Rico ignored him and directed her attention to the leader of Team Ghost. “Do you think that base has something to do with Kryptonite not working on the Variants there?”
Fitz folded the map in half, and then into a quarter to examine it closely. “That’s what we’re going to find out,” he said. “The government retrofitted the base into a lab and were working on a bioweapon of their own to kill the juveniles.”
“I don’t suppose these ‘rebels’ are going to help us, either, are they?” Tanaka said. “Not that I’m complaining. Just saying. The EUF wasn’t there for Operation Beachhead either.”
Fitz gave a reply with a quick shake of his head.
“What about the locals?” Rico asked. “Are there any still alive? Perhaps they could give us some intel if there are any out there.”
“Maybe if any of them are still alive,” Fitz replied. He went back to studying the map as turbulence rattled the chopper. Webb used the time to check the sky. He still couldn’t see the other Black Hawks.
“Our orders are to find and infiltrate the facility and destroy whatever weapon they were working on,” Fitz continued. “When we’re finished, we’re ordered to destroy the old Nazi facility.”
“And I don’t suppose you know what this weapon does, do you?” Dohi asked.
Fitz pulled a small handheld recorder from his rucksack and held it up. “This tape is the only real intel I have. It came from a joint mission between the Greenland military and the EUF. Most of it’s in English.”
Every member of Team Ghost moved closer to Fitz, even Apollo, who sat on his haunches. Webb unclipped his harness so he could hear.
Fitz clicked the play button.
Background noise, hardly audible over the whoosh of the helicopter blades, broke from the tiny speakers. A voice cracked through a moment later.
“Command, we have found the tunnel to the facility, permission to enter.”
“Copy that, Eagle 1, green light.”
A few seconds of static passed, followed by a panicked voice. “We’re entering the labs. Something happened here… something awful. There are bones and some sort of…”
More static, then the same frightened voice.
“There’s something here, Command.”
There was gunfire from multiple rifles.
“Lee is gone!” someone else said. “Shit they got Galan, too!”
Webb shuddered at the piercing hiss and shriek that followed.
“Eagle 1, do you copy?”
“Wolf 1, do you copy?”
“Snake 1, do you copy?”
“Command, Snake 1, we’re cut off from the other teams… we have multiple contacts… What the hell is that thing!”
“Take it down, Bray!” someone shouted.
Another flurry of gunshots sounded. What came next made Webb swallow hard. The high-pitched shriek almost sounded human.
The tape cut off, and silence filled the troop hold.
Fitz lowered the recorder and scanned his team. Their faces were stone cold, but Webb could feel his own eyes widen from shock.
“That was the last anyone heard from the strike teams,” Fitz said.
“How many were there?” Stevenson asked.
“Three teams. About thirty men. Not a single one made it out.”
Stevenson made a low whistle.
“Damn,” Tanaka added. “So that’s it? They didn’t send in any more teams to figure out what the hell is down there?”
“They don’t have any to spare,” Fitz replied.
Stevenson shook his head. “Of course not. Just like the EUF couldn’t spare anyone to help the 24th MEU during Operation Beachhead. Why the fuck don’t they just bomb the site?”
The chopper hit another pocket of turbulence. Webb grabbed a handhold and looked out the window at fluffy white clouds and snowflakes pelting the window. He searched for the other Black Hawks while Fitz continued his briefing.
“Nixon wants that weapon destroyed internally. We can’t risk it getting out. Bombs could bury it, but…”
Webb focused on a flash of motion through the clouds to the east.
“Three American fire-teams against a Nazi base full of God knows what…” Stevenson started to say.
“I’ll take those odds any day,” Rico said.
Dohi agreed with a grunt. “Me too.”
The underbelly of the bird seemed to answer with a groan as they passed through another stronghold of air.
“Jesus,” Rico said. She grabbed her stomach. “This is one hell of a rough flight.”
Webb glimpsed another flash of movement in the sea of white. He leaned in closer for a better view at a gap in the clouds. Every helmet in the troop hold looked in his direction at the sudden distant crack of gunfire.
“Ghost, we got Reavers!” Tito immediately said over the comms. “Badger 1 is under attack!”
Fitz hurried over to Webb. They opened the door and a blast of cold air swirled into the troop hold.
“You got eyes?” Fitz asked.
Webb shook his head, and then froze. Through the thinning clouds he saw something that seized the air from his chest.
A dozen massive bird-like Variants swooped around Badger 1. The Marine on the M240 blasted away at the monsters while his comrades open fired with their M4s. Badger 2 was to the east, flying adjacent, and holding their fire.
Webb tried to move, but the sight of the Reavers had him paralyzed with fear. He had never seen one in real life. Their armored bodies and fleshy wings flapped through the sky, surrounding Badger 1 like Turkey Vultures waiting to feed.
A round punched through the bulkhead behind Webb, snapping him from his trance. He ducked with the rest of Team Ghost.
“Holy shit! They aren’t watching their fire zones!” Rico shouted.
“Tito, get us clear!” Fitz ordered.
Webb turned for the M240, but Dohi was already manning the gun. He raked the muzzle back and forth for a clear shot.
One of the Variants plucked a Marine from the open doorway of Badger 1 and tossed him into the clouds. Three of the creatures dropped into a nosedive after the man while one of the smaller beasts flapped into the troop hold. It knocked three of the Marines out the other side like bowling pins.
Webb felt his heart rising in his throat as the remaining Marine fired at the Reaver that had climbed inside the craft. The beast retracted its wings so it could fit then slashed the man with a pair of talons, slicing him across the neck. He dropped his weapon and grabbed at the wound, stumbling backward.
Screaming filled the open channel as the pilots tried to keep the bird in the air. They pulled up hard and a body fell from the chopper, vanishing into the clouds. In a matter of minutes, the beasts had killed every Marine in the troop hold, leaving the pilots on their own.
The Reaver got on all fours and crawled up to the cockpit. It retracted a spiked tail, and then impaled one of the pilots like a scorpion hitting prey with its stinger. The other pilot turned from the cyclic stick and fired an M9.
A loud crack sounded to Webb’s left. He cupped a hand over his ears and watched the head of the Reaver explode inside the Black Hawk. Ears ringing, he turned to see the smoking barrel of Fitz’s MK11 sniper rifle.
When Webb looked back to Badger 1, it was gone, hidden by the cloud cover. Dohi remained calm and steady on the big gun, scanning for a target.
Snow tore into the side of the troop hold, and the cold bit through Webb’s layers. He let out a breath in a puff. The blades thumped above them, and for a moment it seemed like everything had slowed to a stop.
When the clouds finally cleared Webb searched for Badger 1, but where there should have been a Black Hawk, there was only open sky.
Stevenson broke the silence. “Odds just got worse, Rico.”
Apollo let out a whine as Fitz lowered his rifle. “Keep your eyes peeled,” he said. “Those things are still out there.”