Carrack returned to the bright daylight outside the tunnel and carefully scanned the pine trees that studded the hillside below the entryway. No movement. He pulled back the sleeve of his MO5 digicam woodland camouflage BDU blouse and checked his Suunto Vector wristwatch. Both the camo and the watch were not standard US military items—Deep Blue acquired the best equipment he could for the team. In this case, the uniforms were from the Finnish military, because their woodland patterns better matched the foliage in New Hampshire than standard US woodland gear. The watch was also from Finland—but only because Suunto was renowned for the quality of their marine compasses long before they started manufacturing wristwatches, and the company had been smart enough to put compasses into their watches, when companies like Casio were still patting themselves on the backs for stopwatch functions.
It would be twenty minutes or more before Carrack heard from White Three at Labs or White Four at Dock. He stepped back into the shadow of the tunnel opening, keeping his weapon trained on the forest around him, and contacted White Two with a small tactical throat microphone.
“Two, position? Over.”
“Approaching target now,” White Two’s voice came in clearly.
“Let me know when you’re inside.”
“Acknowledged, One, we’re at the vents now. When we get in, we’ll open the door for you.” Two’s voice had picked up some static, and Carrack figured the man had entered the vent already.
“Good enough, White One out.”
Carrack made his way back down the trail toward the hangar door, his eyes still scanning as he went and his nose breathing in the deep robust scent of the dense trees. When he reached the sealed hangar door, he again did a visual check of the area and then tried the control pad mounted on the wall to the left of the door again. It was still dark. He tried the satellite phone again, and as before, he could not reach Deep Blue. His next call was to General Keasling. The General was at the Pentagon and was one of only two people in active service to the US Government that knew about Chess Team—the other was the director of the CIA, Domenick Boucher. Both were friends of Deep Blue’s and both had been involved with Chess Team since its inception.
Keasling answered on the second ring. The secured line was reserved for Deep Blue, and Carrack had received the number and instructions to call Keasling if necessary, when he had taken the job. Carrack had yet to meet the General, but he understood that the man would know who he was.
“Talk to me,” the General’s no-nonsense voice was gruff, but he seemed in a good mood. That was about to change.
“General, this is White One. Please confirm your identity for me.” Carrack spoke clearly and quickly.
“Shit,” the General said, and he stretched it out so it sounded like sheee-it. “Authorization Code Delta Romeo Bravo Alpha Kilo Papa India Tango, General Michael Keasling, come back.”
“Tango Lima Hotel, Captain Matthew Carrack,” Carrack provided the return code to authenticate his own identity for the General.
“Talk to me son, what the fuck is going on?” All signs of the General’s mirth were gone.
“General, how soon can you get me an Abrams tank up from Fort Devens? I might need to blow some shit up.”
3.
Section Labs, Former Manifold Alpha Facility, White Mountains, NH
Anna Beck swung precariously in the dark. The cavern around her was a natural system that ran almost a mile underground. Far above her, almost half a mile up the rope, was the entrance to the Labs section of the facility, but the halogen bulb of her headlamp only illuminated a short distance up the rope. She took another breath from the facemask of her closed circuit rebreather and squeezed the Petzl descender on the line. She resumed her descent into the depths of the cavern.
The cavern was filled with natural gas. Richard Ridley had planned to utilize the natural feature as a slash and burn technique for the compound. At the slightest hint of danger, he and his Manifold flunkies would have evacuated and an explosive device would have been remote control detonated from Ridley’s smartphone. But Chess Team and Anna Beck had put a dent in that plan. The smartphone had been remotely prevented from detonating the explosion. Ridley had escaped, but an Army cleanup team had later deactivated the explosive device. That was a few years ago, and now here she was back in the same facility she had escaped from along with Ridley; although when she had escaped, she had done so on the side of the angels.