Keep it nice and easy, Megan decided. Give it a couple minutes. See how things go. There’ll be time to call Helen. She smiled a little to ease Gerry’s mind. “Why don’t you tell me what really happened, and we’ll take it from there?”
8
Turkey
30 Klicks South of Sanliurfa
Local Time 0718 Hours
On the other side of the collapsed wall in Glitter City, the trapped man’s horrified screams continued to assault Goose’s ears, spurring in him an instinctive need to react—now. Only his training as a professional soldier—think first, have a plan, and stick with it—kept that impulse in check as the wall section collapsed further.
“It’s okay, buddy,” Bill said calmly to the man as he maintained his hold on the crowbar shoring up his end of the heavy wall section. “Just the sand shifting. We’ve got the wall. We’re not going to let it fall on you.”
Goose didn’t know where Bill found the strength or the wind to speak. He felt all but done in from his exertions to uncover the trapped man. The crowbar felt as though it were about to pull his arms from their sockets. He wasn’t the only one feeling the strain. The heavyset man and one of the other volunteers had bailed on the line, dropping out of the rescue effort, collapsing, exhausted and wheezing, to the sand.
Danielle and one of the other men rushed forward with rocks to put under the edge of the wall to brace it up. Then Goose and Bill added a second flat rock to the first and fought for another fistful of inches.
The wall section shifted more, letting sand cascade in again. Under the ton of dead weight, the man screamed, then his cries were cut off abruptly. Several cubic yards of sand and rock around the Vshaped section of the building’s corner left standing broke free and sped under the elevated wall section like mercury rolling across a flat surface at room temperature.
Anxiety flooded Goose as he realized the man they had been trying to rescue had probably been buried in that avalanche. He squatted and drew his Mini Maglite from his LCE. Clicking the flashlight on, he dropped prone to the ground and peered under the monstrous slab, praying to God that their efforts had not inadvertently crushed the life from the man they were trying to save.
The high-intensity yellow beam barely cut through the haze of dust that squirted out from under the slab in a boiling rush. The hollow under the wall section left an area almost seven feet long and four feet wide. Just about the dimensions of a grave, Goose couldn’t help thinking. Hackles stood up on the back of his neck. The man they’d been working to rescue was nowhere in sight.
In the center of that space, something writhed under the sand that had rushed in. For a moment, Goose was reminded of a cow he’d seen sink in a pit of quicksand in the Okefenokee Swamp while on a hunting trip. He’d been sixteen at the time and out hunting with his buddies. They’d tried to save the cow, but in the end they’d had to watch the terrified creature sink into the bog until it disappeared.
Bill threw himself forward but was too broad to get through the gap. On his knees, he began scooping at the loose sand with both hands.
The wall shuddered and sank an inch, and the sand continued to flow.
Watching the struggling figure in the middle of the space, Goose stripped off his helmet and his LCE. “Let me.”
Bill kept digging. “You’re the last man that should go under there, Sarge. That wall could come down any second. We redistributed the weight, but we can’t get it shored up on the hillside.”
“I’m the only man that will fit. Now move, Corporal.” Goose pulled his kerchief down and shoved the Mini Maglite between his teeth.
Reluctantly, Bill gave ground.
Goose slid by his friend. The flashlight beam jostled and jarred across the sea of sand that filled the hollow space. Dust flooded Goose’s lungs at once, choking him down so that he couldn’t draw a breath. He scooted forward on hands and knees, clawing through the sand. Something more solid than the sand and considerably less dense than one of the stones he’d been handling took shape under his right hand. Turning, he found he’d uncovered the face of a dead man.
Sand had filled the man’s eyes, nose, and mouth. He lay partially on his side, his hair black and stringy against the fine yellow sand.
God help me, Goose prayed as he forced himself to push the corpse from his mind and concentrate on the struggle ahead of him. There was no way of knowing—yet—how many people had been in the structure when it had come down. Later, if there was a chance to excavate the bodies, authorities would learn the number of casualties—and who they were.
Later, he’d have the luxury to wonder how many families were going to be devastated by the news today.
Reaching the writhing pile of sand, Goose tried to push to a kneeling position but couldn’t. The wall was less than two feet above him. He worked from his stomach, arching his back and using both arms like a swimmer, shoving sand from the person who had been buried.
Even as he pushed the sand away, he became aware that still more sand was sliding in from the wall’s edge where it butted into the Vshape of the building’s corner. Their efforts had lifted that portion of the wall enough to allow the sea of sand to slither in. A moment later, the wall itself shifted, grinding across the rocks they’d placed to create the gap Goose had crawled in through. Even as he watched, the wall dropped at least two inches.
“Sarge,” Bill called.
Goose didn’t answer, concentrating on his efforts to save the man. Sand flew into his mouth around the Mini Maglite he held between his teeth.
