Hammer of God

CHAPTER 13

Tweety landed on the bed and Adira lifted it and stroked it like a real bird. “So, we have a marginal high energy particle spike at the dome, but everything else is insignificant.” Adira shook her head. “Should be more, if what we seek is in there.”

“Might be. Hammerson says they’ve detected mole-holes out in the desert off Kashaf-Roud’s river valley. Just like at their Arak facility — hard to see, very well concealed, but they’re there. He thinks it might indicate something interesting below ground. Like a nuclear facility, or something they felt needed to be bomb-proof. They’ll do further deep penetration scans when the satellite is in a better proximity orbit.”

Alex felt the pulse in his comm. pad, and pulled it out — it was more data from Hammerson. He exhaled with his eyebrows raised as he looked at the images.

“Eli, sending this through to you. Put it up on screen.”

Eli grabbed the data and pulled it into his device and then opened the image file. There were several shots of Tous and the surrounding geography. The first shot was a surface image taken from a few thousand-foot resolution, then what they sought became clear as the layers were pulled back through stratigraphic imaging.

“Ho-leey fuck,” Casey scoffed.

Below the ancient town was a network of tunnels, like a giant many-armed creature with its head directly below the monolithic dome. A single long tunnel extended out to the desert, to the Kashaf-Roud area.

Sam folded huge arms. “Big network. Going to be a lot of bodies in there.”

“That big, that hidden, definitely something worth protecting.” Eli flipped through the images. “Perfect place to assemble tactical nukes.”

“And reanimate freaking corpses,” Casey added, mouth turned down.

“Then let’s shut ’em down,” Alex said, straightening. “Leave nothing behind. We’re not coming back.”

“I heard that.” Casey clapped once, eager to get going.

The group went out fast, piling into the vehicle with Eli in behind the wheel. They sped along the highway, pulling over on a rise above the small town. Alex stepped out with Sam and Adira.

Sam put a scope to his eye. “All quiet.”

“Above ground.” Alex looked over at the tight cluster of dwellings with the huge dome structure toward its center. “We go in fast. If we encounter aggressive resistance, we remove it.” He turned to nod at Casey, who was leaning out of the car window. She gave him a thumbs up.

“Okay people, let’s suit up.”

The HAWCs removed their clothing, once again pulling on the HAWC armored suits. They checked and then holstered, pocketed, and strapped on their weaponry. Adira and Eli pulled on fatigues and gloves, and also armed themselves, Adira slotting her twin Baraks into her favored v-shape holster at her groin. Throwing spikes and numerous other knives, bombs, and instruments went into various slots and scabbards at her waist.

Sam checked his M203 with the single shot 40mm under-barrel grenade. Sam’s, however, had a modified drum clip attached that held a dozen rounds. He held it up, grinning.

“My All-Areas-Pass.”

Adira frowned. “That dome is over a thousand years old.”

Casey sneered. “Then they better open up when we knock, lady.”

“Communications check.” Alex pushed a small pellet into his ear. The others did the same, and immediately their voices, even whispered, were carried directly onto the occipital bone behind the ear.

“Good.” Alex inhaled the hot, dry air and smiled. “Then let’s go meet the locals.”

The car slid to a stop outside of the Harounieh Dome, its colossal, sandstone structure casting deep shadows and looking more like a fortress than a place of worship.

“Where is everyone?” Sam asked.

“They’re here. Keep your eyes open and stay cool,” Alex said, feeling the presence of multiple bodies crowded close by.

The heavy wooden front doors were thirty feet across with ornate metal hinge brackets. Above were teardrop lintels all carved with magnificent Persian stonework.

Sam went to them and tried the ring handle, and then pushed hard with a shoulder. The doors were locked and didn’t budge.

“That was option one.” He stepped back and lifted one huge boot, the MECH suit’s hydraulic assisted leg levering back and then flicking forward in a blur.

The lock exploded inwards, the wood and ancient metal no match for the punch of the titanium-alloyed steel. Alex went in quick, Casey followed next, then Adira, Eli, and lastly, Sam. They had guns up, and moved like hounds on a scent. The dome inside was a huge shell with numerous doors and arches — a labyrinth, and impossible to explore quickly. Alex knew there were people concealed, waiting for the ambush.

He spun, sensing the danger, just as the stun grenades exploded among them, their throwers lobbing the small cylinders from their places of hiding. The detonations were an explosion of light and sound, and then came the thick fog-like smoke to shroud everything.

“Go to thermal,” Alex yelled, not sure if his words were heard following the near deafening grenade explosions. Cutting through the fog came a patter of gunfire, then a grunt of pain.

Alex sprinted now, darting from side to side. He found Casey, who waved him on. Then he located Adira and Sam, standing back to back in the swirling smoke of the bombs that finally started to clear.

Alex could feel the emptiness of the huge sandstone structure — whoever had been here was gone… and so was Eli.

“Eli!” Adira turned about. “Operative Eli Livnat, report.”

Alex closed his eyes, reaching out, trying to locate the Mossad agent’s presence. After a moment he opened his eyes and walked over to Adira. “He’s gone.”

“Gone?” She continued to search, her teeth momentarily bared. “Gone? Then we find him, before they start their work.”

Alex reached out to grab her arm. “We’ll search, but we have a mission priority, and our clock is ticking. We’ll do what we can, okay?”

She grimaced, and Alex could feel the tension and frustration boiling away inside the woman.

“We’ll do what we can,” he repeated, and then turned away. “Sam, Casey, find me a path.”

Adira and Alex joined Casey and Sam, spreading out, searching alcoves and opening doors, until Casey stood back.

“Yo, boss! Got steps here — and recently used.”

They gathered, peering down. The steps were new, barely a decade old, the smooth, gray concrete incongruous just inside the old stone-lintelled doorway.

From deep down below, Alex could feel the sensation of probing rising up at him in waves. There it was again, the attempt at an intrusion into his mind. “Something, it’s like we’re being… scanned.”

“What by? Motion sensor, thermal read?” Adira asked.

“No, something else, something trying to read us — I think we’re expected.” Alex stared down into the depths of the stairwell.

“Bet it’s booby-trapped. You’d have to be crazy to go down there.” Sam grinned at Casey. “Ladies fir…”

Casey started down, at speed.

Alex groaned and followed, down, and down. The stairs were dimly lit, but solid. There was a smell of fresh concrete, and underlying it, the stink of a charnel house. There were no doors or windows on their way down, and after descending about half a dozen stories, Alex called a halt. He leaned out over the railing. It got darker the lower it dropped.

Sam leaned out with him. “Anything?”

Alex could see down further than the rest, but it seemed to drop for hundreds of feet, and still continued into the void.

“Got to be a level where we can exit soon.”

“Something stinks,” Sam said. “Like a corpse.”

“We’ve been here too long already. I don’t like it,” Adira said, looking over the railing.

Alex also continued to stare down into the darkness. “I can detect a living presence, strong, and an intellect that is watching us carefully, as if there were cameras on every floor.” Alex pulled back. “Let’s go meet them. Franks, back in line.” Alex took the lead. “Eyes out — I think we’re getting close.”

They slowed as they descended, and after another twenty minutes came to the first gleaming white door on a small landing. Alex laid his hand on the handle, and then shook his head.

“Nothing in there.”

When they passed another three, Adira stopped them. She held up the small Geiger counter. “Here — off the scale.” She stepped back. “In there.”

Alex held up a hand to the team, and then spun back to the door, grasping the handle and turning it. It was locked. He gritted his teeth and gripped harder, turning more, until the steel started to groan and bend. After another few seconds, there was the popping sound of spring steel as it reached its tensile barrier. Something clattered inside, and the door opened slowly. Behind the white paint, it was solid and heavy — lead lined.

“Stay here. We don’t have rad-suits.” Alex pushed the door open a little further, and then eased in. Lights came on, but the large space was empty save for half a dozen drum-sized cases. Alex could feel the radiation tickling his body and turned, just as Casey was leaning around the frame, the door wedged open with her boot.

“It’s hot. Stay back.” He should have worn a suit as well, but they needed to see what was inside and he’d just have to rely on his own metabolism repairing any damage to his system… at least for a while.

Alex crossed to the sealed canisters, and then moved to the only one that was open. The ball top was visible, and he recognized it immediately — it was the casing holding a nuclear bomb’s initiator. He sighed, these days nukes were so easy to assemble that a high school kid could put one together if he had the right material, and access to the Internet.

He looked down at the assembly, assessing the design. It was an old model but with new technology. Most likely it’d be a fission blast, as they were the most basic. All that was required was to bring two subcritical masses together to form a supercritical mass. This needed to be done at speed to generate a high-energy collision. Basically, you just needed to make a giant gun, and fire one mass into the other. Alex placed a hand on the sphere, and his fingers tingled. In his mind, he saw how it would work — Uranium-235, fashioned into a bullet, placed at the one end of a long tube with explosives behind it. At the other, another mass of 235, as a target. The casing holds the particle collision together until criticality is reached, and then boom; simple as that.

He removed his hand when he saw the large button. Big and uncomplicated, so something like the giant, drone-like Travelers would only need to punch down on it to initiate the nuclear event.

He straightened, feeling dizzy; he needed to leave. There were a half dozen of the huge packs. He stopped at another, tilting it slightly. The weight was immense. The things that carried these, in some case for hundreds of miles, were unnaturally powerful. He hoped Hammerson was able to find the last of them.

Alex backed out of the room, sweating profusely, and then leaned against the wall, waiting for his stomach to settle. “Okay, there’s six bombs in there. Just waiting for their pack mules to walk ’em out.” He turned his head, feeling a compulsion drawing him on. There was also something else — Eli’s pain, the feeling of the man crying out to them.

“Further down. It’s further down.”

“Eli?” Adira crowded in close.

“I thought it was the bombs we were after,” Casey said. “Let’s fuck ’em up.”

Alex shook his head. “I think Eli is down there. But also the one responsible for them… and the things that carry them.”

“Is it… a person?” Adira asked.

Alex concentrated, but it was like pushing against a brick wall. “I can’t tell. So let’s go find out.”

They came to a final door, this one not the laboratory-white of the previous entrances. Instead it was age-old, the hinge braces and locking mechanism solid but heavily corroded.

Alex laid a palm against it and grimaced, as it felt like a fist had clenched in his brain. He stepped back.

“Whatever it is, it’s in there.”

“Is it Eli?” Adira asked.

“I think so, but it’s strange, like… he’s different.” Alex pushed at the door. Even though the hinges looked centuries old, they swung smooth and soundlessly.

“Looks like they ran out of money for decorating,” Casey said, grinning.

The air was fetid, and unlike the other rooms, the walls were rough-hewn stone, and more like a cave that had been hacked and chiseled from the surrounding rocks. The ceiling was high above them, and coated in slick moss that hung in glistening green stalactites.

“This place gives me the creeps,” Sam said quietly.

“I’m here for you, big guy.” Casey turned and winked.

“This looks like the original structure that existed below the dome. The new tunnels were recently added. Got to be a thousand years old down here — they probably had to tunnel down to get to it.”

“One thousand two hundred years, five months, three days, and eleven hours.” The voice came from above, below, all around them.

“What the fuck.” Casey spun, gun up.

“Do not be alarmed. I have been waiting for you.” There was a sound of excitement in the voice. “I know all about you.”

“Who are you?” Alex asked.

“Come now; you know me. Did you not come to find me? After all, I know you, Captain Alex Hunter, and you Ms. Adira Senesh, and Casey Franks, Samuel Reid, and even Eli Livnat.” There was a sound like a sigh. “I have been here for an eternity, waiting… in fact, waiting just for you, Alex Hunter, sometimes known as the Arcadian.”

Alex turned slowly, trying to pinpoint the voice. “Why are you producing the bombs?”

“I am not.”

“There are nukes here. I just saw them.” Alex concentrated, an image beginning to form in his mind.

“Yes, you did.”

“This is getting us nowhere.” Casey gritted her teeth. “Come out with hands up, or we’ll find you and drag you out.”

“I cannot, and no you won’t.”

There was a scream, but it only tore through Alex’s mind. It could have been Eli, or could have been some caged animal being tortured.

“Eli,” Alex said, through gritted teeth.

“Eli?” Adira spun. “Where is he? Our friend, you have him.”

“Yes, Eli. But he has joined with us now.”

“The hell he has,” Casey said, her voice turning to a growl. “You got thirty seconds, mister.”

“Hell?” There was a grating sound that could have been a dry laugh. “You have no concept of hell. Hell is to be trapped without seeing my beautiful land for too many centuries.”

“Jabir ibn Hayyan,” Adira breathed. “The great alchemist.”

“Yes. You see? You do know me.”

“How is this possible?” Alex started to move around the dank chamber, searching for the source of the voice.

“How? Life is easy, death is hard,” the voice rasped. “Crossing from one to the other sometimes takes a bravery I do not possess. So I decided to wait, making myself immortal, choosing those who can help me travel through the ages. Choosing only those strong enough to bear my burden.”

“What is your burden?” Alex noticed several large openings in the back of the chamber.

“My intellect, my secrets, my… self.”

“You are creating these things, the Travelers?” Adira asked.

“Yes. Do you like them? The people who currently live in these lands do. They help me, but wanted something in return. So I showed them how to make life from non-life. I gave them their ultimate warriors, the Zhayedan, the mighty Immortals of legend — single purposed, unthinking, strong beyond measure.”

There was a grating laugh of pure malevolence. “I told them I could create an army of Zhayedan, just like the ten thousand I gave to King Xerxes. With them, they would be able to defeat any army at Dabiq. I told them, like him, they could conquer the world.”

This time, the laugh was more disdainful. “Fools, they were mere dirt to me. All I really needed was to learn more about the outside world, draw on the weak minds of those brought before me. To search for the one, the next one to bear my burden… to search for you, Captain Alex Hunter.”

There was a soft sigh. “I can spare the lives of your people. I can stop the Zhayedan; stop the bombs from ever being used again. But in return you must give me something.”

“What.” Alex had a sense of deep foreboding. This was no chance meeting, but now seemed to have been engineered, everything planned, even from the very first detonation.

“You. I need you, your strength, your regenerative abilities. You alone are worthy enough to carry my burden — to carry me!”

“Carry you?” An image formed in Alex’s mind as he peered into the rear of the dark cave-like room. It horrified and intrigued him. He sensed eyes on them. “Where are you? Come out and we can talk properly. I’m ready.”

“Yes, yes you are. I think we are both ready. First, lay down your weapons.”

“Like fuck I will.” Casey had her gun pointed toward the dark alcoves at the rear of the room.

“Ah, the warrior woman; a small display then, just for you, Casey Franks.”

“Hey wait…” Alex never finished, as there came a sound like a wet slap, and Casey fell to the ground, her face bloody and her body jerking as if in a fit. Guns came up, and the team formed up, back to back around her prone body.

“What the fuck just happened?” Sam yelled.

“I punished her.” The voice was indifferent. “She isn’t dead, but I could have killed her. I just flicked her brain a little — a pinprick embolism, I think you would call it. A little display for both her, and you, Alex Hunter.”

“You son of a bitch.” Alex felt a surge inside his mind — a storm of aggression building.

There was a sound like a bored sigh. “I could have turned her brain to liquid. I can do it to all of you. Do you need another display, maybe something a little more visual, perhaps to the other warrior woman? You like her, don’t you, Alex Hunter?” The voice had turned ominous. “Now, lower your weapons.”

“You don’t need to fear us.” Alex sensed something approaching. A wave of evil like he had never experienced in his life.

“I don’t fear anything. And so, we begin; 10 — 9–8 — 7–6… there will be no zero, Captain Hunter… 5–4…”

“Do it,” Alex said.

The small group lowered their guns.

“And now drop them to the floor.”

Alex let his fall, and the rest followed. Sam immediately squatted by Casey, lifting her head. The female HAWC groaned.

A vile smell began to fill the dark and ancient chamber, and then from deep within one of the alcoves a monstrous figure appeared. Its head towered above even the huge Sam Reid, and in the dim light they could see it held something, cradled gently in its arms.

It stepped out, and Alex heard Adira suck in a breath. She backed up, her voice so high, Alex barely recognized it. Her words — only in Hebrew — were muffled as her hand went up in front of her mouth.

“Oh God.” Casey was now sitting forward, her eyes blood-red from the brain trauma. She got to one knee. “You motherfucking son of a bitch.” She searched the ground for her weapon.

“Leave it,” Alex yelled, his eyes transfixed on the horror.

Sam just stood, arms at his side, his mouth open. The gruesome thing was dressed in a long shawl, like a surgical smock. There were patches of fluid dampening the material — some bloody, some yellowish, as if it had just slipped from an operating table.

Alex’s fists were balled, and his teeth were clamped so hard his jaws ached. In his head he could hear the screaming of the poor soul trapped forever in the living cadaver.

It was Eli, or parts of him. There were swirls of stitches holding the flaps of skin together, and only half of the face was the recognizable visage of the Mossad agent they knew. The other was a darker skin, and the eye a different color. The entire patchwork of flesh was sliced and rent with vivid scarring that wept no blood, as the flesh was as drained and dry as hung beef.

Eli’s eye rotated to fix on them, but there was no recognition there, no words formed by the tongue. Still, Alex knew the man was inside somehow, his soul trapped within the mechanics of the huge carcass.

“You used him… mutilated him,” Alex said. “You took him apart and then sewed him into this, monstrosity.”

“He serves me now.” The voice was amused, perhaps by the reactions on their faces.

Alex searched for its source, and for the first time, he looked away from the slack face of the giant. In its arms was a tiny figure, like a blackened doll. It was all gnarled and twisted, its eyes little more than yellowed slits.

“Jesus Christ. You little freak, you butchered him.” Sam had moved out and to the side.

Alex could guess what he was doing — the big HAWC was going to take a run at the thing. Use his body in a linebacker-type tackle to bring it down.

“Don’t Sam.” Alex knew the being was obviously able to project some sort of force with its mind, and Sam wouldn’t have made two steps.

“You are Jabir ibn Hayyan?” Alex asked.

“This is what is left of him.” Its yellow eyes narrowed. “The years, the centuries, have left little of the man that once was.” It sighed, but then its expression became sharper. “Ah, I feel your aggression.” The eyes seemed to glow. “No, not your aggression, Alex Hunter, but the other one inside you. It boils in its fury, and you hate it as much as it hates you. It is your weakness, and your strength.” It laughed, and it used its small claw-like hands to lift itself slightly, as if to see Alex better. “You were worth waiting for, Arcadian. Join me, and the others all go free. You have my word.”

“Join you like Eli there?” Sam said. “Just say the word, boss.”

“Stand down, soldier,” Alex said softly. He looked up at the ripped and sliced face of the giant figure. “Is that what you want? Another pair of hands, like that?”

Jabir ibn Hayyan’s hideous little face twisted into a grin. “The Zhayedan are no more than marionettes to do as they are told. But Alex Hunter, you will join with me, and me with you. I will supply the mind, and you will supply the body. What a pairing we will make.”

“And what happens to my mind — where does that go?” Alex asked, already guessing the answer.

“It will not be lost. It will come here, into this body, which you can keep.” Jabir ibn Hayyan looked up at Eli. “And this Zhayedan will carry you.”

“No way,” Sam said.

“Then you will all join me.” The thing leered at Sam, like a cross between a small monkey and a goblin. “Perhaps I will make another Zhayedan, this one just using all of you, sewn together. Won’t that be cozy? Friends bonded by war, become bonded by flesh, forever.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Adira’s arm drop. He knew where she kept her throwing knives, and he edged in front of her.

“And if I agree, then you’ll let everyone else go.”

Excitement showed on its face. “Yes, yes.”

Alex could read the sense of excited anticipation in the tiny, gnarled features. But why did it need him to agree? If it was so all-powerful, why didn’t it just smash everyone in the room, and then simply take him? It must need his consent to be able transfer its mind, its essence, or whatever it planned to force into his head. It needed a willing offering.

He looked into the tiny decrepit thing’s eyes. Its face was like a shrunken head, as it hung in the hammock-like embrace of the monstrous being that had been Eli. There was something else that didn’t add up — if it was a true immortal, then why did it need them to drop their weapons?

Because it could be hurt, he realized. And if it could be hurt, it could be killed. He half turned.

“Everyone out.”

Sam shook his head. “Not a chance, boss, we can…”

“Now!” Alex’s roar filled the room. “Take your weapons and leave.” Alex felt the ancient creature about to object. “They’ll need to fight their way home.”

Jabir ibn Hayyan eased back, sneering. “Of course, I forget that mortals break so easily.”

Alex watched his group leave, each grumbling or casting deadly glances back at the deformed creature in the giant’s arms. Adira stopped at the heavy wooden doors.

“For what you have done to Eli, I promise you, you will finally know death.”

She immediately grimaced and held her head as blood gushed from her nostrils.

“Stop it!” Alex jumped in front of Adira, holding up both hands. “Please.” Adira fell to the ground, and Sam came back to help her to her feet.

“Get her out.” Alex looked hard at Sam. “Don’t worry, I’ll see you again.”

“But will it be you?” Sam almost growled. He lifted the Mossad agent as if she weighed nothing and left the room.

Alex turned back to Jabir ibn Hayyan. The Eli monstrosity had shuffled a few steps closer. It towered above Alex, standing mute as it gently raised the twisted little being higher until it was at Alex’s eye level.

It grinned, and a small putrid tongue licked blackened lips. “We will make a fine team, Alex Hunter.” It closed its eyes and inhaled, drawing in the very essence of Alex as if it was a delicious aroma. It eased back, looking pleased.

“I call tell you are already destined for a very long life. You have been… changed somehow. Something inside you is different to other men.” The yellow eyes closed momentarily as if in ecstasy. “You will be, peeerfect.”

“Tell me something,” Alex asked.

“Of course.” Jabir ibn Hayyan sighed.

“I know who you are, but how are you, you? What are you?”

The ancient alchemist exhaled long and slow, and seemed to draw on favored memories. “I was like you — human, once. But through my studies I found that there were spells, recipes if you like, that could open doorways. There were things you could call to, and then partner with, that would keep your intellect robust, no, more than robust, magnificently expanded.” It sighed again. “But too late, I realized that while the mind was blossoming, the body was shriveling around it.”

The giant Eli moved forward a few more inches.

“There’s something inside you.” Alex tried to step back, but felt his legs rooted.

“Ye-eees.” The yellow eyes looked deep into Alex’s face. “It is what I will pass to you. The devil’s kiss, you might call it.”

Jabir ibn Hayyan was lifted higher, and Alex tugged again, then harder. He began to strain at the invisible bonds that now even encircled his arms. He felt no fear or revulsion, just a growing fury at the thing trying to overwhelm him. A storm was growing in Alex’s mind. As if sensing the conflict within him, Jabir ibn Hayyan was pulled back a few inches by the monstrous figure of Eli.

“Calm yourself, Alex Hunter, or I can have your friend here constrain you.”

“I wouldn’t try it.” Alex’s words hissed from between his teeth like steam. “You might not like the result.”

“Really? I don’t fear you, Arcadian.” It laughed cruelly. “Did you know that the Arcadians were made to fight by the Spartans? They were savages, brutes, who were treated like attack dogs by the warrior Spartans. Who do you fight and kill for now, Arcadian?” Eli lifted the yellow eyes even closer. “I have nothing to fear, as you have all been my puppets for centuries.”

“It’s not me… you need to… fear.” Alex strained even harder.

“But it is me you need to fear.” The huge figure shuffled forward, lifting Jabir ibn Hayyan higher, and then leaning him out toward Alex. The yellow eyes were glowing in their intensity, and Alex could smell the stink of breath that told of age-old corruption.

“Open your mouth, Alex Hunter.” Alex’s mind burned, not from the powers of the small being, but from the force of the Other One, caged in his mind, refusing to submit to the monster. He strained again, not against the invisible bonds that held him, but instead now trying to keep the Other at bay, long enough to give his team time to get out.

The vile, crumpled little thing held up at his face opened its mouth. Jabir ibn Hayyan’s grin split wider, and then the dark hole of its mouth gaped. There were no teeth in the maw, but Alex could see what he assumed was a pale tongue moving languidly at the back.

The glistening tongue wormed forward, and Alex tried to jerk away, revolted. It wasn’t a tongue at all, but something living that squirmed toward him.

“Open your mouth, Alex Hunter, and… receive me.” The pale grub-like thing, half an inch thick, with multiple arms and tiny black eyes, quested in the maw, waiting.

Alex now knew that this was the great alchemist’s secret to eternal life. To somehow have conjured, or called, to some sort of “thing” that had arrived from the heavens or hell, or from some other madness, to take him as its host. Perhaps Jabir ibn Hayyan was the latest vessel that it had occupied, and now, as the body shriveled down to nothing, it wanted another vehicle to take it out of the pit where it had existed for too many centuries.

Alex kept his teeth clamped, speaking through his grimace. “What… is… that thing?”

“It is beauty incarnate, Alex Hunter. Perhaps it is a god. Perhaps it is a Traveler that has been trapped here since before mankind even climbed from the ooze. Its lifespan is measured in millions of years, not like us feral insects that are here and gone within the blink of an eye. It needed protection, and in turn it gives us, gives me, greatness. And it will give you that same greatness. You ask what it is, Alex Hunter? It is a gift; receive it willingly.”

“A gift? I’ve heard that before.” Alex strained with every ounce of his being. His teeth remained clamped shut, and he tried to turn his head away. The thought of the thing climbing into his mouth and worming its way down his throat threatened to make him vomit. His body strained, but in his mind something fought against its bonds even harder.

“It is normal to resist at first. The unknown is frightening. I will help.”

Another layer of pressure wrapped around his mind, and then Jabir ibn Hayyan reached out tiny withered arms to embrace Alex’s jaw. The sharp little claws dug into his skin, and the yellow eyes burned into him. The gummed mouth creaked open another fraction as his head tilted back. The thing in his mouth started to extend, its multiple tiny arms also reaching out to him.

Jabir ibn Hayyan clung onto Alex’s face, suspended there, and the huge Eli figure reached forward to grip Alex by the shoulders, holding him firmly in place. Alex could feel the colossal strength in the hands that enfolded him, pinning his own arms flat to his body.

“No.” Alex felt perspiration break out on his face.

“Don’t fight me. I will hurt you and your friends. I have called hundreds of guards, and they wait for your friends above. Only if you submit, will I allow them to pass, unmolested.” Jabir ibn Hayyan’s small, sharp hands pulled at his lips.

A knot of pain started to burn in Alex’s mind, but the reaction was not one of crushing submission or even surrender. It was an urge to fight, to kill. Alex’s body flooded with adrenalin and natural steroids, and his frame felt like it hummed with a furious energy.

“You are not immortal.” Alex’s words hissed from between clamped teeth. “You are mortal, and you can die.”

“What is this?” Jabir ibn Hayyan’s tiny blackened brow furrowed, and his small claws now scrabbled at his flesh, trying to furiously tear his mouth open. “If I need to hurt you, break your body, then I will. Hurry now.”

The huge Eli being started to exert enormous pressure on Alex, and he felt the bones in his arms and shoulders begin to creak. A rib popped in his chest, stabbing him like a dagger. Then another. Finally the pain, frustration and fury became too much. Alex opened his mouth to scream his rage. He could chain the beast no longer, and it burst free like an animal in all its primal fury.

His own monster was now free, the Other One, and it wanted nothing but blood. Alex felt he could only watch as his body seemed to act of its own accord, not in his control anymore. It swung itself one way, and then the other, harder and faster, becoming ever more violent. The giant’s hands were rapidly losing their hold on him. Jabir ibn Hayyan squealed like a small animal and the creature in his mouth snapped back, as if on a spring. The tiny, withered alchemist threw himself from Eli’s arms, and crawled across the floor to one of the dark alcoves, looking back briefly to cast Alex a murderous glare.

“I’ll crush all of you down to pulp before you leave this building. You’re not free, and if I cannot have your body, then neither can you.” It looked to the huge Eli thing. “Pull him to pieces — we’ll use them again later.” It eased back into the shadowy alcove, until just its yellow eyes remained floating in the velvet darkness, before they too vanished.

Alex was lifted off his feet by the giant, rising into the air to stare in Eli’s broad face. It was a ripped patchwork of scars and different colored flesh. The eyes were dead, unfocused, and the scarification of ancient script still wept a clear fluid.

Alex strained until he felt his shoulders begin to pop from their sockets. He flexed, screamed and writhed, and then flexed again, feeling his own strength begin to bend back the colossal power of the giant. The whole time he could feel Jabir ibn Hayyan in his mind, watching, screaming his own fury at losing his prize, promising a pain beyond madness to be rained down upon Alex.

But there was also frustration from the withered alchemist, since Alex’s mind refused to be dominated and controlled like so many humans had been in the past. Alex wrenched hard, and one of his arms came free, then the next. The Eli thing just held Alex by his chest, which had already suffered broken ribs. It immediately began compressing his rib cage. Alex’s bones screamed and began to shatter, and Alex knew he had mere seconds before his diaphragm was totally collapsed, and his lungs and heart shredded by the daggers of his own splintered bones.

Alex jerked forward, gripping Eli by the head. He tugged, swung, and ripped at the huge melon-sized cranium. The face remained indifferent to the attack, passive even, but Alex felt the hands increase their pressure on his torso. He tasted blood in his throat, and with one last burst of strength, he jerked his hands upwards. There came a sound like tearing canvas, and the line of stitching at Eli’s neck started to pop open. Alex gave one last mighty heave, and then the head totally ripped free, and a spray of dark jellified, coagulated fluid splattered stickily around them.

The hands dropped and Alex fell to the ground. He threw the head into the dark shaft where Jabir ibn Hayyan had disappeared, now screaming his own rage. He sensed the thing that had once been a man was already fleeing deep into the labyrinth below the ground. Behind him the headless giant still lumbered about, perhaps searching for its face and eyes.

Alex got to one knee, holding his chest and carefully sucking in deep breaths. Every movement was like a hundred knives piercing his flesh. He shut his eyes, grimacing, but remembering his learned techniques to quell the agony of his body and the tormented screams from the damaged psychology rampaging through his mind.

Alex searched out sun-sparkling waves breaking on a deserted beach, the smell of green apples, and an image of his son, Joshua, holding up a favorite toy. He stayed silent, immobile, ignoring the lumbering monster and the grotesque whispering of the small being somewhere in the dark caves, and just concentrated on calming himself. After a moment he opened his eyes and pressed the comm. stud in his ear.

“Sam.”

“Boss.” The response was immediate. “Goddamnit, you’re alive. I knew it.”

“For now.” Alex backed away from the headless giant which was snatching at things that came within its grasp. “We need to get to that escape tunnel that Hammerson found to take us out to the Kashaf-Roud area in the desert. Jabir ibn Hayyan has hundreds of IRG waiting up top for us. We’ll need to go down. Where are you now?”

Sam snorted. “Just outside. Where else would we be?”

Alex grinned; there was obeying orders, and there was obeying orders. “This isn’t over yet. You start down, I have one more thing to do. Be with you in a few minutes.”

“You got it, see you soon.” He heard Sam issuing orders as the connection was broken.

Alex then weaved his way around the lumbering thing that had been Eli, its stained smock sticking to its huge lumpen body as sticky fluids leaked from the stump on its shoulders. At the door, he turned back, trying to see into the small alcove where the goblin-like creature had scurried. There was nothing there to see, but he knew the evil thing watched him from somewhere.

“See you in hell.” He smiled, and then raced to the stairway, taking five steps at a time, until he felt the familiar tingle of radiation in his gut behind a nearby door. Pushing it open, he crossed quickly to one of the bombs, and ripped the lid from its top. Each device had a different kiloton setting and a timer. The one he selected was ten kilotons, and he set it to sixty minutes.

His hand hovered over the initiator button. They needed to be at least five miles away, and if the exit tunnel was what, and where, he expected it to be, they had a chance. He almost laughed out loud. It also needed to be open, and unguarded. And if there was a vehicle waiting, then it’d be a piece of cake, and they had a chance.

Better than having zero options, he thought, and punched the button. He ran to the door, locking it, and then ripping the handle free — if anyone needed to enter, they’d need to bring a blowtorch or battering ram.

Seconds mattered as Alex flew down the steps, an entire flight at a time. In a few minutes he had caught up with his team.

“Let’s go, people. Gonna be one helluva fire in the hole.”

“Yo.” Casey clapped her hands and screamed her delight, immediately putting a hand up to her temple. “Ow, that hurts my brain.”

“There’s a brain?” Sam nudged her. “Let’s go, soldier.”

At the bottom of the steps was a pair of formidable looking silver doors that were sealed. Sam didn’t hesitate, lifting the M203 grenade launcher and firing two M433 high-explosive rounds. The plugs could easily penetrate two inches of armored steel.

“Hit the deck!”

The group flung themselves to the ground, covering their ears and crushing their eyes shut. Before the smoke cleared and the debris settled, they were moving again. The steel doors were bent inwards as if a titan had punched through them. Inside there was a garage, a workshop, and a long roadway as large as a four-lane highway, and in pristine condition.

But what made Alex feel a surge of elation was the line of new Iranian military trucks, sitting idle as if waiting for them.

“Load ’em up.”

The group leaped into back and front cabins, Sam taking the wheel and immediately flooring it before the doors were even closed. “Buckle up, children, and keep your arms inside the ride at all times.”

Alex checked his wristwatch. “Thirty minutes. We need to be outside the tunnel or it’ll be like being in the barrel of a cannon when that nuke goes off.”

“You set a nuke?” Adira’s brows went up.

“Sure, Jabir ibn Hayyan is still in here somewhere, pulling the strings. And I can guarantee he’ll be plotting his revenge on all of us. I gave him a choice and he chose the wrong option.” Alex’s smile was grim. “Like I hoped.”

Sam had the truck up to eighty miles per hour in the tunnel, but the smooth roadway surface made them seem like they were floating.

“Faster,” Alex said.

Sam’s foot stamped down, squeezing the last few ergs from the engine. Alex’s eyes moved from the hands on his watch to the distance ticking over on the odometer. In his mind he calculated, remembering the tunnel network schematics from Hammerson’s stratigraphic sonar readings. They had twenty minutes until detonation, but at the rate they were traveling, he allowed himself a glimmer of hope.

Alex jolted upright as a door in his mind creaked open, and like a cloud of greasy smoke, the words of Jabir ibn Hayyan leaked in.

“You think you are free?” The evil little voice croaked with laughter. “I will send a thousand of my Zhayedan to your home. You know you can’t stop them all, and I only need to win once, to obliterate millions of you.”

Alex groaned, crushing his eyes shut.

“I will be free, and when I am, I will find you, Alex Hunter.” It seemed to laugh and then the voice became sly. “And I will find your Aimee Weir, and then perhaps I will find your son, Joshua. I’ll save him for last. His pain will be the most unbearable.”

Alex put his hands up to his head, but the sound of Adira’s warning jarred him back to the truck’s cabin. Up ahead a line of soldiers was waiting for them. Two jeeps had also been parked nose-to-nose as a barrier.

Alex growled. “Sam, give me the M203, and keep flooring it.” Alex took the grenade launcher and checked the rounds still in the modified drum clip — ten left — plenty.

Bullets started to whack into the armored sides of the truck, and he could see at least two men preparing shoulder mounted RPG launchers — now or never, he thought.

Alex leaned out of the truck and fired round after round of the plug-like grenades, targeting the jeeps, the RPG handlers, and then the phalanx of soldiers, until all ten rounds had been expended.

The detonations were almost instantaneous and a curtain of fire, flesh and debris filled the tunnel. Alex pulled himself back into the cabin.

“Brace!”

They passed through the flaming wall, bumping over the remains of one molten jeep, and heading toward a massive set of steel doors that still hung open. Beyond, a dark sky beckoned.

Alex checked his watch. “Three minutes. About to get real hot, people.”

The deep detonation was an earthquake that threw them around like they were encased in a toy, and a vent of flame shot from the tunnel, blasting into the dark sky, making the night into daytime while Sam struggled to hold the wheel.

The flame was shut off, as the tunnel caved in on itself. They sped on, and behind them the world collapsed. They had over 150 miles of night desert to cross, in a hostile territory, while outpacing a toxic, nuclear shock wave.

Not a single one of them would complain for a second.