The Tomb of the Gods (Matt Drake 4) (10 page)

But he saw no one.

He whispered to Hayden. “They can’t risk a firefight in the tunnel. It might cause a cave-in and trap them. They’ll wait until we emerge.”

“Agreed.”

Kinimaka grunted. “So get ready. I got a Christmas luau to get to soon. Time off and everything. Nothing like Christmas in Hawaii, man.”

Drake got a glimpse of how lonely his Christmas might be, when only a few weeks ago it had held such promise. Whoever said “life can turn in a dime” sure knew what they were talking about. He thought about the dynamics going on in their little group and couldn’t think of anyone who might look forward to cast-iron Christmas happiness. Except Kinimaka.

“We’ll do our best, Mano.” No guarantees.

A whisper came back up the line as they approached the light. “We’re going to punch it. Fast and hard. Keep moving.”

There was one more moment of pause and then the SAS team broke cover with extreme prejudice. But they didn’t just run and shoot, they threw flash bangs and smoke grenades all while staying in perfect fighting formation, covering each other as they ran. Mai fitted in perfectly with them as she would any specialized team. Hayden and Kinimaka burst out next, staying calm, then Drake, Alicia and Dahl, ready for the fight of their lives.

Mayhem and violence confronted them. Heavy lifting gear and abseiling equipment was piled in the center of the huge cavern. Cayman’s men were arrayed around it and around the far walls, weapons spouting fire as they discharged their weapons. Drake and Alicia veered sharply to the right, firing into the central mass of the enemy. The SAS team advanced at pace. Komodo and his men burst out a second later, adding to the firepower. For several moments, the cavern floor was a warzone, a lethal free-for-all where skill was outmatched ten to one by pure luck.

Drake skidded to one knee, rifle to shoulder, squeezing off a shot every second after a minor adjustment. His bullets struck bone and flesh, his aim only thrown off when sizzling lumps of hot lead zinged too close for comfort. He was immensely aware of the stunning tomb architecture all around him but didn’t have even a millisecond to appreciate it. His team had no cover, but they more than made up for that in sheer ferocity and perfect aim. Within a few minutes, the men Cayman had situated in the center of the room were falling back, intimidated, decimated and abandoning their only cover. The mercs around the walls had sustained fewer injuries, but even they were trying to inch away.

Then the SAS team took a hit, a young soldier falling backward with a shot to the head and one of Komodo’s Delta team collapsed clutching his throat. Gates’s secret service detail was thinned to just one when the third member of his guard took a stunning round to the vest and then, as he gasped for breath, another to the face.

Drake looked up for the first time. Of course this tomb was a multi-level affair. Still unable to take it in, but fully aware it was one of the wonders of the world, Drake ignored the tomb and pinpointed the places where Cayman’s men were sniping down at them. He nodded at Alicia and Dahl and the three of them fired continuously at the hidden men as the mysterious gale blew and raged around them again.

“Whatever you do,” Alicia cried, “don’t hit one of those fucking coffins!”

*****

Hayden had fanned out to the left, spying a spectacular staircase. Wide at the bottom, it narrowed drastically all the way to the top of the vast cavern, ending in a point where it touched the very heights. The staircase offered a way up to the several ledges and tiers that ran around this circular tomb, and the many niches beyond. Kinimaka followed her, picking off mercs stationed near the stairs.

As she neared the first step, a merc pounded toward her. Hayden shot him point-blank, desperate not to get into hand-to-hand. Her knife wound hurt like a bitch. It would only take one hard, precise punch to incapacitate her.

But she fought anyway. She fought to win the day for her country, for her father, but most of all, for her friends. As the bullets flew, she prayed for them all. As she stepped foot on the high staircase and saw a dozen mercs suddenly jump from the first level up and come screaming toward her, she began to pray for herself.

*****

Ben Blake stood directly behind the Delta soldier who collapsed. He fell with the soldier, aware that Karin and Gates were at his side, and tried to see the wound. But the man’s hands were holding onto his own throat with a death grip. His eyes were wide, full of pain, focused on nothing. Ben touched the man’s wrist gently, feeling the blood running slickly like dark oil. Within seconds, the man had died, his hands falling apart to reveal a fatal wound.

Ben stared, choking back tears and bile. This was about as up close and bloody as war got. There were more terrible aspects of it, Ben was sure, but this soldier, lying still and dead where seconds ago a virile, young man had stood, shook him to his core. It showed him how his daily worries and struggles were irrelevant. How every second of life should be savored. How horrifying death could be.

He rose to his feet, temporarily alone. The remaining Delta man inched forward, covering their international teammates with precision-placed shots. Karin stood next to him, saying nothing. They knew how each other felt. Gates was still on his knees, holding the dead soldier’s hand and whispering something about sorrow.

Ben’s eyes were drawn to the cavern itself. The enormous structure rose hundreds of feet and was as wide as it was tall. It was a huge bowl, comprising of three different levels, not including the floor. Around each level ran a wide ledge. Beyond the ledge, hewn into the rock of the ancient volcano, were hundreds and hundreds of niches. Tombs.

Tombs of the Gods.

The floor level was also ringed with tombs. Ben squinted at several opposite, but unlike the niches in the first two tombs, these were sparsely appointed, containing little except the oversize coffin itself and a few austere carvings. Of course this place had been where the gods had imprisoned the worst of their kind. No tribute necessary.

Komodo glanced back at them. “Stay close!” He gestured for them to join him before turning back to the battle. Ben saw Hayden stuck on one of the two staircases with Kinimaka at her side, beset by the enemy, holding her side in agony.

Komodo veered his team toward her.

*****

Drake kept the snipers pinned down as best he could. When it became clear even their sharpshooting wasn’t going to pin down the enemy for long, Dahl took off toward the cavern’s second staircase with a crazy, weaving run. Drake shouted a warning, but the mad Swede was already up to full speed. He hit the staircase at a dead run, leaping up two steps at a time. Drake saw no option but to follow. The Swede was reckless, but their team really needed to get up higher.

A bullet zinged by, whistling as it parted the air in front of his nose and then Alicia’s. One handed, Drake fired blindly into the enemy as he ran. He hit the staircase six steps behind Dahl and one behind Alicia. Even among the mayhem, his pride took a hit. Then, a man flew over from the side and collided with him, knocking him off his feet. The rough stairs scraped his face. Drake struck toward his opponent’s eyes and throat and brought his knees up to protect his stomach. A knife flashed. Drake palmed it aside. It came again, but Drake shifted inside it, caught the man’s wrist and snapped it. Even then, the assault didn’t stop, but Drake hadn’t expected it to. The knife clattered away. The mercenary brought his bulk to bear, trying to pin Drake to the staircase and smashed his large forehead downward.

Drake slipped aside again. The merc’s forehead connected solidly with the stone edge of the staircase, temporarily stunning him. Drake flipped him over, finished him with a stiff-fingered jab and looked up.

Dahl and Alicia were already partway along the first level. Fierce opposition had forced them to take cover in one of the niches, next to a bullet-pocked coffin.

Drake grimaced. Alicia wouldn’t be happy.

*****

Hayden staggered as the pain ripped through her side. Oddly, it hadn’t been an enemy blow that had hurt her, but a misstep on the stairs, sending both her and her weapons crashing to the ground. Instantly, the mercenaries were among them. Hayden forced herself up, gritting her teeth to hold in the pain, and swiped the first one off the step with a swing of her rifle. The second she clubbed right on the nose. A bullet fired from a handgun pinged off the concrete between her legs and zipped on through. Kinimaka was a giant at her side. Men actually collided with him and rebounded right off the staircase, landing heavily in the dust below. But Kinimaka’s real strength was his surprising speed. Three assailants fell before they even knew the man had grabbed hold of them.

Then, Komodo and his men were with them. They advanced up the stairs. Hayden stayed in place for a while and used her elevated position to fire down upon the disorderly mercenaries.

Then Ben was at her side. “Are you ok?”

“No. Are you?” The lad’s face was deathly white.

“Death is everywhere.” His eyes darted from the fallen soldiers to the tombs of the gods.

“This place was built for death.” Hayden squeezed off another shot, sending another mercenary folding in a wheezing heap.

“Look at the floor,” Ben said quietly. “Just look.”

Hayden paused for a moment and removed her eye from the gun’s sights. What she saw made the hairs on her arms rise. The floor of the tomb, dusty and strewn with debris was slowly being covered in blood. Thick, red pools were spreading from the many dead and dying men across the wide expanse, making it slick and slippery for men’s boots. Even the SAS down there were losing their balance, drenching their fatigues and turning red themselves.

“And look.”

Ben pointed out something that, amidst the chaos, Hayden had so far failed to see. Arranged around the outside of the cavern, in a circle, were a number of small altars, each one with a different shape carved into its surface.

Hayden looked down on them, momentarily at a loss for words.

“There are eight of them,” Ben said as if in explanation. “And the whorls.” He gestured toward all the ground floor walls. “Are everywhere.”

Hayden’s eyes traveled from the ground floor up, past three levels of niches, and it was then that her eyes fell on a figure she partly recognized.

She patted Ben’s hand. “That’s Russell Cayman,” she said. “He’s up there, watching how this whole thing goes down.”

*****

Drake scurried up the stairs double-time, pausing at the ledge as his two teammates laid down covering fire and then leapt into the niche. Instantly, it seemed a clammy hand took hold of his skull and gripped it with ice-cold fingers. He shivered.

“Not exactly Starbucks.”

“Shut it,” Alicia whispered. “This place gives me the creeps.”

The niche was long and narrow, cut back into the rock about forty feet. The overall impression was that it had been constructed quickly and with little thought. The walls and ceiling were irregular and jagged, as if cleaved by a mighty weapon or hand.

Alicia shook her head at something down below. “Your baby boy’s causing us trouble, Drakey.”

Drake glanced over and saw Ben distracting Hayden as she tried to pick off bad guys. “I’ll talk to the little fool.”

Dahl appeared at that moment, coming from the rear of the cave. Drake eyed him “Bit of a risky place to take a piss, mate.”

“For you, maybe.” Dahl flashed a brief smile, then turned serious again. “I discovered several relatively crude carvings back there. And a statue. I think this is the tomb of Amatsu, literally the god of evil. This is a very bad place, my friends.”

“Well, for now,” Drake said, “let’s deal with the evil we can see.”

He refrained from lobbing a grenade toward the enemy, but leaned out and let loose a burst of automatic fire. The mag ran dry. He dropped it and clicked another into place. “One-two combination?”

“Do it.” Dahl fell in behind him. Alicia took rearguard. Firing together they hopped out of the niche and rushed to the next one along, felling startled enemy soldiers and then taking cover behind the next big coffin.

As they ran briefly along the ledge, the entire cavern opened up for them. Drake saw the SAS team and Mai directly below, crawling among the heavy equipment as they took cover whilst peppering bullets at the few remaining mercs. He saw the great staircase to his right. A contingent of Cayman’s men were being beaten back by Komodo’s Delta team and Mano Kinimaka. Hayden was sniping the snipers, her eagle eyes seeking out every niche.

Back near the arched entrance, Gates and Belmonte had taken cover, armed but holding their fire for fear of harming a member of their own team.

And two levels up, standing rigidly still, he saw a figure watching them. A figure he guessed could be only one man.

The figure observed until the last of its men on the ground floor was killed and the group on the stairs beaten back. Only then did it raise a hand.

“Stop this,” it cried. “Your efforts, though noteworthy, are trivial. You cannot win this battle.”

Then, hundreds of men suddenly appeared around the third tier, silent, weapons carefully aimed. Cayman began to laugh.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Drake took a deep breath. Cayman had them hopelessly outnumbered. It was do or die, or run like hell. Behind him another coffin sat in ancient stillness.

“We stand a virgin’s chance in hell,” Alicia commented. “That means fu—”

“We know what it means.” Dahl and the Englishwoman still hadn’t had chance to become properly acquainted yet. Of course, for each of them, the idea had totally different meanings. Dahl pointed out the stairs, and a wicked grin twisted the corner of his mouth. “There’s our play.”

Drake stared and understood. “No way. You’re fucking crazy, Dahl.”

“Yeah, but
good
crazy.” The Swede scanned the cavern, and tapped his Bluetooth mic. “Let the bastard talk whilst you figure out a move. Then go on my signal.”