by W. J. Lundy
Sean looked left across the seats where Brooks sat with his head back, breathing deeply on the mask, his eyes unseen behind the goggles. Cloud was leaning forward, his legs shaking in anticipation of the jump.
Sean felt his own anxiety building as his eagerness to start the mission squeezed at his chest and back muscles. Cloud said once the evacuation alarms sounded, most would flee the complex without question. The staff, being in no condition to fight anyone, would run or stand down if the opportunity presented itself. He hoped he was right; Sean didn’t have the stomach for killing the US servicemen operating the bunker.
A jumpmaster stepped from across the fuselage and stood Sean up; he moved his hands over his gear, checking his equipment and straps. He spun Sean around and slapped his backside before moving to Brooks, then Cloud. Sean began to feel the adrenaline loading his system, and his hands began to twitch as he took in deep breaths of the 100 percent oxygen.
They were all on their feet, the rear ramp opened and locked. The jumpmaster flashed ten fingers and ushered them to the back. He stepped back against a handhold and pointed at his watch then waved them on. Sean stepped forward at a casual walk and jumped into the dark night sky, knowing the others would follow close behind him. He looked down and saw nothing but black; none of civilization’s lights—just a dark forest and peaks of cold granite.
Sean arched his back, holding his arms and legs out. He held his breath while guiding his descent, glancing at his watch, and checking the altitude. From the corner of his eye, he could see Brooks and Cloud in a tight formation on his right side, IR beacons attached to their ankles glowing softly in his night vision optics.
“Well, hell… the colonel knows how to jump,” Sean said over the internal radio.
“But can he land?” Brooks asked.
“Cut the chatter boys,” Cloud responded.
Sean checked his GPS and made a slight adjustment to his glide path. At just above one thousand feet, he reached back and deployed his chute. He felt and heard the snap of deployment as his body pulled against the harness in a sudden deceleration. Looking down, he could see the tops of thick Colorado spruce trees seeming to rush at him through the green vision on his night vision optics.
He searched for an opening, finding only small spaces between the treetops; he flared his chute and pulled hard as his boots hit the ground running. Sean dropped quickly and released his harness, pulling and folding it in as he gathered the fabric. Quietly, he ran to the base of a large Douglas fir where he slipped out of the jumpsuit, revealing the dark woodland camouflage uniform underneath. Sean quickly buried his unneeded gear in a thick bed of needles.
Kneeling alone and in the dark, Sean expertly guided his hands over his weapons and equipment. He looked down again at his GPS; even with many satellites down, he was able to get enough of a signal to navigate. He smiled at himself; he’d done well and only a couple hundred meters from the rally point. He scanned his surroundings and, once confident he was alone, stepped off into the darkness. The trees overhead were thick; the heavy limbs blocked sunlight from reaching the forest floor, allowing heavy growth of weeds and brush to accumulate, so it made for easy maneuvering.
Sean walked along the soft needles, pausing often to drop low into a squat to listen. Occasionally, he heard the breaking of a branch or the hoot of an owl. Cloud told them that Primals were known to be in the area, but there were other predators as well—packs of wolves, bears, mountain lions, and of course, the occasional man in black. He heard the loud snap of a branch and the crackle of dry leaves to his front. Sean held his breath and focused his eyes, locking in on the movement. He could tell by the man’s posture that it was the colonel. Sean made a slight hiss with his teeth and watched Cloud freeze.
He moved up behind him and whispered, “It’s me—Chief.”
Cloud turned back and tossing up an exaggerated wave, pointed at the GPS on his wrist then pointed a finger skyward to indicate going up the side of the Mountain.
“Am I late?” he heard Brooks whisper from behind.
Sean turned back, spotting the other SEAL as he moved alongside Sean and knelt down to wait.
“Everyone good to go?” Sean asked.
The men nodded and Cloud stepped off, leading the way.
They climbed out of the brush and onto a limestone path a half hour later. Moving slowly along a half-poured concrete wall, Cloud crept along then stopped at one end before turning back to face the others.
“There are closed-circuit cameras on the other entrances, but not here. The original plans show this maintenance locker being sealed once construction was completed. Thanks to budget cuts, the bunker was never finished, so this locker remains open to access cable runs and electronic spaces from the service roads,” Cloud whispered.
“You sure it’s empty on the other side?” Brooks asked.
Cloud nodded, dug through a pouch on the chest of his gear, and removed a small key card then flipped up his NODS. “I’ll go ahead to the lock. It uses an RFID chip; once I wave my badge, I’ll have to enter my code and submit a retina scan. There is only room for one of us in the locker, but once you hear the door pop, we need to be inside quickly; if the door stays open more than thirty seconds, an alarm will sound.”
“Let’s do it,” Sean said.
Cloud moved ahead; Sean watched as he followed the half-wall to a nearly invisible, narrow passage where thick conduit ran along the base. Sean heard Cloud’s boots scrape on the dry earth, then an audible click.
“Come on,” Cloud said from the dark.
Sean and Brooks left the cover and scrambled forward. They moved into the narrow passageway, finding Cloud at the end with his hand on a lever, holding open a heavy pneumatic door. He waved the SEALs past him and into another dark space ahead. Clearing the door, Sean led the way in, his feet sliding on the smooth concrete floor. He heard the door ease shut behind him with a hissing noise as gasses escaped the pistons. The door clunked and made a scratching noise when it sealed shut.
The room was beyond dark. With no ambient light to feed his goggles, Sean reached up and activated his infrared headlight, the illuminator filling the small space with invisible light. Brooks quickly moved across the space to the only visible door and dropped into a crouch. His teammate had both hands on his suppressed MP5 and was looking down the barrel. They were in a small concrete-encased room, maybe eight feet wide and ten feet long. The room was void of objects except for a keypad near the now sealed door. A think bundle of cable ran along the ceiling, passing by large fluorescent lights that hung above.
Cloud followed Sean’s stare up at the dead lights. “All non-essentials have been powered off. Most of the complex is dark,” he said.
“Sounds dreamy; you mind giving us the VIP tour,” Sean said.
Cloud nodded and Brooks shuffled ahead to the only other door; pulling down on a latch, the door opened out on well-oiled hinges. Brooks moved through the opening, with Sean trailing close behind, his boots nearly sliding on the dry concrete floor. The concrete dust felt loose and gritty under his feet, as if it were, instead, a layer of talcum powder. Sean came out into the empty corridor, soft bits of light glowing in his goggles; he powered them down and lifted the eyepiece away.
He was standing along the wall of a long tunnel hundreds of feet long. More spaced-out fluorescent lighting blocks hung from the ceiling, every fifth one powered on, providing just enough light to see the floor. The hallway appeared completely deserted. Sean stepped forward, his boots scratching on the dry concrete. He moved into the thickest shadows and dropped to a knee, keeping his weapon ready and waiting for Cloud to move up behind him. Brooks crossed the hallway and found a spot a few meters back, covering their rear.
Cloud stepped to the front and walked ahead, crouched over, keeping his left shoulder close to the tunnel wall. After moving nearly a hundred yards and passing several closed doors, he stopped again, dropped to his knee, and waved Sean toward him. Cloud’s hand pointed to a door on the
far side of the passageway; the door, unlike the others, showed a small sliver of light escaping from its frame.
Without being instructed, Brooks silently moved ahead and posted outside the door; Sean fell in just behind him. The door shared a similar metal latch, but unlike the locker door, there was a small keypad above the latch. Cloud again removed his keycard and readied it by the door. Cloud ran his badge over the door, the keypad lit in green backlighting. He entered the code and the door clicked. Brooks moved ahead, nudging Cloud out of the way; he tilted the handle and swung into the brightly lit room, leading with his suppressor.
Sean pushed in behind him. The room was the size of an average one-car garage and stank of ozone air and body odor. A bank of black and white monitors was mounted on the left wall. Just below them, was a long console filled with computers and empty chairs. Brooks pivoted to the right and took his firing hand from his weapon to point at the far corner of the room. Sean followed his aim; at the end of another set of workspaces, a black chair tilted back with an arm coming out from the side and resting on the desk.
Brooks moved toward the chair on the toes of his feet. He hovered over the chair and smiled. Looking at Sean, he put a finger to his lips and waved Cloud into the room. Cloud proceeded in and let the door quietly shut behind him. Brooks reached down and violently spun the chair away from the console, the chair’s sleeping occupant screeched and tried to stand. Before he could, Sean was already hovering over him, his barrel pressing into the man’s chest.
The young, clean-shaven, and uniformed man’s eyes searched the room in a panic then locked on Cloud.
“Colonel,” he said. “You were reported as dead!”
“Yeah, well, I’m not. Where is the rest of the crew?” Cloud asked, moving to the bank of monitors, watching as camera views changed.
“Sir, there are only three of us on this watch now. I’m alone for another…” The man paused to look at a clock on the wall. He went to speak then paused and looked away. “Wait… who are these men?”
Sean brought the tip of his suppressor up and pressed it against the man’s forehead. “We are asking the questions here,” Sean said.
The man’s hands rose from his sides. “Sir, I’ll do whatever you want… just, please, when you leave, take me with you,” he pleaded.
The sincerity of the man’s tone caused Sean to back off, removing the barrel from his forehead. “That ain’t very loyal to your cause, now is it?” Sean said.
The man looked up at Sean with wide eyes. “What cause? This place… there is nothing left here.” He looked back to Cloud. “Sir, after you were reported dead, everyone started leaving, slipping out at night; some of the perimeter patrols just drove off. What security that is left is guarding the housing decks.”
“Guarding from who?” Sean asked.
“Keeping them in,” the man said. “The general has gone mad; we heard he attacked an Army base. Some of the contractors came back, but they took heavy losses and failed to do whatever they went out there after. The general went crazy over it. I’m telling you, sir, he’s lost it; you gotta take me with you.”
Cloud put up his hand and looked at the man’s shirt, seeing his name. “Okay, Robinson, that’s enough.”
Sean looked at his wrist and checked his watch. “Sir, the locks?” he said.
Cloud looked at the monitors then back at Robinson. “I need you to open the blast doors.”
“But, sir…” Robinson said.
Cloud walked to the chair and leaned over the man. “I need you to open the blast doors.”
Robinson swallowed hard and pointed to the far consoles. “I can do it, but the alarms and strobes will sound; I can’t override them,” he said.
Cloud nodded. “Good, I want you to sound the evacuation alarm as well. Open every door, unlock every lift.”
The man moved across the consoles. There was a large plastic case on hinges that he swiveled back and revealed three large metal dials and a number of switches. He looked back at Cloud. “Sir, I can open the blast gate, elevators, and doors and almost everything else except the lower levels.”
Sean looked at Cloud. “What’s down there?”
“The general and the laboratory,” Cloud said. “Robinson, get the doors open, and then you’re coming with us.”
The man flipped the dials and toggled the switches, and then the loud tone sounded—high and low beeps. A strobe light above the door began to flash a blue LED light. Robinson walked to a wall where, encased in the concrete, was a metal door; he opened it, revealing a keypad just like the one over the entry door. The man pulled a card from out of his shirt, swiped it over the reader, and entered a series of numbers. The keypad began flashing red, and he entered another combination. The blue strobe over the door turned to red and the tones changed to a siren.
“It’s done, sir,” Robinson said. “That’s the order to evacuate.” The man walked to a center console to a phone that had already begun ringing. He grabbed the handset and ripped it from the wall. “With no answer to confirm or deny the alarm, they will have to comply with the evacuation.”
Cloud grabbed the man by the shoulder and led him to the door. “Stay with us, do exactly what we say, and you’ll be okay; stray from that and Chief Rogers will shoot you dead. Do you understand?”
Sean moved ahead. “Sir, let’s cut him free now; we don’t need him anymore.”
Cloud shook his head. “We need him to get to the lower levels. The lifts at the end of the passageway require two keycards to enter; if we wait on the Rangers, all the lab work might be destroyed or moved.”
Cloud did not wait for a response; he opened the door and stepped into the now brightly lit hallway. The evacuation alarm had activated all of the lighting. Bright light spilled over the whitewashed concrete walls. Doors opened in the corridors as uniformed men and women left rooms and stepped in the passageway with confused faces.
“Gas leak! Everyone out!” Cloud yelled as he ran past them, headed for the lifts.
Sean and Brooks ran to keep up with Cloud and Robinson as they ran deeper into the bunker complex. The hallways slowly became more and more populated with people who took no interest in their presence, most completely ignoring the armed, uniformed men running toward them. At the end of the corridor was a large row of elevator doors. The doors opened and more people rushed out, most in uniform but not all.
Cloud turned and followed a branch the led off to the right. The corridor was dark except for a faint light illuminating stainless steel doors at the end. “Those were the lifts to the upper living spaces; we need the secure lift to the lower level.”
Cloud ran until he was right on top of two stainless steel doors recessed into the walls. He guided Robinson ahead to a card reader between the double sets of doors. The man nervously pulled the card attached to a lanyard from around his neck and swiped the keypad. Robinson entered his code, and the pad began flashing green. Before Cloud could do the same, the keypad froze solid and the lift began to buzz.
“Someone’s coming up,” Robinson said, backing away.
The doors clicked and slid open. Sean and the others found themselves looking into the faces of four men in black uniforms, M4s on tactical slings hanging to their front. Two more men in the back wore white lab coats and carried heavy black bags. Sean and Brooks brought up their weapons, examining the men. Without hesitation, one of the men in black jumped to the left, firing his rifle. As he moved, the rounds impacted the floor, bits of concrete exploding and splintering. Sean fired his own rifle as the rest of the men leveled their M4s and tried to fight.
Brooks leaned left and fired a short burst, taking down two guards quickly. Sean turned and shuffled to the right while draining his submachine gun into the corner of the lift, where he knew the first man had jumped. As Sean moved, he saw his rounds hit true, ripping through the guard’s torso.
The last remaining guard dropped back against the back of the lift. He took one of the men in lab coats behind the neck and
held a pistol to his head; the second lab worker dropped and cowered to the floor. “Back off… you know who this is, right? You want the cure, so you won’t want him dead.”
The man pushed forward, keeping the hostage in front of him, the pistol still pressed to the man’s head. He turned the man to try to navigate away from Sean and out of the lift. Sean kept his weapon up. “Sorry, friend; I have no idea who that is,” Sean said. He let his empty MP5 hang from its sling, drew his sidearm, and aimed it at the guard. “You have three seconds to drop your weapon.” Sean let his index finger activate a laser. A bright red dot illuminated on the guard’s forehead. “One, two.” Sean pulled the trigger and a single suppressed round hit exactly where the red dot had rested. The man in black’s head snapped back, and his body dropped to the floor.
Cloud rushed forward and pulled the hostage away. “Chief, this is Doctor Simmons, our lead in the Primal research.” Cloud stepped away from the doctor and over the dead guard, lifting one of the black bags. “Is this it?” Cloud said.
The doctor nodded. “It’s everything. Aziz is dead… Reynolds ordered him killed and took the digital copies; these are the backups and vaccine vials. These men were taking us to Reynolds’ helicopter.”
“Is he still down there?” Cloud asked.
“Yes, but we don’t need him; the vaccine is in here,” Simmons said, pointing at the bags.
Cloud looked up at the flashing red strobe light and blinked in its glare. He took in a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders. “Robinson, lead these men out. There’s a battalion of Rangers that should be here by now; they’ll get you to safety.”
Sean reached into the lift, grabbed one of the black bags from the floor, and tossed it into the corridor. He moved into the lift and stood next to Cloud. He dropped the magazine on the MP5 and quickly reloaded it. Brooks moved past the others and went to join him. “No, you have to make sure the cure gets to Ericson,” Sean said.
“Chief, I can do this alone,” Cloud said.