The fire blasted him—
But died away the instant he finished his movement. The air around him was still hot, but bearable. Drake breathed, sweat pouring off him in waves. Unable to relax for a second, he began the count again.
Four seconds.
Flames crackled near him, trying to ignite the very spot he was about to occupy.
Drake made his move. The fire died away. The inside of his mouth felt like a salt-flat. Both his eyeballs stung as if they’d been scraped with sandpaper.
Counting, though. Thinking, always thinking. Two more seconds and move. On to the final maneuver. The confidence built in him now.
Pause six seconds, and then—
At six he moved, and the fire didn’t relent! His eyebrows singed. He fell to his knees, threw his body back. Ben shouted his name. The heat grew so intense he tried to scream. But at that moment it abruptly faded away. He slowly became aware of his hands and knees scraping the rough stone floor. Lifting his head, he quickly crawled through the tunnel at the rear of the chamber.
After a moment, he turned and shouted to the others, “Best make that last pause seven seconds, guys. ’less you wanna find out what a Kentucky Fried feels like.”
There was a bit of subdued laughter. Komodo immediately stepped up and asked both Karin and Ben when they would like to take their turn. Ben opted for a few more soldiers to go before him, but Karin was up for following Drake. It took Komodo himself taking her aside and having a quiet word about the prudence of ensuring Drake hadn’t just gotten lucky with the timings before they risked losing one of the brains of their op.
Drake saw Karin relent and even smile a little. It was good to see someone having a calming effect on the wild-child of the Blake family. He checked the tunnel around him and threw a glow stick into the shadows. Its expanding amber hue illuminated nothing but more hewn-out tunnel vanishing into the blackness.
The first Delta soldier fell in beside him, soon to be followed by a second. Drake wasted no time in sending them down the tunnel on a scouting mission. When he turned back to the chamber of wrath, he saw Ben Blake making his move.
Ben clutched his satchel almost like a schoolboy, made sure his long hair was tucked into the top of his T-shirt, and stepped forward. Drake watched his lips move as he counted the seconds off. Without betraying any outward signs of emotion, Drake’s heart literally leapt into his mouth and stayed there until his friend collapsed puffing by his feet.
Drake offered him a hand. Ben looked up, “What you gonna say, dickhead? If you can’t stand the heat?”
“I don’t quote Bucks Fizz,” Drake said in an exasperated tone. “If you want — no, wait—”
Drake had caught sight of Karin approaching the first jet of fire. Ben’s mouth instantly clamped shut and his eyes followed his sisters every move. When she wobbled, Ben’s teeth grated so hard Drake thought about tectonic plates grinding together. And when she slipped between one safe haven and the next Drake had to grab Ben hard to stop him rushing out to grab her.
“Wait! You can’t save her.”
Karin faltered. Her fall had completely disoriented her. She was staring the wrong way with about two seconds before another eruption incinerated her.
Ben fought against Drake, who grabbed the lad roughly by the back of the head and used his body to shield his friend from witnessing the next, terrible event.
Karin closed her eyes.
Then Komodo, the Delta team leader, scooped her up in one big arm as he skipped deftly between the pauses. He never missed a beat, just carried Karin headfirst over his shoulder and deposited her gently to the ground beside her enraged brother.
Ben dropped down beside her, babbling, hugging her to him. Karin stared over Ben’s shoulder straight at Komodo and mouthed two words. “Thank you.”
Komodo nodded gruffly. Within a few minutes, the rest of his men arrived safely and the two Drake had dispatched down the tunnel returned.
One of them addressed both Drake and Komodo. “Another trap, sir, about a klick ahead. No obvious signs of snipers or booby traps, but we didn’t hang around to double-check. Figured we should get back here.”
Karin brushed herself off and stood up. “What’s the trap look like?”
“Miss, it looks like one major motherfucker.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Up the narrow passage they ran, urged on by the acts of violence that may be happening in the world above them and by the malicious intentions of the man who crept through the subterranean dark before them.
A roughly formed archway admitted them to the next cavern. Again glow sticks illuminated part of the huge space, both fresh and slowly fading, but Drake quickly fired two amber flares against the far wall.
The space before them was stunning. The walkways were shaped like a trident. The main shaft was made up of a walkway wide enough to accommodate three men abreast. It finished at the far wall in another exit archway. Branching off the main shaft and making up the other two tines of the trident were two more walkways, only these ones were much narrower, little more than ledges. These ledges ended up against the broad curve of the cavern wall.
The spaces between the paths of the trident crawled with deep, treacherous darkness. When Komodo dropped a stone into the nearest absence of light, they never heard it strike bottom.
Carefully, they inched their way forward. Tension made their shoulders go rigid and their nerves begin to fray. Drake felt a thin sliver of sweat slide the length of his spine, itching all the way down. Every set of eyes in the company flicked around and searched every shadow, every nook and cranny, until Ben finally found his voice.
“Wait,” he said faintly, then cleared his throat and shouted, “Wait.”
“What is it?” Drake froze with a foot still in the air.
“We should check Cook’s logs first, just in case.”
“You pick your bloody times.”
Karin spoke up. “They called this one Greed, the second deadly sin. The demon associated with greed is Mammon, one of the seven princes of hell. He was referred to in Milton’s Paradise Lost, and has even been called Hell’s Ambassador to England.”
Drake stared at her. “That’s not funny.”
“It’s not meant to be. It’s something I once read and retained. The only clue Hawksworth gives here is the sentence: Opposite Greed sits Charity. Let the next man have what you desire.”
Drake considered the cold, damp cavern. “There’s not much I desire in here, ‘cept a Krispy Kremes maybe.”
“It’s a straight run to the exit.” Komodo stopped one of his men from pushing by. “Nothing’s ever that easy. Hey! What the fuck, man—”
Drake turned to see the Delta man push Komodo aside and walk right past his commanding officer.
“Wallis! Get your ass in line, soldier.”
Drake noticed the man’s eyes as he approached. Glazed. Fixed on a point off to the right. Drake followed his gaze.
And saw the niches immediately. Funny how he hadn’t noticed them before. At the end of the right-hand tine, where it ended against the cavern wall, Drake now saw three deep niches had been carved into the black rock. Inside each niche something sparkled. Something precious made of gold and sapphires and emeralds. The object caught the weak and diffused light that flickered about the cavern and returned it tenfold. It was like staring into the heart of a shiny disco-ball made of ten-carat diamonds.
Karin whispered, “There’s an empty one on the other side.”
Drake felt the pull of the promised wealth. The harder he looked, the clearer the objects became and the more he wanted them. It took a moment for Karin’s comment to sink in, but when it did, he beheld the empty niche with both jealousy and trepidation. Had some fortunate soul dared the ledge and walked away with a prize? Or had he been clutching it when he plunged screaming into the incalculable depths below?