The Roswell Conspiracy (33 page)

More gunfire erupted from the back of the three houses. Benitez yelled at his men in Spanish. Grant hoped he was telling them to fire gas at the other houses because if they stayed out here much longer, they’d be cut to ribbons.

Grant had expected coughing gang members to spew from the main house after the tear gas took effect, but he realized that no one had left the house. It was highly unlikely that a drug cartel would have gas masks, and in a confined space like that, covering your face with a rag wouldn’t do much good.

So what were they doing? Maybe they were holed up in the garage.

He saw that Morgan still had her goggles hanging from her neck. He tapped her on the shoulder, and she twisted around, a wild look in her eye betraying how amped up she was by the gun battle. He gestured at the goggles and took them from her. He leaned out so he could see through the truck’s windshield and held them up to his mask.

No red crosshairs in the garage. He panned over the rest of the house. Nothing.

Until he looked down.

The crosshairs were descending below street level. Then they disappeared, no longer able to penetrate the dirt that shielded the ID dust from the sensors.

Grant dropped the goggles from his face.

“We’ve got to move in now!” he shouted to Morgan. “We’re losing the Killswitch!”

“What? How?”

“Captain Benitez was right. They’ve got a drug-smuggling tunnel.”

FORTY-SEVEN

“Did Colchev see you?” Tyler asked Jess.

She was sure he hadn’t turned her way when she popped out. “No, but they’re headed straight for us. They’ll see the opening any minute.”

With Colchev and his men only a few hundred yards away, Tyler and Jess couldn’t come out of the secret passage without being spotted. Unarmed, Jess knew they’d be easy prey.

“At least we won’t be ambushed like on Easter Island,” Tyler said. “That gives us a small advantage.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I’ve got to collapse the chamber. It’s the only way to be sure. We can’t let Colchev get his hands on the xenobium.”

“You’ll be killed!”

“This isn’t a discussion.” He took the lead apron from her and stuffed it in the backpack. He gave her the crowbar and said, “Come on.”

Carrying the backpack, Tyler ran toward the central chamber. Jess followed, expecting him to climb back up to the pillar, but instead he crossed the chamber and went out through the larger main entrance on the opposite side.

The wide passageway turned right and ended at a brick wall after another thirty feet.

With a look of concentration, Tyler examined the wall, then turned 360 degrees.

“What are you doing?” Jess asked.

He laid a hand on the wall. “This is facing south, right where we found the entrance to the pyramid when we were searching for Colchev. I’ll bet the priests walled it up before they buried the whole place with mud.”

“What’s your point?”

He dropped the crowbar by the wall. “You’re going to use that to hack your way out of here. You’ll need to hammer the crowbar with another brick to chisel out the mortar.”

“Are you serious?”

“We can’t go back the way we came in, so this is the only other choice.”

“But it could take hours. They’ll be here any second.”

“Which is why we will have to make them think you’re dead.”

“What do you mean, ‘dead’?”

“Just trust me.” She began to protest, but he shoved the backpack into her hands. “Follow my lead.”

“But Nana—”

“You and Fay will be all right.”

“Will
you
?”

“That’s not important.” He rushed back to the central chamber. Several approaching lights reflected off the walls of the secret passage on the other side. They didn’t have much time until Colchev and his men entered the room.

When Jess moved to join Tyler on the pillar’s riser, he stopped her before she got out of the chamber’s main entrance.

“Stay there with your back against the wall,” he said. “Don’t make yourself a target.”

She turned off her lantern and stepped to the side so that the pillar stood between her and the secret passage, leaving just enough space so that she had a slim view of the opening.

Tyler set his lantern down and pulled on the top disk. A few more bricks rained down. Another strong pull, and the whole ceiling would fall.

He waited, keeping tension on the handle.

The lights stopped just outside the chamber.

“Come in, Colchev!” Tyler called out. “But don’t shoot. We’re unarmed.”

Colchev’s lights were extinguished. After a moment, Jess could see a man crawl out of the gloom, survey the chamber, and pull back quickly.

“Let us see your hands!” came a booming basso voice.

“I can’t do that,” Tyler said, the body of the pillar between him and the secret passage. “Did you see the collapsed bricks in that chamber you passed?”

A pause. “Yes.”

“The same thing will happen in here if you try to fire at us.”

The lights went back on. A young man dressed in jeans and a denim jacket emerged carrying a submachine gun. He took a look around the chamber, including the ceiling. Then he nodded.

Colchev and a bearded companion, both armed with pistols, followed the first man into the chamber with Fay propped in front of them. Colchev put down the metal case Tyler had used to secure the Easter Island xenobium.

“Nana!” Jess shouted. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Don’t give them anything for me.”

Still as gutsy as ever. Jess breathed a sigh of relief.

Colchev’s eyes went from Jess to Tyler. “This isn’t going to end well for you, Dr. Locke.”

“Maybe not. But then you won’t get the xenobium.”

“You have it?”

Tyler nodded in Jess’s direction. “She does.”

“How do I know that?”

“I’m sure you have a radiation detector. You should be able to tell from there.”

“Zotkin,” Colchev said. The man next to him took out a meter like Tyler’s and waved it around.

“There’s a strong radiation source in the room, but I can’t tell where it is from this far away. She may have it.”

“What are we going to do about this standoff?” Colchev said.

Jess held her breath. She had no idea what Tyler was planning.

“A trade,” he said. “Fay for the xenobium. Then you leave.”

“Really?”

“It’s that simple.”

“I accept. Have the girl bring over the xenobium and we’ll let her grandmother go.”

“No. One man goes with Fay and the radiation detector over to Jess at the main entrance. Your man checks out the backpack she’s carrying. When he verifies that the xenobium is inside, Fay stays there and he goes back. Then you head out one at a time with the flashlights so we can see that you’ve all left. When you go, you’ll take your weapons but leave the ammo on the floor so that you can’t ambush us on our way out.”

Colchev thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Agreed. Give the detector to Kiselow.”

Zotkin handed it over to the man in the denim jacket. Before Kiselow started walking, Tyler said, “One more thing. Kiselow drops his gun. I want to see that he’s unarmed before he makes the trip. Turn out your pockets and show me your waistband and ankles.”

Kiselow looked at Colchev, who nodded again. The man handed over his submachine gun and a pistol from his belt holster to Zotkin, then showed Tyler that he was now unarmed.

“Okay. Go ahead. Slowly.” Tyler kept watch on Colchev and Zotkin, who had the submachine gun trained on Fay. “If you fire or if you or Zotkin take one step farther in, the whole place comes down.”

“I only want what’s mine,” Colchev said.

“It’s not yours!” Fay shouted.

“It will be in a minute unless you all want to die.”

“I’m dying already.”

“But Locke and your granddaughter aren’t.”

“It’s okay, Fay,” Tyler said. “Please.”

Fay huffed but started moving. Kiselow kept her in front of him while they crossed. His eyes moved from Tyler to the ceiling and back to Fay.

When they reached the other side, Jess ran into Fay’s arms and grasped her in a tight hug.

Jess pulled away and studied her grandmother’s eyes.

Fay didn’t look frightened. She looked angry.

“You shouldn’t be doing this for me,” she said.

“We weren’t going to let these assholes kill you,” Jess said.

“The bag!” Colchev commanded.

Jess unslung the backpack and gave it to Kiselow, who unzipped it and ran the detector over the opening.

“This is it,” he said to Colchev triumphantly.

“Bring it back,” Colchev said.

Kiselow zipped it up and started to walk back across the chamber.

Jess glanced at Tyler, who gave her a slight nod.

This had been Tyler’s plan all along.
We can’t let Colchev get his hands on the xenobium
.

She shook her head, pleading for him not to do it, but when she saw the corner of his mouth go up in a lopsided, heartbreaking smile, she knew there was no convincing him otherwise. He was going to stop Colchev even if it meant sacrificing his own life.

When Kiselow was beside the pillar, Tyler wrenched the disk’s handle.

Three wooden beams fell into the column, and bricks began to plummet from the ceiling.

Kiselow, startled by the crackling of the adobe bricks, froze just long enough for Tyler to leap from the platform, his fist aimed at the Russian’s head. Kiselow saw him in time to avoid the brutal punch, but couldn’t keep Tyler from slamming into him. As bricks rained down, they wrestled for the backpack.

A burst of rounds from the submachine gun peppered the wall beside Jess. The weapon was in Zotkin’s hands, but Colchev had shoved the barrel toward the ceiling, sending bullets ricocheting around the chamber.

“Don’t shoot, you idiot!” Colchev yelled at Zotkin. He turned back to the melee. “Kiselow, throw the bag!”

Kiselow wound up to toss the backpack, but Tyler grabbed the top of it. The bag zipped open, dumping the contents on the ground. The xenobium rolled out of the protective apron, flashing its brilliance in the light.

The hail of ceiling chunks was so thick now that neither Colchev nor Zotkin could make a move for it.

Tyler tried to kick the ball of xenobium away, but Kiselow grabbed his foot. While they struggled, a falling brick caught Tyler in the side of the head. He reeled from the blow, and Kiselow kicked him in the chest.

Tyler stumbled backward. He tripped and landed on his back only twenty feet from Jess’s location. If he stayed there, he’d be crushed in another few seconds.

“Get up!” Jess yelled, but he didn’t move.

She had to help him. She shrugged out of Fay’s grip and ran into the storm of bricks.

Kiselow grabbed the xenobium and hurled it away before he was buried by a shower of bricks.

Jess reached Tyler and yanked him to his feet. Debris narrowly missed her head as they staggered back toward Fay, who turned on the lantern to guide her.

Jess pushed Tyler ahead and she launched herself at the opening just as the rest of the ceiling finally gave way, sealing off the main entrance from the chamber and trapping the three of them inside the tunnel.

They fell to the floor. Tyler rolled over and groaned, his eyes fluttering.

“Stay still,” Jess said, stroking his hair. She felt a huge bump on the side of his skull.

“Are you all right?” Fay asked.

“I’m fine, but I think Tyler has a concussion. Did you see what happened to the xenobium?”

Fay nodded solemnly. “It bounced and rolled into the secret passage. Colchev has it now.”

FORTY-EIGHT

As soon as the tear-gas grenades hit the windows on the two homes to either side, Grant sprinted for the target house, Morgan at his side. The tactical team covered them with a barrage of gunfire.

Grant saw a muzzle flash in the window to his right and let loose with a volley of his own, stitching the wall underneath the window with a row of bullet holes. The thin drywall was no match for the high-velocity rounds, and the gunman disappeared.

The headlong rush to the house wasn’t the best tactic, but they had no time to wait. Morgan had already called into the OSI team waiting for the Killswitch that the tunnel exited somewhere on the American side, but without knowing how far the tunnel went or in what direction, there was no way for them to narrow the location down to less than a square mile of stores and warehouses.

Grant vaulted the fence, landing in the tiny front yard. He charged straight for the front door.

Hit with the battering ram of his 250-pound bulk, the flimsy door was demolished. It flew off its hinges, smashing into a gunman hiding behind it. Grant went down onto the door, pinning the pummeled man beneath him.

As Grant rolled over, trying to bring his M4 to bear, he saw a gang member with a bandanna wrapped around his face. The man turned and raised an AK-47 just as Morgan ran through the open doorway and fired a three-round burst into his chest, killing him instantly.

She kept moving forward, sweeping with her rifle for other targets. Grant took the living room, staying low in an attempt to avoid the random shots piercing the thin walls.

“In here!” Morgan yelled.

Grant found her in a small kitchen with a gaping hole cut in the floor, an extension ladder poking out of it.

They both edged over to the hole on opposite sides and crouched. Grant did a silent countdown with his fingers. When he reached one, they jumped up and unloaded their magazines into the pit. Two screams were followed by the thump of falling bodies and the sound of ejected shell casings clinking on the metal steps of the ladder.

The tear gas had dissipated enough that they didn’t need the masks any more. Grant took his off, and Morgan did the same. Both of them reloaded.

They peered into the hole and saw two corpses. Neither looked Russian.

The hole had been dug through the concrete slab into the dirt below to create a pit large enough for six men to stand comfortably. A four-foot-high tunnel opened to the north.

Grant climbed down the ladder while Morgan covered him. Keeping his rifle aimed at the tunnel, Grant hopped off the ladder next to it in case someone was lying in wait inside. He gave the tunnel the same treatment as the pit. Rounds bounced around the shaft. No one returned fire.