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Two more marines ran down the corridor behind Bill. The veteran noticed at the last possible moment, spun and fired. He dropped one but the second got a shot off which crunched into his shoulder. Protected by Kevlar, the shot wouldn’t kill but it still slammed the man back into the bulkhead. He slid down it, gasping for breath, giving the marines the time they needed to advance.

“Nate! What at you waiting for?” Langley yelled into his radio.

Hidden beneath the nook of the stairs, the marines had come down them and run right past him, oblivious to his concealment. He was therefore right in the middle of their ranks. Right where they would least expect a threat.

“Nate!” Langley practically screamed at him. The marines closed on the open door and Langley was forced to roll fully inside so as not to be hit. It also meant that he couldn’t hit them.

With all their positions overrun, Raine had no option.

He had killed United States soldiers before.

He had sworn he would never do it again.

But he had no choice.

He rolled out from the cover of the stairs, keeping low beneath any stray bullets, and planted a shot directly into the head of the marine attacking Godfrey. Before the boy had dropped to the deck, Raine spun, aimed down the corridor between the legs of the marines advancing on Langley and fired. The bullet sizzled between them and ripped into the throat of the man aiming at Bill. The two heading for Langley spun but, flicking his weapon to auto, Raine pummelled lead into their bodies and faces, making them dance for a second before they dropped to the deck.

More footsteps came from above, more marines descended. Godfrey struggled up over the smashed food produce and fired at the stairs. A scream and a thud and another body rolled down the steps.

Bill was back in action, swinging around the corner to take out another. Langley burst out of the room he had been hiding in and took down one more. As the final body splashed down into the pool of blood on the deck, a surreal silence descended upon them.

Blood, brain matter and gore dribbled down the bulkheads and soaked into Raine’s clothes. His eyes were hard as crystal, his heart thudded angrily and he shot an evil glance at Langley.

Langley ignored it and hurried past him to the stairs. “Godfrey,” he glanced at the injured man. Raine could see that the bone of his hip had been smashed and his entire leg lay at an awkward angle. His face was ashen and covered in sweat. For a moment, he felt a pang of respect at the fact that he had managed to keep fighting through the sheer agony.

“I’ll hold off anyone who comes this way,” he grunted.

Langley nodded, jumped over the body at the bottom of the stairs and then started up them, gesturing at the remainder of his team. “Let’s go.”

Raine was just about to follow when it struck him.

He spun around, searching through the carnage.

“Where’s Ben?”

59:

Belly of the Beast

USS Eldridge,
Pacific Ocean

Benjamin King ran away from the thunderous gunfire in the corridor.

He did not, however, run in fright.

Instead, he ran with purpose.

He twisted down the corridor, desperately searching the bulkheads and opening any door he came to. There had to be another staircase somewhere. The one where Raine and the others had fought the marines only led up, but he remembered seeing on the ship’s plans access ladders leading below decks. He had to find one.

The P-90 assault rifle he clutched felt bulky and obtrusive yet gave him a sense of comfort and protection as he fled down the corridor. The sounds of the gun battle and, further off, the Chinese aerial assault, echoed along with his footsteps. His breathing sounded loud in his ears and his heart raced.

He came to another branch in the corridor. It looked much the same as the others, featureless and dull, save for a door at the far end. He considered ignoring it, then changed his mind and ran to it. He spun the circular handle and heard the lock disengage. He pulled the heavy door open. Behind it was a narrow vertical shaft with a ladder leading straight down into the belly of the beast.

* * *

“He’s gone for the Mask!” Bill spat angrily but Raine knew it was more than that this time. When he locked eyes with Langley he knew that his former commander had come to the same conclusion. But, he also read something deeper and darker in those eyes that had once been so fatherly towards him.

“He’s going to use it,” Langley said.

They all should have seen it! Distraught over the death of Sid, how could he not take up an opportunity like the one the Eldridge presented? Yet, so caught up in the revelations of the Urshu, Langley and Phoenix, he had totally neglected King’s obvious motivations!

His eyes locked onto Langley’s. He knew that King couldn’t be allowed to change the past any more than anyone else could. And, he knew that Langley would go to any lengths necessary to stop him. He’d seen the way he had so easily killed the marines who got in his way. King was nothing to him, just another obstacle, a wild-card, an oversight.

Silent communication passed between the two men, the teacher and the student. Raine knew that Langley would kill King to stop him. And Langley knew that Raine would never let that happen.

Just like that, their brief alliance ended.

Raine watched Langley’s every move: the tightening of his grip on his weapon, the shifting of his eyes, the silent order passed to Bill. Time seemed to slow around him. It was like a stand-off in some wild-west movie. They stared each other out, trigger fingers twitching, fighting stance shifting—

Bill made his move, but Raine was a fraction faster!

Just as the other man was about to bring the muzzle of his weapon around, Raine lashed out with his own. The two P-90s clashed with a metallic clang, his own slamming Bill’s up and punching it into his nose. He cried out as bone, gristle and cartilage crunched under the impact and a spray of blood erupted like Vesuvius. Godfrey fired but Raine hurled Bill into the path of the bullets. They pounded into his Kevlar vest but also into his unprotected legs. Before Godfrey could release his trigger finger, countless bullets had ripped the appendages to shreds and he lay on the deck, writhing in agony, screaming.

Langley made his move then and fired. Raine arched back, out of range of the bullets. He swung under the stairs and slammed the butt of his P-90 between the steps upon which Langley stood. The blow was powerful and Raine felt the bone of the man’s ankle give. He dropped, crashing down the steps but rolling across the deck to fire at Raine.

Raine pushed back, leaving his rifle wedged in the steps, jumped to his feet and ran, skidding around the corridor and out of Langley’s line of sight.

“Nate!” his former friend screamed behind him. “We can’t let Ben use the mask!”

Mrs Marley’s warning echoed through Raine’s skull as he set off down the corridor at a sprint.

‘Kha’um believed that the Moon Mask could control time. If he could harness its power, he could go back and save his wife and his son. But that would have given him the power over life and death and who was he to say who lived and who died, or even who does or does not even exist! To control the Moon Mask is to control the power of god, and no man should have that power.’

Unfortunately, Raine had come to the same conclusion.

* * *

At the bottom of the access shaft, King had come to another hatch, this one lying below him. He spun the lock and then heaved it open before continuing down the ladder and dropping onto a metal catwalk.