Guffrey screamed as he fired, the man lunging forward straight into the bullets of the submachine weapon, blood spattering back from the bullet impacts to the terrorist’s chest right up until a swipe of the man’s hand knocked the chattering sub machine gun from his hand. The MP7 jerked up short, kept close to Guffrey’s body by the assault strap connecting it to his vest, but before he could recover it the other man had lunged up and was wrapping huge hands around the SAS man’s throat.
“Power still isn’t restored, Amir.” Director Jacob replied, “We may be running through our reserves at a dangerously high rate.”
Abdallah scowled, but nodded. “Stand the Radar arrays down to minimal sweep.maintain jamming on all frequencies.”
Jacob nodded, issuing the orders quickly.
“That will give us power for several days, unless they attack with another air assault.even if we are unable to regain peak production.” Jacob replied.
Amir nodded, still scowling. “What I want to know, Jacob, is what happened to the power in the first place”
“It may simply be surge damage from the Chinese Array,” Jacob replied, shrugging. “The system is cruder than its American `Aegis’ counterpart, though marginally more powerful. Very likely when we turned it on to full power, we weakened some of the circuits feeding it.”
Amir nodded, sitting down as he considered that.
“Where are the repair teams now” He asked after a moment.
Jacob waved his hand to another man, and a portable comp was immediately produced and handed to him.
“They were going to check the primary feed junction in the tower itself,” Jacob replied, then frowned, “They’re overdue to check in.”
“Call them.”
“What’s happening there”
The screens that made up entire sections of the walls in the central command room of the CIA’s crisis management center were tuned to the events in Tower City, just a little less than half the world away. On the center screen was the power facility itself, and that was were Natalie Cyr was pointing when she asked her question.
The thermal overlay, previously unreliable due to the enhanced temperature of the solar facility was rapidly cooling from the center outward, spreading a blue fog across the circular compound that left the occasional red blotch in its wake.
“The tower is losing thermal variance,” One of the computer technicians muttered, staring a little too wide eyed for Natalie’s taste.
“I can see that, did they do it Is it shut down”
“One moment.Yes Ma’am, satellite scans now indicate water saturation in excess of one hundred percent within the tower.It’s drawing air in.”
“Yes.” She whispered, fist clenching as a slight smile touched her lips.
“Ma’am.something else.”
“What is it, Richie” She asked, laying a hand on the man’s shoulder as she leaned over him.
“Power output on the Chinese radar array has dropped from active to standby modes, I think they’re having an energy crisis, Ma’am. The turbines inside aren’t designed to make use of falling air.”
“Well.” This time a genuine smile did cross her lips, “Do we still have our teams in the air”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Have them make for Australian airspace, I’ll be right back.”
Guffrey hit the man in the sternum.
Hard.
The blood covered grimace above him barely wavered, even though the SAS man was fairly certain he’d heard something pop from the strike. Whatever the man was on, it wasn’t letting too many signals get through to the brain, though judging from the guy’s eyes, Guffrey wasn’t sure that many signals ever did get through. He growled as he wrenched his weight over, pushing the guy off him and using the motion to roll over on top as the drugged terrorist tightened his grip around Guffrey’s throat.
Stars were popping in his eyes when he found the strap that held the MP7 to his harness and yanked it back, wrapping one hand around the cold steel of the machine gun. He didn’t wait to find the grip or trigger, Guffrey just pulled it back, then slammed the weapon into his opponents face.
Then he did it again, and again.
The grip finally slackened as the SAS man kept driving the steel down with motions that were powered and guided by autopilot, not rational thought. Finally he was able to gasp in a breath of air as the hands fell away, and he rolled off the man to the ground.
The Lieutenant lay there for a moment, unable to summon the strength to move as he gasped for air through a throat that felt half crushed, until he finally managed to look to the side and at the man who’d almost killed him.
The terrorist’s face was gone, nothing but a bloody pulp remained, but he was still breathing through all of that, somehow his body was still trying to keep going. Guffrey groaned, forcing himself to his feet, and cast about for the rest of his team and their target.
His men were down, prone on the ground, two of them returning fire while one just lay there unmoving. Guffrey quickly took in the rest of the scene, paling as he finally located the men in the canary yellow hazmat suits.
“Oh no.” He whispered.
The tank between them was spewing fumes into the air, already forming a cloud that was growing far too rapidly for his taste, moving slowly on a faint breeze to the outer ring of the facility.
Natalie Cyr stepped back into the Crisis Management Center a few minutes after she left, a distinct look of satisfaction on her face as she settled in to her station to overlook the situation.
“You look like the cat that got the Canary,” Carl Severson said as he arrived from an adjacent room. “Do I want to know”
“Probably not.”
He closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly, “You’d better tell me.”
“I just gave away about three hundred billion dollars worth of men and equipment, are you sure you want to know”
“Oh God. Tell me you cleared whatever it is with someone, preferably outside my department”
Natalie just shook her head, still with that hint of a smile.
“This is Comanche Zero One to Sydney Control.”
“Go ahead, Zero One.”
“I have been instructed to turn myself and my flight over to Australian Air Command and am now doing so, Commanche Flight awaiting orders.”
“Roger that, Commanche Zero One. Australian Air Command is accepting change of command and is ordering you to proceed immediately to the following coordinates and provide all available support to troops on the ground. Be advised, communications with ground crews are still being jammed.”
“Confirmed, Command. We’ll be cautious.”
“Very good, Comanche Flight. Good hunting.”
“Zero One to Flight, continue at maximum flight speed and prepare to drop to nap of the earth flying when we approach within two hundred nautical miles of the target.”
Lieutenant Guffrey stumbled through the crack of gunfire, grabbing one of the canary suited terrorist by the back of the crumpled fabric of his Hazmat suit and yanked the man back away from the expanding fog with a grunt of exertion.
He didn’t want to be standing within twenty miles of that floating death, but he had a job to do, and he was going to get it done. One way or the other.
The SAS man found the seam in the suit and split it open along the seal, much to the dismay of the struggling man inside, quickly yanking the one piece system off the man as a echoing boom erupted through the air, jerking his head up.
The second man in yellow was stopped, a ragged hole in his suit at chest level, where he’d been ready to strike Guffrey with a pipe. Guffrey nodded in the general direction of the snipers, then turned back to his task.