Matthew Reilly - Area 7

went catapulting high into the air, flying end over end.

A wide square of blue sky opened over the pilot.

"Just get as far away from this shuttle as you can,"

Schofield said. "I'll be joining you in a minute. I just have a

helicopter to kill."

IN THE SHIMMERING DESERT HEAT, TWO TINY FIGURES EMERGED

from the shuttle's cockpit hatch.

The President and Kevin.

The President still wore his orange flight suit, only now

he was helmetless. Kevin just wore the regular clothes he'd

been wearing underneath his oversized space suit.

The Penetrator loomed above them, its rotor wash shaking

the air.

A plastic rope ladder hung down from the shuttle's roof.

It had unrolled automatically when the escape hatch had

been jettisoned.

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Matthew Reilly

The President and Kevin descended the ladder quickly,

under the watchful eye of the Penetrator's three crew members.

Then their feet touched the burning-hot tarmac and they

hurried away from the shuttle.

THE SHUTTLE'S COCKPIT, SCHOFIELD WAS

positioning the lap,

Waiting for Kevin and the President to get clear.

He exchanged a glance with the still-bound shuttle pilot.

"What're you looking at?" he said--

Zazzzzzz!

Without warning, a spray of brilliant orange sparks exploded

out from the door behind him.

Holy ...

The Echo men were using a blow torch to cut through

the door!

Must wait for the President and the boy to get clear ...

And then the Penetrator pilot's voice came through. "Thank you, X-38. I'm sorry for misleading you, but unfortunately you must now be destroyed. Good night."

Instantly, a Sidewinder missile shot out from the right

hand wing stub of the Penetrator, a smoke trail looping

through the air behind it. It zoomed downwards, heading

straight for the space shuttle's windshield.

The blow torch's sparks sprayed into the cockpit from behind,

Screw it, Schofield thought. Time to blow this joint.

And with that, he yanked on the ejection lever beside

his seat.

like a new year's eve firecracker shooting up into the

sky, Shane Schofield rocketed up into the air above the

grounded space shuttle, sitting on his flight seat.

He carved a perfectly straight vertical path into the air,

in the process creating a bizarre triangle between himself,

the space shuttle and the Penetrator helicopter.

And then everything happened at once.

Area 7 423

First, the Penetrator's missile slammed into the X-38

beneath Schofield, causing it and the Echo men inside it to

explode in a billowing blasting fireball.

For his part, Schofield shot high into the air above the

>with the flight > >

as he drew level with the Penetrator's shocked crew.

It was only then that the chopper's three crew members

survival kit onto his shoulder--as he flew upwards on the

ejection seat.

Only it wasn't just any old tube.

It was a rocket launcher.

A compact M-72 single-shot disposable rocket

launcher, supplied in the survival kit for astronauts who

crash-landed in enemy territory and needed some lightweight

but heavy-hitting firepower.

Hovering in the air in his ejection seat, high above the

billowing fireball that had been the X-38, Schofield jammed

his finger down on the rocket launcher's trigger.

Instantly, a streamlined warhead shoomed out from the

M-72 on his shoulder, streaking through the air at phenomenal

speed, heading straight for the Penetrator's cockpit.

The warhead smashed through the helicopter's glass

windshield and detonated violently. The walls of the attack

helicopter blasted outwards, the chopper just disintegrating

in midair.

It dropped out of the sky--a blazing, flaming wreck,

trailing a plume of thick black smoke--and crashed down

against the tarmac, shattering into pieces.

The final episode of the sequence was the inflating of

Schofield's parachute.

It blossomed to life above his ejection seat, lifting him

out of it. Then the parachute carried him safely back down

to earth, landing him gently on the runway a short way

from the twin flaming ruins of the space shuttle and the

Penetrator.

The President and Kevin rushed up to him.

"That was so cool!" Kevin gasped.

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Matthew Reilly

"Yes. Remind me never to point a loaded weapon at

you," the President said.

Schofield discarded his parachute, gazed back down the

runway toward the buildings of Area 7.

Area 7 ...

Strangely, the first thing he thought about was not the

Football nor the fate of the country.

It was Libby Gant.

He'd last seen her during their battle in the pit, when

Colonel Harper's Sinovirus grenade had gone off and they'd

been separated.

But then he saw the helicopter.

Saw the second Penetrator--Caesar and Logan's Penetrator--sitting

empty and abandoned outside the main

hangar complex.

"Caesar came back to Area 7 ..." Schofield said aloud.

"Why would he do that?"

It was then that he saw a figure emerge from the base of

the airfield's control tower, waving one arm weakly.

It was Book II.

schofield, kevin and the president met book at the

base of the tower.

Book II looked pale, weary. He wore a thick bandage

over a wound on his left bicep; the rest of the arm was held

in a makeshift sling.

"Scarecrow. Quick," he said, obviously still in pain.

"You better come and see this. Now."

AS THEY CLIMBED THE STAIRS OF THE CONTROL TOWER,

Schofield said, "When did Caesar come back to Area 7?"

"They landed only a few minutes before you did. They were all heading for that top door entrance when you guys arrived. I was looking after Janson up in the tower, and we saw the whole ejection-seat thing. Caesar and Logan watched it from the hangar entrance, but when you blasted their boys to kingdom come, they headed straight inside the

complex again."

"Caesar went back inside the complex. ... Why?"

Schofield said, thinking hard. Then he looked up. "Any word

from Gant?"

"No," Book II said. "I figured she was with you."

"We got separated when that Sinovirus grenade went

off before. She must still be inside the complex."

They arrived at the top level of the tower. Juliet Janson

lay slumped on a chair, a bandage over her bullet-wounded

shoulder, alive but very pale.

Beside her lay the Football.

"So what did you want me to see?" Schofield asked Book.

"This," Book II said, indicating one particular computer

screen. It was flashing:

LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL S.A.(R) 7A

FAILSAFE SYSTEM ENACTED

AUTH CODE: 7-3-468201103

426 Matthew Reilly

EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.

IF YOU DO NOT ENTER AN AUTHORIZED LOCKDOWN

EXTENSION OR TERMINATION CODE BY 1105 HOURS,

FACILITY SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE WILL BE ACTIVATED.

SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE DURATION: 10:00

MINUTES.

***************** warning * ******* * * * *****

Schofield looked at his watch.

It was 10:43.

Twenty-two minutes till the complex's thermonuclear

self-destruct mechanism was set in motion.

And they'd had no word from Gant ...

Shit.

"There's another thing," Book II said. "We've managed

to get the generators back on line, but the power's still very

low. We've been able to get a couple of systems back on,

some light systems, a few communication lines and the internal

broadcast system."

"And ... ?"

"Have a look at this."

Book II hit a switch, and one of the console monitors