Their destination was a clearing a mile up the dirt road from the cavern. Gomez circled to make sure it was still clear, using his night vision goggles to verify that no trees had fallen into the landing zone. Then he touched down on the soaked grass as gracefully as a hummingbird.
While Linc, Eddie, and Raven got out and lowered their night vision goggles, Gomez shut down the engine and looked at his watch, then at Juan. “Linda estimates that we’ve got to take off in forty-eight minutes if we want to reach the Oregon before the opposite edge of the eye wall does.”
Juan nodded. His original time estimate had been too rosy because they had to wait to fly until the eye of Hidalgo was over both the ship and the cavern.
“If we lose the comm link and the go time comes before we get back,” Juan said, “your orders are to fly back to the Oregon. There are plenty of trucks and Humvees in the cavern to provide us alternate transportation.”
“I wouldn’t risk it,” Gomez said. “You’ll be lucky to find clear roads all the way to a safe shelter. Better to fly the friendly skies.”
“We fully intend to. See you soon.”
Juan joined the team and set his own goggles in place to see through the deep shadows cast by the jungle. They hoofed it double time down the road toward the cavern entrance.
Juan was impressed by the resilience of the jungle flora. Although many large branches had been torn down by the gale-force winds, none of them were big enough to block the road. If they needed to commandeer a Humvee to get back to the chopper quickly, they wouldn’t run into any major obstacles on the way.
Fifteen minutes later, they reached the location where they’d seen the truck enter the hillside. Juan checked his GPS twice to make sure they were in the right place because the entrance was so well hidden by the foliage covering the gates. Even the tire tracks of the truck leading inside were invisible, disguised by artificial turf layered over solid pavement.
Careful to maintain absolute silence, the four of them crept up to the gates. Without disturbing the camouflage, Juan looked through one of the only spots with a tiny gap left for the guards inside to see out.
Two guards lolled on chairs, obviously unconcerned that anyone would be approaching the hideout in this kind of weather in the middle of the night. Ensconced safely in the tunnel, Hidalgo was no threat to them. One of them was nodding off, and the other was watching something on his phone. The lack of discipline was appalling but suited Juan’s purposes.
He nodded to Linc, who had MacD’s crossbow at the ready. Linc shouldered it and lined it up with another gap so he could aim at the man distracted by his phone. Juan drew his suppressed pistol and aimed it at the ear of the dozing guard.
He whispered, “Now.” With a barely audible twang, Linc fired the crossbow. At the same time, Juan fired a single round, which sounded no louder than the snap of a rubber band.
Both men slumped in their chairs and collapsed to the ground.
Juan waited a moment to see if any alarm was raised. No Klaxons, no warning bells, no shouted commands.
He found the hidden handle and twisted it so he could pull open the gate just wide enough for them to slip inside. The well-oiled hinges made no sound.
They propped the dead guards back on their chairs in case anyone happened to look down the tunnel. Juan took one of the radios and gave the other to Eddie. They both attached earpieces to the audio jacks so they could hear incoming calls without being audible to anyone else.
They slowly made their way down the hundred-foot-long tunnel, their pistols and crossbow in hand to take out any other patrolling guards. When they reached the central cavern, each of them knelt and gawked at the majesty of the natural wonder that had been sullied by the communist terrorists.
It had to be one of the biggest caverns in the world, rivaling the recently discovered Hang So’n Đoòng caves in Vietnam, and large enough to hold at least ten city blocks of forty-story buildings. Gigantic stalactites dangled from the ceiling high above. Several waterfalls, fed by the downpours from Hidalgo, cascaded from the limestone. They rushed into a swollen river that streamed along one side of the cave and disappeared in a huge pool.
The dozen or so buildings comprising the rebels’ headquarters covered only a small portion of the cave. That section was well lit by lamps powered by the diesel generator, but the rest of the cavern was swallowed by darkness.
As Juan gaped at the soaring ceiling, he spotted the huge hole that had been hinted at in the satellite photos they’d examined in the pre-mission planning. Vines lined the rim so that, from above, it would simply look like a sinkhole. That was how Locsin’s helicopter got in and out. Only during a low-altitude night flight directly above the opening would anyone have a chance of seeing the interior lights.
Juan scanned the cluster of buildings and saw no movement. He pointed to the nearest structure, which housed the noisy diesel generator, and they dashed over to it for cover. They could talk quietly here without fear of being overheard.
He checked his watch, then said, “It took us seventeen minutes of hiking time to get here, plus the time we spent taking out the guards, so we’ve now got sixteen minutes to find Beth and leave. Eddie and Raven will check out the long building to look for her. Linc and I will head to the Kuyog manufacturing plant on the far side. We’ll make this our rendezvous point. Remember, sixteen minutes. Then we’ll blow the cavern and the tunnel entrance and let the Philippine National Police dig them out. Understood?”
Juan was sure that Eddie and Linc knew their jobs, so he looked at Raven. She gave him a curt nod of her head.
“I wish I could see Locsin’s face when he realizes we were here,” she said.
“If everything goes according to plan, that realization will last about one millisecond,” Juan said. “He won’t have time to twitch an eyebrow. Let’s go.”
They checked once more for roaming guards but saw nobody. Eddie and Raven took off for the barracks while Juan and Linc skirted the miniature town as they circled around to the manufacturing facility.
A minute later, they were beside the larger of the two buildings, a three-story structure with no windows, with large garage doors on the front for truck deliveries and a smaller personnel door. There were also a small door and a larger cargo door set into the side facing the building next to it, which was identical except that it was only two stories tall. The only other feature on the outside of each building was a ladder leading up to the air-handling system on the roof.
Juan and Linc went to the side door of the three-story building, where Juan pressed his ear to it. There was no sound coming from inside.
He eased open the door and peered in. It was completely dark, so he lowered his night vision goggles. He spotted no movement and nodded for Linc to follow him in.
Just as they expected, it was an enormous factory for manufacturing Kuyog drones. Each was on its own cart for easy maneuvering to the next workstation, though there was also a mobile crane for lifting them. Dozens of the drones were lined up in various stages of assembly as if it were an auto plant. Parts were stored on the far side of the building, and the most complete Kuyogs were located closest to the side door, though they all looked to be missing the critical sensor housed on top.
In one corner of the building was a room encased in cinder blocks. Juan pointed at it, and he and Linc stepped toward it in standard recon formation.
The door to the fortified room was heavy steel. Juan yanked the handle and pulled it open. When he looked inside, he realized why it was reinforced.
It was the depot holding the high explosives to be put in the Kuyogs. The Semtex was stacked on shelves all the way to the ceiling.
Juan shook his head. “Sloppy. This should be an entirely separate building far from any of the others.”
“I know,” Linc replied, pulling out a brick of C-4. “They’re just begging for an unfortunate industrial
accident.”
Just as Brekker had done on the Pearsall, Linc and Juan scattered blocks of C-4 among the ammo in the backs of the shelves where they wouldn’t be seen. Each of the timers was set to go off five minutes after they were supposed to be out of the cavern.
Linc set the timer on his last brick of C-4 and nodded to Juan, who went to the open door to make sure they were still alone.
That’s when the building’s lights came on.
63
On their way to the barracks, Raven and Eddie had seen only two men. They were guarding a truck near the front of the factory building that Juan and Linc had entered. Everyone else seemed to be asleep. Raven was watching Eddie’s back as he used an endoscope attached to his phone to look into the barracks windows. She understood that it was better than charging into the building, guns blazing, but the search was tedious. So far, they’d found a dozen rooms with bunk beds full of snoring communist insurgents, but none with Beth.
“We’ve got movement inside the factory,” Juan whispered over the comm link. “Going silent.”
Raven and Eddie quickly shared a concerned look, but there was nothing they could do to help, so they kept searching. Two rooms later, they hit the jackpot. This room was different because it had just a single bed. Beth was sound asleep on it, a tray of dirty dishes next to her on a nightstand.
Raven counted the rooms from the entrance and nodded to Eddie, who put away the scope.
They went to the front door and entered with their suppressed pistols in hand. No sounds except for a few snorts from the sleeping men.
They went down the hall as fast as they could while staying quiet. As they approached the correct room, Raven saw that there was an empty chair outside as if someone had been guarding it. Either the post had been abandoned or the guard would be back at any moment.
The door was locked with a key. Eddie knelt and took out a set of lockpicks from his pocket. In seconds, he turned the unsophisticated lock. Raven was duly impressed by the skills he’d acquired in the CIA.
He eased the door open, and Raven slipped quietly inside to find Beth about to swing the nightstand at her. Raven put up a hand to stop her and held a finger to her lips.
Beth dropped the nightstand on the bed and launched herself at Raven, grabbing her in a surprisingly strong bear hug.
“You got my message,” Beth whispered through a choked sob. “I thought Locsin killed you.”
“He tried,” Raven whispered back. “Didn’t work.”
Eddie had his eyes on the hallway. “Hate to break this up, but we need to go. Juan has already set the charges.”
Beth’s eyes widened. “He’s blowing up this place?”
“That’s the plan.”
“The paintings are here. We need to save them.”
Eddie shook his head. “Sorry. We’re cutting this close as it is. Let’s go.”
Beth crossed her arms and didn’t budge. “I’m not letting them be destroyed.”
Raven looked at Eddie. “Believe me, it’ll be faster if we do it her way.”
Eddie sighed and looked at his watch. “All right. I’ll give us five minutes.” He radioed Juan that they had Beth.
They stole back out of the building. Beth pointed across the compound to a trailer-sized building. The guards by the truck were no longer visible. They must have been the ones Juan was dealing with inside the factory.
They dashed to the building and went inside. Instead of turning on the lights, Eddie lowered his night vision goggles. Raven did the same and led Beth by the hand.
“They should be in the back,” Beth said. “They’ll be in sixteen tubes.”
“Sixteen paintings?” Raven asked.
“They’ve amassed an incredible collection.”
“We can’t carry that many,” Eddie said.
“The tubes are large in diameter, so we can take them out and roll up some of them together. We won’t need more than six tubes.”
“Will that damage the paintings?”
Beth shrugged. “It’s better than leaving them here to burn. The tubes have straps, so we can carry them easily.”
“These paintings better be amazing,” Eddie grumbled.
“You have no idea.”
At the back of the trailer, there was a large metal cabinet. It was secured by a heavy padlock.
“This is a tough one,” Eddie said. “Might take me a little longer than that door.”
He crouched down next to it and got to work.
• • •
JUAN DIDN’T DARE close the door of the explosives storage room or make a move for the exit. The acoustics of the quiet factory meant that he and Linc could easily hear what was being said all the way on the other side. Tagaan was talking to four other men. All of them were armed with Chinese assault rifles.
“Comrade Locsin has become a threat to our movement,” Tagaan said. “We have almost a million Typhoon pills in the truck, but he wants to waste our advantage and risk everything before we are ready.”
One of the men protested, “But he will kill us all if he finds out that we are going to betray him. So will all the others who are loyal to him.”
“That’s why we need to act now. His guard is down because of the storm. When he’s dead, they will see that I’m the one who should lead us.”
Linc raised an eyebrow at Juan. “We should let them off each other,” he whispered.
Juan nodded. “If only we had the time.”
“Locsin will begin his daily factory inspection at dawn,” Tagaan said. “Two of you will wait in the Semtex storage area. When he enters, make sure you shoot him in the head. The other two and I will kill Dolap and his most faithful men. Then we will take the truck to secure the Typhoon supply. Understood?” They nodded, and two of the men started heading toward the storage room.
“I understand that we better get out of here,” Linc whispered.
Juan readied his pistol. “Wait until they’re close. We’ll try to take them out silently.”
Linc raised the crossbow.
As they were walking, one of the men walking toward Juan and Linc called back over his shoulder, “Comrade Tagaan, why is the door to the storage room only partly closed?”
Tagaan turned around, alarmed. He gestured for the other two men to join the first two.
“That plan failed in record time,” Juan said. He holstered his pistol and swung the assault rifle around. With a nod, he kicked the door wide open and shot the closest man through the heart. Linc got his companion through the eye with a crossbow bolt.
“MacD’s going to have to fight me for this,” he said.
With their presence revealed, Juan and Linc ran for the factory’s side door. A few shots came their way until Tagaan ordered his men to avoid hitting the Kuyogs. Then they raced out the front entrance.
Juan and Linc burst through the side door, but Tagaan was waiting for them to appear. From the cover of the building corner, he let loose a wild volley with his assault rifle. The other men would be coming out the side door any second, and it was a long way to the far end of the factory, so Juan sprinted to the building next to them and charged through the door. He and Linc made it inside just as bullets slammed into the closed door behind them.
The lights in this building must have been connected to the ones in the factory because they were all on. It was apparently a final assembly facility and warehouse. Long rows of Kuyog drones were arrayed nose to tail in a pristine white environment. The ones at the front of the building looked complete and ready for shipment while those at the back were just missing the all-important imaging sensor.
Juan and Linc ducked low so they wouldn’t be seen over the Kuyogs and put some distance between them and the side door.
“I don’t see a back exit, do you?” Linc asked. “And I don’t think we want to go out the front.” br />
“Not with everybody wide awake now. It looks like I’ve got us boxed in.”
“You have a Plan B, right?”
“Plan B was the one where we leave by truck if we need to.”
Dozens of shouts and pounding footsteps outside the building made it clear that they had an army coming at them.
“Then I hope you have a Plan C,” Linc said.
Juan looked at the nearest Kuyog and nodded. “As a matter of fact, I do. But you’re not going to like it.”
“Why?”
“Because it means getting as many of them in here with us as possible.”
64
Locsin was out of his bed in the barracks the moment he heard the first gunshots. He snatched up his rifle and his radio and shouted, “What’s happening?”
“We’ve got intruders in the warehouse,” Tagaan replied. “It’s Juan Cabrillo and the black man who was with him at the shipping dock.”
During a typhoon? Locsin couldn’t believe it. “Here? He can’t be.”
“They just killed two of my men.”
“How did they get in here?”
“I can’t reach the guards at the front gate.”
Locsin went out into the corridor and saw men racing down the halls, weapons in hand. “How many are there?” If it was a full invasion, he could slow it down by blowing the tunnel entrance.
“I don’t know. So far, just these two.”
“Don’t let them out of the warehouse,” Locsin ordered. “Do you understand me?”
“Yes, comrade.”
Locsin stopped Dolap, who was running from the direction of the mess hall.
“What are you doing away from your post?” he demanded.
“I was just gone for a minute,” Dolap replied.
“Check on Beth Anders.”
“Yes, comrade.” Dolap ran off.