The Aztec Prophecy

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Hawke and Lea advanced into the underground Aztec labyrinth, only dimly aware of Reaper and Lexi disappearing into the south side of the maze in their pursuit of Garza. The Mexican gangster was making a spirited attempt to flee the complex, but Hawke had a hunch Lexi and Reaper would put an end to that.

The tunnel ahead of them was longer and steeper than anything they had ever seen before. He marvelled at the length of time it must have taken the Aztecs to carve it all those centuries ago… if it was in fact the Aztecs, he thought with a shudder. Lea was at his side, gun raised and not taking any chances.

“I think they must be through there!” Lea cried. She pointed the barrel of her gun at the familiar green radiance of Wade’s glow sticks as it emanated through a low arch carved in the rock.

When members of the cult burst through the arch and began firing at them, Hawke knew she must be right, and the two of them returned fire with a ferociousness he had rarely seen.

Members of the Sixth Sun fell like bowling pins as they kept up a relentless barrage of fire at the enemy — two highly trained former soldiers against Wade’s ragtag army of cultist loonies and undisciplined gangsters — but still the fight was hard.

Lea loosed another volley of fire, but was mindful now of her diminishing stock of bullets. She struck another member of the cult who had been trying to seek cover behind some kind of crude pillar, and they advanced another few yards toward the enemy lines.

As they moved deeper, Lea noticed what looked almost like crude batteries stacked in the dust. “What the hell are these?” she yelled at Hawke as the flying lead zipped around the chamber.

Hawke finished his magazine and turned to look. “What?”

“Those weird things over there.”

He glanced at them, and ducked his head to dodge another incoming bullet. “How the hell should I know?”

“Just a friggin’ question… Jesus.”

“Sorry, but, as you can see…” he ducked his head again as a bullet ricocheted off the wall beside his head and pinged into the dirt at his boots. “I’m kind of busy right now.”

“They look like they’re as old as everything else around here. I’ll ask Ryan — he’ll know.”

This did the trick, and seconds later Hawke rolled over in the dirt and collided with her on the other side of the tunnel. “Let me see — keep them busy for me while I look, yeah?”

He looked at what Lea had found while she covered him and saw she was right — they seemed as old as the underground complex, but they looked like something much more modern — the ultimate out-of-place artefacts. “No idea,” he said, shaking his head. “Ask Ryan — he’ll know.”

Lea rolled her eyes and smirked. Men. “Then get your arse back up here and help me, would ya? If we want to ask Ryan anything we have to save him first — and Maria!”

“All right,” Hawke said, taking out the last man and leaving the way clear. “Looks like we just progressed to the next level.”

At the other end of the underground complex, Lexi Zhang hunted Garza along another winding tunnel. The contempt she felt for men like him was indescribable. He was lower than a worm. He was poison, and she was the cure. To her right was the enormous Frenchman, Vincent Reno.

Despite his advancing age he was still as strong as an ox and barely breaking a sweat as he pounded along the tunnel beside her. She surprised herself when she realized that she was glad he was with her tonight as she tried to navigate her way through this madness. Spies were one thing but death-worshipping cults were quite another. Not even the Ministry had trained her for this demented lunacy.

“There he goes,” Reaper said, pointing ahead. “I see the green glow. He tries to fly away like the little moustique…mosquito, n’est-ce pas?”

Lexi narrowed her eyes as she focussed on the fleeing Mexican. “Dragonflies eat mosquitoes.”

“I like that,” Reaper said matter-of-factly. “C’est très drole, mon amie.”

She couldn’t speak French, but she knew what mon amie meant, and she liked to hear it. It meant they were accepting her and that made her feel good. What made her feel bad, however, was Zambia. Was there a path that could lead Hawke to what she had done in Zambia? She thought maybe so, and that meant it was time to cover up that particular trail, however…

A gunshot.

They dived for cover behind a bend in the tunnel and returned fire. Garza was well concealed and after a short fire-fight things went quiet. “Bastard’s out of ammo,” Reaper said. “Me too, so just as well…”

“And me,” Lexi said, tossing her gun to the ground. “But I don’t need lead to do my fighting for me.”

They heard Garza’s footsteps shuffling away and gave chase once again, but moments later they turned a corner and saw their quarry in a dead end. He looked scared.

“You just ran out of luck, Garza,” Reaper said.

Garza pulled out a flick-knife and extended the blade. It flashed in the eerie light of the glow stick. “You come near me and I cut your throats.”

“Trapped like a mosquito with broken wings,” the Chinese woman said, advancing on the cornered gangster.

They leaped into action, starting with Lexi’s ruthless delivery of a high-velocity and unexpected slap kick to the Mexican’s lower left jaw. He staggered back, his eyes rolling up as he almost passed out with the trauma of the blow, but then an adrenalin burst must have snapped him back into the moment because he moved forward and slashed the blade at Lexi.

She dodged the strike and returned fire with a savage spear hand strike at his neck which knocked him staggering back to Reaper, gasping for breath. Except for a few taekwondo moves, the former legionnaire was untrained in the finer martial arts, so he leaned his weight into Garza and made do with a no-nonsense shovel hook thrown hard into his jaw.

Lexi heard Garza’s teeth shattering as Reaper’s broad fist smashed his lower jaw up into his top teeth. The Mexican screamed in agony as he fell down on his backside.

“Get up,” Lexi said. “I haven’t finished playing with you yet.”

She struck a savage salvo of blows against Garza in an unrelenting attack, pounding him all over as her head filled with the thought of all the women he had attacked over the years.

She struck him in the throat and then a double axe-kick as fast as two lightning bolts smashed his balls and he fell forward howling like a baby. Still she fought on, and Reaper began to see another side to her. A darkness she rarely let escape from her gravity. She kicked his shins and then planted a heavy boot in his stomach, striking his diaphragm and blasting the air out of his lungs.

He gasped, but she was merciless. She stood over him and slammed her hand down on his head in a savage palm strike which knocked his head back on the rocks and killed him.

“You think I went too far?” she said.

Reaper gave a Gallic shrug. “Pas du tout. C’était dingue…”

“Let’s get back to Hawke.”