Cassidy used both Gunn’s and Bodie’s actions to cover her leap at Ares. She jumped and then dropped and kicked out, leading leg striking Ares’s shins. The tall man cried out in pain, dropping to his knees, but it wasn’t that simple for Cassidy.
Falling, he leveled the gun at her head and fired.
Lucie pushed her aside, seeing what was about to happen. The bullet passed millimeters above them, but there was no coming back from the tangled mass they ended up in on the floor. Ares staggered up, with the gun still aimed.
On the floor, Bodie gasped for air. To his left, Gunn kicked out at Zeus from his position on the slab of stone. Heidi, close to Bodie, was trying to gain her feet, her equilibrium at odds. Jemma still sat in the corner, out of it, while Cross crawled toward Zeus, a look of grim determination on his face. Despite what he had been through, he was not about to give up.
Bodie rolled toward Hermes, who battered him with the butt of his gun. Bodie took a blow on the bridge of the nose and saw stars. When his sight cleared, the first thing that came into focus was the metal barrel, the evil face behind it.
“I do believe I’ll enjoy this.”
“Wait, wait, you haven’t tortured me yet.”
“By your smart mouth I’m guessing you were dragged up rather than properly educated. We’ll see how the class system works in the next few seconds.”
“So this is all about class system? You believe you’re better than everyone else on the planet because you were chosen to protect a myth?”
Hermes frowned as if listening to the inconceivable. “Of course we’re better.”
The moment was over. Bodie knew that their attempted coup had been doomed from the start. He looked around the room. Cassidy was on her knees, hands on her head, as one of the Evzones trained his weapon on her. Gunn was on his back, having been taken out by another. And Cross could barely stand. The Evzones remained confident. Bodie wondered if this was it: the end for him and his relic hunters.
There was movement, a scuffle at the mouth of the cave. Bodie saw several bodies entering, which ruled out it being Apollo. From his position crouched on the floor he suddenly felt shock and awe, and fear, as the bald Bratva man, Yasmine, and several other figures dashed inside. Their guns were drawn.
“Get down!”
It was Yasmine’s voice. Bodie echoed her words for the benefit of the rest of the team. Then he flattened himself as fast as he could.
Gunfire resounded from wall to wall, deafening reports that scrambled their thoughts. Bodie saw muzzle flashes, figures falling, leaking blood. He scrambled over the fallen Hermes, making sure the suited man had taken his last breath. As he did so, Bodie shook his head at the idea that he and the Bratva were now working toward a common goal. Two of the Bratva were down. Bodie twisted Hermes’s gun free of the dead man’s grip, and checked on Zeus, Ares, and Artemis.
Artemis was dead, blood flowing from a head wound. Heidi sheltered behind his body with Jemma and Cross, but they were dangerously exposed. Zeus had ducked behind the stone plinth, pulling Gunn down too. Ares had initially stood his ground — the superior entity — but a bullet to the shoulder had convinced him to take the low road. When he ducked he didn’t reckon on Cassidy’s boot in his face, or his nose exploding all over her sole.
His shout filled the cave. Cassidy descended like an avenging angel, battering him into unconsciousness and taking his weapon.
Which left just one of the Evzones standing — Zeus.
Bodie saw Yasmine and the bald Bratva soldier converging on the plinth from both sides. He saw Cassidy creeping up too and lent his own weight to the endeavor. Gunn was the major concern; they could see his legs sticking out from behind the plinth. They couldn’t see Zeus.
“Give it up,” Bodie shouted. “Your cronies are all dead, pal.”
In a flurry of movement, Zeus shot to his feet, dragging a protesting Gunn with him. The weapon was leveled at the young man’s head, and Zeus was dripping blood from a shallow arm wound. His expression was feral, at the very edge of sanity. Fingers paused on a hair trigger all around the cave.
“I go free. He lives,” Zeus growled. “That is the deal. And I’ll never let you near Atlantis. You’ll die first.”
Bodie didn’t ask anyone’s approval. “Run then, piggy. We’ll catch you later.”
But Zeus dragged Gunn to the back of the cave. Gunn grimaced in pain, right leg limp, the wounds already clotted, but still clearly painful. For the first time since her ordeal, Jemma regained her composure and tried to stand.
Zeus pointed the gun at them and then back at his captive. He fired quickly, three shots, threw Gunn’s body at them, and spun toward what Bodie had thought was a solid wall. In a split second, he saw Heidi lining a gun up on Zeus, and Gunn collapsing to the floor. Cursing the choices, he let Gunn fall and bellowed at Heidi.
“No! Let him go.”
Confusion swept her face, but she paused with her finger on the trigger.
“Thief’s choice,” he said. “Always think ‘sneaky.’”
“I’m okay,” Gunn gasped, leaning on his leg to test the pain levels. “He missed me on purpose, I think.”
The shots were a distraction, then. Cassidy ran past and carefully surveyed the back of the cave. “Another way out.” She peered inside. “Hidden behind this outcropping. Do we go after him?”
“Leave him for now,” Bodie said, keeping the plan he had started to form to himself. It wouldn’t do to explain it all now, but he’d noticed Zeus’s blood on the floor of the cave. A potential trail to find the madman. “Too many of us need medical attention.”
And the Bratva want something too.
“We don’t have time,” Jemma said. Lucie nodded, taking up the thread.
“That man will destroy the evidence. It is all he has left. We never found the cave on Jebel Musa which will take us to the next clue, but it has to be there. If we tarry… we lose.”
“I’m not dragging badly injured friends into another confrontation,” Bodie said. “No discussion. But we’re not done yet.”
Yasmine approached him, and he became aware of the size of the Bratva crew now — six strong — standing with their weapons lowered and faces expectant. “We have a medic,” she said. “Right here.” She indicated a young man with an earnest face. “Field trained. He’s an army deserter, but that’s another story. He can patch your people.”
Bodie stared between them, torn. Why the hell did Yasmine keep on saving them? Even now, why offer her help? And Viktor, her boss. Had he promoted her for a specific reason? But there was no time to ponder the mysteries of their new Bratva friends. Zeus was escaping and Lucie was right — he would rather destroy Atlantis than let it be discovered.
“Okay,” he said. “You saved our lives, so I’ll take it on merit that your man’s not a quack. I don’t like it, but Lucie and Jemma are right.” He stared at Heidi. “If you still want Atlantis, we have to stay in the middle of this.”
“After all we’ve gone through?” Heidi groaned. “Yeah, I still want it.”
“I want that bastard’s balls too,” Cassidy said. “For what he tried to do to my team.”
“Get in line.” Jemma limped gingerly across the floor. “Finding Atlantis will be a poor second compared to finding Zeus.”
“Didn’t we already do that?” Gunn tried to inject a measure of humor as the young medic looked at his wounds.
“Very droll,” Bodie said. “Look, I’m fine, but everyone else get checked out.” He turned to Yasmine and the bald man. “We need to talk.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO