Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2)

by Robert Storey

  Hilt signalled to one of his men. The man nodded and loaded a tactical missile into his rifle’s launch mechanism.

  ‘As soon as it reappears,’ Hilt said through the com, ‘take it out.’

  ‘Sir,’ the soldier said, ‘no one will survive the blast.’

  Hilt glanced at Susan and the three civilians. ‘It’s for the best,’ he said, with a heavy heart, ‘this thing can’t be allowed to return to camp. Director Goodwin would understand.’

  The soldier nodded and took aim.

  ♦

  Sarah watched in horror as the Darklight soldiers fought the creature and died without even slowing it down. With over half his force massacred, only the leader and less than twenty of his unit remained. And when they’d fallen, there would be just four, unarmed civilians left to face it alone.

  Sarah hoped – prayed – for another miracle and her hand clasped Trish’s locket in unconscious desperation. A lull in the fighting allowed her short relief before the light came again.

  ♦

  The creature reappeared inside the entrance before blinking out of existence. Hilt cursed and the man with the missile launcher glanced in his leader’s direction before a gush of blood burst from his lips.

  The dying form of his lieutenant was lifted into the air and Hilt’s helplessness turned to rage.

  ‘SWORDS!’ Sprinting forward, Hilt drew forth his thermal blade.

  The light vanished again and the mangled corpse slumped to the ground.

  ♦

  Sarah saw the Darklight leader slow to a stop, his glowing eyes turning this way and that as he sought their hunter. In his hand, a bright shining blade pulsed in the dark like a weapon forged by God. Around him seven other swords shone out with the same white brilliance.

  Sarah held her breath, but as the seconds ticked by only darkness stirred.

  ‘Where is it?’ Trish said, her voice shaking.

  Sarah didn’t know.

  After a minute of deathly silence the Darklight leader separated himself from his unit and approached.

  ‘Has it gone?’ Trish said.

  ‘For now.’ The Darklight man switched off his white hot sword, retracted his mask and held something out to Sarah.

  She opened her hand and he dropped her two pentagonal pendants into her palm.

  He then passed her the Anakim parchments, before withdrawing the orb from another compartment. ‘What is this?’ he said, holding it up for inspection.

  ‘Just an artefact,’ Sarah said, making sure she kept her tone as bland as possible.

  He studied the orb before tossing it to her. He glanced at Trish. ‘She seems to like you,’ he said, indicating Susan, who cowered behind her. ‘If you can keep her from running off, I’ll do my best to get you safely back to the USSB.’ He removed a small pouch from his armour and held it out to her. ‘For the arm.’

  Trish reached out and accepted the offering.

  ‘You haven’t told us who you are,’ Sarah said, hurrying to keep up with him as he walked back to his unit. ‘Who is Susan? Why are you down here? What is Darklight?’

  ‘They’re used by the GMRC,’ Jason said, ‘peacekeepers for hire – mercenaries, right?’

  ‘There’ll be time for answers soon enough,’ Hilt said, ‘for now, we concentrate on staying alive.’

  ‘You intend to keep chasing it, don’t you?’ Sarah said. ‘You mean to kill it.’

  Hilt looked like he was about to reply before a rumble of distant noise made everyone turn. The Darklight leader’s sword glowed back to life and he strode to the fore. His troops fanned out behind him, their own blades drawn, and odd-shaped shields slid from concealment to mechanically expand in preparation for another round with the phantom.

  Coming from the opposite direction to the labyrinth entrance, a light was growing on the escarpment high above. The sound grew louder and Sarah glanced behind, wondering if they should make a run for it. She swapped glances with Trish and Jason, and they edged toward the passage that led into the sprawling maze.

  Blazing light appeared over the rise, flooding the chamber and turning night into day. Sarah squinted as her visor image flared due to the sudden change in spectral input.

  A powerful voice rang out into the chamber. ‘SARAH MORGAN!’

  Sarah stopped and turned to look up at the top of the escarpment, which was now lined with row upon row of Terra Force commandos.

  In their centre a single man stood atop an SED all-terrain vehicle. He retracted his helmet’s mask and pointed down at her. ‘I’ve come for you, Morgan!’ he said, ‘there’s nowhere else to run!’

  Chapter Sixteen

  Commander Hilt looked back at the SED woman, who stared up, open-mouthed, at the force arrayed before them. Whatever she was doing in Sanctuary Proper it seemed it was as he suspected; there was more going on with her than met the eye.

  ‘Sarah Morgan is under my protection,’ Hilt said, raising his voice and zooming in his visor on the man above. ‘What do you want with her?’

  The SFSD Colonel turned his attention to Hilt and his expression changed to one of recognition. ‘If it isn’t Steiner’s pet merc. I heard you were all dead.’

  ‘Then you heard wrong.’

  ‘Keep standing in my way, Darklight, and I won’t have.’

  Hilt glimpsed a glimmer of movement and thrust his blade left. ‘Take another step, assassin, and it’ll be your last.’

  A shimmer of light distorted the air and a chrome-clad figure appeared, with Hilt’s glowing blade resting at its throat.

  Something tapped against Hilt’s armoured chest.

  ‘Think again, Commander,’ a woman said.

  Hilt glanced down to see the tip of a slender blade and he followed the length of the sword to where its owner emerged from the background.

  He gazed into the mirror-like visor of another assassin. ‘Where’s your leader?’ Hilt said, glancing at the woman’s S.I.L.V.E.R. emblem and the gun she held in her other hand.

  Motionless moments passed before she turned her head to look towards the labyrinth. ‘Hunting,’ she said, her voice distant.

  Hilt studied her. ‘He seeks the light?’

  The woman’s visor retracted to reveal beautiful Asian eyes. ‘He seeks Sarah Morgan, as do I … we all seek the light,’ she touched his Darklight emblem with her sword, ‘but the dark is always just one step behind.’

  ‘You know of what I speak; the entity – the creature.’

  The woman didn’t reply as more of her colleagues materialised to confront Hilt’s beleaguered unit.

  The colonel’s voice rang out again. ‘Can you hear me, Morgan?!’ he shouted. ‘You have something I want, the pendant; give it to me and you get to live!’

  ♦

  ‘They know about the pendant,’ Trish said in hushed despair.

  Sarah’s heart skipped a beat. Their secret was out. They knew what she possessed, the key to the Anakim’s past, the key to their technology, the key to everything. And they’d sent an army to reclaim it.

  She glanced at the chrome-plated warriors who’d appeared from nowhere to force the Darklight commander and his unit into a standoff. And then her eyes were drawn up to the escarpment and the troops surrounding the Terra Force leader. Virtually all of them had their weapons trained in her direction. She felt her throat run dry and automatically licked her cracked lips in response. She wanted to run, but she’d be lucky to get two feet.

  ♦

  Colonel Samson ground his teeth against a sense of building impatience. S.I.L.V.E.R. had taken it upon themselves to secure the woman. Nexus had disappeared and his Chinese bitch had switched off her radio. If they get their hands on the pendant first, he thought, the only way to get it back will be to prise it from their dead hands. The only problem with that – they’d take everyone else with them by detonating their failsafe device. I have to act, but how?

  ‘Do you know what this woman is?!’ Samson said. ‘Does Darklight know who it protects? This woman is
a thief, a murderer and a terrorist,’ – he paused for breath – ‘as are any that stand with her!’

  ‘Says the man that murdered Steadfast civilians,’ the Darklight leader said. ‘I know who and what you are, Colonel Samson!’

  Samson had had enough of this charade. He called over one of his captains. ‘Get down there and retake control from S.I.L.V.E.R..’

  The man saluted and gathered together four squads. The soldiers each fired a climbing anchor into the cliff and then dropped over the edge to abseil down to the ground below.

  Samson gestured to one of his men. ‘Bring him.’

  ♦

  Sarah felt sick. She’d known what she’d done was right. She’d taken back what was hers. She’d defended herself and escaped false imprisonment, but now the stark reality of her choices had come back to haunt her. Being called a thief she could live with, but a murderer and a terrorist? Hearing the words spoken, and with such malice, made her feel numb.

  Movement above made her refocus her attention.

  ‘Sarah Morgan,’ the colonel said, ‘you have something I want, but I have something of yours!’

  Sarah’s eyes widened as a man was dragged to the edge of the cliff. A man she’d grown to admire, a man who’d become a friend, a man whom she loved. ‘Riley,’ she whispered. She went to move forward, but Trish grasped her arm.

  The colonel jumped down from the Centipede on which he stood, removed his rifle from his back-plate and pointed it to Riley’s head. ‘The time for talking is over, Morgan! Surrender yourself to my men—’

  Sarah saw more Terra Force soldiers reach the bottom of the cliff face.

  ‘—or this man dies. You have ten seconds!’

  ♦

  The commandos disconnected from their descent cables and approached Hilt’s position.

  ‘It looks like the colonel doesn’t trust you,’ Hilt said to the assassin.

  He could tell the woman wanted to look behind to see what was happening, but she kept her discipline, her sword remaining near his armour’s weak point and her sidearm aimed at his face.

  ‘Eight seconds!’ Samson shouted.

  Hilt knew Samson had massacred his men back in Steadfast and he was as likely to kill them all as let them go. He tightened the grip on his sword, his muscles tensing for action.

  ♦

  Sarah adjusted her visor and homed in on Riley, who struggled in vain against his captors. Seeing his face again brought memories flooding back and her heart lurched in anguish and longing in equal measure.

  The colonel’s voice boomed out again. ‘Six seconds!’

  Sarah opened her hand and looked at the two pentagonal pendants. How can such a small thing cause so much trouble? She touched the larger of the two artefacts. No one could have guessed at the power it held, and yet it might be the most important find in human history, beside Sanctuary itself. Much like the Rosetta Stone was to Egyptology; this pendant could do the same for the furtherance of revealing the Anakim’s past, but at the same time it could do so much more – it had the power to shape the future of humanity. I should have known such a thing couldn’t stay mine for long, she thought. It doesn’t belong to me, to anyone – it belongs to all mankind. Which was why giving it up to those that would hide it away for all eternity went against everything she stood for, went against everything she ever was and would be.

  ‘Four seconds!’

  Sarah looked at Trish and Jason with sad eyes. ‘I have to go; I can’t let Riley die because of me.’ She gave Trish a hug and slipped the bigger of the two pendants into her hand and whispered, ‘They’ll never know the difference until it’s too late, if you get the chance – run.’

  ‘Three seconds!’ Samson said. ‘Two seconds … one sec—’

  ‘OKAY, STOP!’ Sarah turned back and raised her hands. ‘You win! I surren—’

  Something powerful grasped her from behind and she felt something sharp nick the skin on her throat.

  ‘Do not move a muscle, Sarah Morgan,’ a voice like death said in her ear, ‘very slowly, give me the pendant.’

  Sarah glanced down. A chrome-clad hand held a knife to her throat and she unfurled her fingers to reveal the smaller of the pentagonal discs.

  ‘Do not play tricks with me,’ the voice said, ‘for I will not hesitate to kill you.’ The knife’s pressure increased. ‘The other pendant, now.’

  Sarah swallowed and felt a trickle of blood run down her neck.

  ♦

  Samson swore as the large form of S.I.L.V.E.R.’s leader appeared behind Sarah Morgan.

  ‘Nexus,’ he said, his eyes flaring with rabid hate.

  Samson removed his gun from Orton’s head and took aim at Ophion. ‘Time to die, assassin,’ he said, and pulled the trigger.

  Chapter Seventeen

  A gunshot rang out and Sarah felt the knife leave her throat. Everything that had been held in suspension snapped to life. Rapid gunfire exploded like a storm and all hell broke loose.

  ‘Go!’ Sarah grabbed Trish and ran for the passageway.

  ‘Look out!’ Jason shoved Sarah left.

  Something whistled past her head and Jason was spun round, his wrist pinned to the stone entrance by a strange device.

  Sarah’s visor revealed the shimmering form of a man bearing down on them, gun raised. Bullets ricocheted from the assassin’s armour, forcing him to take evasive action and giving Sarah the chance to prise Jason free, just as more bullets tore into the stone inches from her head.

  ♦

  Hilt parried the thrust of the woman’s sword while ducking a projectile that whizzed over his head. Falling back, he grasped his shield and deflected a hail of bullets that peppered the ground around him. The chrome assassins vanished from view and Hilt joined his men to form a shield wall, like the soldiers of yore. He glanced round to see Susan running into the labyrinth, followed by Morgan and her friends.

  ‘Fall back!’ Hilt said.

  Under relentless assault, the Darklight unit retreated on command, shields interlocked. Hilt sheathed his sword and scooped up the missile launcher dropped earlier by one of his men. With another order his team broke formation and entered the passage at a dead run. Bringing up the rear, Hilt continued for fifty yards before skidding to a stop. Turning, he armed the weapon – took aim – and depressed the trigger.

  ♦

  Colonel Samson chased Nexus with a hail of bullets until the man vanished from sight. With the clip depleted, Samson threw the gun to the ground and held out his hand to receive another. He cocked the weapon and fired at the retreating Darklight mercenaries.

  Seconds later a message flashed up on his visor:

  WARNING!

  HIGH YIELD MISSILE LAUNCH DETECTED

  ‘Incoming!’ Samson shouted and sprinted away from the cliff edge.

  ♦

  A trail of smoke shot out from the entrance to arrow into the base of the cliff. A blaze of light blossomed into being as the missile struck and the earth shook. Sound built and stone shattered as the detonation erupted in a cataclysmic shockwave that flashed out like a supernova.

  Inside the labyrinth, Sarah stumbled as the ground shuddered around her. Trish screamed and a wave of light swept down the passage. Sarah glanced back and saw Darklight soldiers following. Behind them a cloud of dust burst into the passageway at breakneck speed.

  ‘Keep going!’ Jason said.

  Heart racing, Sarah ran faster, and the small form of Susan disappeared around the next corner.

  They emerged into a large channel that cut through the centre of the labyrinth and Susan waited for them fifty feet away. Reaching her side, with Trish and Jason at her back, Sarah slowed to a stop, breathing hard.

  The sound behind faded before a tremendous rumble built above.

  Sarah looked up as the topmost level of the labyrinth collapsed onto the level beneath. In a chain reaction floor after floor came down with a successive boom Boom BOOM!

  Sarah’s eyes widened and she was running again a
s the collapsing floors chased them down the central avenue.

  The vibration underfoot grew stronger. A glimmer of silver made Sarah glance left to see chrome-clad forms on the level above fleeing before the same storm.

  Susan angled right down another passage.

  ‘Where’s she going?!’ Trish said.

  Sarah didn’t know, but instinct told her to follow and so she did, while behind them, the Darklight soldiers ran past the entrance, carrying straight on.

  The thunderous noise continued and they were running through a maze of tunnels again. Tiring, Susan slowed, allowing the three friends to catch up.

  ‘Which way?!’ Jason said.

  ‘Right!’ Sarah ducked into the right of three passages.

  ‘Sarah, wait,’ Trish said, ‘Susan’s gone left!’

  Sarah slid to a stop and ran back to follow Jason and Trish, who were hot on Susan’s heels.

  The ground beneath Sarah’s feet lurched and she bounced from one wall to the other, and staggered on. The levels behind continued to collapse and the roar of falling stone filled the air.

  Jason glanced back. ‘Sarah, watch out!’

  Sarah looked up. A massive ceiling block plunged towards her. A force smashed into her from behind, flinging her from her feet.

  Hauled up by armoured hands, she was pushed forward.

  ‘Move!’ The Darklight commander said.

  Followed by the bulky form of Hilt, Sarah ran for her life as giant blocks thudded into the ground behind them.