Chapter 6 - The Garage Breach
The heavy steel floor grate slammed back into place as Olivia shoved it upward with her shoulder, hauling herself out of the subterranean maintenance shaft and onto the grease-stained concrete floor of the Fort Halbrook motor pool garage.
The air up here was thick with the scent of diesel exhaust, burning rubber, and damp autumn rain blowing in through the wide-open loading bays.
Clang.
The second MP scrambled up through the service hatch behind her, gasping for breath, his face pale beneath his Kevlar helmet.
"Where's Inspector Miller?" the MP demanded, his voice cracking with panic as he looked around the empty garage. "Private, where's the Inspector?"
Olivia dropped to one knee, her sidearm raised and tracking the shadows between two rows of parked tactical Humvees. "She stayed behind to cover the rear hatch. The power grid is still down, and Hayes has men sealing the secondary perimeter."
"We need to call base command!" the MP reached for his radio shoulder mic.
"Don't," Olivia snapped, her hand shooting out to slap the radio down. "The comms are routed through the base master server. If Hayes has the power grid, he controls the radio relays. Anyone we call on this channel will patch straight to his tactical feed."
A sharp, metallic shriek echoed from beneath their feet—the sound of the maintenance tunnel ladder straining under the weight of someone climbing up fast.
"They're right behind us," the MP whispered, raising his rifle.
"Fall back behind the transport trucks," Olivia ordered with absolute, unyielding authority. "Move!"
They scrambled behind the chassis of a heavy logistics truck just as the rusted iron maintenance grate below burst open with a deafening crash. A tactical flashlight beam sliced across the garage floor, followed by the heavy, rhythmic boots of Master Sergeant Hayes stepping out of the shaft.
"Bennett!" Hayes’s voice roared across the concrete cavern, amplified and distorted by his tactical gas mask. "You can't outrun base security! Every gate is locked, and the entire sector is under my direct operational control!"
Olivia crouched in the shadows beneath the heavy bumper, her breathing slow and controlled. She didn't shout back. Instead, her eyes locked onto the master electronic control panel mounted on the far wall of the garage—the manual override switch for the motor pool security shutters.
If she could hit that switch, she could drop the massive steel hurricane shutters, trapping Hayes and his men inside the garage while cutting off their radio links to the outside world.
"Cover me," Olivia whispered to the MP.
"What are you doing?"
"Opening the front loading bay," Olivia lied smoothly. "When I fire toward the corner, run for the administrative gate and don't look back."
Before the MP could argue, Olivia raised her sidearm, aimed high toward a stack of empty metal oil drums near the back wall, and squeezed the trigger.
Bang.
The bullets ricocheted off the steel drums with an ear-splitting screech of sparks and noise.
"Contact! Over there!" Hayes roared, his flashlight beam swinging wildly toward the back of the garage, accompanied by a burst of suppressive fire that chewed up the concrete floor where Olivia had been standing a second earlier.
Taking advantage of the total distraction, Olivia broke cover, sprinting in a low, tactical slide straight across the open floor toward the master control panel.
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Her boots skidded across a patch of spilled motor oil, throwing her off balance, but she caught herself against the wall, her fingers slamming down onto the heavy steel override lever.
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