Thor stepped to the side, his chest expanding angrily. The battle-ax lifted in his hand. “Jormungand,” he rumbled.
Accustomed now to the horrifying sight, Chesterton placed a firm hand on Barley’s shoulder. “Wait a second, Barley!” he whispered. “Wait until it comes into the cavern. Get a clear shot!”
Leviathan’s serpentine neck swung the wedged head left and then right, watching Blake and the panicked members of Frank’s science team run blindly toward opposite ends of the cavern. Clearly shattered, Blake snatched up a fallen M-16 and fired at the monstrosity, screaming incoherently, and then he was gone into an opposite doorway, still screaming. Leviathan ignored the wild shots, seeming to understand that Blake could do him no harm. And from the ventilation shaft beside the exit vault, Connor suddenly heard other screams, as if Tolvanos and his science team had somehow become aware of the beast’s arrival. Apparently they were hurrying to lower the elevator.
Leviathan leaped into the cavern, a hundred feet at the meager effort. It completely ignored the scurrying scientists of Frank’s team that cowered in the corners or found futile and mindless refuge behind equipment. But Connor saw that Barley had coolly tracked the beast’s movement, calmly keeping the LAW centered. The man’s hand tensed.
“Hold on!” Chesterton said, clutching Barley’s shoulder. “Wait until you can hit it dead-center.”
Crouching in front of the ventilation shaft beside the elevator, Leviathan stared intently down the opening. And even before Connor could anticipate what the Dragon was about to do, it unleashed a hellish stream of fire into the narrow port, fire that Connor knew was flooding into the elevator shaft itself to kill everyone who had crawled into the passageway—Tolvanos, Adler, and the science team.
Chesterton screamed, “Hit it!”
Connor hadn’t anticipated the force of the rocket. Even the back-blast of the LAW, a thick bolt of flame that erupted from the rear of the weapon, tore a plate of steel from the corridor. And then a thunderous explosion, like a miniature nuclear blast, knocked Leviathan airborne across the cavern.
Flung violently back by the concussion of the LAW, the beast demolished a steel beam and struck back instantly, whipping its tail for balance, always fighting, fighting. As it skidded to a colossal, grinding halt beside a limestone wall it roared and rose, on fire.
“Let’s move!” Chesterton bellowed and turned, and Connor was behind him, carrying Jordan. Beth and Frank followed with Thor again bringing up the rear. Then inexpressible screams of human suffering immediately filled the Climbing Cavern as Leviathan turned on everyone trapped within its demonic reach.
Moving fast toward Bridgestone, Connor hugged Jordan hard in his arms and tried to cover his son’s ears.
Hoped he couldn’t understand the screams.
***
Darkness stood on cold stone.
Human blood flowed against the thermal sensors of its serpentine, ageless eyes. And something old ... old, so old rose within it to shadow the death, the death. And it knew that it had won again. It had destroyed those that it lived to destroy.
It scanned everything—the yellow-green heat of the torn bodies, red no longer; the faint handprints on the wall, boots against the cavern floor. Heat tracks of escaping humans. But they could not escape.
No, nothing could escape, just as they had never been able to escape. Already, it had eaten to reconstitute. But the weapon ... the weapon had damaged it. Yes, had damaged it. And it needed to reconstitute. It must feed, feed, always feed.
Death, a shadow, passed over the beast ...
HUNT!
Fangs unhinging, Leviathan swung its serpentine head.
Yesssss ...
It must hunt, hunt, hunt ...
There were still more humans hiding in the cavern. It could read their heat tracks against the cold floor; saw where their hands had touched the walls, the faint impressions of residual body warmth where they had fled in fear.
Night shifted, congealing ...
HUNT! HUNT! HUNT!
A growl escaped its fangs and it knew that it must hunt them down; yes, must hunt them down. Hunt down the one who had injured it, the one who had used the fire. And it would kill him, would torture him and then kill him. And then the rest would die. And then it would escape.
As it knew it could.
Something it did not understand prompted it to do a Systems Damage Scan. It bent its massive, black-scaled head, searching for injury. It flexed its long forelegs, tensing the tendons, curling them inward to increase joint speed, to increase ligature strength.
Visually it examined its long, black claws; saw that none were chipped or broken. Then it curled its tail, studying the diamond-shaped wedge at the tip. There was no damage, no sign of compromised structural integrity. And instantly an instinctive electrical synapse began in the tip of its tail and moved upward, flashing through the outer armor epidermis to determine gaps in the scales. The synapse continued at the speed of light, leaping from one armored scale to the next to identify any compromised structural integrity and completed itself with a sudden, covering bolt of power at the top of its spine to strike the cerebellum with an electrical image of its armor status. And it was certain—its armor was fully intact. After the cold confirmation of armor status, it tensed the gel sacs in its neck, experimenting with a quick burst of flame that reached across the cavern, igniting the room for an amazing white moment before darkness fell again.
Perfect, yes.
You are perfect and you must kill them all.
It stared at the blood, the blood, to steal, to steal, to kill-KILL-KILL-KILL!
Smoldering fangs distended.
Yessssss ...
It was time to kill ...
It lowered itself to all fours and the dark, dark shadow of Leviathan fell across the dead. Then it moved slowly forward, following the heated human tracks through the red light, for there was the man, woman, and child.
Yes, had always been the man, the woman, and child ...
To kill, to kill, to kill ...
***
Behind them the tunnel trembled.
In a devil’s wind, Leviathan’s roar rushed over them and Connor spun, staring back. They had run almost a mile and there was nothing yet behind them. But Connor knew the beast would catch them quickly enough if he couldn’t slow it down. Even at the thought he reached out, snatching Beth’s arm. Frantically he handed Jordan to her.
“Go, Beth!” he whispered. “I’ve got to slow it down!”
She began to speak and Connor shouted, “Go, Beth! We don’t have time for this! I’ll meet you at the gorge!”
With a grimace she turned, following Chesterton. Then Connor was staring back down the tunnel and knew it was coming. Barley and Thor and the rest of the soldiers stood beside him. All of them were breathless from the frantic chase.
Glaring back down the tunnel, Thor was wild and gigantic with rage. In his breathless wrath he seemed truly mythic, titanic beyond belief. The Norseman’s towering, colossal aspect even distracted Connor for a moment before he searched the walls surrounding them.
“That thing will be on top of us in less than sixty seconds,” he breathed, wiping cold sweat from his eyes. Then he saw a connecting tunnel, deciding quickly that it was large enough for Leviathan’s continued pursuit. He turned toward Barley.
“How fast can you run?” he asked quickly.
“As fast as I have to!”
“Stay here, then. Hit that thing with a couple of LAWs when it comes down the tunnel. Hurt it! Slow it down! Then follow Thor and me as fast as you can! We’re going down this tunnel to rig something up! Something that can put that thing in the dirt!”
Barley unslung a second LAW. “Go, Connor! We’ll hit it and then we’re coming after you! And you better be ready, son, ‘cause we’ll be coming fast!”
In
stantly the big lieutenant began shouting instructions to the soldiers to lay down a field of fire and Connor turned, running with Thor close behind him. They sprinted until they reached a junction of four corridors. Connor knew if they angled left they would go back toward Lucifer’s Gorge.
He glared about the intersection and saw a major substation, housing at least 161,000 volts. But he didn’t have the tools to access it and the power cylinder was far, far too dangerous to enter without protection. Then he looked up and saw a large breaker box centered ten feet above the tunnel door. It could contain as much as 50,000 volts. It wasn’t as much as Connor wanted, but it’d have to do.
“That’s it, Thor!” Connor gasped. “That’s our chance!”
Far behind them Barley bellowed a command.
“It has come!” Thor shouted, whirling toward the chaos.
Trembling violently, Connor became frantic. “Oh, man! This isn’t going to work! I don’t have time to access the breaker box! We can’t get a wire out to—”
Enraged, Thor roared and whirled, leaping at the wall to slam his huge fist straight into the breaker box. In the next second his fingers locked like hooks over the upper edge of thick steel plate to explosively rip it from place, scattering screws through the corridor. Without a word Thor cast the dented plate aside, turning to Connor.
“Do it!” he rasped.
Connor staggered but he didn’t have any time or emotion left for amazement or relief. He pointed quickly to a thick white electrical line. “We need to get that line and let it dangle from the box, Thor. We’ve got to undo the brackets!”
Staring into the box, Thor growled, “Can you touch the insulated section of the wire with a bare hand? Can you pull it out of the box?”
“Yeah! You can touch the insulated section of the cable, but there’s a thousand-pound pressure bolt holding the cable in the box so we’re gonna have to find some way to—”
Thor snarled through clenched teeth as his hand locked around the wire, and with a superhuman effort he violently tore it out of the box, shattering bolts and ceramic brackets. Then with a long, straining effort, the giant hauled six feet of wire from the connecting pipe.
Connor shook his head, gasping. He saw immediately that it was a 10,000-volt line. “Just let it hang in the air, man. Don’t touch the end of it with your hand. The current will kill you in a heartbeat.”
Connor spun, staring as he heard men screaming in panic and pain, Barley bellowing, the roar of the beast, and a continuous cascade of gunfire, rockets, and grenades.
We’re out of time!” Connor gasped, turning to Thor. “Quick! Tear out another wire!”
Thor didn’t even blink as he explosively ripped a second power cable from the breaker box—a 40,000-volt line. This time Connor was actually shaken to his bones by the display of brute strength.
“That’s all we’re gonna get.” He grimaced. “Just let the wire hang and don’t let it touch the ground! When Leviathan hits the end of the wire, it’s going to ground the current!”
Moving with almost unbelievable calm, Thor carefully lowered the wire until the bare copper dangled six feet above the floor. The bronze-tinted point, poised in the air, glistened dangerously in the fluorescent light as frantic strides approached.
“They’re deeeaaaad! They’re dead! It’s right behind me!”
Barley’s scream blasted down the tunnel and Connor whirled as the lieutenant charged around the corner. Instantly Connor was leaping back from the entrance and screaming, “Hit the ground! Barley hit the ground don’t touch the wire!”
Barley understood, quickly dropping ten feet before he reached the wires and squirming forward in a lightning-fast combat crawl. He went under the wires as the shadow of Leviathan struck the corner behind him, the beast closing fast.
A demonic, howling head led the Dragon around the corner, low and pursuing. And then Thor had leaped after Barley with Connor following even as Leviathan lunged and lashed out, a jet-black foreleg flashing between the distended wires.
Connor screamed and twisted away as the butcher-knife claws slashed across his chest.
Chapter 22
A volcanic white bolt struck the Dragon through the face as it hit the 40,000-volt line, the power surging through its reptilian form to ground out on the hind legs and Connor spun away wildly as the six-ton beast was slammed against the roof of the passage.
Shrieking through the electrocution, Leviathan responded with a colossal twist and struck the side of the tunnel with a foreleg, hurling itself aside. The current broke from its body, and the Dragon crashed thunderously to the tunnel floor, disoriented.
Connor hauled a hot breath, felt his lungs blistered by the air.
Coughing, he realized that the entire atmosphere of the tunnel was suddenly superheated by the Dragon’s presence and the electrical blast. He grimaced as Leviathan shrieked in pain, only forty feet away, its tendons knotting, coiling inward, tearing.
And Connor understood ...
“Yes,” he whispered, staring. “That’s what really hurts you, isn’t it? That’s what you really hate ...”
Then Thor was over him and Connor was pulled to his feet, staggering through the howling, apocalyptic air. Dimly Connor realized that the 40,000-volt blast had knocked out the breakers in this section of tunnels. But he also knew that backup systems would keep the power alive in other areas of the cavern.
He noticed that his chest was bleeding, and he gazed down to see thin red lines drawn across the skin. No, he realized suddenly, it hadn’t missed. But it hadn’t struck deeply enough, either. They had traded wounds. And Connor had narrowly won.
Connor knew they couldn’t outrun it. Nothing could outrun it. Still, though, they stumbled forward, gasping and stunned. They ran three hundred feet from the tunnel entrance, staggering in the painfully hot air when Leviathan violently roared behind them, recovering.
Rising.
The Dragon stood, hurling a shriek over them.
“Enough!” Barley roared, spinning and dropping to a knee. He leveled the M-203 with white-hot hate, slamming in a grenade. “I have had enough of this GET DOWN!”
Connor and Thor dove to the side as the grenade hit Leviathan center-mass. The deafening explosion hurled a superheated shock wave back over them, and Connor was rolling away, throwing an arm over his face. Vengeful and defiantly holding his ground, standing fully against the blast, Barley slammed in another grenade, closing the chute with a hate-filled curse and then he had leveled and fired again.
Mushrooming flame... Barley reloaded, raging, screaming. Thor staggered to his feet, hurling aside the M-16. And understanding instantly, Barley unslung the M-79 grenade launcher and tossed it. Thor caught the weapon in the air, immediately snapping open the breech. In a flash he tore an antipersonnel grenade from the belt over Barley’s back and shoved it into the chamber. He flicked it shut with a snap of his wrist as ... Leviathan roared and leaped ... Thor and Barley spun, firing together.
The twin concussion slammed Leviathan back hard against the ground, bathing it in flame. And, as if in slow motion, Thor and Barley silently ejected the spent grenade canisters and calmly reloaded, stepping grimly toward the Dragon.
Brute force had met brute force.
Staggering and weak from the electrical surge, Leviathan rolled and tried to gain its feet, finally standing. It glared and then reached through the flames as if to embrace and Connor knew that this was a stand to certain death; Leviathan would either retreat here and now or they would die fighting where they stood and there was nothing else, nothing ...
White flames blazed before glaring green eyes. Then Thor sent a grenade into the Dragon’s armored chest, turning the beast as flame erupted from its mouth to cascade down the passageway ...
Missing ...
The blazing white plasmic deluge streamed fifty feet to the side, impacting a sloping li
mestone wall. The concussion scattered broken stone across the tunnel, staggering Barley into Thor who caught him and effortlessly pushed the lieutenant back to his feet.
Barley raised his weapon again as he landed, enraged even more, to fire his rifle with flame blazing until the clip was empty. He followed instantly with another grenade, bringing down the far roof of the tunnel with the mushrooming concussion.
Committed to the stand, Connor snatched up Thor’s fallen M-16 and raised it to his shoulder. His finger froze on the trigger, flame pouring from the barrel, the three of them and the Dragon, flame to flame, firing, firing and Connor realized he was screaming but he couldn’t think of it as he glimpsed the blazing black shadow twisting, striking with an uncontrolled eruption of flame that streamed from its mouth to mushroom over its head. Twisting and shrieking, Leviathan struck blindly at the explosions and flames, convulsing beneath the continuous, thunderous impacts.
Fire in the air, thunder met thunder.
Then the Dragon bent and bellowed, staggering forward. And with a roar Connor realized that weapons weren’t enough would never be enough to stop this thing and, guided by a desperate death instinct, he swung the aim of the M-16 toward the electrical substation located close to the side of the beast.
Holding a steady bead, he began firing.
Instantly the substation’s power cylinder exploded to scatter molten steel and electric blue bolts across the Dragon, a spider web of blazing tendrils of electric fire that cascaded over Leviathan’s armor, spiraling over the beast in crackling, iridescent bolts that impacted the opposite wall like a cannon blast, violently shattering steel plating and stone.
It was too much.
Leviathan shrieked, hideous face raised to the ceiling.
“Hit high!” Barley screamed, firing instantly.
With savage shouts of rage, Thor and Barley sent five, ten, twenty grenades into the tunnel mouth within sixty seconds to create a howling holocaust, a violent white world that brought the roof, floor, and walls together in a descending, molten mass of burning rock and steel. Connor heard himself shouting with last-stand madness, firing, firing the rifle until the weapon was suddenly and stunningly silent.
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