Area 7
( Shane Schofield - 2 )
Matthew Reilly
AREA 7
MATTHEW REILLY
St. Martin's Paperbacks
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First published in Australia by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited
AREA 7
Copyright © 2001 by Matthew Reilly.
Excerpt from Contest copyright © 2003 by Matthew Reilly.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001054458
ISBN: 0-312-98322-0
Printed in the United States of America
St. Martin's Press hardcover edition / February 2002
St. Martin's Paperbacks edition / February 2003
St. Martin's Paperbacks are published by St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
10 987654321
For John Schrooten, my friend
I'LL TRY TO BE QUICK. SINCERE THANKS ONCE AGAIN TO:
Natalie Freer--who gets to see (and put up with) my
creative eccentricities up close. Her patience and generosity
know no bounds.
My brother, Stephen Reilly--tortured writer, constructive
and creative critic, and good friend; and to his wife,
Rebecca Ryan, because they come as a package.
My wonderful parents--Ray and Denise Reilly--for
encouraging me to build miniature movie sets for my Star
Wars action figures when I was a kid; my creativity comes
directly from them.
My good friends John Schrooten, Nik and Simon Kozlina,
the whole Kay clan (notably Don, who made me shrink
the size of the cats in Temple), and to Paul Whyte for accompanying
me on an extraordinary trip to Utah while researching
this book.
A special mention to two American friends--Captain
Paul M. Woods, U.S. Army, and Gunnery Sergeant Kris Hankinson,
USMC (retired), who generously gave of their time
and assisted me with the military details of this book. Any
mistakes are mine, and were made over their objections.
And finally, once again, thanks to everyone at Pan
Macmillan and Thomas Dunne Books. This is our fourth
outing together and it still rocks. Thanks to Gate Paterson,
Jane Novak, Sarina Rowell, Paul Kenny, and Pete Wolverton.
And, of course, as always, to the sales reps for the countless
hours they spend on the road between bookstores.
To anyone who knows a writer, never underestimate the
power of your encouragement.
All right! Now on with the show. ...
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
SPECIAL AREA (RESTRICTED) NO. 7
GROUND LEVEL: Main Hangar
LEVEL 1: Hangar Bay
LEVEL 2: Hangar Bay
LEVEL 3: Living Quarters
LEVEL 4: Laboratories
LEVEL 5
LEVEL 6: X-rail platform
GROUND LEVEL: MAIN HANGER
LEVEL I UNDERGROUND HANGAR BAY
Air
LEVEL 2: UNDERGROUND HANGAR BAY
shaft
LEVEL 6: X-RAIL PLATFORM
Regular
elevator
Tunnel
blast doors
>
rail engines
Maintenance
vehicle
The single greatest fear that America faces today
is that its military forces no longer tolerate the
continuing incompetence of its civilian leadership.
Mr. George K. Suskind,
Defense Intelligence Agency,
Evidence given before the House
Sub-committee on the Armed Forces,
22 July 1996
The difference between a republic and an empire is
the loyalty of one's army.
Julius Caesar
AREA 7
INTRODUCTION
From: Katz, Caleb
The C.B. Powell Memorial Address: "The
Presidency"
(Speech delivered at the School of Politics,
Harvard University, 26 February 1999)
there is no other institution in the world quite like the
President of the United States.
All at once, the person who holds this title becomes the
leader of the fourth most populous nation on earth, the
commander-in-chief of its armed forces, and the chief executive
officer of what Harry Truman called "the largest going
concern in the world."
The use of the term "chief executive" has made comparisons
with company structures inevitable, and to a certain extent,
they are appropriate--although, what other corporate
leaders in the world have 2-trillion-dollar budgets at their fingertips, a license to use the 82nd Airborne Division to enforce
their will, and briefcases at their sides that can unleash an arsenal
of thermonuclear devastation against their competitors?
Among modern political systems, however, the American
President is unique--for the simple reason that he is
both head of government and head of state.
Most nations separate these two functions. In the United
Kingdom, for instance, the head of state is the Queen; the
head of government is the Prime Minister. It is a separation
born out of a history of tyrants--kings who wore the crown,
but who also governed at their often erratic pleasure.
But in the U.S., the man who runs the country is also the
4 Matthew Reilly
symbol of the country. In his words and his deeds, the President's
every act is a barometer for the glory of the nation.
For his strength is the people's strength.
John F. Kennedy staring down the Soviets over Cuba in
1962.
Harry Truman's nerves-of-steel decision to drop the
atomic bomb on Japan in 1945.
Or Ronald Reagan's confident smile.
His strength is the people's strength.
But there are dangers in this arrangement of things. For
if the President is the embodiment of America, what happens
when things go wrong?
The assassination of John F. Kennedy.
The resignation of Richard Nixon.
The humiliation of William Jefferson Clinton.
The death of Kennedy was the death of America's innocence.
Nixon's resignation drove a knife into the heart of
America's optimism. And the humiliation of Clinton was the
global humiliation of America--at peace summits and press
conferences around the world, the first question asked of
Clinton was invariably directed at his sexcapades in a study
adjoining the Oval Office.
Be it in death or disgrace, decisiveness or courage, the
President of the United States is more than just a
man. He is
an institution--a symbol--the walking, talking embodiment
of a nation. On his back ride the hopes and dreams of 276
million people ... [pp. 1-2]
From: Farmer, J. T.
"Coincidence or Co-ordinated Murder?
The Death of Senator Jeremiah Woolf"
Article from: The Conspiracy Theorist Monthly [circulation: 152 copies]
(Delva Press, April issue, 2001)
... The body was found in the woods surrounding the senator's
isolated hunting cabin in the Kuskokwim Mountains in
Alaska.
Area 7 5
Truth be told, at the time of his death Jerry Woolf was
only ten months earlier, surprising all the pundits, citing
family reasons for the unexpected move.
He was still alive when they found him--no mean feat
considering the high-velocity hunting bullet lodged in his
chest. Woolf was immediately taken by helicopter to
Elaine County Hospital, one hundred and fifty miles away,
where emergency residents tried in vain to stem the blood
flow.
But the damage was too severe. After forty-five minutes
of emergency treatment, former United States Senator Jeremiah
K. Woolf died.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? A terrible hunting accident.
Like so many others that happen every year in this country.
That's what your government would have you believe.
Consider this: Blaine County Hospital records show
that a patient named Jeremiah K. Woolf was declared dead
in the emergency ward at 4:35 p.m. on the afternoon of February
6, 2001.
That is the only record of the incident that exists. All
other records of Woolf's examination at the hospital were
confiscated by the FBI.
Now consider this: on that very same day--February 6,
2001--on the other side of the country, at exactly 9:35 p.m.,
Jeremiah Woolf's Washington townhouse was destroyed in
an explosion, an explosion that killed his wife and only
daughter. Investigators would later claim that this blast was
caused by a gas leak.
The FBI believes Woolf--previously a vibrant young
senator, crusader against organized crime, and potential
presidential candidate--was the victim of an extortion
racket: leave us alone, or we'll kill your family.
This is, without a doubt, a government smokescreen.
If Woolf was being blackmailed, well, one has to ask: why? He had retired from the Senate ten months previously.
And if he was killed in a routine hunting accident, why were
6 Matthew Reilly
the records of his emergency room procedures at Elaine
County Hospital taken by the FBI?
What really happened to Jerry Woolf? At the moment,
we just don't know.
But consider this final point: owing to the time difference,
9:35 p.m. in Washington, D.C., is 4:35 p.m. in Alaska.
So at the end of the day, after all the talk of hunting accidents
and Mafia blackmail and faulty gas valves is cast
aside, one fact remains: at the exact same moment that former
United States Senator Jerry Woolf's heart stopped beating
in an emergency room in Alaska, his home on the other
side of the country exploded in a gigantic ball of flames ...
AREA 7
PROLOGUE
Protected Inmates' Wing,
Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary,
Leavenworth, Kansas,
20 January, 12:00 p.m.
IT HAD BEEN HIS LAST REQUEST.
To watch the inauguration ceremony on television.
Sure, it had delayed the trip to Terre Haute by an hour, but
then--so the powers-that-be at Leavenworth had reckoned--if
the condemned man's last request was reasonable, who were
they to refuse him?
The television threw a flickering strobelike glow onto
the concrete walls of the holding cell. Tinny voices came
from its speakers:
"... do solemnly swear..."
"... do solemnly swear..."
"... that I will faithfully execute the office of President
of the United States..."
"... that I will faithfully execute the office of President
of the United States..."
The condemned prisoner watched the television intently.
And then--despite the fact that he had less than two
hours to live--a smile began to spread across his face.
THE NUMBER ON HIS PRISON SHIRT READ: "T-77."
He was an older man, fifty-nine, with a round, weather
beaten face and slicked-down black hair. Despite his age, he
was a big man, powerfully built--with a bull neck and broad
10
Matthew Reilly
shoulders. His eyes were a bottomless unreadable black and
Rouge, Louisiana, and when he spoke, his accent was
strong.
Until recently, he had been a resident of TWing--that
section of Leavenworth devoted to inmates who are not safe
among the general prison population.
Two weeks ago, however, he had been moved from
T-Wing to Pre-Transit--otherwise known as the Departure
Lounge--another special wing where those awaiting execution
stayed before they were flown out to Terre Haute Federal
Penitentiary in Indiana for execution by lethal injection.
A former civil war fort, leavenworth is a maximum
security federal prison. This means it receives only those offenders
who break federal laws--a class of individuals that
variously includes violent criminals, foreign spies or terrorists,
organized crime bosses, and members of the U.S. armed
forces who sell secrets, commit crimes or desert.
It is also perhaps the most brutal penitentiary in America.
But in that peculiar way of prisons the world over, its
inhabitants--men who have themselves killed or raped-- have, over the years, developed a strange sense of justice.
Serial rapists are themselves violated on a daily basis.
Army deserters are beaten regularly, or worse, branded on
their foreheads with the letter "D." Foreign spies, such as the
four Middle Eastern terrorists convicted of the World Trade
Center bombing in 1993, have been known to lose body
parts.
But by far the most ferocious treatment of all is reserved
for one particular class of prisoner: traitors.
It seems that despite all their own crimes, all their own
atrocities, the American inmates of Leavenworth--many of
them disgraced soldiers--still profess a deep love of their
country. Traitors are usually killed within their first three
days in the pen.
William Anson Cole, the former CIA analyst who sold
information to the Chinese government about an impending
Area 7
Navy SEAL mission to the Xichang Launch Center, the epicenter
of China's space operations--information which led
to the capture, torture and death of all six SEAL team
members--was found dead in his cell two days after he
had arrived at the prison. His rectum had been torn from
repeated violations with a pool cue and he had been str
angled,
hog-style, with a bed leg tied across his throat--a
crude simulation of the Chinese torture method of strangulation
by bamboo pole.
Ostensibly, prisoner T-77 was in Leavenworth for
murder--or more precisely, for ordering the murder of two
senior Navy officers--a crime which in the U.S. military
carried the death sentence. However, the fact that the two
Navy officers he'd had killed had been advisers to the Joint
Chiefs of Staff elevated his crime to treason. High treason.
That--and his own previous high ranking--had earned
him a place in T-Wing.
But even in T-Wing a man isn't entirely safe. T-77 had
been beaten several times during his short residency there--
on two occasions, so severely that he'd required blood
transfusions.
IN HIS FORMER LIFE, HIS NAME HAD BEEN CHARLES SAMSON Russell and he had been a three-star Lieutenant General in
the United States Air Force. Call-sign: Caesar.
He had a certified IQ of 182, genius level, and as such
he had been a brilliant officer. Methodical and razor-sharp,
he'd been the ultimate commander, hence his call-sign.
But most of all ... patient, Caesar thought now as he
watched the flickering television screen in front of him.
The two men on the screen--the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court and the President-Elect--were finishing
their duet. They stood in gray, wintry sunshine, on the West
Portico of the Capitol Building. The new President had his
hand on a Bible.
"... and will to the best of my ability.. "
"... and will to the best of my ability..."
12
Matthew Reilly
"... preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States, so help me God."
"... preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States, so help me God."