‘This tunnel is an old sewer that ran beneath the city. It connects to more excavations on the hillside between the excavation and the car park. Follow it to the end and it joins a staircase that comes up on top of the hill. There’s only a chain link fence to cross to reach the road and the car park. Hurry.’
Ethan shook Andres’ hand and ducked into the darkness with Lopez and Amber right behind him. The relative gloom of the enclosure meant that his eyesight swiftly adjusted to the dark confines of the tunnel and he hurried along with his hands brushing the walls of the tunnel either side of him for balance.
It was unlikely that Petrov would have placed any of his people to watch these ancilliary tunnels, but Ethan had no doubt that he would have somebody watching the car park. He called back to Amber as they moved through the darkness.
‘Amber, you head for the car and get back to the plane as fast as you can. We’ll divert and get away from Petrov’s team.’
‘They might see you. I could pick you up.’
‘We can’t risk Petrov connecting us to you,’ Lopez insisted. ‘You have the same knowledge that we do now. As long as you get away and are not identified, you can carry on no matter what happens to us.’
Ethan smelled fresh air in the darkness and saw a faint light ahead as the tunnel emerged at the bottom of a shallow ramp that climbed away from him and then doubled back on itself, heading toward the surface. A bright rectangle of perfect blue sky was visible above that cast bright sunlight down the ramp, the entrance not easily visible from the road or the site. Ethan peered out and could see no guards above the entrance and no shadows cast from anyone who might have been directly above them.
Ethan eased his way out into the sunlight and checked above them before he ran up the two ramps in a low crouch and squatted near the top of the entrance. He peeked over the top toward the enclosure and saw two men standing by the main entrance to the site, and others further away toward the eastern entrance.
Ethan turned to Amber as she joined them.
‘Head directly to the car. The Russians don t know who you are and won’t be looking for you so don’t run, just walk in there as if you’re leaving the site and you do this every day. If you walk with a sense of purpose, you won’t stand out and any Russians watching the site will ignore you. If we don’t get back to the airplane before you see the Russians, tell Arnie to take off and get the hell out of here. Now, go!’
Amber stood up and moved to join a nearby path that led back toward the enclosure and the main exit. Ethan waited in position until she was crossing the road toward the parking lot and then looked at the Russians again. None of the men had moved and none seemed to be taking much notice of Amber other than a cursory glance and then another to something they held in their hands, probably photographs of himself and Lopez.
‘Okay, now what?’ Lopez asked. ‘We’ve got no way out of here except by road.’
Ethan glanced at the vehicles in the parking lot and noted three of them, each with one man inside all watching the enclosure. Amber started up the hire car’s engine and pulled out of the lot, and Ethan smiled to himself as she drove away and none of the watching Russians followed her.
‘Amber’s away, so all we need to do is get back to Arnie and fly out of here before the Russians can catch up with us.’
‘We could hijack a car,’ Lopez suggested.
Ethan shook his head. The island was only lightly populated, the traffic was sparse and they could hardly walk into the lot and break into a vehicle with the Russians watching. Besides, there were enough of them about that Ethan seriously doubted their ability to get away from the site without being spotted. Therefore, the roads were out.
Ethan caught a glimpse of something on the waves off the coast and he heard the faint whine of an engine. He turned his head fractionally and saw the source of the noise, and in an instant he made his decision.
‘We’re gonna get wet again, right?’ Lopez said as she noted the direction of his gaze.
‘Let’s go.’
Ethan broke cover and hurried down to the chainlink fence that enclosed the site, using the cover of the trees to conceal their position from the watching Russians. He knew that it would only be moments before they were spotted, but he could tell that if they could make a break for the shoreline at the bottom of the hill, the Russians would not be able to easily catch them.
Ethan slipped over the chainlink fence and then pulled his sunglasses over his eyes as Lopez dropped down alongside him and they moved to the edge of the road. Ethan stood up, took a breath, and in customary style Lopez slipped her arm through his and they strolled casually out onto the road and turned toward the hill.
They had done this a hundred times in the past and now their easy rhythm concealed their identity as they moved down the hill. All three of the Russians were parked at the back of the lot to give themselves the widest possible field of view, which meant that at this distance they would not immediately be certain that they were looking at Warner and Lopez.
Ethan pointed up to the site alongside them, Lopez smiling and nodding happily as though they were two tourists just strolling toward the site or perhaps the hotel and Bar Akrotiri at the bottom of the hill. They walked without hurry, Ethan not looking at the parking lot directly and in fact mostly keeping an eye on the enclosure entrance as they approached it, appearing to be excitedly discussing their visit while also keeping his face concealed from the Russians in the parking lot to their right.
‘They’re taking notice,’ Lopez said, her keen eyes seeing the Russians talking in their vehicles, probably to each other using concealed microphones.
Ethan nodded and chuckled, gesturing as though he were explaining some of the wonders of ancient Greece.
‘I’m hoping that one of them will move in for a closer look.’
As if one cue, one of the Russians climbed out of his car and began crossing the lot toward them, an intercept course that Ethan knew would result in their entire team moving to apprehend them.
‘Turn here,’ he said, and gently turned Lopez into the enclosure entrance once more.
‘You wanna go back in?’ she asked him, smiling brightly.
Ethan stopped and pointed to the site, and then he shrugged as though uncertain about whether they should go in and pointed instead down the hill toward the hotel and bar. Ahead, the Russians guarding the exits were watching them closely.
‘I want our backs to the nearest guy for as long as possible.’
Ethan kept talking, switching his accent to British as he heard the Russian’s approach. Lopez matched the accent, striving to maintain uncertainty in the Russian until the last possible moment.
‘But if we go to the hotel now we won’t make it back to Oia in time for tea.’
Ethan shrugged again as he heard the Russian’s footsteps on the asphalt behind them, felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise up as the man came within arm’s reach and then suddenly he was shouting into his microphone in Russian as one hand moved toward the pistol concealed beneath his shirt.
***
XXXIII
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Allison Pierce knew that she was out of her depth and that her fate was in the hands of people she had never before met, and she felt more vulnerable now than even when the street thugs had been shooting at her back in DC.
The coast of Saudi Arabia crouched low on the horizon to her right, and she knew that the deserts of Sudan and Egypt were somewhere to her left, which meant that she was travelling north and entirely alone but for the two men piloting the privately hired boat now surging through the crystalline waters beneath a savage equatorial sun.
The trail that she had been required to leave behind her had been complex to say the least, and she no longer feared that anybody would be following her, and in many ways that was the source of her concern: nobody knew where the hell she was and if somebody decided to toss her overboard she would be dead long before anybody knew that she was even missing.
Mitchell’s instructions had been precise and clear: at Jeddah a boat would be waiting, and it would bring her to Jarvis and his people, where she would finally learn her role within whatever grand plan they had to expose Congressman Keyes and anybody else currently in power in the US they’d been able to attach to Russian hackers. Allison had her new cell phone in her pocket but as instructed she had not switched it on, nor had she attempted to make contact with home or Foxx. The soldier’s warning to her echoed through her mind but she forced it from her thoughts as she focussed on hearing out whatever Jarvis and his cohorts had to say for themselves.
Against the hazy horizon she saw a large yacht cruising north, and it was immediately obvious that the tourist vessel was aiming to intercept the ship. She watched as it slowed, the tourist boat catching up swiftly and the vessels coming together gently on the ocean swells as an enormous hatch on the yacht’s stern opened up and the boat eased in closer. Lines were tossed to the yacht’s crew, and Allison was beckoned aboard the yacht as she saw the boat’s crew being paid in cash before the lines were cast off again and the tourist boat turned away and headed back for Jeddah.
Allison was beckoned by a smartly dressed member of the crew who led her through the huge vessel as it got underway once more, cruising more swiftly now but still heading north toward the Suez Canal.
The crewman led her up onto the yacht’s upper decks and out into the sunshine once more, the brisk wind from the boat’s speed deflected by pristine clear windshields before a row of white recliners, the white deck almost painful to look at in the bright light.
An old man dressed in casual slacks and a shirt stood to meet her as the crewman left, and he shook her hand.
‘You must be Allison.’
‘You must be Doug Jarvis.’
Jarvis gestured to a seat and Allison took it, uncertain of how to begin the conversation. Jarvis pre–empted her easily.
‘You must have many questions, and I would love to answer them all for you but I’m afraid that we don’t have much time. I take it that your work with Aaron Mitchell has uncovered at least some of what we’ve been up against these long years passed?’
‘I’m aware of Majestic Twelve,’ Allison acknowledged, ‘and of the recent interference in US elections from overseas. I’m also aware that I can’t trust any of you and that almost everybody seems to be lying about something.’
Jarvis smiled and inclined his head.
‘Absolutely correct,’ he agreed. ‘The fact is that everyone is lying. However, some lie to protect themselves while others lie to protect those who cannot protect themselves. There is a difference, Allison. While you may not be able to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys, we know it well and we can prove it all.’
Allison sighed.
‘I’ve heard pretty much all I can take,’ she said. ‘Everyone has proof of their own story, and that proof discounts the other side of the story until nobody knows what to believe or in whom to place their faith. The media has been hit with so much fake news that now politicians across the world are pouncing on that uncertainty in an attempt to show that they are the only fountain of truth in the world. Why should I believe you over all the other people who seem intent on tracking you down and the billions you have stolen, especially when your own military record states that you are a master manipulator of others? Where are Warner and Lopez, the two people who work for you that I keep hearing about?’
Jarvis said nothing for a moment, watching her in the sunlight as though assessing her.
‘The DIA contacted you before you came here,’ he said with clairvoyant precision, ‘and would have tried to convince you that we’re as bad as the people we claim to be hunting.’
‘You understand my dilemma,’ Allison replied.
Jarvis nodded. ‘And yet you are here, alone.’
‘I believe that every story has two sides.’
‘Good, then you won’t mind hearing ours, but before I tell it I should point out that even in this day and age of uncertainty, there remains one voice that cannot be silenced, and one way of proving the truth that will always win out over any political rhetoric.’
‘Do enlighten me.’
Jarvis leaned forward in his seat and folded his hands before him.
‘Actions speak louder than words.’
Allison narrowed her eyes at him. ‘Well, what are you going to do?’
Jarvis leaned even further forward, and he whispered something in her ear. Allison’s eyes widened and she looked at him in shock.
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘Because to do so is the only way to bring an end to all of this, and to bring peace back to those who most deserve it, yourself included,’ Jarvis said. ‘This ship is heading for the Meditteranean at full speed but it is unlikely that we will reach Greece in time to help Ethan and Nicola. Our role in their search is over.’
‘I don’t get it, why bring me here at all?’
‘Because I’m about to make a phone call that will bring Congressman Keyes out to the Meditteranean with all possible haste. When he arrives, you’re going to follow him as closely as possible and produce the evidence you need to bring him to justice by the time he returns to America.’
Allison felt her pulse quicken. ‘And what happens to you?’
‘That will depend on just how tightly you can turn the screws on Keyes and the administration and how far the DIA is willing to go to push through any charges against the guilty parties.’
Allison gripped the arms of her seat. ‘Keyes is up to his neck in this and that’s probably why he was picked to lead the congressional investigation. I’m not about to let him walk away from what he’s done and when his house of cards falls, I’d bet that he’ll take everyone else down with him.’
‘Then we need this to work smoothly, and for that to happen you need to trust us and do the right thing. In an hour, a flying boat will collect you and fly you across to the Meditteranean. From there you will meet with Lillian Cruz.’
‘And do what?’
Jarvis smiled. ‘Just do what comes naturally.’ With that, he stood and gestured to the open ocean. ‘Enjoy this while you can, because everything’s about to get ugly for us all.’
Jarvis turned away from her and walked inside the yacht.
Allison waited until he was gone, and only then did she retrieve the cell phone that Foxx had given her. She stared at it for a long time, and then she took a breath and switched it on.
***
XXXIV
Akrotiri, Santorini
Ethan whirled as the shouting Russian pulled a compact 9mm pistol from beneath his shirt as Lopez pulled off her sunglasses and tossed them into the Russian’s face. The Russian flinched in surprise as Ethan pivoted on one heel and rammed his boot into the guard’s belly.
The Russian folded over at the waist as his eyes bulged and all the air in his lungs was expelled in a loud rush. Lopez drove her own boot deep into the man’s left knee and he collapsed sideways as the tendons in his leg popped as loudly as snapping twigs. She caught the man’s gun arm and twisted the pistol in his grip against the direction of his fall.
Ethan broke into a sprint as Lopez hopped over their victim with the pistol now in her hands, pursued by the shouts of Russians scrambling from their vehicles and running in pursuit. Ethan dashed down the hill past a row of coaches parked by the sidewalk, elderly tourists staring in surprise as he thundered past with Lopez close behind, the 9mm clutched in her hand.
Ethan heard the ripple of shocked gasps but he didn’t break his stride as he ran down onto the lot outside the bar and saw a small boat out on the water and heard the whining engine of a jet–ski as it plowed through the water with a crest of sparkling white foam in its wake.
Lopez dashed up alongside him as the jet ski roared toward them, the owner showboating his skills to the tourists. Lopez dashed out into the water as he thundered past and raised the pistol to point straight between his eyes.
/> The driver’s expression collapsed into shock and terror and instantly he hurled himself from the jet ski and crashed into the waves. The jet ski coughed and spluttered as it slowed down and Ethan dove headlong into the waves and swam across to it. He hauled himself into the seat and gunned the engine, swinging in toward Lopez as she waded out with the pistol held aloft out of the water.
Ethan grabbed her hand and hauled her into the seat as he saw the Russians running down to the shore behind them. He twisted the throttle and the jet ski reared up and accelerated away as he turned for open water. No sound of gunshots followed them, and Ethan figured that the Russians would be reluctant to open fire with so many witnesses standing on the shore all around them.
‘They’ll be on the move and can beat us back to Oia!’ Lopez shouted above the noise of the engine and the crashing water.
‘They don’t know that’s where we’re going! If we can get around the headland and turn north we can get Arnie to pick us up off the water!’ Ethan yelled back. ‘We know things that they don’t now and this is the best chance we’ll get to completely disappear!’
Ethan guided the jetski out alongside the coast, but despite his getaway plan working perfectly he knew that Lopez was right. Petrov had too many vehicles and men and would certainly have left a couple of guys at the airport who could be re–routed to just about anywhere on the island long before they could make it back to Oia.
As they rounded the headland he saw the north coast of Santorini unfold before them, nearly ten miles away in the haze. He was about to turn toward it when he saw the smaller island of Thirasia to the west. It was almost as far as Oia, but he realized that heading there gave them one distinct advantage: the Russians didn’t have any boats and would not be able to send their full force to intercept them.
‘I’ve got an idea!’
The Atlantis Codex (Warner & Lopez Book 7) Page 22
