Echo Six: Black Ops 5 - Strikeforce Syria (31 page)

"In that case, you'd better get up there and shut it down,” Talley snarled. “Guy, go with him and…"

But the Syrian was shaking his head. "Do you take me for a fool? If I shut the system down, your man will simply kill me."

Talley shook his head. "You have my word. Close it down…"

He laughed, a harsh, grating noise. "That's not the way it works. I will go alone and close the system down. It will give me the chance to escape. Otherwise, we can stay here and die.” He shrugged. “It makes no difference. I have nothing left to lose. It's your choice, infidel."

"There's no way you'd stay down here and die, pal. I don't believe you."

The man shrugged. "So let us stay down here and die together." He shrugged. "After what you have done to me, my career is destroyed. If I stay inside Syria, they’ll hunt me down and kill me. I need time to get away, from you soldiers, and from my own people. Choose!"

“Give me a minute.”

“No longer, dog. Otherwise it will be too late.”

Talley had heard the airlock door open, so his men were inside. He left Heinrich to watch the Major, headed for the entrance, and found Brooks to explain Hafiz’s deal.

"We don't have any choice," Brooks said immediately. "You know these people, nothing pleases them more than the chance for more slaughter. You have to let him go up there. It's not likely he'll double-cross us. If this place blows, he'll be caught in the gas cloud."

Except he's the bastard responsible for most of the wholesale slaughter we've encountered since we got here, all of it, the civilians, men, women, and children. Young boys, forced to serve in his unit and carry out atrocities. Even those kids back in Cairo, conned into killing themselves, just so this bastard and his leaders could get their hands on a toxic gas, the CX9. There's no way he's getting out of here alive. No way!

"I hear you, Admiral, but as soon as he's keyed in the codes, I'm going after him. That bastard has to die. Otherwise, everything we fought for, the people he killed, it will all be for nothing. Besides, if we leave him loose, who knows what mischief he could get up to? He’s sure to pull something."

"If you can get him without endangering the rest of your unit, then I suppose you have to go. But for Christ's sake, don't make a move until he's activated the automatic destruction sequence." He grinned. "I guess now would be a good time to tell you. I was looking forward to a peaceful retirement in a cozy little place on the beach, not some shithole basement inside Syria."

"I can do it."

"Noted, but time is running out. Fix it up and finish him. And you need to alter the deal. When he goes up, one of us has to go with him. That’s not negotiable."

"I'll take care of that," Rebecca told him. "I'm a woman, and you know what these Arabs are like. He'll regard me with contempt. It won't occur to him I could get the jump on him."

"Fine with me. As soon as we're out of here, Drew can set the timer. We can blow this place and go home." He had a sudden thought and looked at Drew. "Why can't we stop the countdown, and restart it to destroy the place when we're out of here?"

"That's fine, Admiral. Provided you know their computer codes. If not, we could be caught up in the toxic fallout."

Brooks nodded. "We'll do it your way."

Talley returned to the room where Guy and Heinrich held Major Hafiz.

"You have a deal. Get out of here and stop the countdown. But Major, I don't trust you on your own."

Already, the Syrian officer was shaking his head. "No, no, I made it clear. You don't come with me. The moment I key in the codes, you'll kill me."

"We have a woman in our party. She'll go with you, just to keep an eye on things."

He saw the gleam of triumph in the man's eyes. "Yes, that is acceptable, but be quick. We only have minutes left."

He led the Syrian to the airlock, and Rebecca stepped out of the side tunnel. Hafiz gave her a long hard look, then turned to Talley. "What does she do, this woman?"

"I can answer for myself,” she snapped. “Where I come from, we don't treat women like shit. I’m a battlefield medic."

He inclined his head, giving her a sarcastic glance. "In that case, you will have your work cut out when this is over. Even though I will cancel the countdown, you know none of you will ever leave Syria alive?"

She didn't reply, and he stepped into the airlock. He examined the damage and frowned.

"This has been destroyed. It won't stop the CX9 from leaking into the atmosphere. The gas may already be escaping."

"Not if we can't see it, Major."

Rothstein stepped into view, and the Syrian officer grimaced. "So you sold out your own people, Jew, and now you sell us out as well."

"I was wrong to help scum like you, Hafiz. I’m trying to make amends."

"People like you will never make amends. You’re traitors and scum. Like all Israelis,” he hissed, and for a couple of seconds, the two men glared at each other.

Then he gave Talley a nod and led the way through the airlock. This time, there was no need to evacuate the air to block any escape of nerve gas. The inner mechanism was smashed, and the interlocks no longer operated. He walked through, swung open the outer door and stepped out, leaving the doors open. They watched him start up the staircase, and Rebecca followed him. As soon as they were out of sight, Talley stepped forward.

"I’ll give it a few seconds, and I'm going after them," he explained. "That bastard will do his best to double-cross us somehow, and he’ll probably try to kill Rebecca Dayan in the process."

"Of course he'll try to double-cross us," Brooks acknowledged, "but she isn't easy to kill."

"That’s true, Admiral, but this is his ground. He'll pull something for sure, and she won’t see it coming. When he does, I'll be there to stop him."

He went up the staircase without making any sound and stepped out into the lobby at the top. The door to the mosque was open, and he eased through it. Voices came from the other end of the prayer hall. He slid into a dark space just inside the door. At the front, he could see Hafiz and Rebecca standing over the mihrab, the ornamental indentation in the wall, decorated with tiles and calligraphy. It marked the direction of the qiblah, the route to Mecca. Incredibly, Hafiz had swung open the stonework of the mihrab, to expose an electronic control panel. He should have been surprised. It was an act of sacrilege. He knew no Christian would have desecrated a holy object in one of their churches, but he wasn’t surprised the Islamic fanatics had no such qualms about sacrilege, if it was committed in the cause of mass murder.

The evidence was in this mosque, where they’d turned the mosque into a de facto military installation. He stayed in the shadows, knowing if the man suspected his presence, he’d refuse to key in the correct codes. He watched him press switches and type in a sequence of letters. Then the screen changed. Talley heard Rebecca ask, "Is that it? The abort screen?"

"Yes, of course. If you don't believe me, you may key in the sequence yourself. I will give you the codes."

In her enthusiasm to stop the blast, she made a fatal mistake and stepped forward to the console. Like a magician practicing sleight of hand, the Syrian used one hand to point at the keyboard while the other was held behind his back. She failed to see him snatch at the pistol in her belt and drag it out. She turned like lighting, but not quick enough to stop him swinging the weapon in a cruel blow to her head. She dropped to the ground, unconscious, and Hafiz chuckled to himself. He pocketed the pistol and put his hands back on the keyboard and continued working.

Working at what? Is he deactivating the destruct sequence, or doing something different?

There was only one way to find out. Talley rushed him. He nearly made it and was only two meters away, when Hafiz heard something and whirled, grabbing for the pistol, too late.

"Touch that and I'll kill you, Hafiz."

"Kill me and your friends will all die, Commander Talley."

His stomach turned over. "What have you done, Hafiz?"

He laughed, the same chilling sound as before, like metal screeching on metal. "What have I done? I kept our agreement, naturally. The countdown is cancelled.”

He grinned, and a fleck of spittle appeared on his chin.

The fucker's mad, stark raving mad.

“What else, Major?”

Talley knew the crazed Syrian couldn’t resist the pleasure of explaining the extent of his cruelty. Hafiz sneered.

 
“In the process, the outer airlock door is sealed, and it cannot be overridden.”

He knew there was more, and the Syrian wouldn't miss spelling it out in detail.

"The contamination monitors are reading a slight leak of CX9, and the doors lock automatically. It seems one of the containers was damaged. The gas is falling to the floor and is no danger to people outside the containment room. However, the window was shattered by gunfire, and when it reaches the level of the broken glass, it will leak and spread through the basement. Your friends are trapped."

Is he playing some game, or is this for real?
Talley kept his gun aimed while he keyed his mic.

"This is Echo One. Hafiz says the gas is leaking into the containment room. Can you see any sign of a yellow cloud?"

"This is Two," Guy replied. "Checking now." Talley waited a few seconds until his voice came back. "Yeah, the room is starting to fill. What's the deal?"

"The outer airlock door is sealed, and it can’t be opened. When the gas reaches the broken glass, it'll spread through the basement."

A pause. "What do we do?"

"Give me a few seconds."

He stared at the Syrian officer. "Okay, Hafiz. I want that door open. Otherwise, I may as well kill you, being as it makes no difference."

He laughed, an insane cackle. "I kept my word and deactivated the automatic destruction sequence. Sadly for your men, the outer door cannot be opened until the level of contamination has fallen. Of course, I could start the filtration pumps to evacuate the gas. But first, you must get back to the basement and press the green button to request the remote door release, so I will know you are out of my way. Then you wait until the indicators show the gas has cleared." He shrugged. "You can kill me now, but you know it will be the end of us all."

Talley nodded; he knew he had no choice. The only person who understood the language enough to try operating the keyboard console was lying unconscious on the floor. The Syrian had it all worked out, apart for one thing. He didn’t yet know that Talley was going to find him and kill him. "Okay, I'm heading back, but leave the girl alone, Hafiz."

The Arab looked down at her and sneered. "Why would I trouble myself with a woman?"

He retraced his steps down to the outer airlock. The buttons were labeled in Arabic and English, but he found at the side of the control panel the only green button. He pressed it, and the sequence of lights at the top of the door began flashing amber. Maybe the Arab had told the truth, but then there was the old Special Forces dictum. ‘Never trust an Arab with a gun. And they all carry guns’. He keyed his mic.

"Guy, I’m outside the airlock door. Is there any sign of pumping or venting in there?"

"That's affirmative. Something’s happening, some kind of motor noise."

"That's good. I'm going back up to see what he's up to."

"Where's Rebecca?"

"She's up there too. He knocked her out."

"Careful, Boss, that guy's a total psycho."

"Aren’t they all? I'm on my way. The door should open when the contamination level has dropped sufficiently. Until then, all you can do is wait."

"Copy that."

Now for Hafiz.

He raced back up the staircase. It was time to take care of Major Psycho. He rushed into the prayer hall, but there was no sign of the Syrian officer, only Rebecca Dayan on the floor beneath the console. And now there was a pool of blood beneath her head. He'd hit her again, hard, and blood was pouring from her skull. Talley touched it, and it felt loose. Cracked maybe? He tried her pulse, and it was there. Faint, but at least she was alive. He needed to talk to Drew.

"This is Echo One. Drew, I need help. Rebecca's hurt."

"What's the problem?"

He explained the damage to her skull.

"I need to examine her, Boss. At best, she'll need the wound dressing and then checkout the ABCs, the basics, airway, breathing, and circulation. Those are the priorities before I can even begin to work on the actual injury. I'm sorry, but I need to see her. It’s complicated, and a wrong move could kill her. Make sure she’s breathing okay. You have to keep her airway clear.”