Ancients (event group thriller)

by David L. Golemon

  "Goddammit!" Jack said as he ducked back. "Dutton should have known better. With the mosque around them, they could have held off a brigade for half a damn day. We've got to take out that last Cobra."

  "The only way we can do that is have a bunch of bullets shot at us."

  "I've got to take the Land Rover; we need that fifty-cal."

  "If we had just one damn grenade," Everett said.

  "Mr. Ryan, you're the fastest. If I take out the fifty-gunner from here, can you sprint the distance before another takes his place?"

  Ryan was breathing heavily and it wasn't just because they had run a quarter of a mile. He was frightened.

  "No; I would have to start before you take a shot. It won't take long for someone to pop up and start shooting at us again. I'll run, and when he turns to fire I'll take him out. That will give me about twenty yards to cover and the time I need."

  Collins looked at the small navy pilot and nodded.

  Everett shook his head and tossed Jack the MP-5. He knew that Ryan had never lacked for balls, but what made him so convincing was that he was always scared to death. Scared men got the job done.

  "Don't be shy about wasting ammo, flyboy--empty a full magazine of nine-mil through that sunroof of theirs," Everett said, and then he pulled out his own Beretta.

  "Right," Ryan said as he looked at the colonel. "Don't miss, or my boat-surfing days are over."

  Collins was silent as he extended the retractable stock and then wrapped the MP-5s shoulder strap around his forearm. He raised the rear site and adjusted for distance. Then he placed the stock into his shoulder.

  "Okay, Colonel," Ryan said, taking three deep breaths. "Do some of that black-operations stuff you're famous for," he said as he suddenly burst free of the dune and ran as if the devil himself were chasing him.

  As luck would have it, Ryan broke cover just as the remaining Cobra turned and gained a better vantage point. That was where his luck ended. The gunner on the top of the Land Rover must have had excellent instincts for danger, because before Ryan had taken five steps the gunner started turning the heavy weapon his way. To Ryan it was as if everything went into surreal slowness as he awaited the large-caliber rounds to hit his small body and tear it apart.

  Jack kept both eyes open as he aimed. In his peripheral vision he saw the long barrel of the .50-caliber turn in Ryan's direction. Collins took a breath and then allowed half of the air out. Then he sighted again, taking his time. The sight was center-lined on the man's throat. Jack figured that the MP-5 would bolt up at the split-second discharge of the bullet, so he accounted for recoil and pulled the trigger.

  Ryan saw the gunner smile as he continued to run. He knew the man had two fingers on the triggers of the machine gun, so he concentrated on running even faster. When he was sure he was done for, Ryan felt something buzz past his left ear. Just when he wondered if the colonel had forgotten about him, he saw the gunner's head snap back, and then the barrel of the .50-caliber slowly rose into the air as the man fell back into the sunroof.

  Ryan covered the remaining distance without a rational thought in his head. Just before he reached the Land Rover, he knocked his sunglasses off and then hit the bumper perfectly and bounded up and onto the roof. He actually started shooting before he had aimed into the cab, and several bullets hit the roof with a loud thud. Then he adjusted and fired directly into a man who was rising to take the gunner's place, and then he shot the driver, who was quite shocked at his own death.

  Jack stood and along with Everett made a dash for the mosque. At the same moment, the last Cobra completed its turn and saw the two men break from the sand dune. It banked hard and made a run for the sprinting men.

  Ryan saw the Cobra, but it had not seen him. He jumped through the sunroof and landed on something soft and wet. He took the handles of the large weapon and hoped he remembered how to fire the thing. He was short enough that he didn't need to lean down to bring the barrel into the air. He aimed at the attacking Cobra and fired. The first five rounds flew out of the barrel and then the weapon jerked out of Ryan's hands, almost breaking his fingers. He cursed and took the .50-caliber again and aimed. He braced himself this time and cut loose a long stream of bullets. He saw the tracers and adjusted his fire until it crossed paths with the slow-moving Cobra just as it started firing its 20-millimeter cannon at Collins and Everett. Ryan's fire hit the cockpit and smashed through the canopy glass and into the pilot and the weapon's man.

  Ryan's jaw fell as he watched the Cobra turn over and fall away. The rotors smashed into the scrub and the small helicopter erupted in a fireball.

  Fifty yards away, Jack and Carl had stopped and were looking at the downed Cobra and then back at Ryan. The small navy man waved quickly and then ducked as small-caliber rounds struck the Range Rover from the rear. When Ryan turned, he saw ten men running in his direction. It crossed his mind for a split second to turn the machine gun on the charging Coalition men, but he decided that he had pressed his luck just as far as he could for the day. He hopped out and ran to the mosque.

  Collins and Everett ran through the opening of the tower base and slammed right into two Coalition men who had entered unseen. Everett slammed the man so hard that he hit the rounded wall, and when he rebounded toward Carl, he shot him three times. The other didn't live quite as long, as Collins in a last-second move raised his 9-millimeter and shot the man twice in the head. Everett almost shot Ryan as he entered the tower base.

  Jack didn't wait for the others as he wrapped one of the three ropes around his right boot once and then took up a large loop in his right hand. Then, without hesitation, he pushed off into the shaft. Ryan and Everett followed. Ryan didn't know how to rappel without the proper equipment, so he just grabbed the rope and went hand over hand until it started cutting and burning. As he slid down the rope, he passed Everett and Collins and hit the bottom with a thud.

  "Dammit," he cried out as he rolled onto his stomach. Everett and Collins landed softly next to him and removed the ropes from their feet. "I think you forgot to train me on that little trick with the rope," he said as he started to rise, wiping blood from his hands.

  "Sorry about that. I Didn't think we had the time to show you," Jack said as he took the 9-millimeter from his belt.

  "Damn, it's dark," said Everett as he tried to penetrate the darkness around them beyond the light shining down the shaft.

  Above, they heard the sounds of many vehicles approaching the mosque.

  Jack's foot struck something and he reached down and saw that it was a field pack. He held it toward the sunlight and saw that it was marked with Leekie's name. He opened it and fished inside until he found what he was looking for. He brought out a phosphorescent flare and struck it. He held it up and the darkness gave way to bright light.

  "Whoa, I think this may be the place," Everett said as he took in the statues.

  Jack looked down and saw one set of tracks leading away from the antechamber of the cave.

  "Looks like another opening there, Jack," Everett said as he pointed his weapon at the large opening.

  The three men started forward slowly. They walked along the stone-and-earthen walls carved to resemble pillars. There were strange designs etched into them that depicted bulls, disks of a blazing sun, and women and fighting soldiers in armor. Hieroglyphs identical to those they had seen on the scrolls they had recovered lined the walls.

  "Ah, Jesus," Ryan said, disgust edging his voice.

  Jack held the flare closer and saw the horrible death that had befallen one of Dutton's men. The two halves of his body lay crumpled side by side as if they were just laundry waiting to be picked up.

  "Watch where you step," Jack said as he threw the flare down and struck another. He held it close to the dirt floor and saw the sun designs on the packed earth. "Look," he said as he pointed the flare at the ground. Then he looked up and saw a large slit in the natural rock formation where something was hidden, just waiting for someone to step on the sun design
s on the ground.

  "I wish Sarah was here, she knows these traps far better than us," Ryan said as he slowly backed away from the dead man.

  Collins hopped over the line of pressure plates after making sure that one trap didn't lead directly to another. They slowly and cautiously entered what they had thought was another cave, but as the light struck and dispelled the blackness, they saw that it was a manmade extension of the natural cave. Jack could see where the ledge sloped steeply down in front of them.

  "Listen," he said.

  "Running water," Carl ventured. "A lot of it."

  As they entered the larger excavation, Jack felt the same feeling he'd had earlier in the desert above. Eyes were on them. He tried to see beyond the steep slope, but there was nothing.

  "Lieutenant?" he shouted.

  "Colonel?"

  It was Will Mendenhall, his voice echoing off the walls just below the slope's edge. He stood, lowered his 9-millimeter, and took a deep breath.

  "I'm sure glad to see you guys."

  "Is Leekie with you?" asked Jack.

  "She's right here. I thought we were going to make a last stand. I was going to take as many of those bastards with me as I could."

  The professor limped up the slope and joined Will.

  "Glad to see you made it, Doc," Collins said as he stepped forward.

  "Major Dutton, his team?" Mendenhall asked.

  Everett just shook his head.

  "Damn."

  "What have we got down there?"

  "You're not going to believe this," Mendenhall said. "Show 'em, Doc."

  Leekie gestured for the men to follow. She veered to the right side of the slope and then asked Jack for the flare. She touched it to a small ledge and the entire slope lit up with a ring of fire. The ledge, as it turned out, was a trough filled with something ancient, the smell of which was horrible. Everett, Ryan, and Collins watched as the ring of fire illuminated a series of ornamental pillars that lined each side of the slope, which led to an underground river that raged in front of them. The cool waters fell from a great waterfall that exited an opening sixty feet above. As the water from above struck below, it misted and then disappeared as it entered a natural cave that had stalactites and stalagmites lining the upper and lower edges, making the cave seem as if it were an open mouth full of very sharp teeth.

  The vision on the other side of the river was what caught their attention. Placed at the very water's edge on the far shore was a small temple of marble and sandstone that gleamed in the flare's false light. Inside, they could see a giant bronze bull, head and right leg bent as it pawed the ground, just as if it were frozen in time while in the act of attacking.

  "Now that is something," Everett said, gazing at the incredible sight.

  Mendenhall took Collins by the arm and leaned close.

  "I didn't want to tell the doc this earlier, Colonel, but we weren't the first ones here."

  "I figured as much. I saw some heavy-equipment tracks in the desert. That, coupled with the fact that the Coalition hit so fast and hard, tells me they were nearby, just waiting to spring their ambush."

  Everett heard the last of the conversation as he stepped up.

  "If we recovered the plate map, how in the hell did they get here first?" Will asked, looking from Jack to Carl.

  "I don't know. After searching for it for thousands of years, they suddenly pop up out of nowhere. Did we miss something in Hawaii?"

  "No one from Leekie's group entered before you, Lieutenant?"

  "No, sir; I and two Special Ops men were the first."

  Leekie and Ryan joined the group.

  "What are we waiting for? Let's get what we came to get," she said as she looked at the serious faces of the three.

  "I'm the strongest swimmer, Jack; I'll get a rope across and tie it off," Everett said.

  "Yeah, just don't end up in Cairo in that current."

  Ten minutes later, after Everett had given them all a scare by not coming up for six minutes, they saw him break the surface of the river a hundred yards downstream of the temple. He rested for only a moment before he worked his way back along the slim shore. He tied the rope off to the first pillar in line and made it fast. He then waved the others into the water.

  Everett looked around the base of the temple for anything that resembled the trough that Leekie had ignited, but found none. He did, however, find torches, last lit when the foul place had its secret first placed there. Carl pulled his Zippo lighter out of his pocket and reached for the first of the ancient torches. He placed the flame next to it, then hesitated as he saw that it was made from a human arm. The skeletal hand of it held a small bowl. Carl hit it with the flame and it sprang to life with the same awful smell as the trough across the way. He lit all the torches that lined the walls of the temple.

  Leekie and Ryan, tied together, were the first to traverse the rope hand over hand. Mendenhall and Collins followed. Everett was at the shore's edge to assist each out of the water.

  They rested for only a moment and then made their way to the temple steps. The men allowed Leekie to examine the marble steps first so that they wouldn't make the same mistake as the sergeant had made back in the first cave. Then, she waved them forward. It was Jack who noticed that, for having been buried for close to fifteen thousand years, the temple was in remarkable shape.

  Leekie was the first to enter the temple. Everett had retrieved a torch and Jack lit off one of their last flares as they looked on with amazement at the work that had gone into building such a thing beneath the earth. Spaced around and in front of each pillar, lifelike statues of men stared out at them with blank eyes. Some were dressed in ancient armor, others in the flowing robes of a politician. Most were impressive in looks but small in stature. The largest was of a bearded man, a soldier perhaps, with a battle helmet in the crook of his right arm and in his left a bronze spear, which stood out brightly against the white marble of his body. The statue was only five foot seven inches high, much taller than its adjoining companions.

  "If these were men of Atlantis, they weren't all that impressive in size," Ryan said, feeling even taller as he stood next to the largest statue. He had no way of knowing that the statue was once of Talos, the last of the great Titans.

  "Well, ancient man was a very small creature compared with humans today. Even in biblical times men rarely, if ever, topped a height over five-eight," Leekie said, looking at Ryan.

  "Jack," Everett called as he and Mendenhall stood in front of the giant bronze bull.

  Collins joined them as Everett shone the torch over the lowered horns of the beast. Jack saw two notches about fifteen inches wide on each of the horns.

  "Professor, could you look at this," he called. "Could these notches have held something?"

  "Dammit!" Leekie said as she looked at the horns. "The blue diamond was more than likely cradled by the two horns."

  "Maybe they were just--"

  "It was very difficult removing the diamond from its locked base on those horns, I assure you." The female voice, raised over the sounds of the river, caught them off guard.

  Collins, Everett, Ryan, Mendenhall, and Leekie took cover behind the pillars. Jack ventured a look across the river and saw fifty men slowly coming down the slope. The blond-haired woman was behind them, walking slowly with the use of a cane. The soldiers stood silhouetted in the light of the fire ring. She gestured right and then left as her men took up positions in various places on the slope.

  Jack looked at his watch and saw that he desperately needed to stall the woman.

  "I was hoping you drowned at Pearl Harbor," Jack called out.

  "Almost, Colonel Collins, almost," Dahlia said as she paced to her left behind the wall of soldiers. "The Atlantean Key is safely where it should be. We recovered it only ten hours before your arrival here."

  Collins did not respond as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a second transmitter, which he had hoped not to use. He looked at the excavated ceiling, hopi
ng that it was mostly earth and not rock. He needed a ground-penetrating signal to pierce through to the surface. As he thought about how he was going to put the transmitter in the right spot, Everett joined him, after sneaking behind the temple.

  "We're trapped like rats--there's no way out in the back--"

  He went silent when he saw what Jack held in his hand.

  "Oh, shit."

  Everett recognized the small electronic marker that had a counterpart: one attached to a thousand-pound ground-penetration bomb called a bunker buster.

  "I take it you alerted the air force already?"

  "Just before we broke cover in the dunes. Niles insisted we have a failsafe."

  "It would have been nice if the diamond was still here," Everett said, not taking his eyes off the remote signal.

  "It would have been, swabby, but what the hell."

  "Yeah, what the hell."

  Collins walked to the front of the temple.

  "Where did you take it, if you don't mind me asking?"

  Dahlia smiled as Collins walked slowly down the steps of the temple. The man's arrogance was beyond anything she had ever seen. She came close to laughing at the bravado of this bastard.

  "This isn't the movies, Colonel. I do not tell all even though I am sure you're living the last moments of your life. Just rest assured that because of your failure at the Arizona, the world will--"

  Collins raised his weapon and fired as fast as anyone could have thought possible. The first bullet tore through one man's ear and struck Dahlia. It grazed her left shoulder just outside the protection of the vest she was wearing. The rest of the rounds struck men and dropped at least five of them. The commotion gave Jack the time he needed as he reared back and threw the designator across the river. The laser was broadcast on both sides, front and back, so he knew that it didn't need to land upright to work. The device landed about twenty feet up the slope.

  "What are you waiting for?" Dahlia screamed, angered almost to the point of hysteria. "Kill that son of a bitch, kill them all!"