“What does that mean?” Ollie asked.
Before Mia could gather her thoughts enough to form a coherent reply, they pulled into the hospital parking lot only to find the place swarming with the pulsing blue lights of Carabinieri police cars. Ollie slammed on the brakes.
“Do you think there was an attack?” Mia asked. She might not have said the word Sentinel, but it was clearly on the tips of their tongues.
“Not worth taking a chance,” Ollie replied, throwing the car into reverse and pulling backwards. From out of nowhere, two police cars swept in from both sides, blocking their escape. Then two more did the same from the front. With weapons drawn, officers approached the driver and passenger side windows, waving at Mia and Ollie to cut the engine and exit the vehicle. With no hope of escape, they did as they were told and were promptly taken into custody.
•••
Mia found herself waiting alone in a small windowless room in an Italian police station for what felt like hours, sipping on a sickeningly good cup of Illy coffee. The handcuffs had been loosened slightly after they sat her down, but that didn’t make them comfortable to wear, especially since they were laced through a ring on the desk. She and Ollie had each been booked and placed in separate interrogation rooms. A single camera peered down at her from the corner of the room. But the space she was in lacked more than just visual warmth. The air conditioning was sending waves of frigid air charging up her arms. She couldn’t help wonder what all this was about. As she waited, dozens of scenarios played out in her mind. Either way, she felt innocent of any wrongdoing since she and Ollie had been on the other side of town and had missed whatever had gone down at the hospital.
The door opened and a man sauntered in. Late fifties. Silver hair with black streaks. Small upturned nose and smooth skin. This guy spent a lot of time taking care of himself and wanted others to know it. He slid into the seat opposite Mia and extended his hand.
“Commissario Vicario,” he said, in the kind of suave manner that might have been appealing if she weren’t wearing handcuffs.
His hands were soft and perfumed with lavender.
“You’re probably asking yourself why you’re here.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth.”
Vicario smiled, flashing a set of perfect teeth. “I regret to inform you that Dr. Putelli is dead.”
“Dead?” Mia repeated, the words hardly making sense.
“Murdered.”
Mia’s back pressed against the back of her chair, her very being filled at once with shock, surprise and anguish. “Oh, no, when did it happen?”
“That’s what we were hoping you could help us with. We couldn’t help but notice you and your friend were driving Dr. Putelli’s car.”
“He loaned it to us,” Mia said, distinctly aware how lame that sounded, even if it was the truth.
Vicario nodded. “Of course he did. Italian men in Rome are known to share a meal and sometimes clothing with good friends. But there are two things they never share. The first is their women and the second is their cars. So do you wish to amend your answer?”
Mia’s eyes hardened. “I told you what happened.”
“Perhaps you would care to watch the footage from the hospital’s security system.” Vicario snapped his fingers and a muscular man in a tight suit brought in a tablet, set it before Mia and clicked play.
A black and white video showed a pair who looked very much like Mia and Ollie ambush Dr. Putelli near the seventh-floor elevators. They stabbed him repeatedly, leaving him lying on the floor in a growing pool of blood. Then one of them reached into the pocket of his lab coat before fleeing down the stairwell.
“Was that when you stole his keys, Dr. Ward?”
“Why on earth would we want to steal Dr. Putelli’s car? I didn’t even know what he had.”
“Perhaps the car was only a trophy,” Vicario suggested. “Perhaps the two of you had professional differences. Was there any tension between you?”
“If scientists aren’t disagreeing, then they aren’t doing their job.”
“A note on Dr. Putelli’s desk mentioned he was going to confront you about an issue he had. Did that ever happen?”
Mia suddenly felt as though the room might not be so cold after all. In fact, it was starting to feel downright hot.
“You’re sweating,” Vicario said, offering her a handkerchief. “Is it too warm in here? I can have them turn up the air conditioning.”
“I’m fine. Dr. Putelli and I talked and worked it out. He wasn’t used to a woman taking charge. I think it made him feel uncomfortable.”
“You thought of him as a misogynist. Was that it?”
“I thought of him as a fellow scientist with a blind spot to anything out of his immediate experience.”
“Whose idea was it to kill Dr. Putelli?” Vicario asked with brutal frankness.
“I’m done with this,” Mia said, crossing her arms, or at least trying to given her hands were bolted to the table. “Get me a lawyer.”
Vicario placed his soft hands on the table and stood up. “As you wish.” And with that he left the room. He hadn’t been gone more than five minutes before the door opened again. Mia knew there was no chance a lawyer or anyone else sent to help her had arrived this quickly. But when she saw his face, Mia was frozen in disbelief.
“Alan?”
Alan Salzburg strolled in with all the confidence of a king entering his throne room. Even at a respectable six foot one, his lithe form and narrow shoulders made him seem so much taller. His hair was thinning a little on top, and in the years since she’d last seen him, it had started to turn grey. The years had also dug heavy grooves across his forehead and along the corners of his mouth. A loose mound of skin hung beneath his chin, which jiggled slightly whenever he spoke. Alan sat down and removed his glasses.
“It’s been a long time, kiddo.” The smile on his face showed genuine affection.
“I don’t understand,” Mia said. “I thought you were dead.”
Alan stared up at the camera and curled his fist into a ball. “This is a private conversation,” he told her. “No sense inviting anyone else. There’s so much to tell you, but this is certainly not the time or the place for that. I’ve been following your work with great care since you left, Mia. And I know now that I was right in choosing you.”
Mia stared at him, a growing storm cloud of dread gathering within her.
He raised one finger and tisked. “You and Ollie are in deep, deep trouble. Taking another man’s life. Around here that’s at least twenty years. And with what we’re facing these days, it’ll be a miracle if you ever get to see your daughter again. But, as always, Mia, you do have your fans. In fact, I was just speaking to one of them in Washington, D.C. A reporter for the Post. She knew all about the work you and Dr. Greer have been doing. A feisty little number named Kay Mahoro. I think you’d like her.”
“You set us up, didn’t you?” Mia shouted, the reality slowly dawning on her. “Don’t you realize the importance of what we’re doing here?”
“Probably more than anyone else on the planet. But here’s the good news. The State Department has already agreed to secure your release. All it took was a phone call from my personal friend President Myers. You’ll be coming with me now. And I hope you packed warm clothes, because you’ll need them where we’re going.”
“And the bad news?”
Alan’s face squished up as though he had eaten something tart. “I’m afraid Ollie won’t be joining us.”
Understanding flashed across Mia’s face. “Don’t you dare hurt him,” she screamed, springing out of her seat, stopped short by the cuffs chaining her to the table.
“Please don’t fret, kiddo,” Alan reassured her. “He won’t feel a thing.”
Chapter 52
Greenland
“Anna, have you been able to reach Northern Star yet?” Jack asked, adrenaline coursing through him.
She shook her head. “I am
afraid not, Dr. Greer. We are likely too deep underground at this point to establish a clear line of communication.”
“Jack, even if the U.S. military has regained control, there’s no way they’ll get here in time anyway,” Grant said as he hurried to pack up the equipment and instrumentation.
The sound of gunfire continued to ring out in sporadic bursts.
“Let’s go,” Jack said, throwing his helmet back on. “Anna, you stay here. If none of us make it back, head for the elevator. At least that way what we’ve learned won’t be lost.”
The three of them charged out of the small stone room, leaving Anna behind.
The sounds of fighting grew louder as they entered an enormous chamber. The ceiling sat a hundred feet above them. It appeared to be some sort of supply storage area. The remains of rusted vehicles and pallets of food formed tiny mounds of debris scattered everywhere. Figures here and there popped up from behind the cover, firing short bursts only to disappear again. To their left, Jack saw that Mullins and the rest of the science team were pinned down. Dag rose up to return fire, only to be forced down right away by incoming rounds. Beyond the Israeli forces was an archway and a set of stairs. Could that be what the soldiers were protecting, a direct route to the pyramid and the source of the blast wave?
Without taking aim, Rajesh held his pistol over the debris pile and fired until his magazine ran empty.
Jack, Gabby and Grant ducked down behind a mound of bones and watched as three enemies began circling to the right of Mullin’s position.
“Mullins, do you read me?” Jack shouted into his mic.
“About time you showed up.”
“Listen, you’ve got two enemies moving across your flank.”
“Got ’em,” Mullins said, swinging out and laying down fire on them.
“Jack,” Grant hollered, holding one of the bones he’d wrenched from the pile. “Do these look like cut marks to you?”
“Are you for real?” Jack started to say as bullets pinged off the wall above them. Grant stood stunned for a moment until another round knocked the radius bone right out of his outstretched hand. He dropped to the floor, counting his fingers to make sure all were accounted for.
“I’m not sure we can win this battle,” Gabby said.
“We could if it was a math-off,” Dag shouted over the din of fire.
These guys were determined to keep the group from making it past this open chamber. What Mullins didn’t realize was that the outcropping of stone fifteen feet above his position was actually a walkway which led to the other side of the chamber. With his eyes, Jack followed the walkway from right to left, watching how it tapered into a set of stone stairs about thirty feet behind where Mullins and the others were pinned down. That was where Jack saw another tunnel opening, similar to the one they’d travelled through to get here. He also remembered how shortly after entering the bunker system, the path had split and they had decided to keep to the right. If Jack could backtrack and circle around, he might be able to climb up to the catwalk and cross over and behind the enemy before they knew what hit them.
“Dag, Eugene, lay down some covering fire. I’ve got a plan.”
A second later they did so and Jack took off running up the narrow hallway. Moments later he passed the room where Anna was waiting.
“Dr. Greer,” she said, beginning to follow.
“Not now, Anna.”
The sound of Jack’s labored breathing echoed inside his helmet as he reached the fork and proceeded down the other way. He then switched his vision to thermal, trying to avoid catching a stray bullet as he raced down the corridor. Up ahead, he spotted Mullins and the others coming under renewed assault. To his right, Gabby and Grant remained behind the bone pile, popping out here and there to fire back at the enemy.
“Okay,” Jack said, “give me another burst of covering fire.”
They obliged and Jack sprinted to his left for the stone steps and the narrow ledge. It was a risky move since if they spotted him, he was an easy target. He had nearly reached the top when he heard Grant moan with pain and slump over. Jack froze. Gabby spun and immediately began searching for a wound. A soldier on the far right was inching toward them, leapfrogging from pile to pile.
“Gabby, leave Grant for now,” he told her. “You got someone coming up on you.”
His heart pounding, Jack had to decide whether to risk Gabby’s life or his own by firing from his elevated position.
That was when he saw Anna, entering the open space from the corridor.
“Anna, I told you to stay put,” he called out over the radio. “Are you crazy?”
Without saying a word, she reached Grant, closed her metallic hands around his wrists and began dragging him back to safety.
Just then the soldier nearest them reached the bone pile, peered over and fired. He must not have noticed Gabby directly below him, because he was aiming straight at Grant and Anna. The first round tore through Grant’s wrist, spraying blood on the ground. The next narrowly missed his head and struck Anna in the leg, causing it to explode in a fit of sparks. She fell over, landing with a loud metallic crunch. She reached out with one hand, as if to tell him to stop, and that was when the third shot took it off at the wrist. Hydraulic fluid poured out onto the icy ground, sending up rivulets of steam.
Rajesh sprang up at once, snatching Dag’s rifle, and filled the soldier with a dozen rounds. His body fell back over the bone pile, dead. Jack continued crawling forward, determined to work his way behind them, when he heard fire directly below him. Rajesh took two bullets to the chest. As Anna watched him fall, her one remaining hand curled into a fist.
But it wasn’t one of the Israeli soldiers who had shot him. It was Tamura. And she turned on Mullins now, shooting him in the legs and torso.
With fifty percent of them down, Eugene threw up his rifle and raised his arms in surrender. One by one, five Israeli Special Forces stood up, keying on the few remaining holdouts. Tamura stood too, waving the pistol Mullins must have given her when the firefight broke out.
“Throw down your weapons,” Tamura ordered them.
Gabby was the next to stand and drop her weapon, followed by Dag, who rushed to Rajesh’s side. Watching all this, Jack continued along the catwalk, making slow progress. With Jack pressed up against the chamber’s left wall, only someone standing near Grant had a chance of spotting him.
“Dr. Viswanathan,” Anna called out. “Are you badly hurt?” She began dragging herself over with her remaining limbs.
“Why did you do this?” Dag asked, cradling Rajesh, who was coughing up blood.
“You should be asking Jack that question,” Tamura said, looking around. “Speaking of Jack, where did he run off to? Commander Avraham, I heard him say he had a plan right before he disappeared.”
Avraham moved in. He was chiseled with a dark complexion and a black bushy beard. “All right, round them up. We’ll find the last one sooner or later.”
Jack was three-quarters of the way across when he felt pressure begin to build in his ears. Then came the humming. Soon the air filled with an electric current as the soldiers on the lower level looked around fearfully.
“We need to get out of here,” Avraham began to say, but never got the words out before the soldier’s weapons were yanked from their hands and to the ground by an irresistible magnetic force. Jack struggled to move his own rifle, but it wouldn’t budge. Then the flashbulb of light he knew was coming tore at his retinas. The rumbling sound grew louder, followed by a thunderous crash that filled the chamber as the ceiling folded in on itself in a blizzard of ice and destruction. But this was no storm, it was a massive boulder of ancient compacted snow falling in on them. Projectiles of ice and stone rained down on soldiers and scientists alike. Three Israeli Special Forces who were just then crossing the middle of the chamber disappeared in a white haze.
When the magnetic force finally released, Jack sprang to his feet. Above him, an enormous hole had punched through the cei
ling, revealing the outside world—or at least what passed for outside down here. Below, the storage floor was nearly unrecognizable. A new mountain had risen up from the center of the room. Beneath it, a handful of the enemy lay dead, others scattered about dying. Gabby was attempting to help Grant while Anna continued pulling herself toward Rajesh. The others, including Tamura, were nowhere to be seen.
Crossing to the back of the room, Jack took the stone steps two at a time. He began making his way toward his friends, watchful for any enemies that might have survived. He was circling around the right-hand side of the new mound, calling out people’s names, when he heard Tamura say, “I don’t see what all the fuss is about.” She stood over Anna, kicking her. Jack leveled his weapon and readied to shoot when something knocked the wind out of him and sent him tumbling to the ground. His rifle slid a few yards away. He rushed to grab it, but he wasn’t quick enough.
“Nice little disappearing act,” Commander Avraham said, pulling Jack to his feet and tearing off his helmet. He caught sight of Anna, now a multiple amputee. The sight of so many of his friends either dead or seriously wounded tore at him. They had failed. They would never reach the pyramid and everything they had learned about the Mesonyx people would die with them.
If all of that was true, then why was Anna winking at him?
Avraham shoved Jack forward. “We’ll take the robot and kill the rest.” He tapped something on his wrist and a strange-looking animal came galloping toward them.
It took Jack a moment to realize it was a robotic pack animal. The metallic creature was all torso with four back-jointed legs pumping furiously over the rough terrain. It certainly explained the strange tracks they had found earlier.
Jack’s gaze soon found Tamura. “You never were a member of the military, were you?”
“I am so,” she replied coldly. “Just not yours. After we swept in and killed your advance team, my primary role was to stay behind and gather as much intelligence as I could. My other role was to keep any of you from getting too close to the objective.”
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