Reaper gave a Gallic shrug. “Turn your head, mon ami.”
He blasted the chains with the shotgun and ripped them to pieces, instantly freeing the man who now picked up an old battered cowboy hat and sunglasses and got to his feet. Standing at his full height he was even bigger than he had looked when chained to the wall.
“Thanks, guys. You saved my life. They were only feeding me once a day. I’d have been dead inside a week.”
Ryan said, “They’re not known for their hospitality.”
“So who the hell are they?”
“It’s a long story,” Scarlet said. “More pertinent, darling — who the hell are you?”
“Ezekiel Jones,” he said, holding out one of those hands. “Great to meet you, ma’am.”
“It’s Cairo to my friends,” she said, taking the hand.
Golly, that’s a firm grip.
Think of Jack Camacho, idiot.
“Friends call me Zeke.”
“And this is Reaper and the Boy.”
“Hey guys.”
“Actually my name’s Ry—”
“Listen,” Scarlet said, butting into Ryan. “Any idea where someone could hide a very valuable book around here?”
He shook his head. “Not exactly. They had a bag over my head when they brought me down here, but maybe there’s one thing that could help. It’s pretty quiet down here and when you’re waiting for food or the shit bucket to be emptied…”
“Oh, let’s not go there, please,” Ryan said.
“Sorry,” Zeke said, grinning. “Anyway, locked in here you get to notice every little sound, and I can tell you guys that there’s a lot of coming and going past this cell down to the end of the corridor outside. My best guess would be if there’s anything valuable, then maybe try down there. If you need an extra pair of hands, count me on board. No one wants to blow their asses off more than I do. They killed my buddy.”
Reaper pulled a pistol from his belt and threw it at him.
Zeke grabbed the gun with one hand, popped the catch and slid the magazine out. “Empty.”
“Just wanted to see if you knew how to use a gun,” the Frenchman said, tossing him a magazine.
The Texan smacked the mag into the grip and gave them a big, broad smile full of strong white teeth. “Let’s go kick some ass.” On cue, the deep thump of an explosion boomed out high above them. “You guys didn’t come alone, did you?”
“No,” Scarlet said. “And it sounds like the other half of our team could use our help.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Hawke dived to the floorboards and cradled his head with his arms. A shower of debris from a grenade explosion rained down over him as he now rolled to the cover of an archway a few yards to his right. He was swiftly followed by Lea who now slammed into his side while Lexi was further back along the corridor providing cover fire from her handgun.
“Gotta love these days,” Lea said. “Something to tell the kids.”
Hawke spun his head around to her, a startled look on his face. “Wait, you’re not…”
“No,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But it’s great to know that when I am you’ll have the same look on your face as you did when Klaus Kiefel attacked Washington.”
Another round of gunfire stopped his reply, and looking ahead he saw the Athanatoi slam the Oracle’s door shut. “We’ve got to get in there!” he called out.
Lexi sprinted over to them and they fired on the door together, blasting the lock to hell.
Hawke tried the handle but it wouldn’t budge. “They’ve pushed something up against it!”
“What is it?”
He peered through one of the gaps in the wooden panel blasted out by the gunfire. “Looks like a bookshelf or something.”
“Meanwhile Otmar Sodding Wolff is getting away with the Codex!”
Hawke shoulder-barged the cabinet out of the doorway as a hail of automatic gunfire ripped the piece of furniture to pieces. He crashed to the floor on top of it and landed in a carpet of splintered wood and smashed glass. Momentary surprise at his recklessness stunned the Athanatoi, giving him the half-second he needed to propel himself away from the danger with a classic parkour forward shoulder roll.
Bullets nipped at his heels as he came out of the roll at high-speed and dived behind the cover of an upturned leather sofa running along the far wall. His bravery had paid off just as he had planned. Drawing the cultists’ fire gave Lexi and Lea the time they needed to fall in behind him and break away to the right and left.
Lea was first onto the fray, taking on a monk in black robes while Hawke and Lexi kept his associates pinned down with cover fire. The man was a skilled fighter, and she was instantly reminded of all those years she had wasted improving her Tekken skills. As he spun through the air, his black robes billowed out behind him like shadows, and then his boot was almost in her face.
She yanked her head back to dodge the blow and reached for her gun but it was too late.
The man used the momentum of spin and twisted at the waist as he came back to earth. Bringing his hand around like a scythe, he belted the gun from her grip and it flew across the room and out of an arched window.
Now he was still again, squaring up to her and confidently assuming the ready stance. He raised his right arm and beckoned for her to come closer. “Fight!”
She shook her head. “Christ, it’s not actually Tekken, you know!”
He narrowed his eyes, confused, and then she struck. Firing a feint strike with her left hand while powering her right hand into his jaw.
He ducked, but too slow. The impact of bone on bone was hard, and she felt her knuckle crack and her finger dislocate as the acolyte staggered back a step and fought to regain his balance.
Behind her, Hawke was still using cover fire to keep a number of monks from entering the room while Lexi was now pounding another cultist with a brutal remorselessness. She quickly gained the upper hand and never relented, powering blows into his face and stomach until he fell down and knocked himself out when his skull hit the tiled floor. Spinning, she saw Lea struggling with the other man in black robes, and she ran to help her.
“Thought you could do with some help,” she said.
“Thanks,” Lea said. “I think maybe I’m getting too old for this.”
The two of them went to work on the acolyte, attacking from different angles as he fought hard to fend them both off. But it was an impossible task, and they soon got the better of him, with Lea hammering him hard until his eyes rolled back into his head and he toppled backwards and crashed into the table behind him.
Hawke fought the others back and wedged the door shut with the upturned sofa. “That won’t keep them out for long,” he said, running deeper into the room in search of the Oracle’s escape route. Up ahead was a double-door, which now swung open to reveal two more men in black robes holding submachine guns. They each opened fire, spraying the room with lead and sweeping their weapons from side to side to make sure none of the enemy survived.
Lea and Lexi were far enough back to dive behind two large stone support columns but Hawke was directly in the line of fire. Thinking on his feet, he tipped up the colossal briefing table in the middle of the floor and crouched down behind it as the bullets pelted and ripped and pinged all around him.
“Sometimes I ask myself exactly why I do this,” he muttered, ducking his head down just in time to avoid a speeding bullet.
“You love it really!” Lea slammed down beside him, and Lexi a moment later.
Gunfire chattered away somewhere below them deep inside the monastery.
“Sounds like someone got on Cairo’s bad side.” Lexi ducked her head down as she reloaded her gun, steeling herself for more action but momentarily distracted by the sight of the steel fingernails on her left hand. Every time she looked at them, she saw Pig’s face and the pliers in his sweaty hands. She hated it, and she wondered how long it would be before she could finally banish the ghost of his chubby face from her mind.