Long Road to Mercy (Atlee Pine, #1)(105)

“Holy shit,” said Kettler. “So you’re saying—”

“I’m saying that if we started a war on bogus evidence and killed millions of people—”

Kettler finished for her. “—the Russians would have rock-solid proof that we were guilty of the whole thing and had lied to the world.”

Pine added, “It’s what they call kompromat. How much do you think the Russians could blackmail us for in return for keeping that secret?”

Roth slumped back against the rock wall. “Anything they wanted.”

“Right.”

Roth suddenly stared in horror at the device. In a whisper he said, “Do you think they’re still watching and listening right now?”

“Highly unlikely. You can’t get Wi-Fi or even cell service down here. And no satellite signal would reach through this much rock.”

“But then how would they have gotten compromising information?” asked Roth.

“They got it long before the nuke ever got to this cave. It had to be delivered to the Americans and then shipped here. They might have audio and video of American officials receiving it, and then our guys, maybe ones in uniform, loading it onto a plane, bringing it to Arizona, and then maybe transporting it by chopper here. Lots of video and audio of our country up to its neck in this thing.” She glanced at the nuke. “But to be sure, let’s disable the other devices.”

Roth took up his saw once more, and with Pine and Kettler’s help, he cut the other devices out of the walls of the nuke.

Pine placed them all in her backpack.

“So what do we do now?” asked Roth.

“Contrary to what you said earlier, we’re going to hike this nuke out of here,” said Pine firmly.

“Why?” said Roth.

“Because now that we know about the surveillance devices, we can use that as leverage.”

“How?” asked Roth.

Before she could answer, they all heard the sound.

“What’s that?” said Kettler suddenly.

They ran back out into the first cavern. The sounds were much more prominent now.

“That’s a chopper,” said Roth tensely.

“And I don’t think it’s coming to rescue us,” said Pine.





Chapter

57



P?INE PEERED AROUND the edge of the opening and through the camouflage covering. “There’s a light flicking over the rock. They must know this was the last place the search team was.”

They waited for a few minutes until the chopper passed over the ridge and was gone.

“Okay, we need to get going,” said Kettler, firmly taking charge.

He ran over to the dead men and relieved two of them of their M4s and extra ammo clips. “You got optics?” he asked Pine. She nodded. “Keep a watch on the chopper and the light. They’ll make several passes. If they don’t see anything, they’ll move on to another grid.”

“Based on your experience?” said Pine.

“The Army has a way of doing things, the same way.”

Pine rushed off to do this.

Roth said to Kettler, “But we can’t climb out of here with the nuke. It’s too heavy to carry all that way. It was hard enough taking it from the other cave to this one.”

“We can do it if we all take turns,” said Kettler. “And use the lifting thing you brought.”

“But what about Agent Pine?” said Roth.

“Hell, she’s probably stronger than both of us put together. Now come on.”

They raced back into the other space, and Kettler helped Roth enclose the nuke in a large camouflage bag Roth had brought down. Kettler took off his go pack and said, “I’ll carry it first. Show me how the lift thing works.”

Roth helped Kettler into the apparatus and then had Kettler back up to the nuke and squat down. Roth strapped in the nuke to the lifting pack.

“Okay, the pack’s pulley and weight redistribution systems and the exoskeleton’s battery-powered features will carry about fifty percent of the load. That makes what you’re carrying about seventy pounds or so. It’s not that bad.”

“My ruck in the Army was eighty pounds. So, no problem.”

Kettler slowly stood and steadied himself. “Okay.”

They moved back out into the main cave area.

“What’s the status?” he called out to Pine, who still stood by the opening.

“It’s starting to make one more pass,” she said. “Hold on.” About thirty seconds elapsed after the sounds of the chopper materialized once more. Then, the engine and prop noise started to filter away.

“Okay, it looks like they’ve moved on.”

Kettler explained the plan to Pine.

She glanced at her watch. “It’s two in the morning. There’s no way we’re going to hike out of here before dawn, especially carrying that thing. And they might be waiting at the top of every trail anyway.”

“Every corridor trail, but probably not every threshold or primitive trail,” said Kettler, using the Park Service’s technical designation terms for trails in the canyon.

“What’s that mean?” said Roth.

Pine looked at him. “They’re not maintained. So they’re a lot more difficult.”