"Are we in the clear?" she asked over the comms once she felt enough time had passed.
"We're in the air," Gregor answered, his voice a little muffled. "That would be a qualified yes. The GPS tells me we should arrive at the location in thirty minutes, assuming the current winds hold. If we have pressure to the south, we might take as long as forty-five minutes.”
That sounded unpleasant, but if Taylor could put himself through it, she could too. Niki grasped the controls of her suit to give her some kind of power over the world around her, or at least the illusion of it, which would do for now.
"I wouldn't start on that case of carpal tunnel syndrome yet," Vickie stated over the comm line.
"What?" Gregor asked.
"From patting ourselves on the back. It looks like the guy Niki spoke to inspected the cabin after we left and discovered our little deception. He's radioed the island on a private channel to alert them that there might be trouble heading their way."
“Couldn’t you block it?” Niki demanded. The frustration of confinement pushed into her waspish tone.
“Desk did, but the first part of the warning got through. By private channel, I mean one that isn’t connected to the facility’s conventional system. It seems to be one they leave dark and only ever activate it in an emergency. Neither Desk nor Anja was able to access the on-site system at all and I haven’t had any luck either. These guys have zipped it very tight and have full control at this point over what comes in or goes out.”
"So it looks like we'll go in hot," Taylor noted and ended further debate by stating the obvious. "I wonder what thirty minutes of prep time will do for them."
Niki scowled. The whole idea was for them to get in without being seen so they had the element of surprise on their side. It wouldn’t play out that way, which served her right for getting her hopes up like that.
"So did we have a plan B?" she asked, unhooked her suit from the crate, and climbed out gingerly. She didn't know much about flying in helicopters, but she did know that shifting a couple of tons of weight would affect the challenge of keeping it in the air.
"Well, I had a good idea of what we could do," Jacobs told them, already out of his crate and moving aside to make space for the others. "But I don't think you guys will like it."
"Is it something we might have seen before?" Francesca asked as they emerged from the crates and began to prep for a fight, moving carefully in the back of the helicopter.
"Ummm, yes. Some of you, anyway."
Taylor sighed. "You’ll do that superhero landing bullshit, won’t you?"
"Ugh, I'm getting predictable." The scientist shook his head dramatically. "And it's not bullshit!"
"Sure. Anyway, if I hear you right, the helicopter will do a pass over the island, and you'll drop in—"
"I'll be with him," Kennedy added.
"Right. You guys clear a landing zone for the chopper that will get the rest of us on the ground. Do I have that right?"
Jacobs nodded. "It’s a nifty plan, right?"
Taylor froze for a couple of seconds and an odd, jolting movement jerked his shoulders. It took Niki a couple of seconds to realize he was laughing.
"I wish I could say we had more options, but in this case…” he said once he’d stifled his amusement. “Well, getting boots on the ground quickly to clear our landing zone is all we can hope for. If you think you can pull it off, I say do it."
Niki exchanged a glance with Vickie, immediately aware that her cousin thought the same thing she did. That kind of trust in someone's ability was not given lightly. While she’d always known that Jacobs went into the Zoo, she had assumed that he did so as a researcher, capable of defending himself but leaving most of the heavy lifting, combat-wise, to Kennedy.
That didn't appear to be the case. Jacobs had offered to dive head-first into an unknown situation, and Taylor had not only agreed but encouraged it. She wondered if there was more to this team than what she already knew.
By the time they were prepped and ready to go, Gregor was already alerting them.
"I have eyes on the island," the Russian shouted. "And yes, it looks like we will go in hot!"
"Give us a sweep around the location," Kennedy shouted. "Open the bay doors and we'll drop in and clear an area for you to drop everyone else off."
"You know this isn't a combat helicopter, right? There's a limit to my ability to maneuver."
"Well, yeah, sure. Give us your best and we'll do what we can from there."
The helicopter banked, and as the bay doors opened, the Mediterranean receded behind them and a flicker of land appeared below when they began to turn.
Jacobs and Kennedy lined up in front of the door. They looked around for a few seconds before she held her hand up and counted down from five on her fingers.
"See you guys on the other side!" the researcher shouted as the two of them jumped clear of the helicopter.
Chapter Twenty-Four
It was weird to feel jealous of someone jumping out of a helicopter into the open air with a challenge much like looking to thread a needle and land on a skinny strip of land protruding from the Mediterranean.
But Taylor honestly wished that he could have plunged out with them into the middle of the fight instead of sticking around on an aircraft that would make some hellish maneuvers to avoid any attempts to bring it down. His stomach already rebelled over the fact that he was spending more time in the air than usual.
Still, he knew what his job was in this case. He would lead the rest of the team out when the time came for them to join the action. His breath dragged and his fists clenched as the chopper banked hard to the right and turned almost completely horizontal as it circled to head toward the island again.
Shooting could be heard from outside, even over the roar of the rotors above them, and he inched toward the door and waited for the helicopter to resume its approach. Gregor wasn't kidding when he said it wasn’t made for combat maneuvers, but whichever one of the two pilots was in control was seriously skilled.
The aircraft shuddered, but as they began to descend, he realized that Jacobs and Kennedy still attempted to clear the area for them. They took fire too, and there wasn't much in the way of cover around the island other than the walled-off complex where the defenders fired from.
"Let's go, go, go!" Taylor roared as the helicopter touched down. He didn't want to have it stationary for longer than was absolutely necessary and an easy target for the rockets the defenders probably had. It gave them some cover to scramble out, its nose pointed toward one of the cliffs that surrounded them. The position provided barely enough room to debark beside it.
"We're out!" He knocked on the doors as Niki, Vickie, the two members of Jacobs' team, Maxwell, and then finally Jansen climbed out and immediately began to return fire.
Vickie peeked out from behind cover and ducked her head hastily. He hadn't thought about her being present in the combat zone.
"Fuck!" He growled and stepped in front of her as the helicopter ascended sharply and moved away from where he could see them preparing rockets to target it.
The defenders looked like they were well-entrenched on the walls around the base. They wore suits too, although they were only fitted with assault rifles and not the rocket launchers or machine guns the larger suits might have provided. Giving them the armor had been an afterthought.
"They don't have any heavy suits?" Jacobs shouted over the din of the firefight as Taylor guided Vickie to a small yet dense outcropping of rock that would give her some protection.
"Sal, take your team and flank them!" Taylor called and delivered a sustained barrage of cover fire. "Break me a hole in that wall!"
"You're not my supervisor!" the researcher shouted in response.
"What?"
"Nothing. Madigan, show them the error of their ways!"
Kennedy wore a massive suit, the kind that was almost impossible to buy on the open market. He had never had much of a chance to work with those in t
he past since they were usually sourced from and built privately by people who knew how to maintain and repair them.
With that said, he wanted the opportunity to put his hands on it and see what it could do.
Madigan barreled forward, circled, and drew the fire from those who continued to track Sal's team. They used her heavier suit as a shield and fired consistently from behind it to force the defenders to back away from the wall and find protection against their onslaught.
The heavier suit shifted and the shoulder pivoted to bring up two shoulder-mounted weapons as the infiltrators pushed forward. A small minigun on her right shoulder was already identifying targets. The six barrels spun and once they reached the required velocity, opened fire.
What they heard wasn't so much the clatter of an automatic weapon as an uninterrupted roar as bullets pounded into the walls ahead of them. A couple of the defenders fell back with a line of holes across their suits that looked like they could have been cut with a knife.
"That's some suppressing fire," Taylor muttered and checked that he was still positioned between Vickie and the walls in front of them.
"I’m glad you approve, Leprechaun," Madigan quipped and he realized he had spoken into the comm line. "Wait until you see my finale."
"I’ll let the Irish slight pass this time," he retorted and she chuckled. “That aside, I can’t wait.”
The mount on her left shoulder circled as the team moved closer to the walls. The rocket launchers almost didn't look fair and the weak, older structures already showed signs of crumbling under the assault from the minigun.
Flares of fire erupted from the back of the launchers and three rockets sped away from Madigan as she marched steadily forward and absorbed most of the damage that was directed at her team.
A flash of blinding light, even in the middle of the day so close to the equator, was enough to make Taylor look away. Once his vision returned, all he could see were the smoking holes left in the walls where damaged sections were still crumbling.
"Well," Niki said, "I guess we now know what we can aspire to in our training. I don't suppose we could get our hands on one of those big fuckers?"
"We could try," he conceded as the team pushed through the breach in the wall. Davis led the way which wasn’t a surprise. It wasn’t in his nature to hang back, but it was hard to tell that the man was missing a leg. He made a mental note to ask questions about the upgrades and adaptations they had made to his suit because they worked unbelievably well.
Martin, in a smaller suit, squeezed around him and directed a sustained volley on those who attempted to fall back to a more defensible position. Madigan continued to lay down different layers of cover fire to make sure no one could get a clean shot on her people without exposing themselves.
Sal, interestingly enough, chose to not use the holes in the walls. A pair of extra limbs uncurled from the back of his lighter, leaner suit and with their help, he managed to scale the wall where the defenders didn’t expect to see him and fired at them from there. One of the extra arms drew the sidearm from its holster and added to the firepower he laid down with ruthless efficiency.
"Screw the big one," Vickie commented when she peeked out from behind the rock she used for cover. "I want that one. I want to be fucking Spider-Man, not the Hulk buster."
"Yeah, yeah, put it on your Christmas list," Taylor grumbled.
"Get down!" Niki shouted. "Do you think you can connect to their software from here?"
The hacker looked at the woman. "Hell, I would if we were in a city and I could piggy-back off its connections and this place wasn’t zipped tighter than a nun’s—."
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"It's a no," Taylor explained.
"Okay, we’ll have to move closer," Niki muttered. "Taylor, lead the way!"
"Yes, ma'am."
He smirked as he prepared to comply. Niki taking charge was great and something he liked to see in her since she would be a founding member of his merc company. There were other reasons why he liked it, but he had no desire to mention them until they were somewhere private.
Still smiling, he took point with his rifle aimed at the top of the walls that remained, despite the fact that Sal's team held most of the attention. They approached quietly and steadily. It was difficult to not simply charge in and join the action, but he had a more important job to do while he was on the fucking island.
"Get me up," Taylor said and gestured for Niki to take the front.
She did as she was told and lowered so he could climb on her knee, then used her hands to hoist him so he could reach the top of the wall.
He kept his weapon aimed at the defenders who were still too preoccupied to notice that reinforcements had moved into the combat zone. With one hand on his weapon, he stretched the other down the wall as Niki helped Jansen up next, followed by Maxwell. Vickie vaulted up to grab Taylor's arm, and he hauled her up beside him.
It was quick, simple work, the kind he remembered them performing together on the training ground. The effort required had been particularly difficult for them at the end of the day, when they were exhausted and their coordination wasn't at its best. Watching them perform the maneuver without a hitch while bullets flew around made him feel a small hint of pride. He had a smile on his face as he dragged Niki to the other side of the wall.
There was more than enough cover for Vickie and she was already working to crack encryptions and find electronic openings in their security while Taylor guided her to where he identified the safest position for her. The hacker continued to mutter under her breath, though, so he wasn’t sure they should hold out much hope while they focused on the remaining defenders.
Those topside, he reminded himself. He doubted that whoever was running the facility would have sent all their security to the surface. They would have more teams waiting in the lower levels, and these would be better equipped and prepared than those they fought now.
Taylor motioned for Maxwell and Jansen to circle from the left, while he and Niki would go right. Both men nodded and used cover where they could as they inched behind the defenders, who had holed themselves up in a section of wall. The location and their aggressive defense made it particularly tough for Sal's team to break through.
There were still about a dozen of them, but they were bunched and used the cover greedily. They took turns to step out from behind it to retaliate to the invaders but no one thought to check if anyone approached from behind them.
Their loss, he thought grimly.
Taylor retrieved a grenade from his belt and lobbed it into the middle of their huddled formation. Only a couple of them saw it in time and none were able to jump clear before it exploded.
The ordnance detonated with a vivid flash and smoke, and more masonry crumbled around the enemy. Those who were still standing were forced to stumble away from their cover, stunned and covered in dust, and they fired blindly in every direction in hopes of hitting something or someone.
Luck wasn’t on their side, and with fire coming from all angles, Taylor almost felt bad for the mercs who had so clearly been underprepared for what they had to face. From what he'd read on those who had been hired for this work, though, there was very little in the world that would make him truly feel bad for them.
Sal and Madigan moved forward to confirm that none of them would be a threat any longer before they turned to look at him.
"Nice flanking maneuver," she stated and nudged one of the fallen mercs with her boot. "But you took your fucking time. I remember you being a little faster on the draw."
He wanted to say it was because he was handling a novice team, but that felt like a deflection at best.
"I guess all that time in civilized company slowed me somewhat," he admitted with a shrug. "So, I don't know about you guys, but I have a bad feeling that there'll be considerably more guns in much better positions once we get down there. Is there any chance we could simply blow this whole fucking place off the map and be done with it?"
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"I'm down for that." Madigan raised her hand and was quickly followed by the other two members of her team.
Unfortunately, it didn't look like the researcher agreed. "They have fresh life down there, directly from the Zoo. I'm worried that if we drop a ton of explosives, it will simply result in the biomass being spread into the Mediterranean biome that…well, it will result in an explosion much like the Zoo but a thousand times worse. We shouldn't take that risk."
He made a solid point and one that led to Madigan and the Heavy Metal team lowering their hands.
"Fuck me," she muttered.
"So, what do we have to do?" Taylor asked. "I assume you guys will deal with any hazardous biological materials we run into since…well, Sal's the only one with any kind of expertise in the area. I guess that leaves the job of cleaning out the rest of the trash to me and my team. Vickie is getting into their electronics now—right, Vickie?"
The last two words were shouted, although strictly speaking, he didn't need to. The comms connected them as though they were talking in the same room.
The hacker didn't answer him immediately. She was probably too engrossed in her work to pay attention to other people talking to her.
"Anja does the same thing," Sal commented while he ran a couple of checks on his suit to pass the time. "She zones the rest of the world so she can focus entirely on the work she's doing. It can be annoying, but…" He shrugged.
"The work they do requires focus and careful attention to detail." Taylor finished the researcher's thought with a nod. "There’s no point in rushing these things. And if you're patient, in the end, it makes everyone's job easier."
None of them had anything to disagree with particularly, but they also didn’t want to stop and wait for someone else to work while they twiddled their thumbs. Their impatience was exacerbated by the obvious fact that the folks below would use the time to solidify whatever defenses they had planned.
Finally, Vickie looked up from where she had been hiding. "Sorry, I…uh, tuned you guys out for a second. I don't know who set this system up, but I want to buy them a drink laced with fucking cyanide. There is no way to control the doors without accessing the system from the inside, which means we’ll have to find another way to get into the base.”
Monster In Me: Cryptid Assassin™ Book Eight Page 21