it was the first that ross had seen. the eyes were open. terror still contorted the face of the old man. gueng killed him but i gave the order, he thought, sickened. was he just an old man who was scared fartless and wanted to get out while the going was good? or was he a spy or a traitor rushing to betray us to the enemy?
"what is it, sahib?" gueng whispered, his brow furrowed.
"nothing. put the head down."
gueng tossed it aside. the head rolled a little down the slope then stopped. "i searched him, sahib, and found this." he handed him the amulet. "it was around his throat and this" he gave him the small leather bag "this hung down around his balls."
the amulet was just a cheap blue stone worn against the evil eye. inside the little bag was a small card, wrapped in plastic. ross squinted at it and his heart
skipped a beat. at that moment there was another keening on the wind, the note different. immediately they picked up their guns and ran for the cave mouth, knowing that tenzing had given them the all-clear signal and to hurry. inside the throat of the cavern the darkness seemed deeper and then, as their eyes adjusted, they saw a fleck of light. it was a flashlight, the lens partially covered.
"over here, captain." though it was softly said, rosemont's voice echoed loudly. "this way." he led them farther into the cave and when he was sure it was safe he shone the light on the rock walls and all around to get his bearings. "it's okay to use your flashes." the cave was immense, many tunnels and passages leading off it, some natural, some man-made, the rock dome fifty feet overhead. "this's the unloading area," he said. when he found the tunnel he sought he shone the light down it. at the end was a thick steel door, half open. "it should be locked," he whispered, his voice raw. "i don't know if it was left like that or what, but that's where we have to go."
ross motioned to tenzing. at once the kookri came out and the soldier went forward to vanish inside. automatically ross and gueng took up defensive positions. against whom? ross asked himself helplessly, feeling trapped. there could be fifty men hidden in any one of those other tunnels.
the seconds dragged. again there was the keening. ross led the rush through the doorway, then gueng, then rosemont. as rosemont passed the door he saw that tenzing had taken up a position nearby and was covering them. he pulled the door to and switched on the lights. the suddenness made the others gasp.
"hallelujah!" rosemont said, openly relieved. "the brass figured if the generators were still working, we'd have a good shot. this door's lightproof." he slid heavy bolts into place, hung his flashlight on his belt.
they were in another cave, much smaller, that had been adapted, the floor levered and carpeted roughly, the walls made more flat. it was a form of anteroom with desks and phones and litter everywhere. "the guys sure didn't waste any time getting the hell out, did they?" he said bitterly, hurrying across the room to another tunnel, down it and into another cave room with more desks, a few radar screens, and more phones, grey and green.
"the grays're internal, greens go to the tower and masts on the crest, from there by satellite to tehran, our hq switchboard in the embassy, and various top secret places they've built-in scramblers." rosemont picked one up. it was dead. "maybe the communications guys did their job after all." at the far end of the room was a tunnel. "that goes down to the generator room for this section which has all the gear we've to blow. living quarters, kitchens, mess halls, repair shops, are in other caves off the unloading area. about eighty guys worked here around the clock."
"is there any other way out of here?" ross asked. his feeling of being closed in was greater than ever.
"sure, topside, where we're going."
rough steps led upward through the domed roof. rosemont started climbing them. on the landing was a door: top security area no admittance without special authority. it too was open. shit, he muttered. this cave was well-appointed, floor flatter, walls whitewashed. dozens of computers and radar screens, and banked electronic equipment. more desks and chairs and phones, grey and green. and two red on a central desk.
"whattre those for?"
"direct to langley by military satellite." rosemont picked one up. it was
dead. so was the other. he pulled out a piece of paper and checked it, then~]
went over to a bank of switches and turned some on. another obscenity as a soft hum began, computers started chattering, warming up, and three of the radar screens came to life, the central white trace- line turning, leaving a scatter pattern in its wake. "bastards! bastards to leave everything like this." his finger stabbed at four corner computers. "blow those mothers they're the core. "
"gueng!"
"yes, sahib." the gurkha took off his pack and began to lay out the plastic explosives and detonators.
"half-hour fuses?" rosemont said.
"half-hour fuses it is." ross was staring at one of the screens, fascinated. northward he could see most of the caucasus, all of the caspian, eastward even part of the black sea, all with extraordinary clarity."that's a lot of space to peer into."
rosemont went over to its keyboard and turned a switch.
for a moment ross was dumbfounded. he tore his eyes off the screen. "now i understand why we're here."
"that's only part."
"christ! then we'd better get cracking. what about the cave mouth?"
"we've no time to do a decent job and the other side of our door's routine junk they've stolen anyways. we'll blow our tunnels after us and use the escapeway."
"where's that?"
the american went over to a door. this one was locked. he took out a bunch of tagged keys and found the one he wanted. the door swung open. behind the door a narrow flight of stairs spiraled upward steeply. "it leads out onto the mountain."
"tenzing, make sure the way's clear." tenzing went up the stairs two at a time. "next?"
"code room and the safes, we'll mine those. then communications. generator room last, okay?"
"yes." ross liked the incisive strength more and more. "before we do you'd better look at this." he took out the small, plastic-covered card. "gueng caught up with our guide. this was on him."
all color left rosemont's face. on the card was a thumbprint, some writing in russian script, and a signature. "an id!" he burst out. "a commie id!" behind them gueng paused momentarily.
"that's what i thought. what's it say exactly?"
"i don't know, i can't read russian either but i'll bet my life it's a safeconduct pass." a wave of sickness came up from his stomach as he remembered all the days and nights he had spent in the old man's company, wandering the mountains, sleeping alongside him in the open, feeling very safe. and all the time he'd been pegged. numbly he shook his head. "meshgi was with us for years he was one of ali bin hassan karakose's band ali's an underground leader and one of our best contacts in the mountains. great guy who even operates as far north as baku. jesus, maybe he's been betrayed." he looked at the card again. "just doesn't figure."
"i think it figures we could have been deliberately set up, sitting ducks," ross said. "perhaps the convoy's part of it, full of troops to track us. we'd better hurry it up, eh?"
rosemont nodded, fighting to dominate the fear that swept through him, helped by the calmness of the other man. "yes, yes, you're right." still shattered, he went through a small passage to another door. locked. as he looked for the key on the tabbed ring of keys he said, "i owe you and your men an apology. i don't know how we i got taken in or how that bastard escaped the security check but he did and you're probably right we're set up. sorry, but, shit, that doesn't help a goddamn bit."
"it helps." ross grinned and the fear dropped off both of them. "it helps. okay?"
"okay. thanks, yes, thanks. gueng killed him?"
"well," ross said dryly. "he handed me his head. they usually just bring back ears."
"jesus. you been with them long?"
"the gurkhas? four years."
the key slid into the lock and the door opened. the code room was pedantically neat. telex and teleprinter and copy machines. a curious computer printer with a keyboard was on its own desk. "that's the decoder worth any money you'd like to ask the opposition." on the desks pencils were lined up. half a dozen manuals.
rosemont picked them up. "good sweet jesus..." all were codebooks
marked mecca one copy only. "well, at least the master code's locked up." he went to the modern safe with its electronic, 0-9 digital lock that was set into one wall, read the combination from his piece of paper and touched the digits. but the open light didn't come on. "maybe i missed a number. read them to me, okay?"
"sure." ross began reading out the long series of numbers. behind them tenzing came in noiselessly. neither man heard him. "... one twenty-five... seven twenty-one." then both men felt the presence at the same instant and whirled, momentarily panicked.
tenzing kept the delight off his face and closed his ears to the profanity. hadn't the sheng'khan told him to train the son and make him wise in the ways of stealth and killing? hadn't he sworn to guard him and be his silent teacher? "but, tenzing, for the love of god don't let my son know i told you to. keep this secret between us..." it's been very hard to catch the sahib unawares for weeks, he thought happily. but gueng caught him tonight and so did i. much better we do than an enemy and now they surround us like bees and their queen.
"the staircase leads upward for seventy-five steps to an iron door," tenzing said in his best reporting voice. "the door is rusty but i forced it. outside is a cave, outside the cave is the night a good escape route, sahib. not good is that from there i saw the first of the convoy." he paused, not wanting to be wrong. "perhaps half an hour of time is left."
"go back to the first door, tenzing, the one we barred. mine the tunnel this side of the door to leave the door unharmed twenty-minute fuse from now. tell gueng to set his fuses the same from now exactly. tell gueng what i've ordered."
"yes, sahib."
ross turned back. he noticed the sweat on rosemont's forehead. "okay?"
"sure. we got to one hundred three."
"the last two numbers are six sixty and thirty-one." he saw the american touch the numbers. the open light began winking. rosemont's right hand went for the lever. "hold it!" ross wiped the sweat from his own chin, the golden stubble rasping. "i suppose there's no chance it could be booby-trapped?"
rosemont stared at him, then at the safe. "it's possible. sure, it's possible."
"then let's just blow the bugger and not risk it."
"i i've gotta check. i've got to check if mecca's master code's inside or not. that and the decodertre priority." again he looked at the light winking at him. "you go back in the other room, take cover with gueng, shout when you're ready. i it's my shot."
ross hesitated. then he nodded, picked up both packs that contained explosives and detonators. "where's the communications room?"
"next door."
"is is the generator room important?"
"no. just this one, the decoder and those four mothers back there, though it'd be best if this whole goddamn floor went to hell." rosemont watched ross walk away then turned his back and looked back at the lever. there was a bad tightness in his chest. that sonofabitch meshgi! i'dtve bet my life you did, we all did, even ali karakose. "you ready?" he called out impatiently.
"wait!" again his stomach surged. ross was back beside him before he had heard him, in his hands a long, thin, nylon climbing rope that, quickly, he lashed to the lever. "turn the lever when i say but don't open the door. we'll jerk it open from back there." ross hurried out. "now!"
rosemont took a deep breath to slow his heart and turned the lever to open then ran through the passage into the other cave. ross beckoned him down beside the wall. "i sent gueng to warn tenzing. ready?"
"sure."
ross tightened the rope, then tugged hard. the rope remained taut. he tugged even harder, then it slackened a foot but came no farther. silence. nothing. both men were sweating. "well," ross said, greatly relieved, and got up. "better safe than sorr " the explosion obliterated his words, a great cloud of dust and bits of metal blew out of the passage into their cave, jerking the air from their lungs, scattering tables and chairs. all radar screens burst, lights vanished, one of the red phones tore loose and hurtled across the room to smash through the steel casing of a computer. gradually the dust settled, both men coughing their hearts out in the darkness.
rosemont was the first to recover. his flashlight was still on his belt. he groped for it.
"sahib?" tenzing called out anxiously, rushing into the room, his flash on, gueng beside him.
"i'm all all right," ross said, still coughing badly. tenzing found him lying in the rubble. a little blood was running down his face but it was only a superficial wound from the flying glass. "bless all gods," tenzing muttered and helped him up.
