Sky Hammer. James Axler

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ test subjects and an Oriental man eating a sandwich. But no guards. The old man was tall and slim, with white hair and glasses. He wore a gold wedding ring. It looked like their target from behind, but could be a trick.

      “Yi,” McCarter said, announcing their presence.

      The professor looked up from his meager repast and went pale. “No. No! I am loyal to our glorious leader!” he cried, dropping the sandwich and raising both hands. “Don’t kill me! I love North Korean! Death to the Americans!”

      “We are Americans,” McCarter said, removing the night-vision goggles to expose his face.

      The terror vanished to be replaced with joy. “Then get me the hell out of here, cobber,” Yi stated, switching to English as he slid off the lab stool. “These people are bloody insane.” He started their way, beaming a smile.

      “Lift your shirt, please, Professor,” Hawkins urged politely, aiming his MP-5 at the man.

      Stopping in his tracks, Yi sighed and did as requested. The man’s chest was marred by a large area of puckered scars, a gift from an early experiment in chemistry gone bad back at Perth University in Australia.

      “Sorry, had to be sure,” Hawins apologized.

      Professor David Allen Yi lowered his shirt. “You thought I might be a fake? A stand-in or something?”

      “Been known to happen,” McCarter said, picking up a glass pipette used for drawing blood. Suddenly he threw the pipette to Yi and the professor caught the glassware with his left hand. Confused, he stared at the pipette, then frowned at McCarter.

      “A good test,” Yi noted with strained patience. “Autonomic responses are difficult to fake. Yes, I’m left-handed. Now, is that enough proof, or do you also want some blood and a stool sample?”

      “Maybe later.” McCarter grinned in spite of the situation. The old Aussie scientist was as tough as Barbara Price had said. It had to have taken a lot of men to kidnap him from the Woomera Military Hospital last year. Canberra was going to be delighted have the cranky genius back safe and sound.

      James went over to an autoclave full of sealed bottles. Each was filled with a greenish fluid. “That it?” he asked.

      “Sadly, yes,” Yi said grimly. “Moonfire. The worst nerve gas I ever made, or even heard about. It kills, fast and horrible. Moonfire is not so much a war gas as it is a terror weapon. No solider who ever saw it work would ever risk going anywhere near again. Dear God, I must have killed dozens of people with the clinical test alone! But I…they…”

      “Torture?” McCarter asked softly.

      Yi turned away, unable to speak.

      “Any man can be broken, Professor,” James said gently. “It’s nothing to be ashamed about.”

      The professor could only shake his head, obviously reliving the deaths of his unwilling test subjects. Kim Jong-il and his cruel nephew enjoyed finding new ways to dispose of their political enemies. His tests had thus served two purposes for the dictator: revenge and entertainment.

      Opening a satchel, Manning started placing explosive charges around the room. Joining him at the task, James directed the placement of the C-4.

      Keeping the inner door open with a foot, Encizo watched the outer set of doors while Hawkins stayed close to Yi. Pushing back the tight sleeve of his wet suit, McCarter checked his watch. Five minutes to go.

      “Please hurry,” Yi pleaded. “If they catch me with you, it’ll mean the work camps at Pyongyang. Nobody lasts there very long.” He frowned. “Although, I’m sure it seems like a bloody eternity to them.”

      “You’re too valuable for that,” McCarter stated bluntly.

      “The hell I am. To be honest, I’m surprised at the rescue,” Yi said, rubbing his face. “It would have been much easier to kill me.”

      “The incredible we do immediately,” Hawkins said, “the impossible takes a few days.”

      “Besides,” McCarter added, “you’re the best man to make a counteragent to Moonfire.”

      A short whistle from Encizo caught everyone’s attention. “Company,” he said, working the bolt on his weapon.

      The Stony Man operatives instantly moved into defensive positions behind the lab tables, dragging the reluctant professor along with them. McCarter slung his MP-5 and swung a Barnett crossbow from behind his back to load an arrow. It clicked into place just as the double doors to the sterile lab burst open and in walked a short, fat man surrounded by a dozen guards armed with AK-47s.

      “Doctor, your work has been so excellent this past week, I prepared a special treat for you,” Kim Le-Wan declared loudly, carrying the silver tray covered with a white linen cloth. But then his smile vanished at the sight of the armed strangers in the lab.

      “Kill them!” Kim screamed, tossing aside the tray and diving behind a soldier.

      The North Koreans and Phoenix Force all brought up their weapons and Yi moved between them. “Stop!” he screamed in Korean. “Fire those in here and we all die!”

      The military guards paused, unsure of what to do, and McCarter fired. Across the lab, Kim rocked backward as the barbed arrow slammed deep into his face. For a moment he weaved drunkenly, only a tiny trickle of blood inching down his features. Then the miniature explosive charge detonated and the man’s head exploded into a million pieces, bones and pink brains spraying outward in a ghastly cascade. Screaming obscenities, the guards raised their Kalasnikovs like clubs and charged.

      Releasing their MP-5 machine guns, four members of Phoenix Force threw the knives they had been hiding. Three of the North Korean soldiers dropped to the deck, clutching their throats, while the fourth clasped a hand to the side of his head, teeth clenched in pain as blood poured from the horrible gash where his ear used to be located. The grisly object was pinned to the wall like some sort of demonic butterfly, still shaking from the impact. Then the two groups mixed, the green military uniforms of the North Koreans mingled with the slick rust-colored wet suits of the Stony Man commandos.

      Assault rifle slammed against machine gun, the owners wresting for supremacy for a moment, then the men dropped the useless weapons and went hand-to-hand. Pulling out a curved knife, a guard threw the blade, but James deflected the incoming missile with his Randall fighting knife. The blade hit the floor and skittered away, and James advanced, slashing with the military knife, the spine of the blade tight against his palm.

      McCarter fired again, feathering a guard’s temple. The man went down with a sigh as if he were going to sleep. Hawkins kicked a guard in the groin, then opened the fellow’s throat with a backhand slash. A muscular guard launched a Tiger Claw at Encizo, but he swayed backward out of the reach of the blinding martial-arts strike, then turned sideways and buried the heel of his sneaker into the man’s solar plexus. As the air woofed out, the guard doubled over, and the Cuban brought down the edge of his hand in a Little Leaf strike, adding the full force of his entire body to the blow. The North Korean’s neck snapped and he dropped to the deck dead, his twitching body only slowly accepting the irrefutable fact.

      Loading and firing, McCarter killed a third, a fourth, then the Koreans were upon him, and he joined the battle. His hands dripping blood, Manning moved on to a new opponent, leaving a corpse behind, the empty eye sockets СКАЧАТЬ