Everett watched Jack sprint forward without seeking cover. He had brought up the M-16 when he saw two of the Mechanic’s men pop up only thirty feet from Collins. Before Carl could respond to the threat, several rounds echoed close by his right ear. He flinched and saw the two men fly backward as two expertly placed rounds slammed into their heads and faces. That was when Tram slammed into him from behind and took up a covering position next to him. They both started laying heavy gunfire on the upper reaches of the ridge as Jack started climbing rapidly toward the forty-foot summit. Everett reloaded and saw Jack reach for his shoulder holster as he approached a position where Everett could see several heads pop up and then disappear.
“Damn you, Jack. You’ve pulled this crap once too many times!” Everett said as he fired a three-round burst in a timed manner and hit one of the heads that had reappeared.
Tram looked to his left and nodded at the former Navy SEAL.
“I have my moments,” Carl said, and aimed and fired again.
The Vietnamese private reached out and slapped Everett’s arm. He was pointing upward at the position where he saw Jack running. That was when Carl saw why Jack was taking the chance that he was. He had seen earlier what he thought was men changing their cover positions, when in actuality he was seeing men relaying mortar rounds to the soldiers firing them. That was where Jack was heading at full speed. Everett realized that not only could he take out the mortar crew, but he could turn the heavy weapon on the monstrosities that were attacking them. That was their only hope and Jack was out to kill two birds with one stone.
“Can you handle things here? I think the colonel needs help,” he called to Tram, who only nodded his head and fired twice more with the M-14.
Everett stood and looked for the briefest of moments as the second mechanical robot reached the far firing line of Japanese, Polish, and Australian soldiers. It was at that moment that the men scattered to create more targets for the beast, as it struck their defensive position. All semblance of a fight between them and the terrorist element had vanished as they took on two nightmares from another time and place. Several men tossed hand grenades over their shoulders as they sprinted ahead of the mechanicians.
Everett turned and sprinted after Jack.
Collins pulled his nine-millimeter and hit two men as they rose to shoot at him. He had caught them by surprise and his bullets struck both in the chest.
As Everett watched, his vision bouncing as bad as his feet over the rough rise of stone, he saw one of the men rise once more and fire at Collins’s back. He saw Jack stagger and go down.
“Shit!” Everett said, as a round from Tram struck the badly wounded man and dropped him. But the saving shot had come too late for Jack. Everett saw another man rise up where Collins had disappeared after hitting the rocks. Carl fired from the hips and then several more rounds from Tram struck the terrorist simultaneously, dropping him cold.
Carl saw Jack rise once more, stagger forward and then fall. For Everett, all semblance of reality was vanishing fast as he realized Jack was done for.
Niles rubbed a hand over his balding head. He had just returned from outside, where he had witnessed the new problem they were facing-he had nearly frozen at the site of the mechanical giants that were now chasing, catching, and killing the men defending the gallery. He knew these weren’t a technology of Earth origin, so he had to believe they had been left here to either kill the ancient travelers, or they had been left here by those same Visitors, though for what reason Niles didn’t know.
Appleby slammed his hand down on the alien weapons in the vise grips. He was frustrated when they couldn’t get the coolant tube to open. As he grew more and more frustrated, it was nothing compared to what Pete, Dubois, and Ellenshaw were feeling as they tried desperately to figure out where McCabe and possibly the Germans had failed in making one of the weapons operational.
“Look, I’m telling you based on the damaged weapons we’ve seen in here that they all overheated, so it must be the liquid hydrogen they were using. Either it was not enough, or our coolant just doesn’t work with their technology,” Dubois said as he looked angrily at Ellenshaw and Golding.
“I can’t believe that. No matter where these beings came from, the liquid nitrogen would still be on their periodic table. It would be just as cold on their world as ours. It’s not the coolant but the mineral!” Ellenshaw said forcibly, as Pete nodded his head in agreement.
“You’re a freaking cryptozoologist,” the MIT professor said to Charlie. He turned and glared at Pete. “And you’re a computer expert. I think I know who has a degree of confidence here when it comes to physics, and it’s not you two. The coolant is failing!”
“Oh, so we’re tossing degrees in everyone’s face now,” Ellenshaw said as he took a menacing step toward the much smaller Dubois. Pete stepped between the two men and adjusted his glasses.
“May I remind you two that we have men dying out there?”
Charlie nodded and angrily turned away.
“Look, I agree with Charlie here. If you look in the power pack-” Pete held up the large magazine-like power source for the light weapon. “-you can see that McCabe and his scientists, and possibly the Germans also, ground up the mineral, particulate matter and all. Look here. See that? It was so hot that heat turned it to solid carbon. We have to break the mineral down into its base form, separating the energy source.” This time Golding held up a small meteorite that had been stored inside a large airtight container. “This strange metal here, see the gold and silverish flecks? We have to break that free from the particulate matter. That way the carbon won’t overheat the energy pack, causing the nitrogen not to work. It’s our only chance.”
“How do you suggest we mill it in time? As you said, we have men dying out there,” Dubois countered.
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Ellenshaw said. He snatched the small meteorite from Pete’s hand and ran to the worktable. He rummaged through the mess of tools there and found what he was looking for. “You guys at MIT spend too damn much time in the lab. You need to get out more,” he said as he brought a hammer high into the air and smashed it down on the meteorite. The small rock shattered. Pete started scrambling on the floor to pick up some of the loose debris. Charlie brought the hammer up again and smashed down with all his strength.
“Okay, I see your point,” Dubois said. He too started picking up the metal as it was freed from the rock. “We don’t have time to chip away the rest of the particulate.”
“It doesn’t matter, as long as the percentage of heavy metal is far greater than the percentage of rock. That will allow the nitrogen to cool it better and create the chain reaction. The only problem is, in order to discharge the energy buildup, we have to continuously fire the damn thing or it will blow. That’s what we don’t have the time to figure out,” Ellenshaw said. He grabbed another meteorite and started slamming the hammer into it.
“I think I’d better get out of the lab more often,” the MIT professor said.
Niles finally found the access tube for the liquid nitrogen.
“The nitrogen works in two different ways with this weapon,” he said. “It’s introduced into the power pack as the liquid active agent, and this little induction pump here forces oxygen, or air, into the magazine, thus creating the chain reaction we witnessed on the Moon. Once the buildup is achieved, we only have… hell, I don’t know how long we have, but we had better target something and shoot, or the damn thing will blow up in our hands.”
“I see,” Appleby said, finally calming down as the noise of Charlie’s hammering echoed inside the blockhouse.
“Or I should say Charlie has only so long to discharge the weapon,” Niles finished.
Ellenshaw stopped a hammer blow in midair and looked at Niles with a questioning look on his face.