The Armageddon Protocol

TWENTY-SEVEN

Harry stared at the strange, cold canister in awe as Liška handed it to him. It was smaller than he thought it was going to be, and heavier too — roughly the same size and weight of a can of beans. The surface looked and felt like burnished chrome, and the whole thing was smooth except for some shallow undulations at what he presumed was the base. At the opposite end was clearly a lid of some kind but it was sealed.

“Heavier than I thought,” he said.

“All the weight is in the canister,” Lucia said. “Am I right, Professor Liška?”

“Yes. The dust itself weighs practically nothing.”

Zoey took a step forward. “Can I get a look and see what’s causing this shitstorm?”

Harry glanced at her. “I don’t think so.” He turned to Lucia and handed her the canister.

“This is incredible,” she said. “I knew Pablo was a genius, but this… I cannot believe it is really what you say it is.”

“Believe it,” Liška said flatly, and stared nervously at the object in her hands.

She turned the canister over and studied it for a few second, but as she moved her fingers up to the seal, Liška’s eyes widened like full moons.

“Don’t touch that!” he snapped. “Give it here.” The Czech physicist leaned forward and snatched the canister from Lucia.

“Take it easy, Andrej,” Harry said.

Liška once again wiped the sweat from his forehead. “I’m sorry, but you just don’t realize how dangerous this could be if it ever got into the wrong hands.”

“But we’re the right hands,” Lucia said. “Don’t forget that.”

“You’re right, of course,” Liška said. “Forgive me — it’s just that I was there that day when they all died in Sweden — me and Gabriel. We watched them all die right in front of our faces. That’s why we took this away and vowed to hide it forever.”

“But it’s not safe here, Andrej,” Harry said. “You understand why we have to get this to the authorities?”

“No! They’re all under the control of the Ministry… every one of them!”

“That’s not true, Andrej,” Harry said. “I know people in the British Government who I would trust with my life. We need to get this to them. It’s the only way it can be secured.”

Lucia took the canister from Liška and weighed it in her hands a second time. “Incredible… and you’re sure the nanodust is already in here?”

Liška swallowed hard and gave a shallow nod as they made their way back up the steps and into the tunnel. They reached the end and turned back into the main corridor leading back to the official Catacombs entrance when everything changed.

Lucia gasped and pointed down the tunnel at a man with a gun. “Ay, dios mío!”

He fired before they could react.

The bullet struck the corridor wall, ricocheted and blasted a chunk of limestone from one of the pillars supporting the ceiling. The smashed stone rained down on their heads and they ran for cover behind a support pillar as more bullets now drilled into the wall of skulls behind them, showering them with powdered bone.

“The police are here!” Liška said as Harry leaned around the pillar for a closer look.

“Holy crap on a cracker!” said Zoey. “You don’t say?”

“It’s not the police,” Harry said, slamming back into the cover of the pillar. “It’s the Ministry’s men, and the cops are dead on the tunnel floor behind them.”

“But how did they know we were here?” Lucia asked. “The last time they knew our location was back in Madrid!”

“A question for later,” said Harry. “Our problem right now is getting out of these catacombs alive.”

“Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit,” Zoey said, peering around the pillar and deftly sliding the snub-nose pistol from her pocket. “These guys are acting kinda thirsty if you ask me.”

“No one asked you,” Lucia said. “Are you afraid?”

“Hell no! This is more exciting than knocking off Greco. Did I ever tell you about the time I was in a shootout in Oklahoma?”

Before Harry had a chance to reply, the men hurled stun grenades which exploded and blasted fragments of bone from the countless skulls all over them. The Englishman shielded his eyes with his forearm for the duration of the explosion and then scanned the area occupied by the Ministry’s men. They were fanning out and executing a professional advance on them, with one unit covering while another moved forward and secured more of the tunnel.

“Whose idea was it to come down here?” Zoey said, shaking her head in despair.

“We had to get the dust,” Harry said.

“Well… great plan, Holmes,” Zoey called out. “Now we’re trapped.”

“Always look on the bright side,” Harry said.

“We’re pinned down in an underground maze by a bunch of tooled-up psychos and our only company is a million skeletons — what’s the bright side again?”

“We’re in Paris. When we get out we have access to excellent world-class museums and coffee.”

“Oh, geez. Of all the heroes in the world I got you.”

“You think I’m a hero?”

She looked at him blankly. “Get over yourself, Chief. You busted me out of jail and I’m grateful, but we’re not getting married.”

“You break my heart,” he said sarcastically. “And we’re not trapped — there’s a tunnel behind us, look.”

A narrow tunnel lined with countless leg bones receded into the darkness behind them, and they all knew it was leading further back into the Catacombs, but they had no choice.

And so they fled.

Behind them now, more of the Ministry’s agents emerged from the cloud of dust and after scanning the tunnels and seeing their enemy’s flight into the darkness they restarted their pursuit.

“Keep going!” Harry shouted. They sprinted deeper in the tunnel system, but he could see that Niko was starting to look tired. To call him a big guy was an understatement, and Harry was concerned he might collapse at any minute.

Another bullet struck the wall beside Zoey’s head and blasted her with smashed skull. “Holy Kamoley!” she yelled, still in a sprint. “I think I’m all skulled out.”

“You can say that again,” Niko said, panting hard as he struggled to keep up.

Liška could barely contain his panic. “We can go this way,” he said. “Jean-Paul showed me. It’s one of the exits off limits to the public.”

“Where does it come out?” Lucia asked.

“I’m not sure, but we’re some distance from where we entered.”

They reached a small dusty room littered with old newspapers and beer bottles strewn around the floor. On the far wall was a vertical ladder leading up to a hatch. Presumably one of the many unofficial exits from the catacombs was the other side of it. Harry moved ahead of them, climbed the ladder and pushed the hatch open. Moonlight flooded the shaft, lighting all their faces a ghostly silver color.

Then several silhouettes loomed in over the hatch and blocked the light of the moon. In their hands were some pretty chunky looking firearms.

“Ah, the traitor Professor Liška, and his team of amateur sleuths.”

Liška gasped. “It’s Hans Steiner!”

“In the flesh,” the man said. His voice was clipped but cultured. “And how kind of you to return the items you stole from us.” As he spoke, the other men aimed their machine pistols down into the shaft. “Hand them over, or my men will tear you to shreds where you stand.”