Ophion smiled. His visor closed and the GMRC soldiers reached for their weapons, as S.I.L.V.E.R.’s leader leapt into their midst.
♦
Agent Myers let out a groan and sat up in a daze. A large smoking crater dominated the floor outside the president’s nuclear bunker and the dead bodies of armoured GMRC soldiers lay sprawled all around it in various states of dismemberment. He pressed a button on his helmet and said, ‘Get me Director Joi—’
Myers slumped to the floor unconscious, his message cut short, as Colonel Samson stood over him and shook out his fist.
Samson had always enjoyed knocking someone unconscious, but this instance was particularly gratifying. Myers was responsible for Samson’s abduction and enforced deployment into Malcolm Joiner’s personal war in Sanctuary. And if Myers was here, it meant Joiner wasn’t far away. Samson picked up a rifle and waited as two GMRC soldiers abseiled down from above.
The two men appeared before him and Samson unleashed his weapon, severing the men’s cables and sending them plummeting into the elevator shaft below. The soldier’s screams cut off as they hit the bottom.
Samson connected himself to one of the cables left behind, swung out into the shaft, deployed his armour’s winch and vanished up towards the surface.
♦
Ophion Nexus despatched the last GMRC soldier and thrust his thermal sword at Joiner’s chest, but the A.I. in the director’s exoskeleton reacted, grasping the blade in its steely grip.
Ophion swung his other sword, but again, the machine caught the blade, using its other mechanised hand, which encased the real flesh and bone within.
Joiner’s mouth stretched into a grimace as he watched Ophion use his inhuman strength to force the weapons towards their intended targets. The exoskeleton’s motors whirred louder under strain, as they were forced back, and Joiner found himself teetering on the brink of the elevator shaft.
The tip of Ophion’s shadowy blade moved closer to Joiner’s cheek and he cried out in pain as his flesh blistered.
A group of GMRC soldiers came storming round a corner and bullets ricocheted off the assassin’s armour. Ophion gazed at the director through his visor, raised one mighty leg, and kicked Joiner into the abyss.
♦
Down in the elevator shaft, Colonel Samson swung aside as a large object came hurtling towards him.
An instant later it swept past, accompanied by a rapidly fading scream. Samson gazed down after it. He could have sworn he’d seen Malcolm Joiner’s terror-stricken face as it passed. He gave a grunt of disinterest and carried on with his ascent to the surface. He was interested in one thing, and one thing only: killing Ophion. The man who’d murdered his daughter.
Samson emerged through the open elevator doors into a carnage-strewn hallway inside the White House. Nexus was nowhere to be seen, but Samson knew all he had to do was follow the bodies.
Samson scooped up a beam weapon from a dead GMRC soldier, then ran forward in his battered armour. He kicked open a door and strode out into the night, onto the rear lawn of the White House, in search of his target. But instead of finding one S.I.L.V.E.R. operative, Samson found himself confronted by eight chrome-clad assassins engaged in a battle with a regiment of Joiner’s soldiers.
Unfazed by the odds now stacked against him, Samson ducked a spray of bullets and blasted a bloody swathe through the thickest fighting.
A roar of jet engines made Samson look up. A large aircraft appeared above the White House and a familiar figure sat in its illuminated cockpit. Ophion Nexus gazed down at Samson, then engaged his aircraft’s afterburners and the ship shot forward with a roar.
Samson raised his weapon and fired, the energy beam chasing the ship as it sped up into the heavens, but moments later the aircraft was out of sight, the distant rumble of its engines fading to silence. Samson bared his teeth in fury, then dodged a soldier’s attack, punched him to the ground and vaporised his head with another beam of blazing light.
Samson searched around for a way to give chase, but there was nothing capable of supersonic flight available.
‘Tell me where he’s going?!’ Samson said.
The voice in his head didn’t respond; Samson ground his teeth then launched an attack on those around him, his roar of rage a red-mist of insanity.
Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Three
Agent Myers rubbed at his temples; he had a pounding headache. He wasn’t sure who’d knocked him unconscious, but on the plus side he’d managed to survive his brush with Colonel Samson, which more than made up for the discomfort.
Myers steeled himself and greeted more GMRC soldiers, who poured into the president’s underground complex from the monorail station located beneath.
‘Do you have the second laser and explosives?’ Myers said, to an approaching grey-clad marine.
‘Yes, sir, they’re on their way up.’
Myers nodded in satisfaction, then stopped in shock at the vision before him. Malcolm Joiner hung upside down in the elevator shaft, his exoskeleton entangled in a wire cable that hung down from the White House residency located high above.
‘Don’t just stand there!’ Joiner said, his face flushed with fury. ‘Get me down!!’
♦
‘Professor,’ Jessica said. ‘What do we do? How can we launch missiles without the Pentagon?
John Henry looked at the man who was supposed to have the answers and saw he had none.
‘We knew this might happen,’ Bic said, looking at Steiner. ‘We don’t need the Pentagon. All we need are the Gold codes and I can access the nuclear weapons grid through a backdoor.’
John looked at Steiner and knew that’s why he was reluctant to make the next move. He feared the hacker’s intentions, like John himself. If I hand over codes, John thought, they’ll give the cyberterrorist access to all major attack options. He could destroy the world long before any of the final asteroids hit.
‘You still command the naval fleets, Mr President,’ Bic said, ‘and your nuclear bombers are already airborne. The GMRC and its allies in the Pentagon will seek to prevent us communicating with them, but they will fail.’
John’s mind whirled through the information given him by his naval commanders, along with the data provided by a NASA astronaut, conveniently supplied at the eleventh hour. John glanced at the timer:
Could he really trust all these sources, routed through technology controlled by the hacker? Was he seeing what was real, or a virtual creation manipulated to deceive him? What if none of this is true? What if a weather balloon caused the light in the sky? What if I’m about to duped in the biggest hoax in history? I’d not just be responsible for the deaths of billions, but for the death of the entire planet!
‘At least contact the other nations,’ Bic said. An array of eight flags of the world’s nuclear powers displayed on screen, comprising Russia, China, India, Israel, France, North Korea, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. Images of the respective nation’s leaders and military commanders appeared one by one, next to each of these flags.
‘The Professor and I have laid the groundwork for your contact,’ Bic said. A pre-written message appeared on the screen. ‘They don’t know about the other asteroids, only the imminent threat, the latter of which, you’ll need to confirm.’
‘You need to convince them, and your two admirals, to join us,’ Steiner said. He motioned at Yates and McCormick, who remained live on screen. ‘The burden is not yours alone.’
John looked at the faces of those waiting for him to speak, both on the display and in the bunker. The only problem was, he wasn’t sure he’d convinced himself.
‘Time’s running out, Mr President,’ Bic said.
John opened his mouth to give Steiner the go-ahead to connect him to the other leaders, but a crippling fear seized his mind. ‘You’re going to make the wrong decision, boy,’ said his father’s voice from beyond the grave. ‘You always make the wrong decision. You’re a coward. You always were. You always will be.’
> ‘Listen to your father,’ his mother said, her voice sounding like she was right next to him. ‘Give up, you can’t save anyone. You never could. You’re too weak. Leave it to stronger men.’
‘Mr President?’ Steiner said.
John shook himself and motioned to the professor to patch him through to his counterparts.
The speakers in the bunker crackled for a moment and the world leaders on the screen turned to face their cameras and the man about to address them, the President of the United States.
John swallowed, looked at the message to be read and started to speak. ‘This is the President of the United States of America, John Harrison Henry, speaking to you live from the White House. By now you’re aware of the threat my country faces, a threat concealed by the GMRC, which rules us. However, this asteroid will not just destroy my nation, but will cast the world back into darkness and an impact winter from which it will not recover.’ He glanced at Steiner, who mouthed the words as John spoke them. ‘Our great nations may not have seen eye to eye in the past, but one thing unites us: the planet which we call home. As I speak, some of us teeter on the precipice of war, when the real enemy approaches from the skies above. Coordinates have been sent to your militaries to enact HERD, the Harmonic Explosive Residual Defence. Multiple nuclear warheads, set to detonate in a set sequence, to create a percussive wave which will break up the asteroid before it enters the atmosphere. To achieve the desired synchronisation, computer codes will need to be embedded into your launch systems and this is being transmitted to you now.’ John looked to Bic, who nodded.
‘Enact the code provided,’ John said, ‘and our world may yet live on. May God guide your decisions; the fate of the world now rests in your hands.’
The expressions on the leaders’ faces ranged from stern to deep consternation. The North Korean leader responded first, the audio automatically translating as he spoke. ‘The United States has waged war upon my nation for decades, both militarily and by way of crippling sanctions. We cannot trust a word it says and North Korea will enjoy seeing it annihilated, as it has annihilated so many others.’
John opened his mouth to respond, but the North Korean vanished as he cut the connection, and Pakistan quickly followed suit.
‘You expect us to hand over control of our weapons systems to you?’ said a Chinese general. ‘A man who has the President of the EU murdered under a flag of peace and holds our premier hostage?’
John shifted in discomfort. He looked to the Chinese premier, who stood next to him, but if John had been hoping the man would speak up in his defence, he was to be disappointed as Liang Junhui remained silent.
The Chinese general also cut the feed and this time Russia, India and France decided to join them in the exodus.
Only the United Kingdom and Israel remained, but as John was about to thank them for their support, an explosion rocked the bunker and the room’s lights flickered.
‘What’s that?’ Eric said, gesturing to Jessica.
John turned to see a section of the blast door glowing red hot.
Steiner’s expression darkened. ‘Malcolm Joiner.’
‘I’ve redirected the circuitry on a damaged camera,’ Bic said. A fuzzy image outside the bunker appeared on the screen.
Sixty armoured soldiers surrounded the form of the tall figure of Malcolm Joiner, in his exoskeleton, while beside him Agent Myers coordinated the use of a powerful laser mounted on a tripod.
The bunker’s lights flickered again, and molten metal began to trickle down the blast door and pool on the floor.
‘He’ll breach in less than ten minutes,’ Bic said.
John turned back to the screen and saw Israel had also disconnected. Only the United Kingdom remained and the Prime Minister said, ‘My recent election as leader of the United Kingdom has left me shell-shocked, Mr President, but the UK is with you. If the GMRC is deceiving us, as you say, we must protect those we serve.’
‘Stay on the line,’ John said to the Englishman. ‘It’s almost time.’
The Prime Minister nodded and Steiner cut the audio.
‘It’s not enough,’ Bic said. ‘The United Kingdom has only a fraction of the firepower we need.’
‘Without China and the Russians, we’re dead in the water,’ Steiner said.
‘Then that’s it, then,’ John said. ‘We’re finished.’
‘There must be something we can do,’ Jessica said. ‘Surely, we should launch what we have; we might get lucky.’
Eric nodded his agreement, but Steiner shook his head and pointed at the screen.
‘This is the mathematical model of the strike with the nuclear weapons we have,’ Bic told them. ‘It will not work.’
‘Then what do we do?’ Jessica said. She looked at Steiner and then to Bic and finally to John. ‘What do we do?!’
‘There’s nothing we can do,’ Steiner said, as the seconds ticked down on the clock and his gaze drifted back to the glowing blast door. ‘Except pray.’
‘Pray?’ Jessica said. ‘Pray for what?!’
‘The only thing that can help us now.’ Steiner looked her in the eye, then turned to John and said, ‘A miracle.’
Chapter Two Hundred Fifty-Four
Half a world away, deep inside an Anakim-made mountain, Alexander Konstantin and seven of his knights moved further into the pyramid. The stone structure’s two mirrored walls cast a pale light over the interior, the demonic sculpture surrounding them glinting in the half-light. Two more of Konstantin’s men held Sarah’s friends captive at the monument’s entrance, while Major Lanter and his four soldiers held their swords – three of which still burned at the tip with a fiery glow – before them.
The Knights of the Apocalypse drew their blades with a hiss of steel and spread out into the pyramid. The Swiss guards raised their sidearms and formed up to defend the two Vatican cardinals and Nicola Dowling, but as the two sides faced off against one another, both seemed reluctant to make the first move.
Sarah stood apart from the two factions. She glanced at Trish and Jason, who were still being held at knife-point, and knew she could free them. The strength of the giant still infused her body. She picked up a knife, dropped during her melee with the Swiss guards, and advanced.
‘Take another step, witch’ – Konstantin pointed his blade at her – ‘and your friends die.’
Sarah stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Trish and Jason in despair.
‘I know what you are,’ Konstantin said, as he and his men spread out further into the pyramid. ‘I forced your friend to tell me. I should have finished you when I had the chance.’
Sarah looked at Jason, unsure what to do, then the tip of a blade touched the back of her neck. ‘Don’t move,’ Major Lanter said.
‘Major,’ Avery said in alarm. ‘What are you doing?!’
‘He’s using his head,’ Zinetti said. ‘She’s still a danger.’
Sarah was dragged away from the knights, towards the altar, where Zinetti stood. He now held Avery’s pistol, and he pointed the weapon at her head. ‘Try anything,’ he said, as Lanter released her, ‘and it’ll be the last thing you do.’
‘We outnumber you two to one,’ Konstantin said. ‘Lay down your weapons and surrender the girl.’
‘I thought you wanted her dead?’ Avery said, moving to position himself before Sarah, who remained motionless under the threat of death.
Konstantin moved closer. ‘You’ll all soon be dead, but the Lord spared her life for a reason.’
‘And what’s that?’ Zinetti said, with a sneer.
‘It has yet to be revealed to me,’ Konstantin said, as one of his knights gave him an empty handgun he’d taken from the Swiss guard they’d murdered outside the tomb. ‘I know you’re out of ammo.’ Konstantin tossed the weapon to the ground with a clatter. ‘You cannot win.’
He gestured to the men holding Trish and Jason, and one of them slammed Jason’s head against the wall. Trish cried out as he fell to the floor, and the two
knights came to join their fellows, making it ten warriors against five.
Unarmed, Ruben took a step forward as Konstantin’s men prepared to attack.
‘How many rounds have you got left?’ Sarah heard the monk whisper to the guard next to him.
The soldier adjusted his grip on his sword and glanced at his sidearm. ‘None; the major has one.’
Ruben unclipped the clasp on his monk’s habit and threw it aside, revealing his white tunic with the red cross emblazoned across the chest.
‘Showing your true colours at last,’ Konstantin said to him.
Ruben reached over to his back and drew a short sword from a leather scabbard, and Konstantin grinned. ‘You brought a knife to a sword fight.’
Ruben pressed a button on its hilt and the blade extended with a metallic hiss until it was half as long again as the Russian’s.
Konstantin’s eyes narrowed. Ruben held his longsword before him and then raised it above his head in preparation for the attack.
Major Lanter and the Swiss Guard moved to Ruben’s side, and Avery drew Dowling back out of harm’s way.
‘We need to get out of here,’ Zinetti said, and glanced away from Sarah to Nicola Dowling. ‘Use the pendant.’
Dowling looked at the pentagonal disc in her hand and then held it out to Avery. ‘I can’t. Take it.’
Avery gave her a strange look, but accepted the Anakim device, his eyes alight with intrigue.
‘Use it, Cantrell,’ Zinetti said, his tone urgent, ‘and we may yet escape with our lives.’
‘Place the disc at its centre,’ Sarah said, the information arriving in a flash of inspiration. ‘And it’ll work.’
Avery held Sarah’s gaze, nodded and approached the altar. ‘I hope it does,’ – he eyed the knights as they closed in around them – ‘or our world will end.’
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 127