The Black Knight

XLVII

‘You did what?!’ Ethan yelled above the clatter of gunfire.

‘Hannah’s still back there!’ Sully replied. ‘She made a dash for Black Knight but Veer’s men showed up and cut her off!’

Ethan’s voice echoed down the corridor as he ran after Sully, rage seething through his veins.

‘There was no time!’ Sully shouted back as he raced up the stairwell to the command center. ‘If I hadn’t shut the door that damned thing would have killed us too!’

Ethan cursed as Riggs and his team hurried across the center to rappel lines Ethan and Saunders had thrown out of the shattered windows, secured against the thick steel legs of the planning table.

‘Tell me the sub’s coming up!’ Ethan asked.

‘They’re almost here and aware of the enemy!’ Riggs replied as he checked the radio set. ‘Time to leave!’

‘Hannah’s still back there!’ Ethan snapped. ‘We can’t leave her!’

He saw the conflict on Riggs’ face, swiftly overwhelmed by mission protocol.

‘We can’t save everybody and she made her choice, Warner! We go now, or we stay buried here forever! You gonna cry into your cups or cover us?!’

Ethan felt like screaming as he hurried to the windows and grabbed an M-16 rifle. Riggs took one last look at the dock, the water below them churning now as something began rising up from the black depths.

‘Now!’

Ethan aimed out of the command center windows as Del Toro and Saunders opened fire on the darkened maw of the tunnel opposite. Gunfire raked the icy walls of the tunnel and drove Veer’s men back out of sight as Ethan lifted the M-16 rifle and aimed carefully at the tunnel entrance through the smoke drifting through the cavern.

He selected the 203 grenade launcher and fired twice. Two grenades arced from the weapon across the pens and bounced onto the icy dock as they rattled into the mouth of the tunnel. Above the rattle of gunfire from the SEALs Ethan heard the cries of panic from within the tunnel and then two blasts thundered out as bright flares of light illuminated the ragged tunnel mouth.

The grenades showered Veer’s men with supersonic shrapnel and Ethan saw chunks of ice plunge from the ceiling of the tunnel to clutter the entrance as the armed men fled the assault. Ethan turned to his left and yelled across the control center.

‘Go, now!’

Riggs and his men burst from the control center windows and plunged down the rappel lines as Ethan and Saunders opened fire once more, covering their descent.

Alongside the pens Ethan saw the surface of the water rise up as though some gigantic black whale was ascending from the icy depths. The water flooded over the dock as from the deep rose an enormous submarine, a glossy black leviathan that almost filled the entire pen from front to back. Even as the submarine was ascending, from its bridge leaped armed men clothed entirely in black, more Navy SEALs who rushed out of the interior and clambered down onto the hull, weapons firing at the mouth of the tunnel.

Veer’s men were firing back but already in heavy retreat as they fell back into the tunnel, and through the smoke he could see them turning and fleeing.

‘They’re in retreat!’

Riggs and his team landed on the docks and dashed toward the submarine as Ethan turned and looked behind them down the corridor that led to the stairwell and the rear dock. He could see Veer’s men running toward them and firing as they went. Del Toro hopped through the open hatch and then slammed the door behind him as Saunders pushed a heavy container in front of the door.

‘Let’s go, now!’ Saunders snapped.

They dashed together across the command center and leaped onto the lines, descending toward the docks as Ethan covered their escape, the soldiers amassing at the mouth of the tunnel and opening fire. Ethan saw Veer’s men fleeing en masse down the tunnel, firing as they went but desperately trying to escape the hail of fire being directed at them.

Riggs and his team scrambled up the ratlines thrown to them by the submarine’s crew as Ethan hesitated.

‘What the hell are you doing?!’ Riggs yelled up to him as the chamber began to shake all around them.

‘I’m not leaving Hannah with these assholes!’ Ethan shouted back down.

He turned and checked the magazine of his rifle and then that of his pistol. Fifteen rounds in the rifle, ten in the pistol. Veer’s men had been pushed back by the SEALs into the tunnel and would most likely flee. That left Veer’s personal escort, which had looked to be about six men who had assaulted the rear dock. At least one had been shot in the water and two had died in the blast inside the tent, which left Veer plus three.

Ethan edged his way toward the entrance to the command center as he saw the flickering glow of flashlights approaching through gaps in the door. Veer’s assault was over before it had even really begun but Ethan knew that the submarine would not wait for Hannah or him and would make good its escape within moments.

Ethan had only an instant to think before Veer’s men would burst into the command center. He heard their boots rushing upon his position and he knew that there could be no escape.