Live Bait

by David Archer

  “None here, sir,” said Sergeant Douglas. Rankin echoed him.

  Sam looked at Rob, who shook his head. “We’re all ready,” he said. “This should all be over pretty quickly, Sam.” He shoved another forkful of scrambled eggs into his mouth.

  Sam sat and finished eating, shoving the waffles down quickly. Everybody was talking amongst themselves, and Sam knew that they were all mentally preparing themselves for what was about to happen.

  As soon as breakfast was over, Sam led his team back up to level 1. Rob and his people went into the security room to check where their weapons were hidden, Steve, Walter, Summer and Jade took their own positions, and Sam, Indie, Denny, and Reese entered the control room.

  Private Landry, the elevator operator on duty, looked up as they came in. “We received a message from the observation team on the east gate,” she said. “Our visitors entered the compound about twenty minutes ago, and should be here any moment.”

  Indie sat at her computer terminal and quickly scanned the video monitors from the surface. “Sam?” she said. She pointed at the monitors and Sam saw five large SUVs parked near the old mine entrance. “I think they’re here.”

  “No doubt about it,” Sam said. He turned to Reese. “You ready?”

  Reese looked at him nervously. “Ready as I’m ever going to be,” he said. “I don’t mind telling you I’m a little scared.”

  “You’d be an idiot if you weren’t.” He turned to Indie to be sure she was ready, then nodded at Reese. “Okay, go ahead.” He handed Reese a cell phone and the man dialed the number he had memorized for Heinrich Wegner. He hit the speaker button as it was ringing, and a moment later they heard Wegner’s voice answer.

  “I’m here,” he said. “Where are you?”

  “We’re down in the basement,” Reese said. “Sam got us in last night, and it took a little time to disarm everybody and get them locked up. Wait there a few minutes, and I'll be up to bring you down.”

  “Come alone,” Heinrich said. “If this is a trap, Evan, you will be the first to die.”

  Reese swallowed nervously. “Trust me, Heinrich,” he said, “I plan on living a long time. Sit tight, I'll be up in a few minutes.”

  “We will be waiting.” The line went dead.

  “Okay, you’re on,” Sam said. “Get on the elevator and we’ll send you up. We’ll leave the hidden door open so you won’t have to call down for it. I don’t know how many people he has with him, but tell him the elevator can only handle about twenty. That will let us keep the advantage in numbers.”

  Reese gave him a nervous grin, then stepped out of the booth and headed toward the elevator. As soon as he was on it and had closed the gates, Sam nodded to Private Landry.

  “Send him up.”

  Reese leaned against the wall as the elevator rose, and Indie turned on the camera that was hidden in the elevator itself. They watched as he rode all the way up to the mine, and then she switched to another camera as he made his way out to the entrance.

  EIGHTEEN

  Heinrich stepped out of his vehicle as Reese appeared in the entrance, and suddenly, all of the doors flew open and men flooded out. All of them were armed with machine guns, and Reese stared around himself.

  “Okay, okay, I’m here,” he said, his hands visible and his eyes wide. “Follow me inside, there’s a big elevator. How many people you got? The elevator can only handle twenty.”

  Wegner pointed at two men, and each of them gathered several others. The rest were told to wait outside and make certain that nobody else entered the mine, and then Wegner looked at Reese. “All right, let’s go,” he said. “Is my prize waiting for me?”

  Reese pointed at the large duffel bag Wegner was carrying. “As long as that has the money,” he said. “I actually got to look at them myself last night, they’re pretty impressive. A lot bigger than I thought they were, but I’d never really believed in them before now.”

  “That’s because you are a fool, Evan,” Wegner said. “You do not know how to separate fact from fiction, nor how to locate and interrogate those who know the truth. I found a Russian sailor in the late nineties, and he told me all about how six of the biggest nuclear bombs in the world had vanished. He had been a part of the security force in that base, and had spent the next two years in prison when they were stolen. His story was enough to tell me they were quite genuine, and I have searched for them ever since.”

  “And now,” Reese said, “you have found them.”

  He led them through the mine and onto the elevator and Indie switched the camera back. She, Sam and Denny watched closely as the elevator descended. Heinrich’s men seemed alert but at ease, and Sam waited until they were only a couple of minutes away before he and Denny stepped out of the booth to wait at the elevator landing.

  “This is where it could go pear-shaped,” Denny said. “If he really wants to kill you, Sam, he might not wait for later.”

  “As long as he doesn’t go for a head shot,” Sam said. “Just don’t let him get away, especially with any of those bombs.”

  “He’s not going anywhere,” Denny said. “You know, we could just get Rob and his people, let them blow them away right now. Just handle it like our friends from London would, right?”

  Sam shook his head. “We are not assassins,” he said. “We stick to the plan, try to do this with as little bloodshed as possible. Besides, we want them alive. The PAF will still be out there, but these people should know enough to help us shut them down.”

  “Your call, Sam.”

  “Yeah. My call. Let’s just hope I make the right ones.”

  They heard the elevator coming down, so both of them stopped talking. A moment later, it came into view and Reese opened the gates. He stepped out of the elevator and looked at Sam.

  “Sam Prichard,” he said, “allow me to introduce Mr. Heinrich Wegner. Heinrich, this is the famous Sam Prichard.”

  Heinrich stepped forward and looked Sam in the eye. “Mitchell was my sister’s youngest son,” he said. “You killed him.”

  “Yes, I did,” Sam said, keeping his own eyes on Heinrich’s. “Had I known who he was, I would’ve tried to avoid it. Unfortunately, things were happening so fast I couldn’t do anything but try to defend myself and get the girl out safely. After Mr. Reese told me about you, I just wanted to keep him alive so that we could make this arrangement.”

  “I have read a lot about you, Prichard. It seems odd to me that a man who has done so much for his country would suddenly betray it. Can you explain that to me?”

  Sam shrugged. “I’ve been taking out the trash for the government for several years now,” he said. “All that time, I’ve been shot up, beat up, and got basically nothing to show for it other than some scars. I talked it over with some of our people, and we decided that it was time to get something for ourselves. When Reese told me how badly you wanted the Sixpack, it dawned on me that I happened to know the guy who could tell me how to get my hands on them. I take it you saw the video?”

  Heinrich stared at him for a moment, then nodded once. “I did. The death of Harry Winslow marks the end of an era. I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I know that he was among the best America ever had to offer.”

  “He was also my friend,” Sam said. “That should tell you how serious I am about all this.”

  Heinrich looked at him for another moment, then nodded again. “All right,” he said. “I'll accept that killing Mitchell was an unintended consequence of your decision. Now, let us get down to the real business. You truly have the Soviet Sixpack here?”

  Sam grinned. “I do,” he said. “Do you have the money?”

  Heinrich lifted the duffel and one of his men stepped forward to hold it. He opened it up, showing Sam that there was a large amount of cash inside.

  “You may count it, if you wish,” Heinrich said.

  “I don’t think that’s necessary,” Sam said. “I think you and I both hope that this will lead to even bigger deals in the fut
ure, so I doubt you would try to cheat me out of any of the money.”

  Heinrich zipped the bag closed again. “And my bombs?”

  “We’ll need to go down to Level 6,” Sam said. “That’s where they are stored. I need to caution you not to try to open any of the other vaults you see there, because we don’t have the proper codes. I don’t even know what’s in them, but if you enter the wrong code, it sets off an explosive. Everything on that level would be destroyed, including us.”

  Heinrich nodded. “All I want is the bombs. With them, we can achieve our goal of freedom and independence for our allies in Africa.”

  “Yes, sir, you sure can.” Sam started toward the elevator, but Heinrich stopped him.

  “Before we go down,” he said, “where are the security people from this facility?”

  Sam grinned again. “Follow me,” he said. He led them to the security room and pointed at a window in the door. “This place only keeps a skeleton crew. Once we got in, it was no big deal to disarm them and lock them up in here.”

  Heinrich looked through the window and saw more than a dozen men sitting on benches, looking dejected. They were wearing black uniforms, and gave the impression that they had been sitting there for quite a while.

  “Very good,” he said. “Now, the control booth for the elevator. I understand that it can only be controlled from that location. Show me.”

  Sam had anticipated this and managed a smile. “Right this way,” he said. He stepped to the door into the control booth and opened it.

  Darren Beecher and Steve Beck stood beside the girl who controlled the elevators, a pistol in Steve’s hand. It was aimed loosely in her direction, and she was looking nervous as she turned to face the men who stepped into the room. Heinrich set the duffel down on the floor next to the wall, just behind the door.

  “As you can see,” Sam said, “I have her under control. She knows that she has to do exactly what she’s told or she’ll be killed. She has a three-year-old daughter, so she is unlikely to do anything stupid.”

  Heinrich looked at her for a moment, then turned his eyes to Indie. “And this one?”

  “She’s actually one of mine,” Sam said. “She’s monitoring the computer and communication systems to make sure we don’t get any surprises.”

  Indie smiled at Heinrich. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m watching your backs for you. Your men up on the surface are all taking it easy for now. Want to see?”

  Heinrich narrowed his eyes, then nodded. She tapped a key and the video from outside the entrance appeared on the screen. Most of his men were sitting inside the vehicles with doors open, but a few were leaning against them. One of them was smoking a cigarette.

  “Very good,” Heinrich said. He turned to Sam. “All right, now we can go. I am ready to see my long-awaited prize.”

  Darren joined them as they went back to the elevator and all of them crowded on. “The elevator is not supposed to carry more than twenty people at a time,” Sam said, “for some sort of safety reasons, but it’s more than strong enough to take all of us.” He closed the gates and held up a thumb, and they could see through the window into the booth as Steve prompted the elevator operator by poking her with his gun barrel. The elevator began to descend and Sam leaned against the gate.

  Three minutes later, they arrived at Level 6. Sam opened the gate and they all stepped off, following him, Denny and Darren into the tunnel. Sam led the way to Tunnel 3, which cut off to the left, and then to vault thirty-seven at the end.

  Heinrich and his people were looking around as they made their way through the tunnels, but their attention was all on Sam as he entered the code. The door opened and Heinrich’s eyes grew wide when he got his first glimpse of one of the bombs.

  He motioned to one of his men, and the man produced a Geiger counter. He stepped close to the bomb and turned it on, and the clicking of the device turned quickly into a loud buzz. He looked at the meter on the device for a moment, then turned to Heinrich and nodded with a grin on his face.

  “They are very large, aren’t they?” Heinrich said. “Over fifteen thousand pounds each. Apparently the elevator can handle that much weight?”

  “One at a time, yes,” Sam said. “We’ll use that little electric tractor over there to take each one up and out, but you’re going to need something pretty stout to carry them.”

  “Arrangements have already been made,” Heinrich said. “A large truck is on the way, with a crane. We should begin now, so that we have one or two of them waiting when it arrives.”

  Sam nodded. “No problem,” he said. “Let me get the tractor.”

  He walked over and climbed onto the little machine, flipped the switch that was supposed to turn it on and then frowned. He flipped the switch off and on several times, then looked up at Heinrich. “I guess the batteries went dead,” he said. “It’s been sitting here for years.”

  Heinrich stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. “We have enough people,” he said. “I’m sure we can push them to the elevator.”

  Sam nodded and got off the tractor, mentally patting himself on the back for thinking of disabling it the night before.

  * * * * *

  Steve patted the elevator operator on the shoulder. “Good job,” he said. “You put on a perfect act.” He turned and went to the door on the side of the room, opened it and leaned inside. “Rob, the elevator is on its way down. Get your people ready.”

  “All right, we’re up,” Rob said. Instantly, all of the men and women in the room were up and opening the hidden panels that concealed their weapons. Sixty seconds later, all their equipment in place, they quietly signaled Rob that they were ready to go. Rob opened the door into the hallway and they all stepped out quietly. They made their way to the edge of the elevator shaft, then looked through the window at Indie.

  She was watching something on her console, but then looked up and smiled. She jumped up and went to the door, stuck her head out and said softly, “Okay, they’re all off the elevator and moving down the tunnel. You’re good to go.”

  “That’s it,” Rob said. Two of his men came forward and anchored ropes to the elevator’s frame, and then four of them clicked carabiners to their belts and stepped out into space. Four at a time, they disappeared down the shaft.

  Their first stop was at Level 2, where Sergeant Douglas and his people were waiting. They had also secured ropes to the framework, and as soon as all of Rob’s people were on their level, they all began sliding down the new ropes.

  That brought them to Level 4, where Sergeant Rankin had his own people waiting beside the shaft. They had their own ropes secured, but hadn’t dropped them down the shaft yet. Once again, they waited until everyone was present before Rob, the two sergeants and one other man made the first drop to Level 6 and the floor of the elevator.

  They quickly detached themselves from the ropes and stepped out of the elevator, kneeling in position with their weapons aimed toward the entrance to Tunnel 3. It took almost two whole minutes to get everyone down, and then Rob signaled Rankin to keep his people near the elevator while Douglas and his soldiers went with the Windlass operatives.

  They moved quickly but quietly down the main tunnel and arrived at the entrance to Tunnel 3 only a moment later. They positioned themselves out of sight from inside the tunnel and then Rob held a small mirror out to get a peek toward where Sam had taken Heinrich and everyone else.

  He jerked the mirror back suddenly. “Bunch of them coming this way,” he whispered to Douglas. “They have one of the bombs on a heavy duty cart, pushing it toward the elevator.”

  Douglas nodded. “Sounds like our cue, then,” he whispered back. He raised a hand and pointed two fingers upward, then dropped one of them as he thrust his hand forward. He and his men rushed across the entrance to take position on the other side while Rob stepped out into the middle of the tunnel.

  “Got some bad news for you gentlemen,” he shouted. “You’re not going to be taking that anywhere aft
er all.”

  There were a dozen men pushing the bomb, and they suddenly dropped what they were doing and snatched up their weapons. As they did so, all of the Windlass people flooded into the tunnel, kneeling and aiming directly at them.

  “Drop your weapons, gentlemen,” Rob shouted. “There is no way you’re getting out of here.”

  The men who had been pushing the bomb along froze, seeing so many armed men blocking their path. One by one, they laid down their weapons and stepped back from them as Rob led his people forward. Sergeant Douglas, seeing what was happening, moved into the tunnel with them and caught up quickly.

  At the vault, they had heard Rob clearly, because of the acoustics in the tunnel bringing his voice right to them. Heinrich stopped looking at the bombs and turned toward Sam.

  “So it was a trap,” he said. “I was almost certain that it would be, you know. And of course, like any man who knows he is being drawn into a trap, I took certain precautions.” He pointed toward the bombs in the room. “These are marvelous creations,” he said, “far more powerful than anything we could acquire, but that does not mean we could not lay our hands on smaller nuclear devices. We did, in fact, and six of them were designed to fit into small packages. Five of those are currently in place in the city of Tucson, not far away. One is in the auditorium of the University of Arizona, where more than a thousand students will shortly be attending a lecture. Two more were placed in schools in the city, and the other two were deposited in busy department stores. When they go off, they will kill or injure more than ten thousand people, including many, many children.” He chuckled. “You really should have counted the money, Mr. Prichard.”