Target Eight by Jack Mars

Author:Jack Mars [Mars, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Jana had to hurry to keep up with Bledshaw, who pelted down a narrow flight of metal stairs with a familiarity that told her he had been here before.

But how could he have been? How could the Antiquities Division access these hidden chambers without the dam staff knowing?

That question got swept away as she reached the bottom of the stairs and got stopped short by a breathtaking sight.

A large room filled with shelves of stunning artifacts.

They were all of the Mauryan period—elaborate temple friezes and pillars topped with sculptures of lions. Statues of deities and stunning gold jewelry with rubies and emeralds that gleamed in the harsh florescent light.

One shelf especially attracted her eye. On it was a row of ancient jars with copper wires attached to their lids. The lids were sealed with bitumen. Next to them was something that looked like a primitive dynamo. Next to that sat a painted wooden tablet with a detailed map of the heavens.

Then there were the inscriptions, shelf upon shelf of inscriptions in a language she couldn’t read but which she suspected held great secrets of this ancient civilization, secrets that proved the Mauryan Empire to be even more advanced than anyone had ever suspected.

Her sense of wonder was quickly replaced with anger. These artifacts belonged in a museum where people could study them. Didn’t scholars have a right to access all information from the past in order to make a clear picture of bygone ages? Didn’t the people of India have a right to know the true extent of their ancestors’ accomplishments? Didn’t the whole world have a right to this heritage?

Jana spotted Bledshaw by the far wall, and her anger was replaced by terror.

For sunk into the floor were several shafts capped with detonators, just like in the Harper Dam. They were connected by dozens of intertwined wires to a timer resting against the wall.

Jana hurried over.

“Look,” Bledshaw said, pointing a trembling finger. “They told us we have hours, but the timer says we have barely ten minutes."

“Can’t we disconnect it?”

“Not the way this is wired. We try to do that, and it will go off immediately."

Jana didn’t ask how he knew that. Bledshaw obviously had several skills he hadn’t bothered to tell them.

“Can you disarm it?”

“Maybe.” He clunked down the toolkit he had brought with him and rummaged around inside.

“Are you all right?”

The blood had soaked the side of his jacket, and a grim red rivulet was spreading down his pants leg.

“Considerably better than I’ll be if I don’t disarm this bomb. Get up there and warn the Indians that they need to evacuate immediately.”

“No way they can evacuate the city in time!”

“No, but a few might get away.”

Gunfire echoed down from upstairs.

“We’re trapped. The terrorists and Jacob are still fighting.”

“Then break through!” Bledshaw snapped.

Jana rushed upstairs to find Jacob and Major Singh still at the bottom of the stairs, trading shots with the terrorists who blocked the only exit. Major Singh lay on the floor and looked about to faint from blood loss.

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