“Do I know you?” Anna asked.
“This is Teegan Toppley,” Tess said.
“The Teegan Toppley?” O.O. asked, stepping out of the airlock and over to the nearest corpse. He unhooked the dead mercenary’s suppressed submachine gun. “Talk about the end of the world making strange bedfellows.”
“Dream on, mate,” Toppley said.
“They infected Bronwyn Wilson,” Anna said. “And at least five conscripts.”
O.O. fired a burst from the submachine gun into the wall. Bullets ricocheted. Everyone ducked.
“Stop shooting!” Smilovitz called, just before Anna could do the same.
“Sorry, sorry!” O.O. said. “Wanted to make sure the gun worked.”
“Not the most sensible idea, considering these,” Toppley said, holding up a small bag. “Plastic explosives.”
While Dr Smilovitz had worked on opening the door, Anna had watched the screen showing the camera-view of the other side of the airlock. While Tess had guarded the stairwell, Toppley had moved around the room with a bag in hand, even retrieving a small stepladder so she could access the ceiling.
“May I see, please?” Smilovitz asked. He took the bag. “Intriguing. There’s a timer rather than a remote detonator. Two timers, in fact. And enough explosives to bring down the building.”
“Here you are, Smiley.” O.O. held out the submachine gun he’d just fired to Dr Smilovitz. “They wanted to bury us in there?”
“It’s a coup, Tess,” Anna said. “I think they killed Aaron Bryce, and he wasn’t the first.”
Another trio of suppressed shots caused them all to spin. O.O. had picked up another submachine gun, but this time, he’d fired into a corpse. “Like I said, I wanted to make sure the guns worked.”
“Let’s talk as we walk, and do both quickly,” Tess said, and took point as they climbed up the stairs.
“You say they’re mercenaries?” O.O. asked.
“Low grade amateurs,” Toppley said. “Not so much weekend-warriors as vacation-vets. Conscripts, though of a different sort to ourselves. They appear menacing, but have no experience of maintaining a defence or planning a retreat. In short, they are expendable, which suggests their demolition expert wasn’t confident the timer would give someone more useful sufficient time to escape up those stairs.”
“Did you find a radio?” Smilovitz asked.
“No, but I wasn’t looking for one,” Toppley said.
“Why do you ask?” Tess asked.
“Slow down a bit,” O.O. said breathlessly.
“They had timers rigged to those explosives,” Smilovitz said. “Two timers, so one was a back-up, but they must have been waiting for a signal before detonating them.”
“Which suggests more people here,” Tess said.
“Or more bombs,” Anna added.
“Yeah, forget what I just said, and hurry,” O.O. said.
Anna was the second to reach the atrium, and the first thing she saw was the gun barrel, though its wielder, having recognised Tess, was already turning to point the weapon back along the corridor. A helmet covered the man’s head, a neat goatee covered his chin, while body-armour covered his blue airport overalls. In his hands was a shotgun, while over his shoulder was an MP5 submachine gun with suppressor, presumably taken from the corpse at his feet.
“Any trouble, Clyde?” Tess asked.
“No trouble, Commish,” he said. “But some curiosity from the other side of those doors.” Even as he spoke, he shifted position, turning ninety degrees, towards the pair of glass doors currently secured by a pair of plastic hand-ties. “Three people in suits. Saw me. Left.”
“Probably nothing to do with the coup,” Anna said. “But people will have questions.”
“They can join the club,” O.O. said. “Because I’ve got no answers for them.”
“Clyde, join Teegan at the rear,” Tess said. “Shout a warning before you shoot, and don’t shoot first.”
“Roger, Commish,” Clyde said.
“You’ve found an army,” Anna said, as she ran with Tess along the corridor, roughly following the fire-exit signs towards the outside. “And don’t I know that bloke?”
“He was with me when I found Aaron Bryce’s body,” Tess said. “You sent him to work the airport. When Dr Avalon brought her warning, I gathered some people I could trust, and left others guarding the scientist.”
“Captain Hawker isn’t here?” Anna asked.
But Tess had paused at a corner. “Funnel-web!” she called.
“Stonefish,” came the reply. “We’re clear, Commissioner.”
Tess peered around the corner, then beckoned the others to follow. Just before the doors leading outside were another pair of Tess’s team. Two women, both similarly attired to Clyde, wearing blue airport overalls, body armour, and helmets. A woman, with a trio of distinctly un-military nose rings, carried the ADF’s standard issue EF88 bullpup-style assault rifle. The other, ramrod straight, wearing enough gems to open a jewellers, carried an MP5 submachine gun, presumably taken from the dead mercenary sprawled near the door.
“Any trouble, Bianca?” Tess asked.
“Not yet,” Bianca said. Her accent was as likely to cut glass as the diamonds on the earrings dangling beneath her helmet’s strategically repositioned chin strap.
“I thought we came here to arrest him,” the woman with the nose rings said, pointing, though not with her gun, to Oswald Owen.
“He’s one of the good guys, Elaina,” Tess said.
“I’d never describe myself as good,” O.O. said. “But I’m not evil. Are your soldiers short on weapons?”
“Chronically,” Bianca said. “And we’re not soldiers. We’re Team Stonefish.”
“Bianca, Elaina, Clyde,” Tess said. “Give your helmets to the politicians and the scientist.”
“You mean you’re okay with us getting our heads blown off?” Elaina asked. “No offence, but my love for democracy doesn’t extend to becoming a decoy.”
“A sniper isn’t interested in you,” Tess said, taking off her body armour. “They’ll know you’re a soldier by your clothing, and know these three are the targets by theirs.”
“You think they have snipers?” O.O. asked.
“If it were me, I would,” Toppley said.
“Which is good enough for me,” Tess said, handing her bulletproof vest to Anna. “They’ll have time for one shot. If it comes, scatter. But we’re running outside, and down to the utes parked on the road.”
O.O. waved away Clyde’s proffered helmet. “No, if there’s a sniper, let’s give him a truly tempting target. Anna, in those overalls, she looks as anonymous as a recruit. You keep your helmet, and I’ll play the sacrificial calf.”
Before Anna could object, O.O. had opened the doors and jogged outside.
The road was empty except for a pair of airport emergency vehicles, which O.O. reached without terminal interruption from a sniper. A few seconds later, so did everyone else, taking shelter with three more of Tess’s team, one of whom was young enough to be in school.
“You can’t be SAS,” O.O. said.
“We’re Team Stonefish,” the young man said. “And I thought we were going to shoot him.”
“My reputation travels before me,” O.O. said. “It’s exhausting trying to keep up.”
“This is Zach,” Tess said, quickly. “And that’s Sophia, behind the wheel. They’re conscripts I first met at the wall, and whom I trust. The bloke with the shotgun, that’s Blaze. He and Teegan Toppley were with me in the outback.”
The silver-haired man had his shotgun, and gaze, directed towards the road until Toppley handed him one of the submachine guns taken from the body of a mercenary.
“Who’s she?” Anna asked, pointing at the last figure, who clearly wasn’t a member of Team Stonefish. The woman sat in the truck-bed of the second airport-response vehicle. In her early twenties, a clotted gash along her forehead had dripped a trail of blood to her chin. With watchful eyes, a
ngrily clenched jaw, and alertly tensed shoulders, she was dressed in the mercenaries’ black utility gear Anna had previously associated with the Special Forces. The mercenary’s helmet had been removed, revealing close-cropped black hair. Her body armour had gone, too, while her hands and wrists were secured with plastic ties, to which a rope and chain had been added.
“Who added the rope and chain?” Tess asked.
“Didn’t want her to escape,” the very young man, Zach, said. “I’ve seen movies. The prisoner always escapes.”
“You’ve got a prisoner?” O.O. asked, pushing his way through the team. “What’s your name, Miss?”
The prisoner shook her head.
“She was in charge of the detail here,” Tess said. “When I took her prisoner, the others opened fire. That was when Clyde and Blaze began their competition to see who could be shot first.” The two older, stern-faced men looked away.
“They attacked first,” Zach added in defence of his senior comrades.
“And so we did the same,” Tess said. “But now we only have one prisoner.”
“Who we’ll make sing louder than a lyrebird?” O.O. said. “Smiley, you got any pliers on you, mate? Maybe a drill.”
“No, Oswald,” Anna said. “We’re supposed to be better than that. We have to lead by example, obeying the laws we tell a few to uphold and the many to follow.” She turned to the prisoner. “I don’t know your name. I should do, since you were guarding this building. I should have asked. But I didn’t. I apologise.”
The prisoner’s eyes narrowed, but more in suspicion than puzzlement.
“You’re a mercenary, yes?” Anna asked. “You’ll work for whoever pays the most? I can guarantee that we, the Australian government, can pay more than anyone else on the planet. Where did Lignatiev and Vaughn go?”
The mercenary sighed, and gave a wan smile. “I’m not doing this for money. I’m repaying a debt.”
“You owe Ian a debt?” Anna asked.
“Not him,” the mercenary said. “I don’t work for him.”
“For Vaughn?” O.O. asked.
The mercenary shook her head. “The worst you can do is kill me,” she said. “The people who hired me can make death seem like a gift.”
“Oh, I can do worse than kill you,” O.O. said. “Someone give me a knife.”
“No,” Anna said, pointing along the road where a trio of agricultural labourers crouched behind an overloaded pallet of corrugated steel. “There are people watching, Oswald. Constituents. Citizens.”
“Show them what we found,” the stone-faced man, Blaze, said, not taking his eyes from the road.
“Oh, yeah, this,” Zach said, hauling a bag from the front seat and dropping it on the ground.
“Easy on!” Sophia said.
“Sorry,” Zach said, bending and unzipping the bag. Inside were small grey bricks.
“Is that a bomb?” O.O. asked.
“Plastic explosive, yes,” Smilovitz said, bending down and picking up a brick. “It matches what we found down in the Bunker. No markings, so privately manufactured. Not military issue. Fascinating.” He put the brick down and picked up a small box with a pair of wires. “Detonator attached to a timer. No remote. Understandable under the circumstances, but who would have known of the circumstances in advance?”
“Blaze, did you find a radio?” Tess asked.
“No.”
“They were expecting the order to come in person,” Tess said. She turned to the prisoner. “We found explosives at the entrance to the Bunker, so where were you going to plant these?”
The prisoner shook her head.
“Where were your orders coming from?” O.O. asked. “Answer at least one question or I’ll roll up my sleeves, and I don’t care if there’s a news crew recording it.”
“It’s okay, Oswald,” Anna said, laying a cautioning hand on his arm. “There’s no need, because I think I know where Ian and Erin went.” She turned back to the prisoner. “Your orders were to make sure no one went down to the Bunker, yes?”
The woman tilted her head in what was neither a shake nor a nod.
“People still work here,” Anna said. “Not many. But enough. They would ask why these soldiers were stopping people from going down into the Bunker. The bomb would have sealed the entrance, ensuring that we were trapped down there with the undead who would kill us.”
“You were going to trap them with the zombies?” Zach asked.
“But first,” Anna continued, “they had to secure their hold on power. They wanted us trapped down there after they’d cut the Bunker’s communications with the outside world. Not just to prevent us from getting help, but because they needed all of Canberra, Hobart, Australia, the world, everyone to think we were dead. An explosion at Parliament House would convince everyone in the A.C.T., as fast as the speed of rumour. But they’d need word to get out faster and further than that.”
“You mean the broadcast studio they set up at the Telstra Tower?” O.O. said. “That’s where they’ve gone?”
The mercenary stiffened.
“Ha! I saw that,” O.O. declared, victorious. “I’d call that a confession.”
“Airports and broadcast studios,” Toppley said. “They are the essential targets in any revolution.”
“Does that ute have a radio?” Anna said. “Switch to the official channel.”
Blaze did. Dreary orchestral music, the kind that made a sunny day appear grey, drifted from the speakers.
“That’s what they play before the official broadcast,” Anna said.
“We’ve been waiting to hear one all day,” Tess said.
“There hasn’t been one yet?” Anna asked.
“Nothing. Just that music, and the instruction to stay tuned for something soon.”
“Why haven’t Lignatiev and Vaughn broadcast something?” O.O. said. He turned to the prisoner. “Are they waiting for you to report the explosion?”
“With this amount of explosive,” Smilovitz said, “they’d hear it.”
“Then that’s their signal, meaning we’ve still got the element of surprise,” Anna said.
“Zach, you drive the politicians to the airport,” Tess said. “We’ll take the other ute to the Telstra Tower.”
“Not a chance,” O.O. said. “Me and Ian are overdue for a convo before this is over. The Telstra Tower? Used to love walking around Black Mountain when I was younger, so I’ll drive the lead ute.”
“No more questions, no more arguments, because we’ve no more time to waste,” Anna said. “Tess, let’s move out.”
“You’ve been watching too many movies with your dad,” Tess said, but two minutes later, they were driving west.
Chapter 27 - Uphill Battle
Telstra Tower, Black Mountain
“You won’t really pay her to join us, will you?” Zach asked while Tess drove, and Anna mentally reframed her understanding of the events of the last few weeks.
Next to Anna was Leo Smilovitz and the notorious crook, Teegan Toppley. The prisoner was still chained up, riding in the back of the other truck, now in front with Oswald Owen behind the wheel. Clyde, Blaze, Bianca, Elaina, and Sophia were crammed inside while the politician wildly steered the speeding truck down the empty roads.
“The mercenary, I mean,” Zach said, pointing ahead at the chained woman being thrown from side to side as O.O. veered across the road far more erratically than necessary. “She’s the enemy, so will you really let her fight on our side?”
“Put her in the very foremost line,” Toppley said. “It was how loyalty used to be proven.”
“It depends on what she did,” Anna said. “We’ll need some jails, but running prisons, with guards and fences, will consume resources we could expend saving others. But her fate will be determined by her guilt. If she was complicit with what happened inside the Bunker, I’ll personally dig a big hole to throw her in.”
“You mean infecting the prime minister?” Tess asked.
“No,”
Anna said. “It’s worse than that. Do you remember telling me about those two pilots in Broken Hill? This was similar.”
“What pilots?” Zach asked. “What was similar?”
“There are some things it’s better not to know,” Tess said. “How similar?”
“Not identical,” Anna said. “But close enough.”
Ahead, O.O. clipped the edge of a barricade. There were no guards there, and no people on the footpath, but there were faces in windows, and even in some doorways. From those, the dreary orchestral piece played as citizens waited to hear confirmation of the rumours that must have spread throughout the city. But as long as the music bleakly blared, it wasn’t over. Not yet.
“Where are the soldiers?” Toppley asked as they sped through another unguarded barricade.
“There were more a few days ago,” Tess said. “Mobile patrols, too.”
“He’s deployed them elsewhere,” Anna said. “He must have. Ian Lignatiev, I mean. This was why he wanted to remain Minister of Defence. During the meeting where we picked Bronwyn Wilson for PM, Aaron Bryce asked Ian if he wanted the top job. Ian said he’d stick with the area he knew best. But this has to be the real reason. If Ian had become PM, Oswald would have taken the defence job. I can guarantee he’d have stuck soldiers on every street corner.”
“Conscripts,” Toppley said.
“We’re still fighters,” Zach added.
“But Lignatiev wanted the authority to deploy the soldiers away from here,” Anna said. “Julia Dickson committed suicide, Tess.”
“Who?” Zach asked.
“The Minister of Defence before the outbreak,” Tess said. “She killed herself the day after Manhattan. Rather, it was assumed to be suicide. It was before I reached Canberra.”
“It was one of the first suicides,” Anna said. “And it was why Ian got the promotion.”
“This sounds all rather Roman,” Toppley said with a dismissively blithe calm. “Or perhaps the Soviet Union was a stronger influence.”
“The mercenaries must have been hired before the outbreak,” Anna said. “So did Ian know about the zombies? Did he know about the nuclear war? If he didn’t, then what was he planning for?”
Life Goes On | Book 3 | While The Lights Are On [Surviving The Evacuation] Page 26