SWITCHBLADE (Choi Ziyi Book 1) Page 8

  "Doesn't make sense," said Bao Yu. "The AFA have only ever hit military or political targets before."

  "Maybe there were off-duty personnel there?" said Wing.

  "Impossible," replied Song. "The video suggests the attacks were pre-planned."

  "Search the CCTV footage," said Bao Yu. "We need to know if this was another suicide attack or if they planted the bomb and left. Check for Michel first. Hopefully we can cross another one of those bastards off the list."

  "On it," said Song.

  The emergency services arrived at both locations. Fury raged inside Wing, numbing him to the horror of the attacks as he watched the fire and ambulance crews try to deal with the chaos. How had they let things come to this? They should've found the Americans long before they had the opportunity to strike. But their ability to fool the retina scans made them invisible and gave them access to where ever they wanted.

  "Estimated body count at Tsim Sha Tsui standing at one thousand seven hundred," said Song quietly. "They've already told me that's a conservative number. It could easily rise to several thousand."

  In a city of fifty-eight million, either number was a drop in the ocean. So small, they'd barely be noticed. It wouldn't sway the Empire to suddenly change its policies. There had to be another angle to the attacks none of them had seen yet.

  The data flowed through Wing. He tried to see a bigger picture but nothing gelled. What could they hope to achieve with such mindless terror attacks that would barely get a minute on the news?

  "I don't believe it," said Bao Yu. "Lok Fu. A housing estate. Another bomb. Must have been big. Three levels have gone down."

  "Three in ten minutes," said Wing. "I can't see any pattern, any point to them."

  "I've found when the bomb in Mong Kok was planted," said Song. "Twelve hours ago." The camera angle was from the far side of the street but, once Song zoomed in, Michel was unmistakable.

  "Running a trace on Lok Fu for Michel," said Bao Yu.

  They had two locations, possibly three for Michel. They narrowed the search through those end points. Hits began popping up on the map. A trail of lights showed her journey from Mong Kok to Tsim Sha Tsui within seconds, then more slowly from Mong Kok outwards.

  "Got her in Lok Fu," said Bao Yu. "Looks like she was staying there. Bomb was left at seven this morning."

  Wing frowned. "Twelve hours between then and TST. Enough time to drop a lot of bombs."

  "Why didn't anyone report her in Lok Fu?" asked Song. "That housing estate is ninety-nine per cent ethnic Chinese. She must have stood out like a sore thumb."

  "What were they going to report her for? Being a gweilo?" replied Wing. "No one knew she was a terrorist."

  "Concentrate on what we can prove," reminded Bao Yu.

  "Fuck." Wing stared at his monitors. "Another bomb. Hong Kong island side this time. In Central. At the Landmark, Queen's Road."

  Song's fingers flew across her keyboard, bringing up footage from cameras in the area. "Level Eighty-One's gone. Eighty and Eighty-Two look like they're on their way too. Fire's spreading to Prince's Building next door."

  "Get every available fire unit there," ordered Bao Yu. "Reroute the traffic up and around it."

  "Wing, what's happening?" Ziyi's voice came in over the up-link. "We felt an explosion."

  "The AFA have launched bomb attacks across Hong Kong. Four so far. The last one was in Central three blocks from you down-level."

  "We'll evac back to the residence."

  "Negative. Stay where you are. I need to get air support into fight the fire and deal with casualties plus news crews are already sending their flyers and drones into the area - I won't be able to clear a flight path for you."

  "Roger that. Keep me updated."

  "Will do..." Gunfire erupted over the link before Wing could finish the sentence. The three operators froze in the Pod and stared at each other, their minds refusing to take in what they'd just heard. "Ziyi! Ziyi! What's happening? Ziyi? Come in."

  "We're under attack...Repeat. We are under attack... shit. Get down. Chen - by the elevator." More gunfire drowned out Ziyi's voice.

  "Get me eyes in there now," shouted Bao Yu.

  "I can't get into the ICBB feed. We're locked out," said Song.

  "I'm bringing the drones in closer," said Wing. "Ziyi? Ziyi? What's happening?"

  "Put them up on the screens now - all of them," said Bao Yu, her voice breaking with tension.

  The images of the bombings disappeared, replaced by a three sixty view of the top floor of the ICBB. Gunfire flashed in the windows. Bodies littered the floor.

  9

  Ziyi

  They watched the flames engulfing the side of the Landmark from the top floor of the ICBB, as black smoke rolled across the nearby starscrapers. The laughter of earlier was replaced by gasps of shock and horror.

  Ziyi restrained Xiao from joining the pack with a gentle hand on his arm. "Highness, best stay away from the windows."

  Chen drew his pistol and covered Xiao with his bulk. "I don't like this Ziyi."

  "I want to know what's going on." demanded Xiao.

  "I'll find out, Highness," replied Ziyi. She clicked open the comms link to Control. "Wing, what's happening? There's been an explosion." Her eyes scanned the room. Trouble was coming. She could feel it.

  "The AFA has launched bomb attacks across Hong Kong. Four so far. The last one waste the Landmark."

  "Roger. We'll evac back to the residence." Without thinking, she manoeuvred Xiao towards the exit leading to the landing pad, keen to keep him away from the main group. Outside, drones buzzed nervously in every direction.

  "Negative. Safer to stay where you are. I need to get air support into fight the fire and deal with casualties plus news crews are already sending their flyers and drones into the area - I won't be able to clear a flight path for you."

  "Roger that. Keep me updated."

  "Will do..."

  The light above the elevator came on and a beat later, the doors opened revealing six men. All Westerners. Armed. Ziyi recognised two of them — Murray and Conway — as the men stepped out into the main room. She pushed Xiao behind her as the terrorists opened fire with automatic assault rifles, targeting the main group of guests by the window first. People crumpled as rounds tore into them as the windows shattered around them. Chen returned fire as Ziyi went for her own pistol.

  "Control," screamed Ziyi. "We are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack." She snapped a shot off at one of the westerners she didn't recognise — a hulk of a man — but the bullet bounced off his chest. Mek. "Shit. Get down." She pushed Xiao to the floor as the terrorists turned their attention on them. Bullets tore up the room sending marble shrapnel in every direction.

  "Help me," screamed Wong a second before bullets tore chunks of flesh from him, spinning him like a top. People ran in every direction but found no escape from the chatter of the machine guns.

  Chen overturned a table to give them some cover as he rattled rounds back at the attackers. The door to the landing pad was only five yards away but it might as well have been a mile. Ziyi dragged Xiao behind the side of the fishpond so he had something more solid to protect him and blind-fired back at the terrorists.

  "Ziyi? Ziyi? What's happening?"

  "Six hostiles. Two confirmed AFA. Heavily armed. At least one with serious mek." A blonde-haired woman swung around a pillar to get a clear line of sight on them but two bullets from Ziyi's gun showed her the folly of her ways. "We're going for the flyer. Clear the airspace. We're getting out of here." She fired another couple of rounds at the terrorists, painfully aware she only had another ten bullets in her gun. A glance at the landing pad confirmed the troops from the flyer coming over to help cover them. "Chen! We're moving."

  Chen caught her eye, nodded. "Go!" He popped up out of cover and sprayed bullets from his machine pistol towards the hostiles.

  Ziyi didn't wait to see if he hit anything. She was on her feet, hauling Xiao with her. Her so
le focus was on reaching the exit. A waiter was cut down right in front of her but she bundled past his falling body, ignoring his blood peppering her skin. Xiao almost tripped but she held him upright with her left hand as she shouldered into the door, smashing it off its hinges.

  Gunfire raged across the landing pad in a furious exchange of fire. Two troops had fallen but the others battled valiantly on. Smoke billowed across the rooftop from the fire at the Landmark and Ziyi thanked the Heavens for the cover it provided them.

  As she ran to the flyer, her heart beat with a fury as the smoke-filled air burned her lungs. Death was everywhere but she wouldn't allow it to touch Xiao. The pilot beckoned them from the cockpit ten yards away as the engines roared to life.

  "Ziyi, I..." Xiao stuttered.

  She didn't wait to hear what Xiao was going to say. It didn't matter. She threw him the last few yards to safety, and as hands hauled him inside, she quickly followed.

  "Get us in the air now!" She strapped Xiao in his seat, then looked back at the banquet room. Chen was by the exit door, covered in blood and down on one knee, but still firing. Only one of the troops remained in the fight but most of the terrorists seemed to be unscathed and were racing towards the flyer. Where the hell had they got such serious mek from to survive everything that had been thrown at them?

  Another wall of smoke covered the rooftop as the flyer lifted off the deck.

  "Ziyi, sit rep." Wing’s voice was full of panic.

  "Xiao and I are in the air, repeat in the air. Returning to base." The flyer juddered as the pilot accelerated vertically, keen to put some distance between the ship and the ICBB. "All unharmed."

  "Thank the Heavens. Bringing air support to cover you."

  "Roger that," replied Ziyi. Two more seconds and they'd be safe. She allowed herself to take a calming breathe as they climbed higher. She didn't want to think about how close they'd come or the dead they'd left behind.

  She looked down as the smoke cleared from the rooftop and the sight punched the hope out of her gut just as an alarm flared in the cockpit. "Weapons lock," shouted the pilot.

  "Incoming! RPG! ICBB Roof!" She lunged towards Xiao as the craft jerked to the left. She could hear chafe being pumped out from underneath the flyer.

  She punched the emergency button beside the heir's seat and a blast box shot down from the roof, sealing Xiao inside. He stared at her in horror through the glass so she clicked on the comms panel to reassure him. "You'll be safe in here. It'll only open with my retina scan or by the emergency services. No one else can open it."

  The pilot threw the flyer around from one side to another but the surrounding starscrapers hindered his options. The alarm screamed louder. "Brace yourselves for..."

  The blast threw Ziyi across the cabin and bounced her from floor to ceiling for good measure. She smacked her face against a monitor as she tried to regain her feet.

  Somehow she was still alive. "Where'd we get hit?"

  "Took out our tail," shouted the pilot as the flyer dropped into a spin. "We're going down. Repeat Imperial One is going down."

  Steel and glass whirled around them as Ziyi scrambled for something — anything — to hold onto. "Can you make it to the harbour?"

  "I'll try," replied the pilot. "I'll fucking try."

  "Do more than try." Ziyi yanked a belt over and locked herself in. "Blast anything solid that gets in our way and land this thing somehow."

  "Roger that. Aiming for the water."

  The flyer's engine kicked in and lurched the craft forwards towards a gap between buildings as it continued to fall.

  "Wing, you tracking us?" she hollered above the protesting engine roar.

  "Mobilising emergency services. Police and protection officers en route."

  "Make it quick," she snapped.

  Xiao stared at her, unable to hide his panic. At least the blast box would protect him from the crash landing.

  "Gotta a fucking bridge in the way. Firing guns," continued the pilot. "Down to five hundred feet. Four hundred. Three hundred." The guns chattered briefly beneath her but the flyer's spin took them off target far too quickly. "Brace! Brace! We're going to hit."

  The impact ripped a huge hole where the rear of the flyer had been. Wind tugged at Ziyi from every direction as it tried to claw her from her seat and drag the air from her lungs. Through the hole, the ground loomed up at them fast and furiously before world turned upside down. The last thing Ziyi saw was the ICBB building sparkling amongst the night sky as if nothing had happened before the blackness consumed her.

  10

  Wing

  "They're down. Right by the harbour. Lung Wo Road, level five," said Wing. He still had a camera working on board but the picture broke up more than it held together. Ziyi lay half in, half out of the port side door, unmoving. He prayed to whatever Gods there were that she was still alive. At least he had a clear signal on Xiao's vitals — even if the heir's heart rate was through the roof. Other local CCTV showed the burning wreckage

  "How long before we can get help to them?" asked Bao Yu.

  "I've got everyone heading there now but the flyer took out the Gloucester Road bridge in the West and the Landmark bombing's screwed up the Eastern approach. Maybe another five minutes?"

  "What about air support?" suggested Song.

  "Two risky after the RPG attack. Any bird we send in will be a sitting duck. It could be just what they want us to do," replied Wing.

  Bao Yu gnawed on her fingernails and shook her head. "We're constantly five steps behind those bastards. How the fuck are they doing it?"

  Wing watched the carnage across Hong Kong, too scared to reply. Tsim Sha Tsui, Mon Kok, Lok Fu and Central hit by bombs. An attack on a high security venue and Xiao's flyer shot from the sky. None of it should have been possible. Except if they had a man on the inside.

  The door to the Pod slid open just as he was about to radio Ziyi again, scaring the shit out of him. No one visited the Pod. Standard operating procedure was lock down until the end of each shift, and then it opened only long enough to swap crews. There were four checkpoints to pass to reach the entrance, and even then Wing couldn't imagine the security clearance needed to get the soldiers on the other side of that door to open it.

  Deng Wa Ping walked in, answering that question. The First Minister. He looked smaller in real life compared to how he appeared on the news feeds, but there was no doubting the power of the man. Being the third most powerful person in the Empire, he could open any door he wanted. His stark black coat stood out against the bright lights and white walls of the Pod. Armed police troops followed him in, taking up position on the balconies over-looking the operators' chairs.

  The troops racked their assault rifles just to emphasis how scary they were. Unnecessary, as Wing was close to wetting himself as it was, but highly effective.

  Deng waved a hand at them. "Gentlemen, lower your weapons. We're not here to make arrests. Not yet."

  Wing glanced at the other operators. He wasn't the only one failing to hide their fear. Bao Yu looked close to tears and Song just stared wide-eyed at the guns in front of her. As the only man, Wing felt like he should say or do something, but bravery was never his thing.

  "I'm sorry for the intrusion," said the Minister. The warmth of his smile didn't reach his eyes. "Can you please disconnect yourselves from your terminals and step away from your seats."

  "We're in the midst of an emergency situation," said Bao Yu. "We can't leave our stations unattended."

  The Minister nodded. "Don't worry. I have brought replacements. Now please disconnect. I hope I don't have to ask again."

  Wing glanced over at the troops. The message was clear enough. He pressed disconnect on his keyboard before they felt the need to open fire. The cable running into the back of his head unwound itself and the IV feed popped clear of his arm. The waste pipes fell away and Wing adjusted his trousers. He wondered once more why he did the job. Bad enough that he had to be hooked up to machines to s
urvive a shift without any breaks to do the most basic of functions, now he had guns pointed at him.

  The brain cable clicked free and Wing stood up. "Minster?" His voice broke on the word like a twelve year-old boy's.

  "Yes?" Deng looked down on him.

  "His Majesty's flyer is down and agent Choi is unconscious, perhaps injured. I've sent help but the situation is precarious."

  "I am aware of the situation" he replied, "but there is a traitor aiding the Americans, and until he or she is captured, I will not trust anyone but my own staff. Now go."

  "A traitor?" said Song. "It's not one of us. We..."

  "We have evidence," snapped the Minister.

  "But we've seen nothing. I would've..."

  Deng leaned forward. Both hands gripped the balcony railing. "Operators, I do not need to explain national security to you. I just require you to leave this building now."

  Wing dropped his head. Whatever bravery he'd mustered fled under the Minister's gaze. Song took his arm and led him towards the stairs. The troops watched behind their raised guns. Wing felt shamed as they climbed the stairs, but he knew there was nothing they could do.

  They stepped through the main door into the connecting tunnel. Three operators stood waiting to relieve them. Wing thought he knew everyone in the service but he didn't recognise them. They had all the necessary ports and implants though. They must have been brought in from another city but how had the Minister gotten them to Hong Kong so quickly? He opened his mouth to ask, but Song pushed him forward and gave him a warning look before he could say anything. With a deep breath, he nodded and they continued on their way.

  "You don't believe that nonsense about a traitor..." said Song, once they were out of earshot.

  "Be quiet," said Bao Yu. "You know they're still watching us now. Listening."

  Wing nodded. "Forget it. Go home. It's not our problem now." He only wished he believed his own words. He chewed his lip, trying to ignore the sick, churning feeling in his stomach. How could Deng kick them out of the Pod when the future of the Empire was at stake?