his now rather untidy uniform. “I’m an officer, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, but the second you open your mouth they’ll know saahmthang’s wraahng,” she said, imitating his attempt at an American accent. “What are you going to do, use sign language?”
Eddie cracked his knuckles and gave her a devilish smile. “I think they’ll get the message.”
TWENTY
In the administration block, Colonel Kern listened to a crackling report over the intercom from Silent Peak’s lowest level. “We still haven’t been able to restore full power down here, sir. We need a maintenance crew to fix the breakers.”
“We’ll have to call a team in from Groom,” said Kern, concerned. “What about the intruders?” From the moment the alert had come through directly from the Pentagon that their security clearances had been forged, his honored guests had been reduced in status to targets.
Ogleby came on the line. “They’ve wrecked the place!” he cried. “Kern, I hold you entirely responsible for this fiasco. How the hell did you allow them to just stroll in here?”
“I see from the system that you approved their clearances too,” Kern replied irritatedly, checking a monitor. “But it looks like security’s been breached at a very high level. There’ll have to be an investigation—”
“Sir!” his lieutenant interrupted, pointing excitedly at a status board. “The main elevator—it’s coming up!”
“I think we’ve found them,” Kern told Ogleby before ending the call. He turned to his subordinate. “Assemble a group, everyone armed, then get to the elevator. But keep the guards at the main door in case it’s a ruse and they’re trying to escape some other way.”
The lieutenant acknowledged and rushed out. “Keep monitoring things here,” Kern ordered a corporal as he headed for his office.
He opened a desk drawer and took out his sidearm. Silent Peak’s quiet obscurity and official status as a reserve facility meant that only its security personnel were routinely armed, but right now he wanted every man on the base to have a gun at the ready. Whatever Nina Wilde and her companion were doing here, it was going to be stopped. Flicking off the Beretta’s safety, he hurried after the lieutenant.
In the control room, the corporal’s eyes bugged as he saw on a CCTV screen what the enormous elevator was carrying. “Uh, sir?” he called, but his commander had already gone.
Kern met his men outside the cluster of cabins, where the lieutenant had rounded up twelve troops. Some were support staff armed only with pistols, but the majority were members of the base’s security detail, carrying M4 rifles. “Okay, everyone with me,” he ordered, starting to run. The men fell in alongside him. “We have two intruders who infiltrated the base using falsified credentials, and gained access to the repository. They’re to be considered armed and dangerous.” He hesitated before continuing, but the command from the Pentagon had been clear. “You have shoot-on-sight authorization.”
The responses from the running men showed that few, if any, shared his misgivings.
They raced down the length of the hangar, passing the parked aircraft and vehicles. The great chasm of the shaft opened up ahead as they neared it. A deep mechanical grumbling grew ever louder—the massive elevator platform was approaching the top.
“Spread out,” said Kern as the group reached the shaft. “I want every part of the platform … covered …” His voice trailed off as the elevator’s cargo rose into view.
The corporal’s nervous voice sounded over the PA system. “Uh, Colonel Kern, sir! They’ve, ah … they’ve got a tank.”
The M60’s main gun was pointing directly at Kern. “Yeah, I noticed.”
“Okay, we’re at the top!” Nina announced, standing in the commander’s position to peer through the narrow portholes in the armored cupola atop the turret. “And we’ve got a welcoming committee.”
Eddie, in the driver’s seat inside the cramped forward compartment, had also seen the troops through the three slot-like periscopes in front of him. “Doesn’t look like they want to give us tea and biscuits,” he said as weapons came up. He switched his foot from the brake to the oversized gas pedal and shoved it down. The twenty-nine-liter diesel engine roared, the tank jerking forward with a piercing squeal from its tracks. He saw Kern dive aside as the M60 cleared the platform and accelerated down the hangar.
Nina yelped and instinctively ducked as bullets clonked against the turret. “Whoa! That just made them mad.”
Eddie wasn’t worried—not about the gunfire, at least. Against the inches-thick steel armor, Kern’s men might as well have been firing Ping-Pong balls.