Matthew Reilly - Area 7

the president of the united states moved cautiously up

the ramp that linked Level 5 to Level 4, surrounded by three

Secret Service agents, four United States Marines and a lone

bookish scientist.

At the top of the ramp was a large retractable grille--

kind of like a garage door mounted horizontally.

Juliet Janson hit a switch on the wall and the horizontal

door began to slide open, revealing ominous darkness

above it.

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Matthew Reilly

"RAMP DOOR IS OPENING ..." ONE OF THE TENTH SQUADRON

commandos inside the Level 4 decompression area whispered

into his radio mike.

The other nine members of Alpha Unit were arrayed

around the eastern section of the floor in various hiding

places--their guns focused on the ramp in the center of the

room. With their half gas masks and night-vision goggles

they looked like a gang of insects waiting for the kill.

The horizontal door slid slowly open, casting a wide

beam of light up into the darkened room. The only other

light in the area came through the section of glass at the top

of the wall which divided this level in two.

"Stay out of sight until they're all up on level ground,"

Kurt Logan said from his position. "No one gets out alive."

the two secret service agents Curtis and Ramondo

stepped up into the semi-darkness first, armed with their

Uzis. They were followed by Calvin Reeves and Elvis.

The President came next, with Juliet Janson by his side.

He held a small SIG-Sauer P-228 pistol awkwardly in his

hand. Juliet had given it to him, just in case.

Behind them came the scientist, Herbert Franklin, and

bringing up the rear, Book II and Love Machine, both armed

with pump-action shotguns.

As soon as he stepped up into the semidarkness, Book

II didn't like it.

Various structures loomed around them. To his immediate

right, on the southern side of the enormous room, was a

long hexagonal chamber. To his left, shrouded in deep

shadow, he saw eight telephone-booth-sized chambers. In

the hazy light filtering through from the other side of the floor, he could just make out a series of catwalks high up

near the ceiling, twenty feet above the floor.

As soon as Book II stepped clear of the floor-level doorway,

its horizontal door slid smoothly back into place near

his feet, sealing the exit.

Calvin had hit a switch in the floor nearby, closing it.

area 7 137

Book II swallowed. He would have preferred to keep

that door open.

He flicked on a heavy police flashlight he had taken

from the Level 5 anteroom. Holding it under the barrel of his

shotgun, he played its beam over the room around them.

Calvin Reeves assumed command of strategy.

"You two," he whispered to Curtis and Ramondo,

"check behind those telephone booths, then take the stairwell

door. Haynes, Lewicky, Riley"--he said, using Elvis's,

Love Machine's and Book II's surnames--"the area behind

this decompression chamber, then secure that other door," he

pointed toward the dividing wall. "Janson. You and I stay

with the Boss."

Curtis and Ramondo disappeared in among the test

chambers, then, moments later, reappeared at the stairwell end.

"No one back there," Ramondo said.

Book II, Elvis and Love Machine entered the darkness

behind the decompression chamber. A narrow, empty section

of floor greeted them. Nothing.

"Clear back here," Book II said, as the three Marines

emerged from behind the long hexagonal chamber. They

headed for the door in the dividing wall.

Reeves was following standard tactics in close-quarter,

indoor engagements--where there is no sign of the enemy,

secure all exits, then consolidate your position.

It was his biggest mistake.

Not only because it limited his options for retreat, but

because it was exactly what Kurt Logan--already inside the

room--was expecting him to do.

while elvis and love machine headed for the dividing

wall, Book II played his flashlight over the thirty-foot-long

decompression chamber. It was absolutely huge.

At the end of the elongated chamber, he found a small

glass porthole, and shone his light in through it.

What he saw made him jump.

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Matthew Reilly

An Asian face stared back at him, a man's face, pressed

up against the glass.

The Asian man was smiling cheerfully.

And then he pointed up--toward the roof of the decompression

chamber.

Book II followed the man's finger with his flashlight

and peered up at the top of the decompression chamber--

--and found himself staring into the mantislike face of

a 7th Squadron commando wearing night-vision goggles

and a gas mask!

THE FLASHLIGHT WAS THE ONLY THING THAT SAVED BOOK II'S life.

Primarily because it blinded the man hiding on top of

the decompression chamber, if only for a moment. The man

shied away from the light as his night-vision goggles magnified

its beam by a factor of 150.

That was all the time Book II needed.

His shotgun boomed, blasting the commando's goggles

to pieces, sending him flying off the top of the chamber.

It was a small victory, for at that exact moment, gunfire

erupted around the darkened room as a legion of dark figures

emerged from their positions on top of the decompression

chamber and inside the telephone-booth-like test chambers

and rained hell on Book's hapless group in the center of the

floor.

OVER BY THE STAIRWELL DOOR, CURTIS AND RAMONDO WERE

assaulted by a barrage of P-90 gunfire from both flanks.

They were cut down where they stood, their bodies riddled

with bloody wounds.

Juliet Janson crash-tackled the President, hurling him to

the floor at the base of the decompression chamber, just as a

volley of rounds whistled past their heads.

Calvin Reeves wasn't so lucky.

The crossfire of bullets ripped into the back of his head,

and he jolted suddenly upright, then dropped to his knees, a

look of stunned dismay on his face--as though he had done

area 7 139

everything right, and still lost. Then his face smacked down

hard against the floor, right next to the spot where Herbert

Franklin lay with his head in his hands.

bullets sizzled through the air.

Juliet yanked the President to his feet, firing with her

free hand, dragging him toward the cover of the lab benches

over by the dividing wall, when suddenly she saw a 7th

Squadron commando rise up from the roof of the decompression

chamber and take aim at the President's head.

She brought her gun around. Not fast enough--

Blam!

The 7th Squadron man's head exploded, his neck snapping

backwards. His body tumbled off the decompression

chamber.

Juliet spun to see who had fired the killing shot, but

strangely she saw no one.

book II, elvis and love machine all dived together behind

a lab bench just as the benchtop was raked with gunfire.

They returned fire, aiming at three Air Force commandos

taking cover among the test booths.

But it quickly became clear that the Marines' makeshift

assortment of shotguns and pistols was going to be no match

for the rapid-fire P-90 machine guns of the 7th Squadron troops. The shelves around them shattered and splintered under the phenomenal weight of enemy fire.

Elvis ducked for cover. "Goddamn!" he yelled. "This is

seriously fucked up!"

"No kidding," Book II shouted. He shucked his pump

action and snapped up to fire, but when he appeared above