The Twisted Cross (37 page)

She laughed again, this time right in his face. Then she turned back to the business of knocking in the limestone barrier.

"Kick it in," she told the pilot, seeing that he had already put several large cracks in the barrier.

The pilot did as ordered. Three hard kicks of his boot and the pieces of limestone fell apart.

Elizabeth pushed her way past the pilot and entered the chamber first.

"I've done it!" they heard her cry out.

Both men burst onto the chamber-and stopped in their tracks.

"Jesus Christ.'"the pilot said. Up until that moment he had had no idea exactly what they were digging for. Now, before him he saw more gold than he thought existed on the entire planet.

Even Krupp felt a jolt of excitement. The chamber was at least four times larger than the one up in the Yucatan - and it held that much more gold.

"There must have been a core of gold somewhere in the near Andes to the east,"

she said, explaining it more to herself than the two men. "The Nazca people found it, mined it and stored it here. When the Incas or the pre-Inca people started to move into the area, the Nazca people must have somehow made an alliance with the Mayans, and they agreed to hide some of their gold up in the Yucatan."

Her scenario may or may not have been accurate - closer examination might have shown her that the appropriate dates didn't match up. But this kind of scientific accuracy was irrelevant now - so bright was the shine of the tons of good before

her.

"How will we ever get all this out of here?" Krupp asked, continuing to take in row upon row of the same bowl-shaped ingots.

She suddenly turned and said: " 'We?' Just what do you mean by that?"

He began stumbling badly. "I thought . . . but you said . . . you asked what we'd do ... together . . ."

She shook her head in pity. "I guess you just don't understand what's happening here, do you?" she asked.

Krupp immediately felt the tug of his instincts. One part of him wanted to break down and plead with her. Another part was slowly switching over to self-preservation. He was carrying a fully-loaded AK-47. She had the Colt automatic. In between them was the unarmed pilot.

"Well," she continued. "Let me show you exactly what's happening."

She turned and faced the pilot.

"Karlon? Come here."

The pilot did as told. She smiled and let her free hand roam all over his chest, stomach and, finally, his lower body. Her long fingers paused every few seconds between his legs.

"Can you and I fly that airplane out of here?" she asked in a stage whisper, her hand lingering around his crotch.

"Yes, ma'am," he said confidently. "Just say the word and we're out of here."

She turned back to Krupp. "See, Colonel?" she said. "Are you getting the pattern here? Like I said before, it's all about being a real man. Something you wouldn't know very much about . . ."

With that, she pulled the pilot's pants off, then slipped out of her own. She fondled the man erotically for several long moments. Then, before an astonished Krupp, they got down on the chamber floor and furiously engaged in every known sex act for the next five minutes.

The Nazi officer was on the verge of tears watching the display. He sank down into a corner and curled up like a kid about to be punished. He was shaking and having a hard time catching his breath. He tried to look away, but he found

it impossible. His eyes were glued on her face, her body. A: before, she was moving like a crazy woman -hair incredibly savage, her rear end jiggling, her breasts bouncing up anc down wildly.

Krupp felt a low whine start up in his eardrums. Why wa. she doing this to him? Was she crazy? Or was he?

As with the pilot before, she mounted the man and startec pumping maniacally.

Krupp was crying openly now. Bu after only a minute or so of this, the Nazi officer saw he hand move up behind the pilot's head. It was holding the .4!

automatic. Time froze. Was she going to take out this pilot £ she had the one in the airplane? In one instant, Kn

The buzz in his brain got louder as she brought the gun uj to the unsuspecting man's head and pulled back the hammer Climaxes approaching, Krupp saw her finger slowly pull the< trigger.

"Do it.'" he screamed.

She responded with a loud cry and a squeeze of the< trigger. . .

Click!

Nothing happened.

She threw her head back and laughed wickedly at him ai they finished their final orgasmic,sex act. "Wishful thinking Colonel," she said, out of breath and finally climbing off the exhausted, spent pilot.

"You're mad," the Nazi officer told her. "Totally mad . . ."

She stood and stared at him, not making any effort tc rebutton her shirt or pull on her pants.

"Yes, I am quite mad, Colonel," she said, matter-of-factly "But then again, so are you. Don't you hear voices in youi head? I do. Those tiny voices just won't leave you alone, wil they, Colonel? They just won't let you function, properly, like a real man . . ."

He put his hands up to his head. The buzzing got louder He felt as if his brain was about to explode. How could this be happening to him?

"You're crazy!" he screamed at her. "You're like ... an animal. A Black Widow!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," she said in a seductive whisper, taking a step closer to him. "Come on, Colonel. You know you've had this weird thing for me all along. I just wanted to make you jealous . . . Of course I'm not going to kill him - he has to fly us out of here! Don't you think I know that?"

She squeezed her breasts, her fingers lightly pinching her nipples.

"Come on, Colonel . . ." she repeated, now right up against him. "Make love to me. Screw me. Rape me! Right here, in the middle of all this beautiful gold."

Her hand went between his legs and to both their surprise, she found it wasn't as soft as usual.

"So that did the trick, eh?" she said, encouraging him with her fingers.

"Now's your chance, Colonel. Come on ..."

Now it was another part of Krupp's anatomy that felt as if it would burst.

"Do you want me to take your clothes off, Colonel?" she asked him, seductively squeezing her own body. "The cave air feels beautiful when you're naked.

Believe me, I should know. . ."

She took the rifle from his shoulder and laid it on the ground next to him.

Then she undid his shirt, his belt buckle and fly. He could hardly feel the clothes falling off him. He was so mixed up, emotionally and physically, that he was trembling violently. He wanted to make love to her-and for once, all parts of his body were in agreement.

But he was absolutely inexperienced in these matters. And despite the desperate situation, the strangest questions were running through his mind, ones he had last heard out in the schoolyard. What does one do first? What happens once a person is caught up in it all? Was it true that most people black out the first time? 73 be or not to be?

Suddenly it seemed like the glare from the gold was blinding him . . .

Just then, the pilot spoke up. "Yeah, come on, Colonel," he said sarcastically, at the same time slyly reaching for Krupp's discarded AK-47.

"Give it to her. Can't you see she's begging for it? Let's see if you can do it . . ."

The buzzing in the Nazi's head became excruciating.

"Come on . . ." Elizabeth said, rubbing up against 'him.

"Come on!" the pilot egged him on.

"Now. . ." she said, digging her hands into his crotch.

"Give it to her!" the pilot yelled.

But Krupp couldn't hear any of it. The buzzing in his head was now too loud to bear.

He screamed and then he threw her roughly to the ground. In a second he was on top of her, exerting such a force that even she was surprised for a moment.

Krupp clumsily started performing. In seconds Elizabeth was laughing madly.

The pilot was screaming, "Do it! Give it to her! Give it to her . . "all the while raising the rifle toward both of them.

Although he could clearly see the pilot aiming the gun at them, something in Krupp's brain wouldn't let him stop what he was doing. Not now . . . The Nazi pumped Elizabeth furiously, his eyes closed, his mouth drooling the strange white foam. He was blacking out. He couldn't stop. He cried out: "Don't hurt me, Mommy!" That's when Elizabeth put the gun up to Krupp's head and pulled the trigger, literally blowing his brains out.

Suddenly another shot rang out. Then another and another. The Afrikaner pilot was slammed up against the cavern wall by at least a dozen yellow-red tracer bullets. Someone standing in the doorway to the chamber had shot the pilot just as he was about to shoot Elizabeth.

It took a few moments for the smoke to clear and for the noise to stop echoing around the cavern. But once it did, Elizabeth looked up and saw a strange man wearing a pair of red, oversized goggles, standing in the doorway, a smoking M-16 in his hands . . .

"Are you Elizabeth?" Hunter asked the woman, pushing his NightScope goggles back up on his forehead.

She was naked, covered with dirt and sticky. She also looked like she was about to go into a state of shock.

"Elizabeth Sandlake?" he asked her.

"Yes," she said. Then she started shaking uncontrollably. She looked at the shattered head of Krupp beside her and started screaming.

Hunter shouldered his rifle and immediately dragged her from the chamber, grabbing her clothes as they went.

"They . . . they were raping me!" she screamed. "They were going to kill me!"

Hunter hastily pulled her pants up and wrapped the shirt around her.

"I know," he said, turning her away from the carnage inside the gold chamber.

"I know, but you won't have to worry about them anymore."

Then he held her so close to him he could feel her heart beating through his flight suit.

"I'm Major Hunter of the United American Air Force," he said. "I've been searching for you."

She was still sobbing uncontrollably.

"Listen," he said, picking her chin up. "I know who you are. I know your father. He's alive."

"What?" she asked through the torrent of tears. "That's impossible. They shot him. I saw them . . ."

"No," he said firmly. "They shot him but they didn't kill him. He's safe, in Washington, right now. I saw him just a few days ago."

"I ... I can't believe it," she said, still whimpering. "How did you ever find me? How did you even get here?"

Hunter shook his head. "Those are two very long stories that will have to wait."

She nearly collapsed in his arms. "My life has been like a nightmare for so long," she cried. "And it started when those horrible men landed at our ranch

. . ."

He pulled her close to him again. "Well, you don't have to worry anymore," he said. "I'll protect you."

He didn't kiss her, although the thought crossed his mind.'' Instead he just held her close until she was able to compose herself.

When he thought she was ready, he said: "Okay, now let's get the hell out of here . . ."

She held back for a moment. "Did you see the treasure in there?"

He nodded. "Second one I've seen in as many days," he said. "But it's been here for more than a thousand years. It can wait here a little longer . . .".

With that, he wrapped the shirt around her again, and holding her up under her arms, led her back up the tunnel toward the surface.

It was slow going for a while, but Hunter could feel Elizabeth regaining her strength as they approached the entrance.

They walked up and around one long curve and finally, he saw it - a shaft of sunlight blazing through the hole in the limestone cap.

"At last," he said with relief, as they approached the daylight. He was getting real tired of tunnels and chambers and holes in the ground.

They reached the escape hole and Hunter was about to boost her up through when he heard a very disturbing sound.

"Let me go up first," he said instinctively. Then he leaped up and grabbed the outside rim of the hole in the limestone cover. With one great burst of energy and strength, he boosted himself up and halfway out of the hole.

Suddenly, he was face to face with a man who was about to jump in where he was coming out. The man raised his AK-47 and started to pull the trigger.

But Hunter was quicker. In less than an instant, he had his M-16 up in one hand, and holding on with the other, put a barrage into the man.

That done, he crawled halfway out of the hole and did a quick visual sweep. A big An-126 Soviet-built troop transport was just going right over his head.

And to his dismay, the air seemed to be filled with heavily-equipped paratroopers.

But they weren't just any kind of paratroopers.

"Damn! Skinheads!" he yelled, confirming his suspicions by quickly examining the soldier crumpled beside him.

He immediately jumped back down into the tunnel.

"No . . ." she cried, not wanting to face the truth. "No! They can't be here .

. . They're killers . . . How did they find us?"

"Same way I did," he said. He surmised that the surviving Nazis back at the Guatemala City refueling station got a message to The Twisted Cross HQ_ in Panama. They, in turn, must have dispatched the nearest force of Skinheads.

Grabbing hold of her hand, he started pulling her back down the tunnel. At the same time, he took a quick inventory of his resources. His M-16 was just about full, as usual, with his trademark tracer rounds. He also was carrying one flash grenade, one HE grenade, one "Super-Frag" grenade, and his NightScope goggles.

It wasn't much against at least two dozen airborne Skinheads . . .

Up on the surface, the Skinhead commander was soon standing beside the hole where one of his men had been shot.

He looked out onto the Nazca Plain and saw that most of his troop were now on the ground and retrieving the parachutes, their squad leaders screaming at them to hurry and get organized.

They had received the call for this particular mission only a few hours before, and he knew it was one for which they weren't especially well-prepared. They weren't tunnel rats. They were actually a sapper unit -