The Enclave (The Verge) (11 page)

Andrea Pritchard’s aide took the other end of the table and helped Liam heft it onto its side.

“Now I suggest you all get behind this table and stay there until I give the all clear-”  Gunfire snarled louder from outside quickly followed by an explosion that made the whole room rattle and shake.  Liam moved back to the door, talking quickly into his comm unit, occasionally holding a hand to his earpiece to try and get better sound over the gunfire.

There was more gunfire, quickly followed by screaming;
it was coming closer now.  John pushed Andrea down behind the table with Scott’s help and tried to restrain himself from praying.

“I hope Katherine and Joshua are okay,” Andrea whispered.

John’s eyes widened
.  Kath!

“Liam.  Have you heard anything over the comm about my sister and the Val
Myran Ambassador?”

Liam gave John a shake of the head as he spoke furiously into his comm unit.

“She’ll be fine and if the Val Myran is still with her, so will he be.  After all, she survived Yunga.”  Pritchard nodded but John knew he had only said it aloud to help allay his own misgivings than to settle hers.

The shooting outside was becoming louder and John ran a hand over the hard oak of the tilted tabletop, wondering if it would even be thick enough to stop a burst from a HC assault rifle.  Then he heard shouts from the men stationed in the outer offices and more gunfire.  Liam shouted to his men to barricade the doors and John poked his head above the table to see Liam slam the conference room door close and lock it.  Loud bangs were heard as the heavy furniture not being used as cover in the room beyond was moved to block the door.  John sank back down behind the table as Liam joined them, the sound of frantic talk and screams clearly heard buzzing from his earpiece.

“If anything happens just keep you heads down.”  Liam reached to the small of his back and unclipped the pistol nestled there.  He handed it to John.  “Just in case,” was all he said as John took it.  He then rested the assault rifle on the table’s edge and waited.

John looked at the pistol in his hand.  He had not used one in a while; he had not needed to.  As John clicked off the safety, he looked across the now shaking form of the Governor General at Scott who drew his own sidearm from its concealed holster and readied it.  John then remembered that the GG’s aide was also her security chief.  John gave silent thanks that his own aide was out of the building meeting with her opposite bureaucrats at the New Holland Parliament. 

Both men gave each other a slight nod and then settled down to wait.

The room rattled again as something exploded in the rooms beyond quickly followed by rapid spurts of gunfire and shouting.  The sound was muffled through the thick walls but it still sounded uncomfortably close.  John saw Liam’s jaw clench as the sound from his earpiece suddenly fell quiet and it was at that moment that he realized there would be no rescue.  The next thing coming through that door will bring their deaths.

Something detonated against the door, making the entire room shake; John saw the wood splinter around the heavy hinges.  Whatever had been stacked against it was now gone and, frankly, John was surprised that the door was still standing.  Both John and Scott bought their pistols up to line of sight and waited for the inevitable to happen.  Liam just tightened his finger over the trigger as a trickle of sweat ran along his jaw.

A second blast hit the door and it shattered with a deafening crack sending splinters of wood flying all about the room.  John turned as Liam grunted and saw the officer slump backwards unconscious, maybe dead; a shard of wood embedded in his shoulder and blood streaming from his head.

Shit!

John saw the grim expression on Scott’s face and turned back to the door as he heard movement outside
.  I’ll take a few of you bastards with me!
  John and Scott then began to shoot as the first figure to move towards the blasted doorway began to fire into the room.

Two figures fell in the doorway before John’s clip emptied.  He dropped the now useless weapon and made a grab for Liam’s rifle while Scott fired his second; and last; magazine into the enemy outside; Andrea huddled against the table, but now held a large shard of door wood in her hands.  The look on her face showed that she would not go down without a hard fight.

As soon as John’s hand clasped the rifle stock he swept up into a firing position.  But abruptly no one was firing back.  There was gunfire coming from the rooms beyond and what was left of their attackers had turned to fire back at their rear.

Something bright flew into the room outside.

“Flash!” Scott shouted and both men ducked back behind the bullet mangled table as the flash grenade exploded, filling everything for a moment with blinding white light.  John ducked back up, rifle ready.  And saw two people come straight through the far opening, gunfire blared in rapid bursts and within moments the room outside was cleared.

“We’re in here!” John called out and one of the figures broke off and headed towards them while the other headed back out of the room following the fresh sound of gunfire.

“Who’s here?” A man’s voice asked.

“We have the Governor General, the Federation Ambassador, a wounded officer and myself,” Scott called out.

“Thank god.”  The man stepped forward and John dropped his jaw in shock.

“Val Myra?”

“Ambassador Kirk.”

Joshua Val Myra did not look so out of place now.  A rifle slung over a shoulder and a HC pistol sat comfortably in his hand.  He was also smeared with blood.

“Where’s the Commander?” John snapped out of his shock.

“She’ll be back,” Joshua said as he settled down by the door, the rifle adjusted to come up ready at a moment’s notice.  Scott took Liam’s rifle from John and took up position on the opposite side from Joshua.  He then began rifling through the ammo packs on the dead bodies by the door, fishing out magazines and even a grenade.  Andrea had scooted to Liam, tending his shoulder and his head wound; and trying to make him more comfortable. 

“What is going on?”  John looked over the table at Joshua.

“We’re under attack.”

That’s obvious!
John thought.  “I mean, do you know who it is?”

Joshua shrugged.  “Katherine thinks they’re not Alliance; at least not
directly
connected to them.  They are trying to kill us all the same, so at this point I don’t really care who they are, as long as we stop them.”

More distance shooting and another explosion echoed through the corridors and then everything fell silent.

Then a voice called from the rooms beyond.

“Hey Josh, it’s me.  Don’t shoot.”

John got up from behind the table and joined the two men at the door.

“Kath!”

“John.”

Katherine appeared at the far door similarly armed as Joshua Val Myra.  Her dress uniform was spattered with blood and rents along her left shoulder showed how close she had missed being a casualty herself.  She slung the rifle over her shoulder and swung the pistol slowly about the room.

“I think they’re dead Kath.”

“Can never be too careful Josh.  It’s what’s kept me alive so far.”

“It’s just that I’ve noticed when you shoot someone they generally don’t get back up.”

“But
you’ve
shot some of these and I have seen your targets get back up and try and kill me.”

“Touché,” Joshua said jovially.

“We’ve shot some of them as well,” Scott called out.

“Even more reason for me to be careful.”   But Katherine came towards them, stepping around the bodies strewn about the floor, her pistol held ready in case any of them twitched.

“How can you all sound so callous?”

John turned back to see Andrea staring wide eyed at them.  She had bundled her jacket under Liam’s head and was now trying to loosen the armor around his chest to make him more comfortable.

“Please excuse me Your Excellency.”  Scott Applegarth smiled at the grey haired woman, his blonde hair shining like the halo of a blessed saint.  Then his smile disappeared.  “It’s just a way of coping; we’ll let the shock sink in when this is all over.”

Andrea shook her head and went back to loosing Liam’s chest armor.

Katherine slipped through the door and sank against the floor next to Joshua Val Myra, rolling her head back on the wall with her eyes closed.

“We should be fine now,” she finally said.  “Steve Tran and his two squads are here and are helping what’s left of local security to clear out the building of undesirables.”  She then opened her eyes and smiled.  “The Lieutenant took my personal flyer to get here but I’ll forgive him that – as long as it’s not scratched!”

“What do we do now?” John asked.

Katherine shifted slightly to look at him.

“We wait.”

Chapter

Eleven

‘Kath, Katherine.  Answer me!’

The comm link crackled to life and Katherine keyed it to answer.  “Tom? Where are you?”

‘I’m with Steve; we’re on our way up to the fourth floor now.  Are you okay?'

Katherine felt Joshua’s eyes on her as Tom finished speaking.  She ignored him.  “I’m fine Tom.” She sighed and adjusted her sore shoulder.  She had not been fast enough to duck an incendiary round and she could still feel the heat of it passage across her skin.  “The Governor General and the Ambassador are here with me.  We need to get them somewhere safe.”

The comm beeped again but this time it was Steve Tran. 
‘Skipper, we’ve found an entry point in the basement.  Beta squad is keeping an eye on it.  The rest of us are coming to get the GG and the Ambassador out.’

“Remember to announce yourselves when you get here Lieutenant.  I don’t want to down my Tac Officer by mistake.”

‘Aye aye Skipper.’

“Guys with guns, did you hear that?  My people will be arriving shortly.  Don’t shoot them,” she said not even turning to look at the three men by the door.  She heard John ram home a magazine pilfered from the dead by the door into a pistol.

“I’ll try not to,” Joshua muttered.  Scott just grinned.

Joshua grunted as Katherine gave him a lazy push on the shoulder.  “Play nicely with the Feds Val Myra.”

“Yes Ma’am,” he said tiling his head back to lightly touch hers.

“I meant play nicely with the
new
Feds Josh.”

“Yes Ma’am.”  He still kept his
head touching hers while he passed her back some fresh ammo clips.

“John, you okay?” she asked tucking magazines into her pockets. 

“I’m fine.  Liam was injured when the door blew.”

Katherine pushed Jo
shua’s head away and leaned passed the shot up table to look at Liam’s prone form.  “How is he Andrea?”

The Governor General did not turn from her work.  “He’s unconscious but his breathing is even and I’ve stemmed the bleeding on his shoulder wound.

“Skipper, Alpha Team is coming through,” a voice came from the outer rooms.

“Come on in Alpha,” Katherine sang out.

Steve Tran appeared in the far doorway and the rest of his people quickly followed him.  Katherine’s eyes skimmed over them and relaxed when they came to rest on Tom Shepherd.

Steve and Tom entered the room and dropped down beside her while the rest of Alpha Team spread themselves in defensive positions around the outside office.

“Nice party you invited us to Skipper.”  Steve said in way of greeting.

“I’m glad you could make it Lieutenant.  But in my Flyer?”

“It’s the fastest planetary transport the
Adelaide
has.  And we wanted to get here before the party was finished.”

“Never mind.  Any damage to the flyer will be docked from your pay.”  Katherine smiled as she spoke to take the sting from her words.  “What have you got to report?”

“Beta Squad think they have found the point of entry for the second incursion in the basement levels.”

“Have they?”

“They have secured the site and are waiting for us to join them.”

“And the rest of the building?”

“It has been given the all clear.  Local security cleared out the last lot as we were coming up.  It looks to me like this level got the brunt of it.”

Katherine’s eyes flicked to her brother and she saw in his eyes that he knew how narrow his escape was.

“Did one of you think to bring me up some decent armor?”

Tom slid the backpack from his shoulder and let it thump to the floor.  “It’s lucky Steve took your flyer otherwise you wouldn’t have this.”

Hands flying to the zip of the backpack; Katherine had it open in an eye blink and was quickly pulling out the light armor inside.

“The NHSIO squad will be with us soon to escort the ‘dignitaries’ to a safe area.”  Steve looked at John and Andrea has he spoke and then his eyes flicked to Scott.