“Half mile,” he reported a minute later. “Clouds are a little thin here. If we swing a little east, that would put the sun at our back and delay them from noticing we’re not the helicopter they’re expecting.”
“Do it,” Ash said. He looked at the rest of the team. “Radios on and weapons ready.”
Odd, Kleinman thought, a few seconds after the helicopter appeared on the radar screen.
The aircraft was approaching from a more easterly position than he had expected. Dream Sky was almost due north of NB016. Maybe they’d been forced to fly around a portion of the growing storm.
Whatever the reason, he needed to be the first to greet them so he could brief the strike team on the base’s situation.
He left control and headed for the dedicated stairwell to the roof.
Celeste entered the combination for the safe in her executive office and pulled it open. Inside were three portable drives. The first one she pulled out contained all the information she’d been compiling on the other senior Project members, especially her three colleagues on the directorate. The drive was her key to becoming the principal director. She stuck it in her travel bag.
The other two drives held her personal copies of Project codes and the Project’s detailed plans for restarting humanity post-epidemic, including the locations and control-override codes for all Project Eden bases. Normally, the principal director was the only one who’d possess this comprehensive information, but since the job was currently being shared, all four members of the directorate had a copy.
She filled the rest of the case with a few items of clothing and some personal items, then called the control room. “Ms. Dalton?”
“Yes, Director?”
“What’s the ETA on the helicopter?”
“Preparing to land, ma’am. They should touch down within the min—”
Celeste hung up, having heard all she needed to. She grabbed her bag and headed for the door.
Kleinman stood near the landing pad, hearing more than seeing the descending aircraft.
The glare of the sun through the clouds made the helicopter look like an indistinct dark blob until it was no more than a hundred feet from touching down.
He narrowed his eyes, thinking the sun was playing tricks on him, but no. Vintner’s helicopters were both black underneath. The one about to land was gray. If the strike force had resorted to using another vehicle, wouldn’t it have reported that?
Of course it would.
Kleinman ran for the stairwell door.
“Got a runner,” Sealy said over comm.
On the roof, the man who’d been standing near the landing pad was now running toward the only visible doorway. Ash knew the guy had realized something was wrong.
“Take him out.”
A single shot, most of its sound lost in the open sky.
The running man was flung forward onto the deck and skidded several feet before coming to a stop.
Sealy fired again.
The man’s body lifted briefly as the second shot entered his back.
“Target terminated,” Sealy said.
“Set us down,” Ash ordered.
Celeste jammed her hand against the scanner next to the stairwell entrance. As soon as the lock disengaged, she shoved the door open and headed up.
She wasn’t the first to arrive. She could hear several others above her, nearing the top. When they opened the door, the whoop-whoop-whoop of the helicopter flooded in. A few seconds later, she heard someone yell.
The stairs switchbacked halfway up. As Celeste made the turn, she was surprised to see two people heading down. The moment they saw her, one of them shouted and pointed back at the twenty-second floor. The beat of the helicopter was too loud for her to understand what he was saying, but she could see the fear on this face.
Trusting her instincts, she retraced her steps and pulled the door open. Immediately, several people who’d been in the hallway tried to push into the stairwell.
“Goddammit!” Celeste shouted. “Get back! All of you!”
As soon as they realized who she was, they moved out of the way.
Celeste pushed through them and grabbed one of the men who’d been on the stairs with her. “What the hell is going on?”
“When we came out on the roof, someone in the helicopter started shooting at us.”
“What?” she said in disbelief.
“Michaels was hit, but there was another body already there. We just barely got back inside.”
A boom rocked the stairwell, the shockwave rattling the door.
Everyone panicked.
From beyond the door came the sound of boots pounding down the steps.
“Out of my way!” Celeste commanded. “Move! Move!”
Shoving her bag in front of her, she pushed her way through the crowd. She had to get to the safe room. It was her only chance.
The helicopter was still descending when the door the dead man had been running toward opened and three people emerged. When the one in the lead saw the body, he stopped and yelled at his friends.
Sealy’s rifle cracked again. The closest man dropped to the ground, but his two companions had already ducked back through the door before Sealy could get off another shot.
Twenty seconds later, the helicopter touched down and everyone jumped out.
Chloe reached the door a moment before Ash did. She yanked it but it didn’t open.
“Back pouch,” Ash said to Chloe, turning so she could get into his backpack.
He heard her unzip the pocket and remove a small chunk of plastic explosive. She slapped it against the door next to the handle and shoved in the timer-based detonator.
“Everyone back,” she warned.
After she set the timer to five seconds, she and Ash hustled around the side of the raised landing pad and knelt down.
Most of the explosion was focused inward, but a few pieces of the metal frame whipped through the air and landed near them. The moment the blast ended, they shot to their feet and ran into the stairwell.
Chloe repeated her explosives act on the locked door at the bottom, using less than she had before. After they moved halfway back up the stairs, the door ripped from its hinges and flew into the space beyond.
Sealy went first and turned right. Ash followed, turning left.
“Clear,” Sealy said.
“Clear,” Ash echoed.
The rest of the team entered the hallway and split in two.
“We’ll take right this time,” Chloe said.
“Be my guest,” Ash replied.
Like they’d done on the lower floors, they cleared each room they came to. Most were empty but they did find several people, all terrified. Ash’s team quickly restrained them before leaving them where they were.
“Ash?” Chloe said over the radio.
Ash clicked on his mic. “Go for Ash.”
“Found the mother lode,” she said. “Some kind of nerve center. We’ve got twenty-three people here, lots of computers, communications gear, display screens.”
“The director?”
“No,” she said, disappointed. “Listen, if you can spare Bobby, we could really use him.”
“Copy that,” Ash said. “Send someone over to get him and he’s all yours. We’ll check the rest of the floor while you guys see what you can figure out there.”
“Copy,” she said.
After Langenberg came for Bobby, Ash’s team finished the south side of the floor and started on the west. As had become the routine, Sealy opened the door and then he and Ramirez moved in, quickly assessing the room.