Area 7
Page 16
Schofield's group headed for the vehicle ramp at the far end of the enormous underground hangar bay, Book II and Mother carrying the wounded Love Machine between them.
Juliet Janson came alongside Schofield. "So, now what?"
"We've got the President," he said. "And we've got the Football. Since the Football was the only thing keeping the President here, I say we ditch this party. That means finding a networked terminal. We use the computer to open up an exit during the next hourly window period and then we get out of Dodge.
"Dr. Franklin," he turned as they all started down the circular vehicle access ramp. "Where's the nearest security computer? Something that will open up an exit during the next window period."
Herbie said, "There are two on this level - one in the hangar's office, the other in the junction box."
"Not here," Schofield said. "The bad guys'll be here any minute."
"Then the nearest one is on 4, in the decompression area down there."
"Then that's where we're going."
A woman's voice came through Schofield's earpiece as he moved: "Scarecrow, this is Fox. We are at the bottom of the ventilation shaft. What do you want us to do?"
"Can you cut across the bottom of the aircraft elevator shaft?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Meet us in the Level 4 lab," Schofield said into his wrist mike.
"Got it. Oh, and Scarecrow, we - uh - picked up a couple of new passengers."
"Wonderful," Schofield said. "See you soon."
They raced down the vehicle ramp to Level 2, where they came to an opening in the floor that accessed the emergency stairwell. The eight of them hurried down the stairs until they arrived at the heavy firedoor that led to the decompression area on Level 4.
Brainiac tested the door.
It opened easily.
Schofield was immediately worried. This was one of the doors they had locked and then disabled earlier. Now it was unlocked. He made a hand signal: "Proceed with caution."
Brainiac nodded.
He quickly and silently swung the door open as Book II and Mother slipped inside, an M-16 and a P-90 pressed against their respective shoulders.
No fire was necessary.
Aside from the bodies on the floor - from their previous encounter with the 7th Squadron here - the decompression area was empty.
Juliet and the President went in next, stepping over the bodies. Schofield followed, with Love Machine draped over his shoulder.
A couple of computer terminals sat sunk into the wall on their right, partially hidden behind the telephone-booth-sized test chambers.
"Dr. Franklin, pick a terminal," Schofield said. "Brainiac, go with him. Find out what we have to do to get out of this rat maze. Book, take Love Machine. Mother, check the lab next door for a first-aid kit."
Mother headed for the doorway leading to the other side of the floor.
Book II lowered the grimacing Love Machine to the ground, then made to shut the door behind them.
"What the hell...?" he said as he looked at the door.
Schofield came over. "What is it?"
"Look at the lock."
Schofield did so, and his eyes narrowed.
The door's bolt mechanism - the thick rectangular part of the lock that extended out from the door and secured itself inside a matching slot in the doorframe - had been sheared off.
Cleanly.
Perfectly.
Indeed, the cut was so clean that it could only have been done by some sort of laser...
Schofield frowned.
Somebody had been through here since the battle.
"Scarecrow," someone said.
It was Mother.
She was standing in the doorway leading to the western side of Level 4. Standing with her was Libby Gant, who had appeared from the other side of the floor.
"Scarecrow. You better see this," Mother said.
Schofield went over to the doorway set into the white wall that divided Level 4.
He checked the lock on the door as he met Gant and Mother. Its bolt had also been sheared off with a laser cutting device.
"What is it?" he said.
He looked up and was surprised to see, standing with Gant, Colonel Hot Rod Hagerty and Nicholas Tate III, the President's slick Domestic Policy Adviser. Gant's new passengers.
Gant jerked her thumb at the area behind her - the high ceilinged hall-like space that housed the great glass cube.
Schofield looked into it... and immediately felt his blood run cold.
The cube looked like a bomb had hit it.
Its clear walls lay at all angles, shattered and broken. Entire sections of glass had fallen in on the bedroom inside it, exposing the room to the outside air. Toys lay on their sides. The colorful furniture had been overturned, hurled roughly aside.
There was no sign of the boy, Kevin.
"Looks like they took a whole bunch of stuff from up in the lab, too," Gant said. "The entire area has been ransacked."
Schofield bit his lip in thought as he looked at the scene before him.
He didn't want to say it. Didn't even want to think it. But there was no denying it now.
"There's someone else in here," he said.
* * *
The language was Afrikaans. The official language of the white regime that had ruled South Africa up until 1994, but which now, for obvious reasons, was no longer the country's official language.
After consulting with the DIA's two African language specialists, Dave Fairfax now had all of his recorded conversations translated and ready for presentation to the Director.
He looked at the transcript again and smiled. It read:
COMM-SAT SECURE WIRE TRACE E/13A-2
DIA-SPACE DIV-PENT-DC
OPERATOR: T16-009
SOURCE: USAF-SA(R)07
29-MAY 22:10-56 VOICE 1:
AFRIKAANS - ENGLISH
Kan bevestig dat in-enting plaasvind.
Can confirm that vaccine is operational.
13-JUN 18:01:38 VOICE 1:
AFRIKAANS - ENGLISH
Toetse op laaste poging word op die vierentwientigste verwag. Wat van die onttrekkings eenheild?
Test on latest strain expected on the third. What about the extraction unit?
VOICE 2:
Reccondo span is alreeds weggestuur.
Reccondo team has already been dispatched.
15-JUN 14:45:46 VOICE 1:
AFRIKAANS - ENGLISH
Voorbereidings onderweg. Vroeg oggend. Beste tyd vir onttrekking.
Preparations under way.Early morning. Optimal time for extraction.
16-JUN 19:56:09 VOICE 3:
ENGLISH - ENGLISH
Everything is in place.
Everything is in place.
Confirm that it’s the third.
Confirm that it’s the third.
21-JUN 07:22:13 VOICE 1:
AFRIKAANS - ENGLISH
Ontrekking kan ‘n probleem wees. Gestel ons gebruik die Hoeb land hier naby. Verstaan hy is ‘n lid van Die Organisasie.
Extraction is the biggest problem. Plan is to use the Hoeb land nearby. Member of Die Organisasie.
VOICE 2:
Sal die instruksies oordra.
Will pass on those instructions.
22-JUN 20:51:59
ENGLISH - ENGLISH
VOICE 3:
Mission is a go.
Mission is a go.
23-JUN 01:18:22
AFRIKAANS - ENGLISH
VOICE 1:
Die Reccondos is gereed. Verwagte aankoms by beplande bestemming binne nege dae.
Reccondos are in place. Estimate arrival at target destination in nine days.
"That is some seriously weird shit, my friend," one of the African language experts said as he was putting on his jacket to leave. He was a short, pleasant fellow named Lew Alvy. "I mean, Reccondo Units. Die Organisasie. Jesus."
"What do you mean?" Fairfax asked. "What are they?"
A
lvy took a quick look around himself.
"The Reccondos," he said, "are the baddest of the bad when it comes to elite units. They're the South African Reconnaissance Commandos. Before Mandela, they were the crack assassination squad of the white regime. Specialists in cross-border raids, covert hits - usually on black resistance leaders - trained to be ghosts. They would never leave a trace of their presence, but you'd know they'd been there because of all the cut throats."
"Tough bastards, too. I heard once, in Zimbabwe, a squad of Reccondos lay in ambush for nineteen days, not moving, hiding in the veldt under heat-deflecting dirt covers, until their target arrived. The target came by, thinking the area was secure, and - boom - they nailed him. Some say that in the eighties they bolstered their numbers by enlisting Angolan mercenaries, but the argument became academic in 1994 when Mandela took power and the unit was disbanded in light of its previous missions. Suddenly they all became mercenaries, a crack hit squad for hire."
"Shit," Fairfax breathed. "And Die Organisasie? What's that?"
Alvy said, "Part myth, part reality. No one's really sure. But MI6 has a file, so does the CIA. It's an underground organization of exiled white South Africans who actively plot the demise of the ANC government in the hope of returning South Africa to the bad old days. Rich bastards - rich, racist bastards. Also known as the 'Third Force,' or the 'Spider Network.' Hell, it was listed last year on Interpol as an active terrorist organization."
Fairfax frowned as Alvy departed.
What could an ultra-rich right-wing South African organization and an elite light commando unit possibly want with a remote U.S. Air Force base?
* * *
Typically, Hot Rod Hagerty and Nicholas Tate went straight over to the President. Elvis, on the other hand, rushed over to check on his wounded buddy, Love Machine.
Schofield stood in the center of the decompression area on Level 4, with Gant at his side.
Gant nodded at Hagerty and Tate. "We found them inside Marine One, holed up inside the Presidential escape pod. Hiding."
"He'll take command," Schofield said.
"He is the ranking officer," Gant said.
"He's never been under fire."
"Shit."
A few yards to their left, over by the test chambers, Brainiac and Herbie Franklin sat before a computer terminal.
Schofield stepped up behind them. "So, what's the story?"
"This is very odd," Herbie said. "Here, look," he pointed at the screen. It read:
S.A.(R) 07-A
SECURITY ACCESS LOG
7-3-010229027
TIME KEY
ACTION
OPERATOR
SYSTEM RESPONSE
06:30:00
System status check
070-67
All systems operational
06:58:34
Lockdown command
105-02
Lockdown enacted
07:00:00
System status check
070-67
All systems operational (lockdown mode)
07:30:00
System status check
070-67
All systems operational (lockdown mode)
07:37:56
WARNING: Auxiliary power malfunction
System
Malfunction located at terminal 1-A2 Receiving no response from systems: TRACS; AUX SYS-1; RAD COMSPHERE; MBN; EXT FAN
07:38:00
WARNING: Auxiliary power capacity: 50%
System
Terminal 1-A2 not responding
08:00:15
Main power shutdown command (terminal 3-A1)
008-72
Main power disabled
08:00:18
Auxiliary power enabled
Aux System
Auxiliary power start up
08:00:19
WARNING: Auxiliary power operational. Low power protocol enabled.
Aux System
Low power protocol in effect: non-essential systems disabled
08:01:02
Lockdown special release command entered (terminal 3)
008-72
Door 003-V opened
08:04:34
Lockdown special release command entered (terminal 3A1)
008-72
Door 062-W opened
08:04:55
Lockdown special release command entered (terminal 3A1)
008-72
Door 100-W opened
08:18:00
WARNING: Auxiliary power capacity 35%
Aux System
Terminal 1-A2 not responding
08:21:30
Security camera system shutdown command (terminal 1-A1)
008-93
SYSTEM ERROR: Security camera system already disabled per low power protocol
"Okay," Herbie said. "Well, it starts out all right. Standard system checks by a local operator. Probably one of the console operators up in the main hangar on ground level. Then comes the lockdown at 6:58, keyed in by operator number 105-02. That's someone high up. A 105 prefix indicates a colonel or above. Probably Colonel Harper.
"But then, at 7:37, something must have happened up on Level 1. At that time nearly half the complex's auxiliary power supply went up in smoke."
"A missile hit the junction box " Schofield said, recalling his battle with the missile-mounted Humvees up in the Level 1 hangar bay earlier. His tone made it sound like this sort of thing happened every day.
"O-kay" Herbie said. "That would explain it. That junction box housed the auxiliary power generators. The unfortunate consequence of that, however, happened here," he pointed at another line:
08:00:15
Main power shutdown command (terminal 3-A1)
008-72
Main power disabled
"Somebody turned off the main power supply," Herbie said. "That was why I couldn't disable the cameras before. See here, you can see my entry at 8:21. I'm operator 008-93.
"The problem was somebody else - operator number 008-72 - had already turned the cameras off by shutting down the main power supply. As soon as anyone shuts off the main power, the system switches over to auxiliary power - but now, because of your missile impact, this place only has half its auxiliary power remaining, which as you can see, is draining fast.
"But... when the auxiliary power supply kicks in, the system switches off all nonessential power drains – things like excess lighting and the security camera network. That's the low power protocol that keeps getting mentioned."
"So by cutting the power, he cut the cameras..." Schofield thought aloud.
"Yes."
"He didn't want to be seen..."
"More than that," Herbie said. "Look at what he did next. He keyed in three special lockdown release codes - once at 8:01 and twice at 8:04 - opening three exit doors."
"The five-minute window period," Schofield said.
"That's right."
"So which doors did he open?"
"Just a second, I'll find out." Herbie tapped some keys. "Now, the first one was 003-V." A schematic diagram of the Area 7 complex came up on his screen. "There it is. The Emergency Exit Vent."
"And the other two?"
"062-W and 100-W..." Herbie said aloud, scanning the screen. "Door 062-W stands for door sixty-two/west. But that would mean it was part of the..."
"What?" Schofield said.
Herbie said, "62-West is the blast door that seals off the westward X-rail tunnel down on Level 6."
"And the other one? 100-West?"
"It's where that X-rail tunnel ends, over by Lake Powell, about forty miles west of here. 100 West is the security door leading out to the lake."
Brainiac asked, "Why would he open those three doors?"
"You open the Emergency Exit Vent to let your companions in. To help you steal the booty," Schofield said.
"And the other two doors?"
"You open them so all of you can get out."
"So why cut the power?" Ga
nt asked.
"To disable the security cameras," Schofield said. "Whoever did this didn't want the Air Force people to see him doing it."
"See him doing what?" Brainiac said.
Schofield exchanged a look with Gant.
"See him taking the boy," he said.
"Quickly," Schofield said to Herbie, "can you find out who operator number 008-72 is?"
"Sure." Herbie began typing fast.
A moment later, he said, "Got it." A list appeared on his screen. Schofield scanned the list until he found the entry he was looking for:
008-72 BOTHA, Gunther W.
"Who's Gunther Botha?" Schofield asked.
"Son of a bitch," a voice said from behind them. It was the President. He stepped up behind Schofield's shoulder.
"Botha," he spat. "I should have known."
"South african scientist, working here on the vaccine," the President said. "You make a deal with the Devil, and it comes back to bite you in the ass."
"Why would he want to take the boy?"
"The Sinovirus kills both white people and black people, Captain," the President said. "Only people of Asian origin are safe from it. That boy, however, has been genetically designed to be a universal vaccine, for both blacks and whites. But if only white people are given the vaccine, then only white people would survive an outbreak of the Sinovirus. And if Botha is working for who I think he's working for..."
"So what do we do now?" Herbie said.
"We go after the boy," Schofield said instantly. "And we..."
"No, you do not, Captain," Hot Rod Hagerty said, appearing suddenly behind Schofield. "You will stay here and you will guard the President."
"But..."
"In case you haven't been paying attention, if the President dies, so does America. One little boy can wait. I think it's time you got your priorities straight, Captain Schofield."
"But we can't just leave him..."
"Yes, we can, and yes we will," Hagerty said, his face reddening. "In case you have forgotten, Captain, I am your superior officer, and I am now ordering you to obey me. The United States government pays me to do the thinking for you. So this is what you will think: your country is more important than the life of one little boy."
Schofield didn't move a muscle. "I wouldn't want to live in a country that leaves a little boy to die..."