Atlantis Found

Gu

"What's taking you so long, Number Four?" he asked, unruffled, without looking up at the helicopter. "You're acting like old women. I told you, there is nothing inside the tu

"You do not sound yourself, Number One."

Giordino knew he couldn't fool them any longer. "I've got a cold coming on. Not surprising in this intolerable weather."

"Your cold must have cost you four inches in height."

"Make jokes if you will," mumbled Giordino. "I'm getting out of the rain. I suggest you do the same."

He turned and reentered the cave, certain he would not receive a bullet in the back, not until the searchers were positive they would not be shooting one of their own men.

"They're wise," said Gu

"What's plan Two-A?" Giordino asked laconically.

"We crawl back through the roof collapse in the next tu

"We'll be lucky to hit one or two at the most."

"At least that will put the odds in our favor," Gu

They had only a few minutes, so they worked feverishly to reopen a crawl space through the rock into the tomb vault. Despite the damp cold, they were sweating heavily by the time they dragged the two dead bodies through the narrow opening and snaked in themselves, dragging their backpacks after them. Their timing was near perfect. They had no sooner propped the rocks back in place and looked into the outer chamber through tiny peepholes than Number Four leaped into the chamber and dropped to the floor as Number Five raced in just behind, both rotating their lights and their gun muzzles in swift arcs from wall to wall.

"I told you so," Giordino whispered softly in Gu

"There is no one in here," said Number Four. "The cave is empty."

"Impossible," came the voice of the helicopter pilot. "All three were approaching the tu

"He's right," agreed Number Five. "Numbers One, Two, and Three have disappeared."

They talked in undertones, but Gu

"Take the one standing," Giordino whispered softly. "They're wearing body armor, so aim for the head. I'll take the one on the ground."

Slipping their gun muzzles into holes no larger than an inch and a half in diameter, just enough to see over the front sight, they lined up on the men who had come to kill them and squeezed off two shots in unison that sounded like a thunderclap inside the rock-walled chamber. The man on the ground merely twitched, while the one standing threw up his hands, gasped, and folded wearily over the body at his feet.

Giordino brushed away the rocks in front of his face, extended the flashlight through the hole, and studied their handiwork. He turned to Gu

"We must remain where we are," Giordino muttered.

Before he could explain, a voice burst over the radio. "What happened in there?"

No longer interested in subterfuge, Giordino replied, "No big deal. We shot a rabbit."

"Rabbit?" demanded the helicopter pilot. "What sort of nonsense is that?"

"I fear our comrades are dead," said Number Six, soberly. "Those NUMA devils must have killed them."

"Those were the rabbits I was talking about," a

"You will surely die," said the helicopter pilot.

"As the old gangsters used to say to the cops, come and get us."

"That won't be necessary," said the pilot.

"Duck down!" Giordino hissed to Gu

The pilot fined up the nose of his bird with the entrance of the tu

Incredibly, neither the roofs of the tu

"I hope to God… they don't send another rocket in here," Gu

Giordino could hardly hear him above the ringing in his ears. "I have a hunch they'll think one was enough," he rasped between hacks. Slowly recovering his numbed senses, he began pulling away the rocks and widening an opening. "I'm getting damned tired of moving rock, I'll tell you."

Once through, they groped through the smoke and dust for the extra weapons from their assailants' bodies until they had five assault rifles and an equal number of automatic pistols between them. Struggling to breathe in the nonexistent air, and working blind, Giordino lashed three of the assault rifles together with cord from his backpack. The three guns were now wrapped parallel. Then he ran a cord around the triggers and tied it under the guards.

"The last thing they'll expect is for us to rush out the tu

Gu

Giordino was hesitant to let the little deputy director of NUMA take on an almost suicidal job. He was about to voice a protest, when Gu

Gu

Gu