Capital Falling Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Winkless, Lance

  “Thank you, Lieutenant,” Sam acknowledges with a broad, enticing smile.

  “I shall inform Colonel Reed immediately, Sir?”

  “We still have about thirty minutes until I have to report to the Colonel, Lieutenant. I would like to double-check the data and Sam is going to go through the other files in that batch to see if there are any others that are related. Can you hold off reporting to the Colonel until then?” Rees asks but knows the answer he will get.

  “I am afraid not, Sir; I am under direct orders to inform Colonel Reed the moment anything is found. Sorry, Sir.”

  “Well at least inform him what we plan to do now and ask him to give me until the time is up so that I can give him the most comprehensive report possible. I will need at least some time to digest what Sam has found.”

  “Of course, Sir. Now if you will excuse me, I will have to make the call.” Winters gets up, brushing past Sam on his way out.

  Winters leaves the conference room for the corridor to get some privacy for his phone call. He has a second ulterior motive for leaving.

  “Yes, Winters.” The Colonel answers his phone bluntly.

  “Major Rees has found some information in the files that he thinks is related to the virus, Sir. He is evaluating it now, Sir and will make his report as ordered, Sir.”

  “Excellent, Winters; is the information going to be of help?”

  “Unknown at this time, Sir. It has only just been found and there could be more information, Sir. They are checking related files now, Sir.”

  “Understood, make sure he is on time, Winters. I have to report to the Home Secretary.” The Colonel hangs up.

  The phone call went exactly as he expected. Winters is well used to short abrupt phone calls with the Colonel and gave up on expecting anything other a long time ago.

  His phone stays in his hand as he moves screens to missed calls, where Josh’s number sits at the top of the list.

  “Thanks for calling me back, Sir,” Josh answers the phone almost immediately.

  “Sorry I missed your call; how is your sister?”

  “She is as well as can be expected, upset but okay, I think?”

  “Good, I am pleased to hear that. What can I do for you, Josh?”

  “Can you arrange a car and clearance for us to leave the base, Sir We need transport out of here.”

  “What is your plan?”

  “Catherine, my Dad’s, err, girlfriend—” Josh pauses for a second, wondering if that is the right term.

  “Yes, I know Catherine, please continue.” Winters helps Josh out.

  “Oh, okay, good, Catherine has a friend in Devon with accommodation that we can use, so we plan to go there and then see how things go.”

  “Sounds like a good place to start, Josh. I am sure I can help but you will have to give me some time. I am right in the middle of something.”

  “The contents of Sir Malcolm’s safe, I take it, Sir?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “Are they any use, Sir?”

  “It looks like we have found something that could be useful. I don’t think it was all in vain, Josh.”

  “That is something, I suppose, Sir?”

  “Let’s hope so. How many of you are travelling to Devon?”

  “That’s the other thing; we need your help with, Alice, Sir. We want her to travel with us, so can you arrange for her clearance too, Sir?”

  “That will be trickier, Josh, but leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thank you, Sir. With Alice, there will be five of us travelling.”

  “Understood, Josh. I will come back to you as soon as I can so sit tight, okay?”

  “Yes, Sir, I will wait for your call. Thank you, Sir.”

  “Thank me when it’s done. I’ll speak to you either way soon.”

  “Until then, Sir.”

  Winters hangs up and puts the phone back into his pocket. He is confident that arranging a car for them won’t be a problem but getting clearance for Alice to go with them might be difficult. Colonel Reed made the deal with Andy for Josh to leave if he took the mission, but there was no deal made for Alice. She is still enlisted, and the Colonel will expect her back on duty, he won’t lose an able-bodied fighting soldier without good reason. Winters will either have to give the Colonel a reason to give her clearance or he will have to do some creative, possibly underhanded paperwork. Winters will have to give it some thought.

  “Sir, Colonel Reed has agreed to stick with the time frame for you to make your report to him,” Winters tell Major Rees as he returns to the conference room.

  “Well done, Lieutenant,” Rees answers, back in his chair with his head buried in another file.

  “That’s in twenty minutes, Sir.”

  “Yes, I am aware of that, Lieutenant.”

  Sam has moved positions and is sitting in the chair Winters was occupying. She is studying files laid out on the table in front of her. It seems Winters has been demoted.

  “Pull up another chair, Lieutenant, I am sure we can find something for you to make use of your time with,” Rees says, pointing to a gap on the far side of him, away from the analyst, Sam.

  Does he think he needs to keep us apart? Winters thinks as he moves around to retrieve a chair.

  Josh turns back to the others, letting his phone drop in his hand down to his side.

  He knew Alice coming with them could be a major issue and he can’t help but look straight at her.

  “I guess I’m not coming then, by the look on your face?” Alice presumes, looking straight back at him.

  “No Josh, Alice has to come with us,” Emily pipes up, the first words she has uttered in some time.

  “Hold on, everybody,” Josh says. “I didn’t say she wasn’t coming. Lieutenant Winters is going to try and get her clearance, but he isn’t sure he will be able to. He is going to let us know as soon as he can. It could be a while until we know though.”

  “He had better say yes,” Emily protests.

  “We will have to wait and see, Emily, so cross your fingers,” Alice says. “What else did he say?”

  “He thought to go to Devon was a good idea and he is sure he will be able to get us a car; he just needs a bit of time.”

  “Anything else?” Alice prompts.

  “He thinks they may have found some info relating to the virus, but they are still checking.”

  “So, it looks like we are still hanging around here for the time being?” Catherine asks.

  “I’m afraid so. It looks like we either hang around here or go back up to the First-Class Lounge,” Josh says.

  “It’s better down here than being cooped up, up there,” Catherine states.

  “Yes, I don’t like it up there,” says Emily.

  “Okay, we wait for more news here then,” Josh confirms as he takes a seat next to his sister, wondering how they will pass the time.

  Winters glances at his watch. Five minutes until Colonel Reed is expecting the Major’s report. More data and information about the virus have come to light in the fifteen minutes or so since he took his place in the naughty seat next to Major Rees, and more data is still emerging.

  He has spent the last five minutes looking at some of the relevant data that have been discovered, trying to keep his mind busy and off Sam, who he can’t really see from where he is anyway. Winters has to admit that he doesn’t really understand what he is looking at. Science was not his strong suit at school and the complex scientific formulae and such contained in the files is like reading German. He recognises some words and phrases but piecing it together to understand the whole meaning is another matter. Winters places the file back in its place on the table.

  “Are you ready, Sir? We had better go,” Winters asks Major Rees.

  “Yes, Lieutenant,” Rees answers as he gets up. “Ready, Sam?”

  “Sir,” Winters says. “I am not sure the Colonel will appreciate any newcomers at this stage.”

  “I need Sam to ha
ndle the files and assist me. Unless you think you have a good enough understanding of the data to assist, Lieutenant?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t, Sir.”

  “Well, that settles it then. Sam?”

  “I’m ready, Major,” Sam says, gathering the files together.

  Major Rees addresses the remaining staff before he leaves. He tells them to stick to their tasks and double-checks they know where to put new related information if it needs further investigation.

  He then leads Sam out of the conference room and to his meeting with Colonel Reed in the command room only a short distance away. Lieutenant Winters follows, retrieves his satchel and brings up the rear.

  Chapter 8

  Corporal Harris has his hands wrapped around a nice warm mug. He lifts it to his lips now and then to slurp some of the hot instant coffee into his mouth, where he lets it sit for a moment before he swallows it to warm his belly. Harris is normally a tea man, but after the last few hours of non-stop action, he needs the extra kick the caffeine in the coffee will afford him.

  Half an hour’s bloody break; that is all his team has been given before they have to be back on duty. Hardly enough time to eat and get the hot drink down. It certainly isn’t enough time to dry out and warm his bones, let alone have ten minutes to close his eyes. There is hardly any point in trying to dry out anyway; he will be out in the cold and wet again before he knows it.

  His intellect doesn’t understand that he is one of the lucky ones. He and his team have been tasked with a security detail. They secure four of the landing zones, where air transport brings back personnel who have been out on manoeuvres for Operation Denial. Once secure, they have to scan each arrival with the mobile phone scanner to check they haven’t been infected. The work is constant, and they have been unlucky with the weather but the most danger they have encountered so far was when a Lynx full of Special Forces landed and didn’t take kindly to being ordered around.

  He doesn’t consider that it could have been him in central London, out in the open, fighting Zombies. All he knows is that he is cold, wet and tired. Or perhaps he does consider it but thinks it’s their tough shit for getting that assignment?

  “Is it time yet?” Harris asks his team that sit around in the hangar with him, taking their break.

  “Four minutes more,” one of the other five members of the team replies.

  Harris doesn’t move to get back on duty, doesn’t set any kind of example to the rest of his team. He doesn’t even tell them to get ready for duty. He leans back into his seat, lifting his mug to his lips to slurp some more coffee down. He is going to make sure he takes every second of his break, and whether that means he is late for duty and holds up others from taking their break is none of his concern.

  With a minute to go, two of his men get up and get their kit together, ready for duty. The other three are soon following suit, and all five privates glance at Corporal Harris. They all know they are going to be late, and that it will make them look bad and will be their Corporal’s fault. What can they do? He is in charge by virtue that he has been enlisted longer.

  With their allotted half an hour up, finally, Corporal Harris drags himself out of his chair and picks up his rifle.

  “Come on lads, move it,” Harris says as they roll their eyes.

  Exiting the hangar, they go to the right, back towards the landing zones. Each of them is pleased to see that the weather has improved again whilst they were on break. The wind has died down and the rain has actually stopped completely. Standing water is still pooled all around, and they have to walk around the bigger puddles as they go. All of them know they can still expect to get wet on this duty. The helicopters will churn up the standing water, blowing it into the air in all directions as they come into land and take off again.

  “Where the hell have you been?” a pissed-off Sergeant shouts as the team reaches the landing zone area.

  “On our break, Sir,” Corporal Harris says in defence, standing to attention, as does the whole team upon being addressed by the Sergeant.

  “Your break is thirty minutes, Corporal, not forty fucking five minutes!” the Sergeant shouts in exasperation, his face reddening.

  “It has been less than forty minutes, Sir, and we have to get there and back,” the cocky Corporal retorts.

  “Get there and back? Are you soft in the head, Corporal? Now get back to your assigned zones and don’t move until you are relieved!

  “Yes, Sir,” Corporal Harris replies, totally nonplussed by the whole exchange. Which leaves the Sergeant even more infuriated as he stomps off.

  Harris leads his men back towards their landing zones, the men all pissed off with their Corporal, just as much as the Sergeant is. They know his attitude is going to lead to an extra-long shift for the lot of them.

  They finally get back to their station next to their assigned landing zones, ready for duty. One landing zone over, the relief team who were covering for them while they were on break are in the middle of securing and scanning a new arrival. Corporal Harris and his team look on and wait while four dishevelled, weary-looking soldiers disembark an old RAF Puma support helicopter. The relief team are going through the motions of receiving the new arrivals by the book, their team leader ensuring protocol is adhered to.

  With the new arrivals scanned and cleared, they are sent on their way and the relief team march over to the station to be relieved themselves.

  “About time,” the team leader announces as he approaches. “Where the fuck have you lot been, out for a curry?”

  “Something like that,” Corporal Harris says bluntly.

  “Taking the piss, man,” the team leader says to himself. “Here is the latest roster and the scanner,” he tells Harris as he hands them over. “Next one in is a Chinook in five minutes, twelve on board.”

  “Are you sure you can’t stay and do that one for us before you go?” Harris asks sarcastically.

  The team leader looks at Harris as though he could strangle him for a second, before turning and walking away. Everybody hears him say ‘wanker’, as he leaves, without looking back. His team follow him, making their own comments and giving dirty looks.

  “Okay, you heard the man; next arrival five minutes, check your weapons and get ready,” Harris says, acting like a Corporal for once.

  Weapons checked, Corporal Harris’s team stand by for the Chinook to come in and land.

  “Here it comes, Sir,” one of the team announces, his head turned up to the sky.

  Harris hears the distinctive sound of the big twin-rotor helicopter before he looks up in the direction of the ever-increasing din it emanates, as its rotors chop through the air. Only the raised nose and the unique rectangle underbelly of the helicopter are visible as the airport’s bright ground lights start to catch it in their beam.

  As the Chinook approaches, its twin engines are working hard, ready to land. Its thunderous noise starts to drown out the noise of the other, smaller helicopters on the ground that have either just landed or are waiting for clearance to take off.

  Harris’s team, now fully alert, spread out, ready to take up position around LZ1, the Chinook’s allotted landing zone. They hang back farther than normal from the zone, however, in anticipation of the colossal downdraft the big craft will throw down.

  At first, Harris thinks his eyes are playing tricks on him as the helicopter comes into sharper view on its approach. They aren’t; the helicopter is wobbling strangely.

  “Standby; we may have a mechanical issue,” Harris states into his comms headset.

  “Looks like the loading ramp is opening?” a team member on the far side of LZ1, says in confusion.

  “Confirmed, loading ramp is opening,” another voice sounds in Harris’s headset.

  “Covering positions,” Harris orders as the Chinook descends, now entering the landing zone area and moving over the helicopters below.

  His team is now covering the incoming helicopter, all of whom have taken a knee with thei
r rifle pointed up and following the descent.

  Still, over one hundred meters out from LZ1, the helicopter is coming down too fast, and at this rate of descent, it will fall short of its landing zone. The wobble has deteriorated, the pilot is losing control, the Chinook’s nose has come down and it is swaying from side to side. A feeling of panic starts to take hold of Harris as he becomes convinced the helicopter is going to crash.

  Something falls out of the back of the Chinook, out of the open landing ramp. Harris follows it down the thirty meters or so, his eyes gaping, with a look of bewilderment transfixed on his face. The flailing body drops down fast, and he sees it clearly in the bright lights and he sees where it lands.

  As if in slow motion, the body drops onto the outer edge of the spinning rotors of a grounded, stationary Wildcat. The body fragments into pieces which are flung back into the air by the power of the rotors. Pieces of body shoot through the air in all directions too fast to follow, until Harris sees something travelling in their direction.

  The severed arm and hand hit the ground inside LZ1. The whole team recoils as it tumbles in their direction until it comes to a stop just short of them. Harris is sure that the fingers of the hand still twitch where it lies.

  There is no time to dwell on the limb, twitching or not, the Chinook is still coming in their direction and it’s only a matter of time before it crashes. Did the body fall from the landing ramp or did it jump before the helicopter crashes, Harris manages to ask himself?

  Now low in the air and still a distance short of its LZ, the body of the Chinook suddenly swings around at speed and out of control. A shower of bodies is thrown out of the gaping landing ramp, this time away from the helicopters below. They fall the short distance down onto the tarmac and grass areas around the left side of the landing zones.

  The body of the Chinook carries on its trajectory, putting the whole helicopter into a fatal spin. Like a pirouetting dancer, it impossibly spins across the top of the helicopters below. Panicked personnel on the ground scatter in all directions, desperately trying to escape the impending crash.