The Seraphim Sequence: The Fifth Column 2 (33 page)

Sophia didn’t say anything. She returned to the driver’s seat and waited for everyone to clamber inside. Nasira would notice her and DC’s stand-off, but it didn’t matter. They had to get on with the job.

‘Damien got in touch,’ Sophia told them. ‘Forty minutes ago. They’re going in tonight. Guard changeover is at 0300.’

‘You wanna hit this place same time as them?’ Nasira said.

‘As close as we can get. Once they know we’re in one installation, they’ll reinforce all of them,’ Sophia said. ‘Any special defenses?’

In the rear-vision mirror, she watched Nasira shake her head. ‘Just a high perimeter fence and thick steel gates on the west side.’

‘No guards?’ Sophia said.

‘Only on the inside,’ Chickenhead said.

‘How about your side?’ Nasira asked.

‘Same,’ Sophia said. ‘One searchlight on the southeastern corner, manned.’

‘There’s another on the northwest,’ Nasira said. ‘Fixed though, not scanning.’

‘Electronic surveillance?’ DC asked.

‘Fuck all,’ Nasira said.

‘Our fences weren’t electrified,’ Sophia said. ‘I’m guessing yours weren’t either.’

‘You got it,’ Nasira said. ‘And I’m guessing that interior concrete structure and the massive spire thing is the transmitter.’

‘We can vault over the concrete wall, it’s only ten feet,’ Sophia said, picking up DC’s sketch on the Honda manual and passing it to the back seat. ‘The control center and the transmitter are isolated inside.’

The two manned searchlights saturated half the installation, but there was a narrow gap of fifty feet in width where they could slip through. Sophia, DC and Nasira would breach the perimeter and scale the concrete wall while Chickenhead would remain at the perimeter and keep watch, providing covering fire if needed. Sophia hoped they wouldn’t need it.

DC reached into his daypack and retrieved the Interceptor and the three access cards. Sophia had programmed them before their flight out of Kuala Lumpur. Jay had the other set. If they were going with Plan A—blast all the transmitters with electromagnetic pulses—they’d need local access to the control center.

‘There’ll be guards indoors,’ she said. ‘We don’t have much firepower.’

‘We need something else then,’ Nasira said.

‘Damn shame we don’t have any of those flashguns,’ Chickenhead said. ‘Smoke grenades would’ve been good too.’

Nasira’s eyes lit up. ‘We just gotta make our own then.’

Grace and Jay didn’t need torches inside the tunnel, but Damien and the others did, to avoid slipping on the disgusting liquid that trickled along its bottom. Damien followed Grace, with Jay right behind him, and behind Jay, Calvin and two other jaguar knights. Aviary was along for the ride too, having received informal training from Calvin’s squad in the past. Damien had tried to talk her out of it, but she seemed to think she owed them. He wasn’t sure whether she was referring to the rations or her stabbing him in the leg, twice. Grace hadn’t been pleased about having her tag along, but had given in as long as she didn’t get in the way.

They were almost at the end of the tunnel when someone behind him slipped, splashing into the gunk at their feet. Everyone froze.

‘Shit,’ Aviary said.

No one else said a word.

Damien tuned his hearing. He picked up soft footfalls on the surface above as a guard approached to inspect the noise. There was a click, hopefully of a torch and not a firearm.

‘Hello?’ the guard called out.

Silence, then more footsteps, this time moving away.

Damien waited a bit longer. When he was satisfied, he nodded to Jay, who turned to help Aviary up. She shook the dirty liquid from her arms, disgusted.

‘I don’t even want to know what’s in that,’ she whispered.

Jay stifled a laugh. ‘I think you said it yourself a minute ago.’

Grace hushed them, then continued forward.

Everyone was equipped with a very particular load-out. They each carried Aviary’s special blend of explosives and a windscreen protector wrapped in a black blanket. This would shield them from both the motion sensor and the thermal sensor on the rear wall of the transmitter building. They were also carrying small backpacks with various items inside. Damien had made sure there were duplicates of everything, just in case. Even some basic medical supplies.

Jay had made sure everyone was armed up the wazoo. AR-15 carbines secured to their bodies with shoulder straps—necessary given the amount of kit they were lugging to get inside. Grace was carrying her Vector SMG with two extra mags Calvin had given her.

Damien had supervised the clothing. He’d joined Calvin on a shopping blitz through a Century 21 department store in Brooklyn and gone to great lengths to ensure everything was dark and non-reflective, preferably cotton or wool. He’d cut out all the velcro, shiny buttons and drawcords—anything that might get in the way, be seen or make noise.

While he was busy shopping, Aviary was busy making petrol bombs with soapsuds, petrol and fuse wire. Jay had paid another visit to his old pal Kevin in Chinatown, this time for some cheap Nokia cell phones and prepaid SIM cards activated under stolen identities. The MP7 had more than paid for that. Everyone had a phone, silenced and loaded with each others’ numbers. If they got separated, they needed to be able to communicate. Damien had passed on the Nokia numbers to Sophia over his satphone.

Sophia had just texted him satphone to satphone with the words, ‘Moving in.’

If her team were beginning their infiltration of the Miami installation, they needed to be doing the same very, very soon.

Grace drew to a halt in front of him. Damien stopped immediately and switched his torch off. Those behind him did the same. Now they waited.

Before entering the tunnel, Damien had convinced Jay to conduct a quick recon again, just to double-check the guard numbers. They’d discovered four on the ground, a fifth at the gate, another four at the power plant and at least another four at the transmitter building.

A third jaguar knight had remained at the tunnel opening so his cell would have good reception. A fourth knight was placed outside the perimeter, within line of sight and with eyes on the station, waiting for the shift change. As soon as that happened, he would signal the third knight at the tunnel opening who would move through the tunnel and signal the rest of the team, then join them, increasing their number to nine. Damien was glad they’d planned the signaling because when he checked his Nokia inside the tunnel it had no bars.

He could hear someone moving through the tunnel behind them, quiet but careful. Soon his torchlight was splashing over them. It was the jaguar knight Damien was expecting, carbine in both hands and maquahuitl concealed along his back. Damien figured the knights must have some sort of layer between the jagged-edged sword and their clothes, otherwise the obsidian would slice their backs every time they moved.

Grace indicated for Damien to move closer. Above her, he could see the manhole cover. He helped her lift it as slowly and carefully as possible. It barely moved under their combined strength, but after a couple of hard pushes it came free and they could slide it to one side. Grace did her cloak thing and popped her head up. Better her than him, he thought. He didn’t want his head getting shot off.

She ducked back into the tunnel and nodded. ‘It’s clear. We move now.’

She stepped past him and quietly addressed the team: Jay, Aviary, Calvin and his three knights. ‘There’s a building a hundred feet ahead. The transmitter building is directly behind that. Wait for us to reach the wall, then move as quietly and as gradually as possible. Make sure your shield is facing the building at all times. Don’t make any jerky movements. Keep it smooth until you’re against the wall.’

Calvin’s knights were former Special Forces, but Damien doubted they’d used windscreen protectors to breach an enemy base before. They’d conducted a trial with the shields earlier this evening, using Jay’s infrared vision to check how well they worked. Without the windscreen protectors, their faces, necks and hands glowed red and the rest of their bodies varying shades of green. With them, they were just a big rectangle of cool blue. Damien hoped the thermal sensors were on par with Jay’s vision.

‘Whatever you do, don’t run that last step or you’ll screw everything up,’ Grace said. ‘Got it?’

Everyone nodded, gripping their makeshift shields.

‘OK, move out,’ she said.

Damien checked his watch: 0311. They had ten minutes. Maybe more with the shift change, maybe not.

Grace moved first, cloaked. With her shield in one hand she advanced twenty feet and hunkered down. She rested the shield on her shoulder and took her Vector in both hands. Damien climbed out, breathing in to slip through with his backpack, then oriented his shield. Once they moved closer, they’d be in range of the motion detector, but they were safe at this distance, right near the fence line. He knew this because any detector sensitive enough to pick them up from this far would frequently pick up wildlife. He picked a position slightly behind invisi-Grace, out to the left by fifteen feet or so. With both sides covered, the rest of their team could move knowing they had cover.

Once he’d made it across, he brought his carbine around to the front and held the grip with one hand, pulled the charging handle back into position and switched the fire selector from S to R.

Jay was next. Typically, he maneuvered his carbine out of the manhole first, then squeezed his shield up. He got to his feet and slung his carbine back over his shoulder and head. Then he helped Aviary up, followed by Calvin. He pointed the direction for them to move and helped the next knight up.

Damien watched nervously as Aviary shuffled toward the building, her shield wobbling slightly. He hoped the black blanket—chosen for camouflage under the quarter moon—would absorb the sound waves the motion detector relied on. Following twenty feet behind Aviary was Calvin. He moved a little too fast for Damien’s liking, and his steps were generating some noise. It wasn’t until Aviary reached the building wall, safely under the sensors, that Damien realized he’d been holding his breath. He re-oxygenated, checked his flank—clear—and watched as Calvin reached the wall.

Damien checked his watch: 0318. They weren’t moving fast enough.

The second jaguar knight was just crossing now, while Jay was helping the last with his carbine and shield. Everyone else—Aviary, Calvin, the first two knights—were pressed up against the sensor, their shields arched over their heads just in case. He should have told them it wasn’t necessary since the sensors were aimed outward, but as long as they remained undetected he was happy. He checked his flank again. He thought he saw movement on the far left of the compound. He indicated to Jay and pointed, keeping his hand tucked into his body at all times. Jay caught his movement and looked over. He held up one finger, then sent the last jaguar knight on his way.

Jay closed the gap after the last knight. Grace stepped toward Damien. The three of them were within speaking distance now. The guard was still some distance away. It was hard to tell whether this was the new rear patrolling guard or just a side patrol. They had to assume he was approaching and react now.

Using sign language, Damien asked Grace how many were in the building. She signaled seven. That was more than her previous estimate. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Grace didn’t linger for further discussion. She moved silently and purposefully for the building wall. The rest of the team parted obediently to let her in. She had her Vector out and trained in the guard’s direction. Everyone started to carefully fold their shields up and tuck them into their backpacks, then bring their weapons to bear.

Damien winced as his sensitive hearing picked up their fire selectors switching over. He reached the wall and joined the far left end. He checked the team was ready and then crouched down, folded his shield up and slid his finger over the trigger. Grace gave the signal. He turned the corner, knowing she would be doing the same on the right-hand side. Their team had split: four, five. They knew the drill.

Damien rounded the corner slowly, suddenly aware of just how open they were on this side. There was nothing around except the transmitter building dead ahead. The guard on the left side of the compound was maybe two hundred feet away now. Against the brickwork of the building they would stand out easily in dark clothing so Damien motioned for his team to get down low. He checked the next corner and identified the transmitter building. It was the first time he’d seen it without binoculars. It was concrete, one-story, with three windows on this side and one door. It was fairly closed in, but Damien knew most of the installation was underground.

He saw something move in a window. A round cracked past his face. He reeled behind the corner, flat on his stomach. So much for the element of surprise. The other guards would’ve heard the shot.

He edged forward, found the spider-web hole the round had created in the building’s window as it exited. He aimed a burst of rounds through it. They peppered the glass. Then more came. They weren’t from Grace’s side; it was the guard again. Damien listened to the rounds echo in the night. They were going wide. The guard didn’t know where he was shooting now. Good.

He checked his watch: 0326.

The guards would have requested reinforcements by now. The nearest army base was forty miles southwest of here. Damien estimated their arrival in twenty minutes. Not terribly much time, he thought.

His Nokia vibrated in his pocket. He crawled back even further and answered it. The backlight was disabled so it wouldn’t give away his position in darkness. He didn’t need to see who was calling.

‘Covering fire from both sides,’ Jay said in a low voice. He was on Grace’s team, on the other side. ‘You and Grace breach. Grace first, then you.’

‘Ready,’ Damien said.

‘Out.’ The call ended.

Damien readied himself. He shifted forward, aimed at the windows in the building closest to Grace’s side and punched burst after burst. He shifted to his side of the building and punched rounds into those windows too. As he did so, a ripple in the night moved low to the door. Grace. She was in position, on one knee, both hands wrapped around her Vector.

Damien took his AR-15 in both hands and got to his feet. He checked his left. The guard was missing. He crouched and waited, heard the muted spit of Grace’s Vector and saw a body slump to the ground on his ten o’clock. That was the guard accounted for.

The windows were almost ripped apart as Jay drilled into them. That was Damien’s cue. He kept as low as he could and moved for his side of the door. He was breathing faster now. His armpits were damp and sweat ran into his eyes. They had to clear the transmission building as fast as possible, but first they needed to deal with the guards in the front rooms. And without flashbangs or grenades that would be a touch difficult.

He sat up a fraction higher when he realized he was kneeling on glass fragments. Rounds cracked past his head again. He planted himself on the glass, clenching his teeth and fists as the fragments cut into his skin. But the guard wasn’t aiming at him, he was shooting out toward the adjacent building. Damien checked both sides: no one from his team was caught in the line of fire. He turned his carbine to one side and slid it over the window frame. He squeezed the trigger and filled the room with three short bursts, then withdrew the carbine to change mags. He heard Grace do the same, albeit much more quietly with her suppressed barrel.

He heard her move through the front room on the other side. At least they didn’t need to breach the door. He checked his room and found two bodies. No movement.

He climbed through and dropped into a silent crouch, barrel aimed at the open doorway before him. His boots almost slipped on the empty shell casings underfoot. He heard Grace moving whisper-soft into the corridor. He joined her and texted Jay the words ‘front clear’. He’d delete the sent message later.

The transmitter building was quiet. Before Grace, there was a roller door. It was locked up fairly tight and Damien knew it would make some serious noise when opened.

Grace moved her head from side to side. ‘No one,’ she said.

That’s peculiar, he thought. He heard movement from the front rooms and checked to make sure. It was Aviary, followed by Calvin. When he returned to Grace, Jay was already inside.

‘Crowbar?’ Damien said.