We all burst out laughing, which draws looks from the other members of the team around the hangar. They are probably wondering what on earth we could be laughing at. They understand, however, that even in the tensest of situations, humour is very often what helps get us humans through, relieves the stress, and sometimes even helps stops the mind cracking.
“No chance; this is the Colonel’s show, that is going on his tab,” I retort, eventually. “Rewind,” I tell Dan, forcing myself to stop laughing, although I hold no hope that we will see anything.
Dan, rewinds, plays and freezes the footage frame by frame several times, until we have to admit that the footage is useless, and Dan turns off the monitor. The mirrored glass of the building did its job, kept prying eyes out, even though no one could ever have imagined the beneficiaries would be a Zombie horde holed up in the building.
Sergeant Dixon hasn’t moved from his area with the table he set up, as he and Corporal Simms have pored over the equipment; it looks to me like a briefcase computer, with various cables protruding from it and its instructions that arrived on the Lynx. Finally, he gets up from the table, leaves it and approaches me, with Simms close behind him.
I have given the Sergeant space and time to familiarise himself with the equipment, without having me asking how it’s going or how long it’s going to take, which would not have helped. I had to trust he was working as fast as he could.
“Are you happy?” I ask the Sergeant as he gets to me.
“I think that would be overstating it, Sir. The equipment is ‘state of the art’ though. I have familiarised myself with this model now and have prepped all that I can ready for it to be used on the safe when we get there. That is going by the plans SecLock supplied, Sir.”
“Was the Corporal much help?”
“Yes Sir, very much, I’ve shown him everything as a backup, just in case,” he tells me, his scared face not showing one ounce of trepidation. This man is ice cool.
“Excellent, Sergeant, are you ready to load it up?” I question.
“Yes Sir, we are good to go.”
“Thank you, Sergeant. Corporal, carry on,” I tell them.
With that, they salute before spinning around and go to load up. That only leaves the generator holding us up and that should be here any minute. I check my watch, and it tells me it’s 1340 hours; so much for getting underway earlier, at this rate, we will miss Colonel Reed’s new mission time of 1345.
Looking out of the open roller shutter, I can see no sign of any vehicles approaching that may be bringing the generator. Lieutenant Winters must feel my eagerness to get going because as I turn to ask him where the generator is, he is already picking up the phone and tells me he is ‘on it’.
Instead of just waiting in frustration, I decide to give the team its final brief before the off. All of the team is outside milling around, our equipment loaded onto the two Lynx. Everything is in place apart from the bloody generator. Some of the team are alone, walking around, psyching themselves up for the now imminent mission, trying to suppress their nerves and fear while others are in small groups chatting and joking, trying to take their minds off the same nerves and fears. Everyone has their own mechanism to deal with fear, to stop them turning and running away as quickly and as far as possible. The ones who tell you they aren’t scared shitless are either lying or have lost their mind!
My stomach is churning like a volcano about to erupt and occasionally it feels like it might explode. I fixate on the mission; that’s my mechanism, constantly thinking, looking for any advantage, any weakness in the enemy. The fear is always there though, threatening to overwhelm me, but I control it and use it to concentrate my mind. I even nurture some of it, as fear heightens the senses, gives you an edge.
“Gather ‘round!” I shout as I reach the entrance to the hangar, under the rolled-up shutter high above.
Josh, nudges Dan, who is talking to his pilot, Flight Lieutenant Alder, to get his attention to my call; the people chatting break up and come quickly over, as do the members of the team who were having a moment to themselves.
Dan joins me at my side, while Lieutenant Winters comes up behind me from inside the hangar, his phone call finished and tells me that ‘the generator will be here any minute’.
My hands clasp behind my back and I stand up straight, trying to look commanding as I prepare to address the team, hoping they see my confidence in them and not the fear burning through me.
“We are going into the heart of the enemy’s territory, an unfamiliar enemy, an inhuman enemy that doesn’t hold a gun or wear a uniform, but they can be killed nevertheless. We are going on a mission that could save our way of life as we know it, we go because we must and because it is our duty to try.
“We have the equipment we need, and I know we have the team we need to get our task done. Let’s get in and out safely and as quickly as possible; we will have each other's backs and remember, if you can’t be sure of a headshot, go for their legs, do you understand?”
“Yes, Sir!” The team roars.
“Okay, get your gear and comms on and load up, let’s do this!”
“We got this, Boss!” Dan slaps my back as he moves out.
“Alice,” I shout, just before she goes.
“How are you feeling?” I ask as she comes over to me.
“Shitting bricks, Sir,” she replies, and she does look extremely nervous.
“That’s okay, it’s only natural. I’ve
