Sub-Sahara

by Ethan Arkwright

  After a couple of deep breaths, he gripped the door lever, brought his pistol to the edge of the doorframe, yanked the door open, and charged into the room.

  He barrelled straight into three men clustered around the access hatch, sending two of them stumbling. He was almost as surprised as they were, but he recovered first.

  BOOM!

  The noise from his gun in the container was astounding as he shot the nearest man in the head. He spun on his heel.

  BOOM!

  He shot the second man through the neck as he was grappling to get his pistol out.

  He started turning, looking for the third man, but did not get a shot off before he was hit from the side.

  The third man, realising there was no time to draw a weapon, had crash tackled Cavill in the chest, and both men stumbled into the rear wall of the science offices. The third man kept his charge up and heaved Cavill against the wall. He grabbed Cavill’s hand over his gun to stop him bringing it around. He grabbed Cavill by the throat with his other hand and squeezed deeply while pushing him further up the wall.

  ‘Well, well,’ Lockyer said as Cavill fought for air under his iron grip. ‘They told me you were dead. Never trust mercenaries, eh? Well, what a pleasure it’s going to be to kill you myself.’

  Chapter 38

  ‘Why’ve we stopped?’ Cornell called to the front of the line as everybody bunched up in the dimly lit tunnel.

  ‘We’ve got a problem here,’ Rebecca Grainger called back. ‘A big problem.’

  ‘You two stay here and cover the rear,’ Cornell said to Harcourt and Sansom. He quickly muscled past the civilians. Evron followed closely behind. As he pushed passed Watkins, he almost stumbled into the open space that confronted him. ‘Shit, it’s another room.’

  ‘A sealed room with nothing in it,’ Grainger said, motioning to the blank walls. ‘A dead end. There’s nothing in here and no way out.’

  ‘Check the walls,’ he said to Evron. They split apart and unclipped their rifles. Each began banging the butt of his weapon in random places on the walls of the room that surrounded the tunnel they had just come out of.

  ‘Seems solid everywhere,’ Evron said as they met on the wall opposite the entrance.

  ‘Same here,’ Cornell said. ‘Options?’

  ‘We could search for a trigger that could release the stone into another passage,’ Grainger suggested.

  Cornell turned to her. ‘No time, and it’s not Indiana fucking Jones in here.’

  ‘Only option is to blow all the walls like before and hope one of them is thin enough to take us onwards,’ Evron said.

  ‘Agreed,’ Cornell said. ‘Harcourt!’ he yelled back down the tunnel. ‘Get your ass up here with the demolitions!’

  Harcourt came hustling through and slung his backpack to the ground. He ripped the top off it and started pulling out plastic explosives and detonators.

  ‘No time for a single set. Pass enough out for each of us,’ Cornell said.

  Harcourt dished out the requisite charges to his two colleagues. Each set about rapidly placing them on a wall in a square about a metre across and feeding the detonation cord towards the entry to the tunnel.

  ‘We’ve no choice but to blow it all at once,’ Cornell said. ‘Everybody get back down the tunnel. The blast will funnel down there and kill us if we’re too close.’

  They all started pushing back down the dark corridor the way they had come, with Harcourt reeling out the detonation cord as they went.

  The booming sound of gunfire in the tunnel made everyone drop low. Harcourt put the cord down.

  ‘Contact!’ Sansom yelled from further down the tunnel, in between gunfire bursts.

  Cornell and Evron pushed the civilians behind them to reach Sansom, who was lying flat and laying down rounds to the end of the tunnel before it turned a corner. He had dumped his backpack with the lead container on the ground and was firing over it as though it was a protective sandbag. The two men placed theirs on top so they had a defensive position to take cover behind. They took up covering arcs to increase the rate of fire and keep the enemy from coming around the corner.

  ‘Good thinking with the backpack,’ Evron said. ‘Small arms fire won’t breach the lead containers.’

  ‘Shit! How’d they get here so quick? Did you see them?’ Cornell said over the noise.

  ‘Yes, they were obviously expecting the worst,’ Sansom said. ‘They’re in full radiation suits, so they weren’t bothered by the dust or smoke.’

  ‘We’re still too close to detonate the charges,’ Evron said, reloading his rifle with a fresh magazine.

  ‘And we can’t go back any further,’ Cornell said. ‘You think they’ll use grenades?’

  ‘No,’ Evron said. ‘Might collapse the walls, and they know we have the energy source. They won’t risk destroying it and maybe themselves by throwing grenades at it. Guess they’re restricted to small-arms fire.’

  At that moment, a rifle swung round the distant corner and fired off a burst of bullets. All three men ducked, but the unsighted weapon was well off the mark.

  All three responded in kind with precision fire. The enemy rifle was whipped back to safety at speed.

  ‘That confirms it,’ Cornell said.

  ‘It also means both teams are pinned down,’ Evron said. ‘But they probably have more ammo than us.’

  Chapter 39

  Cavill was dazed from being slammed up against the wall. As he started to recover, Lockyer’s grip intensified to choke the air out of him. He saw Lockyer pivoting to deliver the knockout blow.

  He had to move fast.

  Lockyer was expecting a counter-attack from his free arm or from his knee, and he would be ready with a block. The only way out was to do something unexpected.

  While Cavill’s left arm was pinned at the wrist, he could still move his hand. He flicked his left hand forward, throwing his pistol. It hit Lockyer in the side of the face. Shock and natural reflexes caused Lockyer to pull back, just for a second. It was all Cavill needed.

  He launched his right knee up, drove it into Lockyer’s groin, and followed up immediately with a right elbow to the side of Lockyer’s head.

  Lockyer grunted and fell backwards, pulling Cavill with him. Lockyer spun on his heel as he fell back into the centre of the room. He used his momentum to yank Cavill to his right to get out of the defensive position and get Cavill away from the gun.

  They separated and crashed into furniture.

  Both were up immediately and squared up across the space. Lockyer’s eyes burned with hatred. ‘You cost me everything,’ Lockyer said.

  ‘And you never faced true justice for all the innocents you killed. But you will now,’ Cavill said.

  ‘And you—’ Lockyer broke off and sprinted to his right, towards the pyramid entry room and the table they had been using as a command centre.

  That was unexpected.

  Cavill started after him. He knew Lockyer wasn’t running; he was going for something. He looked up ahead to see what it was and clocked it—a detonator with a series of buttons. It was at the top of the table.

  Lockyer swept past and grabbed the detonator in one fluid movement. Cavill launched himself and hit him with flying tackle that took them both through the door into the pyramid entry room. They crashed in a heap on the floor.

  Cavill gripped Lockyer’s hand around the detonator to stop him using it. He knew the guy was crazy enough to blow all of them up if he thought he was losing. Lockyer headbutted him, and Cavill’s head snapped back. He rolled off to the side but kept his a vice-like grip on Lockyer’s hand. Both men struggled to get to their knees to gain the advantage. Lockyer swung a left hook; Cavill parried and fired a straight jab that Lockyer dodged. Both men were up on one knee. Lockyer launched himself into Cavill, leading with his head. He was going for a knockout headbutt. Cavill leant back and took the glancing blow while using the momentum to stand up and pull Lockyer with him. Their bodies collided in the middle of th
e room. As they spun, Cavill slipped his phosphorous grenade out of his plate carrier and shoved it into Lockyer’s webbing vest. He pulled the pin just as Lockyer landed a crunching blow to the side of his face.

  Cavill dropped to one knee and tasted blood in his mouth.

  ‘Got you, motherfucker!’ Lockyer shouted, straightening up to full height above him.

  ‘Have you?’ Cavill said, not looking up.

  Lockyer’s expression changed to confusion and then panic as his chest erupted in a ball of burning white.

  Cavill stood up and punched him in the face with his free hand.

  ‘White phos,’ Cavill said, punching him again and making him stagger backwards towards the open door on the north side of the container. ‘Terrible way to die.’

  Lockyer was screaming as the phosphorous burnt into his flesh. He pawed at it with his free hand, which became covered in the burning element. Cavill kept punching him in the face, driving him towards the open door.

  Lockyer staggered back towards the gaping hole.

  ‘I’ll take that,’ Cavill said, using both hands to pry the detonator out of Lockyer’s grip. Lockyer was flailing like a madman as his momentum carried him backwards, and he released the detonator. Cavill grabbed it and kicked Lockyer through the open door.

  Lockyer sailed over the edge of the sheared-off gangway, and Cavill stepped up to the doorway to watch him scream to the desert floor in a ball of white flame. Cavill opened up the back of the detonator, ripped out the batteries and connecting wires, and threw it out after him.

  He turned back quickly to check what was left in the command centre.

  He gasped when he saw the bodies of Phil Cranmer, Dave Harper, and Tina Hagley. ‘My God!’ Racing over, he didn’t check for signs of life; the large holes in the skulls told him everything he needed to know. He shifted them to see if anyone else was alive but buried under the pile of bodies.

  No one was.

  ‘Bastards!’ he said.

  He tried his radio to raise the away team in the pyramid. ‘Evron, Cornell, come in.’

  No response. Something was wrong with the radio.

  He ran back into the command centre container. It was more imperative than ever that he get to his away team. It was clear that the Titan strategy was to execute every person they came across on site.

  Rifling through the dead Titan men’s vests, he restocked on weapons: grenades, pistols, ammunition. There was a half-collapsed Titan backpack nearby, and he picked it up and stuffed the extra gear into it. He quickly checked the rest of the containers and boxes that were lying around, picking up anything that might be of use. He shoved torches, demolition charges, bottles of water, energy bars, and Cyalume sticks into the backpack. He quickly ran back to the science labs to pick up his rifle and then sprinted back to the pile of boxes where they had hidden the router for their wireless radio network.

  As he pulled the router out of the box, he saw a series of flashing red lights.

  ‘Technology…’ he said, flicking a switch to reboot the device.

  ‘C’mon, c’mon.’ He tapped the side of the box and watched a series of green lights slowly light up, one after the other. After what seemed like an age, he heard a soft beep in his earpiece. ‘Finally,’ he said. ‘Cornell, come in.’

  ‘Roger,’ Cornell said loudly in his ear.

  ‘What’s your situation?’ Cavill said.

  ‘We have the prize, but we’re pinned down by Titan. They have us too close to the wall we need to blow through, and they outgun us, so we can’t push them back. We’re critical on ammo—single shots on confirmed targets only. Can maybe last another ten minutes.’

  ‘Got it,’ Cavill said. ‘I’m on my way. Hold out.’

  Cavill picked up his gear and headed towards the pyramid entry. He switched frequency to get a final message back to HQ.

  ‘James!’ The voice of Christian Bramwell crackled in his ear. ‘Thank God. I’ve been trying to raise you for the last ten minutes.’

  ‘Sorry, was in a fight to the death. We won’t be seeing Lockyer again—’

  ‘Listen,’ Bramwell said. ‘You and your men need to get the hell out of there right now. Everyone else that’s inbound are all arriving at the same time. Right about—’

  Bramwell was cut off when the perimeter alarms all went off at once. The noise was deafening inside the closed steel container.

  ‘They’re here!’ Cavill yelled. ‘I can’t defend the containers. I’ll be trapped and killed. I’m going into the pyramid after my away team. Not sure about radio comms to you in there. If you don’t hear from me again in an hour, then the whole thing is a wipeout. Relay that to Stratton; he’ll know what to do.’

  ‘Got it,’ Bramwell said. ‘And James…’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Good luck.’

  ‘Thanks. We need it. Out.’

  Cavill switched frequencies again and stepped into the blackness of the pyramid.

  Chapter 40

  The light quickly faded after the first turn. Cavill reached into his plate carrier, pulled out his infrared goggles, and put them on. Immediately, he saw an arrow in front of him, indicating to go right. He set off as fast as he could move in the darkness, following the illuminated arrows on the walls that his team had left, taking turns left and right at pace.

  ‘Cornell, you read me?’

  ‘Yes, here. We’re still holding—just.’

  ‘I’m in the tunnels, following the arrows. How long will that take me?’

  ‘About seven minutes. You got a breathing mask?’

  ‘No. Why?’

  ‘Well, two problems then. If you follow the designated route all the way, you go through a room full of poison dust—that’s what killed the archaeology away team. You need a respirator.’

  ‘Great. And the second?’

  ‘You have any weapon silencers?’

  ‘No, we never planned to come quietly.’

  ‘They’ll have rear cover in the tunnel. As soon as the firing starts on the back end, they’ll redeploy some guys from the front, and we’ll be pinned down on both sides, though they’ll be happy to throw grenades your way.’

  Cavill was sweating from moving quickly through the confined space. The air was dank, and the corridors smelt musty.

  ‘So we need options,’ Cavill said. ‘We have any?’

  ‘You can’t go through the dust room. You’ll die. We need to find another way for you to get to us.’

  ‘We don’t have the time for maze mapping, my friend,’ Cavill said.

  ‘You got demolition charges?’

  Cavill stopped and swung the backpack off his shoulders to root through it. At the bottom, he saw two sets of charges.

  He breathed a huge sigh of relief. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Finally, we catch a break,’ Cornell said. ‘So now there’s one other option. You’ll come to a fork in the tunnel. You’ll see there is a double arrow to go down the left side. We initially took the right side as the map wasn’t entirely accurate and wasted five minutes, as it has a few twists and turns to deceive but keeps going in the same direction. It finishes in a dead end.’

  ‘And this would be useful how?’ Cavill said between heavy breaths from the exertion.

  ‘Thinking back, I believe it runs parallel down the right side of the correct tunnel. So take the right fork and let me know when you get to the dead end. We’ll work back to see if you can come through one of the walls. We’d definitely get the drop on the Titan boys that way.’

  ‘Okay,’ Cavill said. ‘The double arrow has just come up. Taking the route to the right.’

  As Cornell predicted, the tunnel was fairly straight, apart from two turns. After a few minutes more, Cavill came to the dead end.

  ‘I’m here.’

  ‘Okay, bang on the wall,’ Cornell said.

  Cavill unclipped his rifle and gave the wall three solid thumps with the butt of it.

  ‘Harcourt,’ Cornell called out. ‘Check if you can hear
anything against those walls.’

  ‘Got it,’ Harcourt called back. He was still stationed in the room with the explosives fixed to the wall to make sure they remained ready to fire. He moved to the wall he expected Cavill to be behind and heard a dull booming sound.

  ‘He’s there,’ he said with excitement. ‘On the wall to the right as you walk in, near the door. I’m standing next to it.’

  Cornell looked back from his defensive crouch behind the backpacks. He saw Harcourt waving at the position. He did a quick calculation in his head before getting back on the radio.

  ‘Cavill, walk ten paces back and bang the wall again.’

  ‘Moving,’ Cavill said, walking back while counting his steps. He had to make a left and two rights around a small passage and recalculate to keep to ten steps against the main wall. When he reached ten, he banged the wall again three times.

  ‘Heard it,’ Cornell said over the radio. ‘You’re now directly opposite me on the wall.’

  Cavill heard three low thumps coming back through the wall from Cornell.

  ‘So the enemy position is another twenty-five paces back.’

  ‘Moving,’ Cavill said, immediately setting off again, counting the paces. He had to recalculate around another deviation in the passage to arrive at his designated spot. Once there, he slung the backpack from his shoulders, pulled out the demolition charges, and quickly placed them in a square on the wall. He rolled his detonation cord out behind him as he backed away until he was safely around a corner. Sorting through the backpack and his plate carrier, he found two grenades and three flashbangs, which he placed in the front pouch on his chest. He checked that he had a fresh magazine in his rifle and that it was set to automatic fire.

  He let out a deep breath. ‘Here we go,’ he said, detonating the charge. The blast force swept past his corner on the corridor, and he was immediately running for the hole, pulling the pins on the grenades as he went. He hurled the grenades through the hole, one far and one at a shorter distance. Cavill ducked and covered his ears. More blast force erupted out of the hole. He pulled the pins on two flashbangs and threw them in for good measure. He knew his men would already be up and running to attack from the tunnel. A blast of heat and light erupted out of the hole, and as soon as it was clear, he stuck his rifle in the hole and emptied a magazine in a wide scatter fashion.