Jack hit the temple steps just as large chips of marble started flying. He rolled until he was safe behind one of the thick pillars.
Everett was stunned at what had just happened. Jack had caught even him off guard. He had thrown the transmitter as far as he was able to, giving them hope that they could survive what was coming. Carl fired five rounds into the swirling mist of the falls and hit three of the men.
Ryan and Mendenhall added their fire to Everett's and together they kept the Coalition mercenaries moving and ducking. Jack looked for Dahlia and finally saw her crouching low beside the fire trough. She was directing something behind her. Jack looked up the slope and saw a man place a tube to his upper shoulder.
"Get down!" he cried.
The LAWs rocket was old, but effective. It streaked out of its launch tube and struck a pillar at the front of the temple, smashing it, bringing some of the marble roof down with it.
Jack took careful aim and fired. The man holding the tube in the shadows across the way crumpled as the bullet hit the thickest part of his body; the stomach.
Dahlia saw the man lean forward and slide down the slope. She shook her head in anger, then stood and fired her own pistol at the temple.
Collins saw his chance, lined her up, and pulled the trigger, nothing. He cursed and ejected the spent clip and inserted another. He brought up the Beretta, but Dahlia had lowered her frame once more.
AIR FORCE FLIGHT 2870 LIMA-ECHO
OPERATION HEAT LIGHTNING
THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND FEET
The aircraft was a B-1B bomber. In its belly was just one large egg it needed to drop--the bunker buster. It was there just as a last ditch effort in stopping the Coalition from obtaining the diamond just in case it had not been recovered by Major Dutton and Professor Leekie. Niles knew that it was a last-resort type of mission and called for only if there was no other way. So, naturally, when the air force informed him of the bomb drop, he lowered his head, thinking the worse.
"We have a painted target," said the pilot as he pickled his load off.
The bomb-bay doors opened automatically and the thousand-pound weapon fell free.
"We have a clean drop and designator is receiving target information."
"I hope someone down there knows how to duck," the copilot said as the B-1B bomber turned for home at Diego Garcia.
Dahlia waved forward more men with LAWs rockets. As the volume of Coalition fire increased, she knew she was close to ending the luck of this Colonel Collins. Her embarrassment would be erased and she would be able to look at herself once more without the shame of Collins around her neck.
She smiled, as the pitiful return fire was so ineffective that her men were starting to take chances by standing and taking better aim, pinning Collins and his few men down. It was now only a matter of time. Dahlia saw the men above her on the slope arming the rockets, and when she looked back down the incline she saw one of her men kick something along the ground. It was just dumb luck that she had seen it at all. The black case gleamed in the firelight flickering onto the slope as it skidded to a stop not five feet from her position.
Her eyes widened when she recognized the transmitter. Dahlia knew it was a geo-positioning transmitter, the sort used as a portable ground-penetrating lasing system.
"That crazy bastard is trying to kill us and himself!" she screamed indignantly as she broke free of her safe position and ran down the slope toward the return fire of Collins and his people.
The signal of the laser beacon was weakened by the topsoil and sand above it, but it was enough for the seeker head located in the nose of the bomb to lock on to. Small fins fore and aft maneuvered the fat weapon onto its glide path. This particular smart bomb was the largest in the U.S. inventory capable of guided flight. Falling from a height of thirty thousand feet, it had little trouble penetrating the thickness of the earth.
The world above and in front of them came crashing down. The bomb exploded off-target two hundred feet behind where the slope started in the natural portion of the cave. The fireball killed every man on his feet and buried the rest. The pillars of the temple cracked and started falling as Jack and the others broke for the water below them. They felt the heat burn their skin as they dived just as the earthen roof came cascading down.
Collins was the last to dive into the water and it was he who saw Dahlia as she was catapulted forward, cartwheeling through the air. She landed in the rushing torrent of water and immediately disappeared. Collins dived in and grabbed a handful of hair. He pulled her to the surface just as they shot into the mouthlike cave, and then the world around them went dark.
Jack held on to Dahlia as he tried to relax his body and allow the current to take them where it wanted. His only struggle was to keep the unconscious woman's head above water. At certain points, he found, the harsh current went far beneath the underground roof of the ancient river as it sped along. He saw momentary flashes of light ahead and heard the shouting of the others above the din of the rushing Blue Nile. Bright mineral deposits gleamed wetly as they screamed passed.
Jack's shoulder struck a stalactite and he careened into the smooth, age-worn wall, then a rip current pulled him and Dahlia under. Collins thought that this was where the river disappeared far below the desert and would not rise again until its waters mixed with those of the surface Nile far from where they were.
The roar of the river was growing even louder as Jack came close to passing out for lack of air. Suddenly the dark world filled with light and the waters warmed by twenty degrees as Jack kicked upward. The great current died out as he broke the surface into bright daylight. As he took in great gulps of air, he was never so glad to see the sun as it set low over the western horizon.
As he placed his arm around Dahlia's neck and started kicking, he felt hands and arms around him, pulling him through the water until his feet started dragging in the mud. He was pulled onto the hot sand lining the river. He heard Dahlia coughing and throwing up water next to him and he angrily shoved her body away from his own.
"Damn, Jack, you caught the biggest fish in this damn river," Everett said as he leaned down and made sure that the woman wasn't going to choke to death. "Freshwater piranha, I believe."
Collins coughed up water and rolled onto his stomach. Then he turned and looked at Everett.
"Next time we stay and shoot it out. That was not fun," he said as he looked beyond Carl. "We lose anyone?"
"All accounted for. Will broke his nose, Professor Leekie is crying about losing the temple, and Ryan is bitching that he lost his wallet, but it looks like we'll all live."
Jack pushed himself into a sitting position and looked from Carl to the blond woman lying on her stomach.
"We better find a phone and pass on the bad news."
"Think she'll talk?"
Collins stood on shaky feet, trying to clear his head. Then he looked down at the woman, who was just coming to.
"Yeah, she'll talk, or she may find herself being left in a country where people disappear all the time."
AMERICAN CONSULATE
ADDIS ABBA, ETHIOPIA
Jack, Carl, Mendenhall, and Ryan were standing behind the two-way glass looking into the interview room. Virginia, feeling sick after her supersonic flight from Nellis onboard an F-15 Eagle, was to handle the interview with Lorraine Matheson--Coalition code name Dahlia--who was presently sitting in a straight-back chair with her hands cuffed to its armrests.
In Nevada, Sarah and her geology team were watching the video feed in hopes of gaining an advantage in their scroll research.
"And they developed this Wave technology from copies of the same scrolls we have in our possession?" Virginia asked, with her arms placed firmly across her chest. Her demeanor was calm, but inside she was seething that this woman could order death and assassination as easily as ordering breakfast.
Dahlia was dressed in the same clothes she'd been wearing when she was apprehended. Virginia understood, from a woman's point of view, th
at this was grating on her.
"Yes."
Jack had received Dahlia's background check from Europa, who had hacked the FBI mainframe and pulled out her rather mundane file from its stored archives. Lorraine Matheson was the daughter of a wealthy author and was a graduate of U.C., Berkeley. She had squandered some years at the CIA as a researcher before finding the job boring. All through her young life, she had tried to be the exact opposite of her left-wing father and friends. She had eventually quit the CIA and drifted into freelance work in 1978. That was where her file ended.
"We know that certain members of the Coalition are related by blood to other Ancients, so they have heard the same stories about the Atlantean Key and the Wave being the cause of the destruction of Atlantis. Why does this Tomlinson believe he can control it?"
"His science teams estimate that the Wave will be enhanced by twenty million decibels, and the tone grooves on the diamond are a pinpoint decibel control for specific faults and their geologic makeup. That's all I've learned from Tomlinson; he's rather tight-lipped about his plans."
In Nevada, at the mention of geologic makeup, Sarah started thinking. The familiar thought was again at the edge of her memory, then it was gone.
"What is the Coalition's ultimate goal in all of this madness--to take over the world?" Virginia asked.
"You really don't understand anything, do you? The Coalition is out to eliminate the leadership of nations that are a drain on the material wealth of others. They play games with the support offered by building up armed forces used for only one purpose: the subjugation of their own people. Tomlinson seeks to eliminate them from the world stage. Not their people, as in the past attempts, but their leadership."
"If this is so, why the assassinations of western leaders and why a war in Korea that could bring down or weaken the United States?"
"The United States has always favored the status quo of the world. A weakened America will be swayed to mind its own affairs. Leaders financed wholly by the Coalition will receive the wealth of the world--food, money, and comforts will be supplied to their people. You see, why conquer when you can purchase. The use of the Wave is for those countries that will not let go of the old ways. It expeditious," Dahlia said with a smile.
Jack and Everett walked in and handed Virginia a file folder.
"Before we concern ourselves with the real questions you will be asking, have you delved into the more recent materials concerning your friends the Ancients?"
Collins just looked at the woman, not really concerned with what she had to say about Martha and Rothman.
"I think you may be somewhat shocked that they are not the innocents you may have been led to believe." Dahlia raised one eybrow and smirked.
Virginia sat in front of Dahlia and looked at her without saying anything for a moment. Jack and Carl stood with their backs against the glass and waited.
"I believe at this point I should be asking for legal counsel," Dahlia said, looking from face to face.
"Nah, we don't use 'em," Everett said from his place next to Jack.
Virginia opened the folder and pulled out a sheet of paper, then turned it around and laid it so that Dahlia could read it clearly.
"Do you recognize the letterhead on this document?" she asked.
The seal of the president of the United States was embossed at the top.
Dahlia looked and then leaned back in her chair. "Yes."
"Do you see the signature?"
"I have."
"This document clears you of all crimes committed in the United States and her allied treaty nations. In essence, Ms. Matheson, you are hereby pardoned before the facts are brought to public knowledge of the brutal crimes committed against the citizens of the United States. It is a document the new president did not want to sign. Am I clear on this point?"
Dahlia didn't blink an eye; she only waited.
Virginia frowned and placed the letter back into the file folder and started to stand. She was playing this out like an experienced trial lawyer.
"You are clear," Dahlia said before Virginia could stand.
"Good." She removed the letter once again and slid it over to the woman. "Now, the sooner you answer a few questions from my two colleagues here, the sooner you can sign this and then take that much-needed shower and change of clothes you're desperate for."
Collins walked over behind Dahlia and removed her right handcuff.
"Where is he?" he asked, still standing behind her.
Dahlia looked at the document in front of her and then up at Virginia, avoiding Jack as much as she could.
"Crete."
"Why Crete?"
"Because that's where the Coalition will make their final assault."
"How many?" Jack asked, finally turning around.
"Far more than you can handle. I believe your armed forces have far more pressing issues in Korea at the moment, as per Tomlinson's plan."
"How many?" Jack persisted.
"Two thousand defensive troops; I don't really know."
"Equipment?"
"I don't know."
"Again, why Crete?"
"You won't be able to get to them there. He's deep underground," she answered, finally looking Collins in the eyes, and then she smirked.
"Why?"
"To use the Wave, complete with Atlantean Key. He will attack Russia and China. That is everything I know."
Virginia placed the pen on the presidential decree. "Sign it."
Dahlia scribbled her name, never looking away from Collins.
Carl walked over and took the pen, then undid the other cuff. He helped her to her feet and pulled her toward the door.
"Come on, petunia, let's get you to a bar of soap. You're a little ripe."
Before Everett could pull her through the door, Dahlia stopped and turned to Jack.
"I can't resist, Colonel. I do have one more piece of information. Why Crete, you asked," she said, starting to laugh. "Tomlinson is in a city that sank fifteen thousand years ago. Good luck assaulting Atlantis, Colonel."
Everett pulled Dahlia away, but her laughter lingered.
EVENT GROUP CENTER
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, NEVADA
Sarah was in the examination room, deep in thought as she perused one of the ancient scrolls as one of the professors from the Ancient Languages Department sat beside her, explaining a strange design pattern.
"How they even knew about the North and South American continents is anyone's guess. They must have had exploration vessels that at the very minimum rivaled the Vikings' ship design."
Sarah was only half listening as the small memory of the Wave pattern still flickered just beyond her grasp.
"Now, this particular pattern here, according to Europa, is a close match for the continental plate that North America sits on. I say 'resembles' because the fault lines listed by these swirls and valleys are not accurate, nor the ones here, closest to Russia. I really don't know what they are. Without some understanding of their science, we may never know."
Sarah turned to the professor. "Excuse me?"
"Without some understanding of--"
"No, not that. You say Europa didn't recognize the fault lines on the scroll the Ancients created?"
"No, she didn't. The blue swirls listed are accurate faults, but the thicker red lines are a mystery. So either the Atlanteans knew something we didn't and placed faults and plates that we can't see today, or--"
Sarah jumped up and ran out of the clean room. She took the elevator down to the engineering lab, where Pete Golding was still studying the plate and its hologram. Sarah ran right into the middle of the floating map and started looking for a design she had seen earlier.
"Sarah, what's the matter?" Pete asked.
Sarah finally found the design she had seen during the demonstration. It was a Key they hadn't recognized earlier. As she examined it, Pete started looking over her shoulder.
"This fault pattern here, Europa has confirmed it is accura
te. This line here beneath it is the continental plate, the same here in Europe and Asia. I didn't recognize patterns in the shape of the continents earlier--only the North and South American plates, because of their unique shape. What's confusing me is that this same pattern is on the map Jack recovered from Westchester. Now that I see it on the hologram, I can tell it runs under both the faults and the tectonic plates. Now look at this," she said to Pete as her fingers traced a series of lines that led from one plate to the next, to the next, and so on. Some of the lines branched out and dwindled to nothing, like the branches of a tree, while the thicker, stronger lines connected the tectonic plates of the world by underground magma veins.
"What are you saying?"
"Somehow, the Atlantean scientists found a way to map what we can't do today. They found out that all the continents and the plates they sit on are in actuality connected."
Pete looked closer at the design, then his eyes widened as he finally pieced together what Sarah was driving at.
"Any massive assault on one tectonic plate could trigger a chain reaction around the world."
"Wouldn't the Coalition ... wouldn't they have seen this?" Pete asked.
"Not without this three-dimensional design they wouldn't. They didn't have the plate map, so they could never have known about it."
"Oh, Sarah, if they use this device on any of these major plates--"
"They could either shift entire continents ... or blow the planet to hell."
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The most important meeting in the long and storied history of the Event Group was about to begin. The president's National Security Council was about to be formally introduced to several of the Event Group members. The Group's background would remain hidden from them, as the council thought they were to be briefed by Compton's secret think tank. Nevada and Ethiopia could see the council via video link.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are very short of time here. The briefings will be short and to the point. Questions will be relayed to me and I will ask them," Niles said, sitting at the head of the table next to the president.
Ancients (event group thriller) Page 33