Dane didn’t bother answering.
“But the equipment,” Freed said. “The images they caught.”
Dane pushed Freed out of the way. “We have to keep moving. We can’t stand still.”
“Why?”
Dane just shook his head. He reached out with his mind for Sin Fen, but there was no answer. He felt her absence, like a blank spot in his mind.
Dane moved into the jungle. The sound of the stream behind them faded. The mist was thick, but Dane could sense lighter areas, and using that sense he picked his path. He knew Flaherty was ahead of them somewhere, in the vicinity of the area they had been directed to. He couldn’t ‘hear’ Flaherty like he had been able to contact Sin Fen, but he could feel the presence of his old friend, like a distant torch on the edge of his consciousness. And the way that torch was flickering told Dane that the explosion had been the Lady Gayle being destroyed and that the people who had survived the crash were heading in the same direction. He also sensed that if he stayed to the lighter areas they would be safe, that the creatures of the mist would not find them. Somehow Flaherty was helping them, keeping them safe from the dangers inside the Gate. For a little while at least.
Dane paused, hearing the breathing and muted sound of weapons and equipment jangling behind him. He peered ahead. He felt the fear, just as he had the first time he had been in the Angkor Gate, but he could control it, just like he had been able to on cross-border missions before that last one. He didn’t know what was behind the threat he faced, but he knew there was a threat and he had a good idea of the nature of it from his previous experience. And Flaherty was out there.
Dane moved on, the others following.
“It’s changed,” Jimmy said.
“The pattern?” Conners asked. She felt a pulse of adrenaline flow through her tired veins. It had been a while since Thunder Dart had taken out the MILSTARS satellite, but perhaps it had taken that long for the effect to be felt.
“No, the source.” Jimmy swung his laptop around so she could see. “There was a momentary flicker, like the power got interrupted, and now it’s back but the flow is different. Close, but different.” Jimmy tapped the screen. “See how these lines have shifted?”
Actually, Conners couldn’t, but she nodded anyway.
“That means the source of the radiation and electromagnetic fluxes has moved. Not much. Maybe about seven or eight kilometers.”
“Will it change the rate of propagation?”
“No.”
“The strength?”
“No.”
“Great.” Conners picked up the phone. “I’ll inform Foreman.”
The AH-1 Cobra gunship had Cambodian Air Force markings painted on the side. It was a relic from the Vietnam War, appropriated from the Vietnamese Army when it had invaded Cambodia years ago and kept flying by cannibalization of other AH-1s that had been shot down or abandoned when the Vietnamese pulled out.
The Hie-Tech camp consisted of four tents surrounding a small open field on which sat a Russian Hind-D helicopter.
The AH-1 came in low and fast, the 7.62mm minigun in the nose firing as soon as it cleared the tree line. 2.5 inch rockets followed, blasting the Hind into tiny pieces. The pilot of the Cobra came to a hover and continued firing, chasing the survivors into the cover of the jungle and thoroughly destroying the camp.
Michelet’s revenge was complete.
Ariana could hear movement around them, but nothing that sounded as large as the snake. They were moving steadily downhill. Ariana kept them on track by picking a tree as far as she could see into the fog and heading toward, then picking another one. Her compass was spinning wildly but according to the map, downhill was the way to go.
Ariana pushed aside a large hanging growth and paused as the hair on the back of her neck stood up. “What the hell!” she heard Ingram exclaim.
A large plane was set vertically into the ground, tail first, looming like a large cross over the path they were following except that the wings were swept back, almost touching the ground themselves. The nose of the plane disappeared into the mist, about a hundred and forty feet above them. The edge of the massive tail disappeared into the jungle floor. The flat gray paint was marred with lines of rust showing through and plants had woven their way around the metal skin. It was obvious the plane had been there for a while.
“It’s a B-52 bomber,” Carpenter said.
“How did it get like that?” Ingram wondered out loud.
“Same way we landed with no wings and lived to talk about it,” Ariana said.
“The engines are gone,” Carpenter said. Ariana looked up. Where the engines had been on the wings, the metal had been neatly cut. She looked down. No sign of the engines below the wings. Whatever had cut the engines off had also taken them.
“The bomb bay is open,” Carpenter noted.
Ariana shook her head. “Let’s keep going.”
“I’m not going any further,” Hudson said. “We’re screwed. We’re really screwed. This isn’t the way out of this place. This is the way in.”
“In to what?” Ingram asked.
“I don’t know and I don’t want to know.” Hudson pointed up at the plane. “That’s a warning. I’m not going in there. I say let’s go the other way and get out of here.”
“You don’t have a say,” Ariana reminded him.
“The hell I don’t,” Hudson yelled. “I get a say about where I go. And I’m not going any further. I’ll just wait right here until you come back.”
“We might not be coming back this way,” Ingram said.
Ariana stared at Hudson for a long moment. She could still hear movement in the jungle around them. “All right.” She turned to the others. “Let’s go.”
“You can’t-” Ingram began Ariana chopped her hand through the air.
“Like he said, it’s his decision. I’m not responsible for him. When he took Hie-Tech’s money that ceased. And he killed Mansor by allowing him to go out there when he had a SATCOM dish the entire time. I don’t give a damn about him any more” She turned. “Let’s move.”
They walked forward and passed underneath one 85 foot wing, Ariana and Carpenter facing forward, Ingram looking over his shoulder until Hudson and the B-52 disappeared from sight.
“It’s a damn graveyard!” McKenzie hissed. The Canadian’s face was pale, his eyes wide as he took in what lay across their route of march.
Dane didn’t say anything. His mind was racing beyond, sensing how close Flaherty was. And where his old teammate was, he knew there would be answers.
But even Freed appeared shaken. They were at the mouth of a narrow ravine. A small creek ran down the center of the draw, passing them, heading toward the large stream they had crossed earlier. But what caught the attention of Freed and the other’s were the skeletons littering the draw, a veritable carpet of shattered white bone.
“This has to be hundreds of people,” McKenzie said. “And look at the weapons.”
There were numerous AK-47s scattered among the bones, the black of the metal contrasting vividly against the white bones.
“A battalion,” Freed said.
“A battalion?” McKenzie repeated.
“A Khmer Rouge battalion disappeared in this area and was never heard of again,” Freed amplified his statement.
“What wiped them out?” McKenzie wondered. He bent down and picked up an AK-47. With his other hand he picked up a fistful of expended brass. “They fought, fought hard.” McKenzie looked around, as if expecting something to come out of the mist and trees.
“We can’t do anything here,” Dane said. “Let’s keep going.”