Alicia shuddered. “Just once. All those trolleys, aisle-blockers and choices totally freaked me out.” She studied the approaching attack choppers wistfully. “This is much better.”
Kinimaka reached inside the box, lifted the scrap of paper out and held it so that everyone could see. “It’s just a set of numbers.”
“Random,” Smyth said.
Drake felt anger. “So the Order of the Last Judgment sent us halfway around the world to find a scrap of paper in a tomb that has lain hidden for hundreds of years? A place we’d possibly never have found if we hadn’t had experience with the tombs of the gods? I don’t get it.”
“The Nazis were relic and treasure hunters,” Kenzie said. “You know that incredible mass they recently found under the polar ice? Some say it’s a Nazi base. They looted everything from ornaments to scrolls and paintings. They tried to make zombies, sought eternal life and lost thousands of men in perilous quests. If they chose to leave that inside Attila the Hun’s tomb rather than steal the wealth — there’s a terrible reason.”
Lauren pointed to her ears. “DC want to know what it is.”
Hayden took it from Kinimaka. “Right guys, it’s an old scrap of notepad paper, quite thick and torn around two sides. It’s yellowing and feels quite brittle. Now, there is a line of writing across the middle that consists only of numbers.” She read them out: “483794311656…” She took a breath. “There’s more…”
“A geek’s wet dream.” Alicia sighed. “But what the hell do we do?”
“Get out of here,” Drake said, standing as the helicopters touched down. “Before the Huns find us.”
A pilot jogged over. “You guys ready? We’re gonna have to keep this under the radar.”
The team walked with him back to the choppers. Hayden finished her recital and passed the scrap of paper around as they settled into their seats. “Any ideas?”
“You couldn’t even do the lottery with those,” Alicia said. “Useless.”
“And what do they have to do with death?” Drake said. “And the Four Horsemen? Since numbers seem to be important, could this have anything to do with birth dates? Death dates?”
“We’re on it,” a voice said in his ear, and he was reminded again that they were universally connected unless they turned DC off for a mission, in which case they only connected to Lauren.
“Not only on it,” another voice said. “We got it.”
Drake listened as the choppers rose slowly into the air.
“Those numbers, broken down, are coordinates. Easy. The Nazis left you a big ass target, people.”
Drake started to check and prep his weapons. “Target?”
“Yeah, the first set of numbers points to the Ukraine. The sequence is one long, unbroken number so that’s why it took us a while to break it down.”
Alicia checked her watch. “I don’t call five minutes a while.”
“You don’t have an IQ of one-sixty.”
“How the hell do you know, smartass? I never got it checked.”
A moment of silence, and then: “Anyway. We input the entire sequence and plugged it into a satellite. What we’re looking at now is a large industrial area, maybe eight square miles in total. It’s full of warehouses mostly, we’ve counted over thirty, and appears to be empty. Something from the war era abandoned. It could be an old storage area for the Soviets, now disused.”
“And the coordinates?” Hayden asked. “Do they point to anything in particular?”
“Still checking.” The line went quiet.
Hayden didn’t have to inform the pilots; they were already headed for the Ukraine. Drake felt himself relax a little; at least their rival teams couldn’t beat them to this one. He looked over at Hayden and mouthed.
Can we turn these off?
She made a face. Would look suspicious.
Mole? He mimed it slowly, leaning forward.
Hayden did too. There is no one we can trust.
Alicia laughed. “Fucksake, Drake, if you wanna kiss her just do it.”
The Yorkshire man sat back as the helicopter scythed through the skies. It was almost impossible, working at full capacity when you weren’t sure if even your own bosses had your back. A weight settled into his heart. If they were being plotted against by anyone — they were about to find out.
The comms squeaked.
“Whoa.”
Hayden’s head came up. “What?”
The super-geek in DC sounded terrified. “Are you sure, Geoff? I mean, I can’t tell them this and later discover it’s just guesswork.”
Silence. Then their liaison took a deep breath. “Wow, I have to say. This is bad. This is real bad. The coordinates appear to lead directly to the Horseman of Death.”
Dahl paused in the middle of loading a magazine into his handgun. “That makes sense,” he said. “But what is it?”
“A nuclear warhead.”
Hayden gritted her teeth. “Can you pinpoint it? Is it live? Are there—”
“Wait,” the geek breathed, catching his breath. “Please, just wait. There’s more. I didn’t mean ‘a nuclear warhead.’”
Hayden frowned. “Then what did you mean?”
“There are six nuclear warheads inside three warehouses. We can’t see through the walls, since the buildings are lead lined, but we can see through the roof with our satellites. Images show the nukes are eighties era, probably worth a fortune to the right bidder, and heavily guarded. The security is mostly inside, with the occasional drive around the empty base.”
“So the Order of the Last Judgment secreted six nuclear weapons inside three warehouses for later use?” Mai asked. “That does sound like the Nazi thing to do.”
“Weapons are operational too,” the geek said.
“How do you know that?”
“The computer system is operative. They can be armed, guided, released.”
“Do you have an exact location?” Kenzie asked.
“Yeah, we do. All six are strapped to the back of flatbed trucks, sitting inside the warehouses. Strangely, the activity inside has recently doubled. Of course, they could also be moved.”
Drake looked over at Hayden who stared back.
“Mole,” Kenzie said aloud.
“And the rival teams?” Dahl asked.
“Chatter has increased according to the NSA. Doesn’t look good.”
“I’d love to know what they’re hoping to find,” Mai said. “Apart from six old nuclear warheads.”
“The Sword of Mars.”
Drake twisted his neck around fast. “What?”
“Everyone got the coordinates, assuming this mole works here. Everyone tasked a satellite. Our imaging software is equipped with all manner of sensors and, since the Odin thing and subsequent near misses, we can detect the rare element associated with the tombs and the gods. Our instruments display the approximate size and shape of the object, and it matches up with the missing sword. They all know we found the sword and are headed for the nukes. We have to.”
“Leave the sword on the chopper.” Smyth shrugged.
Drake, Dahl and Hayden exchanged glances. “Not a chance in hell. The sword stays with us.”
Drake hung his head. “The one bloody thing that’s more valuable than Genghis, Attila, Geronimo and Hannibal combined,” he said. “And we’re forced to take it to the nukes.”
“Foresight,” Mai said. “And they need it for any number of reasons. Wealth.”
“Reward,” Smyth said.
“Greed,” Kenzie said.
“A failsafe,” Hayden said with conviction. “For all those reasons combined. Where are the six nukes?”
“Two inside Warehouse 17,” the geek said. “The other nukes are in Eighteen and Nineteen, and I’m pinging you over their exact locations right now. It’s a big base, and we’re counting heat sigs from at least two dozen bodies, so be careful.”