Part 21 (1/2)

”No, I don't have outgoing comms capability here and I wouldn't know how to use those systems even if they were powered up and I knew their location,” said Commie. ”Sorry.”

”It's daylight. The sun sets in ten hours. Be ready to f.u.c.king roll when the sun goes down, Commie, and you're in luck; you won't be calling this cave home for the next six weeks, while we go to China and back. The water is drinkable; everything inside has been s.h.i.+elded from the blast. According to the readings, our suits aren't too dirty and as long as we don't lick them clean before we get back, we should be okay for the return trip.”

”What do you want me and Huck working on?” Rico asked Rex.

”I want you two working on our way out of here. Unless we can restore power to that door, we ain't gettin' out the same way we got in. Considering the fact that we don't hear a thousand corpses screaming outside the turnstile area, Griff was successful in getting the door closed. There must be another exit.”

”There is another way out,” Commie said. ”When we came in, we went down the tunnel until it came to a T. We turned right to get where we are now. If you go left you'll pa.s.s by some vending machines. Farther down you'll see a maintenance door that leads to a ladder. That goes up above ground to an access shed. The shed is used to get outside for downlink antenna maintenance. I know about it because we caught two people up there . . . well, you know. Back when I worked here before.”

”You guys heard him. Check it out, but make sure you watch your a.s.ses. Griff might not have got them all in the tunnel. Be back here in two hours, or we'll a.s.sume you didn't make it. I can't leave Commie here alone-too risky. Double-check your suits and move out.”

Rico and Huck donned their radiation hoods and did a press check on their carbines before moving to the vending machine hall outside the secured area. Commie continued to run his trace and simultaneously downloaded the archived intelligence collected by this station three months before the dead walked. While downloading, he peeked at some of the messages at random, realizing that the intelligence had never been processed or transmitted to anyone outside this facility.

There must not have been time or anyone available to sift through the vast amounts of data and turn it into an actionable report. Commie scanned through the overwhelming information while Rex guarded the area, worried about Griff.

BEGIN TEXT TRANSCRIPTION.

KLIEGLIGHT SERIAL 099.

RTTUZYUW-RQHNQN-00000-RRRRR-Y.

T O P S E C R E T//SI//G//SAP HORIZON.

Addressees be advised: This report contains intelligence that has not been a.n.a.lyzed. For internal use only.

This station has collected COMINT originating from the PRC referring to an SAP with codename HORIZON. [REDACTED] clandestine communication with Chinese scientists a.s.sociated with the Mingyong excavation was discovered by Chinese leaders.h.i.+p some time ago, possibly before January. The PRC GSD has known of their scientist's encrypted contact with [REDACTED] and has, in response, initiated an aggressive cyber warfare initiative clandestinely against [REDACTED]. The virus algorithm embedded into the communication attachments is similar to previous STUXNET ent.i.ties as it embeds itself into proprietary [REDACTED] systems and learns vulnerabilities and limitations in real-time. It is unknown to this station as to the extent of the damage the Chinese STUXNET-like worm ent.i.ty has inflicted on critical [REDACTED] decision matrix systems.

KUNIA SENDS . . . K/.

BT.

AR.

TRANSMISSION STATUS: Unable to TX, outbound comms NMC

41.

Oahu Cave Facility ”This is it. Bust that hatch, Rico,” Huck whispered up the ladder. ”I smell the ocean.”

Rico climbed the rungs above, his nose tuned to something rotting. ”You smell the ocean, I smell death. I'm gonna take my time. You sit tight down there; I'm not gettin' bit so you can see the sun.”

”Fair enough,” Huck said, chewing on a stick of gum he had looted from the vending machines along the way.

”Ahh, I see,” Rico said, hoping Huck would ask.

Huck took the bait. ”See what, man? What?”

”This!” Rico answered as he slung the carca.s.s of a badly decomposed cat down on top of him.

”f.u.c.k!” Huck screamed. ”You G.o.dd.a.m.ned wetback! Don't think I'm gonna let that slide. I'll punch your green card before we get back, for sure!”

”Calm down, mang. It was funny,” Rico said, giggling in an over-the-top Cuban accent, sounding a lot like Tony Montana. Huck grimaced. ”Why so mad? I tole you I was in sanitation.”

Huck laughed and reached up, trying to grab Rico's leg to pull him down a couple rungs, and maybe a couple notches of att.i.tude. Huck asked, ”You worried about Griff?”

”I am, Griff is my friend, but I gotta stay positive. He might still be alive. Not going to let it kill me. I want to get back and finish what we started.”

”Amen to that. Ready to get over there and kick some Chinese a.s.s,” Huck yelled, his voice echoing down the ladder and throughout the tunnel below.

Something clanged somewhere in the tunnel blackness far in the distance.

”You drop something?” Rico asked as he worked on the access door that led to the outside.

”No, it was in the tunnel. One of the things, I'll bet.”

”Just a sec. This padlock s.h.i.+m is giving me a hard time,” Rico said, bending the s.h.i.+m again to fit inside the locking mechanism of the large bra.s.s government padlock.

”That's what happens when you make a padlock s.h.i.+m out of an aluminum can, stupid Mexican.”

”Your name is one vowel off from the truth, you know that, Hick? I may be stupid, but I know how to keep my hands off my cousins, you backwoods Deliverance f.u.c.k.”

”That's cold-blooded, man. I still owe you for the cat. Don't think all this joking around is gonna make me forget.”

”Put your hood on, climb up here, and shut up, hick. I just popped the lock. I'm gonna throw this lever and open the door. Ready?”

”Yeah, do it. I'm ready.”

Huck pulled his gun up to high ready. Moisture condensed inside their radiation hoods as the first rays of sunlight beamed through the doorway. The view was bleak. Although a paradise of green a year ago, today the picture was much darker. All the vegetation was dead and trees were blown northward away from the blast that had rocked Honolulu. None of them had realized the full scope of the island's destruction when they moved in the cover of last night's darkness.

They were on top of a hill above the cave and tunnel, and could see the ocean in the distance from their vantage point. Huck noted the damaged, golf b.a.l.l.shaped antennas some distance away, as well as the smaller antennas right outside the door.

They were on a steep pinnacle overlooking the infested cave entrance on the south side, and a sheer cliff on the north that dropped a hundred feet into the remains of a jungle. Rico grabbed his waterproof notepad and began making a sketch of the situation so he could brief Rex upon return. Huck had the binos, and was surveilling the tunnel entrance below. He got down on his chest and low-crawled to the edge. Rico instinctively grabbed Huck's feet.

”What's it look like?”

”It looks like a bunch of f.u.c.king walking dead things,” Huck replied.

Rico lifted Huck's feet a few inches off the ground, startling him a bit.

”Quit f.u.c.kin' around,” Huck lashed. He continued scanning the area below, looking for anything that might a.s.sist their exfil. Huck paused his bino sweep and tightened his shoulders in concentration. ”Uh . . . Rico. Man, I'm sorry.”

”What . . . Griff?”

”Yeah, brother. Pull me back. Sorry, man.”