The Plagues of Pandora

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

Drake cooled his heels on the tarmacked runway as Alicia’s jet came in to land. The SPEAR team had only emerged into a fresh morning fifteen minutes ago and thought it beneficial to wait for the world-class backup. Truth be told, he was looking forward to seeing his old sparring partner again. In the past the miles between them could never have been enough, but lately that was far from the case. Even Mai had grown to accept the turbulent, passionate heroine though Drake wouldn’t like to test that theory right now.

The SPEAR team were going in fully manned. Yorgi and Lauren would remain aboard the choppers, but were still an active part of the operation. The greater the number of people that monitored a mission’s comms the larger the amount of information could be gleaned from them.

The jet taxied around. The pilot barely had time to apply the brakes before Alicia opened the door and bounded down the hastily attached steps, a deadly, playful puppy with blond hair and a penchant for violence. Drake couldn’t be sure but he thought her eyes were searching for him, only him, because when they locked on a light illuminated inside them.

“Drakey!”

She came up to him, pushing Kinimaka aside with a mock angry face, and just stood there. “Been a while.”

“Not really, love. Three or four weeks, max. Ya missed me?”

“Like the modern age misses Attila the Hun, baby.”

Drake snorted. “Oh, so put you together with a wannabe historian and an archaeological treasure hunter for three weeks and you’re suddenly a soothsayer? Should have done it years ago.”

Hayden pushed by them as Crouch walked up. The pair shook hands, and then both teams were rapidly introduced. Drake had imagined a more momentous meeting place for two of the world’s most respected teams, but perhaps their first battle together would be more significant — on the slopes of Mount Olympus.

“We all set?” Crouch’s voice broke through the din of soldiers familiarizing themselves with new comrades they would soon fight alongside. “Anything changed?”

Karin broke free from Healey, the young man’s exuberance written all over his face. “No adjustments to the plan. We’re ready to go.”

The large team strode over toward the waiting choppers, squatting like black prehistoric birds on the runway, their rotors already turning. Five in total, two had been reserved for the new arrivals.

Alicia stopped with her foot on the skids. “Damn, two of you are gonna have to join us. Um, Torsty, would you mind?” With a flourish she maneuvered him onto their bird. “Drake?”

Mai was already there, giving Alicia the eye. “Thought I’d get to know your team. Do they know about the Taz moniker?”

Alicia rolled her eyes. Drake grabbed a seat in the other chopper and held on as all five birds rose and then swooped fast toward their destination. He made ready, having lost count of the many times he had done this in the past, never knowing the outcome or even more than basic details of the actual assault plan. But it never fazed him, and it never got old. Times like these were when he felt more alive, closer to death but brimming with vitality and life, sat beside his friends as they attempted to save the world once more.

“Ten minutes to target.” The pilot’s voice broke his reverie.

“Don’t worry,” he said in acknowledgement of Lauren and Yorgi’s apprehensive faces. “This is where we make the Pythians pay for all their atrocities. This is where we end them.”

“Five minutes.”

Rolling gusts buffeted the chopper as it pounced out of the skies, swinging down toward the fast-moving landscape below. Hugging tree tops, diving into valleys, twisting left and right through hills and approaching the great mountain, it followed its twin into battle. Drake watched the navigation module flash until they were practically on top of their target but below, he saw nothing.

A moment later, everything changed.

The tell-tale streak of a rocket-propelled grenade shot from the scenery below, straight into the front end of Alicia’s chopper. Drake caught his breath, knowing who was aboard in addition to the members of Crouch’s team. The bird dipped fast, fire raging from its cockpit. Drake’s pilot acted on instinct, following the chopper down. Another RPG flashed upward, this one shooting wide of the mark. As Alicia’s chopper neared the ground it leveled slightly, black clad figures crowded the doors and the skids and then leaped off, rolling to the ground below. Flames still covered its front end. Then, as more figures leaped free, the bird lunged back up, still in control.

Nice maneuver, Drake thought. The pilot had used the grenade strike to fool its shooter into thinking that they were out of the game, landing his team safely and then dipping away. First class. How would their own pilot fare?

All lights turned green. Men shouted and moved to the doors. Drake watched as another bird hovered beside them, its chain gun hammering bullets into their assailants below. Hayden and Kinimaka jumped, then Smyth, Komodo and Karin. Drake went last, with a final look toward Lauren and Yorgi.

“Stay safe.”

“You too.”

The ground came up hard. Rolling, he was fast on his feet, gun up. The grenade launcher was down, riddled with bullets. He ducked as a shot whickered by, a bullet from a sniper’s rifle. Dahl, several feet ahead, sent a hail of gunfire in his direction, ensuring he wasn’t heard from again.

“We got an entrance yet?” Drake asked through the comms.

“Following a trail,” Alicia came back. “Where the hell you been?”

“Scenic tour.”

Drake followed his companions among the slopes, the green underfoot giving way to jagged rock then turning back to green. Dense bushes blanketed the area. Mountain fissures and small ravines cut to left and right. Ahead, their vision was filled by a gigantic, gray rock face, rising to enormous heights and painted whiter with snow as it climbed. Drake couldn’t tell which mountain was the actual Olympus peak but it was up there somewhere, the seat of the gods.

All those tombs we found. But nothing here? It occurred to him then for the first time that, yes, they had found a chain of three tombs — stretched between Iceland, Hawaii and Germany — but what if there were more? Another chain? A different myth. Instead of the Vikings, something even older? Prehistoric man. Whoever lived and breathed and died in all those lost kingdoms. It was said that satellite images proved that the so-called cataclysms which destroyed ancient kingdoms such as Atlantis and Mu had not happened — the earth’s crust’s tectonic plates revealed no signs of such significant upheavals, but definitive truths and answers rolled like waves and changed like the tides. The world was once believed to be flat. Nobody believed we could walk in space, land a rocket on an asteroid and that there was life on Mars.

Now…

Today’s definitive truths are tomorrow’s sorry mistakes. History proves this. Drake threw the deluge of notions aside as more gunfire broke out ahead.

Alicia threw herself below the rising curve of a deep ravine. Bullets skipped off the top, rocketing toward nowhere. Drake landed near her boots, rolling in. Dahl was behind him and Mai was to their right.

“Four o’clock,” the Japanese woman said. “Armed mercs protecting a doorway.”

“Use a grenade,” Hayden said over the airwaves. “These assholes will have an escape route and no mistake. Time is against us.”

Alicia quickly complied. Drake had almost protested, wondering if the blast might block the entry but then realized such frivolities didn’t matter. Moving forward was everything. An explosion brought screams and then a sudden silence. Drake peeked his head out.

“Clear.”

They ran, followed closely now by Hayden and Kinimaka, Smyth, Komodo and Karin. Alongside them came Crouch and his team. Drake helped drag the bodies from a small entrance, draped with dark netting. The tunnel inside was dimly lit, a gantry of low wattage spotlights attached to the roof. The team pounded along it as the Greek soldiers crowded at their back. Rock walls narrowed and widened.

“This place will be purely makeshift,” Hayden’s voice whispered. “Temporary. They haven’t had time to establish anything permanent yet, so take it down hard and fast.”

A pool of light irradiated the walls ahead, spilling from a wider space. Alicia ducked and dived into a niche as gunfire roared in the confined space. Drake joined her, firing back blindly.

“No grenades down here,” Hayden’s worried voice whispered through the comms. “We don’t know what chemicals they’re mixing.”

Alicia shook her head. “What does she think, I’m stupid?”

Drake snuck an eye around the corner. “You can’t help the way you look, Myles.”

“Ah, so you’ve grown a bit cocky since I left, eh? No one to keep you in check. We’ll have to find a way to fix that.”

Drake placed a hand on her shoulder and gripped softly. “Truth? I’ve missed you, Alicia. Who would have guessed it?”

“And how’s the lady friend?” The Englishwoman motioned at Mai on the other side of the tunnel. “Seems a bit… uptight. More than usual.”

“Long bloody story.”

“I’ll settle for the gag reel.”

“Believe me, there ain’t no laughs anymore.” Drake picked off one of the mercenaries. Dahl stepped into view and peppered the tunnel’s far end. Mai ran low, leading the pack as the Swede fired constantly over her head. Within seconds the two had reached the end of the tunnel. Drake and Alicia came next, stepping out into a vast underground chamber.

Drake shot a man in the vest, then capitalized on his stumble, laying him out cold on the dusty rock floor. With a moment to spare he absorbed everything around him, the Pythians’ secret factory. As Hayden intimated, the workshop was sparse, rough and ready, but effective. Six long wooden desks stood end to end, their surfaces crowded with all manner of paraphernalia from glass tubes and centrifuges to computer screens. Some of the containers had liquid bubbling over, some smoked. The computers whirred as they crunched numbers. Men in civilian clothes cowered to one side. Not a bad thing, Drake thought. Scared men imparted information without too much complaint. As the teams flooded the room, Drake ranged to one side, searching for stragglers or hidden shooters.

“Not buying it,” Hayden said through the comms, her words matching his feelings. Her next orders were very loud. “Interrogate those assholes! We need the sample’s location and to know if they managed to weaponize anything. After that, we need Dudley and the rest of his pack of reprobates.”

Drake continued hugging the walls, finally arriving at a concealed exit. He clicked his earpiece. “Another tunnel right here. Leads deeper into the mountain.”

As he spoke several men, hidden guards no doubt, leaped out of the tunnel’s deeper murk, striking at him with sharp weapons. Drake blocked two knives at once, then struck into his opponent’s body with a clenched fist, twice, three times, each punch a devastating hammer blow to the ribs. Both men went down groaning. Alicia nipped in to his left, grabbing the arm of another man and bending it until he screeched. The knife dropped and the man followed it, rendered unconscious. Drake dragged the next man out into the open, handing him off to Mai. Two more filled the gap, guns drawn. Drake opened fire before they did, ending their lives. He moved inside the tunnel even as he heard the voices of terrified technicians rapidly revealing whatever Hayden demanded of them.

Drake crept along, Alicia closer to him than his own shadow. “If Dudley escaped this way,” Dahl said, “I figure he has a good ten minutes’ head start on us. Get your flat Yorkshire feet moving or let me lead.”

“I’m creeping so I can hear Hayden’s outcome,” he told the Swede. “Dudley might have slipped out the front for all we know.”

“Naw, lad, not bleedin’ likely!” A voice cracked from up ahead, “Here. Chew on that while I make me escape!”

Something bounced down the tunnel toward him, something that jumped and bobbled and leaped with each metallic clang. Drake backed up fast, slamming into Alicia and Dahl and having to wait until those at his back squeezed out of the tunnel.

Not fast enough. The grenade exploded into a fiery ball and a whoosh of air sped along the enclosed space. Drake wasn’t free and saw the flames and the shrapnel about to destroy his face until, at the last moment, something huge took hold of his jacket and yanked him back into the cavern. Drake gasped, head and legs flying forward, back arched, as he took flight. The heave sent him rolling head over heels and away from the gout of flame.

“Jesus.”

Drake glimpsed the immense thighs, the bulky torso and thick neck of Mano Kinimaka. The big Hawaiian held out a meaty paw. “You’re welcome, dude.”

Drake climbed to his feet, dusting himself off. Hayden paced over to them.

“It’s not good. Dudley escaped with the sample and three aerosolized prototype boxes containing a derivative of bubonic plague, which is to say the plague mixed with a variety of old and contemporary diseases, weaponized in the form of an aerosol. Luckily, we got here before they could engineer more. This derivative gives them such a range of options…” She shook her head in fear.

Alicia and Mai slipped back into the tunnel.

Drake eyed the scientists. “We should wall them up down here.”

“Some were coerced, it seems, but yes others did it for the money. We can wall those up if you like.”

“Antidote?” Dahl eyed the scientists who regarded him with dread.

Hayden answered. “Dudley took it with him.”

“Are you sure?” Dahl growled at the boffins, most of whom mouthed silently in abject fear, but half a dozen attested to the evil Irishman’s fast getaway with everything they had concocted.

Alicia and Mai reappeared. “Tunnel’s still passable,” the Englishwoman said. “But barely and some of it looks unstable.” She paused. “I’m game if you are.”

“Game is hunted and killed by cowardly men with big guns and tiny penises,” Mai said quietly. “We are soldiers. We’ll hunt them.”

Russo nodded vehemently and Caitlyn looked like she wanted to applaud.

Drake nodded. “The road,” he said. “Or a hidden helicopter. Those are Dudley’s only options. Call the birds back.”

“Stealth is always an option,” Mai said. “We were trained to be ghosts drifting like mist along the terrain for days if need be. Weeks.”

“We’re not exactly dealing with Ninjas here,” Alicia pointed out. “At best they’re trained mercs.”

The team exited fast. Crouch led his team out first, using Healey and Russo as point men. Hayden fell in next to Drake.

“The geniuses inside told us one more thing,” she said with a slight smile. “An older woman and a younger man escaped with Dudley. The woman was complaining.”

Drake grinned. “Mint! Le Brun and Bell. That rules out a covert escape. They’ll be hightailing it back to Pythian-land.”

Dahl, one step behind, shook his head in wonder. “It never fails to stun me — the crazy, lazy mixed-up language that shoots out of your mouth. I mean mint? What does that even mean?”

“Good.” Drake looked surprised. “Y’know? As opposed to you saying ‘oh, dearest darling Johanna, that was such a stupendous movie’, us Yorkshire folk go—‘that were mint’. Same thing, only we save words and time. Think of all the extra hours we so easily gain.”

Outside, four of the choppers had returned and were hovering inches above the ground. The Greek soldiers milled around, directionless. Hayden spoke to their boss and then paged Caitlyn.

“You still have a connection to Argento?”

“I do. What do you need?” Caitlyn had been listening into their comms so would be fully briefed.

“Satellites. Lots of them.”

Caitlyn signed off to contact the Italian. Half the Greek soldiers fanned out to search the area, hoping to flush out any marksmen, runners or even people who may be concealed. Drake and the others climbed aboard their helicopters.

Almost immediately Caitlyn came back on the line. “I have Armand. He’s… a little excited.”

Drake flinched as the Italian’s loud chatter filled his ears. “I have them! Well, surely it’s them! A convoy of three cars, black SUVs, speeding away from you and toward the coast. The eastern coast. Damn things weren’t there five minutes ago, now they’re zooming along in close formation. Go, go, go!”

Hayden waved at the pilot, twirling her finger upward and to the east. “He’s nothing if he’s not enthusiastic,” she commented drily.

Two choppers rose, team SPEAR’s and team Gold’s, black vultures seeking out prey. As one their noses dipped and they shot forward, skimming the trees. Almost straight away Drake spotted the black tarmac ribbon.

“We’ve got ‘em.”

Both helicopters found the road and followed it, swinging with the curves. As they raced through the air Argento spoke up. “Oh no. I’m using a satellite with a built-in redundancy. It’s the only one available. There’s a ten-minute delay. Our friends, it seems, have a chopper of their own. It just lifted off — and I’m calculating back to real time here — about two miles in front of you.”

Drake’s leaned forward with a serious face. “Don’t worry,” he said quietly. “We have two choppers and we’re about to shoot theirs right out of the bloody sky.”