The Tomb of Eternity

CHAPTER THIRTY

Lea struggled against Kosma as he forced her over to the murky, bloody water. She saw with disgust that some of Karlsson’s shredded clothes were floating on the surface. The terrifying reality of the situation struck her like a smack in the face. There was no one to help her — Karlsson was dead and she hadn’t seen Hawke and the others since the Piazza San Marco in Venice when Eden ordered her to give chase to Kodiak and Mazzarro.

She looked at Vetrov’s face — calm, measured, and clearly excited to an unnatural degree by her impending death. It looked like he could hardly wait as the giant Russian had manhandled her across the tomb, her boots kicking out vainly against his might and her screams heard by no one except the ghostly, silent faces on the hieroglyphs.

“This is the greatest moment of your short life, Miss Donovan,” Vetrov said, his eyes rapaciously staring at the pool for the first sign of a crocodile. “Soon, you will be gone, but I will be alive forever, and free to impose my will on the human order for the rest of eternity.”

“You’re absolutely out of your mind, scumbag.”

Her mind raced, but all she could do was play for time in the hope someone might intervene and stop this insanity from unfolding.

“I think not. I will shape a world where a tiny elite rules absolutely and forever, served by thousands of generations of slaves. What could be saner than that?”

“A lunatic asylum?”

“And,” he replied, ignoring her remark, “there’s nothing between me and my destiny except an old map and them of course.”

Lea saw an opportunity to play for more time. “Who are you talking about?”

Vetrov couldn’t resist. “Another curious mind — like your colleague Alex Reeve. She wanted to know the truth as well… but it will do neither of you any good. The real enemy are the athanatoi, Miss Donovan. Not me.”

Before she could reply, he snapped his fingers at Kosma. “It’s time for you to go now.”

Then, the sound of gunfire and the blinding white light of muzzle flashes filled the tomb. Deafening shots rang out in the enclosed space and she heard the sound of Joe Hawke as he shouted orders for people to fan out.

She thought she was saved.

Vetrov spun around and aimed his Grach in the direction of the noise. He fired several shots and dived for cover. Kodiak followed suit, firing a couple of short, aggressive bursts from his Bizon and throwing himself behind the sarcophagus for cover. Kosma was slowest to respond, pushing Lea into the pool and moving behind one of the pillars that held up the tomb. The rest of Vetrov’s men scattered in all directions as they tried to evade the onslaught of bullets tracing all around them, blasting the tomb walls to pieces in the savage attack.

Hawke led the charge, pushing into the tomb without fear and crouching down on one knee to spray a savage burst of fire from the Heckler & Koch MP5K he was gripping in his hands. His bullets traced over the heads of Vetrov and Kodiak, now cowering behind Osiris’s Tomb, but he stopped to re-aim the weapon at one of Vetrov’s men who was making a hasty retreat and trying to reach the door. Hawke took him out in a heartbeat, his bullets ripping through the man’s chest and propelling him backwards into the water behind him.

And that was when he saw Lea in the pool — desperately trying to swim to the low wall which surrounded the water in order to pull herself out.

Hawke jumped to his feet and sprinted across the middle of the fire-fight to reach her on the other side of the tomb. He didn’t see Kosma, who raised his gun and fired at him, narrowly missing his head and obliterating the base of the Osiris statue instead. Hawke’s reaction was like lightning, putting his right foot out and throwing himself to the floor. He extended and swung his right arm under body and executed a perfect parkour diamond shoulder roll. Staying inches ahead of the bullets all the way he did a second roll and then he reached the pool.

“Joe, thank God! I thought I was dead.”

“Not when I’m around you’re bloody not. Take my arm!”

Bullets traced all around them as he wrenched her soaking body from the pool and pulled a Sig Sauer P228 from his belt. “Here, take this.”

“With pleasure, babe,” she said, instinctively checking it was loaded and ready to go.

They took cover behind one of the pillars as Scarlet and Lexi raked the back wall of the tomb with their submachine guns and blasted the decorative glyphs into thousands of irrecoverable pieces. Their efforts worked to keep Vetrov and Kodiak pinned down, but Kosma and the remaining goons were regrouping at the end of the tomb.

A soaking wet Lea scraped her hair back behind her ears and turned a sad face to Hawke. “They killed Brad, Joe.”

Hawke made no reply, but clenched his jaw in anger. He knew the time for revenge was always later, and he also knew he could leave it to Scarlet Sloane, who would be crushed about this death, even if she never showed it.

“And Vetrov’s got the other half of the map.”

“Bollocks — has he?”

“Afraid so. He looked pretty damned smug about it, too.”

“We shall just have to take it back off the twat then, won’t we?”

Hawke felt the ground shake and peered around the pillar to see what was going on.

“What the hell is that?” Lea asked.

“Giant Russian bastard’s got what looks like an old Kord down there.”

Hawke watched as Kosma fired bursts from the chunky belt-fed machine gun. The Kord was a heavy machine gun used by the Russian Army, and when needed, by the Russian Police. With a rate of fire of over seven hundred anti-materiel rifle cartridges per minute it was not a weapon to disrespect.

Lea leaned in. “Problem?”

“Maybe. He’s got Cairo and Lexi pinned down and it’s eating up a fifty-round magazine like a hungry dog with a sausage.”

The former Russian KGB man mercilessly fired the Kord at Scarlet and Lexi who had now both dived for cover to escape its lethal fire.

“Where do these guys keep all this kit?” Hawke asked, incredulous. As he spoke he reloaded his H&K and got ready for another assault on Vetrov.

“Tell me about it!” Lea said, also reloading her Sig. “Every time I go on holiday I forget to pack my heavy machine gun.”

Hawke rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Really, even now you’re still trying to be funny…”

“It’s my Irish charm, Joe Hawke… it’s what attracts you to me and don’t deny it.”

Hawke laughed. “Between your jokes and those Russians, this sodding elixir had bloody well better be worth it!”

Lea looked back at the pool and saw Karlsson’s clothes, now no more than bloody rags floating on the surface of the water. She immediately felt guilty for trying to make Hawke laugh after the American had sacrificed himself to save her life, but it was the only way she knew how to survive.

On the other side of the tomb, Vetrov was attempting to escape using Kodiak for cover as he made his way to the tomb’s entrance.

Hawke spun around the pillar and fired at him, the rounds from his H&K exploding in the plaster behind the Russian’s head as he sprinted across the tomb’s floor, parchment in hand. Hawke tried to take him down, but Kodiak was pouring heavy fire on them with his own weapon and forcing him to keep ducking for cover.

Vetrov was gone, and the order had gone out for his men to retreat. Kodiak, who was lean and fast, took the same route as his leader, but Kosma was slower. The giant Russian padded after them, obscured in the gun-smoke and plaster dust as he moved through the half light of the tomb. He shot at the glow-sticks in an attempt to plunge the place into darkness, but Lexi struck a fresh glow-stick and illuminated everything once again.

No longer pinned down by Kodiak’s fire, Hawke spun around from the pillar and fired at Kosma with the MP5K. His bullets tore into the Russian’s back and exploded out the other side of his body through his wide, heavy chest as if it were made of paper. He tried to call out but fell to his knees in the dust of the tomb floor where he swayed back and forth for a second before falling forward on his face and landing in the sandy dirt with an enormous crunching sound.

Lea frowned. “Damn it all, Joe Hawke! I wanted to put that bastard in the fish tank!” She waved the barrel of the Sig at the crocodile pool.

“Sorry… I thought you’d be happy.”

“I’ll get over it, I suppose — but Kodiak’s mine!”

“Fine with me — but we have to catch them before we can kill them, and I want to look in that big stone box before we leave.”

Hawke got up and gave the order to give chase to Vetrov and his men while he checked the sarcophagus for any other clues. Inside he saw the coffin of Osiris and beside it was a strange stone object shaped like a small shield and covered in more of the same hieroglyphics. He snapped a picture of it and emailed it to Ryan immediately before snatching it up and joining Lea, Scarlet and Lexi at the mouth of the tunnel and emerging into Luxor once again. Night had now fallen and it was dark and cool. Above them thousands of stars were shining over the Egyptian desert.

“Where are the bastards?” Lexi asked, scanning the temple complex.

“Could be anywhere,” Hawke said.

“Wait a minute,” Scarlet said. “Where’s Brad?”

Hawke and Lea shared a concerned glance.

“Well?” Scarlet repeated.

Hawke stepped toward her. “Cairo, listen…”

“What?” Scarlet said, peering over Hawke’s shoulder and looking back down the tunnel to the tomb. “He’s all right, isn’t he?”

“He’s dead, Scarlet,” Lea said flatly. “I’m sorry.”

“Dead?”

Lea nodded. “He died saving my life. I know how you felt about him, and…”

“You know fuck all about how I feel about anyone,” Scarlet snapped. “Shit happens and we need to move on or we get killed.”

Hawke knew she was burning up with rage on the inside, but he also knew the last thing Cairo Sloane would ever do was show that she cared about anyone, so he said nothing and moved on. “Everyone keep an eye out — if they’re behind any of these pillars or walls we’re just sitting ducks.”

“They’re not behind any pillars or walls,” Lea said. “Look!”

A helicopter rose above the ruins, made into a silhouette by the full moon behind it.

“Great…” Scarlet said. “Where are my sodding cigarettes?”

Hawke watched as the chopper flew over them and turned sharply to the left.

“What now?” Lea said. She sounded deflated.

Lexi sighed and collapsed on a block of limestone. “He’s won. It’s over.”

Hawke looked at her, incredulous. “Eh?”

“Vetrov — he’s won. He has both halves of the map and Mazzarro. Nothing can stop him now.”

“Don’t be so defeatist,” Hawke said. “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

“You want to say that again?” Lea said, nodding at the line of police cars driving into the vast complex.

Hawke frowned. “Lea, call Eden and tell him we might be indisposed for a while.”

“Damn it all!” Scarlet said. “Now we’re well and truly f…”

“Never say die, Cairo,” Hawke said, cutting her off. “You know that.”

Seconds later they were surrounded by police cars, their flashing lights illuminating the great walls of the temples and pylons like multicolored strobes.

“You were saying?” Scarlet said.

Their Egyptian police cell was even less comfortable than they had expected, and they had plenty of time to consider it as well, because the authorities took hours before getting them for interview. It seemed the Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs was less than amused with their actions at the Karnak temple complex and particularly enraged about the discovery and then annihilation of the secret chamber of Osiris.

“It takes months for excavation permits to be approved by the Minister,” Captain Mustafa Moussa of the Luxor police explained.

“We didn’t excavate the tomb,” Hawke said patiently. “We already explained this. The tomb was broken into and raided by a Russian named Maxim Vetrov.”

“So you say, and yet there is no evidence of this mysterious Russian, but there is evidence that you raided and looted the tomb.” Moussa raised the strange shield from a box on the floor and placed it on the desk in front of Hawke and Lea.

“Ah…”

“Ah, indeed,” Moussa said. “You were holding this in your hands when we arrived at the complex, Mr Hawke. You still deny being a tomb raider?”

“There is that yes…”

Lea rolled her eyes. “This is insane, Captain Moussa! Why are you holding us here when the real culprit has the map and is probably halfway through translating it by now.”

“Map?”

Now Hawke rolled his eyes. “Good work, Lea.”

“Sorry…”

Moussa leaned forward and joined his hands. “Tell me about this map.”

“Listen, we don’t have time for this,” Hawke said firmly. He had already worked out two ways he could get out of custody without the blessing of Captain Moussa and his men, but knew that would stir up a hornet’s nest at the British Embassy in Cairo and wanted to save Eden the blowback.

“Wrong, you have all the time in the world,” Moussa said. “You will start talking — and remember, your colleagues are being interrogated and we will be comparing your stories. If you are lying to us then…”

He was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Come!”

A younger man in a uniform entered the room and they spoke rapidly in hushed Arabic for a few moments. While they conversed, Moussa’s eyes narrowed and he stared at Hawke and Lea. He shouted at the junior man and waved him from the room with a string of what sounded like some fairly x-rated words. Then, he sighed deeply.

“You are free to go,” the captain said at last. As he spoke, he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

Lea glanced at Hawke and then back to Moussa, her face full of hope once again. “I’m sorry?”

“Don’t be sorry,” Hawke said. “Be gone…” He got up and pushed his chair under the desk.

“But why?” Lea asked, following Hawke’s lead and getting up from her chair.

Moussa sighed. “Because when a police captain in Luxor gets a telephone call from the Office of the President of Egypt telling him to let you go, he lets you go. That is why.”

Hawke and Lea shared a quick glance and could barely believe their luck. Hawke reached out for the shield, but Moussa slammed his hand down on it and pulled it away.

“No, my friend. Your liberty you can have, but this stays with Egypt.”