Max could see the wire to the radio in his ear.
“Drop it.” He entered, Eddie moving to his left, the team spreading out behind him.
There was a bottle of vodka on the floor between his feet. “Drop the weapon.” The man lifted his head. His mouth curved in a sick smile.
“She has won and we have nothing,” he said in Russian. “No country, no money. For some fuckin’ rock!” His eyes shifted back and forth, deranged.
Max saw hopelessness. “It’s over. Drop the weapon! Don’t do it—”
The man lifted the gun to his temple and fired. The side of his head exploded like a pumpkin.
Max sighed, lowered his weapon. “Coward.”
Then a woman in a towel rushed into the room and froze. She screamed. She saw the guns and put her hands up. The towel dropped. The men were caught for a second, but Max had seen better bodies. He aimed. “On your knees.” She dropped, everything she owned jiggling. The troops fanned out to search the rooms.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Stacy. He’s payin’ me to be his friend.”
I’ll bet, he thought. She had her hands up, naked as a newborn, and Max holstered his weapon, then pulled her to her feet. He shoved the towel at her and pushed her into a chair. “Someone find her some clothes.” He brought the radio to his mouth. “Esposito, come back.” He checked the time. “Shit, they’re already in the water.”
“Go. I got it,” Eddie said and Max looked back. A Brit came back into the room gripping a gray blue shirt. He recognized the embroidered insignia.
Like the tattoos.
Impatience clawed him. Dimitri felt a hunger like never before. It scraped him down to his bones, pulled at the marrow. He wasn’t oblivious to the changes in himself, but he did not care. The cancer had cost him his career, the only job he knew. Now he had strength, the dexterity he’d lost over the last two years. He wanted a cigarette but the urge came too strong, as if he needed to eat it, not smoke it.
He felt the jade against his skin, the power of it tearing through his illness, thickening his muscles. His need for it scored under his skin. The tight confines of the locker were hot, and while he could not see Veta, he could feel her. Sensed everything about her. Her breasts cushioned against him, her hips to his hips. His groin thickened and he wanted to fuck her, badly, but his hunger was more for the stone than her.
It was here. The brother of it in a sack around his neck. He’d read the diary, knew what it was doing, but he had no control. He must have it to survive.
“I hear nothing,” Veta said and he hushed her.
He’d been tucked in the rock face since before closing, waiting beyond an hour of silence and certainty that the British agents were all gone. Stefan told him they were outside, waiting for them, and as he pushed open the door, he couldn’t tell if the sun was setting. He stepped out and turned to pull Veta from the locker. She breathed and stretched, then looked around. He crossed the siege battery lookout, then motioned her to walk ahead.
The corridors of stone were wide, the floor smooth from centuries of walking. But it’s not where he wanted to be, and he opened his jacket, pulling out the jade and unwrapping it. It vibrated in his palms. He felt it travel upward, wrap him. He strode the corridor, suddenly knowing where to go, feeling it calling to him. Deeper into the darkness, he flicked on his small flashlight, suddenly amused they’d outsmarted them all. Stefan would watch and warn them, lead them on a chase if necessary.
Veta’s hand closed over it. “Give it to me.”
He shoved her away. “No. It leads the way.”
She reared, staring at him with a look that bordered on revulsion. His eyes narrowed and yet she didn’t back down. Her attention was on his face, his body. She sniffed at him like he was a fresh meal. “You want me, I smell it.”
He dismissed her, striding to the section where an oblong cut in the rock was blocked with the two-inch-wide steel bars. He removed the bottle from his small waist pack. It was all he could get into the storage locker with him. He unscrewed the top and splashed the acid on the stone. It ate the metal, smoldering with a foul odor. Veta backed away. The smell had no effect on him. He gripped the bar. It came off in his hand. He glanced at her, scowling at how she took a step back from him.
“You fear me now?” It did not bother him. The energy rushing through his blood was like a drug.
“Nyet. But I can do this, too.” She grabbed a bar and yanked it from its base. Then she bent it. “We don’t need the other half. Stefan has not answered. We must stop.”
He rounded on her, brandishing a bar of steel. “Never! You must pay for it all now, Lizveta. It is left for you and me.” He pulled another steel rod, then another, and did not wait for her as he crawled through the opening and into the ancient hive of tunnels. “The legend is all truth. It gives back your youth.”
“It gives us more,” she said almost giddy, petting the stone. It glowed softly.
“This way.” He ducked to the tunnel, sniffed the air, his light and the soft glow of the jade leading him deeper into the caverns.
As Sebastian searched the rock formations, he kept a watch on Olivia climbing the wall. She was experienced, but he knew she struggled wearing the Dragon Skin. It was her weight belt for the dive and climbing couldn’t be easy. His light followed her. She left nothing to chance and searched every hole and crack. So far, nothing. Then she went still and sprayed a million candles’ worth of power over the cavern. Sebastian crawled through and stood beside her.
“Something else, isn’t it?”
“I’ll say.” The cavern was monstrous, its ceiling probably thirty feet high. Massive stalactites hung like teeth, meeting their mates on the ground piled with broken stone. A lot of broken stone. Not a good sign, he thought, then spotted another feeder tunnel. His light revealed two more black holes leading off into nothing. His weapon drawn, he inspected the shadows.
“We’re above sea level by three hundred feet, Dr. Corrigan.”
Hanging on the rock, she swung a look at Lewis. “Seriously?”
“Yes, ma’am. Water doesn’t even come close to reaching up here. Creepy, huh? Almost like it drew the water in.”
She shined her light at the formations dripping to the pool below, then to the ceiling again. “Then it’s run off from the top, through cracks and fissures. But I’ve been known to be wrong.”
“What are you going for?” Sebastian said as she climbed toward the uppermost corner.
“There’s a cavity, deeper than the others. Looks unnatural. Too straight. Over this way,” she said. “Give me some light above me so I can climb.” He gave her what she wanted, but she was like a monkey up there, and he moved nearer when she disappeared behind a stalactite.
Olivia felt for a grip in the stone, then pulled herself higher. She braced her foot on the rock, twisted her Maglite, then held it between her teeth. She leaned into the hole. The walls were chiseled. She glanced back at Sebastian, but couldn’t see him, the hole blocked by the giant stalactite. She worked a little higher, her forearms braced as her light flashed off something in the shadows. She leaned on her stomach, wiggling, and touched something smooth. She tipped her head to shine the light. She shrieked around the Mag-lite.
His shield. A piece of it, at least, but her light gave enough shadow that she recognized the similarities to the Viking’s sword. Protection and power, the runes read. She reached for it, but had to get a little farther in to do it. A sliver of panic shot through her when one foot left the ground. Sebastian directed her, and she braced, then grabbed for it. As if made of grain, the shield disintegrated into pieces. She made a sound around the Maglite when she saw the small pile of wrappings behind it. Burlap, she thought, and snagged a few threads, carefully drawing it closer. It had weight. She adjusted the light in her mouth, then grabbed it. “Sebastian, oh God, it’s here!” She braced her back and hip so she would use two hands and checked the wrappings for the spell, the chains. But there was nothing except
the sack covering.
“You are one smart woman, Livi,” came softly through the PRR.
She smiled to herself, feeling that skip right across her heart. “But he broke her spell.” She looked at his shield, similar to the fragment the old man had given her. Olivia inhaled, then let it out in a long slow breath. We did it, she thought, then frowned when the stone suddenly grew a little brighter. “Ohhh boy, it’s changing. Oh no, no, the mate is near!” She stuffed it down her dive suit, zipping it snuggly. “Did you hear me?”
“Climb down. We have company.”
“What?” She flinched and grappled to keep from falling.
“I heard something. Take cover,” he said softly.
Olivia worked slowly down.
The woman never behaves. Sebastian tucked his light under the pistol and followed the sound in the dark. “Lewis, no talking, shoot first.”
“Roger that.”
Then he spotted the figure and fired. The spark of return fire sprayed the cavern. Rocks burst in a shower of stone, plopping in the endless pool, on him, on Lewis.
“Give me the stone!” came like a burst from a bullhorn.
“Now you know that’s not happening.” They must have come through the war tunnels. “Lewis, use your light.” The Marine turned the million-watt candlepower on the honeycombed walls. Shock pushed through him. “Will you look at that. Holy shit.”
Kolbash was on the edge of the left tunnel, his hand gripping the rock above him, hunched when the ceiling was high. His arms looked long, swinging loosely from his shoulders like those of an ape. Nevolin was behind him, a little hunched and pawing his back. She wasn’t in any better shape. Her face was broader, her nose sloping into her mouth.
“It is the fountain of youth,” Olivia said, her whisper carrying. “But it turned back the clock too far. Biologically. He’s going Cro-Magnon.”
“Get your ass down here, woman!” Sebastian motioned for Lewis to move to his left, and kept his eyes on the target about twenty yards on the other side of the cavern.
Then Kolbash brought the weapon up.
Sebastian fired. “Livi, down!” But Kolbash held his trigger and waved his arm. Bullets ricocheted over the cavern walls. Chunks of stalagmites broke and tumbled. Olivia was an easy target as she worked her way down.
Sebastian put two more in Kolbash’s chest. He staggered back. Kevlar, Sebastian realized, and a second later, Lewis fired. Clothing and flesh burst from Kolbash’s kneecap and thigh. Kolbash went down, then, with an echoing roar, pushed to his feet.
“Okay, that’s not supposed to happen.”
Kolbash looked at the weapon in his hand, then threw it aside.
Nevolin appeared behind him, and Lewis put a round in her shoulder. She fell on her rear, but Kolbash didn’t even look at her before he jumped. Far. Fifteen feet away, he landed in a squat, then straightened, yet he didn’t quite make it to his full height.
“Give it to me!” came in a low growl. He gripped the half of stone, and went for Olivia.
Sebastian lurched from behind the stalagmite and threw himself at him. They collided midair and fell to the ground. The jade tumbled, bouncing twice. Sebastian pounded on Kolbash and Olivia dove for the stone.
With a savage scream, Nevolin scrabbled like an animal toward the jade. Lewis’s shots followed her.
“Doc..?” Lewis warned.
“She’s mine, Lewis!” Olivia let her come and punched, once, twice, her knuckles burning. Her mind filled with Noble and his bloody finger and she hit Nevolin again. The concierge and bellman. The NSA agent who was only watching their back. This bitch needs to die. Nevolin’s nose bled, and Olivia shot out her leg, the sidekick hitting Nevolin’s stomach. Nevolin flew back, uncoordinated and sloppy, but she had the strength to kill. She grabbed a piece of stalagmite, her face hideously twisted, and bolted for Olivia. Olivia prepared for the impact, but Nevolin never made it. A bullet impacted her forehead and threw her to the ground. Nevolin didn’t move. Olivia looked at Lewis.
“He said shoot first, ma’am.” She waved her thanks, then went for the stone.
Sebastian staggered back from Kolbash, but when Kolbash saw Olivia, the beast of a man lunged for the stones. She grabbed them first.
“Don’t put it together!” Sebastian shouted.
“I’m not trying to!”
As if magnetized, the two pieces clapped together. For a second, nothing happened. Then the seam between the jade glowed, cool in her hands even with gloves, and she held it tight, thinking of the monk, of the princess and the life she’d led, the family she’d lost and the man she’d loved. She could almost see her and felt the power of the jade; it was like holding a spinning top in her hands. The core of it brightened, and she lifted her gaze to Sebastian, then to Kolbash. She gasped.
His features were demonic, his forehead thick and protruding, his nose flat across his face. He stared at her with watery red eyes. His skin was covered in hair, even his ears. Sebastian aimed at him, but Kolbash was mesmerized by the jade, its radiance. Like an animal, he sniffed the air, advancing. His features grew more distorted, his mouth protruding beyond his nose. His shoulders dropped. His posture curved.
“He’s morphing,” Lewis said. “Jesus H!”
Sebastian pushed Olivia behind a stalagmite, then saw the strange glow in her green eyes. “Olivia?”
“It turns on evil,” she said, her gaze on Kolbash. “It turns only them.”
Then he saw her lips move, words he didn’t recognize spilling from her mouth. He felt a chill when he realized it was Gaelic. She repeated it, holding the jade skull, its aura intensifying. Her words enraged Kolbash and, like an ape, he scaled the walls, demanding the stone. His eyes held a wild crazed sheen and Sebastian’s pistol followed him.
“Don’t shoot. It won’t do any good.”
“It can’t hurt.” He fired.
Kolbash jumped out of the path, grabbing Nevolin by the arm and pulling her. Her body bounced on the stone and he held her at his side like a rag doll. The ground beneath his feet shifted, stalactites broke and fell. Olivia stumbled forward and Sebastian lurched, grabbed her vest, stopping her fall. The jade slipped from her hands and rolled down the incline.
The stone dazzled Kolbash and he grabbed it, immediately darting into a darkened tunnel.
“No!” She tried to go for it, but Sebastian blocked her.
“It’s coming down.” A massive crack separated the stone wall. Powder dusted the air. He pushed her toward the Marine. “Lewis! Get her out of here.”
Lewis grabbed her shoulder. “Ma’am, we have to go.”
Sebastian followed Kolbash and the blood trail.
“Sebastian, don’t!” The ground rolled, chunks breaking off, separating them.
“Now Doc. It’s caving,” Lewis pulled her back. “We’ll be trapped!”
“No! Sebastian, don’t. It’s not worth it. Let it go!”
But she couldn’t see him, the cave-in filling the void. She tried her PRR, heard him beg her to get out. “Please Livi, go.”
“Not without you!”
“I’m coming back to love you, baby, don’t forget that. Lewis!” he demanded.
Lewis latched onto her BC vest, dragging her until she had no choice, till she was forced to crawl backward down the sloping rock. She kept looking back, hoping to see Sebastian. She found a spot to turn around and the downhill climb went faster, but the shaking rock made her grab for purchase. The jade’s doing this. My fault. She slid down the short incline to the ledge and the tanks. Sebastian’s were beside hers. Lewis helped her lift her tanks and her heart shattered. He’s coming, she thought, he is. She wanted to scream, to cry, but all she did was pray and pull on her mask. She inflated her buoyancy converter. Rock tumbled, plopped in the water.
“Down, now.” She tapped Lewis and hugging the Sea Scooter, they jumped. They grabbed on to the propulsion to bring them out of the cave and into the open sea. Several yards later, they surfaced. Esposito grabbed her tanks
and pulled her aboard. Olivia immediately shed them and demanded the infrared scope.
Someone handed it over and she focused on the cave. The boat rocked.
“Where’s Agent Fontenòt?”
“In there. With Kolbash. They’re in the tunnels.”
Lewis grabbed a hand radio. “Fox One to Drac. You there?” Max came on the line and Lewis spoke to him.
Olivia didn’t hear, her throat so tight she could barely breathe. Come on, honey, come on. He didn’t show.
She stared at the cave entrance, waiting. Stones tumbled from the passageway and into the water. Then like a yawning monster, dust and rock belched from the cave.
Oh, Sebastian. “Get me on the shore. Now.”
No one spoke as the boat swiftly turned on a curl of waves.
Sebastian checked his pistol, then slapped in another magazine. He prayed Olivia made it out and glanced back. More rocks fell, the way behind him closing off as he pushed ahead. The confines brought memories he didn’t want as he crawled through. He heard Kolbash’s heavy breathing, like the grunts of a wild beast. He could see the glow of the jade, the trail of blood splashed on the rocks. He neared.
In the hollow, Kolbash stopped, clutching Nevolin in his arms. She was a limp bloody rag, and he pawed her face, lifting the jade as if she could see his gift. Then suddenly he rounded, his eyes red as he gripped the stone.
A monster, Sebastian thought, aiming for his eyes. Kolbash’s expression changed from twisted rage to helpless pleading, as if he knew what the jade was doing to him and wanted to end it. Sebastian thought of the lives he’d taken, the destruction this man left behind, and obliged. He fired. The bullet penetrated Kolbash’s eye, the back of his head splattering the stone.
A moment later, the ceiling caved.
Damage Control Page 38