This was the way of the world: life could turn on a dime. He and his father, reunited, on their way to finish their great work: to save the human race. All his sacrifices, all his decisions… He had been right.
Ahead of them, gunshots rang out.
CHAPTER 139
David dropped the two guards standing at the doors to the tombs before either could get a shot off. To his left, another guard rounded the corner and sprayed bullets into the iron wall beside him, but Patrick caught the soldier full in the chest with three quick shots, sending him quickly to the floor.
David swept the other way in the corridor. Clear. He turned and jogged to catch up with Patrick, who was inching around the corner from which the third soldier had emerged.
“I’ll take point,” David said. He peeked his head around and— a gunshot whizzed past his head.
“I’ll cover you,” Patrick said as he extended his handgun around the corner and fired several shots.
David stepped into the corridor and closed on the man who was pressing against the adjacent wall. David hit him with two shots in a tight grouping on his chest. Four down. Five plus Kane left. Still not great odds. And they’d lost the element of surprise. One step at a time.
Patrick was beside him, and both men eyed the double doors the soldier must have come from. They took up positions on each side of the door, and Patrick worked the glass panel until the doors parted, revealing a room with twelve glass tubes holding… ape-men?
David had to focus. Patrick seemed less fazed. He stepped quickly into the room, sweeping his gun from side to side. David followed. The room was empty.
Then, from behind him, David sensed someone closing on them. He spun around and raised the machine gun to fire— Kate. She had been hiding behind the control station.
He jerked his finger off the trigger and dropped the gun to his side. He moved toward her, ready to sweep her up. Just as he reached her, Kate’s eyes met Patrick’s. She turned from David. “Dad?”
The old man stood there, a look somewhere between remorse and disbelief on his face. “Katherine…”
A tear dropped from Kate’s eye as she walked to him and embraced him. He grunted as he hugged her back. She pushed back. “You’re alive.” She wrinkled her nose. “And you’re hurt, and what, is, that sme—”
“I’m ok, Katherine. I. Oh, God, you look so much like her.” Tears welled in his eyes. “I was so worried, but I know you… it’s… for me, only a few weeks have passed…”
Kate nodded. She seemed to have already put it together. David marveled at her as he stood there, a little awkwardly. She held her arm out, and he walked over and hugged her, pressing his face into the side of her head.
She released them and said, “How did you—”
“Gibraltar,” her father said. “A door in the chamber I found — it was a portal to Antarctica, to this larger structure. There are more men. We need to—”
“Yes,” Kate said. “They have the children. Dorian is making them carry backpacks with nuclear bombs.”
David looked around, thinking, and then said, “There’s a chamber with tubes; it goes on for miles. I bet that’s where they’re going. You stay—”
Kate shook her head. “No.” She walked to the dead man who had run out of her room and picked up his machine gun. She deadpanned at David. “I’m coming. And I get a gun this time. I’m not asking.”
David exhaled.
Patrick looked from Kate to David. “I take it this has been a recurring discussion?”
“Yeah, it’s uh, been a weird week.” David walked over to Kate and handed her a pistol. “The Luger is less likely to jam. It’s loaded and ready to go. Just point and shoot. It’s got eight rounds in it, you’ll have plenty. Stay behind us.”
CHAPTER 140
Dorian held a hand up for the five soldiers behind him to halt. He peeked around the corner. Two dead soldiers, one on each side of the door. Had they come out or gone in? Out hopefully. He stuck his head out again. Another dead body, at the corner of the hall — he was running toward them. They had come out.
“Clear.” He called and the men and his father spread out in the hall, checking the dead men.
Dorian bent down to the kids. “Ok, oh,” he corralled them toward him, away from the dead men. “Don’t pay attention to them, they’re just playing dead. It’s another game. Now it’s time for the race. Remember, run as fast as you can. The first one to the end of this room gets a huge prize!”