"Yes, sir."
* * *
Love Machine fell first.
In the face of the powerful waterfall, he lost his grip on the counterweight cable and dropped straight past Book.
He fell fast - falling away from Book II in a kind of nightmarish slow motion; eyes wide, mouth open, his shout drowned out by the roar of the waterfall - before he disappeared into the inky darkness of the shaft.
Book II swore. "Damn it!"
And then he did the only thing he could think to do.
"Sergeant! No!" Calvin yelled, but it was too late.
Book II loosened his grip on his cable and slid like a bullet down the shaft after Love Machine, disappearing into the darkness.
Book II dropped into blackness.
He slid for a long time, whizzing down the counterweight cable, sliding fast, the heat from the cable burning through his white formal gloves.
Then suddenly, with a splash, he entered water - deep water - at the bottom of the shaft.
Just as he had hoped.
The elevator shaft was approximately ten feet square and if all its exit doors were sealed, then with the monumental quantities of water rushing out of the hole on Level 1, he'd figured it wouldn't take long for it to accumulate at the bottom and fill to a reasonable depth.
Sure enough, Love Machine hovered in the pool of water next to him, gasping for air, coughing water. But alive.
"You okay?" Book II yelled.
"Uh-huh!"
Calvin and Elvis arrived at the base of the shaft a few moments later, sliding down the counterweight cables. The roaring waterfall thundered into the pool all around them, kicking up spray.
"Okay, Captain Fantastic," Elvis said to Calvin, "our nice safe elevator shaft is now filling with water! What do you suggest we do now?"
Calvin hesitated.
Book II didn't. He nodded at the pair of outer doors a few feet above them. "Simple. We bust out!"
* * *
"Motherfucker..." Brainiac said as he peered out from the rear of the AWACS plane's main cabin.
A high-pressure geyser of water was now shooting out of the hole in the wall over by the personnel elevator, throwing a carpet of water all over the concrete floor of the hangar. "What the hell is this ride?"
"Just another day of mayhem and destruction with the Scarecrow," Mother said.
"Hey," Gant said, looking out through her door-window. "What happened to the guys on the wings?"
Mother and Brainiac spun to look out at the plane's wings.
The AWACS's wings were bare.
The 7th Squadron men who had been out there before were nowhere to be seen.
It was only then that they heard the ominous sound of thumping footsteps on the roof.
The AWACS plane continued on its rampaging circuit of the hangar, now traveling through a layer of water one inch deep.
It had almost come full circle - so that now it was facing the empty section of the hangar that led to the wide-open doorway of the aircraft elevator shaft.
Schofield pumped on the steering pedals, trying to keep the enormous surveillance plane under control.
He saw the doorway to the aircraft elevator shaft directly in front of him. At the moment, a shallow film of water cascaded over it like Niagara Falls, dropping out of sight into the shaft.
The big hydraulic elevator platform was almost certainly the best way out of this jam", but the last he had seen, it was stopped down on one of the lower levels...
And then, more suddenly than Schofield could possibly have anticipated, the roof above him exploded in a shower of sparks.
In actual fact, it wasn't the roof - it was one of the blast hatches set into the roof of the cockpit, one of the hatches that blew open when the pilot's ejection seat was activated.
No sooner had the hatch blasted open than a veritable hailstorm of gunfire flooded down through it, smashing into the airplane's dashboard, shattering all its gauges and dials.
This torrent of bullets was quickly followed by a second volley which ripped through the empty pilot's seat - the lefthand seat; the seat Mother had been sitting in before - tearing it to shreds.
Schofield saw what was going to happen next and he quickly dived out of his seat, rolling forward into the tiny section of floor space in front of it.
Not a moment later, a pair of combat boots landed with a thump on the pilot's seat - boots that belonged to a fearsome-looking 7th Squadron commando.
The masked commando spun quickly, his P-90 assault rifle pressed firmly against his shoulder, searching for enemies at the rear of the cockpit. Then he turned to look forward, and downward - where, to his complete surprise, he saw Schofield lying curled up on the floor.
Gunless and defenseless, Schofield saw the masked commando's black-gloved trigger finger begin to squeeze - and so he lashed out with his foot.
Not at the man's legs, but at the lever that ran alongside the flight seat underneath him - the ejection lever.
Schofield's kick connected.
The lever snapped backward.
And with a loud, blasting whoosh! the pilot's ejection seat shot up through the hole in the cockpit's roof – taking the 7th Squadron commando with it!
* * *
Python Willis watched in complete and utter astonishment as one of his men went rocketing up at incredible speed out of the cockpit of the AWACS and past his shocked colleagues on the roof of the plane, on top of an ejection seat!
The man shot into the air like a bullet, before smashing - violently, concussively - into the concrete ceiling of the hangar.
The crack of the man's neck echoed sickeningly throughout the underground hangar bay - it was distinct even above the roar of the AWACS's engines, so hard did his body hit the ceiling. He was killed instantly, the force of the three-hundred-pound ejection seat snapping his spine like a twig as it squashed him against the concrete roof.
* * *
In the meantime, Schofield had gotten his own Beretta pistol out and, sliding on his back onto the floor behind the pilots' seats, was firing it up at the roof of the cockpit - trying to deter anyone else from following their comrade into the flight deck.
In seconds, his gun went dry and he stood up and looked out through the forward windshield - and saw that the plane was heading directly for the massive doorway leading to the elevator shaft!
"Oh, this just keeps getting better and better," he said.
In a fleeting second, he tried to find a solution to the situation.
The plane was heading for the shaft.
The 7th Squadron were all over its roof - all over the hangar for that matter.
And he and Gant and Mother and Brainiac were stuck inside the plane.
What was the solution?
Simple.
Get out of the hangar.
But there is no way out. We're stuck in this plane, and if we leave it, we're dead.
Unless, of course, we get out of the hangar while we're still on board the plane...
Oh, yeah...
And with that, Schofield climbed back into the co-pilot's seat and took control of the plane again. Despite the bullet damage, the controls still worked.
He pushed forward on the collective, speeding up the big Boeing 707, keeping it pointed directly at the enormous steel doorway that led out to the elevator shaft.
* * *
"What the hell is he doing...?" Python said.
The giant AWACS plane was picking up speed, rumbling across the wide expanse of the hangar, heading straight for the open elevator doorway.
The commandos on the roof of the plane felt it surge forward, gaining momentum.
They looked forward, saw where it was heading, and their eyes widened.
"He can't be serious," Python breathed, as he watched his men leap off the roof of the moving airplane as it careered toward the open doorway.
* * *
In the cockpit of the speeding plane, Schofield was strapping on his seat belt. As he did
so, he keyed the intercom switch.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Find a chair and buckle up tight, because we're about to take off."
Back in the main cabin, Gant and the other two Marines spun to look forward.
Through the AWACS's cabin, they could see all the way through to the cockpit - could see the open elevator shaft looming ahead of them, rapidly approaching.
"Is he thinking what I think he's thinking?" Gant said to Mother.
Mother paused before she spoke. "Yes, he is."
They leapt as one for the nearest available seats and clutched desperately for the seat belts.
The converted boeing 707 - deprived of its entire tail section - thundered across the wide subterranean hangar bay, the wet concrete floor rushing by beneath it, heading straight for the open elevator shaft.
And then, before anyone could even hope to stop it, the plane shot through the doorway and tipped off the edge and fell down into the shaft, disappearing from view.
The AWACS plane soared down the elevator shaft fast - nose-first - looking like a crazed kamikaze fighter.
Down the wide concrete shaft it went - down, down, down - before it crashed, loudly, on the massive hydraulic elevator platform resting on Level 4, one hundred and eighty feet below.
The nose of the AWACS plane crumpled instantly as it thundered into the elevator platform. Loose parts flew everywhere, blasting outward like shrapnel. Two of the plane's jet engines bounced high into the air as they smashed into the platform.
The plane itself, however, seemed to teeter on its broken nose for an eternity. And then, with a loud metal-on-metal groan, like a slow-falling California redwood, it fell, landing with a colossal thump on its left-hand wing, snapping the wing in an instant, before the whole ruined aircraft slammed down against the elevator platform with a resounding boom.
Inside the AWACS plane, the world was tilted forty-five degrees to the left.
Mother, Gant and Brainiac all sat comically in their seats, strapped in, but hanging dramatically to the side. They were starting to unbuckle themselves from their seat belts when Schofield hurried into the main cabin from the cockpit.
"Come on," he said, helping Mother with her belt, "we can't stay here. They'll be down soon."
"Where are we going?" Gant asked, as she dropped out of her seat and stood up.
Schofield pursed his lips. "We have to find the President."
* * *
"...Jesus! He just drove the plane off the fucking edge..."
"...Charlie and Echo Units, initiate pursuit..."
"...President is on Level 5, heading into the confinement area. Delta Unit, you are free to enter the animal quarters..."
"...Copy that, Bravo leader. Yes, they're in the water at the bottom of the shaft. Good idea..."
"What's Boa doing?" Caesar Russell asked. Captain Bruno "Boa" McConnell was in command of Bravo Unit, one of the Five Snakes.
"He's on top of the personnel elevator, sir. He's going to lower the elevator down the shaft.
Drown the bastards. And if they try to crawl up the sides, shoot them dead."
* * *
Book II and the others hovered in the ever-deepening pool of water at the base of the regular elevator shaft.
The super-heavy rain of water blasted down all around them. It showed no sign of stopping and the elevator shaft was flooding rapidly, the water level rising fast, lifting them to the nearest pair of outer doors.
And then abruptly, above the roar of falling water, a loud clunking noise echoed down the shaft, followed by the hum of mechanical movement.
Book II looked upwards - just as the rain of water stopped.
Well, sort of stopped. Now it started raining down the sides of the shaft, covering the counterweight cables with a curtain of gushing water.
"What's happening?" Love Machine said.
And then Book II saw it.
Saw a shadow superimposed on the darkness above them - a box-shaped shadow, growing larger and larger as it came closer and closer.
"What is that?" Calvin Reeves said.
"Oh, damn..." Book II breathed. "It's the elevator."
The personnel elevator edged its way down the shaft, water pounding onto its roof and cascading off its sides.
High above it, in the open doorway up on ground level, two 7th Squadron snipers lay with night-scoped rifles at the ready, aimed down into the shaft.
Their guns were trained on the roof of the elevator, waiting for anyone to emerge from the gaps on either side of the lift, the only points where the enemy could climb out from underneath the downward-moving elevator.
"Not nice," Book II said flatly. "Not nice."
Either they drowned as the elevator pushed them under the surface, or they climbed up the sides of the lift, where no doubt, the bad guys would be waiting...
He looked quickly at the pair of outer doors two feet above him. They had a large "5" painted on them.
Level 5.
He wondered what was on this level, then decided he didn't care. These doors were the only way out. Period.
He hauled himself out of the water, stood on his toes on the edge of the doorway. A curtain of water poured down onto his head.
Like all the other outer doors in this elevator shaft, he saw, these two were closed tight, air sealed.
The elevator above him continued its descent, moving slowly and steadily downward.
The rising water reached the base of the doorway, splashed against his boots, moving equally steadily upward.
Calvin Reeves appeared at his side. "How the hell do we open these doors, Sergeant?"
Book guessed that the doors' release mechanism was contained somewhere within the wall.
"I can't see it!" he shouted back. "It must be hidden inside the wall!"
The elevator was close now, looming one floor above them, grinding inexorably downward.
Water continued to pour.
And then Book II saw it - a thick insulated cable running out from the concrete wall to the right of the doors and down into the pool of water beneath him.
"Of course!" he yelled. An emergency release lever wouldn't be on this level. It would be situated either above or below the floor, so that the doors could be opened when the elevator was stopped here.
Without so much as a second thought, Book II took a deep breath and dropped into the pool of water beneath him.
Silence.
The eerie quiet of the underwater world.
Book II swam downwards, his fingers feeling their way along the thick black cable attached to the concrete wall.
After about nine feet, he came to a steel utility box sunk into the wall. He opened it, felt for a lever, found a row of six, and yanked the fifth one.
He immediately heard a sharp shoosh! from somewhere above him - the sound of a pressure door being released.
He swam upward, fast. Came to the surface, broke it...
"...Book! Quickly! Come on!" were the first words he heard.
He'd come up a few feet away from the now-opened doors and immediately saw Calvin Reeves and Elvis standing up on level ground. Love Machine clung to the edge of the doorway, reaching out for Book II with an outstretched hand.
Then Book II looked up.
The descending elevator was barely three feet above his head and coming down fast!
He threw out a hand and Love Machine grabbed it, and hauled him over to the doorway, pulling him through the water. Then Elvis and Calvin grabbed them both and yanked them out of the water, just as the elevator slid past the edge of the doorway and abruptly came to a halt - right in front of the doorway.
Everybody froze.
Water began to ooze up around the floor of the lift, rising up from beneath it, hungrily searching for an escape from the shaft. It immediately began to spread out across the concrete floor of Level 5.
Book II waited tensely for the elevator's doors to open - waited for a phalanx of 7th Squadron men to burst out from it
with their guns blazing.
But none did.
The lift was empty.
They were safe, for the moment.
Book II turned to face the room around him. A layer of expanding water had already started filling it.
It was a wide anteroom of some sort. Some wooden desks, a Lexan glass cabinet full of shotguns and riot gear. Plus a couple of holding cells.
Book II frowned.
It was almost as if he were standing in the reception room of a jail.
"What in God's name is this place?" he said aloud.
* * *
At that very same moment, on the other side of level 5, Juliet Janson and the President of the United States found themselves standing in a whole new kind of hell.
Juliet had thought the animal cage room had been bad.
This was worse.
After bursting through the heavy-looking door on the western side of the animal cage room, she now found herself staring at a far more frightening part of Area 7.
A wide, dark, low-ceilinged room stretched away from her. It was sparsely lit, with only one in every three lights turned on, a policy which had the effect of leaving small patches of the vast room hidden in perfect blackness.
But the low light couldn't hide the true nature of this level.
It was filled with cells.
Old rusty concrete cages - thick-walled, with anodized black bars sunk deep into concrete dividers. The cells were quite obviously aged, and in the half-light of Level 5, they took on a positively Gothic appearance.
It was, however, the groans and hoarse whispers coming from the darkness behind the bars that betrayed the nature of their occupants.
These were not animal cells, Juliet realized in horror.
They were human cells.
The prisoners heard the heavy door burst open – heard Juliet and the President and the other two Secret Service agents charge through it - and they rushed as one to the doors of their cells to see what the commotion was.
"Oh, hey, baby!" one toothless individual cried as Juliet, striking and purposeful as she held her silver SIG Sauer pistol in her hand, charged past his cell, pulling the President behind her.
"Ramondo!" she yelled. "Block that door behind us!"
A row of steel lockers lined the wall near the door leading back to the animal cage room.
Area 7 Page 10
