Chapter 17: Up periscope

19:59, 15 August

Assam knew he would have to hit the hotel before the Chinese teenagers became too unnerved at their missing friend. He watched the front of the hotel from across the street where his surveillance team had been based and was pleased to see there was no one keeping watch on the entrance.

"Too easy, it's like taking candy from a baby," he thought to himself.

He had a combined force of twenty heavily armed men and teenagers with him and he planned to storm the hotel and take the Chinese down. His last minute observation of the hotel's front door gave him no cause for concern. Raising his gaze to take in the windows of the building, didn't suggest anyone was watching the street either and he decided to launch his attack without further delay.

He turned to his troops and repeated the instructions he had given earlier.

"Okay, teams one and two are with me. We'll sweep the rooms on the ground floor. Two men to each room and the signal is 'clear' when a room has been fully neutralised. Spray the white paint on the wall beside each the door of each room you clear.

"Hadij, you're leading teams three and four. Straight in and up the stairs to the first floor. Don't stop for anything on the ground floor, leave that to us. The same routine for your teams, pair off and start to clear the first floor, room by room. Once we clear the ground floor we'll join you and make the assault on the floors above. Questions?" Assam asked.

He looked into the faces of his team and could see that a few of the teenagers were showing signs of nerves. That was to be expected, this was their first action and the adrenaline would be coursing through their bloodstream. He was confident they would perform okay.

"Well, no point in waiting around any longer. Let's go, go, go!"

Assam burst from the door of the hotel they had been sheltering in and raced across the street. He had armed his teams with Heckler and Koch sub machine guns and he had his slung tightly over his shoulder and gripped in front of him. A flick of his wrist opened the door to the hotel and he crashed inside, the rest of his men close behind.

He knew that speed and constant movement were the key to these kind of situations, so he tried to take in his surroundings as he moved forward, aware of Hadij and his teams charging up the stairway to his left. The reception hallway had six doorways leading off it, one a set of two full-length glass doors. Assam raised his boot and viciously smashed the doors open. He and his partner darted inside and immediately started firing their HK MP5 sub machine guns in short, controlled bursts.

The room was a TV room and it contained six Chinese teenagers. They didn't stand a chance. Caught completely by surprise and all but unarmed, they barely had time to rise from their chairs before the 9mm slugs began to tear into them, spinning them like rag-dolls. Assam had schooled his teams to aim for the chest. The movies might show this kind of thing and suggest head shots were the thing to go for. He knew differently. The head was a much smaller target and there was too much risk in going for that. Two shots in the chest and then one to the head once the victim was down and not moving was what he had taught them.

It took a matter of seconds to take the occupants of the room down, Assam revelling in the look of shock and terror on the Chinese faces. He quickly joined his partner in administering the single shots to the heads of the fallen and then changed the clip in his HK before shouting 'clear' and exiting the room. His partner pulled a can of spray paint from a pocket in his fatigues and daubed a white cross on the wall beside the doorframe.

Gunfire sounded from the other rooms in front of him and from the floor above as Assam moved forward once more. There was one room left to clear and he raced towards it, crashing the door open and rolling in fast. A quick look around told him that this was the kitchen and that it was empty. A chorus of 'clear, clear, clear' sounded behind him and he knew the ground floor had been taken care of.

Racing back the way he had come, Assam glanced at the faces of his teenage troops and was pleased with what he saw. Their skin was flushed as the result of their nerves, but it was their eyes that told the story. Assam saw the bloodlust and fanaticism written there and he knew he had bred a new and formidable force for Allah.

By the time Assam reached the first floor with teams one and two, Hadij and his men had cleared the rooms and were waiting to climb to the floors above. So far not a single shot had been fired against them. That changed as they sorted themselves out and began to make their way up the stairs to the next floor. Assam and his men hugged the walls as they climbed, but it didn't stop a Chinese teenager from peering round the wall on the landing above and shooting one of the teenagers with a handgun. Assam and the leading people in his team returned fire and the 9mm rounds tore into the Chinese youth. His head ballooned and his body shuddered as the bullets impacted. A fine spray of blood seemed to hang around him as he dropped to the floor and Assam was conscious of the thump, thump, thump of his own man as he tumbled down the stairs.

There was no further armed resistance, but Assam was surprised as they continued to find and kill Chinese teenagers as the last two floors were quickly cleared. He realised his surveillance team had seriously underestimated the numbers they were facing and he thanked the prophet that his opponents hadn't been better armed.

Laura found Jamie sitting in front of his computer with his head in his hands. She rushed over to him, worried about what was wrong.

"Jamie, what is it?" she demanded to know.

In reply, he merely pointed at the screen. Laura looked over his shoulder and read Lee Chan's message. She gulped as she realised she was probably reading the last words he would ever write. She glanced at the time the message had been sent and took in the fact that this latest atrocity had taken place barely minutes ago. Her arms went round Jamie to try and comfort him a little.

"I'm sorry bro, but we might as well get used to things like this. I've seen their leader up close and he is ruthless, probably insane. All we can do is try and save as many as we can until we're ready to fight back," she said quietly.

Jamie nodded and visibly shook himself.

"I know, you're right sis, but it still takes some getting used to. So many have already died and these nutters are still out killing more. It just doesn't make any sense."

"What about other survivors, have you had any more e-mails? What about the submarine?" she asked, trying to get his mind off of the carnage that Lee Chan's message suggested.

"There are a few e-mails from survivors, but nothing from Captain Mexford. Oh, and I've received a few more e-mails from our friends in the US and Canada."

As Jamie said this he closed Lee's e-mail so that Laura could see the count of the number of messages in his inbox. She gasped in surprise at the total and looked at her brother.

"Where have they all come from?" she asked.

"I think word is getting around the States about our web site. I've had to add another e-mail link to try and stop messages from survivors being swamped by other stuff. Here's the best bit though," he said, as he clicked on the message from the US President.

Laura read the words and took in the logo at the bottom, which depicted the President's seal of office.

"Why, the patronising arsehole," she exclaimed, "that's exactly what I was getting at earlier. Who does he think he is? Where does he get off telling us what's best for us?"

Jamie actually had to laugh at his sister's righteous indignation.

"Easy sis, calm down. You know, I'm beginning to think you might be right about trying to sort things out ourselves first. Messages like this one do tend to get you annoyed don't they?"

The enormity of what was happening around them seemed to close in on the two youngsters and they readied themselves for bed in silence. Jamie spooned behind her with one arm round her and they lay quietly until they fell asleep.

There was a mood of celebration in Assam's camp following their success against the nest of Chinese teenagers. His newly blooded troops walked around with their chests puffed out and they soaked up the envy and adulation of their friends who hadn't been selected for the raid. Assam led the celebrations and addressed the entire group of survivors to praise his force and urge others to follow their example.

Captain Mexford sat in the commander's chair on the bridge of HMS Vengeance and he mulled over what his next steps should be. The second e-mail he had received from Highlander changed things quite a bit, an intact US and Canada needed some thinking about.

Laura would have been delighted to know that the Captain's inclinations tended to side with her argument about seeking US help. Yes they were Britain's strongest allies, but to ask them to intervene on British soil just sounded wrong to him somehow.

"Britain should be seen to fight her own battles," he thought to himself.

He was agonising over his responsibility. He knew there were British kids being taken captive by terrorists, some of them were being executed and it was his sworn duty to defend them. His problem was not knowing whether it was safe to go ashore without verification that the virus was no longer able to infect his men. The news about the US introduced another option - he could sail to America and have his men vaccinated to safeguard them before dealing with the terrorists. That would take time however, and that time would expose British youngsters to further danger from the terrorists. That was the dilemma he was trying to deal with.