فصل 45

45

Hellfire Missiles

The first wave of Elgen attack helicopters consisted of the same twelve Apaches that had taken out the rebels’ boats. Jack guessed that the Elgen had spotted Vishal’s flotilla and had come to sink his boats as well. But if the Elgen knew about the boats, they ignored them. Instead, for the first time, they fired on the building.

Two Hellfire missiles streaked across the night sky, exploding against the east wall of the fourth floor, filling the open room with smoke and spreading shrapnel and chipped stone within yards of where Jack and Ostin were positioned.

“Get below!” Jack shouted. “Everyone, go below.”

They all hurried down to the mostly enclosed third level.

“Can those missiles knock down these walls?” Jack asked Ostin.

“Not one of them,” Ostin said. “Maybe not a dozen. But they can chip away at it.” “We could use Tanner about now,” Jack said.

“We could use the whole freakin’ Electroclan,” Ostin replied. “And Michael.” In spite of the machine guns Jack and Ostin and the Tuvaluans shot at them, the helicopters confidently hovered around the island for nearly forty-five minutes, some dropping as low as ground level. They blew up all of the outer fences, destroyed the depository’s few vehicles, and fired six missiles into the thick metal walls of the loading docks, which dented them but didn’t penetrate.

After the attack, Ostin and Jack sat back, exhausted, against the east wall.

“That was weird,” Jack said. “It’s like they came just to annoy us. Like mosquitoes. What do you think their objective was?” “They took down the fences,” Ostin said. “There’s only one reason they’d do that.” Jack looked at him, awaiting the reason. “And that reason is . . . ?” “. . . Ground troops,” Ostin said. “Boots on ground. I think they’re softening us up for a full-on invasion.” He looked up at the helicopters. “You watch. They’ll do what we were going to do, except they don’t have any reason to hide. They’ll keep sending guards over here until they’re ready to blow the walls.” “I thought you said these walls were impenetrable.”

“Nothing’s impenetrable,” Ostin said. “The walls can hold off Hellfire missiles but not everything.” “Like what?”

“A battleship’s cannons.”

“Fortunately, Enele sank their battleship,” Jack said.

“I’m sure Hatch will find another one eventually,” Ostin said.

“You’re so optimistic,” Jack said, shaking his head. “So, if you were Hatch, what would you do?” “What would I do, or what would I do if I were Hatch?” “Both.”

“I would have just starved us out,” Ostin said. “But I’m not Hatch. If I were and didn’t care about the lives of my men, I’d start sending men over. Then, when I had a large enough force, I’d either send a detonation team to blow a hole in the wall or, preferably, find a battleship.” “Why is that preferable?”

“With our weapons, it would be too easy for us to take out a detonation team and capture their explosives. But a battleship, we couldn’t touch it.” “Why would you start sending men over? Why not send them all at once?” “Because they don’t have any ships large enough to transport all their men at once, so I’d send them in waves.” “But if they had a battleship, they’d be able to kill two birds with one stone.” “If by ‘birds’ you mean our resistance and all hope, yes.” Jack groaned. “Then what would you do?”

“Then, after we had breached the wall, I’d throw in grenades and smoke bombs to clear the way. Then I’d send in soldiers to take the building.” “Just like Hades,” Jack said.

“Just like Hades,” Ostin replied. “What would you do?” “If I were Hatch, I’d punch a hole in the wall. Then I’d fire in a nerve agent, like sarin.” “You’d have to be sick to do that.”

“ ’Sick’ is Hatch’s middle name,” Jack said.

Ostin frowned. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t have any sarin.” * * *

A half hour later Enele came up to the third floor to inspect the damage.

“Are you okay?” he asked Jack and Ostin.

“Yes.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“Tomas got some shrapnel in his hand, but nothing too serious,” Jack said. “He’s got it wrapped up. How about below?” “One casualty,” Enele said curtly. “War council in thirty minutes.” He turned and walked away.

Less then an hour later the same group from before was gathered for war council in the conference room. Everyone except for Adam.

“We’re all here,” Enele said.

“Where’s Adam?” Ostin asked.

The room went quiet, except for Raphe, who was softly crying, his face concealed behind his hands.

“He’s the casualty,” Enele said, forcing himself not to show emotion. “He went out to get a better shot at the helicopters.” His face fell. “They saw him.” Suddenly the anger showed in Enele’s eyes. “This is just the beginning. We must accept that the Elgen are preparing for an invasion. This is better than being starved out, but we must also prepare. We’ve taken full inventory of what weapons and ammunition we have. We are limited and cannot afford to waste, but I believe we have enough.

“To attack us, their biggest problem is getting inside. They can only do this with explosives. There are three ways they can accomplish this. They can drop a bomb from the air. They can, on ground, deliver explosives. Or they can shell us from a battleship. We are fortunate in this regard. They clearly do not have aerial bombs, or they would have used them on Hades. We do not know if they have land explosives, but we know we took all they had at Vaitupu, and Captain Pio then used them to sink their battle cruiser. But if they do have more, we will not allow them near the building. Lastly, we do not believe that they have a battleship; as I said, Captain Pio has sunk it. So, for now, we have a short reprieve. In addition to preparing our men for these three possible situations, how do we best use that time?” “We never should have come here,” Tomas said. “The old man was wrong. Now we are just papaya waiting to be picked. We should have followed our first plan and attacked Funafuti.” “We would have died on Funafuti,” Nazil said.

“We’ll die here,” Tomas said. “At least we would have spilled some of their blood.” Enele said, “Where we are is all that matters now. We must deal with our present situation, not rethink the past choices.” Raphe raised his hand. “Sir, is it possible to still move toward my original plan?” Enele was quiet a moment, then said, “Yes. I do not think we will have time to move the whole of our army, but it is still preferable. But the increase in drone activity makes it even more risky.” “At this point, sir, all options are risky,” Nazil pointed out.

“Well said, Nazil,” Enele said. “I would like to appoint Jack as my second-in-command in charge of keeping the Elgen away from the building.” Enele looked at Jack. “Do you accept that responsibility?” Jack nodded. “Yes, sir. I’m honored.”

“I know you will succeed. Nazil, you will be in charge of the troops inside the building. I ask you to design a plan to hold off the Elgen should they gain access to the building. They will likely parachute in. In that case Jack and his men will be the first line of defense. If they blow a hole with explosives, I would expect them to take aim at our structurally weakest point—the metal gates of the loading dock. I believe that is why the Elgen helicopters targeted them, to test their strength. As we all saw, the gates are vulnerable. Perhaps not to Hellfire missiles, but certainly to something more powerful. Like a vehicle loaded with explosives. Jack, it is your responsibility to keep them away from the building.” “Yes, sir.”

“Nazil, we must have a plan to protect the north loading dock if they manage to break through.” “Yes, Enele.”

“If they are to shell us from the sea, it will be the eastern or southern side of the building that they will target.”