The Seven Seals of Egypt

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Scream as loud as you like. In the desert, nobody will hear you.”

That had been the advice of just one of their endearing guards, all of whom were filthy and foul-looking. They were inside a prison, just inside the entrance to a network of caves. The prison was makeshift but it was strong, made up of two mountain walls and strong, thick four-by-four that had been hammered and then concreted into the already sturdy floor. Laths of two by two made up the horizontal braces, giving the guards something to rest the barrels of their guns on when they wanted to have a little fun.

To the prisoners’ left they could see the entrance to the cave system, softly illuminated as the night drew in. To the right the wide passage ran on into darkness, the way marked by flickering torches.

Alicia just watched the guards.

This had been such a terribly confusing few weeks. For her. For them all. It showed the measure to which any kind of powerful authority held their prize employees. It was repeated in all walks of life. In the end you were just a number, only as good as your last failure. The wins only helped those already in front of you. She shook her head violently to dispel the negative thoughts. Stuff like that could get you killed.

So her concentration went, fully, to the guards. There were eight of them at any one time. Others came and went. They didn’t appear to have any structure, any balance. Just animals with weapons and a small slice of power. She figured they’d been incarcerated for the best part of two hours now and had learned zilch. Twice, Crouch and Drake had spoken up, asking why they were here.

The guards snarled like desperate, rabid, grimy dogs and rested their guns on the slats. Once, they fired, the bullet passing in between Drake and Yorgi, and slamming into the mountain wall. Everyone outside the cell laughed. What a great joke.

Alicia loved these people. They were her weakness. Being alone and focusing every day on a new horizon had its drawbacks, yes, but it damn well had its perks too. Caring about nobody, having nobody, meant your heart and your mind and your emotions could never be held hostage. The thought of having loved ones scared her more than any other event in her life.

The thought of losing loved ones was unadulterated hell.

But she turned to her strengths now, knowing they held the best chance of getting everyone out of here alive. It would help to know why they were here, but escape was the priority.

The situation was grim. The team had no weapons, no comms. They hadn’t been offered food or water. Every man outside those wooden bars held a reliable weapon. They were being watched twenty-four-seven. And it was getting cold now, the desert night drawing in. The extra clothes they’d been forced to wear earlier — to conceal Kevlar and weapons — were welcome now, though the bulletproof jackets had been taken from them.

There will be a chance. We just need to be ready, to recognize it.

The guards watched her watch them. To be fair, they weren’t half bad, a few always standing well back, away from the bars, overseeing all and remaining indistinct. Alicia wanted to bait them, to anger them, force them into a mistake, but unfortunately it appeared none of them spoke English, which took the wind well and truly out of her sails. All she could do was transmit her disdain through her gaze and, to her credit, she thought she was doing a pretty good job.

Alicia shifted, accidentally kicking Yorgi. This was another problem. They were cramped, thrown side by side in this small cell and then chained together. Chained to the wall. Chained by the legs and the wrists.

A knocking sound echoed through the cell, drawing everyone’s attention. A new man stood there, Uzi poised across the slate, the barrel inching from target to target.

“My name is Saint.” He laughed. “I know! Crazy, huh? I’m your jailer, your new direct boss. What I say, you do. When I say it, you jump, or bend, or crawl. You drink when I tell you. Eat when I tell you. Sleep if I let you.” He paused. “Is that clear?”

Alicia glared back with utter contempt.

Drake said, “Why are we here?”

Saint shook his head very slowly. “You don’t listen. I knew you wouldn’t listen. All right, then. Here’s lesson number one.”

He shot Yorgi.

The Russian thief screamed, scrambling in the dirt on the floor of the cave. Kinimaka and Smyth, the closest to him, leaned over to steady his writhing body. Chained together, he pulled on all of them, making the rough iron chafe and bloody their wrists and ankles, pulling their limbs to and fro.

Yorgi took an enormous breath, tried to steady himself. The bullet had grazed his thigh, traveling by. Smyth’s hand staunched the blood loss.

“In case you’re wondering,” Saint said. “My aim isn’t off. It’s perfect. I could take an eyebrow off a stag at a thousand yards. I could take your nose off—” he nodded at Drake “—or shoot one up your ass. Perfect.” He looked to Alicia. “I know you don’t wanna be here. But you are. And I’m in charge, so get fucking used to it.”

“Yessir, boss.” Smyth couldn’t help himself. “Whatever you say.”

Saint whipped out a wicked looking knife, letting the serrated blade glint in the light. “I’m also good with this,” he said softly. “In fact, I skinned a man alive just last night. Right here. Took me hours. But then,” he looked up, “practice makes perfect, eh?”

Nobody spoke.

“Well, that’s a little better. I don’t expect answers. I know who you are. What you are. Team SPEAR.” He laughed. “What a prize. If only my orders were different I’d have half the world’s terrorists on their way down here, ready to make a highest bid for you. I’d make a fortune. But—” he sighed “—that’s just a wet dream. And speaking of wet dreams,” his black eyes moved across the women, “I see four right here.”

Alicia knew it was a test, a provocation issued to see if they needed another demonstration. For now, nobody did and Saint took it as another sign of acquiescence.

“Good, good,” he said, tapping first his gun and then his knife against the bars. “I see we’re gonna get along. Now I do realize you have no idea what’s going on. I do realize you’re all dying to find out. And I do realize you’re all hungry, thirsty and uncomfortable.” He let out a peal of laughter. “So… on that note, I’ll bid you goodnight.”

He turned away, speaking quite clearly to the guards as he went.

“No food. No water. And keep it unpleasant.”

Spoken in Romanian, Kenzie translated for the team. “They have to be the mercs from the first tomb,” she said. “Or part of them. I wonder what they want.”

“Well, we did kill a lot of them.” Dahl watched Yorgi.

“It is okay.” The young thief noticed everyone’s concern. “It burns, but is only a flesh wound.”

“Wrap it cleanly,” Hayden said. “I’m guessing infection down here is rife.”

“I will.”

“I’m not liking this,” Crouch said. “Revenge? Maybe. But who do they bloody work for? It almost feels like a CIA op.”

Hayden stared at him without emotion. “You know, I guess anything is possible. There are more off-the-books ops these days than sanctioned ones.”

A machine-gun ratcheted, the noise cutting through the cave. When Alicia looked to the bars she saw a grinning man with jagged yellow and black teeth. Slowly, he held a finger up to his mouth, revealing bleeding gums.

“Shhh.”

Water came creeping into the cell, soaking the floor. Alicia rose with the others, the process incredibly complicated with them being chained together. She guessed this was more of the ‘unpleasant’.

Forced to stand, the team passed a few more hours.

The night was long. The guards came and went, seemingly randomly, joined by those that just wanted to take a look. The random aspect to things only made it all the harder. Alicia saw no way out — at least no way without taking casualties. Real casualties.

“If we thought being on the run was grim,” she said. “It was a walk in Hyde park compared to this.”

“Shhh!”

“Oh, go snog a sand spider.”

The guards attacked the bars then, sticking long knives through and jabbing at the captives. Alicia took a blow to the bicep, felt the blood flow. Hayden cried out from a deeper cut; Dahl from a longer slash. The team rattled their way to the center of the cell, sloshing in water, only a hand’s length away from the hacking blades.

Yorgi bit his lip until it bled, already suffering.

“Nice work, shit-for-brains,” Kenzie whispered in Alicia’s ear.

Alicia studied her wound. “Yeah, I was hoping they’d just stab you.”

Then Saint returned, calling the guards back from the bars, laughing to see their predicament. “Well, well, the SPEAR team humbled. I do love seeing this. Wait, just wait…” He rushed off, returning in half a minute.

“Hold that pose.”

He took a photo on his cellphone, chuckling all the while. The laughter turned incredibly evil toward the end.

“And this is only the beginning,” he said. “The night before the storm. The calm before the thunder and violence. Oh, how I look forward to tomorrow!”

He skipped away, happy.

Alicia closed her mind away for a while, unwilling to accept this situation. It won’t last. They had several of the best leaders, soldiers and fighters in the world among them.

But tomorrow was always going to come.