Legacy (79 page)

“By God, that’s enough,” Jack hissed, and then jumped the last ten feet, landing in the mortar pit that had been dug into the rubble on the side of the gallery wall.

In the split second before he hit the side of the gallery, Jack shot the man, who had just dropped a mortar round into the large tube.

Collins had hit too hard. He momentarily lost sight of the mortar crew as he slammed into the rocks and then fell onto his chest and face. He hurriedly brought up his nine-millimeter and fired at the man adjusting the sighting of the mortar tube. The bullet caught the man in the side, spinning him into the rock wall. Jack knew he had slowed his reactions down with a hastily planned jump from above. He tried to struggle into some semblance of a firing position. A bullet clipped his left arm just above the elbow and another missed his head by a mere inch. He brought the nine-millimeter around and shot the first thing he saw. It just happened to be the two men carrying the M224 sixty-millimeter lightweight mortar rounds to the pit from a place where they had stored cases of projectiles. The first bullet hit the lead man in the chest, knocking him back into the second. Both of them dropped the rounds they were carrying. Jack aimed quickly and shot the second man as he hit the rock wall beside him. Both had been taken off guard by Jack’s makeshift assault.

Collins had no time to catch his breath. He felt a presence behind him. It was one of the pit guards and spun at the last moment, bringing the gun up. He was far too late, as the man anticipated his move and slammed the barrel of his AK-47 against Jack’s wrist, breaking the bone and spinning Collins to his right. As he spun, he brought the knife in his left hand to bear and caught the terrorist by surprise just as he thought he had caught the American. The knife sliced cleanly through the man’s throat, forcing his hands up. As Jack arrested the momentum of the blow to his wrist, he recovered quickly, before the dying man could get a lucky shot off out of reflex. He thrust with the knife one last time and caught the man before he could figure out that he had been killed. The Russian-made weapon fell to the rocky path the man had used. Jack slammed into the wall and turned, thinking he might catch his breath, only to see the ten men that the Mechanic had dispatched coming down the rock incline directly toward the pit.

As Jack went on both of his knees to retrieve the dropped nine-millimeter, he had to use his left hand for the remaining six bullets. That was when he saw the third ammunition carrier, followed by the last two guards. He fired with his shaky left hand and hit the most dangerous targets, the two guards, first. One of the bullets hit the lead guard in the face, slamming him against the ammunition carrier. The second bullet hit the ammunition carrier by mistake, allowing the trailing guard to take aim at the surprise attack by Collins. The guard saw his chance and pressed the trigger.

Jack flinched as he realized he had made a mistake. He should have been more deliberate in his aiming. He waited. The bullet never came. The man just stood there, unmoving. Then he saw the terrorist slowly fall forward. Jack shook his head as he saw Carl Everett standing behind the man with his own knife. He had dropped down right behind the trailing man and killed him as he aimed his weapon.

“It took you long enough,” Jack said, then went down to both knees.

Everett took two long strides forward and lifted Collins to his feet.

“Yeah, well, if I had a commanding officer who explained a plan before he acted on it, I would have been here sooner.” Everett helped Jack to a small rock and set him down. Collins slapped at his hands and pushed them away. He pointed.

“More men coming,” he said, as he grew light-headed.

Everett pulled Jack’s shirt open, tearing free the buttons as he tried to see how bad the wound was. He cursed when he saw how fast the blood was flowing.

“Don’t worry about them. We have to get this blood stopped.”

Collins again tried to push Everett’s hands away. He looked up at the ten men, who were sliding and stopping and then sliding again as they tried to get close enough to kill them both. That was when Jack realized that the men weren’t slipping and sliding down the hill—they were falling and scrambling for cover. Rounds were fired from somewhere, bringing the men down. One at a time they were hit and then slid down the incline, never to move once they came to rest. He shook his head as the last four men turned on their heels and started to run back the way they had come. Then he saw dust and dirt fly from the men’s backs, as bullet after bullet hit their mark, quickly ending their retreat.

“Tram again,” Jack said as he finally let Carl work on him.

Everett tore his own shirt at the bottom and created a makeshift pressure bandage. He tied it as tightly as he could, sending a shockwave of agony through Jack’s body. He knotted it off.

“Yeah, at first I thought I left the little bastard behind, but then I realized that he had taken a liking to you and figured he would show up sooner or later. Now we have to get you to a medic. This bandage won’t hold.”

“No, get that tube adjusted. We have six rounds of HE right here. We have to get those things away from Sebastian and the men.”

Everett knew that Jack was right. He took a quick look down below just as the first of the two robots dug a man out of his hiding place and tossed him into the air like he was so much refuse. The man hit the floor and the second mechanical killer raised a large steel foot, bringing it down on the Polish soldier. Everett nodded his head in anger. “Right,” he said, helping Jack back to the mortar tube.

He put Jack down and reached for a round from the hands of the nearest dead man. That was when he felt hands shove him away from the large caliber round. He looked up and saw Tram. He laid down his M-14 and gestured for Everett to do the aiming of the mortar. The Vietnamese reached down and hefted the first round into his arms, then approached the tube.

“Handy fella, isn’t he?” Jack hissed as he held his side. Before Carl could nod he saw blood oozing out between Collins’s fingers. As he bent to adjust the tube, he saw Jack try to stand.

“Sit down, Jack. You’re bleeding to death!”

“Have … to get … Alice,” Collins said, as his head started to spin.

“Don’t worry about Alice. That asshole’s not going to hurt her as long as he has a chance of using her. Now stay down or I’ll tie you up!”

Tram brought the round to the tube as Everett made the last adjustment. He turned and saw that Jack wasn’t going anywhere. He had fallen back to the floor, cursing his weakening body.

“Adjusting for HE, ready?” He looked at Tram.

The Vietnamese held the round poised above the tube.

“Drop!”

Tram allowed the round to slide through his fingers and into the tube. He ducked away as the high explosive round thumped into the firing pin at the tube’s base. With a loud
whump
, the round left the tube. Carl watched and waited, hoping he had remembered how to adjust the sighting correctly.

The round flew out and up. The whistle of the flight could be heard over the destructive digging of the mechanical assassins below. Everett and Tram watched as their quickly adjusted attempt struck just behind the second robot. The round tore a massive chunk out of the gallery floor and the robot fell backward, flailing its giant arms as it tried to regain balance. It disappeared in the flash and debris from the explosion.

“Yes!” Everett said, as he slapped Tram on the shoulder. The Vietnamese didn’t return the congratulations but only pointed.

The robot was starting to get up from the spot where the floor had given way to the detonation of the mortar round. First it went to its hands and knees, and then it regained its footing and stood. It looked around as if it knew it had been sucker-punched.

Everett gestured for Tram to reload.

The small private turned and went for another round as Carl adjusted the angle again. Tram held the second round over the tube’s aperture.

“Drop!”

The round
whump
ed out of the tube and went on its way. The whistle told Everett that this one would be right on. The round caught the second robot squarely in the chest as it finally regained its footing after the first blast. The HE round detonated and blew the robot backward into the first. They both went down hard.

As suddenly as the two hit the rocky ground, they were back up again.

“This isn’t working, Jack. I don’t know what these things are made of, but we’re not harming them. That’s a tough battle chassis.”

Jack strained to see over the rocks that were protecting their position. As he did so he saw the first robot stand up and start looking around. Then he saw the strangest thing imaginable. Lasers protruded out of a cavity in its head and began rotating. They seemed to lock on to something, expanding into something that resembled the spokes of a wheel. Then the rotation ceased and the single green laser began tracking the heated arc of the expended round. Jack could actually see the laser start to whip back and forth, creating a haze of light that tracked the arc of the round from its origin.

“Oh, oh,” Jack said, as Everett saw the same thing. He didn’t hesitate.

“Drop!”

Another round flew from the tube and arced toward the two robots. The round landed right on top of the second mechanical beast and exploded between its neck and shoulder. The force of the blast knocked the robot from its feet and sent the second machine face forward, where it smashed into the hiding places of their soldiers. But even through the smoke and debris they saw both of them rise out of the smoke and fix their positions high up on the gallery wall. They both started forward at the same moment after locking in on the arc of the second round.

“I think we may have a problem,” Everett said. He watched far below as the robots not only started coming at them, but began running up the slope, making loud banging noises as their steel feet came into contact with each step. Everett raised his radio.

“Sebastian, get our people out of there!”

Carl didn’t wait for a response. He let the radio slip from his hands and reached for Jack as the robots hit the slope of the gallery wall running. He figured they had two minutes left.

“Come on, Jack. Time to skedaddle,” he said as he lifted Collins up.

“Put me down and get the hell out of here. Get Alice if you can,” he hissed.

“Ain’t happenin’ this time and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. We’ll get Alice together.”

With the help of Tram, they lifted Jack up and started to scramble up the slope. They felt the vibrations of the robots as they used both arms and legs to scrabble up the slope. They were focused on one thing, the area that had attacked them. Carl knew they would be caught in about a minute.

“Sit me down,” Jack said through clenched teeth as a thunder of small arms fire erupted from below. “That damn Sebastian follows orders and so will you.”

Down below the hundred remaining men opened fire on the advancing robots. Their fire was accurate, but it was like watching pebbles bounce off tank armor. The robots paid the men below no mind as they advanced on the more serious threat of the mortar.

Everett turned to Tram.

“Get out of here, son. You’ve done real well today—now it’s time for you to go.”

Tram looked at Everett as if he had gone mad. Instead of replying, he reached behind him and unslung the M-14. With his eyes still locked on the captain, he inserted a twenty-round magazine into the old rifle. With deliberate slowness, he raised the M-14 sniper rifle and started firing slowly and deliberately at the first robot in line. The mechanical menace was only fifty yards away.

“Jack, I don’t think these men respect our rank,” Everett said. He kneeled beside Jack and waited.

“That’s what you get when you set an example like that. By the way,” Jack hissed, “you’re fired, Mr. Everett.”

“That’s a nice reward for trying to save you.”

“That’s the reward for not saving me.”

Everett turned back and his smile was brief as he saw the lead robot nearing their fragile targets. He watched as the first stepped onto the mortar tube, crushing it like it was a straw, and then continued on up the rocky slope to the real threat—the men who had used the weapon.

Everett reached out and removed his nine-millimeter from its holster. He raised it and fired.

The flash of the light made everyone in the gallery look away. The momentary brilliance of the blue light was followed by a loud buzz, as if a thousand saws had bitten into the same piece of wood at the same moment. There was a sudden smell of ozone as a beam of light reached out and hit the leading robot in the left leg just as it was seeking purchase against the slippery slope of the incline. Then another flash of light struck the robot as it slipped partially backward from its original position. Everett just stared at the barrel of his nine-millimeter, which was when he saw what was happening below at the bunkhouse. Appleby, Pete, Niles, Dubois, and Charlie Ellenshaw were standing and pointing up toward their position. Ellenshaw was aiming one of the alien weapons from the rack. As Everett watched, he fired on the trailing robot. The beam sliced both of its legs off and Everett saw it fall. Then he smiled as he saw Ellenshaw jumping up and down and pointing at his perfect shot. The others were jumping also, slapping Ellenshaw on the back.