The Siege Read Online Free Page A

and noticed that the area around the tunnel entrance was covered with a thin coating of a salt and dirt mixture.
         He thought it a bit odd, but otherwise paid it no mind.
         Even if he had put two and two together and figured out that the tunnel had collapsed, he still would have held his ground.
        Even if he knew that Alvarez and McMillan, in a desperate attempt to survive, were feverishly clawing at a twelve ton pile of dirt and salt and muck, it wouldn’t have mattered.
         There was no way in hell he would go down those steps to help, or even to see what was going on.
         Martinez was claustrophobic. He’d rather stay here and watch the tunnel exit, than to step into the tunnel itself.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 5
     
         Mark stood at the security desk, mesmerized at the eerie figures on the monitors, fighting for their very lives inside the tunnel. He wondered why he felt no sympathy for them, or any remorse for having detonated the explosives that put them in their dire situation.
         He should, by all rights, have at least a bit of empathy for their plight. If he didn’t, was he something less than human?
         The truth was, he didn’t feel any sympathy for them because they didn’t deserve any. He felt no guilt because they were on their way to kill and plunder those that he loved.
         So no, he didn’t feel anything but curiosity for these men. He wanted them to die and he wanted them to rot in hell. He was just curious to know how long it would take for that to happen.
         Hannah walked up behind him and put her arm around him.
         “Hi, honey. Where’d you come from?”
         “David relieved me. He said if they attacked through the front door he wanted to be where the action was. He told me to go bake some cookies or something.”
         “And you let him live? If I said something like that, you’d have pummeled me.”
         “Well, he can get away with it because he’s the only dentist we have. And I might have a toothache someday. So he might come in handy.”
         “And I won’t come in handy?”
         “Well, yeah. Maybe. But it’s been so long since you’ve come in handy, I can’t really remember how, exactly.”
         “Maybe I’ll show you later.”
         “I’d like that. For you to show me later, that is. But for now, explain to me how come they look so funny.”
         She was referring to the ghostly images on the security monitors from inside the tunnel.
         “The lights went out when we collapsed the ends of the tunnel. The cameras automatically switched over to thermal mode. What you see is their heat signatures. The reds and yellows indicate how much heat their bodies are giving off.”
         “How come only two of them are digging?”
         “Don’t know. Maybe the others are injured from the blast. Or maybe they’ve given up. Or, more likely, they’re working two by two, in shifts. That’s got to be hard work, after all, clawing through tons of salt and rock and dirt with just their fingers. My guess is that when the first two get tired, they’ll switch off with two of the others.”
         He gave the men in the mine too much credit. Alvarez hadn’t given the digging operation any thought at all. The truth was, he didn’t even know where most of his men were or what they were doing. He didn’t even know who was beside him, digging with him in the silky blackness.
         He was panicking on a grand scale. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t hear. He wasn’t sure if his men were alive or dead. He couldn’t even be certain that he was alive himself. He might have been blown away and sent straight to hell. Maybe t his was what hell was like.
         All Alvarez knew was that he was going to claw his way out, no matter how long it took.
         His hands were bleeding