ma’am, we’d better get-”
That was as far as the sergeant got before the bullets cut him down. The six men with him didn’t even have time to bring their weapons up before fifty silenced bullets struck them down as well. Alice barely escaped being hit as one of the bullets slammed into the tent pole where she had placed her hand. As she ran to the closest of the fallen men, a hand reached out and took her by the arm.
“I’m sure he is far beyond the need for your attention, madam.”
Alice looked up into the dark eyes of the Mechanic.
She had seen the dossier on him that the FBI had sent Jack. She easily recognized the eyes. The beard was gone and the hair was longer than he wore during his insurgent days in Iraq, but it was the Mechanic.
“Azim Quaida, the Mechanic. Which do you want to be called, young man?” Alice asked. Her gray eyes never left the dark countenance staring at her.
“You know me and yet I do not know you. CIA?” he asked and released her hand.
“You’ve become very popular lately in my country,” she said.
“Yes, I imagine I have. The people responsible for that popularity are no longer in a position to use men such as myself.”
Alice didn’t say anything but tried to block the man’s path as he stepped to the tent flap to enter. He easily moved her to the side. He saw Lee lying on the cot with a blanket pulled nearly to his chin. The Mechanic looked from the old man to the woman who now stood next to him. By the look in the older woman’s eyes, the Mechanic knew that if she had been armed she most definitely would have attempted something stupid.
“I believe I saw you and this man enter the mine during the battle outside. Who are you and why are you here?”
Alice neither moved nor spoke.
“Madam, know that while I don’t particularly like women, I also wish them no harm. However, I have on occasion killed many of them. I shall have no qualms about ending your life.”
“Why don’t you save your questions for the colonel? He’s in there,” she said. She tilted her head to the left, indicating Gallery Number Two.
“Ah, the very resourceful Colonel Collins. You know him on a personal level?”
Alice again didn’t answer.
“You have said nothing, but have answered me nonetheless, madam. I suspect this old man knows him also, and that you may be close to him in some way. Therefore, you will be what is known as a bargaining chip.”
“And you think Jack’s going to deal away whatever you want for two old farts like us?”
“For a mere weapon or two from the excavation, yes, he should have no possible argument.” He turned and raised a flashlight, clicking it on and off twice. “If not, he risks the chance of me killing you and sending the entire cave system tumbling down around them all. And then we all lose. Yes, he will trade, I believe.”
An explosion rocked the gallery. In the distance Alice heard the crashing of rocks and a rumbling beneath her feet.
“Please, don’t be alarmed. We just made sure that the front door closed behind us.”
The Mechanic gestured for his men to assemble. He took Alice by the arm and pulled her toward the back of the chamber, his men falling into step behind them.
Lee mumbled in his sleep, his good eye opening.
He didn’t know what had awakened him, but he felt the last trembling of the earth as it passed through the legs of the cot. He raised his head and felt the cotton in his mouth from the painkillers. He smacked his lips and that was when he thought he heard voices. He tilted his head and listened, but no one spoke again. He tried to sit up but found that his back wouldn’t work the way it should. So he threw his left leg over the side of the cot and moved his right leg over after it. He tapped the ground with his boot and tried to move again. This time he sat up until he could rest his weight on his left elbow. He looked around in the semidarkness of the tent. Alice was gone and that helped him get his thoughts into some sort of order. He finally sat up and saw his hat where one of his feet had knocked it to the floor. To Lee it looked as though it had landed a hundred miles away. He shook his head and closed his good eye. He tried to stand. He pushed upward with one hand and swiveled his hips until he felt his feet under him. Then he pushed with both hands against his knees and he was up.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad for a zombie,” he said to himself. “Now I know why they walk so slow in those movies. It damn well hurts.”
Lee turned shakily and eased the flap aside. He ducked his head back into the tent as the last of the terrorist force vanished through the old composite buildings left by the Visitors.
“What the hell is going on? I take a nap and everything falls to pieces. Where the hell is that old girl?” he asked himself, chancing another look outside. As he finally located the head of the force, Lee saw Alice in the front quarter of the men. She was being pulled along roughly toward the falls where Jack and his men had found the opening.
“Goddamn it,” he hissed. His brow furrowed and his lips set into a straight line.
Garrison Lee turned and looked back into the interior of the tent. He spied his cane and took hold of it. He reached down without feeling any of the previous pain or stiffness, snatched up the fedora, and placed it on his gray head. He stepped out of the tent and saw that the men, with Alice in tow, had vanished into the opening of the next gallery. When he finally looked away he saw the bodies of the men that the Mechanic had just killed. Lee closed his good eye and shook his head. Then something happened that he hadn’t experienced in some time-he became furious, murderously so. He opened his eye and looked at the cane in his hand. He angrily tossed it away and reached down to retrieve one of the fallen soldiers’ weapons. It was an Ingram submachine gun. Lee hefted it and liked the weight of it. He reached down and tore free the ammunition belt. It contained a pouch full of ammo clips for the weapon.
“I’m sorry, young man, but in return for the loan of your weapon I’ll kill the son of a bitch who killed you.”
Collins stood before the cement blockhouse and watched Captain Everett and Major Sebastian Krell enter. He could see the darkened and barred windows flare to life with light, which illuminated still more torn and tattered flags emblazoned with swastikas. The large eagle, symbol of the state, stretched across the opening of the blockhouse and Jack felt anger for what the Germans had done here. As he thought about the situation his eyes never left the windows. He was just dawdling along and totally cut off from any information on the fate of Dark Star. It was starting to drag down his ability to think clearly. Carl was forcing him to do things more in line with the book, reminding him that there were a bunch of young soldiers in here who depended on him.
Jack watched as Everett cleared the large blockhouse. He was coming to the conclusion that he would have to turn over command to Everett or Sebastian, because he was starting to take shortcuts, and shortcuts got men killed. Finally, Everett stepped to the large door.
“All clear, Jack,” he said. He nodded his head, indicating that he believed they had found just what they had come to Ecuador to find. “Mr. Director, you’d better bring in your equipment.”
Niles closed his eyes and thanked God that they had finally found something that would make all this death not as meaningless as it otherwise would have been. He gestured to the twenty soldiers who were carrying their cases, including a large computer for Pete.
“Are you coming, Jack?” Niles asked.
Collins acted as though he hadn’t heard Niles. This was the second time the director had noticed that Jack had wandered away in his mind.
Finally Niles slapped Collins on the shoulder and faced him.
“Colonel, are you with us?”
Jack nodded his head and, without saying a word, stepped past Niles and the men carrying the equipment. He went into the blockhouse.
Compton watched until he vanished and then turned to see Ellenshaw looking at him.
