'I'm waiting for you to carry out my direct orders, soldier,' said Masago quiedy.
No one spoke. No one moved.
'You're relieved of command, Hitt,' said Masago. 'Private Gowicki, carry out my order. Eliminate these people.'
Another intense silence.
'Gowicki, I didn't hear an acknowledgment of my order.'
Yes, sir.
Gowicki raised his weapon. The seconds ticked by.
'Gowicki?' Masago asked.
'No,' said Hitt.
Masago pointed his Beretta at Hitt's head.
'Gowicki? Carry out my order.'
Tom hit Masago's knees with a flying tackle, the gun going off harmlessly into the air. Masago spun, recovered, but with an adroit movement Hitt landed a blow to Masago's solar plexus. Masago fell heavily and lay on the ground, doubled up, unable to make a sound.
Hitt kicked the gun away. 'Cuff him.'
Gowicki and Hirsch came forward and in a moment had secured his arms behind his back in plastic cuffs. He was gasping and coughing, rolling in the sand, blood trickling from his mouth.
A long silence ensued.
'All right,' said Hitt to his soldiers. 'I'm taking charge of the op. And it seems to me these three people need some water.'
Gowicki unslung his canteen and passed it around. They all drank deeply.
'All right,' said Hitt. 'Now that we know what's really going on, we've still got an op to finish. Seems to me we're supposed to locate a dinosaur fossil. And you know where it is.' He faced Ford.
'What do you plan to do with us?'
'I'm taking you three back to WSMR. General Miller'll decide what to do with you-he's the real commanding officer around here, not this'-his voice trailed off and he cast a glance at Masago-'civilian.'
Ford nodded toward the great boulder that dominated the back of the cave.
'It's right behind there.'
'No shit?' He turned to Gowicki. 'You keep an eye on them while I confirm.' Hitt vanished behind the boulder and came back a few moments later. 'Now that,' he said, 'is one mean mother.' He turned to his men. 'Far as I'm concerned, the first part of the op is accomplished. We've located the fossil. I'm calling in the rest of the chalk. We'll rendezvous at the LZ, return to base, report to General Miller with these three individuals, and await further orders.' He turned to Masago. 'You'll come quietly, sir, and make no disturbance.'
3
THE CHOPPER SQUATTED on the alkali flats like a giant black insect about to take flight. They approached in silence, Tom limping on his own, Sally being helped along by a soldier. Hitt came last with Masago in front of him.
The four other members of the chalk, called in by Hitt, lounged in the shade of a nearby rock, smoking cigarettes. Hitt motioned them toward the chopper and they rose, tossing away their butts. Tom followed them into the chopper and the sergeant gestured for them to take seats on the metal benches along the wall.
'Radio base,' said Hitt to the copilot. 'Report we've accomplished the first part of the operation. Tell 'em I felt compelled to terminate the command of the civilian Masago and disarm him.'
'Yes, sir.'
'I'll report the details in person to General Miller.'
'Yes, sir.'
A soldier slid the cargo door shut while the chopper revved up and lifted off. Tom leaned back against the netting next to Sally, feeling more exhausted than he ever had in his life. He glanced over at Masago. The man hadn't said a word. His face looked strangely blank.
The chopper rose out of the steep-walled valley and skimmed southwestward over the mesa tops. The sun was a large drop of blood on the horizon, and as the chopper gained altitude Tom could see Navajo Rim and beyond that the Mesa of the Ancients, its center riddled with the canyon complex known as the Maze. In the far distance, lay the blue curve of the ChamaRiver.
As the chopper made a lazy turn to the southeast, Tom saw a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye-Masago. The man had jumped up and was running for the cockpit. Tom hurled himself at Masago, but the man twisted
free, giving him a sharp upward blow with his cuffed hands. He pulled a knife from his pantleg sheath with both hands, spun and bounded through the open cockpit door. The other men had jumped from their seats to pursue him, but the chopper suddenly yawed, throwing them into the netting, while a gargling scream came from the cockpit.
'He's crashing the chopper!' Hitt cried.
The bird took a sickening downward lurch and a deep shudder came from the rotors. Tom staggered to his feet, gripping the netting, fighting against the dec-celeration as the chopper screamed and spiraled downward. He caught a glimpse through the cockpit door of the copilot, struggling with Masago-and the pilot lying dead on the floor awash with blood.
As the chopper pitched back, Tom used the motion to launch himself into the cockpit. He slammed into the flight console, righted himself on a seat, threw a punch at Masago, clipping his ear. As he staggered backward the copilot seized the man's cuffed wrists and slammed them down on the console, knocking the knife from his hands. The yawing chopper threw them both to the floor and Masago grabbed the copilot, choking him while both slid around on the floor slick with blood. Tom slammed Masago's head against the floor, rolling him off
the copilot.
'Take the controls!' Tom screamed at the copilot, who needed no encouragement. The man lurched to his feet and seized the controls, the bird yawing wildly. With a sudden roar from the back rotors and a gut-wrenching deceleration, he righted the chopper. Masago was still thrashing wildly, fighting with almost superhuman strength, but Hitt had now joined Tom and they had him pinned. Above the screaming engines, Tom could hear the copilot calling in an emergency while he fought with the controls.
Suddenly, through the windscreen, the face of a cliff came rushing past; followed by a bone-breaking jolt and a machine-gun-like series of whangs as pieces of rotor tore like shrapnel through the fuselage. The copilot was hammered to one side by the flying debris, his blood splattering against the shattered Plexiglas of the windscreen. The screeching sound of metal tearing on rock was followed by a weightless moment of free-fall, and then a massive crash.
Silence.
Tom felt like he was swimming out of darkness and it took him a moment to remember where he was-in a helicopter wreck. He tried to move and found he was jammed up in a corner on his side, debris piled over him. He could hear screaming as if coming in from a distance, the dripping of hydraulic fluid (or was it blood?), the stench of aviation fuel and burnt electronics. All motion had
ceased. He struggled to free himself. A huge gash had ripped open one side of the chopper and through it he could see they had come to rest on a steep slope of broken rock. The helicopter groaned and shifted, metal rivets popping. Smoke began filling the air.
Tom climbed over the debris and found Sally all tangled up with a heap of netting and plastic tarps. He pulled the netting aside.
'Sally!'
She stirred, opened her eyes.
'I'm getting you out.' He grasped her around the shoulders and hauled her free, relieved to see she seemed to be only dazed.
'Tom!' came the voice of Wyman Ford.
He turned. Ford was crawling up the pile of debris, his face running with blood. 'Fire,' he gasped. 'We're on fire.' At the same time there was a whooshing sound and the tail section burst into flame, the heat like a glow in their faces.
