“We’re moving out! Colonel Pierson’s forces are under Anti-Aircraft fire!” Malcolm announced, grabbing up the closest large duffel and landing it on the next closest desk.
“What!” Anselm blurted in shock, looking around in confusion.
“You heard me, Interpol.” The Major replied, fishing an XM-90 Objective Infantry Rifle from the bag and a fistful of clips to go with it. “We’ve got men down in hostile territory, and we’re going to get them out of there.”
“Hostile territory!” Gwen yelped, watching as one of the SAS men began assembling an Objective Crew Served Weapon while another prepared the boxes of its 25mm explosive ammunition, “That’s my city out there!”
“Your city is now my battlefield, Inspector,” Major Malcolm said flatly, “I’ll do my best to limit collateral damages, but I’ve got a job to do now.”
“But.!”
Anselm grabbed Gwen’s shoulder, “He’s right, Gwen.”
“What!” She glared, spinning on him.
“If they’ve got anti-aircraft guns out there, this isn’t a police matter anymore, Gwen.” He told her grimly, “We’re way past police keeping. Where do you keep your riot gear”
“Riot.In the armory, downstairs.” She blinked, shaking her head. “What are.”
“Let’s go.” He told her firmly, taking her arm.
“But.explosives! In my city!”
“Come on,” He growled, nodding to the Lieutenant in charge of the Interpol STRT unit, “Greene, get your people prepped.”
“Yes Sir,” Green nodded, flicking a gesture to his men and woman. “We’ll be ready to go, Sir.”
Anselm nodded to him, then glanced back at Malcolm. “There is one problem, Major.”
“Oh, and what would that be, Interpol”
“The virus.” Anselm said grimly, “We don’t have time. We’ve got to stop them from deploying the virus.”
The SAS man grew rigid, his face freezing, “If you’re suggesting that we leave men down.”
“Major!” Anselm snapped, “They’ll all be infected too if the virus isn’t contained! The Tower isn’t exactly a secured lab!”
The Major looked away, his face a mask.
“They’re soldiers, Major. Like cops, they’ve got their duty and they’ll have to take their chances.” Anselm said softly, “It’s not nice, it’s not pretty, but we’ve got a major situation inside the tower right now. If that’s not dealt with first, a lot of people are going to die. Tell me that they wouldn’t tell you to do your job and let them handle theirs”
Malcolm pursed his lips in a grimace, but acknowledging the statement, but not denying it either.
“We’ll hit the tower, Major, initiate our containment plan,” Anselm said quietly, “Then we’ll do everything possible for those men. Deal”
Malcolm nodded slowly in response. “Deal, Agent Gunnar.”
“Do we have the locations of those gun sites yet!”
“Yes Ma’am! The camouflage was well made, they used materials that are thermally consistent with the background, but we think we’ve found them all.”
“How sure”
“Say ninety percent,” was the answer. “It’s possible that they have sites that were not in range to strike at the Australian choppers, or maybe some portable ordinance and.”
“If you’re through covering your ass,” Natalie told the man coldly, holding out her hand, “Give me the information.”
“Uh.right. Here, Ma’am.” The man said, handing her a microdrive.
“Thank you,” She replied, turning on her heel and walking out.
A few moments later found her in the central communication room, sliding the microdrive into one of the networked systems.
“What do you have there, Natalie” Carl Severson asked as she opened a communications link to the Australian government and another to the consulate portable in Agent Gunnar’s hands.
“If we’re not going to be allowed to sit in on the game,” She said grimly, “I’m going to try a little backseat driving instead.”
“This is the armory,” Gwen said tiredly, unlocking the cage with her badge ID.
Anselm nodded, pushing the door open, and walked into the small caged room. All the standard police weapons were lining the walls, shotguns, pistols, long rifles. Gear that had probably never seen use outside of the training range in this city, but was still kept on station because protocol demanded it.
There were times when he really loved protocol, Anselm decided. Not often, but there were times. He grabbed one of the two MP7s from the wall, checked it action, and nodded in satisfaction. “This will do.”
“Pete will be glad to hear that,” Gwen said dryly, eyeing the weapons with an equal mix of distrust and distaste. “He kept these weapons up like they were his religion.”
“Good man.” Anselm murmured, attaching a sling to the H&K machine pistol and pulling boxes of ammunition from the drawers under the weapon mounts. “Here, take the other one. You are checked out on this, right”
Gwen took the weapon gingerly, but nodded. “Yeah. I’m cleared on everything in here.”
“Good girl,” Anselm smiled, “Take an assault rifle too, I’ve got this.”
He was reaching for a Daewoo USAS-12A Assault Shotgun, designed by the Korean military establishment for police and paramilitary use, when the portable on his belt hummed and he paused, plucking it out and flicking it open.
“Gunnar here.”
“Agent, I’ve got some information for you,” Natalie Cyr told him grimly.
“I’m all ears.”
“I’ve given you access to the primary systems of the portable, Agent Gunnar, and I’m now uploading our latest intel on the gun positions around your area. Access the real time satellite imagery, and the software will automatically overlay the gun positions on the imagery.”
Anselm let out a long breath, then nodded. “Thank you, Ms Cyr.”
“Given the situation, Agent.” She smiled at him, “Just call me `Boss’.”
He snorted, shaking his head. “Sorry Ma’am, I don’t even call the Director `boss’.”
“How about Natalie then”
He nodded, “Alright. That I can do.”
“Good, Agent. Now I think you have some work to do.”
Chapter 9
“The military force is down, Amir.”
Abdallah nodded, satisfied with the results of the ambush he had laid for the Australian military, only really wishing that he’d been able to drop it on the Americans instead. Still, one didn’t always get what they wanted, and he would make do and be satisfied.
“Survivors”
“Some, at least, Amir,” The technician said apologetically. “Many of the helicopters managed to descend behind the cover of buildings.”
“Very well, have our men in the city find them, and kill them.”
The Black Hawk Helo was listing heavily to the front and right, it’s forward landing gear decorating the asphalt a hundred and fifty meters down the road, forcing the men inside to jump to the ground as the brought their XM-90 rifles to their shoulders and swung around to secure their unlikely and unwanted landing zone while disembarking.
They fanned out quickly, putting distance between them and the chopper in case the enemy had mortars or genuine artillery positioned inside the city, and quickly secured the area as best they could while half their number ran the mortar risk and formed a human chain to unload the Black Hawk Helo.
Colonel Pierson checked around them as he ran for the side of a building, two soldiers covering him from either side, and tried to get a sense of his position in the city with little success. The massive spire of the tower vanished into the sky just to the East, so he could guess easy enough what side of the city they had gone down on, but for the moment he was having a hard time matching his location to the mental maps he’d tried to make.