Across the chamber, Reaper was working his legionnaire magic on Corzo, pummelling him so hard in the stomach he nearly lost his balance. The Colombian rebel was harder than he looked and took the blows without a reaction and then fought back with a vicious right hook which knocked Reaper back a few steps and gave his opponent the time he needed to regain his strength and get ready for another attack.
Both men were working hard to get the better of the other, but neither was giving any quarter as the fight progressed from fists to knives. Hawke watched now as the Frenchman struggled against the much younger man. Corzo was trying to bring his knife up into the bottom of Reaper’s ribcage, and the only thing stopping it was the last few ounces of strength the former legionnaire could muster.
His contorted face dripped with sweat as he grunted with the effort of deflecting the Colombian’s blade, but Hawke saw it was slowly inching its way closer to his stomach. The strain on his eyes was clear enough as they blinked like a madman’s with each inch he edged the blade closer to Reaper’s ribcage. Corzo used his other hand to smash Reaper’s blade to the floor and he kicked it away into the shadows.
Slowly the blade got closer, and Hawke could see his friend was in trouble. He threw the kukri and struck Corzo with the juro, or peak of the blade. The Colombian grunted with pain and shock and stumbled back a few steps, reaching up to feel the gash on his head.
“Merci bien, mon ami,” Reaper said.
“No problem, Reap.”
He watched as Corzo suddenly retreated and saw Rajavi was doing the same. “They’re pulling out!” he said.
“Why?” Reaper said.
Hawke frowned “They must have the….oh no!” He ran over to where he had left Luis and then he saw it. The young man was dead, murdered by Ziad Saqqal and the stone map wrenched out of his hands.
Lea ran over to him, panting with the effort of the fight. “What is it, Joe? Oh God!”
“They killed him,” Hawke said, his voice a low whisper. “He was trying to keep the map from them, and Saqqal murdered him for it.” He took off his jacket and gently rested it over Luis’s body.
They were broken from their shock by the sound of submachine gunfire. Hawke squinted to protect his eyes as wave after wave of bullets blasted the hell out of their corner of the tomb. Behind them from the safety of the entrance tunnel, the Syrian commander had ordered the rebels to stay and finish them off.
In the tunnel behind the men, Hawke could see the heads of Ziad Saqqal, Dirk Kruger, Jawad, Rajavi and Corzo as they bobbed up and down on their way out of the underground complex.
In the new front line created by the rebels, one of the men was now walking toward them with an M60 in his hands and preparing to fire on them.
“We have to get that map back!” he yelled.
“You might have noticed we’re sort of occupied right now,” Scarlet said. She held her handgun at arm’s length and rested the weapon on the edge of the pyramid as she took aim. Moments later three sharp shots found their way home, dropping the rebel playing Platoon with the M60. He hit the dirt like a snake and crawled for cover, badly wounded, but he still had the weapon.
And then someone yelled from above. “Drop it like it’s hot, motherfucker!”
Hawke looked up to see Lexi Zhang. She was still on the ridge above the entrance, and having disposed of her opponent she was now aiming her gun at the man with the M60 below her.
The man’s eyes flicked nervously from Lexi to Hawke. Drop the gun or not drop the gun… He moved forward to put the gun on the floor, but hesitated for a second before starting to rise again.
And he was dead a second later, slamming face first into the dirt. Above him on the ridge Lexi’s smoking pistol was the only clue as to what had happened.
They all turned to look at her. “He was going to shoot,” she said. “I saw it in his eyes. Easier to read than a Mr Man book.”
“I’m glad you’re on my side,” Reaper said.
“And who says I’m on your side, Reap?”
He laughed. “You never give anything away and you never have done.”
“You really do know me, Vincent!” she said, blowing him a kiss.
She turned to walk back down to the main chamber when a rebel leaped from the shadows behind her and drew his gun.
She tried to turn her gun on him but there was no room on the narrow ledge.
He raised his weapon and prepared to fire.
She knew she had only one chance, and so she seized it.
Leaping from the ridge she tumbled over the edge and began to fall to the rocky floor far below.
The rebel was now aiming his gun at her, determined to kill her with a bullet before she hit the dirt.
Hawke aimed and threw the kukri as fast as he could. It spun through the air in a series of flashes until striking the man. The chunky blade buried itself in the man’s throat and sent him staggering off the ledge a second after Lexi.
Hawke put his hands out to catch her, taking a step forward as she fell toward him. She landed with a crash in his arms and looked up at him. “My hero.”
“You, my friend,” Hawke said, taking a step back again so the man crashed into the dirt at his boots, “…are welcome anytime.”
He lowered her to the ground and pulled the kukri from the man’s neck, wiping the blade clean on his jacket.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said with a wink.
“Not that sort of welcome, Lexi.”
“Oh…”
They looked up to see Reaper running over to them. “They’re lining the tunnel with explosives!”
Before anyone could react, a tremendous explosion roared out in the tunnel and in the chamber. They watched in horror as the water from the aquifer flooded down into the tunnel and began to fill it up.
Scarlet sighed. “Oh, happy, joyful day…”
“Saqqal’s an idiot,” Hawke said.
Lea looked at him. “Eh?”
“The tunnel leading up from the hole in the mountain to this chamber was uphill. All the water from that aquifer is going to flow down to the outside of the tunnel.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s called gravity,” Ryan said sullenly.
“Anyone here ever enjoy going on water slides?”
They all turned to look at him, but only Reaper grinned.
Hawke led them into the tunnel to the location of the explosion. The noise of the rushing water was deafening, but he was right. The water from the citadel’s aquifer was flowing at great pressure through the hole created by Saqqal’s detonation, but gravity was redirecting it straight down the incline toward the hole they had discovered under the rock on the surface.
“Deep breath everyone,” Hawke said. “And arms crossed over the body.”
With that he leaped into the jet and disappeared into the high-pressure white water.
Lea leaped next, and immediately regretted her decision. That lying, bullshitting, sneaky, good-for-nothing, optimistic son-of-a-bitch had definitely not been on any of the water slides she’d been on and that was for keeps. The water was freezing cold for one thing, and next it was moving about ten times faster than any sodding slide.
It spat her out at the other end like a champagne cork and after siding all over the now soaked grass of the clearing she came to a stop and gasped for air as she pulled her hair out of her face. “You bastard!” she said, and scrambled clear of the water jet.
The torrent now spat Reaper out.
“What?” Hawke was standing on the granite slab they’d blown up to make the entrance. He was shielding his eyes and watching Saqqal and Kruger as they were jogging back to their choppers. “They’re nearly at the top… damn it.”