Burning Angels

73

As Jaeger was well aware, if you wanted to get a small force of elite operators on to a distant target ultra-fast and ultra-low-profile, a civilian jet airliner was the way to do it.

A force could be flown across nations and continents on a bog-standard airliner, following a flight path and altitude open to commercial carriers, and posing as a bona fide flight of one of those airlines. Once over the target, they could leap from the aircraft in a high-altitude parachute jump, remaining immune to detection by radar, the airliner continuing on to its destination as if nothing untoward had ever happened.

Taking advantage of CIA director Daniel Brooks’ offer of tacit support, Jaeger and his team had been made last-minute additions to the passenger list of BA Flight 987, routed from Berlin’s Schonefeld airport to Perth, Australia. Upon arrival at its destination, BA 987 would be six passengers short. They would have exited en route – at 0400 hours local time and somewhere off the coast of East Africa.

An airliner’s doors cannot be opened in flight, because of the massive pressure differential between the interior and exterior of the aircraft. The exits are ‘plug doors’; they’re closed from the inside and kept shut partly by the higher pressure in the cabin. Even if someone did manage to unlock a door during flight, the pressure differential would make it impossible to pull it inwards and open it.

Not so the specially adapted hatch and ‘jump cage’ of this Boeing airliner.

In a top secret deal with UK Special Forces, one or two supposedly standard BA airliners had been modified to facilitate such covert high-altitude parachute jumps. In an isolated section of the fuselage a reinforced steel cabin had been constructed, complete with a man-sized jump hatch. Flight 987 was one of these specially adapted aircraft, and it was via this means that Jaeger and his team would be leaping into the thin and screaming blue.

With the team scattered in pairs around the aircraft, Jaeger and Narov had lucked out. They were flying club class – the only seats available at a few hours’ notice, which was all the time Brooks had had to muscle them on to the flight. It was indicative of the quiet cooperation from high-level corporations that the CIA director enjoyed. When someone of his influence asked, people tended to accommodate.

The pilot of BA 987 – a former air force fighter jock – would be opening the jump hatch over a specific set of GPS coordinates. He would make sure to override any warning systems. It wasn’t a dangerous manoeuvre, and the door would only be ajar for a matter of seconds.

Jaeger and his team would change into their high-altitude survival and parachutist gear in the aircraft’s crew quarters, well away from the other passengers’ view. In the Boeing 747-400’s jump cabin – which could be depressurised independently from the rest of the aircraft – a row of six bulging rucksacks had been laid to one side, along with a heap of high-altitude parachutist kit and weaponry.

After they’d tumbled free of the aircraft, the jump hatch would swing shut, BA 987 continuing on her way as if no unscheduled unloading of passengers had ever taken place.

The reasons for making such a rapid and ultra-secret insertion were simple. Time was of the essence, and if Little Mafia Island was all that it was suspected to be, Kammler’s surveillance and security was bound to be second to none. He’d doubtless have co-opted some CIA hardware – satellites; UAVs; spy planes – to keep a permanent watch rotation over the island, not to mention whatever security systems he had in place on the ground.

Any assault would be up close in the jungle, where visibility was never more than a few dozen yards at best. Stashed in the 747’s jump cabin were half a dozen Hechler & Koch MP7s, an ultra-short-barrelled sub-machine gun. With a total length of just twenty-five inches, it was perfect for close-quarter battle and jungle warfare.

Each weapon was fitted with a suppressor, to silence its distinctive bark. Equipped with a forty-round magazine, the MP7 packed a real punch, especially as it fired bespoke armour-piercing bullets. The DM11 Ultimate Combat round boasted an alloy-plated steel core, making it ideal for penetrating any buildings or bunkers that Kammler might have sited on the island.

Jaeger’s team numbered six, and they expected to be heavily outnumbered. Nothing new there, he noted.

Lewis Alonzo and Joe James had organised the jump kit, plus parachutes. Leaping from an airliner at some 40,000 feet required seriously specialist high-altitude gear. Hiro Kamishi – who was something of a CBRN defence specialist – had sorted the protective suits they’d need.

Any attack on such a place was a truly daunting proposition. The jungle was one of the most hostile of environments in which to operate, but this was no ordinary jungle. It was bound to be teeming with Kammler’s guard force, plus his laboratory workers.

Plus it could well be overrun with sick and infected primates, in which case it would have to be treated as one huge Level 4 biohazard zone. A Level 4 biohazard is the most dangerous of all, denoting contamination with a pathogen of unprecedented lethality.

All the evidence suggested that Little Mafia Island – Plague Island – was awash with such a threat. Jaeger and his team would not only be battling the jungle and Kammler’s security forces; they would also be facing whatever killer diseases lingered there.

One bite from an infected and rabid monkey; one stumble against a sharp tree branch that ripped gloves, mask or boots; one nick from either bullet or shrapnel that tore open their protective suits: any one of those would leave them vulnerable to infection by a pathogen for which there was no cure.

To counter such a threat, they’d be going in dressed in Bio Level 4 ‘spacesuits’ – something similar to what astronauts wore. Clean filtered air would be pumped in continuously, keeping a positive pressure inside the suit at all times.

If the suit were pierced, the outrush of air should prevent the killer pathogen from entering – at least for long enough for the operator to tape up the breach. Each team member would keep a roll of tough gaffer tape – a vital tool for Hot Zone Level 4 operators – handy at all times.

Jaeger settled further into his luxurious seat and tried to force such fears to the back of his mind. He needed to relax, focus and recharge his batteries.

He was drifting off to sleep when Narov’s voice jolted him fully awake.

‘I hope you find them,’ she remarked quietly. ‘Both of them. Alive.’

‘Thanks,’ Jaeger murmured. ‘But this mission – it’s bigger than my family.’ He glanced at Narov. ‘It’s about all of us.’

‘I know that. But for you, your family… finding them… Love – it is the most powerful of human emotions.’ She glanced at Jaeger, an intensity burning in her eyes. ‘I should know.’

Jaeger too had felt this growing closeness between them. It was as if they had grown inseparable over the past few weeks, as if one couldn’t operate – couldn’t function – without the other. He knew only too well that rescuing Ruth and Luke would change all of that.

Narov smiled wistfully. ‘Anyway, I have already said too much. As is my way.’ She shrugged. ‘It is impossible, of course. So let us forget. Let us forget us, and go to war.’