Thursday, June 22nd, 2017
09:24 GMT+2 (07:24 GMT June 22nd)
Axis of Evil Facility
One nautical mile northeast of Mikonos
and 123-feet under the Aegean Sea
Rylee, Simon & Tanya
There was something disturbingly familiar about the fireball which had passed over her.
The heat was extreme, and Rylee felt the searing heat on her face as she dove to the ground, her arms moving to cover any exposed skin; her mask was in a pocket and there was no time to pull it on. Then fire began to rain down upon her, but her wetsuit was fireproof, however, she felt intense heat as something extremely hot struck the left side of her head and she screamed as she felt and smelt hair burning. Then her mind kicked into action and she bolted for the door into the laboratory where she had seen a safety shower mounted on the bulkhead. The fire followed her as she ran and she fell into the base of the shower, her left hand groping for the trigger handle which she found and yanked with all her might, holding it down as cold seawater poured over her head and extinguished whatever had been burning. The water soothed the left side of her head where she had felt extreme pain just seconds before. After what felt like minutes but was just forty seconds, she released the trigger handle and she jumped up even as the young woman came at her, but Rylee was in no mood for anything so she simply put two bullets into the young woman's chest and her assailant fell back, smacking her head on the side of a workbench as she went; a plastic bottle held in her left hand rolled to the deck. It was acetone, Rylee's mind told her as she leaned down to smell the substance dribbling out of the squeezable bottle with a hole stabbed in the top. Rylee kicked out at a small blow torch held in the other hand which she recognised as a signature weapon of the hand's owner.
"Fucking hell!" Rylee breathed as she strode over to where Simon wrestled with a beast of a man. "We have no time for sparring sessions!"
Rylee took the muzzle of her pistol across the back of the big man's head – twice! The man finally sank down and he lay unconscious but spread across the hapless Simon who glared up at Rylee.
"What the fuck!?" he growled as Rylee simply strode off in the direction of Tanya.
Simon lifted the giant bastard just enough so that he could roll out from underneath the bastard's bulk. He sighed with relief as he struggled to his feet and ran after Rylee who seemed pissed about something. He arrived intime to find Tanya going mental and clubbing a female to the deck with what looked like a Bunsen burner.
"Stay the fuck down, whore!" Tanya spat.
"Neither of you have started your periods, so what is it?" Simon asked.
"Do you really want to go down this road?" Rylee asked pointedly.
"Not really," Simon admitted warily. "Just making conversation."
"Let's get these twats set up for interrogation," Tanya suggested as she began to secure her female with cable ties.
"Why are you wet?" Simon asked Rylee as he flipped on the overhead lights.
"I..."
"What the fuck – your hair's singed...," Simon then grabbed Rylee and he pushed her head over to the right – he was horrified by the sight of bright pink flesh which was a darker pink in places covering maybe a couple of square inches of Rylee's scalp behind and above her left ear.
The boy could see that it looked to be a borderline second-degree burn – but mostly a first-degree burn. That kind of explained the burst of warmth he had felt a minute or two earlier, the boy thought as he fished in his pack and he produced a tube of Flamazine cream which he spread liberally over the wound, his eyes pricking with tears at the sight of the wound. Rylee was struggling with the pain, but she seemed to be managing it for the moment. The thick white silver sulphadiazine cream would prevent infection and both cool and help the burns to heal.
"Who did that to you?" Simon demanded angrily.
"Firestorm," Rylee said simply as she pointed at the deck. "Shit!"
The pyromaniac was no longer lying on the deck.
09:25 GMT+2 (07:25 GMT June 22nd)
Four thousand yards northwest
of the Axis of Evil Facility
HMS ARTFUL (S121)
Royal Navy Astute Class
Hunter/Killer Submarine
The eight-thousand-ton nuclear-powered submarine moved through the water at just two knots, enough to maintain steerage way and depth control, but little more.
Aft of the large submarine's fin, a thirty-eight-foot-long cylinder some nine feet in diameter was fitted to the hull with the front end merging into a streamlined fairing at the rear of the fin. Even as the mother submarine hung in the clear waters, the hatch at the rear of the dry dock shelter – officially referred to as the Special Forces Payload Bay, but also referred to by its project name: Chalfont – swung open to port. A six-man swimmer delivery vehicle backed out of the shelter under the direction of two divers. The mini submersible was an SDV Mark 8 Mod 1 and was one of three which the Royal Navy operated. Once the SDV had moved to starboard, the door at the rear of the DDS motored shut and as soon as the SDV had cleared the after planes and the rudder, HMS ARTFUL accelerated to fifteen knots and moved to intercept the Russian Sierra II class nuclear-powered hunter/killer submarine.
The SDV, loaded with six members of the super-secretive Special Boat Squadron motored off at its top speed of six knots, making for the Axis of Evil facility.
09:35 GMT+2 (07:35 GMT June 22nd)
Axis of Evil Facility
Rylee, Simon & Tanya
They were searching for the missing Firestorm.
Tanya had secured the man and the woman, and she remained to keep watch on the pair while Simon and Rylee moved off to hunt for the pyromaniac Predator. Yes, Firestorm was a Phase 3 Predator and a girl who both Simon and Rylee knew from their time at Toulouse. The girl had a nasty fascination with fire and was a highly skilled chemist as well as being particularly good with explosives – especially pyrotechnics. While all Predators could create a bomb out of seemingly innocent household objects and chemicals, Firestorm would make her devices much more powerful and devastating with extraordinarily little additional work. Indeed, she had (accidentally) burnt down an entire section of the facility which had then become the new accommodation which the Zetas had moved into after the rebuild. The girl was a loner, but her skills had kept the girl alive when most would have endured a bullet to the head. The girl had a similar temperament to the devil twins – as they had been back then at least. Indeed, the girl had got on well with Christina and Sky.
Simon knew that Rylee wanted blood, but he wanted to know why a Predator was working for the Axis – was she being coerced, maybe? Or was she just operating as a mercenary? There were many reasons a Predator might choose to do their own thing; many dangerous reasons, and very few actually conducive to a healthy life for anybody else involved or caught up in said scheme. As the pair ran up the aluminium ladder, they heard sounds up ahead, then Rylee was annoyed to hear a radio broadcast on her earpiece.
"Zeta Team, Quebec Two," Adrien radioed. "Be advised, support has arrived, and we are bringing two inside."
"Bite me, Quebec Two!" Rylee retorted as she ran down the corridor.
Simon scowled, knowing that Adrien would not be happy with that response and neither would Cameron. However, Rylee was Rylee! Simon ran after the girl but then he slithered to a halt as there came the sound of a scream and then the unfortunate sound of a punch, followed by another and then the sound of two objects hitting the deck. Simon ran to the open hatch up ahead and he groaned. Firestorm was on the deck as was Rylee and both appeared unconscious and each sported a vicious red mark on the relevant cheek. Simon glared up at a giant of a man wearing what appeared to be a black marquee but was probably just a dry suit of the only size which would fit the man.
"That bitch," Simon said as he pointed to Firestorm, "good put down. As for her," Simon indicated Rylee, "if she's dead, I will fucking kill you; on the other hand, if she is alive, then she will fucking gut you when she wakes up!"
"Corporal Saxs, Z Squadron – sorry about er..."
"Rylee."
"Sorry about Rylee – can I take her somewhere?"
"Down below – that's where we have the prisoners," Simon said as he glared at Cameron who was immediately behind the SBS trooper.
With that, the trooper scooped up Rylee while another trooper of equal size – Simon had no idea how the pair had even fitted through the moonpool – scooped up Firestorm.
09:43 GMT+2 (07:43 GMT June 22nd)
Axis of Evil Facility
Rylee, Simon & Tanya
with Adrien & Cameron
also with Z Squadron
By the time they reached the large laboratory, they found Tanya interrogating their two prisoners.
Actually, it appeared very one-sided as the prisoners were bound to structural pipes while seated on the floor, their ankles and wrists secured. Duct tape covered their mouths and their eyes while Tanya was asking them questions but not awaiting the answers – she was disorientating them as she threw in questions, then a punch or a stab with her combat knife.
"Hi, so you found . . . what the fuck happened to Ry?"
"My fault," came the booming voice of Corporal Saxs. "I saw them both running, and I assumed..."
"Fucking wrongly!" Rylee growled as she shook her head. "Put me the fuck down you overgrown gorilla!"
Saxs grinned as he returned Rylee to her feet, ignoring his grinning subordinate who was enjoying seeing his boss getting a roasting from a mere quarter-pint.
"Did you punch me out, big man?" Rylee demanded as she drew her combat knife.
The SBS trooper was a little unnerved by the scene. He had been warned to expect young combatants, but to find a youngster standing over two prisoners with fresh blood dripping from her combat knife was, well, it just was not right, he considered. Not to mention the fiery girl he had put down who seemed like she was about to stab him.
"You and me, big man; I'll make you regret ever meeting me," Rylee hissed dangerously.
Cameron laughed as Adrien and the other trooper secured the unconscious Firestorm to the same pipework. Simon pulled down part of the girl's upper clothing to reveal the neck and shoulder on the left side – he grimaced at the scar tissue which had formed where the girl had been severely burnt several years previously.
"That is definitely Firestorm," Simon confirmed.
Rylee stood looking down at the girl, rubbing her face as she did so.
"I understand that this place is believed to be a source of nuclear components," Corporal Saxs said.
"It's confirmed," Simon said. "We have CAD/CAM equipment and we have recovered some technical notes.
"Let's see what these people can tell us," Saxs said as he watched Tanya and Rylee go to work.
Simon saw the prisoners' eyes go wide as the interrogation began for real.
About that same time...
09:50 GMT+2 (07:50 GMT June 22nd)
RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus
The Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR.4 released its wheel brakes and with a tremendous roar, twin cones of yellow flame erupted from the twin engines as the air-superiority fighter accelerated down the runway and then took a sharp nose up attitude while it leapt into the air and climbed to altitude.
The undercarriage came up in seconds as the heavily armed combat jet continued up to thirty-thousand feet where it crashed through the sound barrier and continued on, reaching Mach 1.6 just 150-seconds after the pilot had released the wheel brakes. Dropping out of afterburner, the delta-winged canard fighter entered a state of supercruise without afterburner alongside an identical aircraft as both slowed to Mach 1.1 – around 650-knots – and they maintained the supersonic speed as they flew west into the Mediterranean Sea.
Twenty-five minutes and some 278 nautical miles later, south of Rhodes, the two aircraft of No.903 Expeditionary Air Wing reduced speed by almost half as they slowed to rendezvous with a pair of United States Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft configured as strike tankers. The two aircraft were part of VFA-213 flying from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH which was part of Carrier Strike Group 2 (CSG-2). Each Super Hornet carried four external wing-mounted 1,800-litre fuel tanks as well as a 1,200-litre centreline buddy-store fitted with a hose reel. Each of the British fighters required some five tonnes (4,200-litres) of aviation fuel to replace that used during the take-off and supercruise. The two Super Hornets would be replaced by two more for the Typhoon's return flight to Akrotiri at the end of their mission.
As the two Typhoons took on fuel, one from each Super Hornet, the American crews had the chance to check over the British aircraft, each of which was loaded for reigning down hell upon somebody. Each aircraft carried six AIM-130 AMRAAM radar-guided missiles, two AIM-132 ASRAAM infra-red-guided missiles and three external 1,000-litre fuel tanks, not to forget the internal 27-millimetre Mauser cannon.
Once the aircraft were refuelled, they increased speed and re-entered supercruise where they turned northwest and entered the Aegean Sea.
10:12 GMT+2 (08:12 GMT June 22nd)
Axis of Evil Facility
Aegean Sea
The two SBS troopers exchanged glances.
'Who the fuck were these children!?'
The two girls had successfully coerced information out of the woman and the man, but the man would not survive his interrogation as he lay in a pool of his own blood, grasping onto life by a mere thread. As for the woman, neither SBS trooper would give her high odds of survival. Right at that moment, the two girls were cleaning off their combat knives at a nearby sink and actually giggling like they had just been teasing a boy rather than extracting information with prejudice. Neither trooper was worried about some split blood – not when nuclear weapons were involved – but it was just unnatural seeing the two girls going all Nikita on the prisoners.
"Okay, let's get this straight," Cameron said, glaring down at the woman. "The facility was based underwater to defeat any radioactive scanning devices?" A nod. "The facility shut down just four days ago?" A nod. "The last shipment left here two weeks ago?" A nod. "The shipments go to Mali?" A reluctant nod. "You say you have no idea how many devices were created here?" A nod. "But you think over forty?" A nod and Cameron looked over at Adrien and Saxs.
"Well, the nightmare is confirmed."
Saxs nodded, having witnessed the interrogation and he had decided that most of what had been revealed could be trusted as being true. It had astounded the man when he had been briefed aboard ASTUTE that there were maniacs roaming the planet with nuclear components which together could form a potent weapon – or weapons. It was a scary thought. Saxs had a family back in Blighty and he did not want them to come to harm.
"My men will guard the facility until the powers that be can figure out what is to be done with it."
"Thank you, corporal," Cameron said as he gathered up his papers and stowed them in a watertight pouch. He saw movement from their third prisoner and added, "We'll interrogate Miss Firebug, now she has regained consciousness."
"My job," Simon growled as he gave Miss Firebug a kick in each thigh to wake her up. "Nobody touches the bitch but me."
Rylee smiled as she stepped back.
..._...
The fourteen-year-old girl glared sourly up at Simon, swiftly recognising the boy from over a year before.
People from her past, she did not need; there was too much at stake. She might have felt bad about burning that Rylee girl, but the Zetas had really got on her nerves in Toulouse, so she did not feel all that bad.
"Okay, Laurel – it is Laurel, isn't it?" Simon asked.
"It's my name, Simon."
"So, you remember me?"
"Hard not to – you and that bitchy show off were always getting in the fucking way."
"You mean Rylee?"
"That's the bitch."
"Why are you with these people?" Simon asked, waving his hand at the bloody remains of their other prisoners. "Why would you help people like this? You're better than that, Laurel."
Simon was surprised to see shame show for just a minute before it vanished just as quickly as it appeared.
"They pay me well."
"That's a crap response," Simon said as he slapped the girl hard across the face. "You burnt Rylee, so don't fucking expect me to go soft on you. But I will promise you this: you help us, then we might be able to find a way out for you to a better life."
"That's fucking bullshit!" Laurel responded, but Simon saw hope in her eyes, if not in her tone.
Laurel was a caged animal and like any caged animal, she was angry and keen to escape. Simon knew well what she was capable of, so it was important to keep her restrained.
"Did you know that the Russians are on their way here?" Simon asked, conversationally. "What do you think they might do to a girl like you?"
"Russians! Why?"
"It seems somebody else wants a piece of this nuclear crap," Simon responded. "Maybe we should leave you for them."
"No – you wouldn't!"
Simon thought he could see fear, but there was something not quite right.
10:18 GMT+2 (08:18 GMT June 22nd)
On the surface above
the Axis of Evil facility
CALICO QUEST
Captain James Hunt had not been overly pleased by the warning from the British Royal Navy, but he had taken the warning seriously, nonetheless.
The safety of his crew was paramount, but he also had a loyalty to his employer and to his daughter. However, none of that helped much as the Russian frigate ADMIRAL GRIGOROVICH approached from the north and demanded that CALICO QUEST vacate her position. The Russian warship had no rights, not in Grecian waters, and not in any waters around the Mediterranean Sea. CALICO QUEST flew the flag of Malta and was registered in Valletta, Malta, thus ensuring that she should remain unmolested on the high seas. The Russians, though, had other ideas about the sanctity of the high seas and vessel registration. The warship was painted a light grey and sported the number 745 in large white numerals part way back from the bow on either side and below the single 100-millimetre A-190 Arsenal naval gun. The vessel was smaller than CALICO QUEST, around half the displacement and shorter. However, ADMIRAL GRIGOROVICH was a well-armed warship and the CALICO QUEST was a civilian vessel with no weapons. On the aft helicopter deck, a Ka-27PL Helix-A anti-submarine warfare helicopter was starting up, the contra-rotating vertically stacked rotor blades spinning up to speed. The two vessels were closing with Captain Hunt broadcasting a standard safety-at-sea warning that they were restricted in their ability to manoeuvre.
"Where are the naval vessels?" Captain Hunt asked his second officer.
"The American destroyer is about five nautical miles to the southeast, behind Dragonisi Island, captain. The Greek vessel is twenty nautical miles to the northwest and is moving to intercept the Russian warship which is just under ten nautical miles away."
"Thank you."
An American MH-60R Seahawk helicopter from the USS ROSS had already flown over them and had reported the fact that the Russian vessel appeared to be preparing to launch a pair of seaboats. Over to the west another American MH-60R Seahawk and a Hellenic Navy S-70B06 Aegean Hawk were hunting for the Russian Sierra II submarine along with a British submarine, HMS ARTFUL. It was a complicated mess and one which the former United States Navy officer could understand. His mind absorbed the strategic situation and it did not look good if the three NATO navies wanted to avoid trading shots with Russian naval assets and potentially starting World War III. Then came another visitor form the south.
The dull roar could be heard building a full minute before first one and then a second British Typhoon fighter jet raced between the CALICO QUEST and the Russian frigate at less than a thousand feet making their intentions very clear as they exposed their undersides to the Russians showing that they were fully armed. Both aircraft then rose into the sky and formed a combat air patrol above the CALICO QUEST again making it abundantly clear to the Russian warship that the CALICO QUEST was protected.
Meanwhile, the Russian Helix-A helicopter lifted off and clattered away westward to mix it up with the other helicopters as it attempted to track HMS ARTFUL and aid the Russian submarine.
10:28 GMT+2 (08:28 GMT June 22nd)
35,000-feet above the CALICO QUEST
An airshow was only just beginning as the British Typhoon FGR.4 jets were lit up by an airborne radar from twenty nautical miles east of them.
The computers instantly categorised the invading radar signals as those being emitted by an Irbis-E Snow Leopard (PESA) passive phased array radar. Both pilots knew instantly that there was a Russian Su-35S Flanker-E out there which was more than a major threat to the operation. Both Typhoons punched off their wing-mounted external 1,000-litre fuel tanks, retaining the centreline tank. Dumping the tanks would increase the aircrafts' manoeuvrability when faced by what was arguably a more-advanced fighter. They turned to face the inbound Russian fighter, their PIRATE (Passive InfraRed Airborne Track Equipment) systems scanning the sky around them, searching for the inbound threat without compromising their exact position by using their own CAPTOR multi-mode pulse doppler radar. The Su-35S was equipped with its own version of the PIRATE; the OLS-35 IRST which the inbound Su-35S could have used instead of radiating with its radar. The RAF pilots deemed the radar to have been used as a 'friendly' caution that the Russian forces were also protected from the air. As the aircraft closed, the two Typhoon pilots were not happy to see their FLIR picture identify two Su-35S aircraft boring in on them.
The two opposing aircraft groups raced past one another with just a thousand-yard separation. But it was enough to see that each of the dozen hardpoints on the Russian warplanes' wings were occupied. Indeed, each aircraft carried no less than ten air-to-air missiles which varied from the short range (sixteen nautical miles) AA-11 Archer infra-red missiles, of which four were carried, through the medium range (43 nautical miles) AA-12 Adder semi-active radar guided missiles, of which four were carried, to the long range (70 nautical miles) AA-10 Alamo-C radar-guided missiles. Also visible on hardpoint three was a single KH-59MK anti-ship missile, the AS-14 Kingbolt which had a range of some one hundred nautical miles and carried a 320-kilogramme high explosive warhead. The final hardpoint, number four, was occupied by a PTB-2000 two-thousand litre external fuel tank.
The two Sukhoi Su-35 multi-role fighter aircraft had launched from Khmeimim Air Base in Syria, two hours previously. The airbase which was located south-east of the Syrian coastal city of Latakia had been built by Russian forces in 2015 and served as a primary airbase in the contested region. With airborne support from an Ilyushin Il-78 tanker, the two aircraft had taken a long route around the north of Cyprus and then south of Turkey before entering Hellenic airspace without permission. Indeed, four Mirage 2000-5 Mk3 fighters of the 331st All Weather Squadron known as Theseus and part of the 114th Combat Wing had launched from Tanagra Air Base northeast of Athens and some 105-nautical miles from CALICO QUEST. The USS ROSS was able to watch the engagement high above them via their AN/SPY-1D 3D radar which had seen the unidentified aircraft approach from the north and had notified Northwood back in the U.K. but the message had not arrived back at the Typhoons in time to alert them – it was a classic example of information being compartmentalised too well. The commanding officer of the USS ROSS was keen to engage the Russian fighters, but he had orders not to fire until fired upon as the operation they were assisting with was primarily a British one and the US Navy wanted to keep things at arm's length, but USS ROSS could engage a hostile should the CALICO QUEST be targeted directly.
The commanding officer of USS ROSS knew that by then, it could be too late.
10:30 GMT+2 (08:30 GMT June 22nd)
Axis of Evil Facility
Rylee, Simon & Tanya
with Adrien & Cameron
also with Z Squadron
and Firestorm
It was time to leave and return to the surface.
"We will meet again, big man," Rylee said to Corporal Saxs.
"I hope so, little lady."
"I am not little...," Rylee bristled.
"And definitely not a lady...," Simon grinned.
Saxs laughed as he checked that each of the three youngsters had their rebreathers fitted correctly and were ready to drop into the moonpool. Cameron and Adrien were checking out each other and also supervising equipping Laurel who would be returning to the surface with them. The trip back would take some ten minutes due to the need for several decompression stops, although Laurel would require an extra eight minutes due to the time she had spent in the facility which had a pressure several levels above that on the surface. They were also aware that all hell was breaking loose above the surface as the Russians closed in.
"You try to escape, and I will kill you," Rylee said as she ensured that her speargun was loaded and charged.
Laurel nodded soberly as she watched Simon and Tanya drop into the water, closely followed by Adrien.
"Go!" Cameron ordered and the fourteen-year-old Predator, equipped with borrowed dive equipment from the facility, stepped off into the moonpool.
Rylee nodded at Saxs and inserted her mouthpiece before she too stepped off, followed by Cameron.
..._...
It had been a few days since Laurel Booth had last been outside the facility.
The warm water was a relief after the dry air-conditioned atmosphere of the underwater structure. She looked up and she could see the hull of a large vessel some distance above. To her right, she could see a jet-black mini submarine sitting on the sea bottom. For a moment, she considered swimming for the coast which was only a mile distant, but then she saw the hulking form of an SBS combat swimmer moving to take up a position to her right – she was to be escorted which kind of put an end to any idea of escape. One of the men (Adrien) with Rylee held up a whiteboard which read:
30ft per min
asc to 40ft
Laurel gave the universal okay signal with her right hand and nodded. She had no choice but to go along with them if she wanted to survive. Gently, she began to kick her legs and she swum upward at the same pace as the rest of the group – her minder followed a few yards distant, a wicked-looking speargun aimed at her body. After two minutes and forty-five seconds, Adrien stopped and he raised his hands, then the whiteboard:
53secs
deco stop
then to 30ft
The group hung in the warm waters watching the fishes dart around them. Laurel looked up and she noted that they were just a dozen feet below the enormous bottom of the vessel which stretched for a couple of hundred feet or more in both directions. It was a diving support vessel – that was obvious – as she recognised the well-lit moonpool gaping above them into which they would soon pass. Dead on time, the group was motioned to move upwards to the next stop at thirty feet which was just two feet below the ship's keel. Curiously, Lauren reached upwards, and she could touch the hull with her fingertips. The hull vibrated with machinery which could be heard outside the hull. The whiteboard was back:
60secs
deco stop
then to 20ft
The next stop, Laurel knew would be inside the moonpool without the nice view below them. Laurel could feel and see the eyes watching her, and despite her minder having vanished from sight, she could see Rylee's speargun twitching in the younger girl's hands. The sixty seconds passed quickly, and they passed up into the moonpool where they were surrounded by steel, but the pool was lit which helped, especially as the door at the bottom of the moonpool soon motored closed. The whiteboard informed them that they would be there a little longer than previously:
2min
deco stop
then to 10ft
The time spent hanging in the water allowed Laurel's mind to wander as she considered the events which had brought her to be captured beneath the Aegean Sea. She had shipped out from Toulouse on May 4th, 2016 with a partner, Vulcan. They had flown to the American base at Souda Bay in Crete, then onward to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There they had not been met by their contact and they had both found themselves running for their lives – that had been May 10th, 2016. The running had lasted just six weeks during which time they learned that all support for them had vanished – they were alone, they had been abandoned.
She was shaken from her memories as Simon tugged on her arm and she kicked twice to ascend another ten feet and they all hung just below the surface for the next four minutes as dictated by the whiteboard. Those four minutes passed slowly and her mind sank back into the past and the horror as they found themselves shipped out of Saudi Arabia by a group of men who were supposed to have taken them back to Europe, but no, they both found themselves heading the wrong way around the world to Taiwan. Then had come the trip from hell aboard a ship which had lasted two months and had seen her and her partner arguing like cats and dogs. Then she had done something really, really bad, and...
It was time for the others to leave the water, but only the adults did, the three Predators remaining – to keep her company? That fact was confirmed as Simon wrote on a whiteboard:
nobody should
be alone
Lauren did not know what to make of that – she was their prisoner. Why shouldn't they leave her hanging in the water alone for the next eight minutes of her life? She had been alone for so long with nobody to talk to about anything meaningful and she suddenly did feel so alone. She was glad that her facemask hid the tears as she considered how far her life had fallen. Then, she felt her hand guided to a steel ladder by Simon and he nodded for her to ascend. She noticed that none of them carried their spearguns – they had vanished sometime earlier, and Laurel had never noticed. However, as she stepped off the ladder onto a steel grill which formed the floor of a lift, she saw another face from her past.
"Hello, Laurel," Harper said.
Laurel grimaced as she pulled off her facemask and a man assisted her with her dive tanks. Harper was armed with a pistol which sat in a holster on her right hip.
"Harper?"
"Yes, you remember me?"
"Rylee shot you."
"Yes, she did," Harper growled. "Now, get those flippers off and then we will find you some clean clothes and get you processed."
Laurel nodded as she kicked off the flippers, handing them to a man who was taking all the dive gear.
..._...
The next fifteen minutes of her life were not fun as she was taken to a cabin and then strip-searched by Harper while Simon watched.
She figured that Simon was just wanting to humiliate her after what she did to Rylee – she knew that the two were a matched pair; everyone at Toulouse had known. Finally, she had been given some clothes to wear, then she had been handcuffed (two sets) and her wrists were secured with plasti-cuffs and Duct tape.
"A bit much, don't you think?" Laurel tried.
"Don't fuck with us," Harper growled, and Laurel winced at the darkness in the younger girl's eyes.
Laurel nodded and she said nothing more as she was led up on deck and secured via two more sets of handcuffs to a structural piece of steel on the starboard bridge wing.
"Don't go anywhere," Harper grinned as she left the older girl alone.
Not long after Harper had vanished, Rylee, Simon, and Tanya appeared to 'keep her company'.
That same time...
10:30 GMT+2 (08:30 GMT June 22nd)
Mikonos Airport
Mikonos
NIGHTSHADE
The three turbo-shaft engines were spooling up as David did a final walk around of the helicopter.
Keira and Kate were in their seats preparing to get airborne. The giant five-bladed main rotor began to spin, faster and faster. David then climbed aboard and a minute later, on clearance from the tower, the helicopter lifted off and headed directly for the growing melee off the east coast. The trio had witnessed the supersonic flypasts of first the Typhoons and then the Russian Su-35S fighters. As they climbed to two thousand feet, they could see the dark grey hull of the USS ROSS to the southeast and the blue hull of the CALICO QUEST to the northeast. The light grey of the ADMIRAL GRIGOROVICH was visible further to the east along with the similar coloured Hellenic warship Hydra which was closing from the North. Over to the north, a cluster of helicopters were dropping sonobuoys and dipping their sonars into the Aegean Sea as they tried to track the two nuclear-powered submarines sparring it out below. It was a task which while sometimes very boring, was a task which Keira relished, and missed.
"You miss it, right?" David asked over the intercom.
"Yes, I do – shame we don't have a dipping sonar and Stingray torpedoes," Keira replied.
"Ask Mindy," Kate suggested.
Keira laughed, enjoying the thought of a Vengeance sub hunter. But the fun suddenly ended as her sharp eyes detected a flash of light to the east, high in the sky.
Her mind told her that an air-to-air missile had just been launched.
10:32 GMT+2 (08:32 GMT June 22nd)
35,000-feet above the Aegean Sea
The pilot of Snake Zero One pushed his throttles fully forward as he ejected chaff and rolled into a dive.
His wingman Snake Zero Two followed suit as a single AA-11 Archer air-to-air missile raced towards them at Mach 4. The airshow had suddenly turned very deadly and all bets were off as two of the world's most advanced combat aircraft entered into what was colloquially known as a dogfight. The two opposing aircraft were both single-seat and both large, although the Su-35 was a good nineteen feet longer with an extra thirteen feet of wingspan and weighted in at nine tonnes heavier when empty. However, the two aircraft were fairly evenly matched with their manoeuvrability and the skill of their pilots. Not to mention, that as they closed, the Typhoon was suddenly in its element – the proverbial fight in a phone box. The ASRAAM missile and the Mauser cannon were both designed for the exact situation that they were in. Not that the Su-35S was not just as capable.
The four aircraft twisted, rolled, dropped, turned, their jet engines roaring as they pushed the aircraft around the Aegean sky. Neither side wanted to open the range as that would allow the longer-range missiles to come into play which would not be helpful. Cannons roared as shells cut through the skies, hitting nothing as the targeted aircraft twisted out of harm's way. Then one of the Russian fighters fired off a large AA-10 Alamo-C long range radar-guided missile which at first confused the Typhoon pilots as it blazed off to the east, but after a minute, it was obvious that the air battle had just grown as a Mirage 2000-5 Mk3 of the 331st Theseus Squadron was blotted from the sky by the thirty-nine kilogramme warhead. The inbound Hellenic fighters could not make use of their medium range Mica missiles due to the two RAF fighters mixing it up with the Russian aircraft. In the ensuing chaos of the dogfight, one of the Su-35S fighter jets was able to disengage and it dropped below the skirmish and lit off its radar, scanning the surface of the Aegean Sea for the large target just northeast of Mikonos.
The Russian pilot squeezed the trigger the moment the anti-ship missile mounted on hardpoint three reported a lock on.