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“It’s possible. And the Kohaths, knowing this, have been searching for the Ark here ever since. Explains why they bought the place, and modernized the tunnel reinforcements.”
“Makes a sick kind of sense.” Nicholas stopped, shine
d his Maglite on two more branching tunnels. “Okay, these weren’t on the plans. Which tunnel do you choose?”
“Whenever we have a choice, we have to continue inward and that means north.”
They moved deeper into the tunnel and into the mountain. A few minutes later, Nicholas put up his hand. “Do you hear that?”
Loud voices arguing, coming toward them.
They ran back to the tunnel junction and into another passageway. The voices grew closer, then faded away as the two arguing men disappeared down another tunnel.
They started off again into the north tunnel. Mike smelled dirt and damp, and blood, a copper smell like none other. She stopped, leaned into him, and whispered, “Do you smell something off here?”
Nicholas stopped. “I do.” He shined his Maglite around. “Mike, there’s a body here, poorly buried.”
He knelt down, began brushing away loose mounds of dirt.
“A woman,” he said.
Oh no, oh no. “Kitsune?”
“I don’t know yet.” Nicholas kept brushing away the dirt from the face.
A light and shadow suddenly appeared, and a man’s voice shouted, “Hey! What are you doing?”
Mike flashed her Maglite toward the voice, effectively blinding the man. She caught a brief glimpse of him—large, muscled, buzz-cut hair, shouting at them in a British accent—it was Harry.
He moved fast. Mike’s gun was in her hand, Nicholas by her side, his Glock up as well, shouting, “Back off, mate. You don’t want to tangle with us.”
“Drummond, you bastard—you took down Joey, tied him up and left him outside to rot? I’ve been tracking you. Ms. Kohath thought you two were long gone, but I didn’t. I’ve worked with your sort, knew you’d come back. I’ve been tracking you and now you’re going to die down here. No one will ever know what happened to you two.”
He had guns in both hands, but Nicholas was faster, he brought up his arm and fired, all in one smooth motion and shot Harry twice in the chest. Mike, a millisecond behind him, shot him in the forehead. The shots reverberated through the tunnel, echoing loudly. Harry looked at them, shock on his face, and then he fell, a gun landing on each side of him.
Mike grabbed Nicholas’s arm. “Everyone down here is going to be on us in a few seconds.” She looked toward the shallow grave. “Is it Kitsune?”
“It’s not Kitsune. It’s Lilith. Come on.”
They started off in a slight crouch, their Glocks at the ready, Nicholas’s Maglite lighting the way.
“I’m praying that Kitsune and Grant are together, and they’re still alive.”
Nicholas was praying the same thing.
They hurried deeper and deeper, until Mike grabbed Nicholas’s wrist, whispered in his ear. “There are lights up ahead.”
They turned a corner onto a large fully lighted cavern. It was a full-fledged underground operation. Nicholas saw a row of ten or so motorbikes by the doors, steel storage units, an array of tools. Half a dozen men were working. No one seemed to have heard the gunshots.
“I think they’re pulling up stakes,” Mike whispered. “Nicholas, look over there.”
They watched Kitsune being dragged from a small tunnel offshoot by a small man with gray hair, and ahead of them was Cassandra Kohath, calling out orders. “Be ready to leave within the hour. And don’t forget the man.”
They were alive. Mike said, “They’re going to run for it. Can we take them down from here, do you think? Before they miss Harry and the guard at the tunnel entrance?”
He nodded and pointed his Glock toward the cavern. “On my mark. Three, two—”
But Mike yanked him back against the tunnel wall, out of sight. “No, no, someone’s coming.”
