Michael Palmer - Fatal

"Ah am," Lewis replied simply. "Okay, Matthew, here's the deal. This here's the head-wall. It's lak a plug whar there useta be a hole. Ain't no big trouble blowin' it up. The trick is ta do it without killin' us an' anyone whut mot be behin' it."

"But you think you can:1"

"Ah think Ah kin try. Ain't no one kin do more'n thet. Lyle, lis'n up. I wanna soften up this here baby with a shell from Little Bertha, jes 'bout two-thirds a the way up. Kin ya hit thet big, pointy rock rot thar?"

"From whar?"

"Far 'nuff back so's ya don' git kilt, Lyle."

Lyle scanned the cave.

"No sweat," he proclaimed. "They's a spot ta shoot from rot back thar."

He opened up the long army-issue bag, removed a compact rocket launcher, and began preparing it to be fired.

"Ain't she a beauty," Lewis said to Matt. "A Javelin Anti-tank Missile with HEAT — hah-explosive antitank warhead. It'll penetrate more'n twenny inch a armor. Jes far an' ferget — thet means ferget whut yer shootin' at an' ferget about standin' round ta watch. Range a twenny-fahve hunnerd meter. Thet's goin' on two mile."

"Jesus, Lewis. How'd you guys get this?"

Lewis replied with a wry look that said, "Ya know better'n ta ask a queschin ya really don' want ta know the answer to."

"Frank," he said, "les you an' me git the Gel-Paks ready. Three rows up an' down, beginnin' with a pound at the very top an' finishin' with, say, ten pound at the bottom. We'll use det cord ta link 'em up."

Frank quickly produced several dozen sausagelike packages from one of the rucksacks and laid them on a tarp by Lewis, along with the detonating cord. Skillfully, the brothers began linking them together.

"Ready," Lyle called out.

Frank dragged the Gel-Paks away from the target and threw another tarp over them.

"This way, Doc," Lewis said, leading him and Frank back into the tunnel until they couldn't even see the head-wall. "It'd be fun ta watch this, but it'd also be a mot dangerous. Ah s'pect Lyle'll be back here purdy darn quick, too."

Matt heard a loud woosh from around the bend, followed by Lyle diving headfirst at their feet. At the same instant a sharp, near-deafening explosion resonated through the tunnel, followed by the clattering of rock. When Lewis nodded that it was okay to revisit the head-wall, they found the center of it largely pulverized, and the topmost rocks displaced and loosened.

"I'd hate to see Big Bertha," Matt muttered.

"Fahn shot, Lyle," Lewis said. "Ah guess they's hope fer ya yet. Frank, les git these here sausages in place an' mak us a hole." He turned to Matt. "We're gonna use de-lay detinaters ta blow this here thang so's it elapses from the bottom up. If'n we do it rot, a space oughta 'pear et the top. If'n we miss, it had best be on the sod a too little rather'n too much. If'n we don' git no hole the first torn, we got enuff Vibrogel ta try it again. Mebbe twice more."

"Hurry," Matt said, in spite of himself.

"Wha on earth 'uld we e'er want ta tak our torn?" Lewis replied. "Ah mean, t'ain't lak we're workin' with hah explosives er nothin'."

"Sorry."

"Ah thank Ah'm ready," Frank said, looping the det cord around his elbow before he ascended the wall.

"Ready for what, pervert?"

Bill Grimes, his service revolver leveled at the four of them, stepped into the cave from the tunnel, followed immediately by Vinny Sutcher, still in black, who casually panned the group with a submachine gun. Last to step into view, his gun also at the ready, was the thin man Matt had outwitted at Shady Lake Manor Estates.

"See, Vinny," Grimes said. "I told you it was worthwhile having you and Verne hang around for a day checking the entrances to this place. This here doctor is as slippery as an eel."

"What an imaginative metaphor," Matt said, noticing how incredibly calm Lewis Slocumb and his brothers appeared at that moment. He had no way of knowing for certain, but he felt some sort of information was being silently exchanged among them.

Grimes may have sensed the same thing. His expression darkened, and his heavy pistol steadied on Lewis.

"Step away from that stuff, Slocumb. Your brother, too," he said. "Vinny, get around there and move that shit away."

Sutcher shouldered his weapon, circled around to the base of the head-wall, and eyed the pile of Gel-Paks suspiciously.

"Ya'd best not e'en fart near thet stuff," Lewis said, mimicking an explosion with his hands. "Ka-boom."

Frank, who was about ten feet to Lewis's right, and Lyle, who was on one knee about fifteen feet behind him, both snickered.

"So," Grimes said, turning his attention to Matt, "I must conclude from your presence here that you are not the only one who managed to survive that devastating accident."

"They've all escaped except the guards you double-crossed," Matt replied, sensing he needed to stall. "We're digging those two out because they both swore to kill you if they ever saw you again. What are you, Grimes, some sort of major stockholder in the company that makes Lasaject? Is that what's going on?"

Surprise flashed across the policeman's face, then just as quickly vanished.

"Oh, yes," he said. "Mrs. Kroft. Well, if you must know, I have a proprietary interest in the company, yes."

"Do you know how many people — how many children — will die if that vaccine of yours gets into general use?"

"There's no proof that's so."

"Spare me. Those people you tried to kill in there are proof, and you know it. That's why you did this to them. Well, Grimes, they've escaped just like me. They're headed to Washington right now, along with Ellen Kroft and Nikki. You're finished."

Matt saw uncertainty in the man's eyes.

"I don't believe you," Grimes said. "We'll deal with the problems in there as soon as we've dealt with the problems right here. Verne, pat each one of them down, beginning with that one back there. Then get them together over in that corner. Then the good doctor and I need to have a little chat. If any of them give you any crap, shoot 'em in the knee. We'll save the other knee and the balls for later."

"Don't ferget ta check me fer rocket launchers," Lyle said, choking himself on a laugh.

Despite the obvious advantage his side held in terms of weapons and age, Verne approached Lyle cautiously.

"Stand up," he ordered.

"Cain't," Lyle said. "Ma laig's broke."

"If he doesn't do as you tell him to, just kill him," Grimes said. "He's not going to hurt you, Verne. He's a fucking old man and you have the gun."

"Yeah," Lyle said, "Ah'm a fuckin' old man."

He smiled toothlessly and shifted his weight as if he was going to stand.

At that instant, there was a scraping sound from high on the head-wall. All seven of those below turned to the noise. Ellen, a gaunt, dusty apparition, was standing straight up, twenty feet directly above Vinny Sutcher. The broad, flat rock she was holding over her head looked as big as her chest. At the moment Grimes spun and fired at her, she hurled the rock with all her strength, straight down at Sutcher. With his head tilted back, the heavy missile caught him flush in the face, producing the sickening sound of a pumpkin dropped onto pavement from a second story. Instantly limp, blood spattered across his face, Sutcher crumpled backward onto the stony floor.

The seconds that followed were a blur to Matt. He was still fumbling for the gun in his pocket when all three Slocumb brothers produced pistols, seemingly out of thin air. Instantly, the cavern sounded like a Chinese New Year. Gunshots seemed to be coming from everywhere. But the only muzzle flashes Matt saw came from the Slocumbs. Grimes was instantly hit in the chest, neck, and face. His eyes wide with disbelief, he danced sideways like a giant marionette, arms flapping, legs disjointed. Then he crumpled as if his strings had been sliced, held a sitting position for a single beat, and toppled lifelessly onto the dust. Verne caught bullets in his throat, mouth, and the center of his forehead, and was dead before he hit the floor.