Broken Wings (John Hardesty Z04 Book 3)

by Clay Moore

  He knew his own shortcomings. Take this plan for instance. Never in a million years could he have come up with this project. There were things that they were depending upon working that Spike couldn't see working at all. He looked at the pale with its false bottom and about a liter of ammonia in it. Spike wondered why Oliver wanted them to take it around. Apparently had something to do with its aroma, but Spike did not do any heavy cleaning if he didn't have to do it. Spike stopped his progression towards the first of his pillars. He put the handle of the mop against the wall. S[ike took a few deep breaths while still having the gas mask on. Then he pulled it off.

  He looked around, and nothing assaulted him. Then he realized that nothing was assaulting him because he wasn't breathing. He took in a tentative breath. Nothing major happened. Then he took a deep breath and got into a minor coughing fit. He moved off about 10 m from the pail to recover. Even at this distance, he could recognize the smell of ammonia now. He put back on his gas mask. Just as he did that two men in guards uniforms turned the corner and started walking down the hallway, he was in.

  His mind started thinking over time. He knew that he had a weapon in the ammonia. True, it wasn't a weapon that killed things. It was a weapon of denying space to the enemy. Using the mop handle to push the pail in front of him he struggled that bucket towards the approaching guardsmen. When he got within 5 m of the guardsmen, they started to be affected by the ammonia. They put their hands up in front of their face.

  They looked as if they were trying to get him to stop, so he stopped. Then it dawned on them that what they wanted him to do was move on. That was all that hand waving and arm waving that they were doing. Acting as if he had finally gotten the idea of what they wanted, he moved off about 5 m. Then he turned around and pulled out the needle gun from his right jumpsuit pocket.

  Spike had never fired a needle gun in his life. There was always time for something new. He shot the guard on the right-hand side of The hallway. the first shot in a combat situation all seems to be the most effective. This was an instance that proved that maxim. Spike could not see the actual needle flying through the air. But what he could see was the guard suddenly reaching back to his neck and then collapsing in a gelatin-like heap on the floor.

  The guard on the left side of the hallway turned to his partner and knelt down. He felt for a pulse and relaxed when there still was one. Turning to see what it was that had hit his partner, he saw what he thought was a janitor with some sort of gun that he was not familiar with. He listened to his training and reach for his own blaster pistol.

  Spike could not let the guard get to his pistol. He had his needle pistol out, and that was the only weapon that he would have access to unless he could draw out this encounter somewhat. He made up his mind and pulled the trigger. This time Spike heard the needle missed the guard and caromed off of the wall behind the guard.

  The needle pistol had practically no recoil. It allowed Spike to have a second shot. He fired one more time, and then repeated again. The second guard fought against the poison that caused unconsciousness. Finally, with two needles in his body, he gave up and succumbed.

  Spike checked his watch and realized that he was behind his time schedule. He put the needle pistol back in his right coverall’s pocket. Then with both hands, he started pushing the mopping pail with the mop.

  Spike did not run into any more guards on the way to his first emplacement. He quickened his pace to make sure that he could get done with everything on time. This operation required things to happen in a specific sequence, at this time no one was going to blame the schedule being lost out by him. He wanted everyone to know that he was a competent agent. The only way he knew to do that was to succeed and help the mission achieve. When he turned the corner from his hallway into the other hall, he could see his target.

  The pillar that he had to deal with wasn't really a pillar. Down here in the bowels of the Unicorn there was no need for fancy dress to cover up something unsightly. The post that he was looking at probably went from here all the way to the ceiling some 30 to 40 floors up. Up in the area where paying customers could see them were very decorative pillars using marbles, and maybe some real wood. Down here all it was was a hyper steel I-beam.

  Spike pulled out his so Slate one more time. That computer-generated image looks the same as it did in real life. The notation read that he had to put the bomb left a foot of the ceiling. Leaving his pale at this point, he walked up to the pillar. He got as close to it as he could, and he lifted his hand. He saw that his hand was well within the 1-foot distance he had to be to get the maximum benefit of the bomb. At that point, 2 women dressed in showgirl came walking by spike costumes.

  Spike did what any red-blooded man would do. He gawked at the women. The woman looked back at him with a puzzled expression. "This is part of a check were doing on how much settling the mega-casino has done in the earth. Nothing to worry about, everything is okay. And if you don't mind my saying so, but those are some really fetching costumes."

  The two women giggled. Then they scrunched their noses and walked away very quickly. Ammonia and flirting do not go together. Spike left them alone. He liked his women conscious and willing. It can't be both when you're hit with the soporific. Spike rolled his pail to the next pillar.

  As Spike proceeded with his sabotage work. He began to realize that he had five of the 10 pillars. He wondered if I had the other five posts. That left Oliver was none. He asked what Oliver was doing. When he finished with his last pillar, he knew that he was going to get the answer.

  Spike followed the directions to get to the central Radamite storage. He knew he was there when he saw a considerable square tank. The tank was unpainted and had nothing decorating it at all. You notice that some of the tank corners were rimed with ice.

  “The constant movement of Radamite into and out of the storage container," said Oliver from behind Spike. "The take the precaution of cooling down the Radamite."

  They try to freeze it?"

  "They can't freeze it because it is already solid. It acts like a liquid because when it is refined the corners of the particles in the powder our grown. The powder flows as if it were liquid. Since refined Radamite is already a solid all cooling it down does this prevent the idea that you might be able to spontaneously ignite it.”

  Spike said, "then how do we get through this cold jacket surrounding the storage?"

  "We do it likely work taught. We have to take away the liquid nitrogen from the jacket. I've already set the charges to do that. Now we have to put the charges around storage facility."

  Spike looked to his left and listened to his right. It was a massive storage facility.

  Oliver saw Spike surveying the storage tank. "I've measured it is approximately 1 km x 1 km x 10 km."

  "Whatever going to do with it?"

  "Radamite really doesn't explode. It simply Burns very very fast at a very high temperature. There are over 25 M tons of Radamite here. I estimate that it will burn for approximately five minutes. That's 3000 Celsius burning up down left and right. Things that are not normally flammable Will become flammable. The metallic structure of this building will be compromised. The most likely scenario is that this building will collapse on itself."

  “Won't that kill a lot of customers?"

  “We are going to try and herd the customers out of the building."

  “That's what that discussion was between you and John after the plan was announced."

  “Yes. John is so goal oriented because of Anton Hecht and did him a personal injury.”

  “What personal injury?. He looks the same as he always does.”

  "One of the captains minions have splash damage from a blaster bolt on his face. He asked and received permission from happening to eliminate the Vivana Hardesty, John's wife."

  “Oh, that is harsh."

  “You don't know the half of it. It took the station team a year to get used again. John's audition as a Z-level agent was to kill the man who shot
his wife. You know that had to open some joy in it, but he felt no joy. He felt some relief just nothing transcendent."

  "You would think that Anton would know all about John's existence.”

  “Anton has to have met thousands upon thousands of people over the course of his career. How is he going to remember just one man? Based on what I understand about Anton, I can see why you might remember Vivana. If you didn't know what we know about John you look given a second look.”

  “You mean his big —“

  “Exactly. I also understand that it has a prodigious appetite for the ladies."

  "He would have to have that with me?”

  "Here comes Ike. Let's table this discussion for later. Hey, what took you so long?”

  Ike came talking up hallways from the opposite direction that Spike came in. I took a few moments to catch his breath. Then Oliver resumed his instruction.

  “This is the central thing that we have to do. We have to get this storage unit penetrated and McKnight the Radamite within." Oliver slapped the refrigeration jacket that was around the storage. "As you can see the storage is contained within a refrigerated jacket. This is to possibly defray any kind of random sparks igniting the cold Radamite. As I explained to Spike Radamite e cannot be frozen. Radamite is already solid. All the cold does require more temperature to ignite. Radamite is unusual in that it burns at 3000°C, but it ignites at 1500°C. Once it has ignited it burns at 3000°, this is going to liberate a lot of energy here. But it's not to blow up the mega-casino. It's merely going to make it unable to hold itself up and collapse. Once we get this setup, we will then take off our clothes pull out our assault blasters and go up to the main floor. On the main floor, we will shoot our assault rifles and the noise will panic the customers. That panic will spread to everybody in that mega-casino.”

  Spike seemed not to believe the last part. "We're going to move thousands of people with a single shot from an assault blaster?"

  “Spike, I'm going to tell you the truth. Ordinary people are sheep. If you shoot a blaster behind them, they will run for the exits. As the stream of people gets larger going for the exits, it will pull the others from elsewhere in the mega-casino. Gentlemen, we are the sheepdogs, and the Unicorn contains our cheap."

  Spike said, "okay, I guess."

  Ike whispered into Spike's ear. "What are sheepdogs?”

  "Beats me, Ike. Maybe there some kind of that genetic crap. You know, a sheep bred with a Dog.”

  “Nah, that would be too gross."

  “Cut the commentary," said Oliver. "what we are going to have to do is put at least two bomblets on each tank’s face that we can see. We're going to have to place one in the upper right-hand corner and one in the lower right-hand corner. Remember at least nine more meters are going down into the subbasements. All we are doing here is so to speak lighting the candle for the fire.

  “Do you understand what we're doing here?"

  Spike and Ike nodded their heads as if they were those toys with the bobbing heads that you saw in the gift shops at all Starports. Oliver tried not to laugh. In many ways, Spike and Ike were very immature. They were delicious, however, at one thing and that was combat. They had been regular Marines from the Eridani Marine Corps who volunteered when asked if they would like to travel more and shoot more. Oliver felt like they were probably surprised when there were no Battlesuits for them. They apparently felt like they needed the powered armor, but in the year that he worked with them, he would trust him with his life.

  Oliver took one of his bomblets. He pulled off the cellophane from the brick. Oliver walked to the right side of the tank's bottom facing him. He reached up with his left hand with the bomb and pressed the plastic bomb material onto the cold refrigeration wall. Oliver quickly went back to the box in which he had his bonds took on another one. You moved the cellophane and placed it in the lower left-hand corner of the side facing him.

  “I want you each to take to of the bones from this box. Use your Slates, and each one of you takes one more wall. Put your two in the way that you saw me put, top right corner, top bottom left corner.”

  The two men picked up two of their bombs. Each one ran to the end of the wall and disappeared down the hallway. Oliver picked up the last and job down this. He ran down the corridor to his left. Oliver took a left and ran down this passageway. He jogged past Ike who reached up and put his bomb at the right position. Oliver did not remain long enough to give him feedback. He continued his job and took the next left. This corridor was empty.

  Oliver repeated the procedure to the top right and top left of this part of the tank. They jogged back to where Spike and Ike first met him at the tank. While he waited for them to appear, he took out the controller. It reported that it had all the detonators locked into the various circuits. These virtual channels in the controller were what allowed him to fire one set of bombs separately from another set of explosions. With a minute of each other, both of those men ran from their side of the tank and met up with Oliver roughly in the middle of the front.

  "Now we go back to the van and take off these ridiculous coveralls. We also retrieve our assault weapons in the bandolier of magazines. We kill no one unless they provide us with a reason to kill them. Is that clear?”

  Spike and Ike nodded their heads in unison.

  “When we get the stampede going, we have to go all the way to the main entrance of the Snake. In this instance, we will use our weapons to keep people from leaving. We're going to jam up as many of the entrances we possibly can. The purpose behind this is to flush out our target."

  “Then?" Spike wanted to know everything. It was as if he was learning. Spike probably was learning. Oliver decided that he would make it a project to see if he could get spiked through the officer examines for the Eridani Secret Service. Once, officer, he would be an actual agent. Oliver rather doubted that Spike would be Z-level, but stranger things have been known to happen.

  “Then we go to see if we can get Todd and Philip from the jail there."

  “Yeah," said Spike, "we've discussed that before amongst ourselves. If we knew that we were going to be rescued, then we figured that we could hold out longer."

  "Then let's get on with this."

  All three men started to jot back the way they came to their van. They saw no one except for the two guardsmen that spike headed down with his needles. Oliver stopped for a moment to make sure that both of those men were still breathing. Once he was reassured, they started their run again.

  They burst out of the swinging doors onto the dock. The van was still there. All three men hopped off the dock onto the ground. Oliver opened the rear two doors. He signaled for them to remove their coveralls which they all did. Spike and Ike wore their blackout gear underneath their coveralls. Oliver was different. He wore that gray suit. After this mission, if he remained on Snake Eyes, he would have to be the man in gray.

  The next thing they had to do was rearm. In the back of the van were three cases. Each man took the fact that had his name on it and opened it. Inside each case was an assault blaster rifles. Then they moved the gray matter that had four catches on each side. They ended the latches and removed the lid. Inside this box were 60 magazines of 30 rounds each. There are also three belts that can hold 20 magazines each.

  The men now spent about five minutes putting the magazines in the pouches on the bandoliers. Once they had everything ready, they put on the bandoliers and picked up their assault rifles. Now wholly armed they moved back into the subbasement. They found a central elevator shaft. They call for an elevator car. It showed up, and they went in.

  When the doors to that car opened up one more time, they ran out of it screaming at the top of their lungs. That managed to get everyone on the main floor listening to them. However, they had nothing to say. Instead, they fired in the general direction of where the most significant groups of people were. Screams erupted from the customers. However, things were not turning out the way that they wanted. No one knew what
to do. There were no leaders amongst these people. Oliver's idea that these people were sheep was correct. Sheep gambled their money away. Most real leaders do not.