Matthew Reilly - Area 7

lumbered up the wide concrete shaft.

It moved slowly, carrying the crumpled remains of the

crashed AWACS plane on its back.

The plane lay tilted forward, like a wounded bird, its

nose lower than its destroyed rear section, its broken wings

splayed wide. The plane's rotodome--still intact--towered

high above the whole sorry image.

The massive elevator rumbled up the greasy concrete

shaft.

As it passed the open doorway to the level 1 hangar

bay, however, three tiny figures quickly leapt off it, hustling

into the underground hangar.

It was Mother and Brainiac and, puffing along behind

them, Herbie Franklin.

They were heading for the central junction box that

Franklin had said was located in the Level 1 hangar bay, to

disable Area 7's camera system.

The hangar was deserted now, the 7th Squadron men

long gone. The two stealth bombers and the lone SR-71

Blackbird still stood silently in the cavernous space, like a

trio of sleeping sentinels.

Mother checked her watch as she skirted the left-hand

wall of the hangar.

8:20.

Ten minutes to get the President to the Football.

As she moved along the concrete wall, watchful for

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enemy soldiers, she saw a large box-shaped compartment at

the far end of it. The compartment's ten-foot-tall steel door

was twisted and bent, partially destroyed.

"Oh, yeah," she said.

"What?" Herbie asked from behind her.

"Our little run-in with the 7th Squadron up here earlier,"

Mother said. "They got a couple of Stingers off--one hit

that compartment, the other punctured some water tanks inside

the wall over by the personnel elevator."

"Oh," Herbie said.

"Let's see what's left," Mother said.

upstairs, the giant elevator platform rose slowly into

the main hangar.

The remains of the AWACS plane appeared first, rising

above the rim of the square-shaped shaft.

Then the exploded rear section of the fuselage ...

... followed by the intact rotodome ...

... then the snapped wings ...

The rest of the battered plane rose slowly into view and

then, with a loud boom!, the platform came level with the

hangar floor and stopped.

There was a long silence.

The ground-level hangar bore the scars of the battle that

had taken place there nearly an hour and a half before.

Marine One--still attached to its towing vehicle--stood

on the western side of the elevator platform, while its semi

destroyed sister chopper, Nighthawk Two, and its cockroach

stood on the northern side of the platform, over by the personnel

elevator.

On the eastern side of the AWACS plane, however,

stood something entirely new: a team of ten 7th Squadron

commandos--Bravo Unit--positioned in between the elevator

platform and the internal building, standing inside a

semicircular barricade of wooden crates and Samsonite containers.

On a chair in the center of the barricade sat a familiar

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stainless-steel briefcase, folded open, revealing a series of

red and green lights, a keypad, and a flat-glass analyzer

plate.

The Football.

Captain Bruno "Boa" McConnell--the gray-eyed

leader of Bravo Unit--gazed at the crumpled AWACS plane

suspiciously.

The broken plane just sat there in the center of the enormous

hangar--silent, unmoving--a great big pile of junk.

More silence.

"HOW'S IT GOING DOWN THERE, MOTHER?" SCHOFIELD'S VOICE

whispered in Mother's earpiece, borrowed from one of the

dead Secret Service agents.

Down on Level 1, Mother surveyed the damaged electricity

junction box in front of her. Fully half the switchboard

had been destroyed by the missile impact. The other

half was a mixed bag--some parts were intact, others were

just mounds of melted wires. At the moment, Herbie

Franklin was tapping the keys on a computer terminal that

had survived the impact.

"Just a second," she said into her wrist microphone.

"Yo, Poindexter. What's the story?"

Franklin frowned. "It doesn't make sense. Somebody's

been here already, about twenty minutes ago at eight

o'clock. They cut the main power. The whole base is running

on auxiliary power ..."

"Can you cut the cameras?" Mother asked.

"Don't have to. They were shut down when the main

power was disabled." Herbie turned to face Mother.

"They're already off."

UP IN THE MAIN HANGAR, THE REGULAR ELEVATOR'S DOORS

opened.

Out of the lift stepped Kurt Logan and the three other

survivors from Alpha Unit. They met up with Boa McConnell

and the men of Bravo Unit.

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"What's happening?" Logan asked.

"Nothing ..." Boa replied. "Yet."

"--control, this is charlie leader" python willis's

voice said over the control room's speakers. "There's no one

down here on Level 4."

"--Copy, Charlie Leader. Bring your team up to the

main hangar in the personnel lift. Echo, stay down there.

Caesar wants you roving around the lower levels. We've lost

all camera visuals and we need some eyes down there--"

on level 1, mother keyed her wrist mike. "scarecrow,

this is Mother. Cameras are down. Repeat: Cameras are down. We're heading for the aircraft elevator shaft." "Thanks, Mother."

"all right, we're in business," schofield said, turning

to the President, Book II and Juliet. They were in a dark

place.

He looked at his watch:

8:25:59.

8:26:00.

This was going to be close.

"Fox, Elvis, Love Machine, get ready. On my mark. In

three ..."

THE MAIN HANGAR WAS SILENT.

"Two ..."

Marine One stood about thirty feet away from the

wreck of the AWACS plane, shining in the harsh artificial

light.

"One ..."

The men of Bravo Unit eyed the shattered AWACS bird

cautiously, guns up, trigger fingers tensed.

"... mark."

Schofield pressed a button on a small handheld unit--it

was the remote detonation switch for one of the RDX-based

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grenades that he had found on the 7th Squadron men in the

decompression room. Pound for pound, aluminized RDX is

about six times more powerful than C4--it blows big and it

blows wide, a superblasting charge.

As soon as he hit the button, the RDX charge that he

had left in the cockpit of the AWACS plane exploded--blasting outwards, showering the hangar with a star-shaped

rain of glass and shrapnel.

AND THEN EVERYTHING HAPPENED AT ONCE.

the men of bravo unit dived away from the explosion.

Sizzling-hot pieces of the plane's cockpit shot low over

their heads, lodging in the barricade all around them like

darts smacking into a corkboard.

As they clambered back to their feet, they saw movement,

saw three shadows climb out from the air vent underneath

Marine One.

"There!" Boa pointed.

One of the shadows ran out from beneath the President's

helicopter, while the other two slithered up through a

hatch in its underbelly.

A moment later, Marine One's engines roared to life.

Its tail boom folded into place from its stowed position,

as did its rotor blades. No sooner were the rotor blades extended

than they began to rotate, despite the fact that the

President's helicopter was still attached to its towing vehicle.

Gunfire erupted as the lone Marine who had dashed out

from underneath the chopper—Love Machine—disengaged

the cockroach attached to its tail and climbed inside the towing

vehicle's tiny driver's cabin.

"What the fuck ... ?" Kurt Logan said as the cockroach