“I think this is a bad idea, man. There’s got to be another way.”
Sean ignored his friend’s protests and inched his way out from behind the bushes. The truck’s brakes squealed, slowing it as it arrived at the entrance. The cab passed underneath. Now or never, Sean thought.
He jumped over the edge, hit the back of the canvas top, and nearly rolled over the edge. His fingers grabbed at the edge of the fabric roof and squeezed. The muscles in his forearms tensed as his legs flew over the side and onto the back bumper of the truck.
Tommy leaned out over the tunnel lip and looked down to make sure his friend hadn’t hit the ground. To his surprise, the guard was still standing there, looking out at the gravel road. And there was no sign of Sean. The only problem was, Tommy didn’t know how he was going to get down.
Suddenly an arm wrapped around the guard’s neck from behind. The man struggled for a moment, dropping his weapon in a vain attempt to pry the threat away from his throat. His fight only lasted thirty seconds before he started to give in to unconsciousness. His arms flailed for a few seconds more until the body went completely limp.
Sean dragged the guard over to a huge bush off to the side and hid the body from sight then reappeared a moment later holding the man’s assault rifle. He raised it for Tommy to see and then motioned at a little path on the side of the entrance that led down to the ground.
Another truck’s engine groaned, and Tommy ducked back into his hiding place. He swallowed and watched the truck leaving the cave. When it reached the curve, Tommy crept back out of his spot and over to the steep path.
Once he was on the ground, Sean handed him the guard’s weapon. “Be careful with that. If you keep your finger on the trigger, it will ride up pretty hard. Not to mention it’s one of the loudest guns you’ll ever shoot. So only use it if you’re ready to have a little ringing in your ears for the next few days.”
“Thanks. I’ve actually shot one of these before. Back when… ”
“Get down,” Sean said and shoved his friend back behind the bush.
Tommy tripped and fell on top of the guard, their faces just inches away from each other. Sean dove next to him and waited.
Another truck came into view and rolled past them into the cave.
“Is this guy dead?” Tommy asked. He was too afraid to move but desperately wanted to get away from what might be a corpse.
“Possibly,” Sean said. “I didn’t bother checking. I just know he won’t be getting up for a while.”
“And by a while you mean, like, forever?”
Sean rolled his shoulders. “Not sure. We need to go. Come on.”
He stood up and trotted over to the entrance with his pistol at the ready. He stopped at the corner and peeked inside. Lights hung along the sides of the walls, dimly illuminating the interior. A path ran along side the road — Sean assumed for guards or other workers to move in and out of the cave.
Tommy joined him at the entrance. “What’s the plan? Storm the cave, take the missiles, that sort of craziness? Because I have to say, I don’t like our chances.”
“Hopefully we won’t have to fire a single shot. We need to find out where those trucks are going, not start a small war. Get in and out as fast and as quietly as possible.”
“So pretty much the opposite of what we did back at Toli’s fortress.”
“Right.”
Sean turned into the tunnel and ran down the side, keeping close to the wall. He chased the red tail lights of the last truck that passed, trying to keep pace. Tommy had trouble keeping up but pushed himself to stay right behind.
Up ahead, two bright orbs appeared on the other side of the narrow road. Another truck was heading toward the front of the cave. Sean had noticed little recessions cut into the rock every thirty feet or so. Now he realized what their purpose. If a person was walking along the road and two trucks met at the same place, they could get crushed into the wall.
The grooves were cut deep enough for three average-sized people to squeeze.
“Quick, in there,” Sean said as he looked back at his friend. He ducked into the little alcove.
Tommy had just passed one of the cavities and had to turn around to get to it, but he jumped out of sight just before the two trucks passed each other. A few moments later, the exiting truck rolled by.
Sean kept his back pressed into the stone, hoping the driver didn’t look to his side. The tunnel wasn’t well lit, and the little recessions were somewhat shaded. Still, he wasn’t sure they were in the clear until he saw the truck reach the mouth of the cave and continue beyond. Satisfied the driver hadn’t noticed them, Sean and Tommy stepped out onto the narrow walkway and pressed deeper into the tunnel.
They didn’t have to go far before the corridor started to brighten. Along with more and more light came an increase in noise. Sounds of trucks, machinery, and men yelling echoed off the walls. The two friends hurried around a bend in the road, and as they came around the turn, saw where all the noise was coming from.
Forklifts were busily rolling from one point to another, carrying wooden crates to four trucks parked in a loading area. The crates were a spot-on match to the ones found at Toli’s compound.
A man climbed up into the cab of a truck on the far left. A moment later, he pulled out of the loading bay and onto the road leading out of the tunnel. Sean and Tommy were in the open, and there were no more recessions in the wall for them to use. If the driver saw them, he’d alert everyone in the cave. And the two Americans would be trapped.
Sean broke out at a dead sprint toward two forklifts that were parked against the wall directly ahead. He didn’t need to tell Tommy to hurry. He pumped his legs as hard as he could to keep up. The truck stopped suddenly, and for a moment Sean thought they’d been spotted.
His shoes skidded to a stop behind the forklifts. Tommy nearly ran over him as he reached the hiding spot.
Sean peeked around the back end of the machine and saw the reason the truck driver stopped. One of the other workers had flagged him down. The man ran up to the driver’s side door and held up a piece of paper. The driver reached down and took it before resuming his exit.
“That was close,” Tommy said while panting for air.
“Yeah. I thought he saw us for sure. We were lucky.”
Tommy watched as the truck rumbled by and around the bend in the tunnel. When it was gone, he turned back to Sean. “I’m not seeing any more trucks coming in.” Then he looked around at the giant room. “What is this place? An old mine of some kind?”
“Most likely. The original use couldn’t have been for storing illegal weapons. Plus from the looks of it, all of this was done decades ago.”
The tunnel opened into one massive cavern. Scaffolding rose almost to the ceiling in a few corners of the room where floodlights shined down on the work area. Metal catwalks lined the walls and crossed the floor in two places above the loading area. Giant steel shipping containers were stacked in the back of the cavern. An old dump truck with a flat tire was parked along the wall to the left. The thing looked like a relic from a 1970s construction company.
Sean watched the scene with keen interest. He counted ten workers, plus four men with guns identical to the weapon Tommy now possessed. All of the men, unlike the guard at the front, wore masks over their faces like bandits.
There were only a few crates left. Tommy’s point about no more trucks coming made sense. Almost all the crates were gone. That meant the two Americans had to come up with a plan, or the missiles would be gone forever.
Tommy must have been thinking the same thing. “What should we do? Looks like we don’t have much time to make our move.”