AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"We'll be lucky to hit one or two at the most."
"At least that will put the odds in our favor," Gunn said, almost cheerfully.
They had only a few minutes, so they worked feverishly to reopen a crawl space through the rock into the tomb vault. Despite the damp cold, they were sweating heavily by the time they dragged the two dead bodies through the narrow opening and snaked in themselves, dragging their backpacks after them.
Their timing was near perfect. They had no sooner propped the rocks back in place and looked into the outer chamber through tiny peepholes than Number Four leaped into the chamber and dropped to the floor as Number Five raced in just behind, both rotating their lights and their gun muzzles in swift arcs from wall to wall.
"I told you so," Giordino whispered softly in Gunn's ear, so it would not be picked up by the microphone in front of his mouth. "They left Number Six outside as reserve."
"There is no one in here," said Number Four. "The cave is empty."
"Impossible," came the voice of the helicopter pilot. "All three were approaching the tunnel not fifteen minutes ago."
"He's right," agreed Number Five. "Numbers One, Two, and Three have disappeared."
They talked in undertones, but Gunn picked up every word over his headset radios. Still on their guard and alert for any movement, they nonetheless relaxed to a small degree when they saw no possible hiding place for anyone inside the chamber.
"Take the one standing," Giordino whispered softly. "They're wearing body armor, so aim for the head. I'll take the one on the ground."
Slipping their gun muzzles into holes no larger than an inch and a half in diameter, just enough to see over the front sight, they lined up on the men who had come to kill them and squeezed off two shots in unison that sounded like a thunderclap inside the rock-walled chamber. The man on the ground merely twitched, while the one standing threw up his hands, gasped, and folded wearily over the body at his feet.
Giordino brushed away the rocks in front of his face, extended the flashlight through the hole, and studied their handiwork. He turned to Gunn and made a slashing gesture across his throat. Gunn understood and switched off his headset radio.
"We must remain where we are," Giordino muttered.
Before he could explain, a voice burst over the radio. "What happened in there?"
No longer interested in subterfuge, Giordino replied, "No big deal. We shot a rabbit."
"Rabbit?" demanded the helicopter pilot. "What sort of nonsense is that?"
"I fear our comrades are dead," said Number Six, soberly. "Those NUMA devils must have killed them."
"Those were the rabbits I was talking about," announced Giordino, adding insult to injury.
"You will surely die," said the helicopter pilot.
"As the old gangsters used to say to the cops, come and get us."
"That won't be necessary," said the pilot.
"Duck down!" Giordino hissed to Gunn. "Here it comes."
The pilot fined up the nose of his bird with the entrance of the tunnel and fired off one of his missiles.
Then came a loud whoosh, as the rocket burst out of its pod attached to the fuselage of the helicopter.
The rocket did not make it through the tunnel before striking against one wall and exploding. The force of the blast inside a rock-hard contained area was deafening. The concussion felt as though a grand piano had fallen on them from the tenth floor. Pulverized rock erupted in a deadly spray that sliced every object in the chamber into shreds. Smoke and dust compressed together in the small space, seethed and whirled with hurricane force, before taking the path of least resistance and funneling out the tunnel and into the atmosphere outside. Every combustible object inside the chamber immediately burst into flame.
Incredibly, neither the roofs of the tunnel nor the chamber collapsed. The main force of the explosion was blown back through the tunnel along with the smoke and dust. Giordino and Gunn felt as though huge fists had punched the air out of their lungs. Quickly reacting, they pulled the upper half of their coveralls over their faces to filter out the dust and smoke, before retreating temporarily into the inner tomb.
"I hope to God. . . they don't send another rocket in here," Gunn said, coughing. "That will spell our end for sure."
Giordino could hardly hear him above the ringing in his ears. "I have a hunch they'll think one was enough," he rasped between hacks. Slowly recovering his numbed senses, he began pulling away the rocks and widening an opening. "I'm getting damned tired of moving rock, I'll tell you."
Once through, they groped through the smoke and dust for the extra weapons from their assailants'
bodies until they had five assault rifles and an equal number of automatic pistols between them. Struggling to breathe in the nonexistent air, and working blind, Giordino lashed three of the assault rifles together with cord from his backpack. The three guns were now wrapped parallel. Then he ran a cord around the triggers and tied it under the guards.
