The Seven Seals of Egypt

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

Outside the Great Pyramid of Giza they came under attack, in the bright light of day. Whoever had killed the guards had left sentries of their own behind who had been patrolling to the left, around the funerary chamber. Now, as SPEAR openly approached, they came running, shouting, threatening with guns.

Drake and Dahl ducked their heads, raised their rifles and fired. Bullets sped across the plateau, embedding in stones and structures and the scattered police cars. If the dead guards had called in a warning it hadn’t been heard.

Crouch ran to the entrance and covered Mai and Yorgi as they raced to join him. Drake and Dahl ducked and covered and ran from shelter to shelter, raising their heads and sights briefly to squeeze off bursts of ammunition. First one sentry and then another fell back, arms akimbo, blood bursting out of their chests. A third dug in, but Luther smoked him out with a flash-bang and Pine ended his life.

“This way.” Crouch waved them toward him.

Drake signaled and called that he was moving. Dahl, Smyth and Kinimaka remained to cover him, wary of more threats, leaving their posts one by one to join the rest of the team at the entrance to Khufu’s Pyramid.

Dahl joined them last. “Moving.”

Crouch ducked in, leading the way. The inner passage was narrow and led down an incline to start with, presently presenting them with two options.

“Upward, to the Queen’s and then the King’s Chamber, or continue down to the subterranean chamber. Input here would be good.”

“Where were the secret passages found?” Hayden asked.

“Heat anomalies saw passages at ground level, the first course of the pyramid and in the top half, above the King’s Chamber, leading to the apex. Nobody knows what was found or if they even looked.”

“Odd. All the other depictions were found low down,” Mai said. “I would say we try the subterranean chamber and passage.”

“Or the King’s?” Kenzie put in. “Him being important and all. Plus, I’d like to know if that secret passage goes all the way to the top.”

They hesitated. In the end the decision remained moot as soldiers began to fill the tunnel below them. The first pointed them out and then the bullets started flying. Crouch and Yorgi crowded into the upward tunnel and the rest jumped in after.

“No room to fight,” Drake said. “We got a problem here.”

Bullets whistled past the opening to their tunnel, non-stop.

Dahl waved an arm out, firing his weapon blindly. A scream paused the hail of gunfire for a while and Drake risked a peek out.

“I’m counting eight,” he said. “And they’re moving pretty fast.”

“We got more trouble,” Kinimaka said, looking up. “They’re coming from both directions.”

“Sounds like my prom night,” Alicia said. “This is gonna be a slaughter.”

It was indeed a kill box, Drake saw. Nowhere to go and two enemies coming at them. Kinimaka decided the way they would go. He was in front and charged at the descending men. A bullet flew past his head, dislodging rock, and then another displaced a large, jagged chunk that plummeted onto his temple stopping him like a rocket would stop a rhino, forcing him to his knees.

The oncoming mercs cheered, still coming. Kinimaka was down, head hanging, groaning and winded.

“Let ’em have it!” a voice rang out.

Then Mai was in action, running, planting a foot firmly on Mano’s back and using him as a springboard to launch her body among the mercs. She landed hard and true, scattering their weapons and unbalancing them. Instantly, she kicked out whilst they were already unstable, toppling one headlong into the griping Kinimaka and another in his wake. The one above her landed on his tailbone, yelping. She grabbed his gun, twisted it in his hand and shot him three times with it. The fourth bullet went past his head as another man sought to target her. The fifth made sure he collapsed back into the man above, head blown away.

Giving her clearer sight of the tunnel above. The mercs were bunched up, hampered beyond measure, and she added one more body to the mix, killing the next visible merc and making him fall among his comrades.

“Close quarter combat,” Luther breathed in an impressed tone. “Now there’s a specialist.”

Drake backed Dahl as they slowed the oncoming mercs in the other direction. Effectively, they were guarding the exit and the mercenaries were trapped. The dubious factor was that the mercs were leaving.

What had they found?

Overheard transmissions told him nothing except they had radioed in for heavy machinery, which could mean absolutely anything. It was clear though that the mercs were in a desperate hurry. They were sacrificing their number just to get close to the exit.

Kenzie jumped after Mai, looking to help. She dragged the first dead man away, let him slide past, then used the close-set walls as a fulcrum to jump over the next. She kicked him down until his body slithered into Kinimaka. The Hawaiian got the message, heaving upright and wincing even as he threw the dead men past him.

All the way to Drake, who rolled them out into the downward passage.

Communications flared between both mercenary groups. Drake could hear one team telling the other to fall back, to let them take the lead, to get the hell out of the way.

“We found it!”

His heart leapt as he heard those words. Crouch zeroed in on it too, coming to Drake’s shoulder and listening.

“No way we’re gonna lift that mother,” someone shouted into a walkie. “It’s almost thirty by thirty and weighs about six tons. We got a stallion en route, but someone gotta smoke these fuckers first.”

What’s he talking about? Drake mouthed at Crouch.

“Must admit I’m stumped. I thought all we were here for was a wall painting, a mural. Could he be talking about the weapon itself?”

Drake guessed it was possible. “These men are clearly FrameHub’s mercs. If Tempest and the others were ever here they’ve been dispatched. Maybe that’s why the mercs are in such a rush — to safeguard what they found.”

“Sounds likely,” Crouch said.

The incredible close-quarter battle continued inside the Great Pyramid. Drake saw a dead policeman thrown in front of the upcoming mercs, positioned as shields, and gritted his teeth in hatred. Another was thrown from above, striking Kenzie and knocking her to the floor. Mai resisted a concerted attack, breaking a man’s knees with her gun and watching him stagger past into the arms of Kinimaka.

Today, not kind arms.

Mai fired up at the next, using each man as a shield to reach around. Twice bullets ripped through clothes but passed her by.

Drake and Dahl braced as the mercs inched closer. They had lost eight of their number but still retained at least that many, uncompromising with their advance. The time was approaching when they would push past the upward passage and that was going to present some problems.

For all of them.

“Make sure you’re fully loaded,” Drake shouted. “Here they come!”