"Funny you should say that, Sean. I tried for years to get Dawkins to break apart the Tennessee Valley Authority. Their stranglehold on the power supply to the Southeastern United States is corrupt and un-American. He wouldn't listen. So we had to take matters into our own hands. You may have temporarily interfered with my plan, but we have other ways of getting what we want."
"He knows about you. He knows you're behind the assassination attempt. Right now there's a nationwide manhunt going on, and they're looking for you, Mr. Secretary. If you turn yourself in, maybe they'll show you mercy."
Foster snorted. "Mercy? I doubt the president knows anything. I closed off all your connections to the government. In fact, right now there are police in over two dozen cities across the country looking for you two in connection with the assassination attempt. So, don't kid yourselves. I don't lose."
He put his hand on Porter's shoulder and gripped it tight. Foster's knuckles whitened, and his jaw clenched.
"What should we do with these people who dare threaten me, Agent Porter?"
Porter's lips creased. "I'd kill anyone who threatened me, sir."
Foster nodded. "I completely agree."
He shoved Porter hard and took a step back. The sudden force against his shoulder threw Porter off balance. He stumbled sideways toward the ark only a few feet away.
Instinctively, Porter put out his hands to catch himself. His palms pressed against the side of the ark, and suddenly his body stiffened and started gyrating. He screamed as electricity coursed through him. Everyone else took a horrified step back, including the guards.
Smoke started seeping from Porter's clothes and hair. The screaming stopped, and suddenly his body hurled through the air and smacked into the wall fifteen feet away. He dropped to the floor in a heap.
The second Porter's body was thrown clear of the ark, Sean knew it was his only chance.
In a flash, he bent at the hips and put his hands on the floor, kicking out his right foot behind him and snapping it up with his hamstring. His heel struck the guard's gun just as the man squeezed the trigger.
The muzzle popped loudly as the weapon rode up from the force of Sean's kick. Sean pushed himself back up and jumped, hurling himself through the air and striking the guard in the chest with his boot, driving the man backward until the back of his head struck the angled wall.
Yuri saw Sean's move. He twisted his head around in time to see the guard behind him spinning around to point his weapon at the American.
Yuri snapped his heel back and kicked the guard in the groin, pivoting as the man doubled over and then driving his knee into the guard's nose.
Sean's guard fell to the floor while Sean took an exaggerated step and kicked him in the side of the head as he would an American football.
Yuri whirled around with a roundhouse to his guard's face.
Meanwhile, Tommy tracked the chaos taking place around him. The guard behind him turned his head one way and the other as if trying to decide who to help first. The man's confusion cost him.
Tommy rushed him before he could aim his gun. The guard tried to swing the weapon around, but Tommy grabbed the guy by the shirt and punched him square in the teeth. Over and over Tommy pulled with one hand and punched with the other until the guard collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Tommy bent down and picked up the weapon lying next to the man. Sean and Yuri did the same, stealing the guns from their guards.
They all turned to face Foster, intent on dispensing justice.
But Foster was nowhere to be seen.
Sean's eyes flashed across the room. He stepped around to the other side of the ark and saw a coat flap and then disappear as his quarry hurried down the ramps toward the ground floor.
"There he is!" Sean said, pointing down below.
The three of them took off, hurtling down the ramps, using the railing to balance their descent.
Yuri stuck his weapon over the edge and fired a shot at the secretary of state as he wrapped around the final leg of the ramp. Rounds pinged off the ancient stone, sending sparks and debris flying.
Foster sprinted out the pyramid's entrance, yelling for his other guards.
"They'll have this place surrounded in a minute," Sean said. "Then there won't be any other way out."
"There might be," Yuri said.
"What are you talking about?" Tommy asked, turning to face their Russian friend.
"Down below, where they're keeping the gold, there was an opening underneath the platform. I think we can fit between the wood and the hole. It might be a way out."
"A way out or a deathtrap," Tommy said.
"If we stick around here, we're going to be dead or trapped anyway," Sean said. "And we can't win a shootout with these guys. We've only got one magazine each. They'll have dozens. Not to mention when Foster calls in reinforcements."
Tommy sighed. "Show us the way, Yuri."
Chapter 38
The three men raced to the bottom of the pyramid. They skidded to a stop when they reached the mound of gold resting atop the wooden platform.
"See?" Yuri said, pointing at a narrow space under the wood.
"That's going to be a tight squeeze," Tommy said.
"Good thing you lost so much weight, eh, buddy?" Sean slapped him on the back.
"What is it? Looks like some kind of ventilation."
"Doesn't matter what it is right now," Sean said. "At the moment, it's our only way out."
"It matters if there's a hundred-foot drop down there."
Yuri was already on his belly, crawling under to look down into the darkness. He'd grabbed one of the floodlights from the floor and positioned it over the edge of the cavity so he could see what waited for them in the abyss.
To everyone's surprise, including Yuri's, he sounded positive.
"It's not that bad. The drop is about three meters. We can hang from the edge and lower ourselves down."
"Shh," Sean said, holding up a hand. "I hear something."
A second later, the sound of footsteps pounding the stone of the ramp echoed down into the chamber.
"Are they going up or coming down?" Tommy whispered.
"Doesn't matter. We're going down the shaft."
Sean got on his belly and started inching his way toward the hole.
Tommy looked up at the ramp. The footsteps were getting louder. Even though he'd lost a ton of weight over the last few months, he was still thicker than his friend, and far larger than the skinny Russian.
He got down on his hands and knees and put his face close to the ground. If he could get through, it would be by less than two inches.
Yuri had already dropped down into the hole and switched on the light attached to his weapon.
Sean swung his legs over and let himself hang for a moment to make sure Yuri was out of the way.
Tommy struggled to worm his way to the edge. He shimmied and wiggled, grinding his cheek on the hard stone more than a few times. He finally reached the edge and scooted his legs over the lip of the shaft. Then he pushed himself backward until he was hanging on by his fingernails and let himself fall to the ground.
Sean and Yuri were waiting with their gun lights on. Yuri was staring ahead into another passageway.
"See?" Yuri said. "This corridor goes somewhere."
"Could be a dead end," Tommy hissed.
"Be positive," Sean said and took off into the tunnel.
Yuri followed close behind while Tommy reluctantly brought up the rear.
They rushed ahead, barreling their way forward up the slow incline. The narrow corridor was different than the mine shaft they'd walked through on the way in. It was cut smooth from the rock with laser precision, unlike the rough-hewn walls of the mine.
The tunnel turned left after they'd been running for a minute. The grade increased to a steeper angle before it leveled off and turned right.