Matthew Reilly - Area 7

The giant AWACS plane stood in the center of the vast

hangar, surrounded by the ring of 7th Squadron commandos.

"This isn't the situation I was hoping for," Schofield

said.

"How do they keep knowing where we are?" Mother

asked.

Gant looked at Schofield. "I would imagine a base like

this is wired up the kazoo."

"Agreed," Schofield said.

"What are you talking about?" Mother said.

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"Cameras," Schofield said. "Surveillance cameras.

Somewhere in this base, someone's in a room watching a

bank of monitors and telling these guys where we--"

Whump!

There came a heavy thump from somewhere outside.

Gant peered out through the window in the escape door.

"Shit! They're on the wing!"

"Oh, Christ!" Schofield said, "they're going for the

doors ..."

He exchanged a look with Gant.

"They're going to storm the plane," he said.

they looked like ants crawling over a toy airplane.

Eight 7th Squadron men--four to each side--stalking along

the wings of the giant Boeing 707.

Captain Luther "Python" Willis, commander of the 7th

Squadron's third sub-unit, Charlie Unit, stood on the hangar

floor, watching his men move along the wings of the stationary

plane.

"The Avengers are on the way up," his master sergeant

said.

Python said nothing, just nodded coldly.

inside the AWACS plane, schofield was charging down

the central aisle, checking the plane's rear entry points. Gant

and Brainiac manned the two side windows.

"There's nobody back here!" Schofield called from the

aft section of the plane, where there were two emergency

doors. "Fox!"

"I got four on the left wing!" Gant yelled.

"I got four on the right!" Brainiac said.

"Mother!" Schofield called.

No answer.

"Mother!"

Schofield strode quickly through the main cabin, moving

forward.

There was no sign of Mother anywhere. She was supposed

to be checking the plane's forward entrances--the

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bail-out door in the floor of the forward cabin, and the roof

hatches in the cockpit above the pilots' ejection seats.

As he hurried forward, Schofield looked out through the

nearest window, saw the armed commandos on the left-hand

wing.

He frowned. What were they doing out there?

They couldn't just burst in through the wing doors.

Even with their nickel-plated pistols, Schofield and his

Marines could easily repel a single-file entry through such a

small entrance.

It was at that moment, however--out through the window

in the side door of the Boeing 707--that he saw the

Avengers.

There were two of them and they entered the hangar bay

from the vehicle access ramp at the far eastern end of the

floor.

The Avenger air-defense vehicle is a modified Humvee.

It has the basic wide-bodied chassis of a Humvee, but

mounted on its back are two square-shaped pods, which

each hold four Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Attached to

the underside of these missile launchers is a pair of powerful

fifty-caliber machine guns. It is basically a highly efficient,

highly mobile airplane killer.

"Okay, now I know what they're going to do," Schofield

said aloud.

They were going to blast the plane with the Stingers and

then, in the smoke and confusion that followed, make a

forced entry.

Good plan, Schofield thought. And very painful for him

and his three Marines.

The two Avengers split up as they raced across the

wide-open floor of the hangar, one heading for the right

flank of the AWACS, the other heading for the left.

Schofield saw them go, disappearing from his limited

field of vision.

Shit.

He had to do something, and fast--

VROOOM!

Area 7 109

The wing-mounted engines of the AWACS plane thundered

to life. In the enclosed space of the hangar, their roar

was positively deafening.

Schofield spun where he stood. "Mother," he said.

the avengers skidded to a halt on either side of the

AWACS plane just as the massive Boeing 707 began to roll

forward, its engines filling the hangar with the thunderous

roar of blasting air.

At the sudden movement of the plane, the eight men on

its wings were jolted off balance.

Schofield charged into the cockpit of the AWACS.

Mother was sitting in the captain's seat.

"Hey there, Scarecrow!" she yelled above the din.

"Want to join me for a Sunday drive!"

"You ever driven a plane before, Mother?"

"I saw Kurt Russell drive one in a movie once! Hell, it

can't be much different from driving Ralph's eighteen

wheel--"

Whack-whack whack whack-whack!

A volley of bullets assaulted the windshield of the cockpit,

shattering it, sending glass flying all over Mother and

Schofield, the upwardly directed shots punching into the

ceiling.

And then Schofield saw one of the Avengers skid to a

halt off to the left of the AWACS plane, saw its twin missile

pods tilt upward on their hinges, getting ready to fire at the

cockpit.

"Mother! Quickly! Go left!" he shouted.

"What?" Going left would put them on a collision

course with the Avenger.

"Just do it!" Schofield leapt into the right-hand co-pilot's

seat and using the plane's pedal-operated steering controls,

Area 7

brought her hard to port, at the same time as he pushed forward

on the plane's thrusters.

The giant AWACS plane responded immediately.

It picked up speed, moving quickly inside the confines

of the enormous hangar, swinging sharply to the left--heading

directly for the Avenger.

The 7th Squadron men on the Avenger saw what was

going to happen.

Abandoning their efforts to get a lock on the plane with

their Stingers, they dived from the missile-mounted Humvee

a bare second before the enormous forward wheels of the

Boeing thundered right over the top of the Avenger, crushing

it like a tin can, rolling over its crumpled remains like a

monster truck at a car rally.

"Yee-hah!" Mother yelled as the airplane bounced

wildly over what was left of the Humvee.

"It's not over yet," Schofield said. "There's still another

one out there. Fox! Where's that other Avenger!"

Gant and Brainiac were still in the main cabin of the

AWACS, covering the wing-entry doors on either side of the

plane--Gant with her MP-10, Brainiac with his Beretta.

"It's behind us to the left!" Gant yelled. Out her window,

she saw the Humvee on the hangar floor outside, over

by the northern wall, its missile pods raised and ready. Then,

without warning, there came a puff of smoke from one of the

pods.

"Bracing positions!" she called. "Missile away!"

There came a sudden monstrous explosion and abruptly

the whole AWACS plane shuddered violently as its rear

wheels were lifted clear off the ground.

Billowing smoke rushed into the main cabin, shooting

forward from the rear as the giant plane came back down to

earth, jouncing on its suspension.

"They've hit our tail!" Gant yelled.

It was worse than that.

The second Avenger had reduced the entire tail section

of their 707 to a smoking, gaping hole. The high tail fin of

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the plane lay bent and broken on the floor of the hangar,

completely detached from the plane.

The AWACS continued to turn in a wide circle, its massive

wheels rolling quickly, at the same time as it was pummeled

by a continuous rain of fire from the 7th Squadron