The Irish cardinal bent down to whisper in her ear. ‘We knew we would find him eventually, it was only a matter of time. That it was you who gave away his location is even sweeter.’
Sarah stared up at Avery in agony.
‘That’s right, Sarah. You’ll die knowing you were responsible for the torture and subsequent death of the man whose arrival was prophesied two thousand years ago.’
‘What … what …’ Sarah whispered, unable to get out the words.
‘What am I talking about?’ Avery said, smiling. ‘I think you should know that, Sarah. It’s the End of Days, surely everyone knows who is to return when Armageddon draws near.’ His smile broadened. ‘The Second Coming is upon us, Sarah.’ Avery gazed into her eyes. ‘Christ is here, now, on this Earth, a man possessed of God, and it is only a matter of time before we find him. And, when we do, he’ll give us the answers we seek and then we’ll corrupt him and turn him into the very thing he stands against. To create the antichrist out of Christ ...’ His expression became exultant. ‘What a gift to Satan that would be. And if he refuses to bend to our will, he’ll endure a lifetime of torture. And you’ll die knowing you were the one who made it all possible. You betrayed God when it mattered most, and that’s why you’re being punished. That’s why he sent me to you.’
‘Ruben was right. You’re …’ – she gasped in pain – ‘… insane.’
‘No. It’s really quite logical. There are too many people, Sarah. Killing off ninety-nine point nine per cent of the population means that consciousness has to go somewhere, and those left will reap the rewards. Powers beyond imagining will manifest within us and we will have dominion over all things, past, present and future. We will truly be gods among men. The Nazis knew this, that’s why Hitler and his cronies were obsessed with the occult. And you said it yourself, the Anakim knew it. They knew God periodically returned to walk this Earth. But a new age is dawning, and it’s the age of eternal darkness, the age of Satan, the age of the Committee.’ Avery reached beneath her and dug his fingers into her stomach wound, making her scream again as pain seared her mind.
He removed his blood-soaked hand, leaving her gasping for breath. ‘You cannot break me!’ she said, as tears rolled down her cheeks.
‘If we both had time, I would.’ Avery glanced up at the seething storm that closed in on them. ‘But we have places to be.’ He stood up and, as the winds tore at his robes, added, ‘And you’ll soon be dead.’
Lightning flickered within the storm surrounding them and the recurring boom of sound once more reverberated through the darkness. The sphinx’s great eye fluctuated in response and Major Lanter approached the end of the elevated ramp. ‘I’ll go first!’ he shouted over the monstrous storm.
Avery waved him forward and Lanter retreated ten feet, gave the cardinal one last look, then sprinted up the ramp and leapt into mid-air. A moment later he vanished into the mirrored eye, which rippled at his passing.
Avery beckoned forward the remaining Swiss guard. ‘I’ll go next, you follow.’ The Irishman pointed down at Sarah. ‘But, before you do, I want all her remaining drug supply injected until she’s dead, understand?’
‘And if I feel like doing anything else to her?’ The Swiss guard looked down at the Sarah, who moved weakly at their feet.
Avery gave him a knowing smile. ‘She’s all yours.’
The soldier’s eyes gleamed with cruel anticipation and he gave the cardinal a nod.
‘So long, my dear.’ Avery glanced down at Sarah, who stared up at him. ‘My glory awaits.’
Avery retreated, like Lanter before him, then ran up the ramp and jumped, his ageing legs just managing to propel him into the eye and whatever lay within.
Chapter Two Hundred Seventy-Three
Sarah’s vision swam as she crawled towards the end of the ramp. Avery might have gone, but he’d given her one last thing to fight against, one last thing to defy before she died. If she could just throw herself off the edge, she’d finally be free from the pain and torment.
Behind her, the soldier removed an armoured panel covering his groin. ‘I’m going to enjoy this, you bitch,’ he said, over the howling winds.
The storm closed in all around them and Sarah gazed into the sphinx’s giant eye, which glowed above her. Four feet beyond the ramp’s end, its mirrored surface reflected her image, which shone with the faintest light as she hovered at death’s edge.
The soldier’s image loomed over her, his own light morphing into a shroud of darkness. He grasped Sarah’s leg. ‘Get back here,’ he said, dragging her down the ramp towards him.
The guard’s eyes glittered with a sickening hunger and Sarah gazed past him to glimpse a dark figure standing at the start of the ramp, within the whirling, flickering cloud.
The storm grew louder still and the familiar booming sound pulsed through the blackened sky and Sarah found herself looking up at the eye above her, and saw the soldier’s reflection change into a putrid brown veil that crept over Sarah’s light. But beyond both their auras, in the background, a single white light shone bright.
‘Stop that!’ The soldier grasped Sarah’s mouth and squeezed hard. ‘Stop praying!’
Sarah didn’t even know she had been. She was too focused on the images within the eye above her, where her light now shone brighter than before. ‘Only in God’s word,’ she said, as the soldier removed her pouch, opened it and filled the syringe with vial after vial of the drug.
The storm was almost on them now, a vortex appearing within, as it swept up the ramp towards them. But the soldier was so intent on having his way with her, he hardly noticed as he slid the needle into her unresisting arm.
Sarah could hardly hear herself, as she dredged up the only prayer she could remember. ‘Our Father,’ she whispered, ‘who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name ...’
Her reflection brightened.
‘I said,’ – the soldier drew back his arm – ‘stop praying!’
Sarah’s eyes widened, as behind him the eye of the storm was now only feet away: a horrific maw in the flickering darkness.
The Swiss guard looked round in shock and tried to pull his arm down, but the suction from behind held him fast and his eyes widened as he was dragged backwards. He tried to make a grab for Sarah, but was cast into the whirlwind’s centre, where he spiralled round until something unseen slowed his momentum. Like the soldier before him, he saw something within the storm that Sarah couldn’t perceive, and he fought back against the terror that attacked him. He screamed as his armour and skin peeled away. He managed to draw his sword, which he used to slash and stab into the darkness. But, like his comrade, the more he struggled and swung his sword, the greater his pain and the louder his screams.
As the Swiss guard’s body slowly disintegrated, Sarah glimpsed beyond him the shadowy figure she’d seen before, approaching through the hurricane. Alexander Konstantin locked eyes with her through the lightning that flickered around him, but, as she watched, his form fluctuated and shimmered until only a blue-green light remained.
In front of her, the soldier gave a final agonising cry and disappeared into the vortex, and Sarah felt her terror rise. The storm’s powerful winds attempted to pry her from the ramp. Blood still pumped from her stomach wound and the Pharos grew ever nearer. Death approached inside and out, and Sarah found herself grasping the syringe still embedded in her arm. A surge of desire swamped her senses and her hand shook as it built within her. Oh, sweet mercy, no – the needle slid deeper – I can’t ... I can’t die like this! As she struggled on the edge of reason, a movement made her glance back into the mirror’s glow and her eyes grew wide. A large ethereal figure towered over her, like an adult would a child. ‘The giant,’ Sarah whispered. The image of the Anakim woman she’d met on the train grew more distinct and beckoned to her, before fading from view. But where the giant had stood, Sarah could now see the Pharos approaching, its reflection a jet-black hole inside the storm’s mirror image, which radiated a brilliant
white light. Only in God’s light is our path unbroken, she thought. God’s light, that’s it! She gazed into the sphinx’s eye and the vortex’s reflection. ‘Its opposite is in us.’ She turned away from the eye to stare into the terrifying storm that shook her very bones, and recalled the words spoken by the only man she’d ever loved. ‘There’s always light in the dark,’ she murmured, then remembered Avery’s words: ‘Doesn’t the Lord’s Prayer mention just that? “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”’ She looked down at the syringe, withdrew it, and cast into the storm, where it smashed to pieces against the ramp.
Sarah found herself crawling away, back towards the eye, which still glowed above the end of the ancient ramp. Shrieking winds clawed at her back, dragging her into the maelstrom, through which the Pharos continued its advance. The winds tightened their grip and Sarah reached out and grasped the end of the ramp. The vortex spiralled towards her and she glanced down at the drop below and knew she could end it now. She gritted her teeth, her brows furrowing into fury, her adrenaline kicking into overdrive. ‘THIS IS MY LIFE!’ she screamed at the storm in defiance. ‘YOU’LL HAVE TO TAKE IT, IF YOU WANT IT!!’
The storm howled louder as if in answer. Lightning flashed and the darkness reached her feet. She instinctively lashed out, and screamed as the vortex ate away her boots and then her skin. She knew she was about to die an excruciating, terrifying death and she struggled against the invisible force that held her. The pain increased. She tensed in resistance and turned away to the mirror to stare into her eyes’ reflection, as she’d done back in the pyramid. Her face warped and her eyes became three, just as the booming tone rang out once more over the storm’s roar. The eye’s mirror rippled in response and Sarah’s own eyes widened in shock as she glimpsed something at the centre of the vortex’s reflection. A white light blazed brighter than the light around it, a single star shining through the circular whirlpool revolving around it. ‘Heaven’s Gate.’ She reached out to the mirror, her fingers falling just short. The storm crept up her body, flesh melted from her legs, and she screamed again and fought back, but the more she fought, the greater the pain, and that’s when her mother’s words came back to her: ‘Pain and grief are the gateway you seek.’ And that’s when she knew she had to let go, to open her heart and stop resisting the pain, which made it worse, and embrace it.
Sarah stopped struggling, the light from her reflection faded and she gritted her teeth against the excruciating torture. As she cried out, horrific images from her life flashed before her mind’s eye: a shimmering light chased her though darkness, Dagmar Sorensen cut into her with a scalpel, and Avery Cantrell shot her in the chest with a gun. ‘Father!’ she shouted, as blood gushed from her legs. More past trauma attacked her senses and Riley Orton died in her arms. ‘Hallowed be thy name!’ Her mother screamed as she burned alive. ‘Thy kingdom come!’ Sarah strained towards the giant eye as her light grew brighter. ‘Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!’ She sobbed in agony as the vortex swept over her waist. ‘LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION!’ Her reflection grew even brighter and she hauled herself out over the abyss, plunged her hand into the mirror and grasped her reflection’s hand, as it grasped hers. Blazing light filled her vision and she turned to face the storm, which tore over her chest. The clothes and skin from her stomach and chest peeled away, the wounds disappeared, and the bullets rose up, along with her dissolving flesh, to be consumed by the storm. Lightning crackled over her body and she reached out to the vortex’s centre, her muscles and sinews melting from her skeletal arm. The vortex reached her face and she felt herself lifted up, as she continued to anchor herself within the mirror. She stared into the storm and shouted, ‘Deliver me from evil!’ Her energy faded as unknown words came unbidden. ‘DORST MUSS ASCK, SILLA DISTA!’ Her voice faded as her throat dissolved, her heart and lungs exposed through her ribcage as a light emerged through the vortex that wasn’t the Pharos. The pain increased further still, Sarah’s hand released from the mirror and she was carried up into the light beyond.
Chapter Two Hundred Seventy-Four
The storm within the underground labyrinth faded and bits of armour fell to the ground, followed by a Swiss guard’s sword, which impacted with a metallic clang. Soon after, another object dropped to the ground, its charred and ripped exterior smoking with heat, a single symbol just visible in the gloom:
Nearby, a figure lay unmoving on cracked flagstones. Its naked body glistened with sweat, which evaporated into wisps of steam that drifted up into darkness.
The giant Anakim sphinx continued its silent vigil through its single glowing eye and nothing else stirred in the underground realm, until a shimmering blue-green light appeared at the top of the ramp. The Pharos paused, as if sensing something was wrong, and then a deep guttural growl reverberated into the darkness. Moments later, the light shot forward and disappeared into the sphinx’s eye, leaving behind it a deathly silence.
Some more moments passed, and the person who remained on the ground moved and then retched. Black ooze spilled onto the ground, expelled from within as the sounds of regurgitation continued. After the dark fluid ceased to flow, the figure wiped its mouth and slowly got to its feet. They then bent down to pick up the Swiss guard’s sword. It was hard to tell who they were in the darkness, but as they ran and jumped into the great eye, the last thing anyone would have glimpsed was a shock of blonde hair disappearing into the rippling glow.
Chapter Two Hundred Seventy-Five
The White House, Washington D.C.
Still ensconced in the presidential bunker, John Henry watched in horror as, across the world, a second mass missile launch erupted into the heavens, sent from concealed surface installations managed by the GMRC’s forty-four underground bases. But, unlike the weapons that had destroyed the asteroid, the targets of these non-nuclear projectiles were all terrestrial.
‘Mr President,’ Admiral Yates said, from aboard his Pacific flagship. ‘What do we do? Many of the bases are inside our own territory.’
John Henry shook his head and looked at Professor Steiner. ‘I don’t know!’
‘What have I done?’ Steiner put his head in his hands. ‘Oh, my God, what have I done?’
‘Professor?’ Jessica said.
‘This is Dark Knight Echo One,’ said a stealth pilot, whose image still displayed on the bunker’s command screen. ‘I’m tracking multiple bogeys closing on my position.’ His aircraft veered left. ‘Deploying counter measures.’
‘Mr President?’ Yates said.
John touched Steiner’s arm. ‘Professor, we need you.’
Steiner looked into his Commander in Chief’s eyes, his expression haunted.
‘I need you,’ John said. ‘We need you. What do we do?!’
Steiner gazed around at those looking to him for guidance: Eric, Jessica, John Henry and Liang Junhui.
John could see the man was in a state of shock and he turned back to look at Admiral Yates. ‘Return fire!’
Steiner snapped out of his despondency. ‘NO!’
‘Fire at what?’ Yates said in despair. ‘There’s nothing to target. They’re underground.’
‘Target the silos themselves,’ John said. ‘Anything!’
Steiner pointed at Yates. ‘No, belay that order!’
‘What?’ John said. ‘Why?!’
‘This is a war we cannot win.’ Steiner held John’s gaze. ‘And the silos are protected by overhangs.’
‘Then we still might be able to disrupt further launches.’ Yates turned to someone off-camera. ‘Target the source. Conventional warheads only, and inform the Chinese and Europeans: we are at war with the GMRC.’ He looked back at John. ‘Mr President, we’re under attack. Make a decision.’
John looked at Steiner and the professor shook his head and said, ‘Don’t do this.’
‘I’m sorry, we have to fight back.’ John gave Yates a nod. ‘Fire at will.’
Out in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans a counter-strike se
nt more missiles skyward, but as they lifted off, the first volley from the GMRC tore into the ships. Many disappeared in flashes of brilliance, while other vessels spewed forth smoke and flame from gaping holes blown into decks and hulls.
The lights flickered behind Admiral Yates and the officer grasped onto his console as his ship listed starboard. Other sailors scurried past in the background, issuing orders, and Yates gestured wildly to someone off-camera, his voice muffled by a siren that wailed in the background. He turned back to the camera. ‘We’ve taken a direct hit!’
Through a window behind the naval commander, John glimpsed burning ships in the night, sinking beneath the waves.
‘We’re abandoning ship,’ Yates said, as another explosion made his image flicker. ‘Mr President, get out of there, get—’
The feed went black.
‘Dear God,’ John said.
‘Mayday, mayday,’ said the stealth pilot who’d previously spoken. ‘I can’t shake it. I can’t—’ The pilot’s scream ended in a fuzz of white noise and, one by one, the other images of the pilots who remained on the command screen blinked out until none remained.
Only Admiral McCormick, the commander for the Atlantic Fleets, could now be seen and he was busy shouting commands to his officers as he, too, came under attack.
Steiner grasped John’s arm. ‘We need to leave – NOW!’
John looked at him. ‘I can’t abandon them, not now. They need me!’
‘After they’ve dealt with the navy,’ Steiner said, his voice full of urgency, ‘who do you think will be next?’
John looked at him.
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 137