Firestorm: Book III of the Wildfire Saga by Marcus Richardson Page A

dive knife and probed the crack.   Bits of the ceiling trickled down onto his helmet like chalk.   Cooper jumped out of the way, assuming the ceiling was about to cave.   When nothing happened, he reached down and picked up a rock.   It crumbled easily between his fingers—the rock turned to powder.   "That's drywall …" he muttered.
    "What you got, Hoss?"
    "I don't know,” he said to Jax, “but the ceiling is hollow."   Cooper used the barrel of his rifle to expand the hole.   He quickly exposed thick bundles of insulated wires.   Cooper looked up and down the hallway.  
    Well, it makes sense.   If there's a lab further down there, they’d need data and power…  
    Cooper reached up and noticed a large trunk of wires branched off from the main line and disappeared into the wall.   Cooper glanced at the sides of the tunnel.   It didn't appear to be any different—solid rock, just like the rest of the corridor.
    "Something doesn't add up here…" Cooper rapped his fist along the wall, and heard a hollow sound directly underneath where the wires disappeared into the side of the tunnel.   "Jax—get over here!   We got a hole to make."
    "What's the sitrep, Actual?”
    Cooper stepped back to allow Jax room to apply a rope of detonation cord along the wall.
    "Command, I think I've located a false wall.   Could be a door, but I can't figure out how to open it.   Got a lot of wires in a false ceiling heading off to the side.   Could be something—could be nothing.   We'll know in a few seconds.   Standby one."
    Cooper stacked up on the left side of the explosive, Jax turned and leaned against the right side.   "Fire in the hole!" he called out.   Jax flipped a switch on the transmitter in his hand and pushed the red button.
    Cooper heard the familiar muffled crump and a cloud of dust enveloped the hallway.   Not for the first time he was glad he wore a self-contained HAHO suit.   Cooper stepped through the hole in the wall before the dust cleared.   Another corridor stretched off into the murky distance.
    "Command, I think we got something here."

C HAPTER 10

    London, England.

    V ASILY A NDROPOV STEPPED THROUGH his hotel’s massive front doors.   He coughed in the stiff breeze that ruffled a few bits of trash down St. Martin’s Lane.   Glancing at his watch, he pulled the well-worn coat a little tighter around his shoulders.   Catching his reflection in the front door, he resolved his first order of business would be to get a new coat before finding a suitable club for the night's entertainment.   He had plenty of money and time to kill before tomorrow morning’s meeting at Onnei’s UK branch.    
    Perhaps Mother would like some nice fabric…she could sew a dress or make new curtains or something.   He frowned.   He didn't know the first thing about what his mother would do with a bundle of fabric.   Vasily wanted to get her something, but what?
    Another problem troubled him: he had no idea where to find the shopping district.   London was a huge town, easily dwarfing anything he'd ever seen in Russia.   Even Kursk—until today the largest town he’d ever visited—could fit inside a suburb of the British capital.
    He’d been so lost in thought he did not notice a black cab approach the curb nearby.   The driver said something unintelligible, so Vasily assumed the man wanted to know if he needed a lift.   Vasily nodded, his fist at his mouth as he coughed.  
    "Shopping," Vasily croaked.   He cleared his throat and turned the collar up on his old farm coat.   English…try English.   "If…I wish…shopping."   Was that it?
    Comprehension crossed the man's face.   He nodded and spoke again, jerking his thumb to indicate the street.   Vasily frowned and pointed at his jacket.   The driver leaned over the seat as Vasily got in the cab and asked something again.
    Vasily looked around, unsure what the man was asking him.   He understood the word ‘shop’, but little else.