“You better come see this,” Teal told him, nodding down into the street. “Looks like we’ve got five tangos coming this way.”
Franks frowned, but hurried over to the edge of the roof, dropping into a crouch as he approached it so that he wouldn’t present too much of a silhouette to those below. He looked down and his frown deepened when he saw the group of five men hurrying up the steps of the police station, weapons clearly visible in their hands.
“Shit,” He muttered, touching his hand to his ear/throat radio, “Major, you’ve got trouble coming your way.”
There was no response but static.
“Major Major!”
“Bleedin hell,” Sergeant Franks cursed, pivoting on the balls of his feet, waving the other man over, “We’re being jammed. Johnson!”
“Sarge”
“Get your ass down there and warn the Major he’s got trouble coming in the front door!”
The five men, led by Rico Marks, a former citizen of Argentina, marched together up the stone steps that marked the front of the Tower City PD. They’d drawn their weapons as they reached the police lot, the streets around them empty, there was no reason to hide.
“Alright guys, remember, we hit the two cops then get out of here.”
The others grunted in agreement, a couple of them smiling a little too much for Rico’s taste. He had no love for cops himself, having grown up in a community which might charitably be referred to as a `ghetto’ by some nations, he’d been considered less than human by those in authority and had striven to survive their attentions as much as the knives and guns of his peers. He did worry a bit about those who drew too much enjoyment from it, though. Not because they shouldn’t enjoy their work, he did after all, but because excessive enjoyment often led to uncontrolled repeat actions, and those were dangerous.
“No worries, Rico,” One of the men grinned as they reached the heavy doors at the front of the station. “This is gonna be fun.”
“Yeah. Right.” Rico shook his head, “Let’s do this.”
Major Malcolm and Agent Gunnar were pouring over the schematics of the tower facility, looking for entrance points, when the doors at the far end of the large conference room suddenly burst open.
Around them were two teams of highly trained and, at the moment, jumpy soldiers and police officers who took immediate exception.
The SAS and Interpol men snapped around, their pistols practically jumping into their hands even as the doors smashed into the walls and the five men crossed through it with weapons in their hands. The men in question had a few seconds to stare in betrayed shock as they saw themselves looking down the barrels of fourteen guns, then one of them made the mistake of pulling the trigger on his Type 99 Assault rifle.
The single 6mm round went wide, the man’s surprise ruining his aim, and the response was instant and lethal. Fourteen powerful handguns roared, firing 4.6mm and 5.7mm projectiles, riddling the five men in an instant of roaring chaos.
In the aftermath of the violence, the echos of the firearms still ringing in their ears, Major Malcolm and Agent Anselm turned to look at each other in disbelief.
“What kind of frigging genius tries to stick up a police station” Malcolm asked in disbelief.
Anselm curled his lips up dryly, shaking his head, “I expect that they were here for Gwen and I.”
“Ah.” The Major nodded, “Yes.”
The two men shook their heads just as Trooper Johnson came skidding around a corner, his own gun in hand, “Major! There’s five guys coming.ah.right then. Never mind.”
Malcolm looked over at the man, piercing him with a dry glare and Johnson swallowed, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
“I’ll just be going back up to the roof then.” He said, walking backwards. “Uh.Major”
“Yes Johnson”
“We’re being Jammed, Sir.”
“We know, Johnson.” Malcolm said, “Go tell Sergeant Franks that we’re clear.”
“Right Sir.”
Malcolm watched the man retreat, then shook his head.
“Damn it, alright, Jenks! Cal! Clear those bodies and barricade that damned door. Pauly, you take whoever you need and secure all the doors to this place and set up a perimeter watch.”
“Yes Sir!”
“And someone go tell Tavish that I want my radio!!” Then the Major turned back to Anselm and Gwen, “Now let’s figure out what the hell we’re going to do about this mess.before someone else shows up and disturbs us.”
The two cops nodded, Gwen’s eyes roving over to the bodies at the door as the two SAS men began to clear them away.
“Yeah.” She said softly, “Wouldn’t want that, now would we”
Malcolm smiled wryly, but pointed her attention back to the schematics of the tower facility. “Do you know where we might find an expert on these Someone we could trust”
She opened her mouth to speak, then paused and grimaced. “Major.I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
He nodded grimly, noting that Agent Gunnar was also nodding in agreement.
“Right. Well then, we’ll have to make do. We know they’ll guard the usual entrances, monorail, vehicle.. How about around the edge
“It’s mostly open,” Gwen said seriously, “but it’s quite a hike from here if we don’t use any of the main entrances.”
“Hikes we can handle,” Major Malcom said thoughtfully, “But what about cover”
“None to speak of between the edge of the greenhouse and the city.”
“Now that could be a problem,” he sighed, “alright. Another problem, what can we do once we get inside That might affect how we plan to get there.”
“I’ve been thinking about this,” Anselm replied, pointing to a section of the schematic. “What about shattering the glass around the inner ring That should short circuit the process, keep the hot air from being focused in the tower”
Malcolm nodded, but frowned, “I see where you’re going, but it’ll still distribute the virus. Can we predict how much altitude it’ll get If we have prevailing winds pushing this toward a major city, I think we’ll be in the same boat.and if it still reaches the Jetstream we might actually spread it further.”
“I’m not sure,” Anselm admitted with a sigh, “But I think that we should consider it, at least if the winds look favorable.”
“Maybe,” Malcolm conceded, turning to Gwen, “Any idea what the material in use there is”
“Carbon fibre reinforced plexiglass,” She told him, “same as the entire facility.”
“Lovely,” He sighed, shaking his head. “Just this side of indestructible.”
Gwen nodded in agreement, “It has to be, just in case of severe storms.”
“Perfect,” Malcolm muttered, “Alright.we have some blasting compound, but if we use that in the wrong place it’ll bring every Tango for miles right down on top of us.”
“There’s another problem,” Gwen put in, shaking her head.
“Oh”
“That inner ring is almost two hundred acres of glass,” She told the group grimly.
There was a moment of silence as the group were confronted with the sheer scale of the project facility, and Ian Malcolm shook his head. “We didn’t bring that much compound.”
Anselm chuckled harshly, “Major, if you had, I’d be worried.”
The men grinned a bit at that, but shook it off quickly, the situation was a little too grim for anything more than a moment’s levity among them.
“Before we can make any hard plans, we’re going to need to talk with HQ, but let’s keep getting thing laid.” Malcolm was cut off by a portable on a nearby desk humming against the polished surface. He looked up, and around, and frowned, “I thought our portables were jammed”