“I heard something.”
Alix palmed his Glock 9mm, complete with silencer, and squinted into the gloom.
They waited for an indefinable amount of time, kneeling there in the gently falling snow. Up ahead there was a slight bend in the trail, sparsely wooded; beyond the turn squatted the old wicker basket landing platform.
Alix closed his eyes, focusing on the sounds and smells all around him, the fresh ozone heightened by the clean crisp mountain air. After five minutes of concentration, he was just about to give up. The Priest and Lola just behind him. They moved forward cautiously, halting, constantly checking their surroundings in the gloom — eyes fixed, ears alert.
As they rounded the bend they came across the snow covered landing platform with the large eight man wicker basket, similar to those used for hot-air ballooning, resting alongside a small run-down building. Its timber structure, decaying from years of neglect and nonuse. A thick steel wire connecting the basket to the winch-house far above. The door to the building was firmly closed against the tenbelow temperature outside.
The wind howled mournfully through the valley, a light glowed within the timber building, glimpsed through shrouded windows.
Sentries, signalled Alix. Two.
The Priest and Lola both nodded.
You both wait here, Alix signalled, and again the Priest and Lola nodded.
Alix moved towards the door, keeping low and being careful not to make any sound. He stood up, back against the damp wood. From inside, he could hear low voices, the accents Far Eastern, possibly North Korean by the sound of it, complaining about the drafty old building being colder inside than it was out. Where were the SAS, then? He thought to himself with a grim smile. And what were communist soldiers from a closed state, doing in the Highlands of Scotland?
He moved cautiously around to the side of the building and from this new vantage point, he could see the two soldiers sitting opposite each other in front of a small two-bar electric fire. Alix heard the whine of heavy rotors, and glimpsed up to see the flashing red landing lights of a military Chinook helicopter.
He remained perfectly still, his eyes now fully adjusted to the gloom. The religious man’s source had been right. There was definitely something strange going on here.
There was a noise from inside, the sound of boots on timber, Alix turned, facing the door — which suddenly burst open to reveal one of the uniformed men, stocky build and heavily muscled like a Rottweiler. He was smoking a cigarette that dangled from between his lips and a lethal looking Daewoo K7 9mm silenced SMG slung from his shoulder. He was squinting — and his eyes opened wide as he saw Alix’s smiling face.
Alix’s fist connected with a crack, and the Korean guard was punched backwards to land heavily on the frozen earth in front of the timber building, knocking him unconscious as his head grazed the smooth surface of the concealed rock. As the second guard appeared in the doorway, Alix instantly brought up the silenced barrel of the Glock, so that it was level with the man’s face. He stood perfectly still, Daewoo K7 9mm SMG in his hand at his side, not sure what to do next, all the time thinking to himself — can I kill this son-of-a-bitch, before he kills me…
“Don’t even think about it, sonny,” growled Alix as the young man looked at him, then down at the K7. The guard made his choice went to bring the K7’s barrel up, and the Glock spatin Alix’s grip; the guard was flung back inside the building, sprawling out on his back in the middle of the small room. Blood spattered up across the walls, and from the obliterated skull, blood and brain matter oozed out to mix with the grime and dust on the wooden floor, pooling around the man’s head. Alix cursed.
The Priest stood up, Lola followed, and they both walked over to Alix, who was now standing over the unconscious first guard. Alix kicked him sharply in the kidneys, making him gasp with the pain, as he moved past to the guard lying on the floor inside. Alix checked the dead guard and then stepped back outside; Lola had grabbed hold of the living guard and had dragged him up into a sitting position, and was shaking him by the shoulders.
“How many of you are there?”Lola spoke to the semi-conscious man in fluent Korean.
The man shook his head, a mouth as narrow as a pencil line.
“What are North Korean soldiers doing here,” said Lola. “And what the hell are they really guarding?”
“What do you think about the cable, I suppose it’s likely to be shot to hell; not many people know about this access to the facility, and less reason to guard it. I think though, that these two Herberts were down here because you never know…
“Why not use Assassins?” Lola said looking around.
“Be thankful they’re not,” said the Priest, adding. “But these two intrigue me. Why are there North Korean soldiers in Scotland? And how many more of them are there, because they didn’t walk here on their own.”
“These fuckers are packing Daewoo K7 9mm silenced submachine guns. The thing about this particular SMG; is that it fires a subsonic 9mm cartridge, and utilizes a simple blow-back system, has three firing modes, single shot — a 3-round burst and fully automatic. In the auto mode it has a cyclicrate of fire of 1150 rounds per minute. And that scrawny bugger was definitely going to cut me in half with his. Good thing he didn’t get the chance. Stupid young man.”
The Priest was standing between the basket and the building, looking up at the very distant winch-house above. “Kill the light inside,” he said softly, and dropped his rucksack onto the timber floor. He pulled free night-vision binoculars and peered up through the snow filled expanse.
“There’s movement up there, helicopters coming and going.”
“What are they up to?”
“Can’t tell from down here, angle’s all wrong and this snow isn’t helping either,” said the Priest. “Even as we speak two more Chinooks have landed and taken off again. So it must be something important to risk manoeuvring large helicopters around these mountains in such bad weather. The top of this mountain is very busy for a Government research and development facility, I’d say.”
“So what now?”
“We need to get closer.”
“This basket hasn’t moved for quite some time,” said Alix slowly.
“I doubt it would be safe, even if there was power still piped into the winch-house, which is highly unlikely. What are you thinking?”
“I need to get closer,” said the Priest. “I will go up the wire.”
“That would make you more insane than me.” said Alix softly.
“You forget, Alix. The Lord will protect me.”
“Really…”
“He has done okay so far, as I’m still alive.”
Alix ran his hand through his wet hair, and then peered up at the swaying cable running straight up the side of the mountain and into
— nothing — total darkness. “I will, of course, have to come with you,” he said without enthusiasm.
“That will not be necessary, Alix.” Said the Priest.
“Excuse me, Priest.” growled Alix softly. “We haven’t come to this God forsaken place to sit on the side-line. We’re here to find out who and what has totally obliterated Scorpion, and is fucking around with a potentially devastating global computer virus; I can’t let yougo alone.”
Alix smiled, and then walked back to Lola. Spoke to her for a moment, before walking back to the basket and stared upwards. Alix knew from his time here that this area of the facility was virtually invisible to the prying eye.
“That’s an awfully long way to climb,” said Lola, coming to stand beside him.
“Yeah, so I see. Grab your pack, if you’re coming.”