“Yes. Many time. Very dangerous.”
“Where? What did you do?”
“Radio station had internet. I break through firewall and download collected works Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clark-son! Girl power, so forbidden!”
A muffled thump sounded from above them. Thin layers of dust trickled from the ceiling, shimmering in their flashlights as it clung to the poisoned air.
“The fuck was that?” asked Alexis moments before two more thumps rumbled through the facility. More dust rained down, thicker this time.
Jonah considered the concrete ceiling for a moment before walking several steps over to the map on the wall. He mentally estimated the distance between the underground base and the massive, bore-fixed artillery. No question — they were definitely close enough. “I think we’re getting shelled,” he said finally. No doubt the North Koreans knew they’d lost control of the facility. Seeing Sun-Hi’s unauthorized activity in their defense network could have been all the excuse they’d need to bury the base and its secrets forever.
“Shelled?!”
“Sun-Hi… I don’t suppose you tripped any alarms when you got into the system?”
“Um, maybe?” she said, apologetically wincing as she minimized a flashing red warning sign with dancing Korean characters.
There wasn’t any point in making an issue over the mistake — it was already too late. The thumps were coming in faster succession now. A framed portrait of Kim Jong-un tumbled from the wall, glass shattering as it hit the concrete floor.
“Is this going to become an issue for us?” said Alexis as she pointed upwards towards the sound of the impacts.
“Probably bunker buster artillery,” said Jonah. “Armored casing, delayed fuse. The North Koreans love ’em.”
Alexis crossed her arms. “You are not making me feel safer.”
“I ask them nicely to stop,” announced Sun-Hi. Before Jonah could stop her, she pulled up a chat window and sent a message through North Korea’s secure military communications network.
Jonah pulled her away from the terminal, the chair squeaking across the concrete. “No more speaking with the guys shooting at us,” he ordered.
“Again, are we in trouble here?” Alexis watched another long, shimmering line of dust fall from the ceiling.
“Could be worse,” said Jonah dismissively. “We’ve got to be two, three hundred feet below the surface here. It’d probably take them ten years minimum of continuous bombardment to put a shell into this room.”
“They say no,” said Sun-Hi, looking up from the computer terminal. “They not stop.”
WHAM!
The blast was closer this time, knocking chairs over as high-tech foreign military equipment slid off the tables and onto the floor. Cracks spread across the ceiling like a spider-web as the concrete rumbled and shifted above them.
“You still pretty sure about that ten years boss?” shouted Alexis, waving angrily at Jonah as she spoke.
“Yeah — we gotta go now,” said Jonah. He ripped the magnetic tape out of the server as Alexis swept memory cards and diskettes off the desk and into her hands. The copy wasn’t finished, but their Japanese masters would have to make do with what they’d already grabbed. “They clearly don’t build bunkers like they used to.”
“Or bombs.” Alexis said, grabbing one last stack of diskettes.
The facility lights flickered as Jonah, Alexis, and Sun-Hi broke into a run, sprinting out of the engineering laboratory towards the main corridor. The North Korean shells were coming faster now, a steady barrage of impacts and muffled explosions.
Jonah was first out the door, slamming into Hassan, knocking them both to the ground. Jonah’s mask went flying off his face, rubber fasteners snapping as his nearly-empty air tank bounced end over end across the concrete floor before coming to a rest below a mural of the Pentagon burning under an onslaught of North Korean missiles. Holding his breath, he started to scramble towards the mask on hands and knees.
“You’ll live without it!” wheezed Hassan. He dragged Jonah to his feet by an elbow, and gave him a push. “Run!”
The four sprinted down the corridor, racing towards the submarine. The first big wave of dizziness hit Jonah almost immediately, dropping him to his knees as he passed the pillars. Dalmar stood in front of the fallen gangplank, waving them in.
The underground submarine tunnel was in bad shape, with clusters of basketball-sized boulders raining from the ceiling with the concussion of every thundering shell impact. The falling rocks slammed into the concrete and the waterway, pounding the hull of the Scorpion with one grinding gong after another. Fortunately, Vitaly had the submarine’s engines already running at full tilt, black smoke pouring out of the stack.
Hassan leapt first, hurling himself over the edge and onto the deck of the Scorpion. Landing, he whipped around as Dalmar assisted Alexis with her running start, giving her a mid-air push across the watery gap and onto the submarine. Sun-Hi skidded to a stop at the edge of the concrete, teetering on the edge before Dalmar picked her up and bodily threw her into Hassan and Alexis’ arms like a shot put. There wasn’t time to use the diver lockout compartment — Hassan and Alexis yanked open the deck hatch, spilling harsh light into the underground chamber.
The breath caught in Jonah’s lungs, leaving him to gasp as he stumbled to his hands and knees once more, dragging himself towards the concrete slipway, his vision swimming as his empty stomach contracted violently. Dalmar strode over towards Jonah purposefully before grasping him underneath the armpit and leg. The pirate then swung Jonah over his shoulders with a fireman’s carry.
“Talk to me, Dalmar, what is the fucking plan here?” croaked Jonah from his mid-air suspension.
“Do you trust me, brother?”
Jonah didn’t have time to answer, but strongly suspected his response would have been a resounding I’ll need a minute to think about it first. The corridor behind them began to collapse, a violent whoosh of dust bellowing out of the hallway as the ceiling came down like an avalanche. Jonah knew it’d be moments before the submarine tunnel came down as well. Dalmar grunted as he kneeled to a sprinter’s start position, ignoring the boulders raining from the ceiling like a meteor storm. He was up again with a snap, sprinting towards the edge with Jonah on his shoulders, stopping just short of the edge as he flung Jonah across the gap.
Tumbling through the air, Jonah smacked against the side of the Scorpion as he fell just short of the deck. Hassan and Alexis threw themselves over the side, barely grabbing onto a wrist and ankle as Sun-Hi shrieked in the background. The three awkwardly dragged Jonah back onto the deck as Dalmar easily made the leap, landing with a thud almost as loud as an impacting boulder. The pirate pitched Jonah down the deck hatch with one arm as the others climbed into the submarine after him. The rest of the crew now inside, Dalmar squeezed through the hatch and slammed it closed behind him.
Flat on the deck, Jonah gulped fresh air as Hassan gently slapped the side of his face. Boulders rained down onto the submarine in a cascade of heavy blows that echoed throughout the narrow hull.
“What the fuck is happening out there?” screamed Marissa as she loomed over Jonah, assault rifle clenched in her white knuckles, and her index finger twitching on the trigger. Dalmar glared at her as he yanked the weapon from her grasp, clicked the safety back on, and rested it against the nearest wall.
Jonah sucked in another breath, his vision clearing as he pulled himself up to his feet and walked the last few lengths to the command compartment, not bothering to answer Marissa. He clapped a hand on Vitaly’s shoulder. “Can you navigate us out of this tunnel at flank speed?”