Dillon, exhilarated, put another bullet into Kirill’s slumped body. Then another. He stared into the lifeless eyes. Then he ran across the room, collected the Nemesis sniper rifle, muttering, “Can’t let such a beauty go to waste,” and sprinted for the open entrance.
Tatiana and the others had reached the winch house, a look of despair across her face.
“The basket is down in the valley,” said Alix, “And we don’t have the time to bring it back up, Jake.”
Dillon was about to speak, but the Priest cut-in. “Forget the basket, we’ll go down the same way that Alix and I came up.” He beckoned everyone to follow him inside the winch house.
“We’ll go down the wire two at a time,” He extracted the climbassist unit from his rucksack, and attached it to the thick wire cable.
“The motor mechanism will act as a brake on the way down.”
“Is there a back-up system?” Asked Dillon.
“If it fails - say goodbye to this world for good. There is no back-up, Dillon. But I will say a prayer and hope that the great man up above is looking kindly down upon us.”
“Oh, that’s reassuring then.” Dillon said sarcastically.
The Priest placed his wrist through the webbing strap, and then instructed Tatiana to hold on tight, for a quick decent. They went through the open trap door.
Alix and Dillon positioned themselves over the trap door, and then after a second or two disappeared down towards the valley far below.
Neither saw the figure crawling out of the shattered entrance to the facility.
There came a single metallic click...
An obscenely loud boom rumbled deep within the facility, followed by an intense rush of hot air up through every air-shaft and corridor.
And then came a huge ball of raging fire and gases; fire roared and screamed upwards and outwards; large chunks of concrete and stone and glass were spat up high into the air; an insane release of energies rushed screaming and burning out across the mountain range.
“Hold on tight, Dillon.” Said Alix excitedly.
The cable quivered violently with the sudden bursts of explosive...
And then the fire came, slithering like a white hot snake out of the open trap door, bearing down on the two men.
As Alix adjusted the climb-assist braking mechanism to quicken their descent, they were buffeted from above by the fist of the explosion. The two men were thrown around like rag-dolls as the cable flayed around in the turmoil, anger and total madness…
The ground came rushing towards them, Alix shouted to Dillon.
“Get ready to jump clear of the basket and don’t forget to roll or, you’ll snap both your ankles.”
Dillon landed roughly, rolling out of the force of momentum; followed by Alix who performed a near perfect parachute roll landing. Even though the tongue of the fire had expelled itself high up the mountain face, the heat pursued them and could still be felt at ground level.
And then - the mountain top exploded...
Everything was in chaos.
Tatiana gazed up through tears at a vision of hell raging high above them.
Then from a dull grey sky, large chunks of rock started to rain down upon them.
All four sprinted for the cover of the nearest overhang, as moments later the guard’s station was turned into match-wood, and rocks fell out of the sky to pound the damp earth all around the immediate area.
Everything became calm.
“Whoa!” Alix looked around at the devastation, and then called, “You out there Lola?”
“Perhaps she got the hell out of here when the fireworks had started? Dillon said casually.
“How did you get here, Dillon? “ Asked the Priest.
“Army issue quad-bike. Why?”
“Because we need to leave - and fast. If that really was a small nuclear device that has just been detonated, we need to get as far away from here, as possible. We’re already running a risk of radiation exposure as it is.”
Dillon stood with his hands on his hips, staring out at the scatter of burning debris littering the valley floor.
Tatiana approached him from behind.
“You feeling okay, Dillon?”
Dillon whirled, so fast that Tatiana blinked, taking an involuntary step back. Only then did she see the Glock pointed at her.
Dillon smiled. A wide grin.
“You fancy going back up there, Tats. See your old pal, Kirill, eh?”
“Dillon, you’re acting very strange.”
“Stop talking!” He spat the words out vehemently. “Don’t you dare judge me, you little bitch. Do I have to remind you of the damning words Kirill spoke. You traitor.”
“Dillon, he was lying.” She whispered softly.
The Glock snapped up - pressed against the soft flesh of her slender neck, just below her left ear.
“The only reason that you’re still alive, luv. Is that I want to put you in front of Edward Levenson-Jones and The Partners of Ferran & Cardini International. Now, get moving.”
Tatiana turned and strode off down the valley towards the hidden quad-bike. Dillon smiled suddenly, his gaze upwards towards the flames and the smoke at the summit of the mountain. “Not so smug now, are you Professor...” He said quietly to himself, then turned dark brooding eyes to watch Tatiana walk away, fine swaying hips and long slender legs, temporarily mesmerising him.
He looked up once more admiring the devastation that had once been Kirill’s top-secret facility. His gaze took in the huge torn blocks of stone and the sea of broken glass that had rained down from the mountain.
He nodded his approval, eyes sparkling triumphantly.
“Dillon, you said there would be fireworks. But hell man, that was one of the coolest pyrotechnic displays I’ve ever attended.”
“Yeah, cool Alix.” Dillon said wearily, as he walked away down the valley.
* * * The rain had stopped and the night cold descended. Flames burned low, crackling softly, the only sound against the bleakness of the highland night. Against scarred and blackened chunks of rock, twisted metal and fused glass, something moved in the semi-darkness.
It lay amongst the debris, reaching, clawing the smoke-filled air blindly with blackened stumps, crimson glistening in blood-filled shallow cavities. Then it slumped, rolling on its back and cold eyes stared up at the black star-filled sky.
And, with every last ounce of life left in his charred husk of a body, Professor Kirill screamed. GCHQ Transcript 8. Transcript of recent international news incident.
Chaos ensued amidst an entire shutdown of the British military satellite network earlier today. Contact was lost with ground, air and naval forces around the planet as UK computer and military experts battled to bring the system back on-line.
Disruption was also caused to UK domestic, satellite TV, internet services and many other digital communication systems.
There was an immediate cry from Government ministers, as to why this happened - and how. Ministry of Defence experts are blaming severe electrical conditions in space, possibly causing a malfunction of the satellite’s advance warning system to temporarily shut-down...
Chapter 20
Dillon opened his eyes. Tatiana was smiling down at him. He looked up into her eyes and saw understanding there.
“I am sorry...” he whispered.
“Shh.” She placed a finger against his lips. “Don’t speak.”
“I don’t know why it happens, or what I’m saying. It’s as if I’m someone else.”
“I know, Dillon, I’ve known for a long time...”
Dillon smiled weakly. Then he flinched as pain flashed through his entire body, through all of the wounds he’d incurred over the last few days.
He gasped. And his brain felt like it was going to explode from the wound to the side of his head that pulsated with even the slightest movement he made.
Tatiana looked suddenly worried. “Dillon?” She shook him.
“Dillon, what’s wrong?”
He opened his eyes.
He smiled up at her, squinting.
“Nothing, it’s just a headache, nothing to worry about, Tats.” The Priest and Alix were standing close by, a look of concern written across their faces.
Dillon coughed, writhing in agony for a moment. “Hell that hurts. Have you any painkillers?”
“We’re completely out, sorry, Dillon.”
“That’s okay. We need to get going anyway. We’ll get Alix and the Priest back to their Apache, and hopefully Lola will be there already. We’ll then make our way back to Vince at the SAS depot.”
“That sounds good to me.” Alix said nodding. The Priest looked up at the dark brooding sky and then back at Dillon. “Yes, we should make haste.”
Tatiana helped Dillon to his feet, and he stood panting for a moment in the early dawn half-light.
Then, with great effort of will, he grunted, and climbed on board the quad bike. Tatiana jumped on behind him and the Priest and Alix jumped onto the wide mud-guards either side of her, and he fired up the powerful engine. Dillon closed his eyes for a moment as he composed himself - not just for the journey ahead, but for the realisation that Kirill was actually dead: and that the quest, as it was the fucked-up journey, he had to make.
It was not over.
It was far from over.
The quad bike moved off, bumping along the dirt track and then racing out down the valley towards the loch...
“Ramus,” muttered Dillon. And, grimacing, he screwed the throttle round viciously.
* * * Claudia Dax rode the off-road trails bike hard and fast. The 750cc machine was powerful and sped through the darkness, the suspension absorbing the bumps with ease, the headlight scything the pre-dawn light.
I’ve done it, she thought triumphantly.
I’ve got away.
I’ve bloody well got away with the Chimera blue-prints. The
ability to create the most powerful programme of all time, the most vicious piece of malicious software the world has ever seen. And she had the only script that would be able to run at one-hundred per cent efficiency.
Claudia Dax smiled; and then decided that there might be someone following her and the smile fell from her face as she checked her mirrors. But only blackness swept across the highland valley behind her, deep and impenetrable. Before her, blood smears on the front faring of the powerful Yamaha trials bike did nothing to calm her racing heart-beat.
Claudia wiped rain from her face with a gloved hand; and then remembered the blood. She glanced down at the crimson streaks and her stomach turned. And then she remembered her friends and colleagues who she’d worked with, and got to know over the last two years who had been murdered in their beds, and her stomach did a double flip. She swallowed hard, suppressing her fear and the sourness of bile rising in her throat.
She was free.
She could now make a difference... She could flood the world with the Chimera code; only her version would have the anti-virus element to the programme. She could stop a global computer melt-down.
The British Government would be implicated as the source of Chimera. Implicated, blamed and, damned by everyone... She could blow the whistle on the other bad stuff that Kirill had been working on.
Claudia needed to get to a powerful computer, and she realised the danger of her predicament. She was going to ruin their plans; they would want her dead... But then they wanted her dead anyway. Did they know that she had the only copy of Chimera that could run at one-hundred per cent efficiency? She doubted it - after all, they had been about to blow the top of the mountain - and surely that had been the purpose of the bomb-to stop any possibility of anyone pirating the programme. But then she could not rely on that, she could not rely on anything... She had to assume that they knew she had the copy of Chimera.
But something confused Claudia Dax. Why should the British Government and Scorpion - who she had always thought of as a brilliant organisation to work for - so why would they kill a large group of their own employees? And why would they destroy their own secret facility that had cost hundreds of millions of pounds of tax-payers money to construct and maintain? Why would they blowup the Chimera project?
Something in the reasoning was flawed. Something was not quite right - like Kirill and the bombs, like the appearance of the black-clad and hooded Assassins roaming freely through the corridors of the mountain complex.
She could not understand why Kirill would do such a terrible thing.
Unless the Government and Scorpion had been betrayed!
Claudia opened the throttle wider, and the powerful trials bike surged forward, off-road tyres biting into the tarmac of the Highland road. She focused on the winding road ahead, but in the back of her mind, she was thinking about just how serious these people were - whoever they were. They knew that she was alive; they would have airports and seaports covered for sure... So how the hell was she going to get away withher life intact?She knew that whoever it was involved, would have limitless resources if they really wanted to find her. She racked her brains. What to do?
Focus. She had to stay focused, she thought.
Get out of Scotland. Get as far away from the facility, as quickly as possible.
Get rid of the trials-bike as soon as possible.
Find a suitable disguise.
The four-stroke engine stuttered, just briefly. Claudia felt the slightest vibration travel through the bikes frame. She looked down at the gauges and the orange light that indicated that she was out of fuel…
“What? You pile of junk,” she muttered, tapping the fuel dial with a gloved finger. “How is that possible?”
The engine stuttered again, and then stalled. She coasted to a halt, pulling over to the edge of the road, tyres squelching on the water-logged grass verge. She sprang off the machine, letting go of the handle bar as her boots hit the soft ground, the bike falling heavily into the ditch.
“Shit. Shit!”
She looked around at - wilderness. She reached into her rucksack and retrieved a metal canister, taking a swig of the refreshingly cold water inside.
“At least I won’t die of dehydration,” Claudia muttered sourly. She picked up her small rucksack, and pausing for a moment to take several deep breaths and to brush a few specks of mud from her jacket, she bit the bullet of panic and set off down the road. The tarmac road surface made the going easy, and as she walked, she cursed herself for not checking the fuel level before she had roared off down the valley. She also cursed for such bad luck and, most of all; she cursed herself for ever working for Kirill in the first place.
* * * The Priest returned from the outcropping of rock, the Heckler in one hand, a canteen of water in the other. He yawned.
“How are you feeling now, Dillon?”
Dillon smiled, wincing at pain emanating from various locations around his body. He glanced up at the Priest; the last few days had taken its toll on him, lines around the eyes appeared much deeper and the bruises seemed to have darkened.
“I feel like I’ve been run over by that quad bike a few times. What about you? You look wasted.”
“I’m fine, thank you, Dillon.” He smiled. “I need to return to my flock, I’ve a sermon to give this Sunday coming.”
“Yeah, I could do with getting back home. I’ve got a small castle to repair when I get back.” Dillon said with heavy sarcasm.
“Yes, I heard they messed up your place pretty bad. But look on the bright side, Dillon. You’re still alive, to fight the good work, another day...”
After a brief break, and making sure that they were not being pursued, they all climbed wearily back onto the quad bike and once again set off. Forty minutes later and they found the Apache helicopter, and Lola, who appeared from her hiding place, once she was certain of who it was.
“What took you so long? I’d almost given up on you all.”
“Sorry. We had to take care of some unfinished business, back there. Took longer than we anticipated.” Alix sa
id, smiling.
“You okay, Dillon? You look like crap.”
“It’s good to see you too, Lola. And, thanks for asking, but I’ll live.”
After arranging to meet up as soon as possible, they all said their goodbyes, and Dillon and Tatiana set off again. This time to pick up Vince and then head back to the sea-plane that they’d arrived in. They travelled for an hour, until Tatiana spotted something and tapped Dillon on the arm, pointing.
“You see it?”
Dillon glanced up. “The bike in the ditch over there,” she said.
“There might be someone injured. Let’s go take a look.”
“Wonder what happened?” Said Tatiana.
Dillon coasted down the road; and as they approached the ditched bike, Dillon reached for his gun, tyres crunched on gravel as he pulled up twenty feet back from where it was laying on its side.
Dillon climbed warily from the quad bike, eyes scanning the deserted Highland landscape. He moved around the trials bike and saw that the key was still in the ignition. There was no one around; he checked the ditch in both directions, but found no bodies...
“Ran out of fuel by the look of it.”
Tatiana was holding a long-range scope to her eye. “In that case, whoever was riding it, is now on foot. That bike came from the facility, the security patrols used them.”
Dillon glanced around. Tatiana immediately sensed that now - in a potential conflict situation - he gave no sign that he was injured: all pain had been pushed out of the way, as the adrenalin started to flow freely around his body for the moment.
“Could be a stray guard or an Assassin then, wandering around the countryside.” Dillon slipped the Glock’s safety to the off position for a little more reassurance. “But it could also be a biker who simply ran out of fuel.”
“So let’s keep going. We’re still too far away from Vince.”
Dillon jumped back on the quad bike and they charged off up the road with all four tyres gripping the tarmac and the stealth engine running at full throttle. Dillon kept the Glock in his hand and stayed vigilant as they raced forward.
They rode with a heightened awareness for the next hour as the sun broke through the cloud and sent welcome rays down upon them. They passed no traffic in that time, and saw no other living being. It was as if everyone had hibernated...
Chimera Code (Jake Dillon Adventure Thriller Series) Page 38
