Auxiliary
power
operational.
Low power
protocol
enabled
Lockdown
special
release
command
entered
(terminal
3-A1)
Lockdown
special
release
command
entered
(terminal
3-A1)
Lockdown
special
release
command
entered
(terminal
3-A1)
Aux System
AUX System
008-72
008-72
008-72
Auxiliary
power start
up
Low power
protocol in
effect:
nonessential
systems
disabled
Door 003-V
opened
Door 062-W
opened
DooMOOW
opened
202
TIME
Matthew Reilly
SYSTEM KEY ACTION OPERATOR RESPONSE
1
08:18:00
WARNING:
AUX System Terminal 1-A2
not
08:21:30
power
capacity. 35°<i:
Security
camera
system
shutdown
command
(terminal
1A1)
008-93
SYSTEM
ERROR:
Security
camera
system
already
disabled per
low power
protocol
"Okay," Herbie said. "Well, it starts out all right. Standard
system checks by a local operator. Probably one of the
console operators up in the main hangar on ground level.
Then comes the lockdown at 6:58, keyed in by operator
number 105-02. That's someone high up. A 105 prefix indicates
a colonel or above. Probably Colonel Harper.
"But then, at 7:37, something must have happened up
on Level 1. At that time nearly half the complex's auxiliary
power supply went up in smoke."
"A missile hit the junction box " Schofield said, recalling
his battle with the missile-mounted Humvees up in the
Level 1 hangar bay earlier. His tone made it sound like this
sort of thing happened every day.
"O-kay" Herbie said. "That would explain it. That junction
box housed the auxiliary power generators. The unfortunate
consequence of that, however, happened here," he
pointed at another line:
08:00:15
Main power
shutdown
command
(terminal 3A1)
008-72
Main power
disabled
area 7 203
"Somebody turned off the main power supply," Herbie
said. "That was why I couldn't disable the cameras before.
See here, you can see my entry at 8:21. I'm operator
008-93.
"The problem was somebody else--operator number
008-72--had already turned the cameras off by shutting
down the main power supply. As soon as anyone shuts off
the main power, the system switches over to auxiliary
power--but now, because of your missile impact, this place
only has half its auxiliary power remaining, which as you
can see, is draining fast.
"But ... when the auxiliary power supply kicks in, the
system switches off all nonessential power drains--things
like excess lighting and the security camera network. That's
the low power protocol that keeps getting mentioned."
"So by cutting the power, he cut the cameras ..."
Schofield thought aloud.
"Yes."
"He didn't want to be seen ..."
"More than that," Herbie said. "Look at what he did
next. He keyed in three special lockdown release codes--
once at 8:01 and twice at 8:04--opening three exit doors."
"The five-minute window period," Schofield said.
"That's right."
"So which doors did he open?"
"Just a second, I'll find out." Herbie tapped some keys.
"Now, the first one was 003-V." A schematic diagram of the
Area 7 complex came up on his screen. "There it is. The
Emergency Exit Vent."
"And the other two?"
"062-W and 100-W..." Herbie said aloud, scanning
the screen. "Door 062-W stands for door sixty-two/west.
But that would mean it was part of the ..."
"What?" Schofield said.
Herbie said, "62-West is the blast door that seals off the
westward X-rail tunnel down on Level 6."
"And the other one? 100West?"
"It's where that X-rail tunnel ends, over by Lake Powell,
204
Matthew Reilly
about forty miles west of here. 100-West is the security
door leading out to the lake."
Brainiac asked, "Why would he open those three
doors?"
"You open the Emergency Exit Vent to let your companions
in. To help you steal the booty," Schofield said.
"And the other two doors?"
"You open them so all of you can get out."
"So why cut the power?" Gant asked.
"To disable the security cameras," Schofield said.
"Whoever did this didn't want the Air Force people to see
him doing it."
"See him doing what?" Brainiac said.
Schofield exchanged a look with Gant.
"See him taking the boy," he said.
"Quickly," Schofield said to Herbie, "can you find out
who operator number 008-72 is?"
"Sure." Herbie began typing fast.
A moment later, he said, "Got it." A list appeared on his
screen. Schofield scanned the list until he found the entry he
was looking for:
008-72
BOTHA, GuntherW.
"Who's Gunther Botha?" Schofield asked.
"Son of a bitch," a voice said from behind them.
It was the President. He stepped up behind Schofield's
shoulder.
"Botha," he spat. "I should have known."
"south african scientist, working here on the vaccine,"
the President said. "You make a deal with the Devil, and it
comes back to bite you in the ass."
"Why would he want to take the boy?"
"The Sinovirus kills both white people and black people,
Captain," the President said. "Only people of Asian origin
are safe from it. That boy, however, has been genetically
designed to be a universal vaccine, for both blacks and
area 7 205
whites. But if only white people are given the vaccine, then
only white people would survive an outbreak of the
Sinovirus. And if Botha is working for who I think he's
working for ..."
"So what do we do now?" Herbie said.
"We go after the boy," Schofield said instantly. "And we--"
"No, you do not, Captain," Hot Rod Hagerty said, appearing
suddenly behind Schofield. "You will stay here and
you will guard the President."
"But ..."
dies, so does America. One little boy can wait. I think
it's time you got your priorities straight, Captain Schofield."
"But we can't just leave him--"
"Yes, we can, and yes we will," Hagerty said, his face
reddening. "In case you have forgotten, Captain, I am your
superior officer, and I am now ordering you to obey me. The
United States government pays me to do the thinking for
you. So this is what you will think: your country is more important
than the life of one little boy."
Schofield didn't move a muscle. "I wouldn't want to
live in a country that leaves a little boy to die ..."
Hagerty's eyes blazed. "No. From now on, you will do
as I say, how I say, and when I say--"
The President himself seemed about to interfere when
Schofield stepped forward, right in front of Hagerty.
"No, sir" he said firmly, "I will not follow you. Because
if you'd waited for me to finish what I was going to say earlier,
you would have heard me say: 'We go after the boy, and
we take the President with us.' Because in case you haven't
been paying attention, that Botha guy and whoever's with
him opened up an exit to this place! They've given us a way
out."
Hagerty fell silent, grinding his teeth.
"Now, if you don't mind," Schofield said, "and if nobody
else has any better ideas, what do you say we all get
the hell out of this place?"
UP IN THE CONTROL ROOM OVERLOOKING THE MAIN HANGAR,
Caesar Russell's four radio operators were working overtime.
"--main power's down, no cameras operational at all.
All systems running on auxiliary power supply--"
"--Sir, someone's initiated the lockdown release codes.
The western X-rail door has been opened--"
"Who?" Caesar Russell asked pointedly.
The console operator frowned. "It looks like it was Professor
Botha, sir."
"Botha," Caesar said quietly. "How predictable."
"Sir," another operator said, "I have movement on the
X-rail system. Someone heading westward toward the
canyons--"
"Oh, Gunther. You couldn't help yourself, could you?
You're trying to snatch the boy," Caesar smiled sadly.
"What's the ETA on that X-rail train at the lake?"
"Forty miles of track at one hundred and seventy miles
per hour. About fourteen minutes, sir."
"Get Bravo down to Level 6 on the double, to pursue
Botha on the X-rail. Then open the top door and send Charlie
out in the AH-77's to cut him off at the lake--we'll get
him from in front and behind. Now go. Go. Although Gunther
could never know it, we need that boy. This will all be
for nothing if we don't have that child."
schofield, mother, gant and book II flew down the
fire stairs at full speed.
area 7 207
Schofield ran with his Desert Eagle held out in front of
him. The Football now dangled from his waist, its hand-grip
attached to a clip on his 7th Squadron combat webbing.
Behind them came the President and Juliet, Herbie the
scientist, Hot Rod Hagerty and Nicholas Tate. Bringing up
the rear were Elvis and Brainiac, carrying Love Machine between
them.
They came to the Level 6 doorway. Frank Cutler's
bloodied and broken body still lay on the floor beside it.
"Be careful," Juliet said to Schofield as he put his hand
on the doorknob. "This was where they got us before."
Schofield nodded.
Then--quickly, silently--he whipped open the door,
and took cover.
There was no sound.
No gunshots went off.
No bullets whistled into the stairwell.
"Holy Christ!" Mother said, as she looked beyond the
doorway.
THE MASSIVE AIRCRAFT ELEVATOR LUMBERED DOWN THE
shaft.
On its back, amid the pieces of the destroyed AWACS
plane, stood the ten men of Bravo Unit. They were moving
down through the complex, heading for Level 6, in pursuit
of Gunther Botha and the boy.
The gigantic elevator platform rumbled down the shaft,
the dirty gray concrete walls sliding past the Bravo Unit men.
They swung by Level 3, moving downward ... then
Level 4 ... then--
--the elevator platform plunged into water.
As it came to Level 5, the cell block level, the elevator
platform rushed down into a wide body of water that had
formed at the bottom of the shaft. Several tons of water immediately
gushed onto the platform, slithering in among the
pieces of the crumpled AWACS plane.
"Goddamn!" the leader of Bravo Unit, Boa McConnell,
exclaimed as the water rushed up to his waist.
He reached for his radio mike.
"--bravo unit reports substantial flooding on level 5.
It's starting to fill the main elevator shaft. Only access to
shaft. Bravo is going for the ventilation shaft--"
"--Sir. That enhanced satellite image of the Emergency
Escape Vent is coming through now."
A sheet of high-gloss paper edged out of a nearby
printer. A radio operator tore it clear, checked the time code
area 7 209
at the top. "This one's from ten minutes ago. Another one
coming through--what the fuck--?"
"What is it?" Caesar Russell said, taking the printout
from the operator. Russell recalled the subject of the satellite
scans: the twenty-four rodlike objects that had been picked
up on the infrared satellite earlier, the ones that had been
fanned out in a wide circle around the EEV.
Caesar's eyes narrowed.
The enhanced satellite image showed a few of the
"rods" very clearly. They weren't rods at all.
They were combat boots--sticking out from underneath
heat-deflecting covers.
The second satellite scan came through. Caesar grabbed
it. It was more recent than the first. Only a minute old.
It showed the same image as the first scan: the Emergency
Exit Vent and the desert floor around it.
Only now the cluster of combat boots surrounding the
Vent was nowhere in sight.
They were gone.
"Mmmm, very clever, Gunther," Caesar said softly.
"You brought the Reccondos with you."
there were bodies everywhere.
Christ, Schofield thought. It looks like a war has been
fought down here.
He wasn't far wrong.
Level 6 resembled a subway station—with a central elevated
concrete platform, flanked on either side by train
tracks. Like a regular train station, at both ends of the extremely
elongated space were a pair of train tunnels that disappeared
into darkness. Unlike a regular train station,
however, three of those four tunnels were sealed off by
heavy gray-steel blast doors.
On the central platform lay nine corpses, all dressed in
suits.
The nine members of the Secret Service's Primary Advance
Team.
Their bodies lay at all angles, bathed in blood, their
suits ri
pped to shreds by the penetration of countless bullets.
Beyond them, however, lay another set of bodies ... ten
of them—all dressed in black combat clothing.
7th Squadron men.
All dead.
Three of them lay spread-eagled on the platform, with
enormous star-shaped holes in their chests. Exit wounds. It
seemed that these men had been shot in their backs as they'd
clambered up onto the platform from the right-hand railway
track, their rib cages exploding outwards with the sudden
gaseous expansion of the hollow-pointed bullets that had hit
them.
More 7th Squadron men lay sprawled on the track itself,
area 7 211
in various states of bloodiness. Three of them, Schofield
saw, bore very precise bullet holes in their foreheads.
Four of the 7th Squadron commandos, however, had not
been shot.
They lay slumped next to a steel door sunk into the wall
of the right-hand track--the entrance to the Emergency Exit
Vent.
Their throats had been slit from ear to ear.
They had been the first to die, Schofield thought, when
their assailants had emerged from the Vent behind them.
Schofield stepped out from the stairwell doorway, onto
the platform.
The underground station was empty.
It was then that he saw them.
They sat on either side of the central platform, one to
each track: X-rail engines.
"Whoa," he breathed.
X-rail systems are high-speed underground railway systems
used by the U.S. military for equipment delivery and
transport. X-rail engines--or "railcars" as they are known--
move so fast that they require four railway tracks for stability:
two tracks on the ground and two fastened to the ceiling
above the railcar.
The X-railcars that Schofield saw now exuded power
and speed.
They were about sixty feet long--about the size of regular
subway carriages--but their sleek curves and sharp
pointed noses were quite clearly designed for one purpose:
to slice through the air at tremendous speed.
Each train's design was based on that of the most well
known high-speed train in the world, the Japanese Bullet
Train. A steeply slanted nose, aerodynamically grooved
sides, even a couple of winglike canards jutting out from the
bow of each train were all included as part of the relentless