‘Made it. Your turn.’
‘No problem,’ Sarah bragged.
Though she was taller than Jasmine, she had no difficulty getting through the wall. Her slender frame slid through the space with ease, courtesy of years of practice.
Jasmine didn’t know whether to be impressed with Sarah’s agility or disappointed in her own performance. Ultimately, she decided that being awed by Sarah was better than being down on herself. ‘Good job.’
‘Thanks,’ said Sarah as she dusted herself off. ‘Where to now?’
Jasmine smiled. ‘I’ll tell you later. We should keep moving.’
Kamal led three of the men down the left tunnel. Tarek took the others down the right tunnel. Moments later, they emerged on the other side.
They glanced at each other and smiled.
Maybe this wouldn’t be as tough as they thought.
Maybe all of the tunnels would be this simple.
Unfortunately for them, they were wrong.
From that point forward, they were hopelessly lost. Everywhere they looked, the water system appeared the same. Their cell phones were partially to blame, but so was their lack of knowledge. After all, these men were soldiers, not scholars, and none of them knew anything about architecture. Heck, they barely knew the difference between Greece and Rome, let alone the distinguishing features of ancient columns.
They were paid to bully and intimidate, not to think.
Fanning out, the men quickly discovered the east — west passageways at the opposite ends of the room. Tarek took three of the men and led them to the west. The other two followed Kamal to the east.
From their perspective, they were in total control.
They had more numbers, more guns, and the element of surprise.
How tough could this be?
From the shadows at the top of the cistern, McNutt lowered his night scope when the last gunman had left the chamber. If he had been given permission, he could have gunned down the seven men and stopped the threat right there and then.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have permission — and wouldn’t get it until they figured out who the gunmen were. As men of honor, they simply refused to slaughter cops or government officials who were merely doing their jobs.
McNutt turned to Cobb, who was hiding next to him in the darkness, and whispered the bad news. ‘Sorry, chief, I still can’t tell for sure.’
Cobb cursed. It wasn’t the answer he had been hoping for. ‘Best guess?’
‘Criminals. Maybe soldiers.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Two are carrying assault rifles.’
‘Really? What kind?’
‘9A-91s.’
Cobb smiled. He was quite familiar with these. The Russian-made assault rifle is only slightly larger than a machine pistol, but it packs a lot of a punch in a small package. In close combat, the fully automatic weapon can rip an enemy to shreds in only a matter of seconds. ‘I’ll be damned.’
McNutt stared at him. ‘You will be damned if they open fire with those. Thank God I only saw two. Otherwise, I’d be tempted to put money on the other guys.’
‘You know,’ Cobb whispered, ‘I saw two of those guns before you arrived in the city. They were being used as concealed weapons.’
‘Concealed? How do you conceal an assault rifle?’
‘By being as big as a car.’
‘Wait. You mean the guys who chased Sarah?’
Cobb nodded. ‘One and the same.’
McNutt closed his eyes and played back the scene in his head. ‘Now that you mention it, they appeared to be larger than the others, but I thought maybe it was an optical illusion. It’s tough to gauge size from up here.’
‘It has to be them. It has to be. Nothing else makes sense.’
‘Wait. If it is them, what do they want?’
‘I think they want Sarah.’
24
The bad feeling in Cobb’s gut wouldn’t go away.
Most of the gunmen had pushed past him, deeper into the network of cisterns. The only thing that stood between him and escape was a single guard who had been left to watch the exit. Cobb had no doubts that he and McNutt could outwit, outshoot, or outmaneuver one man in a matter of seconds.
Of course, that would mean abandoning Sarah and Jasmine.
And they weren’t going to do that.
The alternative was a deadly game of cat and mouse in the tunnels. While Cobb and McNutt had some tactical advantages — better equipment, better training, and better knowledge of the terrain — they were still outnumbered seven to two. Worse still, there was always a chance that the goons would call in reinforcements, who could level the playing field by bringing ropes, lights, and even bigger guns.
If that happened, Cobb and McNutt were screwed.
Worried about the women, Cobb tried to check in with them. ‘Sarah, it’s Jack. What’s your status? Any luck with the wall?’
There was only silence on the other end.
‘Sarah,’ he repeated, ‘have you made it through the—’
‘They can’t hear you,’ Garcia blurted.
‘Why not? Are they all right?’
‘They’re fine. At least I think they’re fine.’
‘What does that mean?’
Garcia explained. ‘They made it through the wall okay, but that’s the problem. Their new location was built differently than the cisterns. For some reason, the walls are blocking the transmission. They can’t hear a word you’re saying.’
Cobb knew that their flashlights included microphones. He hoped that a larger device meant a larger, more powerful transmitter. ‘Can you hear them?’
‘Nope,’ Garcia replied. ‘I can’t see their video feed either. I lost them completely the moment they entered the new system.’
Cobb cursed under his breath.
‘Sorry, Jack. I would have told you sooner, but I knew you and Josh had gone dark for a while. I didn’t want to disturb you.’
‘Well, I’m available now.’
Cobb and McNutt dropped from their perch and stared into different tunnels. Their night-vision optics revealed that the passageways were clear, but they knew their targets were out there somewhere. Years of training kicked in as they listened to Garcia in one ear while focusing the other on the path ahead.
‘It’s probably the stone,’ Garcia guessed as he fiddled with his computer equipment. ‘It’s not an issue with the frequencies. I can assure you of that, because you’re transmitting fine. But them? Their signals aren’t getting through. It has to be the other tunnel. It has to be.’
Cobb nodded at McNutt, who ran off to find the enemy. It also gave Cobb a moment of privacy. ‘Hector, I don’t care why it’s happening. I just want you to fix it.’
‘But Jack, if it’s the stone—’
‘Listen,’ he said a little too loudly for his own good. ‘You told me communications wouldn’t be a problem. You said that these devices were tested in Romanian caves, that they transmitted a signal through solid rock. And now you’re telling me that they can’t transmit through tunnels? Sorry, Hector, that simply won’t cut it.’
Garcia remained silent for a few seconds. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘You’re the genius. Figure it out.’
Sarah had expected to see another chamber on the other side of the wall. If Jasmine’s theory was correct, the temple built over Caesar’s Well would have extended deep into the earth. It would have housed priests and scholars, not to mention the artifacts they had dedicated their lives to protecting. She didn’t know whether to expect breathtaking opulence or humble simplicity, but she had envisioned a very large space.
Instead, they found themselves in a narrow, horizontal shaft barely eight feet in height. The cramped passageway did not lead upward, nor did it descend toward a source of fresh water. It simply ran parallel to the surface, like an ancient subway tunnel — although there were certainly no tracks to be found.