“The third Noah Stone,” he said.
“What does this mean?” Dima asked. “The Book of Noah said God sent the stones from the sky. This doesn’t seem to match the story.”
Maddock glanced at Bones, who nodded. They were clearly thinking the same thing.
“It could have come from the sky,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
Before Maddock could answer, the sound of running feet caught his attention. He whirled about and saw nearly a dozen bobbing lights moving into the cavern.
“Turn out your lights. The Trident is here.”
Dima dropped to the ground as bullets buzzed through the air like angry hornets, ricocheting off the half-dome of the alcove where Noah had been laid to rest. All around her, the brittle lava shattered, spraying her with sharp fragments. She couldn’t believe what was happening. It was all she could do not to scream and run in panic. Somewhere close by, she heard Maddock and Bones return fire. She forced her eyes to open and looked to see what transpired.
It was a dizzying scene played out in darkness. The attackers had turned out their headlamps, and now only bits and pieces of the cavern were illuminated for a split-second at a time by the strobe-like bursts of muzzle flash. She could track the movement of the Trident’s men by their torrents of gunfire, and Maddock and Bones appeared to be waiting to target those flashes. She spotted Bones, kneeling atop the ark’s broken stern. He fired off a single shot and then rolled to the side as bullets tore through the spot he’d occupied an instant before.
More gunshots, and then a distant cry of pain. She could tell by the spot from which the sound had come that one of the Trident’s men had gone down. Good! Of course, based on her observations, she estimated another ten or so remained. What were they going to do? Maddock and Bones couldn’t possibly hold out against so many, could they?
A flashlight flicked on in the bow of the ark, and the Trident replied with a torrent of lead. What was Maddock doing? He was going to get himself killed.
As soon as the thought passed through Dima’s mind, Maddock rose up from a spot three meters away and fired into the knot of Trident men. One screamed in agony. But the others returned fire.
A bullet clipped the ground inches from Dima’s outstretched hand and she cried out in alarm. “Oh my God!”
“Dima! Find cover!” Bones shouted.
His words jolted her into action. She belly crawled around behind the bier on which Noah’s body lay, and curled up in a ball, trembling.
“Running low on ammo,” she heard Bones say. Maddock didn’t reply
She’d always thought of herself as capable and independent, but now she was entirely out of her depth. She cursed herself for her cowardice and her inability to do anything to save them. A sudden rage flooded her, and with it came a renewed sense of determination.
Think, Dima. There’s got to be something you can do.
But what? There would be no miracle this time. Bones couldn’t use his stone to call in another pride of lions. And then it struck her. There was another stone within her grasp. She only required the courage to stand and take it.
Trembling from head to foot, she climbed to her feet and felt for the trident. Her hands found something stringy and her stomach twisted in revulsion as her fingers tangled in Noah’s hair. Focusing, she felt along his leathery corpse until she felt cool metal. The trident!
She tugged at it, but it wouldn’t come free. Even from the grave Noah would not relinquish his prize so easily. She pulled again, and it slid and inch, but no farther.
“No, no, no.” She slid her hands down the length of the metal shaft until she found one of Noah’s hands. “So…very…gross,” she muttered as, one at a time, she pried his fingers back until they snapped. She repeated the operation with his other hand and drew the trident free.
Down below, bullets still flew. The men who attacked them hadn’t made it past the ark yet. Maddock and Bones were putting up one heck of a fight.
“This had better work.”
She closed her eyes and pressed her palm down on the point of the stone.
Tyson sprang to the side and rolled as the sharp crack of breaking rock reverberated through the air all around him. He looked up, straining to see in the darkness. Another crack, and then another. What was that? Were the walls coming down on them?
The floor beneath him shook as loud, booming thuds echoed around the room. Those weren’t gunshots; they were deep, thunderous sounds that shook him to his core.
One of his men screamed, the sound dying in a wet squelch.
More bursts of gunfire, but the shots were no longer aimed at the ark.
“What are you doing?” he shouted.
A headlamp flicked on, and in the glow, he recognized Ahmed. Idiot! He’d be dead in an instant.
But no shot came. Were Maddock and Bonebrake out of ammunition? Perhaps it was time to rally the men for an all-out charge.
And then the beam of Ahmed’s lamp, bouncing wildly about the cavern, fell on an ungodly sight.
Three stone giants moved slowly, inexorably toward a cluster of Tyson’s men. They were hideously human in their general form, but their bodies were featureless stacks of shifting stones. The mercenaries gave way, blazing away with their automatic rifles as they drew back from the monstrosities, but the bullets pinged harmlessly off the giants.
As Tyson’s men continued to fire in vain at the oncoming creatures, a single shot rang out from atop the ark and one of the men fell. So the enemy wasn’t out of the fight just yet.
Tyson fired off a single burst in the direction of the shooter, though he knew it would be too late to hit his target. The emergence of the giants had dulled his senses and slowed his reaction time. He had to do something to pull his men together.
In the middle of the chamber, Ahmed suddenly found a measure of reckless courage. He let loose a cry of rage, punctuated with a burst of gunfire, and charged the giants. It was a heroic sight, to be sure.
Until one of the giants stepped forward and brought his hands together, crushing Ahmed’s skull like a grape.
That did it. The men scattered. A few turned on their headlamps and ran for it, barreling down the passageway that led out, the giants in steady pursuit.
When the last stone man disappeared into the tunnel, all fell silent.
Tyson sat motionless, focusing his thoughts. He knew only a couple of his men had fled down the tunnel. By his calculations, he had five remaining. More than enough to finish the job.
“The giants are gone!” he shouted. “Charge the ark!”
Chapter 47
The cavern was quiet. Too quiet. Maddock knew all the Trident’s men had not fled when the Watchers came to life. The rest were still here, hunkered down, waiting to resume the assault.
That was not good. Up to this point their attack had been disorganized, and that had worked to his and Bones’ advantage. The men had been too fearful for their own lives, too cognizant of their own mortality, to commit to full-out onslaught. They had moved around, putting a heap of bullets in the air, hoping to take him and Bones out without fully engaging. Now, with their ammunition dwindling, a full-scale attack would put an end to things.
“I’m out,” Bones whispered from somewhere close by. “Got any ideas?”
“The giants are gone!” a voice rang out. “Charge the ark!”
“That’s it,” Bones said. “Dima, can you bring them back?”
“I couldn’t control them,” came her frightened voice. “I’m sorry. The stone was so powerful. It was just too much for me.”
The stone! Perhaps it wasn’t over yet.