“Take my phone,” Crouch said, handing it over. “Just don’t lose it.”
“I will try.”
Yorgi struggled inside the narrow recess, forcing his body further and further into the hole that it concealed. The hole itself was behind the rock, invisible to the naked eye unless a person climbed down and dug it out. Crouch voiced the opinion that if they hadn’t found the picture and knew where to look, it would have gone unnoticed for many more millennia.
Slowly, and with a steady patience, Yorgi forced first his shoulders and then his torso into the gap. He moaned constantly, scraping flesh even under clothes. Drake saw his legs wiggling and then he was gone. He pressed forward.
“You okay?”
“Yes. I forget flashlight. Please pass down.”
Drake managed to reach in and hand his down. Yorgi wriggled off into the dark, leaving the team alone. Drake sat down, staring at the horizon and Alicia landed at his side.
“We can’t save everyone, Drakey.”
He nodded. “We should be trying,” he said. “Being stuck on the outside like this . . . it’s fucking unbearable. Totally undermining.”
Many pairs of eyes stared with undiminished dread and distress into the clear distance, wishing they had been able to help. This was what it felt to lose then, to be cut off and forgotten. Drake hated it.
In time, Yorgi reappeared. The climb in and out had exhausted him, and Dahl was called upon to help drag him out. Even then his sides were bleeding and, without a word, he collapsed into a heap, breathing shallowly.
But he held up Crouch’s phone.
The Englishman plucked it deftly from Yorgi’s grasp, turned it around and stared hard at the screen. At first, he seemed confused, then unhappy.
“Oh dear,” he said with typical understatement. “I think we may have to go back down.”
Drake winced. Who else could even fit down there? Mai?
Pine?
Hmm, an interesting conversation. He caught Luther’s eye and beckoned him down.
“We have a little problem.”
Luther stopped. “No,” he said. “We don’t. It is the people over there, those on the sharp end of this hell. We are fine.”
“Agreed, mate. But—”
“Wait.” Yorgi finally found breath to speak. “It is what you see. It is. I did not believe what I saw but stayed and stayed and looked and looked. I took pictures from every angle. Look at them. Look! It is what you think it is!”
Crouch backed away from them, the horror and fear on his face mirroring that which had crossed it when the missiles flew. “We came all this way, went through everything we did, and the answer was right in front of us all this time.”
“What are you talking about, Crouchy?” Alicia waved at him. “Snap out of it.”
“The seventh seal. It’s been there all along. We missed it. I missed it. The doomsday machine. No, oh no, it can’t be. There has to be some kind of mistake because, I see it now, and it’s horrendous.”
Drake was almost hopping. “C’mon, mate. What do you bloody well see?”
Crouch sent a dismayed face to the horizon, unable to speak. Drake followed his gaze, beyond the columns of smoke, beyond the mayhem and the twisting Nile and the mountains.
All the way to the giant pyramids of Giza.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
“The seventh seal and the key to the doomsday are inside the pyramids of Giza?” Luther asked in disbelief.
“The pyramid,” Crouch said. “That’s the Great Pyramid. And it does sound odd, since the capstone has been missing since before records were taken.”
“What could it be?” Kinimaka gazed at the horizon.
“But that’s impossible,” Hayden said. “The Great Pyramid has been explored already.”
“Ah, that’s not strictly true,” Crouch said. “It has been discovered quite recently that there are at least three passages inside that are still unexplored and, possibly, another tomb.”
“But why? Why would they not investigate it?”
“That,” Crouch said. “Is a very good question. I suggest we head that way and find out.”
To a person, the whole team followed his hand gesture at the distant pyramids.
“And into Cairo,” Drake said.
“I’m counting three hits,” Dahl said quietly. “And if the infrastructure has failed that’s going to be one hairy ride.”
“Gonna be some frightened people in there,” Luther said. “It will help to see some American military ride through.”
Alicia goggled her eyes at him. “Dude, that’s some scary blind faith you got there.”
“What are you talking about?”
Drake knew the American soldier was going to prove the hardest nut to crack and held out no illusions that it was even possible. “Y’know,” he said. “We should go there. That’s where we should be. Even if we help only one person or one family it’s the right thing to do.”
They walked away from the ancient tomb, leaving it now for some adventurist or local fisherman to ‘discover’. Who knew what other riches lay down there?
As Hayden came over the top of the slope and Crouch headed for the car a cellphone started to chirp.
Kinimaka tapped her. “That’s you.”
“Yeah, I thought so, but it can’t be.”
Drake heard the incredulity in her tone and hesitated. “Why?”
“Because it’s . . .” She pulled the cell out and stared at the screen. “Kimberly Crowe.”
If the team had been struck by a missile at that point they couldn’t have been more surprised. Mai summed it up: “This can’t be good.”
Luther latched on to the name immediately. “Secretary Crowe is calling you? Now? Can you prove it?”
“How about this?” Hayden jabbed the answer button and then the speakerphone, holding the cell in the palm of her hand.
“Hello?”
“Hayden Jaye? Is that you?”
“It is. I’m surprised to hear from you, Madam Secretary.”
“I’m surprised you still have this cell, Miss Jaye. Can’t it be traced? Even by your own ex-CIA colleagues?”
“I have a special chip that reroutes my location five times every second. I installed that in case you ever wanted to get back in touch.”
“Oh, well that’s fine. That’s fine then. There are no words for what has been done to you, so I’ll say nothing. My hands have been tied but now I’m starting to find options. Do you know Tempest?”
“It’s an operation, I believe. Something about finding the weapons of the gods.”
“It’s not an operation, Hayden, it’s the codename of the cabal behind your team’s quiet disavowing. And others, I might add. Their goal is to amass all the remaining weapons of the gods.”
“To what end?” Drake asked.
“I haven’t figured that out yet. But they’re influential in all governments. They’re like the worst damn weed in your garden. It has roots everywhere.”
Hayden looked momentarily taken aback by the Secretary’s language. Luther took the opportunity to bob his head toward the phone.
“Is this really Secretary of Defense Crowe?”
“Who is this?”
“Luther. I mean it is Luther, Madam Secretary, sorry.” The soldier looked embarrassed.
“It is Luther,” Dahl mimicked, grinning, and Drake looked away. Luther gave them both a stone-cold glare.
“Luther?” Now Crowe sounded astonished. “The same soldier they sent to kill you? I feel like I’m dreaming here.”
“No dream,” Luther said quickly. “We’ve apprehended the suspects and are bringing them in.”
“That’s not strictly true,” Drake said. “Right now we’re unclear as to who has apprehended who, to be honest. And we’re stuck in a mutually co-operative situation.”
“A what? Wait, it doesn’t matter. Luther was sent by Tempest which somewhat compromises me. Do you hear that, Luther?”
“I do,” Luth
er said stonily. “My orders came from . . . a five-star general, Madam Secretary. I know nothing of this Tempest.”
“Look here, son . . .” Luther’s eyes widened at the title. “I’ve been hoodwinked more times in the last few weeks than in my entire life. I’m facing down men with agendas upon agendas, schemes that would make your hair curl. Not many, mind you, but enough to develop a nasty, deep scourge within this good government. I’m fighting against it . . . carefully. Because these people—they go after you, your family and your friends. Now you hear my name, you keep your damn mouth shut. And you trust these good people. They’re trying to do right. Got it?”
Luther appeared a little chastised. “Ah, yeah, I guess. Madam.”
“Is this why you called?” Hayden was mindful of the time they were wasting.
“Partly, to reassure you that you have a friend in DC, yes.”
Drake was pleased nobody mentioned Lauren. At this point, they couldn’t properly trust anyone except their own team mates.
“But also . . . to urge you to get out of Egypt and meet me. There is a great and terrible danger to the world. Tempest have started it and they will not stop until they own every weapon, and the means to destroy or rule it all. They’re evil. Plain evil, in the old-fashioned way. I cannot stress enough how bad it will be if they get their hands on those weapons. Meet me. Soon.”
Drake saw that even worse things than those they had already endured were in their future. But if they didn’t stop it, who would? The entire FrameHub disaster was proof enough.
“How many teams were burned?” he asked. “How many good people?”
“Out there, now? At least a dozen. Probably more, all like you. Look, I can’t come clean. I can’t nip up to the White House and shout in Coburn’s ear. In some way, I was complicit. Nobody will believe that I didn’t know what the hell was going on. And . . . I have my family to worry about.”
“Are you thinking we might contact them?” Dahl asked Drake.
“Twelve to twenty teams like ours?” Drake’s eyes brightened. “That’d be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. An army to end all wars. I’m excited.”
“Me too,” Dahl agreed. “An incredible spectacle.”
Crowe went on: “I need to speak face to face and we need a plan. Tempest is moving ahead very quickly. The Sword of Mars is being sought as we speak. This doomsday machine in Egypt is also considered a weapon of the gods. Many others that were taken away from the tombs you all discovered. I need your help. Your countries need your help, and your loved ones too. Come to DC now.”
“All right,” Hayden said. “We can do that. We can talk. But right now . . . we have to go. This needs finishing first.”
“Yeah,” Drake said, watching the spiraling smoke as it drifted among the clouds and studying the ancient Great Pyramid where all the secrets and death quite possibly crouched, waiting.
“Yeah,” he said again. “Just . . . give us a minute.”
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
Cairo has become one of the most famous cities in the world and has the largest metropolitan area in the Middle-East. It lies close to Giza, the ancient city of Memphis and the incredible Nile Delta. Pollution, traffic and overcrowding are just a few of its daily demands.
Drake viewed its environs as they closed in. All the way from the last tomb both he and Dahl had been working their magic on Luther and, at this stage, they’d almost given up.
“Even Secretary Crowe?” Dahl put real disbelief in his voice.
“If that was Secretary Crowe. And my orders come from the general. I can’t go committing treason.”
Drake pressed. “Do we act like evildoers to you?”
“Soldier like you should know they come in all forms and sizes, bud. You never drop your guard.”
“He’s right.” Dahl eyed Drake. “Did they teach you that in the SAS?”
“Piss off, Dancing Queen. I don’t know what to do with you, Luther. You’re a bloody brick wall.”
“I like you all. Even you, Drake. But I gotta say: ord—”
“Don’t say it.” Alicia held up a hand. “Orders are orders, right?”
Luther clicked his fingers at her. “You got it, sunshine.”
“Aww, cheers. Now I gotta think of a nice nickname for you.”
Dahl put their case as succinctly as possible. “Decision time. We’re entering Cairo right now and heading for those big, pointy rocks. No doubt, FrameHub’s mercs will be there. Tempest’s agents too. Who else? Maybe the Chinese, the Brits, the CIA. The question is: will you help us?”
Luther looked like he didn’t know whether to help or kill them. Drake kept an eye on the streets, already seeing the signs of a city in chaos. Sidewalks and roads were thronged with people, some running blindly toward danger and some away. Buses and cars were strewn everywhere, most abandoned. Shopfronts were boarded or barred. Screams and yells rang out constantly, like a plaintive chorus of those trapped in Hell. Drake saw men with half-face masks already strutting around.
“It’s gonna get ugly,” he said, “before they turn this around. How does a country recover from this?”
“Depends if it was a Denial of Service attack, or something more sinister,” Hayden said. “Egypt have a world-class IT section. They’ll turn it around pretty quick, but applying that to the real world?” She shook her head. “Months.”
“With FrameHub still out there,” Drake said. “Should we really be turning our attention to Tempest? Feels wrong.”
A rubble-strewn street showed signs of a missile attack, bricks lying in heaps, smoking, with mini-fires all around. Drake stopped the car and ran to help a nearby wandering man, his face so bloody he could not see, and shepherded him along the street to a medic. Dahl forcibly removed a family huddling close to the brick pile, explaining that there might be ruptured gas pipes and other dangers. Luther was quick to jump in too, helping to carry an older woman out of harm’s way.
The team drove on, stopping time and again to help the afflicted. Nobody, not even Crouch with his desperation to reach Giza, not even Smyth with his anger and fear for Lauren, could drive on without helping these uninformed innocents. Twice, Drake and Dahl faced down looters but it was all a mere drop in the ocean. They could not prevent coming atrocities over the next few days.
Another fail, right on the back of the first.
In the end, they could not reach the pyramids by car. They abandoned the vehicles and continued on foot, realizing the distance from outer Cairo to the pyramids was rather more than they’d expected as an hour passed by.
The flames receded and the running people thinned. Out here, groups rested or took stock, fearful of being inside the city now. Drake knew they were waiting for someone to tell them what to do. For an authority figure, for information. He gave as much news as he could, translated by Kenzie, and moved on.
They ran and they walked, Luther at their side, and their rations and weapons were supplemented by the big man.
“Giza,” he’d said. “The last seal. Get to this weapon and then we’ll have our talk.”
Drake had sighed with relief whilst, at the same time, dreading the “talk.” Somehow he didn’t think it’d be a reprimand.
The bright yellow rolling desert surrounded the Giza pyramid complex, a trio of ancient structures the largest of which—the Pyramid Of Khufu—was the oldest of the seven ancient wonders of the world and remained the tallest manmade structure ever built for almost four thousand years. Not a bad final résumé, Drake thought, for a structure that took twenty years to build even if they moved eight hundred tons of stone a day.
To complete the task the builders would have had to move twelve blocks into place, every hour, through day and through night. For twenty years. The math was mesmerizing.
And it certainly looked impressive as they drew closer. Drake knew the outer cladding had been stripped away through the years—once a casing of highly polished white limestone wrapped the entire pyramid, only part of which remained today around th
e lowest courses.
Crouch shaded his eyes as they approached, the supply of sunglasses running out before they’d reached him. Drake was glad to see his wounds were not affecting him and appeared to be healing nicely. It was the same for them all, although the trauma of the arena would never fade.
“Wait,” Dahl said, gazing hard at the foot of the pyramid.
They paused almost beneath its great shadow. “I see it,” Kenzie said.
Guards lay around the side and at the entrance to the Great Pyramid, and the ground near them was saturated with blood.
“Somebody’s already here,” Mai said.
“Then we’d better be quick,” Crouch said. “Let’s move.”
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
Outside the Great Pyramid of Giza they came under attack, in the bright light of day. Whoever had killed the guards had left sentries of their own behind who had been patrolling to the left, around the funerary chamber. Now, as SPEAR openly approached, they came running, shouting, threatening with guns.
Drake and Dahl ducked their heads, raised their rifles and fired. Bullets sped across the plateau, embedding in stones and structures and the scattered police cars. If the dead guards had called in a warning it hadn’t been heard.
Crouch ran to the entrance and covered Mai and Yorgi as they raced to join him. Drake and Dahl ducked and covered and ran from shelter to shelter, raising their heads and sights briefly to squeeze off bursts of ammunition. First one sentry and then another fell back, arms akimbo, blood bursting out of their chests. A third dug in, but Luther smoked him out with a flash-bang and Pine ended his life.
“This way.” Crouch waved them toward him.
Drake signaled and called that he was moving. Dahl, Smyth and Kinimaka remained to cover him, wary of more threats, leaving their posts one by one to join the rest of the team at the entrance to Khufu’s Pyramid.
Dahl joined them last. “Moving.”
Crouch ducked in, leading the way. The inner passage was narrow and led down an incline to start with, presently presenting them with two options.
The Seven Seals of Egypt (Matt Drake Book 17) Page 19
