Mohammed called over. 'The head man's organizing a retreat! That's what he's talking.'
Truck engines roared. Lyons crouch walked to the front of the trucks shielding them. He snapped a glance over the hood, had to duck down as slugs hammered sheet metal and sprayed the plastic and glass of the already shattered windshield.
Chains clanked and pulleys squeaked as a cargo door rose. The street was revealed. Lyons shifted position, tried to sight on whomever operated the pulley and chain to raise the door. Slugs from three autorifles slammed into the truck protecting him.
Searching through his battle armor's pockets, he found three grenades. As he pulled the cotter pin from the first, he heard gears grind, an engine roar. He threw the grenade blind, wrenched the pin from the next, threw it.
The flat whack of each grenade's hundred sixty grams of explosive sent thousands of steel wires slicing through air and flesh. Lyons chanced another look. No slugs came for an instant. A truck accelerated through the open door. Lyons snapped up his Atchisson and fired a full-auto burst at the driver. Steel balls punched sheet steel.
Slugs from an AK ripped past him and Lyons threw himself flat. Brakes squealed. Another engine roared away as burst after burst of slugs hammered the fenders and tires shielding Lyons. In all, four trucks escaped.
Uzis fired from Lyons's side. He saw Gadgets and Blancanales spraying bursts on the run.
Blancanales crouched beside Mohammed. 'Sorry we're late. We had fire coming straight down that hole.'
Gadgets jerked the pin from a frag and lobbed it to the second-floor offices. A rifle went silent. A terrorist jumped to his feet with the grenade in his hand and was swinging to throw it back. Blancanales put a burst of 9mm hollowpoints into the terrorist's chest. He fell back into the blast.
Only two Muslim rifles continued firing. Lyons crabbed over to his partners. 'I haven't seen the Agency man. And four trucks got out.'
Fanning out, firing bursts, Able Team searched through the carnage.
14
The Lincoln's door flew open as the three-ton limousine rocked on its springs. Parks bolted out. Katz and Sadek followed a second later. They ran through the trucks and unmarked Fiats jamming the street in front of the warehouse.
An Agency soldier with overcoat concealing a weapon ran to Parks. 'We got some people in there who claim to be highest authority. But they don't have identification or...'
A second CIA soldier rushed forward. 'There's one of our men dead. Another missing…'
Parks took the men aside, out of earshot of Sadek and Katz. They spoke quickly, one man pointing to another block, to a car with shattered windows. The second man pointed to a warehouse door. While they spoke, a siren approached. A Cairo police department squad car whipped around a corner, lights flashing. Uniformed officers jumped out, revolvers in their hands.
Parks returned to Sadek. 'Something happened here. We don't know what yet. But we need to keep the city police at arm's length until we can sort it out. Can you help us with that?'
'Oh, certainly,' sighed Sadek. 'But you understand, there will be a full explanation. We operate as allies in this investigation, correct?'
'You have my word. I know nothing about what happened here.'
Sadek watched Parks with a calm, knowing expression. 'Why do the men inside claim Highest Authority?'
'I have no idea... Please, the police are here.'
With a smile, Sadek turned away. Parks watched the Egyptian go to the city officers who stood around, confused. The worried young American turned to Katz. 'We got a problem. Come on…'
Motioning Katz to follow, Parks jogged to the guarded street door. The older man, Phoenix Force's scarred and maimed hero, maintained his Foreign Service investigator role as he limped past the Agency men. He gave them a quick salute. They turned their faces away.
Screams echoed in the vast warehouse. Parks started, his head whipping about as he searched the dim interior for the source of the agonized cry. Katz saw a three-story-high area for trucks, then an overhanging second floor of offices. Bodies of Arabs and Africans lay here and there on the oil-blackened concrete. The bitter odors of blood and cordite hung in the air.
Hands stopped Parks. A young Egyptian in a taxi driver's jacket stood in front of them, his outstretched arms pushing them back to the door.
'So sorry, sirs. You not come in. Not allowed.'
'Who are you? ' Parks demanded.
The taxi driver pressed them back. 'So sorry, no speak much English. You not come in.'
Again a scream tore the quiet, was suddenly choked off. Then another voice cried out, wailed. Words came. They heard a voice speaking quickly in Arabic, punctuated by shrieks.
Parks stared around the warehouse. His eyes finally registered the corpses strewn around the parked trucks. He shoved past the taxi driver, ran through the trucks.
A knot of men in battle armor clustered around a moaning, thrashing prisoner. Parks attempted to pull two of the armored warriors apart. Lyons jumped to his feet. Grabbing Parks by the shoulders, he threw him against a truck. In a quick sweep of a foot, he hooked Parks's ankles from under him, dropped him to the concrete. He stood over Parks. Blood smeared the black nylon of the hotshot's battle armor and bandoliers.
'You don't interfere in our interrogation. I don't care who you are.'
'Highest Authority does not sanction this.'
'Those terrorists have an American prisoner. That sanctions everything.'
'Craig Parks,' Katz told Lyons as he arrived on the scene. 'He's temporarily Chief Special Operations Officer.'
Parks looked from the oil-smeared face of the blond American to the man he knew as Mr. Steiner. 'What's going on here?'
'We're doing your work; now stay out of the way.' Lyons went back to the others.
Mohammed translated the Arab's panted, gasped words to Able Team, '…an old agricultural institute three kilometers past el-Minya. Very well defended. Heavy machine guns, mines, wire. Looks like a farm. But it's the fortress of the National Liberation Front.'
'Ask him about places in the city here,' Blancanales told Mohammed. 'Maybe they won't take the American out of the area.'
Mohammed questioned the prisoner, listened to the answer. 'No, their leader wants the man for bad times. Some of their people went to hideouts in Cairo. But the main force is making it to the desert…'
'You're in with them, aren't you, Steiner?' Parks accused Katz. 'What are you really doing? Are you with the Foreign Service?'
'Please be calm,' Katz told him.
'Calm! I have a secret team of assassins operating in my area of responsibility. Do you have any idea of what this could do to our relations with this country? When the international news bureaus get this story, the United States will be...'
'Will be nothing!' Lyons interrupted, shouting at the officer. 'You're going to tell them? Are you making the call?'
'No! But it's inevitable...'
'Nothing's inevitable,' Lyons countered. The warrior slung his Atchisson over his shoulder as the other men left the prisoner.
'We promised to send this guy to a hospital if he helped us. You care so much, Parks, you take care of him.'
Tourniquets tied off the Arab terrorist's ankles. Forty-five-caliber slugs had torn ghastly wounds in the
