The General released her from his grip and stood back, rage and malice fighting for space upon his great bearded face as he raised a pistol to point at her head.
‘The hell with you,’ he growled.
Hannah managed to dredge up one last spurt of defiance. ‘Good to know that you’ll die down here with me.’
Veer emitted a grim chuckle as he squeezed the trigger.
The gunshot was immensely loud in the confines of the command center and Hannah cried out in fear as she felt the impact of the bullet. And yet she did not fall. She felt the blast, felt the thud, and saw Veer topple sideways as a bullet smashed into his great barrel chest and he stumbled backwards out of the command center as the pistol fell from his grasp.
Hannah whirled as she saw a SEAL laying on the floor of the center, a rifle aimed now at Veer’s men as he fired three more shots in rapid succession, each seeming to blur into the next. The bullets slammed into the soldiers one after the other before they had even had a chance to realize quite where the shots were coming from. To her horror she saw Warner’s face, his hair matted with blood as though he had been shot in the head, his features grim as he fired at their assailants and they fell almost as one.
Hannah cried out again as she lunged forward and yanked a pistol from the holster of one of the fallen soldiers, then whirled and fired at their bodies, putting more bullets into them and ensuring that they would not be getting up again.
She turned as Ethan scrambled to his feet.
‘You didn’t leave?’ she gasped in amazement.
‘I know,’ he replied. ‘I’m an idiot.’
‘Veer got away!’
‘Forget about him, let’s get out of here!’
Ethan grabbed her hand and together they dashed from the command center. The ground trembled beneath Hannah’s feet, chunks of ice tumbling from the ceilings and smashing onto the icy decks as they scrambled for purchase.
She followed Ethan down the stairwell and they rushed through the exit together and onto the dock, the water to her left turbulent as thick slabs of ice plunged into the black water and churned it violently.
She barely saw the figure loom from their right and plunge into her, massive hands wrenching the pistol from her grip and hurling her past. Hannah rolled over in mid-air and slammed onto her back on the icy dock as Veer’s voice boomed out above the din of the collapsing cavern.
‘Warner!’
*
Ethan whirled and saw Hannah lying on the dock on her back, Veer looming over her with a pistol in his hand that was aimed down at her head. The big, bearded soldier glared at Ethan.
‘Toss your weapons!’
Ethan glanced at Hannah and then reluctantly tossed his rifle and pistol to one side, the metal weapons skittering across the icy dock.
‘Now, hand whatever you got out of Black Knight to me,’ Veer growled.
Ethan winced at him. ‘It’s already long gone, Veer, and this cavern is about to collapse. If we don’t get out now, we’ll all be dead!’
‘You’re not going anywhere until you give me whatever you found in that device!’
‘Believe me, you don’t want any part of it,’ Hannah snapped up at Veer. ‘Right now it’s floating out of here alongside the US Navy’s finest submarine. You’ll never catch up with them, and even if you could you’d never be able to get it back. It’s over, Andrei!’
Veer sneered down at her as he took more careful aim. ‘It is for you.’
‘Veer!’ Ethan shouted desperately. ‘Right now, you can get the hell out of here and disappear and nobody will ever be any the wiser. You can still get away, but I swear if you shoot her I’ll hunt you down for the rest of my days!’
Veer smiled cruelly. ‘And what makes you think that you’ll be leaving here alive, Warner?’
Ethan had no suitable response to the big man, and then he heard the rumble inside the huge cavern reach a new crescendo. He looked up at the walls near the rear of the base and saw gigantic stress fissures split the ice with cracks like thunder that echoed through the chamber.
‘The whole place is coming down, Veer!’ Hannah yelled.
Ethan glanced to one side and saw the bodies of several of Veer’s men lying on the dock, their heads a mess of bloodied tissue where Saunders’ unwavering aim had cut them down. Several of them were wearing diving suits, oxygen cylinders still on their backs.
‘Then it’s coming down on you,’ Veer roared as he looked at Ethan. ‘Where is the submarine going?!’
‘What the hell difference does it make?!’ Ethan yelled. ‘You can’t get it back now, it’s too late. You’ve lost, Veer, it’s over!’
Veer grinned at Ethan. ‘It’s not over until it’s over, and I have one play left that will send that sub’ to the bottom of the ocean!’
Ethan frowned in disbelief as Veer produced a small GPS device and activated it.
‘What’s that?’ Hannah asked.
Veer did not reply as he tossed the GPS device into the water, the glowing screen a brilliant light that began moving swiftly with the flow.
‘Radar guidance for the weapon that will destroy you, the submarines and everything here,’ Veer roared back as he shot Ethan a malevolent glare of victory. ‘If I can’t have it, then nobody can!’
Through Ethan’s mind ran images of the submarine’s crew, Riggs’ SEAL team and of poor Amy trapped aboard the tiny Seehund as the Antarctic base was annihilated by some unspeakable weapon deployed by Majestic Twelve.
Ethan turned and threw himself across the dock, his body sliding across the ice as he reached out. His hand plunged into the freezing water and grabbed for the GPS device as it slid past. The frigid cold bit deep into his skin, ached in the bones of his hand as he closed his grip around it and threw it clear of the water.
Veer roared and turned to aim at Ethan, and in an instant Hannah drew a knife from a sheath inside her boot and slammed it down into the bridge of Veer’s boot. The wickedly sharp blade tore into Veer and he screamed in shock and pain as he tried to swing the pistol back around to aim down at her. Hannah lifted one knee, brought it right back almost to her chin as she then flicked her boot out and it slammed into Veer’s groin with an audible thud.
The huge man’s cry of pain was wrenched off as he doubled over. Ethan scrambled to his feet and hurled himself at Veer as Hannah rolled clear. Ethan slammed into Veer and both of them crashed down onto the ice, Ethan grappling for Veer’s pistol and instead getting a hold of his forearm.
The huge soldier was far too strong for Ethan to batter the pistol from his grasp, but he wasted no time in scrambling to his feet and stomping down on Veer’s wrist. He heard the crackle of bones breaking beneath the blow, Veer screeching in agony as he reached out for Ethan’s jacket.
Ethan jerked away as the soldier attempted to wrench the knife from his boot, but the serrated blade caught in the thick leather and the torn flesh beneath.
‘Run!’ Hannah yelled. ‘Now!’
Ethan turned to flee in pursuit of Hannah, but then the walls of the cavern let out a deafening roar and Ethan saw the surface of the water churn as a fresh flow burst through into the cavern from below and the surface of the dock began to surge upward.
‘It’s too late!’ he yelled to Hannah. ‘We’ll never outrun it!’
Hannah stopped and stared at Ethan, who turned back to look at Veer. The big soldier was trying to stand up, but the blade in his foot was too painful and he could not hope to walk out of the chamber.
Ethan dashed to the bodies of Veer’s fallen men and began unzipping the wetsuits they wore. Hannah realized instantly what he had in mind and began tearing the wetsuit off another of the dead soldiers.
Ethan hurled off his thick Arctic jacket and managed to drive his legs down into one of the suits, hauling it over his shoulders as he looked at the black water surging closer and heard the sound of the walls of the cavern crashing inward under the unbearable pressure of millions of tons of water swelling in the tunnels.
>
‘You’ll never make it!’ Veer yelled as he tried to yank the blade from his boot, his features twisted with pain. ‘We’re all going to die down here!’
Ethan ignored the mercenary as he zipped up his suit and hefted the oxygen tank onto his back, clipping it in place as he looked across at Hannah and saw her pulling the tank of the dead soldier into place on her own shoulders. She pulled the rubber hood into place and attempted to wipe thick blood off the faceplate with numb hands. She yanked the faceplate into place and Ethan quickly sealed it for her.
He stepped out from behind her and saw Veer move.
‘Down!’
Something flickered in the light as it flew across the dock, and all at once Ethan saw that the blade was out of Veer’s boot. He heard a thump and felt Hannah stiffen, her eyes wide with shock as she looked around and down. Hannah slump onto her knees as the thick blade of the knife quivered in her side.
‘No!’
Ethan dropped alongside her, the serrated blade buried in her flesh somewhere just below her ribs, Hannah’s eyes wide and her breathing coming fast as her hands clenched around the handle of the blade.
‘No, don’t move it!’ Ethan yelled. ‘You’ll break the seal of the suit!’
Ethan turned as a tremendous roar burst across the cavern and the fissures in the far wall suddenly burst open. Fierce columns of icy glacial water exploded into the docks and burst past the command center, pouring down onto the docks as frigid water flooded over the dock walls.
Ethan saw the water flood across the dock around them, and then he saw a huge, muscular and torpedo-shaped form surge from the waves and slide onto the dock.
‘We’re going, now!’ Ethan urged as he held Hannah and let the freezing water rush across them.
He kicked off, the flow of water rushing toward the tunnel as he let the fearsome flow carry them along and looked back to see Veer’s body immobile on the dock as the water burst around it. Then he saw the leopard seal, its huge form dwarfing Veer’s as it lunged for his body and sank its razor sharp teeth into his leg and wrenched him toward the water.
Veer screamed as the seal hauled him off the dock but the sound of his torment was lost as the water thundered by them and carried their bodies downstream, Ethan glimpsing Veer vanish into the waves. Ethan held Hannah close alongside him as they were swept along and the current washed them off the dock and sent them careering down the tunnel and out of the chamber.
The walls of the tunnel thundered by, the roar of the rushing water amplified by the enclosed space and the sharp ice walls illuminated only by the glow from the flashlights attached to their wetsuits as they were sent tumbling through the depths of the narrow chasm.
Hannah’s legs were kicking alongside his, and the knowledge that she was still conscious was hope enough for Ethan to keep fighting as the current swept them along through the gloomy confines of the tunnel. He saw the shadowy form of the Nazi soldier buried deep in the ice flicker past like a ghoul in the subglacial darkness, began to see faint bioluminescence in the water as they were rushed along by the current. The water levels began rising faster than the current could carry them, and all at once he saw the glow from their flashlights flickering across the ceiling of the tunnel, the ragged surface dangerously close to their skulls as they tore along.
‘We’re going to have to dive!’ Ethan said as he grappled for his mouthpiece. ‘Can you make it?!’
Ethan felt Hannah squeeze his hand tightly as she shoved her own mouthpiece into place as the water threatened to dash them against the ice. Ethan pushed his mouthpiece into place and then kicked away from the surface of the water, one hand around Hannah’s chest as they plunged beneath the surface.
The roar of the rushing water became a dull but equally threatening rumble as they plunged through the darkness. Ethan could just make out the walls of the tunnel rushing by in a cloud of bubbles, the bioluminescent algae and bacteria in the water providing a soft blue glow. The current was immensely strong, twisting with the path of the tunnel and keeping their bodies a respectable distance from the sharp, ragged walls as they tumbled over while passing alongside powerful vortexes. He knew that if they became caught into those vortexes it would all be over, their fate the same as the Nazi guard buried for eternity in a tight corner of the tunnel.
Ethan held onto Hannah as tightly as he could and tried to look in the direction of their travel, and almost at once he flinched as he saw a dead body pinned against the surface of the tunnel, then another, then more still. He realized that Veer’s team had been caught by the freezing deluge as they fled for the rappel lines that would have carried them out of the fissure. He saw dozens of bodies pinned against the tunnel walls or turning over and over in vortexes, their faces white and their mouths agape, eyes wide with the final terrible agony of drowning.
The tunnel took a swift turn to the left and Ethan reached out to his right, trying to keep both himself and Hannah on their backs in the hope of his hand catching one of the many rappel lines left by Riggs’ SEAL team when they had entered the fissure.
He saw in the gloom the faint halo of the four glow sticks they had wedged into the ice appear in front of him, the soaring walls of the cliff above glowing like a sword of light distorted by the churning waves of the surface as they rushed past beneath, and to his elation he saw Hannah reach out too and search for the lines.
Something brushed across Ethan’s arm and slid along it toward his wrist, and he felt Hannah suddenly jerk in his grip as she got a hold of one of the lines and hung on to it for grim death. Ethan caught the same line, slid down beneath her in the strong current, and then they both slammed against the fissure wall.
Ethan managed to hang on, felt Hannah thump into his side alongside him and he pushed her upward, knowing the pain she must be in. Hannah pulled herself slowly up and out of the flow, inch by agonizing inch. Ethan hauled himself up after her and they broke through the surface and clambered up and out of the water, hanging on to the lines as Ethan wrenched off his mask.
‘Can you make it up?’ he yelled above the roar of the rushing water, his face numb with the cold and his hands aching.
Hannah nodded as she tore off her mask and mouthpiece, but he could see that her face was as pale as the ice surrounding them from more than just the cold.
‘I can,’ she gasped wearily, her voice inaudible above the roar of the water but Ethan able to guess her words from her lips. ‘Let’s go.’
Ethan scrambled up the line beneath Hannah, hoping to help her if she faltered. They climbed one icy ledge at a time, the faint glow of sky far above them drawing them upward. Ethan looked up at Hannah as she climbed, the rushing water below fading away from them, and as he did so something warm dropped onto his cheek. He reached up and touched it and saw blood smeared on his finger, and he knew that Hannah could not continue on much longer.
‘Keep going!’ he encouraged, trying to sound upbeat, ‘we’re almost there!’
Hannah, one agonizing step after another, climbed the last few yards out of the fissure and Ethan reached up to help push her upward and over the edge of the trench, the thick blade still protruding from her side and drenched with blood. Hannah managed to lever herself over the edge without wrenching the blade and then she slumped onto the ice.
Ethan scrambled up the line and over the ledge, saw the same spectacular sky they had left behind many hours before, the sun was low on the horizon amid a halo of torn ribbons of cloud, black against the brilliant sunset that would not end for months.
Ethan dropped down alongside Hannah, who was lying now on her back and staring up at the heavens.
‘Hang in there,’ Ethan said, ‘we’re getting out of here now.’
Hannah managed a vacant smile as Ethan turned to the ski-gliders, and then his heart sank. Every one of them had been sabotaged, the engines reduced to smoldering wreckage by Veer’s men and the parasols likewise burned.
Ethan slumped onto his haunches as he surveyed the vast wilderness ar
ound them, hundreds of miles of barren ice glowing in the light of the low sun. The silence was almost deafening.
‘We’re not leaving,’ Hannah croaked alongside him as she turned her head and saw the damaged ski-gliders nearby. ‘Looks like you’re stuck with me until the bitter end.’
‘I’ll think of something,’ Ethan promised.
Hannah smiled and rested one hand on top of his. ‘We’re about to be bombed, Ethan, in case you’d forgotten.’
Ethan looked down at her and then he heard a noise coming toward them, as though the sky above them were being torn apart, and he knew that it was over, that there could be no escape.
‘You owe me ten bucks, asshole,’ Hannah smiled.
Ethan heard the noise reach a deafening crescendo, and he squeezed her hand in return as the sky was torn apart by noise above them.
***
XLIX
DIA Watch Center,
Manhattan
Nicola Lopez sprinted down a corridor that led to the DIA’s Watch Center and burst in to see Jarvis and Vaughn concentrating on the main screen with Hellerman.
‘I’ve got it!’ Lopez yelled as she hurried across to them and thrust the codes into Hellerman’s hand. ‘Put them in!’
Hellerman grabbed the codes and pinned them to his monitor as he began typing furiously.
‘What did you offer Wilms to get them?’ Jarvis asked her.
Lopez watched as letters, numbers and symbols flew across the screen and Hellerman hit “Enter” on his keyboard. ‘I promised him solitary confinement,’ she replied. ‘After a night with his cellmates, he doesn’t want to encounter another human being again in his entire life.’
A flurry of digital code swept across the screen as the computers accessed the KIL Satellite’s controls, and then Hellerman gave a whoop of victory.
‘We’re in!’ he yelped as he scanned the data now streaming down his monitor.
‘Cancel the launch!’ Jarvis ordered. ‘Shut the damned thing down!’
The Black Knight Page 32