Part One "The Point": Section Three "The Eye of the Hurricane"

 

START AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST SECTION

“Package is in the glass—twenty meters from zero.” 

Kel waited on Soul’s voice for the part of the play-by-play that she couldn’t see. The security detail was moving across the mezzanine from the marketing building, Soul still calling the action. 

“Fifteen meters. Armand at top of stairs.” 

She had them dead to rights, now, at a textbook ¾ profile with excellent light. What she couldn’t see was the door at the other end of the expanse—where Armand would be. They were walking in absolutely flawless formation. It was too easy.

“Ten meters. Dropping shield.”

Kel focused on her breathing to slow her heart rate, keeping the package one mark forward of the reticle so that when he went down the cross would be on him.

“Five. Armand in motion. Shield down.” 

Kel could see them approaching the apex of the mezzanine. She noticed the attention of the deltas shift to where the door would be, and the alpha stepped in front of Aikins.

“Contact.”

The rear delta was the take-down. He drove his knee into Aikins' leg from behind, pulling him backwards and turning him face-down, catching him as he fell. Drawing his laser rifle, he lay across Aikins' shoulders to keep him still.

The reticle went lime green when Kel touched her finger to the trigger. She began the exhale and let the cross drift slightly, coming to rest on the black seam between the package and the delta that was on his back, covering him.

There was nothing else. There was no sound. She couldn’t hear Soul any more. She didn’t have a name. There was only the thin lime crosshairs lined up on the target, that black seam, and one gentle squeeze.

The tripod had been wrenched down so tight into the frame of the building that she could barely feel the recoil, but she felt the whump that shook the walls. She saw the impact and her heart dropped even as she was sending the follow-up rounds. They were deforming the material but it didn’t shatter and she knew she was hitting stellex or something similar. She could see Aikins lying there, cooperating with the delta, not writhing in pain, not moving around, no blood on his lily white suit.

Her face went cold watching the deltas she had planned to take care of as they began to advance in a line down the hall. They didn’t rush. No one broke ranks. Just five steps followed by a burst, five steps and a burst, at a slow walk, shoulder to shoulder, closing on Armand like machines.

Kel’s shoulders went weak. It was happening again. It was all going to happen again, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She could see the tiny silent muzzle-flashes against the dark carpet of the hallway. Her throat burned and her voice failed her. She mouthed, "Where are you guys?" then thumbed to full auto and drew down on the advancing deltas with everything she had.

 —— —— ——

Armand flattened against the metal of the fire door. He could hear the dome catching hell from the HAC but didn’t have to look to know that there was nothing getting through. “Kel. Go to extraction point.”

Soul was still calling the action. “Alpha center flanked right and left. Three advancing on Armand. 40 meters to door.”

“Where’s the package, Soul?”

“Package on the deck. Get to roof.”

Armand said “Can’t now” absently, as he slipped a thermite grenade from his belt. 

The sec-team was supposed to be on defense by now, with HAC rounds pounding down. Under those conditions, getting to the roof would have been easy. Now it was all fucked. As soon as he closed the door they’d be coming at a full run and he’d never be able to lose them going up eight double-flights. If he went down and out the way he came, the rifle teams on the roof would cut him to pieces.

“30 to door.”

“Besides," Armand mumbled, "Blackout doesn’t miss.” He armed the grenade with a twist and pressed detonate as soon as the band at the top went red. He swung out low and threw it underhand, bouncing it off the east wall of the hallway past the delta on his right. The forward deltas began running towards Armand as soon as they caught sight of the grenade, trying to take cover around the corner in building S as the grenade went tumbling down the hall behind them.

The alpha didn’t run. He dropped to the floor and took careful aim, firing three bursts at Armand before the shockwave hit.

—— —— ——

Kel had lost track of ammo. Her breathing was strained. The deltas were advancing down the hallway and her rounds weren’t even distracting them. Armand was there somewhere, behind the wall where she couldn’t see him, outgunned three to one, and here she was, his guardian angel, unable to stop it from happening. She listened helplessly to Soul’s count as they advanced. “30. 20.” She could hear her own voice rising and falling as she fired, the sweat pouring off her nose.

Armand said “Can’t now” and suddenly the deltas were running toward his position. The alpha hit the ground and fired. Then a fireball rolled down the mezzanine.

She heard Soul's voice in her ear: “Kel. Roof teams have you fixed. Incoming.”

Kel didn’t even look. She let go of the HAC and grabbed the AR-S40 from the chair on her way out the door with her head down and managed to slip through just as the rounds began to land. Out in the hallway, she ran for the stairwell as the walls disintegrated behind her. She pulled the firedoor and ducked inside the stairwell, taking two steps at a time as she climbed to the roof for rendezvous with the Recluse.

“I’m clear. I’m out. Is Armand dead? Confirm.”

Kel had climbed a dozen steps before she heard Armand's voice: "I'm down. Can't move."

Kel grabbed the rails to stop herself, reversed direction, and headed back down the stairwell.

—— —— —— 

Tirion came up the lift and slapped the ten-gauge into the rack before harnessing into the pilot station. Soul had his ballistics on and was halfway through a gear check. “Where do we stand? Why are you armoring up?” Tirion was firing the Recluse up and already had it rolling for the hangar door. The course was pre-programmed. It was a 25-second continuous burn to the target area, which would have been fine if they had left on time.

Soul pulled the slide of his assault rifle and let it slam home. “Armand’s down on the second floor—vitals dropping. Kel’s en route to the roof. Package down. Alpha down. All deltas down. Armand wasted them all. Rifle team S and H intact. Campus security and half of Fort Wallace are scrambling.”

T.S. shook his head. He was flipping switches. "I hope it's true about the eye of the hurricane."

The Recluse was on the pad now. Tirion got the green light from the tower and fired the engines, shooting west, following the course waypoint.

Soul was monitoring the comm channels. “Chaos at the P.A. Network overload. They haven’t noticed the flatline.”

"They will soon enough." Tirion began dialing in the landing zone. “Get ready. If we can’t make the point, they'll lock it down. Then we'll never make it off this system."

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