“Yes, I got it,” said Randall as he stepped down the hall a few steps and leveled his weapon at the doorway. Randall wondered to himself if he really could kill a man.
“Dana, you step back into the hall. I’m going to have to blow this hatch.” Dana stepped back without comment. Dane took out a small cube charge of C-4 explosive and rolled it between his hands to make a “snake”. He stepped back up the stairs and carefully ran the “snake” of C-4 around the inside of the hatch. He jammed a detonator into the explosive and pulled the O-ring on the fuse. Bounding down the steps, he grabbed Dana and stepped back down the hall. There was a loud bang and immediately another alarm went off, this time a high-pitched siren. Also two red LED lights began flashing in the hall. Dane released Dana and ran around the corner, looked up and saw jungle! They were free!
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
Hugo felt the blast almost before he heard it. The huge room housing the power station vibrated as if there was an earthquake. Within seconds, alarms were going off everywhere.
He wondered what the hell happened. The rumble had to be an explosion. He hoped it meant Dane had Dana and Randall and they were attempting their escape. Several technicians were running from machine to machine and checking dials on the equipment below. From where he stood on the gantry above, he could see the excitement and the large probe-like cylinder, the heart of the power station. It seemed to go down forever. That was the key, he thought. Blow up the central core and that should do the job of blacking out the station.
Hugo moved deliberately further to his right, down two flights of stairs and onto the main station base level. He did not run to not call attention to himself. There were only a handful of personnel on the floor. None seemed interested in him since he carried a shouldered weapon and was merely walking. They were either scared to death that something was going to go wrong down here and cause a disaster or they just didn’t see him with their focused work on the machines.
He decided he could take advantage of this chaos. He walked over to the side of the room. He planned to move around the perimeter, get to the core itself and set his charges. He stopped beside two huge pipes coming through the floor and checked his satchel. Great! He had two one-pound blocks of C-4 and a couple of detonators. Now all he had to do was get to the core.
He scanned the room and saw a bank of generators and control systems in a row slightly to his right. The line extended out to within ten feet of the core. He surveyed the personnel in the area. He could only see two technicians, both working furiously on something. He planned to walk right past them, hoping they would not notice him.
Hugo removed his vest and laid his satchel down on the floor. He doffed gear he did not need to use to escape. Pushing the gear behind the piping, Hugo knelt down and pushed a detonator into each block of explosive. This was not the prescribed way to handle C-4 but it would have to do. Normal ops would have been to place the explosives, then arm the package with the detonators. But he wanted to get everything ready before standing out in the open setting charges.
He completed the rigging of the two C-4 packages, each with a small timer. He set both timers to forty-five minutes. He checked them again, quickly. He had forty-five minutes to get the hell out of there. All he had to do now was get across the room, slide up beside the core cylinder and place the charges. Then he would get out of there fast.
The blaring of the alarm was endless. Hugo wondered why someone had not turned the damn thing off. But on the other hand, the alarm was causing such a chaotic effect, most everyone would not even pay attention to just one man moving through the equipment.
Hugo shouldered his weapon, picked up his two packages and took one last look around. There were no technicians in sight. He stood and hurried out behind the generators. He stopped and looked again. There was no one stirring around the core. He quickly ran behind the systems cabinets and right up to the core cylinder. There was a pulsating sound coming from it. He reached out and felt heat coming from below the floor. Scanning the area again, he knelt beside the core and placed one charge on one side and another on the other side of the huge cylinder. He pressed the timer switches and the timers began. He checked around the room again. There was only one technician over by the wall more than twenty-five feet away. He had his back to Hugo.
Hugo sprinted back behind the cabinets and past the row of generators all the way back to the wall. It only took him a few seconds to backtrack to the stairway and gallop up two floors. He pulled his weapon from his shoulder, set the safety off and took one last look at the power house. He pressed his shoulder against the door and ran down the hall. All he could think of was getting the hell out of there. He decided to try to get out through the motor pool, which was several floors up on the back side of the hangar deck. Hugo had no idea the mess Dane had left him on the hangar deck.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
As the small group entered the jungle, Dane could hear gunshots far off to his left. It must be Ben and his group.
“Bravo, this is Delta, status.”
There was a long pause. Finally Ben answered.
“Delta, Bravo here. Basically clear. What is your status?”
“Bravo, we are clear. Heading toward rendezvous point Mike, repeat, clear, heading toward rendezvous point Mike. Acknowledge.”
“Delta, acknowledge, meet you at Mike.”
“Well, that may be the best news yet,” smiled Dane as the group knelt in a small grove of bushes. “Ben and his group are okay and will move toward our rendezvous point.” Dane looked at his watch. It was 10:30 a.m. He pulled out a small map and a compass. Leaning his weapon against a tree beside him, he knelt on one knee and used the other knee as a small surface to place the map and compass to take a reading. He looked up. “We need to go this way,” he said, pointing to the southwest. “Keep your heads down and stay quiet. We are not out of this yet. This jungle is crawling with Germans. They know we are somewhere out here and they will do anything they can to keep us from getting away. Stay close and we will move out.”
Dana and Randall nodded in agreement and followed Dane into the jungle. Dane thought it best they avoid established trails, which slowed the group to a crawl. But since the Germans were patrolling the trails, this route was much safer.
Dana thought it was good to hear the sounds of the birds and insects. Surprisingly she missed that banter while she and Randall were held below ground. Being outside again gave her an ecstatic feeling of freedom. She even relished the heat, humidity and the smells. She turned to Randall and smiled. She admired him so much. Throughout this ordeal he remained upbeat and did what he could to protect her.
Her thoughts went back to Maas for a second. She quickly banished them from her mind. That pig would have killed Randall, raped her to death; a horrible death. Screw him.
Before this trip, she had never seen a man die. But she was glad she watched Maas die. Even though it was a violent, horrible sight, she was glad he was dead. She hoped he rotted in Hell.
Randall was holding up well after his encounter with the guards not an hour ago. She started to ask how he was but remembered that Dane said no talking. She refocused her mind toward getting through the jungle.
After sliding through the jungle for about thirty minutes, Dane brought them all to a halt. “We are not far from our rendezvous point.” There was a shot in the distance. They all turned toward the noise, wondering if it was Ben and his team. Then there was a slight stirring sound from slightly ahead. Dane motioned to the group to get down and under cover. Dana and Randall dropped and rolled under a low fern.