Matthew Reilly - Area 7

"He had it when he appeared on the television sets before,

at the beginning of all this. It's red, handheld, with a

black stub antenna."

"Right then," Gant said. "Now all we have to do is find

his command center." She turned to Juliet. "Your people

have checked out this place. Any ideas?"

Juliet said, "The main hangar. In the building overlooking

the floor. There's a whole command-and-control room

up there."

"Then that's where we're going," Gant said. "So what

we do now is simple. First, we take Caesar Russell's command

center. Then, in between the search signals sent down

from the satellite, we use his initiate/terminate unit to turn

off the transmitter attached to the President's heart, while a

second later, we turn on the black box."

She gave the President a wry smile. "Like I said. Simple."

THE FIVE REMAINING MEMBERS OF CHARLIE UNIT WERE MOVING

quickly through a low concrete tunnel, all running in a

half-crouch.

Trotting along with them--and because of his height,

not needing to crouch--was Kevin.

Charlie Unit had just returned from Lake Powell, after

killing Botha, retrieving Kevin, and watching Schofield's

chopper drown.

They had parked their two Penetrators outside and were

now reentering the complex through an entrance that connected

the main facility with one of the outside hangars, an

entrance known as the "top door."

The top door's tunnel opened onto the rear of the personnel

elevator shaft, at ground level, by virtue of a foot thick titanium door.

Charlie Unit came to the heavy silver door.

Python Willis punched in the appropriate override code.

The top door was a special entrance to Area 7--if you were

senior enough to know the override code, you could open it

anytime, even during a lockdown.

The thick titanium door swung open--

--and Python froze.

He saw the roof of the personnel elevator parked just

below his feet, sitting right there in front of him.

And standing on top of it, was Cobra Carney and four

members of Echo Unit.

The other half of Echo, Python saw through the hatch in

the elevator's roof, were down in the car itself.

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Matthew Reilly

"Jesus, Cobra," Python said, "you scared the shit out of

me. Wasn't expecting to see you guys here--"

"Caesar told us to come get you," Cobra drawled.

"Make sure you all got in okay."

Python shoved Kevin forward, onto the roof of the

stopped elevator. "We lost five, but we got him."

"Good," Cobra said. "Very good."

It was then that--through the roof hatch of the elevator --Python saw four more men standing in the elevator car

with the Echo men.

Four Asian men.

Python frowned.

They were the four men who had been inside the decompression

chamber earlier that morning--7th Squadron

Captain Robert Wu and Lieutenant Chet Li, and the two

Chinese lab workers. The men who had brought the latest

strain of the Sinovirus back to Area 7.

"Cobra, what's going on?" Python said suddenly, looking

up.

"Sorry, Python," Cobra said.

And with that he gave a short nod to his men.

In a flash, the four members of Echo Unit on the elevator's

roof raised their P-90's and unleashed a withering storm

of fire on Charlie Unit.

Python Willis was hit by about a million rounds. His

face and chest were turned instantly to mush. The four Charlie

men behind him also dropped like flailing marionettes,

one after the other, until the only figure left standing on that

side of the elevator's roof was the wide-eyed and terrified

Kevin.

Cobra Carney strode forward and grabbed the little boy

roughly by the arm.

"Smile, kid, you're coming with me now."

THE CONTROL ROOM OVERLOOKING THE MAIN HANGAR WAS

quiet.

Boa McConnell and the four other surviving members

of Bravo Unit sat slumped in the corner, looking bloodied

and dirty. Two of Boa's men were seriously wounded.

Colonel Jerome T. Harper--the ostensible CO of Area 7, but in reality a minion of Caesar Russell--tended to their wounds.

Another figure sat at the back of the room, shrouded in

shadow--he had been sitting inside the control room for the

whole morning, never uttering a word. He just watched

silently.

Major Kurt Logan and the remainder of Alpha Unit

were also in the control room. Logan now stood with Caesar,

whispering in hushed tones. His Alpha Unit had fared little

better than Bravo Unit: of his original team of ten men, including

himself, there were only four left.

Caesar, however, seemed absolutely unperturbed by

their losses.

"Any word from Echo Unit?"

"Cobra reports that they are now on Level 4. No sign of

the President yet--"

"Damn it, shit!"

It was one of the other radio operators. His computer

monitor had just blinked out.

There had been no warning. No dying whine.

"What is it?" the head operator asked.

"Fuck!" another radioman yelled as his monitor also

crashed.

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Matthew Reilly

It spread around the control room like a virus. All

around the command center, one after the other, monitors

blinked out.

"--Air conditioning systems just went down--"

"--Water cooling system is gone--"

"What's going on?" Caesar Russell said calmly.

"--Power to the cell bay is falling rapidly--"

"The complex's power supply is crashing," the senior

operator said to Russell. "But I don't know why ..."

He brought up a system display screen.

SA(R) 07A

SECURITY ACCESS LOG

SOURCE POWER HISTORY (3-JUL)

7-3-010223077

TIME KEY ACTION OPERATOR SYSTEM RESPONSE

06:30:00 System status 070-67 All systems

check operational

06:58:34 Lockdown 105-02 Lockdown

command enacted

07:00:00 System status 070-67 All systems

check operational

(lockdown

mode)

07:30:00 System status 070-67 All systems

check operational

(lockdown

mode)

aSYSTEM

TIME KEY ACTION OPERATOR RESPONSE

Area 7

293

07:3 7:b6

07.38:00

WARNING:

Auxiliary

power malfunction

WARNING:

Auxiliary ...

power

Capacity: 50%

08:00:15

Main power 008-72

shutdown

command

(terminal

3-A1)

)8:00:18

Auxiliary power Aux System

enabled

WARNING:

Auxiliary power system

System

operational.

Low

power protocol

enabled

Aux Syste

Malfunction

terminal

1-A2

Receiving no

response

from

systems:

TRACS;

AUX SYS-1;

RAD COMS

SPHERE;

MBN; FXT ,

FAN

Terminal 1 A2

not

responding

Main power

disabled

Auxiliary

power

Low power

protocol in

effect:

nonessential

systems

disabled

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Matthew Reilly

TIME KEY ACTION OPERATOR SYSTEM RESPONSE

08:01:02 Lockdown 008-72 Door 003-V

special opened

release

command

entered

(terminal

3A1)

08:04:34 Lockdown 008-72 Door 062-W

special opened

release

command

entered

(terminal

3A1)

08:04:55 Lockdown 008-72 Door100-W

special opened

release

command

entered

(terminal

3A1)

08:18:00 WARNING: Aux System terminal 1A2

Auxiliary not

power capacity: 35% responding

08:21:30 Security 008-93 SYSTEM

camera ERROR:

system shut Security

down camera

command system

(terminal already