Countdown to Apocalypse, page 6
It wasn’t a great bit of teaching, he supposed, but since he wanted to remain largely unnoticed, it was what he was looking for.
Beyond that the lecture was actually interesting. He’d chosen one on genetic engineering and, of course, it was almost entirely over his head but he’d been following enough of it in the recent weeks that he could at least stay in the general ballpark as the professor went on.
Two birds with one stone. Can’t complain, at least.
*****
St Teresa’s Hospital, Hong Kong
Qi sucked in air as she bolted upright in bed, eyes wide and hands clawing at the blanket that was tucked around her. She wanted to scream, but her chest as so tight that it felt like she couldn’t even managed to draw in enough air to breath let alone scream.
Someone rushed to her side, making her twist and draw away in an instinctive panic, but before she could strike out all she could hear was a calming voice urging her to relax.
“It’s alright, you’re ok, please calm down or you may harm yourself.”
Qi looked at the nurse, eyes wide and edging on panic, but there was nothing there but a concerned look and earnest desire to help. She slowly let out the shuddering breath and was away of a pain in her chest as she did. She looked down to see that she had been wrapped tightly in bandages.
“I… what happened?” She asked, uncertain.
“Wish you could tell us, child,” The older woman said, easing her back down into the bed. “You had taken a bit of a beating when you were brought in. A constable said that you’re boyfriend found him and led him to you before he passed out too…”
“Shen! Where?”
“Easy,” The nurse said, still keeping her voice calm and gentle, nodding behind Qi. “He’s right there. He’s fine.”
She turned and saw Shen resting beside her, hooked up to machines and an IV.
“Don’t let the equipment worry you,” the nurse said, “he was very low on electrolytes, it was shocking he stayed awake long enough to get to the police. We’re just rehydrating him, the rest is just to monitor in case we missed something. You were missing a fair bit of blood, but we’ve stitched up that cut and given you enough to replace what you lost.”
The nurse smiled sadly, “It’s been a busy day, we almost ran out of blood before you came in…”
She looked over her shoulder, Qi following her gaze, “when daylight came, and people started waking up, well the line up to donate blood became longer than the line of injured.”
On the other side of what Qi now realized was an emergency room, there were dozens of people in line, waiting for nurses to draw blood for use on others. She nodded slowly, letting herself settle completely back.
“Thank them for me, please,” She said softly.
“We have been. You need to rest, do you have anyone we should call?”
Qi looked over to where Shen was resting and shook her head, “He’s right there.”
*****
Across the emergency room, a young man was loitering with those who’d come to donate blood but his interest wasn’t in what they were doing. In the confusion presented by the chaos of the morning’s events, no one had yet paid much attention to him… only a few even noticing that he’d been there all morning, and those knew better than to cross him.
None of the 20 Thousand had been admitted, but there was no question in his mind that Yan would want to be notified about the pair that had been brought in by the police a short while earlier.
He wasn’t certain if it were the pair the leader of the Guild was interested in, but the description matched and he’d been able to get a peak at the admittance sheet and noted that they had been found close enough to the location of the fight to be the pair the boss was looking for.
With the phones down, he would need to find a runner, but that was just a matter of waiting a few minutes before one came along.
*****
McDonalds Restaurant, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Campus
Alex took his tray with a big mac and coke and settled into the same place as he’d been in before, dropping the tray on the manila envelope that was resting on the table. He ate slowly, taking his time as he watched the people milling around him.
The campus was busy, which was good, but he didn’t see any sign of the contact who’d led the envelope.
Professional, he thought with approval.
That was always nice, when you got to work with someone who took his job seriously.
With the food packed away, he polished off the coke and grabbed up the tray to leave only a bare table behind. The contents of the tray went in the bin on his way past, the tray into the stack, and the envelope tucked away under his arm as he walked out the door into the bright day that was well on it’s way to being a hot one under the subtropical sun.
Alex opened the envelope as he walked, pulling the cards and passport out and checking them over. He was an American businessman, apparently, looking to do some work up in Shenzen a little to the North.
Nice, Gold cards. Hope SOCOM doesn’t mind picking up the tab, He thought, amused as he checked the rest of the papers and found some basic information on the area, directions to a shopping district complete with a tailor’s shop… Besson is a bit of a smart ass. Good man.
There was also a micro SD card that he plucked out of the envelop before crumpling up the paper and tossing it in the next bin he passed. Passport, cards, and papers tucked away in his pockets, Alex fed the SD card to his phone and found that it was full of local news reports and what looked like dozens of cell phone videos.
He viewed them as he walked, keeping part of his focus on the world around him, but a good chunk on the phone like pretty much everyone else around him.
That’s one hell of a big dragon.
The rampaging dragon had been caught from multiple angles, all over the city as it roared over the skyline and rained fire down around it.
There was no hint of what it was fighting, if anything, however.
Looks like a Godzilla movie, Alex noted, if we were in Tokyo it would have been right at home.
There was a last note that he read through quickly once he was done with the videos.
Cellular networks are down, that has to be intentional… but a peer to peer network was already popping up all over the city. Alex looked around, noting how many people were still tinkering with their phones. Something like that wouldn’t let them call out but, buggy as it was, it would still let them share information remarkably quickly. Ingenious, I didn’t even know you could do that.
It did put a wrinkle into things, however, because if the PLA was stomping down that hard on the cell networks and, presumably, the Internet, then they would be looking for signals that could reach out. His satellite phone would be able to connect, of course, but it might also bring down some unwanted attention in the process.
Oh well, I’m no spy, I’m a Marine. Unwanted Attention is practically my middle name.
*****
Chapter 5
PLA Headquarters Tent, West Kowloon, Hong Kong
“Major General, we have reports from the incident zone.”
Ziao Lin Wey nodded curtly, gesturing to the man to bring them in. “Show me, Chief Sergeant.”
He’d been looking at reports all morning, since before the sun rose. Most were of little value, other than to display the damage that had been caused by the mysterious rampage the night before.
The Party Leaders in Beijing were desperately demanding any possible information, information he simply have, and with each hour that passed Wey found himself pressed harder and harder for that which he didn’t have. Anything new brought some hope that he might be able to satisfy Beijing before they lose their minds in the absence of answers.
The worst of it was that he couldn’t honestly blame them, a massive dragon beast had descended from the heavens to lay waste to a section of Hong Kong. A couple decades earlier, they might have claimed that as divine deliverance of justice from the Gods upon a wicked city.
Now, however, it was an attack on the very economic fabric of the nation.
It is funny how the perceptions change over time, Wey found a dark amusement in it.
Of course, the real worry that none were yet vocalizing was that the dragon, or whatever it truly was, would not remain neatly confined to a single city. If it could strike one, it could visit the same onto others, and no one in the party wanted to see such a thing visit its justice upon Beijing.
Wey examined the new reports with a critical eye, noting that the major damage had been contained primarily to a single alley in one of the less busy parts of the city. That was a relative term, of course. All of Hong Kong was a tightly packed metropolis, and busy was practically the motto of those who lived there.
Still, why this alley?
“Do we have any reports on the bodies found here,” He asked the Chief Sergeant, tapping the alley on the map.
The Sergeant checked the street names and then cross checked against his files.
“Still in line for autopsy, Major General,” He said.
“Put them at the front of the line, Chief Sergeant,” Wey ordered, “I want to know everything about them, starting with their identities, immediately.”
“Yes Major General,” The Sergeant saluted before heading off to relay the orders.
Wey ran his hand through his hair, wondering how long they’d be able to contain the situation. Already he was aware that the locals had managed to build ad hoc communications networks to replace the disabled cell system and given the general technical ability of the city in general, he would be honestly surprised if they’d not managed to send out more than the party would prefer already.
It was going to be a long day.
*****
Alex stuffed the windbreaker and the jeans into a trash bin as he left the shop, adjusting his new clothing as he walked. The slacks and cream-colored dress shirt weren’t really his first pick for comfortable clothing in the climate he was dealing with, but it seemed the most relaxed he could manage while fitting in, given his age and nationality.
His boots were gone too, but the dress shoes were lighter and more comfortable anyway, and since he figured he could probably take a tank driving over his toes now, the OSHA steel toe certification didn’t seem nearly as important as it once might have.
Now where do I go, though?
The SD card he’d gotten from Besson had some details of local places of interest, which might come in helpful, but of most interest was the rumors the contact had included. It appeared that the PLA had setup in Kowloon before daylight even broke.
It was good reaction time, actually. In the States he’d have been shocked if anyone managed to respond and setup that quickly, but of course in the states it would have taken a presidential order and a state of emergency before the military could even legally be dispatched, so he’d take that for what it was.
They’ll have the best information, if I can get to it.
It was the second part of that thought he wasn’t sure about, of course, but short of just wandering blindly around the city, Alex didn’t have much else of an idea for the moment, so he set his gaze to the west and headed for Kowloon.
He ducked into an alley, looking for a spot in the shadows with enough cover and no prying eyes, and accelerated straight up along the skyscraper until he reached the top and stepped lightly into the sun and on the roof. He’d probably still be spotted, the city was too damn full of people, but speed and altitude would have to serve in the place of stealth.
Taking just a few seconds to orient himself, Alex launched himself off the building and accelerated quickly up to the point where the entire universe felt like it was about to shake apart on him and then just backed off slightly from breaking Mach as he flew across the city. He stayed close to the buildings, trying to remain below the rooftops but above the windows of the top floors as he flew towards West Kowloon.
It only took seconds, even a big city was small at near the speed of sound, and he decelerated hard to land softly on an unoccupied rooftop overlooking the West Kowloon transport hub.
From his vantage point it was easy to spot the PLA setup, on the opposite side of the building from the station, military vehicles and tents dominated three parking areas and it looked like they’d taken over several of the buildings as well. He stayed low and focused on the buildings around him until he spotted the first glint that he had known would be there.
Snipers on overwatch. That means spotters, and that means trouble. Alex shifted to put an AC unit between himself and the sniper’s position.
He’d be fine if he could map out his movements in advance. As fast as he could move, they’d think they were seeing things even if they were looking right at him, but Alex couldn’t help but wish he had the control that Jeremy had shown in the Houston fight. He chuckled softly, realizing that a teenage boy could simply make a total mockery of the best security the PLA could even imagine, and do it without breaking a sweat.
Of course, he realized a moment later, that same teenage boy could probably dance right through any American security he could imagine too.
Oh, that kid is going to cause some trouble in the next few years I can just tell…
Hopefully he’d limit it to sneaking peaks in the girl’s bathrooms.
Alright, distractions away now. Focus on the job. What do we have down here… Alex examined the scene below, noting the command tent. That was easy to spot, it had all the communications gear stacked around it. There were semi-trailer rigs with equipment being unloaded, none of which interested him. A trio of similar rigs parked off on their own near a medical tent, however, did catch his eye.
Freezer trucks. They’ll have bodies of any persons of interest there. Pierson did want samples.
He noted that as a priority, but moved on with mapping out the location before doing anything else. There was only so much time before the military got over any residual confusion of the fast deployment, and he needed to take advantage of every bit of it he could.
*****
Zhang Wei finished examining the body, dropping his tweezers into the alcohol wash, and turned on a recorder.
“Subject three,” He said, “in excellent health prior to death, no signs of any medical conditions at all, same as the first two. Cause of death, smoke inhalation. Tattoos on the body would indicate possible membership in the Triad criminal organization, though of a different gang than the previous subjects.”
He sighed, settling his tools into their places as he waved for his assistant to bring in the next body.
It was going to be a long day, he’d seen the stacks of the corpses in the freezer trucks before getting started. There was nothing to be done about it, though, other than move on to the next and then the next after that.
Bodies were rolled in and out of the tent as the portable chiller blew cold air into the tent, more to keep the smell down from the decomposing bodies than for his comfort.
It was unusual, though he supposed, that the first three bodies were so healthy… aside, of course, from being dead.
*****
Alex thought he’d spotted all the snipers, and the layout the PLA was using didn’t look particularly confusing. They had no reason to be, sitting in a secure city of course, but with their main concern being such an unknown, he knew he would have to expect the military to be pretty paranoid.
He would be, in their place.
Of course, I doubt they’re going to prepared for me.
He watched the patrol carefully, noting the pattern, and when the opening he’d spotted came around again… he moved.
It wasn’t much and, in their defense, it wasn’t an opening you could exploit unless you happened to be able to fly. Unfortunately for the PLA, he could do just that.
Alex launched himself off the rooftop, accelerating to nearly Mach 1 terrifyingly quickly, and then slamming on the brakes just as fast. He twisted in mid flight and slid right under one of the freezer trucks next to the medical tend, reaching up to grab the frame of the trailer to finish stopping himself.
The whole truck rocked a little, startling the guards around him, but none thought to look under the rig where he was pressed up against the container as tightly as he could.
It took a few minutes before they apparently decided that it wasn’t something important, and again Alex cursed himself for a fool for not having spent some time learning the languages of the far east while he was in the service.
Working his way to the back of the trailer rig, where the medical tent was located, Alex took his time and moved slowly. The people around him were all low ranking soldiers as best he could tell, just grunts moving bodies around. Most of them weren’t even carrying rifles, and several didn’t have sidearms.
He waited for the right moment, then slid out from under the truck and rolled over and under the edge of the tent. The walls were sealed to the floor of the tent, but he’d been expecting that and pulled a flip knife from his picket to cut through the canvas. Just enough, at first, to peek inside and look around.
It was a big tent, with medical gear crammed all along the walls, which gave him some cover from where he could peer around while the occupants went about their duties.
He counted one doc, which was surprising. He expected more. Attendants and soldiers came and went with regularity, while the doctor worked and muttered a lot… either to himself or to the recorder he had.
Alex wished he could make any sense of what was being said, but satisfied himself with shifting his position to a more secure corner of the tent and cutting a new peep hole through the canvas floor while briefly mourning his new clothes.
BDUs are expected to be dirty, I’m just happy I didn’t pay for these myself.
With nothing else to do immediately, Alex settled in to wait for an opening while he watched and tried to take in every detail possible despite the language barrier holding him back.
*****
