“A Sumerian city?” Reaper asked.
“No, not at all.” Ryan said, words trailing off into the darkness of the tomb. “It says this civilization they’re talking about predated Sumer by thousands of generations. He calls it the Land of the Gods.”
“Impossible,” Devlin said. “Sumer is the oldest civilization in the world.”
Everyone turned to stare at him with the obvious question on their faces.
“So I watch the Discovery Channel from time to time? Sue me!”
“But he’s right, isn’t he?” Kim said.
“Not anymore,” said Ryan. “I think we just made the greatest discovery in world history. If Alexander and his priests were right, human civilization started hundreds of thousands of years before anyone alive today thinks is possible.”
“Wow,” Lexi said. “That’s about as heavy as it gets!”
Ryan looked at her, a smile spreading on his unshaven face. “You’d think, yes…”
“What does that mean?” Hawke asked, starting to feel anxious. He took the ring from Lea and started to study it.
“It means that the antediluvian civilization described in this codex was an advanced culture with knowledge, technology and weapons superior even to those we have today.”
Even Reaper looked impressed. “C’est pas possible!”
“So we thought until a few minutes ago,” Hawke said.
“He’s even sketched some sort of a map here — looks a mural of a bull, maybe. It could be some sort of identifying feature. This is gold dust! We need to protect this.” With trembling fingers he carefully ripped out the page with the reference to the sunken temple in Pavlopetri. “We can’t let them know where it is.” He folded it carefully and slipped it in his back pocket.
“Good idea, mate.” Hawke took the ring and looked for somewhere to hide it, then saw Lea’s hand. “Put this on your finger,” he said. “No one will ever know.”
“You’re so romantic, Josiah.”
Ryan sighed. “I’m going to need some time to translate this. The chances of me making a correct translation under pressure are slim to zero.”
“Especially when you’re dead!”
They spun around, shaken from their awed state by a familiar South African accent. Kruger was in the tomb now and behind him they saw the first few faces of what they knew was a small army of Athanatoi.
“You just won’t go away, will you?” Lea said.
“This is our property, not yours.” Blankov pushed past Kruger. “The things in this tomb belong to the Athanatoi.”
“Hand it over,” Kruger said. “Like the man just said, it doesn’t belong to you.”
“Nor you, you son of a bitch!” Lea said.
“It doesn’t matter what you think you know, Donovan. You can never know what the Oracle knows. You can never understand the gravity of what you found here today.” He turned to Ryan. “Now, I’m getting tired of saying this you little squirt, but hand over the goods.”
Ryan’s heart was torn in two. To hand the manuscript over to Kruger meant they might lose the mission, but to refuse meant instant death. Not wanting to give the South African any satisfaction, and reassured by the map page in his pocket, he controlled a sigh of frustration and walked it over to him.
“There’s a good boy, now fuck off back to mum and dad over there.”
Ryan returned to the other side of the tomb and Kruger handed the codex to Blankov. The Athanatoi general never even looked at it, but held it like it was no more than a briefcase. He casually turned to Kruger. “We have what we need. You can kill them now.”
“But I thought the Oracle wanted to kill them?”
“He has changed his mind. You are to terminate all of them immediately.”
Blankov left without a glance at them, followed by his contingent of Athanatoi bodyguards.
In the new silence, a fiendish grin spread on Kruger’s face. “By the time I’ve finished with you this time, you’ll be a nothing more than a pile of bleached bones strewn out in the sun.”
“Oh la vache!” Reaper said. “That’s not nice, Dirk.”
“You’re nothing more than their lapdog, Kruger,” Lea said.
Hawke stepped forward, but was instantly forced back by Venter’s submachine gun. “A dog with no teeth.”
“Stick and stones may break my bones,” he said with a curled lip. “But names will never hurt me.”
“I’ll fucking hurt you,” Ryan said. “Just give me half a chance and stop hiding behind your goons.”
“I’ll have you know these are fine fighting men, not like your little ragtag bunch of amateur misfits. We caught you, after all.”
Ryan stuffed his hands in his pockets, a frown on his face. He looked more beaten than angry. It had been a tough few hours since the initial raid on Kruger’s Pretoria mansion and he was tired of running and fighting. Maybe Kruger really did have the edge. Maybe he really would beat them in the end.
“You won’t get away with this, Kruger!” Hawke yelled.
His response was laughter. “You’re making threats against me? You’re in no place to do that. I’m going to execute you now, here. Say your goodbyes!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Kruger ordered Venter and his men to step forward. Without a further command they slid the bolts on their weapons and aimed them at the ECHO team. If they fired in here it would be a bloodbath beyond description and no one would ever find their bodies.
Kruger took one last look around the mausoleum and that was the only chance Hawke needed. Grabbing one of the bronze discuses, he threw it at full speed like a Frisbee. It raced across the tomb and struck Kruger in the center of his face. He cursed and kicked and swore and when he looked back up his nose looked badly broken by the force of the discus smashing into it.
Hawke knew what came next, so before the arms dealer gave the execution order, he threw another of the Frisbees at Venter, causing him to duck to avoid the same fate. The discus smashed into the carved wall behind him and the ECHO team needed no order from Hawke to tell them what to do.
They charged Venter and the other men in the gloomy light of the mausoleum, piling into them and forcing their guns up to the ceiling. A few of the weapons fired off, blasting holes in the night-sky mural, but now they had a chance.
Reaper’s opponent went down first. The Frenchman easily disarmed him and kicked his gun away. He punched him in the face but the man drew a combat knife from his belt. The former Legionnaire fought like a bull, strong and agile and cunning. Twisting the knife out of his hand, he drove the serrated blade up into the soft flesh beneath the man’s ribcage and silenced his screams with his hand until he was dead. The man’s corpse slipped to the floor of the cave and Reaper turned to help Ryan who was fighting with Kruger.
Hawke and another soldier were rolling in the dust over by the sarcophagus. The South African mercenary knew some moves but he was no match for the former commando. Hawke got the better of him and was soon pinning him down and pounding him in the face.
Camacho and Venter were taking swipes at one another nearer the door and Lea, Scarlet and Lexi were deconstructing a merc’s ego on the other side of the sarcophagus, taking it in turns to hit him and then push him over to the next in the group for a go.
“That’s enough!”
A gun went off in the semi-darkness and everyone froze where they were.
Hawke twisted around and saw Kruger with a gun at Ryan’s head. The South African had captured him and was holding him hostage. “I said that is enough! Release my men!”
“Men? I thought I was fighting fairies,” Scarlet said.
“Shut up, bitch!” He cursed. “Get me the sword Venter.”