David Golemon - Legend

Carl now understood at least part of what was happening. Who would have figured?

The government man adjusted the aim of his pistol and pointed at Seito, "He was murdered by this man and the cowardly, disgraced Admiral Tarazawa because they didn't have the fortitude to save the war as my grandfather had wished to do with this gift from the gods. But today, old wounds will be healed and I will kill two birds with one single stone."

Seito, the old warhorse and feisty to the end, spat at Yashita. Sarah, seeing the rage cross Yashita's features, stepped in front of the old soldier without thinking. Then a strange calmness came over the government representative's face and he smiled as he wiped the old man's spittle from his cheek and neck.

"As I said, by the end of today my sense of justice will be satisfied."

"What will someone like you do with a biological agent? Sell it to the highest bidder?" Carl asked, his hands still up.

"Nothing so mundane, I assure you. You Americans always think it's the money. Money, money, money," he said with a snarl. "The war never ended for many of us, Mr. Everett. Like my grandfather before me, I am a patriot and still very much active in the war with your country, as are many from all over the world." He stepped forward and motioned below as ten men dressed in green chemical suits started up the scaffolding. They all carried large zippered bags. "After we have the weapon analyzed, it will be dispersed worldwide. Every element in our cause against the West will receive one canister. Who would have thought the great and mighty Kublai Khan would come to the aid of our struggle? This will be used to avenge the rape of my country and the senseless slaughter of hundreds of thousands," he said as he watched Carl take a menacing step forward.

"Please, continue to advance, Mr. Everett, and we can begin this right now if you wish," Yashita said as he aimed his gun at Sarah.

Yashita's men pushed by Carl and Danielle, knocking them together, a move that forced Carl to grab her to keep her from tumbling off the scaffold. As he righted her, he found himself standing on the old samurai sword.

Yashita shouted in Japanese and his men below herded the students to the outer cave. Then he climbed the last scaffold, placed the protective hood over his head, and easily lowered his body into the hold to see the containers for himself.

The interpreter and three of Asaki's men herded Sarah, Fallon, and the old man toward Carl and Danielle.

"You two all right?" Carl asked.

"I've never felt so damned helpless in my life," Sarah said angrily.

"This is a little different than your clean classrooms in Nevada, isn't it, Second Lieutenant McIntire?" Danielle asked.

Sarah didn't respond to Danielle's sarcasm; she instead raised her eyebrows as she looked at Carl.

"Our Dr. Kowalski, as it turns out, is Danielle Serrate, the former Mrs. Henri Farbeaux."

Sarah allowed her shock to show as she momentarily dropped her arms, eliciting a loud rebuke from their captors. She quickly raised them again. Then she laughed.

"No wonder she's such a bitch," she said, echoing Carl's earlier comment.

Twenty minutes later, the armed men allowed them to lower their arms and ordered them to sit on the creaking wooden scaffolding. Carl was careful to place his ass right over the colonel's old sword, as uncomfortable as it was.

"You work for the French Antiquities Commission?" Sarah asked.

"Yes, my being here has not been authorized. I learned that my former husband had started learning all he could about dangerous biohazards; he had an extensive file on the Kublai Khan invasion, which mentioned this vessel in several passages, so I thought he might show up here."

"You went through all that trouble to track down your ex? Were you in that much of a reconciliatory mood?" Sarah asked.

"My mood was a bit darker, little Sarah; I was going to kill him," Danielle answered coldly.

"He used to work for your department. What would your director say about that?" Carl asked her.

Danielle slowly turned toward Carl and smiled grimly. "I am the director of my department."

Sarah and Carl exchanged looks.

"Who are you people? Is anyone who they said they were, when they signed on?" Fallon asked angrily.

Poor Fallon , Sarah thought. What could she tell him, that she worked for the most secret organization in the American government? That all she did is collect data from history and analyze it, catalog it, and learn from it to make sure her country didn't make the same mistakes twice? A job that required her to infiltrate field digs from universities, and hire into private companies to gain information about anything and everything? That she was there to protect the American people and sometimes the world from themselves, because what they didn't know is that their government agency knows most everything from the truth of religion to that of UFOs?

"Professor Fallon, all we can say is that we are here to help," Sarah answered.

"I'm sure that will comfort him," Yashita said as he climbed back up from the inside of the ancient hold. He removed his protective hood. "One thing you should know, all of you: there are no more heroes left in your part of the world, only robots that do the bidding of Washington and other dying entities just like it."

"I think there may be one or two left in the West," Danielle said smiling.

As if on cue, screaming started from the outer cave. Yashita looked confused and ordered his three men to investigate. As they started down the scaffolding, Danielle unzipped her protective suit, pulled her Beretta, and quickly fired, but missed Yashita as he jumped from the topmost scaffolds to the bottom one, landing hard and rolling. As he tried to stand, a tremendous explosion rocked the cavern, knocking everyone over. The chemical-suited men began exiting the hold of the ship on the ladders they had installed for their descent, and pulled handguns from their satchels. The interpreter started shouting orders and then the men turned their weapons on their captives.

"Oh, shit," Carl yelled. He struck out with a rubber-booted foot, hitting the closest man and knocking him from his feet. He quickly grabbed for the man's weapon, a small-caliber Colt, and fired into the facemask of another of Yashita's man. As he did so he saw several others suddenly flop to the scaffold, as something unseen and unheard took them down. Their added weight hitting rotten wood was too much for the structure. It cracked and folded in on itself. Just before it did Carl saw several holes stitch across one of Yashita's men as he fell backward into the cargo hold. Then that was it — they were all falling.

There were shouts coming from all areas of the cave. Carl was lying in the hull, stunned, with Danielle on top, fighting to get a hundred pounds of rotted wood off them. He could hear Sarah from somewhere shouting that Yashita was over to the left. Suddenly Carl felt himself lifted and shoved over. He felt hands reaching under him and then whoever was assisting him disappeared into the dust and smoke. Then he heard Sarah shouting again.

As the scaffold started coming down, she had grabbed for the interpreter's weapon. It had fired and Sarah felt a searing pain crease her shoulder. The man had then fired point-blank at Seito. She yelled again in warning, and saw the old soldier jump to the right, pushing debris from the scaffolding out of his way as he did. Sarah started to pull herself out of the mess of rotted wood, when she saw Yashita above her, firing at someone in the cave below. She wondered if the students had somehow gotten free and started this nightmare. Suddenly she felt herself lifted, by none other than Yashita. He was bleeding from the mouth and shaking her.