das Dorf und sperren She she ein! Hauptmann von Dirksen, bereiten She alles vor um den Tempel zu offnen.'
Race translated the words in his head: 'Sergeant Dietrich, take them to the village and lock them up. Captain Von Dirksen, prepare to open the temple.'
Led by a German sergeant named Dietrich and surrounded by six of the masked German commandos, the ten Americans were marched unceremoniously back across the rope bridge and down the spiralling pathway.
When they came to the bottom of the path, they were directed through the narrow fissure in the plateau that led back to the riverside path. After about twenty minutes of walking, they arrived back at the village.
But the village had changed.
Two enormous halogen floodlights illuminated the main street, bathing it in artificial light. The two Apache helicopters that Race had seen up on the tower top now sat at rest in the middle of the street. About a dozen German troops stood at the river's edge, staring out at the river.
Race followed their gaze and saw his team's battered Hueys resting up against the edge of the riverbank. When seen alongside the two sleek Apaches, Frank Nash's Hueys seemed old and clunky.
It was then that Race saw what the German commandos were really looking at.
It lay beyond the two Hueys, resting on the river's surface, cloaked in the steadily falling night rain.
A seaplane.
But this was no ordinary seaplane. It must have had a wingspan of at least two hundred feet. And its under° belly—that part of it that rested majestically in the water—was absolutely enormous, easily larger than the main body of the Hercules that had flown Race and the others into Peru. Four turbojet engines were slung underneath its massive wings, while two bulbous pontoons stretched down from each wing, touching the water's surface, stabilising the aircraft.
It was an Antonov An-111 Albatross, the largest air-capable seaplane in the world.
The big plane was rotating slowly on the river's surface as Race and the others emerged from the riverside path led by the German sergeant, Dietrich. It was reversing in toward the riverbank.
No sooner had it run aground in the soft mud than a loading ramp began to lower from its hindquarters.
As soon as the ramp touched dry land, two vehicles rumbled out from within the giant plane—-one eight- wheeled all-terrain vehicle that looked like a tank on wheels, and one hard-topped Humvee.
The two armoured vehicles skidded to a stop in the middle of the main street. Race and the others were led toward them. As they arrived at the two cars, Race saw two more German commandos shoving Tex Reichart and Doogie Kennedy down the street toward them.
'Gentlemen,' Dietrich said to the other commandos in German. 'Put the soldiers and the government men in the ATV under restraints. Throw the others in the Humvee.
Lock them inside, and then disable both vehicles.'
Nash, Copeland and the six Green Berets were all put inside the big tank-like all-terrain vehicle. Race, Lauren, Lopez and Chambers were shoved inside the Humvee.
The Humvee was kind of like an oversized jeep, only a lot wider and with a solid reinforced metal roof. It also had Lexan glass windows which, at the moment, were rolled up.
After they were put inside the Humvee, one of the German commandos lifted up the bonnet and leaned over the big vehicle's engine. He flicked a switch underneath the radiator and immediately—thwack!—all the doors and windows of the Humvee were instantly locked into place.
A portable prison, Race thought.
Wonderful.
Meanwhile, the tower top was a hive of activity.
The German soldiers up there were all from the Fallschirmjager—the crack rapid-response unit of the German Army—and they moved as such, quickly and efficiently.
The leader of their squad, General Gunther C. Kolb— the grey-mustachioed man who had coldly appraised Frank Nash earlier—was barking orders at them in German: “Move! Move! Move! Come on! We do not have much time!'
As his men dashed about in every direction, Kolb sur - veyed the scene around him.
The C-2 explosives around the boulder in the temple's doorway had been removed and were now being replaced by ropes, the entry team was ready to go, and a digital video camera had been set up in front of the portal to document the opening of the temple.
Kolb nodded to himself, satisfied.
They were ready.
It was time to go in.
Rain drummed loudly on the roof of the Humvee.
Race sat slumped in the driver's seat. Walter Chambers sat beside him in the passenger seat. Lauren and Gaby Lopez were in the back.
Through the car's rain-spattered windshield, Race saw that the German soldiers in the village were crowded around a single monitor, watching it intently.
Race frowned.
Then he saw that there was a small television screen on the central console of his Humvee's dashboard—in the place where the radio would be in a regular car. He wondered if the shutdown of the Humvee's engine affected its electrical systems. He pressed the power on the little television to find out.
