Page 120 of The 9th Man

“Clear,” she whispered a few seconds later.

He crawled inside.

The interior, which measured roughly forty feet to a side, was dominated by a chain-driven windlass mounted in the peaked roof. A rusty steel cable descended into a shaft in the dirt floor. Luke dropped a rock into the hole and received a metallictinkin response a few seconds later.

“Elevator cage,” he said.

“How deep do you think it goes?”

“However deep the veins went. Hundreds of feet, probably. These miners went as far as their air vents would allow.”

He crawled back outside and peeked around it. The wind had picked up, further decreasing visibility, but he saw no one moving about. Bad odds had been daily life in Afghanistan. This was no different.

No sense splitting up and one of them going for help. It was a long way to civilization and neither of them had any idea which way was best. They started this together, so they’d finish it together.

“He’ll come by air,” he said.

“I agree. It’s fast and the blizzard be damned.”

Absolutely.

“We’ve got lots to do before they get here,” he said. “They’ll have to split up and search all the nooks and crannies.”

“And we’ll make them bleed for every inch of it.”

The fire in her eyes was good to see.

And he agreed with her.

They would bleed for every inch.

60

TALLEY WATCHED AS ECKSTEIN’S CABIN BURNED.

His men had ventured inside to see if anything was there to find. The house was not totally engulfed, so the flames would have to be fanned at some point to finish the destruction. He knew where Daniels had gone and would head there shortly.

But first things first.

One of his contingent emerged from the house and trotted his way. The man drew closer and he saw he was holding what looked like a laptop computer. He studied the unit. Charred. Screen shattered. But probably savable.

Aside from capturing Eckstein and killing Daniels and Stein, Rowland had given Talley one other priority. Search for and take personal custody of any device that might be used to store information, especially videos. No one, including Talley himself, was to view anything. On this point Rowland had been adamant, almost rabidly so. What could be that important, he wondered for the umpteenth time.

“Bag it,” he ordered. “Who else knows about this?”

“Just me.”

“Keep it that way.”

In his headset Talley heard a burst of static. “Bravo One, Bravo Two, come in.”

“Go ahead.”

“We spotted some structures about a mile and a half north of the cabin.”

The mining camp.

“Visibility is horrible. Winds coming off the cliffs are shearing like crazy. I sat her down in a meadow nearby. I estimate at least three big buildings, maybe more. Place looked old and abandoned.”