The Seraphim Sequence: The Fifth Column 2 (40 page)

‘You have a great many devices at your disposal,’ Abraham said. ‘I’m sure you can find one to accommodate the situation without endangering the lives of good, honest Americans.’

She realized he was talking about the smaller EMP and explosive charges they’d prepared for the Seraphim super-array. ‘Those devices are for the OpCenter. Even all of them together wouldn’t make a dent in that tunnel. We need the big one and we need it ASAP. You have a team in the control tower. TRACON are going to wise up any minute now as to why everything’s being redirected. When that happens, we’ll have a pretty volatile situation on our hands. If we don’t—’

‘This is not the path, Sophia,’ Abraham said. ‘You don’t want to revel in sin.’

‘Oh, Jesus Christ. You’ve got to be kidding me.’

‘He can help you,’ Abraham said. ‘But only if you let him.’

Sophia wanted to strangle Damien and Jay for bringing him along.

‘Yeah, well the EMP can help us too,’ Jay cut in. ‘If only you’ll let it.’

‘We all sin,’ Abraham said, ‘in times of war and in times of peace. But we can still make the right choice. Sophia, you can make the right choice.’

‘Colonel,’ she said, ‘if you let the Seraphim super-array come online, there won’t be any war and there won’t be any peace. And the only person who will have sinned is you.’

‘There is no payoff for cutting corners on morality.’

It was becoming painfully clear that trying to talk Abraham out of this was a waste of time. There were two detonators for the EMP: the main detonator was with the EMP itself and Grace carried the backup, which wouldn’t work from deep inside the automated transit tunnels. Grace would need to pull back to the West Garage to detonate it, and even then it required a few minutes of preliminary setting up that couldn’t be done remotely.

‘I suppose I have no choice then,’ Sophia said. ‘Changeover.’

The last was a specific instruction that only Damien, Jay, DC, Nasira and Chickenhead knew. Sophia switched over to a different, encrypted channel and waited for everyone to do the same.

‘Report in,’ she said.

Damien said his name and Jay’s too, followed by Chickenhead.

‘Chickenhead, I need you and Grace to get to that tunnel and be ready to open the door,’ Sophia said.

‘Uh, OK. Without the others?’

‘We can’t wait,’ she said. ‘Just do it. Oh, and tell Grace our channel and encryption.’

If she wanted Grace on her good side, she needed to yield and trust her.

DC wasn’t reporting in and neither was Nasira. Sophia didn’t bother with the radio any further. She shouldered her way through the crowds—now madly rushing to the security checkpoint for their flights—and found Damien and Jay looking decidedly concerned.

‘Where’s Nasira?’ she asked.

‘Still in Garage West, I think,’ Damien said.

‘So I’m guessing Nasira, Denton and the EMP are being held captive by our friends of Jesus,’ Jay said.

Sophia rolled her eyes. ‘OK, here’s what I need you to do. Recon Garage West and don’t be seen.’

‘On it,’ Jay said.

Grace and Chickenhead, clothed as police officers, moved into Concourse B. The greatest benefit of impersonating law enforcement was being able to conduct surveillance without attracting suspicion. It also meant you could go places you would otherwise be denied access. And that was about to work in their favor.

Grace stood on the underground train platform, intentionally placing herself next to a wall-mounted fire extinguisher. Chickenhead stood beside her, hands in pockets because she’d told him to. He was fidgeting with all that nervous energy and it was irritating her. The trains were automated, moving at regular intervals. She timed it on her watch. Ninety seconds between each train, give or take three seconds. She looked up as a new train arrived. The doors separating the platform from the train opened in tandem with the precisely aligned train doors. Commuters poured in and out.

The train departed, shuttling down the tunnel. Moving quickly, Grace grabbed the fire extinguisher and made for the platform doors. She took the pry bar from Chickenhead’s daypack, hidden underneath a high explosive charge Aviary had made for them, and pulled the metal doors open a crack. Chickenhead used his hands to open them wider. She slipped the pry bar back in his daypack, slung it over her shoulder, took the fire extinguisher in one hand and then stepped down onto one side of the track. It was smooth and concrete, nothing like the New York subway. She stepped carefully over the center rail and to the other side, Chickenhead following. There was a concrete walkway on the other side, elevated by a few feet. She pulled herself up and then hauled Chickenhead up.

‘What’s the fire extinguisher for?’ he asked.

‘I don’t have time to pick a lock, so this will have to do,’ she said.

She started running. Chickenhead kept pace behind her. The tunnel was lit sporadically by blue and green lights. She had the detailed tunnel map in her pocket, but the more she could rely on the map in her head, the better.

She soon found what she was looking for: the automated guideway transit system maintenance shed. In fact, it wasn’t precisely what she was looking for, but it was a good marker. Fifty feet shy of the shed there was a fire door. She slammed the bottom of her fire extinguisher down on the doorknob. It snapped off. Chickenhead opened the door, which led them into the first service tunnel. From there, they looked for the second tunnel.

This door was a little more difficult to access. Grace removed the General’s silicon fingerprint, courtesy of Denton, and pressed it against the fingerprint scanner. As long as there wasn’t a retina scanner after this door, she was in the clear. And according to Denton, there shouldn’t be.

The red light flicked to green and the door lock released. Before turning the handle, she used her hexachromacy to take a quick look
through
the door. She spotted a suspicious protrusion in the ceiling about fifty feet ahead, and another on the side. Sensors and cameras, just as she’d suspected.

She let go of the door handle. ‘This is as far as we go until the EMP is about to detonate.’

‘And what if it doesn’t?’ Chickenhead said.

‘I’m still working on that.’

***

Sophia was in the painfully extended queue at the security checkpoint, false boarding pass and passport in hand, when Jay reported in.

‘Nasira, Aviary and Denton are being held captive by Abraham’s resistance guys,’ he said into her earpiece. ‘There’s a shitload of them. We can pull this off, but we’ll need more than a few minutes.’

‘Shit,’ Sophia said. She pulled out her cell phone as cover. ‘We don’t have that time. Wait one.’ She switched frequencies. ‘This is Sophia. Abraham, I’ve thought about what you said.’

Abraham was quick to respond. ‘Sophia, I’m very pleased to hear you’ve given this serious thought.’

‘I agree with you,’ she said. ‘It’s the right thing to do.’

For a moment she thought he wouldn’t reply, but finally his voice crackled in her ear.

‘You’re doing the right thing, Sophia. I want you to know that.’

‘But I want something in return,’ she said. ‘I’ll leave it alone as long as you give me my people back.’

‘I can’t do that,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, but there’s nothing stopping you from mounting an attack on my men and attempting to trigger the EMP. As much as I want to trust you, I did not become a colonel by placing my faith in those who have no faith in themselves.’

Well, that didn’t work, she thought.

‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Give me Nasira. I need her to continue.’

There was a short pause as he considered her request.

‘I’ll give you Denton,’ he said. ‘Nasira will stay with my soldiers. I need to be confident that you won’t try anything untoward. I need my leverage, I hope you understand.’

Sophia swallowed. ‘Send him into the terminal. I’ll meet him there.’

‘He will be accompanied by two of my men,’ Abraham said. ‘That’s not negotiable.’

‘That’s wonderful,’ she said. ‘I look forward to meeting them again.’

She checked her watch and switched channels again. ‘Boys, hold tight. I have a plan.’

She picked up her duffel bag and abandoned her place in the queue, catching Denton downstairs at the east entrance to Jeppesen terminal. He was already in police uniform and ready to join the advance team; at least, he was before Abraham fucked things up. She walked with him, acting naturally. A pair of resistance men walked awkwardly close behind them. Whatever their training was, it clearly didn’t extend to the fields of intelligence or surveillance.

She steered Denton into the thickest part of the crowd, forcing the resistance men back a step. She leaned in and shoved a radio into his pocket and told him the frequency of the closed channel. When the resistance men caught up, she returned to the end of the security checkpoint queue.

She held her cell to her ear and spoke into the radio. ‘Denton.’

‘Yeah,’ he said casually.

She watched him move through the crowd with his resistance men in tow. ‘Listen to me. I need  …’

She paused as four police officers rushed past her, pushing past Denton too. She watched them move through to the east entrance, heading out to Garage West.

‘That doesn’t look good.’ She switched back to the open channel. ‘There’s a whole lot of cops heading out to Garage West, do you know what’s going on?’ she asked.

That should give the resistance a heads-up. As much as she wanted them off her back, letting the police surround them wasn’t going to help her operation. She listened to the operation’s open channel as it quickly filled with activity: Abraham’s men scrambling to relocate. When she switched back to the private channel, she caught the end of Jay’s words.

‘—moving south,’ he said.

Sophia pulled her cell to her ear as cover. ‘Say again?’

‘Abraham’s men are moving the van out of Garage West,’ Jay said.

‘Denton,’ she said, ‘I need your help stopping that van.’

She made eye contact with Denton in the crowd. He gave her a curt nod, then pivoted suddenly to face his resistance escorts. She watched as, amidst the turmoil of the compressed crowd, they crumpled to the floor. Denton strode away. She tore through the crowd, catching him as he exited the terminal through the south entrance. It was still dark outside.

‘Um, Sophia,’ Jay said over the radio. ‘Things just got … kind of fucked up.’

She couldn’t imagine how this could fuck up any further.

‘What’s happening?’ she yelled as she ran.

‘Abraham’s men just opened fire on the cops,’ Jay said. ‘They’re shooting it out on the north end of Garage West.’

She could hear the tinny pop of pistol fire in the background of his radio transmission.

‘Get back to the terminal!’ she shouted. ‘Jay, Damien, back to the terminal! Line up at security checkpoint. I’ll be there soon!’

Denton drew his pistol on a passing driver and ordered him out of his car. He climbed in, glaring at Sophia impatiently as she slid over the hood and climbed in the other side. He was already accelerating as she jumped in. The door closed of its own accord and Sophia decided it might be a good idea to draw her pistol and buckle her seatbelt.

DC’s voice filled her ear. ‘What else would they be?’ he shouted.

She’d almost forgotten about his situation in the FAA control tower.

‘They’re sending in troops to take us down!’ someone else in the tower said.

It took a moment for Sophia to realize DC was secretly transmitting the control tower conversation over the private channel. Whether he was cuffed or standing at gunpoint, he’d somehow found a way to communicate with her.

‘In finger-four formation? At 20,000 feet and only 150 miles per hour?’ DC said. ‘I don’t think so, buddy.’

‘Hey, did anyone ask you?’ the jaguar knight said. ‘They’re coming in to land. One of you controllers, get in contact with them. We need to know who they are.’

‘Found the van!’ Denton shouted next to her.

He steered toward the spiral off ramp at the end of Garage West. In the middle of the spiral Sophia saw the black van that contained the EMP, carefully making its way down the ramp and out of the parking lot. Denton steered toward the exit at the bottom of the ramp.

Sophia spoke into her mic, hoping DC could hear her. ‘Where are the planes, DC?’

‘Twenty miles south,’ he said. ‘And they’re not responding.’

Sophia could hear in his voice that he was slightly on edge.

‘I told you, it’s troops, man,’ the jaguar knight said.

‘Maybe they’re not responding because there’s no pilot,’ DC said. ‘Ever think of that?’

‘Listen, wise ass,’ the knight said, ‘if I want your opinion I’ll fucking ask for it. Until then, shut the fuck up.’

The van was almost at the bottom of the off ramp. Denton accelerated, taking the corner hard and barreling up the ramp, cutting the van off before it could escape. He pulled the car up sidelong in front of the van, leaped out and climbed onto the sunroof, aiming his pistol at the driver. Sophia drew her pistol, but she could only aim through a tiny gap and it was unlikely she could take a shot at the driver or the passenger.

‘End of the line, gentlemen,’ Denton said.

‘DC,’ Sophia said, ‘I need you to tell me the moment the bombs launch—’

The van accelerated, smashing into their car. Denton got a quick shot off with his pistol and then jumped over the van’s windshield and onto the van’s roof. Sophia was still in the car as the van pushed it faster and faster down the winding off ramp. She stood up through the sunroof and aimed her pistol at the driver.

‘My opinion won’t be of much use you when they deploy Hellfire missiles,’ DC said to the jaguar. ‘Or worse, 1000-pound bombs.’

Sophia hoped it wasn’t the latter. If these were, as DC was suggesting, UCAS—unmanned combat air systems—flying on target for Denver International, that meant the Fifth Column were already aware of their location. It also meant they were likely to manufacture another terrorist attack and blame the carnage on Sophia and her team.

‘We need to get out of here,’ Damien said over the radio. ‘Or we’re toast.’

‘You and me both,’ Sophia said.

Denton was huggin the van roof as she aimed her pistol at the van’s driver. He ducked. She aimed lower, but his pistol popped into view and sprayed rounds at her. She dropped back down into the car.

‘I’m not leaving the airport until we destroy the Seraphim super-array!’ she yelled, acutely aware of the gearstick digging into her spine. ‘I’m not calling this off!’

‘You may not have a choice,’ Grace said in her ear.

She could barely hear the radio chatter over the screeching of metal against concrete. She looked through her window, not impressed to discover a fat concrete pillar at the end. Her car was being shoved right for it at an increasing speed.

‘And leave everyone here?’ she said. ‘Not now.’

She needed to get out through the sunroof. Before she could move, the car flipped onto its side, the sunroof pressing firmly against the van’s headlights.

‘Sophia, you are a stubborn bitch,’ Grace said over the radio. ‘Fortunately, so am I. And I’m in uniform. Which means I can trigger an airport-wide evacuation.’

‘Do it!’ Sophia yelled.

She wound down her window and stuck her head out, pistol aimed at the driver. He was already aiming at her. Before she could fire, his head slumped against the steering wheel, hitting the horn. Blood decorated the windshield.

Sophia looked up to see Denton standing atop the van, pistol cast downward. He’d shot the driver through the cabin roof. Sophia gave him a small nod.

Denton’s eyes widened. ‘Get down!’

She saw him flatten himself against the roof of the van. Without thinking, she pulled herself back into the sideways car and crawled into a ball, pistol and elbows out. She couldn’t see anything except through the narrow windshield, which offered a nice view of the concrete off-ramp wall beside her. Suddenly, a dog-like creature leaped down from the overturned car. In an instant she knew what it was. A Pariah. A mechanized support weapon remotely controlled by military operators; the ground equivalent of an unmanned aerial vehicle. And, like a UAV, it was equipped with an M16 assault rifle on top, which could be precisely aimed, fired and reloaded from a reservoir of drum magazines.

Sophia held her breath, watching in disbelief as the Pariah stalked past the windshield, its front and hind legs bending unnaturally inward. It disappeared from view, walking past the van. A moment later, a second Pariah pounced beside her, its exoskeleton glistening in the moonlight. She watched as it followed the first Pariah. She remained perfectly still, breathing slowly and as quietly as possible, as a third Pariah landed beside her and followed the others. They must be heading for Abraham’s men inside Garage West, which didn’t bode well. Outside of testing and experiments, the only military or intelligence service that used Pariahs was the Fifth Column. If they were out here in the open, even at night, the Fifth Column must have an extremely itchy trigger finger so close to the full demonstration of the Seraphim super-array’s capabilities.