'Well,' Niles said while eyeing Lee, 'as Jack said, we order some engineers into that gap in the mountains and drill a hole as deep as we can and then booby-trap it. One neutron bomb should do, no radiation. That may just finish them and break their backs, unless they just go deep under any rocks in the immediate stratum and go under the mountains at some point.'
'We may be giving these animals too much credit,' Lee said. 'I mean, are they sentient or just wild beasts? We don't know, and our only choice is to treat them as animals. So maybe they will take the path of least resistance just like the major said and go where they don't have to dig deeper. We must hope they are driven by their metabolism, not their brains. So, where we stand is, we need their path to be failsafe and very, very tempting. Get every head of cattle left in that valley and get them to that gap.'
Niles didn't comment but just nodded and marked the break in the mountains with his finger, drawing a line that bled into the map as his finger passed.
'So there it is, the line has been drawn, huh, Niles? Now get on the horn and tell the president Jack's fallback plan,' Lee said. 'If the tunnel teams fail, Major Collins may have to do the unthinkable.'
Niles looked at Lee and shook his head, hoping it wouldn't come to that.
'After you get done there, Niles, we have to sit down and discuss a little e-mail I just received from a traitor in the midst of
Alice and the senator sat on the couch exchanging gentle words. It seemed whatever e-mail Lee had just received was like a tonic that gave him a breath of new life and a new mission.
Niles connected with the president. 'Sir, Major Collins has come up with a rather ballsy backup plan. Are you ready for this?'
Collins followed Sarah, catching her just as she was walking up to Everett and Lisa. 'You watch yourself, don't pull any hero crap out there.' He stopped and looked her in the eyes and then at Lisa. 'Because in my experience, a hero is a sandwich.' Then he gave her a soft smile and turned away and left.
Sarah smiled sadly at Lisa and Everett, then joined the line to get her body armor, leaving Lisa and Everett alone.
'I've decided something,' Lisa said as she watched her friend leave.
'And that is?' Everett asked, not caring who saw them talking with each other. At this point, Congress could climb into one of those cursed holes and go straight to hell.
'I'm resigning from the navy.'
'No, now that Jack is on board, the Group's security is in the best hands possible. It's me who's resigning.'
Lisa couldn't speak.
'That means as soon as this thing's over, we're going to your folks in Houston and we're getting married. That's an order.'
She smiled and hit him in the shoulder. 'Ow' was all the big SEAL said.
Man has always been wary of the darkness and thus has followed the path laid bright by the moon; therefore I shall steal the moon glow and blacken the night... and show him just why he is afraid of the dark.
-- ANCIENT HEBREW TEXT
THIRTY
Sarah turned and watched the Blackhawk carrying Jack and his tunnel team to Chato's Crawl. She thought he was looking down at her and she gave a halfhearted wave as the big helicopter lifted skyward. She turned and counted the heads that made up her team, then looked toward the command tent. Lisa was there with her arms crossed over her chest. She waved and Sarah just smiled as she threw her nylon rope down the dark hole. Thirteen more ropes followed, and two by two her team rappelled into the darkness.
The heat and humidity hit her immediately as her light searched for the area where the hole became a tunnel. She came to a stop with her partner on the opposite side and scanned the area with her helmet light. Then she snapped it off and lowered her night-vision goggles and the world became a greenish hue. She nodded and they continued the final few feet to the floor, landing softly and pulling the ropes from their rappelling rings. They both lowered to an assault crouch as they scanned the emptiness of the tunnel ahead of them. Sarah raised her goggles and turned her helmet light on and off twice, signaling it was safe for the next two to finish the drop and enter the hole. Sarah moved to the mouth of the tunnel as the rest of the team came down in twos. Sarah raised her XM8 and stepped into the blackness.
She moved twenty feet into the darkness before holding her hand up in a stop gesture. She removed her glove as the team assembled behind her and felt the wall. It was sticky, not to the point it made her fingers stick together, but it felt moist and tacky. The tunnel had a musky odor, like a lot of caves that host large bat populations, and some ammonia smell, but the humidity was the worst aspect thus far. Sarah replaced her glove and started forward.
Her team had only gone two hundred yards into the increasingly deepening tunnel when a Ranger, a young sergeant, started talking loudly and shaking his head. He slid down one of the shining walls, losing his weapon and placing his hands over his face, knocking his night-vision goggles from it.
Sarah turned and made her way back. The man was now screaming.
'What in the hell is going on?' she asked as she knelt before the young soldier.
'I gottta get outta here, the walls are closing in on me, I can't stand it!' he screamed.
Sarah reached out and grabbed his right arm and shook it. 'Calm down, calm down,' she said as she reached out and took his oxygen tank and unclipped the plastic mask and quickly placed it over his mouth. 'Breathe, troop, breathe, easy, easy.'
The sergeant started taking deep breaths, his eyes closing as he finally started calming.
'Anyone else?' she said loudly. 'Come on, you're no good to us if you're going to freak out, so is anyone else claustrophobic?' she said, looking around.
The sergeant removed the oxygen mask and looked at Sarah with pleading eyes. 'Sorry, sorry, I need someone to take me back,' he said as he slammed the mask back over his mouth.
'I'm the one who's sorry, Sergeant, but I'm not going to spare a man walking you out of here. You get back the best way you can. The rest of you, let's go.'
With that, the sergeant's eyes widened as Sarah abruptly turned and went back to the head of her team. The other Rangers and two Delta men didn't look back, but joined their team leader. The young sergeant scrambled to his feet and started back to the tunnel opening.
Sarah shook her head as she once again started forward into the dark and humidity of the tunnel. If the truth be known, she wanted nothing more than to follow the kid out of there.
As Collins hit the bottom of the hole, he was hit immediately by the heat. Everett landed easily on the opposite side. This tunnel was far smaller than the one Sarah was currently struggling in. It must be one of the offspring holes. They had to bend slightly to keep from scraping their heads on the rounded ceiling. Jack turned his night vision on and saw the small, sparkling elements of sand and dirt that made up the compressed walls. They were smooth and warm to the touch. Everett looked his way and shook his head.
'Goddamn, Jack, but it's blacker than a well digger's ass down there,' he said as he brought his XM8 up, thinking it was too light to do any good, armor-piercing rounds or not.
Collins watched as the tunnel sloped down into nothingness. He looked at the ground and saw large marks gouged into the earth. He reached down and saw they were scrapes made by the passing of the animal. He was looking at what were claw marks. He shook his head and moved forward so Mendenhall, Ryan, and the rest of his team could crowd in. Then Everett stepped aside and allowed a master sergeant from Delta to take the lead. The Delta sergeant went forward, held his hand up, then slowly lowered it, indicating that they should follow.
