The Armageddon Protocol

TWENTY-EIGHT

Steiner clambered down, snatched the canister from Liška’s hands and ordered their new captives out of the vault. His instructions were enforced by the men with Heckler & Koch MP7s gripped in their hands. As they moved toward the ladder the other men who had pursued them into the tunnels arrived with their guns drawn. Now, they were surrounded.

Harry was first up the ladder and back to the surface of the earth. When he reached the hatch two of Steiner’s men grabbed him by the head and neck and dragged him from the shaft, hurling him onto the paving. One of them gave him a solid kick in his ribs and he grunted in pain.

He staggered to his knees and saw they were some distance from the hubbub back at the main entrance. He saw the flashing lights of the police vehicles on the buildings in the distance and a chopper was swirling around with an arc light in a desperate search for them. For now, they were alone.

“Now the rest of you,” Steiner said from below. “And keep things casual. Any monkey business and you’re dead.”

Lucia was next, and then Zoey and Niko followed. Finally, Andrej Liška placed two trembling hands on the top rung of the ladder and emerged into the city night. A large man with hands like shovels couldn’t resist kicking the professor in his face as he struggled from the hatch. The professor flew backwards onto the gravel behind the shaft entrance.

“Enough Aleksi!” barked Steiner, and climbed up the ladder to join them.

Before Liška could get up, the Finn pulled him to his feet and Steiner casually approached him.

Face to face at last, the Austrian gave a cruel smile. “You and Ramirez have caused the Ministry a great deal of alarm and uncertainty.”

Behind him, Zoey struggled as Aleksi Karhu grabbed her with his powerful arms. “Let us go, you assholes! I’m taking this to the American embassy!”

Steiner turned and slapped her hard, drawing blood from the deep split his ring had gouged on her cheek. Without speaking a word, he turned back to the Czech physicist.

“Where were we, Andrej?”

Harry watched as Steiner forced Liška to kneel with his hands behind his head. The old man trembled as he followed the instructions, dropping to his knees and clasping his fingers as he brought them around to the back of his head. The moonlight reflected off the temples of his glasses.

For more than a few seconds Harry Bane was convinced that Steiner was going to personally execute Andrej Liška for his crimes against the Ministry. He watched with disgust as the Austrian strutted slowly behind the professor and raised the muzzle of a Micro Uzi to the parietal bone just behind his right ear.

“Perhaps you know too much about the Ministry,” Steiner said, almost in a whisper. He squeezed his thick fingers around the grip of the open-bolt blowback-operated submachine gun and a macabre grin flashed cross his lips. “Perhaps I should kill you now.”

“I know nothing about the Ministry!” Liška said, his voice breaking with fear. Never good to hear that wobbling sound in a full-grown man, but it wasn’t the first time for Harry. He had known fear smother far stronger men than the professor. In the final moments, it wrapped around them like a shroud, dark enough to make your heart stop.

“You are a liar and a traitor,” Steiner snapped. “There is no reason for me to believe you, old man.”

“It’s the truth!” Liška said. Exercised now, he tried to turn but Steiner knocked him back down with a harsh pistol whipping.

Harry leaped forward, more from instinct than judgement and was impressed by the speed with which the Austrian brought the situation under control, whipping the Uzi up into his face and shouting at him to get back.

Harry raised his hands in a show of surrender and took a step back. The Micro Uzi looked petite, but with a cyclic rate of fire of 1200 rounds per minute, Hans Steiner definitely had the advantage in this particular situation. “Easy there, Arnie.”

“Was?” Steiner said in German.

“Just take it easy,” Harry said, and glanced down at Liška who was slowly coming back to reality with his face pushed down in the gravel. “No need to beat up old professors, is there now?”

Steiner stared at the Englishman for a moment too long, his beefy face lit silver in the moonlight, and then he gave a shallow nod before bursting into laughter. He raised the index finger of his gun-free hand and pointed it at Harry’s face. “You especially I would enjoy killing.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Harry said.

Steiner returned his attention to Liška. “The only reason you live now is so Mr Szabo can kill you later.”

“Why? I have done nothing!”

“As I have already said, you and Ramirez have caused much trouble with your theft of our property, and unfortunately the senior ranks of the Ministry are not renowned for their forgiving nature. Your punishment will be severe. Now get on your feet — we’re getting out of here.”

“Where are we going?” Liška asked.

“You have an appointment with a painful death, and you’re late.” Steiner said. “Now move!”

Steiner, Aleksi and the other men marched the captives away from the hatch and out onto the Avenue du Général Leclerc.

Harry observed the look of shock on the faces of the men and women crawling along the avenue in their cars as the armed men marched them away from the enormous lion statue in the center of the Place Denfert-Rochereau. The statue was a bronze reduction of the famous Lion of Belfort, created by the same sculptor who gave the world the Statue of Liberty, but tonight it was surrounded by police and security services as they swarmed around the entrance to the Catacombs.

Further to the south, Steiner ordered them to stop and a large Caracal Super Cougar long-range tactical chopper now rapidly descended towards them.

Steiner ordered his men to grab hold of Liška and take him to the chopper. The Czech professor kicked and screamed as they dragged him away and then the Austrian commando pulled Lucia toward him and raised a pistol to her throat. “And you’re coming with us too, Serrano,” Steiner said.

“Leave her alone!” Harry shouted.

“We will not harm her,” Steiner said. Behind him the whirring blades of the helicopter boomed and roared as the pilot increased power to the collective. “She is our insurance policy and will only be harmed if you try and follow us, or get in our way again. When we have completed our mission she will be released.”

“Bastards,” Harry said.

“I take it as a compliment, and now turn out your pockets and give us your phones and wallets.”

They did as they were ordered, and then Steiner covered Harry, Zoey and Niko with his machine pistol as Aleksi forced Lucia into the center seat at the back of the chopper beside Liška.

The Austrian climbed into the front beside the pilot and slammed his door shut with a grin on his face, but as Aleksi leaned forward in his seat to slide shut the rear door, Harry dived into the main cabin of the chopper and grabbed the Finnish soldier by the throat. It was madness — he knew he stood no chance — but when he saw Lucia’s terrified face in the back of the helicopter something inside him exploded and he burst into action.

Aleksi reached up two meaty hands and tried to wrench the former Pathfinder’s hands from the soft flesh of his throat, but his freedom of movement was restrained by the belt holding him tight in the seat. He grunted as he struggled to breath through Harry’s grip.

The man sitting on the other side of Lucia sprung into action, popping his belt and lunging forward, launching a heavy fist into Harry’s face.

Harry took the blow well but as the world started spinning he knew he couldn’t take any more.

Hearing the fight through the headsets, Steiner turned in his seat at the front and his face stretched with horror and rage when he saw what was happening. He ordered the pilot to ascend, and slowly the chopper began to lift up off the ground.

Aleksi lifted his boot and kicked Harry in the face, knocking him out of the chopper and into the air. He fell six feet and crashed into the tarmac, crying out in pain as his back smashed into the concrete. High above them now, the chopper faded out of view as it ascended into the low Paris clouds, and Harry watched as both Professor Liška and Lucia Serrano vanished into the dark, speeding clouds. It flashed as the moonlight reflected off its steel and aluminum alloy body.

And then they were gone.