by Rene Fomby
There were nods all around the room.
“Okay, second, Sanders really wants what’s on those servers, and the fate of the whole freaking world may be at stake here. That’s why I chose Charlie Team for that part of the mission. You guys are the geek squad, the best we got, so I want to see you all up top when we pull out of there with your backpacks stuffed to the gills with hardware. Any questions about that?”
Charlie Leader spoke up. “After we get to the server room and pack up the U-Haul, do we have any secondary targets? Poke our heads into any of the other offices?”
Sanders decided to respond to that. “If that is indeed the server room, and you’re able to secure the majority of the disk drives from those boxes, I want you racing for the exits as fast as you can. Andy Patterson is my number one priority for this mission, but Bravo Team can handle that. We need to know what Tulley has been planning, and we need to know it yesterday. He’s got this entire planet on the brink of another world war, a war that could knock humanity back to the stone age. If there’s any chance anything on those computers can help prevent that, then it’s our duty to God and country to make sure we get a chance to find out. Hell, it’s our duty to the whole damned human race!”
Jack swung his head slowly from one commander to the next, holding each of their eyes for just a second before moving on. “I’ll be with Bravo Team, taking the point. But I’m just a lone wolf on this mission, so Bravo Leader—” He looked straight across the table at Bravo’s team commander. “You’re in charge of your men. Focus on your objective, and don’t worry about me. My job will be to clear the way for you and your team to get in and out.”
He reached into the pile of maps and pulled out one they hadn’t seen before.
“This appears to be a large room located on the tenth level, at the very bottom of the complex. Because it’s so far down, the resolution of the image is pretty shitty. But Sanders and I agree, if the girl is still alive and is off cooling her heels somewhere, waiting to be rescued, then this is the most likely spot to find her. It’s the easiest to secure, so escape is next to impossible. Also, there’s nothing else we can make out on that level—it’s actually only about a quarter the size of the nine floors above it—so that would severely limit any interaction between the girl and the rest of the personnel working in the complex. And that’s critical, of course, because the smaller the number of people who know she’s down there, the less likely any word would leak out that could lead us to her. So, our primary target is level ten, and we skip everything else until we get there. If we’re wrong, we can scope out each of the other levels as we fight our way back up toward the exit. Any questions?”
Bravo Leader reached across the table and took the map from Jack’s hand. After studying it silently for ten seconds, he shook his head. “I got this, boss. It’s like a classic tower assault, just upside down. Instead of heading up, we’re heading down.”
Jack nodded. “Exactly. Okay then, if there are no other questions, let’s go get ready, y’all. I want everyone up on deck at eighteen hundred hours, ready to launch. Until then, you’re dismissed. Team members, take fifteen, then meet up with your respective commanders, wherever they’ve designated for your final planning sessions.” He pointed a finger at Gavin. “Agent Larson, hold back a second, will you? Sanders and I have a few last-minute details to go over with you.”
96
Cappadocia
The well-anticipated storm had hit the area in force, with torrents of rain and perpetual lightning that lit up the area despite the heavy cloud cover. Thunder from the storm shook the underground complex like it was being bombed.
Constantine was up and pacing. “I can’t just sit here doing nothing, Duval. Ready my transport. I’m moving to the mobile assault carrier immediately. As soon as we take control, I want to be there, in command of the situation. It’s critical that I get the video out right away, before they can mount a counter-attack.”
Duval shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Your Excellency, I don’t think that’s wise. The storm—”
“I don’t give a shit about the storm!” Constantine plucked a stapler off his desk and hurled it across the room, shattering it against the wall and causing a small shower of loose tuff to rain down from the ceiling. “I don’t pay people to quiver in their boots over a goddamned storm! Get it done!”
“Yes, sir,” Duval answered, leaping up and sprinting in a wide arc toward the door to stay well clear of his ire. As if I didn’t have enough problems tonight—now I have to make sure I don’t get him killed! She could still hear him bellowing as she quickly shut the door and raced down the hall toward the command center.
97
Göreme, Turkey
Alpha Team came in low across the Cappadocian plain, wary of showing any profiles of the virtually silent Black Gnats against the constant lightning arcing within the clouds behind them. The entrance to the underground city faced away from them, toward the east, so they hoped to be able to loop over the top at the last minute and drop down on top of the guards without warning.
Hugging the ground, the Gnats shot up over the slight hump that made up the entrance to the city and instantly four black shapes slid down their ropes, hitting the ground soundlessly and moving forward without hesitation. The three guards glowed bright green in Alpha Team’s infrared night goggles, making easy targets. Alpha Leader signaled once, and the other three members of the team each took out one of the guards with silenced head shots, then dashed toward the entrance. Alpha Leader stuck his head inside the doorway for a brief moment, taking everything in with one glance. “All clear, he whispered into the microphone taped to his left cheek.
Within seconds the other two teams came over the hump, their Black Gnats landing directly in front of the entrance and immediately disgorging Bravo and Charlie Teams, plus Gavin Larson, Bob Sanders and Commander Jack.
“Let’s go!” Jack ran for the entrance, with everyone else racing close behind him.
Once inside, Alpha Team set up a small command post and found chairs for Gavin and Sanders situated well away from the front door, just in case anyone came calling, while Bravo and Charlie Teams followed their commanders down the tunnel, doubled up on their three-wheeled night cycles. The teams moved quickly, only occasionally stopping to drop a radio repeater on the ground to relay everything back to the command post, and from there to the booster radios in the Black Gnats.
The floor of the tunnel was mostly clean and flat, and a single set of train tracks ran along the center of it all the way back to the entrance behind them. Within ten minutes they arrived at the spot Jack had preselected for the go-no-go decision. Right in front of them was a small tram, big enough to hold about thirty people.
Jack knelt down in front of the eight-man assault team. “Okay, boys and girls, looks like we got lucky. The door to the main complex is right over there, behind the train. I assume it isn’t locked, but we’ll let Booker go first and check it out.” He nodded toward one of the Bravo Team commandos. “If it’s locked, take it out with a shaped explosive. But use minimal force. We don’t want the roof and several hundred members of their finest welcoming committee raining down upon our heads. Got that?” Booker gave him a thumbs up and pulled a small wad of gray putty out of his pack. “All right, then, ladies and gentlemen, time to earn our pay. Booker, you’re up.”
Booker sprinted to the door and jiggled the handle gingerly. It appeared to be unlocked, so he waved them over while he shoved the gray putty back in his pack. On Jack’s signal, Booker threw open the door and Charlie Team shot through, heading straight for the server room, while Bravo Team followed right on their heels in a full-tilt race toward the room on the bottom floor.
Bravo Team faced no resistance as they raced headlong down an otherwise unused spiral staircase toward the basement. Bursting through the door opening onto the bottom floor, they surprised two guards who were playing cards at a small table in the very center of the room. A couple of quick shots solve
d that problem, and they turned next toward two metal doors set into the far wall. One of the doors was open, the room inside empty, but the other was shut closed.
With a nod from Jack, Booker stepped up to the door and tested it. “Locked, boss.”
Jack dug into the pockets of the dead guards and came up with a set of keys. Eyeing the lock for just a second, he chose one of the keys and tried it. “Am I good or what?” he muttered to himself as the key turned easily in the lock. With a curt nod to the rest of the team, he yanked the door wide open as they jumped off to one side to avoid any defensive gunfire. But nothing came through the door, so Jack slipped into the room.
Off to the left of the room was a small cot, tied to which was one very attractive but seriously disheveled young woman, now sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
“Andy Patterson?” he asked, even though he recognized her immediately from the pictures Bob Sanders had shared with him on the way out to the carrier.
“What—who are you?”
“We’re from Uber. You called for a ride?” Jack motioned toward two of his commandos. “You two—looks like she might need a little help. Why don’t we try the elevator this time? I don’t want to have to drag her up ten flights of stairs if we don’t need to.”
The two men stepped around him and untied Andy from the bed, then helped her stand up. “Bob Sanders?” she asked with a cracking voice.
Jack smiled at her. “Yeah. He’s waiting for us upstairs, so we’ve got to hurry. You know the man. He doesn’t like to be kept waiting for long. He’s like a pissy little schoolgirl that way.”
She nodded as both men gently supported her by her elbows and upper arms. The elevator was on the wall across from them, and Jack quickly reached over and punched the up button, raising his gun toward the elevator doors just in case any unwelcome company decided to come calling.
The elevator seemed to take forever, but finally it dinged and the doors eased open.
“Shit,” Jack said with a frown. “Not big enough for all of us.” He looked around. “Booker, you and I take the stairs. See if we can outrace them to the top.”
“Not a problem, boss,” Booker answered with a grin.
“Wait—” They all turned to face Andy, who was staring up at the ceiling. “William Tulley. He’s got an office on the second floor, all the way in back.”
Tulley! It took Jack less than a second to make the decision. “Okay, same plan, but you three get Ms. Patterson to safety. Booker and I will go check out Tulley’s office. But guys—get her upstairs and back down the tunnel without any delays, then shove her and the civilians into the Black Gnats and get the hell out of here toot sweet. And just as soon as Team Charlie makes the exit, I want the rest of you to bug out, as well. Leave one Gnat behind for us, but if you run into any resistance and the last taxi out is at risk, your orders are to save the Gnat and its pilot and leave the two of us behind. You got that?”
All three men nodded, and immediately loaded into the elevator, with Andy Patterson tucked safely in the back. Jack and Booker were already heading up the stairs, taking them two at a time, before the elevator doors even closed.
98
USS Carl Vinson
Sam was on pins and needles, watching the action along with Captain Dawkins and a large group of other officers crammed in front of a flat-screen television in the operations center. The video kept going in and out, and finally shut off entirely as Bravo Team entered the stairwell, heading toward the basement of the complex. Shortly after that, even the audio cut out, leaving them completely in the dark as to what was happening some five hundred miles or so to the east.
After what seemed like forever, but in reality was just minutes, the static on the screen cleared once again.
“Bravo Team has acquired target. Repeat, Bravo Team has acquired target.”
Sam suddenly realized she had stopped breathing as the helmet-mounted camera swung around to show Andy Patterson, looking very thin and weak, supported on either side by two of the Bravo Team commandos. But thankfully still very much alive.
99
Göreme
It took Jack a few seconds after leaping out onto the second-floor landing to reorient himself. “She said Tulley’s office was off in the back. This way,” he said in a low voice, not wanting to call unwanted attention to their presence.
But the low voice turned out to be unnecessary as they rounded a corner, heading west. Jack saw the motion just in time and ducked sideways, but Booker caught a round in his upper left arm.
“Sonofabitch!” Booker ducked back behind the corner and tore a strip of cloth off his shirt, fashioning it quickly into a workable tourniquet. “I’m good, boss,” he called out as Jack unleashed a steady spray of bullets down the hall, eliminating the problem.
“All clear, Book. Let’s go.”
The two men raced down the hallway, stepping carefully over three bodies that were lying on the floor in a rapidly-spreading and slippery pool of blood. Jack checked out Booker’s arm briefly as they ran.
“You might want to get that looked at when we get back,” he suggested.
“Yeah, but the real bitching thing is it kinda messed up my favorite tattoo. And I spent good money for that, too. Bastards.”
“Well, if it helps any, their day sucks even worse, you know?” Jack shot back with a grin.
At the far end of the hall they came to a single door. Metal, again. And locked, again.
“You still got that little firecracker on you?” Jack asked.
“On it, boss.” Booker pressed the gray putty into the lock and inserted a short electronic fuse. “I’d move aside, amigo, unless you want to get blood all over that pretty little shirt of yours. Your blood, that is.”
“Copy that.”
Both men flattened their backs against the wall on either side of the door as Booker pressed the detonator. A quick flash, and Booker was immediately at the door, flinging it open. “Ladies first,” he grinned as Jack shot through to the other side, ducking low with his pistol in his left hand, already in firing position.
The room was empty except for a single woman, dressed in some kind of khaki military outfit, her raven hair pulled back hard behind her face in a tight bun. Jack kept his gun zeroed in on her forehead as he closed the distance between them in a flash.
“Well, Book, I’m willing to bet this isn’t William Tulley, but what say we bring her along, anyway? What’s your name, honey?”
The woman glared at them silently while Booker slipped in behind her and quickly secured her wrists with three zip ties, one on either wrist and a third tie pulling them both together. “A little skinny for my tastes, but whatever, bro,” he smiled impishly.
The woman leaned forward and spat at Jack. “Va te faire foutre!”
Jack jumped back as Booker wrenched her arms up forcefully from behind. “What do you know, Book? The woman has a tongue after all!” He stepped back and grasped her chin roughly in one hand, squeezing hard. “I’ll take whatever you just said as a romantic proposition, but it’ll have to wait for later. Kinda busy right now. So in the meantime, Frenchy, tell me, where the hell is William Tulley?”
Her eyes flared, and she tried but failed to shake his hand off her chin. “You are too late, stupid American pigs. He left here hours ago.”
“Gone?” Jack squeezed harder. “Gone where?”
“You will find out soon enough, I promise you.”
After that she closed her eyes and refused to talk, even when Jack squeezed down even harder and shook her head back and forth a few times. Finally he was forced to give up, as every second they stayed in Tulley’s office severely reduced their chances of getting out of the cave complex alive.
Jack pushed his captive in front of him as they stepped back out into the hallway. The sound of the dead guards’ gunfire had people pouring out of their offices to investigate, but the sight of Jack and Booker’s automatic rifles quickly had them darting back to safety. With an uncooperative prisone
r in tow, the stairs weren’t a good option, so they aimed for the elevator. It took an excruciatingly long time to arrive, and when it did, there were already two passengers on board. Until Jack sighted down his rifle barrel at them.
Jack shoved the bucking woman inside the elevator as Booker punched the button for the top floor, and the elevator lurched up. When it stopped, Jack positioned the woman in front of him again, with his pistol perched over her left shoulder and his rifle resting on her right. Which proved to be a good idea, because as the doors opened up to the first floor, five of Tulley’s soldiers stood facing them, fingers already squeezing the triggers on their AK-47s. But suddenly the lead soldier’s eyes bugged wide and he hesitated, giving Jack an extra split second to clear the way to the escape tunnel with a short but lethal spray of bullets.
“Let’s head out, Book,” Jack called over his shoulder as he shoved his captive down the hallway in front of them. “Last one to the train buys the first round.”
“Hey, like I told you before, I ain’t buying you any more of those girlie little parasol drinks, Nadine.” Booker had positioned himself with his back to his commander as he covered their rear. “You need to start tossing back some real drinks if you want me to pay, is all I’m saying. Manly drinks, you know?”
“Aw, but I just need a few more little umbrellas for my bed stand and I’ll have a complete collection. You can’t deny me that.” Jack let off another blast from the rifle, clearing the final few yards to the escape tunnel. “Everyone clear?” he called into the microphone taped to his right cheek.