Read The Ascendant: A Thriller for Free Online

single, rusting iron door. Sawyer frowned, then followed. He had maybe two minutes to give McAfee one last pitch—somehow, he’d hoped to do it aboveground. The iron door was open, and the elevator was waiting for Sawyer. He stepped inside. McAfee stepped in with him. “I’ll inspect with you, if you don’t mind?”
    That wasn’t really a question, Sawyer thought, was it? He said, “No. Please do.”
    Sawyer closed the gate, keyed the winch engine, and started the elevator’s descent into the mine. The moment the car slipped below the surface the two men were surrounded by darkness and by sound: the mechanical grind of the cables straining overhead, and the wind being displaced below them, as they dropped three thousand feet into the earth. Dim yellow light illuminated their faces and not much else.
    Five minutes later the elevator stopped with a low crunch as they reached the main shaft of the mine. Sawyer opened the gate and stepped out. He loved being inside mines. It was still a thrill for him, one he’d probably never get over: dark, strange, the smell of earth, the heat that grew as you descended. Other people got claustrophobic, but not him. He paused, took a breath, and turned to McAfee. It was now or never.
    “A lot of molybdenum left in these seams,” he said.
    “I’m sure there is, Mr. Sawyer.”
    “Worth a lot of money. Maybe a billion dollars.”
    McAfee squinted in the dim lamplight. Sawyer could tell he didn’t like being underground. He was trying to control his breathing, control his panic. “I wouldn’t know,” McAfee said.
    “The U.S. used to produce a quarter of the world’s supply of molybdenum. Now maybe ten percent. Without this mine that will drop to five. We’ll become a net importer of the stuff.”
    McAfee fixed Sawyer with his most lawyerly stare. Sawyer bit his lip and continued: “It’s a rare element. It’s vital. We use it in heat-resistant alloys—you know, for fighter planes, rocket engines. All kinds of high-tech stuff. It’s damn valuable.”
    “Mr. Sawyer,” McAfee said curtly. “Please check the detonators now.”
    Sawyer winced, then nodded. The conversation was officially over. He walked the length of the shaft. There were five separate branches, tributary seams that led off from the main one. Sawyer carefully checked the detonators, explosives, and cables at each spot in the mine. Everything was secure. As usual, he’d done an excellent job, even if it broke his heart to do it. He returned to McAfee, standing by the elevator, twenty minutes later.
    “Good to go,” Sawyer said.
    “Then let’s get the fuck out of here,” McAfee said. It was the first time Sawyer had ever heard him use a profanity.
    They rode up the elevator in silence. Sawyer stopped the car halfway up and primed the explosive he’d rigged in the elevator shaft. When it blew, the only channel into the mine would be destroyed. It would take a new owner many years and many millions of dollars to get back in here. In fact, it might just be impossible. That’s what McAfee had told him the new owners wanted when they hired him: Make it impossible to get back down here. Sawyer shook his head at the memory. Why had he agreed to this?
    McAfee bolted from the elevator the moment it reached the surface. Sawyer lingered a moment, then shut the door and walked to the outer edge of the farthest mine building, a low-slung brick building where he had rigged the blasting control panel yesterday. McAfee joined him, this time accompanied by two bulky, gun-toting guards. Sawyer asked one of the guards to put out the first warning. The guard barked into a walkie-talkie. Sawyer armed the control panel.
    “Put out the second warning, please,” he instructed the guard, who broadcast it into the walkie-talkie.
    Sawyer glanced over his shoulder. The protestors were inching closer to the fence that surrounded the mine, knowing what was about to happen. A phalanxof guards inside the fence moved to block their