“Your report came in to Vince Sharp, who went straight to the partners with it. But it was too late getting to Scorpion HQ.” Said Tatiana.
Dillon nodded; his headache was now making him feel particularly tetchy.
Tatiana was sitting in front of one of the monitors.
“So what do you know about Kirill’s facility in Scotland?” There was a glint in Dillon’s eye; Kirill brought back the bad memory of the assignment in the South of England, and now he knew that one day — one day soon, he would meet the man again. Dillon would have a little chat with him, and then he would kill him…
Ezra frowned. “Every step of the Chimera Programme development process, has taken place at Kirill’s facility in Scotland. Some of the basic scripts were leaked recently over the Net and there have been some pretty pissed-off people… especially since we also have the blue-prints containing a vital missing script for this extremely dangerous programme.” Ezra laughed without humour.
“After we’ve shown these Assassin fellows some good old fashioned Greek hospitality, we could do with popping over to say hello to professor Kirill and his team of hackers. I’m sure they would be very interesting to talk to. But considering what they’re planning for our world economy, that place must be locked down so tight that even a mouse wouldn’t get inside.”
Tatiana spun round in her seat, “Ezra, you’d better look at this.”
Ezra went to Tatiana’s monitor, resting his large hands on the back of her swivel chair and stared at the flickering screen in front of her. “Shit,” hissed Ezra, “something is wrong — everything looks normal.” His gaze flicked from Tatiana’s monitor to the screen next to her — but there was nothing, nothing visible, no black clad Assassins clambering up from the cliff top or through the olive groves. Nothing.
“So what’s happening, Ezra?” Tatiana’s voice was a little shaky.
“Normal is not good.” Ezra pulled a small black device from his pocket, which had a series of green and blue LED lights flashing. He looked up at Dillon. “This device has only one function, to let me know when there is a security perimeter breach… Those bastards have out-smarted our early-warning surveillance systems… But how did they do it? No matter now, we don’t have the luxury of time to deliberate this problem. If the worst happens, we have one last surprise up our sleeve, and you don’t want to be within a mile of this place when it goes off.”
“What is it, Ezra?” Tatiana asked.
“An Electro Magnetic Impulse weapon. It’s located directly under this chamber. When the device is detonated it will destroy everything organic within the immediate area and all electronic equipment within a one mile radius will be deactivated and the hardrives erased. However, once the device is armed this facility will go into a state of hibernation, every electrical appliance and all of the computer hardware that is here, is fitted with special shielding against the impulse blast.
“How do we leave?” Dillon said softly.
Ezra pointed to an alloy panel at the far end of the chamber. “If the situation looks hopeless, I want everyone to try and make their way back to this chamber.” His expression was sombre, his voice low.
“It will be the only way of getting away in time, and the countdown is set for 60 seconds,” he walked over to the panel, “behind this panel is another tunnel that leads straight down to the base of the cliffs. There are purpose built sleighs on the other side, which run on a mono-rail all the way to the bottom. The hidden exit will automatically open once I’ve pushed the countdown button.” He looked around the room for a brief moment, and then said. ‘’It’s time to meet our enemy. May luck be with us all.”
He turned and went out through the tunnel, followed by Dillon, Tatiana, Franky and Spiros and a number of security guards; who were all wearing body armour and headsets within their helmets. The heavy metal door slid closed behind them. Moving to the mouth of the tunnel they remained deep within the shadows, Dillon pulled free his Glock and brought up the Heckler…
His mouth was suddenly dry, he felt the adrenalin pumping through his heart, and a slow burning sensation deep within his subconscious.
Bullets screamed, a short burst smashing into the rock an inch above Dillon’s head, showering him in dust and debris. There was the whack and splat of a bullet entering flesh and a security guard, who was standing at the front of the line, smoking and resting his gun across his arm, had his head obliterated in a violent spray of blood, brains and bone. The entire side of his head and face disintegrated and now covered the rough-hewn wall of the tunnel entrance. His legs buckled from under him and he dropped, twitching and blood trailing crimson to the ground.
“Stay down!” Screamed Dillon as rapid automatic gunfire erupted all around — and he suddenly knew, remembered how the Assassin’s had avoided his own sophisticated security system and early warning mechanisms back at his home in Scotland… and the bastards had done exactly the same here — they’d bypassed the security network and were now — inside the facility perimeter.
Why use such brash and head-on tactics, when stealth and cunning could have so easily carried their game off more smoothly.
And Dillon knew that this noisy full frontal attack was a diversion. To draw their attention. After all, who wouldn’thear the distinctive battle cry of a Heckler & Koch MP5 SMG firing at full throttle?
Dillon hit the dirt hard, pulling Tatiana down with him.
On the opposite side of the tunnel, Ezra crouched low, keeping his back tight to the rough wall as machine-gun bursts roared, screamed and echoed into the tunnel from outside. Dillon glanced left and was momentarily stunned by what he saw. A squad of ten or so Assassins were pinning them down in the tunnel entrance while another two were advancing towards them carrying, what appeared to be missile launchers. They moved with amazing agility and speed, their movements effortless as they sped across the olive grove — machine guns continued to thunder.
“Aim for their heads, it’s the only area without armour!” Bellowed Ezra, and, keeping low, crept his way nearer to the mouth of the tunnel. Seeing Ezra, Dillon launched himself forward and as he landed, rolled and fired his Heckler on fully automatic to give covering fire. An Assassin was picked up and slammed backwards off of its feet and onto the arid earth with a series of holes where its face had once been. Dillon looked pensive as he took in the scene, no more than a few seconds had passed, before he was firing another short burst at four Assassins to his left, he rolled and, another rapid burst to his right, and three more went down into the dust — their heads almost severed from the vicious fusillade of bullets.
Ezra had managed to work his way to the far side of the olive trees, he saw Dillon rolling and heard the Heckler firing at the Assassins, who were dropping like stones all around him. And then all was quiet.
There was a click, followed by a concussive boom. One of the two Assassins carrying the missile launcher was picked up and tossed spinning into the air and slammed into the trunk of a tree. All that remained of the dead Assassin was its badly burnt body minus both legs and what was left of the upper arms, the grenade blast so fierce, that it had literally ripped the Assassin open as easily as shelling a pea from its pod. Smoke spiralled up into the air, and Dillon threw another grenade for good measure, taking out the second Assassin in the blink of an eye.
Dillon could hear the sound of death all around him.
And then chaos prevailed. Assassins came from all directions, black-clad, hooded and lethal; some carried small cross-bow, while others held mini-Uzi sub-machine guns firing on semi-automatic. Dillon and the security guards were responding with short bursts of return fire and grenades. Seconds later, detonations sounded and Dillon grabbed Tatiana’s arm and led the way towards, what they had first thought, was simply Ezra’s villa — Ezra’s home.