Alicia rolled her eyes. Drake grabbed a seat in the other chopper and held on as all five birds rose and then swooped fast toward their destination. He made ready, having lost count of the many times he had done this in the past, never knowing the outcome or even more than basic details of the actual assault plan. But it never fazed him, and it never got old. Times like these were when he felt more alive, closer to death but brimming with vitality and life, sat beside his friends as they attempted to save the world once more.
“Ten minutes to target.” The pilot’s voice broke his reverie.
“Don’t worry,” he said in acknowledgement of Lauren and Yorgi’s apprehensive faces. “This is where we make the Pythians pay for all their atrocities. This is where we end them.”
“Five minutes.”
Rolling gusts buffeted the chopper as it pounced out of the skies, swinging down toward the fast-moving landscape below. Hugging tree tops, diving into valleys, twisting left and right through hills and approaching the great mountain, it followed its twin into battle. Drake watched the navigation module flash until they were practically on top of their target but below, he saw nothing.
A moment later, everything changed.
The tell-tale streak of a rocket-propelled grenade shot from the scenery below, straight into the front end of Alicia’s chopper. Drake caught his breath, knowing who was aboard in addition to the members of Crouch’s team. The bird dipped fast, fire raging from its cockpit. Drake’s pilot acted on instinct, following the chopper down. Another RPG flashed upward, this one shooting wide of the mark. As Alicia’s chopper neared the ground it leveled slightly, black clad figures crowded the doors and the skids and then leaped off, rolling to the ground below. Flames still covered its front end. Then, as more figures leaped free, the bird lunged back up, still in control.
Nice maneuver, Drake thought. The pilot had used the grenade strike to fool its shooter into thinking that they were out of the game, landing his team safely and then dipping away. First class. How would their own pilot fare?
All lights turned green. Men shouted and moved to the doors. Drake watched as another bird hovered beside them, its chain gun hammering bullets into their assailants below. Hayden and Kinimaka jumped, then Smyth, Komodo and Karin. Drake went last, with a final look toward Lauren and Yorgi.
“Stay safe.”
“You too.”
The ground came up hard. Rolling, he was fast on his feet, gun up. The grenade launcher was down, riddled with bullets. He ducked as a shot whickered by, a bullet from a sniper’s rifle. Dahl, several feet ahead, sent a hail of gunfire in his direction, ensuring he wasn’t heard from again.
“We got an entrance yet?” Drake asked through the comms.
“Following a trail,” Alicia came back. “Where the hell you been?”
“Scenic tour.”
Drake followed his companions among the slopes, the green underfoot giving way to jagged rock then turning back to green. Dense bushes blanketed the area. Mountain fissures and small ravines cut to left and right. Ahead, their vision was filled by a gigantic, gray rock face, rising to enormous heights and painted whiter with snow as it climbed. Drake couldn’t tell which mountain was the actual Olympus peak but it was up there somewhere, the seat of the gods.
All those tombs we found. But nothing here? It occurred to him then for the first time that, yes, they had found a chain of three tombs — stretched between Iceland, Hawaii and Germany — but what if there were more? Another chain? A different myth. Instead of the Vikings, something even older? Prehistoric man. Whoever lived and breathed and died in all those lost kingdoms. It was said that satellite images proved that the so-called cataclysms which destroyed ancient kingdoms such as Atlantis and Mu had not happened — the earth’s crust’s tectonic plates revealed no signs of such significant upheavals, but definitive truths and answers rolled like waves and changed like the tides. The world was once believed to be flat. Nobody believed we could walk in space, land a rocket on an asteroid and that there was life on Mars.
Now…
Today’s definitive truths are tomorrow’s sorry mistakes. History proves this. Drake threw the deluge of notions aside as more gunfire broke out ahead.
Alicia threw herself below the rising curve of a deep ravine. Bullets skipped off the top, rocketing toward nowhere. Drake landed near her boots, rolling in. Dahl was behind him and Mai was to their right.
“Four o’clock,” the Japanese woman said. “Armed mercs protecting a doorway.”
“Use a grenade,” Hayden said over the airwaves. “These assholes will have an escape route and no mistake. Time is against us.”
Alicia quickly complied. Drake had almost protested, wondering if the blast might block the entry but then realized such frivolities didn’t matter. Moving forward was everything. An explosion brought screams and then a sudden silence. Drake peeked his head out.
“Clear.”
They ran, followed closely now by Hayden and Kinimaka, Smyth, Komodo and Karin. Alongside them came Crouch and his team. Drake helped drag the bodies from a small entrance, draped with dark netting. The tunnel inside was dimly lit, a gantry of low wattage spotlights attached to the roof. The team pounded along it as the Greek soldiers crowded at their back. Rock walls narrowed and widened.
“This place will be purely makeshift,” Hayden’s voice whispered. “Temporary. They haven’t had time to establish anything permanent yet, so take it down hard and fast.”
A pool of light irradiated the walls ahead, spilling from a wider space. Alicia ducked and dived into a niche as gunfire roared in the confined space. Drake joined her, firing back blindly.
“No grenades down here,” Hayden’s worried voice whispered through the comms. “We don’t know what chemicals they’re mixing.”
Alicia shook her head. “What does she think, I’m stupid?”
Drake snuck an eye around the corner. “You can’t help the way you look, Myles.”
“Ah, so you’ve grown a bit cocky since I left, eh? No one to keep you in check. We’ll have to find a way to fix that.”
Drake placed a hand on her shoulder and gripped softly. “Truth? I’ve missed you, Alicia. Who would have guessed it?”
“And how’s the lady friend?” The Englishwoman motioned at Mai on the other side of the tunnel. “Seems a bit… uptight. More than usual.”
“Long bloody story.”
“I’ll settle for the gag reel.”
“Believe me, there ain’t no laughs anymore.” Drake picked off one of the mercenaries. Dahl stepped into view and peppered the tunnel’s far end. Mai ran low, leading the pack as the Swede fired constantly over her head. Within seconds the two had reached the end of the tunnel. Drake and Alicia came next, stepping out into a vast underground chamber.
Drake shot a man in the vest, then capitalized on his stumble, laying him out cold on the dusty rock floor. With a moment to spare he absorbed everything around him, the Pythians’ secret factory. As Hayden intimated, the workshop was sparse, rough and ready, but effective. Six long wooden desks stood end to end, their surfaces crowded with all manner of paraphernalia from glass tubes and centrifuges to computer screens. Some of the containers had liquid bubbling over, some smoked. The computers whirred as they crunched numbers. Men in civilian clothes cowered to one side. Not a bad thing, Drake thought. Scared men imparted information without too much complaint. As the teams flooded the room, Drake ranged to one side, searching for stragglers or hidden shooters.
“Not buying it,” Hayden said through the comms, her words matching his feelings. Her next orders were very loud. “Interrogate those assholes! We need the sample’s location and to know if they managed to weaponize anything. After that, we need Dudley and the rest of his pack of reprobates.”