‘He wants to achieve true immortality,’ Reznak stated coldly in the taut silence that ensued.
‘If deciphered correctly, the Emerald Tablet and the Mutus Liber apparently describe the process of making the Elixir of Life,’ said Alexa. ‘As to the tombs—’
‘He must think that they somehow contain the ingredients to making the Philosopher’s Stone!’ Jackson concluded in a breathless rush of words. Admiration glowed in his fevered gaze as he looked at her.
‘But, surely he wouldn’t be able to challenge the combined forces of our two immortal races,’ said Banks dubiously. ‘The Crovirs and the Bastians are embattled veterans who have been fighting wars for millennia!’
‘That might have been true seven hundred years ago,’ Alexa said quietly, ‘but the Red Death decimated us almost to the point of extinction. Our races are nowhere close to the numbers they were at before the plague.’ She ran a hand through her hair. ‘Ismael Sadik said this sect was ancient. I believe him. I think Kronos has been around in one form or another for a long time. I would not underestimate the size of their faction. From what is written in those,’ she indicated the documents on the screens with a head tilt, ‘Cavaleti has been assembling a veritable army. Boyko Dragov is his right hand and principal disciple. There are immortals among their ranks, too. If he succeeds, we could be looking at the birth of a third, more powerful race of immortals.’
‘Damn,’ muttered Banks with a trace of admiration.
The soft, modulated voice of the AI interrupted them. ‘Alexa, I have a hit on the van’s registration plate,’ said Eva. ‘It was spotted in Budapest an hour ago. I’ve managed to trace its current location.’
A satellite image sprang up on one of the monitors. It showed a twilight view of a conglomeration of dark buildings in the middle of an empty countryside.
Alexa grew still as she studied the faint illumination outlining the distinct patterns of lines in the large field next to it. ‘Is that a military airbase?’
‘Yes,’ said Eva. ‘My data banks show that it was last occupied by the Soviet Armed Forces during the Cold War. It is currently classified as disused.’
Alexa turned to Reznak. ‘Dragov and Cavaleti could be there right now,’ she stated in a steady voice that managed to mask the anticipation building up inside her.
Her godfather was not fooled by her expression. ‘Take however many men you need,’ he said tersely. ‘I’ll talk to our First Council and the Bastians.’
She looked at Yonten. The monk smiled and bit down on a biscuit.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Alexa left the estate with the monk and Carrington in tow. They lifted off from the airport outside Ceske Budejovice shortly before nine and were in Budapest within the hour. Snow was falling steadily from the dark skies when they stepped onto the tarmac where two black SUVs and a van stood waiting. A group of twelve Hunters were joining them from the local Crovir base in Hungary.
As the convoy headed swiftly toward the abandoned airfield thirty miles outside Budapest, her thoughts turned to Jackson. He had not been pleased at being left behind in Sumava and had voiced his protests quite eloquently. It was Reznak who finally convinced him that his best chance to assist with their mission lay in solving the mystery of the two relics in their possession.
Though they had parted without exchanging words, Alexa recalled the expression in his eyes with a small shiver. He had looked like he wanted to brand her with his mark.
Half a mile from the boundary of the airfield, she ordered the vehicles to a halt under a copse along a deserted country lane. They regrouped in the back of the van.
‘I want your guys here, here, and here,’ she said briskly to the Crovir Hunters’ team leader. She pointed at three positions on the live picture of the old military base on the screen of her laptop. Satellite thermal imaging showed eighteen heat signals in the abandoned structures. ‘No one is to fire a single shot until I say so, unless your life is under direct threat. Even then, I’d rather you take a bullet than break our cover.’ The Hunters glanced at each other warily. Alexa could tell her reputation had preceded her once more. ‘I want to find out what they’re up to in there. Look out for a pair of tombs. They may be in one of those buildings.’
Moments later, they proceeded to their designated positions.
Carrington and Yonten followed her as she ran across an open field to a metal fence that spanned the perimeter of the facility. She stopped before it and studied the chain links thoughtfully. The enclosure was relatively new.
Carrington snipped across the bottom of the barrier with a metal cutter and pulled up a narrow section. They crawled through the gap, raced low along the cracked asphalt, and halted in the shadow of a large, dilapidated, two-storey structure.
Alexa slipped the Sigs from her body holster and stared at a window to her left. Dim light escaped around the edges of the metal blind on the other side.
From what they had seen of the recon images, the largest number of heat signals on the abandoned base was in the building she stood against. She leaned across and peered through a narrow gap in the metal slats. A shadow moved across the window. She pulled back and raised four fingers at Carrington and Yonten. They nodded, the monk’s teeth flashing in the darkness.
Alexa murmured, ‘Go!’ softly in the wireless transmitter pinned to her collar, strode to the fire exit further along the wall, and opened the door. A dim, deserted corridor lay beyond. She entered it, the Sigs covering her line of sight. The door to the room with the window she had spied through was on the left.
She stood still for several seconds.
The low hum of a powerful generator came from somewhere below and caused the floor to vibrate faintly beneath her boots. The mutter of voices rose from further inside the building.
Alexa walked to the door, opened it, strode inside, and shot the man sitting at a table on the other side of the room. The figure next to him fell a fraction of a second later. The suppressors muffled the thuds of the bullets.
Carrington shot the sect member next to the window while Yonten delivered a powerful chopping blow to a vital point in the neck of the man behind the door.
She stepped over the dead bodies and picked up the two-way portable radio transceiver the man at the table had been holding. Seconds later, a low voice came through it. She noted the channel frequency before tossing the transceiver across to Carrington. The Crovir caught it deftly, depressed the transmitter switch, and murmured a response in passable Bulgarian. The voice at the other end acknowledged the security check and disconnected.
Alexa took the satellite smartphone out of her jacket and texted the Crovir Hunters’ team leader to change the band of the microphone devices they were using. She waited five seconds before talking softly in the transmitter. ‘They have a security team guarding the perimeter of the airfield. Stay watchful.’
‘We know. We almost walked into one of them,’ the Hunter responded. ‘The bastards are wearing camouflage gear.’
Her gaze shifted to the old computer on the table. Before they left Reznak’s estate, Eva had attempted to connect to the network at the old airfield. All of the AI’s efforts had been in vain.
Alexa removed a slim device from a pocket in her cargo pants. Banks had given it to her before she left the lab; it was a tap that would allow Eva to remotely access the data flowing across Kronos’s system. She connected it to an ethernet port at the back of the terminal.
A second later, the AI buzzed quietly in her earpiece, confirming that a successful connection had been made.
Alexa walked out of the room and headed inside the building, Carrington and the monk on her heels. A shadowy stairwell appeared to their right after twenty feet. She looked up and saw faint light spill over the banister one storey above.
They continued down the corridor and explored the rest of the
ground floor. The other rooms were deserted. The tombs were not in this building.
They returned to the stairwell and headed toward the basement.
A steel door stood at the bottom of the steps. Alexa opened it and stepped carefully across the threshold. The noise of the generator grew louder.
She stared at the banks of old computer mainframes ahead, caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and saw a startled man disappear around the corner of the L-shaped room. She went after him and shot him twice in the back. He fell across a table, the phone in his hand clattering to the metal surface.
She picked up the handset, listened to the dial tone, and placed it back on its base.
A voice came over the microphone receiver in her ear above the dull drone of the large generator to the right. ‘I don’t want to alarm you, but a Tornado fighter plane just came out of a hangar at the end of the runway,’ said the Crovir team leader. ‘What the hell are these guys up to?’
Alexa’s gaze shifted to the generator. Before she could utter a word in response, the phone on the table started to ring. She stared at it. It stopped after ten seconds.
‘Get ready,’ she said curtly into the transmitter. ‘They know we’re here.’ She crossed the floor and flicked off the generator switch.
The basement was instantly plunged into darkness. The lights came back on seconds later.
‘Shit!’ exclaimed Carrington. ‘They must have backup generators elsewhere.’
The faint but unmistakable sound of gunfire rang out in the distance.
Alexa turned and strode out of the room. Bullets pelted down around her when she entered the stairwell. She looked up. Figures leaned over the railing two floors above, the muzzles of their Shipka submachine guns flashing in the gloom.
She returned fire, Carrington at her side. Three of the shadowy shapes jerked and slumped over the banister, their weapons dropping from their limp grasps. Carrington grabbed one as it fell past him.
They were on the ground floor within seconds.
The exit door through which they had entered the building slammed open to their left.
Alexa emptied the Sigs in the four camouflaged figures who came over the threshold, reloaded, and started up the stairs. A voice shouted a harsh command above them. She recognized the gravelly tone.
It was Boyko Dragov.
A bloodthirsty smile flashed across her lips as she discharged her guns at the silhouettes on the first floor. Carrington fired the Shipka next to her.
The enemies’ shots suddenly stopped when Alexa and the two men reached the next landing. The sect members were falling back.
The Crovir team leader suddenly swore in her ear. ‘Shit, I think they’re gonna bomb someone!’ he panted. It sounded like he was running. Gunfire erupted across the comms line. ‘There’s a mother of a missile strapped to the belly of this jet!’
Alexa glanced at Carrington. His expression mirrored her sudden unease. Throwing caution to the wind, she raced up the final steps. The immortal and the monk followed behind her.
A bullet grazed her right thigh when she stormed into the passage at the top of the stairs. She ignored the wound and took out the two men at the end of a long corridor to her right. They fell in front of a heavy-looking metal door.
Boyko Dragov stood in the room beyond. His eyes darkened when he saw her. The door slammed closed and she heard bolts slide across on the other side.
The rising whine of powerful twin engines suddenly shattered the air outside the building. As she strode down the passage toward the metal door, Alexa saw the Tornado jet thunder past through the windows of one of the empty rooms that lined the corridor. Glass rattled in metal frames. A muscle twitched in her jaw when she spotted the large bomb beneath the aircraft.
Eva’s voice came over the microphone receiver. ‘Alexa, I’m getting some strange readings from Kronos’s network. They appear to be getting ready for a massive airstrike.’
‘I know,’ she replied with a frown. ‘A fighter jet just lifted off from this airfield. Keep an eye on it.’ She studied the metal door at the end of the passage, walked back a few steps, and entered one of the vacant rooms. She crossed the floor to a broken window and leaned out. The roof of the building was a few feet above them.
‘Yonten, take the roof,’ Alexa said quietly. He grinned and nodded.
She returned to the corridor with Carrington while the monk climbed out of the window. Eerie silence shrouded the building.
‘I don’t like this,’ murmured the Crovir. He glanced over his shoulder toward the empty stairwell.
‘Alexa,’ said Eva in her ear. ‘We appear to have a perimeter breach around the estate. Dimitri wanted me to warn you.’
Alexa’s heart lurched inside her chest at the AI’s words. Carrington was right; something was very wrong.
She raised the Sigs at the lock on the metal door and fired both guns rapidly. Sparks flew around them. She snarled, raised a booted leg, and kicked the panel. It dented beneath her blow.
Gunfire exploded on the other side of the door. Faint shouts punctuated the shots.
Alexa holstered the Sigs, grabbed the Shipka off Carrington, and emptied the submachine gun at the hinges. She dropped the weapon at her feet seconds later and kicked the door again. Another dent appeared beneath her foot.
Ignoring Carrington’s shout of warning, she took several steps back, ran, and rammed her shoulder into the metal panel. Air left her lungs in a harsh grunt. The frame shuddered under the impact. She scowled and stepped back once more.
The door came off its hinges after the third blow and crashed into the room beyond. She was through the opening in a heartbeat, Carrington on her heels.
Six men lay incapacitated around the floor of a large, makeshift command center. A bank of monitors occupied the workstations ahead.
A choked noise rose from the right.
Alexa turned and saw Yonten struggling in Dragov’s grasp. The giant had his arms wrapped around the skinny young man and was squeezing the air out of his lungs. His face an unhealthy shade of red, the monk continued to strike steadily at his adversary, his movements measured and accurate.
Her gaze shifted briefly to the bright computer screens. Her stomach dropped when she saw the satellite image on the middle display. ‘Shut them down!’ Alexa barked at Carrington. Sliding the sais out of their sheaths, she spoke swiftly into the transmitter on her collar. ‘Eva, get everyone out of the lab, now! That jet is heading your way with a bomb. You don’t have much time!’
She bolted across the room, jumped, and front-kicked Dragov in the small of his back.
The giant staggered forward a step. He dropped the monk and lumbered around to face her. His lips twisted in an ugly grimace. He raised his arms and brought his open hands toward her head in a power slap intended to crush her skull. Alexa spun the sais and blocked the blows, the blades pressed flat against her forearms.
Dragov grunted. Veins throbbed on his forehead.
She gritted her teeth as his palms slowly forced her arms closer together by an inch.
Someone kicked him in the thigh. His leg buckled slightly. Dragov turned and punched Yonten in the stomach. A whoosh of air left the monk’s lips as he sailed across the room and struck the wall with his back. Alexa heard bone snap. Yonten pushed himself up and sagged, a sliver of blood staining his lips. A shadow of pain darted across his pale face. He took a determined step forward.
‘Stand down!’ snapped Alexa as she slipped out of the way of the giant’s arcing fist. The monk froze at her command, his expression unreadable.
She raised each leg alternately in a rapid succession of savate kicks to Dragov’s legs. Using the knuckle ends of the sais, she followed through with a series of powerful jab and hook punches to his trunk. The giant stumbled a couple of steps.
Alexa stepped behind him, hooked the top of her foot against the back of his ankle, swung an uppercut at his chin, and swept his leg out from under him when he leaned out of the way. Dragov fell heavily on his back.
She raised a heel and dropped it in an axe-kick toward his groin. He rolled, his quick movement catching her unawares once more. Alexa jumped up when his hand snaked out to grab her foot, twisted sideways in the air, and landed elbow down on his chest with the full weight of her body behind the strike.
She felt the breath leave his lungs in a low, guttural wheeze and saw a short spray of blood stain his teeth. She rolled free as he staggered to his feet.
Dragov swung at her again.
She ducked beneath his fist, grabbed his arm as it sailed above her head, lifted off the floor, and threw a hooking knee strike at his groin. This time, she made contact. The giant’s eyes crossed and he doubled over. She dropped down lightly on the balls of her feet.
Shots rang out from the direction of the command center. Alexa looked over her shoulder.
Carrington was firing at the computer terminals. ‘I’ve tried everything!’ he shouted, glancing at her. ‘I’ve even unplugged them. The damn things are running on battery power!’
A crash ahead brought her head back around. She saw Dragov disappear through a broken window.
Alexa ran to the sill and saw him rise from the ground fifteen feet below. Dragov looked up at her, a smug grin dawning on his lips. Tires squealed in the distance; a van was headed swiftly across the tarmac toward him. He leapt through the open side door as it slowed down. The vehicle performed a screeching U-turn and vanished into the night.
King's Crusade (Seventeen) Page 27