"Yes."

"It came out of the Golden Lily," Tai said.

"After the war, we recovered a good portion of the treasure that the Japanese and Germans looted. Some of it was given back to the rightful owners, mostly pieces of art in Europe where the scrutiny level was higher. But gold – like that below – a lot of it was untraceable, or could be melted down into bars that were untraceable."

"And that became?"

"The Black Eagle Trust," Tai said.

"At the end of the war some far-thinking people saw the threat that communism posed for the West. And they realized that they would need money – a lot of it – to wage the fight."

"I thought that was called taxes," Vaughn noted.

"The Black Eagle fund was a slush fund," Tai said.

"Used to bribe people, influence elections, pay for black ops with complete deniability."

The last thing she'd mentioned caught Vaughn's attention.

"There was an OSS operative by the name of Lansale," Tai continued.

"He went into the Philippines before MacArthur invaded and linked up with the guerrilla forces – not to mobilize the guerrillas, but with the explicit order to find as much of the Golden Lily as he could. Which wasn't as easy as it sounds, since the Japanese were brutal about trying to hide places like this. They thought nothing of executing all the slave labor they used to build them – and even killing their own engineers who worked on them – in order to keep the locations secret."

"How did this Lansale know about the Golden Lily?" Vaughn asked.

Tai shrugged.

"That's an interesting question. After the war, General Yamashita, the Japanese commander in the Philippines, was captured. He never talked before his execution, but his driver, a Major Kojima, was secretly tortured, and it was rumored he gave up the location of several of the caches, including some that Marcos recovered directly for his own fortune."

"But you said Lansale went in before the war was over," Vaughn noted.

Tai nodded.

"I don't know what Lansale knew or how he knew it, but however he found out about it, he realized its significance right away. He went to three of Roosevelt's top advisors – the Secretary of War and the two men who would shortly become the Secretary of Defense and the head of the World Bank. They told Roosevelt that they needed to gain control of as much of the Golden Lily as possible – and when Roosevelt died, we have to assume they went to Truman with the same cause. The treasure they recovered was spread out around the world, to a lot of banks. They used that to create gold bearer certificates that could be used in any country in the world. The war against communism was, in a way, fought in a most capitalistic way.

"There was more to it than just fighting communism, though," Tai continued.

"If so much gold flooded the market, it would have destabilized all the currencies that were based on a gold standard."

"So this Black Eagle Trust was a good thing," Vaughn said. She shrugged.

"It was illegal."

He gave a short laugh.

"You think what we're doing here is legal?"

"No, it isn't," Tai allowed.

"So what the fuck is your point?" Vaughn snapped, tired of being strung along.

"My point is that there's a lot more going on in the covert world than we know – or maybe than anyone except a select handful know."

"So?"

"So, I think we better be damn careful and watch our backs."

Vaughn let out his anger with a deep breath.

"I agree to that."

He stood, shouldering his ruck.

"Let's go find Abayon."

"How do you propose to do that?" Tai asked.

Vaughn pointed at the various openings that lined the walls.

"Pick one."

She walked to the wall and went to each opening, shining her light into them. Vaughn waited in the middle of the room, listening to the thump of the air circulator.

"This one," she finally said.

"Why that one?"

"It goes up. Bosses always like being above it all. Plus the air intakes should be up there – and we're going to need another way in and out of this place."

It made as much sense as anything else. Without waiting, Tai climbed into the tube. Vaughn followed. The pipe went upward at about a twenty-degree angle and was about two and a half feet wide. It was uncomfortable moving through it, and Vaughn was forced to tie his rucksack to his boot and drag it behind him. Every so often they came to a grate and paused to check out what was on the other side. So far the grates had opened onto dark rooms, and Vaughn was reluctant to shine a light into them for fear one might be a barracks room with sleeping guards.

Finally they came upon a grate with light shining through it. Tai peered through, then moved up, gesturing to Vaughn. He crawled to the grate and looked inside at a room with a half-dozen long tables. From the odor wafting in, he assumed it was some sort of mess hall. There was no one in sight.

Tai was already moving, and he followed her.

Another grate. A single lightbulb glowed in what was obviously a storage room. Tai kept moving. Vaughn estimated they had gone up at least two hundred feet in altitude, but it was hard to tell.

They came to another grate where light shone through. Tai spent several moments looking, gesturing for Vaughn to be very quiet, then slid up, giving him access.

He slid up to the grate, peered through and saw a medical dispensary. A woman in a white uniform was working on some sort of machine, checking it. It seemed they were getting closer, since the dispensary would be close to where the people were.

As they continued to ascend, Vaughn began to wonder how much farther they could possibly go. He also worried about a way out. Reversing course meant they would have to find a way to get back up into the tube they had slid down, which he didn't think would be possible. He hoped his information about air intakes was correct.

Tai stopped at another grate, and Vaughn waited as she peered through for over a minute. Finally she moved up the tube and signaled. He crawled up and peered through.

An old man sat in a wheelchair behind a desk in a room portioned by what appeared to be a blast-proof clear wall. Even though the photo they had was out of date, Vaughn had no doubt the man was Rogelio Abayon. His hand slid down to his holster, but he paused as Tai's boot tapped him on the head. He looked up.

She shook her head, then pointed up. She clicked on her red lens flashlight briefly, showing that the tube ended at what appeared to be a hatch. Without waiting, she began crawling upward.

Vaughn took one last look at Abayon, then followed.

CHAPTER 17

Royce was driving toward Fort Shafter when his pager went off. He glanced at the number, then pushed down on the accelerator. He made it to the tunnel entrance, flashed his identification card to the guard, and entered. Foster was waiting for him in the control room. From the bustle of activity in the operations room, Royce had a good idea about what had happened.

Foster confirmed it immediately.

"The recon element has pinpointed Abayon's location and found a way into the complex."

"Has the rest of the team been alerted?" Royce asked as he scanned the short message.

Foster nodded.

"The message was forwarded to the AST."

He glanced at the clock.

"Wheels up for the infiltration aircraft in four hours."

"How are they going in?" Royce asked.

"Low level Combat Talon. They're parachuting at three hundred feet right on top of the mountain. Rough terrain suits. The recon element found a tube that goes right in."

Royce pondered that. There was a very good chance the Talon flying low over the mountain would alert the guerrillas. On the other hand, it was fast.