“What the fuck!”
Hayden fell in beside him. “Oh crap. Now we’re in trouble.”
“Why?”
“That lightning bolt just struck your sword.”
Kinimaka stared in horror as the whole soaring column leaned toward him.
Dahl stood transfixed as the lightning tree bent over toward the swinging cable car. He screamed for Olle, and when the Swedish translator stood up, he was grasping both of Alexander’s swords in his hands.
“Thought they might come in useful,” he started, and then saw the astonishing display of earth energy. “Ah,” he mumbled. “Ah… Torsten…”
Alicia scooted across the rock-strewn floor as the energy tower, containing all the Earth’s elements, bowed down to the ground, a dazzling supplicant. Lomas brandished one of the swords. She picked up the other. Fear and wonder kept her rooted to the spot. Here was a primeval force that could tear the world apart. Here was real power, real might. The kind of display that might persuade a man to worship the gods.
Then the earth energy gathered its white fire and flashed straight at the swords held by Alicia, Lomas, Hayden, Kinimaka and Akerman, surrounding their blades in a writhing wreath of flickering flame before exploding and firing upward in a shining column straight through the top of the tombs, now channeled from their original purpose by the earth energy inherent in the swords and re-tasked toward something new.
Alicia watched in awe as the column of light reached its apex and then veered away.
Drake held the sword aloft and felt the energy exploding. Above him, beyond the rim of the pit where Mai and Yorgi’s faces peered down anxiously, he saw fires illuminating the skies. The dark night was sunstruck. A wondrous array of crackling and sparkling lights swept the black curtain aside, a spectacular aurora borealis. Was it the end of the world? He didn’t know, but had foresight enough to thrust the sword higher, its tip now clearing the top of the pit.
Instantly, the world ignited. Vivid bolts of lightning blazed brightly and blasted toward the Earth with the sound of a thunderclap. Vital energy struck and channeled through the entire length of the sword, then flashed down from the hilt to be totally consumed by the bottomless pit of Babylon. A stunning symmetry of shining energy surrounded Drake and the sword, mini bolts of lightning crackled in his hair, between his fingers, across the tops of his boots, but he remained unharmed.
“It’s a goddamn lightning rod,” he said, amazed. The other six swords were the same, but infused with less power. They attracted the energy and sent it to their more powerful cousin.
The pit of Babylon devoured every spark of power like a hungry black hole. Nothing stirred down there. Nothing existed. Drake remembered Patterson saying that even the pit itself might be an earth energy vortex. But now he knew better.
It was a negative energy vortex, consuming everything and anything that was thrown at it.
Except for Matt Drake. With the help of his friends, he climbed and pulled himself up over the edge of the pit. The sword still flickered, expending the last of its force below, so Drake held it out over the black hole until the lights chasing along its blade finally diminished and the skies were reclaimed by the night.
Together they sat for a while, mourning the death of Professor Patterson and rejoicing that the world was now safe, but, most of all, worrying about the fates of their friends and team mates.
CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
Dahl bounded over to the suited man as the last crackles of energy subsided. He smashed a fist into the side of his head, sending his entire frame slithering to the ground.
“Questioning can wait.”
He balanced on the spot, listening. At least the dissipation of the energy tree had temporarily slowed the crumbling of the old tombs.
Bengtsson stepped up. “What on Earth happened here, sir?”
Dahl eyed Olle Akerman, still swinging in the cable car. “We won. And now we need to go.”
Akerman stared forlornly through the empty windows. “Any chance you can get me down now?”
Dahl jumped for the ladder. “Just be a moment.”
Alicia saw the last vestiges of earth energy fade away, then cringed as a high-pitched mewling started up. Her eyes sought and found Russell Cayman, bent double with his nose to the ground, the shattered skull of Kali clenched between his bleeding fingers.
The tombs still crumbled around them. She thought it really was time to get the fuck outta here, but could they risk leaving Cayman alive?
Not a chance. Alicia had no intentions of bringing the psycho back to the real world. She stepped among the statues, now at the center of the tomb, and raised her gun.
“You can’t kill me,” he hissed.
“Just putting down a rabid dog. And this is you getting lucky, Cayman, believe me.”
Cayman looked up at her, eyes wretched and lost. “I don’t want to be taken from my home again. I don’t want to be left by the side of the road. Do it. Do it now.”
Alicia hesitated for a second, wondering what his story was, but the sound of a Desert Eagle booming put an end to any second thoughts. Cayman’s head exploded, his body falling backwards, fingers still not relinquishing their grip on the skull of Kali, even in death.
Alicia turned. Lomas shrugged at her, pretending to blow smoke from the end of his barrel. “We have to get away from here, Taz. Place is falling to pieces.”
The Englishwoman fell in as the bikers and German special ops troops jogged their way back up the shaking passageways. Behind them, the tomb started to steadily cave in. Alicia ignored it and, surrounded by her gang, repeated the words one last time to reinforce the gravity of her message.
“Never, ever, mention that name to anyone beyond this gang. You hear me? If you understand me right, your balls should be starting to shrink.”
A few ‘ayes’ went up, even from the women.
Alicia ran with her new family toward the light.
Kinimaka forced the Shadow Elite boss down the vertical ladder, throwing him the last four feet. All around them, rock faces were crumbling. Even the throne of Odin was starting to develop a myriad of tiny cracks.
Hayden met his eyes. Kinimaka nodded. “Run!”
Dragging their captive, the two SPEAR operatives chased their own footsteps back through the redundant trap system. Mini earthquakes threatened to upend them at any moment, but thankfully the major damage seemed to be confined to the tombs. It was the spectacular end of the gods, the final destruction of their resting places now adding to the insolent disrespect of their deaths. By the time Hayden and Kinimaka neared ground level, the rumblings had stopped, making the Hawaiian pause at the entrance to the gates of Hell.
“I guess that’s the last of the gods then.”
Hayden cast her eyes over the archway, the so-called portal, and wondered about the two devices that complimented it. Whatever had happened to them?
“I guess so. And in truth, Mano, despite what we may have learned, it’s not a bad thing.”
“Damn right.”
“I just hope it’s the same at every tomb. I wonder how the others fared.” Hayden stared at her cell until the green bars flickered into life.