The SGIT team reached the exit doors, knowing they we still too close to the lab. Jim had been through here before and knew that out the doors and to the right they would find the building housing the computer center, the communications room, and—if their prisoner was telling the truth—the officers’ quarters. They needed to move without delay, but Jim sensed this could be a trap.
Jim checked his watch, counting down to the detonation. One minute, 17 seconds…
“Doctor, I think you should go first,” Jim ordered.
The doctor shook his head. “No!”
Jim, holding an assault rifle he had picked up from a dead guard back in the lab, jabbed the barrel into the doctor’s back. “Get up and go out the door!”
“No! They might shoot me!”
“If you don’t move, I’ll shoot you right here!”
The doctor stood, hands till bound behind his back, and reluctantly nudged the door with his shoulder. The steel door had no window, so he pushed it open a few inches and yelled out something in Mandarin. Jim assumed he was announcing his presence and telling any Homothals or Chinese soldiers that might be watching the door not to shoot.
The doctor pushed the door open a little further and finally the doctor slowly emerged from behind it, stepping into the morning light. BOOM! BOOM! Two shots and the doctor fell dead, his body falling within the door way so that the door couldn’t close.
One minute…
“Ghost, snake the fiber optic lens around the edge of the door. We need to know where the shooters are,” Jim ordered.
Laying down to conceal his position, Ghost slid the probe along the Doctor’s body to the edge of the door. He held the LCD screen close while maneuvering the lens left and right.
“I see two shooters at the corner of the barracks on the far side of the yard… left corner. One is high, the other low.”
Forty three seconds…
“Bull, what’s the load in that magazine?” Jim asked, referring to a spare AA12 magazine stuffed in a pouch strapped to Bull’s waist.
“Frags, sir.”
“Good. Load ‘em up. When Ghost pushes the door open we all fire where those shooters are. We need to get to the next building. That should be the computer lab. We have to move fast—that bomb is going to detonate.”
Jim nodded to Ghost and he pushed the door open. Bullets pierced the door, but none of the SGIT soldiers were hit. Bull raised his shotgun and fired at the corner of the barracks. He was joined by his teammates, all firing as they dashed out the door and turned toward the adjacent building.
Ten seconds…
With weapons aimed across the open space toward the barracks, the SGIT soldiers fired from the hip as they ran for cover.
The explosion was deafening, twice as large as any had imagined. The shock wave shoved the men to the ground and they slid to a stop in front of the door, the card lock above Magnum’s head. He stood and inserted the key card, holding his breath for a heartbeat, and then he heard the faint click of the lock opening. He pushed the door open
Magnum entered through the door into the deserted hallway, followed by the rest of the team.
“That door on the left, that’s the lab where we found the computers. We’ll start there and then search the remaining rooms,” Jim said.
As before, the door into the computer lab was not locked. The team quickly dashed inside, and Bull remained on guard while the others surveyed the room.
There were two rows of computer workstations located in the room’s center, running the width of the room from left to right. Jim stepped forward and quickly estimated the room’s size—100 feet wide by at least 50 feet, maybe 70 feet, from front to back. In this space were a large number of PCs, servers, and other peripherals.
“How much explosives do we have?” Jim asked.
“Not enough,” answered Magnum. “We’ve only got ten pounds of C4.”
Jim looked around the room again. They needed another plan.
“We need more explosives or incendiaries… both would be great,” Jim thought out loud.
He looked around the computer lab while Ghost and Magnum stared at their commander.
Still muttering to himself, Jim questioned, “Where is a directory when you need it?”
Ghost and Magnum looked at each other with a question in their eyes.
“You okay?” Ghost asked.
“Never better,” Jim replied and then added, “Where would you find explosives in this kind of complex?”
Ghost shrugged, and then said, “Uh, the armory?”
“That’s exactly what I think. Now where do you suppose the armory is?”
“Well, in the barracks, close to the troops.”
Jim shook his head. “No, not there. Remember what the doctor told us? Colonel Ming doesn’t trust his troops. That’s why the communications center is located here, in the same building as the officer’s quarters.”
Magnum understood. “And Ming would want to control all access to the weapons. He lives in fear of a mutiny.”
Jim nodded. “Exactly. That means the armory is—”
“In this building,” Ghost interrupted.
Jim looked at Ghost. “Now, all we have to do is find it and avoid being killed in the process. Search room by room,” he commanded.
The SGIT team left the computer lab and turned down the hallway, continuing their journey further into the building. It was a twin to the other building the team had been in with the long hallway and rooms on each side.
As they searched, Jim hoped they would also discover Ming’s office. It was likely critical information would be kept there, which they would need to destroy along with all the other records.
At each door, Magnum tested the handle and so far none were locked. Entering the rooms, they conducted a quick search, taking a mental inventory of the contents so they could come back later and demolish it if needed.
Magnum was testing the latch on the fifth room on the left side of the hallway. This door was locked. Jim motioned for Bull to shoot the latch. Bull switched out the rotary magazine in the AA12 for one loaded with buckshot, but before he could fire, four Chinese soldiers emerged from a door further down the corridor. One appeared to be an officer; Jim recognized another as Sergeant Wong. The Chinese soldiers were startled by the sight of the four Americans.
Immediately recognizing Jim, Sergeant Wong quickly raised his rifle and fired. The shot was wild and burrowed into the wall inches from Jim’s head. Jim spun and dropped to his knees. Although the rifle he was carrying was equipped with a 75-round drum magazine, Jim had no idea how full it was. Still, with adrenaline coursing through his blood, he pulled hard on the trigger and fired a continuous stream of bullets into the close pack of Chinese soldiers.
Before Wong got off a second shot, four bullets slammed into his torso. Along with his fellow soldiers, Sergeant Wong died on the spot.
“Get that lock cleared!” Jim ordered, keeping an eye on the hallway for further dangers.
Bull blasted the lock and kicked open the door. They rushed in and closed the door behind them.
From the furniture and decorations in the room it was obvious they were standing in Colonel Ming’s outer office.
In front of them was a receptionist’s desk with a black phone and an intercom, but otherwise the desk was devoid of paper and other objects. On the wall behind the desk was a framed photograph of Colonel Ming in full dress uniform.
“This certainly confirms the size of Ming’s ego,” Jim quipped. To the left of the photograph was another door. Jim guessed that this one led into the Colonels’ office.
He strode to the door and gently grasped the handle. Looking back at his team Jim nodded. His team responded by shouldering their weapons and aiming at imagined adversaries on the other side of the door.
Jim turned the door handle and pushed the door forward.
He motioned for his team to move up. They quickly moved through the door and then parted to either side, guns at the ready. Jim immediately followed them through the door. The room was empty.