According to Heuse, the Louvre had scheduled an indoctrination ceremony in the auditorium under the Louvre Pyramid for 9:30 a.m. to honor the museum’s latest appointment to the Board of Directors, Maximilian DeBrule. Maximum capacity turnout was expected so the ceremony was scheduled early to avoid the peak tourist hours. Louvre security had been notified and asked to calmly evacuate the Under the Pyramid level of the Louvre. In reply they had informed the GIGN there was not enough time to completely evacuate the building before the bomb detonated.
Jake checked his watch, 9:06. Five minutes. The Mercedes slowed as the Louvre Pyramid came into view. “What the hell are you doing? Get us to the pyramid.”
“We must park and run.” Philippe said.
“No.” Jake shouted. “Drive across the plaza. We can’t waste any more time. Just do it.”
“But, monsieur—”
“Just do it. Now.”
Philippe floored the accelerator and the Mercedes lunged forward, bouncing over the curb and nearly plowing over a light pole. The Mercedes careened across the Louvre courtyard toward the glass pyramid. Pedestrians screamed and scattered like pigeons being chased by a dog. With its lights flashing and siren wailing, the Mercedes skidded to a stop sixty feet from the pyramid and two feet from a woman who stood frozen by the sight of the oncoming car.
The glass and metal pyramid serves as a main entrance to the Louvre museum. The pyramid was surrounded by three smaller pyramids and sat in the main courtyard of the Louvre Palace.
Jake and Kaplan jumped from the black sedan in a full sprint toward the pyramid when the sound of a distant explosion made them turn and look.
Jake saw a fireball billowing from the Eiffel Tower. Then a second fireball ballooned from the tower. He turned back toward the pyramid when he heard a gunshot from inside the building. Tourists screamed and ran in every direction. Before Jake could react, it happened.
A flash of light from inside the pyramid.
Jake felt a tremor beneath his feet.
Kyli and Kates had just reached the bottom of the stairs beneath the Louvre pyramid when a security guard began announcing the evacuation of the building due to a potential gas leak. The wait in line hadn’t taken them as long as Kyli estimated. A ten-minute casual stroll from the Metro station, another ten-minute wait in line and she and Kates were descending below the glass pyramid.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Kates said. “I come all the way to Europe and I can’t get into the Louvre.”
“I’m sure it won’t be for long.” Kyli reassured her. “Sounds more like a precaution. We’ll be back down here in no time. You’ll see.”
Kyli and Kates turned around and began climbing the stairs when Kyli heard the commotion above them at the entrance. People shouting, pushing, and shoving then a man ran down the stairs past her and continued toward the auditorium.
A guard leaned over the rail, “Halt.”
Kyli saw the guard raise his gun. “Kates, run,” she yelled. She grabbed Kates arm and started running up the stairs.
The guard fired his gun in the air.
Kyli looked down at the fleeing man and then back up at the guard. She realized the implications. The man who ran down the stairs was Arab — clean-shaven, clutching his jacket. Time with her grandfather had taught her that evil people surrounded them and radical Muslim sects were some of the most dangerous. They had no respect for life or for the lives of women and children. They didn’t fight like soldiers, but like cowards. Suicide bombers were worst of all, their objective was to take as many lives as possible.
“Faster, Kates. Faster.” Kyli yelled. “We need to get the hell out of here fast.”
Arm in arm, the two women ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time, until they reached the top of the stairs. They dashed for the exit. Hundreds of people were running across the Louvre courtyard, fleeing for their lives. Kyli had a firm grip on Kates hand when they reached the doorway. The two women were in synchronous stride, running as fast as they could, when there was a deafening explosion behind and below them.
The last thing Kyli saw were Kates’ eyes as the blast lifted them in the air, ripping their hands free from each other and catapulting them across the courtyard.
By the time Jake recognized what had just happened, the glass pyramid exploded. Glass, metal, and bodies flew outward, tumbling across the courtyard. Windows in the Louvre Palace shattered from flying debris and the shock wave of the explosion. Jake was hit by the concussion wave knocking him to the concrete. Bits of glass ripped and buried into his skin. He felt like he’d just been attacked by a swarm of bees, stinging his entire body.
Jake looked at Kaplan who was struggling to stand, his face covered in blood. A large piece of glass buried in his forehead. He looked back at the GIGN Mercedes; a four-foot piece of twisted metal had sliced through the windshield impaling Philippe to the front seat.
Jake picked up his gun and ran toward Kaplan. “Gregg, you okay?”
Kaplan wavered. “My gun. Where’s my gun?”
“Gregg, sit down.” Jake looked around. Kaplan’s gun was knocked twenty feet away. “I’ll get your gun. You stay still.”
Jake retrieved Kaplan’s gun and looked across the courtyard. Only about a dozen people were still standing. Dozens of bodies littered the courtyard, some intact, others not. It looked like a war zone. Painful moans echoed through the plaza. Smoke billowed from the crater that just seconds earlier was where the pyramid stood.
“Jake.” Kaplan pointed toward the crater. “There, it’s not over.”
Jake followed the direction Kaplan’s hand was pointing and saw a man staggering toward the crater, clutching his jacket, and chanting in Arabic. A chant he’d heard before and knew too well.
“Allahu akbar.” The man chanted over and over. “Allahu akbar.”
Jake yelled. “Stop.”
The man reached the edge of the crater and turned toward Jake. His jacket was torn from the blast. Jake recognized the vest, a suicide vest packed with explosives.
The man looked at Jake. “Allahu akbar.”
“Allahu akbar, my ass.” Jake squeezed the trigger. The man’s head recoiled then he fell into the pit.
CHAPTER 46
Kyli thought she was dreaming. Her entire body screamed with pain after tumbling across the Louvre courtyard. In a deafened fog she saw a man walking across the courtyard aiming a gun in the direction of the blast. His torn shirt and pants spotted with blood. The man looked like Jake, but that was impossible. Jake was two thousand miles away. She saw the muzzle flash, his gun recoil, but deafened by the blast, she heard no sound.
The last things she remembered were the blast from under the pyramid, Kates being torn from her grip, and the pain as shards of glass ripped at her skin, stinging and burning. The back of her head felt damp and sticky.
She tried lifting her head, but it wouldn’t move. The man who fired the gun turned around and was walking toward her. Her eyes tracked his movements. She struggled to lift her blood-covered arm. All it did was drag across the concrete. She tried raising it again, but only her fingers twitched. “Jake.”
A wave of pain flooded her brain and the man disappeared into the darkness.
Jake scanned the courtyard and did an assessment of the situation. There were dozens of bodies scattered across the ground. Some alive, some dead. All bleeding. Jake counted thirteen people standing, moving around checking on the wounded, searching for lost loved ones, and trying to cope with the reality of what just happened.
Jake noticed a young woman nearby, tall and thin, calling a name. The back of her clothes covered in blood, her arms and legs covered in abrasions. At first he couldn’t understand whom she was calling. He could see she was scared and wandered aimlessly. Then, as she got closer, he heard the name she called. His heart sank—Kyli.