priority.’
The support unit then turned swiftly to the man.
‘Question: do you have detailed information on the floor plans of thisstructure?’
The man looked at Liam. ‘Uh?’
‘I think he’s asking if you know of another way out.’
‘Oh… yeah, it’s just up ahead.’
Bob nodded. ‘This is good.’
‘Hey,’ said Liam. ‘I think I’ve got a better idea how we might getback across the gardens to those trees.’
‘Please explain now,’ said Bob.
CHAPTER 38
1956, Washington DC
Liam and the man in the suit stepped out through the door into the rose garden,their hands raised. The smokescreen was still relatively thick out here and through thewafting mist he could see squads of soldiers fanning out across the lawn, rounding upable-bodied prisoners and shooting those marines too wounded to get to their feet.
Inside the building, sporadic gunfire could still be heard as the men in dark rubber hoodsand suits moved from one room to another, finishing off the last few pockets ofresistance.
As they stepped through the decorative maze of bushes towards the main lawn, Liam looked upat the sky and saw that the giant saucer had moved along, slowly drifting across towardsdowntown Washington DC, spraying out occasional jets of black dots from the dark trapdoors inits underbelly; squads of men dropped swiftly down to the ground, no doubt with key objectivesin mind, to hastily secure administrative buildings, critical utilities and intersections.
Behind them Bob marched stiffly, a pulse rifle levelled at their backs, the bloodied hood andmask stretched over his thick skull.
A soldier nearby, unhooded and unmasked, called out to them across the waist-high rosebushes.
Bob replied in German.
‘What did he say?’ hissed Liam out of the side of his mouth.
‘I told the man you were being taken for questioning.’
‘That’s very good, Bob,’ whispered Liam almost proudly. ‘Very goodthinking.’
‘I am programmed to mimic human traits such as lying and also duplicate-’
‘Shhh, save it for later, Bob,’ muttered Liam.
They walked through the garden and diagonally across the White House’s north lawntowards the copse of trees they’d first arrived in. Liam stared wide-eyed at the corpseslittering the ground. He had seen only a couple of German bodies, but was now staring at noless than a hundred dead marines. Clearly, while they’d been inside, many more Americansoldiers had bravely converged on the White House in a vain attempt to defend theirpresident.
The smokescreen had hidden a massacre out here before the building, those pulse rifles mowingthem down as they charged pointlessly into the mist to save their commander-in-chief.
He looked for the copse of cedar trees amid the clearing smoke and finally found it. Hisheart sank as he spotted a platoon of German soldiers resting in and around the small stand ofcedars. They had removed their hoods and masks and chatted animatedly, many lighting upcigarettes.
‘Dammit! They’re covering our way home!’
‘Way home?’ The man looked askance at him. ‘It’s just a bunch oftrees!’
‘Our exit window will appear there,’ said Bob beneath his hood. He accessed hisinternal mission clock. ‘The window will open in precisely one hour and seventeenminutes and thirty-four seconds.’
‘What the flippin’ heck do we do?’ whimpered Liam under his breath.
‘I have no tactical suggestions at this moment.’
‘Great.’
He looked around. A fresh autumnal breeze was blowing away the last wisps of the smokescreenand he could see that the few prisoners taken alive inside the building were being usheredtowards the centre of the lawn where half a dozen Germans were standing in a circle watchingthe defeated, dispirited civilians and soldiers already slumped to the ground.
He felt a cold stab of fear and desperation run down his spine.
As if overhearing his thoughts, a German officer, his black rubber jumpsuit rolled down andtied round his waist, revealing his grey Wehrmacht uniform, pointed to the prisoners and gaveBob an order.
Bob nodded, replied and steered them towards the holding area.
‘I have been instructed to leave you there,’ the support unit uttered quietly.‘What are my orders, Liam O’Connor?’
‘I really don’t know. What do you suggest?’
‘Suggestion: I can attempt an attack on the soldiers among the trees. But I estimate apoint-five per cent chance of success in taking and holding the position until our extractionwindow arrives.’
They were running out of time and options. The gathered prisoners sat in a cluster only a fewdozen yards away, and no matter how slowly the three of them walked towards it, that’swhere they were headed.
‘Suggestion: I leave you here and attempt a rescue when the percentage chance ofsuccess exceeds ten per cent.’
Liam gritted his teeth.
No, both he and Bob would be riddled with rapid-fire high-calibre rounds before he could getthem both halfway across the lawn to the trees. Bob might well be able tosurvive several more shots on target, but Liam didn’t fancy he’d surviveone… given the ragged wounds he’d seen the pulse carbines inflict.
‘There’s nothing we can do right now, Bob. It looks like we’re going tomiss this window,’ he hissed out of the side of his mouth. ‘And I don’tfancy having my head blown off trying to make it. How long now?’
‘In one hour and fifteen minutes, precisely.’
‘But there’ll be another, right?’
‘Correct, an hour later. And twenty-four hours after that.’
‘So,’ said Liam, now just a few yards away from the seated prisoners and thenearest guards, ‘leave me here. If you see an opportunity to get me, take it. But, forChrissakes, don’t get us both killed doing it.’
‘What percentage chance do you authorize me to take, Liam O’Connor?’
‘I dunno!’ he uttered under his breath. ‘Just take your bestshot.’
One of the German guards called out something and pointed at Liam and the man with him.
‘I am being told to leave you here,’ said Bob quietly. Liam thought he detectedthe slightest note of anxiety in the unit’s deep flat-toned voice.
‘Then do it. If they take us from here, then follow me… wait for a chance and getme out of this fix, all right?’
‘Mission priority: primary duty is to observe and report back.’
‘What? You are
A guard stepped forward and roughly grabbed Liam by the shoulder.
‘Be quiet!’ he snapped in accented English. ‘Join the others!’
Liam staggered forward and then slumped to his knees among the group ofprisoners. He watched as Bob stood perfectly still, face still hidden by the mask and hood,and looked helplessly on.
An officer called out to Bob from across the lawn to help with dragging and stacking thebodies for disposal.
