Soul Intent (34 page)

“That should do it,” she said. She turned on the communicator. This time only a low hum came out. She smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

George pulled the microphone up to his mouth and keyed it on. “This is Soul Identity, identifier three-one-seven, calling over a temporary and insecure channel. Does anybody read me?” He released the microphone button.

We all strained to hear anything more than the low hum.

George pointed to the display. “The battery is low, so I hope they’re not on a coffee break.” After a minute, he repeated his message.

The line crackled, and then we heard a voice. “Go ahead, three-one-seven. Soul Identity HQ reads you loud and clear.”

We all broke out big smiles. Sue reached out and rubbed George’s arm, and Val and I hugged each other.

George keyed the microphone. “Three-one-seven, requesting remote authentication. Challenge is this—my first name.” He closed his eyes and said to us, “we have to make sure these are the good guys.”

After ten seconds the voice returned. “Three-one-seven, your first name is George. What can we do for you?”

“We have a level five emergency. A team of unfriendlies attacked us with deadly force. The EO and the three non-members are now hostages, and eight-oh-four, two others, and I are trapped in a mine. We are wounded, and we need medical assistance as soon as you get the EO to safety.”

Silence except for the hum. George let his microphone hand fall to his chest. “We just sent them into hyperdrive,” he whispered.

A minute later the voice came back. “Three-one-seven, I escalated to Mr. Berringer and Ms. Blake. They are headed to the communications center, and I’ll patch you through in ninety seconds.”

“Thanks, HQ,” George said. He keyed the microphone again. “While we wait, can you pull up an infrared sat image of our location?”

“I’ll get it ready, but I’ll need the DEO’s authorization before pointing the bird.”

“You’ll have it.” George turned his head to look at Sue. “Anything else?” he asked her.

“Activate Mr. Morgan’s tracking device,” she said.

George nodded. “You catch that, Sterling?”

“Affirmative. Stand by for the patch. It should be less than sixty seconds. You hang in there, three-one-seven.”

“Thanks.”

I thought I could clear something up while we waited for Berry and Ann. “Are you two ex-CIA?” I asked.

Sue smiled. “No, Scott. We cross-trained with the FBI and NSA, but never with the CIA.”

“That we know of, at least,” George said.

The radio crackled. “George? Sue? Ann and I are here,” Berry said. “What’s going on?”

Sue grabbed the microphone from George. “A hostile group of what we think are neo-Nazis kidnapped Mr. Morgan, Flora, and the twins, and trapped the rest of us inside the mine. We neutralized five of them. We need your authorization to grab some satellite images, and to enable Mr. Morgan’s tracking device.”

“Authorization granted.”

“HQ, point the bird,” Sue said.

“Roger that,” the voice from the communications center said. “We’re acquiring the site now. We’re using the coordinates from your last tracked position at one eight hundred Zulu.”

“Patch the image up to the communications center,” Ann said.

“Should be just a minute, ma’am.”

Berry came back on. “Sue, are you okay? How are Scott and Val?”

“George and I were both in the line of fire, but we’re stabilized, sir. Val and Scott are shaken but operative. Get Mr. Morgan and then worry about us.”

 “Image coming through now, Mr. Berry.”

“What are we looking at?” Ann asked.

“Let me zoom in…there. It appears there are seven people. Four are inside a vehicle. Mr. Morgan’s transmitter has been activated…give me a second to overlay…there. He’s the one with the blinking green dot.”

“He’s in the vehicle,” Berry said.

“Affirmative. Those white spots on your screen appear to be some sort of campfire.”

“So they’re right outside the mine?” George asked.

“At least Mr. Morgan is. And I can confirm he’s still alive, with a slightly above-normal heart rate, and a body temperature of ninety-nine point five.”

“Do we have any other assets in the area?” Sue asked.

“Checking, eight-oh-four,” said the operator. After a minute he returned. “The closest team is four hours away. In Budapest.”

“Mr. Berringer, I recommend authorizing their deployment,” Sue said. “We don’t know the hostiles’ intentions.”

“I agree, Sue,” Berry said. “Ann?”

“I concur,” Ann said.

“Authorized,” Berry said. “Get them out there, and keep us informed.”

“Roger that, Mr. Berringer, we will—”

“Hold on, what’s happening?” Ann cried. “What are they doing to him?”

“What do you see, Ms. Blake?” Sue asked.

Berry jumped in. “It looks like they’ve pulled the four out of the car and toward the fire. Now they’re, oh God, somebody hit Mr. Morgan, and he’s fallen down.”

Val came and stood by me, and I put my arm around her.

“Those bastards are still hitting him!” Ann said. “Operator, how is he?”

“Increased heart rate, rapid breathing—”

“They stopped,” Berry said. “Now somebody’s picking him up and…”

We waited.

“The four are back in the car,” Berry said. “Mr. Morgan is slumped over.”

“Is he okay?” Sue asked.

“He’s alive, but it seems he’s fallen unconscious, eight-oh-four. His heart rate and breathing have dropped to low levels, and—”

The voice was cut off, and I noticed that the hum in the line was gone.

Val walked over to the radio. “The battery is dead,” she said after a minute.

“We’re cut off.” Sue slumped back on the ground. “It’s up to the Budapest team now.”

“I hope they hurry,” George whispered.

fifty-six

Present Day

Dubnik Mine, Slovakia

After sitting for ten minutes with my arms around Val and listening to George moan in his pain and Sue weep in her frustration, I stood up and walked around the gallery. I pointed my wrist light into the shadows by the stairs and walls.

“Are you looking for something?” Val asked.

“Yeah. The four dead guys. Where could they be?”

Sue blew her nose and said, “I shot them as they reached the top of the stairs. They fell over the side, close to where you are. Can’t you see them?”

I walked over into the shadowed corner and found them. I played the beam of my light over the twisted bodies of four young men. They each lay face down. Their hair was cropped short. Each of their green uniforms had a large blood-rimmed exit hole in the middle of the back. “Found them,” I called.

“Are they all dead?” Sue asked.

“They’re not moving.”

“Could you make sure?”

Great. I dropped to my knees and felt the neck of the one on the bottom of the pile. His skin felt cold, and I could detect no pulse. Same with the two middle ones.

But the guy on top felt warmer. And when I grabbed his shoulders and turned him over, his blue eyes caught mine and darted away. I looked down. He held a pistol, and he had it pointed at my head.

I dove to the right just as he fired. Then I kicked at where I hoped his chest was.

The soldier let out a faint cry, and I spun around and grabbed at the pistol. The barrel was hot, and I struggled to hang on to it and point it up and not at me.

He fired again, and I winced as the flame from the barrel burned my hands. But the bullet whined over my head, and I climbed on top of him and forced his arm further back, pushing as hard as I could.

His other hand grabbed at my face, and I bit his thumb. He yelled and tried to pull back, but I had become a bulldog. I ground down until I felt my teeth slice through his knuckle.

He screamed and jerked his hand away, leaving me with the top joint of his thumb and a mouthful of blood. I spat it onto his face and pushed harder on his arm. He fired again, but I had his arm back far enough that the bullet slammed into one of the bodies with a thud.

One last push, but somehow he jerked free and swung his arm back. I tried to twist the pistol before he could shoot, and then I felt a third pair of hands grab at it. I pulled, but it slipped out of my grasp, leaving me holding the man’s empty hands.

Another shot, and the body beneath me convulsed once, twice, and then went still. I swung my wrist light around. Its beam caught Val dropping the pistol.

“I thought you were dead,” she said. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me hard.

“You saved me,” I said. “Again.” I squeezed her tightly, and we rocked back and forth on the pile of bodies.

After a minute we helped each other stand up. I flicked on my wrist light and cringed when I saw the bullet hole in the man’s forehead.

“How’d you know you weren’t shooting me?” I asked.

“His hair,” she said. “It’s a buzz cut, and it’s much thicker than yours.” She picked up the pistol and stuck it in the waist of her jeans.

I searched through the bodies and pulled out a knife and two more pistols. We walked back to George and Sue with our arms around each other.

George looked up. “Val flew like a bat out of hell when that first shot was fired.”

“She saved my life.” Then something hit me. “Wait a minute…did you say bat?”

George gave me a blank look. Then he smiled. “Bats.” He let out a chuckle, then grimaced. “Don’t make me laugh,” he said.

“What’s so funny?” Sue asked.

He turned to her. “Where are the bats, Sue?”

She shrugged. “Far away, I hope. I hate bats.”

He smiled. “I’ll ask you again, my dear. Where are those lovely, beautiful, friendly Euro-bats?”

Then Val snapped her fingers. “If we find the bats—”

“Then we’ll find our way out,” Sue finished. “I guess I don’t hate Slovakian bats.”

“The diving rentals guy told me they bricked up the end of the tunnel to keep the bats out of the gallery,” George said. “Right past the staircase.”

“So we can break through that wall and fly out,” Sue said.

“There’s only one problem,” Val said. “We have no tools.”

“Let’s go and look,” I said as I got to my feet. “Maybe a brick is loose.”

Val and I climbed the stairs, and instead of turning left and up the tunnel to the blockage, we turned right and faced a bricked-up wall.

Val traced the edges with her light. “It looks pretty solid.”

I ran my fingers over the wall, looking for either a loose stone or a crack in the mortar. The joints were tight. I planted my foot against the bottom center of the wall. “Let’s see how strong it is,” I said. I stepped back and kicked, but the wall didn’t budge. I kicked again and again, not stopping until pains shot up my leg.

Then we tried slamming our bodies into the wall a few times, but when nothing happened, we slumped down and caught our breaths.

“We’re so close,” Val said.

I closed my eyes. “I wonder if this is how Old Ned felt when he was stuck in the chute.”

She reached out and grabbed my hand. “You really connected with him, didn’t you?”

“I did,” I said. “And I can’t wait to get the rest of his story into my soul line collection. He needs more than that letter.”

“He had more than a letter—we read his story about the cave-in.”

That triggered something, and I looked up and smiled. “We sure did—Ned told us how he and Raddy escaped!”

Val straightened up. “They dug to another tunnel, didn’t they?” She banged on the wall with her fist. “Just like we need to do.”

“But they had picks,” I pointed out.

“And we don’t.”

I smiled.

She looked at me. “You have a pick?”

I shook my head. “Ned only left me a hammer.”

She stared at me as if she thought I had gone off the deep end. “You left it in your soul line collection, Scott.”

“Not the hammer—he took his pick into the opal nest.”

She slumped back. “You’re going to go there after all.”

I nodded. “We need the pick, and we need to help everybody else.”

“Nobody but Flora’s grandfather has survived that nest, Scott,” she said. She grabbed both of my hands. “We just have to wait the four hours until we’re rescued.”

“George may not last four hours without medical assistance,” I said. “And from what we heard on the radio, Archie, Madame Flora, and the girls won’t either.”

She sighed. “Is this your fight, Scott? Do you care enough for them that you would die to save them?”

That brought me up short. “Of course I do—don’t you?”

After staring at me for a long minute, she spoke with measured words. “I do. I’m over helping Flora save her damn gold, but certainly I would die trying to save Rose and Marie. It’s not our fight, but it’s not theirs, either.”