The Swords of Babylon

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

“This could be the fight of our lives,” Mai Kitano commented.

Drake crawled through the desert, ignoring the morning sun that beat down hard on his back, weapons ready. Their packs were comprehensively packed, even to the tools they might need for entering the dreaded pit. But, for now, Drake’s eyes were fixed firmly on the prize ahead.

The three large camouflaged tents that belonged to the ragtag group of Razin’s men pillaging the ancient pit of Babylon and, if they survived that, the Devil’s Tower, the Tower of Babel, where Zanko and Razin hunted for ancient treasure.

“Nah, no worse than the battle around the coffee machine first thing every morning.”

Alicia crawled at their sides, equally tooled up. “I’ve had harder times pulling my bike leathers on.”

Mai eyed her. “But not so many taking them off, I bet.”

Hayden, Dahl and Kinimaka approached from another angle, the two groups connected by a hardy communications system. Their objective — acquire all the swords at all costs. Ominous events were afoot in the world, and this was the team’s only viable link to them.

The Russian perimeter was loose, made complacent by weeks of indolence. Judging by their careful surveillance, it seemed the Russians had a complement of around a dozen men, including two bosses — a man and a woman, neither of whom were Zanko or Razin.

They will have stationed themselves at the Devil’s Tower, Patterson had guessed. Whilst their men acquire the remaining swords. Patterson, Akerman and Yorgi had been left back at the all-terrain vehicles for this little jaunt. The civilians would only cause distraction.

Alicia blew a gust of sand out of her mouth. “Oh yeah, I’m lovin’ this.”

Drake surveyed the tented area through a pair of high-powered binoculars, identifying the positions of the guards. “Aye, it’s bloody hot out here. Could be worse though. At least we haven’t come across one of those mental camel spiders yet.”

Alicia swiveled her entire body. “What?”

“Y’know. Six, seven inches. Move at ten miles an hour. Jaws like a croc. Those camel spiders.”

“So I’m lying here up to my tits in sand, and now you mention them. Thanks.” She cast around as if expecting one of the beasts to pop up out of the dunes.

“The scorpions are worse.” Kinimaka’s voice came over the comms. “I just crawled over one. Luckily, I squashed it, I think. They might survive a nuclear strike, but there ain’t no surviving the mighty Mano.”

“Let’s just go.” Alicia started to crawl again. “I’m starting to like the look of these Russians.”

Drake kept pace, crawling with his elbows, nose an inch off the jagged, dusty terrain. The early morning sun was already beating down. A steady breeze billowed the overlarge tents ahead and stirred mini dust devils. The trio topped the last little rise and waited.

Hayden’s voice came over the comms. “Go.”

They rushed the perimeter. Drake’s weapon spat. A guard fell instantly. Others followed suit around the rough circle. The team’s rush ate up the ground between them and the enclosures. Within seconds, they were amongst the utility vehicles, packing crates and diesel drums. The tent flaps burst open and a swarm of badly dressed men flew out, weapons held high or still strapped to their backs. One still held on to a half-empty bottle of Southern Cross vodka.

Their shouts of pain stung the morning air.

Two more figures burst out of the tent. “Victoriyah!” one of them yelled. “Call Nikolai!”

The woman, black-haired and half-dressed like the men, and sporting a confident, superior expression, threw her own vodka bottle in the direction of Hayden’s team. “Of course, Maxim. I have little else to do.”

Maxim discharged a stream of bullets into packing crates. Drake ducked as one nicked off the frame by his head. More bullets thudded into the crates as Maxim’s men caught up with the situation. Mai leaned out and picked one off with a perfect head shot, sending him flying back into his boss’s legs, crumpling him.

“Idiot!” Maxim yelled, scrambling to his feet and kicking at the corpse, face a livid red. “Victoriyah! Hurry up!”

“Suck it, Maxim.”

Drake turned an almost amused look toward the women. “Sounds like those two are practically married.”

Alicia peered out, and almost got her head blown off. Splinters of wood cascaded across her hair. “Bollocks.”

More shots rang out. Hayden’s team advanced, drawing the fire. Drake climbed on to the lip of a badly stacked crate and peered over. In the two seconds he had spare, he put a bullet through someone’s throat and saw the through-and-through pass tantalizingly close to Victoriyah’s skull.

“We’re thinning them out and they know it,” he said. “Let’s move.”

The trio burst from behind the crates, passing close to three haphazardly parked trucks, and out into the open. Only forty feet separated them now, and the pit of Babylon lay off to the left like a festering, exposed sore.

Drake focused on Maxim, but the Russian hit the dirt fast. Victoriyah threw herself alongside him, throwing the cell phone at his head.

“Dumb fucking thing doesn’t work.”

“No, Victoriyah. It’s the dumb fucking thing trying to work it!”

Drake fired as Maxim rose, his shot whizzing by the Russian’s head. By then it was too late to do anything about the object clasped in the man’s other hand — a grenade.

Maxim threw the pineapple shaped explosive. Drake hurled himself to the right and rolled. Mai and Alicia were an instant behind. Plumes of dust and sand rose around them. In three more seconds the grenade exploded, sending shrapnel shards spinning every which way.

The ground shook. Alicia let out a sharp cry. Mai struck Drake’s bottom half, still rolling. Drake heard the terrible death-filled fizz of deadly objects passing by him at killing speed. The ground rumbled again.

At last he stopped, fully alert, bringing his gun up and looking to the tents. Dust clouds obscured his view. Beside him, Mai reached out for Alicia, pulling the Englishwoman into her.

“Are you hit?”

“No. But I think I saw one of those fucking spider things.”

Drake peered through the clouds. Hayden’s voice shouted in his earpiece, “Come in. Are you okay?”

“We’re good. Just—”

And then their entire world shifted. The very ground they were lying on began to subside, to crack. Narrow fissures ran from the site of the grenade explosion all the way to the pit of Babylon.

Drake saw what was about to happen. “Uh, oh.”

The earth collapsed beneath them.