Aftershock (31 page)

The first thing Steph and Josh heard as they entered the base was the blared warning telling them the place was under cyber attack.

‘On the ball, this computer,' Josh said.

‘Yeah, but don't get too cocky,' Steph retorted and led him to the left along a corridor. They had their stun pistols drawn and were moving along the passageway commando style, crouching low, listening intently. Josh checked his watch. He nodded to Steph and they stopped and pulled back to the wall.

A low hum filled the corridor and the entire base began to shake. The hum changed into a growl and started to build. Then came a horrible grating sound, a screech and a loud bang.

‘Well, the Distractor's working,' Josh said. ‘Come on.'

They took the first bend carefully, hugging the wall and slithering around the corner, stun guns poised.

They knew where they were going thanks to the schematic of the base Tom had uploaded. A right at the end of the corridor, then a left and they could see the final turn that would take them to the storeroom.

Steph led and eased herself along the wall. The cacophony from the Distractor was deafening. Then another alarm sounded, a high-pitched wail that resonated along the corridor cutting through the racket. The floor shook and Josh almost lost balance. He grabbed at the wall to steady himself. Steph peeked around the corner and pulled back. ‘One guard,' she said. Then, before Josh could respond, she had taken a step forward, crouched and fired her stun gun. The guard collapsed, unconscious.

Steph tugged at the handle to the storeroom. It was locked. Tom obviously had not managed to deactivate the security systems this far in. She stepped back, touched a control at the wrist of her cybersuit. The vector-laser slithered out of her suit. She touched a control on her wrist again and a high energy beam hit the lock and vaporised it in a millisecond.

Josh kicked the door and it flew inwards.

Steph almost fell over a body lying close to the entrance. She caught herself and crouched down. It was Harry Flanders. He was unconscious.

Steph looked up and saw Josh run across the room to where two children lay on their backs, damp rags over their mouths. Then she saw Mark staggering towards her. He looked terrible. ‘Help me get them into the hall,' he gasped.

Steph caught a glimpse of Pete. He was leaning over Mai, bringing her round and helping her to her feet. Turning, Steph helped two more survivors into the corridor, checked each of them with the medscanner and got them to sip some water. Then she went back into the storeroom. Pete and Mai were stumbling towards her, each helping out a semi conscious survivor. Pete had his stun pistol in his spare hand. The machine gun was slung over Mai's left shoulder.

Within 20 seconds, everyone was out except Michael Xavier and Miguel Bandonis. Josh ran back into the room. He crouched down beside the two unconscious men, then straightened and grabbed each of them by a leg, sliding them roughly across the metal floor. Mark appeared at his side, gasping into the wet cloth at his mouth.

‘I'm okay, Mark. Get out,' he said. But the E-Force leader ignored him, dragged Bandonis out through the door as Josh pulled Michael Xavier clear of the room.

The screech of the alarm ricocheted along the passageway. The survivors lay where they had collapsed on the floor, coughing and wheezing, eyes streaming. Steph was crouched down between Emily and Nick. She ran a medscanner across the girl's head and down her body then repeated the action with Nick. They were both coming to. Nick tried to sit up.

‘Sssh,' Steph said gently. ‘Take it easy.'

‘My mum and dad...'

Steph looked around and saw Hilary sitting up against the wall a few feet away, coughing. Mark was helping Michael to his feet. ‘They're going to be fine.'

Mark approached. ‘Good timing, Steph,' he said. ‘Now, we've got to get these people out.' He led the way, helping Michael Xavier. The others took two civilians each.

The Distractor stopped suddenly, and a moment later the base alarm cut out abruptly.

They all froze.

A deathly silence.

Then a new computerised message started up. ‘Base will self-destruct in five minutes.'

Mark didn't say a word. He just ran on along the corridor as fast as he could.

Michael pulled away from Mark's grip. ‘I'm okay,' he said. ‘My family...'

‘They're all right,' Mark said and stole a glance back to see Pete immediately behind him with Hilary Xavier and Kristy Sunshine. Further back, the two children were stumbling along. Mark let Michael go and ran on to the next bend. He stopped. The others all came up behind.

‘Four minutes 30 seconds to self-destruct,' said the metallic voice.

‘Stay here,' Mark whispered to Pete, and slid around the wall. A few metres along the passageway there was another turn. Mark stopped before the bend and peered round. Directly ahead was a door marked: ‘DOCKING BAYS'. The door was slightly ajar. There was no one to be seen. He turned and crept back to the others.

‘What's the situation?' Michael Xavier asked.

‘The docking bays are just around the next bend. I couldn't see anyone.'

‘Let's go then.'

Mark put a restraining hand on Michael's shoulder. ‘Not so fast. Just because I didn't see anyone...'

Michael nodded and hung back. Mark dashed to Josh, who had been helping Archie and Miguel. ‘Josh, try Tom. See if he can do anything to stop the self-destruct program.'

Josh nodded and touched a control at his wrist. ‘Tom? Come in, Tom.'

‘Josh. This is Madeleine Alexander.'

‘Madeleine. We need Tom.'

‘He's on the CyberLink.'

‘He has to get to the self-destruct program.'

‘The self-destru...?'

‘We have less than four...'

‘I wouldn't bother, gentlemen.'

Josh and Mark snapped round. Mengde Sun was standing at the corner. He had a pistol gripped in his hands. ‘You must be the redoubtable Professor Josh Thompson. It's...'

‘Cut the crap, Mengde,' Mark barked. The Chief Scientist looked startled. ‘You going to try to shoot us all?'

‘Well, yes. I suppose so. Then I'll deactivate the self-destruct. I'm not the self-sacrificing type.' He took a step towards them. Michael Xavier stepped forward. Mai came up beside him and started to raise the machine gun.

‘Don't be silly, Ms Buchanan,' Mengde said. ‘Mr Harrison would be dead before you could get the gun horizontal.' He turned back to Mark.

Mai stopped moving.

Michael Xavier span round, and with lightning reflexes he grabbed Mai's gun.

Mengde was so startled, he turned from Mark, swinging his gun around.

Michael fired.

Bullets sprayed around the corridor.

Hilary and Kristy screamed. They fell to the floor, hands over their heads.

‘Warning: three minutes to self-destruct.'

A single shell smashed into Mengde's right eye sending him sprawling backwards along the corridor. Blood, like a dark fountain, cascaded through the air. The Chief Scientist landed against the wall in a heap and started to scream.

‘Come on!' Josh cried and pulled at two of the civilians. Pete dashed forward, helping Archie along the corridor.

The others ran on. Josh and Pete led the way, with Mark and Mai shepherding the survivors from the rear. Steph held back and crouched down beside Mengde's writhing body. She grabbed his chin to stop him moving. A quarter of his face was wrecked, the right eye gone. There was a groove 5 centimetres wide in the side of his head. He stopped moving.

Steph leaned in to check his pulse and Mengde suddenly jolted up, his hand at her throat.

Mark turned. Lifted his pistol and shot four bullets into Mengde's head.

‘Two minutes to self-destruct.'

Pete ran at the door to the docking bays, almost knocking it off its hinges.

Hilary and the two children were stumbling along a few paces back, with Josh close behind, helping Harry. ‘Madeleine!' Josh screamed into his comms.

‘Tom's onto it, Josh,' she replied.

The airlock lay directly ahead. Pete ran up to it. It was electronically sealed. He span round as Mai crashed through the door to the docking area with a group of survivors. Michael Xavier was behind her, his face white, expressionless. Hilary ran over to him and they gripped each other tight. Michael sobbed into his wife's shoulder.

‘It's over, Michael. It's over,' she said softly.

‘Josh. Your vector-laser,' Pete called over.

Josh dashed across the corridor, tapping at his wrist as he went.

‘Self-destruct in 90 seconds.'

‘Stand back,' Josh said, and put his hand out. A bright light shot from his wrist and hit the lock, melting it instantly.

Steph appeared around the corner just outside the door to the docking bay. Mark followed her. They could see everyone had gathered at the lock. Josh leaned on the door and it swung inwards. A few seconds later, they were all inside.

‘Self-destruct in 60 seconds.'

‘Madeleine!' Josh shouted into his comms.

‘I don't think...'

Mark dived for the inner door, and then on through the hatch into the
Drebbel
. ‘Everyone, get in ... NOW!' he yelled.

Steph led the others into the main passenger area. ‘Strap yourselves in, quick!' she said. ‘It's going to be a bumpy ride.' She helped Nick and Emily with their belts.

‘Self-destruct in 30 seconds.'

Josh ran after Mark, crashed into the control room and threw himself into the copilot's seat. Mark barely noticed him. He was running his fingers across the touch-sensitive panels. Two screens lit up showing the E-Force emblem. A hum came from the main engines. Mark depressed a control and the submarine started vibrating. The hum rose in pitch. He touched another control and the screens showed the external view. They were hooked up to the side of the base by two docking clamps. Ahead of them lay the open water.

‘How're we going to decouple?' Josh asked.

Mark ignored him for a second as he gave all his attention to the controls. Then he glanced at Josh. ‘Let's just pray Tom got this far into their system...'

‘Self-destruct in 15 seconds.'

Mark pulled back on a control and touched a pad on the right of the panel. There were two small explosions in quick succession. The sub juddered, and a deep, heart-shaking roar came from the rear of the vessel. The
Drebbel
shot forward, turned sharply to port and accelerated away from the Chinese base.

They felt the shock of the explosion 1.4 seconds after the base ripped itself apart. A great bubble of expanding air smashed into the rear of the
Drebbel
. It slithered along its sleek Maxinium outer shell and broke into random turbulence which the sub shot through with barely a vibration. Then came the debris, clumps of metal and plastic sprayed out from the heart of the explosion, spiralling through the water, and slowing. A piece of metal wall, half a desk and a door panel slammed into the covered engines of the
Drebbel
. They bounced off, leaving barely a scratch. Eleven seconds after detaching from the base, the E-Force sub was almost 200 metres away from the shattered complex.

Mark set the controls to ‘auto' and threw himself back in the pilot's seat. ‘Man, that was close,' he said.

‘So what's this? The post-mortem post-mortem?' Josh said lightly as he followed Mark into the E-Force leader's office. They had just left a meeting to run through the Neptune mission with all six members and some of the senior ancillary crew.

Mark indicated a chair in front of his desk and perched on the corner close to Josh. Josh crossed his arms and looked directly at Mark.

‘It's about the incident over China.'

‘Ah, yes, of course.'

‘I had a very long conversation with Senator Mitchell.'

‘Oh, how is my friend, Evan?'

‘He's pissed, Josh.'

Josh stared him out.

‘He's had an ear-bashing from Tito Manchetti, the Chief Moderator of the Security Council. Manchetti had been given a similar ear-bashing by the Chinese Ambassador, Mao Ying.'

‘Look ... Mark.'

Mark raised a hand, pulled himself to his feet, walked round his desk and sat down. ‘Josh, I could put it down to a spur of the moment impulsive action, but would that make things any better?'

Josh made to answer, but Mark cut in over him. ‘Steph has been trying to play it all down, claiming you only clipped Chinese airspace. But that's not what the BigEye records tell us. Furthermore, because of your actions a civilian, Howard, died, and we almost lost several more lives, yours and Steph's included. I won't even go into the loss of a $100 million Silverback. Most importantly, you very nearly destroyed the rescue mission, which would have cost more lives.'

‘But I didn't jeopardise the mission,' Josh managed to say. ‘I saved it.'

There was a silence for a moment, then Mark leaned forward on the desk. ‘But that's not the point, Josh, is it? You lucked out this time.'

Josh took a deep breath, feeling his anger build.

‘You know the rules, Josh,' Mark went on. ‘Why do you insist on flouting them?'

‘I put the mission first. I always do.'

‘But that's irrational. What you did undermines E-Force's image, its reputation. It not only endangered this mission, it endangered future rescues.'

‘That's absurd.'

Mark shook his head. ‘It is not absurd. E-Force survives on trust. We need the governments of the world on our side. They must be there to help us, to let us fly over their territory, to allow us free reign to do our job.'

‘The Chinese don't.'

‘No, they don't. But they are one of a tiny handful of nations that won't play ball. Some others are less than keen. I could name a dozen states teetering on the brink of withdrawing their cooperation. The Chinese are clearly unhappy about what you did and they are not going to keep quiet about it. I imagine you have noticed there is a little tension between China and the West at the moment.'

‘Don't be so patronising...'

‘And don't you be so ridiculous,' Mark snapped angrily.

‘I would've thought the Chinese might be glad a renegade like Mengde Sun was exposed.'

‘Oh yeah, Josh! They're thrilled! Makes them look great!'

Josh said nothing.

‘Besides, the research base at Hang Cheng is not the only facility in the empty wastelands of the Chinese-Mongolian border. It was a coincidence you were brought down by the beam. But not a major one. If it hadn't been that, it could have been something else – the area is littered with secret military establishments. Even ignoring that, you could have been picked up on radar. Questions would have been asked. It's a hot zone, Josh. Very hot. Why do you think the Chinese don't want us flying into their airspace?'

‘Okay,' Josh said slowly and calmly. ‘Then maybe, Mark, this issue should be brought out in the open.'

Mark was shaking his head, making a great effort to control his anger. ‘That's not your job.'

Josh stared at him, his own fury finally bursting through. ‘Oh, I see. So, it's just dandy for me and the others to risk our lives, to put ourselves in danger purely to save others, but it's not okay for us to have any say in politics. Is that how it is?'

‘Josh, you're being childish.'

‘But grown up enough to keep putting my life at risk?' he spat back.

Mark let the silence between them linger for a few moments. ‘I'm going to have to take disciplinary action,' he said eventually.

Josh stared at him, his mouth open. ‘Disciplinary action? What? Lines? Something for the silly child?'

‘You'll be replaced by a temporary backup for the next mission. One of the B-team is almost up to speed. I'm also docking your salary for three months.'

Josh looked at him, stunned. He produced an uncertain smile. ‘You're joking, right?'

Mark shook his head slowly. ‘I wish I could say I was, Josh. I hate having to do this, but you have to understand there are parameters to our behaviour. There are limitations, both for you and for me. We all have our masters.'

Josh shook his head. Then he stood up suddenly and brought his hand to his forehead as though pained. ‘Well ... nobody can say being part of E-Force is ever dull.' He took a deep breath. ‘But you know, Mark, I don't think I want to be part of all this any more.' He removed his E-Force ID badge and tossed it onto Mark's desk, watching it slide across the highly polished surface.

‘I quit,' he said.