The Covenant of Genesis (60 page)

‘One minute, Gabriel,’ said Sophia. She smiled again, this time with a cat-like malice. ‘There are some people I’ve waited a long time to deal with. And so many choices! Who should I kill first?’ She pointed the gun at Callum. ‘My charming chaperone, perhaps? I’m really going to enjoy watching your boss squirm. Or . . .’ the weapon came round to Chase, ‘the last - and least - of my ex-husbands? ’

‘Hey!’ said Chase, offended.

The muzzle settled on Nina. ‘Or you, Nina?’ Sophia fingered the scar on her cheek as she moved closer. ‘You’ve already given me so much to remember you by.’

‘Glad I won’t be forgotten,’ said Nina.

‘Oh, I won’t be giving you much thought. The media will, though, what with such an ignominious end to your career. The discoverer of Atlantis, fired from her post in disgrace before disappearing and dying in anonymity. Unmourned. Sad, really.’

‘At least she won’t have people lining up to piss on her grave,’ Chase said.

‘They can do whatever they like to my grave, as long as I’m not in it. Unlike our religious friends here,’ said Sophia, ‘I believe that you only get one life, and all that matters in it is winning. I’m legally dead - a spot of plastic surgery, a deal with the Covenant, and Gabriel and I will be free to do exactly as we please. The best revenge, as they say, is living well . . . and I intend to live
very
well.’

Ribbsley walked towards the main door, looking back impatiently. ‘Neither of us will be living if we don’t get out of here, Sophia. Just kill them and let’s go.’

‘Oh, very well,’ sighed Sophia, for the briefest moment glancing at him—

Chase’s hand lashed out, trying to knock the gun from her grip.

He wasn’t quite close enough, only catching the weapon a glancing blow. Sophia instinctively fired, the bullet slicing past Chase to hit the wall behind him. Startled, then enraged, she whipped the gun round at his chest, about to fire at point-blank range—

Nina whipped the penknife from her pocket and stabbed its blade deep into the back of her wrist.

Sophia shrieked and jumped away, trying to fire - but the blade was jammed between the bones of her forearm, paralysing the tendons.

Chase was about to lunge at her, until he saw Callum diving for one of the dead troopers’ rifles. Ribbsley was also bringing up his own pistol. He immediately changed tactics, grabbing Nina and leaping with her into the burial chamber. He shoved her away from the entrance as he searched for Callum’s fallen gun.

Sophia had also seen Callum snatching up the rifle. She hurled herself over one of the stone benches and took cover behind it, pulling the blade from her wrist. ‘Bitch!’ she hissed as she tossed the bloodied penknife away and painfully flexed her fingers.

Callum was about to fire at her, but Ribbsley got off the first shot as he found cover behind another bench near the entrance. Callum was left with no choice but to throw himself into the second, unexplored, burial chamber, disappearing into the darkness.

Chase found Callum’s gun, a Smith and Wesson Sigma 40P, and snatched it up before pressing his back against the wall beside the entrance. He examined the weapon. Ribbsley’s shot had dented the slide, the steel buckled forward of the ejection port. He racked it experimentally, hand over the port to catch the unfired bullet. The slug plopped coldly into his palm as he pulled the slide fully back - but it was extremely stiff, not moving smoothly along its rails. If he fired, there was a very high chance of a jam. He would have to rack the slide manually for each shot. Quickly ejecting the magazine, he clicked the stray bullet into its top before slapping it back into place.

‘Sophia!’ Ribbsley shouted. ‘Are you okay?’

‘That bitch stabbed me!’ she yelled back.

‘Get over here, I’ll cover you!’ Crouching, the professor looked round the side of the bench, gun fixed on the entrance to the second burial chamber.

Chase risked a look round his own doorway. He caught a glimpse of Sophia as she shuffled quickly between two of the benches, but not enough of her to take a shot. He leaned out slightly further, trying to spot Callum - and jerked back as Ribbsley changed targets and took a shot at him, the bullet pitting the stone beside his head.

Another gunshot - but this was closer. Callum darted out to take a shot at Ribbsley, forcing him to duck. The American was about to make a run for the cover of another bench when Chase fired at him. The bullet went wide, but the startled Callum still flinched back into the dark room.

Chase looked at his gun. The spent casing had ejected, but the slide was stuck in the locked-back position, even though there were still bullets in the magazine. Cursing, he forced it forward until he felt the mechanism chamber the next round.

Sophia took advantage of the distraction to hurry to Ribbsley’s position, picking up another SIG assault rifle from one of the dead men en route. Ribbsley looked in dismay at her blood-soaked wrist. ‘My God, you’re—’

‘Never mind that,’ she snapped. ‘Get to the chopper and start it up - I’ll keep them pinned down here until you’re at takeoff speed.’ He looked about to object, but her barked order of ‘Go on, go!’ silenced him. Instead, he waited until she was ready to fire, then made a run for the exit as she blasted two shots at Callum’s position and a single one at Chase’s before dropping down again.

Nina jumped as the bullet hit the burial chamber’s back wall. ‘What’s happening?’

‘Got a bit of a Mexican stand-off,’ said Chase, peering cautiously round the doorway. ‘I’ve got Callum pinned, he’s got
us
pinned, and Sophia’s got a good angle on us both.’ He could see Sophia’s shadow in the light coming through the mausoleum’s entrance, but she herself was in full cover.

‘How long have we got left?’

‘Twelve minutes, give or take.’

‘How are we going to get out of the cave in twelve minutes?’

‘Let’s worry about getting out of this
room
first.’ He peered round the doorway again; the brief glance revealed a rifle pointing at him from inside the second chamber and he pulled back as Callum fired, the bullet slamming a chunk of stone from the wall. A moment later, Sophia took a shot at the American. Chase took another look to see Callum retreating into the shadows. He fired at him, the Sigma’s slide jamming again. ‘This is fucking ridiculous!’ he growled as he reloaded. ‘None of us can move!’

‘Sophia will in a minute,’ said Nina, hearing a rising sound from outside. The helicopter’s engine.

‘Great, and we won’t be able to go after her because Callum’ll shoot us, and he can’t go after her because I’ll shoot
him
!’

Callum had reached the same conclusion. Nina and Chase heard him speak urgently into his radio. ‘Abaddon, Abaddon, this is Archangel, urgent! This is a code alpha hold, repeat, a code alpha hold order.’ The response was too muted for them to make out.

‘What’s he doing?’ Nina asked.

‘Telling the stealth not to drop its bombs,’ said Chase.

‘Well, that’s great! Isn’t it?’

‘Yeah, until he tells ’em to start the clock again. It’s still on its way.’ Another glance; Sophia had raised the SIG. She fired two shots at Callum’s position, and Chase unleashed one at hers, the bullet cracking stone as she dropped.

He racked the slide again. The helicopter sounded almost at takeoff speed - which meant Sophia would be about to move. With nobody to give her covering fire, he could guess her tactics: switch the SIG to full auto and spray both doorways with bullets as she retreated.

If he could catch her as she rose to fire . . .

He moved back into firing position, saw Sophia jumping up from behind the bench, took aim—

And was forced to throw himself back into cover - Callum was fixing his sights on
him
!

Grit sprayed into his face as another rifle bullet cratered the stone. ‘Twat!’ Chase snarled, a rattle of automatic fire and a hailstorm of lead against the walls telling him he’d missed his one chance.

The firing stopped. Sophia had made it out of the mausoleum.

Which still left Callum to deal with.

The only thing stopping him from escaping was Chase, and vice versa. They would have to face off against each other—

Chase sprang round the doorway at almost the same moment Callum came into view in the other chamber. The Englishman had the advantage that his Sigma was quicker to aim than the assault rifle, but the other man had firepower on his side . . .

Chase fired first - but his damaged gun’s sights were slightly off. The shot zipped past Callum to impact inside the other burial chamber. Callum returned fire as Chase pulled back, struggling to cycle his recalcitrant weapon. ‘Come on, you fucking thing—’

The next bullet was chambered. He whipped back out, instinctively compensating for the misaligned sights as he fired, a moment too late to catch Callum.

The American reappeared - but not lining up another shot. Instead he ran out into the open. He had realised Chase was having trouble with the gun, and used the vital few seconds to reach one of the dead troopers and snatch a hand grenade from his webbing as Chase fumbled with the Sigma.

The slide cycled; bullet loaded.

Too late.

Callum had pulled the pin, lobbing the grenade through the doorway.

Chase instantly forgot about shooting him. He had less than four seconds to find cover before the grenade exploded, filling the room with a storm of shrapnel.

He pulled Nina with him.

Three seconds.

Hiding behind the sarcophagus wouldn’t be enough to save them.

Two seconds.

The only protection was
inside
it.

One—

Nina half jumped, was half thrown into the ancient stone coffin as Chase leapt in on top of her and pulled the edge of the heavy lid.

 

Sophia heard the explosion as the helicopter took off, dust and smoke swirling from the mausoleum a second later. Either Chase or Callum had got hold of a grenade and used it against the other - but who was still standing?

Not that it mattered. Callum might have ordered a postponement of the bombing, but since Dalton wanted Eden destroyed, it wouldn’t be long before the attack resumed, whether Callum was clear or not.

She still had the rifle, keeping it fixed on the entrance as Ribbsley manoeuvred the chopper towards the cavern’s ceiling. Seconds passed. No sign of anyone. Beside her, Ribbsley frowned in concentration as he watched the narrowing gap between the rock and the tips of the rotor blades.

Movement in the entrance. White hair. Callum.

Sophia fired a burst, forcing him back inside. Ribbsley winced at the noise, but held the chopper steady, guiding it into position directly beneath the hole. Callum reappeared, trying to bring his own rifle to bear, but Sophia’s last bullets made him retreat again.

Ribbsley brought the helicopter to full power. Backwash from the rotors against the rocky ceiling buffeted them, and then they were clear, emerging into the bright desert sunlight.

Sophia took a final look down at the Garden of Eden as the helicopter turned east, towards Khartoum. A brief glimpse of the statue and the plateau, the mausoleum at its heart amidst the carpet of flowers - then it was gone as they moved away.

Ribbsley let out a relieved breath. ‘We did it. We did it!’ He glanced at the wrapped skull in Sophia’s footwell. ‘I think that should give us plenty of leverage over the Covenant. We’ll be able to get a new identity for you . . . and a substantial sum of money, of course.’

‘Can you trust them?’

‘If di Bonaventura becomes the acting head of the Catholic contingent, which I’m sure he will, then yes. If I pitch it to him as a business opportunity rather than full-on blackmail, I think we’ll get what we want.’

Sophia smiled. ‘Marvellous. And then, I think a little petty revenge on Victor is in order.’

‘I thought it might be,’ said Ribbsley with a grin. ‘Who were you shooting at, by the way? Chase or Callum?’

‘Callum.’

‘So Chase is dead? And Dr Wilde too, presumably. Not before time.’

‘I know. Although I would have preferred to kill them myself . . .’ She looked back at the retreating mesa.

‘What is it?’ Ribbsley asked.

‘Something I once said to Eddie. That I wasn’t going to make the mistake of assuming he was dead until I actually saw his body.’

‘Even if Callum didn’t kill him, he’s still going to be blown to bits when the bombs hit. There’s no way he’ll get out of that cave in time.’

‘Let’s hope.’ All the same, she stared back at the mesa until it was obscured from view by the fuselage as the helicopter turned. ‘Goodbye, Eddie,’ she said quietly.

 

Callum glared up at the opening, then shook off his anger at Sophia’s escape. He had more immediate problems.

He looked back into the mausoleum. Dust was still swirling, but the air was clear enough for him to tell that there had been no movement from the burial chamber, no sounds of life.

Shouldering the rifle, he ran across the plateau, feet decapitating flowers as he headed for the grappling lines. Below, the two Humvees were parked beside the lake almost underneath the giant statue’s outstretched hand, their tracks leading back into the jungle. The 4x4s had flattened most of the obstacles they encountered on their way round the far end of the ravine and through the jungle; by retracing the route, he could reach the tunnel before the bombs hit.

He tossed all but one of the grapnels over the edge of the cliff, taking hold of the remaining line and rappelling down it. Once at the bottom, he shook the line until the grapnel came loose, clanking down the rockface. On the extremely slim chance that anybody was still alive, they now had no way down except by the long and precarious path behind the statue.

They wouldn’t even have time to get halfway. He reactivated the radio. ‘Abaddon, Abaddon, this is Archangel.’