“C’est vrai,” Reaper said. “We are fugitives. We have no back-up, no network… nothing.”
Scarlet scoffed. “You’re not going to let a simple little thing like that stop you, are you darling?”
Reaper gave his famous Gallic shrug. “Of course not, but it makes our job harder.”
“What else did Sooke say?” Hawke asked.
“Not much,” Lea said. “He just said it’s a word coming up a lot in all the nastiest places — Project Eschaton. I don’t think he knows any more than he’s telling us, but I’m not sure it’s limited to Kashala and the antimatter device. Whatever it is, for now, we know part of it is going down in the Hagia Sophia. This is it guys.”
“Yeap,” Ryan said. “It’s balls out on this one, no expense spared.”
“But we need to stay cautious,” Nikolai said. “If we get caught, we will face severe punishment, especially if we are blamed for the Osprey attack as well.”
“No, Ryan’s right,” Lea said. “Nothing matters anymore. Our fugitive status now means we’re outlaws, and that means not just outside the law of the United States, but outside the law of nearly every country in the world.”
“So?” Nikolai asked.
“It means we have nothing to lose,” she said. “We’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t. We have to push through this. Our only hope of getting out of this nightmare is to put Jack Brooke back in the White House.”
“That’s not possible,” Kamala said. “However good you are, I can’t see how you can take on the US military-industrial complex and win.”
“That’s because you’re seeing it as one problem,” Hawke said. “You need to break it down and then it becomes easier to see a way through.”
“I still don’t get it.”
“It’s simple. At no single point are we going to just defeat Davis Faulkner and his network of spies and soldiers. First, we’re going to complete this mission and get the money we need for our next mission — to locate and rescue Alex and President Brooke. When we’ve done that, we’ll work on a plan to get to Faulkner. Small steps, one at a time.”
“And those small steps add up to our freedom,” Lea said. “Ryan, what’s up with the schematics?”
Ryan was sitting behind them, his face lit by the gentle blue glow of his laptop screen as he went over the Hagia Sophia’s schematics one more time. “I’ve been over them so many times, it’s like I built the place. What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Reaper took the wheel of the Express and skidded away from the safehouse after a bravura display of launch control that impressed even Scarlet. Dumping the clutch, the van took off like a rocket down the hill. Weaving through cobbled backstreets with the help of Lea’s iPhone, they reached the Galata Bridge in good time.
Ripping over the Golden Horn waterway, they were soon in the old part of the city. The streets in this part of town were narrow and busy, teeming with taxis and pedestrians and delivery trucks all, trundling around in the gridlock under a merciless Turkish sun.
Screeching around another corner, Reaper mounted the kerb and almost hit two pedestrians. They dived out of the way and unleashed a string of profanities at the Frenchman. In response, he waved his fist out of the window. “If you don’t like the way I drive, then get off the damned sidewalk, connard!”
Zeke laughed, and was halfway through a joke when they turned a corner and saw the world-famous silhouette of the Hagia Sophia rising above the rooftops.
“Now, that’s a church!” Zeke said.
“It’s not a church,” Ryan said casually. “It’s a cathedral. And before you ask, Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom.”
“Whatever you say, chief, but it looks a hell of a lot more amazing in real life than on the goddam internet!”
“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Camacho said seriously.
Nikolai muttered a quiet prayer. “That’s why we are here.”
“To kick the ass right out of the Blood Crew.” Zeke said.
Jazmin had been quiet on the journey down to the Hagia Sophia. She looked scared but had insisted on coming along. Now, Hawke knew this was as far as she went.
“You can go if you want, Jazmin. We don’t need your expertise anymore.”
“No, I need to know how this ends.”
“All right,” he said gently. “But you stay in the van.”
She accepted his concerns and agreed to stay in the van, just as Reaper pulled up near the cathedral and killed the engine.
“It’s on us now,” Hawke said. “We can’t involve the Turkish authorities without exposing our position. Not only would they, in all likelihood, report it back to the US Government, but it’s highly probable the CIA would be listening out for us as well. But walking away is not an option, because if Kashala completes his mission and detonates the antimatter device, we’re looking at the deaths of at least twenty-five million people. That’s why it’s all on us.”
“No pressure then,” Zeke said with a goofy smile.
Hawke patted him on the back. “No pressure at all — but if you screw up, millions will die in the worst single bomb explosion in history, and that includes all of us, too.”
“I got you, chief.”
“Ryan, what have you got?”
“Tunnels, Joe. It’s all about the tunnels, or more specifically the crypts.”
Scarlet stuffed a Glock into her holster. “Oh, my favorite!”
“Sounds good to me,” Hawke said. “The Blood Crew are going to be all over that place keeping an eye out for any law enforcement, and more specifically, us. I’m guessing the plan is to set a timer and get out of there before it goes off, but we’ve all seen how unpredictable Kashala can be. If he feels cornered, he might just set it off while he’s sitting right on top of it, and that means he can’t know we’re there until the last second.”
“I just want to get in there and kick some ass,” Zeke said. “I’m starting to get into this ECHO business.”
Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “You ruffian.”
They emerged from the van and took in the breathtaking sight of the famous cathedral looming high above them. Partially destroyed by fire in 404AD and burned a second time in 532AD during the Nika riots against the Emperor Justinian, the structure had seen more than its fair share of trouble and destruction.
“So far, so good,” Nikolai said.
Camacho nodded his head. “Maybe we got here first.”
Hawke slid open the side door and pulled out the bag of old weapons. “So how do we get in, Ryan? I’m guessing the security guards aren’t going to let us in with all these toys.”
“There’s a tunnel we can access from a side street.”
Scarlet groaned. “Not more fucking sewage?”
“What do you want from me?”
“Don’t ask that, boy. Don’t ever ask that.”
“It’s not sewage, just part of the storm drain network. When we get to the other end, it should bring us up inside the Tomb of Enrico Dandolo.”
“Wasn’t he a singer?” Lea asked.
After a long sigh, Ryan said, “No, that was Enrico Caruso. Enrico Dandolo was the forty-first Doge of Venice.”
“No shit?”
Ryan shook his head. “Heaven help us all.”
The tunnel was accessed by a manhole cover and took them exactly where Ryan’s study of the schematics had indicated. Pushing open a trapdoor in the tomb’s floor, Hawke saw the face of a confused young child looking down at him. As he climbed up into the tomb, he saw the child’s two parents.
Looking at them he smiled. “No, that’s not the way out either. Damn place — it’s like a maze!”
Stunned, they watched as the rest of ECHO climbed out of the tunnel and up into the ancient tomb. Lea was last, and gave them both a wink. “What is it with men and maps?”