First Strike (4 page)

“He may well be right. I doubt anyone else ever comes here.”

They reached the hangar and went inside. There was a
guard standing beside a large, metal door with a locking wheel.

“Looks like that's where we want to go,” said Chance.

The guard was walking towards them, gesturing angrily and shouting. Mr Chang shouted back, but the guard didn't seem impressed. He advanced on them, rifle at the ready.

“He says this is a restricted area and only the base commander and duty guard are allowed in here,” said Mr Chang, quietly.

“Don't worry,” Chance told him. “Let me explain.”

As soon as the guard was within reach, Chance grabbed the end of the man's rifle, ripped it from his grip, swung it round and slammed it into the guard's head. The man dropped silently to the floor.

“I think he got the message,” said Chance. He checked the soldier's pulse, and then slung the assault rifle over his shoulder. “Sorry about that,” he murmured.

It took both of them to heave open the heavy metal door. On the other side, a metal stairway led down into blackness. Mr Chang handed Chance a torch, and produced another one for himself from his jacket pocket.

“Thank you, Mr Chang. You think of everything. Now, let's see what's downstairs.”

Up above ground, more unexpected visitors were arriving at the base.

The first visitors were three children. They crouched in the darkness just off the main road, watching the guard at the gate.

“We'll never get past him,” said Jade.

“The place looks pretty run-down, but the security fence looks intact,” said Rich.

“Think Dad's in there?”

Rich nodded. “Oh yeah.”

“Think he needs help?”

“Doubt it.”

From behind them came the sound of approaching vehicles. Rich, Jade and Yoshi drew back from the roadside as lights cut through the darkness. Two massive army trucks were rumbling towards the base.

The guard was standing in the middle of the road, in front of the wooden barrier. In the glare of the headlights, Rich could see that he looked confused, worried and surprised.

Then he dived to one side as the front truck picked up speed—heading straight for the gate. The truck crashed through, the second truck close behind it. The first truck
kept going, towards the distant hangar and admin block. The second turned in a wide arc and stopped.

Uniformed figures leaped from the back of the second truck. The guard from the gate was running towards them, shouting, his rifle levelled.

He was still shouting when the newcomers opened fire. The guard was thrown back by the impacting bullets.

The other side of the gate, in the near-darkness, Yoshi tugged at Rich's sleeve. His face was pale with fear. He said something, a single word. Rich could guess what it meant.

“Rebels,” said Jade.

Rich nodded. “
Now
Dad needs help.”

Huge arc lights flickered on. They illuminated the whole area in a harsh, white glow. Dark figures emerged from the admin block and barracks at the far side of the base. The two trucks had stopped not far from them, and the newcomers returned fire.

“Let's hope he's not caught in the middle of that,” said Rich.

“He'll be in the hangar,” Jade replied. She had to shout over the sound of gunfire. “He's looking for missiles, remember.”

Yoshi was talking rapidly and urgently. But Rich had no idea what he was saying.

“You'd better get home,” he told the boy. He pointed back up the road, the way they had come. “Go! Stay safe.
Me and Jade will try to help, OK?” He pointed to himself and Jade, then into the base as he spoke.

Yoshi said something else, nodding the whole time. He grabbed Rich's hand and shook it. He stood on tiptoe and kissed Jade on the cheek. Then he turned and ran, disappearing into the darkness.

“Think he understood?” Jade asked.

“I think he likes you.”

Jade ignored him. “Let's get to that hangar and find Dad.”

Fortunately the fighting was well away from the hangar. The rebels were sheltering behind their trucks, firing on the troops from the base. But taken by surprise, the base soldiers were at a disadvantage.

A streak of fire shot out from beside one of the trucks, then slammed into the brick-built admin block. The whole building seemed to light up as the rocket exploded. Windows were blown out and bodies went flying.

“Won't be long before they head for the hangar,” Rich gasped as he and Jade ran. “Come on!”

They paused for a moment inside the hangar, and let their eyes adjust from the brighter light outside to the interior gloom. As soon as he got his breath back, Rich tried to push the heavy doors closed, but they wouldn't move.

Jade was crouching over a prone figure. “Looks like someone got here before us.”

Rich hurried to join her. “I can guess who. Dad.”

“Yeah, the guard's just out cold. The rebels would have shot him.”

“So where have Dad and Mr Chang gone?”

The hangar was enormous, but it was almost empty. There was a jeep and a couple of other vehicles, but nowhere much for anyone to hide. In any case, they'd have seen Rich and Jade arrive.

“The way he's facing…” said Jade. “When he fell, he was heading towards the main doors.”

“Like he was coming to meet someone,” Rich agreed. “So trace his path back…”

They both saw the large metal door set into the hangar wall, and ran over to it. The door was standing slightly open, and together they heaved on it. Once through they closed it again. They were standing in a dark stairwell. The only light was a faint glow from far below.

“Guess where we're going,” said Rich.

The night was getting cold and Yoshi didn't like the dark. He was alone and afraid, but he knew what he had to do. He kept to the darkest shadows, out of the pale
moonlight that filtered through the clouds.

He ran all the way, hoping he would recognise the point where he needed to turn off the main road and take the narrow track that led back to his aunt's house. He was gasping for breath, but he kept going—he couldn't let his father down. He couldn't abandon his father's friends, the boy and the girl and their father…

It seemed to take an age, but at last he could see the dark shape of his aunt's house ahead. Yoshi paused for a moment. He had to stop, to get his breath back. He stood gasping, hands on his knees, shivering from the cold and the fear. Gradually he caught his breath; slowly he straightened up. Only then did he see a man standing a few metres away.

A man with a gun.

The sound of gunfire from outside was muffled. It grew quieter as they descended deep into the ground. The glow from below was getting brighter and Rich could tell it was electric light.

The metal steps were rusted and insecure. The whole stairway wobbled alarmingly, and they kept close to the wall as they picked their way down.

After an age, they finally reached the bottom. A
corridor stretched away ahead of them, bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. About half of them were lit, and Rich guessed the bulbs had gone in the others. Cables and pipes ran along the walls and the roof. Water dripped into oily puddles on the concrete floor, and the whole place felt clammy and cold.

There was a body at the bottom of the stairs—another unconscious soldier. Again, there was no sign of his weapon, if he'd had one.

“Still on the right track, then,” Jade whispered.

All they could hear was the dripping of water and a faint hum that might be a distant generator. No sound could be heard from above.

“We'd better hurry,” said Rich. “Dad won't know there's a battle going on above ground.”

“I don't fancy being trapped down here if the rebels come after us,” said Jade.

Together they hurried along the damp passageway. It turned a corner, and continued into the distance. At the far end, Rich could just make out the dark shape of a doorway.

A figure leaped out from the shadows close in front of them. The light was behind him, but Rich could make out the Chinese army uniform. A rifle swung up to cover
Rich and Jade as they skidded to a halt.

Another shape detached itself from the shadows beside them. Another uniformed figure holding a rifle.

“Come to join us?” Mr Chang queried, lowering his rifle.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Chance asked.

Rich gasped with relief. “Rebels—attacking the base.”

“We thought we should warn you,” said Jade. “There's a battle going on up there. They've got guns, rocket launchers, the lot.”

“And I'm guessing they'll be coming down here as soon as they've sorted out the troops on the base,” added Rich.

“You're probably right,” Chance conceded.

“Where's Yoshi?” Mr Chang asked.

“We sent him home,” said Jade. “We couldn't bring him in here, and put him in danger.”

Mr Chang shrugged. “He has black belt in karate.”

“Wouldn't help him stop a bullet,” said Rich.

“True,” Mr Chang agreed. “Thank you.”

“So what are the rebels after?” Jade asked. “If this base is decommissioned and pretty much abandoned, what's here they could want?”

Chance gestured for them to follow and led the way along the corridor to the open door at the end. Beyond
was blackness. As he stepped through the door, Rich could feel a chill, like he was standing inside a vast, empty chamber.

Beside him, Mr Chang was fumbling on the wall beside the door. There was a
clunk
as he found the connection for the lights and pushed the lever that closed the circuit. High above, enormous lamps flickered into life.

Rich had been right. The place was huge—a massive chamber hewn out of the rock. The bare walls were dripping with moisture. The floor was an expanse of cracked and pitted concrete, with gantries and walkways stretching across the roof space high above.

But the chamber wasn't empty. An enormous missile stood like a pillar, reaching almost to the large circular hatch in the roof above. It was rusting, with faded Chinese stars emblazoned on its side.

“A Dong-Feng series 4 launcher,” said Mr Chang, quietly.

“NATO calls it the CSS-3,” Chance added. “Built in the 1980s, and then superseded. It's probably been abandoned.”

“Nuclear?” Jade asked in a whisper.

“Oh yes,” Chance told them. “With a range of near
enough 5,000 kilometres, accurate to within 500 metres. And a warhead that delivers between thirty and forty megatons.”

“I guess that's what the rebels are after,” said Rich.

“This and another dozen we've found in other silos. Whatever happens, they mustn't get them. Not even one of them.”

From the other end of the long corridor came the unmistakable sound of a heavy metal door crashing open.

“We're going to need some help,” said Rich.

“I called in backup as soon as we found the missiles,” Chance told them. “Weak signal, but there's an extraction team ready in India. It'll take them hours to get here, though. With the rebels on their way, we're on our own.”

“You know how to disable a nuclear missile?” Jade asked.

“It's never too late to learn.”

“You are kidding.”

Chance shrugged. “Afraid not.”

In the distance they could hear the thump of booted feet on the metal stairway.

“I think we should hurry,” Mr Chang told them. “The rebels are coming, remember?”

“Right,” Chance decided. “Let's take a closer look at the problem.”

He set off for a metal ladder leading up to the walkways above. It seemed in better condition than the stairs they had come down, and soon all four of them were climbing.

“They don't know we're here,” said Jade. “They're looking for the missiles. We could hide.”

“What about the unconscious soldiers?” said Rich. “They'll know someone's down here.”

At the top of the ladder, a metal gantry led across towards the top of the missile. There were railings along each side, but they were rusty and corroded.

Rich looked down, feeling his stomach lurch when he saw how high they were.

“If they try and launch that thing, it'll probably explode,” he said. “It's so old and neglected.”

“They will remove the warhead and use another delivery method,” said Mr Chang.

“Can
we
remove it?” Jade wondered. “Get the warheads away from here?”

“No, we can't,” Chance called back over his shoulder. He was almost at the nose of the rocket. One of the large strip lights was shining in their eyes, so the
rocket was just a hazy blur.

“Why not?”

“First, because it's far too heavy. And second…”

The roof was just a metre above their heads. The walkway turned to circle the rocket. There were massive hinges holding it to the wall, and Rich guessed it would be swung away when the missile launched. It was obviously positioned there for maintenance, allowing engineers to get close enough to work on the nose cone.

Except there was no nose cone. The top of the rocket was an empty cylinder, with wires and cables spilling out.

“And second,” Chance finished, “because someone's already taken the warhead away.”

“So, the missiles
were
decommissioned,” said Mr Chang. “The rebels will be rather disappointed, if they're all like this.”

“I'll bet they are,” said Jade. “But we don't have time to check.”

Far below, uniformed men were running into the silo. They spread out through the open space, checking everywhere, guns at the ready.

“We're too close to the light for them to see us,” said Chance. “That's why we couldn't see the warhead was gone. And neither can they.”

“But they'll soon come and look,” Rich told him. “And there's no way we can get down without them spotting us.”

Jade was leaning over the top of the missile, braced against the rusting handrails. “Look at this.”

“What is it?” Chance hurried to join her.

“Oil. Recently spilled. And the edges of the wires where they've been cut—they're still shiny, like new.”

“You mean, this was recent?” Rich asked.

“Can't be more than a day or two since the warhead was removed,” Chance agreed. “The rebels must have known they were still here, and they're only just too late. That's what Ralph was warning us about, I bet—that the rebels were planning to get the missiles. Seems the Chinese knew that too and finally acted—got the warheads to safety before the rebels could take them.”

“So where are the warheads now?” Jade wondered.

“There was a convoy,” said Mr Chang. “Yesterday, my contact at the factory told me, a lot of soldiers and vehicles left this base.”

“You didn't mention that,” said Chance.

Mr Chang shrugged. “I told you they had left only a small force behind. It didn't seem important. But now…”

“The nukes can't be far away. They might still be in
Wiengwei. They're too big to fly out on a cargo plane, so they must have left by road, on big, slow, cumbersome trucks. And the rebels will soon be after them.”

“Once they've finished with us,” Rich whispered. “Look!”

He pointed to where the first rebel troops were climbing up the metal ladders towards the walkway.

There was another ladder leading down from the other end of the walkway, but rebel soldiers were climbing that one as well.

“There's no other way down,” said Jade.

Rich stared at the rocket. Something had occurred to him, though it wasn't a thought he relished. “What about
up
?”

“Up?!” Jade stared at him.

“The roof must open when they launch the missiles. There must be a way out.”

“That hatch,” said Chance.

There was a huge circular hatch that they had seen from the ground. But it was tight shut.

“How do we get it open?” Mr Chang asked.

“Ideas soon, please,” Jade hissed.

The first rebels were almost at the top of the ladders.

“Manual controls?” Chance wondered. “Look—
everyone look, see if there's a switch or a lever or a button. Anything.”

“I bet the controls are down there,” said Rich, pointing over the side of the walkway. “I mean, you wouldn't want to be operating controls up here when it launched would you?”

“Doesn't matter now anyway,” said Jade.

The first of the rebel troops had spotted them. He was shielding his eyes from the bright glare of the lights with one hand, and holding his rifle level in the other. He shouted at them.

“He's asking who we are. He can't see us clearly,” said Mr Chang quietly. “What do we do?”

“We ask them to open the hatch for us to escape,” said Chance.

“Oh, like that'll help,” said Jade.

“Tell him we're on his side,” Chance told Mr Chang. “Then shout to them down below to open the hatch so they can get the warhead off the missile.”

“Are you serious?” Rich asked.

“Worth a try,” Chance told him as Mr Chang shouted to the approaching rebel soldiers. They shouted back angrily. The leading rebel raised his rifle.

Mr Chang yelled urgently at him. Then he leaned over
the walkway and shouted down—urgent and loud. There was an answering shout, and Mr Chang yelled the same thing again, even more loudly.

He turned to the others. “I think it's working. They said that—”

But his words were drowned out by the sound of the enormous hatchway above the missile sliding back. Through it, the black night sky was visible. A cool breeze riffled Rich's hair.

“I can't believe they fell for that,” said Rich.

“Move,” said Chance. “They won't fall for it for long.” He grabbed Jade and hoisted her up bodily into the gap a metre above his head. She grabbed the edge and hauled herself out, reaching back for Rich.

Just then, there was another shout from below. Moments later, a bullet pinged off the walkway.

“I think,” said Mr Chang drily, “they have detected our ruse.”

Rich watched from on top of the roof as Chance raised his rifle and took careful aim—not at the rebel soldiers but at the wall of the silo, where the walkway was fixed.

The sound of the shot was deafening.

The rebel soldiers charged along the walkway, not daring to fire in case they hit the warhead.

Chance fired again, this time a burst of automatic fire. The huge hinges broke away from their fixings, and the walkway lurched to one side. Mr Chang jumped back from the edge as the walkway tipped.

Further along, the effect was more pronounced. The metal was twisting, ripping apart under its own weight now it was no longer attached to the silo wall. The rebel soldier fired. But as he loosed off the shot, his feet skidded from under him and he pitched over the side of the walkway with a cry.

Gunfire pinged off the rim of the hatch. There was more shouting. Rich reached down and grabbed hold of Mr Chang's arms, helping to pull him up through the open hatch.

Then there was a grinding sound as the hatch began to close again. Rich hurried to help Jade, who was reaching back down into the silo for their father. He was firing at the oncoming rebels, now approaching from the other direction where the walkway still held. They ducked away as bullets ricocheted off the side of the missile.

Chance let off a final burst, then flung the rifle up and out of the closing hole in the roof. He leaped after it. His hands grabbed the edge of the hatchway. Jade and Rich struggled to secure his arms and pull him up and through.

The hatch was closing fast. Tonnes of metal sliced towards Chance as he desperately tried to haul himself out of the way. Finally—just as it seemed he was too late—he managed to heave himself up and out. His foot came clear of the hatch just as it closed.

“Thanks,” he gasped. “I thought for a moment I was going to be de-feeted!”

Getting away from the silo was relatively easy. The rebels were busy dealing with the last of the Chinese army troops, or down in the silos looking for nuclear warheads that were no longer there.

“We'll head back to Mr Chang's sister's,” Chance decided. “The extraction team can pick us up there, and we can make sure Yoshi is all right.”

“He'll be fine,” Mr Chang assured them. But his smile looked forced and Jade knew he must be worried about the boy.

The trouble started just as they were leaving the base. One of the rebel trucks was starting up. Its headlights picked out Jade and the others as it swung round on to the main roadway and headed for the gates.

There was a shout, followed by gunfire.

“They're telling us to stop,” said Mr Chang.

“Warning shots. They're aiming to miss,” said Chance, “which is good.”

“They think we know where the warheads have gone,” Mr Chang told him, after listening to shouts from the rebels. “Which is bad.”

There were more shots, which again went wide. Chance pulled a mobile phone from his pocket. Jade could see the display showed a crude map, with two flashing symbols. She guessed one must be the phone itself. The other was a small graphic of a helicopter.

“Twenty-two minutes,” Chance announced. “Keep running!”

He turned as he ran, loosing off a burst of gunfire. One of the truck's headlamps exploded into fragments and went out. Answering gunfire chewed up the concrete close to his feet.

“This way!” said Mr Chang as he headed off the road, into the thick undergrowth to one side and into dense woodland.

Jade followed, aware of her father and Rich close behind her. They kept running. There was the sound of people following. Some of the rebels had obviously been dropped off from the truck and were coming after them.

“How long now?” Rich gasped after what seemed an age.

“Fifteen minutes.”

“We are nearly back at my sister's,” Mr Chang announced.

“That might not help,” said Chance.

Jade could see torches shining in the dense woodland behind them and heard shouting. It wouldn't be long before the rebels caught up with them.

At last they broke out of the woodland and found themselves back on the road where it cut through the trees. On the other side, the wood continued, as dense and forbidding as ever.

“Ten minutes,” Chance announced.

“This way!” Mr Chang started along the road. Then he stopped abruptly.

Dark figures were rising up all around. There was the unmistakable sound of rifles being readied. One of the figures shouted urgently at Mr Chang. Rebel soldiers burst out of the woodland behind Jade, their torches picking her out and illuminating Rich and Chance.

The single remaining headlight of the rebel truck cut through the night as it turned on to the narrow road a hundred metres away and rumbled towards Jade, Rich, Chance and Mr Chang.