drop a massive ground-penetrating concussion bomb on the base of the mountain, unleashing a flank avalanche that would collapse the tunnels and sweep the research and development facility into the lake.
It seemed to Pitt that they had no sooner taken off than the helicopter stopped, hovered for a few seconds and set down. Nash and his men leaped from the seats through the open hatch and shouted for the security guards at the fenced gate to the hostage quarters to throw down their arms.
The other four copters had landed and received sporadic fire from a few security guards who had no idea they were up against an elite force. Seeing that resistance was hopeless, they quickly surrendered as fast as they could drop their weapons and raise their hands. They had not been hired to fight professional forces, only to protect the facility, and none had a death wish.
Pitt, with Giordino right on his heels, rushed through the gate and burst in the front door of the building ahead of Nash and his men. The guards inside, although hearing shots elsewhere on the facility, were stunned to find themselves looking down the muzzles of two very large automatic pistols before they had a chance to realize what was happening. They froze not so much in shock as in fear.
Nash was more than surprised to see Pitt and Giordino with weapons, he was madder than hell. 'Give me those guns!' he demanded.
He was ignored, as Pitt and Giordino began kicking in the doors to the rooms. The first, second, third and fourth. They were all empty. Pitt rushed back to the guards that were being escorted from the building by Nash's team. He grabbed the nearest guard and jammed the Colt against the man's nose, flattening it.
'English!'
'No,
The guard's eyes widened as they crossed and focused on the muzzle mashing his nose.
'What's going on?' Nash demanded. 'Where are the hostages?'
Pitt pulled the Colt back from the man's nose as it began to bleed. 'I asked him where the scientists were. He said they were taken to the docks and put on a ferry.'
'It looks as if they're transporting them out onto the lake before sinking the ferry with everyone on it,' said Giordino grimly.
Pitt looked at Nash. 'We'll need your men and a copter to go after them before the Odyssey guards can scuttle the ferry.'
Nash shook his head. 'Sorry, no can do. My orders are to secure the base and evacuate all personnel. I can't spare any men or a helicopter.'
'But these people are vital to our national interest,' Pitt argued. 'They hold the key to fuel cell technology.'
Nash's face was hard as stone. 'My orders stand.'
'Then loan us a grenade launcher and we'll go after the ferry ourselves.'
'You know I can't issue weapons to civilians.'
'You're a big help,' snapped Giordino. 'We haven't time to waste debating with a hard nose.' Giordino nodded toward a golf cart like the one he drove in the tunnels. 'If we can't stop them on the dock, maybe we can grab one of Odyssey's patrol boats.'
Pitt threw Nash a look of disgust and then he and Giordino ran for the cart. Eight minutes later, with Giordino at the wheel, they sped onto the dock. An agonized look swept Pitt's face as he saw an old ferryboat pulling out into the lake, followed by a patrol boat.
'Too late,' groaned Giordino. 'They've taken along a patrol boat to remove the guards after they blow out the bottom of the barge.'
Pitt ran to the opposite side of the dock and spotted a small outboard tied to a piling no more than twenty yards away. 'Come on, the
It was an eighteen-foot Boston Whaler with a one-hundred-and-fifty-horsepower Mercury motor. Pitt started the motor while Giordino cast off the lines. Giordino had barely thrown the lines onto the dock when Pitt shoved the throttle to its top and the little Whaler leaped over the water as if kicked in the stern and took off after the wakes of the ferry and patrol boat.
'What do we do when we reach them?' Giordino yelled over the roar of the motor.
'I'll think of something when the time comes,' Pitt shouted back.
Giordino eyed the rapidly closing distance between the vessels. 'You'd better come up with something quick. They have assault rifles against our popguns, and the patrol boat has a nasty cannon on its bow.'
'Try this,' Pitt said loudly. 'I'm going to swing around and come in with the ferry between us and the patrol boat. That will neutralize its field of fire. Then we come alongside the ferry and jump on board.'
'I've heard of worse schemes,' Giordino said glumly, 'but not in the last ten years.'
'It looks like two, maybe three, guards on the upper deck next to the wheelhouse. Take my Colt and play two-gun desperado. If you intimidate them, maybe they'll throw up their hands and surrender.'
'I won't hold my breath.'
Pitt cranked the wheel and spun the Whaler in a broad arc, circling around the ferry before the crew of the patrol boat could bring their bow gun to bear. The boat bounced over the crest of a small wave from the ferry's wake and dropped into the trough as a barrage of bullets flew harmlessly overhead. Giordino replied by squeezing both triggers as fast as his fingers could pull. The hail of bullets caught the guards by surprise. One dropped to the deck with a bullet in the leg. Another spun around, clutching his shoulder, while the third dropped his weapon and raised his hands.
'See,' said Pitt, 'I told you so.'
'Sure, after I put two of them out of action.'
Twenty yards from the ferry Pitt eased back on the throttle and gave the wheel a light twist to starboard. With a deft touch from years of practice, he slipped the Whaler along the ferry's hull with barely a bump. Giordino beat him on board and was disarming the guards as Pitt leaped onto the deck. 'I inserted a full clip.' He threw Pitt his .50 caliber automatic. 'Take it!'
Pitt grabbed it and dropped through an open hatch and scrambled down the ladder below. His feet no sooner landed on the deck of a corridor than a rumble came from the engine room that shook the ferry. One of the guards had set off the detonators and the resulting explosion blasted a hole in the bilge of the hull. Pitt was knocked off his feet, but recovered instantly and ran through the central corridor, kicking in doors as he went.
'Out, get out quick!' he shouted to the frightened scientists who had been locked inside. 'This boat is going to sink!' He began herding them toward the ladder leading topside. He stopped a man with gray hair and beard. 'Are there any more of you?'
'They locked some of us in a storeroom at the end of the hallway.'
Almost before the scientist got the words out, Pitt rushed to the storeroom door. Already the water was sloshing around his ankles. This door was too solidly built for him to kick in. 'Stand back from the door!' he shouted. Then he aimed Giordino's hand cannon at the latch and fired. The big shell shattered the bolt, allowing Pitt to shove the door open with his shoulder. Nearly ten people stood stunned inside, six men and four women. 'Everybody move, now! Abandon ship before she goes down!'
After he pushed the last of the scientists up the ladder and was about to follow, a second, larger blast hurled him backward against a bulkhead. The impact drove the breath from his lungs and left him gasping for air as a bump mushroomed on the back of his head. Then he momentarily blacked out. When he recovered his senses two minutes later, he found himself sitting in water that had risen to his chest. Painfully, he pushed himself to his feet and struggled up the ladder one step at a time.
There was less than a minute left before the ferry plunged to the bottom of the lake bed. He heard a strange thumping sound over the rush of the rising water. What of the people he had saved and drove up to the deck? Had they drowned? Had the guns of the patrol boat shot them like fish in a barrel with its cannon? And what of Al? Was he there to help the survivors? Still dazed from his collision with the bulkhead, he reached down inside himself for the last of his strength and pulled his shoulders and chest over the edge of the ferry's deck.
The stern of the ferry was about to go under, the water rolling up the deck and flooding into the open hatch. The thumping sound in his ears came louder and he looked up to see Giordino hanging on to a sling,
