The Armageddon Protocol (A Harry Bane Thriller)

by Rob Jones

  Liška wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief from his pocket and walked over to Harry. Far above, all of Paris was frozen, and the catacombs were cold enough for them to see their breath in the air. Liška’s sweat was caused by fear, not heat, and now he stuffed the cloth back on his pocket and crouched beside the Englishman.

  “You couldn’t have just put this in a safety deposit box?” Zoey said.

  “Banks have an annoying habit of asking questions about what they’re storing for you,” Liška said. “So no.”

  With a final pull the trapdoor swung open and sent a shower of dust bursting into their faces. Harry coughed the cloud of dust from his lungs and waved it out of his face as he took the first few steps below the trapdoor. The first things he saw were broken bones strewn on the flagstones and thick cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.

  The others followed him, and they moved down the steps into a claustrophobic vault, now so far below the city they may as well be in another world. Shining the flashlight from side to side as their shoes crunched on the gravel, they finally reached the far wall.

  Lucia tripped on a crack in the flagstone floor and fell into the wall, almost putting her hand through an old, desiccated skull as she tried to stop herself. She tried to scream but Harry stifled it with his hand. “Let’s try to keep this delightful little place just for us, shall we, darling?”

  Before she could respond, Liška barged forward and pointed at an area in front of them in the wall of skulls. “There it is,” he said. “It’s in there, behind that skull.”

  “How can you be sure?” Zoey said.

  The Czech turned to her. “I have a good memory for skulls,” he said.

  “And on the site of a hospital that used to treat victims of the Black Death,” Harry said. “I see you have sense of humor, Andrej.”

  “That was not why I chose it,” he said flatly. “I already told you – my sister’s husband works for the Paris Musées and he helped me access it. He risked his job for me.”

  Zoey shuddered and looked over her shoulder into the gloomy, damp darkness. “You sure don’t screw around when you hide something, Chekov. I’ll give you that.”

  Liška pulled the broken rocks apart and made a small space just big enough for his arms to push into the hole. Harry watched as he struggled to locate the object for a few seconds, cursing as he tried to find it. Then his eyes lit up and he turned to the others. “I have it.”

  “So get it out and we can split,” Zoey said.

  “That’s a very good idea,” Lucia said, glancing at her watch. “It’s getting dark out there now and half the French police are searching the city for us.”

  “Night gives us an advantage,” Harry said.

  The Czech scientist gently pulled a metallic object from the hole in the vault’s wall with the care of a mother carrying a newborn baby. “This is it… it’s still here, thank God!”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Harry stared at the strange, cold canister in awe as Liška handed it to him. It was smaller than he thought it was going to be, and heavier too – roughly the same size and weight of a can of beans. The surface looked and felt like burnished chrome, and the whole thing was smooth except for some shallow undulations at what he presumed was the base. At the opposite end was clearly a lid of some kind but it was sealed.

  “Heavier than I thought,” he said.

  “All the weight is in the canister,” Lucia said. “Am I right, Professor Liška?”

  “Yes. The dust itself weighs practically nothing.”

  Zoey took a step forward. “Can I get a look and see what’s causing this shitstorm?”

  Harry glanced at her. “I don’t think so.” He turned to Lucia and handed her the canister.

  “This is incredible,” she said. “I knew Pablo was a genius, but this… I cannot believe it is really what you say it is.”

  “Believe it,” Liška said flatly, and stared nervously at the object in her hands.

  She turned the canister over and studied it for a few second, but as she moved her fingers up to the seal, Liška’s eyes widened like full moons.

  “Don’t touch that!” he snapped. “Give it here.” The Czech physicist leaned forward and snatched the canister from Lucia.

  “Take it easy, Andrej,” Harry said.

  Liška once again wiped the sweat from his forehead. “I’m sorry, but you just don’t realize how dangerous this could be if it ever got into the wrong hands.”

  “But we’re the right hands,” Lucia said. “Don’t forget that.”

  “You’re right, of course,” Liška said. “Forgive me – it’s just that I was there that day when they all died in Sweden – me and Gabriel. We watched them all die right in front of our faces. That’s why we took this away and vowed to hide it forever.”

  “But it’s not safe here, Andrej,” Harry said. “You understand why we have to get this to the authorities?”

  “No! They’re all under the control of the Ministry… every one of them!”

  “That’s not true, Andrej,” Harry said. “I know people in the British Government who I would trust with my life. We need to get this to them. It’s the only way it can be secured.”

  Lucia took the canister from Liška and weighed it in her hands a second time. “Incredible… and you’re sure the nanodust is already in here?”

  Liška swallowed hard and gave a shallow nod as they made their way back up the steps and into the tunnel. They reached the end and turned back into the main corridor leading back to the official Catacombs entrance when everything changed.

  Lucia gasped and pointed down the tunnel at a man with a gun. “Ay, dios mío!”

  He fired before they could react.

  The bullet struck the corridor wall, ricocheted and blasted a chunk of limestone from one of the pillars supporting the ceiling. The smashed stone rained down on their heads and they ran for cover behind a support pillar as more bullets now drilled into the wall of skulls behind them, showering them with powdered bone.

  “The police are here!” Liška said as Harry leaned around the pillar for a closer look.

  “Holy crap on a cracker!” said Zoey. “You don’t say?”

  “It’s not the police,” Harry said, slamming back into the cover of the pillar. “It’s the Ministry’s men, and the cops are dead on the tunnel floor behind them.”

  “But how did they know we were here?” Lucia asked. “The last time they knew our location was back in Madrid!”

  “A question for later,” said Harry. “Our problem right now is getting out of these catacombs alive.”

  “Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit,” Zoey said, peering around the pillar and deftly sliding the snub-nose pistol from her pocket. “These guys are acting kinda thirsty if you ask me.”

  “No one asked you,” Lucia said. “Are you afraid?”

  “Hell no! This is more exciting than knocking off Greco. Did I ever tell you about the time I was in a shootout in Oklahoma?”

  Before Harry had a chance to reply, the men hurled stun grenades which exploded and blasted fragments of bone from the countless skulls all over them. The Englishman shielded his eyes with his forearm for the duration of the explosion and then scanned the area occupied by the Ministry’s men. They were fanning out and executing a professional advance on them, with one unit covering while another moved forward and secured more of the tunnel.

  “Whose idea was it to come down here?” Zoey said, shaking her head in despair.

  “We had to get the dust,” Harry said.

  “Well… great plan, Holmes,” Zoey called out. “Now we’re trapped.”

  “Always look on the bright side,” Harry said.

  “We’re pinned down in an underground maze by a bunch of tooled-up psychos and our only company is a million skeletons – what’s the bright side again?”

  “We’re in Paris. When we get out we have access to excellent world-class museums and coffee.”

  “Oh, ge
ez. Of all the heroes in the world I got you.”

  “You think I’m a hero?”

  She looked at him blankly. “Get over yourself, Chief. You busted me out of jail and I’m grateful, but we’re not getting married.”

  “You break my heart,” he said sarcastically. “And we’re not trapped – there’s a tunnel behind us, look.”

  A narrow tunnel lined with countless leg bones receded into the darkness behind them, and they all knew it was leading further back into the Catacombs, but they had no choice.

  And so they fled.

  Behind them now, more of the Ministry’s agents emerged from the cloud of dust and after scanning the tunnels and seeing their enemy’s flight into the darkness they restarted their pursuit.

  “Keep going!” Harry shouted. They sprinted deeper in the tunnel system, but he could see that Niko was starting to look tired. To call him a big guy was an understatement, and Harry was concerned he might collapse at any minute.

  Another bullet struck the wall beside Zoey’s head and blasted her with smashed skull. “Holy Kamoley!” she yelled, still in a sprint. “I think I’m all skulled out.”

  “You can say that again,” Niko said, panting hard as he struggled to keep up.

  Liška could barely contain his panic. “We can go this way,” he said. “Jean-Paul showed me. It’s one of the exits off limits to the public.”

  “Where does it come out?” Lucia asked.

  “I’m not sure, but we’re some distance from where we entered.”

  They reached a small dusty room littered with old newspapers and beer bottles strewn around the floor. On the far wall was a vertical ladder leading up to a hatch. Presumably one of the many unofficial exits from the catacombs was the other side of it. Harry moved ahead of them, climbed the ladder and pushed the hatch open. Moonlight flooded the shaft, lighting all their faces a ghostly silver color.

  Then several silhouettes loomed in over the hatch and blocked the light of the moon. In their hands were some pretty chunky looking firearms.

  “Ah, the traitor Professor Liška, and his team of amateur sleuths.”

  Liška gasped. “It’s Hans Steiner!”

  “In the flesh,” the man said. His voice was clipped but cultured. “And how kind of you to return the items you stole from us.” As he spoke, the other men aimed their machine pistols down into the shaft. “Hand them over, or my men will tear you to shreds where you stand.”

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  Steiner clambered down, snatched the canister from Liška’s hands and ordered their new captives out of the vault. His instructions were enforced by the men with Heckler & Koch MP7s gripped in their hands. As they moved toward the ladder the other men who had pursued them into the tunnels arrived with their guns drawn. Now, they were surrounded.

  Harry was first up the ladder and back to the surface of the earth. When he reached the hatch two of Steiner’s men grabbed him by the head and neck and dragged him from the shaft, hurling him onto the paving. One of them gave him a solid kick in his ribs and he grunted in pain.

  He staggered to his knees and saw they were some distance from the hubbub back at the main entrance. He saw the flashing lights of the police vehicles on the buildings in the distance and a chopper was swirling around with an arc light in a desperate search for them. For now, they were alone.

  “Now the rest of you,” Steiner said from below. “And keep things casual. Any monkey business and you’re dead.”

  Lucia was next, and then Zoey and Niko followed. Finally, Andrej Liška placed two trembling hands on the top rung of the ladder and emerged into the city night. A large man with hands like shovels couldn’t resist kicking the professor in his face as he struggled from the hatch. The professor flew backwards onto the gravel behind the shaft entrance.

  “Enough Aleksi!” barked Steiner, and climbed up the ladder to join them.

  Before Liška could get up, the Finn pulled him to his feet and Steiner casually approached him.

  Face to face at last, the Austrian gave a cruel smile. “You and Ramirez have caused the Ministry a great deal of alarm and uncertainty.”

  Behind him, Zoey struggled as Aleksi Karhu grabbed her with his powerful arms. “Let us go, you assholes! I’m taking this to the American embassy!”

  Steiner turned and slapped her hard, drawing blood from the deep split his ring had gouged on her cheek. Without speaking a word, he turned back to the Czech physicist.

  “Where were we, Andrej?”

  Harry watched as Steiner forced Liška to kneel with his hands behind his head. The old man trembled as he followed the instructions, dropping to his knees and clasping his fingers as he brought them around to the back of his head. The moonlight reflected off the temples of his glasses.

  For more than a few seconds Harry Bane was convinced that Steiner was going to personally execute Andrej Liška for his crimes against the Ministry. He watched with disgust as the Austrian strutted slowly behind the professor and raised the muzzle of a Micro Uzi to the parietal bone just behind his right ear.

  “Perhaps you know too much about the Ministry,” Steiner said, almost in a whisper. He squeezed his thick fingers around the grip of the open-bolt blowback-operated submachine gun and a macabre grin flashed cross his lips. “Perhaps I should kill you now.”

  “I know nothing about the Ministry!” Liška said, his voice breaking with fear. Never good to hear that wobbling sound in a full-grown man, but it wasn’t the first time for Harry. He had known fear smother far stronger men than the professor. In the final moments, it wrapped around them like a shroud, dark enough to make your heart stop.

  “You are a liar and a traitor,” Steiner snapped. “There is no reason for me to believe you, old man.”

  “It’s the truth!” Liška said. Exercised now, he tried to turn but Steiner knocked him back down with a harsh pistol whipping.

  Harry leaped forward, more from instinct than judgement and was impressed by the speed with which the Austrian brought the situation under control, whipping the Uzi up into his face and shouting at him to get back.

  Harry raised his hands in a show of surrender and took a step back. The Micro Uzi looked petite, but with a cyclic rate of fire of 1200 rounds per minute, Hans Steiner definitely had the advantage in this particular situation. “Easy there, Arnie.”

  “Was?” Steiner said in German.

  “Just take it easy,” Harry said, and glanced down at Liška who was slowly coming back to reality with his face pushed down in the gravel. “No need to beat up old professors, is there now?”

  Steiner stared at the Englishman for a moment too long, his beefy face lit silver in the moonlight, and then he gave a shallow nod before bursting into laughter. He raised the index finger of his gun-free hand and pointed it at Harry’s face. “You especially I would enjoy killing.”

  “The feeling’s mutual,” Harry said.

  Steiner returned his attention to Liška. “The only reason you live now is so Mr Szabo can kill you later.”

  “Why? I have done nothing!”

  “As I have already said, you and Ramirez have caused much trouble with your theft of our property, and unfortunately the senior ranks of the Ministry are not renowned for their forgiving nature. Your punishment will be severe. Now get on your feet – we’re getting out of here.”

  “Where are we going?” Liška asked.

  “You have an appointment with a painful death, and you’re late.” Steiner said. “Now move!”

  Steiner, Aleksi and the other men marched the captives away from the hatch and out onto the Avenue du Général Leclerc.

  Harry observed the look of shock on the faces of the men and women crawling along the avenue in their cars as the armed men marched them away from the enormous lion statue in the center of the Place Denfert-Rochereau. The statue was a bronze reduction of the famous Lion of Belfort, created by the same sculptor who gave the world the Statue of Liberty, but tonight it was surrounded by police and security servi
ces as they swarmed around the entrance to the Catacombs.

  Further to the south, Steiner ordered them to stop and a large Caracal Super Cougar long-range tactical chopper now rapidly descended towards them.

  Steiner ordered his men to grab hold of Liška and take him to the chopper. The Czech professor kicked and screamed as they dragged him away and then the Austrian commando pulled Lucia toward him and raised a pistol to her throat. “And you’re coming with us too, Serrano,” Steiner said.

  “Leave her alone!” Harry shouted.

  “We will not harm her,” Steiner said. Behind him the whirring blades of the helicopter boomed and roared as the pilot increased power to the collective. “She is our insurance policy and will only be harmed if you try and follow us, or get in our way again. When we have completed our mission she will be released.”

  “Bastards,” Harry said.

  “I take it as a compliment, and now turn out your pockets and give us your phones and wallets.”

  They did as they were ordered, and then Steiner covered Harry, Zoey and Niko with his machine pistol as Aleksi forced Lucia into the center seat at the back of the chopper beside Liška.

  The Austrian climbed into the front beside the pilot and slammed his door shut with a grin on his face, but as Aleksi leaned forward in his seat to slide shut the rear door, Harry dived into the main cabin of the chopper and grabbed the Finnish soldier by the throat. It was madness – he knew he stood no chance – but when he saw Lucia’s terrified face in the back of the helicopter something inside him exploded and he burst into action.

  Aleksi reached up two meaty hands and tried to wrench the former Pathfinder’s hands from the soft flesh of his throat, but his freedom of movement was restrained by the belt holding him tight in the seat. He grunted as he struggled to breath through Harry’s grip.

  The man sitting on the other side of Lucia sprung into action, popping his belt and lunging forward, launching a heavy fist into Harry’s face.

  Harry took the blow well but as the world started spinning he knew he couldn’t take any more.