Incoming Fire by Nathan Burrows

Author:Nathan Burrows [Burrows, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-27T22:00:00+00:00

51

Adams had just put his body armour and helmet down on the floor when there was a brisk knock on the air commodore’s office door.

“Come in,” Maugham barked. The door opened and a young man’s head appeared around it.

“Hello, sir,” the new arrival said. “Thought you’d want a sitrep.”

“Yes, please,” Maugham replied, and Adams noted the irritation in his voice. “Seeing as how I’m the base commander.”

“There’s a fire down at the bulk fuel installation, sir.”

“Bloody hell,” Maugham said. “Come on, Adams. Might as well get your hands dirty in the ops room. This is Simpkins. He’s supposed to be an ops officer, but he’s still learning.” Adams saw Simpkins’s mouth open to respond, but he closed it again, saying nothing. Probably not a bad idea, Adams thought as he looked at the young officer’s rank slides. He was only a lieutenant which was as about as far down the pecking order as it was possible to get.

Adams followed Maugham as he strode out of his office and down the main corridor within the TLS building.

“What do we know so far, Simpkins?” Maugham asked the ops officer.

“Not a great deal, sir,” Simpkins replied, “other than we don’t think it was enemy action. The explosion set off the seismic sensors. That’s why the alarm sounded.”

“So it wasn’t a rocket attack?”

“No, sir,” Simpkins said, “we don’t believe so.”

“Are there any casualties?” Adams asked. Simpkins looked at him and obviously hadn’t got a clue. “Sorry, I should have introduced myself,” Adams continued to save the poor lad some face. “I’m Adams, the new medical adviser.”

“Pleased to meet you, sir,” Simpkins replied as the two men shared a swift handshake as they walked. “Regarding casualties, I’m—”

“Don’t worry, mate,” Adams said, cutting him off. “We’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure.”

Adams followed the air commodore through another door and into the main operations room for the air base. It was a hive of activity, with uniformed personnel darting around. Detailed maps covered the walls. Adams could see that most of them were of the airfield itself, but there were also several regional and country wide maps. On one wall was a series of clocks with labels underneath them. The one on the left was local time, and the next few clocks detailed the current times in Cyprus, London, and Washington.

“Where’s Major Persimmon?” Maugham shouted to no-one in particular. Adams looked around the room to see an Army officer rushing toward them.

“I’m here, sir,” Persimmon said as he stood to attention in front of the air commodore. The major then spun on his heel. “Right, listen in, everyone.” A hush spread across the room as the occupants stopped what they were doing. Persimmon walked to a large crash map of the airfield on the wall and started his brief. “At fourteen twenty two, there was an explosion in the BFI situated here.” He stabbed at the map with his finger. “Cause is unknown, but likely to be a fuel air ignition as opposed to enemy action.

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