The Seraphim Sequence: The Fifth Column 2 (43 page)

Damien left Jay sitting in the Concourse A atrium while he crossed the skyway alone. The backpack loaded with radios was on the other side at the security checkpoint. As the only person with vision right now, it was quicker if Damien retrieved the bag himself. Jay had told him he was starting to see spots of color in his vision. Or at least that’s what Damien thought he’d said; he still had to lip-read. In a way, not being able to hear was a blessing right now because, according to Jay, the deafening evacuation alarm was still doing its thing.

The airport was completely empty. The two travelators on each side of the skywalk’s lower walkway were dormant, and the lights above them were toast. He checked the taxiways under the skyway. Airliners of all sizes were berthed at gates all the way from one end of the concourse to the other.

Damien increased his pace to a light jog, Glock in one hand. Nasira and Denton should be moving to AGTS Control by now, but he hadn’t seen them yet. He reached the escalators at Jeppesen terminal. Everything was eerily silent, although that was largely due to the fact he couldn’t hear anything. The terminal looked a bit like an abandoned shopping mall. He moved down to the checkpoint and found his backpack. He checked the radios were inside before heading back up the escalator.

At the edge of his vision, an arrowhead-shaped aircraft cut through the paper-thin ceiling and crashed silently into the fountain. At first he thought it was a stealth bomber, but it lacked a cockpit. He recognized the fifty-two meter wide unmanned combat air system as a Dominator and realized it was one of the craft that had dropped the bombs on the airport. It sloughed through the fountain and bounced high into the air, gliding straight toward him. Damien quickly realized the elevator shaft in front of him wasn’t tall enough to stop its momentum. There was no time to dive sidelong across the balcony. He turned and ran across the skywalk, in the same direction as the Dominator. It scraped over the top of the elevator column and continued on its path of destruction toward him.

He sprinted for the travelator. The Dominator slipped through the air, its arrowhead shape casting a shadow over his path. He hoped its wingspan would be too wide for the skywalk walls, but it slipped through with room to spare. He dived into one of the travelators, between its rubber handrails, hitting the floor chest first.

The Dominator’s wings came down on both handrails. The glass on either side of him cracked and buckled, but the rails held the weight of the Dominator as it continued to slide up the skywalk’s incline. It slowed slightly as it reached the apex, then gained pace again as it slid down the other side.

Then Damien remembered Jay sitting in the atrium on the other side of the skywalk. He was right in the Dominator’s path and he wouldn’t see the damn thing coming.

***

Jay was tired of waiting for Damien to return with the radios and for his vision to come back. Hunger hit him suddenly, so he reached into his daypack for some cling-wrapped pork rinds, carefully unwrapped them and started shoveling them into his mouth. He paused between mouthfuls to listen for sounds. The incessant alarm and the crunching of pork rinds in his mouth was all he could hear. But then something else crept in. A mechanical groaning up ahead—he couldn’t quite identify it. The key thing was it didn’t sound anything like a Liberator. Those Liberators gave him the heebie-jeebies.

He swallowed the mouthful of pork rinds and plucked another handful from the cling-wrap. He paused. The mechanical sound was louder. It was a grinding noise, like someone was mowing a lawn or starting a chainsaw. Here in the airport it seemed strangely out of place. Whatever it was, it was surging through the skyway toward him. It sounded close. Too close. He had no idea what the hell it was but he decided it was time to move.

He dropped the pork rinds and started running, hands out in front of him. There wasn’t much light creeping into his vision to guide him, so he felt his way through the darkness. He reached a metal railing. Under it, glass. He tried to remember what Concourse A had looked like when he’d walked through earlier. If he was where he thought he was, he was standing right over the train station platform. There was a weird artistic display that looked like a spaceship with four blue obelisks embedded in fake sand. As the groaning object rushed closer, he wished the fake sand was real sand.

He hurled himself over the railing and hung there for as long as possible. Then dropped down—into nothing.

The fake sand was a fiberglass-like surface that was rough on his knees. He rolled down it, banging into things along the way. Then he hit a fucking obelisk. It took the breath from him. There was no time to feel sorry for himself. He pulled himself up and pressed himself against the cold concrete wall.

The glass balcony just above him exploded. Something large and heavy smashed through it, soared hot over his head. He covered his eyes and ears and pulled himself tightly into a ball. He heard it crunch through the obelisks, graze over the spaceship, then plummet into the train station.

Silence.

Footsteps approached from above, on the skywalk. He opened his eyes. Blurred shapes and colors danced around. His vision was slowly returning. A hand grabbed his and pulled him up. Damien’s face was a blur of light and dark that swirled together and eventually took shape.

‘What the shit was that?’ Jay yelled.

‘Oh, that thing that went past?’ Damien said. ‘I think it was a subsonic stealth bomber.’

***

Damien didn’t need to lip-read any more. Jay’s voice was muffled but Damien could understand him. Quickly, he powered on the shielded radio, pleased to discover it worked. Jay stood beside him, rubbing his eyes furiously.

‘Sophia, this is Damien,’ he said. ‘We’re in Concourse A and we have the radios.’

No one responded. Damien checked the channel again. It was the encrypted channel, but Sophia wasn’t responding. No one was.

Jay clipped a mic to his collar. ‘Soph, are you there?’

Still nothing. She hadn’t switched to her shielded radio yet.

Damien shared a concerned look with Jay, then saw familiar faces across the skywalk. Denton and Chickenhead. As they moved closer, he could see their skin glistened with sweat and they looked exhausted.

‘Where’s Nasira?’ Jay said.

‘Last we saw she was facing off against Pariahs in Garage West,’ Denton said. ‘I wasn’t going near those damn things.’

Jay grabbed a spare radio and started off down the skywalk. ‘I’m going to find her. Damien, you coming?’

Damien hesitated. ‘No. I’m going down.’

Jay stopped in his tracks. ‘What? You’re not supposed to go in the OpCenter. You told me you were going to stay on the surface.’

‘I changed my mind,’ Damien said. ‘Again.’

‘Don’t do that,’ Jay said. ‘That’s suicide.’

Chickenhead held up his hands. ‘Can you not say that? I’m going down too.’

Damien could see Jay grinding his jaws as he thought it over. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Just don’t get yourself killed.’

‘It’s you I’m worried about,’ Damien said.

Jay headed for the skywalk. ‘You’re doing it for her, aren’t you?’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

Jay stopped walking and turned around. ‘You want Grace to make it out alive. And the only way you can do that is to go down there with her.’

‘Yeah,’ Damien said. ‘Guess I’ll see you soon.’

Jay made it across the skywalk and clambered down the destroyed escalator. He couldn’t believe Damien was going down to the OpCenter because of Grace. There were better things to die for. And Grace wasn’t one of them.

The body and luggage scanners in Jeppesen terminal had been overturned and smashed by the Dominator. Jay stepped over the wreckage, his Glock 39 in one hand. Directly ahead was the fountain, which now resembled a meteor crater. The roof above was torn where the Dominator had sliced through. He kept his pistol half-raised as he made his way along the western edge of the terminal. Something moved in the corner of his vision. He snapped his barrel toward it and found himself staring down the barrel of another Glock.

Nasira lowered her pistol. ‘What the hell, Jay.’

Aviary peered out from behind her. ‘Hi.’

Jay pulled a working radio from his pocket. ‘Here.’

Nasira took the radio. ‘Abraham’s men in Garage West are toast.’

‘What happened?’ Jay asked as he led them back to the destroyed escalator.

‘Pariahs ripped them to shreds. At least, until we detonated the EMP.’

‘Pariahs are the least of our concerns,’ Jay said. ‘We just ran into a bunch of Liberators.’

Nasira stopped in her tracks. ‘No shit?’

Jay surveyed the terminal once more. ‘No shit. The advance team—minus you, of course—and the infiltration team are ready to go in. What’s going on with the rest of Abraham’s grunts?’

‘We’ve fortified the hotel south of Jeppesen terminal,’ a voice boomed. ‘It’s got some height to it so we have a view of the entire airport perimeter.’

Jay looked across to see Abraham approaching, flanked by two men. ‘Wasn’t expecting to see you down here, Colonel.’

‘Abraham will suffice,’ he said. ‘I can only assume you’ve been communicating on a channel we don’t have the encryption key for. Resourceful, I’ll give you that.’

Jay cleared his throat but Nasira got in first. ‘You’re here to complain about the EMP? Save it, pal.’

Abraham’s face remained obstinate. ‘No. You managed to avoid collateral damage, this time. It does bother me, though, that you did this behind my back. I’m not a big fan of deception unless I’m the one implementing it.’

‘It was either that or be incinerated by the Fifth Column’s bombing run,’ Jay said.

‘Son, I’m not here to second-guess God’s work,’ Abraham said. ‘I’m here because Sophia needs our help. We’re joining the infiltration team. Feel free to let her know we’re on our way.’

‘I’m sure she’ll be pleased,’ Jay said, watching as Abraham and his men climbed the destroyed escalator. He turned to Nasira, who simply shrugged.

‘His funeral,’ she said.

Jay jumped on the radio. ‘This is Jay. You there, Soph?’

‘I’m here,’ Sophia said. ‘Had to switch radios.’

‘Just a heads up. Abraham wants in on your little group. He’s heading your way with two others.’

‘Oh, great,’ Sophia said.

***

Sophia kneeled down inside the corridor, checking her kit. Grace, Denton, Chickenhead and Damien were all doing the same. She had unpacked three of her four portable EMPs and all the Blue Beret uniforms so everyone could get changed. They each now wore Blue Beret kit—black boots, helmets and fatigues—over their existing police or civilian clothing. Sophia was the only one not wearing a helmet. She wanted to be their prisoner, caught impersonating a Blue Beret.

‘SWAT are staying clear for as long as DC can delay them. Even an hour should be enough,’ Denton said. ‘With a good enough distraction—like blowing up the hotel—we can slip out without anyone being the wiser.’

‘We have the FBI patches,’ Sophia said. ‘We won’t need to blow anything up.’

‘That’s a shame,’ Denton said. ‘It’s been over a decade since I demolished a building.’

Sophia pivoted on her knee, pistol aimed down the tunnel as the door opened. A silhouette appeared; she recognized the sword hilt that protruded over the shoulder.

‘You’re meant to be in the control tower,’ she said.

‘The jaguar knights have it under control. Excuse the pun,’ DC said. ‘Besides, I think you need all the help you can get.’

‘No,’ Sophia said. ‘You think that after coming this far you’re not going to sit around in some boring control tower while the other kids have all the fun.’

‘I wouldn’t call this fun,’ Damien said. ‘We might not even survive this.’

‘This is a great pep talk,’ Chickenhead said.

Sophia tossed DC black fatigues and a helmet. ‘Since you’re here now, you may as well saddle up.’

Abraham was next to appear, followed by two of his men. They all carried SCARs and were dressed to impress in Blue Beret uniforms.

‘You’re not on the team, Colonel,’ Sophia said.

‘Abraham,’ he said. ‘And I am now.’

Sophia glared at him, then shook her head. ‘You will do what I say when I say. I don’t care if you’ve commanded an entire regiment. If you’re coming down, you’re coming down under my orders.’

Abraham’s face split into a grin. ‘You wouldn’t even be going in there if it weren’t for me. This is how it’s going to work: you give me the closed channel and the encryption so we can communicate like adults. Once you’ve done that, you command your team, I command mine. It’s really quite simple.’

‘Right up until the part where you get yourself killed,’ Sophia said.

‘Since you seem to be adept at these … unconventional situations, I won’t object,’ Abraham said. ‘I command my men, you
advise
me.’

‘I really don’t have time for this,’ she said.

‘None of us do,’ he said. ‘The clock’s ticking.’

Denton shook his head. ‘Just bring him along.’

The men on either side of Abraham watched Sophia guardedly. She could see they were no threat to her directly, they were just following orders. The Colonel had given them purpose again and they weren’t about to disavow that. She reached into her daypack and showed Abraham all four portable EMPs.

‘We’ll hand them out once we’ve taken security command,’ she said.

‘Do you have enough Magpuls for us?’ Abraham asked, noticing everyone’s new weapons.

‘No, we don’t. We’ll have to make do. You can form up at the rear of our team. Leave your SCARs here.’

Abraham reluctantly placed his SCAR inside one of the duffel bags. ‘And the face recognition in the tunnel?’ he asked.

‘Fried,’ Denton said, handing him three RFIDs and a roll of duct tape. ‘Tape these to your left forearms.’

‘Once we’re inside we still have Blue Beret patrols to contend with, if we’re unfortunate enough to attract their suspicion,’ Sophia said. ‘But our main concern is the 1st Command and Control Squadron.’

‘How many Blue Berets in the Control Squadron?’ Abraham asked. ‘Three hundred? A thousand?’

‘One dozen,’ Denton said.

Abraham laughed. ‘You had me worried there.’

‘That’s because they aren’t Blue Berets,’ Sophia said. ‘They’re Elohim, Cecilia’s personal guards. Ex-operatives like us. Dual-layer programming, pulsed-energy rifles. Trust me, you don’t want to tango with these guys.’

Abraham nodded. It was the first time she’d seen him look a little worried.

She hit the pressel switch on her collar. ‘This is Sophia. Report in.’

Jay was the first. ‘This is Jay. Jeppesen terminal, with Nasira and Aviary.’

The rest of the team were with Sophia, so that was a quick report.

She nodded to Abraham. ‘Your squadrons.’

Abraham asked for a sitrep and she waited patiently while each squad reported in.

He looked concerned. ‘Two squads at the hotel are fine. FAA control room on the other hand, they’re not reporting in.’

‘Don’t tell me SWAT’s on us already.’ Sophia turned to DC. ‘I thought you had them pinned down.’

‘I do,’ DC said. ‘They won’t breach. Not yet.’

‘We need to go check,’ Abraham said. ‘They should be answering.’

‘No, we’re going to the OpCenter now,’ Sophia said. ‘You’re here now, you come with us.’ She held down her pressel switch again. ‘Jay, Nasira, I need you to check the FAA control tower. We’ve lost contact there.’

Nasira’s voice crackled in her ear. ‘On it. Sending Aviary back to the hotel with an escort of Abraham’s men. She’ll be safer there.’

‘Be careful. And once you’re done, fall back to the hotel with Aviary and wait for us to return,’ Sophia said. ‘We’re going in now.’