Temple of the Gods - Andy McDermott [103]
‘Good job we’re not going all the way up, then. Come on, give it some high knees!’ He set off again, Nina following in confusion.
‘What do you mean?’ she panted. ‘How are we going to get out?’
‘Not by running up three thousand bloody stairs, for a start.’ As they climbed, another sign came into sight: the next level. ‘That big lift was on this floor.’
‘I think it may be a little hard for them to miss us if we ride up on that!’
‘Depends what we ride up with.’ They reached the landing; Eddie checked that nobody was lurking beyond the door before entering.
Lines of dark and silent armour lined up inside the vast space greeted them. The main lights were still on in this level, but the brightest illumination came from the portable rigs set up around the tank undergoing maintenance. Nina cautiously peered around one of the M60s to see the two mechanics standing by their charge, talking animatedly; they had heard the alert, but seemingly had no idea what was going on. ‘We’ll have to go past those guys to reach the elevator.’
‘I’ll take care of ’em,’ Eddie assured her.
‘How? As soon as they see you they’ll raise the alarm.’
‘Why?’ He indicated his now rather untidy uniform. ‘I’m an officer, aren’t I?’
‘Yeah, but the second you open your mouth they’ll know saahmthang’s wraahng,’ she said, imitating his attempt at an American accent. ‘What are you going to do, use sign language?’
Eddie cracked his knuckles and gave her a devilish smile. ‘I think they’ll get the message.’
20
In the administration block, Colonel Kern listened to a crackling report over the intercom from Silent Peak’s lowest level. ‘We still haven’t been able to restore full power down here, sir. We need a maintenance crew to fix the breakers.’
‘We’ll have to call a team in from Groom,’ said Kern, concerned. ‘What about the intruders?’ From the moment the alert had come through directly from the Pentagon that their security clearances had been forged, his honoured guests had been reduced in status to targets.
Ogleby came on the line. ‘They’ve wrecked the place!’ he cried. ‘Kern, I hold you entirely responsible for this fiasco. How the hell did you allow them to just stroll in here?’
‘I see from the system that you approved their clearances too,’ Kern replied irritably, checking a monitor. ‘But it looks like security’s been breached at a very high level. There’ll have to be an investigation—’
‘Sir!’ his lieutenant interrupted, pointing excitedly at a status board. ‘The main elevator – it’s coming up!’
‘I think we’ve found them,’ Kern told Ogleby before ending the call. He turned to his subordinate. ‘Assemble a group, everyone armed, then get to the elevator. But keep the guards at the main door in case it’s a ruse and they’re trying to escape some other way.’
The lieutenant acknowledged and rushed out. ‘Keep monitoring things here,’ Kern ordered a corporal as he headed for his office.
He opened a desk drawer and took out his sidearm. Silent Peak’s quiet obscurity and official status as a reserve facility meant that only its security personnel were routinely armed, but right now he wanted every man on the base to have a gun at the ready. Whatever Nina Wilde and her companion were doing here, it was going to be stopped. Flicking off the Beretta’s safety, he hurried after the lieutenant.
In the control room, the corporal’s eyes bugged as he saw on a CCTV screen what the enormous elevator was carrying. ‘Uh, sir?’ he called, but his commander had already gone.
Kern met his men outside the cluster of cabins, where the lieutenant had rounded up twelve troops. Some were support staff armed only with pistols, but the majority were members of the base’s security detail, carrying M4 rifles. ‘Okay, everyone with me,’ he ordered, starting to run. The men fell in alongside him. ‘We have two intruders who infiltrated the base using falsified