by Rob Jones
“What the hell is going on here, buddy?”
Selena was now alongside Decker. “We have to get everyone out of this building! They need to get to a shelter.”
“Who are you people?”
“I’m Professor Selena Moore.”
“Means jack to me, lady.”
“I’ll have you know good sir that I am a very respected archaeologist!”
He shrugged.
“Listen, there are some men on the roof,” Decker said. “They have some sort of device.”
The guard’s eyes widened. “Are you reporting a bomb?”
“Well…”
The guard was already thumbing the push-to-talk button on the two-way radio fixed to his shoulder.
Decker said, “Not a bomb, exactly, but something much more dangerous.”
The guard was listening to him and simultaneously speaking into the radio. “This is Charlie Echo Five calling from the lobby.”
“Go ahead, Frank,” said a bored voice through the static.
“We have a possible situation here. Some people have entered the lobby in a big hurry claiming there are terrorists on the roof with some sort of bomb.”
“What the hell?”
“That’s what they say.”
“And who the hell are these people?”
“One of them says she’s an astrologer.”
“An astrologer?” said the voice.
Selena put her hands on her hips. “An archaeologist!”
“Whatever the hell you are, you’re not going anywhere until the police arrive.”
“What about the men on the roof?”
“You want me to go up to the roof, boss?”
“No. You stay in the lobby. I’ll send a team up to check it out,” the voice said.
“Copy that.”
“They’re dangerous,” Charlie said. “Your men are going to get killed.”
“And we need to get the people out of this lobby!” Selena said. “The entire city needs to be evacuated.”
“Evacuate New York City?” the guard started laughing. “Now I know you’re not being serious.”
“I am being serious! At the very least the city needs to be warned there is a very powerful hurricane on the way.”
“A hurricane?”
“That’s what is on the roof,” Acosta said. “A device which creates hurricanes.”
“True story, old chap,” Atticus said. “Seen it with me very own peepers.”
“Damn straight,” said Cade with a wide grin.
“Okay, sure there is,” the guard said in reassuring tones. “Why don’t you sit down over there and one of your friends can get you a cup of coffee, or perhaps even a straight-jacket?”
Selena felt the frustration rising inside her, then Riley tapped him on the shoulder.
Before he had twisted his head around fully, the young Australian delivered an eye-watering headbutt into his face and knocked him out cold.
“Damn!” said Cade. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”
“Sorry,” Riley shrugged. “But that convo was sort of getting a bit circular.”
Decker and Charlie were already behind the guard, catching him before he collapsed to the floor and then pulling him over to a couch where they took off his cap and laid it over his face. Diana finished the scene by sliding a large, potted yucca plant around in front of him and blocking him from view.
“What now?” the Portuguese woman said.
“Now, we go to the roof,” said Decker.
They sprinted over to the front desk and Charlie drew his gun. Pointing it at a young woman, he smiled. “Terribly sorry about this, but you need to sound whatever alarm system you have in this building.”
She stared at the gun, terrified.
Charlie smiled again. “Don’t worry about the gun, it’s really just for effect. But activate the alarm system. Now. Get people away from windows and any outside areas and into the interior staircases and any storm shelters you might have.”
“Er…”
“Now, please.”
“But my boss…”
“I don’t like to be crass,” he said, looking at the gun, “but right now you should think of me as your boss.”
She tapped something on her keyboard and an alarm started to sound in the lobby.
“Done.”
“Is this sounding through the entire building?”
“Sure. You’re not going to shoot me, are you?”
“No, but I might ask you out on a date. See, my name’s Charlie Valentine and I work in a team of treasure hunters. I’m sort of their fixer. Indispensable, really. I’m here to stop an insane maniac who thinks he’s a Maya snake king destined to summon Huracan into the modern world and destroy civilization. Now, about that date, if you’re free…”
She looked confused. “Er…I’m kind of seeing someone.”
“Oh, what a pity. We could still do dinner one night, if you’re free, then…”
“Charlie!” It was Selena. “Here, now!”
“Sorry, that’s the boss. Gotta run. Shame about the dinner. Oh, and keep the elevators running! We have to get to the penthouse.”
“Er… sure, I think?”
“Good stuff!”
He joined Selena and the others as they piled into an elevator and hit the penthouse button.
“Very smooth, Charles,” Selena said. “Hitting on someone in the middle of a terror attack.”
The elevator came to a sudden, unexpected stop.
“Why are we stopping?” Diana asked.
The doors slid open to reveal a wholesome family standing in front of them. Selena saw the look on their faces as they registered the big, ugly gun in her hand. She pushed the gun into her jacket pocket and gave them her best disarming smile. Being in a confined space with your three young kids when a bunch of heavily armed strangers suddenly appeared in view was not ideal, she knew.
“Going up?” Riley asked with a smile.
“I think we’ll wait…”
“Get into an interior stairwell as fast as you can,” Decker said. “And as low as you can in the building. There’s a major hurricane about to hit.”
The woman looked confused. “A hurricane? At this time of year?”
The former marine leaned forward and pushed the button to close the doors. As they slid to a close, he looked her in the eye. “Just do it, now.”
Their next stop was the penthouse. When the doors opened, it didn’t take long for their welcoming committee to open fire on them. On the carpet in front of the elevator, they saw Frank’s security detail, filled with bullet holes.
“Get down!” Decker yelled.
Riley was ready, tucking himself behind the cabin operating panel and opening fire. A long, sustained burst of accurate fire took out the two men fighting alongside Diablo, and drove him back along the corridor.
“He’s mine!” Decker yelled.
“Typical Mitch,” mumbled Cade. “Glory hog.”
Selena watched Decker sprint up the corridor in pursuit of Diablo and darted out after him. The Mexican gangster was already at the far end, grabbing at a door handle. She pushed her legs faster to catch up with the former US marine pilot just as he reached Diablo. The gangster wrenched open the door and jumped into an adjoining room, twisting his upper body around as he ran and lifting his gun into the aim.
“Down!” Decker yelled.
Selena couldn’t see past Decker to see for herself why he had told her to get down, but there was no need. After so many adventures and close-calls together, she knew she could trust him in an emergency situation. She dived down, hitting the corridor’s carpeted floor at the same time as Decker just as Diablo’s gun exploded and sent a bullet tracing inches over her head.
The round punched a hole in the safety glass of a door at the other end of the corridor. She screamed and covered her head, peering through a gap in her arms just in time to see the Mexican running to the next door. He laughed and raised his gun a secon
d time.
“Cover!” Decker called out, and rolled behind an antique chest covered in old books.
Selena copied what he did and found herself behind a heavy wooden bookshelf.
“Are you okay?” Decker called out.
“Yes… at least I think so! That one nearly hit me. Where is he now? Can you see?”
“Yeah, I can see under the chest. He just left the corridor and went into another room. He has nowhere else to run.”
“That makes him even more dangerous, Mitch!”
Decker peered over the chest. “I see him!”
He fired and hit Diablo in the back three times. The bullets buried themselves between his shoulder blades, shattering the bone and digging deep inside his lungs. The Mexican gangster went down hard, not even having time to reach out with his hands to soften his fall. His face ploughed into the plush pile, and the rest of him came crashing down a second later, dead on touchdown.
“That’s another one down,” Charlie said. “Now for the others.”
37
Decker had paused on the landing not far from Diablo’s cooling corpse. A narrow window threw some dull light on the carpet. He walked over to it and saw they were now on the north side, overlooking Central Park. The endless citizens of Midtown Manhattan were innocently going about their business, spending their days without a care in the world. And not a hint of the horrors the Snake King had in store for them.
A deep, violent roar shook the building.
“What the hell was that?” said Diana.
“Looks like Danvers is powering up the Stormbringer,” Decker said.
Selena ran to his side and peered over the window ledge. For now they both saw only order and peace, but they each knew how quickly this would fall apart if they failed to stop the Snake King and his men. If they had learned one thing since their hunt for Shambhala, it was how thin the fabric of polite society was, and how easily it could be torn apart by a man like Nathaniel Danvers.
Far below, a couple of cop cars cruised past, no lights, no sirens. Just driving around waiting for the next dispatcher to call them to a job. A fire truck trundled north on Seventh Avenue, again no hurry at all. Maybe they were going back to their station after a job somewhere south. Pedestrians were slowly starting to notice the clouds. Some pointed and stared but most were still unaware. For now. Decker tried to imagine what a hurricane several magnitudes stronger than the wildest Category Five storms, would be like. He saw it ripping through the city and shredding all of this civilization to pieces before spitting out into the Upper Bay.
“C’mon, let’s get on with it,” he said. “It’s up to us now.”
“Next time we do this, someone please talk me out of it!” Charlie said.
“There’s not going to be a next time,” Selena said.
Decker was already three steps up the next staircase. Now he stopped and looked at her. “What does that mean? You’re throwing him off the team?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then what?”
“We’ll talk about it later, Mitch! We have to stop Danvers!”
He was already running back up the steps to the penthouse’s top floor. “You think I don’t know that? You think I'm some kind of idiot? We’re running up the stairs to get a man who calls himself the Snake King and then you go and drop another cryptic hint about the Avalon team not having a ‘next time’!”
“Hey,” Charlie said, pounding up the stairs with a gun in his hand. “We’re just talking about a short break, right?”
“I'm not talking about it at all!” Selena said, struggling not to lose her breath. “I’m focussing on stopping a barking mad apeshit wackadoodle who thinks he’s descended from the lizard kings from wiping out twenty million people!”
“Hey, haven’t I heard that somewhere before?” Riley asked.
“Keep running, Carr!” Selena said, rapidly running out of breath. “If I don’t make it, this could all be down to you.”
“Heaven help us,” Decker said. “Imagine the fates of twenty million innocent people resting in the hands of a man whose claim to fame is farting the Australian national anthem.”
“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, Mitch,” Riley said. “It raises a real good laugh with the boys from the regiment, every single time.”
“Look out!” Diana yelled, pointing ahead.
They had turned into the main room of the penthouse, and now Miguel Mercado was standing on the mezzanine with a submachine gun in each hand. He screamed in Spanish until he was hoarse and opened fire, sweeping the two muzzles in opposite directions and spraying the entire room with hot lead. The mezzanine’s smoked glass panels blew into thousands of pieces and rained down over the floorboards below, sending the crew scuttling for cover wherever they could find it.
Selena crashed down behind a long cream couch positioned just in front of the long window wall and cradled her head in her arms. Outside, she saw the storm ripping across the city. It had gained in strength by several magnitudes since they had entered the building and was ferociously beating on the glass and howling like a demon.
“We haven’t got much longer!” she cried out. “It’s gaining power!”
“I can see that!” Decker called back from behind another chair.
Riley and Charlie were behind them both, having taken up a defensive position behind an enormous central fireplace. Both men now leaned out either side of the chunky steel and brick structure and returned fire, tearing Miguel Mercado to pieces as he screamed and ranted on the mezzanine. His bullet-riddled body tumbled over the steel rail and crashed down on top of a grand piano, snapping the lid prop like a matchstick and smashing the lid and music rack down with a crash.
“Three down,” Riley said, sharing a high five with Charlie.
More shots. They jumped and spun around, raising guns into the aim. Charging out of a large bar area, an enraged Carlos Mercado had seen his brother’s violent death and was hunting for revenge. He was screaming like a madman and gripping an MP5, firing long bursts and sweeping the weapon from side to side as he covered the penthouse in lead.
Riley had taken a defensive position behind a long leather couch. He moved like lightning, raising his pistol and planting a round in the center of Carlos’s face. He followed the attack up with two rounds to his chest and sent him crashing back into a rack of glasses and vodka bottles behind him. Dead before he hit the floor, the big man from Mexico City crashed down like a felled tree, crunching to a stop in a carpet of shattered glass and spilled spirits, the silent MP5 still gripped in his hand.
“Four down,” said the Australian.
“Last stop is the roof,” Decker said. “Those suffering from vertigo need not apply.”
38
Exhausted, cut, bruised and weary, they accessed a utility corridor via a fire door on the apartment’s top floor. Following a bare concrete passageway for a few seconds they soon reached another door fitted with a chunky steel panic bar. Booting it open with one kick, Riley was through in a flash, gun raised and ready to kill.
But his gun remained cool. “All clear,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the howling gale raging outside. “It’s some sort of bulkhead. The roof must be accessed by that other door over there.”
“Then let’s get on it!” Decker kicked open the panic bar on the other door and they were on the roof. “There!” he yelled. The wind whipped his hat off and blew it clear off the skyscraper. “I see them over there!”
He pointed to the far side of the roof where the Snake King, Tarántula and Professor Salvador Diaz were standing around the device. The wind was tearing and tugging at them, but seemed less violent in the immediate vicinity of the capstone.
Diaz saw them and made a break for it. The Snake King ordered Tarántula to fire on him and bring him down. Tarántula obeyed, levelling his gun and aiming it squarely at the back of the physicist as he sprinted toward Decker and Selena.
“Mitch!” Selena cried out. “They’r
e going to kill him!”
The wind whipped and tugged at Decker as he aimed his gun at Tarántula and fired. The shot hit him in the upper arm and dropped him to the floor, but he was still in action. He crawled away behind an air-conditioning unit and took cover. Behind him, the Snake King saw what was unfolding and dived behind the capstone. Drawing his weapon, both he and Tarántula returned fire on the Avalon crew.
Bullets cross-crossed through the air and shattered a row of windows in the side of one of the bulkheads in the center of the roof. Decker covered his face to shield it from the flying shards of glass. Selena threw herself to the ground and rolled behind one of the air-conditioning units. Up ahead of them, Riley, Charlie and Cade were splitting up and trying to attack the Snake King on three fronts. Diana, Atticus and Acosta were still inside the bulkhead, their heads tucked down into their bodies to avoid the flying glass.
“Go, Charlie!” Riley called out. “Go, go, go!”
The former military cop charged toward the Snake King’s position, using the chopper for cover before sliding to a stop just under its tail boom. Riley had taken up an offensive position on the other side of the roof not far from Cade. They were using large electrical access boxes for cover. Decker had to move forward from another direction and put more pressure on Danvers. Spying a large water tank on the building’s south side, he leaned over to Selena.
“You think you can get to that tank?”
“Anything you can do, Mitch…”
He grinned. “I know, I know… you can do better.”
“You got it.”
He turned to Diana, Atticus and Acosta. “What about you?”
They shook their heads. “I don’t think so, Mitch,” Atticus said. “I think this is all a bit out of our league.”
Decker understood. “Then stay here, and when we go, lock the bulkhead door behind us and make sure the panic bar is firmly back in position. We don’t know how this is going to pan out, but if it ends up with us taking out their chopper and them trying to make a break for it down these stairs, I don’t want you in a vulnerable position.”