David Golemon - Ancients

The faces around the room could not bring themselves to look at one another. Niles stood in frustration and paced.

"Admiral Fuqua, do we have a capable sub in the area?"

Fuqua stood up and looked from Caulfield to the president.

"Yes, sir, USS Pasadena ."

"She is carrying special ordnance onboard?"

"Yes, sir, she is."

"She is to stand by for orders." He looked at Niles and then back at his military advisers. "But first, I want every fighter from Japan, the carrier groups, and Korea in the air. Before I commit to a nuclear option, I want to hit them conventionally with everything we have. Simultaneous with the air strike, I want the Second ID to advance to meet the spearhead. Make up the orders. I want them on my desk confirming a nuclear-strike alert."

"Yes, Mr. President."

Niles closed his eyes. The words nuclear strike were out in the open.

Jack Collins was their last hope for peace.

Major General Ton Shi Quang had just received the orders he had forced his Great Leader into giving him: "Attack with all offensive forces under your command."

The Coalition's bold plan for North Korea was finally becoming a reality and was going to pay off far better than they had ever thought. Now he would order his army forward to crush Seoul and he would be far away by the time the Americans were forced to do what he knew they had to do. Long before the mushroom clouds started to spread along the border, he would be a thousand miles away.

"Order the armored spearheads to advance at all possible speed; they will now be supported by the whole of the People's Army and air forces. Also inform my helicopter pilot I will be touring the advance from the air."

After his aide left to give the order, the general looked around and was content. He nodded as he looked at the sand table once more as the small models of tank forces from both sides were very nearly converged.

"Too bad; I believe we would have had a fighting chance this time around," he said to himself as he pulled on his gloves and walked away from the People's Army forever.

The last sandbag went on top of the eight-pound charge of C-4 explosive. The echo-sound machine that Sarah had insisted on bringing had shown a large cavity underneath the roadway, but it could not tell them anything other than that. The hollow spot could mean almost anything, and Jack knew it. Their entire participation in this attack depended on what was down there.

"Fire in the hole!" one of the SEAL team shouted.

Ryan and Mendenhall covered Sarah as the loud crump was somewhat muted by the pile of sandbags that directed the blast downward. The tunnel shook, and they feared collapse until it settled.

Collins shone a large light down inside the hole they had made and saw that there was indeed a bottom, and that was a start. He started peeling away equipment, but was stopped by Sarah, who had started handing off her own equipment to Mendenhall and Ryan.

"Excuse me, Colonel, but I think this is my area of expertise, remember?"

"Sorry, Lieutenant, I believe your job description is now that of an instructor in geology," he shot back, knowing that Sarah had originally been trained as a U.S. Army tunnel rat--what the army euphemistically called a person dumb enough and small enough to wriggle into places where only bad things could be lurking.

"She's right, Colonel. And not only that, your going down first is a little off the beaten path for a command-type person such as yourself," Ryan said as he, too, handed off his equipment to Mendenhall. "And I believe this mission also calls for a gentleman of my ... uh ... limited stature."

Jack looked at his two officers and then over at Everett.

"I hate to say this, and I really do hate it, but Ryan's right, Colonel."

As Mendenhall accepted Ryan's field pack, a small CD player fell out along with several CDs.

"You didn't!" Will said, looking at Ryan.

"Yeah, the colonel's music; it brought me good luck back in Africa."

The marine major looked at the five people in front of him and then turned to the SEAL lieutenant.

"Just who in the hell are these people?" he whispered.

"I don't think we want to know," the SEAL answered.

Hands-free SEAL headphones and silenced MP-5 machine guns were issued to Sarah and Ryan along with four pounds of C-4 and several flares.

"Kind of reminds me a little of Arizona a couple of years back," Sarah joked, but then she looked around and saw the serious faces of the others. Mendenhall looked downright angry at the comparison because they had all lost friends there and he didn't want to lose these two here.

"Just watch your ass, Lieutenant," Jack ordered.

Sarah shone her light into the hole and started down the ladder into the darkness below. Will slapped Ryan on the back and then stepped back and allowed him to follow.

"Okay, Major, let's start getting our equipment off these trucks and get the men stripped down to something that'll allow them to fight in this heat. Upper-torso body armor only if they so choose," Everett ordered, as Collins watched the two lights disappear down below.

At several places in the first hundred feet, the sewer walls had given way to forced magma movement. Sarah thought it was lucky beyond measure that the entire system had not filled up with the flow of hot stuff. One of the first sights they saw were skeletal remains. It looked as if the bodies had been citizens and soldiers. Some had the barest of armor still attached, literally, to their bones. Others had the bronze chest plates and grieves melted onto them.

"Sarah, stop!" Ryan said.

Sarah stopped in her tracks. They were close to a turn in the ancient sewer system. She looked back at Ryan and saw that he had his gloved hand placed against the tiled wall.

"Feel it?" he asked.

Sarah placed her hand on the wall. She felt it immediately. It was the same sensation as one would have if she placed her hand against a subway tunnel wall.

"What do you think?"

"I can't place it. It's not moving, but it builds in intensity and then settles before starting up again."

"Construction?" Ryan asked.

"Maybe. Come on, let's get our asses down the tunnel and find out."

Sarah turned and started making her way along faster. Soon she noticed that with each step she took, her feet were sinking into ever-deeper water that had accumulated. This did not bode well, but she decided not to say anything to Ryan.

Five minutes later, Sarah's shoulders slumped as she saw the cave-in from the roadway above. More parts of the ancient city had spilled into the sewer system. Columns, pieces of roadway, marble, sandstone houses, and more skeletons littered the sewage passage ahead.

"Damn, we're not catching any breaks here," Ryan said as he stood next to Sarah. "I better let the colonel know the bad news."

Sarah just nodded as Ryan started making the dreaded call. While he did so, Sarah popped a white flair and tossed it onto the rubble pile just above the lapping water.

Sarah shook her head, and that was when she saw it. Smoke from the flare was rising, and then about five feet up it was suddenly sucked into the debris. She tilted her head and watched just to make sure, then she reached out and grabbed Ryan's shoulder.

"Hold one, Colonel," he said as he looked at where Sarah was pointing. "Colonel, let me get back to you."

As they advanced, Ryan popped another flare and tossed it onto the slide. Sure enough, they both saw the large hole. It looked big enough for both of them to slip through side by side.