Wings of Steele - Flight of Freedom (Book2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

stay put till we come back.” She signaled thumbs-up and the ramp began to lift upward off the deck. Steele squinted in the glare of the spotlights, was that her thumb or middle finger... he dismissed the thought. “Stay in contact with the Freedom and the patrols,” he instructed, “if anything develops out there, let me know.”
    “ Will do, Skipper...”
    He reached up to the side of his helmet, switching on the lights and camera mounted to his helmet, as did the Sergeant and Lieutenant, “Are the cams up?”
    “Video and sound, all good.”
    Jack nodded inside his helmet, heading across the small bay, “Let's head to the bridge and see what kind of shape she's in - see if we can get some of these systems up and running.”
    The Lieutenant caught him by the elbow. “Sir, I think we should go first...”
    “ We're back to that again Lieutenant?”
    “ Yes sir...”
    “ You boys play nice. Don't make me come out there...”
    In unison, the Captain and Lieutenant turned to look back at the cockpit of the shuttle. With the spotlights on, they could only see the silhouette of the craft, but Jack knew Myomerr was sitting there with that toothy grin of hers. He turned back, their bodies making long shadows that reached up the walls of the bay. “OK Lieutenant, you lead, I'll be right behind you.” Looking for and finding an emergency access hatch not far from the elevator, the squad climbed four levels up the access tube in the almost pitch black darkness, their helmet and hand spotlights playing odd swimming shadows on the walls of the narrow tube as they climbed the ladder. Jack decided it was a good thing he wasn't claustrophobic.
    They waited, clinging to the ladder, as the Lieutenant worked the mechanism of the door above them and muscled the rusty door open, kicking it hard to force the protesting hinges to give way. Jack couldn't hear the squeal of the hinges so much as he could feel it through the rung of the ladder he was clinging to. The Lieutenant looked down below him, “OK we're in...” he swung himself off the ladder and shouldered through the narrow door, bringing his weapon up, it's light pointing down the empty corridor. “ Clear left ...”
    Jack followed behind him, unholstered the new hybrid 1911 and covered the corridor in the opposite direction. “ Clear right ... we're close to the bridge, but I'm not sure which way it is...” the rest of the squad made their way up and into the corridor, their weapon lights combining with the helmet and wrist lights, playing beams of light about, searching the darkness. “I think this thing is shaped like a capital A, and we're in the center corridor, we can go either way, your call.”
    “ We need to clear both sides anyway Captain, we'll split and meet at the bridge...” he turned and motioned to the members of the squad, “Sergeant, take some of your men and follow the Captain, the rest of you are with me.”
    The group split in half and moved away from each other into the darkness, their weapons at the ready. Moving down the corridor in a stacked formation, Steele, in the lead. He peeked left around the corner at the intersecting corridor, the Sergeant checking the opposite direction. To the right, it looked like the corridor tilted upwards, just beyond a set of yawning blast doors... more darkness lay beyond. The team turned left and moved up the corridor towards the bridge, checking the living quarters on each side, their doors open. The last man in the group advanced with them in reverse, watching the team's back.
    “Captain, why are all the doors open like this...?”
    Steele slid the next half-open door back on his side by hand, peeking in, leading with the muzzle of his sidearm, “In the case of a total power failure or shutdown, they're designed to release automatically so you don't get trapped.”
    “It's damn creepy...”
    Steele smirked, “Yeah it is...” he paused to look down at something smeared on the floor and adjacent wall,