Legacy (52 page)

Everett stepped up to the tree where Jack was sitting and kneeled down.

“Tough, huh?”

Jack shook his head slightly and tossed the stick that he was holding into the trees.

“You know, the thing of it is, if I’d been asked to volunteer for the Moon, and if I was as young as those three idiots, I would have jumped at the chance,” Collins said, shaking his head.

“You and me both.” Everett stood and looked around at the towering trees that hid their small camp. “But space is a young man’s game. That’s why we virtually attacked them before they left the complex. Our jealousy got the better of us, I think.”

“It seems like a year since they left for Houston,” Jack said as he too stood and looked around. He could see the three visible lookout positions above the mine and the road leading to it. He was satisfied that they were well enough hidden from any helicopter flyovers, so he turned and faced Everett again. “How’s the senator?”

“Sleeping. Alice keeps him pretty much doped up. I just can’t figure that guy,” Carl said as he looked toward the disguised trailer where Garrison Lee was sleeping. “He’s not content to spend his last few days at home with the woman he loves. He has to be out here on one last adventure.”

Jack smiled for the first time in many hours and kicked at a small pinecone.

“It’s unfinished business for him. The Columbus thing from the war, Alice’s husband. You know the story.” He looked at Everett and held his eyes with his own. “It’s also because he, like us, knows we’re being kept in the dark about what this is all about.”

Everett looked over Jack’s shoulder and saw the approach of Niles Compton, who was just leaving the senator’s trailer. He came on slow toward the high spot where Jack and Carl stood.

“How’s he doing?” Carl asked.

“The same. He’s drifting in and out of sleep—dreaming a lot.” Niles stepped up to the two larger men and placed his hands in his pockets. “I feel for Alice. She’s listening to the senator talking with her dead husband, living his death over and over.”

Jack remained quiet. Niles held the information he wanted, but if the director said he was under orders, he was under orders. Niles could tell him he would. The director wasn’t one for keeping secrets from his people. If he thought it would cost the lives of his friends and colleagues, he would talk. As it was, he figured Niles understood that whatever he, the president, and Virginia had planned out, it didn’t affect the immediate situation.

“Jack, if we had the manpower, could we take the mine and hold it long enough to make a thorough examination and evaluation of its contents?”

“If the people we face are mercenaries only, yes, I think so. But if the Ecuadorians join in, it would take the 101st Airborne to hold them off long enough. There are just not enough details about how large the mine is. The timetable would be all screwed up because of that.”

“I’ve been speaking with the president and he’s serious about securing that mine in the next twenty-four hours, by force if necessary. That means invading a friendly government.”

“Shit, Niles, there are too many variables in taking an area that we have no intelligence on. We don’t know who’s really securing that place, or the fervor with which they’ll defend it.”

“With what these maniacs have accomplished so far, I would say they are willing to go the whole route in either destroying that mine with explosives or fighting off a full-scale attack,” Everett said as he heard the approach of a car. He saw a hand appear on the vehicle’s roof with its fingers spread. He gestured back that he understood it was a friendly.

“I agree,” Jack said, looking from Everett to Niles. “Tell the president we need people in theater and we need them now. We have to have assets here in country, I don’t care if they’re dishwashers, military attachés, or CIA analysts and typists. It can be someone who works for the U.S. government or an American who just happens to be here on vacation. Get them here with anything they can buy, steal, or borrow. The same goes for any ally we still have who’s willing to back our play.”

Compton nodded and started to turn away. He stopped suddenly and faced Jack.

“I’ll see what I can do. Listen you two, the president was almost killed over this thing, but he also realizes that he’s expendable. As a whole, it’s something that this planet has never faced before, and Columbus is something that can actually do some good—for everyone, not just us. Please bear with me and try to come up with a plan to take that mine intact.” He started walking for the communications trailer. “Because without help, we—and I mean the whole planet here—could very well go under.”

“Boy, with all these doomsday hints, Niles just about has me worried,” Carl quipped, as he watched Niles hurry down the hill.

Jack watched Niles. He felt the director had meant to come clean about what he knew, but had kept his silence. He turned and looked at Everett.

“I have got to put my fear for Sarah and the others out of my head. We need to get to planning, and if you see me drifting away, kick me in the ass.”

Everett smiled and slapped Jack on the back.

“Now that’s an order I’ve waited for. For five damn years.”

*   *   *

Jack watched as Sebastian held the door open for two old men. They eased out of the jeep, looking as if they had been thrown into a bag and shaken vigorously. One was a short, balding man, while the other was tall and thin as a rail. Compared to these men, Crazy Charlie was a prime physical specimen. As the two men stretched out their limbs, which still ached from the rough driving of Pete Golding, Jack saw that he and Charlie were starting to look like old pros at running and hiding.

“How did it go?” Carl asked the German as he unslung the short-barreled automatic from the denim shirt he was wearing.

“The capital is closing down. Looks like there are federal troops gathering at the airport. They may be flying in from around the country. Maybe they’re antidrug teams that are being recalled. It doesn’t look good.”

“Anything else?” Jack asked.

“Yes, my friend. We were nearly caught by a small force about six miles from the main road. These men were what you Americans would call
salty
-looking. As we waited for them to pass through the woods heading for the mine, we saw a gathering five hundred strong. The same type, only these guys look like they’re ready for anything. Large caliber weaponry, I even saw mortars.”

“Jesus, I hate being right,” Carl said.

“We have to move soon,” Jack said. Then he smiled. “Possession is nine tenths of the law.”

“It’s the taking possession part I’m worried about,” the large German said.

“Hopefully help is on the way, but we may have to move before it arrives.” Collins eyed the two strangers walking toward them. “Now, who is this?”

Sebastian stepped out of the way and allowed the two men to step up.

“Colonel Collins?” the smaller of the two men said, holding out his hand. “Jensen Appleby. I’m the director of the agency. This is my colleague from MIT, Franklyn Dubois. He’s the chairperson for advanced physics.” He took Jack’s hand and shook it. “We were ordered by the president to join Dr. Compton here. I believe he wants us to examine something.”

Jack released the director’s hand and looked at Everett and then Sebastian. He smiled and shook the other man’s hand, then faced both. “Do you know what you’re looking for out here?”

“Yes, I believe so. Some artifacts that may be comparable to those found on the Moon,” Appleby said.

Everett removed a nine-millimeter from his waistband and placed it in the hand of the small bespectacled man from DARPA.

“Almost,” Everett said, a small smile creasing his lips. “But you may have to use this before examining those items.”

“Oh, dear,” the tall, thin man from MIT said, looking at the weapon in Appleby’s hand.

“Gentlemen, the man you’re looking for is right inside that trailer,” Jack said, pointing and at the same time taking Carl’s weapon back from Appleby. “He’ll explain everything.” He turned and tossed the nine-millimeter back to Everett, then gestured for him and Sebastian to follow. “That wasn’t nice, Captain,” Jack said as they made their way to the third trailer in line.

“No, it wasn’t. But maybe the president should think about getting troops in here and stop sending us teachers and professors.”

“I agree,” Sebastian said, but then he saw Jack’s angry countenance. “Then again, I don’t know shit and now choose not to speak English.”

*   *   *

Six hours had passed since Niles had contacted the president and requested heavy assistance. Since that time Sebastian and his nine commandos had reported more Ecuadorian army personnel arriving at the mine. Thus far it looked as if three companies had been positioned in and around the old excavation. As it looked to the German commando, most of the army personnel were taking up station facing west, downhill toward Quito, defending a front where they thought their main threat would come.

“The president is in constant contact with President DeSilva. He is asking for the removal of Ecuadorian national troops from the area, stating that the mine is a privately owned venture and that Ecuador is not obligated to secure it. Thus far the Ecuadorian military is not budging.”

Jack looked at Niles and tossed his pencil down. He angrily looked at his watch.

“
Dark Star 3
is eight hours closer to the Moon than it was the last time we met. We’re running out of time. Did the president say anything about reinforcing our position?”

Niles shook his head and tossed his glasses on the map spread out on the table.

“We need at least a hundred more men for this plan to work.”

“We should have a minimal amount of help arriving any minute, assets that were already in country. That’s all I can tell you, other than that the president has ordered first strike elements of the 101st and 82nd Airborne units into the air. I do know that he has brought several other nations into his secrecy loop, and they may provide some sort of support. But I know you want the Airborne, and the president has approved.”

“How long?” Jack asked.

“As far as I know, Jack, they haven’t left their home bases yet,” Niles answered.

“Any air support at all?” Everett asked.

“There we got lucky. The
Enterprise
battle group is only six hundred miles away from the territorial waters of Ecuador. If the president can figure out the rules of engagement regarding the Ecuadorian military, we should have air cover.”

“Well, that’s something, if we’re fighting anyone other than the home guard,” Everett said, just as Sebastian’s radio sprang to life.

The German listened and then spoke silently into his radio. He looked at the three men watching him.

“You’re not going to believe this,” he said, and stepped toward the door of the trailer and opened it. He waved into the darkness and stepped back inside. A knock sounded at the side of the door and an average-sized man in camouflage greasepaint poked his head in the doorway. He looked up at the German standing before him and removed his bush hat.

“Are you Major Krell?” the man asked, in a slow Southern American drawl.

“I am,” answered the German.

“My compliments, sir, and compliments to your listening posts in the woods. We stumbled right into them before we knew they were there. They had my men cold.”

“And you are?” Krell asked, as he gestured for the man to come in.

“Gunnery Sergeant Alan Pierce, United States embassy security detachment. I have seven men with me with orders from the president and the American ambassador to Ecuador to report to Major Sebastian Krell, and a Colonel Jack Collins.”

“And you have found who you are looking for,” Sebastian said, turning toward Jack. “I believe this is one of yours.”

Collins stepped forward and held out his hand. Instead of taking the outstretched hand, the gunnery sergeant saluted the colonel.

“We’re being a little informal here, Gunny. Relax.”

The gunnery sergeant lowered the offered salute and shook Jack’s hand instead. Then he shook Everett’s and Sebastian’s hands as they were introduced.

“I take it you’re the help we’re supposed to get?” Carl asked.

“Well, from the U.S. side, yes sir, at least for the moment. However, we did come across a few more fellas out in the woods two miles north of your camp.” Pierce turned and ducked his head through the doorway. Three men stepped forward, all dressed in dark green battle fatigues and all made up just as the Marine was. Their faces were dark with greasepaint and all three looked just as fierce. “Colonel Collins, this is Captain Whitlesey Mark-Patton, of Her Majesty’s Special Air Service, currently on detached service to Ecuador for embassy security evaluation.”

The British captain raised his hand in a salute and this time Jack returned it.

“Welcome, Captain. A fortunate coincidence that you’re right in the country where we need you.”

“Well, sir, I’m afraid we’re not here in force, as I only have five men with me from my unit, and three Australian army, and two New Zealanders, for a grand total of eleven men. I have been ordered to follow your instructions, and have been given the all-clear to engage forces that have been termed detrimental to Her Majesty’s government.”