Crash! They slammedthrough the gates, and immediately, Adele heard shouting. She sat stiffly, herheart pounding, motionless between the two large men seated at her flanks.
“Two assailants!”shouted someone sitting next to the driver, his hand pressed to a radioreceiver on his ear. “Weapons raised!” In response, she heard the chug-chug-chugof the large machine gun on the roof, as the gunner opened up on the gatehouse.
More shouts.Drone surveillance had confirmed the nature of the compound. The more Adele hadheard, the more it had sounded like a military outpost rather than a supplydepot. At least twenty armed men, from what she’d been told.
Still, thoughshe’d been briefed, it still shocked her system as she watched bullets spraythe windows, slamming into the glass and spider-webbing in crystalline cracks.Adele heard more shouting voices from outside the vehicle—Serbian by the sound.Another salvo of bullets. More chug-chugging from the turret.
Then a screechof tires, a cloud of dirt churning around the windows, and the vehicle doorsflung open. Large men with large guns exited the military-style vehicle,following the shouted commands of the man in front with the radio receiver. Thesecond vehicle pulled up in front of her, and, in the midst of the chaos, shewatched as John emerged. He’d been supplied with an automatic weapon to replacehis sidearm. She stared, half stunned, as John took aim, fired once. A pulse ofbullets ripped from his weapon and tore through a window two floors up. A shoutcut short—then no further sound came from beyond the shattered glass.
John moved likea tank, quick, efficient, deadly. The tall agent was a big target, but an evenbigger obstacle. The men around him seemed to rally to his movements. None ofthem stepped in front of him, but seemed, almost like a swan’s V, to set up onhis flanks and move forward.
They hurriedtoward cover; a low brick wall, facing the main structures in the facility.There were three primary buildings in Berlin Medical Depot. Two of themresembled charcoal-gray warehouses; the third almost resembled a hangar, or, atthe very least, a loading dock for large trucks.
Adele spottedtwo men emerge from within one of the facilities. Both of them had whiteoutfits and masks over their faces. The men were unarmed and screamed, handsflying into the air. Two of the German officers from Adele’s vehicle surgedforward, their weapons raised, their voices shouting at the white-clad figuresto drop to the ground and show their hands.
They didn’t takelong to comply. Adele heard more gunfire from within the compound. She watchedas Major Hewer hurried forward, his hand signals directing the men behind him;they complied in rapid, practiced synchronization. The Germans moved withprecision and poise. They took the first building, stepping through thewarehouse-style structure as Adele followed close behind. The two men in frontof her created a shield from metal and body armor, their own weapons raised.
They emerged inthis first building; most of the people in here had white masks and thick,anti-contamination suits.
More shouting.This time in German. Hands flung into the air, small test tubes, vials, orbeakers full of sloshing blue liquid clattering to the ground. Adele stared,stunned, at the multiple rows of coolers centering the room. One of the coolerswas open, and within, Adele glimpsed what looked like a human heart and a setof lungs packaged in ice and cellophane like an order from the fishmonger’s.
Just as quickly,one of the men in white uniforms slammed the cooler shut. But at this motion,he was tackled by one of the special operatives and sent clattering to theground with a painful thump. In the distance, from the other buildings,Adele heard more rapid gunfire, more shouts, more cries of pain, then silence. TheGerman operatives were like antibodies, making short work of a bacterialinfection.
For her part,Adele only had eyes for the thirty or so containers set up in the room like arow of pods or bassinets. Each of the containers had an aluminum lid with greenrolling locks on the side.
She heard moregunfire from further down in the second building of the facility. Adelefollowed two of the men, moving with rapid pace. She spotted Major Hewer on oneside of an open doorway, and John on the other. This second building lookedlike a hangar filled with large trucks. Some of the vehicles resembled, of allthings, ice cream trucks.
Men had set upbehind the trucks; bullets riddled the front of their vehicles, but theysheltered behind the engines, returning fire. There were loud shouts and thechatter of automatic weapons.
Adele feltherself shoved out of the way as she was pushed roughly behind an outcroppingmetal container. More yelling. The time for negotiation was over. Adele’s ownweapon was trained toward the door, but she couldn’t get off much of a shot inthe face of the automatic fire.
She wished she’dasked for a better weapon. Still, she watched as John and Major Hewer emergedfrom behind a low concrete wall they were using as a barrier and aimed—twobursts of fire.
No answer.Everything quieted all of a sudden.
The silence wasshattered by more shouts in German as Hewer commanded the men forward. Theycircled the trucks, attentive, not lowering their guard for a second. Theymoved now from this second building and headed for the third and final one.
More men inwhite uniforms and chemical outfits were spotted trying to flee—they werequickly shouted down and apprehended. The trucks they passed all had openbacks—most of them empty. But the one furthest from Adele was filled with thealuminum coolers with green locking mechanisms. She shivered again, staring atthe items, but allowed herself to be led further into the facility. Shefollowed after Hewer and John in a flanking motion.
One of the menhad a riot shield in front of him, holding it braced against his shoulder asthey headed toward the last building.
This one was thesmallest. But it was two stories, with glass windows that had been boarded up.It looked like it might have served as an office once upon a time. But now,there were fewer entry points. Only one door Adele could see set into theunpainted concrete structure.
More yellingcame muffled from within this building. Major
