Even Davidson’s nose turned up at the foul smell. Shouldn’t an electrical conduit be lined? Why did it seem like they were descending into hell rather than following some cabling?
The sounds of the world disappeared as they walked deeper into the tunnel. It was like the firefight above was happening in another realm. Not theirs.
Stark’s transmission began to break up. “Ten more… To the right…About sixteen inches.”
Davidson’s eyebrow went up. “Well I hope he meant the right wall about ten feet ahead and the wall depth of sixteen inches or we’re screwed.”
They arrived at the point they thought Stark was guiding them towards. It looked like any other spot along the wall. There was no great big red X to indicate this was the place they were to put their explosives.
Davidson worked quickly smearing the C4 on the rough wall. “That should be enough,” he said guiding her back down the hallway. Once they were far enough, Davidson pulled out the detonator and pushed the red button down.
A loud boom filled the hallway, the shockwave pushing Bunny back even this far away.
Davidson shook his head, putting a finger in his ear. “That should have been more than enough.”
As dust rained down upon them, they crept their way forward, Davidson’s gun ready as filtered light streamed in from the other side of the hole.
“Come, come,” a voice called out. “You should be the first to see this.”
Bunny noticed that Davidson didn’t let his guard down as they climbed in through the ragged hole in the wall.
The reflection of so much gold nearly blinded Bunny. It glistened and sparkled and glowed.
It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to realize they had entered the tomb near a large throne. The Throne of God apparently, given its ivory base and golden seat. Plus the gilded lion escort kind of gave her a clue.
To her surprise there was a man seated upon the throne. He was dressed simply in a wool tunic. His long brown hair fell to his shoulders and his full beard was neatly trimmed. He looked for all the world like every Jesus painting she’d ever seen.
“I give you, your savior, Jesus Christ,” Baasha stated as he motioned to the man in the throne like she was Vanna White on a game show.
“How?” Davidson asked.
Baasha’s misformed lips widened, making a mockery of a smile. “We used the cells from the Shroud of Turin,” he gloated then continued. “My y chromosome along with all of my brothers is from that legendary cloth, but back then we did not have the technology to extract all of the DNA so our maternal contribution was from one of our founders.”
Bunny was starting to see where this was going. Boy was Baasha and that “Christ” up there in for a big, big surprise.
“But with recent advancements, we were able to extract a full DNA profile of Christ and clone him,” Baasha said, bowing his head toward the throne. “He is ready for his second coming.”
“Um…” Davidson said, glancing to Bunny. “About that…”
Baasha turned and frowned. Clearly this was not the response he was expecting.
“That isn’t Christ’s DNA on the shroud,” Bunny explained.
“What are you talking about? Of course it is,” Baasha refuted.
“No, no, it’s not,” Davidson stated.
“I am Christ reborn,” the man said as he stepped down from the throne. “This is my second coming.”
Bunny shook her head. “You are a clone, that I’ll give you, but not of Christ.”
Baasha’s ragged cheeks flushed a deep unhealthy burgundy. “You speak nonsense. Christ died on the cross and was covered by the linen that picked up his skin cells which we cloned.”
“Not so much,” Bunny said. Baasha really wasn’t going to like what came next.
Baasha’s lips trembled. “You speak nonsense.”
“I’m sorry, but it was Judas up on the cross. You have cloned Judas.”
“The betrayer?” Baasha hissed. “Never.”
The man who thought he was the sole child of God, shook his head violently. “I am Christ. Your redeemer.”
Rebecca had finally broken down and told Bunny the full story over a bottle of Merlot one night. Rebecca had sworn her to secrecy, which Bunny had held up, until now. And if there was ever a time to break that silence, it was now.
“On that fateful night before the arrest, Jesus had a crisis of faith and with Mary’s encouragement, Judas offered to go in Christ’s place.”
“Lies. Blasphemy,” Baasha sputtered, backing away from them.
“I was a member of the Knot, I’m sure you are familiar with them.”
Baasha didn’t seem to want to acknowledge that fact, but in the end he nodded.
“We held our secret from the foot of the cross that it was Judas who died upon the crucifix, not Jesus. That shroud had Judas’ DNA, not Christ’s.”
You could see Baasha start to take in the knowledge yet equally hard trying to repel the information.
“It cannot be,” the wannabe Christ said.
“But it is,” Davidson noted. “I’ve got samples from both Christ and Judas in a secret archive. We could test them to prove my point.”
Bunny looked to Davidson. Was he bluffing or had he been lying all this time and knew of another hidden Knot stash? She knew the deep shame he felt about being a member of that cult. She feared it might be the reason they had never crossed the threshold into a true relationship.
Baasha seemed to take him at his word though as he blanched a near white. “There is no need.”
The sorta savior went to step across the moat of glass when the floor gave out and he cut his leg on the sharp shards. Screaming, he fell to his knees, holding his bleeding leg. Red ran bright across the crystalline surface.
“Help me.”
Baasha’s features screwed up into a grimace. “You are polluted. Cloned from the betrayer.”
“As are you,” the man spat.
“You do not think that I know that?” Baasha said, indicating his ruined features. “You do not think I know the burden of carrying his DNA?”
“But, if Judas died upon the cross, then he was the savior,” the man tried to reason, but Baasha would have none of it.
“That is not how the world will see it.”
“So you can stop the suicide bombers,” Bunny stated stepping forward. “There is no reason to have the apocalypse.”
“The world will burn,” Baasha growled, pulling a small detonator from his pocket. “It will burn.”
“But what of Hope?” the almost Christ begged. “Where will they find their hope?”
Baasha smiled that strange, haunting smile again. “God will provide.”
“No!” Bunny screamed running at Baasha as his finger clicked the detonator.
But instead of any kind of explosion in the tomb, it was the back of the Judas clone’s head that blew off. The man crumpled to the ground, dead before he hit the glass.
Bunny backed away, shocked and horrified.
* * *
A cloud of smoke billowed from the tomb, obscuring Baasha. The man was probably already long gone.
Davidson knew the revulsion Bunny was feeling, but that act of cruelty might have just saved the world.
“Come on,” Davidson stated, tugging Bunny back to the hole they had created. He checked his watch. Just under six minutes before the coordinated worldwide Sarin attack.
He leapt over the ledge and landed in the hallway. “Stark did you get that?”
“What?”
“That high frequency signal that went off about ten seconds ago.”
* * *
Stark had been so busy trying to get the audio back that he really hadn’t been monitoring any other frequencies. But there it was. A recorded blip. It had only lasted for a fraction of a second, but it was there.
“Got it.”
“Start broadcasting it worldwide, especially at airports and other high value targets.”
“Why?�
� There were a thousand reasons not to do so. That kind of wide broadcasting could interfere with other important functions like pacemakers and such.
“Baasha just used that frequency to set off a kill switch in a clone. We can only hope that every clone has one.”
“Okay, okay, okay,” Stark said trying to figure out the logistics of doing such a thing.
“I’m on it,” his mother said. “You cover the Americas and Europe and I’ll handle the rest.”
Stark glanced at the countdown clock. They had a little over two minutes to figure out some way to shut down the clones.
“I’ve hacked into the emergency broadcasting network,” his mother stated, “At least in the countries that have them.”
“Radio stations,” Stark said. His mother understood immediately. In more rural countries they may not have as organized a system as the emergency broadcast, but they all had radio stations. Even Ghana.
They got to work. The room fell into a silence only broken by their rapid typing. It was like an asynchronized symphony. A melody to save the world.
Over his headset he could still hear the battle being fought under the Great Wall. Lopez was shouting something about pulling back. Davidson must have given the order while Stark was distracted by his task.
There were a number of responding shouts, but Stark ignored them and kept focused on his task. His mother had done the hard hack. Now it was just up to him to transmit the signal to every corner of America and Europe where most of the targets were probably located. He amplified the signal until it was audible. He needed to reach into the depths of any subway station or national monument which were far from any transmitter.
“Use the cellphone bandwidth,” His mother suggested.
Of course. He could amplify the signal by transmitting through cell phones microphones. He could make each person’s phone its own little emergency broadcast system.
Stark watched the monitors of JFK and Rome. He watched as people started to stare at their phones, hitting buttons to make the weird sound stop, but Stark couldn’t allow that.
Then the first clone’s head exploded, then the other. They dropped harmlessly to the ground. TSA agents rushed to the bodies, shoving people back. Emergency protocols were engaged. The Sarin should be contained.
“I’ve got at least five clones down,” Stark’s mother stated.
It wasn’t for a moment until Stark realized the clatter of gunfire had died over the com as well.
* * *
Davidson ran up to his team. Lopez threw his thumb in the direction of the downed clones.
“What the hell was that?”
“They had a self-destruct built in. We hacked into their frequency and triggered it world-wide.”
Bunny caught up, a little winded, her cheeks a blushing pink. “The Sarin threat is contained.”
“Damn,” Lopez said. “We need all of our enemies to have those chips. Can we make that a requirement?” he mockingly asked Malvern.
“We wish.”
“We’ve still got a problem though,” Davidson said. “I don’t think Baasha had one.”
“The Righteous probably didn’t think he even needed one,” Levont stated.
“I agree. And he may have a close guard that didn’t either,” Davidson said. “But he escaped.”
“Where do you think he is headed?” Prenner asked.
“My guess?” Bunny answered. “Beijing. If he sets off his Sarin and makes it look like the Russians or worse the South Koreans, Baasha could still spark a deadly international incident.”
“Hey, isn’t that our job?” Lopez joked even as he was gathering his gear to leave.
“How are we going to get there?” Levont asked. “Our SUV is at the top of the mountain.”
“Oh please,” Lopez moaned. “Ye of little faith.”
CHAPTER 22
Baasha brushed off the spider webs from the long forgotten passage out of the tomb. It was the path the builders had used to seal the tomb from the inside. It led to a small hillside far from the wall.
He turned and watched the American team pour out of the Terra Cotta museum and head toward the ATV rental shop. He could already tell the team’s plans. They were going to head south along the wall, then dismount once the wall turned west. There they could catch the train into Beijing in a doomed attempt to stop him.
It was a smart plan. Inventive and bold.
They must have realized that neither he nor his personal guards had the tiny tube of C4 implanted in the base of their skulls. Well, his guard once had them, but he made sure that his closest brothers were spared that self-destruct mechanism.
Never in a thousand lifetimes would he have guessed their grand scheme, to resurrect Christ would be thwarted before it even began. That the shroud did not have Christ’s DNA had never occurred to any of the Righteous. To think they had cloned Judas all these years.
If it wasn’t a tragedy of Biblical proportions, it would be almost funny.
“They are leaving,” his brother stated.
And that they were. So predictable.
Just because the Righteous’ plan had been gutted, didn’t mean that Baasha wouldn’t see it to the end. And to ensure his success, those Americans had to die. Now.
Baasha pulled out another detonator. He felt its smooth round button with the edge of his thumb. He had promised worldwide destruction and worldwide destruction he would have.
With a great deal of savor, Baasha pressed the button. At first nothing happened, then a loud “boom” shook the entire area. The explosives his brothers had planted, had set off a chain reaction.
First the tomb collapsed upon itself. He could image all of those gold warriors being crushed under the weight of earth above them. Protected for millennia, now nothing more than gold leaf.
The first crack in the wall showed next to the restaurant. Then the guard tower to the north collapsed which set off a chain reaction. The walkway split in half, cracking the wall down the middle. The sides fell over like Legos kicked by a cranky five year old. Once the second tower went down, the wall’s failure became a long line of dominos being knocked over.
A line heading straight for the Americans.
* * *
Bunny was hugging tightly to Davidson as they raced down the great wall. Lopez and Levont were, of course in the lead. But not far off. It turned out Davidson was a natural at this whole ATV thing. They were in front of Prenner and Malvern.
“Uh oh,” Stark stated in her ear.
That was never good.
“What?”
“Don’t look behind you,” Stark told her so of course she looked behind her. Prenner and Malvern weren’t far back. However there was no wall back there. It was gone. Tumbled over, now just a pile of rubble behind them.
“Lopez!” Bunny screamed, pointing behind them.
The crack in the wall was already under Prenner’s ATV. There was a gap that was nearly as wide and their tires.
The corporal’s response was nearly instantaneous. Lopez’s brain worked as fast as his machines. “Gun it!”
Gun it? Weren’t they already gunning it? But Bunny had to hold on tighter as Davidson punched it.
Lopez and Levont flew up the side of the wall, then over it. Dear God, Davidson was going to follow.
Bunny shut her eyes as she felt the ATV lift off, then they were airborne.
She opened her eyes as they landed, hard on the far side of the wall. They bounced and spun and careened, but finally Davidson was able to get them straightened out.
Prenner wasn’t so lucky. The wall crumbled before he was over the side. His ATV never got air under it. Instead, he was coursing down the rubble, trying to out chase the worst of it. Huge boulders rumbled down the pile, the shattered side of the wall, racing straight toward Prenner and Malvern.
“Jump!” Lopez screamed.
They must have been as crazy as Lopez because both men flung themselves from the ATV just before it was crushed under a huge boulder
.
Prenner landed just south of the debris while Malvern landed on the harder rock then slid down beneath two rocks as more boulders roared down the debris.
“Malvern!” Bunny yelled, getting off her ATV and racing toward the pile of rubble.
The men were hot on her heel.
The chorus being, “Malvern!”
“Shh. Shh.” Lopez said holding up his hands. “We’ve got to listen for the response.”
But there was no response. Nothing. Just the distant rumble as the Great Wall of China that had stood for millennia, was falling into a pile of debris.
Levont began digging rocks out, throwing them off to the side. “He went down here, right?”
Bunny, tears streaming down her face, nodded. “Right here.”
Dear God, she could see the whole thing play out in her head over and over again. The colonel’s look of realization he was going down. The look of horror as he slid off the slab. His final outreach of his hand, Bunny felt was certain was just for her.
Then he was gone. Buried under a pile of stone.
“I can’t get this one,” Levont said, shoving as hard as he could. His already large biceps bulging. “Bro, get a crowbar from the ATV,” he said to Lopez.
The corporal dashed back to the vehicles, grabbed the bar and was back before Bunny could blink.
“Make sure we don’t create another rockslide,” Davidson said, positioning her so that she was holding back the upper rocks. At the least she felt like she was doing something to help.
As the men moved the large boulder, she began to worry what they would find under there. Once in college she had gone rock climbing. One of the girls hadn’t secured herself properly and fell to her death hundreds of feet below. It was like she didn’t have any bones.
Bunny shivered. The thought made her stomach turn and she hadn’t even known the girl. Malvern had been there for her every step of the way on this mission. To see him broken like that? She might break herself.
“I’ve got a foot!” Levont yelled out. Prenner jumped down to help him move another large stone.
Bull's Eye Sniper Chronicles Collection (The Second Cycle of the Betrayed Series) Page 26