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While Linc, Eddie, and Raven got out and lowered their night vision goggles, Gomez shut down the engine and looked at his watch, then at Juan. “Linda estimates that we’ve got to take off in forty-eight minutes if we want to reach the Oregon before the opposite edge of the eye wall does.”
Juan nodded. His original time estimate had been too rosy because they had to wait to fly until the eye of Hidalgo was over both the ship and the cavern.
“If we lose the comm link and the go time comes before we get back,” Juan said, “your orders are to fly back to the Oregon. There are plenty of trucks and Humvees in the cavern to provide us alternate transportation.”
“I wouldn’t risk it,” Gomez said. “You’ll be lucky to find clear roads all the way to a safe shelter. Better to fly the friendly skies.”
“We fully intend to. See you soon.”
Juan joined the team and set his own goggles in place to see through the deep shadows cast by the jungle. They hoofed it double time down the road toward the cavern entrance.
Juan was impressed by the resilience of the jungle flora. Although many large branches had been torn down by the gale-force winds, none of them were big enough to block the road. If they needed to commandeer a Humvee to get back to the chopper quickly, they wouldn’t run into any major obstacles on the way.
Fifteen minutes later, they reached the location where they’d seen the truck enter the hillside. Juan checked his GPS twice to make sure they were in the right place because the entrance was so well hidden by the foliage covering the gates. Even the tire tracks of the truck leading inside were invisible, disguised by artificial turf layered over solid pavement.
Careful to maintain absolute silence, the four of them crept up to the gates. Without disturbing the camouflage, Juan looked through one of the only spots with a tiny gap left for the guards inside to see out.
Two guards lolled on chairs, obviously unconcerned that anyone would be approaching the hideout in this kind of weather in the middle of the night. Ensconced safely in the tunnel, Hidalgo was no threat to them. One of them was nodding off, and the other was watching something on his phone. The lack of discipline was appalling but suited Juan’s purposes.
He nodded to Linc, who had MacD’s crossbow at the ready. Linc shouldered it and lined it up with another gap so he could aim at the man distracted by his phone. Juan drew his suppressed pistol and aimed it at the ear of the dozing guard.
He whispered, “Now.” With a barely audible twang, Linc fired the crossbow. At the same time, Juan fired a single round, which sounded no louder than the snap of a rubber band.
Both men slumped in their chairs and collapsed to the ground.
Juan waited a moment to see if any alarm was raised. No Klaxons, no warning bells, no shouted commands.
He found the hidden handle and twisted it so he could pull open the gate just wide enough for them to slip inside. The well-oiled hinges made no sound.
They propped the dead guards back on their chairs in case anyone happened to look down the tunnel. Juan took one of the radios and gave the other to Eddie. They both attached earpieces to the audio jacks so they could hear incoming calls without being audible to anyone else.
They slowly made their way down the hundred-foot-long tunnel, their pistols and crossbow in hand to take out any other patrolling guards. When they reached the central cavern, each of them knelt and gawked at the majesty of the natural wonder that had been sullied by the communist terrorists.
It had to be one of the biggest caverns in the world, rivaling the recently discovered Hang So’n Ðoòng caves in Vietnam, and large enough to hold at least ten city blocks of forty-story buildings. Gigantic stalactites dangled from the ceiling high above. Several waterfalls, fed by the downpours from Hidalgo, cascaded from the limestone. They rushed into a swollen river that streamed along one side of the cave and disappeared in a huge pool.
The dozen or so buildings comprising the rebels’ headquarters covered only a small portion of the cave. That section was well lit by lamps powered by the diesel generator, but the rest of the cavern was swallowed by darkness.
As Juan gaped at the soaring ceiling, he spotted the huge hole that had been hinted at in the satellite photos they’d examined in the pre-mission planning. Vines lined the rim so that, from above, it would simply look like a sinkhole. That was how Locsin’s helicopter got in and out. Only during a low-altitude night flight directly above the opening would anyone have a chance of seeing the interior lights.
Juan scanned the cluster of buildings and saw no movement. He pointed to the nearest structure, which housed the noisy diesel generator, and they dashed over to it for cover. They could talk quietly here without fear of being overheard.
He checked his watch, then said, “It took us seventeen minutes of hiking time to get here, plus the time we spent taking out the guards, so we’ve now got sixteen minutes to find Beth and leave. Eddie and Raven will check out the long building to look for her. Linc and I will head to the Kuyog manufacturing plant on the far side. We’ll make this our rendezvous point. Remember, sixteen minutes. Then we’ll blow the cavern and the tunnel entrance and let the Philippine National Police dig them out. Understood?”
Juan was sure that Eddie and Linc knew their jobs, so he looked at Raven. She gave him a curt nod of her head.
“I wish I could see Locsin’s face when he realizes we were here,” she said.
“If everything goes according to plan, that realization will last about one millisecond,” Juan said. “He won’t have time to twitch an eyebrow. Let’s go.”
They checked once more for roaming guards but saw nobody. Eddie and Raven took off for the barracks while Juan and Linc skirted the miniature town as they circled around to the manufacturing facility.
A minute later, they were beside the larger of the two buildings, a three-story structure with no windows, with large garage doors on the front for truck deliveries and a smaller personnel door. There were also a small door and a larger cargo door set into the side facing the building next to it, which was identical except that it was only two stories tall. The only other feature on the outside of each building was a ladder leading up to the air-handling system on the roof.
Juan and Linc went to the side door of the three-story building, where Juan pressed his ear to it. There was no sound coming from inside.
He eased open the door and peered in. It was completely dark, so he lowered his night vision goggles. He spotted no movement and nodded for Linc to follow him in.
Just as they expected, it was an enormous factory for manufacturing Kuyog drones. Each was on its own cart for easy maneuvering to the next workstation, though there was also a mobile crane for lifting them. Dozens of the drones were lined up in various stages of assembly as if it were an auto plant. Parts were stored on the far side of the building, and the most complete Kuyogs were located closest to the side door, though they all looked to be missing the critical sensor housed on top.
