ICCRU headquarters - London
Matt Fletcher paced the length of his office. It had been several days since they lost contact with Alex and the team and knowing Volkov was after the tooth had him uneasy.
“I have the general on line two for you Matt. It’s urgent.” His assistant announced over the intercom. Matt rushed to his desk and eagerly lifted the receiver to his ear.
“General, please tell me you have a lead?”
“Affirmative Matt, we found the plane. It crashed just north of the airport. They never landed.”
Matt bit down on his jaw and rubbed the back of his neck. “Any fatalities?”
“It appears they might have evacuated prior to the crash. The wreckage is scattered in a field. They’re still searching for any survivors but so far my men haven’t located any bodies. We found the crate containing the parachutes empty, so we suspect they might have jumped before the plane went down.”
“Great work, General. Send me the details of the rendezvous point. I’m on my way.”
It was shortly before sunrise the next day when Matt’s parachute touched ground in the Kalahari desert just outside the Namibian border. Upon the general’s advice it was the safest place to enter South Africa. He had a few miles on foot to his pick-up point. The red rippled Kalahari sand gave way under his feet making it particularly strenuous to walk in and even without the sun up yet it was hot; the steady breeze drying the sweat on his brow almost instantly. He fixed his eyes on the horizon and checked his GPS coordinates. According to his map the desert would subside about three miles south where he should find the dirt road and another mile down that road toward the East the ground team should be waiting for him.
A puff adder slithered across the mesmerizing sand about five yards ahead of him and the sudden surprise caused him to jolt. The desert might look arid and serene, but it was very much alive. He needed to stay alert. In the distance he heard what he suspected were hyenas. There was no way of knowing how far away they were but he wasn’t about to take any chances. He kept moving — as fast as it was possible to walk in the thick sand.
The deep orange line that threatened across the horizon signaled the sunrise was imminent. It was a spectacular sight that brought about a sense of relief knowing he wouldn’t feel as exposed to early morning predators. He stopped briefly for a drink of water at the foot of a large sand dune. It would be his seventh dune to climb since he landed with his parachute and his unpracticed legs were feeling the strain. Navigating through the red sand was relentless so he paused a bit longer than he had intended and heard movement in the sand behind him. He froze. Without turning around, his mind raced through a list of possible dangers. Nomads were prominent, so were the tribal bushmen. Neither posed a threat to him so he dismissed these. He recalled the hyenas and ruled that it was most likely them. Keeping his body still he slowly turned his head sideways and squinted his eyes to one corner to try catch a glimpse of what was behind him. If it were the hyenas or worse, lions, he’d be trapped between them and the high dune in front of him — and outrun them he couldn’t. He swallowed hard turning his head even further to the right. He saw nothing. Confused he decided to look to his left just to be safe so he repeated the exercise over his left shoulder. He still saw nothing. Deciding it was time to slowly attempt turning his torso around, he did and much to his relief, spotted a small group of wild meerkats that curiously sat erect on their hind legs. Matt exhaled and turned to fully face them. This mess with Volkov had him on edge.
“You gave me the fright of my life you little critters. If you’re looking for food, I’m out. But I can do with the company climbing this dune.”
The meerkats scattered as soon as Matt spoke. Somewhat disappointed he started up the hill alone; laughing at himself for entering into a conversation with the meerkats. His fears were short-lived once he reached the dune ridge and caught sight of the dirt road below. A quick look through his binoculars confirmed the ground team was already waiting for him at the pick up point.
A few hours later he stood in the field assessing the plane wreckage.
“Glad you could join us, Sir.”
“What do you have for me Lieutenant?”
“We’re trying to make sense of things. So far we found both pilots dead in the cockpit. Strange thing is, they weren’t in their seats.”
“Someone else was flying the plane?”
“It appears so. There’s more. The steering wheel was tied in place by one of the seat belts.”
Matt scratched his chin as the lieutenant took him around to the broken off cockpit.
“And the two pilots? What was their cause of death?”
“Both had multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Preliminary forensics suggest the bullets penetrated the cockpit from the outside. They were dead before the plane crashed.”
“So that confirms the reason for their initial distress signal. They were already under attack.”
“Affirmative, Sir. We also managed to locate three of the four engines so far and recovered several bullets in all of them. They might have flown on only one engine. With nowhere to land it seemed impossible to stay in the air for very long. There’s also no further indication that there were any more fatalities at this stage, Sir. My men combed the area over half a mile yesterday and found nothing. Trackers have been at it since 4 a.m. this morning expanding the search to a mile.”
“Good job Lieutenant, let me know if your men find something.”
Matt hunched at the pile of personal effects next to the wreckage. He picked up the reporter’s camera. There’s not a chance any reporter would ever part with his camera unless there was absolutely no other option. He checked for the SD card. It was gone. Ok, so he was sharp enough to remove it. The nearby laptop was badly charred. He doubted they’d be able to recover anything from that.
“Sir, my men found something.” The lieutenant interrupted a short while later and beckoned for Matt to follow him on foot. “We found several deployed parachutes just outside the half mile point east from here. It’s ours. There are fatalities.”
A short walk later the two men hovered over the two dead bodies at their feet. Matt felt his chest tighten as they approached Geoffrey and Murray’s bodies still tangled under their parachutes in the field.
“Gunshot wounds. Most likely before they even touched ground,” the lieutenant commented. One was a relief member from Scotland and the other, a soldier from the South African Defense Force.
Matt placed his hands on his hips and looked across the field. It wasn’t quite light already and the sun’s first rays cast silhouettes against its orange background.
“What is this place?” Matt asked turning ninety degrees.
“I believe we’re on a private cattle farm, Sir.”
“Is that a house?” Matt pointed out in front of him, squinting against the sun rising behind the farm house.
“Get down!” The lieutenant promptly ordered in light of this new discovery. He instructed his men to move in and investigate further. His team moved stealthily through the tall grass ducking down every few seconds. As they approached the house, the porch light flashed on and off several times.
“I think it’s morse code,” Matt declared to the lieutenant as he watched through his binoculars. “I’m a bit rusty. Can you read it?”
The lieutenant fine-tuned the lens of his binoculars. “Looks like it spells allies.” He radioed his men to respond with SADF and a minute later the porch light followed suit.
“It’s them!” The lieutenant exclaimed and pushed the button on his radio. “Move in with caution. I repeat. Proceed.“
“Roger that Lieutenant.”
The squad moved toward the house and moments later the front door opened and Commander Burger stepped out onto the porch.
“Commander Burger, 2nd Paratrooper Regiment Pretoria,” saluting the lieutenant who promptly saluted back announcing his rank.
“Lieutenant Botha, 24th Infantry Winfield. What’s your status, Sir?”
“Unit is secure. A few casualties but all is under control. We lost comms with HQ and three of our men are in the field.”
“Matt Fletcher, ICCRU HQ. Where’s Hunt?” Matt barged in pushing past the two service men.
“Deployed in the field, Sir. She decided not to abort her mission. Dr. Quinn is inside.”
Matt followed the lieutenant through to the kitchen where the remaining relief crew and Sam waited for the all clear.
“You’re Sam Quinn I presume?” Matt, equal in height to Sam, bombastically approached him.
“Well, if you’re going to be that abrupt about it, I guess I’m forced to own up? Who’s asking?” Sam replied cheekily.
“Matt Fletcher, ICCRU. Where’s Alex?”
“She’s on the mission you recruited her for, remember? Somewhere out there chasing your tooth.”
Matt bit down on his jaw. “Can I have a private word with you please Dr. Quinn?”
“Sure, but only if you drop the title.”
Matt wasn’t smiling at Sam’s humor and stormed out into the sitting room.
“You were supposed to accompany her, Dr. Quinn. Why are you here? Who is she with?”
Sam lifted his splinted wrist. “I don’t think I had much of a choice now, did I? My injury could have jeopardized our safety. We thought it best she go at it without me. She has two of Burger’s men with her.”
“And Volkov?” Matt asked with apprehension.
“Volkov? What are you talking about? You mean the Russian billionaire who just built the Mars shuttle? What’s he got to do with this?”
Matt turned away and scratched the back of his head. He didn’t answer.
“Dammit Fletcher, are you telling me Volkov is somehow involved with this?”
Matt nodded and took a seat on the couch; resting his elbows on his knees.
“We have Intel he’s after the tooth, yes. Why, we haven’t figured out yet, but I know this man — all too well and my gut tells me it’s not to demystify history. He’s up to something. He’s far too conceited to do this in secret.”
Sam watched as Matt’s knuckles grew white under his clenched hands. There was certainly history between these two men; and whatever it was showed. Matt got up and walked to the window.
“How long has she been gone? Has she made contact at all?”
“She left a couple of days ago. We have no way of getting in touch with her. Our Sat phone took a bullet and they’ve been trying to somehow establish contact with HQ since.”
Sam’s tone changed to anger. “You know she’s out there totally exposed. You promised her she’d be protected. Who knows if she’s even still alive?”
Matt placed his hands on his hips. “Did she say where she was headed?”
“Professor Graham’s office at the Wits University.”
“Great!”Matt swung around and stormed out the front door.
“You’re welcome!” Sam yelled sarcastically after him as he watched Matt join the lieutenant outside. Knowing there was someone else after the tooth and that Alex was totally unaware of the danger had him break out in a cold sweat. Yes, he had a broken wrist, but his legs still worked, and he knew her thought process. There’s no way he’d let her stay out there all by herself. Sam leaped across the lounge and at the door to join the lieutenant and Matt where they studied a map.
“I’m going with you,” Sam announced.
“Like heck you are Quinn. You’re injured and you could cause more harm than good to this rescue,” Matt replied.
“Rescue? Ha, you have another thing coming if you think you’re off to rescue Alex. She’s tougher than you think Fletcher. I’m quite certain she’s several steps ahead of Volkov; or anyone else for that matter. But nonetheless, she’s exposed and I know her like the back of my hand. I’m coming with you, and that’s final.”
Matt folded the map back in his backpack without saying a word.
“Fine, have it your way,” he said swinging the pack onto his back. “Lieutenant, I need you to get the others back to the UK safely. Quinn and I will go on to find Hunt. I’ll need one of your vehicles and a helicopter on standby at my original pick-up point in the desert. It should be safe and out of sight there until we find a way to reach it.”
“Copy that, Sir.” The lieutenant agreed and spun on his heels to execute his orders.
“We leave in an hour, Quinn. I’ll meet you out back.”
An hour later Sam was ready and stood waiting for Fletcher at the barn behind the house. The last bit of the sun’s rays hit the roof of the farmhouse where the team was also due to leave shortly. Sam stared across the farmland moments before he felt the thudding pain against the back of his head and fell to the ground.