'I don't know.' Ben looked crestfallen. And uncertain. 'I don't know,' he repeated.
'Right now the genie's not back in the bottle until Glaucus is set free.' He paused. 'It's a terrible decision to make. I'm responsible for the renewed lives of more than thirty people.'
Before he could continue, Nelson and one of the security men entered the conference room. Nelson looked as wild-eyed as any of the other scientists now, but he kept the tone of his voice even.
'They have broken out all the windows up above and now they are tearing the place apart, board by board. They have pulled all the unconscious men outside on the lawn. It is only a matter of time until they discover the steel door.' Ben rose.
'We can't put these men down safely like we did the first group,' Nelson said as Ben followed him out.
'Are they going to let us go?' Haley called after Ben.
'We're about to find out,' Ben said.
CHAPTER 39
Frick stood in the great room of the Astrology Research Center, trying to calculate whether they could tear it apart fast enough. Burning the place was an option that presented as many difficulties as benefits. Any paperwork hidden away in a wall would likely be destroyed.
Khan's men were emptying cupboards and tearing through walls and furniture, and even examining the giant brick fireplace.
Khan stuck his head out of a bedroom door. 'We got something.'
Frick walked into the bedroom and saw a trunk that had been torn to shreds with a pry bar. Underneath it was a large opening that could only be an entrance. And underneath it, a solid steel sheet.
'Get through it,' Frick said.
There was a man standing near Khan who looked like he understood something about such things. 'Its edges are fit into the rock. We have no idea how thick the steel is. It will be very tough to jackhammer the rock and get around the edge. Not in a few minutes, anyhow'
'There must be another exit,' Frick said. He nodded toward the men around him and Khan began organizing them. 'We aren't going to use a jackhammer,' Frick said. 'I have something much better.'
Frick went to the Suburban with tinted glass, which he'd had brought from San Juan Island. In the back lay several wooden boxes. Combined together, they contained a phenomenal arsenal.
Frick brought out five automatic weapons and chose one. 'Hopefully, you men are familiar. This is the P90. Be careful on the trigger. Take a few minutes and get used to it.
You may need to use it.'
The men walked off toward the house.
Next he grabbed a handheld M136 AT4 88mm antitank rocket launcher with six rockets.
A second lay beside it.
'What you got there?' Khan asked.
'It's an antitank rocket,' Frick said. 'Should bore right through steel. Then it'll explode and blow the hell out of everything. Help me with these.'
Khan motioned two men over; the three of them carried the boxes back to the house.
Khan seemed amused. 'What else you got?'
'Claymore mines and good old-fashioned TNT.'
Khan's cell rang as they got to the house.
Frick took the antitank weapon into the room and stared at the steel plate. Firing it in close quarters was a problem, but if he stood outside, it would strike only a glancing blow. The men would mutiny if he tried to sacrifice one of them, likewise the sheriff's deputies. Quickly he took the P90 upstairs and shot a circular hole in the floor. It wasn't easy and required several clips, but he didn't want to use up a Claymore just yet.
After he made sure all of the men were away from the house, he found a volunteer who wanted to make $10,000. The man stood on the second floor and aimed the rocket directly down on the steel door. Frick went outside.
Everyone waited. There were seventeen men ringing the house, not counting those unconscious on the lawn.
'Well, fire,' Frick shouted. 'We're in a hurry.'
'I'm not sure about this,' the man called out.
The men muttered about Heinz being a chicken. Frick went back inside, climbed the stairs, and looked at the fear-filled face of a thirty-five-year-old bodybuilder. His hair was cropped close and blond and his eyes were blue. With that physique he certainly hadn't seemed like a coward.
'Heinz is your name, right?'
'Yeah.'
'Well, Heinz, would you hand me the rocket launcher?'
The man looked uncertain, so Frick took it.
'I'll do it. I'm just trying to figure…' Heinz faltered.
Frick aimed the weapon and hid his face in the crook of his arm. He fired while Heinz was still talking and had turned his face toward the hole, unprotected. The shot and the massive explosion from the impact were simultaneous. It threw Frick backward, along with the big fellow.
'I can't see!' Heinz screamed from the floor.
'Should've covered your eyes,' Frick muttered. His own forearm was bleeding; it would have been his face, had he not covered it.
'Let me help you,' he said to Heinz. He took Heinz's hand and, after getting him on his feet, pushed him in the direction of the hole. Heinz fell through and landed head down.
He made a small noise and his body shook. It smelled like he'd defecated.
'Terrible tragedy,' Frick said when Khan met him in the room.
'We can't afford to lose men,' Khan said. 'He was no man.'
The explosive rocket had opened a large, jagged hole in the steel plate. Frick held his breath against all the dust and lowered himself through the ripped metal.
'I need a light.'
'Light,' Khan called out.
'I need the damn Claymores and a stick of that TNT.'
Even with the light, it was hard to see. He took a few steps down what felt like a stone stairwell. As the dust settled, he discerned what appeared to be another slab of steel about twenty feet below.
Khan joined him with the Claymores and TNT. When Frick armed the Claymores, Khan looked nervous.
'Nothing to worry about,' Frick said. 'If one of these babies go off, you won't even have time to think about it. You'll just be gone. You hold one, have Jake hold the other.
I'll blow a hole with the rocket. Then I'll throw down the TNT. Then we'll send some men down. If anybody wants to fight you, get down in there and see if there's an opening to toss a Claymore. Now, if there isn't, you be very careful until we get the mines disarmed. You got that?'
'It all sounds good,' Khan said, 'except the part where I go down in there.'
Frick stuck the rocket launcher over the lip and made sure it was aimed down the stairwell at the door. He got his men with the automatic weapons ready to go. He pulled the trigger and the rocket detonated with an earthshaking roar. Frick fell onto his back, his arm burned but functional.
Looking down the hole, he saw that the plate had been breached. Next he threw the TNT. This explosion equaled the rocket's.
'Now,' said Frick, 'we'll see if anybody wants to fight.'
Outside the conference room Nelson whispered in Ben's ear
'The counsel is uncertain about letting you go,' Ben said when he returned. 'No one has broken in yet.'
The 'counsel' members looked like nervous cats. Sam thought that drugs might indeed be in order if you were on the regimen; he didn't fancy spending a very long middle age fidgeting like that.
