Moon Mask (73 page)

Nadia pulled the final strap of her harness over her shoulders and fastened it over her bosom. The thunder of the helicopter’s rotors drowned out all other noises and whipped the women’s hair around their faces.

“I won’t let you take the mask!” Sid warned.

Nadia’s eyes flicked to the gun on the deck. “Don’t do anything stupid, Sid. You’re my friend. I don’t want to hurt you.” She gestured to the winch man above and her feet lifted up from the deck. She swung in her harness, temporarily taking her eyes off of Sid.

“You’re not my friend!” Sid launched herself at the gun, rolled through Murray’s blood, grasped the angular metal, twisted and aimed at Nadia. She squeezed the trigger!

The blast was deafening.

The pain was excruciating.

“Sid!”
King exclaimed, realising the danger she was in.

Nadia had betrayed them and, if she had set Raine up like this, then it meant she was making her move now.

He kicked his legs hard and swam upwards quickly, straight towards the hole. Below him, Raine discarded the glove, throwing it into the fray of sharks. The scent of Nadia’s blood which had pulled them like a zipper through water towards him now redirected their attention away from them and Raine finned after King.

“Gibbs, get to the surface! Nadia’s taking the mask!”
he warned.

King burst out through the hole and physically shouldered into a shark that had been about to enter it. Dazed, it swam away but it did not slow him down. He raced up past the stunned SOG team who hastily began their own emergency ascent. Raine shot out behind him, powerful legs kicking, and they broke the surface together, just in time to see the feminine shape disappear into the side door of a helicopter.

Raine pulled his pistol out and fired twice at the behemoth machine but it was no use. The hydrodynamic bullets weren’t designed to fly through air and even if they were, they wouldn’t have made a dent in the aircraft.

Tilting its nose, the pitch of its rotors changed and it thundered away over the island of Yonaguni and dropped out of sight.

“Shit!” Gibbs swore as he surfaced.

King was already powering himself towards the lifeless boat. He hit the aft sea steps, ripped the fins from his feet, the mask from his face, and pulled himself out of the water.

“Sid!” he screamed.

Raine followed seconds behind. “Oh god,” he whispered.

King flew across the deck to where Sid lay in a pool of blood. He threw the retrieved mask aside and slid onto the deck beside her, lifting her head. Her chest was a bloody mess, her clothes drenched. Her breathing was laboured and her eyes held such terror.

“Help me!” King bellowed. Raine was already there, pressing a hand against the woman’s gunshot wound. The bullet had hit her in the centre of the chest and despite knowing how futile it was, he applied pressure.

“Get the med kit,” he yelled to Lake who ran past and disappeared below decks.

“Hold on,” King told her. He stroked hair from her face and looked into her eyes.

“I’m . . . scared.” Her voice was a weak gurgle. Tears rolled down her face.

“Don’t be scared,” he said, his voice soft. He forced it not to crack. “It’s going to be okay. You hear me? You’re gonna be fine.”

Crouched beside the lovers, Raine glanced up at Gibbs who paced the deck furiously, cursing over the loss of the mask. He caught O’Rourke’s eye.

“I’m sorry,” King whispered to Sid. “This is all my fault. I should have listened to you. I should have quit while-”

“No,” she cut him off. He had to lean down to hear her. “You had to see this through to the end,” she said. “That’s who you are. And that’s why . . .” she arched her back and cried in pain.

“Where’s that goddamn medical kit?” King demanded.

“That’s why I love you,” she whimpered and then, just as though someone had dimmed the lights, Benjamin King watched as the life faded from her eyes until all that stared up at him were two lifeless orbs.

“No,” he choked. He felt as though he was going to vomit.

“Benny,” Raine said gently, placing a hand on his shoulder. Tears rolled in his eyes too.

“No!” King shrugged him off, placed Sid on the deck and then climbed on top of her. He began pressing her chest, pumping it desperately. How many movies had he seen someone be pulled back from the brink like this?

“Ben,” Raine said.

“Come on!” he pleaded with Sid’s lifeless body. Tears streaked his face and his breath was ragged.

Lake erupted upon to the deck but she did not carry a med kit. She carried one of the metal cases for the mask.

“Where’s the medical kit?!” King screamed at her.

She ignored him, walked up to Gibbs and opened the case.

Despite his concern for his friend, Raine watched the interaction. Gibbs began to laugh. It started as a chuckle then erupted into a belly-laugh. All eyes except King’s turned to him at the inappropriateness of his amusement.

“She took the wrong case,” he chuckled. “The stupid bitch took the fake mask!”

“Fuck the mask!” King bellowed at him. “Help me! Help her! Get the medical kit.”

“Ben,” Raine said more firmly. “Ben.” He grasped the other man’s shoulder and pulled him around. “They’re not bringing the medical kit.”

“We can still save her!”

Raine’s eyes locked onto Gibbs’ own. A knowing smile twisted the other man’s ugly features.

“They don’t want to save her,” he said.

This brought King up short. He frowned at Raine, trying to clear his head.

As if on cue, the CIA team all raised their semi-automatic P-90s. Tank and the other marine, Aiko, were pushed over to Raine as he helped King to his feet. The four of them stood near the rear of the boat, an execution squad lined up before them.

“What’s going on?” Tank demanded.

“Just following orders,” Gibbs replied.

“I don’t understand,” King stammered. “There’s still a piece of the mask to find-”

“They’ve had the other piece all along,” Raine cut him off. He glanced at O’Rourke with a disappointed frown. “Rudy? You knew all along?”

O’Rourke wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I’m sorry Boss,” he muttered.

“Well I’m not,” Gibbs replied. “Kill them!”

A burst of bullets erupted in a spray of fire from the muzzles of the CIA operatives, slamming into Raine, King, Tank and Aiko. The pain was blinding and King looked down as though in a dream, or a nightmare, as geysers of blood erupted from his own chest. He screamed in agony and felt darkness encroach even as he fell backwards into the shark infested water.

His last thought was of Sid.

Laurence
Gibbs watched in satisfaction as his team’s bullets pummelled Raine and King’s bodies and they rolled backwards, torn and bloody, into the sea.

He walked to the aft of the boat and watched as the lifeless bodies of the four soldiers drifted into the inky blue, swallowed up in a red cloud of blood. As expected, it was only a matter of seconds before the first shark arrived. Dozens more soon appeared, swarming around the carcasses. The water frothed and churned as the creatures ripped into their hearty meal.

“What shall we do with her?” Garcia asked. Gibbs glanced at Sid’s body lying alongside Murray’s and the other marine. “They’re fish food now. Throw them overboard.”

Lake walked over carrying the team’s sat-com equipment. “Chopper’s on its way. ETA five minutes.”

Gibbs nodded then stepped over to O’Rourke. His African skin had turned green as he stared at the frothing mass of blood and gore in the water below, intensified each time Garcia rolled one of the other bodies into it.

“I know he was you friend,” he said with little sympathy in his voice. “But we are soldiers. We’re given our orders. We follow our orders.” Pep-talk done, he was back to business. “Now, prepare for evac!”

Five minutes later, the team and all their equipment had been winched up to a helicopter that had been on standby on the far side of the island. As it thundered away from Yonaguni and out over the Pacific Ocean, the C4 explosives attached to the boat’s fuel tank detonated and a fireball plumed into the sky, masking all the death, destruction and betrayal that had been left in their wake.

53:

Blood on their Hands

The White House,

Washington D.C., USA

“Mister
President, we have a National Security situation developing.”

President John Harper turned from the windows in the Oval Office. It had been a bright and warm day but storm clouds had rolled over the capital city, casting the green lawn in front of the White House into shadow.

Striding confidently into the room were Sec Def Mick Kane and CIA Director Jason Briggs.

“What is it, gentlemen?” Harper asked, coming around his desk and gesturing for the two men to take a seat on the blue couch. He sat opposite them as Briggs got right to the point.

“One of our assets in Beijing has informed us that the Phoenix files have been sent to a secure server inside Chinese Intelligence.”

Harper felt a rush of blood to the head and a sudden bout of dizziness overwhelm him. “What?”

He knew that two nights ago, aided by a hacker named Rasta-Man 872 who had since been elevated to Number One on the FBI’s cyber-crime ‘Most Wanted’ list, Alexander Langley had hacked into the Department of Defence database and stolen classified information relating to the Phoenix Project. But never in a million years would he have expected the former soldier-turned-diplomat to sell the information to America’s enemies.

“What did they get?” he demanded.

“Everything, Mister President,” the Secretary of Defense replied.

“The entire Phoenix file was downloaded by Chinese Intelligence,” Briggs elaborated. “The theory, the design schematics, the test history, everything.”

“The current operation?” Harper asked nervously.

Kane fixed eyes with him. “I’m afraid so, Mister President.” He opened a folder which he’d had perched on his lap and spread several satellite photos over the coffee table that sat between the three men. “NSA satellites took these images about thirty minutes ago.”

Harper rubbed his chin as he stared at the photographs, his heart racing. He knew roughly what he was looking at- ships in the water- but he looked up to Kane for an explanation.

“That’s the
Shin Lang
,” Kane said. Harper knew the
Shin Lang
well. China’s first aircraft carrier, bought from the Ukraine about fifteen years ago, had strained diplomatic relations when it was first launched in 2011. However, despite the state-of-the-art J-15 Flying Sharks which could be launched from her deck, China’s single, second hand carrier was no match for the eleven purpose built U.S. behemoths that prowled the waters.

“She’s been patrolling the Pacific ever since this whole Moon Mask crisis began, but now she’s underway to intercept our task force at her maximum speed.”

“She’ll be in range to launch her fighters in a little over two hours,” Briggs added.

“Mister President,” Kane said, a note of hesitation in his voice. “I strongly suggest recalling the task force to Pearl Harbour.”

“What?” Briggs snapped. “That’s ridiculous.” He looked at Harper. “Mister President, I hardly think one aircraft carrier is anything to worry about. We’ve got our own carrier with the task force. Not to mention our ships anti-aircraft defences are second to none.”

“I don’t doubt we can defeat them, Jason,” Kane replied heatedly. “But at what cost? Sir,” he glanced at the president. “If we engage the Chinese forces, there will be a substantial loss of American lives. Not to mention the political fallout.”

Briggs harrumphed irritably but Harper held up a hand to silence him. “What do you mean, Mick?”

“With all due respect, Mister President, we’re not talking about some minor skirmish here, a ruffling of feathers.” Kane knew he had to proceed carefully. “If we engage Chinese forces over the Pacific, we’ll be committing American troops to potentially the biggest seaborne battle since World War Two. And for what, sir? A science experiment?” He leaned forward in his chair, ignoring the incessant shaking of Briggs’ head, and stared hard at the President of the United States. “Sir, we’re talking about
war
here. Congress will not sanction a war based on the president’s personal desire to see a sixty year old science experiment come to fruition.”

Harper leaned back into his couch and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He tried to hide the fact that his hands were trembling. It had all gotten out of hand! If only the UNESCO Expedition hadn’t gotten word out to the U.N.! His team could have gone into Venezuela covertly, taken the mask and silenced the scientists without the world ever knowing it. They could have followed the clues themselves, tracked down the other pieces and finished what had been started over sixty years ago. But the secret was out. Diplomatic relations had collapsed, allies had become enemies, friends had betrayed friends. Militaries had been mobilised and while most of it had been kept from the public domain, enough people in the intelligence communities knew of the situation to do anything covertly. What happened out in the Pacific Ocean in the next few hours could decide the fate of generations to come.

Kane was right. Congress would never sanction military action of this sort.

“Recall the-”

“Mister President,” Briggs cut in. “We’re forgetting one very important thing here.” Harper looked at the CIA chief, his eyebrows pinched. “As it stands, the story we’ve fed to the public is that our ships are performing war-games in the Pacific. Nothing too unusual about that. Our own intelligence communities, as well as the U.N. Security Council, and even the men and women on those ships out there, know they are there to keep an eye on China following some ‘indiscretion’.”

“Where are you going with this, Jason?” Harper asked.

Briggs gestured casually with his hands. “The world will not frown on America if we are not the aggressors. If we are the victims of an unprovoked, surprise attack.”