Legacy (80 page)

“You’re not going to believe this one, Jack,” he said.

Collins wasn’t going to answer. He had closed his eyes and that was when Everett saw that the blood had soaked the bandage. He grabbed Jack in his arms, and with Tram leading the way didn’t wait for Ellenshaw and the others to stop their firing. As the laser weapon discharged again, Everett smelled the molten steel of the monsters as the intense heat melted their huge metallic frames. The thick blue beam arced out and sliced the arms off the first as it tried to right itself. Then another shot creased the giant’s head, separating it from the rest of the body. Everett heard the turbine inside its massive chest start to run down.

Another shot took the second creature out as cleanly as the first. Then Charlie turned the weapon on the men the Mechanic had sent down the slope toward the blockhouse. The single shot brought them all down, most of them in pieces. As Everett, Tram, and Jack neared the bottom of the sloping gallery wall, there was a burst of light and the sound of a small explosion. When they hit the bottom, Carl saw Sebastian and his men emerge from positions where they had been firing on the metal monsters. They looked as though they were in shock. Carl looked over at the scientists as they finished rolling Charlie Ellenshaw around on the gallery floor in an attempt to smother the fire that had engulfed him after the last shot. There were shouts of anger and happiness coming from the group as Ellenshaw sat up and looked around, the remains of the alien weapon in his hands. His long, stringy, white hair was singed, a mess of electrostatic complications as he sat on his butt, not really sure what had happened to him. Carl approached the men at the same moment Sebastian and his troops arrived.

“What happened?” Everett asked, as two medics started looking Jack over.

“I told him that the mineral was still too unrefined, but Wild Bill here had to keep pressing his luck,” Niles said as he walked over and looked at Collins. “Jesus, get him inside.” The medics tried to pry Jack away from Everett. Collins reached out and grabbed Carl, anchoring himself.

“Alice,” he said, as he was finally pulled away.

“Now we go and get her, Jack.” Everett watched them take Collins inside and then turned to Sebastian and Tram. “We have one more thing to do.”

The three men sprinted back up the slope, toward a showdown with the man who was holding their friend hostage.

*   *   *

The Mechanic ordered the last of his men to hold off the advancing troops, who were led by the large commando he had seen in Germany. He had witnessed the power of the alien technology and knew he had to secure at least one of the weapons for reverse-engineering, to use in the great Jihad against the unbelievers.

He pushed Alice Hamilton toward one of his men and ordered him to guard her, as they still had need for her services. Then he wrote out a note in English requesting a meeting with Colonel Collins. He shoved it into the man’s hand and pushed him in the direction of the Americans. With a glance down at the shattered scene below, the Mechanic could see the devastation wrought by the alien weaponry, even as he remained stunned at the destructive power of the giant robotic monsters. In a span of five seconds the tables had been turned by just one of the weapons. He nodded his head—yes, he thought, the weapon was truly a gift from Allah to the true believers. McCabe and Rawlins had been such fools thinking they could just sell off the magnificent gift from the heavens.

*   *   *

Everett was moving at a full run toward the spot where he thought the Mechanic had last been. Sebastian and Tram were having a difficult time keeping up with the large Navy SEAL as he bounded up and over rocks to reach the top of the slope.

As he approached the Mechanic’s last known whereabouts, he saw movement ahead. He steeled himself behind a large rock outcropping and waved Sebastian and Tram to a stop. Ahead he saw one of the Mechanic’s men moving slowly and cautiously down the slope. Everett stood and pointed his nine-millimeter at him. The shadows cast by the lighting from above showed that the man didn’t fear the death that was facing him. Everett had seen this many times before in the men he had faced during the Gulf War and after. A true believer. The man had a rifle, but it was slung over one shoulder. Then he saw the man raise his left hand into the air. With the other he held something out toward Everett. Carl stepped forward, as did Sebastian and Tram. Everett opened the folded note and read.

“Trade, one Alice Hamilton for one alien weapon,” he read aloud.

Sebastian stared at the man who had delivered the ultimatum. The man glared at the three men with contempt etched across his harsh features.

“What are your orders for after you deliver this?” Everett asked.

“To return with an answer,” the man said with vehemence coloring his broken English.

Everett raised his nine-millimeter and shot the man in the head. He dropped like a weighted bag onto the rocks.

“I like the way you negotiate, Captain,” Sebastian said as he kicked the terrorist over with his boot.

“The conversation sort of dried up. Besides, we don’t reward people who kidnap friends of ours.” He looked over at Sebastian and then at Tram. “Do we, Private?”

Tram only nodded and gestured upward with his hand. Everett nodded back, then turned and ran, retracing the dead man’s steps.

Carl, Sebastian, and Tram had gone about a hundred yards when they saw the top of the ridge and the end of the gallery. Everett smelled water and suspected the Mechanic had gained access to the gallery from the very place he and the others had escaped two weeks before. He knew that if they didn’t stop the Mechanic here and now, no one else would stop him. They had no men covering this access point to the mines. The Mechanic would escape justice for the crimes he had committed. He decided to take his chance now and stop him.

“By all means, keep coming forward,” a voice said from above.

Carl stopped and Sebastian almost ran into him. Tram was nowhere in sight.

“I want the German to turn back down the slope and be back here in five minutes with two of the weapons from the blockhouse. If he has not made it back by that time, your Mrs. Hamilton will see Paradise this day.”

Everett saw the Mechanic as he looked out from behind a wall of stone over the small alcove leading to the underground river. Then he saw a line of about twenty men as they watched from a place of concealment. He took no shots at any of them. Their only hope was Tram and his sniper rifle.

“Deal. Let Mrs. Hamilton go and I will honor Colonel Collins’s word to you,” Carl said, hoping to buy Tram time.

He heard several shouts followed automatic weapons fire on the trail above them. As Carl ducked back into the rocks he heard the familiar sound of Tram’s M-14 opening up. Everett grimaced and cursed, knowing that Tram had been discovered. The M-14 was silenced as the small private realized his one shot at surprise had been lost.

“You astound me in your arrogance, Captain. Now just to be clear as to my intent, I will have the man who thought he could outflank me shot.”

He heard commands given and then more automatic fire erupted from above. As Carl swung around, he and Sebastian saw the Vietnamese private fall from the outcropping he had been hiding behind. They watched as his body hit the rocks ten feet below. Everett closed his eyes and wondered how many people would have to die over this.

“I am waiting, Captain. You have lost your best asset. Everyone else has to come up here facing entrenched positions—he was your last hope for diversion.”

Just as Everett was about to acquiesce to the command, another long burst of automatic weapons fire opened up from above. But this time it wasn’t directed at them or anyone below. It was coming from the Mechanic’s left. The rounds hit his men with deadly accuracy and dropped them like turkeys in a line. The Mechanic’s eyes widened and he pulled Alice in front of him as the last two men dropped at his feet. He had no idea how his men could have been outflanked. The hundred soldiers far below in the gallery couldn’t have come up the slope without being discovered. He placed a gun to Alice’s head. She didn’t fight. She knew all along who it was that lay in ambush, waiting for the terrorist. It was someone the Mechanic could never outthink, and someone Alice had known would be there from the moment she was taken.

As they both watched the trail ahead of them, Garrison Lee stepped out of the shadows. His Ingram submachine gun was still smoking as he stood his ground in front of the Mechanic. Alice could see the spark of life in the old man’s one good eye. The other, covered with the eye patch, was just below the old battered fedora. The senator said nothing as he took in the scene before him. Alice could see the sweat running down Lee’s face.

“You are the dead man I saw in the tent,” the Mechanic said. He tightened his grip on Alice.

“I knew you would come for me, you stubborn old bastard.” Alice looked at the man she had loved for well over seventy years.

“You didn’t think I would miss this, did you, old girl?” Lee looked at the Ingram in his hands and saw that the bolt was locked back, meaning the gun was empty. He raised his eyes and then tossed the weapon away.

“Raise your hands, old man,” the Mechanic said, pointing his automatic in Lee’s direction.

Instead of complying, Lee slowly sat down on a large rock. He removed his hat and wiped sweat from his brow.

“Will you excuse me if I tell you to go to hell?” Garrison said. He leaned over and tried to catch his breath. “It took everything I had to get here and see this young lady once more. Sorry, old girl, but that’s all I had.”

Alice felt the sting of warm tears clouding her eyes.

“It was more than enough, Garrison. I love you for trying so hard. I knew you would.”

Lee just chuckled as he tried to straighten up.

“She will be the last thing you do see, old man.”

Lee finally looked up at the man who held the woman he loved.

“Young man,” he said. He brought the old fedora up to knee level. “Better men than you have been saying that for many years. I find you and your kind far more despicable than you will ever know.” Lee took a deep breath, and knew by the sound that he had ruptured something deep in his chest. He continued walking anyway, to give Everett more time to get there in case he faltered. “You take what is good in something and twist it with your love of killing, when you know deep down inside that the way of murder is not the true way. I find you most distasteful.”

“Then I will show you mercy and relieve you of your life and your concerns for my ways. And then I will blow this woman’s brains all over your dead body when I am finished.”

“You’re finished right now,” Lee said as his fedora exploded. The 45 automatic Lee had used in the war fired twice. He hoped Everett was prepared to move. The first bullet hit the Mechanic in the shoulder, barely missing Alice’s head. The impact allowed Alice to twist away as the second bullet hit the Mechanic’s right forearm, sending his gun hand away from her.

The Mechanic, shocked, heard for only a moment the shots coming from behind him as four nine-millimeter bullets slammed into the back of his head, throwing him forward onto the trail. Everett ran up with Sebastian close behind.

As Alice ran toward a sitting Garrison Lee, she saw him toss the ruined fedora away and then stare at her as she came to him and took his large, thin frame into her arms. She collapsed against him and he held her.

“I ruined my damn hat,” he said, as he placed his arms around her for the first time with anyone watching. He squeezed her as she cried. “There, there, knock it off. You’ll embarrass us in front of the German.”

As Everett and Sebastian took in the scene in front of them, they failed to notice a man that Lee had only grazed rise to his feet and take aim at Alice and Lee. Carl, unable to react in time, shouted loudly in fear and frustration as the terrorist aimed. Suddenly, a single shot echoed loudly in the now still gallery. The terrorist spun away and fell down the slope, dead.

“I’ll be damned,” Sebastian said.

A hundred yards down the slope he and Everett could see Tram, bloodied and dirty from his fall and with more than one bullet in his body, lower the pistol he had used and then, exhausted, turn and sit down.

“I guess he can shoot anything,” Sebastian said. He looked at Everett. “I’ll flip a coin with you to see who gets to take him home.”

Everett smiled and then moved off to tend to Lee. “You’ll have to ask Jack. I think he’s already claimed him.”

Lee held Alice. They both were content. Alice could feel Lee’s heart through his shirt and knew it was fighting a losing battle. She finally looked up as she noticed Everett standing over them.

“I think your hat’s had it, Senator,” Everett said, and reached down and pulled Alice to her feet.

“Funny, that was the one thing I was going to give you in my will,” Lee said as he tried but failed to look up at Carl.

“We have medics on the way,” he said as he held Alice. “They’ll take a look at you, sir.”

“They’ll look, but that’s all they’ll do. How is Jack?”

Everett’s silence was enough for Garrison Lee.

Alice turned and watched as Lee lay back against the large rock. With his good eye he fixed her with that look that said everything without his having to say a word. She pulled away from Everett and went to Garrison. She sat with him for a while.