Dead Edge

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Dead Edge Page 25

by Jack Ford


  ‘And when we get there, Thomas. Don’t forget Ismet and his guys are heavily armed. American military grade weapons. So we know we’re not playing games here. Fully automatic. Not semi. And all we’ve got are Turkish combat knives.’

  ‘That’s not our objective. We’re not taking them on, Rosedale.’

  ‘Sure we’re not. Until we have to take them on, that is.’

  Cooper tried to sound reassuring. ‘Even if we were armed, we’d be outnumbered. We wouldn’t stand a chance. Let’s just do a reconnaissance and get out of there. See if we can find anything which is linked to the kids. It’s three in the morning, so I doubt there’ll be too many people about.’

  Rosedale looked at Cooper ruefully. ‘Thomas, it doesn’t take many people. It takes one man, one gun, and a bullet.’

  69

  Bf3 Ra1

  Heavy. So heavy. The weight of the water pushing him down as the cold hit. Striking hard into his muscles. The goose fat they’d slathered on didn’t help. Didn’t work. As the bracing temperatures of the water began to cramp his body.

  And the salt sea lapped and ebbed and flowed and rushed in and out of his mouth. Ahead he could see Maddie and Rosedale looking like they’d never left the Navy. Expertly executing the SEAL combat side stroke. Efficient. Low energy. Performing without tiring. Without faltering. Reducing the body profile in the water, making the swimmer less visible to the enemy.

  Top arm pull.

  Bottom arm pull.

  Breathe.

  Kick.

  Glide.

  And repeat. But it wasn’t any use to him. Not now. The pain was already burning through his legs. The water already dragging him down, wanting him to go under. Pushing through each stroke was like pushing through a quagmire.

  And he could hear the sound of his own breathing.

  Panting.

  Struggling.

  Fighting to keep going.

  And the dark sea below like a void. As if he was walking on air and any minute now he was going to fall. Nothing underneath to stop him going under. Going down… Like Ellie.

  Diving underneath the surface to fill his ears with the sound of the rushing water, with anything other than the sound of his own thoughts.

  Holding his breath, he opened his eyes. Wide. Seeing nothing but nothingness. A dark isolation of space. Like looking into a black hole. And cold. So cold. Then, he saw something.

  Coming towards him.

  Floating towards him.

  Nearer.

  Nearer.

  Until he realized what it was. And in the deep he opened his mouth and cried out, filling his lungs with ocean and expelling his breath as he flailed and lashed and splashed, trying to get away from the horror of what it was… From the horror of Ellie. Her body. Floating. Deformed. Grotesque. Twisted. Taunting features. Whispering. Calling his name. Louder and louder through the chamber of the waters. Passing underneath him. Staring up at him.

  Looking up at him with eyes as black as the pit of hell.

  Upwards. Rotating his hands. Kicking his legs to get back up to the surface to the silence of the night… Cooper trod water. Whipping his head around. Whipping his body around in a three sixty to look into the abyss of the night… Nothing. Only the darkness. Only his breathing. In. And out. In. And out. His head playing tricks. Playing games. The kind of games he wanted to stop. To stop and leave him alone. Just leave him alone.

  It wasn’t real. None of it. That’s what he had to keep saying. It wasn’t real. This was. The here and now. This was what was real. Here, in the cold Mediterranean Sea. But he couldn’t feel it. He couldn’t feel now. All he could feel was her. Haunting him. His guilt haunting him.

  Sliding the combat knife out of his ankle strap as he trod water, he held the leather-bound handle. His hands shaking from the cold. Trembling. And turning the knife towards himself, he plunged the sharp blade in and quickly out of his hip. Feeling the shock of the pain. The burn. Finally feeling the here. The now.

  And then the ease. Spreading over his thoughts. Spreading over his body. A relief. A respite from feeling something other than nothing. Nothing other than her.

  Spreading open his arms, Cooper put his head in the water. Let his legs fall heavy. Stopped treading water. And let the ocean begin to pull him down.

  Down.

  Down.

  Down.

  Down.

  Rushing. Bubbling water sped down past him as he passed up and out, being brought, being dragged up. High above the surface.

  ‘What the hell are you doing? Thomas, what are you doing?’

  A hand on each arm. Maddie and Rosedale on each side of him. Treading water as they stared at him. And getting his breath. Spitting out the sea, Cooper stared back. Feeling the warmth of his blood trickling out of the wound in his hip, in stark contrast to the icy cold of the sea.

  Breathing. Panting. His words staggered. ‘I got cramp… Jesus… Sorry…I don’t know what happened. One minute I’m swimming. The next my legs just spasmed up on me.’

  In the moonlight, Cooper could see Maddie’s face. Concern. Doubt. ‘Tom, are you sure you can do this? Rosedale and I can handle it.’

  ‘Of course I can. It was only cramp. Look, we haven’t got far to go. I’ll be fine. The cold must’ve just gotten into my muscles. Come on. It’s not good to be here, the moon’s bright and we could be seen.’

  With a nod to both of them, Cooper glided his body, streaming it through the water. Heading towards the craggy shore.

  *

  Squatting down low on the large, aslant rocks of the shore, Maddie looked at Cooper, trying to put the thought this was a bad mistake, out of her mind.

  ‘Okay, look, I actually think rather than trekking around the shoreline, it’ll probably be best to get back in the water and swim round. It’ll be quicker for a start. We could get to the private harbor in less than five minutes. Rosedale, what do you think? Jesus, Tom, you’re bleeding.’

  Cooper gave a tight smile. Touching his hip where the blood showed through his lightweight khaki pants. ‘Oh, it’s nothing. When we were coming up to these rocks, I caught myself on a sharp corner. Just a nick.’

  Maddie nodded, then turned back to Rosedale. ‘Any thoughts?’

  Rosedale looked at Cooper. ‘Oh I’ve got plenty, but none you probably want to hear right now. But as for what the best thing to do is, I think you’re right. If we were to hike round this cape there’s a higher likelihood of being seen. And as much as I like to keep my feet on dry land, hell, honey, now they’re wet, what’s another five minutes?’

  Maddie smiled as she spoke, relieved to have Rosedale countering the intensity of Cooper.

  ‘I could see the stealth ship docked in the harbor, so if we head for there and swim wide, if you remember there’s that steep hillside on portside we could climb up, and hopefully be hidden by the ship. It’s risky but I think it’s doable. And like you say, Rosedale, it shouldn’t take us more than five minutes to get there. But I think vigilance is key.’

  Wiping off the dripping, trickling water which ran down his face from his soaking hair, Rosedale said, ‘I don’t suppose now is the best time to say this, but I’ve got a bad feeling… A really bad one.’

  70

  Kf4 Ke6

  Wet and cold, the three of them lay on their stomachs, high on the hillside in the coarse sandy earth, looking down towards the bay and the stealth ship. The aroma of the olive and lemon trees drifted down from above them.

  Taking off her head-mounted night vision binoculars, Maddie passed them to Cooper.

  ‘That’s not the same ship as we went on. That must be the other one Ismet was talking about.’

  Rosedale spoke in a hushed voice. ‘In a couple of hours the sun will begin to rise, so I vote we go across the top to directly opposite Ismet’s office. Then from there, as long as we get a clear visual we’ll head down. Have a look about. What do you say?’

  Cooper nodded.

  Maddie nodded. ‘You’re on.
Let’s go and see what that bastard’s up to.’

  Running. Ducking. Hiding behind trees. The three of them worked in sync in the darkness of the night. Keeping down. Keeping watch. Keeping each other in their eye line. Maddie nodded to Rosedale and ran and crouched. Lying low. Pausing. Waiting to get a clear visual with Cooper a few feet in front holding up his fingers. Counting them down. Pointing to the next spot they’d run to. Stop at. Vigilant and precise. With Rosedale at the back, heading forward but running backwards, making sure no-one could come up from behind. Jumping across dry branches and bracken and brushwood. Avoiding any sound. Communicating with silent signals. Reading each other’s movements.

  Behind the twisted, gnarled olive tree, hearts beating, adrenalin rushing, Cooper said, ‘Okay, I got a clear visual of Ismet’s office. An all clear. You second that, Rosedale?’

  ‘Second that… Maddie?’

  She took in the short slope leading down to the white building which jutted out over the sea. It couldn’t be more than one hundred and fifty meters but it was a hundred and fifty meters of nowhere-to-hide hillside. No trees. No bushes. Just them exposed. ‘Yeah, clear visual… So now we head down. Agreed?’

  Rosedale nodded. ‘Okay. Five…’ His voice trailed off as his fingers took over. Counting down until he got to: ‘Go! Go! Go!’

  Bounding down the hillside with speed. The three of them chased their legs as the slope of the hill ran them faster. Quicker. Heading them downward to Ismet’s office.

  ‘Get down!’ Rosedale bellowed as he heard the undisputable whiz and thud of a passing bullet as it hit the soft earth.

  Within a blink of a second, all three of them had dropped to the ground. Breathing hard, pushing and flattening their bodies as low as possible, and with eyes darting round, Maddie shouted over the sounds of the bullets.

  ‘We got to get out of here, where’s it coming from?’

  Not wanting to put his head higher than it was already, Rosedale rolled over on his back and tipped up his chin, surveying the landscape upside down and using the back of his heels to rotate himself to get a full three-sixty view.

  ‘Shit! Shit! Over there. Look on top of the hill. There’s an autonomous gun turret. Wherever the radar is, it must’ve detected us and sent across its signal to make it start firing. It’ll be locked on to us now, and won’t stop tracking until somebody… Holy shit!’ A bullet grazed past Rosedale’s fingers. ‘Move it! Go! Go!’

  Assuming the military low crawl, they began to speed backwards using their arms and elbows hoping to get back up onto the hillside.

  Cooper gave a quick glance round. ‘Jesus, no, stop. Behind you, Rosedale!’

  More bullets began to blaze down, firing from a different but identical robot sentry gun, preventing them from heading for cover. ‘We can’t go back. Go forward… To the side. Maddie, move it. Rosedale… ’

  Cooper continued to shout but stopped as stadium-size floodlights on the surrounding hills switched on, lighting up the area. Lighting up them.

  Maddie, with her cheek pressed into the sandy earth, yelled out orders.

  ‘Roll. Roll. That’s our only chance, and we gotta get out of here before Ismet’s men come. Head for his office, that’ll probably be the safest place, the guns are probably programmed not to fire in that area. Now let’s go! Go!’

  Following the others, and through the automatic gun fire, Cooper pushed forward. Threw himself at speed into a log roll. Chin tucked and arms clutched and wrapped around his chest, momentum sending his body spinning and tumbling and turning down and down the dry shingle incline, taking with him a cloud of dust.

  They thudded.

  They pounded.

  They came to an abrupt halt as they crashed into the six feet high white wall which acted as a barrier and ran around the outer edge of the compound. Quickly they scrambled over and ducking down and catching his breath, Cooper smiled and panted and whispered at Maddie and Rosedale. ‘Everyone OK?’

  They nodded. Gave a thumbs up, saving their breath and restoring their energy.

  Across from where they were, roughly forty meters away and shrouded in the looming shadow of the stealth ship, was Ismet’s office. Two storey. Flat roofed. Whitewashed building which stretched towards and hung out over the water’s edge, with a set of outside stairs leading up to a door, which Cooper remembered opened into the main office area.

  Maddie, crouching opposite Rosedale, noticed shadows moving across his face. She whipped round. Braved a glance over the wall to see what was coming. And right then, right there, her worst fears were realized.

  On the surrounding hill tops she could see the headlights of four… maybe five SUVs, appearing over the headland. ‘Time to get out of here.’

  Cooper said, ‘How long have we got?’

  Maddie glanced at Rosedale, then back to Cooper. ‘Five minutes, maybe… maybe. Those guys will be responding to their defense security system being triggered. Right now they’ll be getting the data from the linked computer system, trying to find out if it was something like wild animals, or something like us, which set it off. They don’t know we’re down here, yet, but it won’t take them long to work it out.’

  The SUVs sat on the top of the hill, like a pack of lions waiting to race down on their prey. ‘So what’s the plan?’ Cooper said.

  Quickly noting the time on his watch, Rosedale caught hold of Maddie’s arm. Held his grip. Leaned in close to her ear. ‘We need go now, then. There’s no way round the East side of the building. West side negative. And the roof is so exposed we’d be like target practice once those guys come down. The only way out is to try to get through Ismet’s office somehow.’

  Maddie nodded. Turned towards Cooper. ‘Did you copy that?’

  Cooper nodded. ‘Affirmative.’

  ‘Ready?’ he asked Maddie.

  ‘Ready.’

  Rosedale followed the headlights of the SUVs as they swung round from their vantage point on the hilltop before disappearing from view. Which could only mean one thing.

  ‘They’re coming. Go! Go! Go!’

  Running along the shadow of the wall they made their way to and up the steps of the building to the door.

  Maddie pointed. ‘Shit, Tom, look. We’ve got no chance.’

  A steel door stood between them and Ismet’s office. And Cooper’s gaze searched. Looking. Hoping for a solution. His eyes rested near the top edge of the building. He spoke hurriedly. ‘Rosedale’s right, we can’t go onto the roof. It’s too lit up, but you see that cable running along the edge of the roof? We can climb up. Shimmy along it and once we get to the window over there, we can all drop our weight through the frame at the same time and that way, when the window breaks, it’ll shatter evenly, which means there’ll be less chance of one of us getting badly hurt. And at the other side of Ismet’s office there’s another window which hangs out over the water. We can dive into the sea from there.’

  ‘Then hell, Thomas, what are we waiting for?’ Rosedale said.

  Leaning against the security door and holding out his clasped hands as a step, Rosedale expertly lifted as Cooper expertly walked up him like a ladder. Standing on his shoulders. Stretched up. Hands gripping the edge of the flat roof, to hands gripping the large electricity cable bolted to the wall. And hanging his weight from it he moved along. Slid along. Edging himself towards the window.

  With Maddie quickly following Cooper, Rosedale jumped onto the stair’s wrought iron hand rail. Precariously balancing on tiptoes to stretch and reach his six-foot-five frame towards the wire, all too aware of the thirty-foot drop below him.

  As the three of them hung precariously from the cable, knowing time was their enemy, Cooper shouted his orders. ‘On a count of three, we drop all together and kick this son-of-a-bitch in.’

  Heaving themselves up by their hands. Arching, their backs, they inched their feet upwards. Placed them firmly between their shoulder-width-apart arms, until they looked like three swimmers poised for the start of a backstroke race.
Cooper counted down. ‘Three. Two…’ And as the SUVs flooded the compound with dipping and bobbing headlights, Cooper said, ‘One!’

  The three of them crashed through the window, pushing the whole frame off its mountings, landing it and themselves in the stairwell that Ismet had led Cooper to on their first visit.

  Scrabbling up, and checking no-one was hurt save a few cuts, Cooper spoke hurriedly.

  ‘Come on, it’s this way.’

  Two flights of stairs.

  One hallway.

  A half-landing.

  And a hell of a lot of panting led them into Ismet’s open-plan office.

  Rosedale’s eyes darted around as they headed for the large window.

  ‘Help me pick this up,’ said Cooper. ‘We can run at the window with it, throw the whole thing through. That way it’ll be easier to dive through.’

  Rosedale took hold of his side of the wooden desk. Looked up at Cooper. Saw the beads of sweat running down his temples. Waited for the nod.

  ‘Ready, Rosedale?’ Cooper whispered.

  ‘Always.’

  Making it look effortless, the men picked up and swung high and threw hard and crashed the desk through the window and out into the sea.

  ‘Maddie, you go first. Then I’ll follow. Rosedale you go last.’

  Without a word, Maddie stepped up. Looked around. Checked down. Then dived out expertly into the darkness, followed immediately by Cooper.

  And as Rosedale began to step up onto the ledge, he stopped. Suddenly. Stepped down quickly. Walked towards the shadowy picture on the office wall. He stared at the familiar shapes. Recognizing the jutting irregular lines. The number of corners. The vertex. The acute and obtuse angles, precisely as it was in his memory. Precisely what’d been on the USB key Maddie had decrypted. The only difference with this image were the new added details. New lines filled in. And new digital overlay. But there was no mistake. No mistake what he was looking at… A map. That’s what it was on the file. A map. The only question now, was where? Where the hell was this place?

  A moment later, Rosedale dived in, hitting the sea without a sound.

 

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