He pulled back to stand flat against the wall and reload his weapon.
‘Cornell,’ he called on the radio. ‘You guys there?’
‘Yes, rounding the corner. Can already see bodies. Stop firing.’
‘Done.’
‘He heard more firing through the hole but recognised the report of his team’s HK416s.
‘Just making sure as we come around the corners,’ Cornell said. ‘Yep, they’re all dead. Good job, boss. I’ll send Sansom further back in the tunnel, chucking grenades as he goes, to make sure we’re clear.’
The radio went silent as Cornell passed on the instructions. Cavill breathed a huge sigh of relief. Chasing after the Titan team by himself had been a massive gamble.
He jumped when a hand was thrust through the hole with a portable breathing mask dangling from it. ‘This was in the Titan kit. Put it on. We don’t know how much of this poison dust is still in the air.’
Cavill took it and strapped it around his neck, adjusting it over his nose and mouth. ‘Done,’ he said.
Cornell’s head appeared through the hole in the wall. ‘Hey,’ he said, his grin visible through his breathing mask. ‘Come here often?’
‘Very funny. Get your ugly mug out of my escape route,’ Cavill said, already moving to pass his equipment through the hole.
Once through, Cavill stood up and was face-to-face with his men again. ‘Great to see you,’ he said, slapping Cornell, Evron, and Harcourt on the shoulders. Sansom came running around the corner and broke into a wide grin. ‘All clear back there. Great to see you, boss.’
‘You too,’ Cavill said.
‘What now?’ Cornell asked.
‘We get the hell out of these tunnels; get Rolleston, Lampack, and Fabrice; and get home for cold beers.’
‘That sounds fucking great,’ Cornell said. ‘Let’s go.’
As they set off up the tunnel towards the civilians, Cavill felt badly; he didn’t have the heart to tell them that Lampack and Fabrice were in enemy hands, and he no idea if Rolleston was dead or alive. He’d withheld information to keep his men focussed on the immediate task—getting out of the tunnels alive. It was his job as commander to take on the stress of working out the next moves.
‘Who’s got the backpack with the prize in it?’ Cavill asked as they walked in the dim light.
‘Well,’ Cornell said, ‘all the boys have been tracking that keenly. We already have a turnup for the books. In theory, it’s Chris Watkins. But we clocked Kate Edwards pulling the switch on him—so Ms. Edwards is currently in the hot seat.’
‘Interesting…’ Cavill said.
They reached the civilians, who were seated in the passageway with their backpacks on. They all looked surprised to see him.
‘How did you get here so quickly?’ Watkins asked as they all stood up.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Cavill said, walking past him.
‘What happened to the other team? Are they dead?’ Rebecca Grainger asked.
‘What do you care? They were out to kill us all,’ Cornell replied.
Rebecca looked away.
Cavill came back from inspecting the room up ahead and nodded to Cornell.
‘Everybody get back down the tunnel we just came from and turn the corner,’ Cornell said. ‘Harcourt, you’re on the detonator.’
They hustled back down the passage, and as soon as they hit a safe distance mark, Harcourt hit the detonator. The effect was instant. A rush of air powered over them as the blast was channelled down the tunnel. Cavill led the way back into the room again. He went straight for the far wall.
‘This one’s gone through,’ he said, shining a torch through the hole. ‘Looks like a full-sized tunnel carrying on from here. Straight, too.’
‘Well, that’s great,’ Rebecca said.
Harcourt was the last to crowd into the small space.
‘The hole’s not big enough to climb through with a backpack on,’ Cavill said. ‘Everyone take them off. Each person climbs through, and the next person passes the backpack to them.’
The soldiers immediately took off their packs and placed them on the floor by their legs. The civilians hesitated, looked at each other, and then did the same.
‘Sealed,’ said Cavill.
A blinding flash and deafening noise erupted from the floor of the room.
Cavill opened his eyes and took his fingers out of his ears. He still felt a bit disoriented, but he was expecting that. He saw that all of his men had reacted in time to protect themselves—as they had been trained to—before the flashbang he’d rolled into the middle of the room went off.
The civilians weren’t faring so well. They were staggering around, ears screaming, and eyes blinded. They couldn’t even speak.
As he saw his men recover and stand straight again to look at him, he used hand signals to indicate which backpacks with particular knots tied into the straps he wanted switched. His men set about mixing up the backpacks as per instructions. Cavill grabbed Kate’s backpack and signalled to Harcourt to run to the last corner they had turned and stash the lead container there.
Harcourt set off on an awkward, unbalanced run. He was back with the emptied backpack by the time everybody’s senses were returning. He gave the backpack to Cavill, who placed it on the floor next to him.
‘Sit down, everybody,’ Cavill shouted. ‘Hold your heads in your hands.’
Everybody duly complied.
‘You’ll be okay,’ he said. ‘We’ve had an accidental detonation of a concussive grenade. The effects will wear off—you will be okay.’
After a few more minutes, they started to look up and around.
‘Ouch,’ Watkins said. ‘How the hell did that happen?’
‘My fault,’ Cavill said. ‘I had a flashbang—that’s what we call them—clipped to the outside of my vest. Forgot it was there. When I pulled my backpack off, it was hooked off the vest, and it detonated. Sorry.’
‘Will there be any long-term damage?’ Kate asked.
‘Not from one exposure. You’ll be fine. Everybody ready to move again?’
They groggily pushed themselves up, using their backpacks for leverage.
‘Remember, you go through the hole, and the next person will pass your backpack to you,’ Cavill said.
He moved to help Kate through, and then Watkins and he both lifted her backpack and passed it to her. Watkins went next, followed by Rebecca.
‘Just us now, boys,’ Cavill said to his men as he started climbing through.
A few minutes later, everyone had regrouped on the other side with backpacks on.
‘Cornell, Evron, you’re up front with me. Sansom, Harcourt, take the rear.’
Everybody formed up. ‘Torches out front,’ Cavill said. ‘Let’s see what we’ve got here.’
‘It’s much bigger than the previous tunnels,’ Evron said. ‘We can walk two abreast here.’
‘Hopefully, it leads out,’ Cavill said, starting them off at a quick pace.
After a minute, the floor began sloping downwards.
‘Why the slope?’ Cornell asked.
‘It could be taking us back out to ground level,’ Rebecca said. ‘This one’s not Egyptian, but if it’s anything similar, they needed construction corridors. How else would they move the larger blocks and the treasure to the main room back there? They often sealed the tunnels up at the end. It worked to keep ancient intruders out. They obviously didn’t plan for people blowing holes in sacred walls with plastic explosives.’
Cavill ignored her note of disdain. He checked his watch. ‘Five minutes,’ he said.
‘Heading straight, I would expect to be at the edge of the pyramid by now—remembering the dimensions of the place,’ Evron said.
The ground stopped sloping and evened out again. They played the torchlight up ahead and could see in the distance that the floor started sloping upwards again.
‘What the hell’s going on?’ Cornell said.
Cavill was getting excited.
‘This may well be a way out.’
He hurried them on by walking as fast as he could without breaking into a run.
‘When I got diverted by pulling the Titan team away from the pyramid, I found out that the city is riddled with tunnels. Whether they were used for transportation or aqueducts, who knows? But infrared mapping shows that the city is full of them. That’s how I got close to the pyramid again without being seen.’
They hit the upwards slope and soon came to a new flat area.
‘Great, a dead end,’ Cornell said.
Everybody moved into the room and started inspecting the walls. Cavill moved to the centre of the room and looked at the ceiling.
‘Got it,’ he said. ‘Harcourt, more demolitions.’
‘We’ve only got enough for one more blast,’ Harcourt said.
‘That’s all we need,’ Cavill replied.
Everyone clustered around him, looking up.
‘Where’s it going?’ Harcourt asked.
‘There,’ Cavill said, pointing at the ceiling. ‘See that faint outline of a square? That’s it.’
‘How do you know?’ Rebecca asked.
‘Look at the dimensions of this room. It’s about the square footage of the two-storey buildings on the outside.’
‘You’re right,’ Evron said, re-examining the room.
‘Also on my earlier diversion, I fell into the basement of one of the buildings through a hole exactly like that one there. It’s just that this one’s been sealed with stone.’
Harcourt was already pulling out the explosives.
‘Let’s boost him up,’ Cornell said, reaching forward to link hands with Cavill. When ready, Harcourt placed his foot in their interlocked hands, and they lifted him up to the ceiling, where he pressed the square of plastic explosives and put the detonator cord in place.
‘Done,’ Harcourt said. They lowered him, and Cavill waved everyone back. ‘You know the drill. Back down the corridor.’
Once they had reached a safe distance, Harcourt blew the charge, and the familiar rush of force swept past them.
‘Almost getting used to that,’ Kate said.
‘That’s the last one,’ Cavill said. ‘If there’s just more stone behind there, we’ll be digging our way out of here.’
They moved back towards the room and could see a shaft of light pouring in.
‘Yes!’ Kate exclaimed.
The soldiers remained composed and positioned themselves to boost people up and through the hole.
‘Rebecca, you first,’ Cavill said, motioning her to the front.
They lifted her and pushed her up into the white void. With a grunt, she disappeared over the edge, and then shot her arm back through the hole. ‘Backpack,’ she said.
Cornell heaved her backpack up, and she grabbed it by the straps and dragged it over the edge.
‘Stay in that room, right next to the hole,’ Cavill called. ‘Edwards, Watkins, you’re up.’
With the civilians soon through, the soldiers boosted and pulled each other up. Cavill was the last to go. He threw his backpack up first. Then, he undid his belt and threw one end towards the light while holding the opposite end. Cornell caught the belt, and he and Harcourt pulled Cavill up until they could grab his arms. Cavill rose into a bare room with everyone clustered around the hole. Evron was by the door.
‘What’s outside? Is it clear?’ Cavill asked.
‘Anything but,’ Evron said. ‘There’s quite a reception committee out there. They’ve obviously been expecting us.’
Cavill quickly flipped frequencies on his radio.
‘Christian, you there?’
‘Yes,’ Bramwell said in his earpiece. ‘Lost you for a while. Got your position now on military GPS.’
‘We’ve popped out in different part of the city. How the hell do we have a welcoming committee?’
‘Spike in activity from the satellite that shows tunnels on infrared. Either I’m not the only person who cottoned on to it, or others were tipped off. I can see where you are on the heat map. You don’t have enough forces to fight your way out.’
‘Right,’ Cavill said. ‘Thanks. Out.’
‘Well,’ he said, ‘weapons down, everybody. We’re going out there.’
‘Wait!’ Kate grabbed his arm. ‘We can’t just surrender what we have. Not after everything we’ve gone through.’
Cavill gently removed her hand from his arm. ‘Did I say “surrender”? We’re going out to negotiate.’
He started walking out. His men immediately followed.
‘Madness,’ Kate said.
Cavill disappeared into the square light of the doorway.
Chapter 41
00:00:00 to Endgame
Cavill was surprised to see the variety of weapons and forces clustered around them. He counted four groups, all fairly evenly matched in number.
All of their weapons were aimed at him.
His men and the civilians came out and stood in a line on either side of him.
‘Foreign Legion?’ he called out to the group on the far left.
‘Oui,’ their commander called back.
‘Must’ve jetted in from their base on Corsica,’ Evron said.
‘Niger Army came back,’ Cavill said, pointing at the second group.
‘And two groups of private assholes to round out the party,’ Cornell said.
‘Titan backup team?’ Cavill called out to the two groups.
A thickly set man clad in black in the third group nodded. ‘Where’s Lockyer?’ he called back.
‘Around somewhere. Just burning time.’
He focussed on the last group. ‘And you are?’
‘Daedalus,’ their commander replied.
‘Greek mythology,’ Evron said. ‘How original.’
‘Stop fucking around,’ the head of Daedalus said, stepping forward. ‘A US Marine recon unit will be here in ten minutes. Let’s have this over with before that.’
‘So, what happened out here?’ Cavill asked, motioning at all the groups. ‘You agreed not to start killing each other until you found out if we had something or not?’
‘Exactly,’ the Daedalus man said. ‘Whatever you have is now my property, so hand it over peacefully.’
The others erupted in a bustle of activity; half of them diverted their guns from Cavill’s team to the other groups.
‘Well,’ Cavill said. ‘Looks like you didn’t agree on an equitable split before we arrived. Not that it would matter. The answer’s no.’
The Daedalus commander cracked an evil grin. ‘Well, what you don’t know is that we’re probably the most well-funded outfit here. We have a plane circling that can precision bomb the whole place from a distance. We’ll pull back, blow you all to hell, and come back to pick up the pieces. Better for you to hand it over and live to fight another day.’
‘Mmm,’ Cavill said. ‘That does change the situation. All things considered, it’s probably the best option. We’re not willing to die for something that might be useful. Watkins,’ he said, turning to the surprised scientist. ‘It’s in your backpack. Bring it to me.’
Watkins smirked and nodded as though he had inside information. He marched up to Kate Edwards and tore her backpack off her shoulders.
‘Hey,’ Kate yelled.
‘Leave it,’ Cavill said. ‘It’s not worth dying for.’
Watkins and Edwards exchanged filthy looks before Watkins turned and walked over to Cavill, handing the pack across. As he took it, Cavill nodded in silent understanding with Watkins that he had been caught out by a higher intelligence. Cavill lifted the pack towards the forces arrayed in front of them. ‘Come and get it,’ he said.
Nobody moved.
The commanders of all the forces were looking at each other.
The Daedalus commander stepped forward. ‘We’ll take the first look,’ he said, ‘still with air cover.’
He started walking towards Cavill.
Chris Watkins started backing away from Ca
vill. He slowly migrated behind the line of people and towards the end of the line, adjusting something inside his jacket as he moved.
‘Looks like we got our first runner,’ Cornell whispered, tracking Watkins from the corner of his eye.
‘Let it go,’ Cavill whispered back.
The Daedalus commander arrived in front of him and slowly placed his hands around the straps. Cavill let him take the weight and saw the man’s surprise at how heavy it was.
‘It’s highly radioactive,’ Cavill said. ‘Hence, in a lead container. Don’t open it, or you’ll be exposed.’
‘No problem,’ the Daedalus man said with a smile. He turned back towards his men with the pack. ‘NBC!’ he called out as he approached them.
From the back of the Daedalus ranks came a man dressed in a protective nuclear, biological, chemical suit. The suited man placed a box of analysis equipment on the ground and unpacked a Geiger counter as the backpack arrived. The rest of the Daedalus troop and their commander swiftly moved back a safe distance. The suited man slid the lead container out, unclipped the lid, and flipped the top open.
The Geiger counter went crazy.
Everybody took another involuntary step back.
The suited man flipped the lid closed again and looked back at his commander. ‘All good,’ he said, giving the thumbs up.
There was a shout in a foreign language from one of the other camps, and a series of smoke and stun grenades were thrown into the field.
Consecutive detonations, followed by billows of smoke, loosed pandemonium amongst all the parties.
‘Drop!’ Cavill yelled. His men dropped to the ground, yanking the civilians with them, while pulling their weapons up and releasing blanket covering fire.
‘Can’t see who’s who through the smoke,’ Evron yelled.
‘Suppressing fire,’ Cavill called. ‘Keep them away from us while they fight each other.
At the far end of the line, Watkins stood up and started running.
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