Pitt immediately recognized dirty faces. Two of the men were in uniform while the third wore a sweater and denims. Pitt climbed carefully over the railing and lowered himself until he was only a few feet off the ground. Then he let go and landed directly in front of them, uttering a low groan at the sudden pain from his wounded leg. They were as startled by his sudden appearance as he was by theirs.
'Where'd you drop from?' asked Al Giordino with a broad smile. He looked pale under the floodlights and his arm was in a sling, but he looked testy as ever.
'I was about to ask you the same thing.'
Colonel Hollis stepped forward. 'I didn't think we'd meet up again so quickly.'
'Nor I,' added Major Dillenger.
Pitt felt a vast wave of relief rush over him as he grasped their outstretched hands. 'To say I'm glad to see you has to be the year's understatement. How is it you're here?'
'Your father used his powers of persuasion on the Joint Chiefs of Staff,' explained Hollis. 'I'd hardly finished my report on the Lady Flamborough mission when orders came down to assemble the teams and rush here by vehicle transportation, using back-country roads. All very hush and classified. I was told the field commander would not be apprised of our mission until I reported to him.'
'General Chandler,' said Pitt.
'Yes, steel-trap Chandler. I served under him in NATO eight years ago.
Still thinks armor alone can win wars. So he's got the dirty job of playing Horatio defending the bridge.'
'What are your orders?' asked Pitt.
'To assist you and Dr. Sharp on whatever project you've got going.
Admiral Sandecker is to act as a direct line to the Senator and the Pentagon. That's about all I know.'
'No mention of the White House?'
'None that's down on paper.' He turned as Lily and the Admiral, who had taken the long way down the inside stairs, walked out the front door. As lily embraced Giordino, and Dillenger introduced Hollis to Sandecker, Hollis pulled Pitt aside.
'What the devil is going on around here?' he muttered. 'A circus?'
Pitt grinned. 'You don't know how close you are.'
'Where do my special forces fit in?'
'When the free-for-all starts,' said Pitt, g deadly serious, 'your job is to blow the store.'
The backhoe the Special Operations Forces had transported from Virginia was huge. Wide treads moved its massive bulk up the slope to a site marked by one of Lily's small marker flags. After ten minutes of instruction and a little practice, Pitt memorized the lever functions and began operating the steel behemoth on his own. He raised the two-and-a-half-meterwide bucket and then brought it down like a giant claw, striking the hard ground with a loud clang.
In less than an hour a trench six meters deep and twenty meters in length had been carved on the rear slope of the hill. That was as far as the excavation progressed when a Chevrolet four-wheel Blazer staff car came barreling through the underbrush with a truckload of armed soldiers following in its dust.
The wheels had not yet stopped turning when a captain with a ramrod-straight back and the eyes of a man driven by an inspired dedication to army discipline and standard operating procedure jumped to the ground.
'This is a restricted area,' he snapped smartly. 'I warned you people personally two days ago not to reenter. You must remove your equipment and leave immediately.'
Pitt indifferently climbed down from his seat and stared into the bottom of the trench as though the officer didn't exist.
The Captain's face went red and he barked to his sergeant, 'Sergeant O'Hara, prepare the men to escort these civilians from the area.'
Pitt slowly turned and smiled pleasantly. 'Sorry, but we're staying put.'
The Captain smiled back, but his smile was scorching. 'You have three minutes to leave and take that backhoe with you.'
'Do you care to see papers authorizing us to be here?'
'Unless they were signed by General Chandler, you're chewing air.'
'They come from a higher command than your general.'
'You have three minutes,' the Captain said flatly. 'Then I will have you forcibly removed.'
Lily, Giordino and the Admiral, who were sitting out of the sun in Trinity's borrowed Jeep Wagoneer, walked over to take in the show.
Lillie was wearing only a halter and tight shorts. She saucily paraded up and down in front of the line of soldiers.
Women who have never worked the streets as hookers cannot walk with a seductive swing and sway that appears in a natural phenomenon. They tend to exaggerate, to the point of slapstick. Lily was no exception, but the men could not have cared less. They ate up the performance.
Pitt began to tense with anger. He knew pompous people. 'You have only twelve men, Captain. Twelve engineers with less than a hundred hours of combat. I have forty men behind me, any two of whom could kill your entire force in less than ten seconds with their bare hands. I'm telling you to back off.'
The Captain made a casual three-hundred and sixty degree scan, but all he saw besides Pitt were Lily standing in front of the troops, a man named Sandecker, who was unconcernedly puffing a large cigar, and a man he hadn't seen before wearing an arm sling. They were both leaning against the Jeep as if they were half-asleep.
He glanced quickly at Pitt, but Pitts eyes gave no hint of emotion. He made a forward motion with his hand.
