The Aegis Solution (52 page)

Leah's expression told him the answer. "I stashed it at the camp. Eric and Khalid searched the place
thoroughly and didn't find it. I put it in the one spot they never really checked all that much, inside a
wall in Khalid's quarters. I never got a chance to go back and get it."

Her tone fell to a somber note. "I'm sure it was lost in the missile strike."

Elias was painfully aware that they were running out of both time and options.

"You stay here with Faulk. Hutson, Crabill, and Wilson will keep hacking away at this mess. Keep
Faulk's cell phone handy. I'll take one of the other phones. If we get there and it's wide open, I'll call
you. If you break through here, let us know."

"We've been reunited for less than two hours and you're leaving me?" Leah had an impish smile
on her face as she spoke. Elias leaned forward and kissed her.

"Yep. I've discovered that absence makes the heart grow fonder."

"Jerk!"

He turned to Tillie and Sweezea, who were shouldering the load of implements, and said, "Let's
go."



"Tillie, I thought you told us that there was no outside drainage for the storm system?" Elias
commented as they reached the cavernous basin.

"I lied. It wasn't actually a lie. I was being very literal. The retention basin does collect all of the
storm water. The water does percolate down into the soil at the bottom. But there's an overflow in case
the amount of water coming in exceeds the capacity of the basin. It's about ten feet down from the top,
and it extends past the perimeter wall of Aegis and dumps into an arroyo about four hundred yards
outside the wall."

They were once again standing at the concrete lip of the basin, staring into the darkness.

"How do we get down to it?" asked Sweezea.

"It's on the face of the vertical wall, about fifty feet that way and about ten feet down. The only way
to get to it is by rope."

Sweezea leaned out over the edge and looked in the direction she pointed, shining his light. "Rope's
got to be tied to something. Looks like a smooth wall to me."

"Told you, I went down it before, back when I had nothing but time. Follow me. I'll show you."

Still wearing her backpack and carrying the shotgun, she casually stepped out onto the lip and
walked to the right.

Sweezea muttered, "She reminds me of the captain I left on the outside," and followed her, walking
as surefootedly as a mountain goat on the narrow ledge.

With a chuckle, Elias brought up the rear. Soon, Tillie stopped and began clutching at her backpack,
trying to remove it. As the strap slid over her wounded arm, she involuntarily jerked from the flash of
pain, causing her to lose balance. As she began to fall, Sweezea's arm snaked forward and he grabbed
her, pulling her back. "Next time, ask for help," he grunted, lifting the pack from her and setting it on
the ledge.

Tillie hurriedly bent over and pulled open the straps on the pack, mumbling, "Thanks," as she took
out a long coil of rope.

In the reflected light from their flashlights, Sweezea looked at questioningly at Elias, who
commented dryly, "She isn't much on asking for help."

The sergeant glanced at Tillie for a moment, looked back at Elias, and said, "I can relate." He picked
up the coil of rope she had unpacked, as she closed the flap on her pack. "What now?"

Standing, she directed her flashlight on the concrete wall above their heads, where a shiny eyebolt
was embedded. "Tie it to that." She was already slipping back into the backpack, carefully avoiding the
bandage on her arm.

Elias, seeing the eyebolt, said to Tillie, "I suppose you brought a rotary hammer down here, along
with some two-part epoxy, and put that in yourself."

She looked at him with a half grin. "Yes…well, no, not really. Actually, not at all. It was already
there."

Elias laughed at the evolution of her answer and shook his head. "Tillie, I'm already impressed. You
don't need to make things up."

"Hey, it never hurts to embellish a bit."

Sweezea, as he tied off the end of the rope, asked, "By the way, if the outlet below us is flush with
the wall, how did you ever find it?"

"She had a set of plans for the place," Elias supplied.

"You did?"

"Yep. But that isn't how I found it. As I was exploring, I saw the eyebolt. I wanted to rappel down
to the bottom anyway, so I thought I'd use it. I was pretty surprised when I pushed off and swung out,
lowering myself. On my second rappel, instead of my feet hitting a solid wall, I flew right into the
opening. I was curious, so I followed it to the end. That's how I saw the steel grate. Later, I got back to
my pad and found the opening on the plans. I haven't been back to it in a long time, at least four or five
years."

She took hold of the rope from Sweezea and dropped it down the side. Turning her back to the
open pit, she tugged hard on the rope and arranged it around her torso.

"You don't need to check my knots."

"Yes, I do."

"Fine. Check them."

After three more hard tugs, all of which were purely gratuitous, she stepped back so that she was
perched on the edge of the lip, her weight resting on her toes. "See you down there."

Flexing her knees, Tillie pushed away from the ledge as she payed out some rope, lowering herself.
Elias and Sweezea leaned over, watching her descent. It took her three rappels this time, as she
disappeared into the face of the sheer wall.

From below, they heard her voice. "Next!" The single word echoed around the dark reservoir.

Sweezea looked at Elias and muttered, "Don't tell her I said this, but she's kind of cool."

"THANKS." Tillie's voice came up from below.

Not responding to her, he said, "You go next. I'll come down last."

"Actually, Tim, I was thinking one of us should stay up here. I'm not one hundred percent certain
that we've taken care of all the bad guys, and I would hate to be in that pipe while somebody came by
and untied the rope."

"Good point, Doc."

"So you go ahead. I'll stay here."

"Huh-uh. If I'm down there alone with her, I might just strangle her."

"YEAH, TRY IT!"

"Hell, maybe I'll untie the damn thing now."

"HEY!"

The two men shared a silent laugh.

"All right, I'll go," Elias gave in. He moved to the rope, looped it around himself, and descended.
Within seconds he was standing beside Tillie. In the indirect light of their flashlights, Elias thought that
he saw a fleeting look of relief on her face as he joined her. He chose not to comment.

The outflow pipe was a box culvert nearly eight feet high and square. Since no storm during the
life of Aegis had exceeded the capacity of the reservoir, there was no sand or silt on the bottom.
Wordlessly, they began the journey.

Both flashlights had fresh batteries and were more than bright enough to illuminate the way. They
walked without talking for several minutes.

The tomblike atmosphere of the tunnel caused Elias to speak in a hushed voice. "I'm guessing we
are past the perimeter of Aegis."

"Probably."

"And you said the opening was about four hundred yards farther than that?"

"Yes. Give or take."

Because of the straightness of the culvert and the almost perfectly square shape, there was no
reason for shadows ahead. Yet Elias saw something dark on the upper lid about fifty yards in front of
them.

Stopping, he asked, "What's that?"

Tillie, who had paused with him, strained to look forward and said, "Don't know. It looks like the
top of the tunnel is stained or crusted."

"That doesn't make any sense. Let's check it out."

They again moved forward, and when the two of them were nearer, they could see that the dark
ceiling was not smooth and flat, as it had been. It was now heavily textured. They could also make out
the floor of the culvert and saw that it, too, was no longer the light color of concrete, but was mottled
with darkness.

"Looks like some kind of sludge," Tillie whispered, slowing her pace.

Apparently as a reaction to the sound of her voice, hundreds of tiny red dots appeared in the glow
from their lights.

"Bats!" Elias said.

"Bats?"

"I'm guessing fruit bats, thousands of them. They like to sleep under bridges during the day. I think
they've decided to call this culvert home."

"Yuck! If they all sleep hanging from the ceiling, what's that on the floor?"

"Guano. Bat dung."

"Poop! We're supposed to walk through bat poop?"

Elias moved forward several more paces, sweeping his light around. "If we're going to get out of
here and can't clear the other exit, I don't see what choice we have."

"You said fruit bats, right?"

"Yes. Or maybe brown bats."

"What do they eat?"

"Bugs or plants."

"So they won't bite us?"

"Usually, no."

"Usually?"

"There are always two other possibilities. The first is that some of them are rabid. In which case,
yes, they would bite us."

"And we'd get rabies?"

"Well, yes."

"Lovely! And what wonderful surprise do you have behind door number two?"

"That they aren't fruit bats. They could be vampire bats."

"Vampire bats!" she exclaimed a bit too loudly.

In reaction, they both heard a vague, leathery, rubbing, scuffling sound commence from the ceiling
ahead as the disturbed bats stirred and squirmed. Elias held up a single finger in front of his lips and
Tillie bit her bottom lip, not taking her eyes off the culvert ahead.

Whispering, she asked, "Is there any way to tell?"

"I'm sure there is, if I were a chiropterologist. I think that's what a bat expert is called. Either way,
I can't tell the difference."

"Great. I vote for going back."

He looked at Tillie. This was the first time she had displayed any fear or timidity, and it surprised
him. "They weren't here the last time you came through?"

"Oh, God, no. If they were, I wouldn't have made it to the grate."

"They do go out and forage after dark, but I'd hate to lose any more time."

"Any other ideas?"

"One." Elias turned back the way they had come. Tillie followed very closely. After they had
retraced their steps approximately a hundred yards back, he turned around to face the bats, shouldered
the AK-47 he had brought with him, and fired one round. The result was instantaneous. The culvert
ahead filled with a brown, tangled cloud of flying bats, startled by the thunderous crash in their normally
silent lair. Panicked and slamming into each other in mid-flight, instinctively traveling in the direction
away from the crash, they receded.

Their ears filled with the cacophonous sound of flapping wings, Elias and Tillie moved cautiously
forward, following the retreating bats as they escaped through the passageway and out into the desert.

"OH, GROSS!" Tillie yelped as her shoes sunk into the thick, gummy substance coating the floor,
trying her best to ignore the slurping, sucking noise made as she lifted each foot.

"I will never touch these shoes again."

Elias laughed and trudged on. "Make sure you don't drop anything."

"If I do, it stays. Whatever it is."

She was stepping carefully in the slime, trying to make certain that her feet did not slip out from
underneath her.

Partially to satisfy his curiosity and partially to distract her, Elias asked, "I guess you knew Sweezea
and Crabill before now?"

"Uh-huh. And Hutson. Tim, Jay, and Mike have been a part of our secret club for quite a while."

"I could have used all of you when I ran the agency. So, just you, Wilson, and those three, or are
there any others?"

"Only the five of us. Six, if we count you."

"Thanks."

"I didn't say we were."

"Sorry."

She stopped in the muck and turned to look at him. "Elias, I'm teasing you. Okay? You can be a
member anytime you want. And Leah, too. I like her."

He smiled at her. "Thanks. I think we'd better keep moving."



Leah was resting on the floor several feet from Faulk. She was still weakened by the two years of
captivity and torture. Neither had said a word to the other since Elias had departed with Tillie and
Sweezea. Wilson and Hutson were doing the best they could in their efforts to clear the debris from the
exit. Crabill had taken Krietzmann to Madison so that his concussion could be treated.

Remembering something from earlier, Leah asked him, "Faulk, why the bombs?"