by Alex Siegel
She walked around to the back of the police van. Aaron and Ipo joined her, and the police chief eyed the men warily. They both made the chief look like a weakling in comparison, and their armor made them even more intimidating.
The chief opened the back of the van. "What are you going to do with this stuff?"
Eight crates were made of green plastic. Four were marked "CS gas grenades," and the rest were marked "M18 Smoke Green." Ipo and Aaron began to place the crates near the helicopter.
"None of your business," Marina said, "but you'll figure it out soon enough. I expect it will make the news."
The chief frowned.
She gave him a stern look. "Listen, what we do may not be legal, but it is ethical and necessary. As a long-time cop, I'm sure you understand what I mean."
"I want to trust you."
"You can." She patted him on the shoulder. "I owe you for this. Feel free to call the next time you have a serious problem."
After the police van was unloaded, the chief drove off. He seemed eager to leave. Finally, Marina and her team could get back to their business.
"Do you have an attack plan?" Aaron said.
"An aerial bombardment followed by a lightning assault," she said. "Min Ho will jam all communications in the area. There's no point in over-planning when we have no idea what we'll run into."
He gave Marina a look of disapproval. She could tell he had a better plan, but he didn't want to embarrass her in front of her own team. He wouldn't let it go, either. As the commander, it was her job to be clever.
"Actually," she said, "I have a better idea. If Burch has great security, then he must have a great security control room. We'll take that first. We can use the existing surveillance system to check the entire house quickly and safely. Then we'll know exactly where to go next. My hackers should be able to figure out the location of the control room by looking at floor plans."
Aaron nodded. "Good. Let's get ready."
Chapter Twenty-five
Marina was flying low and fast over the Pacific Ocean. The waves sparkled in the bright sunlight, and she occasionally glimpsed fish just beneath the surface of the water. She didn't like fighting during the day, but at least it was a nice day. Only a few wispy clouds were in a clean, blue sky.
"Almost there!" Marina yelled. "Ready?"
She glanced back. Aaron, Ipo, Hanley, and Katie were in the passenger area, and everybody had an open crate full of grenades on their lap. More open crates were at their feet.
"Yes, ma'am!" they replied.
She spotted Bill Burch's mansion straight ahead. It was built on top of a cliff and had a magnificent view of the ocean. Waves crashed against a shore made of jagged rocks instead of sand.
Marina dropped even lower until the fuselage of the helicopter was almost skimming the ocean. The wash from the rotors kicked up an impressive amount of white spray in her wake. At the last instant, she pulled up hard and popped over the edge of the cliff. She stopped in the air and hovered over a building with a roof made of pink Spanish tile.
"Now!" Marina yelled.
Her team threw open the doors on both sides. They began tossing out tear gas and smoke grenades as fast as they could pull the pins. Clouds of thick, green smoke formed beneath the helicopter.
She climbed to a higher altitude so the wash wouldn't blow away the smoke. The estate was impressively large when seen from the air. She counted ten buildings in total, and a few were large enough to be mansions on their own. White, pink, and pale red were the most common colors, and the style was traditional Spanish.
Jia had told Marina the location of the security control room. It was a small, isolated bunker at the north end of the compound. The walls and roof were solid concrete, and there were no windows. Marina spotted the building, and the difference in architectural style alone marked it as special.
She flew in tight circles so the grenades would strike all over. She didn't see anybody shooting at her, but she knew that would come soon. The enemy was probably having a hard time seeing the helicopter through the heavy smoke. She kept moving to make it harder to hit.
"We're running low on grenades!" Aaron yelled from the back. "Take her down!"
Marina aimed for a patch of dirt beside the security bunker. As she descended rapidly, she started seeing muzzle flashes on the ground. A bullet plinked the fuselage, but she couldn't tell if it had done any damage.
A small group of security guards was standing beside the bunker. They wore black uniforms and had black Kevlar vests. Pistols were in holsters, but their main weapons were hunting rifles.
I need to clear my landing area, Marina thought. She dipped the nose of the helicopter and fired the chain guns. The spinning barrels roared like giant bumblebees. 25 mm ammunition moving at 3,600 feet per second had no trouble penetrating the vests. Seconds later, her opposition was reduced to twitching hamburger.
She grinned. Nice.
Marina flew down as fast as she dared and landed a little too hard. As soon as the landing gear was solidly on the ground, the entire team jumped out. They held onto the last remaining grenades.
The helicopter had blown away most of the tear gas, but what remained made her nose and eyes itch. It was nasty stuff. Everybody had brought gas masks which they slipped over their faces.
Marina ran to the door of the bunker and discovered it was made of steel plate. An electronic lock required a keycard and a combination.
Aaron stepped forward, lifted his gas mask, and spat at the lock. His sticky, yellow saliva dissolved plastic and metal with equal ease, and greasy smoke spewed into the air. A few more well-placed gobs of spit made a hole in the door big enough to put an arm through.
Marina was getting ready to kick open the door when he stopped her.
"Hold on," he said.
Aaron still had a smoke grenade in his hand. He pulled the pin and shoved the grenade through the hole.
"Poison gas!" he yelled through the hole. "Get out! Poison gas! You're going to die if you stay inside!"
Marina smiled. The dense, green smoke certainly looked like it could be poisonous.
A moment later, the steel door slammed open and men poured out. They were dressed in black like the other guards and had similar weapons. The smoke had temporarily blinded them, and they were coughing.
The Spears opened fire and executed all of the guards.
Smoke was drifting out of the open door of the bunker, and Marina expected more guards were waiting inside. Not all of them were stupid enough to fall for the poison gas trick.
She was getting ready to enter when Hanley stepped in front of her.
"Let me do this, ma'am," he said.
"Alone?" She raised her eyebrows.
He nodded. "I can hear their heartbeats." He showed her the red circles on his palms. "I'll know exactly where they are."
"I'll follow you. Everybody else stand guard out here."
Aaron, Ipo, and Katie nodded.
Hanley entered the bunker without hesitation even though the smoke made it almost impossible to see. He was just a dark, blurry shape in front of her, and following him was difficult. Even with the gas mask over her face, Marina could taste the smoke.
He had a knife in his hand as he moved swiftly through the interior of the bunker. Neither of them made the slightest noise, and the enemy had no warning. Hanley just walked up to the guards, slashed their throats, and moved on. Their faces showed surprise as they died. His very efficient technique impressed her, and it took only a couple of minutes to clear the bunker.
He stopped walking and said, "That's all of them, ma'am."
"You're sure?" she said.
"The only heartbeats left are yours and mine."
"I'm starting to like your gift a lot."
"So am I," he said with a grin.
They brought in the rest of the team. The bunker had four rooms: an armory, an office, a radio dispatch room, and a surveillance room. The last had six stations where guards could sit and l
ook at live video. Marina recognized the standard computer controls.
"Everybody pick a station," she ordered. "Find Bill Burch and the forbidden rat control technology."
She sat in the nearest chair and went to work. Her station had four monitors each capable of displaying four feeds. She could choose any surveillance camera for any of the sixteen spots.
Marina began to systematically search the mansion. She saw giant rooms full of expensive and exotic collections, but she wasn't impressed. Material possessions had never been interesting to her, and that opinion had grown stronger as she had grown older. The important things in life couldn't be bought with money.
Burch had a large domestic staff consisting of butlers, maids, gardeners, chefs, and women who were clearly concubines. Most of them were coughing and rubbing their eyes.
The surveillance system also allowed Marina to keep an eye on the surviving security guards. Most were incapacitated by the tear gas, but the rest were getting organized. It wouldn't be long before the Spears had to fight again.
She didn't see Bill Burch though. She cycled through all the cameras twice, and as far as she could tell, he wasn't home. She couldn't find any evidence of rat control technology either. The home invasion was starting to look like a waste of time.
"I'm not having much luck," Marina said. "Is anybody else doing any better?"
Aaron and her legionnaires responded negatively.
"Damn," she muttered.
"We need to grab a guard and interrogate him," Aaron said. "Can I take the lead?"
"Go ahead, darling."
"Follow me."
Aaron stood up and walked out of the bunker. Ipo, Hanley, Katie, and Marina followed close behind in that order. Aaron jogged quickly and seemed to know exactly where he was going. He had obviously formed a plan while studying the surveillance video.
They entered one of the large buildings, and it turned out to be a garage. Bill Burch's collection of exotic cars was parked on a black and white marble floor. Crystal chandeliers and patterns of gold leaf on the walls made the garage look like a palace ballroom. Marina wasn't an expert on cars, but she recognized an Aston Martin, a Bugatti, a Ferrari, and a Lamborghini.
Aaron silently gestured with his fingers. Ipo, Hanley, and Katie went to one corner of the room, and Aaron and Marina went to another corner.
A minute later, fifteen security guards entered the garage. They were marching swiftly and not paying a lot of attention to their surroundings. The Spears were able to get behind them easily.
Aaron still had his huge, semiautomatic sniper rifle. He put it to his shoulder and began to fire at a methodical pace. The guards went down two or three at a time as the .50 caliber bullets ripped through multiple targets. By the time they figured out where the shots were coming from, only one guard was left alive. He turned around with his hands in the air, and his face showed pure terror.
"Sir," Hanley said in a tone of awe, "that was extremely impressive."
"Thank you," Aaron said. "It was just a matter of killing them in the right order."
Marina walked up to the surviving guard and disarmed him. He was a young man with thick, black hair. His black uniform was clean and crisply pressed.
"Where is Bill Burch?" Marina said.
"I don't know," the guard blubbered. "He left an hour ago."
"Where did he go?"
"He didn't tell us."
Marina snarled. She could tell the guard was telling the truth. He was too frightened to lie effectively to her face.
"Next question," she said. "Does this mansion have any secret places?"
"Well, uh..." He bit his lip.
She drew a knife and put the tip against his groin. "Talk, or you'll be singing an octave higher."
"I don't know how to get into the laboratory!"
"There's a laboratory?" Marina hadn't seen anything like that on the surveillance monitors.
"I heard it's underground," the guard said, "but I don't know where the entrance is."
"You have no idea?"
"It's a big secret. Can I go? I promise I'll just run away. Please?" He pleaded with his eyes.
She slashed his throat. His eager cooperation had earned him a quick, relatively painless death, but he was still a pawn of the enemy.
Marina faced her team. "Let's find the laboratory."
"I'll do it, ma'am." Hanley knelt down and put his palms on the marble floor.
"What are you doing?" She furrowed her brow.
"Listening for echoes. An underground chamber should be easy to detect. Drop something on the floor."
Marina could hardly believe it, but she was willing to play along. She took a rifle from one of the dead guards and dropped it. The butt made a nice, sharp impact on the hard tile.
He closed his eyes. "Again."
She dropped the rifle again.
"I can hear something down there. This way."
He walked in the direction of the ocean. The rest of the team followed with their weapons drawn. They went outside into the bright sunlight and cool, ocean air. Waves pounding against the cliff sounded like explosions.
A pink cement walkway ran around the compound. Hanley stopped and put his hands against the surface. Marina found a heavy rock and dropped it.
"Getting closer," he said.
They continued along the walkway. She risked taking off her gas mask, and the air smelled fresh. A slight breeze had blown away the tear gas and smoke. She watched carefully in case more security guards made a surprise appearance.
Hanley stopped two more times. Eventually, he came to an outcropping near the edge of the cliff. It was about ten feet tall and seemed made of solid stone.
"There is an opening behind here." He tapped on the stone.
Marina smiled. She would've never guessed the outcropping was a fake. "Your gift is officially cool."
"Thank you, ma'am. We have to blast it open."
Every member of the team had brought a standard demolitions package. They put all five charges together to form a single bomb. Marina set the timer, and everybody ran to a nearby garden containing exotic plants. A low stone wall provided cover.
The explosion was powerful enough to rattle her bones. She actually felt the concussion through the Earth. She peeked over the garden wall and saw a big hole in the outcropping.
The team hurried back. The men pulled away rubble to reveal a secret staircase which went down into the cliff.
Marina had been in other secret laboratories in the past, and each experience had been a special kind of horror. God's enemies were infinitely creative in their evil. She dreaded what she would find in this one.
"No choice," she said. "We have to go down. Move fast and kill everybody. We're past the point of screwing around."
"We've been screwing around until now?" Hanley said in a curious tone.
Marina gave him a disapproving look.
"Let me go first, ma'am," he said. "If there is an ambush, I might hear them before we see them."
"Lead on."
The team silently crept down the circular staircase. Marina brought up the rear, and she kept looking over her shoulder.
After travelling about fifty feet straight down, Hanley stopped. He was just above where the stairs ended at an opening.
"There are people in the next room," he whispered. "I can hear them breathing. They're afraid."
"How many?" Aaron whispered.
"Ten or fifteen."
Aaron nodded. "Stay close."
He unclipped a flash-bang grenade from his utility belt, pulled the pin, and tossed the grenade into the next room. Marina covered her ears and closed her eyes just in time. The grenade was so loud, she could feel the shockwave bounce off her chest, and the light penetrated her eyelids.
Aaron ran down the stairs and into the room without hesitation. The rest of the team followed him straight into a gun battle.
Marina instantly assessed the situation. They were in a laboratory, and scientists in l
ab coats were crouching behind workbenches. The enemy was firing small caliber guns which were incapable of penetrating the body armor worn by the Spears. They weren't even shooting in the right direction. The flash-bang had clearly blinded the scientists.
Aaron was already busy killing them with perfectly placed pistol shots. The rest of the team joined him in the target practice, and the room was cleared quickly.
"Is everybody OK?" Marina said.
"I caught a bullet in the shoulder," Ipo said, "but I'm not injured."
Katie rubbed her thigh. "Two in the leg. Damn, that stings!"
Marina nodded. The advanced body armor had done its job.
She looked around the laboratory which was surprisingly ordinary. The equipment was very sophisticated, of course, but there was nothing horrible about it. She didn't see body parts floating in vats of chemicals or prisoners held in torture devices. The screams of the damned didn't assault her ears.
There were a lot of rat cages though. They covered two walls and could probably hold a thousand rats. All the cages were empty. That's not good, she thought.
"Let's keep moving," Marina said. "Stay together."
The team left the laboratory through a door at the far end. They went down a short hallway and entered another laboratory which was similar to the first, but the cages were different. The ones in this room were big enough for dogs instead of rats.
"Where are the animals?" Marina said.
"Maybe Burch took them with him," Aaron said.
Hanley shook his head. "I don't think so." His eyes were wide.
"What's going on?" Marina said.
"I'm hearing animal sounds." He held up his palms. "They're everywhere."
The room had other doors which were open. Rats began to pour through the doorways like a river of brown fur. Each animal had a tiny implant in its skull. Until now, Marina hadn't taken them seriously as a threat, but there were so many! They moved with the unity and discipline of an army.
She turned to leave the way she had come, but German Shepherds were in the hallway. They also had gleaming implants in their skulls. They were growling and clearly prepared to fight.
"Dr. Shipman is in there!" Hanley pointed.
