Pandemic

Chapter 158

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Frank Sokolovsky stared down at his handiwork. He felt bad about where the helicopter had hit — how many of his kind had died? That was part of G.o.d’s plan, though, and who was he to question G.o.d?

To the south, he saw another Apache start to climb. Maybe it had seen Frank’s target go down and wanted to get some alt.i.tude, but it was already too late; a chasing flicker betrayed a Stinger fired from the roof of the Marriott on North Rush Street. Coincidentally, Frank and Carol had stayed in that very hotel on their honeymoon.

He laughed when the fireball engulfed the Apache. The Fourth of July was nothing compared to this. The flaming Apache banked and flew into another skysc.r.a.per, impacting at about the thirtieth floor. Frank didn’t know the name of that building.

He shivered and set down his launcher. Unless someone brought him another missile, his work was done. He looked around. He’d fully expected that as soon as he fired, another helicopter would have swept in and killed him.

Maybe G.o.d had bigger plans for him. He’d head back inside, build a little fire and see if he could thaw out some of that arm.

Frank heard the h.e.l.lfire missile but he never saw it. By the time he turned around, the Predator-fired weapon detonated within fifteen feet of him, tearing him into three good-sized pieces that all sailed over the side of the John Hanc.o.c.k Building.

Fire danced around the Park Tower’s ruined entrance. Icy, driving wind fed the flames. Clarence felt simultaneously hot and cold, and yet he also felt neither of those things: his mind focused on the battle, on the details that would keep him alive, let him find Margaret.

“Apaches are down,” said a voice in his headset. “Bad guys have SAMs.”

“Tell the Chinooks to abort pickup,” said another voice. “If we lose them, the only way out is on foot.”

Clarence had a Ranger on his left, two on his right, all firing at the attackers scrambling over the perimeter cars.

If only they’d extracted Cooper Mitch.e.l.l as soon as they found him, then they wouldn’t be facing this army of Converted. But Margaret had insisted staying was critical, and Clarence had believed her.

A voice on the open channel screamed for help. A burst of gunfire cut the scream short.

So much panicked chatter. Men shouted for help. It sounded like the Rush Street perimeter was about to be overrun.

Something whizzed past his ear. He instinctively jerked backward, so fast he fell onto his a.s.s. He’d come within inches of taking a round in the face.

There weren’t any reinforcements coming in. Air support was gone. The Rangers wouldn’t be able to hold.

Clarence had to keep Cooper Mitch.e.l.l alive.

He turned and ran into the lobby. “Feely! Get Cooper on his feet, we have to move!”

A maskless Tim shook his head hard so his spiky blond hair flopped back and forth. “No way! Klimas said to stay right here!”

Clarence ignored him. Cooper was sitting on the floor, looking around. Still groggy, but his eyes seemed normal, alert. Clarence knelt in front of him.

“Mister Mitch.e.l.l, you with us?”

The man’s eyes widened and blinked rapidly at the same time. Then they focused, locked on Clarence’s.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m just a little fuzzy, maybe. And call me Cooper.”

“Can you walk, Cooper?”

He nodded.

Tim leaned in. “Otto, we have to stay here!”

Clarence heard a hissing roar. His body reacted; he grabbed Tim and pulled him on top of a surprised Cooper, covering them both with his own body a moment before a crushing blast drove them all against the shaking floor.

FRONT TOWARD ENEMY

Paulius kept firing and reloading, his hands acting on autopilot while his brain tried to work out the rapidly deteriorating situation. They’d lost air superiority. Even with a significant advantage in firepower, they were outnumbered at least a hundred to one.

The snipers on the fifth floor were the only thing keeping the hostiles from overrunning Klimas’s position. At their rate of fire, they’d run out of ammo in mere minutes.

Ranger-fired mortars thoomped every few seconds, followed by popping explosions out beyond the perimeter. The firing arcs were short enough that Paulius felt the concussion wave of each detonation.

The constant roar of the 240s, the pops of M4s and the barks of Benelli shotguns told him the perimeter remained intact. M23 grenade launchers countered the endless barrage of Molotov c.o.c.ktails, filling Chicago Avenue with shrapnel.

And still the Converted came on, hatchlings and armed militants stepping over the shattered and still-twitching bodies of their comrades. Twenty meters and closing.

He thumbed his “talk” b.u.t.ton.

“Claymores, now! Light ’em up!”

He’d barely finished his sentence before the powerful mines started detonating, each one a horizontal storm of seven hundred one-eighth-inch steel b.a.l.l.s shooting out horizontally at a speed of twelve hundred meters per second. The enemy soldiers were packed in so tight Paulius could see the Claymores’ blast patterns in the expanding cones of shredded bodies.

The advance slowed. The enemy suddenly broke, turned and ran, leaving behind hundreds of dead and dying. The little snow that remained on the street had turned into red slush, soaking up the blood that flowed down the sidewalk gutters.

I AM THE LAW

Steve Stanton lowered his binoculars.

“Chickens.h.i.ts,” he said. “They’re running.”

General Brownstone nodded. “Too much enemy firepower. Looks like we inflicted some casualties, though. If I may suggest, Emperor, we should use the M72 light ant.i.tank weapons to target their snipers, and all our launched grenades to cover the second wave’s advance.”

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