His words were followed by a faint click that sounded from the darkness to their right. Both men instinctively dropped to the floor, and an instant later, bullets riddled the bodies behind them. Dust and decayed flesh filled the air. Nick’s light cracked off the corner of a stone slab as he dropped and it flickered out. Drake’s flashed around the room as he scrambled for cover, playing havoc with the shadows of the dead. For a few seconds there was movement everywhere. Then the chamber went silent again. Nick lay prone behind an empty slab. Drake was on his back behind one that was occupied.
Nick glanced up at his partner. “Did you see him?”
“Negative. I’ve got nothing.” Drake adjusted his position, bumping the mummy. Its hand slipped down and rested on his forearm. He grimaced and tossed the rigid arm back across the corpse’s chest.
Nick inched forward so that he could get his barrel around the edge of his slab. Then he waved to Drake, touched his broken light, and pointed outward toward the void at the center of the room.
Drake nodded. He kept low, but he swung his weapon over the mummy, laying it across the corpse to shine his tac light out into the chamber. A cloaked shadow fled from the beam. Nick fired at it through the space between the slabs, emptying his clip.
If the Hashashin was hit, he gave no indication — no scream, not even a grunt. Instead, he responded with another hail of bullets, forcing both operatives to pull back. The mummy’s hand fell down and rested on Drake’s arm a second time.
Nick pocketed his empty clip and replaced it with a new one. “I don’t like this at all.”
“Tell me about it.” Drake tossed the mummy’s arm up to its chest again. “I can’t stay here. This guy won’t keep his hands to himself.”
Another torrent of automatic fire dug into the slabs and bodies, kicking up dust all around them. Nick judged the angle of the incoming rounds by the line between the slab hits and the wall hits. The shooter had moved ahead of them.
“He’s trying to flank us at the far end,” he said, firing a blind burst to keep the Hashashin from breaking their line of cover. As he did, more shots came from behind them, near the entrance. Nick rolled over, firing another blind burst to the rear. “Scratch that. There are two of them, and they’re trying to flank us on both sides.”
As he spoke, his tac light suddenly flickered on, still pointed behind them. A black figure ducked out of the cone of light. Nick shifted to follow, but all he saw were dozens of black-robed figures. He couldn’t tell which were dead and which were alive, and he didn’t have the bullets to find out.
Then a solution dawned on him.
“Shine your light at the portal ahead of us. I’ll watch our six. If anything enters your beam, shoot it. As long as we keep them away from the ends of these slabs, they can’t flank us. Move!”
Both men started crawling, Drake on his belly with his light pointed at the portal, Nick face up, scooting backward on his shoulders so he could keep his light and his weapon trained on the kill zone behind. Spurts of automatic fire tracked along with them, but the slabs deflected the rounds. The killers couldn’t get an angle on them. The plan was working.
Until Nick’s damaged light flickered out again.
A curtain of darkness closed over his kill zone.
“Go now!”
Drake doused his light and made a break for the large portal. Nick fired two more bursts into the black behind them and then rolled over and followed. Debris kicked up at his feet. Then a long suppressor appeared out of the dark to his immediate right. He let go of his MP7 and pushed the hot cylinder up and away, wincing as a burst of fire shot past his ear. Still fighting for control of the attacker’s weapon with his right hand, he grabbed the MP7 with his left and shoved the suppressor up into the man’s ribs. He pulled the trigger. The MP7 gave an empty click.
The assailant laughed and shouted in a language Nick did not recognize. Immediately, another volley ricocheted off the archway ahead. The Hashashin was trying to guide his partner’s shots using the sound of his own voice.
“Quiet, you.” Nick punched the killer repeatedly in the mouth before committing both hands to wresting his gun away. He shot his right hand under the assailant’s biceps and then weaved it back up to grab the barrel, making a modified figure four. Then he cranked the trapped arm backward and down, all the way to the floor. He heard the muted pop of a shoulder coming out of the socket. Even then, the Hashashin did not scream, but the machine gun came free.
Nick turned and flipped the weapon around, firing it into the dark with one hand while dragging his attacker backward through the portal by the collar of his robe. His captive fought against him, trying to gain a footing, but Nick put a stream of rounds into his legs to settle him down, finally getting a human response. The Hashashin let out a furious howl.
Two steps past the arch, Nick heard Drake’s voice in his ear. “Through here.” Invisible hands took hold of Nick and his captive and dragged them into a side room. A heavy door slammed shut. A bar slid into place. Drake’s tac light came on. “You hit?”
“No. You?”
“Not that I can tell. Who’s your friend?” The big operative had propped the Hashashin against the wall next to the door. He shined his light in the man’s face. He was their original target, the risen Ayan Ashaq. His legs were bleeding profusely and his face was battered. Blood dripped down his chin from both sides of his mouth.
Drake grimaced. “Nice work, boss.”
“Who sent you to kill us?” demanded Nick.
“I am the servant of the Emissary,” said the Hashashin in perfect English. “But you already know that.” The words brought on a fit of coughing and his robe fell open, exposing the green button-down shirt. A red stain grew at the center of his chest. Nick didn’t have much time.
“We know you’re planning a bio attack. What’s the target?”
The Hashashin gave him a grisly smile, showing two rows of bloody teeth. “You don’t know anything. You cannot… stop… the signs…” His voice trailed off and his head fell to the side.
“Nick, don’t,” warned Drake.
But Nick had already dropped into a crouch next to his captive. He shook the limp body like a rag doll. “I’m not through with you! What is the target?”
Suddenly the Hashashin came to life, lifting his torso off the wall. His eyes opened wide and bloodshot and he screamed with rage. He swung his left fist sideways at Nick’s head. Within a quarter of a second Drake put two bullets through the assassin’s forehead. The man fell back against the wall again and his hand dropped onto his thigh. It fell open, and a long metal spike rolled to the floor.
“Back away from him, Nick,” ordered Drake, his weapon still trained on the Hashashin.
Nick stayed where he was and patted the man’s cloak, looking for pockets. “Relax. I think he’s really dead this time.”
“You clearly don’t watch enough late-night movies.”
“No wallet. No ID.” Nick stood up. So much for getting some answers. He glanced warily at the door. “I wonder what happened to his friend.”
“My guess is he’s watching the door, waiting for reinforcements,” said Drake, searching the small chamber with his tac light. “He’ll try to pick us off the minute we step into the tunnel. When more arrive, they’ll breach the room.”
Nick stared down at the dead Hashashin. “I was praying that arch would lead us to an exit as I dragged him through. I should have prayed harder.”
After a heartbeat of silence, Drake nudged him and smiled, nodding toward the far corner of the room. He trained his light on a set of footholds cut into the rock wall, leading up to a stone hatch in the ceiling. “I think you did just fine.”