"I'd be happy to."
"Thank you."
The two men led the way out into the open area. The crowd, still splintered into smaller groups, hushed noticeably, and Pierce and Wilson proceeded directly through the people toward the raised platform at the other end of the room. Elias, Leah, Matt, Lisa, and Sam walked to the rear of the assemblage, which was already turning to face the front.
"E.C.!"
Elias, startled by the familiar voice, scanned the group for the face. Within moments he saw Marilyn politely working her way back toward him. As she drew nearer, her eyes momentarily left his and moved to the side. That was when she spotted Leah, and her eyes flew wide open. Her pace abruptly increased; by the time she reached Elias and Leah, she was running.
"Leah! My God, you're alive!"
All Leah could do was hold her old friend and say nothing as they emotionally embraced, the moment eliciting tears from them both. Elias stood patiently as they held each other. Twice Marilyn leaned back and stared at Leah's face, convincing herself that this was all real. The third time, her hand came out from behind Leah's back, and she grabbed Elias' hand, gripping it tightly. The three stood this way as Matt and his family moved a respectful distance away, giving them privacy.
During their reunion, Pierce began speaking from the front of the room.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid I have some astounding news. I have just been briefed by John Wilson Chapman and his associates on recent developments pertaining to Aegis, and the rest of the world…."
As he talked, Marilyn finally stepped back from Leah and opened her mouth to speak, when Elias suggested that they move away from the gathering. Following his advice, they walked away and rounded the same corner from which Elias and Leah had earlier arrived. Convinced they were out of earshot of any members of Madison, Marilyn, holding both of Leah's hands, stared at her and said, "Honey, what happened? We all thought you were dead. We were sure of it."
Leah grinned back at her friend and joked, "Don't know if it was Churchill or Mark Twain who said it, but reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
She then went on to tell of her abduction and captivity for the past two years, downplaying the torture aspects and occasionally even finding a way to make light of her travails. With all of the years Marilyn had spent working within the intelligence community, her mind filled in the details, unbeckoned. As Leah neared the end of her narrative, Elias joined the discussion, filling Marilyn in on the plot they had uncovered. Whenever Faulk's role was mentioned, Marilyn's face contorted into a mask of rage and hatred, but she kept her words to herself until they had finished and Elias asked, "Why are you here in Aegis?" and added hastily, "Not that I'm not incredibly happy to see you."
"I found out the bastard sent you here to die."
"Faulk was never sloppy," Elias said, surprised. "How did you discover that?"
"You're right. He never let anything slip through. But maybe, with this planned epidemic so close to happening, he actually became distracted."
"Or," Leah suggested, "it was so close to the event that he decided it didn't matter if you did find out. Kind of his way to torture you a little before the end."
Marilyn nodded. "That fits him to ‘T.' I'll bet you're right."
"Specifically, Marilyn, what did you find out? How was he planning on killing me? And how did you discover it?"
"I was processing and routing outgoing communication for the day. As you know, the highest-level communications are encrypted by the sender personally. That's when I found this…unencrypted."
She reached into her purse and pulled out a folded sheet of paper, handing it to Elias. As he unfolded it and read it, Leah looked over his shoulder, reading it at the same time.
The message was from Faulk and was directed to someone referred to only as Dragon:
You are absolutely correct. With the discovery of the anomalous winds at Aegis, we cannot guarantee effective dispersion of the infectious agent into this facility. I believe that I have utilized this as a means to resolve multiple issues. I have persuaded E.C. to enter the compound. He has orders to eradicate Aegis. My personal knowledge and experience with this operative is that he cannot be relied upon to carry out this assignment; in fact, I would be surprised if he did. However, we have supplied him with Incendergel ordnance, enhanced to accomplish the objective effectively. And to compensate for the predicable actions of E.C., we have altered the detonator mechanism. Should he place the charges, the entire string of incendiary devices will detonate upon arming of the final unit in the series, regardless of the programmed time. If he fails to place and set the charges, the timing device is programmed to self-activate and detonate the entire batch of charges autonomously, overriding the disarm mode. In the interim, we will attempt to utilize his captivity within Aegis for the purposes discussed previously.
R.F.
Elias' blood turned cold. He dropped the message and whirled around, taking off at a full run, followed by Leah. As he ran, he yelled over his shoulder, "Use Faulk's phone! Call Sweezea!"
He did not bother to look back to confirm that she was doing it. Within minutes, he found what he was looking for…an atrium. Slamming the door open, he ran in, his eyes sweeping over the dirt for the telltale glint of the grate covering the storm drain, his adrenalin making him impervious to the bitter cold. He was able to spot the drain, which was almost obscured by silt, and angled his course to reach it, as Leah shouted from behind, "There's no answer!"
"They must already be in the tunnel. I bet there's no reception down there."
He reached the grate and shoved his fingers roughly through the slots, in the process abrading one of his fingers badly. Heaving the cover upward, Elias lifted the heavy round disk and tossed it aside. The grate slammed into the dirt, raising a cloud of dust which whipped around them both, stinging their eyes.
Blindly, his feet thrashed about inside the riser until finding the embedded steel rungs. He descended quickly, Leah right behind. Taking only a second to get his bearings, Elias once again pulled out his flashlight and ran through the storm drain in the direction of the retention basin. He was not certain where this particular pipe would terminate in the circumference wall of the basin, in relationship to the overflow pipe that he and Tillie had traveled earlier, the outflow tunnel which was now Sweezea's, Tillie's, and Crabill's destination.
He heard the steady treads of Leah, who had no flashlight of her own, following closely. As he ran, his mind independently calculated times: the time it would have taken Sweezea to get Crabill and the two bombs they had in the utility room; the time they would have needed to locate the devices which had been seized by Faulk's team and pick them up; the time they would take to transport the charges through the storm system and through the overflow tunnel; the time needed to place the charges and then…flip the switch on the final device. Adding up the times, and subtracting the amount of time elapsed since Tillie and Sweezea left the meeting, gave Elias a sickening feeling. There was no time left.
Elias reached the basin and nearly ran off the end of the drainage pipe into the black abyss, scrabbling to stop at the last moment. Leah skidded to an awkward halt behind him. Seeing the abrupt termination of their path, she narrowly avoided bumping Elias, who was still wavering on the edge. He cupped his mouth and shouted, "SWEEZEA…TILLIE…CRABILL!"
"One more to go," Sweezea grunted as he lifted the safety cover on the arming button and flipped the switch, illuminating the red light that indicated the bomb was armed. He stood and walked to Tillie, moving beyond Crabill, who was holding his rifle in ready mode and watching the dark tunnel for any of the outsiders who might have already found the entrance and come in past the snakes.
He was about to speak, when he paused, listening for a moment. "Did you hear something?"
Tillie cocked her head and listened. "No. What did it sound like?"
"I'm not sure, probably nothing. But I thought it was someone yelling."
Elias' ears were only rewarded by the echoes of his own voice, but his eyes saw a dim, flickering light coming from his left at a point below the lip where he stood with Leah.
He pointed. "That's the outflow tunnel. They're in there."
"That means they've already arrived with the charges and are setting them."
"Afraid so."
He stepped out onto the narrow ledge and walked briskly toward the light, shining the beam of his flashlight straight down at his feet so Leah could follow in the glow. In very little time they reached the rope tied to the eyebolt.
"You go ahead," Leah stated firmly. "You have the only flashlight and it's stupid to send me down first to wait for you or the other way around. Just go. I'll come down in the dark and follow the light."
He knew she was right, and said nothing, tucking the flashlight into his back pocket. He grabbed the rope and rappeled down.
Hitting the concrete running, Elias retrieved the flashlight from his back pocket. Holding it as he sprinted caused the beam to bounce and jitter crazily before him. He knew that they would place the devices from the farthest point first, working their way back toward Aegis. He also knew that the last device had to be well beyond the perimeter of the complex; otherwise, there was a chance that the collapsing tunnel would compromise the perimeter wall. He remembered, from his earlier trip on this route, that the basin was located fairly close to the edge of Aegis, more than likely to minimize the necessary length of the overflow tunnel. He concluded that he had to cover at least three hundred yards before there was a chance of encountering them.
At a full run, it was difficult to gauge distance but he guessed that he had traveled close to his estimate. The light from ahead of him, created by the multiple flashlights they would be carrying, was a dim, diffuse glow with no details. Dashing forward, the vague glow gradually gained definition until he was able to discern distinct lights and three figures. He began shouting, "SWEEZEA! STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! DON'T ARM THE BOMBS!"
He saw one of the figures – he guessed it was Crabill – turn around to face him, holding a rifle. The other figure, whom he recognized as Tillie, was standing over the kneeling Sweezea. Crabill was now shining his light in Elias' direction. Elias knew that his assault rifle would also be pointing at him.
"Here we go," Sweezea said affectionately, as if he were putting a bottle into a baby's mouth, when he heard the unintelligible shouts.
Crabill spun, pointing his rifle.
"What the…!" Tillie exclaimed, startled, turning suddenly to face the noise. She could only see the bouncing, bright light of a flashlight, obviously carried by someone running toward them from the direction of the basin.
"Don't shoot!" Sweezea ordered. "They're coming from our side!" He turned back to the last bomb and lifted the safety cover on the arming switch.
Tillie, alternating her eyes between what Sweezea was doing and the oncoming person, asked, "Shouldn't we wait a second?"
Sweezea shrugged. "What for?"
His finger pressed the side of the switch, moving it toward the "arm" position, just as Elias got close enough to see what he was doing. "TIM, DON'T."
It was too late. The toggle, already more than halfway across, was pulled the rest of the way by the internal spring, with a quiet click.
Elias came to a clumsy halt. He could see the red light shining on the top of the charge. "Don't set any more!"
Sweezea stood from his crouch next to the device and said, "We're done. That was the last."
Leah arrived, panting from her sprint behind Elias.
Tillie had a wry grin on her face.
Confusion clouded Elias' mind, and for a moment he was unable to speak. Sweezea bent down and reached into his pack, which was resting on the concrete next to the last bomb. He pulled out a small, green, flat rectangle and held it up. "You were worried about this?"
Elias took a step forward and saw that he was holding a small circuit board. The adrenalin-fueled frenzy of the past minutes subsided slightly, allowing his mind to focus. "The timer."
A broad grin spreading across his face, Sweezea explained, "I'd love to take the credit for it, but actually it was Tillie's idea to open up the units and check them out."
"I figured," she added, "that since Faulk supplied them, they might be bogus."
"We just found out…," Elias muttered, his voice fading out.
"That they were booby-trapped? No kidding. Big time." Sweezea tossed the board to Elias, who bobbled it clumsily before catching it.
"As we rounded them up and were bringing the batch down here, Tillie told me the whole story. I agreed with her that we'd better check them out before we used them. Whatever they had planned for these babies to do had to be hidden in the primary, since it controls and detonates all the slaves, so I opened it up. Right on top of the detonator was that" – he pointed at the circuit board Elias was holding – "all wired in and ready to go. I disconnected the outputs and ran it through its program in diagnostic mode. That's when I saw the overrides they had set up. Man, that dude really hated you. No matter what time you entered for a delay, the second you armed the last slave, BOOM!"
"There's also a second override…," Leah said, still panting slightly from her dash through the tunnel.
"Yep," Sweezea responded smugly. "If you didn't do a thing with them, they were all set to go off at midnight tonight."
"Same time as the scheduled release of the bug," Leah noted.
Elias relaxed. "If you took out the circuit board, what are you using now to control the detonators?"
"I thought you spooks knew your ordnance better than that," Sweezea teased. "That flimsy little wafer you're holding is the weakest part of the bomb. In field conditions, about a third of 'em crack at the tiny little connections. Imagine jumping out of an airplane behind enemy lines, grabbing your ordnance, which fell alongside you in a crate hanging under a parachute and crashed to the ground, unpacking it, loading it up, toting it through heavy fire to the target, going to set it, and getting a blank LED screen. The Army specs a backup board to be packed inside the primary. Four screws, and you lift out the detonator. Underneath it, protected by bubble wrap and a waterproof, factory-sealed plastic skin, is a nice, clean, and dry backup circuit board, all ready to plug in, program, and go."
Elias shook his head in amazement. "Tim, I don't know what to say."
Sweezea shrugged, still smiling. "A simple HOO-AH will do."
Elias gratefully walked to him and put his arm on the tall sergeant's shoulder. "HOO-AH!"
The five had withdrawn back to the basin and climbed the rope, with Leah having the most difficulty, due to the injuries from her captivity and during the firefight. They had an additional fifteen minutes by the time they had reached the upper ledge and decided to position themselves within a drainage pipe at a right angle to the overflow. Although Incendergel devices did not create a massive concussive wave, as did traditional explosives, a fireball would be generated and could possibly extend to the basin, despite the distance.
They left one of the flashlights in the overflow tunnel, directed to cast its illumination toward the basin, and silhouette any person who might have entered, managed to get past the snakes, and reached the opening before the explosives detonated. Crabill and Sweezea kept watch on the lighted square, checking their watches frequently.
"We've got one minute," Sweezea announced. "Pull back."
They had removed the rope after their exit. If anyone arrived at the basin end of the overflow within the next sixty seconds, there would be no way to climb up. All of them had remained standing during the wait, keeping their packs and gear in hand. When Sweezea gave the word, they all turned their backs on the basin and began walking briskly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Returning to the gathering in the main
hall, they found the people there subdued, many with dazed expressions on their faces as they grappled with the reality of what was happening in the world outside the walls of Aegis. Elias and Leah looked for Marilyn to thank her for bringing the message; within a few minutes they saw her surrounded by a small group. She was talking earnestly to them, and it was obvious by her body language, and that of those around her, that she was attempting to help them make some sense of the news they had just recently received from Pierce and Wilson. She made eye contact with Elias and raised an eyebrow questioningly. He gave her a thumbs-up to indicate that all was well. She smiled and resumed her conversation.
Crabill saw two men working on the satellite radio he had removed from Clements' truck, and he and Sweezea joined them to assist. Wilson was standing in the middle of the crowd, flanked by both Milton and Mildred Pierce, answering questions. Elias talked briefly with Lisa and found out that Matt had gone to the roof of Aegis after the meeting, with the intention of watching the effect of the bombs on the outflow tunnel from above ground.
The door to the dining room, where they had met earlier, was open, and Elias wandered through it, determined to sit down and rest after his frenzied dash. Leah and Tillie followed him and the three dropped into chairs, exhausted.
Leah filled Tillie in on the discussions at the meeting after her sudden departure with Sweezea, and she was relieved to hear that they were going to drop food, water, clothing, and blankets to those outside the wall. Soon there was nothing more to say, and the three lapsed into silence. Through the open doorway, they could hear snatches of comments and exchanges from the residents of Aegis, and they were pleased that the tone, as well as the substance, of what they heard appeared to be serious, inquisitive, sad, helpful, and all of the other reactions which would be appropriate for the situation. No one was loud, irrational, panicked, belligerent, or confrontational, the reactions least needed at a time such as this.
The Aegis Solution Page 42