The compound was deserted, except for the small group huddled around the bomb. Burkhalter had already made a strategic withdrawal.
Even at a distance, Kinch could tell Hogan was enjoying himself. He hated to spoil the colonel's fun, but he had no choice. He braced himself, and went to break the bad news.
"Colonel Hogan, can I speak to you a minute?"
"He's busy," growled Klink, without looking up.
Hogan contradicted him at once. "I'm never too busy to talk to my men. Here, hold that." He handed Klink a random component he'd just fished out from within the metal casing, before standing up and moving away to give Kinch his full attention
"Hi, Kinch. We've got this bomb here we're disarming," he drawled, with a grin. "A real live one."
Kinch proceeded to set him straight. "That's exactly what you've got. A real live bomb." He registered the change in Hogan's expression, and hurried on. "We had a cave-in, and Carter's trapped in the tunnel with the fake one."
"That's a real live bomb? You mean I've been fooling around with a live bomb?" For once, Hogan was thrown completely off balance. "Let's get out of here."
As he started to retreat, Kinch held him back. There was still worse news to be delivered. "The only trouble is, the part of the tunnel that Carter's in is right under this bomb."
"Well, get him out of there."
"We've been digging, but he won't leave. Not until he finishes sending the new code on the radio."
"Oh, boy." Hogan didn't hesitate; no more than any of the others could he leave Carter in the lurch. But he was not happy, and Kinch was going to know all about it. "I'll tell you one thing," he said, his voice trembling with indignation, "you've just taken all the fun out of this job."
He went back to deal with the bomb, and Kinch returned to the tunnel. Some progress had been made, but he shuddered inwardly as he assessed the situation. The collapse had occurred close to a junction point, where the main passage divided, branching off towards the recreation hall in one direction, and the emergency exit in the woods in the other. As all the tunnels were weak at such places, they were always shored up with particular care. It should have been enough to support the earth above, but instead it had created a nightmare tangle of broken timber amongst the soil and stones which blocked Carter's escape.
"The worst of it is, some of those beams are still holding up the rest of the ceiling," said Newkirk, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "If we try to take any of 'em out, the whole lot's going to drop. I told Carter not to touch anything on his side, but he's not listening."
Kinch sighed. "He sure picked a fine time to remember who outranks who around here. Have you got the cable ready?"
"Not yet. I daren't leave while LeBeau's up there."
They were concentrating on the upper left-hand corner of the obstruction, where sounds seemed to pass most easily from one side to the other. As the mini-tunnel - hardly more than a wormhole, really - neared the other side, a ladder had been placed against the unstable mass below, both to brace against it falling, and to give access to the excavation. LeBeau, being the smallest, had constituted himself digger-in-chief; he had crawled into the opening as it deepened, while Newkirk had remained below, keeping the ladder steady, receiving buckets of earth as they were filled, and trying to work out how the hell he'd get LeBeau out of there if anything went wrong.
Kinch raced away to the chaos of the radio room to organise the wire which would connect the spare radio to the antenna. It took some time. Just as he returned, LeBeau came out feet first, descending amid a downflow of soil and pebbles into the outstretched arms of his two comrades. "We're through," he panted. "I can just get my arm far enough. Give me the cable, quickly. Carter's standing on a chair to reach from his end. If anything happens, he could get buried."
As opposed to being blown to kingdom come, thought Kinch. Tough choice. He pressed the end of the cable into LeBeau's hand, and helped Newkirk to boost the Frenchman back up to the opening.
LeBeau hardly breathed as he crawled back into the narrow space; the alternative, he had already discovered, was hyperventilation, followed by light-headedness and rising panic. He inched towards the other side of the barrier, keeping his arms stretched forward in order to avoid getting them stuck between his body and the walls.
He couldn't see where he was going, but he heard Carter's voice, quite close: "LeBeau? Is that you?"
LeBeau hadn't enough air in his lungs to answer him.
Two lengths of timber, crossing at almost right angles and completely immovable, blocked his way, near Carter's end of the opening. Getting as close as he could, LeBeau stretched his arm between them, with the cable clutched in his hand. He felt Carter's fingers brush against his own, then he heard a scrabbling sound, and a startled gasp from the far side of the barrier. LeBeau let go of the wire, and began wriggling back, as the noise of a further collapse filled his ears. He thought he wouldn't make it; but someone grabbed his legs and dragged him out. Between them, Kinch and Newkirk hauled him free, before scrambling to get away from the immediate danger zone.
In the yard above, Colonel Hogan felt, or thought he felt, a tremor in the surface underneath him. His hands ceased their delicate manoeuvring inside the bomb casing, and he held his breath for a few seconds.
"What was that?" murmured Schultz.
"What was what?" Klink hadn't even noticed; his whole attention was focused on the instrument of destruction in front of him.
Hogan swallowed, and began work again. He had no way of knowing what had just happened, or whether Carter, or any of the others, might be...no, don't think about it. Just get on with the job at hand.
Directly below, Carter remained curled up against the side wall for some time, listening to the haphazard noises made by the debris behind him as it found its new level. It required a substantial effort of will to lift his head, open his eyes and look around. He wished at once that he hadn't. Within the last two minutes, he seemed to have lost about a third of his available space. The emergency tunnel was no longer an option; he wasn't even sure any more where it was.
He got to his feet, very slowly. His fall from the chair, which had thrown him against one of the surviving roof supports and precipitated the latest disaster, had left him both badly shaken and seriously bruised.
"LeBeau?" he called tentatively. "Louis...?" There was no response.
"Okay," Carter told himself. "Don't panic, Andrew. Just keep calm." His voice shook so much that it frightened him. If he'd just gone and got LeBeau buried...
He took a deep breath to try to steady himself. Then he realised he was still clutching the end of the radio cable. He looked up to where it vanished into the mass of soil in front of him, then gave it a cautious tug. It resisted slightly, so he pulled harder, and began to draw it through.
Best if he kept himself occupied. He would get the radio ready, so the code could be sent as soon as the guys figured out how to get it to him. He had no idea whether there was anyone still at the other end of the wire, but at least it gave him something to do, some task to keep his mind from acknowledging the fear which was now just below the surface of his awareness, waiting to take over.
There's nobody left out there, and I'm never going to get out...
