Anvil (26 page)

We spent a
few minutes clearing the room, making sure we were alone.  The pounding on
the doors was incessant, the screams thankfully muted somewhat by the heavy
wood.  It was still nerve racking to have so many infected this
close. 

“Don’t
suppose anyone knows what the hell to do,” I said, glancing around at the small
team.

“TJ’s kind
of a geek,” Chico spoke up.

All of us
turned to look at him.

“I’m a
gamer,” he explained, shrugging.  “I’ve set up a few tournaments and had
to network everything together and set up servers and routers.”

I shook my
head, understanding little of what he’d just said.  I knew the terms, but
didn’t know what they meant.

“OK, you’re
the guy.  Do we need to get you on the phone with someone, or do you know
what to do?”

“I don’t have
the first idea where to start,” he said, shaking his head.

We had
planned for Edwards to need to talk to Pearl Harbor as he brought stuff online. 
On the roof, a battery powered, encrypted satellite communications unit was
already sync’d up and connected to an orbiting bird.  In the dead
Lieutenant’s pack was a small headset that would wirelessly connect to the comm
unit. 

I dug it out,
turned it on and slipped it over my head, initiating a call to the only preset. 
Lieutenant Hunt answered immediately and I identified myself.

“We’re in
the server room, but we lost our tech specialist,” I told him.  “One of
the Rangers has some familiarity with computer equipment, but you’re going to
have to talk him through it.”

“That’s not
good.  This isn’t like calling the help desk because your email isn’t
working.”

“No other
option, Lieutenant,” I growled, irritated with his response.

I knew it
wasn’t optimal.  But it was all we had. 

“Sorry,
sir.  Was thinking out loud as much as anything.  Let me transfer you
to Petty Officer Simmons.  She’s leading the effort on our end and is the
best person to guide you through the process.”

There was
silence for a moment, then a series of clicks as he rerouted the call.

“Sir?”

I
immediately recognized the voice.

“Jessica. 
What the hell did you do?”

There wasn’t
really time for this, but the words just came out when I heard her voice. 
She was quiet for a long pause, then took a deep breath and let it out as a
sigh.

“Sorry,
sir.  I fucked up.  It was my fault the Russians kept finding
you.  I let things slip to my boyfriend and… and…” her voice broke as she
tried to control her emotions.

“Jessica, we
can’t undo what’s been done.  All we can do is move forward.  You
made a mistake, and fortunately that mistake didn’t cost anyone their
life.  You have saved me more times than I can count, and in my book that
far outweighs your error in judgment.  I trust you, and I need you
focused.  OK?”

“Yes, sir,”
she sniffed.  “Sorry, sir.  Put me on with your tech and we’ll get
started.”

“Well, we’ve
got a small problem on our end.  Our tech was killed by infected. 
You’re going to be working with one of my Rangers.”

“Oh shit,”
she breathed.  “Does he know what he’s doing?”

“He knows
what he’s doing and he
will
make this work,” I said firmly, meeting TJ’s
eyes and nodding.

TJ looked
like he’d rather be anywhere else.  I didn’t blame him. 

“OK,
sir.  Oh, before you go, I have something for you.  Your friend in
Australia came through.  I’ve got the codes for your wife’s beacon. 
I was just starting to work on locating her when you called.”

Lucas had done
it!  I wasn’t surprised, but at the same time it was a relief. 

“Thank you,
Jessica.  As soon as you find her, be sure to pass the data to Colonel
Blanchard in Idaho.  He’s waiting for your call.”

“Not you,
sir?”  She sounded surprised.

“No,
probably not me,” I said.  “It’s a long story we don’t have time
for.  Hold on, I’m passing you to TJ.”

I pulled the
headset off and handed it over.  TJ slipped it on, adjusted it to fit his
smaller head and said, “Hello?”

Watching and
listening for a few moments, I heard him give Jessica a brief rundown of what
he knew.  It didn’t take long.  Soon he wandered off down one of the
aisles of equipment, looking for something.  I left him to it and turned
to where Drago and Chico were standing, keeping a close eye on the door.

“Think he
can do it?”  I asked, tilting my head in TJ’s direction.

“He’s got
the best shot of any of us,” Chico said.  “You should see some of the shit
he’s set up.  Had the whole fucking barracks looking like a mad
scientist’s lab.  How that relates to what he’s got to do here, I can’t
say, but at least there’s a chance.”

I nodded,
watching as TJ pressed a button on one of the pieces of equipment.  A
keyboard folded down and locked in place in front of him, revealing a
monitor.  I shook my head, glad someone else was doing this. 

“What about
getting out of here when he’s done?  Any bright ideas?”  I asked.

“I think
we’re about to be FUBAR, sir.”

Drago answered
me, meaning Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.  Chico looked at him for a
moment then nodded in agreement.  I didn’t disagree, but wasn’t ready to
give up yet.  I knew they weren’t either.  They were just being
realistic and not trying to sugar coat things.

“Well, we’d
better come up with something,” I said.  “Don’t know about you, but I’m
not ready to be the main course for all those needy bitches out there.”

I nodded at
the door which was shaking in its frame from the constant assault of the
infected females.  If it opened in, or wasn’t braced by the steel frame,
they would probably have already smashed their way through.

“Maybe they
don’t like Cuban,” Chico grinned.

“You’re
safe.  Those Cuban sausages are too small.  They’ll run right past
you for a Viking sized meal,” Drago said with a perfectly straight face.

I snorted a
laugh as Chico flipped him off, moving away to begin a methodical survey of the
large room.  We had cleared it already, making sure there weren’t any
infected in residence.  Now I wanted a closer look in hopes of finding
something that would get us out when the time came.

 The
room was large and well lit.  And cold.  Computer equipment puts off
a lot of heat and server rooms are normally kept well air conditioned. 
This was the case here as well.  The first thing I saw as I began looking
around was a large thermostat, secured behind a heavy plastic cover.  It
was on the wall, just to the right of the doors.  Peering at it I could
see it was set to keep the room at a constant sixty-five degrees.

Continuing
on, moving in a clockwise direction, I didn’t find much.  Two large
touchscreen panels were built into the wall.  Beyond them, a couple of
desks with computers, cables snaking behind to jacks located on the wall. 
A bulletin board with the usual notices that are required by federal law. 
A white board with a series of schematics that were Greek to me.  And a
vintage poster from my all time favorite TV series, the X Files.

It was the
one that hung in FBI Agent Fox Mulder’s office.  A grainy photo of a
flying saucer, the words “I WANT TO BELIEVE” printed across the bottom.  I
paused for a moment, staring at the poster and remembering a better time. 
After a bit I shook my head and kept circling.

The wall at
the end of the room was blank and I quickly walked to the rear.  Space was
tight here as the server racks came to within two feet of the wall. 
Looking down its length I could see there was nothing but more smooth
drywall.  I reversed course, not wanting to squeeze through and risk
bumping into something and causing a problem.

Back by the
doors I looked for TJ, finally spotting him two-thirds of the way down one of
the aisles.  He was sitting on the floor, another keyboard folded out in
front of him.  He was typing away at a furious pace, repeating the
commands he was entering back to Jessica.  He didn’t need my help and sure
as hell didn’t need me interrupting.

Returning to
my survey, I noted Chico and Drago doing the same thing.  There were also
several ceiling tiles out of place where one of them had climbed up for a look.

“What’s
above us?”  I asked them.

“Two feet of
space that’s full of cabling, then a solid ceiling,” Drago answered.  “We
might get out that way with a breaching charge, but I don’t know what’s up
there.  Besides, we blow a hole in the ceiling and all that debris is
going to crash down on the computers.”

I nodded and
slowly started moving counter-clockwise from the doors.  Even though they
had already checked, I wanted to look for myself.  To the left of the doors
I stopped to inspect the wall.  A large, metal plate painted bright red
and emblazoned with the word “FIRE” covered most of the surface.  An
emergency button the size of my fist stuck out from the middle of the plate, a
large cardboard tag hanging from it. 

I glanced at
the tag, noting it was a maintenance log for the fire suppression system. 
Next to the button was a sign with bold lettering that read “USE BREATHING
EQUIPMENT AND VACATE WHEN ALARM SOUNDS.  HALON 1301 BEING RELEASED”. 
Beneath this was a glass fronted door to a compartment built into the wall that
held six emergency breathing systems with full face masks.

Pulling the
door open I picked up one of the breathers and looked it over.  A small
aluminum cylinder was attached to the side, a short hose leading from it to a
port on the clear plastic face mask.  Oxygen supply, and judging from the
size of the cylinder, about five minutes’ worth.  Enough to get clear of
the area in the event the halon system was activated.

“Got an
idea?”

I looked
around to see Chico, standing slightly behind and watching me.  Shrugging,
I returned the mask to the cabinet and closed the door.

“Wish I
did,” I said, walking away to check the rest of the room.

I didn’t
find anything else other than blank walls.  No secret doors.  No
Sci-Fi weapons we could use to kill all the infected who were trapping
us.  Nothing.  Returning to the front of the room, I paused to check
on TJ, moving on to take a seat at one of the desks when it was obvious he was
hard at work.

“How long you
think this will take?”  Drago asked.

He had
walked up and hooked the leg of the other chair with his foot, pulling it out
and dropping his bulk into it. 

“Edwards
said it would take him half an hour if he didn’t run into any problems. 
Now?  Who knows.  The woman that TJ is talking to is sharp, and he
seems more than capable of carrying out her instructions, so…”

I held my
hands out, palms up.  Drago nodded and leaned back in his seat, stretching
his long legs out.  I wasn’t in the mood to talk, wanting to let my mind
work on the problem of how to escape.  Fortunately, he picked up on that
and remained quiet.  A few moments later I heard him start snoring. 

Sitting
there, I kept running different scenarios through my head.  We couldn’t
fight our way out.  The moment we opened those doors an unstoppable flood
of females would rush into the room and tear us to ribbons.  Probably just
as well.  We were all dangerously low on ammo.

Neither was
anyone going to be able to fight their way in and rescue us.  There were
way too many infected in and around the building for that.  Would they
grow bored and leave?  I snorted a sardonic laugh when I had that
thought.  The infected didn’t get bored or tired or give up.  They
might get distracted, but once they were zeroed in on prey, they didn’t stop.

I looked up
at the ceiling, remembering Drago’s comment about a breaching charge. 
Chico had some in his pack in case we’d needed to blast to get through
doors.  But, the big Ranger had nailed the problem with that idea.  If
we blew a hole in the ceiling, the debris had to go somewhere, and gravity
would pull it down on the cabling and server racks. 

One of the
side walls?  What was behind the drywall?  Standing, I kicked Drago’s
foot, waking him from his nap.  Chico was sitting close by, his ass on the
hard floor and back leaned against the wall.

“The walls,”
I said, greeted by blank looks.  “What’s on the other side?  We can’t
blast through the ceiling and risk damaging the equipment, but what about
through a wall into an adjacent room?”

“You don’t
think they’ll all be full of infected?”  Chico asked, not terribly
enthusiastic about my idea.

“Don’t know,
but let’s see what’s behind the drywall.”

I headed for
the wall beyond the X Files poster, drawing my Kukri as I approached. 
Several swings with the heavy blade cut an opening that I could then reach
through and begin pulling chunks of the drywall out of my way.  Drago was
attacking the other end wall and Chico was busily opening up the rear.

When I had a
two-foot diameter space cleared, I clicked on a flashlight and played the beam
around the void.  Metal studs, which are commonly used for interior walls
in commercial buildings, gleamed in the light.  Beyond that was a smooth
concrete surface.  Maybe we could blast through, maybe not.  I had no
idea how thick it was.

Sheathing
the Kukri, I went to check on the other two.  Drago was also looking at a
concrete wall.  But Chico had found a layer of sound insulation, then the
back side of more drywall.  The walls Drago and I had checked were either
interior load bearing, or exterior.  Chico’s wall would open to another
interior space.

“Only one
problem with going that way, sir,” Chico said softly as he moved the sound
barrier back in place.  “I can hear infected on the other side.”

Shit! 
Oh well.  At least we now knew that going through a wall wasn’t an option. 
And that was the last idea I could come up with.  We were trapped and
there wasn’t any way out.