Sub-Sahara

by Ethan Arkwright

  ‘We outnumber them, and they’re getting away!’ He picked up his radio. ‘Change of plan. Car one, stop here. We’ll deflate the tyres to cope with the sand. Car two, you keep driving around the hard earth and set up RPGs. We’ll flush him out towards you. Go!’

  His men leapt out of the car to get to work on the tyres while the second car sped off in a cloud of dust.

  ‘Eight years I’ve been waiting to kill this prick,’ he said to his men. ‘Hurry up!’

  ‘Good to go, boss,’ the driver said.

  ‘Good,’ Lockyer said. ‘Get fresh mags in your weapons and hang out the windows. Open up as soon as you see him to stop his gunner getting a fix on us. We’ll push him west towards the trap.’

  They all piled into the car and hit the sand again at speed, quickly climbing the dune.

  ***

  On the back of the Land Rover, Rolleston was looking around. ‘I can’t see them,’ he said. ‘But I’ve also lost track of where we are. The whole place looks the same.’

  They were driving in amongst the dunes, all of them virtually indistinguishable.

  ‘We’re heading west,’ Cavill said. ‘In a couple more minutes, we’ll have covered enough area to start a loop. Keep them going in circles for a while till we figure out our next move.’

  ‘We don’t have a couple more minutes,’ Rolleston said. ‘They’ve just crested a dune back there…yup, seen us. They’ve got the vehicles sorted out. That Land Cruiser has a bigger engine. They’re gaining. They’ll soon be in range.’

  ‘I’ll switch it up,’ Cavill said, turning the steering wheel and heading south again. ‘Try to keep a dune between us for cover.’

  As they reached the top of the dune, they could see tiny explosions in the sand in front of them from automatic fire in the chasing car. Rolleston was trying to level the large machine gun to return fire as they crested the dune and dropped down the other side. He lost sight of them. The Land Rover swerved and slid quickly down the dune. Once they hit the bottom, Cavill pointed the car straight at the next one to start climbing it.

  ‘They’re cresting,’ Rolleston yelled as he saw the large Land Cruiser roar over the top of the previous dune.

  ‘So are we,’ Cavill called back.

  The car immediately dropped into a descent again.

  The cycle continued for a couple more dunes.

  ‘How long can we keep this up?’ Rolleston asked as they neared the peak of another dune.

  ‘Long enough until—shit!’ Cavill was cut short as the vehicle came down over the top of the dune, and he saw there were no more dunes beyond it. The landscape changed back to hard, rocky, arid desert. The second enemy Land Cruiser was on the desert floor in front of them. Worse, he picked out five men spaced along the desert floor at three-hundred-metre intervals. All standing, ready, with rocket launchers.

  ‘Hang on,’ Cavill yelled, wrenching the steering wheel to slew the car in an unbalanced attempt to turn it around on the slope.

  ‘Incoming,’ Rolleston yelled, seeing the first white puff of smoke from a rocket-propelled grenade being discharged from the desert floor.

  The engine of the Land Rover screamed as the wheels desperately sought purchase in the slippery sand. Rolleston watched helplessly as the rocket streaked towards them while the car finally gained a good grip and started climbing back up the dune.

  ‘It’s off,’ Rolleston said with relief. The rocket hit about twenty metres from their position, and a huge cloud of sand erupted into the sky. A second plume of white appeared. ‘Incoming!’ Rolleston called again.

  They were nearing the top of the dune. Lockyer’s Land Cruiser burst over the top and crashed down on the other side at the position Cavill had come over the dune. Rolleston shifted in his seat to get the machine gun on them. The second RPG exploded near the rear of the Land Rover. The force lifted the back of the vehicle into the air and pushed it forward to the top of the dune.

  Rolleston went flying out of the back and down the other side of the dune.

  ‘No!’ Cavill yelled.

  He had to make a snap decision at the top of the dune. If he tried to pick Rolleston up, the Land Cruiser behind him would catch them. They would be pinned down by superior fire until the enemy could get the RPGs on his stranded vehicle.

  They would die.

  Cavill calculated that the best chance for Rolleston to survive was for him to draw the enemy away. He floored the accelerator again, and the car lurched along the top of the dune. He heard, rather than saw, another RPG detonation nearby.

  He had a new problem now.

  With Rolleston gone, it was extremely difficult for him to drive and fire back at the same time. He was out in the open and practically defenceless.

  Chapter 28

  On the far side of the city, Lampack brought the dune buggy to a screeching halt.

  ‘What’d you stop for?’ Fabrice asked, turning around quickly.

  ‘Listen,’ Lampack said.

  ‘To what?’

  ‘Exactly. They’re not following us.’

  ‘Ah, shit. You think they just carried on to the pyramid?’

  ‘Don’t know,’ Lampack said. ‘Hope not, otherwise it’s us turning around and hunting them.’

  ‘Do we go back the way we came, looking for them?’

  ‘Best way for us to lay a trap, isn’t it?’

  ‘Shit,’ Fabrice said.

  Both their heads turned at the same time as they heard the sound of a heavy motor being revved in the distance.

  ‘Got them,’ Lampack said. ‘That’s about three blocks away. Probably going around to try to cut us off further up the road.’

  He turned the buggy into the next street and started navigating in the direction of the enemy car.

  ‘Of course, they can now probably hear us as well,’ Fabrice said, trying to swing on his seat to get to the forward-facing gun.

  ‘No choice,’ Lampack said. ‘We’ve got to keep them in contact and engaged. Stop them going to the pyramid.’

  They drove out of a side street onto one of the main arterial roads leading towards the pyramid, which they could see clearly in the distance. Lampack dropped the revs so they could hear the enemy engine again.

  ‘It’s getting closer,’ Fabrice said. ‘Stop at the next house up. We’ll get them when they come onto this street.’

  Lampack moved forward and then killed the motor, quickly leaning to his left to get access to the second M60 machine gun. Fabrice was now in control of the forward-facing M2 heavy machine gun.

  Both men tensed, waiting for the contact.

  The enemy Land Cruiser rolled slowly into the street ahead of them. Neither man hesitated. They fired with everything they had.

  The enemy car started shuddering and jolting as the large shells tore gaping, hand-sized holes in it. All the windows shattered under the hail of fire, and the huge car lumbered to a smoking, broken stop.

  ‘There’s no one in it,’ Lampack said, looking through the gaping holes where there were blacked-out windows only moments before. ‘No bodies, no blood splatter…They’ve dispersed on foot!’

  ‘Back up! Back up!’ Fabrice said.

  Lampack quickly moved to fire up the engine again, but it was too late. They didn’t see which side street the RPG came out of until it was too late. The rocket hit the ground a few metres to their left side, and the force of the blast lifted the buggy and flipped it on its side.

  Neither man was strapped in, and both went flying out to land in a heap in the street.

  Dazed, concussed, and almost deaf, they both tried to get up. Lampack got to his hands and knees before a swift kick into his midriff flipped him onto his back again.

  He looked through the haze, and a gun barrel slowly came into focus in front of his face. He turned his head and saw Fabrice in the same situation.

  ‘Don’t move, asshole. I’d love to kill you,’ the voice at the other end of the gun barrel said. ‘But we may need you.’

  Lam
pack didn’t see the rifle butt that smashed into his head and knocked him out.

  Chapter 29

  As Cavill came to the end of the band of dunes, he snatched a glance behind him to locate the enemy. He had to decide whether to drive back into the dunes or back into the city, where he had a better chance of evasion and defence by himself.

  A streak of white through the blue sky pulled his sight towards the enemy Land Cruiser on the hard ground, which promptly exploded in a colossal orange fireball.

  ‘What the hell?’ he said.

  As the noise of the explosion died down, he heard it.

  A Predator drone.

  The Americans had gotten drones over the site and were taking people out.

  He didn’t hesitate and spun the car back towards the city, flooring it to get to top speed.

  The cover of the buildings was his only chance.

  He snatched another glance to his right and saw that the last enemy Land Cruiser was doing exactly the same thing. It had abandoned its line of chasing him and turned back. It was now a flat-out race to get to the city first.

  It was also a game of pure chance who the drone would target next.

  ‘C’mon, you pile of crap!’ He urged the car forward, while still looking around, preparing himself to dive out at speed if he spotted an incoming missile.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the city was drawing close. He just needed a bit more time. His nerves were completely frayed.

  ‘Yes!’ he said as the car finally powered between the buildings at full speed in a cloud of dust.

  As soon as his eyes adjusted to the lower light, he saw that he was heading towards a T-junction. An almighty roar distorted reality around him as a Hellfire air-to-surface missile flew a few metres above the car and ploughed into the building at the end of the T-junction. Reality was warped further as the building exploded outwards. The shockwave hit Cavill before he could react, snapping his head back.

  In the slow-motion time warp, he lost control of the steering wheel. The momentum of the car travelling at top speed powered it through the blast shockwave. The front wheels hit the kerb and launched the car up and forward, straight into the collapsing building.

  Ancient stone, brick, and dust covered Cavill as he jerked against his seat belt with the impact.

  He sagged over the steering wheel as his senses slowly readjusted to reality.

  He heard a clattering of small stones and opened his eyes enough to see a swaying wall in blurred focus.

  His survival instinct was enough to cut through the fugue in his brain. The walls were still coming down.

  With a groan, he unclipped his seat belt and rolled out of the driver’s seat onto the ground.

  He knew it wasn’t enough. With his remaining strength, he managed to roll underneath the car for protection as he heard the collapsing walls thudding into the vehicle above.

  Then he was falling.

  As he dropped through the air, he wasn’t sure whether he was dreaming or already dead. Another impact on hard ground quickly brought him back to reality.

  He let out a low moan as new waves of pain hit him.

  He also knew he was alive.

  He couldn’t move without it hurting, so decided to lie there for a while and recover.

  After some time in the daze, he heard voices up above.

  ‘You think he survived that?’

  ‘No, how could anyone? That car’s buried under a ton of rubble.’

  ‘Still, better make sure, hey? The boss wants a confirmed kill on this guy.’

  ‘Well, I’m not going in there. Don’t think we’re getting paid enough for this gig as it is. Half the bloody team’s dead. With that drone turning up, safe to say the US Special Forces will turn up soon. I want out of this shit, not end up in Guantanamo because of the boss’s personal vendetta.’

  ‘Yeah, agreed. How many grenades you got?’

  ‘Four.’

  ‘Me, too. Let’s chuck them all in and then scout the surrounding blocks. If we find nothing, we tell the boss confirmed kill in this building. Agreed?’

  ‘Yep.’

  Cavill vaguely heard the sound of grenades bouncing off metal and stone.

  He closed his eyes.

  The explosions were big, but nothing on the scale as before. More dust rained on him from the hole above, but the building didn’t shake, and the structure held.

  Then there was only silence in the dim light.

  ***

  Jerry Cornell was about as close to panicking as a professional soldier could be.

  ‘It’s been twenty minutes,’ Harcourt said gently behind him.

  ‘I know, I know,’ Cornell said. They were still standing at the entrance to the treasure room. They were still looking at the dead bodies of Mike Baker and the other archaeologists on the floor in front of them. They still hadn’t figured out what had killed them and what the trap in the room was.

  The added pressure came from knowing that another enemy team was probably breaking into the pyramid containers above them.

  They were running out of time.

  ‘What have we not thought of?’ he said.

  ‘Nothing,’ Chris Watkins said. ‘How about you send one of your guys in?’

  Cornell turned and raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Great idea, except it will be you before us. My men are irreplaceable, but I’ll still have one scientist left.’

  ‘I work in a different field.’

  ‘Shut up, before I throw you in there.’

  They were interrupted by a noise from behind.

  ‘Sansom, what is it?’ Cornell asked.

  Sansom was covering the rear.

  ‘It’s the Professor,’ Sansom called back.

  Evron pushed past everyone to get to Cornell. He was breathing heavily when he stopped.

  ‘Why aren’t you in there?’ he said.

  ‘We can’t figure out the trap that caused the previous lot to die,’ Cornell said, pointing at the bodies in the next room.

  ‘And the map gives no clues?’ Evron asked.

  ‘Nope,’ Cornell replied. ‘It only gave directions via lines to this room. Nothing else.’

  ‘So that’s the prize…’ Evron said, looking in at the dull piece of rock sitting on a pedestal in the centre of the room.

  ‘It was obviously revered,’ Rebecca Grainger said, bringing Evron up to speed.

  ‘A lot of violence clearly happened in that room in the past. What’s with all the great scrapes and scratches all over the walls?’ Evron said.

  ‘Don’t know,’ Rebecca replied. ‘Never seen anything like it.’

  ‘The good news,’ Cornell said, ‘is that the object will fit into a container in a backpack. The bad news is we need to get in there and still haven’t figured out how.’

  ‘You scanned the room with thermal, infrared, and motion visors?’ Evron asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Cornell said. ‘All blank. Unless it triggers things coming out of the walls when you’re in there. But there are no marks on the bodies on the floor.’

  ‘You don’t have much light in there. Put the visors back on, get every torch pointed in there, and chuck in a few more glow sticks. Let’s light up every corner,’ Evron said.

  The soldiers pulled down and adjusted the relevant visors on their helmets, and Cornell adjusted the screen on his handheld motion detector.

  ‘Going to get low this time,’ Cornell said, lowering himself onto his stomach and placing the motion detector in line with the floor.

  Harcourt pulled out more glow sticks to throw in.

  ‘For God’s sake, don’t hit the object,’ Kate Edwards said. ‘It could be highly unstable. You could kill us all.’

  ‘Okay, go,’ Cornell said.

  Everyone fired up his torch, and Harcourt threw four more glow sticks to various points around the room. A few bounced against the walls.

  The whole room lit up. Every detail was bathed in yellow light.

  ‘You see that dust kick
up?’ Cornell said, looking at his screen.

  ‘No,’ Evron said. ‘There’s no dust on the floor.’

  ‘Well, I’ve got particles moving on the screen where those sticks hit the floor.’

  Evron looked more closely at the floor.

  ‘There’s no visible dust on the floor. It’s polished stone and perfectly clean. Looks like you could eat off it.’

  ‘That’s it!’ Rebecca said.

  ‘What, eating off it?’

  ‘No, visible dust. Every corridor in here has a normal layer of the stuff except for in there. The trap is poison dust so fine it can’t be seen with the naked eye against the polished stone. As soon as you walk in there, you kick it up and are probably dead within minutes.’

  Cornell stood up and breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Glad you’re here,’ he said. ‘Break out the breathing masks, quickly.’

  They all stepped back to find their portable breathing masks and put them on. Once the soldiers had theirs in place, they checked to make sure the civilians were using theirs correctly.

  ‘Okay, here we go,’ Cornell said, stepping gingerly into the room. Evron followed a step behind, and soon they were all crowding into the chamber.

  ‘All this for what looks like a rock,’ Cornell said, closely inspecting the object on the pedestal. ‘Right. There’s a team of highly armed assholes not far behind us. You scientists quickly do your thing while we figure out how to move it.’

  ‘Step aside,’ Kate Edwards said, elbowing her way to the front with an oblong device in her hand.

  ‘Whoa, what’s that?’ Rebecca asked.

  ‘State-of-the-art mineral scanner,’ Kate said. ‘Will tell us what it’s made of.’

  Chris Watkins was fiddling with another small device.

  ‘And what’s that?’ Evron asked.

  ‘Checks for the four types of radiation,’ Watkins said as he got close to the object.

  Cornell signalled to Evron.

  He sidled up to Cornell, and they opened the backpack that Cornell pointed to in readiness to transport the object.

  ‘This is incredible,’ Rebecca said, walking around the room and studying the pictures carved on the walls. ‘They show some kind of high priest with divine seeing powers, like visions. They worshipped this thing, but all of the pictures show contorted bodies.’