Read Online Legacy by David Lynn Golemon - Free Book Online

Hamilton,” Lee said as he shook his head.
    “I guess I could have done better,” Ben whispered.
    “No, you did fine. You remembered your training. You helped capture the man who will probably have his way in the end as far as my life is concerned.” As he said this last, he felt the river of blood pouring out of the open wound on his face. “I’m proud of you, boy.”
    Ben tried to shake his head but found he couldn’t. He tasted the blood in his mouth and then tried to focus on the colonel.
    “I think I bit my tongue,” he said, the words trailing off to nothing, and the light in his eyes dimmed.
    Garrison Lee looked at the young face of Ben Hamilton for the longest time. He brushed a strand of dark hair from his face and then after a few minutes lay him gently next to the strange body and even stranger-looking rocks that the Germans had unearthed. As he did he heard General Goetz moan and cough. Lee, without even looking at the injured German, raised the .45 automatic and emptied his remaining rounds into him. He then turned and slowly collapsed from his own wounds. His body slowly fell and landed next to Ben, and also next to the most important archaeological find in the history of the world. Lee saw they all had the same symbol stenciled onto them—the four circles in a straight line. As the blood flowed freely from Lee’s fully opened wounds, his good eye fell on the symbols stenciled on the crates. He tried to focus, but the blood loss finally took him down into the black abyss of unconsciousness.
    In the far corner a corporal, a clerk attached to the SS division in Ecuador, stood and with a frightened expression made his way out of the car. Joss Zinsser, who was no more than a boy, moved away, one of the last witnesses to what had been uncovered in Ecuador.
    As the last visages of the real world twirled and spun, Garrison Lee wondered about the fate he had chosen for himself.
    Operation Columbus had been momentarily halted on train tracks outside Quito, but would not remain there for long. Soon a secret that belonged to the entire world would be reburied behind steel and concrete.
    WALTER REED GENERAL HOSPITAL, JULY 4, 1945
     
    The woman sat in the same chair in the same spot in the room that she had been in for the past three months. She sometimes read books, and at other times just watched the slow rise and fall of the patient’s chest as he breathed steadily. He was no longer being fed oxygen underneath the small plastic tent. His wounds were healing and his color was improving. She watched patiently as Garrison Lee slowly recovered from the massive loss of blood he incurred while on duty in South America. The woman had waited day in and day out.
    The young woman had dark brown hair that was usually tucked up under a large hat. For the first two months she wore one of many black dresses as she sat and waited, never standing and checking on Lee with a physical touch, but always watching. Gone now were the black mourning dresses and in their place were nice, clean, sensible skirts.
    As she sat she heard firecrackers somewhere off in the distance. It was the Fourth of July and she was marking her sixtieth day at Walter Reed. As she looked down at her small and elegant hands, she heard something over the pop of firecrackers. She looked up and saw that Colonel Lee was moving under the blanket. His head turned first to the left and then slowly to the right. She saw the large bandage covering the entire right side of his face and the forehead area. The blood had stopped seeping through as soon as the doctors got the infection under control last month. The bandages were now clean and dry. His one good eye blinked in her direction. She could see that he was having a hard time focusing after so long a sleep. She stood and walked slowly to the bed, placing a hand on Garrison’s cheek. She smiled.
    Lee, as he finally focused on the young woman standing next to him, thought that the smile he received was a sad