Inside the conference room, the press members were on their feet yelling questions at Swei, who stood on the stage like a statue. The security chief took his stunned leader's arm and steered him toward the door. The cabinet members and the military chiefs were pushing back reporters and photographers who had rushed toward the front of the stage.
Josh spun around and opened the back of his fake recorder.
He took out a nine-millimeter Beretta and two black cylinders and was about to stick the pistol in his waistband when Fletcher grabbed his arm. "You're staying right here. The job is done."
Then, a loud crashing noise like a thunderclap caused everyone in the room to freeze. They all looked up toward the ceiling, hoping it had been a freak of nature and not a manmade sound. Then the second mortar shell exploded on the roof, sending a shudder through the building. One reporter screamed, but most were too scared to do anything but instinctively duck down.
Still holding Josh's arm, Fletcher was one of those who ducked. Seizing the opportunity, Josh kneed him in the groin, pulled free, and pushed his way through the photographers toward the stage. The third round hit, then the fourth, and plaster fell from the ceiling like huge snowflakes. McCoy locked the conference room's double doors and turned around, yelling, "Stay here and stay down!"
Some people ignored him and ran for the doors but abruptly halted upon hearing another sound, louder and more personal than mortar explosions. It was gunfire, just outside the big double doors.
"What?" Tan shouted, not believing what he'd just heard.
The operations colonel's face was pale. "The Defense Ministry command center is not responding to any of our phone or radio calls."
"Impossible!" Tan snapped. "They must be giving orders to the army units."
The colonel shook his head. "Sir, we have radios tuned to the military frequency. The military command center has not issued any orders or responded to the units that have been trying to call them."
Tan's eyes widened as he realized that the impossible had happened. "Call the security chief and tell him to check the basement before taking the prime minister down. Now!" He spun around to face the major who was posting the situation map. "Have our Strike company move into the tunnel and find out what's happening in the command center! Tell them there could be rebels in the tunnel!"
"... and rebels have attacked the army bases. General Tan ordered me to move you to safety!" the security chief shouted above the sound of exploding shells. Swei's pale face was twisted in shock and disbelief. The chief tightened his grip on his leader's arm as he led him to the basement stairs.
He had just stepped down onto the first step when the frantic call from the DDSI operations officer came over his radio warning him of the possibility of rebels in the basement. The four bodyguards who had been walking down the steps heard the same call over their earphones and froze.
Holding Swei's arm tightly with one hand, the security chief pulled his Colt .45 semiautomatic pistol with the other and retreated to the landing. He whispered to the bodyguards, "You two check out the basement hallway. You other two follow five meters behind and cover them." He motioned to the two security men behind him. "The rest of us will cover from here."
Hiding behind a wall partition just inside the basement entrance, Stephen nervously looked across the hallway at his father, who was pressed against the wall beside the open door.
They had both heard the footsteps start down the marble stairs, but they had inexplicably stopped. Stephen began to peer around the partition but heard a faint noise. It was different from before-whoever was coming down the steps now was trying to be quiet. Stephen made up his mind to rush out, hoping he could get a good shot at Swei, but Xu Kang beat him to it. The old soldier stepped into the open doorway firing. Seeing their leader move, the Horsemen rushed forward to join him.
The lead bodyguard took Xu Kang's first burst in the chest, but the second man got off two shots before he was blown back onto the stairs. The two other bodyguards and the security chief fired their .45s into the charging mass of blue-turbaned Horsemen who ran through the door trying to get up the steps. The first two screaming Horsemen jerked and toppled over. Two more Horsemen fell, then another and another. Stephen had been blocked from seeing or joining the attack by the charging old men. The guns sounded like cannons in the enclosed stairway. He stepped out to join them but was grabbed from behind by Horseman Lante. Stephen fought against his grip, but the assault team captain helped Lante pull Stephen back and yelled to be heard over the furious shooting. "No! It's suicide, Sawbaw! Your father was wounded badly. We must wait for others from the assault force."
The captain released his grip and Stephen's glazed eyes focused. Lying in the doorway and blocking the exit were the bodies of six Horsemen stacked on top of one another. His father was being dragged back by Corporal Chee and another soldier. They laid Xu Kang on the floor at Stephen's feet and tore at his uniform to find the wound.
The old man tried to get up, but Stephen kneeled and gently pushed him back down. "Easy, Father. You've been hit in the stomach and-"
Xu Kang grabbed Stephen's shirt and pulled him down to within inches of his own face. "Get me to my feet-we must prepare a defense!"
Stephen tried to break his father's grip but it was like a steel vise. Xu Kang's eyes bored into his son as he commanded again, "Get me to my feet!"
Stephen reluctantly nodded to Chee, who had been trying to bandage the old soldier's wound. Horseman Lante and Chee gently held Xu Kang under the shoulders and pulled him to his feet. The Sawbaw staggered but regained his balance-and straightened his back. Looking at Stephen, he tried not to show his pain and said, "Put a squad in the tunnel to defend the approach from the DDSI compound. Spread the rest of your men out to defend the staircases, and call Colonel Banta and inform him of our situation. Corporal Chee, you may now wrap my wound. Make it tight." As the corporal moved forward, the old soldier saw his beloved Horsemen lying dead a few feet away. He raised his eyes to the ceiling and said in a hoarse whisper, "Honor them, gods. Honor them."
Prone on the top landing, the security chief slapped another magazine into the butt of his pistol. Not receiving incoming fire, he slowly lifted his head and peered down the staircase. Four of his men lay dead on the steps, and below them in the open doorway was a pile of bodies. He ducked back and turned around. The two remaining security men were helping Swei to his feet. The chief pulled the radio from his belt and said rapidly, "There are rebels in the basement! All available teams move to stairways and block them from coming up. Strike platoon leader, send a squad to staircase number three to escort the prime minister."
An excited voice responded, "Colonel, this is Strike platoon leader. Rebels have come through the front gate and surrounded the headquarters! We are keeping them from entering the building, but we need reinforcements!"
The chief turned to Swei, who appeared to have regained control. "Prime Minister, rebels are inside the compound and have the headquarters surrounded! We're trapped!"
Swei's lips drew back in a cruel smile. "No, the rebels are the ones who are trapped. The army units will arrive and finish them."
A ten-man Strike squad came running down the hallway holding AK-47s. The chief waved the leader to him and ordered, "You and five men watch the staircase and ensure no rebels leave the basement. I'm taking the rest of your men with me. Where is your platoon leader?"
The squad leader pointed down the hall. "Sir, he's in the lobby with the rest of the platoon building a barricade to hold off the rebels."
The chief heard gunfire in the lobby and worriedly looked over his shoulder at Swei. "The reinforcements had better arrive soon, Prime Minister, or it will be over for us all."
"The army is coming," Swei said confidently. "We will finish these mongrels once and for all."
Inside the dark conference room, Josh was kneeling by the side door. Behind him, cabinet members, ambassadors, and reporters huddled together against the far wall behind a barri
cade of chairs. Josh opened the door just a crack and could see six soldiers in position facing the staircase.
"Satisfied, Hawkins?" McCoy said in a harsh whisper as he crawled up behind him. "Goddamn it! Your buddies are going to get innocent people killed."
Josh turned and snapped, "Just keep everybody down. We got problems-the op has turned bad."
In the DDSI command post, an officer tuned in the government radio station.
"... Prime Minister Swei is a butcher who has killed hundreds of our people! Rise up, leave your homes, and march on the Defense Ministry! Soldiers, lay down your weapons and join us! Freedom is within us all. No more lies! No more DDSI! No more Swei! Join us! Join the free people of Burma!"
"Turn that off!" Tan commanded. He looked at the situation map, which was covered with red stickers denoting rebel attacks. "You see what they have done, don't you? They focused our attention on the students, then hit us everywhere at once. It is a good plan, but they don't have enough soldiers to sustain such an operation for long. Once the army begins moving-"
The operations colonel stepped forward. "Sir, we have tried to convey your counterattack orders to the army, but we have failed. The rebels have cut all the phone lines and are jamming our military radios. We can communicate only with the police and our security chief at the Defense Ministry."
Tan could not conceal his shock. The colonel's assistant added to the bad news by holding out a report. "Sir, the police say their barricades have been breached. They report that the students are en route here and that people are streaming out of their homes to join them."
A captain ran over to Tan with a handheld radio. "General, it's the prime minister. He demands to talk to you."
Tan closed his eyes for a moment before taking the radio and pressing the sidebar. "Prime Minister, where are you?"
Swei's voice boomed through the speaker. Tan heard gunfire in the background. "We are holding the first floor but need reinforcements. When will the tanks and infantry arrive?"
"A Strike company is coming through the tunnel now,"
Tan said. "We monitored the previous messages about rebels in the basement. The company will clear them out and bring you back here to safety."
Again Swei's voice filled the room. "Excellent! Helicopter in the rest of the Strike battalion and order in the tanks. We will finish these Shan bastards!"
Every officer in the command post stopped what he was doing and looked at Tan, knowing full well they could not communicate with the army to carry out the prime minister's orders.
Tan brought the small radio up to his lips and tried to sound confident. "Yes, General, they will be here very soon."
He lowered the radio and looked into the accusing eyes of his staff.
The operations colonel lowered his head. "It's over. We must destroy our files and all proof of what we've done."
"Never!" snapped Tan. "Within an hour the rebels will have to fall back. They don't have enough forces to defeat us. We will crush them!"
The colonel's head snapped up. "The people know! Are we going to crush them, too?"
Tan's fierce eyes stabbed the officer. "We will do what is necessary!"
The colonel met Tan's glare and shouted, "The world knows what we've done! They know of White Storm! We must destroy our files."
Tan snarled, "No. We'll fight until the army comes. I'm going to join the Strike company in wiping out the rebels, then I'll bring General Swei back here." He brushed past the colonel and faced his staff. "Who will come with me?"
For an answer he got nothing but silent stares.
McCoy grabbed Josh's shoulder. "Don't do it. You'll never make it."
Josh could hear the mission bell ringing in his head as he shoved McCoy's hand away and stood. Lifting his pistol, he racked in a round and flicked off the safety. Taking one of the flash bangs from his pocket, he twisted the cap, pushed open the door, and tossed the concussion grenade toward the six men standing in the corridor. He threw himself against the wall and waited three seconds before it detonated. Raising his pistol, he charged into the hallway.
McCoy cringed hearing Josh's pistol reports. "Goddamn you, Hawkins!" he mumbled as he crawled back toward the others.
Josh squeezed the trigger again and spun to face his fifth target. The stunned soldier was still seeing flashes before his eyes when Josh squeezed the trigger. The sixth soldier got his rifle up and fired a burst. Josh didn't flinch as bullets tore into the wall beside him-he was focused completely on his target, whose eyes were filled with horror. Josh squeezed the trigger and screamed, "Stephen!"
Stephen was issuing orders to his assault team leaders when the explosion and the pistol shots echoed through the hallway. When he heard the familiar voice shout his name, he ran for the stairway and yelled for his men to follow him.
In the tunnel Tan stepped over a dead Strike soldier and approached the company commander. The captain motioned down the tunnel, which was littered with bodies. "We lost twenty men, General."
"And the rebels?" Tan asked.
"Five of them were defending the entrance to the tunnel to the Defense Ministry-they're all dead. However, the door into the ministry is locked. My men are trying to open it now.
If they can't, we'll blow it open."
Gunshots rang out. A sergeant yelled, "We shot through the lock! It's open!"
Swei stood in the middle of the lobby with his security chief and two bodyguards. Security men and Strike platoon soldiers were positioned behind barricades made of desks and tables in front of the shattered glass doors at both ends of the huge hall. Others were at windows in the first-floor offices.
Mortar shells were still impacting on the roof, causing plaster to fall from the ceiling. Everyone and everything were covered with a fine white dust.
The Strike platoon leader strode up with a worried frown.
"Prime Minister, we've got the rebels outside pinned down, but the offices in the west wing are on fire. If the fire spreads, the smoke will force us out."
Swei motioned to the steps leading down to the basement.
"The Strike company will be here any minute. They are clearing the tunnel and the command center. Once they get rid of the rebels down there, we'll fall back to the DDSI compound and let the army finish it."
Another explosion on the roof shook the wooden panels from the walls. The security chief took Swei's arm and guided him toward the small conference room. "It is safer inside here, Prime Minister."
As Swei and his security men stepped into the room, Stephen and Josh rushed into the lobby along with the seventeen surviving members of the Shan assault force. A Strike sergeant turned at the sound of boots on the marble floor. He screamed a warning, then paid for it with a burst of bullets in his face. Stephen opened up on those at the front barricade while Josh fired at those positioned at the rear entrance. They stood back to back in the middle of the lobby. They and the other Shan screamed in defiance and riddled their hated enemy, who had been caught with their backs turned. The killing was easy.
Swei spun around when he heard the screaming and shooting in the lobby. The security chief pushed him back, unholstered his pistol, and ran toward the door with the two bodyguards.
Stephen saw them at the door. He whirled to fire but a bullet tore into his left arm and knocked him back.
Beside Stephen, Corporal Chee turned in a single motion and sprayed the men coming out of the doorway. His spray of bullets was low and hit two of them in the legs. They fell as if they had been tripped up by an unseen wire, but the third man kept shooting. Chee saw the attacking man's eye muscles twitch as he pulled the trigger and felt the burning pain of a blow to his chest. For an instant he thought he would be able remain on his feet, but his knees buckled and he sank to the floor.
Josh turned around, feeling Stephen bump hard against his back. He saw Stephen had been hit and by reflex caught him before he fell. Holding his brother in his arms, he could dc, nothing to stop the oncoming attacker who was aiming a pis
tol at him. Then Josh saw the brilliant flash. The pistol fell to the floor, along with the soldier's hand. Xu Kang swung his sword again, burying the blade in the security chief's neck.
The shooting stopped, and cries of surrender echoed down the hallways from the few surviving Strike platoon soldiers and security men.
Helped by Josh, Stephen remained on his feet. He stepped toward his father but froze when Swei strode through the doorway.
Xu Kang and Horseman Lante raised their swords. Xu Kang snarled as he laid his blade against Swei's neck. "Get on your knees, pye dog, and beg for my mercy."
Swei's simmering eyes locked on the old man, and he replied with sneering contempt, "To a Shan? Never!"
Forged in Honor (1995) Page 43
