‘Let me guess,’ William said with a sour smile. ‘We don’t have one?’
Max cleaned the sweat off the rest of his face, refolded his handkerchief and put it away. ‘We have half of one,’ he said. ‘We think the professor cobbled something together at the last minute.’
‘We think?’ William said incredulously.
‘It’s a form of RNA that binds to the engineered virus and slows its growth. Actually, all it does is slow the flu-like virus from mutating into its deadly phase. It only gives a temporary protection and will never eradicate the virus.’ From his jacket pocket Max pulled out a small black plastic case. Inside was a syringe, some fresh needles and several small vials of a yellowy liquid. He pushed a fresh needle into the end of the syringe and used it to withdraw some of the contents of a vial.
‘This will protect you until we find the proper vaccine,’ he said. He undid his safety strap and moved across to sit next to William.
William threw Max a deterring glance. With his eyebrows raised, Max looked to Paddy for help.
‘We’ve all had one,’ Paddy assured. He tapped his own arm and pointed to the troopers.
Reluctantly, William rolled up his sleeve. Max injected the liquid into his arm then returned to his seat and put the medical kit away.
‘So where is the real vaccine?’ William asked. ‘I take it there is one?’
‘We hope so. Theoretically it will be at the enemy’s headquarters,’ Max explained.
‘We hope so? Theoretically?’ William snorted. ‘Come on.’
‘They must have one,’ Max pleaded. ‘It’s the only logical thing to do.’
‘Logical?’ William laughed. ‘You think these idiots are logical do you?’
Sheepishly, Max opened his mouth to defend himself, but he closed it again without a word. He sat back, shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
William held his arms out and threw his hands in the air. ‘I’m used to winging it but this is ridiculous,’ he said to Paddy.
‘It’s far from over, William. We’ve been given the authority to acquire any resources we need to get the job done,’ Paddy explained proudly. ‘Air, sea or land. Anything from any NATO force. All we need to do is give the operational codeword.’ It was the most power Paddy had ever had the luxury to wield. And he planned to use it to the full.
‘Which is?’
Paddy grinned. ‘Operation Intrepid-Eagle.’
William grimaced and rolled his eyes. ‘And the boys in black?’ he said nodding to the troopers.
‘Let me introduce you the Marines,’ Paddy replied. ‘The troop commander is Rupert.’ He half smiled at William when he said it, then he turned to the commander and gave him the thumbs-up.
Rupert looked no older than twenty-five, he had short blond hair that was longer at the front than it was at the back. He acknowledged William by raising his hand to his head in a brief half-salute.
‘The rest of the lads are Dipper, Fitz, Thembe, and Ish.’
In turn each of them nodded to William. Dipper had a pale, unshaven face, with piercing blue eyes. Fitz was a stocky white man in his early thirties, he had a shaved head and a black moustache that curled down beyond his lips. Thembe was a black man in his mid twenties, he had wide trusting eyes and a soft, gentle face. Ish looked to be the oldest of them all, he was an Algerian looking man who had strong angular features and short jet black hair.
‘Our special attachment troop,’ Paddy concluded.
William tipped his head to the troopers, then turned back to Paddy and asked, ‘So what’s the intelligence? Where do we start?’
‘As it stands we don’t know where their HQ is or even where it might be,’ Paddy revealed. ‘None of the intelligence points to it. They’ve been very careful.’
‘So where are we going? You must have something to go on.’
Nodding, Paddy raised his eyebrows and smiled. ‘Your girl sent the alarm signal,’ he said.
‘Ella? She activated the service watch?’ William was elated, proud even. He sat back and looked up smiling.
‘Yes, a couple of hours ago. It couldn’t have been long after they took her. Ollie is tracking it from the office. The first signal was located at the mansion, then the satellite tracked her at various different points moving south at over one-hundred miles-an-hour.’
‘I saw a chopper leave the house,’ William recalled.
‘They won’t go far in it, we’ll find them. The Chinook is fitted with the local receiver. As soon as we’re in range we’ll know exactly where she is.’ Paddy tapped his hand on the green, heavy duty case that was by his side.
William seemed to consider something, then he looked up at Paddy through narrowed eyes. ‘He’s mine, understand? When we get there, he’s mine.’
Paddy frowned raised his eyebrows. ‘Who?’
William took out his phone and opened one of the photos he took of the chamber wall. He zoomed in on a face. ‘The Russian, Cossack. Got it?’
‘You’re the man,’ said Paddy. His hand wandered to his ear and he looked up at nothing in particular. ‘That was Ollie, he’s had another trace on the signal. That’s two at the same place. They must have stopped.’
‘Where are they?’
‘Littlehampton marina, it’s on the coast of West Sussex,’ Paddy replied. ‘It’s a small private marina according to Ollie. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.’
‘Okay everyone, listen up,’ William said to the team. ‘Here’s what we’re going to do . . .’
Chapter 37
1321hrs – West Sussex
The Chinook hovered low over a hill seven miles north of the target area. Paddy had a heavy duty green briefcase open on his lap, inside were two LCD screens, two flat dials, a keyboard and a joystick. William was sat next to him, together they studied the images.
One of the small screens showed the live, colour video stream from the camera, at its centre was a thin black crosshair. The camera was zoomed in on the small marina. The other screen showed a digital map of the area, on it a translucent red circle with a red dot in the middle pinpointed the exact position of the service watch. Paddy’s briefcase had a tracking device in it that pinged the watch every thirty seconds and could locate it to within one square metre. Currently, it was a little over seven miles away and was shown to be stationary. Superimposed on the map was a black cross that showed where on the ground the centre of the camera was pointed.
Paddy nudged the joystick until the black cross of the camera was on top of the red circle. Turning the dial delicately he zoomed in further.
‘That looks like the chopper I saw leaving the house,’ William said pointing to the side of the screen. ‘Can you zoom in anymore?’
Paddy twisted one of the dials. From the high quality, highly stabilised image, they could see that the helicopter was empty.
‘Yes, that’s definitely it,’ William confirmed. ‘Move back to where the signal is coming from.’
On the map, Paddy carefully moved the cross back onto the red circle. The image focused on a small grey hangar next to the chopper. He zoomed out a little to assess the wider ground. Positioned close to the water’s edge, the hangar was separated from the rest of the busy marina by a long, gravelled, single-track road.
‘They must be in there,’ Paddy said pointing to the hangar. ‘We need a better angle.’ All they could see was the featureless rear wall. There were no doors or windows, and no cars or people outside it.
‘Ask the pilot to move further south to the coastline, keeping a five mile stand-off from the marina,’ William commanded.
Paddy nodded and relayed the order over the radio. Immediately, the chopper angled forward and accelerated. He and William watched the little screens as the Chinook skirted around the target area. The image of the hangar slowly spun until it was side on. The Chinook slowed and hovered over the new observation point. The large doors of the front of the hangar were clearly open but, as they were still relatively perpendicular to it, they couldn’t see in. A concr
ete jetty led from the hangar down into the sea.
‘Do you think they have a boat?’ Paddy asked. ‘Or a seaplane?’
‘I hope so,’ William said. ‘Either way, they’ll lead us to the their base. Let’s not show our hand too early.’
When two people emerged from the hangar and walked onto the jetty, William’s heart skipped a beat. His eyes focused on the screen. Paddy zoomed in until he could see their faces. The picture was surprisingly clear, if a little hazy from the rising warm air.
‘The one on the right is the Russian, Cossack,’ William pointed out. ‘I don’t recognise the other man, but by the way he’s dressed I’d say he’s the helicopter pilot.’ Strangely, he felt relieved.
The pilot seemed to back away from Cossack. Menacingly, Cossack fronted the man and pushed him hard on the shoulder. The man staggered back, then he turned and started to run towards the helicopter. Without warning, Cossack withdrew his pistol and shot the man in the back. Immediately he fell to the ground. Desperately he crawled towards the helicopter. Cossack approached him. He loomed over the helpless victim and fired off another two shots. The pilot collapsed, a pool of black blood ran out from under him. Casually, Cossack holstered the weapon and returned to the hangar.
‘He doesn’t mess around,’ remarked Paddy.
‘That man is evil,’ said William. ‘There’s no other word for it.’
‘Hold on. The signal is moving again.’
Slowly, something large began to emerge from the hangar. Initially its silver nose looked just like that of an aeroplane, but as it inched out it began to resemble a speed boat. Once it was a few metres from the hangar doors it became apparent that it was neither a boat nor a plane, but something in-between.
‘What the hell is that?’ asked Paddy.
William studied the picture on the screen. He shook his head. ‘No idea.’
‘I know what it is,’ Max said from behind them. ‘It’s an Ekranoplan.’
The craft was fully out now, it was being pushed down the jetty on a trailer of some sort by a green Land Rover.
‘A what?’ this was from Paddy.
‘It’s a plane that flies just above the surface of the water,’ Max explained. ‘It’s like a hovercraft, but much, much faster.’
‘How fast?’ asked William.
‘Depends on the build, but it could be as a fast as an aeroplane. Maybe two or three-hundred knots. Maybe more in calm conditions.’
Paddy and William looked at each other.
‘We’re in trouble,’ Paddy said what they were both thinking. ‘We can’t keep up with that. We have to attack them right now while we have the element of surprise.’ He raised his hand to the transmitter switch.
‘No, wait,’ William commanded, he grabbed Paddy’s arm. ‘Get on to Ollie, tell him to scramble a Phantom Eye. We’ll follow the signal as close as we can for as long as we can, then the spooks in the sky can take over. We’ll need to make some other arrangements to catch up. ‘
Paddy frowned. ‘But we can take them now,’ he insisted. ‘They’re sitting ducks. It might be our only chance.’
William eyed the old soldier and shook his head. ‘We need to find their base, Paddy, whatever the risks are. Without that vaccine we’re all screwed.’
Reluctantly, Paddy nodded his agreement. He made the call to Ollie. They both watched as the craft was lowered down the jetty into the sea. Cossack jumped out of the Land Rover and clambered into the Ekranoplan. There was no sign of Ella or Hades. William assumed they were already in the craft. The signal from the watch still emanated from it.
Just as William had feared, the Ekranoplan didn’t hang around for long. They watched the screen as the craft ploughed gently through the water. Gradually it picked up speed. Initially it was easy for them to follow, it left a white trail in the sea. But as soon as it reached international waters it accelerated to almost three-hundred knots and headed southwards. It hovered just a few metres above the surface of the ocean and left no trail as it went. William’s stomach tightened as he watched the craft disappear over the horizon and out of sight.
He feared he would never see her again.
Her fate, and everyone else’s, now lay with the spies in the sky.
Chapter 38
1356hrs – Africa
Hidden deep in the hostile desert of an African ally, the sandy camouflaged doors of a bomb proof hangar opened. A British Army logistics vehicle emerged, it pulled a small, sleek, triangular aircraft behind it. There were no windows on the craft and no markings, its smooth black surface reflected little light. When it was in position on the deserted runway, the logistics vehicle detached and returned to the hangar.
The air burned as the craft’s liquid hydrogen propulsion engine powered up. Two concentrated cones of intense light-blue flames shot out from the rear of the craft. It began to taxi down the short, dusty runway. Within moments, and at neck braking G-force, the craft shot forward. Seconds later it pulled up and rose steeply into the sky. More like a missile than an aircraft, the unmanned High-Altitude-Long-Endurance stealth spy plane climbed to sixty-five-thousand feet and shot towards its target at a dizzying velocity of five times that of sound.
The Phantom Eye took mere minutes to reach the target area. Over a thousand miles away in a secret UK base, the pilot, a Corporal from the Army Air Corps, sat in a dark bunker surrounded by LCD screens and controls. Screens buzzed with information and flight data, dozens of lights flashed on and off on the complex control panel.
‘This is Phantom-one. We’re in position,’ the Corporal said over the radio link. ‘I’m scanning the area now. Wait out.’
The pilot used the craft’s radio imaging sensors to scour the vast target area for any large moving objects. It would easily detect every manmade object on the ocean surface, the analysts would then work on each detection using the array of powerful thermal imaging cameras. The Ekranoplan would show up clearly, a single black object against a sheet of grey sea.
Once the target was acquired, the pilot would select it on one of the touch sensitive screens and leave the software to do the following. She would barely have to touch the controls; the craft would circle high above like an invisible eagle with perfect eyesight.
*
‘Roger that, Phantom-one,’ Paddy replied from the Chinook. ‘Good work.’
After receiving word from his CIA contact, Paddy had issued a new destination to the Chinook pilot. They were headed for the USS George H W Bush, an enormous Nimitz-class nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Presently it was located one-hundred miles from the island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean and was sailing towards the north-western coast of Africa.
Paddy shook William’s arm, he had dozed off on the long bench. ‘They have eyes on,’ he said when William opened his eyes. ‘The spies in the sky, they’ve found them.’
William stretched his arms and rubbed his face. ‘They’ve found them? Are they sure it’s them?’ he said feeling like lead weights were pulling on his eyelids.
‘It’s them. They’re heading east through the Mediterranean Sea, still in international waters, east of Gibraltar.’
‘Great work. And there’s no escape from the Phantoms.’ Despite the wave of relief, he knew it was far from over. The mission was still uncertain, it all depended on where the Ekranoplan was headed. ‘We can’t allow it to berth in a hostile country.’
Paddy nodded solemnly. ‘We’ll keep a close eye on its direction. If it looks like it’s heading that way then we’ll just have to stop it at sea and get the water-boards and thumb screws out.’
*
The sea was calm and blue, the sun blazed in the cloudless sky. From the windows of the Chinook the team could see the long white wake created by the huge fast moving aircraft carrier. As they approached it they saw the rows of fighter jets and helicopters that neatly lined the long runway of the USS George H W Bush. From the stern the Chinook approached the vessel, it descended gently onto one of its landing pads. The whine of th
e engines gradually reduced to nothing and the passengers disembarked.
The first thing William noticed was the heat. It radiated from all angles, up off the sea, off the deck and down from the sky. When he sucked in a deep breath of the fresh sea air, it was spoiled by the strong scent of high octane fuel and oil. He looked at his immediate surroundings and raised his eyebrows, the huge craft he found himself on was nothing short of a floating airport. On one side of the ship in its centre was the Island, the command centre that loomed several storeys above the deck. Away from the ship on all sides there was nothing but a great expanse of ocean as far as the eye could see. In places it sparkled from a billion reflections of the sunlight. It was like being centre stage at a stadium with a million camera flashes going off randomly.
‘Welcome to the Avenger, sirs,’ said a man with a deep American accent. The officer was dressed in an immaculate, khaki Navy uniform, a short-sleeved shirt and trousers. Above the left breast pocket was a mass of coloured campaign ribbons. His name tag was emblazoned above the right side pocket. On his head he wore a khaki garrison cap. He did away with the salute and threw his hand out to William whilst grinning widely and confidently.
‘Captain Godlasky,’ he said. ‘But everyone just calls me God.’ He laughed loudly showing a set of large, very straight and even, white teeth.
William took the Captain’s hand, the man’s grip was firm, his shake confident. ‘Pleased to meet you, Captain,’ he said. ‘Let me introduce you to the team. This is Max Redwood from the Defence Laboratories.’
The Captain frowned at Max, he was about to ask something but decided against it. Max smiled nervously and shook the Captain’s proffered hand.
‘Paddy Howard from F-Branch.’ Another handshake. ‘And Rupert, the commander of the troopers.’
‘It’s an honour to have all you on-board,’ Captain Godlasky said. ‘I don’t know what you guys are up to, I don’t need to know either. But you have the full support of the US Navy, I’ve been told by the highest command that Operation Intrepid-Eagle gets whatever it needs. We have just about everything here. Planes, choppers, tanks, more weapons than you can shake a stick at. All you need to do is ask. And there’s plenty of bars and restaurants. We have a bowling alley and three cinemas. Make yourselves at home.’
The Secret of Hades' Eden Page 30