Kang stepped toward him and Hawker spun to one side, delivering a solid kick to the man’s knee. It should have shattered the joint, should have bent the knee sideways, tearing the ligaments to shreds, but the armor and the bracing prevented it from doing any damage at all.
In response, Kang thrust a knee into Hawker’s ribs. He went flying backward, slid off the ridge, and tumbled down to the lowest of the ledges.
Kang slid down after him, planting his feet firmly and standing ominously over Hawker.
Groggy from the last blow and tenuously holding on to consciousness, Hawker crawled a few feet, grabbing a rock from the rubble of the slope.
Kang reached for him. The hand was like a vise crushing his arm. It yanked him upward. And even as Hawker swung the rock, Kang’s other arm slammed down on his shoulder.
Hawker fell to his knees.
“Give me the stone,” Kang said.
Too dizzy to speak, too physically exhausted to argue, Hawker looked over the edge, to the water. He saw his own reflection, battered and bleeding; the vanquished man. He saw Kang standing over him, the hulking, victorious machine. He remembered what Father Domingo had said: The Mirror shows us who we are.
He pulled the backpack off one shoulder.
“Hurry,” Kang demanded.
Hawker pulled the other strap off, shook his arm loose, and then wound up and threw it past Kang. It sailed over his head onto the farthest part of the ledge. Kang’s eyes followed it.
In that instant, Hawker launched himself at Kang. He grabbed the air vents in Kang’s suit of armor, locking on to them like handles, and leaning back with all the strength that remained in his body.
The two men fell toward the water, shattering the calm surface of the Mirror with a tremendous splash.
Suddenly more alert, Hawker righted himself. Despite his hope, Kang remained operational. His suit must have been insulated against water. Hawker pushed off him but one of Kang’s mechanically assisted hands locked on to his ankle. With his arms and his free leg, Hawker kicked and stroked for the surface. Kang might even have been doing the same, but the hundred pounds of his armor, hydraulics, and battery packs pulled both of them toward the depths of the well.
CHAPTER 67
Byron Stecker rode in a Humvee, chasing Arnold Moore.
“Shoot him!” he shouted to an air force SP in the back. “Do you hear me? Shoot the son of a bitch!”
The man leaned out the side of the Humvee, firing with a rifle. But items of equipment, including the heavy vault that the stone had traveled in, were piled up behind the flatbed’s cab. Shells struck the vault repeatedly, but they would never penetrate.
A second Humvee tried to race up the driver’s side looking for a better angle to fire from, but Moore swung the big truck sharply, and the tail end slammed the smaller vehicle against the wall of the narrow tunnel.
A shower of sparks lit up the darkness. As Moore pulled away, the Humvee tumbled out of control, rolling over and almost wiping out Stecker’s vehicle in the process.
His driver swerved around it and a third Humvee joined the chase. But Moore had now built himself some space and was still accelerating.
“Shoot out the tires,” Stecker ordered. “Stop him or we’re all dead.”
As if on cue, alarms, hooked up throughout the complex, began to sound. “One minute to EM Burst Event,” a computerized female voice announced. “Shut down all electrical systems. Repeat, shut down all electrical systems.”
Stecker glanced at the digital readout that had been hastily installed in the cab of the Humvee. It was ticking unnervingly fast. The voice rang out through the tunnel. “Fifty-five … fifty-four … fifty-three.”
Up ahead, Stecker saw the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. A place he did not want Moore to reach.
“Seal the doors!” he shouted into the radio. “Seal the damned doors!”
Sinking fast, Hawker could feel the pressure growing in his ears. His hands scraped the walls, searching for something to grab, but the granite was smooth and the weight of Kang and his mechanical armor continued to drag him down.
He slammed his heel into Kang’s chest, trying to break free, and Kang tried to grab his other leg. Neither succeeded and they crashed into the bottom. The impact jarred Kang’s hand loose, and Hawker pushed off, pumping his arms and legs, desperate to reach the surface.
Below him he saw Kang trying to swim or climb, but the weight was too much and he fell back, landing at the bottom of the well, like some kind of offering to the gods. A spot beside him waited for Hawker if he didn’t keep going.
On the verge of blacking out, Hawker pushed harder, kicking and clawing for the surface.
He burst through, exhaling a cloud of carbon dioxide and sucking in a breath of clean air. The closest land to him was the island at the center of the cenote. He swam for the stairs.
By now he could feel the waves of energy whipping, a staticlike feeling that ran through his frame. The water around him began to churn and vibrate with a sound so deep that it shook his body from the inside.
Reaching the stairs, he dragged himself out of the water. He crawled up toward the well that Father Domingo had spoken of.
The Sacrifice of the Body.
Hawker stared at the altar. The vibration inside him had sharpened into pain; the sound in his head became a scream. With each piercing wave, ropes of water whipped up into the air around him, like some beast trying to break its chains.
To the left, on the shore, he saw movement. He turned to see a figure scampering down the slope. Yuri.
How was it possible? How had he come here?
Yuri made it down the side of the embankment to where Hawker’s backpack had come to rest.
“No!” Hawker shouted.
Yuri opened the pack and pulled the lead case out.
“Yuri, don’t!”
Yuri did not hear him. He opened the case and stared at the stone as if the gates of heaven rested inside.
The ground trembled from the next surge of energy, but Hawker remained locked on Yuri.
This can’t be happening.
He heard shouting. Over the noise in his head, and the chaos around him, he somehow heard shouting. He looked up. Danielle was sliding down, racing to Yuri.
Another wave of energy whipped through. The pillar he stood on shook to its foundations, knocking him down. More ropes of water whipped off the surface, lashing the walls and flying around like deranged spirits.
With the world coming apart around him, and the ground shaking so hard he could no longer stand, Hawker crawled forward. He saw the counterweights and the ropes. He spotted the lever that Father Domingo had said he would find.
Moore kept the pedal floored, but up ahead the light was dimming. The monstrous doors to Yucca Mountain were closing.
“Twenty-nine … twenty-eight … twenty-seven.”
He crossed into the triple-bore area near the entrance; the tunnel widened. Almost immediately the second Humvee pulled up on his left. Moore swerved toward it.
Shots were fired, blasting into the cab. Moore flinched as the mirror shattered. His arm took a hit and flew off the steering wheel.
Moore’s truck swerved, a front tire exploded, and the big rig went over on its side. It crashed down hard and skidded toward the exit, grinding to a stop twenty feet from the threshold.
“Twenty-three … twenty-two … twenty-one.”
Moore looked out through the shattered windshield. Blood ran down his face; one eye was swelling shut. But there was still a chance.
He grabbed his coat, extricated himself from the wreckage, and crawled toward the narrowing band of light.
He heard the klaxons sounding, heard the voice warning.