too late.”
“My father lost his way and tried to gain riches from the assemblage of weaponry in the ruins,” said Rawlins. “God, in his infinite wisdom, chose to destroy him, and bury him along with the heresy of that mine. Since his disappearance more than thirty years ago I have made sure that the truth of that place and its contents were well guarded, unseen by the unbelievers. If I had buried it, there are always little men with shovels who would come dig it up. You and McCabe promised me that you could destroy it and at the same time stop more of the technology from being found on the Moon.”
“And the mine will be destroyed once my people gain the knowledge hidden there. This is a gift from God himself,” the Mechanic said in his rediscovered zeal.
The Reverend stepped forward and placed his arm around his equally insane daughter. He pulled her into him and both sets of crazed eyes bore into the Mechanic.
“I would have the world burn before I allow my faith to be crushed by the release of more lies against the word of God.”
“Then you will be allowed to witness the start of the final Jihad against the lies of infidels.”
Without aiming, the Mechanic pulled the trigger and shot Laurel in the face. Then he shot her once more before she collapsed.
Rawlins stood shocked; his mouth was moving but nothing came out.
“At least the infidels, your countrymen, do not hide their true intent out of fear, but you, Mr. Rawlins, use God to your own ends. This is a sin you will not survive.”
Three shots into Rawlins’s face and neck sent him hard against the white-painted wall. He slowly slid down onto the floor next to his older daughter. The Mechanic looked at the two bodies in disgust and laid the silenced pistol on the end table near the couch. He picked up the phone and hit one number.
“Prepare the men. I want the mine shut down, and I also want the Americans who are in this country tracked down and killed. The mine shafts and the enclosure will be blasted into oblivion tonight after we remove the weaponry and the other technology.”
Jack didn’t like it, but the only men who knew their way around Quito were Pete Golding and Charlie Ellenshaw. Collins had placed Sebastian in overall command of the mission to bring in the two men from Washington who were being sent in by the president. Information was being doled out on a very strict need-to- know basis and that was starting to infuriate Jack.
Since word of the attack on the Atlas and Dark Star 3 had reached him, he had been champing at the bit to get his team inside the mountain. He had calmed when Niles had passed on word that they now had two days before Sarah and Dark Star reached lunar orbit. He knew his reactions and anger at the helpless situation could very well get a lot of people killed; thus he was considering handing over all elements of the advance team to Captain Everett. Then he would have Sebastian take command of any assault elements.
They were now holed up in five small trailers purchased with cash from a small town east of Quito by Director Compton. Several laptops and a satellite receiver had been provided by the U.S. embassy there and now they were in constant communication with Washington and Event Group Center. Most importantly they now had a direct link to Europa. The trailer had been hidden among the thick trees that flourished at the three-thousand-foot mark of the lower Andes. They were well above the mine that held the secrets of Columbus, and the team had thus far only had one close call with a roving patrol of what sounded like German mercenaries. It had taken Jack and Carl over ten minutes to convince Sebastian that he couldn’t confront the patrol until they were ready and had permission from the president. That was one of the reasons they had decided to send the German commando off to Quito with Pete and Charlie.
Counting the ten German commandos, Jack could field six men besides himself, and that included the two Air Force pilots who had to abandon the 737 at the airport. Then there were Compton, Charlie, and Pete, not very good odds for facing the small force now guarding the mine’s entrance. The colonel figured there were now close to two hundred personnel at the main entrance, and at least another seventy at the waterfall where they had made their earlier escape. One thing was for sure-he suspected that reinforcements would soon arrive as the mission to the Moon neared its objective. If they didn’t get a go or receive an infusion of men from the president soon, they would lose the mine and everything in it. That would mean that Sarah and the others would actually have to land on the Moon in an untried and untested lander. Once they were there, they would face another landing team, one that might be hostile. These were the thoughts occupying Jack as he waited for the return of Sebastian, Charlie, and Pete.
Everett stepped up to the tree where Jack was sitting and kneeled down.
“Tough, huh?”
Jack shook his head slightly and tossed the stick that he was holding into the trees.
“You know, the thing of it is, if I’d been asked to volunteer for the Moon, and if I was as young as those three idiots, I would have jumped at the chance,” Collins said, shaking his head.
“You and me both.” Everett stood and looked around at the towering trees that hid their small camp. “But space is a young man’s game. That’s why we virtually attacked them before they left the complex. Our jealousy got the better of us, I think.”
“It seems like a year since they left for Houston,” Jack said as he too stood and looked around. He could see the three visible lookout positions above the mine and the road leading to it. He was satisfied that they were well enough hidden from any helicopter flyovers, so he turned and faced Everett again. “How’s the senator?”
“Sleeping. Alice keeps him pretty much doped up. I just can’t figure that guy,” Carl said as he looked toward the disguised trailer where Garrison Lee was sleeping. “He’s not content to spend his last few days at home with the woman he loves. He has to be out here on one last adventure.”
Jack smiled for the first time in many hours and kicked at a small pinecone.
“It’s unfinished business for him. The Columbus thing from the war, Alice’s husband. You know the story.” He looked at Everett and held his eyes with his own. “It’s also because he, like us, knows we’re being kept in the dark about what this is all about.”
Everett looked over Jack’s shoulder and saw the approach of Niles Compton, who was just leaving the senator’s trailer. He came on slow toward the high spot where Jack and Carl stood.
“How’s he doing?” Carl asked.
“The same. He’s drifting in and out of sleep-dreaming a lot.” Niles stepped up to the two larger men and placed his hands in his pockets. “I feel for Alice. She’s listening to the senator talking with her dead husband, living his death over and over.”
Jack remained quiet. Niles held the information he wanted, but if the director said he was under orders, he was under orders. Niles could tell him he would. The director wasn’t one for keeping secrets from his people. If he thought it would cost the lives of his friends and colleagues, he would talk. As it was, he figured Niles understood that whatever he, the president, and Virginia had planned out, it didn’t affect the immediate situation.
“Jack, if we had the manpower, could we take the mine and hold it long enough to make a thorough examination and evaluation of its contents?”
“If the people we face are mercenaries only, yes, I think so. But if the Ecuadorians join in, it would take the 101st Airborne to hold them off long enough. There are just not enough details about how large the mine is. The timetable would be all screwed up because of that.”
“I’ve been speaking with the president and he’s serious about securing that mine in the next twenty-four hours, by force if necessary. That means invading a friendly government.”
“Shit, Niles, there are too many variables in taking an area that we have no intelligence on. We don’t know who’s really securing that place, or the fervor with which they’ll defend it.”
“With what these maniacs have accomplished so far, I would say they are willing to go the whole route in either destroying that mine with explosives or fighting off a full-scale attack,” Everett said as he heard the approach of a car. He saw a hand appear on the vehicle’s roof with its fingers spread. He gestured back that he understood it was a friendly.
“I agree,” Jack said, looking from Everett to Niles. “Tell the president we need people in theater and we need them now. We have to have assets here in country, I don’t care if they’re dishwashers, military attaches, or CIA
