The Seven Seals of Egypt

CHAPTER FORTY THREE

Drake and Dahl, Alicia and Mai raced together for one of the black helicopters.

They passed Luther and saw him nod, acknowledging their perilous bravery and offering support. They passed Hayden and Kinimaka, the big man back to back with his oldest living friend, striking mercenaries left and right. They passed Yorgi and Crouch with guns, keeping men at bay and helping the others. They passed Smyth and Kenzie, one looking like he wanted to get this fight out of the way as soon as possible and the other wishing she had joined them.

Even took a step their way.

But Smyth needed help and she jumped back in, supporting him.

Perhaps there was a major hope for her yet.

Drake climbed into the pilot’s seat of the first helicopter; Dahl the second. As one they fired up the engines, letting the rotors turn. Alicia pointed out a stockpile of weapons in the back that the mercs hadn’t even used — RPGs, grenades and loaded guns.

Above, the giant capstone moved up the side of the huge pyramid, hefted by the big-lift chopper. Drake moved the cyclic controls so that his own bird lifted and then took off. They took to the air, chasing the capstone up the sloping wall, aiming to get alongside the big helo.

Alicia, watching as they drew closer, said, “Y’know, I’m quite excited to say this, Drake. Just put me on that big chopper.”

“Bit busy now, Alicia.”

“Oh, har har, Quick as a flash, Drakey.” She readied her gun, slamming a new mag in and pointing the barrel out the window.

“Not bothered about saving them,” Drake said. “Take the pilot out if you can.”

“On it.”

Dahl came up too, visible in Drake’s eye line, his helicopter rising up the other side of the Sikorsky. They passed the capstone and then the bulk of the bird, drifting around to the cockpit. Below, Drake could see a sandy plain of death, blood and battles to the death. Up here, it was all noise, concentration and maneuvering.

Hayden fought in the midst of it all, stopping mercs where they ran and watching Kinimaka’s back as much as he watched hers. They pivoted, spun as if on a hinge, a well-rehearsed, experienced dance. As best they could they watched out for the other members of the team.

Yorgi and Crouch stayed put, well defended, but the others moved frequently, not wanting the enemy to grow comfortable with their position. Smyth crawled along some ruins, the wall barely taller than his back, with bullets glancing off it. Occasionally he would bob up, squeeze off a few rounds and then shift to the next place. Kenzie used her speed and skill, stepping up to an enemy, wrenching his gun aside and breaking his nose with the barrel.

Hayden knew these men had lost their leaders — she’d seen what Drake and Dahl had done to Vladimir and Saint — but concluded they must have been promised some final bonus, something extra if the capstone met the top of the Khufu pyramid.

She made them pay dearly for that decision.

Kinimaka was moving slower than normal, still in pain from the bullet strikes. She sympathized but this wasn’t the time for pity. When he faltered she was there for him. When he winced in agony she took the man that was targeting him.

When he fell to one knee, she used his immense shoulders as a bench to rest her gun.

She saw Drake’s helicopter riding high, chasing the big Sikorsky and the swinging capstone up the giant pyramid. The capstone shone so brightly it blinded her, glorious white light shimmering as it played backward and forward with the sun. Kenzie cut across her vision then, again using a merc’s weapon as a club and no doubt missing her sword. In truth, the SPEAR team were well dug in. It was the mercs that had made themselves exposed.

And what of Karin? Hayden saw her running and switching positions in perfect routine with her team. But where had she been until now? And why was she so suddenly here? The questions would have to wait.

Luther fought at the fringes with his team. Pine and Carey ran in tandem, perfectly in tune, covering each other’s backs and communicating with ease. Molokai raged among a knot of mercenaries, taking bullets but ignoring the impact as if they were made of foam, not lead. Hayden had to assume he’d gotten hold of some new kind of body armor. Even a glancing bullet should stop a man, but she’d seen it in the past where Drake had ignored a bullet impact and kept going on sheer adrenalin. But Molokai… the man was savage.

The metal hand was a brutal claw he used to devastating effect. One touch or grip of that hand signaled the end for the man on the receiving end. In the other, a high-caliber weapon pumped lead into everything nasty that moved. Hayden saw three men mown down in just a second, and then three more. Molokai held a man up by the neck, his terrible claw constricting his throat until his legs stopped kicking.

“Not keen on our new playmates?” Kenzie asked as she slid to a sandy halt a meter to Hayden’s left.

“That is a different level of fierce,” Hayden pointed out. “Luther and Molokai are…” She shook her head.

“Exactly as advertised,” Kenzie reminded her. “We were told their reputation. Well, Luther’s at least.”

“I guess.”

Hayden focused on the moment, rather than watching Luther and Molokai’s rampaging. The band of mercenaries was thinning out now, and several were hanging back, shading their eyes as they stared at the topmost height of the Great Pyramid.

Hayden looked that way too, just as Kinimaka and Kenzie gazed up. The capstone was approaching the top; the doomsday weapon minutes from being completed. Drake and Dahl struggled to get close, beset by gunfire and buffeting winds. Where it all ended up from here was anyone’s guess.

Hayden stayed close to Mano.

Gently, Drake feathered the stick and floated alongside the pilot’s window. He saw a skinny white man with grizzled hair and a thick moustache. Drake saw the dirty yellow teeth when he bared them.

The pilot stuck a HK casually out the window.

And opened fire.

Drake pulled back, letting Alicia return the favor but not wanting to lose the engines. It wasn’t the fall that bothered him, it was losing the chance to prevent the enemy laying the capstone.

The Sikorsky continued up slowly as if nothing was occurring, an incredible spectacle against the Great Pyramid with Drake and Dahl’s black choppers flying alongside. Guns poked out of many windows and gunfire was exchanged. Bullets laced the skies and indiscriminately sprayed holes in the metal sides. And now Drake saw one more anomaly — a black drone with mini-cameras mounted on its sides tracking the Sikorsky and watching.

Watching everything.

“Fucking FrameHub,” he said. “They’re recording all of this.”

“Teenagers at play,” Alicia said. “Don’t worry, we’ll get ’em.”

Drake looked askance. “Will we?”

They had reached the very summit of Khufu’s pyramid. Drake took his chopper away to give Alicia a clearer shot. Her bullets passed by as the Sikorsky pivoted to get directly over the top. Dahl and Mai struggled to get a better shot, beset by a gunman nestling in the other chopper’s rear seats.

“Grab the controls,” Drake heard Dahl’s voice over the headphones.

“What are you going to do?” His voice was wary.

“Just be ready.”

A crosswind buffeted the birds, battering their sides and tail rotors. The capstone was now directly over the top of the pyramid and began to descend. Drake saw the very top of the Egypt’s great wonder of the world, a flat gray plateau of rock.

Dahl kicked at the door of his helicopter, and watched it break free and tumble to the desert far below.

Drake tutted. “You know there are door handles?”

Dahl didn’t answer. Mai was behind him, using the stick to keep the bird as stable as possible. The Swede sighted one of the RPGs over his shoulder and rose to full height, balanced on the skids.

Mai had one hand holding his belt. Her head was low.

The Sikorsky saw the weapon and tried to evade, but it was too late and far too slow. Dahl allowed an extra moment for the weapon to balance, for the air to still, for his mind to dispel all other distractions.

He breathed.

Then pressed the trigger. The backdraft blew out the door behind him. The grenade flew unerringly at the Sikorsky, exploding against the side and sending a billowing surge of flame through the entire bird. Within seconds it was disintegrating, blazing, falling out of the skies. The chains holding the capstone folded and the unblemished pyramidion was falling out of the skies, catching the light and shining like the sun as it tumbled and plummeted, plunging through flaming bits of fire as it fell, smashing aside broken lumps of metal, destroying the Sikorsky’s blazing cockpit as it, the heavier object, fell faster, approaching the desert floor at terrible speed.

Drake watched Dahl climb back inside and then flung the chopper into a dive, desperate to get back on the ground. He saw the horrendous impact of the capstone, the hard, sandy ground buckling beneath it and sending out waves of force and a plume of dust that spiraled into the sky.

He landed the chopper quickly and jumped out almost as soon as their skids touched the ground. Alicia was tooled up with some of the new weapons and threw a fully-loaded HK to Drake as they passed the chopper’s tail-rotor.

Dahl landed a moment later and caught up.

“That is one big-assed coping stone.” He laughed as they jogged past the fallen capstone. “Gonna look good on somebody’s gate post.”

The black drone currently hovered over it, no doubt streaming the scene in real time back to FrameHub’s lair. As they passed, Mai took a bead on it.

“Wait,” Alicia said. She walked right up to the drone, nodding amiably as it angled toward her. Slowly, she sighted it up with her new Walther PPK. Leaning forward, she spoke slowly.

“Hashtag this, motherfucker.”

She pulled her trigger, blasting the drone out of the sky and into a dozen pieces.

Death, fire and blazing fury surrounded them. They saw none of it, but raced through the turmoil to help their friends.