Legacy (58 page)

“Two minutes—two minutes,” he shouted as loud as he could.

He saw the young captain who led the foreign element and the SEAL nodded his head.

“Is Poland ready for this day, Captain?”

“Poland has always been ready, Commander,” the young man said. He looked determinedly into the Navy man’s eyes just as the commander placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I believe you are, Captain. Shall we go and rescue some people on the ground?”

“Yes, Commander, let’s do that.”

“One minute,” the commander shouted as he took his place at the head of the jump group.

The aircraft cargo master started lowering the giant ramp. The men would jump four abreast at seven hundred feet, an extremely low altitude jump. Their parachutes would barely have enough time to open before the tops of the trees would be at their feet. This is what SEALs were used to doing, but the Polish element was making the low altitude jump for the first time. The Navy just hoped the president knew what he was doing. Not only were his SEALs working with an Army element, they were working with a foreign army to boot. The world was becoming a strange place indeed.

*   *   *

The mortars had damaged the front line defense. Three of the German commandos were down before a single shot had been fired at the enemy. Jack went from station to station to check on the men and was making sure they kept their heads down until they had hard targets to engage.

“Colonel, if we don’t take out those mortar positions they can stand off and take us out a group at a time,” the lieutenant from Sebastian’s command said, just as Collins ducked to avoid a near miss.

Jack felt someone slide into the rock-covered position behind him. He turned and saw the green bush headgear and the crossed swords on the side of the hat. It was Captain Whitlesey Mark-Patton of Her Majesty’s SAS. Beside him was Sergeant Tashiro Jiimzo, of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Patton nodded his head.

“Colonel, the sergeant and I have an idea, and with the help of our little Vietnamese sniper friend above, I think we can get to those mortar positions without getting our bloody asses shot off.”

“Let’s hear it,” Collins said, and the two men explained what they wanted to do.

“I’ll take my SAS element, and have these generous Japanese fellows along for support. Our sniper friend can keep the closest of the attackers at bay as we wheel around them and hit the first of the three positions—that is something they won’t be expecting, for us to actually sally forth in an attack.”

As a mortar round landed nearby, Jack could only shake his head.

“Well, Captain, I’m not going to sit here and argue with you. Get it done before someone gets a lucky shot in.”

The SAS captain started to salute and Jack gave him a look that said in no uncertain terms that they did not have the time. The captain smiled and then pulled the Japanese sergeant along with him. As Collins watched, the SAS captain was using his radio to explain what he needed from the Vietnamese sniper above them.

“This is getting nasty as hell,” Jack said to the German beside him. “We need that help the president promised and we need it now.”

“Uh, Colonel, you better see this,” the German commando said loudly over the din of gunfire and explosions. He pointed behind Jack.

“Damn it to hell!” Collins cursed as he saw what the commando was pointing out.

On a small ridge close to the second level of their defense he saw Alice Hamilton and Senator Garrison Lee as they slowly made their way along, heading for the mine opening. He could see that Lee was having a difficult time as Alice held on to him. Then Collins angrily shook his head as the old one-eyed man pulled free of her helping hand and brought up an ancient .45 caliber Colt automatic, firing three rounds down the hillside. He didn’t hit anything; he just looked happy to be shooting at something. Alice slapped at him and they again started toward the mine opening.

“Ballsy old people,” the German lieutenant said and turned back toward the front line of attackers.

“Yeah, they’re something, all right,” Jack hissed.

“Someday you’ll have to explain to me and my men just who the hell you and these people are, Colonel.”

“Well—” A mortar round detonated not far from their covered position. When Jack looked back up, Alice and Lee had disappeared into the mine opening. “I can tell you this, Lieutenant. That is a real woman and she’s helping one of the bravest men I have ever met in my life.”

Before the German could say anything, another detonation went off not ten feet from their position. Jack managed to shake off the dirt and rocks. He looked at the mine’s gaping maw of an opening.

“Good-bye General Lee,” he said as he slipped back down into the hole.

*   *   *

Everett was in front of the science team as they examined the double steel doors that he had seen on their first visit to the mine a week before. They had opened then for the briefest time and Carl knew that the shaft beyond the doors angled downward on a sharp grade. Everyone started looking for the access panel that would open the doors as explosions outside came at a far brisker pace than just a minute before. Everett and Sebastian both were frustrated beyond measure that they weren’t where they thought they should be inside the mine. The large German was slamming against crates and other material as he searched for the panel, intentionally taking out his anger on the objects he felt were in his way.

“Here it is,” Appleby said. He opened a large steel door embedded in the rock wall. He saw the large switch and the German lettering below it—
Sicherheitstüren.

“What does it say?” Ellenshaw asked, looking over the DARPA man’s shoulder.

“It says security door, Professor,” Appleby answered as he eyed Charlie.

“Oh, I guess that’s it then,” Ellenshaw said in all seriousness.

Appleby used his considerable bulk to throw the large-handled switch. The big steel doors started to separate.

The others heard the whine of electric motors and turned to see the two eight-inch-thick steel doors start to part. Everett raised his M-16 and he and Sebastian slipped through the small opening first. Niles grabbed Ellenshaw’s arm as he tried to follow.

“Let them do their job, Professor,” Niles said, admonishing Charlie with a stern look.

As the doors finally opened far enough, they hit their stops and the science team found itself facing eighteen feet of open space. Sebastian and Everett looked around with weapons at the ready, but the entire giant area looked empty, with the exception of several large electric cars equipped with flatbeds parked parallel to the descending roadway ahead of them. Placed down the center line of that road was a red-lighted strip of small glass bulbs embedded in the roadway.

“Seems German engineering was as good back then as it is now, eh?”

They all turned to see Garrison Lee leaning heavily against Alice Hamilton. Niles shook his head. He ran over and quickly took Lee’s weight off Alice’s hands. The woman relaxed and gave Niles a determined look.

“Before you fly off the handle, he has a right to see this, and I for one wasn’t going to say no. Are you?” she asked sternly.

Compton deflated. He held his free hand up to Everett before he could admonish the two older people for their foolishness. Niles shook his head and started for one of the electric carts. He placed Garrison in the back and stepped aside as Carl came up. Carl shook his head at the man who stared at him with one good eye. The old man’s brow lifted as he waited for the chewing out by the mission commander that he knew was coming. Instead, Everett drew out his nine-millimeter and turned it so that the butt of the weapon was facing the senator.

“You remember how to use one of these, I presume?”

Lee grimaced in pain, but still managed to slide the weapon back so that he could look to make sure a round had been chambered. Then he pulled out his old Colt automatic and held both weapons up so Everett could see.

“I should have given that to Alice so she could shoot your curiosity-driven ass,” Carl said. He reached down and patted Lee on the leg.

“Please. She wouldn’t have wasted the bullet, Captain. She would have pistol-whipped me with it. You don’t know how mean this woman really is.”

“Appropriate, I must say,” Niles said. He shook his head at the dying Lee.

“Well, Senator Lee, shall we go see what all the fuss was about back when you were a kid?” Everett said, his anger going the way of a wisp of smoke as he realized Lee was about to go on his final adventure.

“By all means, Captain,” Lee said, as he dipped his hat in Alice’s direction. “My dear Mrs. Hamilton, would you like to ride beside me and prop this old fool up before he falls out?”

Alice smiled and hopped quickly onto the flatbed. She placed her arm through Lee’s.

“I would love to.”

“I notice you didn’t protest my use of the words “old fool,” darling.”

Instead of answering, Alice just laid her head onto the broad shoulder of the man she had loved all of her adult life.

Everett directed the others to climb into the lead cart. Then Sebastian took another of the carts with Charlie, Appleby, and Franklyn Dubois—the German handed his weapon to Ellenshaw and took the wheel of the second cart.

“Don’t shoot me with that,” he said to Ellenshaw.

*   *   *

Jack watched the progress of the young SAS captain and his men as they weaved their way through cover that wasn’t thick enough to hide a raccoon, much less grown men. As the attack force neared the mortar positions, they began encountering fixed positions placed around the mortar crews. As they went as far as they could without being detected, Jack could hear on the radio as the Englishman gave instructions to the young Vietnamese sniper, who was well hidden on the upper tier of the ridgeline above his own position. As the SAS men and the Japanese soldiers waited, Jack watched as the sniper started tracking targets closest to the attack team.

“Come on, kid. Earn your pay for the month,” Collins mumbled while every eye on the ridge watched, hoping the covering mortar fire could be eliminated.

The binoculars in Jack’s hands told the story. He saw a group of pit defenders, as they were called by the SAS captain, start to fall. A group of six mercenaries in the first line guarded the mortar pit a hundred yards in front of the position. This was the extreme range of the sniper’s very old but very accurate M-14, a weapon the Vietnamese only had experience with from the early days of the Vietnam War, thirty-five years before this particular Vietnamese kid had been born.

Through the field glasses Jack saw Captain Whitlesey Mark-Patton raise his right hand and then he saw the extended fingers close into a fist. The first terrorist defender apparently saw movement to his front and made the mistake of raising his head. The fortuitous movement coincided with Vinh Tram’s line of fire. The first round from 1,200 yards caught the man in the top of his head, sending him backward. The next man in line saw his comrade fall and turned to see what the action was about when the second round caught him in the side of his head. Jack couldn’t see if it had been a kill shot because the man’s black baseball cap flew off and obscured his head until he sank out of sight. The friendly sniper didn’t wait to see if the shot had done its work before he fired four more times in rapid succession—hitting every one of his four targets. The nearest he came to missing was when the last man in the defense pit turned to run back to the mortar men he was tasked to guard. The last round caught the man just at the base of the skull and dropped him.

Whitlesey Mark-Patton never hesitated; he and his SAS team, with their tagalong Japanese contingent, ran forward with nothing between them and the mortar. The assault was ruthless. In just five seconds the SAS and Japanese had eliminated the entire mortar crew and then they were up and on to the next, the unguarded center mortar. They hit in the same fashion and then did the same to the third. They stayed long enough to trip fuses in the mortar rounds and drop them into their tubes. A few seconds later the tubes exploded, and then Whitlesey was headed to the next pit as he made his way back.

Jack saw the terrorist element maneuver in behind them, cutting off their retreat as the mortars blew up, outlining their avenue of retreat to the attackers. Whoever was leading these men knew what had happened and moved his chess pieces before Mark-Patton and his men could escape fully.

“Damn it!” Jack said, but even as he spoke the words he saw the men making up the flanking force start to drop.

“I’ll be damned,” the German next to him said. “That kid is an amazing shot!”

As they watched, the terrorists started dropping one at a time, each man never knowing where the shots were coming from. The young Vietnamese soldier, with the barest minimum of firepower and optical assistance, was making kill shot after kill shot from a distance of over fifteen hundred yards against an enemy partially concealed by trees and brush. Every time one of the enemies drew close to Mark-Patton and his team, that man would fall with one of Tram’s bullets in him.

Finally the SAS and Japanese element made it clear of the tree line and rejoined the defense. Captain Whitlesey Mark-Patton joined Jack before he followed his men to the ridge above. All three mortar crews had been eliminated without one attacker lost.