by Rob Jones
“I see we have another lover of antiquity,” Scarlet said as she surveyed the destruction and booted a piece of wall out of her way, totally ignoring the dead bodies. “Those glyphs were thousands of years old.”
Hawke nodded but ignored the comment. “Let’s go.”
They walked into the smoke and found themselves descending inside the tunnel along a shallow slope. Keeping to the walls and guns raised in firing position, Hawke led the way along the ancient tunnel. He paused for a moment to listen.
“I can hear something up ahead somewhere. Maybe we’re not that far behind.”
“Smashing,” Scarlet said. Her words were punctuated by the sound of her moving the cocking handle on her Heckler & Koch submachine gun. “Let’s blow some balls off.”
Hawke rolled his eyes in the semi-darkness of the tunnel and gave them the hand signal to move on.
They reached the end of the tunnel and Hawke peered around the corner. “Looks like this thing goes deeper than we thought. Whoever I heard is long gone – we have a way to go yet before we catch them up.”
*
Maxim Vetrov’s eyes widened when he saw the cavern beneath the temple. It was not as grand as he had hoped, but there was no doubt they were in the right place. An enormous statue of Osiris was looming in the darkness on the far wall, and at its base was a small doorway leading into another chamber.
“What was that?” Vetrov said, his voice echoing in the cold, silent cavern.
“What?” Kodiak said.
“I thought I heard water – coming from there.” Vetrov pointed his freshly loaded Grach at the doorway in the base of the Osiris statue. “We have no time to waste.”
They went through the gateway and found themselves in a rectangular tomb decorated with ornate paintings of the Egyptian gods and goddesses and colourful hieroglyphs all over the walls. The tomb was damp, and musty, and against the far wall was an angular sarcophagus.
“We meet at last, Osiris,” Vetrov said as he paced forward and ran his hands over the stonework. Then he turned wide-eyed and saw what was beyond the sarcophagus – a great pool filled with green water. “So the legends are true,” he said as he stared at the water. “The true Tomb of Osiris really is protected by the Nile after all – and by the gods who swim in it.” As he spoke, Lea saw a movement in the water.
Vetrov moved slowly around the room, no longer hurried by any sense of danger. He caressed the stone edges of the sarcophagus and walked toward the pool of water, his hands trembling with anticipation. He mumbled what sounded like some kind of mantra, and continued talking to himself as he stared into the water of the pool, always keeping a safe distance. This was a man who knew better than most what was lurking beneath the surface.
This was more than a tomb to Vetrov. This was a vindication of everything he had spent his life believing. His rage when he had heard about the discovery of the vault of Poseidon now paled into insignificance when compared to his – the discovery of the tomb of Osiris.
For most, such a discovery would be the crowning achievement of their careers, but to Maxim Vetrov this place was a mere stepping stone to the greatest secret on earth. To most men, Osiris was a god, but to Vetrov he was merely a man who had harnessed the oldest and most powerful energy in the universe, and now he was going to seize that power for himself.
And he was closer than ever before.
Closer than anyone else.
“Kosma – have the men open the sarcophagus. I want the other half of the map and I have waited long enough.”
Kosma selected a few men and some equipment and obediently padded over to the sarcophagus. It didn’t take them long to lift a gap under the lid with their crowbars and then lash some ropes underneath the heavy slab to raise it up. Kosma had the strength of at least two men, and with the other men also heaving, a few moments later the lid scraped and crunched its way off the top of the sarcophagus and crashed to the ground. Professional excavators would have secured it by tying it off, but Vetrov was only interested in the contents of the tomb, not preserving anything for humanity. Humanity, after all, belonged to him now.
He approached the sarcophagus, his face a study of tentative anxiety mixed with clear madness. He leaned inside and a moment later held up a roll of parchment. “I have it! I have it at last!”
*
Lea sighed inwardly as a wave of despair washed over her. Maxim Vetrov now had the entire map and Dario Mazzarro to translate it. He would reach the source of eternal life first and become an immortal – impervious to attack.
He walked toward her but stopped when he saw some movement in the water. “What’s this?” he said, moving over to the pool. “Ah – the crocodiles are here. This pool is connected to the Nile, you see.” He thought for a few moments, stared at his prisoners, then the parchment and then back to the prisoners.
“I was planning on doing this later, on the river, but now seems like a more fortuitous time. Bring me the woman.”
Kosma moved forward and grabbed Lea roughly by the shoulders. He dragged her across the tomb toward Vetrov and the pool.
“Don’t you touch her, you coward!” Karlsson shouted. “If you need to sacrifice someone to your damned gods then make it me. Just leave her alone.”
Vetrov tipped his head as he considered Karlsson’s plea. Lea watched the Russian billionaire as he thought the proposition over, staring at the American with nothing but hatred in his ice-cold eyes.
“Very well, in that case Kodiak, bring me the American.”
Kodiak waved a pistol in Karlsson’s face and made him march closer to Vetrov and the crocodiles in the pool.
“Be careful what you wish for, Navy Seal,” Vetrov said.
“Kiss my ass, Vetrov,” was all Karlsson said.
Vetrov raised his arm and fired the Grach at Karlsson.
Lea jumped with the shock of the gunshot, which struck the American in the throat and sent him stumbling backwards to the water’s edge.
“No!” Lea gasped, and covered her mouth in shock. Bradley Karlsson’s eyes swivelled madly as he tried to make sense of things. He was coughing blood and trying to talk, but just managed to stop himself going over the edge. His hands were clutching at the blood which now poured from his wounded throat and he was unable to react when Kodiak turned to him and gave him a gentle nudge with the barrel of his gun.
Lea was unable to move in Kosma’s iron grip and watched with horror as Karlsson fell back into the pool, his broad frame hitting the surface of the green water with a tremendous splash and sending a spray of bloody water over the wall opposite them. She was numb with shock as a large crocodile set upon the American, sinking its teeth into the flesh of his neck and shoulder. After a hideous moment when the two of them thrashed about for supremacy, the inevitable happened and the crocodile dragged him under the surface.
“You son of a bitch!” she screamed. She watched the pool desperately in the vain hope Karlsson might suddenly launch himself from the surface but it was silent, and she knew he was dead. The amount of blood in the water told her that, and now not only was Karlsson gone, but she was totally alone in the tomb with these psychopaths.
Vetrov chuckled. He was revelling in the American’s death. “Don’t get so distraught. He was being a gentleman and he put himself first. Sadly, he only bought you a few seconds of extra life, because now it is your turn to join your friend.”
He paused and strutted around the tomb with his hands raised in the air. “This is my first act as a god! Behold it! You must celebrate your death – it is a wonderful and noble thing for a great and powerful immortal like me to use you as an offering to the gods above.”
“You’re not immortal yet, you arsehole,” Lea said, struggling against Kosma’s grip.
“It is only a matter of time, Miss Donovan. Time, of course, being a commodity you have just run out of.” He waved the Grach in her face. “Go over there, please, and stand beside the crocodile pool.”
She kicked against Kosma and be
gan to scream.
“Hush… hush please,” Vetrov said, raising his index finger to his lips to command her silence. “Please don’t debauch this beautiful moment of sacrifice with ungracious behavior. Kosma – please help Miss Donovan to the pool.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Lea struggled against Kosma as he forced her over to the murky, bloody water. She saw with disgust that some of Karlsson’s shredded clothes were floating on the surface. The terrifying reality of the situation struck her like a smack in the face. There was no one to help her – Karlsson was dead and she hadn’t seen Hawke and the others since the Piazza San Marco in Venice when Eden ordered her to give chase to Kodiak and Mazzarro.
She looked at Vetrov’s face – calm, measured, and clearly excited to an unnatural degree by her impending death. It looked like he could hardly wait as the giant Russian had manhandled her across the tomb, her boots kicking out vainly against his might and her screams heard by no one except the ghostly, silent faces on the hieroglyphs.
“This is the greatest moment of your short life, Miss Donovan,” Vetrov said, his eyes rapaciously staring at the pool for the first sign of a crocodile. “Soon, you will be gone, but I will be alive forever, and free to impose my will on the human order for the rest of eternity.”
“You’re absolutely out of your mind, scumbag.”
Her mind raced, but all she could do was play for time in the hope someone might intervene and stop this insanity from unfolding.
“I think not. I will shape a world where a tiny elite rules absolutely and forever, served by thousands of generations of slaves. What could be saner than that?”
“A lunatic asylum?”
“And,” he replied, ignoring her remark, “there’s nothing between me and my destiny except an old map and them of course.”
Lea saw an opportunity to play for more time. “Who are you talking about?”
Vetrov couldn’t resist. “Another curious mind – like your colleague Alex Reeve. She wanted to know the truth as well… but it will do neither of you any good. The real enemy are the athanatoi, Miss Donovan. Not me.”
Before she could reply, he snapped his fingers at Kosma. “It’s time for you to go now.”
Then, the sound of gunfire and the blinding white light of muzzle flashes filled the tomb. Deafening shots rang out in the enclosed space and she heard the sound of Joe Hawke as he shouted orders for people to fan out.
She thought she was saved.
Vetrov spun around and aimed his Grach in the direction of the noise. He fired several shots and dived for cover. Kodiak followed suit, firing a couple of short, aggressive bursts from his Bizon and throwing himself behind the sarcophagus for cover. Kosma was slowest to respond, pushing Lea into the pool and moving behind one of the pillars that held up the tomb. The rest of Vetrov’s men scattered in all directions as they tried to evade the onslaught of bullets tracing all around them, blasting the tomb walls to pieces in the savage attack.
Hawke led the charge, pushing into the tomb without fear and crouching down on one knee to spray a savage burst of fire from the Heckler & Koch MP5K he was gripping in his hands. His bullets traced over the heads of Vetrov and Kodiak, now cowering behind Osiris’s Tomb, but he stopped to re-aim the weapon at one of Vetrov’s men who was making a hasty retreat and trying to reach the door. Hawke took him out in a heartbeat, his bullets ripping through the man’s chest and propelling him backwards into the water behind him.
And that was when he saw Lea in the pool – desperately trying to swim to the low wall which surrounded the water in order to pull herself out.
Hawke jumped to his feet and sprinted across the middle of the fire-fight to reach her on the other side of the tomb. He didn’t see Kosma, who raised his gun and fired at him, narrowly missing his head and obliterating the base of the Osiris statue instead. Hawke’s reaction was like lightning, putting his right foot out and throwing himself to the floor. He extended and swung his right arm under body and executed a perfect parkour diamond shoulder roll. Staying inches ahead of the bullets all the way he did a second roll and then he reached the pool.
“Joe, thank God! I thought I was dead.”
“Not when I’m around you’re bloody not. Take my arm!”
Bullets traced all around them as he wrenched her soaking body from the pool and pulled a Sig Sauer P228 from his belt. “Here, take this.”
“With pleasure, babe,” she said, instinctively checking it was loaded and ready to go.
They took cover behind one of the pillars as Scarlet and Lexi raked the back wall of the tomb with their submachine guns and blasted the decorative glyphs into thousands of irrecoverable pieces. Their efforts worked to keep Vetrov and Kodiak pinned down, but Kosma and the remaining goons were regrouping at the end of the tomb.
A soaking wet Lea scraped her hair back behind her ears and turned a sad face to Hawke. “They killed Brad, Joe.”
Hawke made no reply, but clenched his jaw in anger. He knew the time for revenge was always later, and he also knew he could leave it to Scarlet Sloane, who would be crushed about this death, even if she never showed it.
“And Vetrov’s got the other half of the map.”
“Bollocks – has he?”
“Afraid so. He looked pretty damned smug about it, too.”
“We shall just have to take it back off the twat then, won’t we?”
Hawke felt the ground shake and peered around the pillar to see what was going on.
“What the hell is that?” Lea asked.
“Giant Russian bastard’s got what looks like an old Kord down there.”
Hawke watched as Kosma fired bursts from the chunky belt-fed machine gun. The Kord was a heavy machine gun used by the Russian Army, and when needed, by the Russian Police. With a rate of fire of over seven hundred anti-materiel rifle cartridges per minute it was not a weapon to disrespect.
Lea leaned in. “Problem?”
“Maybe. He’s got Cairo and Lexi pinned down and it’s eating up a fifty-round magazine like a hungry dog with a sausage.”
The former Russian KGB man mercilessly fired the Kord at Scarlet and Lexi who had now both dived for cover to escape its lethal fire.
“Where do these guys keep all this kit?” Hawke asked, incredulous. As he spoke he reloaded his H&K and got ready for another assault on Vetrov.
“Tell me about it!” Lea said, also reloading her Sig. “Every time I go on holiday I forget to pack my heavy machine gun.”
Hawke rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Really, even now you’re still trying to be funny…”
“It’s my Irish charm, Joe Hawke… it’s what attracts you to me and don’t deny it.”
Hawke laughed. “Between your jokes and those Russians, this sodding elixir had bloody well better be worth it!”
Lea looked back at the pool and saw Karlsson’s clothes, now no more than bloody rags floating on the surface of the water. She immediately felt guilty for trying to make Hawke laugh after the American had sacrificed himself to save her life, but it was the only way she knew how to survive.
On the other side of the tomb, Vetrov was attempting to escape using Kodiak for cover as he made his way to the tomb’s entrance.
Hawke spun around the pillar and fired at him, the rounds from his H&K exploding in the plaster behind the Russian’s head as he sprinted across the tomb’s floor, parchment in hand. Hawke tried to take him down, but Kodiak was pouring heavy fire on them with his own weapon and forcing him to keep ducking for cover.
Vetrov was gone, and the order had gone out for his men to retreat. Kodiak, who was lean and fast, took the same route as his leader, but Kosma was slower. The giant Russian padded after them, obscured in the gun-smoke and plaster dust as he moved through the half light of the tomb. He shot at the glow-sticks in an attempt to plunge the place into darkness, but Lexi struck a fresh glow-stick and illuminated everything once again.
No longer pinned down by Kodiak’s fire, Hawke spun around f
rom the pillar and fired at Kosma with the MP5K. His bullets tore into the Russian’s back and exploded out the other side of his body through his wide, heavy chest as if it were made of paper. He tried to call out but fell to his knees in the dust of the tomb floor where he swayed back and forth for a second before falling forward on his face and landing in the sandy dirt with an enormous crunching sound.
Lea frowned. “Damn it all, Joe Hawke! I wanted to put that bastard in the fish tank!” She waved the barrel of the Sig at the crocodile pool.
“Sorry… I thought you’d be happy.”
“I’ll get over it, I suppose – but Kodiak’s mine!”
“Fine with me – but we have to catch them before we can kill them, and I want to look in that big stone box before we leave.”
Hawke got up and gave the order to give chase to Vetrov and his men while he checked the sarcophagus for any other clues. Inside he saw the coffin of Osiris and beside it was a strange stone object shaped like a small shield and covered in more of the same hieroglyphics. He snapped a picture of it and emailed it to Ryan immediately before snatching it up and joining Lea, Scarlet and Lexi at the mouth of the tunnel and emerging into Luxor once again. Night had now fallen and it was dark and cool. Above them thousands of stars were shining over the Egyptian desert.
“Where are the bastards?” Lexi asked, scanning the temple complex.
“Could be anywhere,” Hawke said.
“Wait a minute,” Scarlet said. “Where’s Brad?”
Hawke and Lea shared a concerned glance.
“Well?” Scarlet repeated.
Hawke stepped toward her. “Cairo, listen…”
“What?” Scarlet said, peering over Hawke’s shoulder and looking back down the tunnel to the tomb. “He’s all right, isn’t he?”