Echo Six: Black Ops 7 - Tibetan Fury (9 page)

Grace darted out of the ditch and ran past him. Seconds later, she reached the snow-covered stone structure. It was impossible to see how anything so small could possess a hiding place for all of them, but she quickly pulled out a slab of stone from the base. It was no more than half a meter square. It had been fitted into the carving so that it was impossible to see it as anything other than a part of the structure. Behind, a dark opening stretched underground.

"Through the opening!" she urged them, "The passage slopes down, and it's tight, but it's wide enough to take a man."

Talley nodded and stood aside. "Guy, you first. I'll send them down one at a time and come last."

He meant to cover their withdrawal. Without a word, the Brit dived headfirst into the opening, and he heard him sliding down inside. Admiral Brooks went next, and one by one he sent the men down the shaft, out of sight. And then there was only Grace, Jesse Whitefeather, himself, and Heinrich Buchmann, the massive German. Jesse was busy covering the last evidence of their passing, the telltale boot prints in the snow. Fortunately, the fresh snowfall was already starting to cover them.

"Heinrich, strip off your gear. Otherwise you won't make it."

They both smiled as he muttered Teutonic curses, stripping off his webbing, hand grenades, together with packs and pouches of ammunition for his weapons. Talley took hold of the Punisher, the grenade launcher he'd carried all the way, together with his HK 416 and his Sig Sauer P226 handgun. The German put his massive shoulders into the tunnel entrance. They fitted, but only just. He moved a couple of feet down the shaft, and then stuck.

Talley keyed his mic. "Heinrich is coming down. Give him a tug. Jesse, we'll push from this end."

They started to push, but nothing happened. And then willing hands pulled from below, and he slid inside the dark tunnel. Talley indicated for Jesse to go next, took a last look around and saw the enemy was getting close. He looked at Grace.

"You next."

She shook her head. "I have to replace the stone. Go, hurry."

He dived into the ramp and slid down a couple of meters until hands grabbed him and stopped him from crashing to the stone floor. Seconds later, he heard Grace coming down, and he caught her as she landed on icy floor. She stood up and nodded to him.

"Thanks. The stone slab is back in place. We should be safe."

They waited. The tiny underground chamber was smaller than he'd envisaged, and the troopers were packed shoulder to shoulder. Grace waited at the foot of the narrow, sloping tunnel, ready to climb back up and open it. They heard the soldiers up above, talking to themselves, shouting, and a couple of men banged their rifle butts on the stonework. More for show than for any suspicion there was something hidden inside. In truth, it was an amazing piece of deception. If it hadn't been for the presence of sixty or more armed Security troops above their heads, they might even have relaxed.

They didn't relax. There was no sign of the Chinese moving on.

"They seem to be having a rest," Grace murmured quietly, as she listened to the alien sound of the Mandarin Chinese, "I suspect their officer is out of sight, and they're taking advantage."

"Understood."

He didn't need to say anything more. They'd struck out on the primary objective, Prison Number 529. It was vital, imperative that they reach the secondary objective, the Buddhist nunnery, before dawn. The prospect of being caught out on the open, snow-covered plain in broad daylight was not something he even wanted to consider.

He checked his wristwatch as the minutes rolled by. It became an hour since they'd been in the dark cavern. The air was foul, and he studied the faces around him carefully, using his night vision goggles. There was no fear. They were not those kinds of men. Even though they were all aware that if the enemy found the hidden entrance, it would only need a grenade rolled down that sloping shaft to kill them all.

He wasn't fooled. Behind the seemingly relaxed expressions he could sense the tension, could smell it. Except for Grace. She'd gone into some kind of trance, no doubt the result of her Buddhist training. He almost envied her serene, calm expression, as if everything was right with the world, and a bunch of savage troops weren't patrolling on the surface, only meters away. Hunting them like dogs.

It took two hours before the last of the sounds from above ground faded, and Grace went up to open the entrance. They enemy were still visible. The nearest men were about one kilometer away, but it was the best they could do; they had to move on before daylight. First out was Guy Welland, and he'd arranged it so he would pull while the others pushed Heinrich Buchmann back out through the narrow shaft. The German made it out with only a small amount of pushing and tugging. He strapped on his equipment and checked over his weapons while the rest of the men climbed out of the narrow shaft.

Talley kept checking his wristwatch; they were running out of darkness. He turned to Grace.

"How long to get to this nunnery?"

She grimaced. "If we hurry, we can make it in about twenty minutes."

"We have approximately thirty minutes of darkness left. Let's move out, and remember, they're close. Very close."

They jumped into the ditch and formed a single line as before, with Jesse Whitefeather in the rear, doing his best to cover the signs of their passing. They had only one casualty when they arrived at their destination. Admiral Brooks who trod in a gap between two boulders and twisted an ankle. When Drew Jackson tried to examine it and strap it up, he waved him away with a look of irritation.

"I'm okay, dammit. You think I haven't done something like this before?"

"Sure, sure," Jackson soothed, "Whatever you say, Admiral, but you don’t need to prove anything. I mean, even though you’re not as fit as…”

“Can it, Jackson.”

Wisely, he kept quiet. But he stayed close behind the short, black fireplug Admiral who refused to admit he was capable of anything less than the fittest man in the unit.

It was a small, single story building about twenty meters wide. There was no perimeter, except for a single bar fenced corral, which contained half a dozen miserable looking goats, attempting to graze beneath the snow. He looked all around, but there were no obvious threats nearby. He nodded to her.

"Better knock the door and see what they say. They may not be too keen when they see us. I mean, they’ll know about the Chinese troops searching the area.”

She smiled, climbed out of the ditch, and walked the ten paces across to the main door. She knocked and pushed it open. Evidently, it wasn't locked. She went inside and closed the door behind her. They waited, their guns sweeping the area, ready to open fire at the appearance of any threat. There was nothing. The door reopened, and a man stepped out. He was old. Talley estimated his age at about eighty years. Even though it was dark, the man walked straight across to them with his hands held out, palms open in the universal gesture of peace.

"You are welcome to take shelter here."

Talley was astonished. The elderly monk wore only a thin saffron robe to keep out the bitter cold in the middle of the Tibet winter. He was a monk who spoke English, but he still wasn't certain he could trust him.

"Where is the girl? The woman who just went into the building."

The monk smiled gently. Everything about him, his body language, his expression, the movements of his hands, was calm and relaxed.

"She is inside. Would you like me to ask her to come out here to reassure you?"

Talley felt stupid. It wouldn't be the first time he'd been ambushed, but the first time by a frail, elderly monk. He turned to Guy.

"Keep half the men out here. I'll take the rest in."

The old man bowed him through the door, and he went in, followed by Rovere. There was a faint glow from a candle in the hallway, enough to view his surroundings, and he switched off the NV goggles. The room was small, about three meters square, and Grace was waiting at the other end, talking to a tiny woman who looked to be as old as the man who'd greeted them. She looked up as they entered.

"Abe, this is Abbess Dolma. She is in charge of the nunnery."

"You say it’s a nunnery, but there's an old guy outside."

She spoke rapidly to the elderly woman in Tibetan, and they both chuckled.

"You refer to Tempa. He is a Rinpoche, a spiritual figurehead to many Buddhists in this region. He has been ill, and the nuns here are looking after him while he recovers."

"Got it. Are we clear here? No sign of any hostiles?"

She conversed again with the Abbess. "They have been and searched the building, but now they’ve gone. It is quite safe. I suggest you bring the rest of the men inside. We can go down to the caves in case the Chinese return. In the meantime, they will help treat Admiral Brooks' injured ankle.

He smiled to himself.

They can try.

He came to a decision. The place seemed safe.

"Domenico, call them in."

"All of them? What about sentries?"

He shook his head. "If we leave anyone outside, the enemy could spot them. The men need some rest and to get out of the snow."

The Italian went back outside, and soon the small hallway was filled with troops. The Abbess and the old man, the Rinpoche, watched calmly as their Buddhist retreat filled with armed men. Talley pressed through them to stand next to Grace, who was with the Abbess.

"Would you thank her for allowing us in here."

She nodded, and the two women exchanged a few sentences.

"Abbess Dolma suggests we should go straight down to the caves. The Chinese could be back at a time, and it could be even worse next time."

"Worse? Was it bad?"

"The usual. They break the statues and artifacts inside the building, and normally rape two or three of the nuns."

"They rape them!"

"Yes," she replied, her voice bitter, "This is the new Tibet. We have to live with it. And sometimes die with it."

She was about to go on when another nun came into the room. She spoke rapidly to the Abbess. Grace translated.

"This Sister has been keeping watch from a vantage point we have on the roof. She said there are more troops on the way. We need to get down to the cave. Please, it's this way."

She gestured to the door that the nun had entered from and walked rapidly toward it. He followed her into a narrow passageway, which led further into the nunnery and eventually to a small kitchen. She started to remove iron pots from a storage closet and pulled up a hatch that had been cut into the floor. A dark, black hole yawned in front of him. It reminded him of the entrance to the space beneath the shrine.

"We have to go down here. They will put everything back in place when we are inside."

"Does everyone in Tibet have these hiding places?" he asked her, "It looks like they have to live like moles."

"They do. Mainly the religious communities, the Buddhists," she replied.

She was already clambering down through the opening in the floor. Talley followed her, and the rest of the men dropped down one by one into a chamber carved out of the rock beneath the floor of the nunnery. The last man to enter was Tampa Rinpoche, and then the dim light was shut out as they replaced the floor. Grace was ready, and she lit an oil lamp that illuminated their surroundings.

Why him?" Talley asked her, pointing to the elderly monk, "Won't they ask where he's gone?"

"Like me, the Rinpoche has a sentence of death on him. He cannot be seen inside the nunnery. They would take him out and shoot him."

"What did he do? Kill someone?"

Her expression was stony. "He tried to persuade a soldier to listen to the words of the Buddha. They accused him of spying and sedition. There is only one sentence. Death. Come, this cave system is quite large. It is worth taking the time to look it over."

Without waiting for a reply, she walked through a gap in the rock and along a narrow, curving path inside the rocks. They emerged in a vast chamber, almost fifty meters on a side. A number of flickering oil lamps lit the space, and most surprising of all, there were people inside. Many people. Most were lying on blankets on the rock floor. A few were standing, and they looked at the newcomers with equal amounts of curiosity and fear.

Talley looked at Tampa Rinpoche. "What's this?"

"They live here. It is their home," the Tibetan intoned.

He heard Guy sigh in exasperation. "Jesus Christ, it’s a homeless shelter. What do they want, for us to roll up our sleeves and start dishing up bowls of hot soup?"

Grace gave him a stern glance, which shut him up.

“Maybe one day you’ll appreciate a bowl of hot soup, Sergeant.”

He pulled a face but kept silent. They found an empty space near the cave entrance and settled down for a long wait. It was a time for checking weapons, taking stock, and then finding a comfortable position where they could rest until dusk.

Tampa Rinpoche spoke to a young woman, and she came up to the Admiral clutching a cloth bag.

"It's a medical bag," Grace explained, "She'll fix up your ankle."