Raiders

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Mason, Zara and Caleb charged into the station’s entrance and scanned the crowd for any sign of Kiya and her Ravens. After the commotion back on Oxford Street, there was a heightened state of alert, and now a van of armed policemen raced past the station on its way to the chaos.

“There!” Zara said.

“I see them,” said Caleb. “Assholes at twelve o’clock.”

Mason looked ahead and saw the three OM acolytes slowly descending the escalator, like vampires returning to their lair after feeding on the blood of innocents.

Mason led the way through the slowly moving crowd, weaving through the commuters and tourists as he tried to draw closer to the enemy without alerting them of his presence. They were at the bottom of the escalator now, and turning a corner to get to the westbound platform.

“We have to get to them before they get on the train.”

“Can’t we just have the train stopped?” Caleb asked.

Zara shook her head. “I know cops, Cal. Even if they believed us it’s going to take too long, plus it’ll give them a heads up that we’re onto them.”

“Zara’s right,” Mason said. “Better we handle it ourselves, and don’t forget Ezra asked us to keep a lid on things. Bringing a major terror alert to the London Underground is probably not what he had in mind when he said that.” He turned to Caleb. “But he’s your friend — am I right?”

Caleb nodded. “You’re right.”

They made their way down the escalator. When they reached the bottom they heard a train pulling up, and by the time they turned the corner onto the platform Kiya and the Ravens were nowhere in sight. The platform was full of people exiting the train and heading in their direction toward the exit.

“They’re on the train,” Mason said. “They have to be.”

Mason led the team onto the rear carriage of the train and they started scanning for any sign of the thieves. “We’ll work our way to the front, but we have to work fast. If they get off at the next stop we could lose them.”

They made their way to the front of the train. They were building speed as they moved through the tunnel, and as Mason opened the door to the next carriage, he saw the woman and the men they had fought back at the British Museum.

And the codex.

Dariush was still gripping it in his hand. “Let’s take them out,” Caleb growled.

They charged toward them, knowing they had nowhere to run.

The three Hidden Hand cultists also knew they had nowhere to run, and it was time to make a stand.

Mason headed for Dariush, and Caleb took Tekin. Zara went for Kiya.

The former British soldier grappled the hulk of a man to the floor in the aisle between the rows of seats and started pummelling him with every boxing trick he knew. For a few seconds he thought it was going to be easy, but then everything Ezra had told him about the secret order was confirmed with grim accuracy and power when the man started to fight back.

As Dariush delivered a hefty smack with his boot right in the center of Mason’s face, he scrambled away and got to his feet. By now, the passengers were screaming and clearing out of the way, giving them room to fight. Many of the travelers whipped out their smart phones and started filming the brawl, and one man even yelled at them to keep fighting.

Mason heard none of it, but focussed totally on the Raven and the codex he was still gripping in his massive, tattooed hands. The man’s chest heaved up and down with adrenalin-charged hatred, and then he spoke, his lips barely visible through his thick goatee beard. “If you want it, come and get it!”

Mason stared at the man and realized that far from a mindless thug, a tortured, agonized soul was staring back at him. The man ended the tension by pulling a compact push dagger from his belt and pointing its blade at him. Mason reacted immediately, snatching a Styrofoam cup of steaming coffee from a commuter behind him and hurling it in his face.

The Raven’s instinct was to raise his arm but even his lightning reaction wasn’t fast enough to stop the scolding liquid spraying into his face. He screamed with pain and whipped his hands up to his face to wipe away the smoking-hot coffee.

The woman screamed but the man next to her took one look at Mason and the Raven and decided to keep a low profile. The other passengers did nothing except take another step back. Some were trying to send texts to the police while others continued filming the violence unfolding before them in the hope of racking up some hits on their YouTube channels.

Mason took advantage of the moment and lunged toward him. He smacked the push dagger out of his hand with a Krav Maga disarming strike and slammed a fist into his face. The Raven rolled with the punch and struck back with a destructive blitz of punches and forced Mason onto the defensive.

At the other end of the carriage Zara was fighting with the woman. The Bride was almost inhumanly fast and agile, but her incredible fighting prowess didn’t faze Zara Dietrich for a second. She threw herself into the battle with her usual courage, desperate for another notch on her belt.

She ducked a savage Shaolin tornado kick that would have knocked her out if it had struck her in the head, and responded with a barrage of low kicks aimed at the Bride’s knees. She made contact with the woman’s shin, and she grunted as her bone absorbed the blow and took a quick, defensive step back.

She moved into the path of a young man in a Metallica t-shirt who had moved around behind her. Metallica grabbed her around her neck and squeezed but Zara knew at once it was a tactical error. The Bride took half a second to bring her elbow into his ribcage and forced him to release her. He doubled over in pain and without looking, Kiya flicked her arm up and brought the back of her right hand into his face, smacking him backward into the window.

The woman who was standing next to Metallica snatched a laptop off the seats and tried to bring it down on the Bride’s head, but she easily sidestepped her and smashed the computer out of her hand with a high-powered butterfly kick.

Silently impressed, Zara moved in for another attack and this time gained the advantage, forcing her back toward the door. The fighting was tough and she knew it would go right down to the wire, but a part of her was enjoying the challenge. Turned out Ezra Haven wasn’t kidding when he said these people possessed unmatched skills, but none of it frightened her — how could it with a past like hers?

At the other end of the carriage, Mason was dimly aware of Tekin falling to the floor. He was clutching a smashed, bleeding nose that had been delivered by his old friend, Caleb, who was now piling into the brawl with Mason and Dariush. The heavy-set American body-builder wasn’t in the mood for screwing around, but he knew he was no match for this guy’s martial arts skillset so he had to go easy and do it his way.

Mason was ducking and diving like a true cruiserweight, but even with his red, scolded eyes the Raven was slowly grinding him down with a brutal bombardment of kicks and punches from dozens of martial arts. He moved so swiftly it was like watching a Bruce Lee film on fast-forward.

“Need a hand there, buddy?” he said.

Mason ducked another tiger punch. “Wouldn’t say no, my old friend.”

“Should have asked,” Caleb said as he crashed into the Raven with his mightiest NFL shoulder barge and crushed him against the carriage door.

Mason looked shocked. “Nice job.”

“Linebacker in college,” Caleb said, almost apologetically.

Before he could respond, the darkness of the tunnel dispersed as the train pulled into Oxford Circus. Enraged and driven by revenge, Tekin delivered a savage head butt into Caleb’s face and pushed him away as he scrambled for the doors.

Seeing Mason still grappling with Dariush, Kiya called out to him. “Throw me the codex!”

Dariush tried to obey, but Mason smacked the ancient document from his hand before he had a chance to throw it to the Bride. It hit the floor of the carriage and skidded away toward the central doors.

Kiya stared at the codex, and distracted for half a second, Zara hammered a speedy palm strike into the woman’s chin, striking her head back and knocking her clean out of the train. She hit the platform hard and for a moment they all thought she was out cold, but then she scrambled to her feet. She called out to Tekin and they started to retreat into the crowd on the platform.

“Get after them!” Mason yelled.

The doors started to close but Caleb and Zara jumped clear with a second to spare and then started their pursuit of the enemy.

Mason turned to Dariush.

Both of them knew only one man would walk away with the codex.