‘I agree too.’
Ethan turned in surprise as Kip Wren limped toward them, using his rifle as a cane. His right thigh was bandaged with a makeshift tourniquet.
‘You’re in no condition to be standin’,’ Ellison said.
‘Well I am standin’,’ Kip Wren replied. ‘But I’m all played out, and I don’t intend to spend my last sweet seconds sitting on my ass back there. You ever remember that old sayin’ we used to live by during the war when we din’ know if we’d ever see our homes and families agin?’
When none of the soldiers replied, Kip Wren spoke for them.
‘The greatest act of courage a man can make is the surrenderin’ of his own life for others, when nobody will ever know of his sacrifice.’
Ethan felt a rush of emotion as he heard the words, thought of countless comrades in the Marines and in other units who had served and died to protect democracy and the way of life that he and so many millions of others cherished. Through the world wars and countless other conflicts, souls far too young to die had sacrificed themselves upon the altar of freedom for the benefit of generations they would never meet. Ethan wondered briefly just how many heroes had anonymously given their lives throughout the history of mankind, their courage lost in time.
A sound from Misery Hole caught his attention, and he saw dozens of black-suited soldiers drop into the floor of the chasm and dash for cover behind rocks and fallen branches around the mouth of Lechuguilla Cave. Ethan and his companions crouched down behind cover as they watched Lillian Cruz being manhandled by the soldiers nearby, and the white-suited Jeb Oppenheimer appear at the bottom of the ladder, protected by an honor guard of his men. Ellison Thorne watched the gathering troops for a long moment, struggling between the desire to live and the altruism that Ethan suspected ran strongly through his veins. The big man finally sighed and looked at Kip Wren.
‘What d’you propose?’ he asked. ‘That we bring the whole damned cavern down on top of ourselves?’
Kip Wren grinned against the pain wracking his body, and from his pocket produced a stick of dynamite that looked almost as old as he did.
‘I’ve got me an idea, and I think you’ll like it.’
67
‘We want to make an exchange!’
Jeb Oppenheimer heard the sound of Ellison Thorne’s voice boom out of Lechuguilla Cave as though a god of the underworld were addressing him. He peered down at the darkened, ragged cavern entrance, unable to see where the big man was hiding. The entrance was littered with the bodies of eleven men, some writhing in delirium or agony, others motionless.
‘Of what?’ Oppenheimer called.
‘One of my men for your hostage!’ Oppenheimer looked at Hoffman, who frowned.
‘One of them was injured,’ he said. ‘I’m damned sure I got him in the leg before they ran into that cave.’
Oppenheimer cleared his throat and shouted his reply. ‘I don’t want tainted goods!’
Ellison Thorne’s reply thundered back from within the cave.
‘Your men can’t shoot for shit, Oppenheimer! He’s got a minor wound to his leg, nothing more, but he needs attention. We’ll send him up to you for treatment, you send us the woman. Everybody wins.’
Oppenheimer heard Hoffman speaking from behind him.
‘Can’t hurt, and it gets us what we want real easy.’
Oppenheimer peered at Hoffman.
‘If something looks too good to be true,’ he growled, ‘then it probably is. Their man is most likely mortally wounded and they’re looking to buy us off long enough to escape.’
Hoffman appeared to consider this for a moment and then chuckled.
‘Well, we can’t storm their little hidey-hole there without incurring too many casualties, so I say we let them send their man up. We send this woman of yours down, and then besiege them just the same. We win, both ways.’
Oppenheimer nodded.
‘For once, I’m in complete agreement with you,’ he said, looking back at Lillian Cruz where she knelt just out of sight behind them. ‘Bind and gag her so she can’t warn them, then arrange the exchange. We’ll fetch her back as soon as we’re ready.’
‘Looks like they’re goin’ forrit,’ Nathaniel McQuire said.
Ellison Thorne snorted in the half darkness.
‘The hell they are,’ he rumbled. ‘That Oppenheimer’s as slippery as a rattlesnake and no less deadly. He’ll mean to kill us all, one way or another.’
Ethan watched as Kip Wren concealed his dynamite stick up his sleeve and took a cigarette lighter from Nathaniel McQuire.
‘You sure about this?’ he asked the soldier, whose breath was labored and his brow sprinkled with sweat.
‘I am,’ Kip replied, ‘I can’t lose: either I die here or I die up there. But be quick about it. I ain’t certain how long I’ll be able to stand.’
Ellison Thorne looked down at Kip.
‘Once you’re up there, light it fast and get a hold of Oppenheimer just as tight as you can,’ he advised him. ‘This thing’ll smoke like all hell once it’s lit, and they’ll try to get it off you.’
Lopez frowned.
‘What if they shoot him before it goes off?’ she asked.
‘Then Oppenheimer will definitely die,’ Ethan said. ‘Kip’s body will seize and they’ll never get him off the old bastard in time.’
Kip nodded, his teeth gritted in an awkward smile.
‘Damn straight,’ he said. ‘Then this will all be over.’
A voice drifted down to them from beyond the cave entrance.
‘We’re ready, bring him out!’
Ethan watched as, with surprising care, Ellison Thorne mopped the sweat from Kip Wren’s face and brow. Kip drank from Copthorne’s water bottle before turning to Ellison. The two men stared at each other for a long beat, and Ethan realized that they were parting company for the first time in a hundred forty years.
Kip Wren, leaning on his rifle, held out his hand to Ellison. The big man took it, and then stepped in and briefly embraced his old comrade for a few moments before releasing him.
‘As you were, Corporal,’ he said finally, his gravelly voice taut.
Kip Wren saluted once, and then began limping away toward the light.
Ethan and Lopez followed, seeing Oppenheimer’s soldiers arranged behind rocks near the entrance, their rifles aimed at the old soldier limping toward them. Kip Wren, mastering his pain, strode out into the cavern.
Ethan watched as Lillian Cruz, bound and gagged, was prodded toward the cave by two men carrying assault rifles. Carefully she descended toward them, her eyes fixed on the cave ahead and the old man making his way up toward her. The two glanced at each other as they passed, before Lillian reached the mouth of the cave, hesitated and looked back over her shoulder. Kip Wren strode toward their enemy, visibly favoring his left leg but valiantly reaching the spot where Oppenheimer crouched.
‘Do it,’ Copthorne whispered from behind gritted teeth, ‘do it now, Kip.’
Ethan shifted his position and edged forward as Lillian Cruz stepped cautiously into the depths of the cavern.
‘I’ve waited a very long time for this,’ Oppenheimer said, looking at Kip Wren as though he were studying a work of art.
‘Not as long as I have,’ Wren replied, one hand closed around his cigarette lighter, the other holding the dynamite stick out of sight up his sleeve. Shafts of light shimmered down through the veils of cordite smoke swirling above their heads, the smell of blood and of scorched flesh staining the air.
‘I assure you that you will not be harmed,’ Oppenheimer promised. ‘I’ve already realized that you’re no good to me dead.’
Kip Wren peered at Oppenheimer.
‘What are your intentions?’
‘To study you,’ Oppenheimer said. ‘To discover what makes you biologically immortal, and use it to enhance the quality of the human race, the better for all mankind.’
‘The better for you and your ilk, Oppenheimer,’ Kip corrected him. ‘You’re in this for yourself, not for anybody else, and always have been.’
Oppenheimer gave a brief shrug.
‘The world’s full of winners and losers, the haves and the have-nots,’ he replied with a cold smile. ‘I’m just going to ensure that the losers are bred out of existence, leaving only the haves and the have-mores.’
Kip Wren felt a surge of hatred mix violently with the pain seething through his body, and with a cry of vengeance that echoed through the chamber he lunged forward and grabbed Oppenheimer with both arms, whirling him around as he pulled the old man against his chest. His hands met across Oppenheimer’s waist, the dynamite stick and the cigarette lighter clear for the mercenaries to see.
‘Stand down!’ Kip Wren shouted. ‘Or I’ll blow this bastard sky-high!’
Oppenheimer squirmed in panic as he struggled to free himself from Kip Wren’s grip, his rheumy eyes fixed on the explosive held against his belly. Five soldiers rushed in to try and prize him off even as Oppenheimer shouted at them.
‘Get back!’
Hoffman waved frantically at his soldiers.
‘Don’t shoot! We need him alive!’
Kip watched as the mercenaries fell back, then turned to look over his shoulder. Lillian Cruz was already in the shadows of Lechuguilla Cave, almost out of sight.
‘Come on out, Ellison!’ Kip yelled with a maniacal chuckle. ‘I got ’em surrounded!’
He was about to manhandle Jeb Oppenheimer toward the ladder when a voice yelled out at him.
‘No!’