Alongside the pens Ethan saw the surface of the water rise up as though some gigantic black whale was ascending from the icy depths. The water flooded over the dock as from the deep rose an enormous submarine, a glossy black leviathan that almost filled the entire pen from front to back. Even as the submarine was ascending, from its bridge leaped armed men clothed entirely in black, more Navy SEALs who rushed out of the interior and clambered down onto the hull, weapons firing at the mouth of the tunnel.
Veer’s men were firing back but already in heavy retreat as they fell back into the tunnel, and through the smoke he could see them turning and fleeing.
‘They’re in retreat!’
Riggs and his team landed on the docks and dashed toward the submarine as Ethan turned and looked behind them down the corridor that led to the stairwell and the rear dock. He could see Veer’s men running toward them and firing as they went. Del Toro hopped through the open hatch and then slammed the door behind him as Saunders pushed a heavy container in front of the door.
‘Let’s go, now!’ Saunders snapped.
They dashed together across the command center and leaped onto the lines, descending toward the docks as Ethan covered their escape, the soldiers amassing at the mouth of the tunnel and opening fire. Ethan saw Veer’s men fleeing en masse down the tunnel, firing as they went but desperately trying to escape the hail of fire being directed at them.
Riggs and his team scrambled up the ratlines thrown to them by the submarine’s crew as Ethan hesitated.
‘What the hell are you doing?!’ Riggs yelled up to him as the chamber began to shake all around them.
‘I’m not leaving Hannah with these assholes!’ Ethan shouted back down.
He turned and checked the magazine of his rifle and then that of his pistol. Fifteen rounds in the rifle, ten in the pistol. Veer’s men had been pushed back by the SEALs into the tunnel and would most likely flee. That left Veer’s personal escort, which had looked to be about six men who had assaulted the rear dock. At least one had been shot in the water and two had died in the blast inside the tent, which left Veer plus three.
Ethan edged his way toward the entrance to the command center as he saw the flickering glow of flashlights approaching through gaps in the door. Veer’s assault was over before it had even really begun but Ethan knew that the submarine would not wait for Hannah or him and would make good its escape within moments.
Ethan had only an instant to think before Veer’s men would burst into the command center. He heard their boots rushing upon his position and he knew that there could be no escape.
XLVIII
General Veer hurried along behind his three remaining men, shoving Hannah in front of him with the barrel of his rifle as they ascended the steps to the command center entrance and came up against the blast door, sealed shut from the other side.
‘You want us to blow it?’ one of his men asked.
Veer shoved him aside and bellowed into the command centre.
‘We’ve got Ford! Open up, or I’ll execute her right here and now!’
They could hear the rattle of occasional gunfire from outside but nothing more.
‘Looks like your men have abandoned you too, Veer,’ Hannah spat, unable to prevent the cold grin that spread on her face. ‘So much for your leadership skills.’
Veer did not look over his shoulder as he drove his elbow into Hannah Ford’s ribs. The agent folded over the blow, her long hair hanging over her face as she slumped against the wall.
‘Open it!’ Veer bellowed at his men.
The soldiers rammed the door and it cracked open, the weight of a barrel on the far side pinning it shut. Two more attempts, and then as one they burst into the command center and swept it with their weapons. Veer spotted the dead bodies of two of the SEALs laying sprawled on their faces nearby, saw the shattered windows of the command center and the rappel lines now fastened around the legs of a large table.
Veer dashed to the windows with his men and saw the massive submarine sinking below the waves that trembled as the entire chamber around them rumbled with the threat of collapse.
‘No!’
Veer’s roar of rage was almost drowned out by the rumbling, shaking roar of the gradually collapsing chamber around them. He turned to Hannah, his grip on her arm painfully tight as he glared at her.
‘This is what they do!’ he bellowed. ‘They’ve abandoned you, left you here to die! Even Warner’s gone!’
Hannah’s heart plunged in her chest and her shoulders sank as she saw the submarine sink into the abyss, the waves around the massive hull churning and tossing the dead bodies of Veer’s men around amid chunks of ice as it vanished. She couldn’t blame Ethan for taking his chance at escape, but it felt a crushing blow all the same and now she knew that there was no reason for Veer to keep her alive.
The General released her from his grip and stood back, rage and malice fighting for space upon his great bearded face as he raised a pistol to point at her head.
‘The hell with you,’ he growled.
Hannah managed to dredge up one last spurt of defiance. ‘Good to know that you’ll die down here with me.’
Veer emitted a grim chuckle as he squeezed the trigger.
The gunshot was immensely loud in the confines of the command center and Hannah cried out in fear as she felt the impact of the bullet. And yet she did not fall. She felt the blast, felt the thud, and saw Veer topple sideways as a bullet smashed into his great barrel chest and he stumbled backwards out of the command center as the pistol fell from his grasp.
Hannah whirled as she saw a SEAL laying on the floor of the center, a rifle aimed now at Veer’s men as he fired three more shots in rapid succession, each seeming to blur into the next. The bullets slammed into the soldiers one after the other before they had even had a chance to realize quite where the shots were coming from. To her horror she saw Warner’s face, his hair matted with blood as though he had been shot in the head, his features grim as he fired at their assailants and they fell almost as one.
Hannah cried out again as she lunged forward and yanked a pistol from the holster of one of the fallen soldiers, then whirled and fired at their bodies, putting more bullets into them and ensuring that they would not be getting up again.
She turned as Ethan scrambled to his feet.
‘You didn’t leave?’ she gasped in amazement.
‘I know,’ he replied. ‘I’m an idiot.’
‘Veer got away!’
‘Forget about him, let’s get out of here!’
Ethan grabbed her hand and together they dashed from the command center. The ground trembled beneath Hannah’s feet, chunks of ice tumbling from the ceilings and smashing onto the icy decks as they scrambled for purchase.
She followed Ethan down the stairwell and they rushed through the exit together and onto the dock, the water to her left turbulent as thick slabs of ice plunged into the black water and churned it violently.
She barely saw the figure loom from their right and plunge into her, massive hands wrenching the pistol from her grip and hurling her past. Hannah rolled over in mid-air and slammed onto her back on the icy dock as Veer’s voice boomed out above the din of the collapsing cavern.
‘Warner!’
Ethan whirled and saw Hannah lying on the dock on her back, Veer looming over her with a pistol in his hand that was aimed down at her head. The big, bearded soldier glared at Ethan.
‘Toss your weapons!’
Ethan glanced at Hannah and then reluctantly tossed his rifle and pistol to one side, the metal weapons skittering across the icy dock.
‘Now, hand whatever you got out of Black Knight to me,’ Veer growled.
Ethan winced at him. ‘It’s already long gone, Veer, and this cavern is about to collapse. If we don’t get out now, we’ll all be dead!’