Free The Crocodile's Jaws: An Alice in Deadland Adventure (Alice, No.7) by Mainak Dhar

David
Robertson and you have presumably heard of the terrible news. It has been a
great loss for all of us and I know how much President Konrath liked you.'
    'General, what is happening in the Homeland?'
    The man's eyes narrowed in anxiety.
    'As soon as the President fell, we had a few attacks from
some scattered Zeus guerrilla forces who have been holding out. That's why I
stepped in—we need a strong hand to ensure that they can be contained. So far,
we've only had a few scattered ambushes and firefights and I think we can hold
them back. It's a matter of time before the last of them surrenders or is
defeated.'
    'That's good to know, General. I'm relieved to hear that.'
    Then Robertson's expression changed, and his eyes burned
with a new intensity, that of a man not used to failing.
    'Arjun and the others told me that you had crossed across
the old border into what had been Pakistan. Are you still there?'
    When Alice told him that they were on their way to Karachi,
his eyes lit up.
    'Perhaps everything does happen for a reason. In the last
few days, we have learnt of a grave new threat to all of us. A threat that the
Executive Committee had kept hidden from us, and which is now threatening us.'
    Alice felt a familiar tingle—she had thought that the war
they had waged for the liberation of Wonderland and Homeland was over. Now it
seemed to be emerging again.
    'We're not sure what it is, but someone contacted us,
threatening us with long-range nuclear strikes. We traced the signal to near
Karachi, but we don't know exactly what the nature of the threat is. We cannot
hit back at this range, and the only way we can get there is to secure the old
airport and fly troops in. Alice, I have no authority over you and cannot ask
you to do anything, but this is the predicament we are now in.'
    John had been listening and now came in front of the tablet,
saluting the President.
    'Sir, I am Sergeant John Ayers. I was a Delta operator
before the Rising. I haven't worn the US uniform in years, but I was sworn to
defend my flag and country, and to serve the Commander-in-Chief, which would be
you, sir. I will take on the mission to recce the airport.'
    Alice spoke up.
    'General, we have all lost too much to gain the freedom we
enjoy. I cannot let that be threatened again. I'm in.'
    As they set off towards Karachi, Alice felt mixed emotions.
Part of her had been looking forward to a world where the biggest threats were
bandits or gangs looking for drugs, and not one where a giant global tyranny
threatened every free man and woman. But part of her, the part that had been
forged in years of war and suffering, looked forward to meeting and destroying
this new threat.
     
    ***
     
    Many years ago, thousands of passengers had embarked on
flights from this airport and thousands more had thronged its terminals every
day. Businessmen going on work, families going on vacations, people coming to
receive loved ones or to see them off. Now not much remained of Karachi airport
other than a series of jagged craters.
    The airport had been pummeled by cruise missiles fired by
India when Pakistan had begun to use the airport for military flights during
the Rising. The old city itself, visible in the distance, had fared little
better. Taliban had battled security forces in an orgy of violence in the last
days, and bombs and rockets had ripped the heart out of the once-cosmopolitan
city of Karachi. What they had not destroyed, hordes of Biters and looters had
achieved. Alice had seen and lived in the ruins of the old city of Delhi, but
this was different. Delhi had fallen to the Biters during the Rising, and been
depopulated by the catastrophe of the Rising and the airburst nuclear weapons
the government had used as a last resort. Karachi had not seen a nuclear strike—India
had taken out the nearby Air Force base and army barracks with tactical nukes,
but had spared the city's civilian areas. Yet the city looked like it had been
ripped apart brick by