Legacy

13

Jack and Carl ambled along the road toward the front gate as if they were just taking the night air. Collins forced himself to clasp his hands behind his back, like a man on a leisurely stroll.

“Well, I guess this is where I find out if the training we gave the Germans took hold,” Collins said, remembering Sebastian’s training and how he was easily one of the best he had ever taught.

As they neared the gate, one man, a large fellow in a gray uniform, stepped outside the small shack. Jack was relieved to see anyone there at all, as they obviously hadn’t been alerted that the Ecuadorian army had pulled up stakes only forty minutes before.

“ Alto, ” said the lone guard as he stepped in front of the gate. Jack could tell that the Spanish word for stop was laced with a thick German accent. It was one of the same guards from five days before.

“Oh, boy,” Everett whispered through the side of his face. “That’s one of the guys who escorted us into the mine. We’re had.”

Jack was tempted to raise his fingers in the gesture that would signal the designated sniper to take the guard out, but held off. He wanted the other guard from the shack visible before any action was taken. Jack stopped walking and waved a greeting.

“Hi,” he said, his face filling with the largest smile he could ever remember faking.

The large guard didn’t say anything as he clicked on a large flashlight and pointed it at Jack and Carl, who averted their eyes from the harsh light.

“Who is it? Those damn Ecuadorian army people again?” The voice came from the guard shack high above. Jack could see a light flash on and a lone figure come to the doorway. The guard was perfectly silhouetted against the light in the shack.

“I know you,” the guard said, and reached for his sidearm.

Just as Collins started to raise his right hand into the air, a sound like a bee’s buzz passed overhead. A curious look appeared on the guard’s face and his hand froze just over the holster carrying his sidearm. The man tensed and slowly fell to his knees, the flashlight rolling free. Everett saw the perfectly round hole in the man’s forehead as he tumbled over. The second guard, in the tower above, was standing as if curious why his partner was doing what he was doing. At that moment two silenced sniper rounds caught him in the neck and head. The man fell backward into the guard shack. “Jesus, whoever Krell picked as a sniper is damn good,” Carl said as he recovered the AK-47 from the dirt roadway next to the guard’s body.

“Yes, they are,” Jack said, raising his right hand into the air and pumping his fist twice.

As they moved toward the gate, Jack saw the camouflaged men exit the tree line above the mine. They quietly ran through the open fence and toward the guard housing unit. Jack grimaced as he remembered the kill orders he had given the assault team and he knew Sebastian would be as ruthless a soldier as he had been taught to be. Collins knew he couldn’t afford the manpower to watch over any prisoners. The sleeping men should have chosen a better employer than the Reverend Samuel Rawlins and Faith Ministries.

Jack and Carl entered the guard shack, where they saw the large radio. Collins gestured toward the radio and removed the back panel it. He pulled the motherboard for the transmitter. He couldn’t destroy the powerful radio; their own communications capabilities were sorely lacking and they might need it. Then Jack pulled two M-16s and several magazines from the wall-mounted rack inside the door. Everett placed the circuit board in his pocket and lay the AK-47 down just as Jack tossed him one of the M-16s. Everett pulled the charging handle back and then chambered a round. He looked at his boss and nodded.

“Shall we get in that mine and see what the hoopla’s all about?”

“You bet,” Jack said as he stepped from the guard shack.

They both hurried forward as Sebastian appeared from the larger barracks where the guards were housed. He shook his head as Collins and Everett approached.

“Six hostiles accounted for. I think we can safely assume the others are inside the mine or were out preparing a welcome for us.”

“Let’s assume they’re waiting for us in the mine. That way we’ll be covered in both cases.” Jack turned and made another gesture into the darkness. He waited a moment as the second element came out of the woods with Niles, Pete, Charlie, Appleby, and Franklyn Dubois, the MIT engineer. Jack used a hand signal telling the group to slow their approach. The civilians were closely guarded by the two Air Force pilots from the 727 jet.

“Okay, Sebastian, bring in your snipers and spotters, place them in position to cover us and let’s get the first element inside the mine.”

Almost as if on cue, the sounds of a firefight were heard from somewhere down the mountain. Collins shook his head at their bad luck. He had hoped the Ecuadorians would have waited before engaging the assault element tracking them. He knew the government men couldn’t be blamed for going early, just as he would have been tempted to attack anyone in his country with orders to murder his people.

“Okay, it sounds like our friendly troops have company down the mountain, and by the sound of the heavier caliber weapons, they’re most definitely outgunned. Let’s move! Sebastian, get elements of our second line in defensive positions outside the entrance to the mine and then join us at the main doors. Place your claymores accordingly and make kill zones for the rest of your front. We have very little to make a stand, so let’s make them hesitate before they come on strong. We have to give the president time to play hero. Go, go,” Jack said as his onetime student saluted him.

“Yes, sir,” Sebastian said, lowering the salute and pointing to three of his men. Then he silently disappeared into the darkness.

“Mr. Everett, let’s get the lights in the compound down to a more mood-oriented level, shall we? Let’s use the darkness while we have it. And make sure Sebastian and his men have the extra ammo from the guards for the outer defense. They’re going to need it.”

“You got it, Jack.”

Collins watched his friend hurry to do what he was ordered to do. Then he turned to look at Niles Compton, who had joined them from the tree line.

“Director, keep these people in between the assault element and the defensive line. And remind them that there are only good guys in between, so no shooting.”

“Right,” Niles said as he realized he had never really seen Jack in his element before. He admired the calm way Collins made everyone feel confident in what he was telling them. He turned and made the civilians follow him up the slope where Sebastian had disappeared.

Jack turned just as several bright flashes illuminated the night sky further down the steep slope of the mountain. He didn’t flinch as the sound finally reached him. The explosions were large and loud, and he knew that they were antipersonnel missiles. He also knew the Ecuadorian army didn’t have any of those when they left the mine. He only hoped the promised Cobra gunships arrived in time to help the poor bastards.

Everett and a three-man team slowly made their way into the mine opening. The gleaming concrete of the gallery had just recently been cleaned after the removal of the stored weaponry that had so thoroughly destroyed much of the world’s hope for the Moon shots. The former Navy SEAL knew there were eyes on them as they slipped into the main gallery and took cover. With the lights out, the three men-the Australian and Vietnamese snipers and Carl-used one of the night scopes. Both of his riflemen had ambient-light scopes attached to their rifles. Even with time a factor, Everett knew taking out the remaining guard element was going to take patience.

He placed his two men at opposite ends of the gallery behind old and hardened bagged cement labeled with German markings. The pallets of material had collapsed over time and had been left to rot in the expanse of the main chamber entrance.

Everett clicked the transmit button on the small radio they had confiscated from the guard shack, letting Jack know they were in place. The dangerous part was coming. Even though he was aware that the remaining guards had obviously seen them enter the mine’s main doors, he also knew they would take the obvious targets first, meaning the bait that was about to be laid before them-Jack and Sebastian. His two-man sniper teams had to react fast at the first sign of movement from the spiderweb of gridwork above them. He knew this because that’s where he would be if he were the ambushing guards.

Jack and Sebastian made a great show of sliding open the steel door that separated the main gallery from the outside world. The door slid loudly on its runners and Jack played a flashlight about at the entrance. The two men stepped inside just as the first rays of sunlight struck the small valley in the Andes. Collins entered the mine with Sebastian following.

As Everett scanned the steel support beams in the upper reaches of the excavation, he pulled back the hammer on his nine-millimeter, knowing he would be the two snipers’ only backup if one of them missed or if there were more guards inside than first thought.

As Jack and the German commando entered and started walking toward the giant steel doors that secured the first section of mine from the next, Everett saw movement. With the distraction of the battle raging only five miles distant, Everett concentrated on the gridwork. As he watched, he heard a loud crack from his right. A man briefly stood and then fell forward onto a catwalk. One guard had been dispatched. Then, just as quickly, another guard sprang up not far from where the first had been hidden. As he did he actually managed to get off a round before the second sniper found him. The guard’s bullet struck just to Jack’s left, pinging off the concrete flooring. Collins and Sebastian dove for cover as the second guard succumbed to a sniper’s bullet. Everett could see no more movement.

“Clear?” Jack called out.

The two snipers called out “clear” and stood from their positions of cover. Collins became concerned when Everett didn’t stand and call out his all clear. That was when his hackles rose and he knew that they had been premature in calling all safe.

A third guard opened fire with an automatic weapon from high up in the network of shaft support beams. The Australian sniper flew backward as a line of bullets stitched its way across his chest. Jack was slow to react, but Everett wasn’t. With five well-placed shots from the nine-millimeter, Carl dropped the third man. His body struck the catwalk and slid over the edge, falling eighty feet to the floor.

“Damn it!” Everett said as he finally stood and ran over to the fallen Australian. He checked the man for any sign of life but found he had died very quickly. “Jack, are you two all right?” he called out from a kneeling position.

Suddenly lights came on in the overhead. The scene was illuminated by the fifty hanging fixtures from above. Everett looked over and saw the small Vietnamese sniper at the lighting control panel. He felt Jack at his side.

“That’s my fault. I was in too much of a damned hurry to get in here.”

Everett looked up at his boss and stood up.

“We’re all moving too damn fast, Jack. Hell, I should have known better. This isn’t the last asshole we’re going to run into down here, but we don’t have time to do a clean sweep, we have to get Niles and the others in here.”

“He’s right, Colonel. We have to move. From the sounds of things outside, I don’t think the Ecuadorians are faring well at all,” Sebastian said and nodded his thanks to the Vietnamese sniper, who was watching them. He continued glancing at the gallery support system above them.

Jack nodded and looked around. “Okay, let’s get Niles and his science team in here and see what we can see in case we have to make a hasty retreat out of here.”

As they moved to get the others, Jack’s radio came to life. He snatched it from his belt and listened.

“The lookouts report helicopter support has finally arrived to assist the battle line down the mountain.”

“If there’s anyone left,” Everett said. He moved to get outside and retrieve Niles and his four men.

Jack exited into the dawn’s first light and immediately saw the three Cobra gunships three miles away making their first runs on the unseen enemy below. He also saw his thirty-man fire team as they took their positions in case the distant enemy made it through. As he raised his binoculars to his eyes, he saw the first lines of what looked like mercenaries. He scanned the area and then his heart froze as he saw something familiar.

“Mr. Everett, contact the man we have standing by at the radio in the guard shack. Tell him to get the frequency that those Cobras are using. Tell them they are being tracked by antiaircraft missiles.

Before Carl could react, Jack grabbed his arm-it was too late. They all watched in stunned silence as three streaks of white-hot exhaust broke free of the tall trees lining the battlefield below. They shot upward at Mach speed. The first Cobra never knew what hit it. Its entire forward section disappeared in a ball of flame. The second had time at least to terminate its covering run of the ground troops. It tried to pull up as the second radar-guided missile struck just aft of the two-man cockpit, splitting the old attack chopper into two pieces as it fell into the trees near the troops it had been trying to defend. The third Cobra banked hard and was actually able to bring its twenty-millimeter Gatling gun to bear on the third missile team that had shot at it. The Cobra peppered the site with a thousand rounds, sending the shooters into oblivion. As Jack continued to watch, a fourth missile came out of the trees, tracking the third Cobra as it pulled up into the still gray sky of early morning.

“Jink right, go right,” Jack hissed between his teeth.

The pilot never saw it coming. By the time the Cobra had gained altitude, the threat receiver was too late in picking up the radar pulse that had locked on to it. The missile slammed into the spinning rotors and sheared the twin blades off the transmission hub. The chopper fell into the trees like a rock. The explosion and black smoke marked their crash site. As Jack scanned the area below, he saw more mercenaries advance through the trees. The remaining Ecuadorians were scattering after seeing their air support vanish in a split second.

“Mr. Everett, take the science team and secure them inside the mine,” Jack said as he lowered the field glasses. “We’re going to have a lot of company soon.”

“Respectfully, Jack, send someone else to baby-sit them, I want to stay on the line.”

Collins looked at his friend and shook his head. “If they don’t get in there and find something useful soon, this is all going to be for nothing. Don’t argue with me, Captain. It’s too early in the morning for that. If the worst happens, I’ll let you know. Use the escape route we utilized last week and get them the hell down the mountain. Take that idiot German with you. That’s all I can spare.”

“I heard that,” Sebastian said, as he picked up three extra magazines from one of his manned positions.

Everett looked at Collins angrily, and then he looked at the lightening sky above.

“Remind me to thank the president for all of that help he sent.”

Jack nodded his head and watched as Niles and the others approached.

“Move these people into the mine,” he said, as he shook hands with Niles and Pete.

Charlie Ellenshaw walked up to Jack and held out his hand.

“Colonel, I would very much like to stay and help out,” he said, as he pushed his wire-rimmed glasses back up his nose. “They don’t need me in there.”

“Thanks, Doc, but I disagree. They do need you down in that mine. You have a way of helping that you could never understand.”

“I can fight Jack,” Crazy Charlie said, looking pleadingly at the colonel.

“I know you can, Doc, but Sarah, Will, and Ryan need that information, and you can help get it. I need you down there,” he said, nodding toward the shaft.

“Colonel, the enemy is only a thousand yards away,” one of the German commandos called out.

Ellenshaw finally nodded his head of white hair and slowly turned away. Niles looked at Jack and smiled sadly, then he too turned toward the mine’s entrance and left.

“Good luck, swabby,” Jack called out to Everett, who had stopped to hear what he had to say.

“Letting you do the hero thing is getting real old, Jack. This time you may just get your ass shot off,” Carl said as he turned away. “That’s going to leave me with an awful lot of paperwork to do back at the complex, and that is not what I signed up for.”

The Mechanic was very pleased with the way his men had performed.

As he scanned the small contingent lining the front wall of rocks in front of the mine opening, he had to smile. If he had the time, it would be easy to just stand pat and lob grenades into the rocks above. It would decimate the defense line. However, he knew that eventually the Americans would react.

“Commence the attack. Kill them all, and do it quickly.”

As he watched, 256 men advanced through the trees. Then he gestured. Four mortars opened fire. “Take them fast and make sure none escape.”

The lone Air Force C-130J-30 Hercules had flown through the night, refueling once in midair on its long flight from Fort Bragg. The pilot could swear he felt the tops of the trees brush against his underbelly as he hopped over small rises at the base of the Andes. He was sweating while his copilot manipulated the four throttle controls of the venerable old aircraft. As he allowed the yoke to steady, he pushed forward and sent the Hercules into a shallow dive. They had reached the last valley before the drop point. He heard the flight’s engineer open the cabin door.

Lieutenant Commander Scott Englehorn USN, team leader for SEAL Team Five and temporary leader for SEAL Team Eight, stepped up in back of the pilot’s ejection seat.

“Three minutes to IP, Commander. Tell your boys back there good luck,” the Air Force pilot said as he pulled the nose of the Hercules up again in a flurry of motion.

“Hell, besides the other SEAL team, only five of those kids back there speak English, but I’ll pass on your sentiment anyway.” The SEAL patted the pilot on the shoulder. “Thanks for the lift, Air Force. It was a smooth ride.”

“Good luck, Navy,” the pilot said again, feeling for the men that he was about to drop into harm’s way.

The Navy commander stepped out of the cabin and slid quietly down the small set of stairs. He looked at the four lines of men lined up in the hold of the Hercules. His SEAL teams would be the first out of the aircraft. They would be followed by the one hundred men of the main assault element. This young group was what was passing for soldiers nowadays in Europe. They and their nation had just been accepted into NATO and had been on station in the United States for training at Fort Bragg when they were recruited by the president on a purely voluntary mission. As he scanned the eager faces of the men, he saw they had no fear, a sign that they had never faced combat before. He shook his head, sliding among the lines of men. As he moved, the red light appeared in six different areas of the cargo hold.

“Two minutes-two minutes,” he shouted as loud as he could.

He saw the young captain who led the foreign element and the SEAL nodded his head.

“Is Poland ready for this day, Captain?”

“Poland has always been ready, Commander,” the young man said. He looked determinedly into the Navy man’s eyes just as the commander placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I believe you are, Captain. Shall we go and rescue some people on the ground?”

“Yes, Commander, let’s do that.”

“One minute,” the commander shouted as he took his place at the head of the jump group.

The aircraft cargo master started lowering the giant ramp. The men would jump four abreast at seven hundred feet, an extremely low altitude jump. Their parachutes would barely have enough time to open before the tops of the trees would be at their feet. This is what SEALs were used to doing, but the Polish element was making the low altitude jump for the first time. The Navy just hoped the president knew what he was doing. Not only were his SEALs working with an Army element, they were working with a foreign army to boot. The world was becoming a strange place indeed.

The mortars had damaged the front line defense. Three of the German commandos were down before a single shot had been fired at the enemy. Jack went from station to station to check on the men and was making sure they kept their heads down until they had hard targets to engage.

“Colonel, if we don’t take out those mortar positions they can stand off and take us out a group at a time,” the lieutenant from Sebastian’s command said, just as Collins ducked to avoid a near miss.

Jack felt someone slide into the rock-covered position behind him. He turned and saw the green bush headgear and the crossed swords on the side of the hat. It was Captain Whitlesey Mark-Patton of Her Majesty’s SAS. Beside him was Sergeant Tashiro Jiimzo, of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Patton nodded his head.

“Colonel, the sergeant and I have an idea, and with the help of our little Vietnamese sniper friend above, I think we can get to those mortar positions without getting our bloody asses shot off.”

“Let’s hear it,” Collins said, and the two men explained what they wanted to do.

“I’ll take my SAS element, and have these generous Japanese fellows along for support. Our sniper friend can keep the closest of the attackers at bay as we wheel around them and hit the first of the three positions-that is something they won’t be expecting, for us to actually sally forth in an attack.”

As a mortar round landed nearby, Jack could only shake his head.

“Well, Captain, I’m not going to sit here and argue with you. Get it done before someone gets a lucky shot in.”

The SAS captain started to salute and Jack gave him a look that said in no uncertain terms that they did not have the time. The captain smiled and then pulled the Japanese sergeant along with him. As Collins watched, the SAS captain was using his radio to explain what he needed from the Vietnamese sniper above them.

“This is getting nasty as hell,” Jack said to the German beside him. “We need that help the president promised and we need it now.”

“Uh, Colonel, you better see this,” the German commando said loudly over the din of gunfire and explosions. He pointed behind Jack.

“Damn it to hell!” Collins cursed as he saw what the commando was pointing out.

On a small ridge close to the second level of their defense he saw Alice Hamilton and Senator Garrison Lee as they slowly made their way along, heading for the mine opening. He could see that Lee was having a difficult time as Alice held on to him. Then Collins angrily shook his head as the old one-eyed man pulled free of her helping hand and brought up an ancient. 45 caliber Colt automatic, firing three rounds down the hillside. He didn’t hit anything; he just looked happy to be shooting at something. Alice slapped at him and they again started toward the mine opening.

“Ballsy old people,” the German lieutenant said and turned back toward the front line of attackers.

“Yeah, they’re something, all right,” Jack hissed.

“Someday you’ll have to explain to me and my men just who the hell you and these people are, Colonel.”

“Well-” A mortar round detonated not far from their covered position. When Jack looked back up, Alice and Lee had disappeared into the mine opening. “I can tell you this, Lieutenant. That is a real woman and she’s helping one of the bravest men I have ever met in my life.”

Before the German could say anything, another detonation went off not ten feet from their position. Jack managed to shake off the dirt and rocks. He looked at the mine’s gaping maw of an opening.

“Good-bye General Lee,” he said as he slipped back down into the hole.

Everett was in front of the science team as they examined the double steel doors that he had seen on their first visit to the mine a week before. They had opened then for the briefest time and Carl knew that the shaft beyond the doors angled downward on a sharp grade. Everyone started looking for the access panel that would open the doors as explosions outside came at a far brisker pace than just a minute before. Everett and Sebastian both were frustrated beyond measure that they weren’t where they thought they should be inside the mine. The large German was slamming against crates and other material as he searched for the panel, intentionally taking out his anger on the objects he felt were in his way.

“Here it is,” Appleby said. He opened a large steel door embedded in the rock wall. He saw the large switch and the German lettering below it- Sicherheitsturen.

“What does it say?” Ellenshaw asked, looking over the DARPA man’s shoulder.

“It says security door, Professor,” Appleby answered as he eyed Charlie.

“Oh, I guess that’s it then,” Ellenshaw said in all seriousness.

Appleby used his considerable bulk to throw the large-handled switch. The big steel doors started to separate.

The others heard the whine of electric motors and turned to see the two eight-inch-thick steel doors start to part. Everett raised his M-16 and he and Sebastian slipped through the small opening first. Niles grabbed Ellenshaw’s arm as he tried to follow.

“Let them do their job, Professor,” Niles said, admonishing Charlie with a stern look.

As the doors finally opened far enough, they hit their stops and the science team found itself facing eighteen feet of open space. Sebastian and Everett looked around with weapons at the ready, but the entire giant area looked empty, with the exception of several large electric cars equipped with flatbeds parked parallel to the descending roadway ahead of them. Placed down the center line of that road was a red-lighted strip of small glass bulbs embedded in the roadway.

“Seems German engineering was as good back then as it is now, eh?”

They all turned to see Garrison Lee leaning heavily against Alice Hamilton. Niles shook his head. He ran over and quickly took Lee’s weight off Alice’s hands. The woman relaxed and gave Niles a determined look.

“Before you fly off the handle, he has a right to see this, and I for one wasn’t going to say no. Are you?” she asked sternly.

Compton deflated. He held his free hand up to Everett before he could admonish the two older people for their foolishness. Niles shook his head and started for one of the electric carts. He placed Garrison in the back and stepped aside as Carl came up. Carl shook his head at the man who stared at him with one good eye. The old man’s brow lifted as he waited for the chewing out by the mission commander that he knew was coming. Instead, Everett drew out his nine-millimeter and turned it so that the butt of the weapon was facing the senator.

“You remember how to use one of these, I presume?”

Lee grimaced in pain, but still managed to slide the weapon back so that he could look to make sure a round had been chambered. Then he pulled out his old Colt automatic and held both weapons up so Everett could see.

“I should have given that to Alice so she could shoot your curiosity-driven ass,” Carl said. He reached down and patted Lee on the leg.

“Please. She wouldn’t have wasted the bullet, Captain. She would have pistol-whipped me with it. You don’t know how mean this woman really is.”

“Appropriate, I must say,” Niles said. He shook his head at the dying Lee.

“Well, Senator Lee, shall we go see what all the fuss was about back when you were a kid?” Everett said, his anger going the way of a wisp of smoke as he realized Lee was about to go on his final adventure.

“By all means, Captain,” Lee said, as he dipped his hat in Alice’s direction. “My dear Mrs. Hamilton, would you like to ride beside me and prop this old fool up before he falls out?”

Alice smiled and hopped quickly onto the flatbed. She placed her arm through Lee’s.

“I would love to.”

“I notice you didn’t protest my use of the words “old fool,” darling.”

Instead of answering, Alice just laid her head onto the broad shoulder of the man she had loved all of her adult life.

Everett directed the others to climb into the lead cart. Then Sebastian took another of the carts with Charlie, Appleby, and Franklyn Dubois-the German handed his weapon to Ellenshaw and took the wheel of the second cart.

“Don’t shoot me with that,” he said to Ellenshaw.

Jack watched the progress of the young SAS captain and his men as they weaved their way through cover that wasn’t thick enough to hide a raccoon, much less grown men. As the attack force neared the mortar positions, they began encountering fixed positions placed around the mortar crews. As they went as far as they could without being detected, Jack could hear on the radio as the Englishman gave instructions to the young Vietnamese sniper, who was well hidden on the upper tier of the ridgeline above his own position. As the SAS men and the Japanese soldiers waited, Jack watched as the sniper started tracking targets closest to the attack team.

“Come on, kid. Earn your pay for the month,” Collins mumbled while every eye on the ridge watched, hoping the covering mortar fire could be eliminated.

The binoculars in Jack’s hands told the story. He saw a group of pit defenders, as they were called by the SAS captain, start to fall. A group of six mercenaries in the first line guarded the mortar pit a hundred yards in front of the position. This was the extreme range of the sniper’s very old but very accurate M-14, a weapon the Vietnamese only had experience with from the early days of the Vietnam War, thirty-five years before this particular Vietnamese kid had been born.

Through the field glasses Jack saw Captain Whitlesey Mark-Patton raise his right hand and then he saw the extended fingers close into a fist. The first terrorist defender apparently saw movement to his front and made the mistake of raising his head. The fortuitous movement coincided with Vinh Tram’s line of fire. The first round from 1,200 yards caught the man in the top of his head, sending him backward. The next man in line saw his comrade fall and turned to see what the action was about when the second round caught him in the side of his head. Jack couldn’t see if it had been a kill shot because the man’s black baseball cap flew off and obscured his head until he sank out of sight. The friendly sniper didn’t wait to see if the shot had done its work before he fired four more times in rapid succession-hitting every one of his four targets. The nearest he came to missing was when the last man in the defense pit turned to run back to the mortar men he was tasked to guard. The last round caught the man just at the base of the skull and dropped him.

Whitlesey Mark-Patton never hesitated; he and his SAS team, with their tagalong Japanese contingent, ran forward with nothing between them and the mortar. The assault was ruthless. In just five seconds the SAS and Japanese had eliminated the entire mortar crew and then they were up and on to the next, the unguarded center mortar. They hit in the same fashion and then did the same to the third. They stayed long enough to trip fuses in the mortar rounds and drop them into their tubes. A few seconds later the tubes exploded, and then Whitlesey was headed to the next pit as he made his way back.

Jack saw the terrorist element maneuver in behind them, cutting off their retreat as the mortars blew up, outlining their avenue of retreat to the attackers. Whoever was leading these men knew what had happened and moved his chess pieces before Mark-Patton and his men could escape fully.

“Damn it!” Jack said, but even as he spoke the words he saw the men making up the flanking force start to drop.

“I’ll be damned,” the German next to him said. “That kid is an amazing shot!”

As they watched, the terrorists started dropping one at a time, each man never knowing where the shots were coming from. The young Vietnamese soldier, with the barest minimum of firepower and optical assistance, was making kill shot after kill shot from a distance of over fifteen hundred yards against an enemy partially concealed by trees and brush. Every time one of the enemies drew close to Mark-Patton and his team, that man would fall with one of Tram’s bullets in him.

Finally the SAS and Japanese element made it clear of the tree line and rejoined the defense. Captain Whitlesey Mark-Patton joined Jack before he followed his men to the ridge above. All three mortar crews had been eliminated without one attacker lost.

“Remind me to kiss that kid,” Captain Mark-Patton said breathlessly as he plopped against Collins.

“Good job, Captain. That should take away one of their shields when they come on,” Jack said as he watched the terrorist element start to move forward in earnest.

Mark-Patton was making ready to join his men when he turned back to Collins and smiled.

“If I don’t get the chance later, Colonel, tell that kid who saved our asses out there he can bloody well join my team any day.”

“Too late, Captain. I’m adopting him,” Jack said as he lowered the glasses. He held his hand out and shook with the SAS man.

“Here they come, Colonel,” the German lieutenant said, sighting on the first group of mercenaries to break cover.

Jack admired the discipline of the expert soldiers in his defense team. They held their fire without being told as the enemy broke. He also admired the attack strategy of whoever was leading the group of misguided men below. They came on in stages, not presenting a solid front for his men to concentrate fire upon. They came on in staggered waves, zigzagging their way up the hill toward their very limited defense.

Collins raised his M-16 and sighted. He saw one man in front of a group of thirty-five or so and targeted him since he was turning periodically and gesturing. A sure leader of men, Jack thought, as he fired the first round from the first line of defenders. The man fell. That was the signal for the defense of Columbus Ridge, as it would be known in many reports afterward, to begin.

The entire firing line opened up against the overwhelming force of terrorists.

As the three carts traveled further into the mine shaft, Everett could see the expense that was thrown into the mine itself. The German engineers had made a futuristic roadway complete with lighting and smooth macadam road. The further down they traveled, the smaller but more brightly lit the tunnel was. All eyes were watching for guards that may have ventured in ahead of them. Carl heard a shot from behind their electric car. When he stopped, he saw Sebastian lecturing Charlie Ellenshaw about weapons safety. Pete was actually smiling from his position in the flatbed behind Ellenshaw. Satisfied they weren’t in the midst of an ambush, Everett drove on. Every once in a while he would glance back at the senator and Alice. Lee was leaning heavily against her and unmoving. Alice would place her right hand against his cheek and rub it until Garrison looked up and reassured her he was still among the living. Carl also noticed the medical bag opened at Alice’s side. Lee was being plied with plenty of painkillers for his ride into the bowels of the earth.

Suddenly Carl had to slam on the brakes as they came around a large bend in the lighted roadway. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Before them stood two giant doors, but that wasn’t the amazing sight. On both sides of the road were large kiosks, just like the ones you would find in any museum in the world. Decked out in bright red and black streamers covered in dust and dirt were what looked like gift shops. Inside were displayed Nazi flags and pictures of the mine shaft as it was being excavated. Everett shone a flashlight in one of the large plate glass windows and saw what looked like small models of spaceships that he recognized from his childhood.

“Buck Rogers,” Alice explained when she saw what Everett had illuminated.

“Ma’am?” Everett said.

“The spaceships are from an old movie serial of the thirties, Buck Rogers. Judging from the looks of things, the Nazis had designs on making this a tourist attraction after their triumph in the war.”

Carl shook his head as he climbed free of the small cab. He turned the light on the small gift shop and the equally small snack area opposite.

“I swear, when you think this job has topped out in strangeness, something comes along that makes you feel you’ll never see the end,” Everett said as he was joined by Sebastian and the others.

Sebastian chose to ignore the strange shops around them and looked up at the thick steel doors ahead. He read the words spelled out in German on those doors: Galerie Ein-Wohnkomplex.

“What does it say?” Everett asked Sebastian.

“The first line says Gallery One, Living Complex, and the second line says ‘No electric carts beyond this point and no one enters without SS escort.’” Sebastian looked over at Everett. “And before you ask, no, I do not qualify as one of those murdering bastards.”

“I never said a word, buddy. You’re not responsible for those cheery bastards. Shall we open it up and see what’s behind door number one?”

Sebastian just nodded his head and looked over at Niles, who had already found the breaker box for the door. The German dipped his head forward, giving the director the go-ahead.

The giant steel doors started to part. As the black breach expanded, they could see nothing but darkness beyond. Sebastian and Everett were struck with a breeze that chilled them as the doors slid apart. They brought their weapons up and waited. The doors stopped; beyond them both men felt like the vastness of space had opened up before them.

“Boss, see if you can find the light switch,” Carl said as the two were joined by Lee, Alice, Charlie, Appleby, and the MIT man, Franklyn Dubois.

Niles found the handle with the electrical symbol above it and threw the switch.

Suddenly the gallery beyond the doors flared into a glorious brightness. They were standing on the precipice of a massive stone ledge overlooking a giant cave system.

“This isn’t a mine, it’s a cave, a natural formation,” Ellenshaw said. He stepped forward and looked down at one of the most amazing sights he had ever seen. The others braved the heights and followed Ellenshaw’s lead out onto the ledge.

Far below, they saw a pathway that had been dredged out of solid rock leading down to the bowels of the cave system. Thousands of overhead lights had been installed by German workmen over seventy years before. Illuminated by these lights was what looked like the destroyed remains of an ancient city. The buildings were made up of material that looked like plastic, white and dull with dirt and dust. Some of the structures were upright, others crushed beneath stone and other debris that had fallen over the years. They could see that some of the strange material had actually petrified, indicating its age. They could also see very old German heavy equipment that had been used to excavate some of the strange buildings. Tractors, earth movers, and other construction elements littered the three-mile length of the dig.

“Look at those,” Niles Compton said as he joined the group looking out over the crushed and battered cave system below.

“What are they?” Appleby asked.

“Petrified trees,” Ellenshaw answered for Niles. “Thousands of them.”

“This site used to be aboveground, possibly before the formation of the mountains.”

The men and Alice looked at Niles as he continued to speculate.

“Millions of years ago these buildings were in the light of day, but a shift in the continental plates and a buckling of the crust created the Andes as continents collided with each other, forming the up-push that sent stone and dirt miles into the air, covering this site, this small village of visitors.”

“Visitors?” Alice asked.

“They had to be. Check out those geodesic domes. They look as though they were meant to be temporary structures, just like we would pitch tents in an unknown land. Can’t you feel it?”

Everett watched as Niles and the others visualized a group of explorers setting up a base on an inhospitable bit of land doomed to be crushed by the formation of a mountain range, all of this happening nearly a hundred million years before.

“We have to get down there,” Niles said, turning to looked at Everett.

“The path is this way,” he said. He looked at Lee. “Sebastian, I think we can break the rules your forebears warned of and take the carts down. If that heavy machinery made it, we can too.”

“I agree, Captain,” Sebastian said without looking at the ailing senator.

Lee was staring at the large and age-tattered streamers that bore the Nazi swastika. The flags and banners hung around the entire circumference of the rounded chamber below. This is what had led to the death of Alice’s husband Ben, and Lee for one was determined to find out what that death had been for, what the price was for the death of a good young man.

“For some reason, I think more than a global cataclysm struck this place,” Ellenshaw said. The others, save for Everett, made their way back to the electric cars.

“Come on, Doc. Let’s get down there,” Everett said.

The Mechanic, using field glasses, scanned the ridge in front of the mine and nodded as he took in the defense line of the Americans. The small force had been cut in half by his on-again, off-again assaults. He had witnessed three men go down in the last minute of battle from the front line of defense. As he adjusted the binoculars, he watched another team of his men run forward throwing grenades, only to be cut down by withering fire from the first and second ridgelines before them. Whoever was commanding those men up there had done a masterful job of concentrating fire on the most immediate threat. But time was running out for them. The attrition he was using his men up for was pushing the defense of the mine entrance to its limits.

He turned to the twenty men of his personal security team and told them to make ready to move forward with the special strike teams. He knew the defense line was soon going to falter and he didn’t want any remnants falling back into the mine, where they would have to be rooted out later at great expense in men and, more importantly, time. The pests had caused far more casualties than the Mechanic would have liked. They had killed his men at a rate of fifty to one and that was getting a bit expensive. He needed these men for the removal of the artifacts and the weaponry from the mine.

He lowered his field glasses and admonished his men to keep a low profile as they advanced because of the threat of the most amazing sniper he had ever come into contact with. Try as he might, he could not pinpoint where the shooter was, but he was taking a heavy toll on his men. The man must be running low on ammunition, because his rate of fire had slowed, even though targets of opportunity abounded in the tree line.

“Radio the assault teams to make ready for the final push. I want the Americans to be swept clean of that ridge. We are running out of time. We still have a force of close to two hundred-adequate for the job, but not if we hesitate. Tell them that-”

He never got to finish. A withering fire opened up from somewhere behind them. Men who were formed for the final attack were struck by automatic weapons fire and mortars from their rear. As the Mechanic swung around he saw an amazing sight. From the very positions they had held earlier, a large force of men in green camouflage was running and firing-stopping, adjusting their fire, and moving in relays toward his exposed men.

“Impossible!” he shouted. He was being inundated with fire from the attacking force.

His men were being shredded by a Special Operations unit that could not be Ecuadorian. These men were running toward them crazed but with purpose. They were taking aim and laying down a swath of destruction that would soon render his attack moot and assure his defeat. Before he even knew what was hitting him, he froze. Two jets streaked overhead and four explosions rocked the trees where his men were trying to take cover. As he scanned the sky with his glasses he was amazed to see the jet aircraft climb out of their dive and head back into the blue sky.

“F-18 Hornets!” Where did they come from?” he asked no one. Two more Hornets made a low-level strafing run with their twenty-millimeter cannon, decimating a large group of his men who had exposed themselves far in advance of his orders to do so. “Allah be merciful!”

“We have to leave this place or die here,” one of his men said as the group of attackers in the rear grew closer.

The Mechanic thought fast. He looked up at the ridgeline where the well-disciplined troops continued to fire instead of celebrating their rescue, and then he looked at the mine opening. He turned to the man on his right.

“Get my men together. Just from my twenty security personnel and the nearest group. Make it no more than ten. We will go to the river and backtrack to the waterfall, then we will enter the mine at that point. That is where the Americans escaped last week and that is where we will go.”

As the man followed his orders, the Mechanic looked at the front line on the ridge. He tried to see who was there, determine who was directing the fight, but all he could see was fire coming from that position.

“You have been blessed for the moment, but God will allow me the final victory.”

Jack slapped the wounded lieutenant on his shoulder, careful to avoid the still bleeding wound on his leg.

“Well,” Jack said, laying his radio down in the pile of expended shell casings, “say hello to elements of the Second Special Polish Parachute Brigade and two teams of U.S. Navy SEALs.”

“A grand sight indeed, Colonel. Now where did the air support come from?”

“Compliments of the U.S. Navy, and the Enterprise battle group, which finally decided to get into the fight.”

“I never thought I would be pulled from the fire by a Polish brigade and the U.S. Navy, Colonel. Remind me to send them a note of thanks.”

“I think we better include the president in that. It took him a while, but he came through.”

Jack helped the lieutenant to his feet and handed him off to a dirty but smiling German comrade. Collins looked around at the Polish soldiers as they checked the dead and wounded of the attacking element. The parachute brigade had done its job, and was now learning that being nice to terrorists, either unharmed or wounded, was not an easy task.

“Colonel Collins?”

Jack turned and saw a man with thick green greasepaint covering his face. His bush hat was crumpled and only the whites of his eyes stood out.

“That’s my name,” Jack said, looking at the man and his two companions.

“Compliments of the president, sir. Lieutenant Commander Scott Englehorn, U.S. Navy, relieving you.”

Jack ignored the salute from the SEAL and just held out his hand.

The young officer was taken back. He looked uncomfortable at first, and then he smiled as he took the colonel’s hand in his own and shook it.

“I think you may have a buddy up there on the ridgeline somewhere. I think that’s where I put the Navy, anyway.”

The commander looked around and nodded his head. “We heard there were other ball bouncers around these parts.”

Jack smiled at the familiar term the SEALs had for each other, referring to a seal balancing a ball on its nose.

“You can tell them how you liked commanding Polish paratroopers.”

The lieutenant commander leaned into Jack and whispered, “Sir, those sons of bitches are fighting fools. I’ll take them into combat anytime.”

“Pass on to them my thanks, Commander. Now I have to get going. Secure the area and please take care of these men. They deserve it. Bring up the Polish company and make sure that mine entrance is secure. Deadly force is authorized without warning-be sure no one gets in.”

This time the Navy SEAL did salute and Jack returned it. As he was moving off the line, he looked at his gathered defense team. They were limping down from the upper ridge, assisting their wounded or carrying their dead. They stopped as one and looked at the man who had held them together for an hour and a half of pure hell. Colonel Jack Collins simply nodded his head at his men. For their part, the men stood watching Jack for the longest time, then slowly moved off to the aid station that the SEALs and Polish paratroopers had set up.

Jack turned away, always proud of the way men acted in the toughest of situations. He had started climbing back up toward the mine opening when he ran straight into the Vietnamese sergeant and his lone surviving private-the sniper from the upper ridge. The smaller man laid the now empty and still hot M-14 at Collins’s feet and nodded his head. Jack smiled and handed the boy private his M-16.

“Sergeant, can I borrow this man for a few hours. I think I would feel safer with him along.”

The Vietnamese sergeant half bowed and interpreted the colonel’s request to his man. The kid smiled and nodded his head.

“Private Tram, am I correct?” Jack asked. He gestured for the kid to follow him toward the entrance to the mine.

The private nodded, understanding Jack’s small bit of English.

“I think this is the start of a long and fruitful relationship, kid.”