“We don’t have a minute.”
Ariana abruptly halted the submersible as a red glow appeared on the screen directly ahead. “I’m there. Do you have Dante in place?” she asked.”
“Detonate,” Jordan said. “Now!”
Ariana nodded at one of the Air Force men, who pressed a red button on a transmitter.
For a second, nothing happened; then the ground shook worse than it had yet, and Ariana fell to her knees. Looking out, she saw the ice shelf buckle along the side of the volcano.
Four miles away and eight hundred feet down, the nuclear bomb ripped into the main lava tube, splitting it wide open. Red-hot lava met freezing seawater and initially won the battle, pouring out into the water underneath the Ross Ice Shelf.
Jordan was seated on the snowmobile, the front skids on the very edge of the crater’s rim. The ground trembled fiercely, and he knew Ariana had detonated her nuke along the main tube.
He twisted the throttle, and the snowmobile edged over, into the crater, pulling the sled with it. He screamed at the top of his lungs as he plummeted down the side.
The nose of the snowmobile hit a boulder and it, and Jordan, went airborne, the sled right with him. Looking down, he could see the lava plug. In that brief glimpse, he knew it was subsiding, although there was still a lot of pressure under it that needed to be dissipated.
Jordan slammed his fist against the transmitter taped to his other arm.
The nuke went off with a flash halfway down to the lava plug.
Ariana was still on her knees when she heard the explosion. Looking up, she could see the top of the volcano blast outward, relieving the pressure there. She knew there was no way Jordan had gotten clear in time.
She staggered to her feet.
“Oh, no,” She murmured as the buckling of the ice continued like a slow, forty-foot-high wave toward her position.
Miles stepped between her and the approaching wall of ice and wrapped his arms around her. Then the ice below them rose up, and they fell between the blocks.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Ragnarok charged past, screaming like a berserker. The line of Valkyries were less than forty feet away, and he made the distance in a few seconds. He swung the ax tied to his arm, and it smashed into the face of the closest Valkyrie, shattering both eyes. As that one screamed, the ones closest veered toward the Viking warrior, who spun about, ax extended.
Dane stood. “Let’s go.”
Amelia Earhart was at his side, her sword ready. “It is time.”
They both began to run forward, the others behind, when they suddenly noticed a bright light to the left. They stopped abruptly as a roar from thousands of throats — human throats — rushed over them. Out of the fog, a line of armored men with red cloaks appeared, spears at the ready. They clashed into the Valkyries with a thunderous cacophony of metal on alien armor.
“Erebus hasn’t erupted,” Nagoya announced. “Ground monitoring station and satellite tracking picked up two nuclear explosions. Ariana was successful.”
There was an explosion of applause in the FLIP control room. Foreman said nothing as the small plug in his ear had relayed reports from the National Security Agency satellite monitoring Antarctica. He knew both bombs had exploded the second they were set off, and he also knew that Ariana was not responding to SATPhone hails.
The cheering was quickly silenced by Nagoya’s next announcement. “The Shadow is shifting power north.”
“How long do we have?” Foreman asked.
“We’ve gained an hour, maybe more. Maybe less.”
An hour, Foreman thought. A very expensive hour, but it could turn out to be very critical if Dane was successful. “Is there any word from the Crab?”
“No, sir.”
“Go for the eyes with your pilum!” Falco’s yell echoes in the fog.
He was next to Kaia, who held the Thera skull in her hands above her head. The light it was projecting pierced the fog, pushing it back. It also seemed to have a negative effect on the Valkyries as the creatures gave way before the numerical and emotional onslaught of the XXV Legion. As importantly, it had allowed the men of the XXV to enter the gate and then the portal without suffering the devastating mental effect that had crippled Liberalius. General Cassius was next to Falco, issuing orders and deploying his men.
Dane and Earhart met Falco and Kaia in the midst of the battlefield as legionnaires pushed past them, rushing the heavily outnumbered Valkyries.
“The skull,” Dane said to Earhart, seeing what Kaia was carrying.
“What about it?”
“It’s what I need to stop the portal.” Dane was looking out over the smooth, black surface of the inner lake. He saw a dorsal fin rapidly approaching. Ahana and Felix Shashenka were behind him.
The Roman said something to Earhart and then she translated. “Without the skull, the legion will be unprotected.
“Without it,” Dane replied, “this is all worthless. Tell him the Shadow’s power we’re trying to stop is going into his time also.”
Falco knew what the strange woman would translate from the man even before she spoke. He turned to Kaia. “None of the legion will return, either, will they?” He looked at the fight that was being waged. General Cassius was in the middle of the line, yelling orders. He felt the pull of the battle.
“No,” the priestess said, “they won’t.”
“And you?” he asked.
“He is correct about the role the skull must play but wrong about who must accomplish the task,” Kaia said. “It is my destiny to be part of the last role it will play.” She ran a hand over the smooth crystal. “This is my ancestor.”
Falco understood what she meant and hefted the Naga staff. He was needed in the fight “Go with them. And then fulfill your destiny as I do mine.”
With that, he sprinted away toward the front lines of the battle between man and creature.
Rachel rose half out of the water, then flipped over on her back, making a splash. Earhart was listening to Kaia and put out a hand as Dane reached to take the skull from her.
”It is her destiny to finish this,” Earhart said. “You must go back to your time.”
“And you?” Dane asked.
“These are my people here,” Earhart said. “Some may survive this battle. I imagine almost everyone I know is dead in your time.”
Dane knew there was no more time for debate. “All right.”
Shashenka stepped forward. “Where are those the Valkyries torture?” he asked Earhart.
She pointed. “That way.”
Without another word, the Russian was sprinting over the course black ground.
Dane felt like it had all unraveled, everyone going in different directions, but a part of him felt comforted, as if far-flung pieces of a puzzle had suddenly come together to produce something sane in this mad place.
As the priestess headed toward the water, he followed. “Wait at the edge,” he yelled over his shoulder to Ahana.
He was next to Kaia as she entered the water. She glanced at him and smiled. Then she dove forward. Rachel was at her side, and Kaia placed her left hand on the dolphin’s dorsal fin, the right clutching the glowing skull. The two raced away.
Dane had to force himself to take his attention from them to searching for the Crab. He could pick up Loomis’s frightened aura not far away, and he swam in that direction.
He reached the Crab, which was just under the surface. Taking a deep breath, Dane dove down. He slid along the side of the craft until he was at the bottom. He found a line of ballast and hit the manual release. The craft bobbed to the surface. Dane climbed on board and opened the hatch.