The Ajax Protocol

CHAPTER 53

Ronnie pulled the cover off the numbered keypad by the barn door and studied the wiring inside the unit. A half dozen wires of different colors ran in all directions. He pulled a red and yellow wire out of the mix and touched them together. The unit sparked. The doors stayed closed. A thin wisp of smoke rose from the keypad.

"Now what," Selena said.

"It should have been red and yellow," Ronnie said. "Let me try something else."

He raised his M-16 and put a three round burst into the keypad. There was a loud click and one of the doors slid partway open.

"When in doubt, use a bigger hammer," Ronnie said. Korov smiled.

They squeezed through the opening. The interior of the barn was in darkness. They fanned out by the doors and listened, weapons held ready. There was no one there.

Korov took a small flashlight from his pocket and turned it on. The barn was cluttered with old furniture, machinery, tools. Shadows cast by the moving light shifted as if they were alive.

"This place gives me the creeps," Selena said.

The light revealed the squat shape of a freight elevator shaft. It looked new. A metal lattice gate closed off the open shaft. A control box with two buttons was mounted on one side.

"Looks like we found the way in," Ronnie said. "I don't think they use this for moving bales of hay."

Nick's ear tingled. He scratched it.

"You're doing that thing," Ronnie said.

"What thing?"

"The ear thing."

"Yeah. Could be someone waiting for us at the bottom of this shaft."

"Is there another way down?" Selena asked.

Korov circled the barn with his light. "I don't see anything," he said.

"Here goes nothing," Nick said. He pushed the top button on the control panel. Machinery whined as the elevator rose from somewhere below. They stood to the side, rifles pointed at the opening. It seemed like a long time before the top of the cage appeared above the floor. The elevator came to a stop. There was no one on it.

Nick pulled open the gate. It moved smoothly on oiled tracks. Another two-button switch was mounted on the inside of the cage.

"We don't have much choice," Nick said. "We have to use this."

"We're sitting ducks if someone starts shooting," Ronnie said.

"Like I said, we don't have much choice. Stand close to the sides. If they're waiting for us, we'll see them through the gap when the floor of the elevator reaches the lower level. If anyone's there, shoot through the gap before the elevator stops."

"The gate's in the way," Korov said.

Nick looked at the grillwork. "There's a safety interlock where the gate shuts. If we jam it, the elevator will work with the gate open. We need something to block it."

Three empty wooden crates were stacked next to the shaft. Ronnie went to one and broke off a sliver of wood.

"How about this?"

Nick jammed the piece into the interlock.

"That'll work." He swept his hand toward the elevator. "Going down," he said.

They got on. Nick pushed the bottom button. The elevator began to descend. Nick and Selena went to one side, Ronnie and Korov to the other. They pressed up against the walls of the cage.

They descended at a snail's pace. Nick kept his M-16 pointed at the front edge of the elevator floor. A crack of light appeared, becoming wider. Nick wondered if someone was waiting.

Someone was. They fired at the elevator as it came into view.

Korov fired first through the widening gap, then the others. Bullets slammed into the bottom of the elevator floor and into the top of the cage. Whoever was below had to fire up through the gap, a disadvantage. There were three of them. By the time the elevator stopped, they were dead. They all wore the TSA uniform.

From where they stood inside the elevator, there wasn't much to see. To the left and in front were walls of gray concrete, the opposite wall a dozen feet away. They had stopped at the end of a broad corridor. The passage continued to the right, out of Nick's vision.

He held up his hand. Wait. There had to be more of them.

Clink!

A dark green cylinder rolled to a stop in front of the elevator.

"Grenade!" Nick shouted.

Korov moved in a blur, scooping up the grenade and hurling it back down the hallway. He landed flat on the floor and covered his head with his arms. The grenade detonated. In the enclosed space, the sound was a thunderclap. Screams came from down the hall.

Nick, Ronnie and Selena moved out of the elevator and began firing down the passage over Korov's head. At the other end, someone was still alive and shooting at them. Bullets ricocheted from the concrete walls. Selena felt the wind as they flew by. One grazed her arm, a sharp, burning pain. The passage filled with a haze of smoke and concrete dust from the explosion.

Then it was silent. Korov got to his feet.

Dust and smoke drifted through the hall. The air smelled of burnt gunpowder and spent brass and hot blood. Down the passage, six men in TSA uniforms lay dead on the floor. There was a lot of blood, pools of it. What a grenade did to the human body wasn't pretty.

The corridor ended in a T. The bodies lay in the junction.

Nick turned to Korov. "Nice move with the grenade. You ought to try out for the Yankees."

"Yankees?"

Ronnie stifled a laugh.

Nick said, "Never mind, Arkady."

"It's clear up to that T," Ronnie said.

They ran to the junction. The crackle of static froze them in place.

"Echo team, report."

Ronnie bent down and took a radio from the belt of one of the dead men. It was a standard military issue.

"Echo team, report," someone said again.

Nick nodded. Ronnie pressed send.

"Echo," he said. He muffled his voice.

"That you, Jack? What the hell's happening?"

"Four intruders. All dead."

"You sound funny," the voice said.

Ronnie coughed into the radio. "Lot of dust. Hadda use a grenade."

"All right. Come in. Out."

"Copy," Ronnie said. He turned the radio off.

"You should have been an actor," Nick said. He glanced around the corner. The passage was empty in both directions.

"Which way?" Korov said.

"Damned if I know," Nick said.

"Left," Selena said. She pointed at a layer of dust covering the floor in the right hand passage. "No footprints." She looked at the bodies lying by her feet. "These men didn't come that way."

"You're bleeding," Korov said.

Selena's sleeve was red with blood.

"Only a scratch."

Korov took out his knife and cut the fabric away from her arm. She winced as he pulled the cloth away.

"It's not serious. A flesh wound," he said. He cut a strip from his shirt and used it to wrap the injury. His touch was gentle as he did it.

Selena gave him an odd look. "Thanks," she said.

Nick inserted a fresh 30 round magazine into his M-16. "Let's go," he said.

They moved into the left-hand corridor. Light bulbs lined the walls at regular intervals, each one protected by a metal grill. The tunnel was big, at least two dozen feet across and almost as high.

"You could drive a truck through here," Ronnie said. "What were they thinking of?"

"It was supposed to be part of the train system," Selena said. "At least that's the story."

They walked along the deserted tunnel. Nick felt fatigue setting in as the adrenaline wore off. He forced himself to stay alert.

"Someone spent a lot of money to build this," Korov said.

"If it was meant to be an emergency hideout for the big shots, they wouldn't have cared about how much it cost."

"But they never used it," Selena said. "Why build it and then walk away?"

"Who knows?" Nick said. "I gave up trying to understand how Washington spends our money a long time ago."

Ahead, the corridor turned left around a blind corner. They moved single file along the wall until Nick signaled a halt. He glanced around the corner.

The corridor ended in a wall and a steel door painted gray.

They moved to the door. Nick tugged on his ear. It itched.

"Maybe they think we're dead. Maybe they don't. My guess is were going to find out when we go through that door," Nick said. "The door opens toward us. Ronnie, you and Korov take the left side and Selena and I will take the right."

They took up positions on either side of the door. Nick pulled it open. Nothing happened.

The door led to a large storeroom filled with old office furniture and odds and ends from the airport. Everything was stacked in haphazard piles. The place looked like a junk shop organized by a schizophrenic. On the far side of the room was another door.

"I don't see anyone," Ronnie said. His voice was quiet.

They started into the room.

"Look out!"

Korov jumped in front of Selena and pushed her aside. A burst of automatic fire came from behind a stack of boxes. The bullets hurled the Russian backward. Nick had time to see a dark object hurtling through the air before the world vanished in a wave of light and sound.