Enemy Invasion (18 page)

She decided to send her brother a message.
Robert, they’re taking Hack to the cells.

There was no reply. Sarah had no sense of the others’ presence and she was certain the message had not been received. Was something blocking her? Bright? He had shown no awareness of her
presence in the hangar. She moved even closer so she could better hear what they were saying…

There were four snipers positioned on the catwalks. Since the girl and boy had been taken out of the hangar, they had visibly relaxed – switching from alert stances, eyes locked down the
scopes of their rifles, to more comfortable positions, weapons cradled in their arms. Major Bright’s voice echoed up from below and it was possible to make out every word. The usual madness
that made Craig’s stomach turn:
world domination, destruction, superpowers, blah blah, blah blah blah.
One piece of information that caught his attention was the talk about destroying
the
Ulysses
with some piece of technology they had down there.

Craig smiled grimly in the darkness.
That isn’t going to happen,
he thought.
Time to end this…

The commander moved swiftly and silently as the nearest sniper turned his back. Craig’s left hand clamped over the merc’s mouth and twisted his head to expose the carotid artery. His
right hand came up and the jabber hit the sniper’s neck. For a second the man struggled violently, but Craig held firm, not allowing him to thrash around and alert the others. In three
seconds it was all over. He lowered the unconscious merc to the floor of the catwalk, checked the jabber was ready to deliver another dose of tranquillizer and moved on to the next.

The second sniper went in much the same manner and just as silently. With the deed done, Craig looked round at the other two snipers, who showed no realization that their teammates had been
taken out. The voices of Bright and the American continued to echo up from below. Craig moved on in the darkness.

The third sniper would be more of a challenge. He was leaning against the railing, facing Craig. The commander considered his position. He could go all the way down to the ground, up the stairs
on the other side of the hangar, then approach him from the rear.
No, too time consuming.
Or he could just wait for the man to turn round.
By which time Bright might have left the
hangar.

It was now or never.

He went in, bent almost double. In the darkness, the sniper didn’t even sense him until he was right in his face. The merc’s eyes widened and he began to bring the rifle round.
Commander Craig hit him in the throat with the jabber and clamped a hand over his mouth to stop his scream, but the angle was all wrong. The base of the sniper’s spine hit the railing and he
toppled back. Craig made a grab for him, but found only the barrel of the rifle. The man pitched over the side of the catwalk with the jabber needle still in his neck, but his rifle in
Craig’s hands. A second later, the merc’s body hit one of the lamps below with a clatter and then a dull thud. The fallen lamp landed on the floor, casting its beam on the catwalk above
– illuminating the commander’s position.

Craig moved purely on instinct, pressing the stock of the sniper’s rifle into his shoulder, one finger on the trigger. He spun and sighted through the scope in the direction he knew the
last sniper was standing. The light from below was overloading the peripheral vision of the goggles, half-blinding him, but he saw the dark shape of the fourth man on the catwalk taking aim at
him…

The commander pulled the trigger first. The sniper’s body jerked round and disappeared into the darkness.

The floor of the catwalk exploded as a volley of bullets ripped through the metal. Someone was firing at him from below. Craig threw himself forward, running headlong for the darkened area. He
didn’t need to look over the side of the catwalk to know that it was Bright letting loose with a machine gun. He made the darkness as another round of bullets licked the walkway. He rolled
into a crouch and waited. The shooting stopped as the major reloaded…

Craig ripped the goggles off his head, leaned over the railing and aimed the sniper rifle where he predicted the major was standing. His instinct was right and he sighted on Bright in the
process of slotting a new clip into a Kalashnikov rifle.
One chance.
Craig sighted the middle of Bright’s forehead and pulled the trigger. A red dot appeared in the centre of the
major’s skull and his head snapped back. Craig put two more rounds in his chest as he went down.

“Gotcha,” the commander said as he lowered the rifle.

Bright was laid out on the floor below. The American guy had ducked into the darkness, presumably the moment the shooting started. Craig dropped the rifle at his feet and started moving back
along the catwalk. It was time to clear out before the alarm was raised. He just hoped that Sarah had already made a break for it…

“COMMANDER!”

Craig stopped in his tracks at the sound of Major Bright’s voice echoing up from below.
Not possible, I put a bullet in his head.
He moved to the side of the catwalk, unslinging the
machine gun from his shoulder as he did so. But it was already too late…

The catwalk floor concertinaed as if some massive force had pushed it at both ends. The metal screeched as it was distorted and torn. Craig flew forwards. He grabbed the rail and managed to hang
on for a second. He caught a glimpse of Major Bright on his feet again.
Impossible!
Bright was stretching his arm up towards the catwalk. He closed his fist and the entire walkway collapsed.
Then Craig was falling through the air, the machine gun lost, completely unable to save himself. All he could do was roll into a landing position to minimize the damage.

He hit the concrete floor of the hangar hard. Pain exploded along his right leg. It felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to his spine. Craig rolled onto his stomach and looked down the
side of his body to see a white flash of broken bone – it had ripped through the skin of his upper leg and the material of his combat fatigues. Nausea cut through the pain, but he fought to
stay conscious as he sensed someone approaching.
Bright.
With the last of his strength, the commander grabbed the pistol from his belt and rolled onto his back…

He emptied the clip into the major, who barely flinched as the bullets hit his chest and shoulders. It was as if the rounds simply glanced off him. With a groan, Craig lowered the empty weapon
and let it fall from his grasp. Through his swimming vision he saw Bright standing over him.

“Nice to see you again, commander.”

The major’s massive hands closed around his throat, lifting him to his feet. Craig screamed with pain from his broken leg. Then he passed out…

19

The mercs marched Hack back across the compound towards his cell. He’d protested about wanting to be with May, but the bigger of the two silenced him with a slap across
his face. Now Hack walked meekly between the two men, head down as if he was beaten. Looking around, he saw the cells up ahead and thought about the stimulant injector in his pocket. He could wait
until they were inside the building before striking, but he didn’t want to give either of the mercs the chance to lock him inside. The spotlight swept the ground ahead of them and then moved
on. There didn’t seem to be any other soldiers in the immediate vicinity.

It was now or never.

Hack reached into his pocket and removed the injector. Without hesitation, he jammed the tube into the hip of the nearest solider and pressed the release trigger twice. There was a double hiss
and the merc staggered forwards, making a gagging sound as the drug entered his bloodstream.
That’s for May
, Hack thought. He spun round and jabbed the injector at the other soldier,
giving him a dose of stimulant as well. The merc’s eyes bulged out of their sockets and he stumbled, disorientated.

It was all Hack needed. He made a break for it, running fast for the nearest cover – a stack of metal crates. The boots of the first merc thundered after him, however, and he sensed the
man right at his back. Hack turned and raised the injector to give him another shot, but the merc hit him full force, throwing him back against the crates. Winded, Hack slid down to the ground. The
injector fell from his hand and was lost in the dark. The merc swayed before him, but shook his head, fighting to focus as the stimulant coursed through his body. He pulled his pistol and aimed it
at the boy’s head.

“Please,” Hack said.

The merc looked at him through bleary eyes. His finger tightened on the trigger…

Then he smashed into the crates beside Hack, as if he’d been pushed by some massive, invisible force. The merc fell back, laid out by the impact. A second later, the other merc smashed
into the crates and fell beside his comrade. Still coming to terms with the fact he hadn’t been shot, Hack pulled himself to his feet. A blonde-haired girl walked out of the shadows. He
tensed, but she smiled to show everything was okay.

“Thought you could use some help,” she said.

Hack looked down at the unconscious mercs. “Uh, thanks. How did you…?”

Robert materialized beside him, holding the hand of a Chinese boy.

“How do you think?” the girl said.

Hack grinned at Robert. “Am I glad to see you!”

“Told you I’d come and get you,” said Robert. He quickly introduced his companions as Louise and Wei and turned his attention to the unconscious soldiers. “Let’s
hide these two before they’re noticed.”

Hack and Robert grabbed the nearest one by the arms and dragged him between the crates with some effort. Louise picked up the other like he weighed no more than a feather and tossed him down
next to the first. It took Hack a second to understand that she hadn’t really lifted him physically, but used telekinetic power to move the man’s bulk. It was an impressive display.

“Right,” Robert said as the searchlight swept the surrounding area, “we need to meet up with Sarah and get out of here.”

Hack touched the collar locked around his neck. “It’s not that simple.”

He quickly outlined the situation with Marlon Good and the explosive devices placed around his and May’s necks. Robert examined the collar.

“I wonder if I can teleport you right out of it,” he suggested. “Transport you, but the leave the collar behind?”

Hack shook his head. “May has an identical collar. The moment this one is removed from my body, the detonation sequence is triggered in hers. The same if we get more than a kilometre
apart. We have to rescue her too.”

The sound of gunfire from the other side of the camp made them all turn. Hack moved to the edge of the crates and saw soldiers running in the direction of the hangar.

“Something’s going on,” he said.

“Sarah and Commander Craig getting in trouble,” Louise said and Robert nodded.

“Let’s get over there.”

“A HIDRA operative,” Bright said. He reached inside his shirt and pulled out a misshapen lump of metal, which he tossed away. Good watched it skitter across the floor. It was one of
the bullets that had been fired at him.

“Are you wearing a Kevlar vest?”

Bright looked round. There was a little red mark in the middle of his forehead where the sniper round had entered, but that was the only sign he’d been fired upon.

“Nobody can take that kind of punishment and survive, Major,” Good said. “Tell me what’s really going on here. Just how close are you to the Entity? Something to do with
that black mark, is it?”

Bright took a couple of steps towards Good, who tried to hold his ground, but quickly shrunk back.

“You know exactly as much as you need to know,” Bright said dangerously. For a moment Good thought the man was going to hit him, but then his eyes went blank – like they had
many times before in conversation. Almost as if he was going into some kind of trance state. Or communicating with someone or something unseen.

Bright’s eyes snapped back into focus. “Go and find Kotler,” he said, jerking a thumb at the mercs standing in the entrance to the hangar, alerted by the earlier gunplay.
“Tell him to put the base on heightened alert. There might be more assassins.”

Good hesitated. “What about him?”

Bright looked at the commander. “Oh, we’re old friends. Going to have a little catch up. You can stay and watch if you like.”

Good took another glance at the protruding bone and decided there were some things he didn’t need to see. He hurried towards the hangar doors.

Alone in the lighted square, Bright went to the medical cabinet beside the chair and removed a bottle of smelling salts. Unscrewing the top, he waved the bottle under Commander Craig’s
nose. With a splutter and a gasp of pain, Craig stirred. His eyes flickered open and he tried to focus on his surroundings, but he was clearly disorientated. Bright gave him another waft of the
smelling salts.

“Wakey wakey.”

The commander looked at him through bloodshot eyes. “Bright… Why aren’t you dead?”

“I’d have thought you’d have realized by now that I’m invincible.”