strong.
They were going to fall.
Matthew Reilly
"--ALL UNITS, BE AWARE. WE HAVE RUPTURE OF THE LONG term water tanks on Level 1. Repeat: integrity of water tanks
on Level 1 has been broken--"
"--Water from the tanks is entering the regular elevator
shaft--"
"Initiate airtight countermeasures," Caesar Russell said
calmly. "Seal off the shaft. Keep that water contained. Let it
flood the shaft."
"Yes, sir."
love machine fell first.
In the face of the powerful waterfall, he lost his grip on
the counterweight cable and dropped straight past Book.
He fell fast--falling away from Book II in a kind of
nightmarish slow motion; eyes wide, mouth open, his shout
drowned out by the roar of the waterfall--before he disappeared
into the inky darkness of the shaft.
Book II swore. "Damn it!"
And then he did the only thing he could think to do.
"Sergeant! No!" Calvin yelled, but it was too late.
Book II loosened his grip on his cable and slid like a
bullet down the shaft after Love Machine, disappearing into
the darkness.
BOOK II DROPPED INTO BLACKNESS.
He slid for a long time, whizzing down the counterweight
cable, sliding fast, the heat from the cable burning
through his white formal gloves.
Then suddenly, with a splash, he entered water--deep water--at the bottom of the shaft.
Just as he had hoped.
The elevator shaft was approximately ten feet square
and if all its exit doors were sealed, then with the monumental
quantities of water rushing out of the hole on Level 1,
he'd figured it wouldn't take long for it to accumulate at the
bottom and fill to a reasonable depth.
Sure enough, Love Machine hovered in the pool of water
next to him, gasping for air, coughing water. But alive.
Area 7
"You okay?" Book II yelled.
"Uh-huh!"
Calvin and Elvis arrived at the base of the shaft a few
moments later, sliding down the counterweight cables. The
roaring waterfall thundered into the pool all around them,
kicking up spray.
"Okay, Captain Fantastic," Elvis said to Calvin, "our
nice safe elevator shaft is now filling with water! What do
you suggest we do now?"
Calvin hesitated.
Book II didn't. He nodded at the pair of outer doors a
few feet above them. "Simple. We bust out!"
"MOTHERFUCKER ..." BRAINIAC SAID AS HE PEERED OUT FROM
the rear of the AWACS plane's main cabin.
A high-pressure geyser of water was now shooting out
of the hole in the wall over by the personnel elevator, throwing
a carpet of water all over the concrete floor of the hangar.
"What the hell is this ride?"
"Just another day of mayhem and destruction with the
Scarecrow," Mother said.
"Hey," Gant said, looking out through her door-window.
"What happened to the guys on the wings?"
Mother and Brainiac spun to look out at the plane's
wings.
The AWACS's wings were bare.
The 7th Squadron men who had been out there before
were nowhere to be seen.
It was only then that they heard the ominous sound of
thumping footsteps on the roof.
the AWACS plane continued on its rampaging circuit
of the hangar, now traveling through a layer of water one
inch deep.
It had almost come full circle—so that now it was facing
the empty section of the hangar that led to the wide-open
doorway of the aircraft elevator shaft.
Schofield pumped on the steering pedals, trying to keep
the enormous surveillance plane under control.
He saw the doorway to the aircraft elevator shaft directly
in front of him. At the moment, a shallow film of water
cascaded over it like Niagara Falls, dropping out of sight
into the shaft.
The big hydraulic elevator platform was almost certainly
the best way out of this jam", but the last he had seen, it
was stopped down on one of the lower levels ...
And then, more suddenly than Schofield could possibly
have anticipated, the roof above him exploded in a shower of
sparks.
In actual fact, it wasn't the roof—it was one of the blast
hatches set into the roof of the cockpit, one of the hatches
that blew open when the pilot's ejection seat was activated.
No sooner had the hatch blasted open than a veritable
hailstorm of gunfire flooded down through it, smashing into
the airplane's dashboard, shattering all its gauges and dials.
This torrent of bullets was quickly followed by a second
volley which ripped through the empty pilot's seat ... the lefthand
seat; the seat Mother had been sitting in before ... tearing
it to shreds.
Area 7
Schofield saw what was going to happen next and he
quickly dived out of his seat, rolling forward into the tiny
section of floor space in front of it.
Not a moment later, a pair of combat boots landed with
a thump on the pilot's seat--boots that belonged to a
fearsome-looking 7th Squadron commando.
The masked commando spun quickly, his P-90 assault
rifle pressed firmly against his shoulder, searching for enemies
at the rear of the cockpit. Then he turned to look forward,
and downward--where, to his complete surprise, he
saw Schofield lying curled up on the floor.
Gunless and defenseless, Schofield saw the masked
commando's black-gloved trigger finger begin to squeeze--
And so he lashed out with his foot.
Not at the man's legs, but at the lever that ran alongside
the flight seat underneath him--the ejection lever.
Schofield's kick connected.
The lever snapped backward.
And with a loud, blasting whoosh! the pilot's ejection
seat shot up through the hole in the cockpit's roof--taking
the 7th Squadron commando with it!
python willis watched in complete and utter astonishment
as one of his men went rocketing up at incredible
speed out of the cockpit of the AWACS and past his shocked
colleagues on the roof of the plane, on top of an ejection
seat!
The man shot into the air like a bullet, before smashing
--violently, concussively--into the concrete ceiling of
the hangar.
The crack of the man's neck echoed sickeningly
throughout the underground hangar bay--it was distinct
even above the roar of the AWACS's engines, so hard did his
body hit the ceiling. He was killed instantly, the force of the
three-hundred-pound ejection seat snapping his spine like a
twig as it squashed him against the concrete roof.
In the meantime, Schofield had gotten his own Beretta
120
Matthew Reilly
pistol out and, sliding on his back onto the floor behind
the pilots' seats, was firing it up at the roof of the cockpit-- trying to deter anyone else from following their comrade
into the flight deck.
In seconds, his gun went dry and he sto
od up and
looked out through the forward windshield--
--and saw that the plane was heading directly for the
massive doorway leading to the elevator shaft!
"Oh, this just keeps getting better and better," he said.
In a fleeting second, he tried to find a solution to the
situation.
The plane was heading for the shaft.
The 7th Squadron were all over its roof--all over the
hangar for that matter.
And he and Gant and Mother and Brainiac were stuck
inside the plane.
What was the solution?
Simple.
Get out of the hangar.
But there is no way out. We're stuck in this plane, and if
we leave it, we're dead.
Unless, of course, we get out of the hangar while we're
still on board the plane ...
Oh, yeah ...
And with that, Schofield climbed back into the co-pilot's
seat and took control of the plane again. Despite the bullet
damage, the controls still worked.
He pushed forward on the collective, speeding up the
big Boeing 707, keeping it pointed directly at the enormous
steel doorway that led out to the elevator shaft.
"WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING ... ?" PYTHON SAID.
The giant AWACS plane was picking up speed, rumbling
across the wide expanse of the hangar, heading straight
for the open elevator doorway.
THE COMMANDOS ON THE ROOF OF THE PLANE FELT IT SURGE
forward, gaining momentum.
Area 7 121
They looked forward, saw where it was heading, and
their eyes widened.
"HE can't be serious," python breathed, as he watched
his men leap off the roof of the moving airplane as it careered
toward the open doorway.
IN THE COCKPIT OF THE SPEEDING PLANE, SCHOFIELD WAS
strapping on his seat belt. As he did so, he keyed the intercom
switch.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.
Find a chair and buckle up tight, because we're about to take
off."
BACK IN THE MAIN CABIN, GANT AND THE OTHER TWO MARINES
spun to look forward.
Through the AWACS's cabin, they could see all the way
through to the cockpit--could see the open elevator shaft
looming ahead of them, rapidly approaching.
"Is he thinking what I think he's thinking?" Gant said to
Mother.
Mother paused before she spoke. "Yes, he is."
They leapt as one for the nearest available seats and
clutched desperately for the seat belts.
the converted boeing 707--deprived of its entire tail
section--thundered across the wide subterranean hangar
bay, the wet concrete floor rushing by beneath it, heading
straight for the open elevator shaft.
And then, before anyone could even hope to stop it, the
plane shot through the doorway and tipped off the edge and
fell down into the shaft, disappearing from view.
the AWACS plane soared down the elevator shaft
fast--nose-first--looking like a crazed kamikaze fighter.
Down the wide concrete shaft it went--down, down,
down--before it crashed, loudly, on the massive hydraulic
elevator platform resting on Level 4, one hundred and eighty
feet below.
The nose of the AWACS plane crumpled instantly as it
thundered into the elevator platform. Loose parts flew everywhere,
blasting outward like shrapnel. Two of the plane's jet
engines bounced high into the air as they smashed into the
platform.
The plane itself, however, seemed to teeter on its broken
nose for an eternity. And then, with a loud metal-on-metal
groan, like a slow-falling California redwood, it fell, landing
with a colossal thump on its left-hand wing, snapping the
wing in an instant, before the whole ruined aircraft slammed
down against the elevator platform with a resounding boom.
inside the AWACS plane, the world was tilted forty-five degrees to the left.
Mother, Gant and Brainiac all sat comically in their
seats, strapped in, but hanging dramatically to the side. They
were starting to unbuckle themselves from their seat belts
when Schofield hurried into the main cabin from the cockpit.
"Come on," he said, helping Mother with her belt, "we
can't stay here. They'll be down soon."
"Where are we going?" Gant asked, as she dropped out
of her seat and stood up.
Area 7 123
Schofield pursed his lips. "We have to find the President."
"--jesus! he just drove the plane off the fucking
edge--"
"--Charlie and Echo Units, initiate pursuit--"
"--President is on Level 5, heading into the confinement
area. Delta Unit, you are free to enter the animal quarters--"
"--Copy that, Bravo leader. Yes, they're in the water at
the bottom of the shaft. Good idea--"
"What's Boa doing?" Caesar Russell asked. Captain
Bruno "Boa" McConnell was in command of Bravo Unit,
one of the Five Snakes.
"He's on top of the personnel elevator, sir. He's going to
lower the elevator down the shaft. Drown the bastards. And
if they try to crawl up the sides, shoot them dead."
BOOK II AND THE OTHERS HOVERED IN THE EVER-DEEPENING
pool of water at the base of the regular elevator shaft.
them. It showed no sign of stopping and the elevator shaft
was flooding rapidly, the water level rising fast, lifting them
to the nearest pair of outer doors.
And then abruptly, above the roar of falling water, a
loud clunking noise echoed down the shaft, followed by the
hum of mechanical movement.
Book II looked upwards---just as the rain of water
stopped.
Well, sort of stopped. Now it started raining down the
sides of the shaft, covering the counterweight cables with a
curtain of gushing water.
"What's happening?" Love Machine said.
And then Book II saw it.
Saw a shadow superimposed on the darkness above
them--a box-shaped shadow, growing larger and larger as it
came closer and closer.
124 Matthew Reilly
"What is that?" Calvin Reeves said.
"Oh, damn ..." Book II breathed. "It's the elevator."
THE PERSONNEL ELEVATOR EDGED ITS WAY DOWN THE SHAFT,
water pounding onto its roof and cascading off its sides.
High above it, in the open doorway up on ground level,
two 7th Squadron snipers lay with night-scoped rifles at the
ready, aimed down into the shaft.
Their guns were trained on the roof of the elevator,
waiting for anyone to emerge from the gaps on either side of
the lift, the only points where the enemy could climb out
from underneath the downward-moving elevator.
"Nor nice," book II said flatly. "Nor nice."
Either they drowned as the elevator pushed them under
the surface, or they climbed up the sides of the lift, where no
doubt, the bad guys would be waiting ...
He looked quickly at the pair of outer doors two feet
above him. They had a large "5" painted o
n them.
Level 5.
He wondered what was on this level, then decided he
didn't care. These doors were the only way out. Period.
He hauled himself out of the water, stood on his toes on
the edge of the doorway. A curtain of water poured down
onto his head.
Like all the other outer doors in this elevator shaft, he
saw, these two were closed tight, air-sealed.
The elevator above him continued its descent, moving
slowly and steadily downward.
The rising water reached the base of the doorway,
splashed against his boots, moving equally steadily upward.
Calvin Reeves appeared at his side. "How the hell do
we open these doors, Sergeant?"
Book guessed that the doors' release mechanism was
contained somewhere within the wall.
"I can't see it!" he shouted back. "It must be hidden inside
the wall!"
area 7
125
The elevator was close now, looming one floor above
them, grinding inexorably downward.
Water continued to pour.
And then Book II saw it--a thick insulated cable running
out from the concrete wall to the right of the doors and down into the pool of water beneath him.
"Of course!" he yelled. An emergency release lever wouldn't be on this level. It would be situated either above or below the floor, so that the doors could be opened when the elevator was stopped here.
Without so much as a second thought, Book II took a
deep breath and dropped into the pool of water beneath him.
silence.
The eerie quiet of the underwater world.
Book II swam downwards, his fingers feeling their way
along the thick black cable attached to the concrete wall.
After about nine feet, he came to a steel utility box sunk
into the wall. He opened it, felt for a lever, found a row of
six, and yanked the fifth one.
He immediately heard a sharp shoosh! from somewhere
above him--the sound of a pressure door being released.
He swam upward, fast. Came to the surface, broke it--
"--book! quickly! come on!" were the first words he
heard.
He'd come up a few feet away from the now-opened
doors and immediately saw Calvin Reeves and Elvis standing
up on level ground. Love Machine clung to the edge of