The two warriors stood as the remaining six golems walled them in against the curved wall of the chamber. Behind them was a carving depicting five crude winged figures in the sky above a ziggurat that had to be Babel before it was buried beneath a pyroclastic flow.
Ridley stepped past the outer rings of golems. He looked at King and Alexander, knowing neither man posed a threat. His eyes trailed from the two men to the large carving behind them. Slowly, his countenance morphed from confidence to anger. He stepped back without a word and walked to the laptop that had somehow made it through the battle unscathed.
With a finger hovering over the keyboard’s Enter key, Ridley turned to King. “Not every prophesy comes true, King.”
What’s he talking about? King thought. Alexander’s hand on his shoulder turned him around. The big man pointed to the stone carving behind them. King looked at the image with a new perspective. It depicted a prophecy. Five angels descending over Babel. But were they angels or men? Were they wings … or parachutes? As King’s eyes widened, a click whirled him around.
Ridley pushed the button.
The golems closed in.
EIGHTY-THREE
AS THE BULK of the golem pursuing them blocked the light from below, Queen couldn’t determine the length of the tunnel. But she could see the hulking shape of the golem as he ground its way toward them.
With Bishop’s weight supported by one of her arms, she yanked her night vision goggles from her neck with her free hand and placed them against her eyes. Looking down past Knight, who descended the incline with Fiona over one shoulder, she saw the end of the road seventy-five feet ahead.
If the golem caught them there they would all be pounded into oblivion.
She ran through their options.
C4 would take too long to rig.
A grenade in the tight confines of the tunnel might shred them.
Her eyes locked on Knight’s weapon again. It might work, she thought, and said, “Knight, give me your XM.”
Knight paused and shrugged his weapon from his shoulder and handed it back to Queen.
She nodded to Bishop. “Can you handle both of them?”
“You know I can,” Knight said, and then took Bishop’s weight off of her with a grunt.
Free of Bishop’s bulk, Queen ran ahead, raised the XM25 to her shoulder, and pulled the trigger. The end of the tunnel lit up as it was struck by a ceaseless barrages of exploding rounds. A sound like thunder rolled down the tunnel. Queen ran forward, finger on the trigger, hoping to punch through the wall before she ran out of ammunition.
* * *
“I’LL GET THEIR attention,” King said to Alexander. “You try to get Rid—”
But Alexander had his own ideas. He popped the cap from a small vial of black liquid and raised it to his lips. King recognized it as the adrenaline-boosting drink Alexander had taken back in Rome.
“Give me some,” King said.
Alexander paused. “It could kill you.”
“They’re definitely going to kill me.”
Alexander poured the liquid under his tongue and then quickly handed the bottle to King. There were a few drops left. Wasting no time, King shook the remaining drops under his tongue.
At first he felt nothing.
Then his heart beat hard, like a punch to his chest.
Then again.
And again.
It was like a monster had been unleashed beneath his rib cage. He felt his blood flow through his body, pulsing with energy. As the pressure grew stronger, a hot stinging covered his skin. The tiny blood vessels in his body were bursting.
Then the effect struck his mind.
He’d taken LSD once as a teenager. The mind-altering drug had nothing on this stuff. King viewed the world as though in slow motion, but not because things were moving slowly, his mind simply processed and reacted more quickly to his sensory input. And the energy flowing through his body gave him the ability to respond just as quickly.
The pain from his many wounds, including the deep stab wound, faded away, allowing him to react without pause.
And it saved his life as the nearest golem dove for him. King leaped in the air, and took hold of the top of the carving, pulling himself out of harm’s way. Now above the golem he fired his weapon into its back, pulverizing a hole straight through. When the XM25 ran out of ammunition, King tossed it to the side.
Alexander barreled into the golem nearest him, striking it with a force King could never achieve. While he’d only had a few drops of Alexander’s adrenaline booster, Alexander had taken almost the whole vial. Combined with his ability to heal, he was nearly as strong as the golems, and he was twice as fast. As the golem stumbled backward into a second, Alexander jumped back and looked for a weapon. He found it in the shattered remains of the golem King had blasted apart. He picked up the broken marble arm, wielding it like a club, and smiled.
Seeing him with the club, King recalled a statue he’d seen in Florence, Italy, depicting Hercules battling Caccus the Centaur. The sculptor had captured his likeness so accurately that King now wondered if Alexander had commissioned the sculpture himself.
A lizard-headed golem launched toward King. He reacted without thinking, diving toward the golem.
He sailed over its shoulder, wrapping an arm around its head as he passed. Holding on to the golem’s head, he swung around, planting his feet on its back. With his hands gripping the lizard-headed golem beneath its chin, King used his whole body to yank the monster’s head back. It bent back and reached its arms up, trying to grab hold of him. But the movement combined with King on its back threw off its center of gravity.
As the golem fell back, King pushed off hard with his feet.
Too hard.
The elixir that had boosted his speed and strength had not made his body more durable. He had jumped farther than he could have ever done before, but at the sacrifice of one of his ankles, which shattered from the intense pressure.
Distracted by the sharp pain shooting up his leg, King slammed into the body of a devil-headed golem and fell at its feet. In his dazed state he barely registered the giant foot rising up above him, but it seemed that with his mind in hyperdrive, that small perception was all he needed to react. He rolled away just as the giant foot slammed into the stone floor.
* * *
QUEEN CONTINUED HER charge toward the sealed exit. She had no idea if anyone had fallen behind, or if the golem had caught them. She was focused solely on the task of punching through the wall. But with the shaft now full of dusty debris, she couldn’t see the wall, just the bright explosions from her XM25 rounds.
Then a light cut through the dust like a lighthouse beacon. She aimed at the small fissure and unloaded. The light grew larger with each exploding round until a large portion of the wall fell away, big enough for them to fit through.
Queen stopped by the hole and looked back. Knight was right behind her, still holding Fiona. Bishop followed him, walking on his own now, but looked beaten and tired. But the golem was there, too, still forcing its way up the tight passage. She waved Knight through, and then Bishop. She followed them into the bright light of day.
Knight kept moving, somehow knowing that the chase was far from over. Bishop fell to one knee, gripping his chest.
“Can’t breathe,” he said.