‘I suspect you’re just the other side of those walls, Mister Warner!’ he called, his voice reaching the interior of the facility through speakers inside the office. ‘They’re six feet thick and according to Garrett they would stand up to a direct hit from a thousand pound projectile, which doesn’t bode well for your chances of escape!’
Ethan heard the two men alongside Kruger chuckle as Lopez and Mitchell joined him inside the office.
‘Son of a bitch,’ Lopez growled through her mask.
Kruger’s voice called out one last time as he and his companions turned to the jeeps parked in the compound.
‘Don’t worry though! Once we’ve killed Garrett and taken control of his corporation, we will return here and recover the virus before we ensure that nothing remains of you or this facility. You’ll all become a dusty piece of history, Warner, one that nobody will ever know about because we both know that once those seals are blown you won’t open the facility doors and risk letting the pandemic out to infect mankind! You’re all just too damned nice! Your remains will never escape this place!’
Lopez seethed beside him. ‘The asshole’s right. If we don’t get out of here before those seals fail, we’ll never leave.’
Ethan felt futile rage surge through his veins as he watched Kruger turn for the jeeps as his companions climbed into each of them. He was about to search for a button to reply to the men outside, to plea for some sort of compromise as a last ditch attempt to save their lives, when a strange noise burst from the speakers.
Like a rush of waves crashing suddenly against a rocky shore it blazed noisily and then subsided almost immediately into silence. Kruger and his two companions looked up into the sky, and then both the jeeps suddenly accelerated for the gates and left Kruger standing alone in the dust.
Ethan saw terror rip across Kruger’s face and he rushed back toward the facility’s side entrance once more, his arms waving wide and his voice pitched with terror.
‘Open the side door!’
Ethan backed away from the screen as though doing so could distance himself from what was about to happen, and then he saw Lopez’s confused expression.
‘What was that noise?’ she asked.
It was Mitchell who answered, his experiences in Vietnam reminding him of the same noise.
‘Fighter jets,’ he said. ‘The first one recons the target if no enemy fire is expected, and confirms its location.’
‘And the second one?’ Lopez asked.
Kruger’s face appeared on the camera covering the side door, gaunt and filled with horror.
‘Open the door! Please, open the door!’
Suddenly trapped outside the only safe place on the island, Kruger had nowhere to hide. His screams soared through the office as Ethan found the speaker button.
‘The third jeep!’ he shouted. ‘Move the jeep!’
Kruger’s face stared blankly at the camera for a fraction of a second, and then suddenly the screen went white. In a fragment of time Ethan saw the blast rip the gaunt man’s body apart as though he had been constructed from nothing more than dried leaves that had been swept aside in a tremendous gale. A terrific blast hit the compound outside and the entire facility shuddered as it shouldered the explosion. Ethan saw the fences outside ripped from the ground and hurled across the forest, saw the two escaping jeeps hit the gates and then vanish in the fireball as they were lifted and thrown in flames onto their roofs.
The third jeep was lifted off the ground and hurled aside amid the roiling flames as the cameras suddenly switched off and the monitors went blank.
In an instant, Ethan turned and dashed for the side entrance with Mitchell and Lopez alongside him. They needed no words, no sharing of the knowledge that bigger bombs would follow in seconds to entirely destroy the facility. Whether called in by the Defense Intelligence Agency or by Garrett himself, the total destruction of the site was clearly required to prevent the virus contained within from ever reaching the world outside, and they would spare no expense in hitting it with everything they had.
Ethan hit the door head on and it burst open to reveal a terrific firestorm tearing through the jungle around the site, columns of flame and smoke twisting up into the air. Ethan kept the mask on as he dashed through the searing inferno, felt the pain of the heat searing his skin as he sprinted directly south toward where he knew the fences had once been.
Mitchell followed, Lopez alongside him as they ran through the terrible flames and smoke, plunged into the jungle undergrowth and plowed through the trees and the ferns as they attempted to get as far away from the site as possible.
Ethan ran a hundred paces into the jungle before he ripped off the face mask and hurled it aside, crashing through the foliage and hoping against hope that he didn’t collect a venomous snake or spider bite as he plunged his way south.
‘Incoming!’
Lopez cried the warning and he heard the roar of fighter engines just a moment later as an aircraft that he did not see thundered overhead somewhere above the jungle canopy and a terrific blast shook the ground beneath his feet.
Ethan tumbled onto the jungle floor and rolled alongside a large fallen tree trunk. Lopez crashed down on top of him as a shockwave blasted through the trees around them and a fearsome fireball lit up the site. Ethan squeezed his eyes shut and rolled protectively over Lopez, threw his arm over her head and huddled down behind the trunk as a blast of heat washed over them on the wings of a ferocious wind. Sharp pain pierced his ears as the infernal roar of high explosives, burrowed deep into the ground from the kinetic energy imparted them by the fighter’s airspeed, exploded and churned the earth upward in a blaze of flame and shattered rock.
The trees of the jungle leaned away from the blast and sheets of flame tore through the canopy above, dense leaves shredded by supersonic debris scattering in clouds to fall all around them.
The tremendous noise and heat from the blast faded away, and Ethan lay with his arm across Lopez’s head and his ears buzzing. His vision was blurred, his body ached and he could feel little stabs of pain from where tiny pieces of shrapnel had buried themselves in his flesh.
With a force of will he managed to drag himself to his feet, saw Lopez wearily crawling onto her knees, her arms trembling. He grabbed her hand, staggered unevenly away as she clambered to her feet and followed him clumsily through the jungle. They got another thirty yards when the third blast hit, bigger than the previous two, and they both collapsed into the jungle and covered their heads and prayed that they might survive the hellish onslaught.
Ethan’s last conscious thought was that Mitchell was nowhere to be seen.
***
XLIII
DIA Headquarters,
Anacostia–Bolling Airbase,
Washington DC
A deep silence had enveloped the ARIES Watch Room for over four days, much of it spent sitting staring at monitors and display screens on the walls as investigative teams from the Central Intelligence Agency, DARPA, the Center for Disease Control and other major government agencies scoured the scorched jungle of Ilhabela.
Hellerman sat in a swivel chair and stared vacantly at them as staff hurried to collate information, some of them former field agents themselves who now liaised with teams on the ground as evidence was collected and data processed.
It had occurred to him that he was sitting in Nicola Lopez’s chair, something that he had only consciously realized when he had detected the scent of her perfume. For one brief and joyous moment he had expected to turn around and see her walk into the watch room with Warner behind her, her gorgeous smile and playful bravado lighting up the room, and Hellerman’s life, once again.
It had been with great dismay that he had realized the tantalizing scent was instead coming from a thin silk scarf that she had draped over the back of her chair. Hellerman, without conscious thought, had then picked up the scarf and held it to his face and closed his eyes, completely oblivious to the bemused stares of his colleagues.
Transmissions intercepted from the island’s sensors and NSA satellite imagery had revealed that Garrett, Warner, Lopez, Mitchell, most of the members of Majestic Twelve and a small number of private security guards had been present at the facility when the blasts had struck. The idea that any of those present could have survived such an assault seemed limited in the extreme, but both Warner and Lopez were professionals and they had escaped from equally perilous crisis numerous times in the past. At least, that was what Hellerman kept telling himself. There was just no way that…
‘You okay?’
Hellerman blinked awake from his reverie, realized that his eyes were still closed and that he was still clutching Lopez’s scarf as though it were an anchor to reality. He glanced up and saw General Nellis looking down at him with a strange expression. Hellerman coughed, sat up and tossed the scarf to one side as though it was a mere irritation.
‘Sure, I’m fine. Any news?’
Nellis inhaled a deep breath and Hellerman sensed both the coming of great revelations and great disappointment.
‘We just got word from the White House,’ the general said, ‘which confirms that no trace of whatever extra–terrestrial toxin may have been present at the facility has been found. Investigators have however detected small amounts of such things as sarin gas, anthrax, various acids and other nasty chemicals that might indicate some kind of manufactured and lethal aerosolized contaminant. You got any ideas on that?’
Hellerman’s mind ticked over for a few moments.
‘It’s possible that you could mix together a few real evil concoctions and then spray it over people in a fine enough mix that they wouldn’t notice it until their skin started falling off and their lungs began to burn, quite literally.’ He swallowed, thickly. ‘Have any bodies been found?’
Nellis nodded.
‘Eight bodies have been located in and around the site,’ he said. ‘None have been identified as Warner or Lopez. Forensics are doing their work now, but there’s not much left to see and dental records are mostly being used to confirm identities.’
Hellerman looked at the screens as a slim ray of hope appeared through the gloom of his depression.
‘At least ten members of Majestic Twelve walked into that facility,’ he said.
‘Yes, and three of them walked out and were incinerated less than two minutes later,’ Nellis agreed. ‘They all were identified as members of Majestic Twelve and they appear to have escaped the facility in some way. But then one of them tried to get back inside the facility. He probably heard the jets coming and figured that indoors was the best place to be. It was, for all of sixty seconds.’
Hellerman closed his eyes as he replied.
‘And we didn’t get any coverage of the site after the initial strike?’
‘No,’ Nellis replied, almost apologetically. ‘The first hits were designed to neutralize any defences and take out anybody in the compound who might have any weapons to take a pot–shot at the second wave. The debris blocked any view from our satellites, even in infra–red, because of the heat. Then two more jets hit the target with the bunker busters, followed by the rest. By the time that cloud had cleared and the fires had burned themselves out, the whole area had been flattened.’
Hellerman nodded and sank back into Lopez’s chair.
‘No survivors,’ he whispered in reply, ‘collateral damage.’
Nellis, his hands behind his back, replied as gently as he could.
‘It wasn’t our decision. The White House made the call. With Warner and Lopez underground there was no way to send a warning, and Garrett shut down the facility’s communications suite before he was killed in the blast, so we couldn’t have warned any of them even if we’d wanted to. With MJ–12 trapped so completely, it was decided by the president to end this for once and for all.’
Hellerman saw in his mind’s eye an image of Jarvis and his fists slowly clenched by his sides.
‘Jarvis,’ he echoed, struggling to keep the rage from his voice. ‘Where is he?’
Nellis sighed.
‘He’s in the wind. We can’t worry about him right now, what do you have on MJ–12’s assets?’
Hellerman shook his head slowly and reached for a folder that he handed to Nellis. The General opened the surprisingly slim file and scanned a meagre handful of sheets of paper inside.
‘This is it?’ he asked, amazed.
‘That’s all that’s left,’ Hellerman replied without looking up at Nellis. ‘Jarvis was handling the whole thing. When he started I know damned well that we were chasing so many financial leads I figured it would take us at least five years to track everything down, to account for every contact and shell corporation that Majestic Twelve were using. Now, ninety five per cent of it has just disappeared.’
‘Disappeared?’ Nellis echoed.
‘Gone,’ Hellerman confirmed, ‘moved, buried, hidden, whatever you want to call it. All of our collated data on the financial transactions of Majestic Twelve are gone. What we have left covers assets to a value of about three billions dollars, which is the amount I reported to the National Security Agency and the administration two days ago.’
Three billion dollars was a great deal of money, and Nellis had been able to walk into the White House and report on their work with a great deal of satisfaction, while the President had been able to tell the media that the American tax payer had saved a similar amount of money through the administration’s ruthless hunting out of corruption in big business. A leaked document of data containing millions of files and dubbed The Panama Papers by the media had revealed the largest transactions routed through corrupt banking practices in the Cayman Islands, some of which belonged to Majestic Twelve. But both he and Hellerman also knew that three billions dollars had represented loose change to Majestic Twelve, merely the tip of their financial iceberg.
‘He set this all up, y’know that, right?’ Hellerman uttered, and then looked up at Nellis. ‘Jarvis.’
Nellis nodded. ‘Jarvis had made his mind up that Majestic Twelve could never be fully stopped unless they were eradicated completely. I tried to reason with him and I thought that he was aboard with us, but he had his own agenda. You know he was nearing retirement?’
Hellerman shook his head. ‘I thought he’d serve until he was dead.’
‘So did I, but privately I think he’d had enough of the game and wanted to do something to finish all of this before he threw in the towel.’
‘Was killing Ethan and Nicola a part of his grand design?’
Nellis sighed again, shook his head. ‘I just don’t know. Go home, get some rest. Majestic Twelve may be gone but they have a huge corporate network that needs dismantling and I’ll need you on top form to help us. ARIES isn’t over just because our top people have disappeared in the field, Hellerman. You’re number one now.’
Nellis turned and marched from the watch room, leaving Hellerman to wonder just what the hell he would do if he did go home. Nothing, other than think about what he could be doing at work.
Hellerman stood up and gave Lopez’s desk one last glance, and then he trudged across the watch room to his office and stepped inside, quietly closing the door behind him. He sat down at his desk and stared blankly at his monitor for a mome
nt, wondering whether he wanted to play this game anymore. After graduating from MIT in computer science he had been happily employed at a games company designing three dimensional worlds for virtual reality headsets, before he’d joined the DIA at their request, and had been enthralled at the way the new technology could change the way people lived and communicated as well as the advances in gaming. His former employers would welcome him back with open arms, the pay was better, he could even move back to San Diego.
Hellerman reached out for the phone on his desk, but before his hand touched the receiver his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. Hellerman reached down with a sigh and pulled it out to see a text. His heart skipped a beat as he saw an image of Lopez alongside it.
YOU IN THERE, GENIUS? :)
Hellerman bolted from his chair and yanked the door of his office open to see Lopez standing with her smile as wide and bright as it ever had been. Hellerman didn’t even see that her left arm was in a sling as he threw himself at her and hugged her.
‘Easy, Einstein,’ Lopez gasped, managing to return the embrace with her good arm as she winced against the pain.
Hellerman stood back, barely able to contain himself. ‘I thought you were… I mean we all saw what happened and… we figured you’d…’
‘So did we,’ Ethan said as he strolled up behind Lopez, one side of his face marked with scratches and patched with medical tape, ‘but hey, another day, another dollar.’
Hellerman thrust his hand out and shook Ethan’s vigorously.
‘Nellis was just here,’ he informed them. ‘We got some of Majestic Twelve’s assets but…’
‘We know,’ Lopez said. ‘I always said Jarvis would do something like this, but nobody listened to me.’
‘We don’t know what he’s done yet,’ Ethan said cautiously. ‘Right now, General Nellis tells us that you’re making headway with that sphere we recovered from the Black Knight, Die Glocke?’
The Extinction Code Page 29
