“Aim your helmet cams at those screens,” said an excited Dr. Ambergris. “We need to record this.”
Thirty seconds later, every screen in the lab went dark.
Replacing the double helixes was the image of Commander Saturo Aiko. Her lifeless round eyes stared at the team, appearing to see nothing and yet everything.
“No peeking,” Aiko said in flawless English.
She smiled, the white scar on her cheek forming a distorted C-shape. “You’re outnumbered, Titan Six. I advise you to lay down your arms.”
“Why don’t you go f — ”
The voice of Hawkeye broke off abruptly. The screens went totally blank.
OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA
“Radiation level now at 100 rads,” Touchdown said. “If the radiation goes no higher and spreads slowly, then Titan probably won’t be affected.”
“Probably is not a word I can live with,” Caine said.
“The two guards below the conning tower are no longer there,” Quiz said.
“The sub’s systems are becoming operational,” Touchdown said. “The entire aft section is emitting an electromagnetic signature that matches that of a submarine about to put out to sea.”
Quiz leaned back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head. “I don’t see how it can go anywhere with that steel door clamping its tail. Maybe the internal systems are operational because the Chinese are trying to purge the sub of radiation.”
“Stay on top if it,” Caine said. “We don’t know what they’re up to.”
“Except that they’re loading gear through a hatch behind the conning tower,” said Quiz, pointing to his screen.
Five Dragons were boarding the sub, each carrying large leather bags.
“I’ll lay money that they’re carrying Genesis data,” Ambergris stated.
“Not a bet I would take,” said Caine.
TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY
The door to the lab slid shut.
“Swipe your card, Doctor,” said Hawkeye. “Let’s get out of here.”
Madison made the swipe, but the door didn’t budge. He tried it a second time with the same result. He manually punched keys on the pad’s number grid, but the door was immovable.
“We’ve been locked in,” said Tank.
“I think we’re in a spot of trouble,” declared Battenford.
Hawkeye rolled his eyes.
“Ops, is there any other way out of the lab?” Hawkeye asked.
“Checking,” said Touchdown.
A moment elapsed. Then another.
“Negative, Titan Six,” said Touchdown.
“Let me blast that sucker,” said Gator.
“Have at it,” said Hawkeye. “Everybody else move to the side and get behind a counter.”
Gator opened up his M249. The door’s interior was slightly pitted at the end of sixty seconds.
“That door should be in fragments,” Hawkeye said, his ears ringing.
Tank approached the door. “I think it’s made of some kind of titanium alloy.”
“This is obviously no ordinary lab,” said Madison. “Whatever was on those screens must have been tantamount to the Holy Grail of Genesis research.”
“In other words,” said Hawkeye, “somebody left you out of the loop.”
Madison nodded. “My guess would be Dr. Boren. It appears even Dominique was in the dark.”
“Radiation levels have risen, Mr. Hawke,” came the voice of Mrs. Caine.
“Get back to us when you have some good news,” Hawkeye said.
There was silence in the team’s helmet COM systems.
Complete silence.
Chapter 25
OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA
Caine turned to Cruz.
“Any ideas?”
The lovely Isabella reached behind her head and bunched her long black hair into a ponytail. She then rubbed her face with the palms of her hands and sighed. “Some of the more important rooms left out of the blueprints had sophisticated ventilation systems so equipment wouldn’t overheat. These systems would be serviceable only from the room’s exterior.”
“I’m not showing anything outside that room,” Touchdown said.
“I’m talking about a ladder attached to the rock wall,” Cruz said. “Too many metallic ores in the mountain’s outcropping. A ladder wouldn’t be visible to any imaging outside the room.”
“They need to make a hole in the lab’s rear wall,” said DJ.
“We copy,” said Hawkeye.
“If there’s no ladder,” said Caine, “my daughter’s life may be forfeited.” She paused. “If she’s not dead already.”
TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY
“Feel like ruining a wall?” Hawkeye asked Gator.
“It’s what I live for.”
“Good. Make a small hole several feet to the right of the ventilation grate in the ceiling. If there’s a ladder, we don’t want to pulverize it.”
Gator nodded and held up his SAW as the others once again stepped aside. Gator pulled the trigger, releasing a powerful ten-second burst. A jagged two-foot opening was created in the lab’s rear wall.
Hawkeye moved to the hole and stuck his head and right arm through. He shone a slim but powerful flashlight at the brown, jagged interior of the mountain. The air behind the lab was cool and damp.
“She’s right,” Hawkeye said. “There’s a ladder leading to the top of the lab near the ventilation system. It probably controls the airflow for the entire passageway. But . . . ”
He paused.
“But what?” asked Tank.
“The ladder isn’t more than ten to twelve inches wide. And it’s old and rusty. I’m not sure it would hold the weight of one person let alone seven. Plus we’re carrying even more weight when you factor in our gear.”
“Then we go one at a time at intervals of thirty seconds,” Tank said.
“I’m staying behind,” Pyro said.
“The hell you are,” Hawkeye said emphatically.
“I’ve been hit in the leg twice,” Pyro countered. “I’m mobile thanks to the BioMEMS, but that doesn’t mean I can handle a ladder.”
“Well, you’re going to have to try,” Hawkeye said. “As a former Marine, I still adhere to Corps’ principles: no one gets left behind.”
“He’ll have to go first,” reasoned Tank. “Should he . . . um . . . you know, slip or something, then he could fall on the rest of us.”
Hawkeye nodded. “Agreed.”
The order of descent was determined: Pyro, Shooter, Tank, Madison, Battenford, Gator, and Hawkeye.
Ten minutes later, all team members plus Battenford and Madison were hanging precariously to a ladder mounted against the reddish-brown rock inside Es Vedra.
Using the strength of his hands and one leg, Pyro let himself down slowly and carefully one rung at a time. He didn’t slip.
It was Dr. Madison who lost his grip. He held on by one hand as his body swung to the right, crashing into rock.
The ladder vibrated, the right railing dipping three inches. It had become partially dislodged from the mountain.
86th FLOOR, JIN MAO TOWER, SHANGHAI, CHINA
Admiral Chen Hwai-su stood before the desk of Li Soo Yang.
“I take it you have something to report, Admiral?”
“Yes.”
The Admiral was short but muscular. He stood in full dress uniform, his hat removed, revealing a bald scalp.
“Proceed,” said Yang.
“Our missiles are fueled and standing by. We can launch whenever you give the word.”
“Is the second submarine in place?”
“It is currently in the Mediterranean. One bird should suffice to destroy the Alamiranta. It will have the electronic signal of a North Korean missile. Torpedoes are available and ready as well.”
Yang nodded. “Catherine Caine would stop at nothing to recover the data we have appropriated from Triad Genomics. It is regrettable but necessary.”
“I concur,” said Hwai-su.
“Our submarine at Savage Bay must first be totally clear of Es Vedra.”
Savage Bay Page 15