The Secret of Atlantis

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Alex Reeve was still in shock as Richard Eden pushed her along the carpeted corridor at the heart of Elysium and tapped in the keycode to get into the bunker. Kim was beside them and as he calmly tapped in the secret numbers, they all heard the sound of the Apaches as they continued their attack on the island.

An enormous, deep explosion from somewhere above rocked the whole building, and they all knew they had started shelling the ECHO GHQ with their compliment of Hellfire missiles. Eden shook his head and cursed. The AGM-114 Hellfire was a savage anti-armor air-to-surface missile that would wreak devastating damage on their compound.

“Jesus!” Alex said, as Eden moved them inside the bunker and sealed the door. “How many of those things have they got?”

“Up to sixteen on each chopper, and you said you saw three so we could be looking at nearly fifty of the things.”

“What about the anti-aircraft defenses?” Kim asked.

“We can operate them from in here.”

“We can?” Alex asked, surprised. She had never seen the bunker before, and was shocked when Eden flicked on the lights to reveal what looked to her more like Cape Canaveral’s Mercury Control Center. A waist-high panel full of switches and controls ran around the room and above them several plasma screens began to flicker to life.

“Yes, we can. Don’t forget this facility was built and operated by the French Navy as a listening post during the Cold War.” He turned to face her and smiled. “As a consequence it has all of the trimmings.”

He flicked more switches without hesitation and a few moments later the whole room was buzzing like an industrial quantum computer. Alex stared up at the plasma screens and saw various views of the island in the hot sunshine.

“You’ll recognize most of these views,” Eden said as he started to punch in some codes on one of the keyboards. “Screen One is the north beach, Screen Two the east and so on, plus over here are more immediate images of the compound.

As he spoke, Alex and Kim watched the Apaches buzzing from screen to screen like black wasps as they circled the compound and swooped for another attack. A thick column of smoke was now rising from the hangar where they housed the Gulfstreams, and with only one out on a mission, currently in Marrakech’s Menara Airport, that meant the other two had almost certainly been destroyed.

“Only natural,” Eden said, noting her expression. “Knocking out aircraft is always the first phase of any attack — and air defenses, of course — so we need to get a wriggle on.”

With that said, he fired up the island’s anti-aircraft missile system, a series of Rapier installations positioned in strategic locations on the island. The Rapier was a British surface-to-air system which was designed to defend against low-altitude strikes and was a serious bit of kit.

On Screen Four, one of the Apaches was now making a low-level approach just above the ocean on the island’s western side.

“Looks like they’re going for the Briefing Room,” Eden said.

“Who the hell are they, Rich?”

He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. “That’s for us to find out but the first order of business is protecting Elysium.”

She knew he was right. Like the others, what she knew about the island was limited. The details of the Consortium were sketchy, including even Eden’s place within it, but they all knew how central Elysium was to their missions. It was just another member of the team, and now it was under attack.

The Apache fired one of its Hellfires and they watched in tense silence as it streaked toward the fourth plasma screen in the bunker. A second later there was a tremendous explosion which they not only saw on the screen but felt through the floor. Alex stared in horror and when the smoke cleared it revealed the devastation to the western end of the compound. It was total. All that remained of their Briefing Room was a burning ruin of twisted concrete support pillars and bent steel.

“I can’t believe they’re doing this,” she said, almost unaware of her words. The attacking chopper had turned to its portside and was now travelling north.

“Whoever they are,” added Eden as he engaged one of the Rapiers and tracked it onto the enemy Apache before firing.

They watched the plasma screens as the Rapier tore away from its installation at Mach 2.0 and screeched into the sky.

“Maybe we’ll be okay,” Alex said, as she watched the screens.

“I’m not sharing your optimism. Each one of the installations is equipped with four missiles already fixed into the launcher, but after that it’s a two-man lift job to get more missiles into the firing position because they weigh nearly a hundred pounds each. There’s no way we can leave the bunker so when the launchers are empty they’re empty.”

“How many chances does that give us?”

“We have six, so that means twenty-four. We’re going to need more to fight off three Apaches, plus there’s still the Black Hawk you saw as well. That’s a utility chopper designed to carry a squad of soldiers. The fact it’s lurking behind the Apaches waiting until our defenses are taken out can mean only one thing — whoever they are they’re planning on landing some boots on the island.”

They saw the Apache try and take evasive action, pulling hard to port and gaining altitude in a staggeringly sharp climb, but it wasn't enough to outrun the Rapier, and seconds later the missile struck its target and a ferocious fireball exploded in the sky above the ocean.

‘One down, two to go,” Alex said.

Eden frowned as he activated the second Rapier. They were largely automatic but he had taken manual control to be sure of getting the result he desired. “Two plus whatever they’ve got in the Black Hawk.”

The end of his sentence was punctuated by a terrific, fierce explosion so deep in its intensity that Alex thought it had landed right on top of them.

“What the hell?” she gasped.

Eden replied coolly. “Must be the Ammo bunker, so now we’re out of missiles even if we could reload the launchers.”

Kim Taylor watched the plasma screen in silent disbelief for a few seconds before alerting the others to what was happening. “Er, guys — looks like we have company.”

Eden and Alex turned in their seats to face her. “What is it?” Eden asked.

“The Black Hawk just touched down on the north beach — check it out.”

They all watched in grim silence as a dozen armed men in full black Special Forces gear jumped out the chopper, fanned out in a professional formation and began making their way up the beach toward the compound.

Eden slammed his hand down on the control panel. “Who the hell are they?”

“I don’t know, Rich,” Alex said. “But whoever they are, I don’t think they’re here to deliver a kiss-o-gram.”

Kim tried to raise a smile but the situation’s uncertainty just didn’t let it happen. The formation the men were using was a classic fire and movement tactic used by Special Forces and other highly trained forces all over the world, but something told her these were not from just anywhere, but her own country.

“I think they’re Americans,” she said.

“Americans?” Eden said with surprise. He shook his head, a confused expression crossing his face. “What makes you say that — the Black Hawk?”

“Yeah, but not just that. What they’re wearing, the weapons they’re using, how they’re moving. I’ve trained among these people and my money’s on them being Americans.”

“But why would Americans attack Elysium?”

Kim shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea.” She watched more closely as the last of the men slipped out of sight of the CCTV camera, and then a second later the signal was cut and the image of the north beach was reduced to fuzzy static. “And now they’ve cut the CCTV feed.”

For a moment Alex felt like she couldn’t breathe. The island was the safest place on earth because of its isolation, but that also made anyone on it vulnerable if there was ever an invasion — like right now. She knew they couldn’t stay in the bunker forever, and she also know it wouldn’t take the soldiers too long to find its location, either.

“What are we going to do?” she asked.

Eden sighed low and long and rubbed his temples as he contemplated the unthinkable.

“Rich?” Alex said.

“We need to leave the island. We have no choice — not with most of the team in the middle of the Atlantic thousands of miles away. The Apaches give them total air superiority and now we know at least a dozen enemy soldiers have their boots on the ground. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I’m giving the order to evacuate.”

“And just give up?”

“There’s nothing we can do.”

“The hell there isn’t,” Alex said. “Can we call out of here?”

“Of course.”

“Then we still have a chance.”