Legacy: An Event Group Thriller

by David L. Golemon

  Jack and Sebastian made a great show of sliding open the steel door that separated the main gallery from the outside world. The door slid loudly on its runners and Jack played a flashlight about at the entrance. The two men stepped inside just as the first rays of sunlight struck the small valley in the Andes. Collins entered the mine with Sebastian following.

  As Everett scanned the steel support beams in the upper reaches of the excavation, he pulled back the hammer on his nine-millimeter, knowing he would be the two snipers’ only backup if one of them missed or if there were more guards inside than first thought.

  As Jack and the German commando entered and started walking toward the giant steel doors that secured the first section of mine from the next, Everett saw movement. With the distraction of the battle raging only five miles distant, Everett concentrated on the gridwork. As he watched, he heard a loud crack from his right. A man briefly stood and then fell forward onto a catwalk. One guard had been dispatched. Then, just as quickly, another guard sprang up not far from where the first had been hidden. As he did he actually managed to get off a round before the second sniper found him. The guard’s bullet struck just to Jack’s left, pinging off the concrete flooring. Collins and Sebastian dove for cover as the second guard succumbed to a sniper’s bullet. Everett could see no more movement.

  “Clear?” Jack called out.

  The two snipers called out “clear” and stood from their positions of cover. Collins became concerned when Everett didn’t stand and call out his all clear. That was when his hackles rose and he knew that they had been premature in calling all safe.

  A third guard opened fire with an automatic weapon from high up in the network of shaft support beams. The Australian sniper flew backward as a line of bullets stitched its way across his chest. Jack was slow to react, but Everett wasn’t. With five well-placed shots from the nine-millimeter, Carl dropped the third man. His body struck the catwalk and slid over the edge, falling eighty feet to the floor.

  “Damn it!” Everett said as he finally stood and ran over to the fallen Australian. He checked the man for any sign of life but found he had died very quickly. “Jack, are you two all right?” he called out from a kneeling position.

  Suddenly lights came on in the overhead. The scene was illuminated by the fifty hanging fixtures from above. Everett looked over and saw the small Vietnamese sniper at the lighting control panel. He felt Jack at his side.

  “That’s my fault. I was in too much of a damned hurry to get in here.”

  Everett looked up at his boss and stood up.

  “We’re all moving too damn fast, Jack. Hell, I should have known better. This isn’t the last asshole we’re going to run into down here, but we don’t have time to do a clean sweep, we have to get Niles and the others in here.”

  “He’s right, Colonel. We have to move. From the sounds of things outside, I don’t think the Ecuadorians are faring well at all,” Sebastian said and nodded his thanks to the Vietnamese sniper, who was watching them. He continued glancing at the gallery support system above them.

  Jack nodded and looked around. “Okay, let’s get Niles and his science team in here and see what we can see in case we have to make a hasty retreat out of here.”

  As they moved to get the others, Jack’s radio came to life. He snatched it from his belt and listened.

  “The lookouts report helicopter support has finally arrived to assist the battle line down the mountain.”

  “If there’s anyone left,” Everett said. He moved to get outside and retrieve Niles and his four men.

  Jack exited into the dawn’s first light and immediately saw the three Cobra gunships three miles away making their first runs on the unseen enemy below. He also saw his thirty-man fire team as they took their positions in case the distant enemy made it through. As he raised his binoculars to his eyes, he saw the first lines of what looked like mercenaries. He scanned the area and then his heart froze as he saw something familiar.

  “Mr. Everett, contact the man we have standing by at the radio in the guard shack. Tell him to get the frequency that those Cobras are using. Tell them they are being tracked by antiaircraft missiles.

  Before Carl could react, Jack grabbed his arm—it was too late. They all watched in stunned silence as three streaks of white-hot exhaust broke free of the tall trees lining the battlefield below. They shot upward at Mach speed. The first Cobra never knew what hit it. Its entire forward section disappeared in a ball of flame. The second had time at least to terminate its covering run of the ground troops. It tried to pull up as the second radar-guided missile struck just aft of the two-man cockpit, splitting the old attack chopper into two pieces as it fell into the trees near the troops it had been trying to defend. The third Cobra banked hard and was actually able to bring its twenty-millimeter Gatling gun to bear on the third missile team that had shot at it. The Cobra peppered the site with a thousand rounds, sending the shooters into oblivion. As Jack continued to watch, a fourth missile came out of the trees, tracking the third Cobra as it pulled up into the still gray sky of early morning.

  “Jink right, go right,” Jack hissed between his teeth.

  The pilot never saw it coming. By the time the Cobra had gained altitude, the threat receiver was too late in picking up the radar pulse that had locked on to it. The missile slammed into the spinning rotors and sheared the twin blades off the transmission hub. The chopper fell into the trees like a rock. The explosion and black smoke marked their crash site. As Jack scanned the area below, he saw more mercenaries advance through the trees. The remaining Ecuadorians were scattering after seeing their air support vanish in a split second.

  “Mr. Everett, take the science team and secure them inside the mine,” Jack said as he lowered the field glasses. “We’re going to have a lot of company soon.”

  “Respectfully, Jack, send someone else to baby-sit them, I want to stay on the line.”

  Collins looked at his friend and shook his head. “If they don’t get in there and find something useful soon, this is all going to be for nothing. Don’t argue with me, Captain. It’s too early in the morning for that. If the worst happens, I’ll let you know. Use the escape route we utilized last week and get them the hell down the mountain. Take that idiot German with you. That’s all I can spare.”

  “I heard that,” Sebastian said, as he picked up three extra magazines from one of his manned positions.

  Everett looked at Collins angrily, and then he looked at the lightening sky above.

  “Remind me to thank the president for all of that help he sent.”

  Jack nodded his head and watched as Niles and the others approached.

  “Move these people into the mine,” he said, as he shook hands with Niles and Pete.

  Charlie Ellenshaw walked up to Jack and held out his hand.

  “Colonel, I would very much like to stay and help out,” he said, as he pushed his wire-rimmed glasses back up his nose. “They don’t need me in there.”

  “Thanks, Doc, but I disagree. They do need you down in that mine. You have a way of helping that you could never understand.”

  “I can fight Jack,” Crazy Charlie said, looking pleadingly at the colonel.

  “I know you can, Doc, but Sarah, Will, and Ryan need that information, and you can help get it. I need you down there,” he said, nodding toward the shaft.

  “Colonel, the enemy is only a thousand yards away,” one of the German commandos called out.

  Ellenshaw finally nodded his head of white hair and slowly turned away. Niles looked at Jack and smiled sadly, then he too turned toward the mine’s entrance and left.

  “Good luck, swabby,” Jack called out to Everett, who had stopped to hear what he had to say.

  “Letting you do the hero thing is getting real old, Jack. This time you may just get your ass shot off,” Carl said as he turned away. “That’s going to leave me with an awful lot of paperwork to do back at the complex, and that is not what I signed up for.” />
  * * *

  The Mechanic was very pleased with the way his men had performed.

  As he scanned the small contingent lining the front wall of rocks in front of the mine opening, he had to smile. If he had the time, it would be easy to just stand pat and lob grenades into the rocks above. It would decimate the defense line. However, he knew that eventually the Americans would react.

  “Commence the attack. Kill them all, and do it quickly.”

  As he watched, 256 men advanced through the trees. Then he gestured. Four mortars opened fire. “Take them fast and make sure none escape.”

  MILITARY FLIGHT BRAVO TWO-SIX, 1,000 FEET ABOVE, AND 3 MILES NORTH, MÜELLER AND SANTIAGO MINING CONCERN

  The lone Air Force C-130J-30 Hercules had flown through the night, refueling once in midair on its long flight from Fort Bragg. The pilot could swear he felt the tops of the trees brush against his underbelly as he hopped over small rises at the base of the Andes. He was sweating while his copilot manipulated the four throttle controls of the venerable old aircraft. As he allowed the yoke to steady, he pushed forward and sent the Hercules into a shallow dive. They had reached the last valley before the drop point. He heard the flight’s engineer open the cabin door.

  Lieutenant Commander Scott Englehorn USN, team leader for SEAL Team Five and temporary leader for SEAL Team Eight, stepped up in back of the pilot’s ejection seat.

  “Three minutes to IP, Commander. Tell your boys back there good luck,” the Air Force pilot said as he pulled the nose of the Hercules up again in a flurry of motion.

  “Hell, besides the other SEAL team, only five of those kids back there speak English, but I’ll pass on your sentiment anyway.” The SEAL patted the pilot on the shoulder. “Thanks for the lift, Air Force. It was a smooth ride.”

  “Good luck, Navy,” the pilot said again, feeling for the men that he was about to drop into harm’s way.

  The Navy commander stepped out of the cabin and slid quietly down the small set of stairs. He looked at the four lines of men lined up in the hold of the Hercules. His SEAL teams would be the first out of the aircraft. They would be followed by the one hundred men of the main assault element. This young group was what was passing for soldiers nowadays in Europe. They and their nation had just been accepted into NATO and had been on station in the United States for training at Fort Bragg when they were recruited by the president on a purely voluntary mission. As he scanned the eager faces of the men, he saw they had no fear, a sign that they had never faced combat before. He shook his head, sliding among the lines of men. As he moved, the red light appeared in six different areas of the cargo hold.

  “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.