He was pressed up against the wall a few feet away from the door. If anyone came through, he would have a clear shot.
The door opened slightly, and a second later Jakes slipped into the room. Carter almost shot him before he realized who it was. A moment later Haikkinen came in.
Jakes had started to turn when he saw Carter crouched against the wall.
"Christ," he whispered.
Carter got up. Both men had gotten rid of their scuba gear. Jakes was armed with a.45 automatic, as was Haikkinen. They had not planned on surfacing, so had not brought anything other than handguns with them.
"What the hell are you doing here, Jakes?"
"I might ask you the same, sir. But I think I know."
"Then get the hell out of here."
"We're in this together, sir," Haikkinen said. "Besides, I 'd just as soon place the charges. I think I might be able to do a better job."
Carter handed over the satchel, then looked at his watch. It was a little past 12:30. They had less than twenty minutes to finish here and get away before the charges on the sub went off.
"Along the west side of the dock there's a catwalk that leads to the outside. There's a guard there… I saw only one, but there may be others. There's a path up the cliff face. From there you can get inland and back to the west to the beach."
Jakes and Haikkinen both nodded. Carter turned and hurried across the room to a door set between two equipment consoles.
Before he eased the door open, he stuck his Luger into the waistband of his wet suit and pulled out his stiletto and a small gas bomb.
A soldier stood just on the other side. Carter eased the door closed, motioned for Jakes and Haikkinen to stand aside, then knocked on the door.
A moment later it opened, and the soldier looked at Carter, startled. Carter grabbed the man and pulled him through, burying the stiletto to its haft between his ribs on his left side, then slashing left and right.
The soldier never uttered a sound as he collapsed, blood gushing from his side.
Haikkinen pulled him aside and stuffed his body behind one of the equipment consoles as Carter again opened the door. On the other side was a wide balcony than overlooked a vast, equipment-filled cavern. Dozens of technicians were seated at electronic consoles, talking on microphones, adjusting controls, taking measurements from radar screens, or marking tracks on a number of transparent plotting boards. It was very reminiscent of the NASA control center at Houston.
He eased back and closed the door.
"No way in?" Jakes asked.
Carter shook his head. "It's a balcony that overlooks a big control center." He motioned for Haikkinen to take a look.
"What do you want to do?" Jakes asked.
"We'd never get down there undetected," Carter said.
Haikkinen closed the door. He looked rattled. "That's a major operation down there. This has to be one of their bigger bases outside their own country."
Carter looked at his watch again. They were coming up on fifteen minutes. "Can you rig the satchel to blow in fifteen or twenty seconds?"
Haikkinen shook his head. "Wouldn't give us much time to place it and then get away…" he began, but then he stopped, understanding dawning in his eyes.
"What?" Jakes asked.
The charges on the sub are set to go off in less than fifteen minutes," Carter explained. "We'll set this satchel for fifteen seconds, open the door, lob it in the middle of the room, and then get the hell out of here. By the time they get it all sorted out and try to get the sub out of here, those charges will blow."
"It's your ball game, sir. But it sounds good to me," Jakes said.
Haikkinen was crouched on the floor next to the open satchel adjusting something inside.
It only took him a second or two, and when he was finished he closed the satchel and stood up. A single bare wire stuck out from the flap on each side.
"Connect the wires and we have twenty seconds," Haikkinen said.
Carter sheathed his stiletto, stuffed the gas bomb into his waistband, then pulled out his Luger.
He looked at his watch. Thirteen and a half minutes to go. He took the satchel from Haikkinen.
"You get the door," he said to Jakes.
Jakes nodded and stepped to the door.
Carter turned to Haikkinen. "Ready?"
The young man nodded.
"Do it," Carter said.
Haikkinen quickly connected the wires. Jakes started to open the door when someone burst into the room from the outer balcony.
Carter spun around, bringing up his Luger, as two crewmen from the Chinese sub came in. He fired twice, hitting them both. Then he spun back.
"Now!" he shouted.
Jakes yanked open the door, and Carter stepped onto the balcony, heads below turning up to him. Someone was shouting something. And a siren began to wail as he swung the heavy satchel over his head and let it go, the bag arcing high out over the room.
He turned and raced back to the operations room. Jakes and Haikkinen were at the outer door, firing down toward the sub.
Carter pulled out his gas bomb, thumbed the trigger, and tossed it over Jakes's shoulder, out the open door, and down onto the dock.
The gas was effective immediately.
Haikkinen fired another shot, and all three of them scrambled out the door, along the balcony, and down the stairs.
Halfway down, a tremendous explosion shook the entire hillside, partially collapsing the balcony above them, sending shards of glass blowing straight out across the water, and bringing rocks and dirt down from the ceiling.
Crewmen were scrambling out of the submarine as Haikkinen and Jakes hit the dock, and they opened fire.
Haikkinen went down, the back of his head blown off, and Jakes was slammed to the left over a pile of boulders.
Carter, still on the stairs, dropped to a half crouch and fired four shots in quick succession, hitting at least three of the crewmen. The others ducked back into the boat.
Carter leaped down the last couple of stairs, grabbed Jakes's arm, and pulled him to his feet.
"Arte!" Jakes shouted.
"He's dead," Carter said, racing as fast as he could with Jakes down the dock and up onto the catwalk.
Several more shots were fired at them from the sub, but Carter kept going.
The catwalk ended at a thick metal door in the rock wall above the water. Just as they reached the door, it opened.
Carter raised his Luger and fired point-blank into the face of the guard who had been standing outside when they had swum in.
The guard was thrown backward by the force of the 9mm slug hitting his cheek just below his left eye.
His legs were still twitching as Carter dragged Jakes over his body and along the catwalk.
Halfway along the catwalk, the wind and blowing water funneling into the cavern, a shot ricocheted off the walkway. A moment later, as Carter turned back with his own gun, two shots thudded into Jakes's body.
Carter fired three shots in quick succession, and then the firing pin snapped on an empty chamber.
He raced the rest of the way down the catwalk and around the corner beneath the overhang, where he laid Jakes down. He pulled out another clip and reloaded the Luger, then bent down to check on Jakes.
The man was dead. He had taken two rounds in his back. One had evidently penetrated a lung, the other had pierced his heart.
Carter looked at his watch. He had nine minutes before the other two charges attached to the sub went off.
Someone was on the path above!
Carter ducked around the overhang in time to see a half-dozen Chinese men hurrying down the path.
He stepped out into the open and fired four shots in rapid succession up the path.
At least three of the soldiers went down.
Carter ducked back. They would pin him down here until it was too late.
"Sorry, Paul," Carter said, looking down at Jakes's body. He pushed the dead seaman over the edge, then shoved his Luger into his waistband and jumped into the channel.