Stepping beneath an elaborate archway, they entered the colossal building and found themselves inside another world. Lea stared up at the magnificent marble piers supporting the giant dome. Light streamed down through the narrow windows and illuminated the famous golden mosaics of the very same emperor who had rebuilt the cathedral after the riots.
“Those tiles are beautiful.”
“Tesserae,” Ryan said.
“Sorry, those tiles are tesserae,” she said.
“No, I meant…”
“Too easy, Ry. Every single time I can get you like that.” She snapped her fingers to underline the point and moved on deeper into the nave.
He stepped out of the way of some smiling tourists and quickly raised his middle finger in her face. “As you were, Donovan.”
She started to speak, but then everything changed in a heartbeat and a sudden eruption of gunfire exploded ahead of them. Nine mil bullets ripped up the marble walls and blasted fist-sizes pieces of the ancient mosaics all over the floor. Hawke was first to see the Blood Crew at the far end of the nave, and after alerting the rest of the team to their location, he yelled at the tourists to evacuate the building.
They didn’t need much persuading. The volley of fire they had heard was Kashala’s way of dealing with the building’s armed security guards, and it had sent most of the tourists and other visitors into a frenzy. As they pushed each other out of the way and bundled toward the exits, Hawke now had the added pressure of the Turkish police’s Special Operations Department turning up mob-handed.
“That’s all we need,” he muttered.
“What are they doing now?” Scarlet slammed behind a pillar for cover. “I can’t see them.”
“They’re setting up a perimeter around some sort of trapdoor in an arch,” Hawke said.
“It’s the entrance to the Imperial Loge,” Ryan said. “They must have found a way down into the crypts so they can hide the cannister.”
Hawke pulled his gun and raised it into the aim as he broke cover and ran toward the Blood Crew. “Not today, boys.”
Lea cried out. “They’re setting up a GPMG, ya crazy eejit!”
He saw it now, and slipped behind another marble pillar for cover. Vizard was at the trigger with another man feeding the ammo belt into the weapon.
The GPMG swept from side to side, blasting alabaster urns and marble statues into chunks and causing devastating damage to the interior of the nave. Vizard lifted the muzzle of the machine gun and fired another few dozen rounds higher in the air. He laughed as the heavy-duty rounds raked into a line of columns supporting part of the upper gallery.
Hawke watched as the marble columns buckled and split and tumbled down to the smooth stone floor, where they landed with a heavy crash. Seconds later, the section of the upper gallery that had been supported by them cracked and groaned and then broke away from the outer wall.
It was as if they were standing in the epicentre of an earthquake. The gallery fell through the air bringing marble statues, artwork and an intricate stone balustrade piling down to the nave’s floor. The impact shook their bones and they ran to escape the noxious cloud of dust and stone fragments blasting out from the site of the destruction.
Through the thick cloud of dust, the sound of the GPMG could still be heard, chattering away as Vizard swept the muzzle through the chaos in search of more victims. Hawke saw the muzzle flashing in the distance to his right, dim but clear enough through the mayhem.
“Over there!”
“I see him!” Ryan said, smacking another mag into the grip of his gun. “He’s mine!”
More gunfire sounded in the smoke. Hawke didn’t flinch, but raised his gun into the aim and ran through the chaos toward the other side of the nave.
“They’re going down into the crypts!” Nikolai yelled.
“Get after them!” Hawke called out. “Kashala could trigger it at any second!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Kashala and Zhivkov vanished into the trapdoor with a number of mercs, while others stayed up top to defend the perimeter.
“We need to fan out!” Hawke said into the comms.
Nikolai made a break for cover behind the gift shop while Lexi sprinted for the famous Imperial Gate. Zeke and Camacho were at her back, guns drawn as they spun around and fired on Vizard and Demotte.
Hawke tucked his head down behind one of the blasted statues and watched as Nikolai returned fire from behind his new position at the gift shop. His true skills were hand to hand combat, honed from years of gruelling training with the Athanatoi, but it turned out he was no slouch with an automatic rifle, either. Sweeping the muzzle from side to side, he raked the Inner Narthex with rounds and sent the Blood Crew scuttling for cover in every direction.
“Kashala’s underground and getting further away with every second, guys!” Lea cried out.
“Grenade!” Ryan called out.
Hawke looked up and saw the small black object hurtling through the air. As he’d expected, the Blood Crew were working with short fuses, and it detonated the second it hit the floor. The explosion blasted the statue he was using for cover and knocked it over on its pedestal, crashing down on top of him.
With Lea’s cold scream echoing in the mayhem, he cradled his head and crashed to the ground. Shaken, he crawled free of the debris, but another explosion high in the vaulted ceiling sent a second shower of blasted marble and glass raining down on him once again.
“These guys are crazy!” Kamala yelled.
Rolling back under the upturned statue for cover, Hawke cradled his head a second time and shielded his eyes as the heavy chunks of rock smashed into the floor around him. Dust and marble splinters sprayed out in a five meter radius and covered him all over again.
“You can say that again!” Zeke said.
Hawke coughed to clear his lungs and heard a scream to his left. Clearing the dust off his eyelids, he looked across the expansive cathedral floor and saw Lexi fighting Vizard.
She was in her element, engaging in a hand-to-hand fight to the death with the heavy-set merc. She moved like the devil himself, a blur of feints, sidesteps, arc kicks, and tiger punches, as her beleaguered opponent struggled to keep up with her. Because of his muscle mass, he was too heavy and cumbersome, and she was using it against him.
When he lunged again, she spun around in a three-sixty degree arc and slashed her steel fingernails at him. Their sharpened ends tore four perfect rips in his throat and opened his jugular. He collapsed to the ground with blood bubbling from his wounds, calling out for someone to help him, but it was too late.
With Lexi free of Vizard, she stepped over his body and ran to Kamala’s assistance. The former US Secret Service agent was tough and well-trained, but not in the same league as a man like Alexis Demotte. He was showing no mercy, and after disarming her, he now gripped her by the throat and forced her out of the corridor and into the shadows behind the Omphalion.
“Kamala!” Lea yelled.
Lexi powered herself across the cathedral. “I’m on it!”
Hawke watched the Chinese assassin deliver a flying axe-kick into Demotte’s lower back and knock him down to the floor. Released from his iron grip, Kamala collapsed to the floor, heaving breath back into her body as Lexi spun around and brought her boot up into the merc’s meaty face.
The Belgian merc grunted in pain as the force of the blow knocked him over. He crashed onto the hard stone floor on his back and cried out in pain a second time. Pulling a gun from his holster, he rolled back to his feet.
“Get back, bitch!”
Lexi slipped into the shadows, leaving Demotte free to race over to the trapdoor. As he sprinted through the carnage, he turned and fired blindly at the ECHO team.