“Yes.” Nikolai shook his head, fully expecting the Englishman to fall down into the void, but those in the team who knew him had more hope.
Drawing on his vast parkour experience and formidable strength, Hawke leapt over the chasm, flying across the bullet-streaked void and landing with a heavy crunch in the gravel on the far side. The mayhem that had unfolded since the arrival of the new soldiers was like nothing he had ever seen before. Foreign Special Ops teams, Athanatoi cultists and this unknown new force now fought, rucked and brawled wherever they found each other in the massive system.
With hot lead chewing into the rocky path all around him, Hawke launched himself into another parkour roll until he was behind the cover of a jumble of boulders at the base of the rock wall. Securing the rope to a hefty boulder, he created a way for the rest of the team to cross the startling void surround the Citadel.
One by one, the team monkey-crawled over the void while Hawke provided cover fire on the few Athanatoi who weren’t engaged in a desperate fight for survival against the mysterious white-robes. Behind it all, the Special Ops team were fanning out and searching for something. Other Athanatoi tried to defend a position leading to an unknown corridor but the men in black combat fatigues dispatched them in seconds with their carbines.
With Lexi halfway across the rope, a vicious explosion detonated and blasted Qasim off his feet. With a terrible, bloodcurdling scream he tumbled down into the chasm, one of his legs blown clean off.
Lea turned away, unable to watch the horror as the mutilated archaeologist fell to his death at the bottom of the gaping chasm.
“Hurry!” Hawke yelled. “No time to think about that!”
Lexi landed behind him, sprinting over to his newfound cover as the enemy rounds bit at their heels. Ryan and Zeke were still pinned down on the other side of the chasm, but managed to crawl through the dirt until they reached the bridge. One by one with Ryan in the lead they monkey-crawled over the void while Reaper and Nikolai were engaged in a terrible fire fight further along the gaping crevasse.
Reaper stayed behind to pour cover fire on the enemy while Nikolai made it to the end of the frayed rope bridge and made his way across. When safely on the other side, the Russian returned the favor by firing on the soldiers while the former legionnaire ran at top speed across the wobbling, shaking bridge. Bullets tore into the suspender cables and blasted them apart. The bridge collapsed away, slowly falling down into the chasm as the Frenchman sprinted for all his life to the other side.
With seconds to spare, Reaper leapt to the far side of the chasm and grabbed on with both hands as the rest of the bridge collapsed from under him, falling down with a smack until it lay flat against the rock wall from where he was dangling.
Hawke saw it all with horror on his face. His old friend was a living target for the assorted soldiers and mercs on the south side of the chasm.
They turned their guns on him and fired.
“Your hand!” Nikolai screamed.
Reaper thrust his right hand into the air and the Russian monk grabbed it with all his strength, pulling the heavy ex-merc up out of the void as the bullets smashed into the cliff face all around him. Rocks exploded into dust as Nikolai finally managed to heave Reaper clear of the danger. Both men scrambled for the cover Hawke had established.
“That was too close!” Reaper said, turning to Nikolai. “Merci, mon ami. You have made a friend for life.”
Nikolai saw the out-stretched hand and hesitated. Then, he took the Frenchman’s hand and the two men shook hard. “You would have done it for me.”
Reaper gave his customary one nod. “Yes, of course.”
The moment was shattered by Scarlet’s voice, harsh and cold in the chaos. “It’s Lea! She’s been wounded!”
Hawke looked across the chasm and saw her under heavy fire. Someone had almost killed her with a bullet but it looked the round had created only a flesh wound. The problem was that the shot had knocked her off her balance and now she was tumbling back into a smaller gorge to the south of the chasm.
And it looked like it was full of water.
“Lea!” Grabbing his pack, he sprinted for the rope bridge with everything he had.
Lea felt herself falling deeper into the darkness. For a second, time stopped, and then she felt a hard smack as her body broke through the surface of the icy black water. Immediately she felt the cold, scratching at her like claws of steel as she plunged ever deeper in the water.
She wanted to cry out for help, but instinct sealed her mouth. It felt like a million needles were sticking into her body now, and her arms and legs were growing numb. She knew from her army training she had only a few seconds to get her bearings and swim to the surface before she lost consciousness.
Remembering what Hawke had told her about when he fell into the crevasse in Pavlopetri, she spun around in the water and blew out some air. The bubbles showed her the way home, and she started to swim up to the surface with all the strength her muscles cold muster. The agony of pushing through the freezing water was almost more than she could bear, but now there was a faint light in the darkness.
Above her up on the surface she saw a familiar face.
Hawke jumped in and grabbed hold of her, pulling her to the edge of the gorge and hauling her out of the icy water. On dry ground now, he slung her over his shoulders in a fireman’s lift. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“You took your damned time, Josiah. I could have made a cup of tea in the time it took you to get your sorry arse over here.”
“I’m so sorry about that.”
“You’re forgiven… what are you doing?”
With Lea still over his shoulders, he pulled his canteen from his pack and filled it with water from the gorge. “Just a hunch,” he said quietly. “Now hold on tight!”
“Is there any other way to hold on to you?”
He rolled his eyes, and with bullets spitting at their feet and tracing past their heads, they made it back to the improvised rope crossing. “Listen, it’s one at a time from here on, can you do it?”
She gave a quick nod. “I can get across their no problem, it’s walking when we’re on the other side that’s going to give us grief.”
He smiled at her. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Eejit.”
“Get across the bridge!”
She crawled across, with the team on the other side covering them while Hawke secured the other end of the rope.
“Hurry up!” Hawke fought with everything he had to keep the rope from slipping and hold the bridge in place. Pain tore through his body as the rope started to slide through his grip and scorch friction burns into his arms. Behind him, the Special Ops troops saw what was going on and started to make their way over. “I can’t hold this thing for much longer!”
“I’m almost there!” Lea called back, ducking to avoid another strafing from the automatic weapons up on the ridge. “Just another few seconds.”
When she was across, Hawke picked up the rope and sprinted to the chasm, once again leaping right the way across and smashing down into the dirt on the other side. A few back slaps of admiration from the team were cut short when a colossal explosion rang out in the center of the temple.
They turned to see the Oracle writhing like a dying snake in front of the sphere, now even brighter with the strange liquid-like plasma.
“Why doesn’t he run away?” Zeke said.
“What’s he doing?” Lexi asked. “He’s crazy!”
“We already kind of knew that!” Ryan said.
The force of the blue plasma streams spun the Oracle around so fast his wretched, agonized figure became a blur to those watching his demise. Snaking together as they wrapped around him and covered his body, the neon plasma trails sparked and crackled and forced their way inside his eyes and his ears and his mouth.