Cloud Invasion (17 page)

It made me think Askins was intending to check the facility we'd abandoned inside Pilchuck. At this point, I wanted him to look. James had taken photos before they left-Corinne didn't leave anything to chance. The facility looked gutted-just as it should. It amazed me that she could accomplish what she did, but that was just part of the changes she'd experienced.

We were fortunate to have her on our side. Without her, Askins and Phillips would likely have taken over. They could still do it, but with Corinne, we had a fighting chance, at least.

* * *

Corinne

I was asleep when the wards I'd left inside the Pilchuck facility were tripped. They weren't shielded when they walked into the place-perhaps they didn't think it necessary. The creatures (most of them, anyway) and their handlers had moved in, lock, stock and furry barrel.

Auggie, James, Leo
, I sent to them.
I'm sorry to wake you, but Askins just moved his band of bogies into the Pilchuck facility
.

Chapter 11

Notes-Colonel Hunter

"You can speak freely-we're not bugged here," Matt said.

Here
was inside his office in Silver Spring.

"Our opponent has taken over the facility at Pilchuck," I said. "Without paying a pet deposit."

"That confirms that he knew we were there," Matt said, drumming his fingers on his desk for a moment. "Any word on DB?"

"None. I don't know where he was placed, but nobody has seen anything."

"I think they really want him," Matt said. "To prove their point. The others aren't giants and can probably be contained once we find them."

"You think they want him to attack a coastal city?" I asked.

"I think they've been watching too many monster movies," Matt huffed. "Don't get me wrong-I'm glad they don't seem to have many original thoughts."

"That would be frightening," I agreed.

"You think they imagine that they're hidden well enough at the facility? That we won't suspect they're there?"

"We have no reason to-we abandoned the place and left nothing useful behind. For all anyone knows, it's just an empty shell."

"Or, if they think we know, they're just rubbing our faces in it," I said.

"I'll put somebody on that," Matt said. "Did Corinne block the tunnel leading out of there?"

"Yes. I asked James to set explosives, but she had a better way."

"How did she block it?"

"The entire thing looks like it imploded. Completely filled with big rocks, now. They'll have a hell of a time getting through that mess."

"Good. Very good. When will the team arrive at the launch site?"

"Later today if we're lucky," I said.

"You'll let me know?"

"Of course."

* * *

Ilya

Lieutenant Cross arrived ten minutes before the scheduled time, so Corinne offered him a cup of coffee. He accepted and watched as the rest of us loaded our gear. We had two large military vehicles to carry us into Chingaza, where the roads were less than hospitable much of the time.

Our targeted area was in a mountainous region, which would likely require the climbing equipment Nick and I loaded into the back of each vehicle. I worried for Corinne-she'd never done anything like this in her life. I think Nick and I were prepared to carry her if she couldn't make it on her own.

"Do you prefer Nathan or Lieutenant Cross?" Corinne asked before loading into the truck with me.

"Nathan's fine-I almost feel like a civilian right now," he grinned at her.

"Awesome. Want to ride with Trey and me, Nathan?"

"I'd be happy to."

* * *

Corinne

The drive was a long, tedious one, across narrow, grassy tracks at times, as we followed the GPS coordinates we'd been given. Our vehicles roared, growled and whined as we drove slowly along, while the rough roads shook or swayed all of us in our seats.

With only a brief stop at midday for a quick meal we'd packed ourselves, we were on our way again. After a while, we had to leave the trucks behind and backpack the rest of the way. Our arrival below the sharp, rocky peak that was our destination occurred before three that afternoon.

"Experienced climbers could get up there without much equipment, but we're taking no chances," Rafe said, slinging a pack and a coil of rope about his shoulders. Nick did the same and both went up together.

Once they had everything in place, the ropes were lowered and Maye went up the first one, with Richard almost behind her on the second. Then, Opal and Nathan went up. I was left to go up alone.

You can do this, cabbage
, Rafe sent.

I think I'll use a little of what I have to help
, I said and grabbed the rope. At least we had leather gloves-I didn't want burns on my palms if I slid down. Following the path the others used, I worked my way up the rocky cliff, balancing myself with power. Yes, if I hadn't had it, I might have fallen-twice. Instead, I came up in a semi-professional manner, Rafe grinned and we were off to find the launch point.

* * *

Notes-Colonel Hunter

"They're close," James pointed out the GPS signal in Chingaza. I could see the pinging signal the vehicles sent, and then that of the search party, not far away. Six miles away, I could also see the signal at the crash site.

"Keep me informed," I said.

"Yes, sir."

It was nice to have James back. I almost felt normal again.

* * *

Ilya

Here
, Corinne informed me. She stood on the scuffed, rocky surface, where hundreds of hikers and backpackers had likely stood before, on a flat surface with a very good view of the lake below.

But this is not where the light appeared-that is still farther in
, I argued.

I don't know what that light was, but this is where the rocket was launched
, she insisted.

Maybe we ought to take a look, then,
I agreed
.
Her mental voice had sounded worried and that, in turn, worried me.

Yes. Come, now
, I turned and followed the others. Nick had taken the lead-he was using his hypersensitive nose to detect scents. He was careful not to disturb any evidence; I understood that, too.

Barely a hundred yards away, and halfway down the peak on the opposite side, lay the coordinates. Nick knew it first, but as it didn't hold as much horror for him as it did for Corinne, he warned us, first.

* * *

Notes-Colonel Hunter

I didn't have enough words to describe what I saw in the images sent by Nick. Sixteen bodies, hacked apart by a machete or something similar, were strewn about the site. Two of them looked as if they'd been blown apart by a blast, first.

The bloom of light we'd seen-
this was it. We'd never caught the actual launch with the satellite images we had. The bodies looked to be locals-what remained of their clothing supported that theory.

Auggie, these were hired locally
, Corinne sent.
I feel sick
, she added. Then, she sent names-of the dead. There was no identification found amid the carnage, but she knew their names. Forcing my hand to steady, I wrote them down to send to Matt. We could coordinate with the local police to get missing persons leads, along with a forensics team up the mountain to collect and catalogue the remains.

Get down the mountain
, I sent an e-mail back to Nick.
Let the local police handle this
.

Will do
, he responded.

I was on the phone to Matt seconds later, and was connected to Bogotá police shortly after that. Police were dispatched already when the signal from our group went dead.

* * *

Corinne

When the rocket hit the launch site, we were already at our vehicles-I'd been forced to move us when I received my usual last-minute warning. The problem was, our vehicles were no longer safe, either. I could either use what I had to make them safe or I could do my other usual and get us the hell out of there.

Nathan was already hyperventilating after we watched half the mountain we were just on get blasted to bits.
Want me to disarm the bombs they've planted on our trucks?
I asked Maye and Rafe.
Or do you want me to get us out of here?

Disarm the bombs,
they both said.

It took just a moment. I left the disarmed explosives where they were, however, so Nick and the others could examine them-maybe they could be identified. Whatever had been left on that mountain, including the bodies, was now blasted or incinerated.

The local police wouldn't find much-if anything.

Auggie, somebody just blew up the mountain top and strapped explosives to the underside of our trucks
, I reported.
Nick says he's lost contact with you,
I added as we climbed hurriedly into the vehicles and took off.

Nathan was still in a daze of some sort, so Opal had taken charge of him. I'm sure whoever had blown up the mountain and then attempted to bomb our vehicles were expecting us to be dead already or explode after we drove away.

Not until an hour later-when that hadn't happened-did they think to get on our trail. Two helicopters could be heard in the distance, and I knew, whether anyone else did or not-they were tailing us, with more missiles to deliver.

"Cabbage, what are you doing?" Ilya hissed.

"I've never fired one of these before," I said, as the rocket launcher appeared in my arms. "Give me a minute to download the instructions," I added while attempting to juggle the heavy weapon. I'd pulled in the biggest one I could find at such short notice.

"Download? What the hell are you talking about? Opal," he huffed, "put that boy down and help Corinne."

"I got this," Opal patted a dazed Nathan's shoulder and took the rocket launcher from my arms. It was just as well; I was handling it awkwardly and I knew it. I also wasn't relishing the idea of shooting down two helicopters, even if they intended to kill us.

I ended up hanging onto Opal so she wouldn't fall through the window as she leaned farther out than was safe and fired the first rocket at an approaching helicopter.

Everybody heard it explode seconds later.

"I need another rocket," Opal shouted at me.

"It's in there, just fire," I shouted back over the truck's roar. The remaining helicopter fired its rockets at us; Opal fired at them at the same time. I had to disarm the ones aimed at us while they were flying toward us. Opal hit her target; the helicopter exploded in a fireball behind us as its disarmed missiles hit the back of our truck with a huge, metallic clank. The truck careened and fishtailed from the impact, tossing up clouds of dirt and mud; Rafe braked and manhandled the steering wheel, trying to keep the vehicle on the road after we'd been hit.

The canvas cover on the back of the truck was now in shreds, with strips of cloth flapping noisily behind us as Rafe righted the vehicle and hit the gas. I'm sure he was mentally telling Maye ahead of us to drive faster; he had no desire for more helicopters to show up.

By the time we neared the entrance to the park, we met the police on their way up. Thankfully, some of ours had been dispatched with them. Poor Nathan Cross was having a breakdown in the back seat, so Richard and I went to tend him.

* * *

Notes-Colonel Hunter

"These photographs of the area are all we have-this site was bombed shortly after our people got there." I handed the tablet with the images pulled up to Madam President.

"What about your people?"

"Barely got away," I said. "They found bombs on their vehicles; they disarmed those and drove away, only to be attacked by two helicopters before they could get out of the park."

"Then what?"

"Luckily, they had a rocket launcher with them," I said. That was true-but they hadn't started out with one. Corinne had seen to that; Opal had fired the weapon, bringing down both helicopters. Corinne also made sure the rockets fired at them didn't explode-both landed in the back of their truck. I didn't mention the damage to the vehicle from that impact-the President looked worried enough as it was.

Those unexploded rockets and the bombs attached to the trucks were given to Captain Finch later, so he and his team could determine their origin.

To say Finch wasn't happy would be putting it mildly. His Lieutenant-Nathan Cross-hadn't recalled much of what happened. Richard, posing as a medic for the group, said it was possibly due to the shock waves from the first blast. He said Lieutenant Cross had been closest to it and was knocked down, hitting his head.

He had bruises and swelling, that much was true. I just hoped the enemy didn't become suspicious over their miraculous survival.

"Where are they now?" Madam President asked, handing the tablet back to me. "Your people?"

"Back in San Cristobal, but they may be in danger, staying there. The police are still asking questions, and they have their experts swarming over the helicopter wreckage. I'm worried the Secretary of State may have to get involved to get them out of the country again. They're refusing to let them investigate further, until they resolve this mess."

"Which could take a while," Madam President sighed. "Go ahead, get Chuck Marshall involved. If the locals don't want them to investigate further, then we'll pull them out."

"Thank you, Madam President."

The call from Matt Michaels came not long after I left the White House. "What do you have?" I asked.

"The rocket shells are old and pretty battered-they look like leftovers from World War II," he said.

"Somebody sold old warheads? No wonder these didn't explode," I snapped.

"No, that's not it," he said. "The outer shells are probably that. What's inside is another story."

"What did they put in there?" I stopped walking for a moment.