Joe Hawke Series Boxsets 4

by Rob Jones

  “The ring?” Reaper said.

  Razak gave a deep belly laugh. “No, not the ring. We were digging a meter-deep irrigation ditch along the border of the field when we found a strange blue sphere.”

  Hawke and Lea exchanged a glance.

  “Yes, you heard me correctly. It was deep in the earth, so it was naturally covered in soil and mud. At first, I thought it was simply a strange rock. Then I thought it must be a meteorite, but when we cleared the mud away we saw it was a perfect sphere, and made of something similar to glass, and more than that, when I touched it, a faint bluish glow started to pulse deep inside it.”

  He turned and faced his beloved jungle, shaking his head in disbelief at his own memory.

  “And then the very earth under my feet shook. We all felt it. It was an immediate reaction to my touching the sphere, and when I touched it again there was another earthquake right under our feet. I dropped the thing out of fear and shock, and when it hit a rock on the ground without sustaining any damage, I knew it wasn’t glass.”

  “Did it have any symbols on it?” Ryan asked.

  Razak spun around. “No, it was smooth like glass. I already told you that. What do you know about symbols?”

  “Nothing, I…”

  A smile crept over the Malaysian’s face. “I know about these symbols.”

  “How?”

  “You think I’m stupid? You think I just stopped digging when we found the sphere?”

  “What else did you find?” Hawke asked.

  “You wouldn’t believe it.”

  “Try me.”

  Razak looked at the SBS man with something approaching respect. “When the earthquake had subsided, I ordered my men to go down another three meters. They found nothing, so I ordered them to use the digger again and go down two more meters, and that’s when they found it.”

  “They found what?”

  “The crossbows.”

  Lea felt her blood run cold. She looked at her friends and they were clearly having the same reaction.

  “That’s right, five meters under the floor of the Temenggor rainforest we found a cache of high-technology crossbows with heat-seeking bolts, and they were covered in strange symbols.” He locked eyes on Lea and his jaw tightened. “Care to explain that?”

  She lowered her head. “I don’t know what to say…”

  “Then, let me try.” Razak took a seat behind his desk and casually sipped his teh tarik, or pulled tea. He sighed with satisfaction and set the glass back down on the desk. “We didn’t stop digging when we found the crossbows, naturally. We kept on going, not just deeper but wider, and that’s when we started finding other things – shields, tridents and other ancient weapons, but not like weapons from our ancient time. These all had strange technologies that made them sharper, faster… somehow intelligent. Far ahead of anything we have created even with today’s latest digital technology… Are you certain you won’t have some of the tea?”

  “No thanks,” Lea said. “I’m too gripped by your little story.”

  “Eventually we found a tomb covered in these strange symbols, and in that tomb, we found a sarcophagus, and in there we found a skeleton.” He paused a beat, clearly anxious at the memory. “Beside the skeleton we found a stack of journals, and on that skeleton, I found this ring.”

  “Wait,” Lexi said. “Am I really here?”

  “You’re really here, Lex,” Scarlet said.

  Razak sighed and drummed his fingers on his desk. “We worked hard to translate the symbols on the tomb. I nearly bankrupted the family business finding and paying experts to translate and decipher them, but it was worth it.”

  “Whose tomb was it, Razak?” Hawke said.

  “Pangu’s.”

  Ryan’s eyes widened. “The Chinese creator god?”

  Razak nodded.

  “But why was he here in Malaysia?”

  “According to the journals, he was seeding a new civilization here.”

  “From China?”

  “No, not from China. Pangu wasn’t from China, he just seeded the Chinese population. That’s why he was their creator god. After starting the Chinese civilization he ranged down through southeast Asia and seeded more civilizations there.”

  Lea felt like she was drowning in questions. “So if Pangu wasn’t from China then where was he from?”

  “From the Citadel, of course,” Razak said.

  Lea gasped. “You know about that, too?”

  “I do. According to the manuscripts, Pangu lived there like all the other creator gods around the world. They lived in this Citadel, the capital of the world’s first civilization in what they called the Land of the Gods. It was an antediluvian culture that existed long before our current history books even date the start of humanity.”

  “Sounds like you’re bang up to speed, darling,” Scarlet said.

  Razak ignored her. “When we had finally finished translating the manuscripts, I was able to work out that the most valuable thing we discovered was this ring.” He held it up again. “After a great deal of deciphering and translation, it became clear that this was just one of eight rings, each one belonging to a creator god or goddess, and that when all put together, they would somehow reveal the location of the Citadel.”

  “Sounds like you’re good to go, Razak and won’t be needing us,” Lea said, turning to leave. “Bye then!”

  “Stay where you are!”

  “Sorry…”

  “But yes, I am good to go except for the fact the Citadel remains undiscovered. Can you imagine the kind of technology, weapons and knowledge that would exist in such a place if a simple jungle field in a place like this contained the treasure and weapons we found?”

  “I’m beginning to form an idea,” Hawke said.

  “When I find the Land of the Gods I will have control of all of these magnificent treasures and be the most powerful man on the planet. Perhaps even more powerful than the President of the United States with all the military at his command.”

  Hawke stepped forward. “You’re not the only one searching for this Citadel, Razak.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There’s a cult of immortals run by a man named Wolff.”

  “I have not heard of him.”

  “He calls himself the Oracle, and he claims to be thousands of years old. He thinks things like your little ring are his birthright and he’ll kill anyone to get to them.”

  “He won’t kill me,” Razak said confidently. “If he gets in my way I will sweep him aside, however old he is. I didn’t spend my entire life searching for these rings to give up now.” He paused and scratched at his neck before turning to Hawke. “You realize I cannot of course let you live?”

  “Spoilsport,” Scarlet said.

  He laughed sarcastically. “Maybe, maybe not. I see it more as pest clearance. Now, it’s time for your executions,” he said casually. “Competing against this Oracle for the rings is one thing, I don’t need to be fighting another army at the same time. Lim! You and Rafizi are to take this thieving scum outside into the jungle and kill them. They seem to know so much about these weapons, it’s only fitting that they should be executed by them, so use the ancient crossbows.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Lim raised a sleek, white and silver crossbow and ordered them outside the enormous tent.

  Hawke studied the weapon, but he had never seen anything like it before.

  “Move!”

  They stepped outside. Away from the fans, the humidity soon enveloped them again and Lea felt the sweat forming all over her body.

  “I said move, scum!” Lim pushed the crossbow’s cocking stirrup in the small of her back and nudged her forward toward the center of the clearing.

  “Hey! Get off me!”

  “Shut up!” Lim snapped. “And say your prayers because your death is only seconds away.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Lea tensed as she heard Lim stepping through the grass behind her. Somewhere bey
ond him she now heard Razak give the kill order from over at the tents, his voice echoing in the steaming canopy ahead of her. She knew what she had to do – they all did. She dived into the long grass and rolled to the tree line as fast as she could.

  Lim and Rafizi fired their weapons at her, unleashing strange neon-blue crossbow bolts in their direction as they raced to the trees.

  Lea got there first, just managing to dive to the ground in time as one of the bolts raced over her head and flashed past her. She rolled in the undergrowth as the bolt twisted in the air like a heat-seeking missile and turned to find her once again.

  Speeding toward her and aimed directly for her heart, she lifted the thick piece of bark to her chest at the last second and the bolt rammed into it. She gasped in fear as the lethal projectile’s razor-sharp tip tore a hole through the bark and poked out the other side before stopping half an inch from her chest.

  Her heart thumped as she dropped the bark to the ground and tucked herself down behind one of the oil palms. To her right, Lexi was trying to dodge another of the bolts by diving behind the trunk of a kempasa tree. Beyond, in the clearing, Lim and Rafizi were reloading their weapons and firing on them again.

  “We’ve got to take them out!” Lexi said.

  “No shit, Sherlock!” Ryan called over.

  Zeke wiped the sweat from his brow. “But how?”

  Another bolt tore past Lea’s hiding place and burned a hole through a nearby trunk, and then another so close it scorched her cheek before burying itself in the undergrowth behind her head. She gasped and dived into the dirt as the rest of the ECHO team scattered in the jungle. Wiping blood from her cheek, she scanned the immediate area of the jungle for any sign of Lim and Rafizi or any other of Razak’s men.

  Zeke dived through the air to avoid one of the neon bolts and slammed down next to her.

  “Holy shit!” he yelled. “I thought that Razak son of a bitch was all hat and no cattle but when he said execute us he really meant it!”

  “Where the hell is Joe?” Lea asked.

  “I don’t know,” Zeke said. “But I think I see Razak – is that a river?”

  She saw it now, running further north. “I think so.”

  “Well, that asshole Razak’s right over there by the river. He’s holding one of those crazy crossbows.”

  “But I still can’t see Joe,” she said. “I hope he’s not wounded.”

  A bolt flashed over their heads and ripped a path through the jungle to their east. Leaving a scorched trail of blackened undergrowth in its wake, it exploded a few hundred meters away. In response, they heard what sounded like Nikolai and Scarlet screaming.

  “This is getting out of control!” Lea said.

  Zeke scrambled to his feet and clamped a heavy hand on Lea’s shoulder. “I’m going to take that son of a bitch out!”

  “No!” she called back.

  It was too late. She watched the Texan tank commander vanish into the undergrowth, its broad green leaves and slender tendrils closing back up again as if it had swallowed him alive. “Dammit!”

  Ezekiel Jones pounded through the jungle like a leopard. Spying Razak ahead of him, he leapt onto another fallen trunk to gain some elevation and sprinted along it until he was exactly behind and above him. The Malaysian hadn’t noticed him. He was too engrossed in aiming his crossbow bolt at Hawke and some of the others taking cover on the south bank of the rushing river.

  Zeke launched himself from the trunk and slammed down onto Razak’s back, pulling him down to the ground and piling a heavy-duty punch into the back of his head.

  Razak went out like a light, giving Zeke time to take the ring from his hand and snatch up his crossbow. As he turned, Lea was now standing at the edge of the small clearing.

  “You got the ring!”

  “Here,” he said, tossing it over to her. “Means jack shit to me.” Hefting the crossbow in his hands, he grinned. “This baby on the other hand is mine all mine.”

  “You see Joe yet?” Lea’s heart was full of hope.

  “Sure did – he’s over on the riverbank up there with Ryan. Looks like the others are making their way toward them.”

  They heard a scream echoing in the canopy. Instinctively, Lea slipped the ring into her pocket and looked over to Zeke. “That sounded like Lex. We have to help her.”

  “Where did it come from?” Zeke asked.

  “Over there, by the river. This is chaos!”

  They ran north until reaching the river bank, just in time to see Lexi bobbing up and down in the rapids. She was calling out for help but struggling to keep her head out of the rushing water.

  Lea gasped. “Oh my God!”

  “There’s a man on the bank firing at her. I think it’s Rafizi.”

  “And there’s Joe and the others!” Lea said, pointing further along the river.

  “They’re further along than when I saw them.” Zeke lifted the crossbow and aimed at the Rafizi. “Here goes nothing!”

  He fired the ancient weapon, gripping it hard as the air flashed with static and blue lightning. He winced and shielded his eyes as the bolt ripped out into the humid air and raced after its target. “Godspeed, you little bastard!”

  Rafizi saw it, and his eyes opened wide with terror as he tried to sprint into the jungle. The crossbow bolt reacted instantly, bending in the air like a biased bowl and lining up behind the fleeing man. A second later it tore through his back and burst out of his chest, exploding his heart and sending him crashing to the ground amid a scream of terrified agony.

  “This is like the goddam Predator movie!” Lea said.

  Up ahead, Hawke and the others were diving into the river.

  “What the hell are they doing?”

  Then they heard the gunshots.

  “There’s more goons coming, Lea, and it sounds like they’re armed with regular weapons,” Zeke said. “They jumped in to get away and I think we should do the same – besides, Lexi’s in there!”

  Lea knew they had no choice and gave a reluctant nod. She wasn’t going to lose Joe Hawke in the middle of the Malaysian jungle. “Let’s do it, Ezekiel!”

  A bolt flashed over their heads, and then the chatter of submachine gunfire. “It’s Zeke to my friends!”

  They jumped in and crashed into the water, instantly being dragged by the current into the center of the river. Thrown about like a pathetic straw doll, Lea worked hard to keep her head above the surface as she strained to breathe. Zeke was gone and no one else was in sight either. Only the screams of her friends reassured her that she was not completely alone as the mighty power of the river swept her toward the rushing rapids up ahead.

  And then she saw it.

  She was about to go over the top of a waterfall.

  *

  Hawke was no stranger to long runs with a heavy pack. It was such a central fact of life in the Royal Marines Commandos that it even had its own slang name - yomping. The dreaded yomp was a long-distance forced-march with full kit on your back The most famous yomp being when the Commandos landed at San Carlos in the Falkland Islands and proceeded to march nearly sixty miles in just three days, loaded down with packed bergens, weapons and ammo.

  With every pace he pounded out along the side of the riverbank he thought about his days in the marines and what he had gone through to win the coveted green beret. Legs pumped up and down and his breathing hardened as he looked around for his friends. Ryan to the left and Lexi somewhere behind. Scarlet and Nikolai were to the right, but further away. All of them had been flushed out of the jungle and toward the river, but there was still no sign of Lea or Zeke, and Reaper was AWOL too.

  “Into the water!” he yelled. “It’s out only chance!”

  He launched into a racing dive position and flew through the air, neon bolts tracing inches above him as he cut through the surface of the river like a hot knife through butter. Spinning around in an explosion of bubbles, he swam to the surface just in time to see the last of his team crashing into th
e water, including Reaper. Already carried at speed away from the river bank by the current, Razak’s goons were rapidly being left behind, and then he saw Lea and Zeke further behind.

  Ryan called out from up ahead.

  Hawke fought to keep his head above the rushing water. “Say again?”

  “Waterfall!”

  Then Hawke saw it. They were speedily approaching what looked like some heavy duty falls, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

  *

  By the time she reached the overhang, Lea realized she was the last of her friends to go over the edge. With froth and water in her eyes and ears and the deafening noise of the rushing water raging all around her, she gulped a deep breath of air and held on for her life.

  Sliding over the edge was painless, but now came the hard part. She felt her stomach floating up inside as she tumbled through the saturated air. How high were the falls? How long would she fall? She had no answers, and clamped her eyes shut to pray for her survival.

  When she hit the bottom, she was sucked down into the plunge basin at the bottom of the waterfall. More froth and bubbles and confusion. She almost passed out. Was that someone’s leg kicking in front of her face? The cascading water crashed around her as she struggled to work out which way was up and swim to the surface. When she finally got there, she saw the rest of her team crawling over wet rocks to reach the riverbank.

  Exhausted and frightened, she followed suit and swam across the plunge pool where a relieved Hawke helped her out of the water and pulled her up into his arms. “Late again, Donovan.”

  “I sure earnt my pay on this mission!”

  “Time to get moving, non?” Reaper said.

  *

  They marched for another hour through the jungle before they were certain that Razak and his men were no longer pursuing them. Reaching another clearing and with the weakest of signals, Lea set her iPhone to speakerphone and set it on top of a fallen tree trunk and put a call through to Richard Eden. As they grouped around it, she increased the volume so they could hear his voice above the raging cicadas.