Extinction (34 page)

‘Watch your tongue, Murray,’ snapped Anderson.

‘They’re not going to use the weapon,’ Tomkin said. ‘Terrorists don’t follow through with threats like that. They want to negotiate, despite their words. They want something. People always do.’

‘You must be crazy,’ Alyssa said. ‘Did you hear the man? He’s probably been the one instigating the riots right from the start. His people have been everywhere since this whole thing began. And you don’t think he’s going to use it? I’ve read the plans,’ she said accusingly, fixing Tomkin with an icy stare. ‘If
you
were going to use it, why won’t they?’

‘We were going to use it selectively,’ Tomkin said instantly. ‘Our enemies would die, and we would win. What does he win if he destroys the whole world? He’d die too. What would it get him?’

‘Can’t you see?’ Alyssa said. ‘He believes what he’s doing is right. And whether he’s insane or not, he now has control of the world’s most powerful weapon. So what can we do to stop him?’

‘Tactical missile strike,’ Anderson said, his attention at last turning away from Alyssa and Jack to grasp the enormity of the situation. ‘We take the base out completely.’

Tomkin shook his head. ‘Can you imagine the chaos erupting around the President right now?’ he asked. ‘
What is this weapon? Why didn’t I know about it?
I mean, it’ll be hours before it’s even confirmed that there
is
such a weapon. And then authorizing such a strike, on our own soil, would take even longer. We have thousands of our own citizens there! The President would have to be one hundred per cent convinced that the threat was real. The problem is that there is no precedent for this, no protocol for him to follow. And even if an order
was
given in time, there are other complications. HIRP is probably the world’s most isolated research base. Submarines are out of range, our carrier fleets have been diverted to Asia and the Middle East, and it would take hours to arm and fuel our long-range bombers.’

‘Do we have any special operations forces in the area?’ Anderson asked.

‘None. Most of them are preparing for deployment to those same countries where the carrier groups are headed. In fact, many have got their feet covertly on the ground for reconnaissance already. There’s no way we can pull them back in time to launch an operation on the other side of the world.’

‘Other countries?’ Anderson persisted.

‘I’m not sure. Most are involved in their own civil crises, some are providing disaster relief and others are joining our own troops in the wrong part of the world. And it would take forever to sort through the red tape for such an operation, even if there were forces available.’ Tomkin squared his shoulders, seeming to come to a conclusion. ‘Colonel,’ he said, ‘have you got men on that chopper back at the DoD?’

Anderson nodded. ‘Yes, sir, six of my best.’

Tomkin nodded. ‘Get them rerouted to the air base, have them meet us there. We’ve got a plane ready and fuelled, with a flight plan filed. We’re going to spend the next few minutes calling all our contacts here in the city. Anybody trained, we want them with us. The plane will hold sixty, so let’s see what we can do. We started this thing, and it’s our responsibility to finish it. Let’s call in all our favours and get that plane filled.’ Tomkin looked at Anderson. ‘Colonel, you know that base better than anyone. With you leading the party, we might have a chance of retaking it.’

‘Sir,’ Anderson protested, ‘we have no idea how many people they have, where they’re posted, what kind of weapons we’ll be facing, and we’re only going to have a one-hour window to launch the counter-attack when we get there.’

Tomkin just stared at him. ‘What other options do we have?’

Anderson looked out through the window at the blue, clear sky. Eventually, he made a decision. ‘I can get some men rounded up,’ he confirmed. ‘We can plan and rehearse on the plane while we’re flying. We can get all the schematics of the base, I can identify likely points for the enemy to be stationed. We’ll look at worst-case scenarios and take it from there.’

Tomkin inclined his head, glad to have Anderson back on board.

‘But I’ll need something else too,’ Anderson said stiffly, and Alyssa wondered what it was. Surely he wasn’t going to ask for permission to shoot them, was he?

‘What’s that, Colonel?’ Tomkin asked.

Anderson nodded at Jack. ‘I’ll need Murray with me, sir,’ he said. ‘He knows the base security systems better than anybody. With him, we just might succeed.’

T
HE FLIGHT NORTH
was long but over all too quickly for Alyssa.

After the decision had been made to launch a counter-attack, Tomkin and Anderson had been on their phones all the way to the airport, contacting everyone they knew in the area. By the time the plane was ready to take off half an hour later, it was nearly full with fifty-four grim-faced soldiers, and a cargo-hold full of arms.

Alyssa was on board too, although held separately. She was being taken as insurance, in a way. Jack appeared keen to help but Anderson, ever suspicious, decided that he might need a bit more inducement. Alyssa was therefore being taken along as a hostage.

She spent the flight looking across the plane at Jack, locked in conversation with Anderson. It was clear that, despite the circumstances, he was in his element, lecturing the colonel and the other team leaders on HIRP’s security protocols. For a lot of the journey, Jack was also entering information on to a powerful laptop computer, and Alyssa wondered if he was able to access the security systems remotely. Was he already creating the conditions that would enable the shock troops to get close to the base without being seen? She remembered how he had created that invisible corridor, unwatched by security cameras, when they had climbed the roof of the main control building and they had first kissed; only days ago, but it seemed a lifetime.

She was sorry – so achingly sorry – that she couldn’t spend the hours of the flight together with Jack. They had been through so much together in such a short time; the intensity of their experience was like nothing she had felt in her life before. Other experiences had been intensely bad – the long, drawn-out and painful death of her husband, the shocking, all-too-sudden death of her daughter – but this had been intensely good, despite everything. It had all been worth it, to find Jack.

And as she watched him across the plane for hours – as the soldiers ripped out chairs to give themselves room to rehearse their team procedures, as they gathered around a mock-up scale model of the base, as they cleaned and prepared their personal equipment – she knew in her heart of hearts how she felt.

She was in love with Jack Murray.

‘Alyssa,’ Jack breathed softly, her head buried in the warm skin of his neck. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’ He held her hands, kissed them. ‘I have to go.’

Tears welled up in her eyes, although she tried to stop them. ‘I know,’ she whispered weakly. ‘I know.’

Jack would be accompanying the preliminary assault party, leading them into the base with Anderson. He had apparently already adjusted part of the system remotely, but the closer he got, the more he would be able to do. As Anderson had hoped, he would be able to make them invisible.

When the aircraft landed, Alyssa was surprised by Tomkin’s humanity when he allowed them a few brief moments together before Jack left. Tomkin, too old now for such an assault, would remain with Alyssa to keep an eye on her.

She knew she was unlikely to ever see Jack again, which made these last few moments so especially painful.

She pulled him close, looking into his deep blue eyes. ‘But I want you to know, whatever happens . . . I love you.’

And with that, she kissed him once on the lips and turned back inside the aircraft, not waiting to hear his answer.

It would have been too painful to bear.

During the flight, Anderson had been in touch with the director of Allenburg Airport. Upon landing, the entire team and their equipment were transferred to helicopters, which landed in hidden clearings in the forest just outside the base perimeter.

A control tent was set up in one of the clearings, where Tomkin took command of the radio communications equipment, enabling him to give direction from afar.

Alyssa was secured to a chair, and the soldiers received their final mission briefings and disappeared into the forest like silent wraiths, Jack right next to Colonel Anderson.

Alyssa’s face burned in the cold night air. All she could do now was sit and listen to the counter-attack as it unfolded live over the radio.

T
HE SOUNDS OF
violence that penetrated the cool mountain air were horrific.

Over the radio, Alyssa heard the screams of dying men alongside gunshots, explosions, and the shriek of tortured metal. Some of the same noises came to them through the surrounding trees too, echoing strangely. She heard the shouts of men issuing orders, fire commands, positions. She heard Colonel Anderson shouting at Jack, telling him to get the cameras sorted, how they were walking into a trap, an ambush . . .

Tomkin listened too, helplessly. He tried to issue orders over the radio, but to no avail. It was too hard to keep track of what was happening; there were too many people who had never worked with each other, following section leaders they had never met, putting into action a battle plan created on the run, against a completely unknown enemy force. It had been a recipe for disaster right from the start. But it had been all they had, and the first few minutes – after the teams had reached the perimeter and entered the base without sounding the alarm – looked positive. It seemed the electronic surveillance was on their side, and they might have some sort of chance.

Then the explosions had sounded, and Alyssa had seen the night sky light up through the trees. But it was too early to be their own troops, and Alyssa and Tomkin both realized that the teams had been compromised.

The firefight that subsequently broke out was terrifying in its intensity, and Alyssa shook with horror as she thought about Jack, there in the middle of it all without even a simple pistol to defend himself.

‘Come on, Jack!’ she heard Anderson shout over the live network. ‘Get that computer over here now!’

As he waited – presumably for Jack to get to him – Anderson reported back to Tomkin. ‘We’ve been ambushed, sir,’ he said desperately. ‘We’ve already lost most of our men. They must have known we were coming.’ He breathed heavily, and gunfire momentarily interrupted the transmission. ‘But I’ve made it as far as the radar array. I’ve still got two men and Jack with me. I— Jack! Jack!’ Anderson called, his report forgotten.

Alyssa’s heart stopped as explosions and gunfire drowned out Anderson’s screams, leaving only silence at the other end of the radio.

‘I’m going,’ Alyssa said.

Tomkin shook his head. ‘It’s out of the question. They’ve been defeated. We’ve lost them. The best thing we can do now is find some place to take cover. Even if they do use the weapon, this is going to be the last place to go, so we’ve got time. And what are you going to do anyway? Fifty men have just failed.’

Alyssa stood her ground, adamant. ‘I’ve got to go,’ she said. ‘I know he’s in there. I know he’s still alive.’

‘Murray?’ Tomkin asked in disbelief. ‘Not a chance. He didn’t even have a gun.’ He looked at Alyssa. ‘I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is.’

‘Look, General,’ Alyssa said. ‘You give up if you want to. What do you care now what I do? Just untie me and let me try.’

Tomkin sat back and considered her words, then leant forward and cut her restraints. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t matter to me what you do. I’ve got more important things to worry about.’

Alyssa inclined her head in thanks, about to race into the woods, but Tomkin put a hand to her chest to stop her. ‘But please,’ he said, holding a pistol out towards her, ‘at least take my gun.’

Twenty minutes later, Alyssa wondered what the hell she was doing.

She had remembered the cliff from her previous visit, how she had been told that it was all but unclimbable, and how guards didn’t even bother to patrol that section of the fence line.

She knew that the assault teams had not chosen this route but tried to enter from the three flat sides. She wasn’t surprised – time was of the essence, and such a climb could only be made by an expert. They couldn’t have taken the chance of losing people before they’d even made it to the base. But she had decided it was worth a shot, and she’d raced through the forest that encircled the facility, following the trails down in a wide, sloping arc to the foot of the cliff.

She gazed up at it now with foreboding. It looked treacherous as hell. She rotated her head, her neck clicking, then shook her entire body, getting the blood pumping, the adrenalin flowing. She knew adrenalin would be her friend on the cliff face.

But she found it hard to move, hard to take those first few tentative steps. Scenes from the past flashed before her eyes – falling in the tractor from the top of the cliff just a few days before; another cliff, the one she had been climbing that day long ago, in other mountains; her race up the ladder to the chair lift cables; Anna’s death scream filling the valley.

She snapped out of it, forcing herself to look at her watch. Just half an hour to go before Spectrum Nine would be switched on. For a horrifying second, she vividly recalled the radar array blasting that beam of concentrated energy up into the sky just a few short days before, a reversed bolt of lightning that had presaged the destruction of an entire island and many thousands of people.

And then she set off up the sheer, icy rock surface, her face set in grim determination.

F
OR THE NEXT
twenty minutes, Alyssa climbed like she had never climbed before. Barely daring to breathe for fear the passage of air would push her off the treacherous surface, she traced her hands along the icy rock to pick out tiny fissures, small imperfections in the wall which would have been unnoticeable to most other people. On any other occasion they may well have been unnoticeable to her; but tonight, she was filled with a startling clarity of vision. Indeed, it was as if her very fingers could see, and her feet too. She was almost becoming one with the cliff face, as if she had climbed it every day of her life, she knew it so well.