Jack didn’t know what lay at the end of the tunnel, but whatever it was, he didn’t want Pettibone acting up when they got there.
There was no way to hide their approach but he hoped that the opposition would be lulled by a misreading of the situation. They were expecting Pettibone to arrive with a captive Jack Bauer in tow for delivery to Reb Weld. The two of them would surely be escorted by a couple of armed men from the rear guard.
Jack planned to take advantage of that split-second window of opportunity before the foe realized the truth.
The tunnel came to an end, opening on a rectangular chamber twenty feet deep, fifteen feet high, and fifteen feet wide. This end of the shaft was fitted with a massive hatch, twin to the one at the entrance. It opened inward and was swung back all the way on its curved hinges so that its inner face pressed against the chamber wall to the left of the portal.
The first thing Jack saw inside the chamber was a golf cart, the incongruity of its presence here adding an offbeat, surrealistic touch. It was parked at the foot of a loading platform that stood at the chamber’s far end.
The platform’s top was four feet above the floor. A well in the left corner held a short flight of stone stairs leading up to the platform. A couple of boxes and packing crates stood on top of the platform.
A man sat on top of one of the crates facing the tunnel. A square-edged doorway opened in the wall behind him. An electric lantern was set atop a nearby crate. Its glow seemed as cheery and welcoming as sunshine after the tunnel’s dark passage.
The man was stocky and squat with short hair and a goatee. He wore dark clothing and a white band on his upper left arm. He hopped off the crate and stepped forward toward the edge of the platform as the newcomers arrived. He said, “Pettibone, what kept you— Hey!” He turned, grabbing for the SMG on top of the crate.
Jack shoved Pettibone aside and made his play. He went for a head shot in case the other was wearing a bulletproof vest under his shirt.
His weapon made a throat-clearing noise as it squirted three rounds into the sentry’s face. He fired it one- handed, holding the flashlight in his other hand. The piece when fired in a short burst had a recoil that was a bit heavier than that of a.45-caliber semi- automatic pistol.
The sentry flopped rearward like he was trying to do a back dive. He bumped into the crate, upsetting but not overturning it. The SMG fell clattering to the platform but didn’t go off.
Jack darted across the floor to the stairwell and took the steps two at a time. He crossed the platform to the doorway, covered to one side of it, and peeked around the edge into the space beyond.
The doorway opened into a vast, cavernous area that resembled nothing so much as an underground parking garage and was the size of an airplane hangar. The enclosure was long and low-ceilinged. It was dark except for a line of electric lanterns that had been placed at regular intervals along the center of the floor to the opposite end.
It was empty, unoccupied. Jack Bauer strained his ears listening for the sound of an alarm or hue and cry. None came.
He turned his attention back to the chamber. Griff stood crouched holding his weapon to Pettibone’s head. Rowdy climbed the stairs to the top of the platform and joined Jack.
Jack said, low- voiced, “This level is clear — I think.” He switched off the flashlight and set it down on a crate. He said, “Cover me.”
Rowdy said, “Right.” He leaned the shotgun against the wall and held the SMG in both hands.
Jack ducked low and went through the doorway into the sprawling bunkerlike construction that lay on the other side. He dodged to the right, out of the glow of the electric lanterns lining the floor and into the welcoming gloom that hovered on either side of the illuminated central path.
Rowdy covered behind the doorway’s edge and stuck the SMG outside, the tip of its silenced snout quivering like a dowsing rod in quest not of water but of human targets.
The floor was carpeted with a layer of dust several inches thick once Jack moved aside from the center space. It smothered the sound of his already light-footed tread. His movements disturbed the dust, each footfall raising puffs of the stuff. It tickled his nose, and he had to fight to keep from sneezing. That would be a hell of a note, to give himself away by sneezing!
Jack advanced, guided by the lamplight glimpsed out of the corner of his eye. The space dwarfed him with its slab-sided monolithic immensity.
His eyes grew accustomed to the dimness, allowing him to make out a line of closed doors in the wall to his right. They were tall, narrow oblongs a shade lighter than the shadows engulfing them. No lights showed behind any of those doors. The wall space between them was lined with stacked cardboard boxes furry with dust.
He went to the opposite end of the bunker. A glow brightened in the right-hand corner as he neared it, an independent light source separate from the lanterns marking out the centerline.
It revealed a stairwell. A flight of stone steps climbed to a landing, then another stairway led to a second landing. The light came from electric lanterns
with hooks at the top that were hung from horizontal bars of the metal railing enclosing the open side of the stairs. A closed door was set in a wall at the second, final landing. It was outlined by light coming from the other side of the door.
Jack figured he’d come far enough by himself. No point in having allies if you didn’t use them. He turned, heading back toward the antechamber. This time he did it the easy way, following the well- lit center aisle. It was a well-traveled route, judging by the lack of layered dust that pervaded the rest of the bunker.
He halted at the halfway point, motioning for the bikers to join him. They came to him, Griff hustling Pettibone along with them. Jack said, “All clear. A stairway leads to the next level. I didn’t want to go past that without Pettibone as a stalking horse.”
Griff looked around, his eyes glittering slits, his shoulders hunched as if anticipating a blow. He said feelingly, “What a creep joint!”
Rowdy said, “What is this dump?”
They all spoke in hushed voices. Jack said, “It’s a fallout shelter for surviving an atomic war. Must’ve been built a half century ago.”
Rowdy said, “Man, I’d rather get nuked than live in this mausoleum!”
Griff said, “Hey, did you dig that golf cart?”
“Beats walking through the tunnel.” Jack said, “It’s a good way to bring supplies in, too. Like bombs and gas grenades.”
They went to the far end of the bunker and stood at the bottom of the stairwell. Griff said, “What’s on the other side of that door?”
Jack Bauer said, “The showdown.”
23. THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 1 A.M. AND 2 A.M. MOUNTAIN DAYLIGHT TIME
Reb Weld did not handle frustration well. He was an action man; he liked to be up and doing. Standing around waiting did not sit well with him. Delay irritated him, especially when it involved matters over which he had no control. He was a control freak, too. He said, “What’s the stall, Al?”
Grant Graham started at the sound of Weld’s voice. He was standing next to Weld, but he’d been watching Al Baranco rigging the timed detonator to the last set of explosive charges. He was so caught up by Baranco’s air of methodical concentration that it came as a jolt when Weld spoke up, shattering his reverie.
Baranco labored on, doing what he’d been doing, giving no sign that he’d heard the Rebel’s words.
Graham flinched, said out of the side of his mouth, “Take it easy, Reb.”
Weld said, “Screw you, Graham.” He spoke in a normal conversational tone, contrasting with Graham’s husky prison-yard whisper. Graham had taken falls on several felony counts and spent years in Federal penitentiaries.
Talking out of the side of his mouth so only fellow inmates could hear him and prison guards couldn’t had
