Joe Hawke Series Boxsets 4

by Rob Jones

  “Except we don’t know what we’re talking about,” Lea said. “Eschaton could mean anything at all.”

  “I’m not sure about that,” Ryan said. “We have Orpheus’s lyre, the hunt for Hades, and now a terror group talking about Eschaton, which just happens to be the ancient Greek term for world’s end time. I’m thinking some very nasty shit is getting cooked up and we’re going to be the first to taste it.”

  “So, what’s new?” Scarlet said. “That’s sort of what we do.”

  “Except this time, we’re on our own,” Ryan said.

  “C’est vrai,” Reaper said. “We are fugitives. We have no back-up, no network… nothing.”

  Scarlet scoffed. “You’re not going to let a simple little thing like that stop you, are you darling?”

  Reaper gave his famous Gallic shrug. “Of course not, but it makes our job harder.”

  “What else did Sooke say?” Hawke asked.

  “Not much,” Lea said. “He just said it’s a word coming up a lot in all the nastiest places – Project Eschaton. I don’t think he knows any more than he’s telling us, but I’m not sure it’s limited to Kashala and the antimatter device. Whatever it is, for now, we know part of it is going down in the Hagia Sophia. This is it guys.”

  “Yeap,” Ryan said. “It’s balls out on this one, no expense spared.”

  “But we need to stay cautious,” Nikolai said. “If we get caught, we will face severe punishment, especially if we are blamed for the Osprey attack as well.”

  “No, Ryan’s right,” Lea said. “Nothing matters anymore. Our fugitive status now means we’re outlaws, and that means not just outside the law of the United States, but outside the law of nearly every country in the world.”

  “So?” Nikolai asked.

  “It means we have nothing to lose,” she said. “We’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t. We have to push through this. Our only hope of getting out of this nightmare is to put Jack Brooke back in the White House.”

  “That’s not possible,” Kamala said. “However good you are, I can’t see how you can take on the US military-industrial complex and win.”

  “That’s because you’re seeing it as one problem,” Hawke said. “You need to break it down and then it becomes easier to see a way through.”

  “I still don’t get it.”

  “It’s simple. At no single point are we going to just defeat Davis Faulkner and his network of spies and soldiers. First, we’re going to complete this mission and get the money we need for our next mission – to locate and rescue Alex and President Brooke. When we’ve done that, we’ll work on a plan to get to Faulkner. Small steps, one at a time.”

  “And those small steps add up to our freedom,” Lea said. “Ryan, what’s up with the schematics?”

  Ryan was sitting behind them, his face lit by the gentle blue glow of his laptop screen as he went over the Hagia Sophia’s schematics one more time. “I’ve been over them so many times, it’s like I built the place. What do you want to know?”

  “Everything.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  Reaper took the wheel of the Express and skidded away from the safehouse after a bravura display of launch control that impressed even Scarlet. Dumping the clutch, the van took off like a rocket down the hill. Weaving through cobbled backstreets with the help of Lea’s iPhone, they reached the Galata Bridge in good time.

  Ripping over the Golden Horn waterway, they were soon in the old part of the city. The streets in this part of town were narrow and busy, teeming with taxis and pedestrians and delivery trucks all, trundling around in the gridlock under a merciless Turkish sun.

  Screeching around another corner, Reaper mounted the kerb and almost hit two pedestrians. They dived out of the way and unleashed a string of profanities at the Frenchman. In response, he waved his fist out of the window. “If you don’t like the way I drive, then get off the damned sidewalk, connard!”

  Zeke laughed, and was halfway through a joke when they turned a corner and saw the world-famous silhouette of the Hagia Sophia rising above the rooftops.

  “Now, that’s a church!” Zeke said.

  “It’s not a church,” Ryan said casually. “It’s a cathedral. And before you ask, Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom.”

  “Whatever you say, chief, but it looks a hell of a lot more amazing in real life than on the goddam internet!”

  “Let’s hope it stays that way,” Camacho said seriously.

  Nikolai muttered a quiet prayer. “That’s why we are here.”

  “To kick the ass right out of the Blood Crew.” Zeke said.

  Jazmin had been quiet on the journey down to the Hagia Sophia. She looked scared but had insisted on coming along. Now, Hawke knew this was as far as she went.

  “You can go if you want, Jazmin. We don’t need your expertise anymore.”

  “No, I need to know how this ends.”

  “All right,” he said gently. “But you stay in the van.”

  She accepted his concerns and agreed to stay in the van, just as Reaper pulled up near the cathedral and killed the engine.

  “It’s on us now,” Hawke said. “We can’t involve the Turkish authorities without exposing our position. Not only would they, in all likelihood, report it back to the US Government, but it’s highly probable the CIA would be listening out for us as well. But walking away is not an option, because if Kashala completes his mission and detonates the antimatter device, we’re looking at the deaths of at least twenty-five million people. That’s why it’s all on us.”

  “No pressure then,” Zeke said with a goofy smile.

  Hawke patted him on the back. “No pressure at all – but if you screw up, millions will die in the worst single bomb explosion in history, and that includes all of us, too.”

  “I got you, chief.”

  “Ryan, what have you got?”

  “Tunnels, Joe. It’s all about the tunnels, or more specifically the crypts.”

  Scarlet stuffed a Glock into her holster. “Oh, my favorite!”

  “Sounds good to me,” Hawke said. “The Blood Crew are going to be all over that place keeping an eye out for any law enforcement, and more specifically, us. I’m guessing the plan is to set a timer and get out of there before it goes off, but we’ve all seen how unpredictable Kashala can be. If he feels cornered, he might just set it off while he’s sitting right on top of it, and that means he can’t know we’re there until the last second.”

  “I just want to get in there and kick some ass,” Zeke said. “I’m starting to get into this ECHO business.”

  Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “You ruffian.”

  They emerged from the van and took in the breathtaking sight of the famous cathedral looming high above them. Partially destroyed by fire in 404AD and burned a second time in 532AD during the Nika riots against the Emperor Justinian, the structure had seen more than its fair share of trouble and destruction.

  “So far, so good,” Nikolai said.

  Camacho nodded his head. “Maybe we got here first.”

  Hawke slid open the side door and pulled out the bag of old weapons. “So how do we get in, Ryan? I’m guessing the security guards aren’t going to let us in with all these toys.”

  “There’s a tunnel we can access from a side street.”

  Scarlet groaned. “Not more fucking sewage?”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Don’t ask that, boy. Don’t ever ask that.”

  “It’s not sewage, just part of the storm drain network. When we get to the other end, it should bring us up inside the Tomb of Enrico Dandolo.”

  “Wasn’t he a singer?” Lea asked.

  After a long sigh, Ryan said, “No, that was Enrico Caruso. Enrico Dandolo was the forty-first Doge of Venice.”

  “No shit?”

  Ryan shook his head. “Heaven help us all.”

  *

  The tunnel was accessed by a manhole cover and took them exactly where Ryan�
�s study of the schematics had indicated. Pushing open a trapdoor in the tomb’s floor, Hawke saw the face of a confused young child looking down at him. As he climbed up into the tomb, he saw the child’s two parents.

  Looking at them he smiled. “No, that’s not the way out either. Damn place – it’s like a maze!”

  Stunned, they watched as the rest of ECHO climbed out of the tunnel and up into the ancient tomb. Lea was last, and gave them both a wink. “What is it with men and maps?”

  Stepping beneath an elaborate archway, they entered the colossal building and found themselves inside another world. Lea stared up at the magnificent marble piers supporting the giant dome. Light streamed down through the narrow windows and illuminated the famous golden mosaics of the very same emperor who had rebuilt the cathedral after the riots.

  “Those tiles are beautiful.”

  “Tesserae,” Ryan said.

  “Sorry, those tiles are tesserae,” she said.

  “No, I meant…”

  “Too easy, Ry. Every single time I can get you like that.” She snapped her fingers to underline the point and moved on deeper into the nave.

  He stepped out of the way of some smiling tourists and quickly raised his middle finger in her face. “As you were, Donovan.”

  She started to speak, but then everything changed in a heartbeat and a sudden eruption of gunfire exploded ahead of them. Nine mil bullets ripped up the marble walls and blasted fist-sizes pieces of the ancient mosaics all over the floor. Hawke was first to see the Blood Crew at the far end of the nave, and after alerting the rest of the team to their location, he yelled at the tourists to evacuate the building.

  They didn’t need much persuading. The volley of fire they had heard was Kashala’s way of dealing with the building’s armed security guards, and it had sent most of the tourists and other visitors into a frenzy. As they pushed each other out of the way and bundled toward the exits, Hawke now had the added pressure of the Turkish police’s Special Operations Department turning up mob-handed.

  “That’s all we need,” he muttered.

  “What are they doing now?” Scarlet slammed behind a pillar for cover. “I can’t see them.”

  “They’re setting up a perimeter around some sort of trapdoor in an arch,” Hawke said.

  “It’s the entrance to the Imperial Loge,” Ryan said. “They must have found a way down into the crypts so they can hide the cannister.”

  Hawke pulled his gun and aimed it as he broke cover and ran toward the Blood Crew. “Not today, boys.”

  Lea cried out. “They’re setting up a GPMG, ya crazy eejit!”

  He saw it now, and slipped behind another marble pillar for cover. Vizard was at the trigger with another man feeding the ammo belt into the weapon.

  The GPMG swept from side to side, blasting alabaster urns and marble statues into chunks and causing devastating damage to the interior of the nave. Vizard lifted the muzzle of the machine gun and fired another few dozen rounds higher in the air. He laughed as the heavy-duty rounds raked into a line of columns supporting part of the upper gallery.

  Hawke watched as the marble columns buckled and split and tumbled down to the smooth stone floor, where they landed with a heavy crash. Seconds later, the section of the upper gallery that had been supported by them cracked and groaned and then broke away from the outer wall.

  It was as if they were standing in the epicentre of an earthquake. The gallery fell through the air bringing marble statues, artwork and an intricate stone balustrade piling down to the nave’s floor. The impact shook their bones and they ran to escape the noxious cloud of dust and stone fragments blasting out from the site of the destruction.

  Through the thick cloud of dust, the sound of the GPMG could still be heard, chattering away as Vizard swept the muzzle through the chaos in search of more victims. Hawke saw the muzzle flashing in the distance to his right, dim but clear enough through the mayhem.

  “Over there!”

  “I see him!” Ryan said, smacking another mag into the grip of his gun. “He’s mine!”

  More gunfire sounded in the smoke. Hawke didn’t flinch, but raised his gun into the aim and ran through the chaos toward the other side of the nave.

  “They’re going down into the crypts!” Nikolai yelled.

  “Get after them!” Hawke called out. “Kashala could trigger it at any second!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Kashala and Zhivkov vanished into the trapdoor with a number of mercs, while others stayed up top to defend the perimeter.

  “We need to fan out!” Hawke said into the comms.

  Nikolai made a break for cover behind the gift shop while Lexi sprinted for the famous Imperial Gate. Zeke and Camacho were at her back, guns drawn as they spun around and fired on Vizard and Demotte.

  Hawke tucked his head down behind one of the blasted statues and watched as Nikolai returned fire from behind his new position at the gift shop. His true skills were hand to hand combat, honed from years of gruelling training with the Athanatoi, but it turned out he was no slouch with an automatic rifle, either. Sweeping the muzzle from side to side, he raked the Inner Narthex with rounds and sent the Blood Crew scuttling for cover in every direction.

  “Kashala’s underground and getting further away with every second, guys!” Lea cried out.

  “Grenade!” Ryan called out.

  Hawke looked up and saw the small black object hurtling through the air. As he’d expected, the Blood Crew were working with short fuses, and it detonated the second it hit the floor. The explosion blasted the statue he was using for cover and knocked it over on its pedestal, crashing down on top of him.

  With Lea’s cold scream echoing in the mayhem, he cradled his head and crashed to the ground. Shaken, he crawled free of the debris, but another explosion high in the vaulted ceiling sent a second shower of blasted marble and glass raining down on him once again.

  “These guys are crazy!” Kamala yelled.

  Rolling back under the upturned statue for cover, Hawke cradled his head a second time and shielded his eyes as the heavy chunks of rock smashed into the floor around him. Dust and marble splinters sprayed out in a five meter radius and covered him all over again.

  “You can say that again!” Zeke said.

  Hawke coughed to clear his lungs and heard a scream to his left. Clearing the dust off his eyelids, he looked across the expansive cathedral floor and saw Lexi fighting Vizard.

  She was in her element, engaging in a hand-to-hand fight to the death with the heavy-set merc. She moved like the devil himself, a blur of feints, sidesteps, arc kicks, and tiger punches, as her beleaguered opponent struggled to keep up with her. Because of his muscle mass, he was too heavy and cumbersome, and she was using it against him.

  When he lunged again, she spun around in a three-sixty degree arc and slashed her steel fingernails at him. Their sharpened ends tore four perfect rips in his throat and opened his jugular. He collapsed to the ground with blood bubbling from his wounds, calling out for someone to help him, but it was too late.

  With Lexi free of Vizard, she stepped over his body and ran to Kamala’s assistance. The former US Secret Service agent was tough and well-trained, but not in the same league as a man like Alexis Demotte. He was showing no mercy, and after disarming her, he now gripped her by the throat and forced her out of the corridor and into the shadows behind the Omphalion.

  “Kamala!” Lea yelled.

  Lexi powered herself across the cathedral. “I’m on it!”

  Hawke watched the Chinese assassin deliver a flying axe-kick into Demotte’s lower back and knock him down to the floor. Released from his iron grip, Kamala collapsed to the floor, heaving breath back into her body as Lexi spun around and brought her boot up into the merc’s meaty face.

  The Belgian merc grunted in pain as the force of the blow knocked him over. He crashed onto the hard stone floor on his back and cried out in pain a second time. Pulling a gun from his holster, he rolled back t
o his feet.

  “Get back, bitch!”

  Lexi slipped into the shadows, leaving Demotte free to race over to the trapdoor. As he sprinted through the carnage, he turned and fired blindly at the ECHO team.

  Back under the column, Hawke struggled to pull himself free of the weighty section of column on his legs. He was certain nothing was broken, but he was still trapped and vulnerable to attack from any one of the Blood Crew.

  “How you doing, Joe?” Lea yelled.

  He heaved at his legs, pulling the right one free and now moving his attention to the left one. As he worked, Demotte’s bullets traced over his head. “Just another day in ECHO,” he called back through the chaos. “You?”

  “All good.” She fired on Demotte once again, and this time her bullets found their mark. The Belgian mercenary took a direct hit to the throat and collapsed down behind the raised platform.

  “He’s down!” Hawke said. “Get ready to go.”

  “Time to discharge my payload,” Zeke said.

  “Gross,” Scarlet said. “I feel violated just thinking about it.”

  Lexi winced. “Please remember there are ladies present, right Ryan?”

  Ryan’s face was deadpan. “How would you know what a lady was?”

  Zeke howled with laughter. “Good one.”

  “Move in!” Hawke yelled.

  They raced toward the Loge’s entrance, cutting through the dust and smoke of the battle, leaving behind all the dead mercs who had been tasked with keeping them away from the trapdoor. Above their heads, the magnificent dome loomed like another sky, held aloft by the ancient pendentive vaulting built well over a thousand years earlier.

  Moving ahead with guns in the aim, the Turkish twilight streamed in through the windows and sparkled on the ancient murals. Hawke wiped sweat from his forehead and wondered if the dome would survive the day, never mind any more centuries. How seriously people took life and death, he thought, to build all this for a god.