“No, the rain isn’t coming down here,” he whispers bluntly back as if I have broken his concentration.
Fair enough, I think to myself and press the button on my radio. “Dan receiving, over.” I talk into the radio as loudly as I dare.
“Receiving, we have you covered up here, Boss, over,” Dan tells me, reading my mind.
“How’s the door holding up, over?”
“Uncertain, Boss, it is holding, for now, over.”
“Received, over and out.”
Kim finally comes down through the hole after passing down the last piece of equipment. He uses one of the ropes to assist his descent and he makes it look easy compared to the rest of our fumbling attempts. Deciding to let Dixon work, with Simms assisting him and Watts setting up the plasma, Kim can give them cover while I leave the office to quickly check how the barricaded stairwell is holding up.
“Kim, help me move the desk back from the door,” I instruct.
He immediately complies and we take a side each, lift the heavy desk and shuffle it back a few feet, just enough for me to open the door and squeeze through.
“I’ll only be a couple of minutes,” I tell Kim as I leave Sir Malcolm’s office.
Darkness encompasses the lounge area outside the office, the dull light coming in through the windows barely enough for me to see the dark blobs of furniture that are only feet away from me. There is no sign of any power in the building; perhaps I should have brought some night vision goggles, but we didn’t think we would need them. This is supposed to be a fast mission in the afternoon, the light was not supposed to be a factor. I take out another glow stick and risk cracking it. As the glow starts to resonate, I avoid looking directly at the stick, not wanting it to affect my night vision that is starting to develop. Standing the stick up against the wall, I move past it and towards the barricaded stairwell door, and the orange glow builds as the chemicals mix and react. It is amazing how much difference a small glow stick can make in a dark room.
Checking around the lounge area as I go, I find it hard to compute where I actually am, it feels so unreal to me. I recognise the area, of course, as I’ve worked in it long enough. My office is just along from me, but the feeling I get is that this place is different now and I suppose it is; I am different too, everything is different, and the world has been turned on its head.
I press on, pushing those bloody thoughts out of my head. They could drive you mad, but now is not the time to try to quantify the meaning of life!
The dull banging and screeching that we could hear in the office is louder and clearer out here and the sounds seem crisper. I put it down to the fact that the office walls are dampening the noise as I get to the end of Sir Malcolm’s office and to the barricade; I see that isn’t the only reason, however. Above the piled-up boxes and furniture, on top of the filing cabinets that we used for the barricade, yesterday, it’s hard to see in the darkness but the stairwell door is definitely cracked open a small amount. I’m shocked to see it but I’m certain it is open; the Rabids must have broken the door frame because it was locked. It looks like the only thing that saved us yesterday was Stacey suggesting we make an arch with the filing cabinets from the door to the wall. I look again at the barricade and the filing cabinets and it dawns on me that they have moved, only slightly but they have definitely moved, and I wouldn’t trust it to hold back another attack.
Time to see how the safe is coming along, I think urgently to myself, but just as I’m about to leave, something in the stairwell hits the door and it bangs into the first filing cabinet, which in turn shifts the rest of them slightly. If confirmation was needed that the barricade could not be trusted, that was it; if the Rabids knew we were down here, they would be attacking that door no doubt and probably getting through it.
Getting back inside the office, I have a new apprehension about this mission. Kim helps me put the desk back against the door, a lame fortification at best, me hushing him as we go, nervous to make any noise. I then get him over to the rest of the team by the safe, so that I can talk to them quietly.
“We have got to keep the noise to an absolute minimum; the stairwell door is cracked open and it won’t hold another attack, understood?” I whisper and they all nod. “How is it progressing, Dixon?”
“On track. I am just connecting the safe to the computer to override its lock,” he whispers back.
I give him a thumbs up and then leave him to it, taking up a covering position with Kim.
“Dan, report, over,” I say as quietly as I can into my headset.
“Unchanged; they are trying to break through the door. I think it’s the noise from the helicopters agitating them, over.”
“Received, I think we are close here, if it works, over and out.”
“Received,” Dan confirms his understanding.
I cut the conversation to a minimum; seeing the cracked door has made me seriously edgy to even talk, we are in a very precarious position, I’ve got to hold it together. The other members of my team seem to be pretty calm and getting on with their jobs as if it’s just another day in the office. I remember that calmness and confidence from when I was a fully-fledged Special Forces Operative, living for the buzz of a mission, craving the adrenaline rush and camaraderie with my brothers in arms, when nothing else
