Matthew Reilly - Area 7

mother stood inside the enormous hangar doorway

down on Level 1, looking up into the elevator shaft.

Two hundred feet above her, she could see the underside

of the massive aircraft platform, beyond which she

could hear the sounds of the battle.

She hit the call button, and immediately the giant elevator

platform high above her jolted sharply and slowly began

to descend.

UP IN THE MAIN HANGAR, THE SHATTERED REMAINS OF THE

AWACS plane--and the platform on which they stood-- began to disappear into the floor.

The elevator was going down.

Schofield, Book II, Juliet and the President charged toward

it, firing up at Marine One as they did so--acting like

good 7th Squadron soldiers.

IN THE CONTROL ROOM OVERLOOKING THE HANGAR, CAESAR

grabbed a microphone.

"Boa! Logan! The President is there! He walked right in

among you and hit the analyzer and now he's heading for the

elevator platform. For Christ's sake, he's wearing one of our

own goddamn uniforms!"

IN THE MAIN HANGAR, KURT LOGAN SPUN AROUND WHERE HE

stood, and he saw them--saw four 7th Squadron people

leaping down onto the slowly descending elevator platform,

now completely ignoring Marine One and the runaway

cockroach.

"The platform!" he yelled. "Bravo Unit! Converge on

the platform! Alpha, take out the helicopter and kill that

fucking cockroach!"

marine one was already swooping toward the ground

again--her diversionary mission accomplished.

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Gant landed the big chopper right where she had found

it--over the air vent in the floor on the western side of the elevator shaft--and with Elvis's help, she maneuvered the big

bird around so that her floor hatch stopped directly above the

ventilation shaft.

Once the helicopter was stopped, she leapt out of the

pilot's seat and headed for the floor hatch, while Elvis

dashed for the rear left-hand door and threw it open for

Love Machine.

love machine was in a world of pain.

His Volvo towing vehicle wasn't as bulletproof as Marine

One and he was taking all kinds of shit from the 7th

Squadron men.

Tires squealed, bullets impacted, glass shattered.

And now he had to get over to Marine One.

His biggest problem, however, was that he had just

swung his cockroach around for another pass at the 7th

Squadron men on the eastern side of the platform when

Schofield's call had come in.

He was now on the other side of the shaft from Marine

One, heading northward, and the elevator platform--now

sinking slowly into the shaft--was no longer there to drive

on.

He'd have to go around.

More bullets hit his cockroach as three 7th Squadron

commandos appeared right in front of him and assailed his

vehicle with a harrowing wave of gunfire.

Bullets riddled the driver's compartment.

Two slugs slammed into Love Machine's left shoulder,

spraying blood.

Love Machine roared.

A separate volley hit both of his front tires and they

punctured loudly, and suddenly he was skidding out of control,

sliding precariously close to the edge of the elevator

shaft and the now ten-foot drop to the slowly descending

platform.

Somehow, he didn't fall into the shaft. Instead, he

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bounced across the northeastern corner of the great square

hole, shooting past the 7th Squadron men who had hammered

him with gunfire, and slammed at tremendous speed

into the remains of Nighthawk Two, which still sat near the

northern wall of the hangar--attached to its own towing vehicle,

its cockpit blasted open--right where Book II had left

it ninety minutes earlier.

ELVIS SAW THE CRASH FROM HIS POSITION INSIDE MARINE ONE, saw Love Machine's cockroach plough into Nighthawk Two

and lurch to a thunderous halt, the bricklike towing vehicle

half-buried in the helicopter's crumpled side.

And then he saw the three 7th Squadron men rushing

toward the crashed cockroach.

"Oh, no ..." he breathed.

meanwhile, schofield, book II, juliet and the president-- still dressed in their black 7th Squadron uniforms--were

fighting their own unique kind of battle.

Since it was now descending into the square-shaped

shaft, the aircraft elevator platform had effectively become a

great walled pit, the four walls of the shaft bounding it on

every side. And with the remains of the AWACS plane still

strewn about the platform, it was also now a twisted steel

maze.

Seven members of Bravo Unit moved among the pieces

of the plane, searching for them, hunting them.

Schofield guided his people along the eastern edge of

the platform, leading the way, hurdling broken pieces of

plane, eyes watchful for the enemy, but searching the floor

for something else, something he had planted--

There.

The broken section of wing was right where he had left

it.

Schofield hurried over to it. It was resting on the ground

at the corner of the moving elevator platform, up against the

northern and eastern walls. With Book II's help, he lifted the

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portion of wing off the elevator's floor, revealing a wide

square hole in the platform.

The hole was about ten feet square. It was that part of the

platform that usually housed the detachable mini-elevator.

Right now, the detachable section of the elevator platform

lay about fifteen feet below them, farther down the

shaft--nestled in the corner, unmoving, waiting for them.

By placing the broken section of wing over the top of it

earlier, Schofield had ensured that the 7th Squadron didn't

know this exit existed.

It was their escape route.

"love machine! You still alive?" elvis yelled into his

mike from the cockpit of Marine One.

"Aw, fuck ..." came the pained reply.

"Can you move?"

"Get out of here, man. I'm gone. I'm hit and my ankle

was busted in the crash--"

"We don't leave anyone behind," another voice said

firmly over the same frequency.

It was Schofield's voice.

"Elvis. You and Fox get clear. I'm closer--I'll take care

of Love Machine. Love Machine, sit tight. I'm coming for

you."

ON THE DOWNWARD-MOVING ELEVATOR PLATFORM, SCHOFIELD

spun and looked upwards.

"What are you doing?" Book II asked.

"I'm going to get Love Machine," he said, eyeing the

destroyed fuselage of the AWACS plane above him. It was

still tilted sharply forward--nose down, ass up. The elevated

rear section of the plane was still above the rim of the hangar

floor. But not for long. Soon the downward movement of the

platform would bring it below the rim.

"Take the President down," he said to Book II and

Juliet.

"What are you going to do?" Juliet said.

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Matthew Reilly

"I'm going to get my man," Schofield said. "I'll meet

you downstairs."

With that he took off into the twisted metal forest

around them.

Book II and Juliet could only watch him go. And then

they set about their own task of leaping down to the detachable

mini-elevator in the shaft below them.

SCHOFIELD RAN.

Up the steeply sloping left-hand wing of the destroyed

AWACS plane.

He reached the top of the wing, then used some dents in

the side of the fuselage to climb up onto the battered plane's

roof. It was then that he was spotted by two of the Bravo

Unit men on the platform below him.

Their P-90 assault rifles erupted.

But Schofield never stopped moving. He just kept running,