"We've been infiltrated. Retreat. Everyone out."
Lyons and Pol were caught out of position. They had moved forward with speed and efficiency, eliminating terrorists and helping potential hostages to escape. When the shouting began, they were separated and far from the stairwell.
Politician still could not risk the Uzi because he could not see to the end of the hall behind the goons. Terrorists burst out of a room right beside him, and he lost his infrared light in the scramble. He still had the <span style="font-style: italic;">jo</span> tucked into the back of his web belt. He slammed the Uzi back into its clip and drew the fighting stick.
He was among the goons, sweeping and jabbing. Four went down, but eight or nine made it into the stairwell. Then the scene became lighter and he knew that Lyons was back with his infrared light. The rest of the terrorists began to crumple as silent bullets kissed them goodbye, one at a time. Pol did not dare take a weapon out without his light to identify him. He raised his hands and jointo the air.
"I see you, Rosario. Lose your light?"
"Yeah. Eight or nine terrorists are on those stairs between us and the workers."
Lyons wasted no breath. He ran for the stairwell, leaving Pol to fend for himself.
Gadgets went into a crouch by the heavy door.
"Pull it open," he commanded his guide.
She yanked the door open, keeping herself behind it. Gadgets laid a pattern of 9mm tumblers around the light. It dropped to the floor. Another bullet turned it off. Then Gadgets's infrared goggles went back over his eyes and he charged into the stairwell. He perforated both blurs and then turned on the infrared light to check. Both were dead. He jammed a fresh clip into the Uzi as he returned to hook his guide to his belt.
When they reached the ground floor, Gadgets noiselessly detached himself from the woman and indicated for her to wait. He then went into the office area by the main door. Three terrorists spun to see who was approaching.
Squinting against the sudden light, Gadgets sprayed the area with the entire clip. Only one terrorist managed to pull the trigger on his M-16. He sprayed a neat figure eight into the ceiling as he fell backward with two manglers in his chest.
Gadgets returned to the woman. "Go to the door," he said. "Tell them not to shoot. Then go out and tell the police to expect more workers soon.'' She nodded and went.
Gadgets went back to the hall and let his eyes adjust to the faint light of the goggles before moving on. By that time the first escapees from the top floor began to appear. It took only a few seconds to start the chain going out of the building. Then Gadgets began slowly moving against the flow of refugees toward the top floor.
A voice suddenly rang out from half a floor up. "They're on the stairs below us. Spray the stairs."
Gadgets shoved the last two stragglers behind him. Then he pointed the Uzi upward and waited to locate the muzzle-flashes. But before the terror goons could open fire, two concussion grenades dropped from above, scattering them along the steps. Then Lyons closed in from the top and Gadgets from the bottom.
"I think that takes care of things," Gadgets called up the stairs before coming into line with Lyons's Uzi.
Gadgets was ambushed as he emerged from the building and stood blinking in the bright light. Arms and legs wrapped around him and a big kiss was planted on his mouth while long red hair whipped around his head.
"You're fabulous," the redhead he had led out of the building said in a throaty voice. "What can I ever do to repay you?"
"You got a car?"
"Yes."
"How about a ride to the airport for myself and my friends."
The redhead turned to a man in a gray suit who was standing a discreet five feet away.
"Have my car brought around, please."
"Right away, Miss Anderson."
"Did I hear, Miss Anderson?" Pol asked. "Are you related to the founder of this company?"
"I'm the founder," she replied with a grin.
Officer Gallic came up. "One of you called Ironman?"
Lyons nodded.
"Got a call patched through for you from California. You can get it in the cruiser."
It was Brognola.
"Wrapped things up here," the Fed said. "Houston and Seattle are taken care of. How did business go there?"
"A couple of casualties, but better than expected. Who got Jishin?"
"Didn't you?"
"No sign of her. Who's at Elwood Electronics?"
Brognola's voice sounded worried, even through the static. "Only Ti and Deborah."
"Out." Lyons shouted and jumped from the car.
He turned to Inez Gallic. "Run interference to the airport for us."
Able Team scrambled into the waiting Chrysler and took off after the police cruiser.
19
July 14, 1600 hours, Smyrna, Georgia
This time Jishin did not risk tipping anyone off to the raid by hijacking transportation from the airport. She hired two buses to move both the experienced foreign terrorists and the American terrorists-in-training from the airport to Elwood Electronic Industries Inc.
The buses pulled up to the plant. Two of the least certain of the trainees were left with the drivers. Their orders were to keep the drivers on the spot and out of the way. The other sixty-one terrorists divided into three groups to enter by the plant's three doors.
Jishin went with the group that used the front entrance. There was no one in the reception area. Two lights glowed on the switchboard, showing lines in use. The receptionist's typewriter was on and humming.
Beyond the reception area was the main office bull pen. The coffee was hot. Typewriters and copiers were on. A cigarette burned itself out in an ashtray.
"Creepy," said one of the recruits.
The others looked around and under desks, trying to ignore the remark.
"You three start on those files," Jishin ordered. "You four go back and cover the entry. You two see that the other teams have left their entries guarded as well. The rest of you find out where everyone's gone."
The terrorists scattered to obey orders.
Each of the three detailed to sort through files pulled open the top drawer of one of the upright cabinets. Each began scanning for anything pertaining to original research. The one in the middle found nothing but invoices in the top drawer. She slammed it shut and yanked open the second drawer. The three filing cabinets blew up, filling the room with sharp pieces of flying metal. Three terrorists died, four others experienced the pain of being severely wounded.
Jishin was not hit. She was already on her way to the computer room to see how things were going there. She heard the explosion and the screams but kept going. Someone would catch up with the details all too soon.
She found the terrorists wandering around the computer room. They looked lost.
"What's going on here?" Jishin demanded.
"Jobs are running. The computers are being worked but no one's here," someone reported in a puzzled voice.
"So what!" Jishin screamed. "Just get on with it."
They hastily moved in on the computer keyboards and started deciphering entry codes and working at a way to acquire the classified data.
Jishin stomped out in disgust, through the security and noise barriers, to the back of the building to discover what happened to the third part of the invading force. There was a sharp cracksomewhere in a remote part of the building.
Jishin found the final third of her army frantically trying to dig their fellow workers out from under a heavy load of transformer cores and shelving.
"What do you think you're doing?" she barked.
The terrorists stopped and looked up.