Cade could only hope that he attempted an ambush outside. That was what he would do in Jens’s shoes. If he was a sadistic madman, that was.
Time seemed to stretch as Jens remained silent. Cade heard only the ripping of cloth as the slaver inspected the body.
“Oracle,” Jens said. “What remnant is this?”
The Codex remained silent, but Cade repeated the Jens’s question under his breath. The answer came again, repeating what it had said to Cade earlier. Before it had finished, Cade heard the clatter of metal as the slavers began to move.
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Cade heard the screams moments later.
At first, they were words, instructions too garbled to hear through the mess of voices, intermingling through the echoing tomb.
But soon they turned into nonsensical, drawn-out screeches of fear. Men’s cries came in chorus, and Jens’s voice called up in confusion.
“They’re back,” Cade whispered in horror. “The beasts are back.” He looked at the hole, his mind racing. “Block it up, quickly!” he called.
Even as the legionaries moved, he heard the sound of slavers running above. And screams. Screams of terror, some long, others cut short in an instant. No gurgles, no cries of pain. Just gone.
These were no raptors. It was far too quick for that.
“Come on!” Cade yelled.
They shoved Imhotep’s tomb, inch by inch, closer to the blocked stairwell. The lid came ahead, leaned against the hole, just as Cade glimpsed the sight of mailed feet skidding down the stairs.
There was the thud of a mailed fist upon the stone, then a frantic crack, crack, crack of metal on rock as the man turned his axe on the thin barrier. Already fissures were forming, but Cade was shoved aside as men rammed the coffin over the top, sealing the men out.
“Let us in!” Jens’s voice called, this time in Latin. “We’ll leave our weapons! There are word unknown here!”
The Codex translated into Cade’s ear, but he ignored the plea. Jens had sealed his own fate.
“Amber, Scott, any luck?” Cade bellowed.
“No!” Amber’s voice drifted back, this time from Boudicca’s tomb. “We’ve started carrying the furniture through.”
Cade turned to the legionaries, who were standing in a semicircle, staring at the stairwell. The sound of axe blows had stopped, and Cade imagined Jens was hiding in the darkness.
“Go back to the tombs,” Cade ordered. “Find any treasure you’ve overlooked. I want every stone, every fancy piece of furniture. Everything! Bring it to that chamber, and the gods will transport us back to the keep.”
The men moved with speed, leaving Quintus struggling to hold the box that had belonged to William Cantelo.
For a moment, Cade was tempted to set up the machine gun, but they could be teleported away at any moment, leaving the precious remnant behind. “Come on, come on,” Cade whispered under his breath. Despite the silence beyond the rubble, he could see the sarcophagus lid shifting back and forth. Then, a gauntleted hand worming through the gap, bracing against the stone floor as whoever was on the other side heaved with his shoulder.
But it was no use—the sarcophagus itself was holding the lid in place, and it had taken nearly ten men to scrape it into position.
Then … he heard it. Almost felt it, so great was the thud above. Dust filtered down from the ceiling. At first, Cade thought a statue had fallen, until he heard the scrape of claws, rasping along the stone.
He could only hope the ceiling could bear the weight as another thud shook more dust free.
The hand grew more frantic, and now Cade saw the sweaty forehead of a man press through the gap. And then, Jens’s face, contorted in a rictus of terror and pain, appeared as he scraped his nose bloody pushing his head through the gap.
Behind him, a man screamed. Then another, and the very ceiling seemed to shudder as the predators above moved onto the central platform.
Jens pushed farther, but his breastplate would not budge. His face strained red as he scrabbled at his neck, trying to force the lid back a little more.
“Help,” he choked.
Then he was yanked away, his neck bones crackling as an extreme force pulled him awkwardly through the small gap.
Cade covered his mouth, horrified. Behind him, all was silent, the legionaries smart enough to keep their mouths shut. A pair strained with a heavy, ornate coffin, then shuffled on, crab walking their way toward Genghis’s tomb.
Cade crouched beside the narrow gap, his gun ready in his hand. He heard the crunch of teeth against metal. Heard it crumple like tinfoil.
And then, a snort. One that blew the dust through the gap. A snout, heavy and thick, nosed at the entrance. It was armored with dark, horny scales and had two massive nostrils flared like a horse’s.
A long, wet tongue flopped from the mouth, lapping at the pool of blood from the slaver Cade had shot. Cade held up his gun, the heavy weight trembling in his hands.
The creature was far larger than anything he had expected to see. It was like a raptor, scaled up to twice its size.
Another snort sprayed blood across Cade’s feet, and he shuddered. Outside, he could hear more outsized thuds as the beasts roamed the floor above them.
Cade knew there would be plenty of dead men on the other side of the rubble. But there was no sound of crunching metal. Or feeding. This attack was not due to hunger.
This was their territory. And Cade and his friends had trespassed.
The lid of the coffin shifted as the beast pressed its muzzle into the gap once more. Cade knew it could smell him, smell the fear permeating the room like a cold mist.
Slowly Cade backed away. Turned, only to see Scott and Amber motioning at him with their hands. Their meaning was clear. There was nothing left to find.
Cade shut his eyes, even as there was the scrape of stone on stone. The snout pressed forward another inch, and now Cade could see the teeth, jutting over drawn lips. Massive yellow fangs, long as butcher’s knives.
It was a theropod, all right. What Cade called a carnosaur.
Cade gestured with his arm, sweeping the others into the confines of Genghis’s tomb. They moved, reluctantly at first, but faster when Cade frantically waved his arms.
The legionaries retreated deep, but Amber, Quintus, and Scott remained at the entrance, watching. Cade motioned for them to close the door, but they refused obstinately, rather closing it halfway so they could still see him.
It was as good as Cade was going to get, and now he saw the beady orange eye of the carnosaur, its pupil contracting in the new light of the room, where a crackling torch had been abandoned by the legionaries on the ground.
“Abaddon,” Cade hissed.
The carnosaur let out a choked breath, scrabbling forward at the sight and sound of Cade. The tomb scraped once again.
Only now did he see the horns on its head, sticking out like those of a bull. He knew what it was now. A Carnotaurus.
“Where is the missing treasure?” he demanded.
The little girl’s voice tickled his ear, so quiet Cade barely heard it.
“Trade me,” she whispered. “Remnants for information.”
“What do you want?” Cade asked, stepping deeper into the chamber as the beast’s neck squeezed a few inches farther.
“Cantelo’s gun.”
Cade shook his head. He shouldn’t be bargaining, he knew. But that gun would keep his friends safe if he failed to find the treasure. They could use it to fight their way out of the tomb.
“You don’t want that,” Cade said as casually as he could. “You’ve been dying to see that in action. First machine gun ever? What a waste.”
The Codex twitched in the air.
By now, the carnosaur had eased its arms through the gap, and it clawed at the ground for purchase as it pushed deeper into the chamber.
T. rex–like in its form, it was monstrous in size. So large, it was struggling to fit through the hole the slave
rs had dug. But with every wriggle, rubble tumbled and shifted, and it eased in an inch more.
Cade considered shooting the creature there and then. But he did not want to waste a bullet.
“Have my blade and my armor,” Cade said. “Take the pistol too.”
“No deal,” Abaddon said, louder this time.
And with his words, the girl materialized, just in front of the Carnotaurus. She mimed patting it on its horned head, and the beast’s movements became more frantic as it snapped at the diminutive hologram’s hand.
“What else?” Cade demanded.
He lifted the gun, trembling. The beast became more agitated by his movement, its front claws scratching furrows into the stone.
“The next round,” the little girl replied, her voice raised to be heard over the snarling of the beast in front of her. “We start it. Within minutes of your return to the keep.”
Cade froze, calculating the odds. But he couldn’t think it through. What would it mean for his plan? There were too many unknowns.
“Are we attacking or defending?”
“Deal is on the table for ten seconds, Cade. That’s the only countdown you’re going to get. Hell, I might just start it immediately anyway.”
The dinosaur wriggled again, and Cade heard the rumble of rubble.
“Deal,” Cade snapped. “Where is the missing treasure?”
“Atahuallpa’s tomb.”
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55
Cade ran, snatching the torch up as he did so. He skirted around the snapping carnosaur, and his stomach twisted as he smelled the bloodied breath of the monster and its heavy, animal stench.
He rushed through the door to the Inca emperor’s tomb and almost ran into a wall. There were no steps down; rather it seemed the emperor had been buried within a crack inside a cave.
The cave was barren of anything beyond a pile of stones, beneath which the emperor must have been buried. Certainly, the Spaniards who buried him had not left any riches there. Only hidden away the body, so none of his followers would find him.
Scott and his legionaries had uncovered his body, one that had not been embalmed as so many of the others had. It was a skeleton with rags of charred clothing on its body.
“Where?” Cade hissed under his breath.
Behind him, he heard more rockfall, and a keening screech that set his teeth on edge. Not the roar he had been expecting, but somehow the unfamiliar sound was far more terrifying.
The cave was shallow, and even now Cade could see there was nothing but deadwood and animal bones surrounding the rocks.
Then something caught his eye as he turned his gaze back to the rock pile. It was the skeleton itself. What looked like a brown thread dangling from its neck.
Holding his torch close, Cade pulled on it, only to find it was a thin chain, one near rusted through. And at its end, hanging between the man’s ribs … was a small silver cross.
Perhaps Atahuallpa had worn it to convince the men of his Christianity. Perhaps some priest had taken pity on the forlorn body as he had given him his last rites. At that moment, Cade didn’t care.
Cade snatched it and spun, racing back to the crack in the cave wall. And as he eased himself through the crack … he saw it. The Carnotaurus, shaking itself free of dust like a wet dog, its horns scraping the tomb’s ceiling. It had come through, and he could see its shadowy figure in the gloom of the chamber.
Behind that, Cade could see another sniffing at the hole the predator had left, but by some luck, the rubble had partly blocked the entry point once more. It was already pushing its way in too.
But the carnosaur was not looking at Cade. It was following its nose. Sniffing, it seemed, in the direction of his friends. Cade’s only solace was that their door was now closed.
He needed to get the cross to Genghis’s tomb.
Past the Carnotaurus.
He had to use his gun. He should have used it earlier, while the beast was pinioned, fired the rest of the magazine into the beast’s head.
And as he pushed his shoulders against the crack, Cade realized he still could. He flicked the safety off on the gun.
“Hey!” Cade yelled. “Over here! Come on, you big brute!”
The dinosaur froze, cocking its head and turning slowly.
“That’s right, over here!”
Cade waved the torch through the crack. The beast faced him now, snorting in excitement.
It took a step, then another, and another. Still, Cade remained in the crack, waving his torch from side to side.
“Come on!” he bellowed.
On it came, closer and closer, its great steps echoing through the chamber. He held his nerve, holding the torch high to see the approaching figure growing ever brighter.
Only when it reached the door to Cade’s own tomb did he leap back. It was not a moment too soon.
The great teeth snapped closed in front of him, and then the head was pushing through the crack as he fell away, worming and straining to get at him.
Eyes, bright orange and full of fury, blinked in the torchlight. The great maw opened and closed, taking small bites at the air in front of him, inching closer with every lunge.
Cade raised his gun, the weight unfamiliar in his hands. Shaking, he aimed as best he could. And pulled the trigger.
There was a click. Barely audible over the Carnotaurus’s slavering breaths.
Cade pulled the trigger again, but still, nothing.
“No,” Cade whispered, scrambling back as the beast rammed itself forward once more, crumbling the entrance’s edges as earth and rock came away under its onslaught.
The gun’s magazine had capacity for ten bullets. But it had only held one.
Cade was trapped.
“Shit,” Cade whispered in horror. “Shit. Shit!”
Excited by the noise, the beast lunged forward again, its entire upper chest breaching the cave.
Cade hurled the gun at the beast as it snapped at him. It swallowed it whole, the black pistol disappearing in its gullet as if it were an apple core.
With no other option, Cade drew his blade. In seconds, he would be trapped in a small space with a ravenous monster. He had to kill it. Now.
He whipped his sword forward, slashing at the beast’s snout. His blade cut shallow, jarring against bone and eliciting a screech of pain. The skin of the beast was crocodilian, almost like armored scales.
Cade pulled the blade free, chopping down again and again, casting blood in scarlet slashes across his face, clothing, and the cave walls.
But his efforts only renewed the beast’s own. It did not pull away, rather rammed itself toward the blade, chomping at it as if it were a stinging insect.
Cade had to back away, stumbling deeper into the cave, until just the beast’s wide hindquarters remained trapped in the cave’s narrow entrance.
He had to change tack, and drew the blade back, feeling cruel as he stabbed at its eyes. Once, twice, three times he managed to spear it there, and the creature roared in agony, jerking itself away before he could push the blade into its brain.
By now, he had chopped the Carnotaurus’s head into a bloody mess of furrows, yet he was no closer to escape. Blinded opponent or not, he had no way out. And if he didn’t move quickly, there would be another predator in the chamber beyond.
The blade would never penetrate into the brain. So Cade rammed the blade deep into the monster’s maw, up into the roof of its mouth.
The monster chomped down and screeched as this move drove the blade deeper, catching on bone, preventing it from closing its mouth.
As the blind animal yawped in pain and fury, Cade did the only thing he could do. He leaped onto the beast’s neck, using its horns to throw himself forward.
The beast bucked like a bronco, but its horns allowed him to cling on and scrabble forward, his chest scraping painfully over the bony spines along its back, even as he used them as handholds beneath the shuddering monster.
There was space betwe
en its body and the top of the cave entrance, and Cade lunged for it, sliding down its back and collapsing to the ground. The tail, long and thick, whipped back and forth like an anaconda.
It caught him along his thighs as he dove beyond its range, throwing him to the side. It was like being hit with a baseball bat.
Hissing with agony, Cade struggled to his feet, limping toward Genghis’s tomb. And there, standing between him and the door … was another Carnotaurus.
It was smaller than the last one, with shorter horns; its smaller size had allowed it to more easily wriggle through the gap.
Now, it sniffed, its exhalations misting the air. Its muzzle was red with blood—it had already killed that day.
“Amber,” Cade called. “Open the door!”
The dinosaur snapped its head toward him, and Cade gripped the cross so hard in his palm it almost cut the skin.
Beyond, the door swung open, creaking quietly. Amber’s eyes widened as her face peered around the door’s edge. The Carnotaurus in front of her did not notice the movement.
“I have a crucifix in my hand,” Cade called. “I will throw it to you. Get it in the tomb as soon as possible.”
The door opened a little wider, and Cade jabbed the torch at the beast’s face.
The dinosaur lunged just as Cade hurled the cross between its legs. Then he was running.
He turned into Alexander’s tomb, leaping down the stairs and tripping as he landed. He felt the hot breath of the beast as its jaws snapped behind him, and hurled the torch in its direction.
He rolled, and an enormous head smashed into the floor beside him, mosaics showering the air. He dove deeper, this time scrambling behind the coffin, between the statue’s legs.
It was not a moment too soon as the monster’s head slammed the emperor’s legs. Cade crawled farther into the tomb, even as he heard the snap of breaking stone.
He saw the statue topple, falling toward him. Then … darkness.
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“Are we dead?” Scott asked aloud.
Cade listened to the rushing water as his eyes adjusted to the gloom where he lay.
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