“What’s Ancient Thera?” Zeke asked.
“It’s an ancient city high on Mesa Vouno Mountain.”
Lexi furrowed her brow. “Mesa Vouno Mountain?”
“The millions of tons of rock over our heads,” Ryan said.
“Ah.”
“But we want the coast,” Hawke insisted. “Kashala said he and his men were sailing away.”
“That could be any coast,” Scarlet said. “We’re on an island.”
“Hey, what do you want from me?” Hawke said. “A printed itinerary of his journey on an embossed card? We take what we can get, Cairo, you know that.”
“Point accepted, grudgingly.”
He gave her a look, then returned to Ryan.
“So which archway?”
“He’s dead,” Kamala said.
Lea looked at the old man. “Dead?”
Ryan nodded. “The good news is that before he died, he told me we needed the one on the right.”
“We have to go, and in a hurry!” Hawke said. “We need to get that cannister back.”
Kamala gently laid the presbyter’s head down and got to her feet while the others grabbed whatever kit they could get their hands on. “It doesn’t feel right leaving him here.”
Lea watched the lava slowly crawl over the top of Dimitrov’s corpse and instantly incinerate it. The presbyter awaited the same fate, and in no more than a few minutes, judging by the progress the lava was making inside the cavern. “No, but we have no choice.”
“Lea’s right,” Hawke said. “This whole place is going to be filled with lava in a few hours and Kashala and the Blood Crew are getting further away every second.” Hefting one of the mercs’ semi-automatic pistols from the ground, he checked the mag and turned to face his team. “We move out, and we move out now.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
They reached the end of the long, twisting tunnel the presbyter had pointed them to and found a large rockpool surrounded by stalagmites. “Another dead end,” Kamala said. “There’s no way we can catch up with Kashala now.”
“You think the old priest sent us on a wild goose chase?” Zeke asked.
“No, I don’t.” Hawke walked to the rock pool and tested its depth. “My hunch is that this is the way out right here, but I’m not risking the lives of this team. Wait here.”
Lea opened her mouth to talk but he was already in the pool, diving headfirst into the black water and swimming through the dark.
“Damn it all,” she said, lowering her voice to a private whisper. “Eejit.”
A tense few minutes passed until he broke through the surface once again. “I’m starting to feel like I’m back on basic training with all this sodding water.”
“Any luck?” Ryan asked.
He nodded. “Not far at all. Thirty second underwater. Anyone can do it.”
Nikolai turned white. “I cannot do this, Hawke.”
“Bollocks you can’t,” he said. “I’ll take you through.”
“I can swim,” he said. “I just don’t like confined spaces… underwater caverns are like a hell for me.”
“You’ve already been through hell, Kolya,” Lea said with a desperate smile. “You can do this.”
He took another look at the water. Black, smooth, forbidding. “All right.”
Hawke breathed a sigh of relief and took the Russian by the arm. “I’ll go through first with Kolya and the rest of you follow. This game isn’t over yet.”
When they broke through the surface, they emerged inside a cave at the base of Mesa Vouno, the vast promontory beneath the ancient city of Thera. Hauling themselves out of the water and staggering to the entrance, they stood in the cave’s mouth and looked out across the shimmering Santorini day.
Above, a dazzling sun pierced the center of the cornflower blue sky and one single aircraft trailed a smooth arc on the eastern horizon. Below, the famous black sand of Kamari Beach stretched away to the north and vanished in a heat haze. Sitting beneath an endless grid of parasols further up the beach, holidaymakers relaxed in the shade. Some were sleeping, some talking, others reading books and Kindles, but they all shared one thing in common — none of them knew what was at stake today.
Closer to their position were a number of caïques. These traditional fishing boats had been used on the Ionian and Aegean Seas long before the modern vessels favoured by fisherman in modern times. Used mainly by tourists in short excursions today, they bobbed about peacefully on the turquoise water at the bottom of the cliffs.
Lea stepped out into the heat. “Let’s walk down to the water.”
“I can see their boat!” Lexi shouted. “Just beyond that promontory to the northeast.”
Hawke saw it too, and Kashala was at the helm. They were racing away from the volcanic island in a small motor yacht.
“Looks like they’ve already seen us,” Hawke said. Mukendi and his mercs were at the stern, setting up what looked like another mortar cannon. “That ain’t pretty,” he muttered, and then he heard the distant crackle of gunshots from the rifles. “They’re firing — get down!”
They took cover behind the caïques and waited until the onslaught was over. At the vessel’s prow, the rounds severed the bowsprit forestay, broke the foremast off at the base and brought the entire rigging crashing down into the sea.
The cream sails splashed down in the water and drew the attention of some of the tourists further up the beach. The report of the distant gunshots had been too faint for them to hear, but the destruction visited on the old wooden boat had alerted them to the danger. Now, those closest to the caïques scrambled out of their sun-lotion slumber and screamed. Reaching for their phones, they sprinted up the black sand toward the neat line of white hotels and apartment blocks to the west.
“We need a boat, and a fast one, right now.” Hawke scanned the beach.
“I don’t see any boats,’ Lea said with a twinkle in her eye. “But there’s a JetSki club a hundred meters to the north.”
He looked at her, fighting back the urge to smile. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Donovan?”
“It’ll be just like old times on Elysium.”
Scarlet turned to Ryan. “Get your wallet out, boy, we need to hire half a dozen JetSkis and you’re splashing the cash.”
“Why me?”
“I just made you the ECHO treasurer. Think of it as a field promotion.”
Ryan muttered under his breath and pulled his wallet out of his jeans’ pocket. “Cash is soaked from our little underwater swim.”
“I’m sure the cards are just fine.”
Legs pounding beneath them, they sprinted up the long beach and weaved in and out of the terrified tourists. Reaching the JetSki club, they were just in time to see the staff fleeing for their lives.
Scarlet gave Hawke a wink. “Handy.”
They ran along the pier, counting the JetSkis as they went.
“There’s only eight available,” Lea said.
“But there’s a mini speed boat!” Camacho said. “Two seats — anyone?”
Jazmin gave it an appreciative nod. “Count me in.”
Hawke jumped down onto the nearest JetSki and turned on the engine. “The rest of you get on one of these. We need all the manpower we can get.”
He took the lead, revving the powerful four stroke engine and steering out into the vast, sparkling sea to the east. The others joined him in an arrow formation, and ahead of them, Camacho and Jazmin in the speedboat moved out into the bay in a grand sweeping motion, spraying up a fine arc of bright white sea foam into the hot Mediterranean sky.
The powerful engines of the speedboat and JetSkis roared, but ahead of them, Kashala’s boat was rapidly moving out of sight.
“Looks like he’s made good time,” Camacho called out.