Whatever it was, he had little doubt that it was intimately connected to whatever Vargas and his unknown colleagues had been doing at the facility and was determined to get to the bottom of it.
One last glance and then he turned away from the window. “All right. Let’s get out of here. I’ve seen enough.”
“Amen to that.”
But they wouldn’t get away that easily. As the pilot banked away from the funnel, a freak surge of wind swept over them, literally shoving the aircraft through the air as if brushed aside by the hand of a giant, tipping them over. Cade’s right-hand window abruptly became his floor and he found himself staring down through the glass at the ground far beneath them. He could hear the pilot swearing over the intercom as he fought the controls, doing what he could to restore command of the aircraft before they ended up strewn all over the landscape.
Just as he seemed to get things under control a bolt of silver-green lightning lashed out from the cloud above them, striking the helicopter somewhere behind the crew compartment.
Cade tensed, expecting the worst, but nothing happened. The lightning apparently had no effect. The pilot got the bird leveled out and they all breathed a sigh of relief as he turned back toward the landing zone.
Their path put the storm to Cade’s right and he turned to look at it again through the window. The clouds seemed to be more agitated than before, twisting and turning with greater violence. As he watched the clouds seemed to come together to form a face, a face that leered at him from out of those dark depths, a face full of anger and hatred and misery, a face to instill fear into the hearts of men.
That’s when the lightning returned, this time in earnest.
A second bolt followed the first. Then a third. And a fourth. Each bolt struck with near perfect precision, smashing into the base of the tail rotor. Sparks flew from the controls and the pilot yelled out in surprise as the board in front of him crackled with electrical discharge like the ghostly sheen of St. Elmo’s fire.
For a second time in less than five minutes, the pilot lost control of the aircraft.
An alarm began blaring incessantly as the tail rotor ceased to function, sending the helicopter spinning wildly on its axis. Thick black smoke filled the air around them, certain evidence that there was a fire somewhere in the aft section of the aircraft. The pilot’s hands and feet were in constant motion as he sought to overcome the rotation and land without smashing the aircraft, and all its passengers, into a million pieces.
Time shrunk down into milliseconds that moved at a snail’s pace and Cade felt oddly removed from the situation. He could see and hear the commotion around him; knew beyond a doubt that they were in mortal jeopardy, but his attention was drawn and held by the leering face in the clouds. It was there and gone again, so swiftly that Cade didn’t have any time to point it out to anyone else, but there was no denying what he had seen.
“Blackbird Lead is going down, I say again, going down.” The radio message broadcast over the internal intercom, notifying those aboard at the same time as those in the command center on the ground.
“Hold on!” the pilot yelled to those behind him as the bird continued its wild spiral toward the ground.
Cade did as he was told.
The chopper spun several more times and then slammed into the dirt just on the other side of the fence surrounding the base.
Then darkness swept over Cade.
*** ***
He came to only a few moments later, still strapped into his chair. Next to him, the pilot was being hauled out of the wreckage by several other knights. Groggy, but able to move under his own power, Cade managed to follow suit. Other knights were helping the rest of the team out of the rear section of the aircraft. As soon as he was clear, he turned his gaze skyward. The thunderclouds were still there, twisting and turning about themselves, but the face was gone.
The pilot was good; Cade had to give him that. He’d managed to get them all down on the ground in one piece. Short of a few cuts and bruises, and a broken leg for the hero of the hour, it looked like they would be all right.
The Blackhawk was a different story; its tail was broken off, its landing gear crushed, and its main rotor shattered into hundreds of pieces from the impact with the ground. As he walked away from the wreckage to the waiting HMMV that would take them to the trailer serving as a makeshift medical center, Cade had to wonder just what he had seen in the clouds overhead.
And what was waiting for them in the tunnels beneath the base.
CHAPTER SEVEN
After letting the medics give him a quick once over and being assured that nothing was unduly sprained or broken, Cade left the med trailer and made his way over to the forty-five foot mobile command center that Mason and his crew were using as a base of operations.
While he hadn’t been inside this particular model before, he was certainly familiar with such vehicles. He’d used them often during his days on the Boston Special Tactics and Operations team and even a handful of times since joining the Order. While he personally preferred working out of the open tailgate of his team’s SUV, he could understand the need for them on a prolonged op like this. This particular model was built on a Freightliner chassis and came equipped with a 450 hp diesel engine. It had workstations for eight and seating for eleven. In a pinch, the conference room could hold fifteen, though quarters would be tight. Interior electronics were powered by a 20-kilowatt generator and included satellite TV receivers, video surveillance cameras mounted externally on a 30 foot telescoping mast, UHF and VHF radios, mobile data computers, and other related communications and surveillance equipment, all of which were secured against intrusion.
The center was also equipped with a 12-foot glide room, which was currently extended. Two of Mason’s men were monitoring video feeds on the workstations set up inside the room and Cade was tempted to ask them what they had seen during the helicopter incident, but the knowledge that the storm hadn’t shown up on radar and therefore probably wouldn’t show up on video kept him from doing so.
Cade moved to the rear of the vehicle, where the conference table had been folded up and put away, creating an open space large enough to hold Mason’s senior officers and the men from Echo’s two squads.
Each squad consisted of four men, every one of whom had been cross-trained in a number of different specialties. First squad, led by Sergeant Manny Ortega, included Corporal Phil Davis, Private Marco Chen and Private Joe Callavecchio. Cade’s own squad, the command unit, included Master Sergeant Riley, Sergeant Olsen, and Sergeant Duncan. They were the best of the best and if anyone could handle the problem in front of them, Cade was confident they were the right team to do so.
Before leaving the commandery each of the men had received detailed briefing folders that described the mission parameters, objectives, and logistics. They were professionals and so Cade didn’t intend to spend too much time going over those details unless there were specific questions. He had one goal for this briefing and one goal only – to be certain each and every one of them understood the sheer ferocity and power of what they were about to face.
It was time to go to work.
“All right. Listen up,” said Cade, stepping up to the podium and looking out over the group. “By now you’ve all had a chance to study the mission parameters and the rules of engagement. I’ve no doubt that you will perform in your usual exemplary manner. I wanted to take a moment, however, and give you an idea of what we’re up against.”
Behind him the plasma screen came to life. “What you are about to see are the last few minutes of footage that was recovered from Corporal Jackson’s helmet cam after the failed incursion into the lower levels of the base. I think you will find it worth your time.”
The video was full of interference, both from whatever was disrupting communications inside the perimeter of the base and from the poor lighting conditions in the room itself. The camera was close to the floor, shooting upward, and it was clear from its erratic motion t
hat Jackson had been injured by this time and was probably rolling around in agony. He couldn’t have been aware the camera was still recording, for there was no conscious effort to point the lens at the action unfolding around him and it didn’t stay in one position for more than a few seconds at a time. None of that really mattered, however, for Cade was only interested in a single segment and when he got to it he froze the screen.
The camera had caught one of Jackson’s squad members standing on the other side of the room, firing at something off-screen. The man was too far away to tell who it was, but there was no mistaking the fact that he was screaming at the top of his lungs; they could be heard on the audio feed even over the sound of all the gunfire.
“Watch closely,” said Cade, and he gave the signal for the tape to roll again.
As the men watched, something rushed onto camera from the left side of the screen, enveloped the knight in a shadowy embrace, and disappeared again almost as fast as it had appeared.
Except this time it didn’t go alone.
It took the soldier with it.
Cade let them watch it once through and then took them through it a second time on a frame by frame basis. It didn’t do much good; they didn’t get any further details at that speed than the former. It was as if the shadow was only that, a shadow, and it had no physical substance for the camera to lock on to. Yet that couldn’t be right, for it took more than a shadow to carry off a 200 pound soldier in full combat gear, particularly while being pumped full of lead from the machine pistol the soldier was carrying.
Silence had descended on the room by the time Cade stopped the footage.
“We’ve been through it backwards and forwards, three different ways from Sunday. And I have to be honest with you; we don’t have a clue what it is. We’ve got several people doing an extensive search of the Order’s physical archives, looking for clues, but the online database held nothing that could help us and I’m not holding my breath waiting for a miracle.
“We’ll be going into unexplored territory and facing an unknown foe. Communications will probably be erratic and we won’t be able to call for reinforcements if things go to hell.” Cade held them all with his gaze, and then let a grin spread slowly across his face, putting a bit of jocularity into his voice at the same time. “But if it was going to be a cakewalk, they wouldn’t need us in the first place.”
That got a rousing cheer out of the men from Echo. When things got bad, the Order called in the troops. When the troops couldn’t handle it, they called in the Elite Strike Teams. The best of those was Echo.
Cade turned to face Olsen. “How long will it take you to get NOMAD ready?”
The sergeant didn’t even have to think about it. “Half an hour to prep the main systems, another 45 minutes to fit the weapons platforms. Call it an hour and a half to be safe, maybe less if things go smoothly.”
“Good enough.” Cade addressed the group once more. “We’ll use NOMAD to do an initial search of the location and then, if it seems clear, we’ll go in ourselves. The command squad will lead, with first squad in close support. Any questions?”
There weren’t any and so the team was dismissed to begin their preparations. Duncan had heard of the Order’s unmanned vehicles systems but had never worked with one personally and so he asked to tag along with Olsen during the system prep. The other sergeant was only too glad to have a second pair of hands for the tasks ahead.
The Near-autonomous Observation and Mobile Armament Delivery system, or NOMAD for short, was one of the best operational robotic systems to hit the major military markets during the last three years and the Order had managed to acquire several of them for its own purposes. Built on a rectangular base, it was small enough to maneuver through confined spaces of less than a meter in width and could make a neutral turn in just under a meter and a half. Its reinforced treads allowed it to manage trenches, curbs, or stairs with equal efficiency and its meter-high rotating turret provided the perfect platform for both two-way audio and multiple optical systems. The vehicle’s top speed was just over five kilometers per hour.
Duncan and Olsen spent the better part of an hour prepping and testing the main control systems, assuring that all of the basic movement commands could be carried out without difficulty. NOMAD could be controlled through a cable, fiber optic, or radio system, with a complete range of up to 1000 meters, providing plenty of distance to assure the safety of the operator. For today’s mission, they were going to be using the fiber optic system, as Mason had mentioned the interruption of the radio communications from the first team to and they did not want a repeat of that situation. Once they had tested the motion systems, they moved on to the vehicle’s sensors, cycling the optics through visual, infrared and ultraviolet spectrums. Everything checked out fine.
NOMAD sported a fully articulated arm that could be extended up to six meters in length and rotated a complete 360 degrees. The arm ended in two pincher claws for grasping and lifting objects weighing up to 150 kg. Seven weapons mounts were also available and it was to these that Olsen next turned his attention. While Duncan continued practicing with the control systems Olsen radioed Cade and then spent several moments discussing the firepower options. They would be infiltrating a closed structure and had no real idea of what to expect by way of opposition, so they finally settled on a diverse payload that would cover as many options as possible yet not cause extensive damage to the structure around it should the firepower prove to be necessary.
After seeing that video, no one doubted that it would.
The only question was whether it would have any effect at all.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Captain Mason suggested that they wait until morning to make the incursion, but Cade was adamant that they act as soon as possible. He had little doubt that some of the captain’s concerns stemmed from the fact that less than ten hours ago he was lying near comatose in a hospital bed. Had he been in Mason’s place, he supposed he’d be a bit concerned as well. But the truth was other than a bit of soreness, he felt fine. Better than he had in a long time, in fact. There was no reason to delay the investigation on his account and more than one reason to move ahead quickly. They had no idea what kind of enemy they were facing or what their enemies’ ultimate objectives might be. For all they knew, tomorrow morning might bring a full scale attack from the depths of the base and that was a chance Cade was not willing to take, so as soon as he heard that NOMAD was operational, he ordered the team into place. It was time to do the job they had come here to do.
The plan was to approach the base within the relative safety of a pair of HWMMVs. Their armored exterior and high mobility would provide significant protection should they come under attack during the initial entry and would also provide a means of exit should that prove necessary. The command squad would be in the lead vehicle with First Squad bringing up the rear. Once inside the base, they would set up position roughly 100 feet from the entrance to the building where Mason’s men had come under attack. From there they would deploy NOMAD, using the robot for the hard task of entry into the building. If things came back all clear, then and only then would Echo physically enter and investigate.
The men loaded the trucks quickly and then climbed inside. Both crews had been ordered to have a man standing half-in and half-out of the upper hatch, so that they could keep an eye on the storm overhead while watching the shadows around them in the afternoon sunlight. Cade didn’t want the team to be taken by surprise, buttoned up in their trucks like a bunch of turtles, and he took the observation position in the lead vehicle himself, knowing he’d feel better being able to eyeball things himself rather than have them relayed over the radio. He gave the order and beneath him he felt the vehicle rumble into life.
It was only a short distance to the entrance of the facility and the team reached it without mishap. The wide gate had been secured in the open position by the ill-fated squad that had come before them and so Cade simply waived both vehicles through without stopping
. Fast and hard, he thought, that was the way to do it. Give the enemy as little time as possible to adapt to their presence. He tried not to think about the face he’d seen in the clouds or his gut feeling that the enemy knew all he needed to know about their little escapade. There was nothing Cade could do about it anyway.
The base had very few roads to begin with and only the main one that ran through the center of the base like a dividing line hadn’t been reclaimed by the shifting desert sands. Housing and recreational facilities were on the right hand side of the street, administration and support buildings on the left. The buildings they passed were in bad shape; paint peeling from tired walls, roofs slowly decaying into the interiors, empty windows staring at them as they slowly drove past. Jackson’s squad had been through them all, front to back, and Cade knew there was nothing there to either interest or concern them at this point. No, their destination was the larger building about another hundred yards ahead on their left. From the audio and video footage they’d salvaged from the previous attempt, it was clear that the facility had once served as the base motor pool. Its interior was divided into several garage bays complete with power lifts, old barrels of oil, and shelves of parts on every wall, while the central, common area could have held a good dozen half-ton trucks or similar vehicles. How Jackson’s team had even found the hatch that had gotten them into so much trouble was uncertain; the record of their excursion was spotty at best. From what they could see, it appeared to be in the middle of one of the aforementioned bays, but that was yet to be confirmed. They’d be relying on NOMAD to give them a better idea of what they were facing.
The Templar Chronicles Omnibus Page 25
