|
41
The generator in the basement under Tower 1 cut in again like a million dental drills. Hot, sweaty air washed Tory’s face—and, she saw, the sooty faces of those around her—as the wooden platform descended. On it hulked Senator Mattoon. He looked rumpled, dismayed, and helpless, and Tory felt sorry for him. His gray hair looked mussy, and he teetered as soldiers helped him to the safety of Rocky Devereaux’s LX. Devereaux clapped him on the back. “Gonna take you to the White House.”
Mattoon shook Devereaux’s hand and grinned ruefully. “I’m all for that.”
Tory glanced nervously over her shoulder as she and the men crowded toward the LXs.
Now that the blue and yellows saw that Mattoon was in enemy hands, they began shouting in rage. Commandos jumped over their defensive lines and ran toward Tory’s position, firing wildly. Bullets rattled off the LXs’ thick hides and gouged holes in the soft concrete walls above.
“In the bus!” Devereaux shouted as he pushed Mattoon’s huge frame in and then clambered in, Tory right behind.
Machine guns began to prattle as roof turret gunners opened up.
The garage was littered with commandos’ bodies. Some crawled aimlessly, too badly wounded to go forward or backward.
Blue-and-yellows had not moved. Officers conferred feverishly and tried to reach somebody, probably Montclair, on a field phone.
Then a cease-fire order apparently stilled the blue and yellows’ guns for the moment.
Devereaux waved his cigar. “Bah, Montclair’s too busy with his radio program upstairs. He doesn’t have time to mess with us, he really doesn’t need reports of shooting down here to screw up his day even worse, and anyway, he couldn’t lead a squad of vultures to a dead horse.”
A young officer ran up. “Sir, the enemy guys are attacking upstairs in the elevator shaft. We’ve got two or three men trapped up there and I can’t get anyone else up this shaft. The assholes are firing from an open bay higher up.”
“If you can reach Sergeant Goldman, ask him if he has another avenue of retreat.”
Another NCO spoke up. “Goldman is dead, Sir. So is Smith. It’s just Mike Lewis and your Captain Gordon up there. They’re trapped but they may have a back way out of there. He couldn’t be more specific because they could be located, so he’s shutting down his com button.”
Tory’s heart sank. She had so hoped to be in David’s embrace just about now. Her disappointment was a body slam, but it was more important David came out of this alive. Better he stay up there, safely hidden, than risk traveling down this shaft.
“Into the LX,” Devereaux ordered, and boots thudded and steel hatches clanged. He spoke into his com button. “Mark, are you there? Yo, Mark. We’re about ready here.” Tory climbed in after him. Charlie pulled the hatch closed. The soldiers had abandoned their equipment in the blackened elevator shaft. Hatch doors slammed shut in staccato array. “Hold on to your socks, everyone,” Devereaux said. “This will either work, or we’ll be dead. Okay Mark!”
Tory felt a wrenching explosion, as the LX shifted under her. She saw the shocked look on Devereaux’s face. She felt a wall of blackness slam against her.
A series of explosions meteored all around, shaking them like rag dolls.
Tory was stunned. Her teeth were shaken, and her vision blurred as her skull danced around on her shoulders while her body sank sideways to the floor of the LX.
This didn’t seem right. What had gone wrong? She felt pressure in her eyeballs, as if thumbs gouged her brain, the result of a huge, fatal explosion. Devereaux lay bloodied, mouth open. Tory crawled toward him, but bodies were in her way, and she became dizzy, heavy. Something had gone dreadfully wrong.
ALLISON: We have reports of a massive explosion in or near Tower One at the Atlantic Hotel & Convention Center. We are following, of course, the heroic efforts of a mechanized battalion of the 399th Infantry Division to bring out some of the delegates. There is no word as to their fate in the explosion.
In another continuing story, Pentagon officials have now released the names of the dead in the crash of 55th Aviation Battalion Flight 3. We will have those names for you shortly.
A presidential spokesman says and I quote, We’ve had personal assurances from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Billy Norcross, that he and the vast majority of the military are behind the president one hundred per cent. This is not a civil war but an armed insurrection by a few people, and we expect it will be under control soon. The President, as Commander in Chief, has declared he will remain at his post in the White House and see this situation to its bitter conclusion, with all the criminals rounded up and America at peace once more. There is no plan to evacuate the White House, or indeed to evacuate the government from Washington, although the members of the Supreme Court were flown to safety. Both houses of Congress are meeting in emergency session tonight and are expected to issue statements soon calling for complete multipartisan condemnation of this outrage.
This late word now from the Pentagon. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Billy Norcross, has pledged full support to President Clifford Bradley to end the insurrection of what are now called the Hotel Generals. This would seem to contradict a communique just hours ago from General Montclair that the Armed Forces were fully on his side, including General Norcross and all the top military brass. President Bradley has issued a communique thanking General Norcross for his support, and ordering him and other leaders to the White House for a joint press conference.
You are about to see footage of an apparent night time firefight between insurrectionist commandos and Air Force police on the tarmac at Reagan International Airport in Washington as the Supreme Court justices were about to be flown out of the capital by the Air Force to an undisclosed location. The large shape in the background in this infrared night film is a C-130 cargo plane that was used in the evacuation. The flashes in front are shots being fired. The Air Force reports that the justices were successfully evacuated, at a cost of ten Air Police, and at least a dozen insurrectionists.
|
