Flags of Sin (26 page)

All he
knew as he raced across the footbridge toward the boulevard was he wanted to
kill them all, to see the horror in their eyes as he tore their throats out.
Anger and hate filled his heart as the tank continued roaring toward his
beloved, promising her last moments in life to be ones of fear and terror, but
even from here he could see her eyes were wide, defiant. She was going to reach
those inside with her bravery and self-sacrifice, or die with dignity,
displaying the ideals he had learned were dear to her heart.

Protect
the innocent.

And
teach by example.

She had
taken him in, a desperate man, on the run from the most powerful and determined
authorities in the world, when she could have called the police. Because she
had recognized he was innocent. Then she had helped him, nearly at the expense
of her own life, and they had fallen in love.

And that
love was still as intense now as it was then. More so. As his legs pumped,
pushing him closer to her, the several dozen lanes seeming endless, their
relationship flashed before his eyes as his heart cried out to God to save the
one he loved, and to take him instead.

A thunderclap
from behind him barely registered, but the tank, almost on top of Laura,
suddenly jerked to the side, away from him, away from her, the turret erupting
in flames, the shockwave from the blast sending Laura flying backward. As he
rushed forward the wave hit him, causing him to lose balance slightly, then the
turret erupted with a massive explosion that finally sent him tumbling to the
ground, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

Pushing
to his hands and knees, he looked across the street to where Laura had been,
but saw only smoke and flame as a column of tanks advanced from behind the
Forbidden City, and engaged the hostiles.

West Chang’an Street, North Edge of Tiananmen Square

Laura’s head throbbed, her ears pulsed with white noise, her eyes,
shut, burned orange through the eyelids, her nose, filled with an acrid smell,
the air so hot it threatened to singe her lungs with each breath. But all this went
almost unnoticed as her entire body seemed to be getting cooked from an intense
heat. Her mind tried to cut through the fog, to try and remember what had
happened, then was suddenly snapped back to reality as she felt hands grabbing
her, pulling her upper body off of whatever surface she had been on, then arms
enveloping her and hugging her tight. She still couldn’t hear beyond the roar
in her ears, but she recognized the feeling of his arms, his chest, his lips on
hers.

James!

She
opened her eyes and saw his tear streaked face looking down at her. His lips
were moving, saying something to her, but it was a dull murmur on the other
side of a wall of noise that was only now beginning to ebb. She looked around
and saw several members of Delta Team Bravo grabbing Dawson and the Ambassador,
then motioning for James to get moving.

As she
pushed herself to her feet, she saw the inspector race past them, two young
girls in his grip, and she felt her chest tighten with relief as she assumed
one of the girls was his daughter. James pulled her up and she began to walk,
then jog, across the street as her senses slowly came back.

Her
hearing came back with a pop, and she looked up to see the choppers overhead
banking and raining fire down on a column of newly arriving tanks.

Will
this ever end?

Bo Yang’s Mobile Headquarters, Beijing, China

“We’ve taken the television station!” yelled one of Bo’s underlings,
pointing at one of the screens as it flashed to a standby message.

“Excellent,”
said General Liang, smiling at Bo. “When we’re ready, we’ll broadcast your
message, and the people will be on our side.”

Bo
nodded, watching the carnage unfold on CNN and the BBC, almost all television
stations across the world running live broadcasts showing cellphone footage
being posted by those inside the massacre. How these teenagers managed to not
only record, but post video, while running for their lives, was beyond him.

Today’s
children are too obsessed with gaining Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

Even in
China, where everything was strictly controlled, children were posting video
while running for their lives, more concerned with making it known they were in
the thick of it, so they’d be the center of attention at school tomorrow, all
the while forgetting the most important thing.

You need
to be alive to enjoy your new found fame.

Suddenly
several of the monitors went blank, and several showing streaming YouTube feeds
flashed to a standard firewall message.

“What’s
going on?” he asked as he stood.

“They’ve
shutdown the Internet!” answered one of his men, furiously typing on his
keyboard. “Cellular network is down as well!”

Bo
slammed his fist on the desk, causing its contents to rattle.

General
Liang approached, his voice low. “That’s almost thirty minutes ahead of
schedule.”

Bo
frowned, dropping back into his seat, as his plan played out in his head with
this new wrinkle. They needed the Internet and the cellular network for the
message to be spread, but as he looked at the monitors still showing the
international stations, it was clear the message was already out.

China
was in chaos, and the international community was already demanding somebody
take control.

“Broadcast
our message.”

East of the Forbidden City, Beijing, China

Missiles erupted from weapons pods overhead as Acton, still holding
Laura by the hand, raced after Niner, who had Dawson over his shoulder, and
Spock, who had the Ambassador. Both were making good time with Jimmy out front,
taking point, one of the commandeered weapons held surreptitiously at his side
so as to not attract attention. Inspector Li and the children were behind him,
and all had eyes on the tanks to their right, and the helicopters overhead,
engaging the armored column.

He
quietly cheered on the army units responding to the chaos, but it quickly
became evident they were losing. With no air support, they didn’t stand a
chance against the attack helicopters hovering overhead. He glanced over his
shoulder and saw one good thing that had come of their arrival—the tanks in the
square had stopped their advance on the crowd, and had turned their attention
to the bigger threat.

Which
meant their fire was now concentrated in the direction Acton and his companions
were fleeing.

A tank
erupted into a fireball to their right, the screams of the crew inside heart
wrenching. Machineguns mounted on the turrets were turning their attention to
the helicopters overhead, but if things didn’t change quickly, the column sent
to engage the hostiles would be eliminated.

Screeching
of metal from behind caused Acton to look back and see the only functional tank
in the front of the column pushing the two lead tanks out of the way, trying to
end the bottleneck they were caught up in. He breathed a sigh of relief as he
saw a hole punched through allowing the tank to break from the road they were
trapped on and out onto the large boulevard they had just run across. The
entire column surged forward, pushing the burning hulks of their companions
along with them if necessary, and as the breakout continued, a new sound filled
the air causing them all to look up.

Fighter
jets streaked overhead, their contrails reflected against the night sky by the
lights of the city. This battle was about to be ratcheted up a notch, and if
they were hostiles, they’d be firing missiles right where Acton and the others
were running.

He
tightened his grip on Laura’s hand as he exchanged a glance with her. The fear
in her eyes matched his own, but there was nowhere else to go but forward. They
were hemmed in by the moat surrounding the Forbidden City on their left, and
the column of tanks to their right. They had to reach the end of the ancient
fortification before they stood any chance of surviving what Acton feared would
be an aerial bombardment of the armor only feet away.

Bo Yang’s Mobile Headquarters, Beijing, China

“—many of you are aware, a massacre of unprecedented proportions is
being undertaken by your government in Tiananmen Square at this very moment.
These actions are unacceptable, an overreaction of unheard magnitude to a
gathering of young people participating in an impromptu party, a ‘flash mob’ as
they call it.

“Early
reports are that hundreds, if not thousands, are dead. This cannot continue,
and as such, I have ordered the troops under my command to take any and all
action necessary to stop this atrocity. This includes directly engaging these
renegade forces, and seizing the command and control infrastructure that has
permitted this outrage to take place.

“Your
leadership has failed you. Your country is at risk. I am Bo Yang. You know me.
You know what I stand for. It is time to fight back. It is time to take China
back. It is time once again for the Chinese people to stand up, and demand what
is right. So I call on all those who love their country, who love the progress
we have made, and who want it to continue, to unite under my banner, and to
fight back against those who would oppress us, and slaughter our children. Rise
up, and take back your country, resist those who would threaten our future and
our prosperity. Rise up and protect your children. Take to the streets and
support those troops under the gold flags. Take—”

The
screen they were all watching went dead, then a test signal appeared.

“What
the hell happened?” screamed Bo, his glare moving from station to station in
the cramped control room, but no one dared look.

General
Liang had his head buried in a phone, then hung up, turning to Bo. “Sir, an
airstrike has just taken out the broadcast towers. There’s no way for our
message to get out!”

Bo
slammed his fist on the table, then stood up, sucking in a deep breath.

“Where’s
the goddamned air support you promised me?”

“It’s on
its way, sir! ETA two minutes. We weren’t expecting them to react so quickly,
somehow they knew what was happening sooner than they should have.”

Bo
clenched his fists, tight, the fingernails biting into his palms.
Somehow
they knew.
Either they had a traitor in their midst, or word had leaked.
And he had a pretty good idea how.

Those
damned escaped prisoners.

North of the Forbidden City, Beijing, China

“There it is!” shouted Spock as he pointed at a car parked on the
street they had just come out on. They rushed toward the vehicle and it was
quickly apparent to Acton and everyone else it was far too small for their
current numbers. “Get the wounded inside first,” said Spock, using the fob to
unlock the doors.

“There’s
not enough room,” said Laura as she helped get Dawson into the passenger seat,
Jimmy and Niner loading the Ambassador into the back. “We need another car!”

“Please,
take the children!” begged Inspector Li. “Please, take my daughter and her
friend!”

Dawson
jerked a thumb at the backseat. “Get the kids in the back, behind the seats if
you have to.”

“Thank
you!” cried Li as he hugged his daughter and gave her a kiss. “You two get out
of here now, get home, okay?”

Li’s
daughter Juan cried, holding onto her father. “No, I don’t want to leave you, I
want to stay with you!”

“No, you
have to go with them, you’ll be safe!”

Two
helicopters raced down the street, between the buildings, banking up the road the
motley crew had just fled, their cannons opening fire on the column of tanks,
momentarily distracting them all from the drama unfolding between father and
daughter.

Niner
grabbed Juan’s friend, pushing her into the back seat, then picked Juan up,
placing her behind Dawson’s. Li slammed the door shut before she could try to
get out.

“Spock,
you’re in charge. Commandeer a vehicle, get to the embassy.” Dawson tossed
Spock his weapons. “We don’t want to be caught with these on us.”

“Yes, Sergeant Major,”
replied Spock. Pointing at Jimmy, he said, “You drive.” He tossed him the keys
which Jimmy caught easily as he ran toward the driver side of the vehicle. Jimmy
slid his weapon over the roof of the car then jumped inside. Spock pulled a
phone out of his pocket and handed it to Dawson. “Satellite phone. We’ve got another.”
Two more choppers raced toward them as the car gunned to life. Jimmy
immediately executed a three point turn and roared away. They all stood for a
moment as they watched the car make a quick right turn, and disappear.

“Let’s
get the hell out of here!” yelled Spock. He pointed at Li. “Name!”

“Inspector
Li.”

“Li, you
lead the way.”

Li
nodded and they began to run in the same direction the car had left, when two
more choppers appeared, nearly at ground level, their noses pointed steeply
forward as they rushed toward the action. The first chopper’s cannons flashed
as it belched lead at them, tearing up the road in front of them.

Acton
shoved Laura aside, landing on top of her as he shielded her with his body. The
heat from the engines, forced down by the chopper blades, washed over them, and
within seconds they had passed. Before he had a chance to pick himself up a
missile streaked after the choppers, eliminating the one bringing up the rear, the
fireball knocking them flat. Acton rolled again, covering Laura as shrapnel and
flaming fuel sprayed across the street.