David Golemon - Legacy

Ellenshaw finally nodded.

“Ready, Jack?” Everett shouted.

Collins nodded.

As one, Jack and Carl rose up and started firing. To their shock they saw ten men running at them, firing their weapons. They had gotten far closer than either man realized before they made up their makeshift plan for getting Niles and the others to safety. Jack knew immediately that their attackers would be on them soon. Still, he and Carl placed a withering fire on the ten men as they zigzagged through the ancient colony buildings. As Everett’s M-16 hammered on an empty receiver, Collins knew that was it. As he aimed at the five men who were only six feet from their hidden position, three of them fell almost immediately. Not waiting for another miracle, Jack opened up on the last two. He missed the second as the man screamed and made the last push for their position. As Collins aimed, the man suddenly straightened and fell to the left, unmoving. Jack turned and slid back down under cover.

“Damn, that guy is downright handy,” Everett said, slamming another thirty-round magazine into his weapon.

Collins looked around and saw Vietnamese Private Tram as he quickly slipped another magazine into the old M-14. He looked around and pointed at Jack and Everett, then moved to another position.

“Yeah, I’d pick him for my kickball team any day,” Jack said, as a mortar round landed fifty yards to their front.

“These guys are serious, Jack,” Carl said, joining them.

The gallery became deathly silent except for the men firing sporadically from various defensive positions. Soon even these shooters stopped and listened.

“Colonel Collins, I assume I have your attention.”

Jack looked over at Carl and raised his brows.

“If it’s the cops, I’m going to be seriously pissed off,” he said, trying his best to figure out who was speaking through the bullhorn. The voice echoed off the giant cavern walls that housed the buried colony.

“You could have called me on your cell phone if that’s all you wanted,” Collins yelled, at the same time looking to make sure that Ellenshaw had the others hidden as best he could. Then he silently cursed as he saw the scientists do exactly what he had ordered them not to do-turn and enter the blockhouse once more. “You know, after this we’re going to have to get a new director, because I’m going to kill this one!”

Everett turned and saw what Jack was talking about. He cursed as well.

“Colonel, a few well-chosen words and a small exchange, and then we will leave you to your task here. We wish you well in your endeavors.”

“What the hell is this?” Everett whispered.

“You have the stage, for the moment at least,” Collins called out over the lip of the ancient lava flow.

“We want a few items from that blockhouse, and then we will leave you to do your country’s dirty business.”

“What could be in there that you would want?”

“Colonel, I have heard of you, and because of your duty in Iraq and Afghanistan you have most assuredly heard of me. I am Azim Quaida.”

Jack looked at Everett and shook his head. Carl also knew the name also knew that the man speaking was a formidable commander of men-especially when he didn’t care who lived or died.

“I thought you had turned to the money end of your business,” Jack called out. “Made crazy new friends in California-good, honest, hardworking church folk.”

“Ah, the Reverend Rawlins. He and I had a small falling-out. As did I and an old friend of yours. You can say I saved you the trouble of tracking down and killing James McCabe.”

Jack took a deep breath and hoped that Sebastian was utilizing this break to get a fix on the mortar.

“Okay, for that I’m grateful, enough so that if you turn around and leave right now, I promise that we’ll finish our business another day. What do you say, Mechanic?”

There was a momentary silence as Jack’s insult sank into the Saudi’s thoughts.

“Colonel, to show you I have more cards than you do in this game, I have someone who would like to speak to you.”

Jack closed his eyes and cursed himself. He knew without thinking what the Mechanic was referring to.

“Jack, if you trade me for anything in this gallery, I’ll shoot you myself!”

“Damn it,” Collins said. He finally looked up at Everett, who slid down the lava wall next to the colonel as he recognized Alice’s voice.

“This is a brave if difficult woman, Colonel. It would be a shame for her to die this day. Even though she is a woman who needs to be beaten on a regular basis, I’m sure she’s dear to someone. Come and take this black-hearted woman from my hands.”

“That son of a bitch doesn’t know the half of it,” Jack said, Alice being one of the most difficult women he had ever known. He closed his eyes to think. He partially raised his head and found Tram. He signaled to the sniper by raising his chin in a quick motion. Tram knew immediately what the colonel wanted to know. The small private shook his head, telling Jack that he did not have a shot. Collins turned back.

“The senator, is he alive?” Jack asked, fighting for time on Sebastian’s behalf.

There was no answer.

“Damn it, Sebastian, find them,” he said beneath his breath.

“Colonel, no more talk. I see your rather large friend, who I recognize from Germany. Tell him to stop or you can collect Mrs. Hamilton at the bottom of this rise.”

Jack assumed Sebastian had heard.

“All right, what do you want?”

“Just five of the weapons inside the blockhouse. Then you can have Mrs. Hamilton and we’ll leave. That is as simple as it can get, Colonel.”

“Deal.”

Everett looked at Jack and slowly nodded his head. It was an exchange that was well worth it.

“Good, Colonel, good. Now I am going to send Mrs. Hamilton out in five minutes with a transponder beacon and a tracking locator. If the exchange is interfered with I will have the woman pinpointed by mortar fire. You will not find enough of her to bury.” The echo rebounded several times.

“Okay, five minutes. I will be making the exchange.”

Suddenly the strange vibration started again. None of them noticed as Collins rose and ran to the blockhouse, followed by Everett and Tram. As they entered, Jack saw the five scientists working frantically around the table.

There was a line connecting the weapon to Europa.

“I’ll speak to all of you later about the dangers of not following a field commander’s orders.”

Niles looked up with sweat running down his face. He fixed Jack with his thick glasses and nodded his head to indicate that he understood. He watched as the colonel removed five of the light weapons from the rack.

“I heard. Get Alice back, Jack, and hopefully we can have you some help soon,” Niles said. He bent back over the large tabletop just as Appleby cursed and slammed a pair of needle-nosed pliers against the wall.

“Jack, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but that damn vibration has started again,” Pete said. “Europa says that it’s not geological. There’s a mechanical pattern.”

Collins nodded. His arms full of alien weaponry, he dashed through the door.

As Collins and Everett stepped out from the side of the blockhouse, the earth trembled.

“Okay, what now?” Everett asked.

That was when the roof of the giant cavern opened.

Two copper capsules fell into the center of the long dead colony.

The civil war that began more than 700 million years before was about to conclude.

Garrison Lee stumbled and almost fell as he entered Gallery Two. He heard the detonations of the mortar rounds and knew the men who had taken Alice were somewhere on the high rubble ahead of him. He also knew that the men had spread out in a semicircle and were laying down a withering fire on Jack and his men.