The screen they were all watching went dead, then a test signal appeared.
“What the hell happened?” screamed Bo, his glare moving from station to station in the cramped control room, but no one dared look.
General Liang had his head buried in a phone, then hung up, turning to Bo. “Sir, an airstrike has just taken out the broadcast towers. There’s no way for our message to get out!”
Bo slammed his fist on the table, then stood up, sucking in a deep breath.
“Where’s the goddamned air support you promised me?”
“It’s on its way, sir! ETA two minutes. We weren’t expecting them to react so quickly, somehow they knew what was happening sooner than they should have.”
Bo clenched his fists, tight, the fingernails biting into his palms. Somehow they knew. Either they had a traitor in their midst, or word had leaked. And he had a pretty good idea how.
Those damned escaped prisoners.
North of the Forbidden City, Beijing, China
“There it is!” shouted Spock as he pointed at a car parked on the street they had just come out on. They rushed toward the vehicle and it was quickly apparent to Acton and everyone else it was far too small for their current numbers. “Get the wounded inside first,” said Spock, using the fob to unlock the doors.
“There’s not enough room,” said Laura as she helped get Dawson into the passenger seat, Jimmy and Niner loading the Ambassador into the back. “We need another car!”
“Please, take the children!” begged Inspector Li. “Please, take my daughter and her friend!”
Dawson jerked a thumb at the backseat. “Get the kids in the back, behind the seats if you have to.”
“Thank you!” cried Li as he hugged his daughter and gave her a kiss. “You two get out of here now, get home, okay?”
Li’s daughter Juan cried, holding onto her father. “No, I don’t want to leave you, I want to stay with you!”
“No, you have to go with them, you’ll be safe!”
Two helicopters raced down the street, between the buildings, banking up the road the motley crew had just fled, their cannons opening fire on the column of tanks, momentarily distracting them all from the drama unfolding between father and daughter.
Niner grabbed Juan’s friend, pushing her into the back seat, then picked Juan up, placing her behind Dawson’s. Li slammed the door shut before she could try to get out.
“Spock, you’re in charge. Commandeer a vehicle, get to the embassy.” Dawson tossed Spock his weapons. “We don’t want to be caught with these on us.”
“Yes, Sergeant Major,” replied Spock. Pointing at Jimmy, he said, “You drive.” He tossed him the keys which Jimmy caught easily as he ran toward the driver side of the vehicle. Jimmy slid his weapon over the roof of the car then jumped inside. Spock pulled a phone out of his pocket and handed it to Dawson. “Satellite phone. We’ve got another.” Two more choppers raced toward them as the car gunned to life. Jimmy immediately executed a three point turn and roared away. They all stood for a moment as they watched the car make a quick right turn, and disappear.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” yelled Spock. He pointed at Li. “Name!”
“Inspector Li.”
“Li, you lead the way.”
Li nodded and they began to run in the same direction the car had left, when two more choppers appeared, nearly at ground level, their noses pointed steeply forward as they rushed toward the action. The first chopper’s cannons flashed as it belched lead at them, tearing up the road in front of them.
Acton shoved Laura aside, landing on top of her as he shielded her with his body. The heat from the engines, forced down by the chopper blades, washed over them, and within seconds they had passed. Before he had a chance to pick himself up a missile streaked after the choppers, eliminating the one bringing up the rear, the fireball knocking them flat. Acton rolled again, covering Laura as shrapnel and flaming fuel sprayed across the street.
“Everybody up!” yelled Spock, and Acton leapt to his feet, grabbing Laura’s hand and hauling her up. He quickly looked for his companions and saw they all appeared uninjured, Li already running away from the burning hulk of the attack helicopter, and toward the same street Jimmy had turned down.
We need a vehicle!
Approaching East Tiananmen Blockade, Beijing, China
Dawson had rescued enough civilians in his time to know there was no point asking the girls huddled behind the front seats to be quiet. The explosions in the distance each signaled the possible death of Li Juan’s father. He wasn’t about to tell her to keep quiet so he could think. Besides, it wasn’t necessary. His training had taught him how to think under circumstances louder than the wailing of two teenage girls.
But not much louder.
He winced at one particularly shrill wail.
“Shit, BD! Look!”
Dawson saw Jimmy eying the rearview mirror. He leaned down and looked out the side mirror.
Shit, indeed!
Two choppers were roaring up the road behind them. Dawson knew they weren’t the intended target, but these guys seemed to be engaging targets of opportunity whenever it suited them, and they could definitely be classified as one based upon the indiscriminate killing he had seen take place.
“Evasive maneuvers, Sergeant.”
“You got it!”
Jimmy cranked the wheel to the left, pulling on the emergency brake, sending the car into a rapid ninety degree turn while killing its speed, the car bouncing sideway on its tires before he disengaged the handbrake and floored the accelerator, sending them leaping into an alleyway there was no way a chopper could follow them into.
He raced toward the street lights at the end, the choppers roaring past them, then spilled out onto what looked like the massive boulevard north of Tiananmen where they had been earlier. Dawson looked over his shoulder and saw the square, enveloped in smoke and flame, about a mile back.
“Problem!”
Dawson’s head spun forward, and he cursed as he looked for a way around the blockade half a mile ahead. The blockade they were on the wrong side of. Traffic was backed up on the other side, being turned around, but their side was devoid of almost anything beyond police and army vehicles. He looked for gold flags but didn’t see any.
He was about to tell Jimmy to just pull up to the blockade when four Z10 attack helicopters roared over their heads, rockets rapidly erupting from their weapons pods, 30mm cannons blazing, the barricade and several police cars exploding into fireballs that flashed against the cloud cover overhead.
“Gun it!” yelled Dawson.
“Gunning it!”
Jimmy floored it and the car leapt toward the remains of the barricade as the helicopters turned for another pass. The lightly armed police were firing on the choppers, to no avail, their armor too thick for the small caliber bullets to make any difference. Jimmy angled the car toward a section of the barricade that had been torn apart, and gripped the steering wheel hard as he braced his arms.
“Hold on!” he yelled as Dawson turned around to shove the girls’ heads down. A jolt, slicing half the speed off the car, sent him flying forward, his side slamming painfully into the dash, the girls in the back screaming as the Ambassador rolled onto them. Dawson shoved with his foot, pushing himself back toward the rear seat as Jimmy barreled through the debris. Dawson, with the help of the two girls, lifted the Ambassador back into the rear seat, then turned around just as another volley of rockets streaked over their heads. He instinctively ducked, picturing one of the rockets streaming through the front window and out the rear, but thankfully the imagined moment never occurred, the rockets instead passing overhead, slamming into the vehicles and barricade behind them.
Dawson looked forward and saw something glint off a glass and steel tower. He stuck his head out the window and looked up as an entire squadron of fighters banked toward their position. He looked down the road, realizing this was the ideal route for a strafing run.
“Get off this road, now!”
North of the Forbidden City, Beijing, China
“Keys!” exclaimed Niner, climbing in the abandoned car. It turned over, then roared to life, a triumphant Niner gunning it several times. “Get in!” he yelled. Laura, Acton and Li scrambled in the back, Spock in the front, and Niner peeled away from the curb, their commandeered vehicle fortunately bigger than the cramped car their companions had been forced to take.
“Weapons check!” ordered Spock, removing the clip from the Type 80 machine pistol, inspecting it, then slapping it back in. “Ammo?”
“I’ve got two clips,” said Acton, handing them to Spock.
Spock took one. “I’ve seen you shoot, Professor. You keep that.”
Laura offered up her two clips.
“You definitely keep one,” said Spock with a grin, stuffing the clips in his pockets, and a handgun in the back of Niner’s belt.
“Oooh, Sergeant,” cooed Niner. “Dinner first!”
Acton chuckled, then looked at Spock as an eyebrow shot up his forehead. Then he outright laughed. Laura began to giggle, and soon the entire car was laughing. Acton wasn’t even certain Li had caught the joke, but whether he was laughing at the joke or just at them, he had tears coming from his eyes. The tension of the past hour let up a little as they laughed at what might have been the corniest, oldest joke in the book, but it didn’t matter. Their minds demanded relief from the horrors they had witnessed, and Niner’s typical inappropriate humor was just the ticket. Acton wrapped his arm around Laura’s shoulders and planted a kiss on top of her head, his nerves calming for the first time since the opening shot had been fired in Tiananmen earlier that afternoon.
Suddenly Niner hammered on the brakes and they all tumbled forward. He slammed the car in reverse and floored it, retracing their path using only the mirrors, Acton assumed so he could continue to see what was in front of them that had him so worried. As Acton righted himself, he looked down the street and saw nothing, but in the distance an office tower reflected the sky above, and a fireball lit up the glass, followed by another explosion. But it was so distant Acton couldn’t believe that was what had Niner reacting like he was.
“Hang on!” yelled Spock, who had apparently seen what had Niner so concerned. Acton noticed Spock was leaning forward and looking up. Acton did the same, leaning between the seats.
“Holy shit!” he exclaimed as what appeared to be the fuselage of a fighter, with only one wing attached, plunged from the sky. He pushed himself back, throwing his body over Laura as Inspector Li did the same, he having spotted the excitement through his open side window.
The car shook as the plane impacted the ground. Acton dared a glance over his shoulder and saw the wreckage sliding across the pavement, disintegrating into thousands of deadly pieces, secondary explosions bursting forth as the ordnance detonated along with the remaining jet fuel. Niner continued to reverse as the jet gained on them, it seeming to follow them as it slid across the road, toward them, and into their lane.
“It’s following us!” exclaimed Niner as he swerved into the other lane. Acton watched as the plane continued to drift across the road, then sighed as it slammed into the curb, bouncing up and burying itself into the façade of a commercial building he hoped was deserted at this hour.
Niner hit the brakes and they all exchanged glances, checking each other to see if everyone was alright.
Spock turned to face the back seat.
“Inspector, is there an underground parking lot around here?”
Li nodded. “Just down this street—”
“Wait! What’s that?” interrupted Laura, pointing at an electronics store across the street, several televisions playing in the windows. Inside and out, people from the neighborhood seemed to have gathered, watching the screens, a CNN International logo in the corner of one of them, the carnage from Beijing prominently displayed.
“I didn’t know you got CNN here,” said Acton.
“We don’t,” said Li. “That’s an unauthorized signal. They probably have a satellite dish.” Li looked at his phone. “No signal. The cellular network must be down.”
“Taken out?” asked Niner.
“More likely shut down by the authorities. Which means the Internet is probably down.”
“I know that man,” said Laura, pointing at the screen as a recording played on the background. “Who is that?”
“It’s Bo Yang. Very prominent businessman or at least he used to be. His wife was accused of murdering a British subject. That’s probably where you recognize him from.”
Laura shook her head then gasped.
“The flag!”
“What?” Acton leaned closer to try and make out the image.
“He’s got a gold flag behind him.”
“Just like on the tanks,” said Spock. “He must be the guy behind this little operation.”
Laura jabbed her finger at the screen.
“But he’s the guy I nearly shot when we were escaping that mobile headquarters!”
Bo Yang’s Mobile Headquarters, Beijing, China
“Our aerial units are being engaged, sir!”
Bo Yang’s head spun at the junior officer shouting the report from his console. General Liang looked panicked, and his General who had guaranteed him air superiority was nowhere to be seen.
“By who? I thought we had the airfields surrounding Beijing secure?” His voice was almost a growl, the fury he felt barely contained. Things were starting to go wrong. The armored response had been swifter than expected, the Internet and cellular shutdowns far ahead of schedule, and the destruction of the television broadcast tower was executed so swiftly, it was as if they had been prepositioned to do it. And now their air superiority was threatened.
“Elements of the 32nd from Qionglai Air Base, several squadrons of J-10 fighters, sir!”
“Qionglai! That’s nowhere near here!”
“We’ve been betrayed!” hissed General Liang. He looked about. “Where is that coward?” He stormed from the room, Bo barely noticing as this new piece of intel percolated. If fighters had already arrived from Qionglai, they were either betrayed, or someone had tipped off the Politburo at least fifteen minutes ahead of schedule.
Again his mind came back to the escaped prisoners.
It’s always the unanticipated eventualities that scuttle a well-laid plan.
“Send everything we have at Tiananmen to the Zhongnanhai Complex. We need to take down the bureaucracy now, before it’s too late. Our message has been sent, our job there is done.”
En Route to Hospital, Beijing, China
“Oh shit!” exclaimed Jimmy. Dawson looked forward as the car slowed, his attention having been momentarily on the Ambassador. Two tanks were positioned across the road they were on, dozens of PLA regulars surrounding it, rushing toward the lone vehicle stupid enough to still be out during a coup.
Jimmy came to a stop as a platoon’s worth of soldiers rushed their position.
“Gold flags, Sergeant Major, gold flags,” muttered Jimmy.
Dawson grunted, having already seen them. He turned back to the girls, who he had learned spoke nearly perfect English.
“Stay calm, tell them the truth. Your dad is a police officer, and he begged us to take you. You don’t know who we are, and neither does he. Understand?”
Both girls, still crying, thankfully quietly now, nodded, the terror in their eyes, the trembling of their entire bodies, indication enough to Dawson that they understood the gravity of the situation.
Somebody yelled something in Chinese, a lieutenant, judging from Dawson’s understanding of Chinese insignia. Both Jimmy and Dawson raised their hands slowly.
“What do you think, BD? Make a break for it?” Jimmy’s voice was low, his lips barely moving.
“Too risky. We’ve got civilians here. They could have shot us already. Let’s hope this unit has different orders than those at Tiananmen.”
“And that they aren�
�t looking for you and the Ambassador.”
Jimmy rolled down his window and leaned out, his hands held up and out the window.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. I’m American, from the Embassy.” He patted his shirt pocket. “Identification, okay?” He slowly reached into his shirt pocket, the weapons seeming to take a bead on his chest as he did so. Dawson controlled his breathing, pretending to be intent on the exchange about to take place, but in reality assessing the troops that surrounded them. There were twelve, all armed with standard issue weapons, nothing heavy.
Except the two tanks.
But tanks reacted slowly. They weren’t designed to take out small cars, swerving on civilian streets. They were meant to take out prepared defenses, roadblocks, other large military vehicles.
And to roll over infantry positions, or based upon tonight’s performance, civilian.
He glanced down at the gearshift and observed Jimmy had the vehicle in reverse, ready to go at a moment’s notice. The passport was out of Jimmy’s pocket now, and being handed out the window. A glance in the side view mirror showed two of the troops were directly behind the car, facing away from the bumper as they covered the approach. Hitting reverse should take them out of the picture.
That left ten.
All with automatic weapons, who would pour down a rain of lead on them so thick they’d be lucky to find enough pieces of them to ship back in a FedEx envelope.
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