Chapter One

Mishaps

Bridges were made to make travelling more convenient, to make crossing large spans of water and space easier. This was just common sense, that most people over the age of about 12 knew. But in the case of Andrew Dallas, he was not using the bridge properly at all. Here he was, freezing his ass off in a Chinese midwinter, attached to a harness, that was giving him the worst wedgie he had ever experienced. Oh and he was hanging from the harness under a three kilometre long bridge somewhere in the dense Jungles of China. Where adzactly in China he was? Well that information had not yet been given to him and he was not holding his breath on getting it anytime soon. Covert operatives were never really given much info on where they were or what they were really doing once they got there. Although, funny enough, plenty of details had been given on what he was meant to be destroyed and who he was meant to kill. That information was always plentiful. This mission should not involve killing any people though, this was only the second sortie he had conducted.

"Time for a break I think...should give an update as well. Don't want Mei Ling to think I've fallen off."

Attaching the safety harness to the cable above him, Andrew was now able to shift most of his body weight to the cable it was attached to and not his shoulders and upper arms.

"China Rose, this is Squirrel, are you reading this?"

There was a short delay in relaying the message as it took a few seconds for the signal to bounce of one of the Pentagon's Military Satellites.

"Squirrel, China Rose is not the code you were told to use, please use the proper one they gave you next time, please."

"Aw, come on Mei. China Rose suits you a lot better than Ladybettle for crying out loud!"

"I'm flattered really, but how are things going out there tonight?"

"Well, besides the fact that my arms feel like they are about to rip off and I've lost all feeling in my lower region, I'm doing just dandy."

"Oh, well that was more information than I needed. I was actually more interested if you still had all your equipment intact and if you had any complications with patrols or your harness at all?"

"I wouldn't be talking to you if I had run into any patrols."

"So no problems then?"

"I've got a wegie." Andrew couldn't help but smile to himself after that little comment. He loved to pick on Mei sometimes, cause she never got angry. Well not much anyway.

"Come on, be serious please, I need to relay this info to my superiors."

"Oh, all right. I haven't dropped anything that I know of. My FAMAS is still strapped to my back, even though I can't really notice it cause it's so darn light and my 45 is still strapped to my leg. As far as my communications equipment is concerned, it's still in my ear, thanks to your ingenuity."

"Are you OK? Your a little more sarcastic than usual tonight."

"I don't know. I just don't feel comftable out here tonight. Something just doesn't feel right. Mabey it's just the cold." There was more to it than that, but Andrew didn't want to mention it to her. Not yet anyway.

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Listen, I have to go and take care of something. I'll contact you later, so just stay focused and hang in there."

"Like I have a choice. Squirrel out."

Andrew removed his right hand from his ear receiver and let himself relax for a few minutes. There was something about hanging in space that was very peaceful to Andrew. The only noise that could be heard were his shallow breathing, being released in small white clouds into the blackness of night. Although he couldn't help but notice that Mei Ling sounded kinda in a hurry to end the transmission with him. Mabey she had to go to the bathroom or something. At any rate he wasn't going to let it worry him. He had better things to worry about.

"Time to get going I guess."

By removing the safety harness, Andrew once again had to rely on his upper arm strength to keep him attached to the cable. Moving hand over hand, was a very tiring process that took up a lot of time. The single climbers rope attached to the cable would support his whole weight, if his hands slipped, but only if the welding on the cable was sufficient enough. Andrew trusted that it was. But it would of been a different story if his superiors had given him some more info on what had happened here in the past week.

Nine days ago, Chinese anti-Communist forces had staged an attack on the bridge, believing that by cutting of the only supply route to the Military Base, that it might be easier to destroy soon after. The guerillas had certainly taken the Communist forces by surprise, but they were heavily outnumbered. Proximity mines placed by the guerillas had done measurable damage to the bridge, but mortars being fired from the Communist side of the bridge, had pushed their forces back again into the forest.

Now those soldiers who were given the duty of repairing the bridge were taking the rumors of further attacks quite seriously and had therefore not taken their time in repairing the structure. Photos from the US Military's IRION series of satellites, showed these non-qualified repairers, spending only small amounts of time on each section were work was required. Especially at points were welding was needed.

Andrew took a quick glance around his shoulder. "Not long to go now." He didn't know how wrong he was.

The cable was actually made up of many smaller ones welded together as it was kinda impossible to make a steel rod over 3000 metres long. But it was one of these smaller cables that would start him on a journey that nothing could prepare him for and he was taking others along the ride as well. Whether they liked it or not.

There was no warning given to Andrew before one of the welded ends of the cable he was holding onto suddenly gave way. It didn't break off entirely, just bent downward on a 45 degree angle. Just enough time for Andrew to mutter a short statement to the night.

"Oh, well this is just fucking great..."

And so the other end followed suit and sent him falling towards the icy depths below. Nearing closer, falling like a stone, he prepared his body for the fall and wrapped his arms around his chest, his legs pointing straight down. Then the water consumed his being, the freezing water rushing up his nose, making his face cringe painfully. Finally he landed on a mixture of rocks and ice, sending minor ripples of pain through his back.

Once the shock of his fall was over, Andrew, let instinct take over and tried to head to the surface, but was stopped by the rope still attached to his waist. Feeling around his waist, he made the discovery that the rope had wrapped around him several times, making escape for the moment impossible. By this time the water was freezing his muscles, making him tense up. He knew he was dead unless he took action soon. That action came as he pulled his knife from it's sheath on his leg and cut the rope, in a few places to try and get him loose.

He was soon released from the ropes grip and was now powering through the water.

Although once he broke the surface of the water, things did not improve. He was sore all over and his breathing was now in rasps. He felt weighed down by the once light FAMAS and tried to get it off his back, but was too exhausted to pull it's strap off his shoulders. Nearby a heavy splash came from somewhere. He tried to find it's source, but to no avail.

Just before he finally gave in and let his body relax, heavy arms grabbed him hard around his waist. He couldn't make any sense of it, so he just let the world of sleep take over his mind and body.