The Atlantis Cipher

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Bodie ducked behind a pillar as two soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons, providing cover as their two colleagues swam powerfully for the steps.

Bodie looked back into the shadows under the building, and saw Cassidy and Jemma crouched to its side. He fired blindly at the water where the soldiers were. Bullets flashed back, smashing into the column, volley after volley. He slipped around the other side and managed to analyze the scene.

The lead pair were coming out of the water and onto the steps. Bodie saw weapons strapped across their backs and breathing masks hiding their faces. The two at the back bobbed in the water, firing every few seconds. Bodie readied his own weapon and waited for their enemies to come closer.

Cassidy fired first, the gunshot echoing around the small space. Her bullet skimmed the waves and embedded in the far wall of the cavern, but the attackers ignored it. They just fired back while their comrades continued to climb up the temple’s steps.

Bodie leveled his gun at the closest climber and pulled the trigger, wounding him in the shoulder. His comrade instantly returned fire. Bodie felt a tug against his right ear. Something trickled down his cheek. He fell back, breathing hard.

Too close.

He counted to three before peering out again. The man he’d wounded struggled up the steps and tore his face mask off, gulping down air as he fought the pain of the bullet wound. Bodie now saw that it was the Chinese who were attacking them. The man reached the top of the steps. The second soldier was now slightly ahead. He had ditched his pistol, and was readying an automatic rifle.

Cassidy and Jemma emerged from where they had taken cover, returning fire. But their shots went wild, missing the intended targets.

Bodie ducked back as shots came from the two swimmers at the rear of the cave. He saw them drifting nearer now, weapons aimed.

A figure came around the column. Bodie stepped back, firing, but the bullets went wide. The figure smacked him in the face, causing him to stagger, but he regained his balance by pushing off a column and dropping to a crouch. The attacker followed with a kick aimed at Bodie’s face. Bodie twisted so that his shoulder took the impact. Pain flared. The gun came up and he wasted another shot as the Chinese soldier disappeared around the column, then appeared almost instantly on the other side.

A hand chopped at Bodie’s throat. Agony exploded inside his lungs. The other hand came around with a knife thrust at his ribs. Bodie barely moved, but just enough for the knife to slice his suit and flesh and cause blood to pour. The other hand jabbed at his sternum, and this time he went down to his knees.

Damn, these guys are bloody good.

The Chinese soldier fell across him then, shot through the back by Cassidy. Bodie struggled to push him off. The second soldier was coming around a far column, held at bay by a flurry of wide shots from Jemma, who had taken cover behind another pillar. Bodie rasped, trying to catch his breath.

Cassidy was moving fast to intercept the second soldier. Hugging the outer wall, she padded quietly on bare feet until she reached the pillar that he was hiding behind, but didn’t take anything for granted. Soundlessly, she dropped to the floor.

He reappeared around the pillar four seconds later, arms first, then head, standing about a meter above her, the gun pointed and already firing. Cassidy shot upward, twice, into his chest, sending him toppling back into the water.

Bodie watched as the two remaining swimmers came close to the steps. There was a lull. Jemma coughed. The waterfall roared. Bodie massaged his throat gingerly.

Cassidy waved. “You fuckers fallen asleep, or what?”

Nobody knew if they heard, but the swimmers’ next actions terrified Bodie. They reared up, balancing on a sunken step, and aimed automatic gunfire at the building’s entire façade. Hundreds of bullets tore chunks from the walls. Bodie shrank back, head down and filled with raucous noise. He was so close to the floor he couldn’t focus, but knew he had to see what these madmen did next.

They fired ceaselessly, aiming at random. Only now they were pushing away, swimming on their backs with feet propelling them toward the far sheer wall with its steps. They passed close to the waterfall. Bodie tried to pick them off, braving the hail of bullets, but quickly ducked back down.

After a few seconds he looked out from behind his cover. Both swimming soldiers had ceased fire and were each about to pull the pin from a grenade.

You crazy fucking…

Bodie acted immediately on seeing the grenades, realizing they had ten seconds or less after the pins were pulled. Another major problem had occurred to him — they had left their tanks and face masks at the front of the temple, in full view of the Chinese. There was no living without those tanks and masks. He jumped into the open, grabbed masks for Jemma and Cassidy, and flung them behind him. The third mask was an easy kick across the floor. Then he bent down for the tanks as both grenades were hurled toward him. He was desperate to complete his task before they exploded. The first grenade landed and bounced, followed by its twin.

Bodie wrestled the first tank into his arms and threw it, then hurling the second tank to the rear of the building where, after a swift glance, he saw Cassidy and Jemma were already headed. His entire being was consumed now with one spinning grenade as it slipped off the building and plunged into the water.

And then the blast.

It detonated beneath the surface, sending a mighty deluge in every direction, an eruption that slammed Bodie off his feet. He felt the brief sensation of flight before striking the building’s side and seeing the column that held it up start to crumble. The second grenade exploded on the floor of the temple, turning the cave into a hellish bedlam.

Bodie almost slipped between the building and the side of the cave. There was a meter gap down there, but the chances of being crushed were incredibly high. He scraped and scrapped and hung on. A deeper panic seized him when he saw the swimming soldiers hurling two more grenades. The column to his left shuddered, wavered, and then stopped moving, holding fast. One of the central pillars fell away, plummeting straight down in a jumble of marble, mortar, and dust. The boiling waters claimed it, dragged it back. Water poured from everywhere, and waves ran across the building’s floor. Bodie lay prone, waiting for the next two explosions.

Meanwhile, Cassidy and Jemma had raced to where Bodie threw the masks, picked them up, and jammed them over their heads. They held on through the next explosion, huddled against the water blast, unable to stop themselves from sliding across the floor on the seats of their wetsuits, propelled by the detonation. As she slipped, Cassidy grabbed one tank and heaved the other in Jemma’s direction. Jemma caught hold of it, snagged a strap with her hand, and looped it over her shoulders. The final explosion sent them farther back. Cassidy stopped herself by planting her feet on the rear wall of the cavern, suspended over the drop to the water below. She flung herself into the water as soon as she got the chance.

Jemma slid past, flailing.

Cassidy reached out, managed to grab her arm and hang on. She used her planted legs as a fulcrum, first arresting Jemma’s glide, and then pulling her back to safety. The tank clanged off the marble floor between them. Through the viewing panel of their masks, they breathed out at each other in relief.

“Bodie?”