Carpathian (74 page)

The major shrugged his shoulders.

“Air force navigation is great, their timing is for shit,” he quipped, embarrassed.

Vajic watched as the commando moved quickly to get his men into the temple complex.

Operation Ramesses was on the ground and hell itself had landed just a few seconds after.

*   *   *

Jack knew it was going to end fast. He was down to four rounds and they had managed to knock off less than 10 percent of the attacking force. The men Zallas had may have been thugs and brutes but either they were some of the bravest men he had ever seen or it was due to the fact that they were all terrified of facing Zallas.

“We just may be in some serious trouble here, Jack,” Everett said as he ejected his last full clip.

“You are the master of understatement, Captain. And why do you keep looking back at that girl, you and she have another gunfight or something?” Jack asked as he took aim and fired. He nodded his head, satisfied when he heard one of the thugs yelp and then fall.

“Or something,” Carl said with a smile that Jack didn’t miss. He tilted his head and then returned to his work.

*   *   *

Madam Korvesky was feeling no pain as Denise had loaded her up on morphine when the men from the village had broken in and taken her, table and all, away into the City of Moses.

Alice Hamilton was still at her side as the firefight raged around them. Bullets pinged and ricocheted off the stone monuments and the noise made the children scream as they huddled around their mothers as their fathers and older brothers and sisters battled the men from the world. The men were fighting with everything they had. The women fought also with shotguns and slingshots and not a few thrown rocks from the teenage Gypsy clan of Jeddah. Alice watched as the history of these people unfolded before her. Like the American Indian of the past they were now fighting for existence. She was actually proud as they came together as one and fought. She knew that Madam Korvesky had ordered Stanus not to take part. That he should lead his clan to his safe place and not return to the valley—ever.

“It looks like the men are running out of ammunition,” Alice said and then was shocked when she saw a smiling Madam Korvesky holding a good-sized meat cleaver in her right hand that she had hidden under the blanket she was covered in.

“I’ll hold them off until help arrives, as the old films say.” She laughed and then looked at Alice and her eyes were so dilated that Alice was worried Denise had been so angry at the amputation that she intentionally overdosed the ornery and very perceptive Gypsy queen. Alice reached out and lowered the cleaver but didn’t try to take it from her. After all, she may need it. “I’m glad you chose to join us here on our little mountain, Mrs. Hamilton.” Madam Korvesky slowly deflated. “You did see the magnificence of the Golia, didn’t you, Mrs. Hamilton?” she asked as her eyes seemed to plead with Alice to understand the thing she had done by sending the Golia away from here forever.

“They, like the Jeddah, will always live, I swear to you that I’ll use all of my considerable influence to see that this comes to pass as a gift from me to you, just a thank-you for protecting such a species and guiding them through history until they could live amongst themselves and be free of all men. No, old friend, it was time to call it a day.”

“Yes, we will call it a day.” Madam Korvesky closed her eyes and as she went under knew that at least one person understood what it was she had done.

*   *   *

A shot hit one of the lower blocks that made up the smaller left pyramid and then slammed into the left dress shoe of Jason Ryan. The bullet had hit so close that it tore the rubber heel from the low-cut designer shoe.

“Damn it, I signed for these shoes!” Ryan said and then fired two quick shots in the direction of his shoe assassin.

Mendenhall rolled over and lay in the prone position next to Jason and then fired two rounds of his own into the upper entrance to the city, once more knocking not just one but two of the attackers down onto the ramp.

“Kind of like ducks in a shooting gallery, huh?” Will quipped just as five large-caliber rounds struck the large blocks of stone, forcing Mendenhall to curl up into a fetal position.

“Yeah, only these ducks shoot back in case you haven’t noticed,” Ryan answered, loving the fact that their attackers’ timing could not have been better to silence the cocky Mendenhall.

“Yeah, well, that pair of shoes you have to pay for serves you right for getting the cushy job at the resort while we’re roughing it out here in the damn wilderness being attacked and chased by everything from wolves to Hansel and Gretel.”

“I hate to break this up, but how many rounds do you girls have left?” Jack asked as he flung away the last empty clip. Will reached into his pocket and tossed Collins his last clip of ammunition. “Now if you ladies care to stop your bickering for a few minutes I have an idea. By the way, did you see that ass Ben-Nevin after the fighting started?”

Both Ryan and Mendenhall shook their heads as Jack slid by the two and made his way toward the back of the city wall that encompassed the entire area. As he passed, Will gave Ryan a dirty look and then both men followed the colonel.

*   *   *

As the Sayeret paused just outside the area the map told the major the entrance would be, he still placed his men until the entrance could be confirmed. The emptiness of Patinas had foretold danger ahead. Major Mendohlson pulled the waterproof card from his pocket and then a compass. The tritium-faced dial told him he was right in front of the giant rock screen that camouflaged the entrance.

“Okay, from here on out your fire is free, let’s move, gentlemen, and—”

That was as far as the major got in ordering his advance into the temple. It seemed the entire facing of the mountain erupted in fire as the ambush was set loose upon them. Major Mendohlson could not believe he had walked blindly into an unknown force and been caught off guard. His arrogance had proved disastrous.

His men took cover and started to return fire. From here on out his men would need no direction from the major or even their team leaders as each man knew his job and each also knew what was expected of him.

Major Mendohlson lowered himself to the muddy road and then crawled to a ditch that lined it. He tried to raise his head to see through his night-vision goggles what they were facing but a streak of lightning hit close by and forced the commando to jerk the night-vision glass from his head.

“Damn,” he hissed and then brought his scoped M-14 carbine up to his eye and quickly scanned the area before him hoping to see what they were up against in the muzzle flares of the weapons arrayed against his team. Lightning helped at the last second and the view made Mendohlson roll onto his back and curse. He had counted at least fifty or sixty weapons up ahead at the entrance to the temple. He closed his eyes and let the rain wash over his face as he desperately tried to think.

Before he could throw his arm over his eyes a bright flash of an aerial flare burst overhead and Mendohlson again rolled over onto his stomach to take advantage of the illumination. The light cast shadows that moved everything in front of them as if all bushes and trees were attacking enemy.

“Cease fire … cease fire!” came a voice through a bullhorn.

Major Mendohlson scanned the area but saw no one. He waited.

“I am now speaking with the leader of the Sayeret strike team currently breaking Israeli law by attacking a foreign nation,” the voice said in English, so only the major could understand the lie.

“Oh, man, that’s good,” the major said as he waited.

“I am now speaking on behalf of the Israeli Knesset; you have been ordered here illegally and must cease this unlawful incursion. Lay down your arms and the Romanian authorities will take you and your men into custody for return to Israel. You will not be harmed.”

The unit’s sergeant major slid to a stop beside Donny Mendohlson.

“Whoever that is up there has the gift of bullshit,” he said as he waited for his commander to say something.

“I think I know who’s delivering that bullshit,” the major said as he leaned forward and then eased his head up hoping the rain kept him hidden well enough from the inevitable snipers he knew to be out there. “We came for the grand opening of the resort.”

“I know you are Sayeret. I’ve seen your alert orders. This operation is illegal and will bring the most dire of—”

Mendohlson opened up on full automatic, sending twenty rounds of heavy-caliber slugs into the facing of the giant rock screen. He looked over at his sergeant and then smiled.

“That is one irritating voice,” he said and then rose up again and fired until he was empty. His men took the cue and a raucous fire erupted that slammed the mountain and created bright flashes as bullets bounced from stone and tree.

*   *   *

Jack stopped his trek long enough to explain to Everett and Anya what he was thinking. Anya thought he was on to something. Then something caught everyone’s attention. There was additional gunfire coming from outside the city. The firefight was distant and only a military-trained ear could discern the gunfire through the thunder that shook the entire mountain.

“I think the bad guys have company,” Jack said as his eyes locked with Anya’s. Carl looked at her also with a raised brow.

“Something you might want to share?” he asked, knowing the look she was wearing was one that said indeed she knew something.

“I think my grandmother and my former employer may have some hard explaining to do,” she said as she raised her head to see what was happening but the ramp leading to the outer temple was too far away and the entrance even further.

“Try again, Ms. Korvesky,” Jack insisted. “We’re all ears.”

“I think the Mossad has sent us help, well, maybe help, or maybe someone else who will try to destroy the temple complex, and maybe kill us also. With General Shamni and his friend the prime minister you never know. Those men may be the Sayeret.”

“That’s what I thought,” Collins said as he lowered his silhouette and then thought. “We had a report from the CIA that the Sayeret had been placed on alert, now I guess we know why.”

“They’re not here to rescue anyone, are they?” Everett asked, hoping Anya would tell them the truth.

“No, they are here to destroy the mine. But I didn’t know for sure until tonight. It was my grandmother and General Shamni, my boss in Mossad. The time has come that Israel will no longer tolerate those bodies being there. They must vanish forever.”

“But why?” Carl asked, not understanding her at all.

“Because the fundamentalist movement taking root inside Israel could possibly upset the peace process that is now gaining momentum, isn’t that right, Anya?” Alice Hamilton put in as she and Niles lowered themselves next to the three. The gunfire was starting to pick up once more.

“Explain,” Jack asked Alice as she smiled at Anya, indicating that what was happening was understood, at least by Alice and Niles Compton.

“The prime minister,” Alice explained, “does not need a civil war over whose religion is the right one. Those bodies, if proven to be who the Jeddah say they are, would ignite a fundamentalist war against the men and women who want this hostility stopped, not reignited over ancient history. All because Moses was nothing but a man and that makes the cover-up of three and a half thousand years ago a major problem for religion in general when all anyone has to see is the fact that no matter how you look at Moses he had divine help. The Golia? Indeed. God—well, who created the Golia but nature and that has always been God. But that explanation is never simple enough. Moses was a man who spoke with God and now a man that became a myth that we have to hide simply because people cannot grasp the simple fact that the story of the Exodus while true has many more complicated facets than meets the eye, or even the biblical text.”

“Yes,” Anya said as he smiled and nodded at Alice. “Mrs. Hamilton is exactly right.”

“Surprise, surprise,” Charlie Ellenshaw said.

“The temple and the City of Moses will cease to exist after tonight.”

Jack shook his head. “Not if what we’re hearing outside is that relief force you’re talking about, because it sounds like they ran into an ambush,” Collins said as he saw more and more men easing themselves down the ramp and the villagers and Americans had little or no ammunition left. “There has to be another way out of here,” Jack said as he looked around him at the frightened faces of the women and children as their menfolk started filtering back after their meager defense had failed. The men tried to comfort the children as best they could. Collins could see that most of the men had abandoned their empty shotguns for large knives and pitchforks. Collins shook his head, knowing what he was seeing was insane. He couldn’t allow these people to be hurt because someone thought there was a vast treasure inside.

“Hey, remember this afternoon, Captain?” Ellenshaw said as he took Carl by the arm. “The barn, Stanus?”

“How do the Golia get into the village—is there an unseen entrance to the temple above the barn?” Everett asked Anya.

“I don’t know. Was Stanus above the barn?”

“He could have only have come from the mountain, the village was so full of revelers trying to see you that a wolf that size could come close to the barn only one way.”

“From the mountain,” Anya confirmed.

“We have to find that exit, it’s going to be the only way out of here.” Jack turned and suggested heading south behind the giant stone lions with the heads of bearded men. “That’s the only way it could be,” Collins said as he waited for confirmation that his guess was best.

“I have never seen the Golia back there.”

“From what I understand the Golia have been doing a lot of things lately the Jeddah know nothing of.” Sarah reminded everyone of the anchor pins they had been undermining for the past year.

“Okay, gather the families and keep them tight. Get some men and get Madam Korvesky moving. We go until the temple won’t let us travel anymore.” Jack looked at Will and Jason. Before he could say anything Charlie and Pete stepped up and squatted next to Ryan and Mendenhall as if to tell Jack that their orders were their own. Ryan was proud of the two super-nerds but this was no place for the two professors.