Spandau Phoenix (101 page)

caliber pistol from Captain Barnard's belt and placed it carefully in the young man's hand. "If it gets too bad," he said tersely, "you know what to do." The general swallowed the lump in his throat. "I'll be back for you, Barnard. You have my solemn word. Stand fast."

General Steyn turned and squeezed his broad shoulders back through the door of the driver's compartment. His bluff face was swollen with emotion. He looked hard into Hauer's eyes. "If it's a war they want,"

he said, his voice trembling, "then it's a bloody war they'll get." He -drew his own pistol and jerked back the slide.

"Into the house, lads!"

Pieter Smuts staggered away from the Vulcan and wiped the blood out of his eyes with his shirtsleeve. A dozen slivers of armored glass had been driven into his face by Hauer's slugs. He crouched beside Hess's wheelchair.

"They've breached the outer walls, sir. I don't know who's inside that armored car, but they must be friends of the Jew."

Hess grimaced. "Who could it be but Captain Hauer?" he wheezed.

"I told you never to underestimate an old German soldier. Hauer obviously outsmarted Major Graaff! Damn the man! A German! A German attacking me!"

"We can still stop them, sir."

"How?"

"If I order our bunker gunners to cease firing, the Libyans will advance and kill anyone left alive outside the shields."

"True," Hess said thoughtfully. "But then the Libyans will be inside the house."

"But not inside the shields. Not near you-not near the weapons."

Hess hesitated, realizing that the order would mean certain death for Ilse, Linah, and all of the servants. "Do it," he said finally.

Smuts pressed a button on his console and issued the order.

Outside, the rattle of the bunker guns stuttered, then died.

In the eerie silence, Major Ilyas Karami ordered three quarters of his remaining commando force down the slope.

The rest he held back to transport the howitzer. The battle was not yet over, and he did not intend to lose it through overconfidence.

The prize was too great.

Alan Burton rolled back over the lip of the Wash and slid down the muddy wall into darkness. Juan Diaz lay halfburied in the mud-and-bramble shelter Burton had built at the bottom of the ravine.

Diaz's wounds had developed an unpleasant odor, and his eyes were pale yellow slits. Burton leaned close to his ear.

"I've got our return tickets, lad. Can you make it?"

"si, " Diaz whispered.

"There's a big jet up there, an airliner, but it's too heavily guarded.

There is also a lovely little Lear that looks like a bloody Turkish brothel on the inside. That's our bird."

Grunting in pain, the little Cuban heaved himself to his knees, pushing away Burton's helping hand. "Let's go, English," he rasped, forcing a grin. "Not enough senoritas on this beach."

It took the two men ten minutes to climb out of the Wash and cover the eighty meters to the Libyan Learjet. Burton had to carry Diaz the last third of the way. Instead of putting the Cuban on board the jet, however, Burton trudged to the edge of the asphalt runway and dropped him there. Diaz yelped as the pain of his wounds hit him.

"Sorry, sport," Burton panted. "But this is the safest spot for the time being."

"What?" Diaz exclaimed, finally guessing Burton's intent.

"But the plane is right there!"

"Sorry, lad. I told you if I got half a chance I'd have another go at the house. When those rug-peddlers started shooting, they gave me just that. From my point of view, sport, unless I do the job I was sent here to do, that jet isn't an escape route for me. It's just a taxi back to purgatory.

Diaz muttered a stream of Cuban profanity.

"Come along now, Juan boy, Crawl into that brush over there.

Wouldn't want those blighters over there to catch you out here alone."

Burton pointed up the runway to where Major Karami and his men struggled in the dusk. "Cut your balls off with a bloody scimitar, they would."

When Diaz had settled himself in the tall grass, Burton said, "I know you can reach that jet on your own, sport. I wouldn't want you to leave without me. You wouldn't do that, would you?"

The Cuban pulled a wry face. "Yesterday I would have," he admitted.

"But last night you saved my life, English.

Cubano don't forget that, eh? You go play hero. Diaz be here when you get back."

Burton took a last look the Lear-his solitary means of escape-then he tossed Diaz his wristwatch and gave him a roguish grin. "If I'm not back in forty minutes, sport, it's bon voyage to you with my best wishes."

Diaz shook his head and lay back in the scrub grass. Burton unslung his submachine gun and started back toward Horn House.

Hauer charged out of the Arinscor and into the marble reception hall with the South Africans on his heels. Gadi brought up the rear.

The young Israeli ran straight to the corpses.

As

recogni them." "

"Look, said General Steyn, pointing to the rectangular black shield blocking the main elevator. "That must be the way to the gun tower."

"And the bomb," Gadi murmured.

Two CT soldiers aimed their shotguns at the shield.

"Captain!" called a voice from the shadows to their right.

Hauer felt his heart thump. Peering across the great entrance hall, he spied a figure against the darkness of a corridor to his right. It was Hans.

"Gadi!" called a hoarse voice.

"Uncle? Where are you?"

Stern stepped into the brighter light of the reception hall.

Hans and Ilse stood in the shadows behind him.

"Jonas!" bellowed General Steyn. "You've got some bloody explaining to do!"

Gadi started across the floor, but Stern signaled him to hold back.

Hauer watched in puzzlement as Hans slipped out of the corridor and raced around the edge of the great hall like a runner circling a track.

When he skidded to a stop, Hauer drew back in shock. Hans's hair, face, and clothing were covered with blood. He looked like he,had dived on a grenade.

'Hans! What happened? Were you shot?"

"No time to explain!" Only the whites of Hans's eyes showed through the blood. "We're dead unless we can get through those shields. We've got a plan, but I can't explain it now. I want you to find two rooms with windows facing the inner part of the house. There are cameras in some rooms, not in others. Find a room without a camera. If my plan works, the shields should come down for a few moments-just long enough for you to get through. Skirt the wall when you go-there's a camera by that elevator."

Hans squeezed Hauer's arm hard; then he sprinted back toward Stern.

Hauer looked questioningly@ at Gadi. The young Israeli shrugged and started toward the hallway on their left. Hauer and the South Africans followed.

High in the turret, Pieter Smuts watched Major Karami's commandos charge across the bowl. In a matter of minutes Hauer and his men would be slaughtered. Smuts smiled. His protective shields probably had claw marks on them by now.

It was a pity about Linah, of course, but servants were replaceable.

"Pieter!" Hess cried.

When Smuts whirled, he saw his horrified master pointing at one of the closed-circuit TV monitors. Ilse Apfel filled the screen. Her face and clothing were smeared with blood, and she held an Uzi submachine gun in her hands. She screamed silently at the monitor for help. Then she turned away from the camera and fired a burst from the Uzi.

"That's the elevator camera!" Hess cried. "Open the audio link!"

Instantly the sound of gunfire filled the turret. Ilse turned back toward the camera and screamed. "In the name of God, help us!

They're going to kill us! Herr Horn, please! My husband is wounded!"

At that moment Hans staggered backward into the camera's field of view and fired a burst from an Uzi he had seized from a dead Libyan.

He too was covered in blood.

Both the blood and the Uzis had been provided by Major Karami's dead assassins. Hans and Ilse had rolled in the bloody pools of the reception hall until they looked like walking casualties.

"For God's sake, Pieter!" Hess pleaded. "Those are Germans down there!"

Smuts shook his head angrily. "We can't risk it, sir. Hauer and his men could already be inside the house."

"Can you drop only the elevator shield?"

"No, sir. It's all or none. That's the way they're designed."

"Then drop them all for five seconds!"

Smuts clenched his fists. Like most Germans, his master could be infuriatingly sentimental. In the same way a man who sent millions to the ovens could love dogs, Smuts thought. For the first time since he began serving Hess, the Afrikaner felt mutiny in his heart. "I think it's a trick, sir! I see no Arabs!"

Ilse whirled back to the camera, her blue eyes wild with terror.

"In the name of God, Herr Horn, save me! Save my baby!

Hess's knuckles went white on the arms of his wheelchair.

"I don't see Hauer anywhere," he said quietly, his eyes scanning the other monitors.

"Not all the bedrooms have cameras!"

Hess's face contorted with rage. "Those are Germans dying down there, Pieter! She saved my life last night "But-"

"Do it!"

The Afrikaner slammed his right fist down on the console.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Gadi swung himself through the bedroom window even before the black shield had fully retracted. Hauer leaped after him and landed on the cobblestones of a small courtyard. To his right he saw the South African CT troops helping General Steyn to his feet.

"We've got to find my uncle!" Gadi cried.

General Steyn pointed to a large wooden door across the courtyard and gave a circular flick of his wrist. The shotgun-armed CT troops blew the hinges off the door. Silently they sprinted through the opening and somersaulted into defensive positions, the others close behind them.

Hauer was the last man through. Just before he stepped over the threshold, he realized that the firing outside the house had stopped.

He puzzled over this for a moment, then forgot it as he followed Gadi and the South Africans down a short corridor and into a huge, windowless room. Several large crates were stacked in the middle of the floor. A forklift had been parked in front of a door in the far wall.

Suddenly, from a hallway to Hauer's right, Stern and Ilse came running into the room. Sensing danger, Hauer waved them back, but before he could call out, two men wearing Wehrtnacht gray uniforms rose up from behind the forklift and opened fire with automatic weapons,.

Stern dived to the floor, pulling Ilse down with him. Gadi returned fire. As the bullets flew, Hans came pelting out of the corridor, skidded, then backpedaled into the hall.

"Ilse!" he shouted. "Crawl back here!"

Ilse looked back, but Stern had thrown himself on top of her.

Hauer and General Steyn scrambled back into the hall behind them.

The South African CT troops reacted differently. The highly trained commandos considered their

ia

Kevlar body armor an offensive weapon. While one soldier fired covering

bursts, the other loaded a tear-gas canister into his shotgun and fired at the forklift. Stinging vapor fogged the far side of the room.

Without even waiting to hear a cough the South Africans charged, firing as they ran.

"Clear! Clear!" came a shout in Afrikaans.

"That's it!" said General Steyn. "Let's go!"

At the forklift, Hauer hugged Hans and Ilse fiercely, but there was no time to speak. At their feet lay the bodies of Smuts's men, cut to pieces by the South African commandos. The CT troops had already secured the stairwell beyond the door. The steel steps led both up and down. Leaning out over the rail, Hauer looked up and counted six flights of stairs that ended on a wide landing three floors above.

Below, the stairs disappeared into darkness.

"The bomb's downstairs," said Stern. "A hundred meters down.

That's our objective."

"But the enemy's up there," Hauer argued, pointing with his sniper rifle.

"They don't matter," said Stern. "He doesn't matter."

"Who?" asked General Steyn. "Horn?"

Hauer cut his eyes at Stern. "If we don't neutralize that tower, we won't be able to do a damned thing about your bomb even if we find it."

Stern laughed softly. "How long do you think those shields will hold those Arabs back, Hauer? Five minutes?

Ten? Horn will probably lower them himself, so that the Arabs can kill us for him."

"Scheisse! " Hauer cursed. "That's why the firing stopped!

They're already coming, Stern. We've got to get control of that turret gun. You can do what you want, but I'm taking the South Africans with me."