“Yeah, check out your talent. What do you excel at? Are you a hacktivist or a ‘denial of service’ girl? How are your back-door capabilities? Do you like a Black Hat or White, or both? Can you form a botnet? Do you enjoy some keystroking, how big a Trojan would you prefer, and what’s your favorite payload?”
Karin shook her head to the vast desert, knowing he was getting off on the terminology but not quite hating him for it. “I get it, I get it. Nice speech, but it did sound rehearsed. You already know my talent or you wouldn’t have contacted me. Where do we meet?”
“Where you headed?”
She hesitated, then decided honesty might help in this case. “Surprisingly . . . Egypt.”
“Land of blood and sand. That’s good. We’re not far. I’ll call you when you get in.”
“No, sorry. We’re going in undercover. I’ll have to contact you.”
A robotic snort. “Don’t be ridiculous. Expect my call.”
He cut the call, leaving Karin to wonder about modern freedoms for just a moment before the screen door slammed and Dino padded out to meet her, a look of concern on his face.
“You good, Blake?”
“C’mere, Dino.” She waited for him to approach and then grabbed him in a headlock, forcing him down and kissing the top of his head. “What a bunch of dorks we are, hey? We were soldiers. There’s so much bad out there . . . in the world . . . and here we are, months into plotting some kind of twisted revenge.”
Dino struggled out of her grip, red-faced. “What the fuck, Blake? Since when did we kiss?”
“We should probably do it more. Maybe we’d be better people.”
“Crap, are you coming on to me?”
“For fuck’s sake.” Karin kicked at the dirt. “Do I look that desperate? And, you know . . .” She laughed, a twinkle in her eye. “You’d only wanna win anyway.”
He grinned and turned away. “I am better than you.”
“You ready to prove it?”
He looked wary. “In what way?”
“Egypt, mate. We’re going to Egypt. Finally. This is it, Dino. The plan is in motion. The endgame. We’re gonna do this!”
“I’m ready. So long as we sleep in separate rooms.”
“With Wu?”
“I didn’t mean it like—”
“I know. You don’t trust my wandering hands. Maybe I’ll sleep with Wu instead.”
“You think you’re the hot one that can take her pick, eh?”
Karin gave him a radiant, sexy smile. “What do you think?”
“It’d rather take a crate of beers.”
Karin laughed and punched him on the shoulder. Dino winced. She felt almost as close to the young solider as she’d once felt to Ben. Dino was the brother and Wu the close friend. The three of them had formed a bond, unbreakable, entwined until death. Until now, the path had been relatively straightforward and easy. But the hard work was coming. She expected both Dino and Wu to form the solid wall at her back.
“Ready for Egypt?”
Dino nodded. “I’ve been ready since we deserted.”
“Everything set?”
“Yeah. The money we appropriated from Webb’s accounts paid for a nice private jet. Passports are fake, of course. We’re good, Miss Blake.”
“Excellent, Mr. Palladino. Shall we go and kick some arse?”
“Ass, you mean ass.”
“I guess we’re in America, so I do.” They headed back into the house, picked up their packs and Wu and headed out to the car.
No turning back now.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Plan C appeared to be working.
When two vehicles appeared, following each other down the blacktop, Drake and Dahl put their misgivings aside and pointed their weapons at the drivers. Happily, they were both male and young and didn’t appear too traumatized as a dozen soldiers crowded in alongside them. Of course, they never saw Vladimir and his men coming over the hill at their backs. With the entire team barely inside the cars, hanging out of windows, wedged so tight even their bones hurt, they made the break for freedom.
Smyth drove one car, Kinimaka the other. Drake was squeezed in beside Luther, with Crouch alongside.
By design.
They talked about the fifth seal. “Of course I remember,” Crouch said indignantly. “I remember the design. The pyramid is from Saqqara, the earliest burial site of the nobles of the First Dynasty. One of the common traits of this mission has been the age of the objects in question. Perhaps this doomsday machine is the earliest of all.”
“Because it is a weapon of the gods?” Kenzie asked. “And thus came first. It makes perfect sense.”
“Why not recap that curse again?” Drake said, for Luther’s benefit.
“Find the seven seals for seven tombs and settle the fate of men. Follow the lost symbol that entombs the Ancient Doomsday Machine. Break the seven seals of Egypt and start the End of Times.”
“No matter how many times you hear it,” Alicia said from the front, “that always sounds nasty.”
“The same could be said of you, bitch,” Kenzie, crammed next to her, said.
“Shut it, skunk.”
Drake urged Crouch to continue. The older man was happy to take his mind off aching bones, bruises and raw wounds.
“Saqqara is in the north and where we should go next. If we can’t stop FrameHub, the CIA and possibly this splinter group fighting for and getting the doomsday machine then we’re all in big trouble.”
“Is it a big place?” Drake knew they all needed rest and to head blindly into some ancient vastness was just foolhardy at this point.
“Relatively. And our rivals will be headed there too. Saqqara comprises underground galleries, funerary tombs, monuments. It’s also famous for having the oldest comprehensive stone building complex throughout known history. It remained significant to the Egyptians for more than 3000 years. Such incredible history . . .” Crouch tailed off, shaking his head in wonder.
Dahl shouted something back through the open window. Drake had to strain to catch it.
“Any thoughts on why FrameHub would want the weapon so badly?”
“Just the obvious,” Crouch said. “They’re a new entity. Though why they’re clouding the issue with this ransom demand is unclear.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” Drake said. “Muddying the waters. Flooding Egypt with mercs. They aim to steal the weapon in the chaos and use it when they fancy it. They’re kids, spoiled kids at that. It will be another ransom, another game. At least, that’s my take.”
“Sounds feasible,” Crouch agreed.
Luther was listening intently, but remained on mission. “I may be grateful for your help, and all, but you guys are coming in with me. All of you.”
Drake admired his tenacity. “It may have escaped your knowledge that we outnumber you five to one.”
“Doesn’t matter. I never fail.”
“Neither do we,” Dahl said, half out the window and catching some serious airflow. “I’d advise you to re-evaluate.”
“Orders are orders,” Luther said. “Can’t change ’em.”
Drake gestured for Crouch to continue. “Well,” the Englishman said. “I recognized the pyramid at Saqqara. It’s from the third Dynasty, called Djoser’s step pyramid, world-famous and with a rectangular base. We’re getting very close to the seventh seal now, my friends, so we really must hurry. Whoever gets their hands on that machine . . .” He shuddered.
For the first time, Luther glared at him. “You keep talking about a machine. What is it?”
“Nobody knows. The curse of the seven seals leads the way to, supposedly, an ancient machine that could destroy the world. Don’t get me wrong here—we know this is an olden-day piece of writing and comes with the undesirable tag-word curse, but we started out skeptical too. But so far, each tomb or monument has led us to the next. It may all be hoax, but what if it’s not?”
“I hope it’s a hoax,” Dahl said. “Better for everyone.”
/> “Agreed,” Drake said. “But we can’t afford not to find out.” He fixed on Luther. “Do you understand that?”
“I’m no thinker. No strategist. I’m a bloodhound—they point me in the direction they want me to go and slap my ass. I’m tenacious. Raw. I get the job done without relying on fancy gadgetry. So no, Drake, I don’t understand it. And even if I did you lot would still be my prisoners.”
“Look.” Alicia struggled to turn around and look the big man in the eye. “Whilst I like the imagery of you being slapped on the ass, you—my old-style, simple, loutish beast—are talking up a steaming pile of crap. Open your damn eyes and wake up to the fight. Soldiers shouldn’t deal in black and white anymore. There’s adversity in much of the world right now, most of it caused by the people that pull your strings.”
“And dude,” Drake added, “it’s not as if they try to hide all of it.”
Luther couldn’t twist his body in order to address Alicia, but replied to Drake. “You think I haven’t heard this before? A hundred, desperate times from outta the mouths of a hundred desperate criminals? Shit, I could have made the speech for you.”
Kenzie groaned. “Well maybe some of them were telling you the truth. So what does that make you?”
Luther hesitated just for a moment. “You guys came outta hiding to chase down some ancient weapon that may or may not exist? Why the hell would you do that?”
“Now that—” Alicia banged the seat “—is a great question. Drake?”
“You’re asking me?” Drake felt defensive. “We all agreed. Even Smyth. We all agreed.”
“I came with you. You came for Crouch. Kenzie came for Dahl.”
“No. We all came to help.”
Alicia shrugged. Kenzie tried to catch Dahl’s eye through the window. “She’s right, Torst. I’m not here to save the world.”
Drake heard the outer shell at work and ignored it. Dahl called back inside whilst nobody could see his face.
“We are not together, Kenzie. We never will be.”
“Now I know that’s not true. You wouldn’t lead me on all this time.”
Drake heard the warning note in her voice and how Dahl fell suddenly silent. A taut silence filled the car.
“Did I lead you on?” the Swede finally asked.
“Stop it with the jokes. You’re scaring me.”
Drake frowned at the tone of her voice and the heat in her eyes. Kenzie had proven she could care and that she could fit in with the good guys. He hoped this wasn’t some kind of degeneration.
Smyth, driving the car, spoke up then out of nowhere. “It was me,” he said. “Luther? It was me, anyway. You shouldn’t be chasing these guys.”
Drake both saw and heard the guilt. “Shut up, mate. This isn’t the time.”
“I’m willing to accept any judgment.”
“There were circumstances,” Drake said. “And the guy was a murderer. Nobody should ever shoulder another man’s sins.”
“This is interesting,” Luther grumbled. “But what are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” Drake said. “Sunstroke has made the dumb American delirious.”
“Ah, great. And we’re good with him driving the car?”
Crouch stepped in, seeing a chance to gloss over it all. “The fifth seal is the pyramid and we must go there in all haste. There’s a lot of ground to cover. Of course, these tombs are still being excavated. Almost eight million dog mummies were found a few years ago. Who knows what else lies beneath those sands?”
The car slowed as they reached the outskirts of a town. Drake thought this might be the perfect chance to procure an extra vehicle and maybe dump Luther and his two comrades. In all honesty though, what he wanted was something entirely different.
“Luther,” he said. “I hate to tell you that you’re working for the bad guys. I hate to tell you that there’s a rogue cell in the American government searching for terrible weapons. I hate to see your loyalty, your faith and your training betrayed at the highest level. So I’ll say this—find someone you trust in DC and ask them to check. Stick with us whilst it happens. Call a truce. And if, at the end of it you still think we’re all guilty of treason, then we will come quietly. You have my word.”
Drake held his hand out.
Alicia practically squawked a rebuttal. Dahl tried to wriggle back inside but couldn’t get near. Drake had chosen the perfect time.
Luther considered it. “We stick with you? We have full weapons? Alone time?”
“Yes, but no communications. We don’t want have the Air Force dropping down on us.”
“I always go dark,” Luther reminded him. “Only chatter is between the team.”
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
The Pyramid of Djosser, built in the 27th century BCE, was fashioned by the great Egyptian architect, Imhotep. It stands at the center of an immense mortuary complex surrounded by grand structures and ritual adornments. By building this, Imhotep himself was laying the groundwork for all those greater structures that came in later dynasties, including the Great Pyramids of Giza.
Three cars arrived, all air-conditioned and with extremely grateful and weary soldiers resting inside. When the vehicles pulled up to a tire-grinding halt nobody moved for an entire minute. About an hour ago they had pulled over to the side of the road, nursing and cleaning cuts and wounds, tending to bruises. Their injuries were painful, but not debilitating.
“Oh, my legs,” Alicia groaned, having just finished off a sandwich and a Pepsi, wedged in the front seat. “I can hardly open them.”
Kenzie snorted comically. “A new first for the English harlot.”
Drake was with Alicia, nursing a dozen aches and pains, and still nowhere near fully recovered. They had weapons, and bullets were in good supply but T-shirt and camo-trousers would have to fulfil the dress code.
“We must be extra careful,” Hayden told them. “These injuries will affect our reaction time, our range of movement and, hell, our pure damn skill. Take care out there.”
Crouch was out first, a testament to the man’s desire for the job. Drake struggled to follow but had the fun job of yanking Alicia out of the passenger seat.
“Ow, ow, be bloody careful! Kenz, is that my ass or your face? Never can tell. Whoa, steady Drakey!”
“You’d think dehydration and hunger would shut her up for a while.” Dahl stared at her speculatively. “Maybe a day at least.”
“There’s a reason they called her Taz.” Mai laughed and mimed a spinning devil, never stopping, always moving, even though it had no idea where it was headed.
Alicia offered to help Kenzie out of the car, face neutral. Surprisingly, the Israeli refused and pulled and pushed herself out.
The team gathered in the heat, to the front of the parking area and with Djosser’s pyramid in plain sight. It was large, stepped and flat-topped, different to the pyramids common in modern culture. Drake raised his face to the breeze, enjoying the coolness on his skin and the chance to slow down for just a moment.
“Let’s reccy the tomb,” Hayden said, and the moment was gone.
From afar, splitting and acting like tourists, they viewed the pyramid from every angle. Drake and Dahl walked with Luther, Pine and Carey; Mai close behind to help watch for any sign of trouble. So far, the conventional crusader had taken it easy, watching and taking no sidebars with his colleagues. The entire team met around the front of the tomb and compared notes.
“We’re good,” Crouch decided. “I’m headed inside.”
Drake went with him as Hayden assigned Smyth, Mai and Kinimaka to stay outside with Luther and his soldiers. Luther declined the offer, wanting in, but acquiesced to Pine and Carey staying back. Crouch was already inside, Yorgi and Kenzie trying to keep up. Drake studied the dark entrance to the tomb, checked around with suspicion once more and then ducked inside.
It would be good to have five on the outside. Safer.
Crouch was searching by flashlight, scanning the inner walls of the pyramid
and wandering toward the funerary chamber. Yorgi backed him up with Kenzie checking ahead. It was quiet down here, cooler and secluded. An atmosphere of ancient repose filled the passageways, as if this place might see humanity out and then the next upstarts. A fitting resting place for what some may once have seen as a god.
Drake knew all about men elevated to the status of gods. He’d come across it and proved it during the Odin thing, and later by discovering more tombs and more evidence. Did it disprove the theory of real gods?
No, not really. But maybe they went the same way as the people with real wealth and power. Nobody ever knew who they were.
“I have it,” Crouch said at length. “Just down here.”
“You have what?” Luther asked. “Let me see.”
Drake was pleased he was taking an interest. Crouch took a picture and then let Luther in. Drake stared at the image.
“What is that?”
“The capstone,” Crouch affirmed. “And a coffin laid by the banks of the River Nile. I think the contours here—” he pointed at a peculiar bend in the river crowned by a peak “—tell us the location.”
“And they’ve all been like this?” Luther asked, still staring. “I guess they’re clearly timeworn, of Egyptian origin and potentially indicative. You guys managed to follow four of these already?”
Drake nodded. “And now five, once we decipher this picture. Mate, I was cynical at first too. The only reason I came was because Michael here—he has a reputation and is rarely wrong. Now, it doesn’t sound unreasonable that the Egyptians left a trail for someone to find, does it?”
Luther rose now, shaking his enormous head. “Nah, I guess not. The issue comes when Michael here brings up an ancient doomsday machine.”
“There are precedents,” Crouch asserted. “Archimedes for one. He designed and built the Iron Hand, a weapon that withstood Roman invasion for three long years. He also tried to build a death ray out of mirrors. Nikola Tesla did the same and called it the Teleforce. Aristotle spoke, quite plainly, of a doomsday machine, so what did he know back then? The capstone is the right size, has the heritage and the ancestry. It follows the pattern. ”
The Seven Seals of Egypt (Matt Drake Book 17) Page 17
