First Strike. Justin Richards

went flying.

      “Won’t be long before they head for the hangar,” Rich gasped as he and Jade ran. “Come on!”

      They paused for a moment inside the hangar, and let their eyes adjust from the brighter light outside to the interior gloom. As soon as he got his breath back, Rich tried to push the heavy doors closed, but they wouldn’t move.

      Jade was crouching over a prone figure. “Looks like someone got here before us.”

      Rich hurried to join her. “I can guess who. Dad.”

      “Yeah, the guard’s just out cold. The rebels would have shot him.”

      “So where have Dad and Mr Chang gone?”

      The hangar was enormous, but it was almost empty. There was a jeep and a couple of other vehicles, but nowhere much for anyone to hide. In any case, they’d have seen Rich and Jade arrive.

      “The way he’s facing…” said Jade. “When he fell, he was heading towards the main doors.”

      “Like he was coming to meet someone,” Rich agreed. “So trace his path back…”

      They both saw the large metal door set into the hangar wall, and ran over to it. The door was standing slightly open, and together they heaved on it. Once through they closed it again. They were standing in a dark stairwell. The only light was a faint glow from far below.

      “Guess where we’re going,” said Rich.

      The night was getting cold and Yoshi didn’t like the dark. He was alone and afraid, but he knew what he had to do. He kept to the darkest shadows, out of the pale moonlight that filtered through the clouds.

      He ran all the way, hoping he would recognise the point where he needed to turn off the main road and take the narrow track that led back to his aunt’s house. He was gasping for breath, but he kept going—he couldn’t let his father down. He couldn’t abandon his father’s friends, the boy and the girl and their father…

      It seemed to take an age, but at last he could see the dark shape of his aunt’s house ahead. Yoshi paused for a moment. He had to stop, to get his breath back. He stood gasping, hands on his knees, shivering from the cold and the fear. Gradually he caught his breath; slowly he straightened up. Only then did he see a man standing a few metres away.

      A man with a gun.

      The sound of gunfire from outside was muffled. It grew quieter as they descended deep into the ground. The glow from below was getting brighter and Rich could tell it was electric light.

      The metal steps were rusted and insecure. The whole stairway wobbled alarmingly, and they kept close to the wall as they picked their way down.

      After an age, they finally reached the bottom. A corridor stretched away ahead of them, bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. About half of them were lit, and Rich guessed the bulbs had gone in the others. Cables and pipes ran along the walls and the roof. Water dripped into oily puddles on the concrete floor, and the whole place felt clammy and cold.

      There was a body at the bottom of the stairs—another unconscious soldier. Again, there was no sign of his weapon, if he’d had one.

      “Still on the right track, then,” Jade whispered.

      All they could hear was the dripping of water and a faint hum that might be a distant generator. No sound could be heard from above.

      “We’d better hurry,” said Rich. “Dad won’t know there’s a battle going on above ground.”

      “I don’t fancy being trapped down here if the rebels come after us,” said Jade.

      Together they hurried along the damp passageway. It turned a corner, and continued into the distance. At the far end, Rich could just make out the dark shape of a doorway.

      A figure leaped out from the shadows close in front of them. The light was behind him, but Rich could make out the Chinese army uniform. A rifle swung up to cover Rich and Jade as they skidded to a halt.

      Another shape detached itself from the shadows beside them. Another uniformed figure holding a rifle.

      “Come to join us?” Mr Chang queried, lowering his rifle.

      “What the hell are you doing here?” Chance asked.

      Rich gasped with relief. “Rebels—attacking the base.”

      “We thought we should warn you,” said Jade. “There’s a battle going on up there. They’ve got guns, rocket launchers, the lot.”

      “And I’m guessing they’ll be coming down here as soon as they’ve sorted out the troops on the base,” added Rich.

      “You’re probably right,” Chance conceded.

      “Where’s Yoshi?” Mr Chang asked.

      “We sent him home,” said Jade. “We couldn’t bring him in here, and put him in danger.”

      Mr Chang shrugged. “He has black belt in karate.”

      “Wouldn’t help him stop a bullet,” said Rich.

      “True,” Mr Chang agreed. “Thank you.”

      “So what are the rebels after?” Jade asked. “If this base is decommissioned and pretty much abandoned, what’s here they could want?”

      Chance gestured for them to follow and led the way along the corridor to the open door at the end. Beyond was blackness. As he stepped through the door, Rich could feel a chill, like he was standing inside a vast, empty chamber.

      Beside him, Mr Chang was fumbling on the wall beside the door. There was a clunk as he found the connection for the lights and pushed the lever that closed the circuit. High above, enormous lamps flickered into life.

      Rich had been right. The place was huge—a massive chamber hewn out of the rock. The bare walls were dripping with moisture. The floor was an expanse of cracked and pitted concrete, with gantries and walkways stretching across the roof space high above.

      But the chamber wasn’t empty. An enormous missile stood like a pillar, reaching almost to the large circular hatch in the roof above. It was rusting, with faded Chinese stars emblazoned on its side.

      “A Dong-Feng series 4 launcher,” said Mr Chang, quietly.

      “NATO calls it the CSS-3,” Chance added. “Built in the 1980s, and then superseded. It’s probably been abandoned.”

      “Nuclear?” Jade asked in a whisper.

      “Oh yes,” Chance told them. “With a range of near enough 5,000 kilometres, accurate to within 500 metres. And a warhead that delivers between thirty and forty megatons.”

      “I guess that’s what the rebels are after,” said Rich.

      “This and another dozen we’ve found in other silos. Whatever happens, they mustn’t get them. Not even one of them.”

      From the other end of the long corridor came the unmistakable sound of a heavy metal door crashing open.

       5

      “We’re going to need some help,” said Rich.

      “I called in backup as soon as we found the missiles,” Chance told them. “Weak signal, but there’s an extraction team ready in India. It’ll take them hours to get here, though. With the rebels on their way, we’re on our own.”

      “You know how to disable a nuclear missile?” Jade asked.

      “It’s never too late to learn.”

      “You are kidding.”

      Chance shrugged. “Afraid not.”

      In