Mission: Her Shield: Team 52 #7

by Hackett, Anna

“What’s there to say?” Nat checked the phone again. No signal. “That all appears to be true.”

  “You don’t seem very shocked, Natalie.” There was a considering tone to Martha’s voice.

  Natalie looked up, and in the blue light of the phone, she met Martha’s dark gaze.

  “I’m just trying to stay focused on getting out of here,” Nat said carefully.

  “I know you don’t work for a university. You actually don’t say much about your work.”

  Nat remained silent.

  Martha nodded. “I’m not prying. I’m just trying to work out what we’re up against.”

  “My work is classified, that’s all I can say. And in this situation, I don’t know any more than you do.” Nat held out a hand. “I’m going to do my best to get us all out of here. Alive.”

  Martha studied her for a beat, then took her hand and squeezed.

  “And my team will be searching for us,” Nat added. “I promise you.”

  “This team isn’t made up of middle-aged archeologists who like tweed, is it?” Lydia asked.

  Nat tried to imagine Axel in tweed and failed. She laughed. “Ah, no.”

  Something flickered on the cell screen.

  “Wait!” About a dozen different emotions slammed through Nat. “We have a few bars.”

  “Mon Dieu,” Cosette breathed.

  Nat tapped in a number and pressed the phone to her ear. “Come on, come on.”

  * * *

  The X8 jet-copter touched down at Heraklion Airport, the main airport on Crete. The airport was bigger than Axel had guessed, with a large terminal, and several planes disgorging tourists.

  As soon as the X8 rolled to a stop, he pushed out of his chair and strode down the aisle. He slid the side door open.

  A bus was heading to one plane parked on the tarmac—no doubt full of sunburned tourists who’d spent too much time under the Mediterranean sun. He slipped on his sunglasses and spotted two black SUVs waiting for them.

  “Thank you, Kinsey.” Their logistics manager always came through, wherever they went.

  Lachlan stepped up beside Axel, his own dark shades already in place, hiding his golden eyes. “Let’s get to Knossos. It’s a short drive.”

  Axel slid into the backseat of the closest SUV. Smith got in behind the wheel, while Lachlan took the passenger seat. Blair got in the driver’s seat of the other vehicle, with Callie, River, and Seth.

  Ty got in beside Axel.

  “Knossos was the main palace and political center for the Minoans.” Ty buckled his seat belt. “Legends say it’s where King Minos—the first King of the Minoans—lived. The ruins have been heavily excavated, and are visited by thousands of tourists every year.”

  The SUVs rolled out of the airport, and soon they were zooming down the city streets. Axel tapped his fingers against the door.

  He saw Ty frowning down at his tablet. “What?”

  “Well, all the myths talk of the Minotaur being trapped in a labyrinth designed by the famous inventor and architect, Daedalus.”

  “Right, and something about a ball of string,” Lachlan said.

  Ty grunted. “We should start at the beginning. King Minos was fighting with his brothers for the throne, so he prayed to one of the gods—”

  “Which one?” Axel asked.

  “I don’t know,” Ty grumbled. “Nat remembers this shit, not me.” He stabbed at his tablet. “Poseidon. Anyway, the king was supposed to sacrifice a white bull in honor of Poseidon, but Minos kept the bull and sacrificed a different one. Poseidon was pissed and to punish Minos, he made Minos’ wife, Pasiphaë, fall in love with the bull. She had Daedalus make a hollow cow construction so she could get in it… I’m sure I don’t need to go into detail on the next bit.”

  “Jesus,” Smith muttered.

  “Pasiphaë gave birth to the Minotaur, half bull, half man, and apparently it had a taste for human flesh.”

  Axel’s heart knocked hard in his chest. Shit.

  “Minos had Daedalus construct the labyrinth to keep the Minotaur locked in. Anyway, then Minos had a beef with the Aegeus, the King of Athens. He’d had Minos’ son murdered, so Minos waged war against Athens and won. Minos forced Athens to send several young men and women every year for him to feed to the Minotaur.”

  “Sacrifices,” Axel said.

  “Right. They had to send seven men and seven women.”

  “Fuck.” Smith looked at them through the rearview mirror. “This monster took seven women from the conference.”

  Axel gritted his teeth and stared out the window, watching as the buildings gave way to tree-covered hills.

  “But only one man,” Lachlan mused.

  “Needless to say, Athens wasn’t thrilled by this,” Ty continued. “Theseus, the son of the Athenian king, was determined to kill the Minotaur. He came to Crete, where Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, fell in love with him. She gave him a ball of thread to help him navigate the labyrinth, and he succeeded in killing the Minotaur.”

  “There’s Knossos,” Lachlan said.

  Axel peered out the windshield. The old ruins cascaded down a hillside. It was a jumble of stone walls and parts of long-destroyed buildings. Parts of it had been reconstructed and looked well-kept, while others were little more than rubble. Still, it gave a sense of how grand the place must have looked in its heyday.

  Smith pulled the SUV to a stop. The other SUV pulled up behind them.

  “Everyone keep a low-profile,” Lachlan murmured. “There are too many tourists for us to cause a scene.”

  Axel stepped out of the vehicle. There were crowds being guided by tour guides, and others meandering through the ruins, cameras in hand. He and the rest of the team were all dressed in casual clothes—jeans or cargo pants, and T-shirts. He had his Glock tucked into the small of his back and hidden by his black shirt. They all knew how to blend in.

  “We do have a problem,” Ty said.

  Axel looked at the man. “Problem?”

  Ty stroked his goatee. “Archeologists have scoured Knossos for years. They’ve never found a labyrinth here.”

  “What?” Axel scowled.

  The team all gathered around.

  “So the labyrinth must still be hidden?” Axel said.

  Ty shrugged. “Some people think it’s just a metaphor for something else. Or it’s just a myth.”

  “The horned man who abducted seven women says it’s not a myth.” Axel scanned the ruins.

  “Or it was somewhere else?” Ty mused.

  Where are you, Nat? They didn’t have time to search the entire island.

  They walked down the main path and into the ruins. They all fanned out and Axel took in a larger structure, the pillars still in place. Shit, where did they start?

  He walked slowly, taking in the rows of huge pottery vases, all elaborately engraved.

  “Pithoi,” Ty said. “Large storage jars for wine, oil, and grain. They’ve found lots of pottery here. All of it heavily decorated.”

  Lachlan’s phone rang and he pressed it to his ear. “Hunter.” Lachlan’s big body stiffened and he spun. “Nat?”

  Axel felt like he’d been hit by an electric shock. His heart lodged in his throat.

  “Where are you?” Lachlan barked. “Okay, slow down. Tell me everything.”

  Axel itched to snatch the phone out of Lachlan’s hand.

  Lachlan turned, thumbing a button, and put the phone on speaker.

  Then Nat’s shaky voice filled the air. “We’re in a maze of underground tunnels. We can’t find a way out. There’s a bit of light trickling in, so we can’t be down too deep.”

  “Nat?” Damn, Axel was happy to hear her voice.

  “Axel.” She choked on a sob.

  “Be strong, baby, we’re here. We’re coming for you.”

  “Okay.” Another muffled sob. “There are engravings on the walls. They’re Minoan.”

  “We know,” Axel said. “We’re here on Crete. At Knossos.”

  “God
, I knew you guys would come.”

  “Hell, yeah,” Axel replied.

  “There are four of us. But another woman is dead.” Nat’s voice hitched. “This is her phone.”

  “Okay,” Axel said. “You guys stay together. That’s a good strategy.”

  “Axel, it’s hunting us.”

  His blood ran cold and he met Lachlan’s gaze. He watched a muscle tick in Lachlan’s jaw.

  “We’ll find you before the Minotaur does,” Axel said. “I promise.”

  She gasped. “You know about the Minotaur?”

  “Yeah, we—”

  A beep crossed the line.

  “My battery’s running low,” Nat cried.

  Dammit. Axel stifled a curse. “Hold on, Nat.”

  She made a sound. “Okay, okay. Guys, there’s no labyrinth at Knossos.”

  “It must be here,” Lachlan said. “We’ll find it.”

  “I have a theory,” she said.

  Then there was a longer beep.

  “I don’t have much time!” she said.

  “Where do you think you are, Nat?” Axel asked.

  “There has always been a rumor that the labyrinth was at another Minoan palace. The text I’ve seen down here is mostly standard Minoan Linear A, but some of them are more mysterious pictograms.”

  “Nat, spit it out.” Axel loved when she got onto some fascinating piece of history, and her face and voice lit up, but now wasn’t the time.

  “They match the same symbols I’ve seen on a mysterious artifact called the Phaistos Disc. The disc was found at the ruins of Phaistos.”

  Adrenaline punched through Axel. He suspected he knew exactly what disc she was talking about.

  Ty nodded. “The ruins of the palaces at Phaistos are far less excavated than here.”

  “How far?” Lachlan asked.

  Ty tapped. “About forty miles. Takes about an hour to drive on the island’s roads.”

  Lachlan frowned. “Or we fly.”

  Blair shook her head. “By the time we get back to the airport and wait for clearance to take off…” She shrugged.

  Axel grabbed the phone out of Lachlan’s hand. He could make the forty-mile drive faster. “Nat, we’re coming. You hold on.”

  “Axel, hurry, I—”

  There was a final beep as her phone died.

  Chapter Four

  The SUVs screeched to a halt at the Phaistos ruins.

  Like at Knossos, the ruins were on a hill, but less extensive and not nearly as well maintained. They had a more ruined feel, and there were fewer trees.

  The team had added light, bullet-proof vests over their shirts. Ty had designed the high-tech vests to be less bulky than the standard vests law enforcement used.

  Axel climbed out of the SUV, swinging his CXM rifle onto his shoulder.

  He took in the ruins and countryside. There were no tourists to be seen. Lachlan had called Jonah and their director had made some calls.

  The ruins had been “evacuated for security reasons.”

  Ty moved forward, holding a small, handheld scanning device.

  “Anything?” Lachlan asked.

  Ty shook his head. “Not detecting any tunnels or underground excavations here.”

  “Come on.” Lachlan moved up some rock-cut steps.

  The ruins spread out ahead of them, but Axel kept his gaze on the ground. He didn’t have time to look at the pretty view of the valley.

  Everywhere he turned, he saw ruined stone walls and pillars. No signs of any entrances to underground tunnels.

  “The ruins cover a large area,” Ty said. “The city apparently went for a few kilometers into the valley. Only a portion of it has been excavated.”

  Axel cursed. “Nat may not have that long. We need to find her.”

  There was a monster hunting her. He’d taken down plenty of monsters before—hell, he was half monster himself, thanks to the things he’d done.

  “It’s not just the size that’s a challenge,” Ty added. “The site’s been inhabited since 4000 BC. Different palaces have been built, then destroyed by earthquakes or invaders, then new structures rebuilt.”

  “Where was the oldest palace?” Blair asked.

  “Up on the hill. It’s said it looked like the Knossos Palace.”

  The team turned and moved upward. A huge set of stone steps led past some impressive walls.

  Ty’s scanner beeped.

  Axel clenched his hand into a fist. “What is it?”

  “Tunnels.” Ty smiled. “I’m detecting tunnels beneath us.”

  “Spread out,” Lachlan said. “Look for a way in.”

  Axel stepped over a broken wall, moving through some overgrown grass. He didn’t spot any holes or caves.

  “Here!” River yelled.

  They all jogged over to where River stood, her hands on her hips. Axel spotted a narrow tunnel dug in under a stone wall. The dirt was freshly turned.

  “It looks like it was dug recently,” Lachlan said.

  Like someone, or something, had dug down deep to get access to the tunnels beneath.

  “No one’s discovered tunnels here before,” Ty said. “So I’m guessing any main entrances to a labyrinth are hidden.”

  “Or deliberately blocked,” Smith said.

  “Shh, I hear something.” Axel crouched down by the hole. He heard the distant roar of an enraged animal.

  Hell. “I’m going in!” Axel dived headfirst into the hole.

  He forced his way through the dirt and a second later, he dropped into a stone-lined tunnel.

  As he clicked on the light on his CXM, the others started dropping in beside him.

  The tunnel was made of stone, dark, and dank. It was large enough for them to stand fully upright.

  “Well,” Callie murmured. “This is cozy.”

  The walls were decorated with engravings and text, but Axel had no interest in looking at them twice.

  “This way,” Ty said.

  Axel moved up beside Lachlan. They marched through the tunnel, keeping their weapons up. There were no more roars, or any sound at all.

  They reached a junction with multiple tunnels fanning out from it.

  “Sure looks like a labyrinth, all right,” River said. “We don’t want to get lost in here.”

  “I’m on it.” Ty pulled his backpack off his shoulder. “Brooks gave me a little something that he cooked up.” Ty pulled out a small drone, the size of his hand. The four small rotors whirred and it lifted up into the air, then zoomed off through the first tunnel. “It has sonar attached to it.”

  On Ty’s tablet screen, Axel saw light pulsing, and watched as the screen started to fill with a map of the tunnel.

  “It’ll take time to map the entire place, but at least we’ll know the way back,” Ty said. “I suggest we go straight.”

  The team kept moving.

  “Keep tight, 52,” Lachlan murmured. “The back of my neck is prickling.”

  And every good soldier knew to trust their instincts.

  “Look.” Callie jerked her head.

  On the ground were some fresh scuff marks, and a small, perfect footprint that had to belong to a female.

  Axel’s gut tightened. Was it Nat’s?

  They turned down another tunnel. Behind them, Ty walked slowly, snapping pictures of the walls.

  “Fuck,” Smith said.

  Axel’s head jerked up and he sucked in a breath. There was a body on the ground ahead of them.

  Callie darted forward, dropping down to gently roll the body over.

  It was a woman with light-brown hair tangled over her face. Her skin looked impossibly pale in the darkness.

  Callie shook her head. “She’s dead. Throat’s been ripped out.”

  Fuck, the Minotaur wasn’t messing around. Where the hell was Nat?

  “Do we risk calling out for Nat and the other women?” Axel asked.

  Lachlan’s mouth flattened. “Let’s look around a bit more, first. We don’t want to invite a
ny unwelcome guests.”

  But they hadn’t gone much farther when a wild roar emanated through the tunnels. It echoed off the stone walls.

  It was followed by a woman’s scream.

  “Right.” Smith swiveled, sprinting down the right-hand tunnel.

  They all took off running. The roaring got louder.

  Axel’s heart was pounding as they turned down another tunnel.

  At the end of the long corridor, there was movement. A body lay partly on the ground—a woman, Axel guessed—and a horned man had his mouth at the limp woman’s neck.

  The creature lifted its head. There was blood all around its mouth.

  It stared at them, its eyes glowing red. Then it tossed its head back and roared again.

  Holy fuck. Axel watched as the Minotaur dropped the lifeless woman, and then charged toward Team 52.

  “Take it down,” Lachlan yelled.

  They all opened fire.

  Axel gripped his CXM, his finger steady on the trigger.

  The Minotaur’s body jolted under the barrage of bullets. Then suddenly, it darted to the side, disappearing down another tunnel.

  “Fucking hell,” Seth said.

  Callie ran to the woman. Axel was one step behind her.

  The victim had long, black hair.

  Please, God, no.

  Callie grabbed the woman and rolled her onto her back. She was Asian—but smaller and more slender than Nat.

  Cursing, Callie shook her head.

  Then another scream echoed from a tunnel ahead of them.

  It was followed by an angry voice. “Fuck you, asshole!”

  Nat.

  Axel charged forward, breaking into a sprint. “Nat!”

  * * *

  Nat shoved against the Minotaur.

  It growled loudly, its strong, claw-tipped hands biting into her arms.

  “Run!” she yelled at the others.

  She kicked at the beast and the two of them spun in a circle. The creature was covered in blood, making Nat’s hands sticky and forcing her to grit her teeth to keep her meager stomach contents down. Then, surprisingly, it stumbled, almost dragging her down to the ground. Damn, something was wrong with it.

  She shoved the beast again, but it gripped the front of her shirt and yanked her close. It pulled her up on her tiptoes, and its fetid breath washed over her.