Escape In The South China Sea
A sky colored tiny camouflage drone flies over the spiky lab. Shaped like one, anyone could mistake it for a big grey insect with transparent webbed wings.
Mike Damon cuts his speed to hover. Amar and Traktor do the same. Their movement is synchronous and calibrated; it’s difficult to believe they ha’been trained in 3 different time zones. The USA, India and UK. The combo of the times.
10 miles away from the drone, the 3 jet-body suited commandos hover in formation hidden in cloud cover. Not that it would help. But then it might.
They are seeing through the eyes of the tiny insect shaped spy drone. They could see 8 men in combat flannels with an eagle eyed look guarding the narrow inlets. The lab itself was airtight and windowless.
The exit was towards the South China Sea.
Among the many islands and islets in the tense South China Sea there was a confirmed news of a cutting-edge bio-weapons lab springing up overnight.
The US had accused China of secretly developing bio-weapons in the remote islands.
Quickly they zeroed in on the location, a Spratly Island islet. Digital satellite imagery pin-pointed the hot spot.
The sea had two clusters of islands one called The Paracels Islands and the other The Spratly Islands.
The Spratly islands were named after Captain Richard Spratly, a Briton, who was out whaling when he happened to chance upon these islands sometime in the mid eighteenth century.
Surrounded by Philippines, Malaysia and southern Vietnam this was a cluster of islands, islets, shoals,cays and more than a 100 reefs many of which were submerged in atolls. Fascinating.
Back in time, these corals were inhabited only by seabirds. But now, The People’s Republic of China had taken over! The ominous military presence stamped their intention for all to see all over these islands which actually had less than all of 1. 2 square miles of natural. So if anything happened you would expect that to happen in water. Ha Ha. But life is not life if expectations are not broken.
The satellite had zoned in on the northeast part of the Spratly which had many low islands, sunken reefs and often rising abruptly from ocean depths of more than 1,000 meters, making navigation extremely dangerous. Named Dangerous Ground, it was here that the spiky lab was located.
A U.S. Poseidon patrol aircraft had been lased by a People’s Republic of China destroyer. These weapons-grade lasers laser dazzlers beamed deep into cockpits. could do serious damage to crew and crafts. The Pentagon’s irritation that China was violating the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea had bubbled over and they vented it with hashtags - You Don’t Want To Play Laser Tag With Us. Hmmm.
Face-offs of these kind were run o’ the mill. There were many head-butts and war games. The Chinese had developed an ‘in your face’ streak to the US presence in what they considered their backyard.
The situation in the archipelago was tense extreme.
The security cover for a bio-weapons lab was hardly inspiring
“Is it a bio-weapons lab or a public restroom?” Traktor threw in some expletives.
It was clear he didn’t find the security impressive.
Amar zoomed the drone to complete a 360 degree view. He was specifically looking for an escape hatch, a route.
“A getaway speed boat. That’s what I’m looking for Mike.”
Mike signaled. It was time to take them out.
The 3 human jets zooming in the air reached their target in no time.
Simultaneously they activated the recee drone to an attack mode. The drone took down 3 of the guards. The other 5 were trying to focus on 3 strange birds in the sky when they were also hit.
Mike and his mates dropped down to the ground and entered the lab.
Some vials strewn aground, airtight lab suits with internal respirators lying around like being hurriedly undressed and thrown aside.
It didn’t take them long to realize - whoever was in there, had flown. With the bio-weapon ?
Traktor muttered. ‘They don’t need no security coz they know how to escape.’
In the core room of the lab right in the center was the escape hatch. It was open and they could see the beginning of a tunnel that went underground.
Without a second thought Amar jumped in. Traktor and Mike went in after him.
Dark and curvy, the tunnel snaked through the underground. They hustled and ran. Every minute counted...if they had to stop the bio-weapon from getting out into the big wide world.
Mike finally saw a bit of light rays indicating they were near the end. It had taken them a good 5 minutes. When they popped up in the open they found themselves in a forest.
Tracking the footprints, Mike again led the way.
Amar and Traktor gave him cover just in case they were in for a trap.
Mike could get a sense of what had happened. Whoever it was that had the bio-weapon had a well-planned escape plan in place and that importantly included a speed boat.
He had not thought about it a moment too soon, coz just then he could hear the sound of one starting right then.
They ran fast, their special combat shoes thudding into the ground.
They burst through the forest right into the awesome expanse of the South China Sea right in front of them.
Just to see an orange red speed boat zooming away. Out of shooting range.
“Jet on guys.”
They activated their jets and took off. The speed boat taking a sharp curve had disappeared around an islet.
As quickly as they reached the bend so quickly they realized they had lost the bio-weapon. The speed boat was abandoned and whoever it was, had escaped through another tunnel in the island. And this time they didn’t know where it was.
End of the chase.
Entry of the bio-weapon into the big wide world.
They stood in mid-air their jets spewing fire on their backs.
