Joe Hawke Series Boxsets 4

by Rob Jones

  “Holy shit,” he said. “That explains why he fell behind us – he was getting more men!”

  “How many more mercs has Kashala got with him now?” Lea asked, shocked.

  “At least another six, maybe more – I even see a woman.”

  “A woman?” Reaper peered at the group. “Nzuji. A very dangerous mercenary.”

  “Holy crap!” Ryan said. “She must be seven feet tall.”

  Reaper shrugged. “Maybe not that tall, but tall.”

  “But no sign of Mukendi,” Hawke said. “That makes me nervous.”

  “Mukendi or not,” Camacho whistled. “We’re in deep shit, guys.”

  When the first line of automatic rounds drilled into the portico and showered them with rock fragments, they all knew what they had to do.

  “Looks like we have no choice!” Hawke called out, taking cover behind one of the pillars as the mercs stormed closer. “We’re caught between…”

  Lea glared at him. “Don’t say it, Josiah.”

  “What?”

  “That we’re caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.”

  “Then how would you put it?”

  “Between a rock and a hard place!”

  “How about between the fires of hell and a psychopathic warlord?” Ryan called over.

  Scarlet fired on the men and drove them into cover. “Talk about being spoilt for choice.”

  Looking over their shoulders they stared beyond the gates of hell and into the black void beyond.

  “Race you!” Hawke called out.

  Lea shook her head. “You’re one crazy bastard, I’ll give you that.”

  And with that, the two of them led the team into hell.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  The darkness was more than they had ever known. The bright beams from their Maglites barely pierced the black void gathered around them. Ryan called out and listened carefully as the echo of his voice slowly trailed away. “Wherever we are, it’s colossal beyond description.”

  They all heard the sound of the Blood Crew’s boots on the rocky ground as they marched closer. Kashala screamed some orders in French, and then they saw the flickering of the mercenaries’ flashlights as they ascended the stone steps at the base of the portico.

  “There!” Lea cried out. “I see a light.”

  “My God, she’s right,” Nikolai said. “It’s just the tiniest pin-prick.”

  “What do you think, boy?” Scarlet’s voice was ice cold in the darkness. “You know all about tiny pricks – should we head toward it?”

  Kamala spoke next. “Anything has to be better than going up against those psychos.”

  Hawke agreed, and they sprinted through the black as fast as they could go, illuminating their path across the stone ground with their flashlights. As they drew nearer, they realized the tiny speck of light they had seen was shining out of a crack in the ground.

  “Follow it,” Hawke said. “It’s getting wider.”

  Their faces were lit now by the warm glow coming from the split in the ground. As they followed it around a large pile of boulders, they were astonished to find themselves standing a few hundred meters from a wide, flowing river of fire.

  “It’s magma!” Zeke said. “I damn well said it was hot in here!”

  “Lava,” Ryan said. “It’s not hot enough to be magma, but you were close enough.”

  Zeke smiled and gave Lea a wink. “That’s very magmanimous of him, no?”

  “Oh, pleeease – don’t you start with the puns too,” Lea said.

  “Sorry.”

  “I never knew there was a difference,” Kamala said.

  “It’s technical, but magma was a good guess,” Ryan said. “Cairo would have called it fire water.”

  “Fuck off, Bale.”

  “I wanted to do that twenty minutes ago and you stopped me!”

  Lea felt her breathing quicken and held onto Hawke’s arm at her side. “This is starting to freak me out, Joe. Maybe this really is hell.”

  “I see another archway,” Scarlet said. “Over there near where the fire water is entering the cavern.”

  Shielding their faces from the intense heat of the lava flow, they walked over to the archway and found a heavy wooden door blocking their way. Carved into the door was another series of symbols.

  “For fuck’s sake,” Scarlet cursed. “Didn’t any of these clowns ever hear of a doorbell?”

  “What is it?” Lea asked. “Another warning?”

  Jazmin and Ryan stepped closer and shone their beams over the gnarled door.

  “No, it’s a Byzantine riddle,” Ryan said. Leaning in closer to the wall, he blew some dust away and ran his finger along the carved symbols. “It reads we are sisters without souls. Each in time is older than the last, but all of us make equal rounds of time…”

  “What does it mean?” Kamala asked.

  Nikolai grunted. “It means trouble.”

  “It’s just a sodding riddle,” Ryan said, annoyed. “Can I have some hush?”

  The group quietened down. Nikolai turned and kicked his heels in the dust.

  “We cry out, yet we never open our mouths, and we go forward, yet we have no feet. We speak to you here, as you can see, and we’re everywhere if you’re willing to look.”

  Lexi uncrossed her arms. “What does it mean?”

  He looked at her. “Do you know what it means?”

  She shook her head. “I haven’t had time to think about it.”

  “Snap.”

  She pursed her mouth and raised an eyebrow. “But you work on Central Nerd Time, right?”

  “If you mean I think faster, then… ah! I have it. It’s the hours on a clock – each older than the last, equal rounds of time, moving forward but no feet. It’s as obvious as the crush Alex has on Joe.”

  Lea started and fixed her eyes on him. “What the hell?”

  “Never mind about that,” Scarlet said. “If we…”

  “Hold it right there!”

  They froze when they heard the sound of the Blood Crew’s boots crunching over the ground beside the lava flow. Kashala’s serious face appeared from behind the boulders and he marched over to them, flanked on either side by Demotte and Crombez. Behind him was Sergei Dimitrov and a handful of his mafia goons.

  “Get away from the door.” Kashala snapped his fingers and Demotte ran forward, pushing them back. When they were clear, he slammed a pack of C4 on the door and stepped backwards to his crew.

  “Actually,” Ryan piped up. “It’s a riddle and…”

  “Shut up, fool.” Kashala slipped a detonator from his pocket. “I’d take cover if I were you. Three, two…”

  The ECHO team dived for the safety of another pile of boulders to the left of the door which half a second later was all over the ground. The force of the explosion blew some of the heavier pieces as far as the lava, where they burst into flames, incinerated in mid-air by its blazing heat.

  Stepping to the door, the Bulgarian mafia boss looked inside. He turned to one of the men in suits. “Professor Zhivkov, join me please.”

  Hawke and the others waited alongside the Blood Crew for a few tense moments as the two men vanished inside with their flashlights. When they returned, Dimitrov turned to Kashala with a grim smile on his face. “General Kashala, have your men bring the equipment. This is it.”

  “This is what?” Lea asked.

  Dimitrov stepped forward, dabbing his brow with a silk handkerchief. “Now you are here, you will be the first to see the true treasures of hell.”

  “And what might that be?” Lea said.

  “Exotic antimatter particles,” Dimitrov said.

  “Oh my God!” Ryan said. “You’re insane!”

  Lea flicked her eyes at him. “What is it?”

  “Every particle has an antiparticle – carbon, anticarbon, hydrogen, antihydrogen, even gold and antigold.”

  Dimitrov continued. “Inside this cavern is a very strange anomaly, a uniquely powerful magn
etic field trapping a cloud of antihydrogen gas particles, suspending them safely out of reach of the rest of the material world.

  “This is impossible!” Lea said.

  “No,” Ryan said. “It’s not. Scientists have been detecting geoneutrinos deep within the interior of the earth for some time. Is that not right, Professor Zhivkov?”

  “Yes,” the solemn professor said. “It is true. Neutrino detectors have located these particles deep within the earth’s interior, but never before has anyone actually been this close to them. Here, today, with the discovery of the antihydrogen cloud, we make history.”

  Lea fixed her attention on the professor’s deranged, glazed-over eyes. “So this is just about a weapon after all?”

  “Not just any weapon,” Zhivkov explained. “An antimatter device such as the one I have developed will be the most destructive weapon in human history. Even the most powerful nuclear missile will be as nothing compared to what I have created.”

  He stepped over to where the Blood Crew were assembling the complex machinery. “With the help of this specially designed magnetic field trap, I will be able to capture the antimatter particles and then use them as part of Eschaton.”

  Hawke and Lea exchanged a tense look. “Eschaton?” He whispered. “What the hell is that?”

  She shrugged and mouthed the words, “No idea.”

  “What makes this so damned dangerous?” Kamala asked.

  Ryan said, “When a regular particle of matter like an electron comes into contact with an antimatter particle, like a positron, the two of them totally annihilate each other in an unimaginable fierce energetic explosion.”

  “So one great big fuck of a big bang?” Zeke said.

  “And talking of which,” Zhivkov said. “Some physicists hypothesise that there is another universe exactly the same as ours but in reverse, stretching out on the other side of the Big Bang and constructed mainly of antimatter instead of normal matter.”

  Dimitrov stepped in. “Part of Professor Zhivkov’s theory suggests that not only will this device be the most powerful bomb ever created by man, but that its detonation may very well open up a gate into this other universe. Consider that for a moment. Just imagine what may be waiting for us in an entirely new universe.”

  Kamala took a step back and stood beside Nikolai. “Holy crap, this guy’s crazy.”

  “You only just got that now?” the Russian said.

  “How did you know this was down here, Dimitrov?” Hawke asked.

  “Deep in the pages of a lost manuscript written by Orpheus himself. He wrote a great deal about the awesome destructive power of the gods. Some of the things he described could only be explained by antimatter forces. I took a gamble and it looks like it’s paid off.”

  Lea watched as Demotte and the Blood Crew activated the enormous magnetic trap and pushed it inside the cavern to a black hole in the rock face. Between where they were standing and the action down at the rock face, Crombez and Demotte stood with Kalashnikov’s trained on them.

  “What you’re doing here isn’t just insane, Dimitrov,” Lea said. “This goes to an entirely different level.”

  “Please,” the mafia boss waved her words away. “No more compliments or you will make me blush.” He called Kashala over and the Congolese general padded across the cavern, away from the magnetic device. “Is it ready?”

  Kashala nodded. “Ready and waiting for your order.”

  Dimitrov looked at the scientist. “Go to work, Zhivkov. Initiate your machine and capture the antimatter particles. There is nothing to stop us now. The future of the world will soon be in the palm of my hand.”

  Kashala gave the Bulgarian a sly glance and then went back down the path. Speaking in rapid French, he ordered his men to make way for Zhivkov. They obeyed his orders and surrounded the machine in a semi-circle, drawing their weapons and creating a defensive semi-circle around it.

  “This is not looking good, Josiah.”

  Hawke turned to Lea, once again lowering his voice to a whisper. “We’ve been in worse situations.”

  She tipped her head back and fixed him in the eye. “And when the frigging fuck might that have been?”

  “You’re right,” he conceded. “This is the worst.”

  “Thank you.”

  Hawke moved forward but Vizard smacked him in the chest with the stock of his rifle. “Get back!”

  “Do as he says!” Dimitrov snapped.

  “You don’t own us, Dimitrov!” Lea said. “You’re just a jumped-up thug with a chain of restaurants.”

  “Yeah,” Ryan threw in. “And I bet last time you went to one of them you ordered the pasta and the antipasta at the same time, but they exploded in the kitchen!”

  Zeke laughed. “I like it.”

  “Silence!” Dimitrov yelled. “I will not be mocked. General Kashala, have your men tie these people up and secure them to the MFT. When we detonate this cave, they will be buried beneath millions of tons of volcanic rock.” He turned to Lea with a smile on his face. “And no one will ever hear anything of you or any of your miserable friends ever again.”

  Crombez grabbed Reaper. “Come on, Vincent.”

  “How could you do this?” Reaper said. “Work for a man like Dimitrov on a project like this?”

  The Belgian merc gave a nonchalant shrug. “You know how this works. I live my life according to the golden rule – he who has the gold makes the rules. Right now, the King pays the most for mercenary work and so I work for him. You could join me, right now. I would vouch for your loyalty to the King. The paycheck is one million dollars each.”

  Reaper shook his head sadly. “Go to hell, Olivier.”

  The Belgian laughed. “This is very funny, considering where you are going to die today.”

  What happened next reminded Hawke why Reaper was such a valued member of the team.

  The Frenchman lashed out, simultaneously grabbing Crombez by the neck and disarming him. He grabbed his assault rifle for himself and threw Hawke the merc’s SIG.

  Hawke caught the gun, released the mag and checked it. Full. He’d expected nothing less from a man with Crombez’s training and experience. Cradling the weapon with both hands, he raised it into the aim with the muzzle pointing directly at Kashala.

  Using the merc as a human shield, Reaper swung the automatic weapon around and aimed it at Dimitrov. “Tell them to drop their weapons or you will die in five seconds.”

  Kashala’s reaction was just as sharp. Drawing a sidearm from a holster on his belt, he fired on Reaper, forcing him back behind the boulders.

  Hawke instantly returned fire, but the Congolese warlord slipped behind the pillars in front of the door. The distraction had given Dimitrov, the mafia men and the Blood Crew time to take cover and open a savage volley of fire on the defenceless ECHO team.

  Reaper’s reaction was merciless. Using the stock of the rifle, he struck Crombez hard on the side of the head and knocked him out. Then he turned the rifle on the enemy and began sweeping the muzzle from side to side, peppering their position with automatic fire.

  Far from being cowed, Kashala shocked everyone by ordering his men forward into battle, and moments later Demotte led the hardened force of mercenaries out of their cover. With the mafia men following behind, they screamed as they ran toward them, endless fire spitting from their Kalashnikovs.

  “And we’ve got one rifle and one sidearm,” Hawke said. “Oh, happy days.”

  “Buckle up,” Lea said, tucking her head down behind the boulder. “’Cause things are about to go to hell in a big way!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  The onslaught raged.

  Hellish mayhem like they had never known before exploded in the antechamber outside the tiny cavern. In the chaos, Camacho and Zeke scrambled inside the entrance and engaged in closer-quarter combat with two of the new mercs. Both hardened fighters, the Texan tank commander managed to disarm one of the men and shoot them both down, while the former CIA man snatched up the
ir bags.

  The two of them jogged back over and crashed down in the dirt behind the boulder. “Gotta be some shooting irons in here, right?” Zeke said.

  Camacho opened the bag and they all peered inside.

  “A few shooting irons,” Hawke said, handing the guns out. “And if I’m not very much mistaken, that’s a nice little lightweight, smoothbore, muzzle-loading mortar.”

  Lea sighed. “God I just love it when you talk dirty, Josiah.”

  Hawke ducked to dodge a tracing bullet and gave her a look as he set up the bipod mount and base plate. “Looks like they were kind enough to pack some high explosives, too.” He stopped and called out across the chamber. “Love you guys!”

  “Did you have to do that?” Lexi said.

  “No, but I just wanted to,” he said. “Wait a minute – there’s something else in here.”

  Nikolai leaned in. “What?”

  Hawke pulled out a strange cannister and shone his flashlight beam on it. “Ryan?”

  The young man squinted as he assessed it. “Looks like some sort of heavy-duty scientific container. Hang on, I think I know. If Zhivkov really has invented an antimatter magnetic field generator, he’s going to need a mobile field generator to transport the antihydrogen particles. My money is on this cannister being exactly that.”

  Hawke stuffed it back inside and slung the bag over his shoulder. “Well, good job we’ve got it then. Now, looks like it’s time we sort the wheat from the chaff. Firing!”

  He dropped a shell down inside the cannon and fired it across the cave. Cradling their heads in their arms, the ECHO team waited for the fireworks and weren’t disappointed when they started.

  The far end of the cavern exploded in a fireball, scattering car-sized chunks of rock and an equally lethal cloud of debris all over Kashala’s unsuspecting men far below. The Congolese and Belgian mercs ran for cover in every direction, with some heading for arched tunnels and others diving back behind the boulders. One of the Congolese men was too slow and was crushed by a granite slab the size of refrigerator.