“We can do it, Karen,” Faulkner boomed as he got up from his chair. “I know we can. You, me, Kosinski, Cougar, and the soon-to-be General Geary right here are going to work together, take out ECHO and put me in the White House. Then things are going to change.”
Two men in black coats started to speak into their palm mics as the Vice President strode over to the door. Another man opened it but Faulkner stopped and turned around to address the room once last time. “And when I say change, I mean Big Time.”
And then he was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“No!” Lea screamed.
Devlin was closest to the professor and leaped into the line of fire but it was too late; he crashed into the ground beside the now dead Henk Kloos.
“You bastard, Kruger!” Lea yelled. “He was innocent.”
Hawke saw Zito rub his jaw and cast an anxious glance at Bruno and his other men. The look on his face said: this guy’s unpredictable and Bruno seemed to share the opinion.
“Innocent!” Kruger scoffed.
Devlin clambered to his knees and checked Kloos’s pulse. He turned to the others and shook his head and then got to his feet. He dusted himself off and looked Kruger in the eye. “Where I come from, shooting an unarmed man makes you a proper fucking coward.”
“He was completely dispensable,” Kruger said. “As will you be when you get the lid off this tomb.” He swung the gun up. “Get moving you vermin.”
Hawke rolled up his sleeves and grabbed the edge of the slate lid. The others joined him while Kruger, Zito and the gunmen kept a safe distance away from the action.
At first there was no movement, but then they all felt something click and the slate began to move. Hawke improved his grip on the heavy lid and pushed harder. He thought for a moment he had caught a glimpse of some kind of blue glowing light emanating from the inside of the sarcophagus. Its strange, unique glow reminded him of something, but he couldn’t remember what it was…
Atlantis.
It reminded him of Atlantis — specifically the buzzing, neon color the sunken city had glowed when it had started to rupture and the entire underwater metropolis had exploded in a giant fireball.
He tipped his head and peered beneath the slate cap. It was halfway open now, and he saw that he’d imagined nothing — something inside the sarcophagus was definitely glowing the same soft, fuzzy lambent blue he had witnessed on the terrible day of the Seastead battle. He realized that the alluring light wasn't the only thing linking that day to this — Dirk Kruger was another common factor.
“Stop dawdling, you lazy bastards,” Kruger yelled. “And hurry the fuck up.” The South African slid the bolt back on his rifle to underline the seriousness of his mood.
With one final push, the team managed to heave the lid off the top of the sarcophagus. It crashed to the stone floor and broke in two, producing a large cloud of dust in the air around the stone coffin. When it cleared they all moved a step closer and peered into the light and what they saw amazed them all.
They were looking at a stone carving of a corpse.
The stonemason’s work was intricate. It was holding its hands together over its chest as if in prayer, and at its side was a yellowed, ragged cloth stretching from its waist down to its boots.
“What the hell is it?”
“It’s a gisant,” Ryan said.
Hawke shot him a glance. “Eh?”
“A cadaver tomb, or a memento mori tomb,” he said. “We call them effigy tombs. What we’re looking at here is a depiction of Arthur’s rotting corpse. It means the real thing is underneath, almost certainly.”
“Who gives a damn about his corpse?” Kruger said. He took a step back and raised his rifle. When the stock was neatly in his shoulder he pointed the barrel in Ryan’s face. “Open up that cloth. I want to see the glow more clearly.”
Kruger and his men took a cautious step back. They were clearly expecting another booby trap, but when Ryan carefully opened the cloth they knew at once it was no trap. As he pulled it open, the dark, neon glow covered his hands and forearms, and then the young man’s face was the same ghostly hue.
There, at Arthur’s side was a long, wide blade, and its gentle blue glow almost seemed to hum and buzz in the dark chamber.
They were looking at the Sword of Fire.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Mesmerized by the mellow glow, Lea stared at the sword and noticed a line of tiny symbols carved into the hilt. “You see those symbols, Ry?”
He nodded. “They have a strong resemblance to those on the idols.”
“For fuck’s sake, is this thing Excalibur or not?” Scarlet asked.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Ryan said. He cast his eyes down to Professor Kloos’s dead body and then he looked at Kruger with utter contempt. “The one man who would know for sure is dead.”
Kruger lowered his rifle and laughed. “If you idiots knew the first thing about this game you’re playing you’d know it doesn’t matter if you call the damned thing Excalibur, the Sword of Fire, or anything else. This sword is a gateway.”
As Kruger’s word echoed in the cavern, Hawke looked at him sharply. “What do you mean a gateway?”
Kruger jabbed the Englishman’s chest. “You mind your own damned business, cuiter.”
Hawke resisted the impulse to grab Kruger’s finger and snap it off before landing the punch of his life on the arms dealer’s leathery face. Vermaak was loitering somewhere behind him with a MP5 in his hands, and Zito and Bruno and the other men were still armed and maintaining a good distance.
In normal circumstances he would take Kruger by the neck and use him as a human shield; buy some time, barter his way out using the boss’s life as currency, but these were not normal circumstances. He had seen the look in Zito’s eyes when Kruger pushed him around, and if he used the South African as a human shield he was one hundred per cent certain Zito would use them both for target practice. The only question was why Zito hadn’t already killed them all now the sword had been found. He guessed the ancient relic didn’t mean much to the Italian mobster and that he was waiting for a large cash payment.
“Now get out of my way, you fools,” Kruger snarled.
With the danger of any booby trap now gone, Kruger pushed his way forward through the small collection of people gathered around the sarcophagus and leaned inside to get the sword, but before he did he was careful to wrap it up again.
He moved away from the sarcophagus and carefully placed the covered sword inside a leather bag. “You,” he said, pointing a commanding finger at Bruno. “Take this bag, and guard it with your life. It’s the most precious thing on this whole fucking planet, you understand?”
Bruno stayed calm. He glanced at Zito who gave a shallow nod. After the nod, Bruno casually strolled over to the bag and lifted it over his shoulder, never once taking his eyes off Kruger and Vermaak.
Hawke guessed the South African would have preferred to give the sword to Vermaak but knew he wanted the commando’s arms free in case any trouble kicked off with Zito’s crew.
“It’s time for me to bid you farewell, Hawke,” Kruger said. “You have been a worthy adversary, but I won in the end.” He turned to Vermaak. “Get the men out of here!”
Vermaak ordered the others out of the tomb and they began to file out with Bruno and the sword at the front of the line.
Kruger raised the rifle and pointed it at Hawke’s face. He started to leave the tomb, walking backwards and never breaking the gun’s aim. “When I seal this tomb you’ll die in the dark, you bastards. All of you — like desperate, starving rats. They eat other to stay alive, you know. I wonder what starvation and fear will drive all of you to?”