Cyberstrike, James Barrington [short story to read .TXT] 📗

than burns, so it can be used as an explosive in its own right. And the speed at which it does this is around 23,000 feet per second, or a little over 15,650 miles per hour, so the effect is as near instantaneous as makes no difference.

With the charge in place, one of the team inserted a pyrotechnic blasting cap with a short fuse to act as the detonator, waited for Wayne to give them the okay, then lit it and stepped well clear. Unlike shaped charges, when detcord explodes the force blows in all directions.

Ten seconds later, the Primaline exploded.

Chapter 70

Fairview, Harford County, Maryland, United States of America

It was all going to work. If any radar sets had still been tracking the drone, he knew that by this stage and this close to Washington the UAV should have been intercepted and brought down. But it hadn’t been, which meant that the EMP weapons must have done their work and taken out the radars and probably the fighters as well.

Suddenly Sadir switched his attention from the controls in front of him to the house itself. He had heard something, a scratching sound and a faint muffled thump, like a large object falling a short distance onto a wooden floor. The failure of the rear surveillance camera on the house suddenly took on a new and sinister significance. Perhaps that hadn’t just been some kind of random electrical fault in the camera or cabling. And maybe the man at the front door wasn’t a salesman.

It might be nothing, or it might mean that somebody had finally put the pieces together.

Sadir smiled.

Whatever had caused the sounds he’d heard, it didn’t matter. He had never expected to walk away from this operation, but he was determined to see it through to the end. He turned back to the controls and altered the autopilot setting as a precaution, specifying a new final altitude for the descent of ground level and opening the throttle of the Reaper’s engine, hiking its speed to 200 miles per hour. He also slightly altered the heading to aim the drone directly at the White House.

He picked up his Glock pistol, took the magazine out of the butt and inserted a full one. Then he turned round to stare at the door of the room, which was where he was sure the danger lay. If there really was a threat, if he wasn’t just hearing the normal, innocent sounds of the house.

He took a final glance over his shoulder at the instrumentation and control panel, checking that the UAV was still on course, then picked up his pistol and aimed it at the door, ready for whatever or whoever came through it.

Chapter 71

Fairview, Harford County, Maryland, United States of America

The twin double-glazed units of the French doors instantly shattered, driving lethally sharp spears of glass into the heavy drapes that covered the opening, ripping holes in the fabric and smashing into the walls.

Immediately, two members of the SWAT team, closely followed by two others, crashed their way in through the remains of the shattered French doors, thrusting the heavy drapes to one side and looking for a target.

Wayne would have preferred to lob in a couple of flash-bangs – stun grenades – to disorient the occupants of the room before his men entered, but the obviously thick and heavy floor-to-ceiling drapes had prevented that being an option. What he was hoping was that the unexpected explosion of the detcord would have had a similar effect upon whoever was in the room.

Chapter 72

Fairview, Harford County, Maryland, United States of America

Sadir had been looking in the wrong direction when the blasting cap triggered the detcord. The explosion was both deafening and shockingly unexpected. The drapes were blown inwards and the area of the room beside the French doors was suddenly filled with exploding glass.

He swung round to face the threat and even before the echoes of the explosion had died away he was confronted by two strongly built and heavily armed men wearing full combat gear. Both were pointing Heckler & Koch MP5 submachineguns straight at him, and both were yelling.

His ears still ringing from the blast, for a second or two he couldn’t make out their words. Then, as two more bulky figures stormed into the room, all wearing the same green combat clothing with FBI patches on their shoulders and ‘HRT’ on their chests, he finally understood the words they were bellowing: ‘Drop the weapon. Drop the weapon.’

But that was the last thing he was going to do, quite literally.

Sadir smiled slightly, still holding the pistol in his right hand, and stared at his attackers. ‘You’re too late,’ he said. ‘Much, much too late.’

Then he took rapid aim with his Glock and squeezed the trigger three times, even as two of the FBI SWAT team opened up with their MP5s, the 10mm bullets smashing into Sadir’s torso and driving him backwards and down to the floor.

One of the SWAT team stepped slightly sideways so that he could cover the fallen man with his submachinegun, while another member approached him cautiously. He kicked the Glock well out of reach, then knelt down beside Sadir’s body, checked for a pulse in his neck and stood up.

‘He’s dead,’ he said. ‘Check the rest of the house and get Wayne and that English guy in here ASAP.’

Morgan stepped into the room about half a minute later from the front of the house, as Rogers and Gordon crunched their way in from the back over the carpet of glass shards. They took in the three corpses lying on the floor, but Morgan’s attention was immediately seized by the improvised control suite that dominated the room.

‘There were three of them?’ Gordon asked, the house echoing to shouts of ‘Clear’ as the SWAT team checked every room.

‘It looks to me like they had a falling-out,’ the SWAT officer said. ‘When we came in, the only one standing was that guy on the floor over