"If we have to use the laborers to remove six or seven feet of sand before we can search, we'll be here forever. Let me try the probes attached to the walls; their base should be closer to that ancient topsoil--at least two thousand years closer."
Dutton heard Professor Leekie curse again:
"Damn, I'm getting a better reading, but there's still nothing there. No metal and no empty space that would indicate a shaft or cave.... Damn, I thought ... Oh ... Just damn!"
One of the Event Group assistants slapped his head with his palm. "Just a sec, Doc. I didn't switch on that last sonic probe."
Leekie shook her head and watched as the young man trotted back to the base of the prayer tower and vanished through the arched doorway. She wanted to shout out that it wasn't necessary but then decided that they had to be thorough, at least.
"All right, Doc, it's on," her assistant called out from the tower's opening.
Leekie switched the mode over to the frequency of the last probe. When the picture came onto the screen, she saw only a rounded blackness, as if she were looking into an old well. She tapped the laptop once again in anger.
"This thing, I swear--" She looked over at the base of the prayer tower. It was round. Then she looked at the screen again. The darkness there was round, too. She looked up suddenly. "There's nothing!"
"Well, maybe your people were wrong and this is just a wild goose--"
"No, I mean there's nothing there! The ultrasound probe isn't picking up anything under the sand inside the prayer tower but empty space!"
"What are you saying, Professor?" Dutton asked.
"I'm saying that the empty space I'm looking at is a covered shaft of some kind and it's deep. Damn, this may be the place. The mosque is here to cover the opening!"
"I was informed that no one knew about this spot until recently," Dutton stated. "You said earlier this burial site predates all religions. So why is there a mosque here?"
"Who knows? Maybe it wasn't a mosque to begin with. Maybe it was something else long ago and future generations just added to the foundations." Leekie's pretty face lit up with the answer to her earlier question concerning the age of the mosque and its foundations. "My God, that's why the foundation and wall ages don't match. Don't you see, it all fits! The people of this area, never knowing an original structure covered the ancient burial site, have used this place repeatedly. They never knew that a structure was here literally thousands of years before their civilization was even born."
"Okay, you sold me, Professor. What are you waiting for--let's recover this device," Dutton said, impatient to be out of there.
"I can't believe it," Leekie said, slamming her laptop closed. She smiled and jumped up and slapped the reserved Dutton on the shoulder. Then she ran to get the diggers to unearth the shaft inside the smashed prayer tower.
"She's excited about something," Jack said, adjusting his field glasses. "She must have discovered the burial site."
Carl watched Leekie as she hastily gave out orders; the reserved professor was more excited than any of her colleagues at Group had ever seen her before.
"Damn, Jack, you didn't say she gets to keep the diamond, did you?" Everett asked.
The Ethiopian diggers worked within the confined space of the ancient and collapsed prayer-tower base. The sun was now beyond its zenith, which cut the heat significantly. The sand was loose and hard to keep out of the hole they were digging. Finally, a shovel struck something hard with a loud ping--a sound that Leekie had always equated with finding buried treasure.
Three workers went to their knees and started shoveling the remaining sand out with their hands, until they hit a smooth surface. Leekie squeezed her way through the workers and knelt, brushing away the last of the sand.
"A cover stone," she said barely above a whisper.
"What's a cover stone, Doc," Mendenhall whispered beside her.
"In ancient times, civilizations such as the Egyptians and Greeks used cover stones to ... well ... cover anything buried. They were a deterrent to grave robbers and usually had curses written in their language warning an intruder that foul things and horrible deaths would befall them if they removed the cover stone."
"I guess that's you, huh, Doc?" Mendenhall asked, becoming nervous when she mentioned the word curses.
"Yes, that's me, Lieutenant."
Leekie instructed her team to remove the large, flat stone from the hole. Three Americans plus Will started pulling and prying with long-handled steel bars. The stone moved easily, and Leekie was surprised at the ease of removal after thousands of years.
"Can we get some lights over here?" she called out.
In minutes, several high-powered lights were shining down into the deep shaft. Leekie pulled a long tube filled with green liquid out of her pack. She snapped the inner casing inside the tube, then shook the liquid inside to life. When it began to glow bright green, she tossed it into the hole, where it soon struck bottom.
"There's flat flooring beneath. This is definitely a manmade excavation."
Mendenhall watched as Leekie removed a small device that resembled a flashlight from a case, turned it on, and pointed it down into the shaft. A thin red laser caught some of the swirling dust, making the beam visible. She turned it off after only a second and looked at the readout on the handle.
"It's only seventy-five feet deep. We can rappel down."
Mendenhall wished the colonel were there to lead this side of things, but he couldn't dwell on that now as he reached into his rucksack and brought out his gear used for a short repel.
"That cover stone was blank, right, Doc?"
Ten minutes later, Mendenhall and two of the Green Berets had hammered their rope stakes deep into the soil closest to the tower's foundation. Then they tossed their ropes into the shaft. Will pushed off first from the edge, quickly followed by the two Special Ops soldiers.
Will let the rope play through his belly ring smoothly, hitting the sidewall only twice to cover the seventy-five feet to the bottom. He held his position two feet above and examined the packed earth in the green glow of the nightstick. He saw solid footing below and then allowed the final feet of rope to slide through his gloves. He hit bottom and immediately shone his flashlight around the large chamber. A moment later, the two soldiers hit bottom and joined him.
"Holy shit," Mendenhall said as his light caught the large and intimidating features of two statues along the far wall. "I think we hit the right spot."
"Now, that's impressive," one of the soldiers said as he looked at the closest twelve-foot statue. "Who is it?"
"Zeus," Mendenhall answered. "Listen," he said.
The two Special Forces men quieted as they shone their lights around the earthen room. The twin statues of Zeus, on either side of a long and dark corridor, watched them as they looked around. Will' shone his flashlight down the eight-foot-high corridor and caught sight of a sloping ledge in the distance.
"When these guys dug a hole, they really dug one," Will said as he glanced down and noticed something in the outer limits of his light's range.
"What in the hell--" He leaned down and felt the dark earth. It was wet, and as he held his fingers to the light, he saw that they were red with blood. It had been there for a while but, without the sun to dry it out, remained moist. As he aimed his light around the ground, he saw that he was standing in a large stain that had yet to soak entirely into the soil.
One of the soldiers stepped past Will and started forward.
"Major Dutton wants this recon done ASAP," he said as Mendenhall reached out and tried to stop him.
Leekie had briefed every team member who was to enter the dig about the intelligence of ancient people when it came to protecting their property.
The staff sergeant had taken only four steps, and then his fifth footstep depressed a patch of soil covering a pressure plate with a connection to a sealed ceramic jar. The jar broke and released salt acid that had become stronger over the centuries. It burned throug
h an ancient spun cable of copper, which snapped with a loud ping and sent a solid wall of razor-sharpened bronze down on top of the soldier.
Mendenhall watched in horror as the fifteen-foot-wide wall came down, slicing cleanly through the soldier's body, the backside of which stayed upright. The wall stayed in place as the horror of half a man peeled away from the wall. Will ran forward and started to bend down, but then he felt it was a waste of time. Instead, he placed his hands against the razor-edged wall and pushed up. The wall slid into the cave's ceiling as easily as a window blind. Once Mendenhall saw the other half of the soldier, he turned away, but not before he thought about the bloodstain that he'd seen moments before the sergeant tripped the booby trap.
Mendenhall slowly pulled the 9-millimeter from the back of his pants and looked around with renewed interest, knowing that they had not been the first to enter the cave.
Leekie was staring down into the hole and was becoming anxious when there was no immediate word from Mendenhall. She stood and brushed sand from her pants and then left to find her repelling equipment. When she returned, she climbed to the edge of the tunnel after tying her rope off to the spikes.
She smiled at her American team members and was about to push off from the edge when the world exploded around her. She was thrown over the lip of the shaft by a blast she never saw coming. Her belly ring caught the rope but her momentum, plus her weight, was too much for the twist of rope to catch and she fell down the shaft.
She felt the rush of cooler air and came awake enough to reach for the rope. Her grasp slowed her momentum, cutting her speed in half, and then by a quarter, until her back struck the cool earth below.
The Special Ops team returned fire at the low-flying helicopters after the first volley of Hellfire missiles struck the low foundations of the mosque. The old AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters were legend in aviation and had earned the respect of ground soldiers the world over.
The Coalition pilots chosen for this ambush were very good. One was Israeli trained and the other British. They attacked Major Dutton's ground element with devastating effect. Twenty-millimeter explosive rounds struck positions and tore into flesh and sinew with ease. Dutton was lucky thus far, as only three of his men lay dead after the first pass of the two Cobras. The major saw that they could not stay out in the open and ordered the platoon to the protection of the crumbling mosque.
Once the major had dived behind one of the low foundations, he pulled out a small transmitter similar to the one Collins was carrying. He pushed the Transmit button and said two words: "Feather River!"
The first of the two Cobra gunships came low over a scrub dune and loosed a barrage of rockets that struck the crumbling walls of the mosque. Several soldiers and diggers were buried alive as the explosions tore through the ancient stone.
"Are you ready for the surprise of your life, assholes?" Dutton screamed at the second Cobra as it made a low pass and started strafing positions where his men had dug in.
There was a low rumble coming from the south and Dutton smiled in anticipation. These jerks don't know who they're messin' with, he thought.
Mendenhall and the remaining sergeant ran back the way they had come, jumping over the line of pressure devices that activated the deadly trap and separated the cave from the manmade excavation at the rear. The slope was all but forgotten when the attack started above them. Heavy thumping and explosions sounded as they came closer to the shaft. Mendenhall reached Leekie first and knelt beside her. The Special Forces sergeant looked up the shaft and saw a body fall against the opening and drape over the edge for a moment, then fall toward them.
"Look out!" he called.
The sergeant pulled Will and the unconscious Leekie clear of the hole just as one of the Ethiopian laborers hit the ground with a large hole in his chest. The young sergeant quickly ran forward and checked the man.
"He's dead," he said and then ran for one of the dangling ropes.
"Well, the doc's alive, just had the wind knocked out of her," Will said as he looked up. "Hey, don't do that!"
The sergeant had reached one of the ropes and had started to pull himself up, ignoring Mendenhall's order.
"Sergeant, I order you to--"
The sergeant suddenly fell back down. He hit with a thud and Mendenhall saw the perfectly round hole in his forehead.
"Dammit," he cursed. He then quickly gathered Leekie up and made for the darkness of the cave.
Collins was just getting ready to move down to assist the defense of the mosque but Everett forcibly stayed him with a hand.
"Jesus, Jack, we have company!" he said, looking through his binoculars.
Collins focused his field glasses to the left and saw several vehicles approaching the area between the low dunes. Then he looked skyward as the roar of jet engines screamed above them. Two F-15 Eagles were making a run on the attacking Cobras. This was Dutton's sure-fire backup plan. Jack again lowered the view of his glasses and saw that the vehicles had stopped and men were removing tarps from the backs of trucks.
"Damn! It's an ambush!" Jack said as he clenched his teeth. "They were expecting Dutton to have air cover!"
Everett followed Jack's lead and focused on the vehicles.
"SAMs!"
"Those Eagle pilots are sitting ducks," Collins said as he dropped his glasses and reached for the radio on his belt. He turned to the frequency that the expedition used and hit the Transmit button.
"American aircraft, this is friendly asset on the ground to the south. Abort your attack run, I repeat, abort your run, we have mobile SAMs tracking you from--"
Collins stopped talking because he knew he was too late to save the Americans as four brown-painted missiles left their launch platforms.
The two F-15s screeched in low and the lead pilot targeted the first Cobra in line. He was about to fire his 20-millimeter cannon into the thin armor of the attack chopper when his threat receiver started going crazy. The American pilot was too late. As he started to abort his attack and two SAMs apiece tore into their airframes.
Major Dutton, in his anger, actually forgot where he was for the briefest of moments and stood as the American aircraft disintegrated right before his eyes. As he cursed the trap that had been set, his body jerked as ten 20-millimeter rounds tore through his body. The stream of death reached out toward the mosque and the remnants of the Special Forces team.
"Ryan!" Jack called as he stripped his pack away, opened it, and pulled out several extra clips of ammunition for his Beretta. "Get over here."
Everett anticipated Collins's order and started stripping away all his unnecessary gear. He reached into his pack and pulled out an MP-5 with a folding stock. He took out a bandolier of ammunition and slung it around his neck. Then, as Ryan approached, he tossed him his pack.
"Weapon and ammo only," Everett said as he placed a magazine into the MP-5 and charged the handle, chambering a round.
"Damn, what in the hell did I miss?"
Jack reached into his pocket, pulled out his small transmitter, and hastily broke off the plastic cover that protected the red button inside. He pushed the button until it clicked and then tossed it away. He chambered a round into his Beretta and then looked at Ryan and Everett.
"We have a quarter mile to cover. I don't know if the doc is still alive, but I know Will must already be inside of whatever Leekie found in the tower's base. We have one goal: make sure these bastards do not get the diamond. Ready ... Go!"
The three men broke and ran toward the mosque.
Four additional mobile SAM vehicles arrived and took up station behind the same dune that had hidden the first four. A Land Rover broke free from the group of trucks. The small vehicle headed for the mosque and the attackers did not see the three Americans break and run for the site below. They kept to the backside of the dunes as they ran.
The Land Rover was equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun that was perched on the top, and a gunner started firing at the few men left inside the mosque's
walls. The two Cobras kept swooping in and firing streams of 20-millimeter rounds into the piles of rubble.
The four-wheel-drive SUV stopped only fifty feet outside the walls and the gunner continued to fire into the ruins. One Special Forces sergeant stood and loosed a full magazine at the Coalition vehicle and managed to drop the gunner, while the rest of his bullets ricocheted off the Rover's armored skin and glass. A circling Cobra fired its remaining rockets and killed the sergeant before he could take cover again.
The vehicle slowly started to advance when the return fire from the mosque fell off to nothing. Three men jumped out and ran for cover. One of the Cobras took up a hovering position a hundred feet over the mosque and covered the ground team as they cautiously approached.
Suddenly, the last remaining Green Beret stood and arrogantly aimed a small tube at the hovering Cobra. The Stinger let loose with a screech as it left the launcher. The three men fired at the man who stood bravely watching the missile's exhaust trail as it tracked the Coalition's Cobra.
The Cobra pilot turned as soon as his missile-warning system lit up. He popped chaff and flares in an attempt to escape. However, the distance was far too short and the Stinger was fast. The small but powerful missile made impact on the engine housing on the starboard side and tore through into the engine itself. The warhead detonated and blew the engine and rotors entirely free of the airframe. The attack chopper simply fell one hundred feet into the largest section of the mosque and exploded.
The three Coalition men ducked the flying debris and then quickly recovered. The first man to fire took a quick and terrible vengeance for their downed pilot. He fired and struck the last of Major Dutton's ground team. The man fell through the tower doorway and lay dead in the sand. The three men stood and waved the second Cobra in to safeguard them as they checked the ruins for survivors.
Collins, Everett, and Ryan saw the Green Beret attack on the Cobra as they neared the last dune before they had to break cover.
"Good for him," Everett said as he saw the chopper explode.
The three men slowed and then slid into the sand as they came to the edge of last dune. Jack looked around and saw the last of the three attackers enter the tower base. He grimaced as he heard shots fired and screams of men as they were shot down in cold blood.
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