“Sooner or later we’re going to end up under the bloody bay!” Hawke said.
With the thought of going under the sea in their minds, they pushed on into the tunnel, taking care not to stumble and injure themselves. This was not the time or place to get a broken ankle.
Then, without any warning, one side of the tunnel was gone — receding away into the darkness. “What the hell?” Hawke shone the flashlight at the wall and saw the tunnel had now turned into a ledge. To their right the safety of the carved tunnel wall had given way to a drop hundreds of feet down.
“Everyone get back!” he shouted. “We’re on a ledge!”
Ryan peered down over the edge where a ravine formed and rows of razor-sharp stalagmites twisted up like needles. “I’m surprised this isn’t on the tourist trail — and look!” He shone his flashlight at the far wall and illuminated a series of giant carvings of figures in the rock.
“And who might they be?” Scarlet said. She almost sounded impressed.
“Those are Hades and Zeus, and that must be Poseidon himself,” Ryan said. “I’m not sure about that fella there though.” His flashlight settled on the ghostly stone lines of the biggest face of all.
“He looks pretty angry, whoever he is,” Sophie said.
“That is Kronos, the father of all time,” Demetriou whispered in awe. His eyes were glazing over as he stared at the ancient god’s face. “It can mean only one thing — we really are in the right place and must be getting closer to the tomb.”
They moved on, and after a short walk they emerged at the top of more steps which led into yet another tunnel.
Lea looked up. “This place is like a labyrinth.”
“It actually is a labyrinth,” said Ryan.
Ahead, they saw Zaugg’s team. They had caught them up. From their position further back they watched Zaugg and his men working their way forward deeper into the complex.
“He’s been a busy boy,” Scarlet said, frowning. “Where the hell did he get all those men from?”
Hawke looked at her. “A man like Zaugg is very resourceful, and very rich. Put those two qualities together and you get what you want, when you want it.”
“Either way,” Lea said, “we’ve got our work cut out for us now, Joe.”
Hawke agreed, and nodded in appreciation of the fact.
“So what do we do?” Sophie asked.
Then Ryan sneezed.
Lea tutted. “Good work, genius.”
Zaugg’s men turned and opened fire with a ferocity Hawke had rarely seen outside of full military combat. The bullets traced over their heads and peppered the cavern wall behind them, blasting chunks of the ancient walls into smithereens and forcing them to take cover behind a handful of inadequate boulders at the mouth of the tunnel.
“Return fire!” Hawke screamed.
But it was too late. Already Zaugg’s men were upon them, and he saw they were massively outnumbered. Seconds later it was close quarter combat as Zaugg’s men were ordered forward to capture them.
Hawke met them head-on, punching one in the face and knocking him out, and then spinning around and grabbing another by the back of his head. He slammed him face-first into the rock wall and he fell into the dirt.
Another man fronted up to him. Hawke had been in more fights than he could remember, and knew how to assess his opponent quickly. This one looked like he was up for it. Hawke saw the tension in his fists and shoulders, and the hateful gleam in his eye.
The man pulled a knife from his belt and lunged toward Hawke. It was some kind of hunting knife in a black-matte finish with a very nasty serrated blade.
Hawke stepped aside and avoided the blade. As it sailed past him he spun around and leaned into the man, holding his knife-wielding hand at arm’s length while he brought his hand down hard on the man’s wrist and knocked the knife from his hand. It fell with a thud into the sand.
The man struggled to free himself but Hawke brought his right elbow up into his face and broke his nose, turning on his heel to land a solid inside power punch on the man’s jaw and send him flying out of consciousness into the dirt.
Hawke turned to take stock of the situation.
Demetriou and Ryan were at the back, out of sight, and ahead of them was Scarlet Sloane, teaching some of the Swiss mercs about the pleasure of underestimating a woman with an intimate knowledge of Krav Maga. Hawke thought he could have been watching a Bruce Lee movie as she used Zaugg’s men for her daily workout.
Lea and Reaper were fighting together, back to back, but slowly they were overwhelmed by the sheer force of numbers as a mix of Zaugg’s Swiss mercs and local hired thugs piled forward into them.
Ahead, Zaugg, Grobel, Baumann and a dozen men moved forwards toward the tomb, their precious goal almost in sight.
One man turned to see his great leader deserting him, and Hawke took advantage of the moment, seizing the muzzle of his Uzi, and snatching it from the dazed man’s grasp. He mercilessly smashed the butt into the center of his face. The man fell like a sack of potatoes into the dust.
“What’s the plan now?” Lea screamed.
“You and Hart lead the others towards Zaugg while we finish up here, then Cairo and I’ll bring up the rear.”
“You were always good at that,” Scarlet muttered.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Lea rolled her eyes. “Don’t you ever give it a rest?”
“Take it easy, darling,” Scarlet said coolly. “You’ll not impress Joe here with foul language.”
“Why, I ought to smack you in…”
“Not now chaps,” Hart said. “We have arses to kick.”
Slowly they turned the tables on them, and after taking out the last of the enemy, they moved forwards to attack Zaugg.
They gradually made their way deeper into the underground complex, closing in on the Swiss team, who were now in what looked like a dead end.
Zaugg screamed a string of curses in German and kicked the cave wall. The others moved forward to see what had enraged him so much. Hawke watched as he and Grobel discussed something at the end of the tunnel. There was nothing down there except a simple rock pool.
“He’s saying that Grobel has led him the wrong way,” Ryan said. “He’s not very happy.”
“I think that’s obvious in any language.” Hawke watched Zaugg smack Grobel over the back of the head with his gloved hand and knock him to the ground.
Grobel tumbled forward and fell into the pool, and to the great surprise of everyone watching, completely disappeared.
“What the hell?” Ryan said.
Hawke sighed. “It’s another buggering tunnel, only this time it’s filled with water.”
“The seventh tunnel in between us and the tomb, Ryan said. “Just like you wrote about professor.”
“I always believed there would be seven levels,” Demetriou said.
“If I were going to hide something like the tomb of a god,” Lea said, “then I reckon at the end of an underwater tunnel might be a good place to start.”
“Exactly my thinking,” said Hawke, and smiled at her. Her face looked younger in the gentle light of the glow-sticks, and for the first time he saw her more as a woman and less just another ex-soldier.
Ahead of them, Grobel emerged from the pool and spat some water out of his mouth as he crawled out into the cave. He looked like a drowned rat.
“If I could just get a closer look,” Ryan said, clambering up on the boulder.
“Get down!” said Hawke, as urgently as he could in a whisper.
Ryan whispered almost to himself: “I wonder how deep…” but then he lost his footing and slipped over, bringing a pile of stones and dust tumbling down on top of him.
Zaugg spun around and pointed toward them. He screamed more orders and Baumann and some men lunged forward with guns blazing.