Luther breathed a running commentary. “Egypt have SCUD launchers, at least ninety of the Project Ts with increased range. They have FROG-7s, purchased from the Soviets with a seventy kilometer range. They have M270s from the United States.” He stared in horror. “This is… Armageddon.”
Drake counted eight on their way to a terrible devastation. FrameHub had challenged the world, and no one had managed to stop them.
Did anyone even try? He wondered how many other teams were scattered around the world now, watching this in torment and utter helplessness.
“It wasn’t all about the missiles,” Hayden reminded them. “FrameHub promised a countrywide breakdown. Infrastructure, utilities, everything.”
In moments the missiles had vanished and the sky was clear. Drake made out several spiraling clouds of smoke toward the direction of Cairo and other cities, and could only guess as to the devastation.
“We get this done,” he said. “And then we get FrameHub done.”
Alicia nodded. “They can’t get away with this.”
Hayden agreed. “And just as importantly — they won’t stop this. How long until the next ransom demand?”
Drake, for once, felt powerless. Usually, they were at the tip of the sword, saving the day. But now… somebody in America had taken on a wealth of sins today and, soon, they were going to pay.
Luther sat down at the top of the slope, body language showing distress and disbelief. He stared at the floor, ignoring the SPEAR team.
Drake said nothing, just continued searching along the rocky bank. The team spread out in silence, each lost to their own thoughts, and when Crouch and Mai stumbled across something it took three low-key shouts to gather everyone together.
It wasn’t a splendid Egyptian tomb, nor even a marked burial site, just a hole in the side of the hill, covered over by a three-foot-thick slab and hidden by years of silt build-up and gathering sand. It had to be dug out. The only reason they continued in the light of everything was that this hole lay exactly where the depiction said it would be, and the thick plank overlaying it spoke to the fact that it had been made to last. Even the occasional Nile flood wouldn’t wash away the murals, and this site may never even have been flooded. The ancients knew what they were doing.
Drake’s fingers were bleeding by the time they finished removing sand. Then Crouch tried to wriggle into the hole and found he was too large. As ever, it was Alicia that turned to Yorgi and flashed a grin.
“What say you, Yogi? If anyone can get in there, it’s gotta be you.”
The Russian thief stepped up, dropping down into his belly and wriggling into the tiny alcove.
“You know what you’re looking for?” Crouch fretted, always anxious to be at the center of the hunt, inside the actual chamber.
“Got it,” Yorgi said a little thickly, concentrating hard. “I see darkness.”
Alicia looked like she was about to crack a witticism, then Drake saw her glance at the far-off plumes of smoke and let it die right there on her lips. He felt the same.
“Take my phone,” Crouch said, handing it over. “Just don’t lose it.”
“I will try.”
Yorgi struggled inside the narrow recess, forcing his body further and further into the hole that it concealed. The hole itself was behind the rock, invisible to the naked eye unless a person climbed down and dug it out. Crouch voiced the opinion that if they hadn’t found the picture and knew where to look, it would have gone unnoticed for many more millennia.
Slowly, and with a steady patience, Yorgi forced first his shoulders and then his torso into the gap. He moaned constantly, scraping flesh even under clothes. Drake saw his legs wiggling and then he was gone. He pressed forward.
“You okay?”
“Yes. I forget flashlight. Please pass down.”
Drake managed to reach in and hand his down. Yorgi wriggled off into the dark, leaving the team alone. Drake sat down, staring at the horizon and Alicia landed at his side.
“We can’t save everyone, Drakey.”
He nodded. “We should be trying,” he said. “Being stuck on the outside like this… it’s fucking unbearable. Totally undermining.”
Many pairs of eyes stared with undiminished dread and distress into the clear distance, wishing they had been able to help. This was what it felt to lose then, to be cut off and forgotten. Drake hated it.
In time, Yorgi reappeared. The climb in and out had exhausted him, and Dahl was called upon to help drag him out. Even then his sides were bleeding and, without a word, he collapsed into a heap, breathing shallowly.
But he held up Crouch’s phone.
The Englishman plucked it deftly from Yorgi’s grasp, turned it around and stared hard at the screen. At first, he seemed confused, then unhappy.
“Oh dear,” he said with typical understatement. “I think we may have to go back down.”
Drake winced. Who else could even fit down there? Mai?
Pine?
Hmm, an interesting conversation. He caught Luther’s eye and beckoned him down.
“We have a little problem.”
Luther stopped. “No,” he said. “We don’t. It is the people over there, those on the sharp end of this hell. We are fine.”
“Agreed, mate. But—”
“Wait.” Yorgi finally found breath to speak. “It is what you see. It is. I did not believe what I saw but stayed and stayed and looked and looked. I took pictures from every angle. Look at them. Look! It is what you think it is!”
Crouch backed away from them, the horror and fear on his face mirroring that which had crossed it when the missiles flew. “We came all this way, went through everything we did, and the answer was right in front of us all this time.”
“What are you talking about, Crouchy?” Alicia waved at him. “Snap out of it.”
“The seventh seal. It’s been there all along. We missed it. I missed it. The doomsday machine. No, oh no, it can’t be. There has to be some kind of mistake because, I see it now, and it’s horrendous.”
Drake was almost hopping. “C’mon, mate. What do you bloody well see?”
Crouch sent a dismayed face to the horizon, unable to speak. Drake followed his gaze, beyond the columns of smoke, beyond the mayhem and the twisting Nile and the mountains.
All the way to the giant pyramids of Giza.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
“The seventh seal and the key to the doomsday are inside the pyramids of Giza?” Luther asked in disbelief.
“The pyramid,” Crouch said. “That’s the Great Pyramid. And it does sound odd, since the capstone has been missing since before records were taken.”
“What could it be?” Kinimaka gazed at the horizon.
“But that’s impossible,” Hayden said. “The Great Pyramid has been explored already.”
“Ah, that’s not strictly true,” Crouch said. “It has been discovered quite recently that there are at least three passages inside that are still unexplored and, possibly, another tomb.”
“But why? Why would they not investigate it?”
“That,” Crouch said. “Is a very good question. I suggest we head that way and find out.”
To a person, the whole team followed his hand gesture at the distant pyramids.
“And into Cairo,” Drake said.
“I’m counting three hits,” Dahl said quietly. “And if the infrastructure has failed that’s going to be one hairy ride.”
“Gonna be some frightened people in there,” Luther said. “It will help to see some American military ride through.”