Battlefield 4: Countdown to War (19 page)

38

Kovic inched forward. Above him, the wall of rock disappeared into cloud; below, between his feet, perched on a ledge no more than a foot wide, the sheer face dropped into the world they had left. To his left a few yards behind was Zhou, ashen. Wu and Qi stayed close behind him, their faces against the rock, tears glinting on Qi’s anxious face.

He looked away to the right at Heng who gave him a broad grin. When he had first seen the old man skipping across the log dam he had instantly dismissed him as a joke. Now he was in awe.

They had been climbing for six hours. At first it was relatively easy. Some of the ancient steps carved centuries ago by monks were still there. But after a few hundred feet they petered out. Kovic wondered if it had been Tsu’s deliberate joke to leave the first few steps intact.

‘Just close your mind to what is below,’ Heng said, cheerily. ‘Focus on each step, grip and think:
I am going forward
. You will feel very alive at these moments, more so perhaps than ever in your life before.’

Heng had been a mountain guide for twenty years, he had told Kovic. Before that he had spent twenty-five in a work camp, mining asbestos.

‘All I have to do is remember those days, deep underground: the dust, the coughing, rats swimming in the great vats of rice soup they fed us. People dying all around me. This is the life!’

The old man’s eyes sparkled as he spoke.

39

‘Here is good.’

Heng swung round and put down his pack. The ledge they were moving along had narrowed, and the darkness that had settled around them was almost a blessing as it shrouded the ever-increasing drop below.

‘We can have a few hours’ rest and be fresh for the dawn.’

Kovic looked at the others. None of them returned his gaze. Their eyes were fixed either on the rock face to their left or the ledge immediately under their feet.

‘I told you you’d get into the swing of it,’ Heng added cheerfully. He unrolled his thin mat and lay down gratefully, as if on a king-size four-poster at the Hyatt.

It was 2 a.m. They had been on the move without stopping for five hours. Kovic lay down and the others followed suit. Qi fell straight to sleep without even removing his pack.

‘Sleep well, gentlemen,’ said Heng. A few moments later he was snoring loudly, his tiny frame vibrating, his mouth wide open to the elements.

‘I hope a large insect flies in and chokes him,’ said Zhou.

‘He
is
an insect,’ said Wu. ‘He’s
The Fly
.’

‘He’s not normal. Have you noticed he never has to piss?’

‘Hey, cut it out. Do like he says. Get some rest.’

Kovic felt his phone buzz in his pocket and twisted himself round to try and pull it out without plummeting to his death. It was certainly one way to put you off checking it too often. It was a text from Hannah.
We need to speak. URGENT.
His time was up. She was back on his tail. He turned it off and concentrated on trying to get to sleep without falling. He found a rock about the size of
a melon to put in the narrow space between him and oblivion, to discourage his tendency to roll over in his sleep. Then he closed his eyes and dreamed of Louise.

40

The bright beam of light prised Kovic out of his slumber. His dream had shifted location. He was back in the Sea Hawk – but not over North Korea, he was peering out of the door looking down on Tsu’s hideout. He opened his eyes and found he was looking straight down the thousand-foot drop. All that had prevented him from going over was the rock he had used to wedge himself in. He recoiled, twisting on to his back, and realised the helicopter was no dream. A big twin-rotor Chinook was overhead, commencing its descent on to the mountaintop.

They were all awake now, and in diff erent states of alarm. Heng turned and greeted them, water bottle in one hand, a date bar in the other, legs crossed casually.

‘Good morning, gentlemen. A fine day for the last leg of your journey.’

The temperature had dropped dramatically in the night. The others looked grey and underslept.

‘How far now?’ Qi asked in a small voice.

‘Well, that was the easy bit—’ Heng announced. He was enjoying his role as team sadist. ‘Today the ledge disappears. There is also a fissure.’

None of them felt like asking him to elaborate.

‘Come, I’ll show you. It’s just around the corner.’

They all edged forward. Heng crouched down so they could see past him. The rock face was split open in a vertical crevice about ten metres deep.

‘We used to sling a rope and winch across. The alternative is to go straight up. Since you have been quite slow I suggest the latter. Also there is a weather system coming in which means high winds.’

He delivered this news like it was another twist in an exciting game he had arranged for them.

‘I don’t think I can do this,’ said Qi. The other two looked at Kovic. Wu cleared his throat.

‘The fact is – we had a discussion in the night, while you were asleep—’

‘We came to a decision.’

Zhou chipped in.

‘Even if we made it over the wall, what then?’

‘Why say this now?’

‘It’s one thing to look at it on a laptop—’ He gestured at the vertical face of the mountain.

Kovic looked from one to the other. Any sense of adventure or challenge had drained from them. He couldn’t blame them. It was his project. They didn’t have the same investment in it. He had exploited their loyalty, their disinclination to refuse a mission due to their own pride. But somewhere on the punishing climb this had ebbed away.

‘You’re right. It’s madness.’

Kovic got to his feet. Relief swept across their faces.

‘I’ll go on alone – with Heng. It’s probably for the best. You guys head back. I’m sorry to have brought you this far.’

Kovic could see the unfamiliar expression of pure hatred on Wu’s face. Going back without Heng would be suicide. Kovic knew it. They all knew it.

Zhou spoke up again – the first time he had sounded negative.

‘Even if you get in, how will you get out?’

‘If I ever asked myself that question, I wouldn’t have gotten into this game.’

Up ahead they could hear a low humming sound.

‘What’s that?’

Heng beckoned. ‘Look past the crevice – you’ll see.’

At first it looked like a giant birdcage slung from a cable that reached the summit, inching its way up.

‘It’s a new addition.’

Qi spat. ‘Now you tell us.’

‘It can only be operated from the mountaintop end. The station at the bottom is unmanned and remotely locked.’

Kovic raised his binoculars and examined it.

‘There’s someone on board.’

Inside the cage they could see three people. Two were in uniforms similar to the checkpoint guards, and kneeling between them there was a third person, shackled and hooded.

He turned back to Heng. For the first time on their journey Heng’s face failed to radiate any joy.

‘The transports are becoming more frequent.’

‘How come?’

‘It is known that Tsu has an appetite for pain – other people’s. I’ve heard it said that he makes them fight each other for their lives while he watches.’ Heng shrugged. ‘Anyway, what’s it to be?’

41

Heng secured the rope, and Kovic went first. There were points where the face leaned outwards and he was clinging on only with the edge of his fingers. And, as Heng had warned, a wind was getting up. He had promised the others that he would get them out either by the cable car or by commandeering a chopper. But he knew that it was the thought of trying to get back without Heng that had swung it. What none of them knew was Kovic had not thought beyond his encounter with Tsu.

Zhou came next. He seemed to have passed through a barrier of fear and recovered some of his cat burglar’s head for heights and was now approaching the rope task with steely determination. Wu, following in his wake, was soldiering doggedly on but Qi, so far out of his hacker’s comfort zone, had tears running freely down his face, and to add to his sense of shame, he had wet himself. The others pretended not to see.

Heng hauled Kovic over the last rock and there it was: Tsu’s domain.

‘Holy mother of fuck.’

It was nothing like Qi’s grainy photographs. The entire wooden structure and pagoda roof was gone. In its place the granite perimeter wall had been raised another ten feet, with a series of narrow apertures, like arrow slits in a mediaeval castle, spaced about fifty feet apart, too narrow for any human to fit.

‘Come.’ Heng beckoned them forward. At the base of the wall was a five- or six-foot-wide ledge. ‘This goes all the way around.’

‘What about the gate?’

‘It’s blocked up. There is just one opening for the cable car.’

‘No other way in other than over the wall?’

‘There’s a storm drain. It travels deep under the structure then climbs vertically to a grate in the south-west corner of the courtyard.’

‘Are there any cameras? Is it patrolled?’

Heng shrugged. ‘What for? They don’t expect anyone to be mad enough to make the climb.’

Heng put out his hand.

‘Well, good luck. You know the way back. I’ll leave the rope in place in case you decide to come down the slow way.’

He gave one last burst of laughter.

Kovic embraced him. The old man’s spirit had sustained him and was a useful antidote to the falling morale of his crew. He wished he would stay, but he didn’t want to involve him in what was coming.

Heng shook each man’s hand. They were all of them in awe of him, and Kovic knew that without his example as well as his knowledge, they would never have made it.

Kovic watched him disappear over the ledge and down, then looked at the other three, each of them in diff erent states of exhaustion.

‘What’s the plan, boss?’ Zhou seemed to have gotten his second wind.

‘We make a base while Qi gets his kit set up and gives us an update on activity inside.’

The ledge sloped down to the east, close to where a small clump of bushes clung to the edge of the wall.

‘There.’

After the endless balancing act in so little room, the space felt like a football field. They dropped their bags. Qi got out his equipment, set up the tripod antenna and adjusted his screen.

From out to the east, skimming the surface of the clouds, accompanied by a deep throated thrumming, a large heavy-duty helicopter came into view.

‘Aha, what do we have here?’

‘That’s a Chinese AC313, based on a 1960s French Aerospatiale Super Frelon. Carries twenty-seven passengers, and four to five tons of cargo.’

‘Way past its sell by date then.’

‘Not exactly,’ said Qi. ‘The rotor blades are composite, it’s got digital avionics, it’s certified for high altitude – over 4500 metres above sea level, plus it’s fully equipped to work in extreme weather like blizzards and as low as minus 46C.’

‘I’ll check the registration.’

Kovic raised his binoculars but there was nothing visible on the polished black surface of the machine. It made a circle of the mountaintop before starting its descent, disappearing behind the wall.

‘Okay, thanks to our friends the Russians’ misbehaving weather satellite I have eyes inside the wall—’

‘And?’

‘Oh fuck. Look at this.’ Qi turned the laptop toward Kovic. He used his hand to give the screen some shadow while he peered at it. He hadn’t known what to expect and the jumbo-sized chopper should have been a hint. The inner courtyard also contained two smaller helicopters, one a standard executive carrier, the other a two-seater with open sides. But what really caught his attention was the number of men in military gear exiting the AC313: at least thirty, fully tooled up with armour and guns. His half-baked plan to storm the battlements was rapidly evaporating.

‘For a recluse, he sure likes company.’ Kovic looked at the wall. ‘I need a better look.’

A fresh plan started to take shape in his head. He glanced at the others. Wu was already asleep and Zhou not far off . He turned back to Qi.

‘Wire me up.’

‘What, right now? Don’t be crazy. You need to rest like us mortals.’

Kovic wasn’t listening. He felt energy coursing through him. He had come this far. Something big was happening over the wall and he couldn’t risk missing it – or worse – missing Tsu. He unrolled the grappling hook and the gas-propelled launcher. It could also fire stun darts, of which he had brought a generous quantity, as well as a couple of smoke canisters. He hesitated then decided against taking any of them with him.

Qi was watching him closely.

‘This is just a look, yeah?’

‘Yeah, ’course.’

There was a lack of conviction in Kovic’s tone that Qi found worry ing. He gave him a micro-receiver, which he pushed deep into his ear. ‘This is the same model you use on surveillance and stings, but it’s modified for altitude and has a bigger range. These walls might cause some distortion and if you go underground you’re incommunicado, remember that. It’s technology, not magic.’

Qi switched on his end.

‘Receiving?’

Kovic nodded.

‘Copy.’

Qi grasped his shoulder.

‘You be careful. Don’t get carried away, okay.’

He spread his arms. ‘Like this? I doubt it.’

Qi wasn’t convinced, but he wasn’t in a position to argue.

Kovic attached the grappling hook and line, aimed and fired. It caught the top of the parapet. He pulled on it with all his weight: it was firm. He tensed the line and started to climb, looping it round his fist as he went. It was punishing on his arms, but something else was driving him now that blotted out the exhaustion. He reached the parapet, grasped the edge with both hands and hauled himself up, flattening himself along its surface. A flag on a pole fluttered in the wind, bearing the snakehead trident and flaming fist.

‘Holy shit,’ he whispered to himself.

Qi picked up the whisper loud and clear.

‘
Talk to me! ’

‘Another group of men are disembarking from the chopper, camouflage dress, no armour, just cases and laptops. They look like command staff . But there’s blue in that camouflage. They’re not private security, they’re navy. What the fuck is this guy up to?’

He took out his phone and ran a burst of video for Qi to work with as he built up a plan of the facility and ID’d the uniforms.

Qi’s computer sucked up the video.

‘
Okay, got that. You coming down now? ’

Kovic didn’t answer. Still crouching on the parapet, he pulled up the rope.

‘Kovic? ’

Qi was waving up at him.

Kovic waved back. He knew it was madness, but the whole venture was. Why stop now?

He patted his top pocket, checked for the South African passport.

‘I’m going to off er him my services.’