Legacy (57 page)

“Yes, sir,” Sebastian said, lowering the salute and pointing to three of his men. Then he silently disappeared into the darkness.

“Mr. Everett, let’s get the lights in the compound down to a more mood-oriented level, shall we? Let’s use the darkness while we have it. And make sure Sebastian and his men have the extra ammo from the guards for the outer defense. They’re going to need it.”

“You got it, Jack.”

Collins watched his friend hurry to do what he was ordered to do. Then he turned to look at Niles Compton, who had joined them from the tree line.

“Director, keep these people in between the assault element and the defensive line. And remind them that there are only good guys in between, so no shooting.”

“Right,” Niles said as he realized he had never really seen Jack in his element before. He admired the calm way Collins made everyone feel confident in what he was telling them. He turned and made the civilians follow him up the slope where Sebastian had disappeared.

Jack turned just as several bright flashes illuminated the night sky further down the steep slope of the mountain. He didn’t flinch as the sound finally reached him. The explosions were large and loud, and he knew that they were antipersonnel missiles. He also knew the Ecuadorian army didn’t have any of those when they left the mine. He only hoped the promised Cobra gunships arrived in time to help the poor bastards.

*   *   *

Everett and a three-man team slowly made their way into the mine opening. The gleaming concrete of the gallery had just recently been cleaned after the removal of the stored weaponry that had so thoroughly destroyed much of the world’s hope for the Moon shots. The former Navy SEAL knew there were eyes on them as they slipped into the main gallery and took cover. With the lights out, the three men—the Australian and Vietnamese snipers and Carl—used one of the night scopes. Both of his riflemen had ambient-light scopes attached to their rifles. Even with time a factor, Everett knew taking out the remaining guard element was going to take patience.

He placed his two men at opposite ends of the gallery behind old and hardened bagged cement labeled with German markings. The pallets of material had collapsed over time and had been left to rot in the expanse of the main chamber entrance.

Everett clicked the transmit button on the small radio they had confiscated from the guard shack, letting Jack know they were in place. The dangerous part was coming. Even though he was aware that the remaining guards had obviously seen them enter the mine’s main doors, he also knew they would take the obvious targets first, meaning the bait that was about to be laid before them—Jack and Sebastian. His two-man sniper teams had to react fast at the first sign of movement from the spiderweb of gridwork above them. He knew this because that’s where he would be if he were the ambushing guards.

Jack and Sebastian made a great show of sliding open the steel door that separated the main gallery from the outside world. The door slid loudly on its runners and Jack played a flashlight about at the entrance. The two men stepped inside just as the first rays of sunlight struck the small valley in the Andes. Collins entered the mine with Sebastian following.

As Everett scanned the steel support beams in the upper reaches of the excavation, he pulled back the hammer on his nine-millimeter, knowing he would be the two snipers’ only backup if one of them missed or if there were more guards inside than first thought.

As Jack and the German commando entered and started walking toward the giant steel doors that secured the first section of mine from the next, Everett saw movement. With the distraction of the battle raging only five miles distant, Everett concentrated on the gridwork. As he watched, he heard a loud crack from his right. A man briefly stood and then fell forward onto a catwalk. One guard had been dispatched. Then, just as quickly, another guard sprang up not far from where the first had been hidden. As he did he actually managed to get off a round before the second sniper found him. The guard’s bullet struck just to Jack’s left, pinging off the concrete flooring. Collins and Sebastian dove for cover as the second guard succumbed to a sniper’s bullet. Everett could see no more movement.

“Clear?” Jack called out.

The two snipers called out “clear” and stood from their positions of cover. Collins became concerned when Everett didn’t stand and call out his all clear. That was when his hackles rose and he knew that they had been premature in calling all safe.

A third guard opened fire with an automatic weapon from high up in the network of shaft support beams. The Australian sniper flew backward as a line of bullets stitched its way across his chest. Jack was slow to react, but Everett wasn’t. With five well-placed shots from the nine-millimeter, Carl dropped the third man. His body struck the catwalk and slid over the edge, falling eighty feet to the floor.

“Damn it!” Everett said as he finally stood and ran over to the fallen Australian. He checked the man for any sign of life but found he had died very quickly. “Jack, are you two all right?” he called out from a kneeling position.

Suddenly lights came on in the overhead. The scene was illuminated by the fifty hanging fixtures from above. Everett looked over and saw the small Vietnamese sniper at the lighting control panel. He felt Jack at his side.

“That’s my fault. I was in too much of a damned hurry to get in here.”

Everett looked up at his boss and stood up.

“We’re all moving too damn fast, Jack. Hell, I should have known better. This isn’t the last asshole we’re going to run into down here, but we don’t have time to do a clean sweep, we have to get Niles and the others in here.”

“He’s right, Colonel. We have to move. From the sounds of things outside, I don’t think the Ecuadorians are faring well at all,” Sebastian said and nodded his thanks to the Vietnamese sniper, who was watching them. He continued glancing at the gallery support system above them.

Jack nodded and looked around. “Okay, let’s get Niles and his science team in here and see what we can see in case we have to make a hasty retreat out of here.”

As they moved to get the others, Jack’s radio came to life. He snatched it from his belt and listened.

“The lookouts report helicopter support has finally arrived to assist the battle line down the mountain.”

“If there’s anyone left,” Everett said. He moved to get outside and retrieve Niles and his four men.

Jack exited into the dawn’s first light and immediately saw the three Cobra gunships three miles away making their first runs on the unseen enemy below. He also saw his thirty-man fire team as they took their positions in case the distant enemy made it through. As he raised his binoculars to his eyes, he saw the first lines of what looked like mercenaries. He scanned the area and then his heart froze as he saw something familiar.

“Mr. Everett, contact the man we have standing by at the radio in the guard shack. Tell him to get the frequency that those Cobras are using. Tell them they are being tracked by antiaircraft missiles.

Before Carl could react, Jack grabbed his arm—it was too late. They all watched in stunned silence as three streaks of white-hot exhaust broke free of the tall trees lining the battlefield below. They shot upward at Mach speed. The first Cobra never knew what hit it. Its entire forward section disappeared in a ball of flame. The second had time at least to terminate its covering run of the ground troops. It tried to pull up as the second radar-guided missile struck just aft of the two-man cockpit, splitting the old attack chopper into two pieces as it fell into the trees near the troops it had been trying to defend. The third Cobra banked hard and was actually able to bring its twenty-millimeter Gatling gun to bear on the third missile team that had shot at it. The Cobra peppered the site with a thousand rounds, sending the shooters into oblivion. As Jack continued to watch, a fourth missile came out of the trees, tracking the third Cobra as it pulled up into the still gray sky of early morning.

“Jink right, go right,” Jack hissed between his teeth.

The pilot never saw it coming. By the time the Cobra had gained altitude, the threat receiver was too late in picking up the radar pulse that had locked on to it. The missile slammed into the spinning rotors and sheared the twin blades off the transmission hub. The chopper fell into the trees like a rock. The explosion and black smoke marked their crash site. As Jack scanned the area below, he saw more mercenaries advance through the trees. The remaining Ecuadorians were scattering after seeing their air support vanish in a split second.

“Mr. Everett, take the science team and secure them inside the mine,” Jack said as he lowered the field glasses. “We’re going to have a lot of company soon.”

“Respectfully, Jack, send someone else to baby-sit them, I want to stay on the line.”

Collins looked at his friend and shook his head. “If they don’t get in there and find something useful soon, this is all going to be for nothing. Don’t argue with me, Captain. It’s too early in the morning for that. If the worst happens, I’ll let you know. Use the escape route we utilized last week and get them the hell down the mountain. Take that idiot German with you. That’s all I can spare.”

“I heard that,” Sebastian said, as he picked up three extra magazines from one of his manned positions.

Everett looked at Collins angrily, and then he looked at the lightening sky above.

“Remind me to thank the president for all of that help he sent.”

Jack nodded his head and watched as Niles and the others approached.

“Move these people into the mine,” he said, as he shook hands with Niles and Pete.

Charlie Ellenshaw walked up to Jack and held out his hand.

“Colonel, I would very much like to stay and help out,” he said, as he pushed his wire-rimmed glasses back up his nose. “They don’t need me in there.”

“Thanks, Doc, but I disagree. They do need you down in that mine. You have a way of helping that you could never understand.”

“I can fight Jack,” Crazy Charlie said, looking pleadingly at the colonel.

“I know you can, Doc, but Sarah, Will, and Ryan need that information, and you can help get it. I need you down there,” he said, nodding toward the shaft.

“Colonel, the enemy is only a thousand yards away,” one of the German commandos called out.

Ellenshaw finally nodded his head of white hair and slowly turned away. Niles looked at Jack and smiled sadly, then he too turned toward the mine’s entrance and left.

“Good luck, swabby,” Jack called out to Everett, who had stopped to hear what he had to say.

“Letting you do the hero thing is getting real old, Jack. This time you may just get your ass shot off,” Carl said as he turned away. “That’s going to leave me with an awful lot of paperwork to do back at the complex, and that is not what I signed up for.”

*   *   *

The Mechanic was very pleased with the way his men had performed.

As he scanned the small contingent lining the front wall of rocks in front of the mine opening, he had to smile. If he had the time, it would be easy to just stand pat and lob grenades into the rocks above. It would decimate the defense line. However, he knew that eventually the Americans would react.

“Commence the attack. Kill them all, and do it quickly.”

As he watched, 256 men advanced through the trees. Then he gestured. Four mortars opened fire. “Take them fast and make sure none escape.”

MILITARY FLIGHT BRAVO TWO-SIX, 1,000 FEET ABOVE, AND 3 MILES NORTH, MÜELLER AND SANTIAGO MINING CONCERN

The lone Air Force C-130J-30 Hercules had flown through the night, refueling once in midair on its long flight from Fort Bragg. The pilot could swear he felt the tops of the trees brush against his underbelly as he hopped over small rises at the base of the Andes. He was sweating while his copilot manipulated the four throttle controls of the venerable old aircraft. As he allowed the yoke to steady, he pushed forward and sent the Hercules into a shallow dive. They had reached the last valley before the drop point. He heard the flight’s engineer open the cabin door.

Lieutenant Commander Scott Englehorn USN, team leader for SEAL Team Five and temporary leader for SEAL Team Eight, stepped up in back of the pilot’s ejection seat.

“Three minutes to IP, Commander. Tell your boys back there good luck,” the Air Force pilot said as he pulled the nose of the Hercules up again in a flurry of motion.

“Hell, besides the other SEAL team, only five of those kids back there speak English, but I’ll pass on your sentiment anyway.” The SEAL patted the pilot on the shoulder. “Thanks for the lift, Air Force. It was a smooth ride.”

“Good luck, Navy,” the pilot said again, feeling for the men that he was about to drop into harm’s way.

The Navy commander stepped out of the cabin and slid quietly down the small set of stairs. He looked at the four lines of men lined up in the hold of the Hercules. His SEAL teams would be the first out of the aircraft. They would be followed by the one hundred men of the main assault element. This young group was what was passing for soldiers nowadays in Europe. They and their nation had just been accepted into NATO and had been on station in the United States for training at Fort Bragg when they were recruited by the president on a purely voluntary mission. As he scanned the eager faces of the men, he saw they had no fear, a sign that they had never faced combat before. He shook his head, sliding among the lines of men. As he moved, the red light appeared in six different areas of the cargo hold.