Leviathan (43 page)

Chapter 40

Connor staggered blindly into the power plant, finally gaining the door in gore and pain and rage, his shirt burned from his body and his body black with wounds.

“Get cover!” he screamed, tearing the M-79 from his back. “Barley! Get ready! It's coooooming!”

High on the dais Connor heard a terrified scream and glanced up to see Beth and Jordan. And somehow the image brought back to life what had been destroyed by his pain and wounds and fear. Connor's face tightened, eyes tearing. He spun to glare down the tunnel, seeing in the distance the demonic beast.

Leviathan focused on him, growling.

Connor snarled, lowering his head. Then he glanced up to see the severed sections of the Norwegian power line, poised above his own head. The bare copper coils, each one as thick as his leg, were bright with a billion volts of power. He focused again on the beast.

“Come on! Come on let's finish this!”

Leviathan leaped violently forward, landing well into the tunnel and charging. Connor screamed at Barley.

“Three seconds!”

“
Bring it on!” Barley shouted, raising the LAW. Connor didn't turn back but he knew the beast was coming, coming, always coming.

He staggered forward, falling ...

A black roar rushed over him, hot and hating.

Ablaze beyond all feeling Connor
instinctively spun to see a black monstrosity hurtling up the tunnel, all caution forgotten and he fired the grenade launcher from the hip, turning into the thrust with a yell.

Exploding in a mushrooming white blast the grenade hit high, phosphorus blazing off the ceiling of the corridor to hit the beast in a firestorm. A twin concussion, something Connor didn't understand and didn't try to understand rocked the entire cavern and he fell back, yelling incoherently at the echoing shock wave that thundered across them, the entire cavern alive with the trauma of the conflict.

In a breath he had staggered up, somehow clutching the grenade launcher. He heard Barley shouting, sensed the big black man running forward, still holding the LAW.

Leviathan came over them, blazing in flame.

With a roar it charged into the cavern, in their midst almost before Connor could react. The Dragon hit the power plant in a rush, blasting forward in a haze of black that was over Connor in a thunderstorm of fangs and claws. Then Connor heard Barley's shout and dropped as the air shattered with the colossal concussion of the LAW.

Connor sensed something black and bestial roaring over his head, sailing aflame through the air. And in a daze he saw Leviathan's monstrous head whirl to lock savagely on something and then its long foreleg had lashed out wildly toward
... Jordan!

Yet the devil-claws missed the child to strike a maze of cables and the gazebo was torn violently from the ceiling, Jordan and Beth screaming together as it descended with a rending crash to the floor.

“NO!” Connor screamed.

A wounded roar struck the opposite wall of the power plant far behind them but Connor didn't turn to it, had all but forgotten the Dragon as he gained his feet, running forward. He saw Beth pitch forward, unconscious but still holding Jordan tight and secure in her arms and with a terrible cry Connor leaped over shattered steel to catch them in his arms.

“Beth,’ he gasped, crying out, on his knees. “Oh, Beth ...”

He cradled his wife gently in his arms and hugged Jordan close. And then by some
primal survival instinct he turned his head to see Leviathan on the opposite end of the cavern, on fire from the impact of the LAW.

Ravaged, the beast was galactically enraged.

Hell on earth, it rose raging.

Barley was running to the middle of the cavern, waving.
“Frank!” he screamed. “Get 'em out of here! Forget the plan! Forget the plan! I'm gonna blow this place and bury this thing! Get out of here! All of you get out of here!”

Leviathan screamed and lashed out, shattering a support beam.

Faintly Connor leaned forward, clutching Beth and Jordan close in his arms. It was a single moment of bright, shining hope in utter blackness, a moment of holding his wife and son close as a pure hell-born beast of unstoppable strength rose before them, gathering itself to kill them, to kill them all.

“
Beth,” Connor gasped. “Come on, darlin’ ... Come on, baby ... We've got to ... We've got to get out of here ...”

Beth pitched forward, blood on her shoulder. Connor cried out, holding her closer.
“Oh, Beth ...”

And then Frank was there, yes, Frank.

The scientist bent quickly over her, taking her firmly and gently from Connor's arms. And Connor leaned back, staring in shock and tears, kneeling as he held Jordan tight.

As calm and blessed as a surgeon, Frank touched Beth's neck, his hands so calm and confident, so gentle. Then he did something sensitive and caring and touching that Connor didn't understand before he reached under the railing to lift Beth effortlessly in his arms, turning.

“She's alive, Connor!” he gasped, his eyes bright and loving. “Come on, buddy! We've got to get out of here! Barley's going to—”

“
Look out!” Barley screamed, and Connor whirled.

It was too late.

Leviathan lashed out, smashing its tail against the far end of the gazebo and together they were sailing through the air, struck by the near end of the railing and Connor lost it all in the roaring madness, charging all his soul to hold Jordan close. Then he struck a steel girder with a mind-shattering collision, and he was spinning to fall to the ground with his son slung far from him.

Connor landed screaming, reaching for his son and not knowing where he had gone even as he heard the reptilian roar and somehow in his mind saw the Dragon rising above them, so close.

“Jordan!” he screamed.

And then he saw Jordan.

So close!

The child cried out in pain.

Leviathan stood high on its hind feet, glaring, savoring the moment. It took its time to strike terror and remorse and whatever else could be struck in the hearts of its victims. And Connor knew with finality that this was far, far more than a beast.

It would be the end of the world.

If it could be.

Then Barley was before it, in its teeth, screaming
and firing up with a continuous stream from his blazing M-16 that Leviathan all but ignored until it suddenly glared down, irritated, fangs parting. It swiped out with a contemptuous foreleg and Connor saw the lieutenant blasted wildly to the side.

Barley was hurled incredibly high and hard across the cavern to smash into a broken stand of girders, spinning off the heap to crash with bone-shattering force.

Connor cried out, hurt by the sight. But almost instantly, incredibly, Barley was on his feet again and Connor wasn't even surprised. The lieutenant rose, staggering forward, always
always
back into the fight but Connor understood somehow that not even Barley, as much a man as he was, could stand after that – not after that. Barley took two staggering steps, screaming in rage and drawing a pistol to fire a full clip, firing until he fell heavily onto his face, deathly silent in a silence that reached fully across the cavern.

Connor moaned, bowing his head.

Leviathan stared, unconcerned, until Barley collapsed. Then it swung its ravaged serpentine head toward Connor, and Connor somehow felt the impact of the Dragon's unearthly hate. With a horrified shout Connor surged forward, trying to gain his feet. But he couldn't move.

Shocked, Connor glared down to see that he was pinned solidly to the ground by a steel girder. And fired by desperation, Connor cursed and tried to scramble out, shredding his legs on the steel. But his bones were held solid. And with a wild cry he searched for a weapon, saw the M-79 close.

In a breath Connor snatched the weapon up and cracked the breech, tearing-out the spent round. He fumbled frantically through Jordan's hysterical screams for the remaining grenade.

Couldn't find it.

It was gone ...

Connor's hands scrambled over all he could reach.

Leviathan roared, stepping closer. And then Connor saw the grenade on the floor. It was lying cleanly on the cement, in clear view ... between Jordan and Leviathan.

Leviathan's next shriek propelled Jordan hard into Connor's arms and Connor dropped the M-79 as he caught his son. The four-year-old was terrified and hysterical and Connor frantically took a moment to hold him close and closer. Then he pushed his son back, glaring with a father's dying, desperate love.

Leviathan lowered its head and growled, fifty yards away. The Dragon twisted its demon head, as if laughing, and Connor saw with a shock it would have to walk directly between the severed sections of the Norwegian power line to reach them. Jordan saw the beast and screamed, and Connor realized with horror what he had to do.

“
Jordan!’' he screamed, pointing frantically at the phosphorous grenade. “Listen to me son! Listen to me! Get that grenade for Daddy! Please! Get it for Daddy!”

“
No! No!” Jordan screamed.

Jaws gaping, Leviathan approached the severed sections of the Norwegian power line.

Stunned by fear and hope, Connor grasped his son by the shoulders, pointing frantically. “Jordan!” he screamed. “Please, son! Get that for Daddy! Please! Get it for me! For me!”

But Jordan only leaped and crawled farther into his arms and Connor groaned in utter pain as he pushed him back, knowing that everything, everything had come down to this single moment in time.

“Jordan!” he cried, eye to eye and heart to heart. “Do you remember how I promised you I’d kill the Dragon for you? Do you remember?'‘

Jordan shook his head.
“No! No!”

“
Yes!” Connor shouted, bringing their heads together as he had to bring their hearts together in order to survive. “Get that for me Jordan and I promise you 1’11 kill it! I promise! I promise!”

Leviathan opened its jaws, drawing breath.

Took another step.

“
God help us!” Connor cried, throwing his face to the ceiling before looking down again. “Jordan!” He shouted. “Get that grenade for me now, son! Get it for me! For me! And I promise you I'll kill it!”

Shocked and crying, Jordan stared into Connor
’s eyes. And, as if he'd been touched by a force even more powerful than his terror, he suddenly turned, gazing in utter fear at the beast. And then with a child's purest love and trust and essence, the boy tore away from Connor and leaped onto the walkway, running helplessly and screaming toward the Dragon.

And the grenade.

Leviathan's dark eyes blazed with inhabited hate as the child approached and then Jordan bent to snatch up the grenade. And for a stunning, frozen moment the child stared up, up into the face of the Dragon. And the Dragon glared down, fangs gaping, hating and threatening.

Connor gasped, shocked a
t the moment of unearthly stillness. But Jordan somehow held his place as the Dragon hovered before him, colossal and satanic and monstrous but somehow ... afraid...

Jordan stood, motionless.

Then Leviathan shrieked, staggering forward.

Instantly screaming in horror Jordan turned
and leaped into Connor's arms with Leviathan following in his steps and Connor roared with love as he caught his son from the air, turning him away. Then in the next blinding split-second he caught the grenade from the boy's hand to slam it into the M-79, snapping the weapon shut and raising it simultaneously.

The Dragon roared, bending over them.

It stood solidly between the severed sections of the power line.

Connor desperately pulled his son's face close into his chest, aiming the grenade launcher dead-center between Leviathan's demonic green eyes.

They glared face to face.

Leviathan snarled, jaws twisting.

Connor frowned.

“
You're extinct,” he rasped.

And pulled the trigger.

The grenade struck Leviathan's hell-born face to mushroom instantly over the severed sections of the supercharged power line, and as the chemical cloud hit the copper coils a blue-white bolt of lightning leaped instantly across, hurled over their heads like the Wrath of God to strike the Dragon hard in the chest and blast a hole through its monstrous form as the air coruscated white with the firestorm that continued, continued through galactic reptilian pain that raged across the cavern, raging until it was itself overcome by the white fire that surged over them in a God-roar that finally tore the Dragon's shriek to shreds in an amazing, blazing blast of unearthly power and justice and wrath.

* * *

Chapter 41

Holding Jordan in his arm, Connor stood over the Dragon.

It was finished. All that remained of Leviathan's gigantic, reptilian form was a charred mass of blackened bone and flesh. The serpentine neck and forelegs, once hard with muscle and tendons, were withered ash. Even the proud armor that had defied the might of an army was finally defeated, overcome by a force far more powerful.

Staring down, Connor saw that almost nothing remained of the Dragon's gigantic aspect. Leviathan was twisted and contorted with a charred hole blasted clean through the center of its massive body. There was simply nothing there—no heart, no blood, no life. The Dragon was an empty husk. And the glowing green eyes were burned black – empty and dead.

Connor said nothing, hugging Jordan close beneath the emergency lighting. And then Beth was beside them, wrapping her arms around them both. Her forehead was bruised but the blood was already stanched by Frank's bandage. Gazing down, Connor kissed her softly and held her.

It was a moment of silence but of a rumbling silence like the silence cloaking a low, lightning-torn sky. And then Frank was also beside them, staring down coldly. His face was empty, his pose solemn.

Connor turned to him.
“Is it dead, Frank?”

“
It's dead,” the scientist said somberly. “Forever.”

Raising his face, Connor gazed across the cavern toward Barley.
“Is Barley going to make it?”

“
Yeah,” the scientist nodded, looking at where they had laid Barley on a stretcher after Frank had helped free Connor from the girder. “He's a strong guy. He'll make it. But he's going to be laid up for a long time. He's got a lot of broken bones.” Frank stared tiredly. “Not that he cares.”

An interrupting voice came over the surface link radio and Frank instantly picked it up. With the calm thoroughness of an emergency room surgeon, he gave terse instructions for necessary medical assistance, along with their location in the cavern.

“It's the Sea Patrol,” he said, turning to them. “They've arrived with a representative of Stygian Enterprises. They said that they can get to us in about an hour. And they're going to bring a couple of stretchers.”

“
Good enough,” Connor said before he sensed Jordan staring up at him, quiet and still. With a gentle smile Connor gazed down. “You're a good boy,” he whispered. “You're a real good boy.”

Jordan smiled, wrapping his arms around Connor's neck.

“Are we going home now?” he asked. “Like you promised?”

Connor nodded, closing his eyes.

“Yeah, boy. We're going home. Like I promised.”

It took EMTs t
wo hours to haul Barley through the cavern and then they were finally on the way to the surface. But Connor had been given an injection of morphine for his badly bruised leg and other wounds and he insisted on walking the full distance, making a slight detour when they passed the Matrix to retrieve something he could not leave behind.

Then they reached the elevator and began to rise to the surface
. But halfway up the ascent Connor curtly ordered the lift stopped. Then he opened a trapdoor and crawled beneath the cage, working quietly for a few minutes in the shaft.

When he crawled once more through the trapdoor he was bathed in sweat, and fresh blood gleamed through the bandages
over his wounds. Beneath Beth's concerned gaze Connor rolled, exhausted, to a wall.

“
Did you do it, Connor?” she whispered.

Connor nodded wordlessly and motioned for the confused rescue personnel to proceed with the lift.

And the elevator began to rise.

Toward the sun.

* * *

Connor gently placed a hand on Barley's shoulder.

“
You're not going to die on me are you, Barley?”

Barley grunt
ed, almost pale from blood loss, “No, Connor, I think I'll stick around for a while. Might even take a vacation.” He lowered his voice. “Did you do it?”

“
Yeah,” Connor nodded. “A few more seconds.”

“
Good. Then it's almost over.”

Eyes narrowing, Connor turned to stare at the cavern shaft. The blackness of the abyss was completely isolated, the elevator itself anchored solidly on the surface. He knew that no rescue personnel had descended into the cavern since they had reached the surface. The United States government had ordered the facility secured.

No one else was going in.

Frank walked up.

“Beth and Jordan are in stable condition. They've been airlifted out on the Sea Stallion,” he said. “It's a fast-flight helicopter, so they should be at a hospital inside an hour. Jordan is dehydrated and suffering a low grade infection, but he'll be okay.”

With a nod Connor focused on the scientist's youthful face.
“I appreciate you taking care of them for me, Frank. I had some things I had to do.”

“
I know. But you need to get to a hospital, too, Connor. Those cuts on your chest are infected. And you've got a bad bone-bruise in your leg. You're not going to be standing when that morphine wears off.”

Connor nodded.
“You know what I've done, Frank?”

“
I know.”

Connor felt a sadness.
“I’m sorry, Frank. I know that ... the computer was more than just a machine to you.”

“
GEO was never a living thing, Connor.” Frank's face brightened, stronger. “It was only a machine.”

“
But it was part of Rachel.”

“
Remembered love is enough, Connor. It has to be.”

They nodded together.

As the Sea Patrol lifted Barley's gurney, the C-4 that Connor had strapped to the limestone walls of the elevator shaft detonated like a volcano. And, awakened from his morphine stupor, Barley shouted at the thunderous blast and lifted a hard fist in the air. His bellow of victory carried across the compound.

Connor laughed, knowing that the C-4 had completely closed the shaft by sending over a million tons of granite and stone and dirt thunderously to the bottom where it buried the vault in a mountain of stone. In moments the cavern was completely sealed from the world
— the computer, the dead, the Dragon and the heroes that had defied it.

Startled by the explosion, a
representative of Stygian Enterprises, someone Connor didn't know but recognized by his air of authority, ran up. The little man staggered to a halt beside Connor, staring in horror at the sulfuric dust roiling from the exit of the shaft. He glanced to the side and seemed to catch something in Connor's haggard, angry face.

“
What happened?” the man whispered.

“
I blew it,” Connor said. “I buried it.”

Pandemonium roars echoed from deep inside the cavern, and the thunder continued a long time until silence finally overcame all there was
— a sea of silence that left the shaft as dead and buried as Hell itself.

“
Mr. Connor!” the man shouted. “I represent Stygian Enterprises – the company which owns that facility! I want to know immediately who gave you the authority to destroy the elevator shaft!”

Connor stared.
“Nobody.”

The company man staggered.

“So …” He gasped, “So how could you destroy it? It’s going to take years! It's going to take a
fortune
to dig it out!” He stepped back, pointing a finger. “You're in big trouble, Connor! Big trouble! That was a billion-dollar facility!”

Connor laughed
as he turned away.

“
Send me a bill,” he said.

* * *