“It’s always the one you can least afford to do without eh, sir?”
“The essential ‘W’ arm, Chief. Writing, waving and wanking.” The marine officer replied ruefully.
“And what brings you to these parts instead of seeking out beautiful reporters in distress over by the border?”
By way of reply Jie fished out the waterproof pouch from his map pocket at his thigh, withdrawing the book and thence the written orders from between its leaves.
Instead of opening the orders the officer turned the book, which Jie had placed on the sill and peered curiously at its cover, a picture of a sea turtle was self-explanatory as to the books purpose, the script being in Chinese logograms.
“You are a wildlife enthusiast, Chief?” he asked. “Plenty of that around here.”
Idly opening the front cover he looked at the stamps on the inside for the briefest of moments before turning to the colour glossy photographs in the centre.
Clearly not a fellow Herpetologist he closed the book.
“Well each to his own eh, Chief.” He said with a smile and returned it, opening the orders with a flick of his left wrist whereupon he held the creases flat with spread fingers against the writing shelf on his side of the window and began to read.
“Additional perimeter patrol, huh? I hope you are familiar with the ground so you know not to venture between the yellow markers and the fence?” he said glancing up from the orders.
Jie nodded in affirmation, emphasising it with a respectful “Yes, sir.”
“Or every damn alarm on the place will go off, again.” added the officer.
With a shrug the lieutenant handed the orders back.
“You need to book yourself and your men in, I can’t do it myself.” He added, nodding again at the limb in a sling.
“Not in that book!” he warned as Jie reach for an open binder nearby on the sill. “That’s for civilian cleaning staff…you need to unload your weapon and come inside. The binder is in the corner and a bit heavy for a one arm bandit to carry across.” He grinned. “I’ll buzz you through.”
Jie duly carried out an unload and looked across the road to his men, making a surreptitious thumbs up gesture out of sight of the marine officer at the window and the soldiers nearby as he placed the ejected magazine in a pouch and secured it.
A faint nod in reply came from Corporal Chui, his senior NCO.
On pushing open the door at the sound of the harsh electronic buzz he found himself in a guardroom typical of those anywhere in the world. Institutional light green paint from floor level, up to above average shoulder height and then cream up to and including the ceiling. A narrow rubber mat ran across a shiny floor and he knew without being told that to step off it onto the gleaming and highly buffed linoleum would not be met well. It smelled of floor polish, coffee and Gauloises cigarettes.
The marine officer had his ear to a telephone when Jie appeared.
“On the table in the corner, Chief.” he nodded to neatly arranged binders and logbooks on a shelf.
Jie however could see all manner of labelled registers and books identifying the contents as Fire Drills, Mileage Returns and archived Incident Logs, but he could see nothing to indicate a booking in and out register.
“Sir, I can’t seem to find it…?” he turned and the marine officer put down the telephone and smiled affably but ignored the question.
“So tell me Chief, how you come to have an April date stamp in a Shanghai library book when the war started in March?”
Time seemed to freeze, as it does at those times of discovery for the kid with his hand in the cookie jar, the burglar half inside the window when the light comes on, and the soldier with an empty rifle.
He froze for a heartbeat as realisation hit him. Somehow the French officer had been on to him from the start, and by allowing him inside he had both lulled Jie and his men into a false sense of security, and separated the leader from his men.
The sudden roar of the thirty calibre machine guns outside jarred him into action.
Jie drew back his arm to fling the weapon at the marine, to buy time to reach the Norinco inside his smock.
The marine officer had a Glock 17 held with confident ease in his left hand and shot Jie twice through the chest before the captain could complete the throw.
Jie’s legs folded beneath him, all strength leaving his limbs he found himself on his knees, too weak to reach the smocks zipper.
The marine officer crouched over him, the pistol in his left hand.
Jie stared at it.
“Ambidextrous…” Said the officer in a slightly apologetic tone “…and two years with the Embassy guard in Beijing, in case you were wondering.” He continued in good, but slightly accented Mandarin.
Jie felt the floor tremble and a thunderous sound announced the Vega rocket launching another replacement military communications satellite into orbit.
The roar muted that of the thirty calibre machine guns and its tail flames light even invaded the guardrooms interior noted Jie, but at its height, darkness came.
Locating the valve for the diesel storage tank took but a moment but getting power to the pump in order fuel the Dai took long minutes before the switches were found in an electrical cabinet in the gatehouse but before that happy event a more worrying one occurred.
Snatches of gunfire were heard on the wind just before a column of fire rose into the heavens with a rocket and satellite riding upon it.
Captain Li queried the SF detachments warrant officer, Senior Sergeant Yen who tried without success to raise the two other teams on their tactical radio, looking a little comical, armed to the teeth yet in a singing voice that would strip paint from the walls he canted his head to one side, over the Thales radio microphone on his left shoulder and gave voice to a lullaby.
“Frere Jacques, frere Jacques, dormez vous? Dormez vous?”
There was no response from Dai’s or Bao’s teams, no indication that they had entered the site or not though either.
Unbeknownst to the captain, the Soyuz team had been approaching the northern entrance to the site. There was no issue with new procedures as signposts directed anyone with business with ESA or Soyuz to follow the detour to Kourou and use the southern gate.
They had not heard gunfire as the wind was at their backs. The launching Vega had of course been a very spectacular last view.
A bare fifty metres lay between themselves and the guardroom when the Vega launch took place. Ten faces could not help but follow its fiery splendour upwards, its tail flame illuminating them rather conveniently for the thirty calibre crew at the north gate who were now stood-to and on the lookout for bogus legionnaires.
“Night ranges, sir? Local gun club perhaps?” the warrant officer suggested to Captain Li.
“At this time, when rockets are launching?” Li responded. “No, that is not very likely. The ‘big sky’ theory is frequently disproved by stray rounds and ricochets.” He shook his head. “It would be prudent to work on the assumption they are blown, and the brown stuff is about to hit, I think.”
The two troopers tasked with ensuring there was nothing on the small Kourou airstrip that could be used against them arrived back at a fast jog.
“Something is stirring in town, sir.” One reported.
“Quiet as the grave when we went through it the first time, but there’s people moving about and cars starting up now. Some fat bastard in pyjama bottoms and combat jacket nearly trod on me on the way to his car.” The troopers had been moving quickly and quietly along silent streets when they had been surprised by house lights coming on and the sound of car engines starting up. Dropping prone in someone’s flower bed and remaining motionless had been instinctive.