Matthew Reilly - Area 7

dancing up the slanted roof of the plane, heading

aft--toward the point where the rear section of the

downward-moving plane was about to swing past the rim

of the shaft.

He hit the rear edge of the plane's roof just as it

swooped past the rim and he jumped--diving forward, leaping

full-stretch--and landed with a thud, face-first, out of

the line of fire, on the main hangar's shiny concrete floor,

twenty feet away from Love Machine's crashed cockroach.

He looked up just in time to see the three 7th Squadron

commandos arrive at the cockroach's door.

love machine sighed as he saw the muzzle of a P-90 Assault

rifle appear a few inches in front of his face.

The features of the 7th Squadron commando holding

the gun were obscured by the soldier's half-faced gas mask,

but the man's eyes weren't covered. They glinted with satisfaction.

Love Machine closed his eyes, waited for the end.

Blam!

No end.

area 7 183

Confused, he opened his eyes again--to see his executioner,

now with only half a head, sway unsteadily on his

feet, and then fall in a kind of stunned slow motion to the

ground.

The other two commandos spun instantly, only to be cut

down by a ferocious volley of semiautomatic pistol fire.

They were hurled out of view and then to Love Machine's

complete surprise, he saw, standing in their place--The Scarecrow.

Dressed in his black 7th Squadron clothing.

"Come on," Schofield said. "Let's get you out of here."

BOOK II LANDED ON THE NONSKID DECK OF THE MINI-ELEVATOR,

next to Juliet and the President, eight feet below the

downward-moving main platform.

It was dark down here, in the shadow of the principal

platform.

As soon as they were all on the detachable deck, Juliet

hit a button on a small console built into its floor.

The detachable deck began to glide quickly down the

side of the shaft, traveling on its own set of wall-mounted

rails, moving faster than the gigantic main platform above it.

Pulling away.

SCHOFIELD BEGAN TO HAUL LOVE MACHINE OUT OF THE Cockroach.

As he did so, he saw several weapons strewn about the

exploded-open cockpit of Nighthawk Two--a couple of

MP-10's, some grenades, a chunky .44 caliber "Desert Eagle"

semiautomatic pistol, and, most pleasing of all for

Schofield, two gunlike weapons, still in their black-leather

back holsters, that must have spilled out of Nighthawk

Two's weapons cabinet when it had been blown apart earlier.

They looked like high-tech Tommy guns, each possessed

of a short stubby barrel and two handgrips. Sticking

out of each gun's barrel, however, was a chrome grappling

hook with a bulbous magnetic head.

It was the famous Armalite MH-12 Maghook, a grappling

hook which also contained a high-powered magnet for

adhesion to sheer metallic surfaces.

"Oh, yes ..." Schofield said, grabbing the two Maghooks

area 7 185

and handing one of them to Love Machine. He also grabbed

an MP-10, and the big Desert Eagle pistol, which he shoved

into his belt--

Ping!

At that moment, the doors to the nearby personnel elevator

abruptly opened--

--revealing ten fully armed 7th Squadron men!

Python Willis and the men of Charlie Unit.

Python's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he

saw Schofield standing so close and dressed in 7th Squadron

attire.

His men raised their P-90's instantly.

"Oh, shit!" Schofield said as he shoved Love Machine

back into the cockroach's driver's compartment and clambered

in there with him as a volley of bullets slammed into

the cockroach's frame.

Schofield jammed the stick into reverse--hoped to God

it would still go--and planted the gas pedal to the floor.

The cockroach squealed off the mark, its rear tires

smoking, shooting backwards out of the wreck of Nighthawk

Two, impact sparks chasing it across the floor.

The cockroach rushed across the hangar floor in reverse,

narrowly missing the edge of the elevator shaft as it

rocketed toward the now-abandoned barricade on the eastern

side of the shaft.

Schofield turned in his seat as he drove--saw the barricade

rushing toward him a second too late.

He hit the brakes and the big three-ton towing vehicle

did a wild 180-degree spin. The front end of the cockroach

came swinging around like a baseball bat and took out the

barricade with one devastating swipe, sending crates and

Samsonite containers flying everywhere.

The cockroach jolted to a halt.

In its driver's compartment, Schofield lurched forward.

When he looked up to see where he was, he was surprised to

see that, right next to his door, not three feet away, stood the

chair upon which sat the President's briefcase--the Football.

Holy shit.

186

Matthew Reilly

The briefcase's handgrip was still tethered to the floor

by the length of superstrong titanium cord, but now, since the

President had successfully reset its ninety-minute timer, it

had been abandoned by the 7th Squadron men, rightfully assuming

that the President's sole objective was now to get out.

So now the Football just sat there, alone, completely

unguarded.

Schofield saw the opportunity, and took it.

He leapt out of the driver's compartment and slid to the

floor beside the Football.

The men of Charlie Unit were charging across the

hangar, guns blazing, pummeling the exposed rump of the

cockroach with a million rounds of lead.

Sheltered by the big towing vehicle, Schofield brought

one of the tiny 7th Squadron Lock-Blasters out of his

pocket, attached it to the tie-down stud in the floor that held

the Football to the ground, hit the activate button, and dived

away.

One, one-thousand ...

Two, one-thousand ...

Three--

The blast was short and sharp.

With a loud crack! the tie-down stud broke free from

the floor, and suddenly the Football--with the length of titanium

cord still attached to it--was free.

Schofield scooped it up and dived back into the cab of

the cockroach, just as the first 7th Squadron men arrived.

Two of them leapt up onto the back of the cockroach,

landing on it at the exact same moment that Schofield

floored the accelerator and the cockroach took off, the sudden

lurch of motion sending one of the commandos falling

ass-over-head off the back of the towing vehicle.

The second man had better reflexes. He discarded his

P-90, giving himself an extra hand, and somehow managed

to hang on to the roof of the speeding vehicle.

Schofield swung the cockroach around the southern

side of the enormous elevator shaft--tires squealing, engine

roaring, and now with an extra passenger on its back.

area 7

He saw Marine One up ahead, standing on the western

side of the shaft, its rotor blades still turning.

That was where he wanted to go. Pull alongside Marine

One, race inside it and then leap down into its floor hatch

and escape into the ventilation shaft below it.

But his hopes were dashed when he saw the three black

clad men from Alpha Unit appear from the other side of the

Presidential helicopter, guns up.

Ready for him.

But for some reason, they didn't fire.

Why weren't they?

With shocking suddenness, the small rear window of

the driver's compartment behind Schofield's head exploded

all around him, showering Schofield and Love Machine

with glass, and a pair of black-gloved hands appeared on either