Slowly, a picture came to life on the screen.
On it, he saw the Germans up at the temple, gathered around the portal. He heard their voices come in over the television's speakers:
'Ich kann Night glauben, class she Sprengstoff verwenden woll- ten. Es konnte das gesammte Gebaude zum Einsturz gebracht haben. Machen She die Seile fest—'
'What are they saying?' Lauren asked.
'They're removing the explosives you set around the boulder,' Race said. 'They think the C-2'11 bring down the whole structure. They're going to use ropes instead.'
A woman's voice came over the speakers, speaking rapidly in German.
Race translated for the others: 'See if you can get in touch with headquarters. Tell them we've arrived at the temple, and that we have encountered and subdued members of the United States Army. Awaiting instructions'
Then the woman on the speakers said something else.
'—Was ist mit dem anderen amerikanischen Team? We sind die jetzt ?”
What the hell? Race thought.
Das anderen amerikanischen Team ?
At first he thought he mustn't have heard her right.
But he had. He was sure of it.
But that just didn't make—
Race frowned inwardly and didn't translate the sentence for the others.
On the screen, ropes were being looped around the boulder in the portal.
'Alles klar, macht Euch fertig—'
'All right. Get ready.'
The men on the screen lifted the ropes.
'Zieht an!'
'And… heave!'
Up on the tower top, the ropes went taut and the boulder lodged in the portal slowly began to move, grinding loudly against the stone floor of the doorway.
Eight German commandos were pulling on the ropes, hauling the giant boulder from its four-hundred-year-old resting place.
Slowly—very slowly—the boulder came away from the portal, revealing an inky black interior.
Once it was clear, Gunther Kolb stepped forward, peered down into the darkened interior of the temple.
He saw a set of wide stone stairs descending into the darkness beneath him, into the belly of the great subterranean structure.
'All right,' he said in German. 'Entry team. Your turn.'
In the Humvee, Race turned to Lauren.
'They're going in.“
Up on the tower top, five fully-loaded German commandos stepped forward. The entry team.
Led by a wiry young captain named Kurt von Dirksen, they met Kolb at the entrance to the temple, guns in hand.
'Keep it simple,' Kolb said to the young captain. 'Find that idol and then get the hell—'
At that moment, without warning, a series of sharp whistling noises cut through the air all around them.
Thwatthwatthwatthwatthwatthwat!
And then—srnack!—something long and sharp lodged itself in a clump of moss on the wall of the temple right next to Kolb's head!
Kolb stared at the object in amazement.
It was an arrow.
Voices began to shout out from the Humvee's little television screen as a hailstorm of arrows rained down on the
German troops gathered around the temple.
'Was zum Teufel!”
'Duckt Euch! Duckt Euch!“
'What's going on?' Lauren said, leaning forward from the back seat.
Race turned to her, amazed. 'It looks like they're being attacked.'
The deafening roar of submachine-gun fire engulfed the tower top once again as the German commandos
