‘Tell me the sub’s coming up!’ Ethan asked.
‘They’re almost here and aware of the enemy!’ Riggs replied as he checked the radio set. ‘Time to leave!’
‘Hannah’s still back there!’ Ethan snapped. ‘We can’t leave her!’
He saw the conflict on Riggs’ face, swiftly overwhelmed by mission protocol.
‘We can’t save everybody and she made her choice, Warner! We go now, or we stay buried here forever! You gonna cry into your cups or cover us?!’
Ethan felt like screaming as he hurried to the windows and grabbed an M-16 rifle. Riggs took one last look at the dock, the water below them churning now as something began rising up from the black depths.
‘Now!’
Ethan aimed out of the command center windows as Del Toro and Saunders opened fire on the darkened maw of the tunnel opposite. Gunfire raked the icy walls of the tunnel and drove Veer’s men back out of sight as Ethan lifted the M-16 rifle and aimed carefully at the tunnel entrance through the smoke drifting through the cavern.
He selected the 203 grenade launcher and fired twice. Two grenades arced from the weapon across the pens and bounced onto the icy dock as they rattled into the mouth of the tunnel. Above the rattle of gunfire from the SEALs Ethan heard the cries of panic from within the tunnel and then two blasts thundered out as bright flares of light illuminated the ragged tunnel mouth.
The grenades showered Veer’s men with supersonic shrapnel and Ethan saw chunks of ice plunge from the ceiling of the tunnel to clutter the entrance as the armed men fled the assault. Ethan turned to his left and yelled across the control center.
‘Go, now!’
Riggs and his men burst from the control center windows and plunged down the rappel lines as Ethan and Saunders opened fire once more, covering their descent.
Alongside the pens Ethan saw the surface of the water rise up as though some gigantic black whale was ascending from the icy depths. The water flooded over the dock as from the deep rose an enormous submarine, a glossy black leviathan that almost filled the entire pen from front to back. Even as the submarine was ascending, from its bridge leaped armed men clothed entirely in black, more Navy SEALs who rushed out of the interior and clambered down onto the hull, weapons firing at the mouth of the tunnel.
Veer’s men were firing back but already in heavy retreat as they fell back into the tunnel, and through the smoke he could see them turning and fleeing.
‘They’re in retreat!’
Riggs and his team landed on the docks and dashed toward the submarine as Ethan turned and looked behind them down the corridor that led to the stairwell and the rear dock. He could see Veer’s men running toward them and firing as they went. Del Toro hopped through the open hatch and then slammed the door behind him as Saunders pushed a heavy container in front of the door.
‘Let’s go, now!’ Saunders snapped.
They dashed together across the command center and leaped onto the lines, descending toward the docks as Ethan covered their escape, the soldiers amassing at the mouth of the tunnel and opening fire. Ethan saw Veer’s men fleeing en masse down the tunnel, firing as they went but desperately trying to escape the hail of fire being directed at them.
Riggs and his team scrambled up the ratlines thrown to them by the submarine’s crew as Ethan hesitated.
‘What the hell are you doing?!’ Riggs yelled up to him as the chamber began to shake all around them.
‘I’m not leaving Hannah with these assholes!’ Ethan shouted back down.
He turned and checked the magazine of his rifle and then that of his pistol. Fifteen rounds in the rifle, ten in the pistol. Veer’s men had been pushed back by the SEALs into the tunnel and would most likely flee. That left Veer’s personal escort, which had looked to be about six men who had assaulted the rear dock. At least one had been shot in the water and two had died in the blast inside the tent, which left Veer plus three.
Ethan edged his way toward the entrance to the command center as he saw the flickering glow of flashlights approaching through gaps in the door. Veer’s assault was over before it had even really begun but Ethan knew that the submarine would not wait for Hannah or him and would make good its escape within moments.
Ethan had only an instant to think before Veer’s men would burst into the command center. He heard their boots rushing upon his position and he knew that there could be no escape.
***
XLVIII
General Veer hurried along behind his three remaining men, shoving Hannah in front of him with the barrel of his rifle as they ascended the steps to the command center entrance and came up against the blast door, sealed shut from the other side.
‘You want us to blow it?’ one of his men asked.
Veer shoved him aside and bellowed into the command centre.
‘We’ve got Ford! Open up, or I’ll execute her right here and now!’
They could hear the rattle of occasional gunfire from outside but nothing more.
‘Looks like your men have abandoned you too, Veer,’ Hannah spat, unable to prevent the cold grin that spread on her face. ‘So much for your leadership skills.’
Veer did not look over his shoulder as he drove his elbow into Hannah Ford’s ribs. The agent folded over the blow, her long hair hanging over her face as she slumped against the wall.
‘Open it!’ Veer bellowed at his men.
The soldiers rammed the door and it cracked open, the weight of a barrel on the far side pinning it shut. Two more attempts, and then as one they burst into the command center and swept it with their weapons. Veer spotted the dead bodies of two of the SEALs laying sprawled on their faces nearby, saw the shattered windows of the command center and the rappel lines now fastened around the legs of a large table.
Veer dashed to the windows with his men and saw the massive submarine sinking below the waves that trembled as the entire chamber around them rumbled with the threat of collapse.
‘No!’
Veer’s roar of rage was almost drowned out by the rumbling, shaking roar of the gradually collapsing chamber around them. He turned to Hannah, his grip on her arm painfully tight as he glared at her.
‘This is what they do!’ he bellowed. ‘They’ve abandoned you, left you here to die! Even Warner’s gone!’
Hannah’s heart plunged in her chest and her shoulders sank as she saw the submarine sink into the abyss, the waves around the massive hull churning and tossing the dead bodies of Veer’s men around amid chunks of ice as it vanished. She couldn’t blame Ethan for taking his chance at escape, but it felt a crushing blow all the same and now she knew that there was no reason for Veer to keep her alive.
The General released her from his grip and stood back, rage and malice fighting for space upon his great bearded face as he raised a pistol to point at her head.
‘The hell with you,’ he growled.
Hannah managed to dredge up one last spurt of defiance. ‘Good to know that you’ll die down here with me.’
Veer emitted a grim chuckle as he squeezed the trigger.
The gunshot was immensely loud in the confines of the command center and Hannah cried out in fear as she felt the impact of the bullet. And yet she did not fall. She felt the blast, felt the thud, and saw Veer topple sideways as a bullet smashed into his great barrel chest and he stumbled backwards out of the command center as the pistol fell from his grasp.
Hannah whirled as she saw a SEAL laying on the floor of the center, a rifle aimed now at Veer’s men as he fired three more shots in rapid succession, each seeming to blur into the next. The bullets slammed into the soldiers one after the other before they had even had a chance to realize quite where the shots were coming from. To her horror she saw Warner’s face, his hair matted with blood as though he had been shot in the head, his features grim as he fired at their assailants and they fell almost as one.
Hannah cried out again as she lunged forward and yanked a pistol from the holster of one of the fallen soldiers, then whirled and fired at their bodies, putting more bullets into them and ensuring that they would not be getting up again.
She turned as Ethan scrambled to his feet.
‘You didn’t leave?’ she gasped in amazement.
‘I know,’ he replied. ‘I’m an idiot.’
‘Veer got away!’
‘Forget about him, let’s get out of here!’
Ethan grabbed her hand and together they dashed from the command center. The ground trembled beneath Hannah’s feet, chunks of ice tumbling from the ceilings and smashing onto the icy decks as they scrambled for purchase.
She followed Ethan down the stairwell and they rushed through the exit together and onto the dock, the water to her left turbulent as thick slabs of ice plunged into the black water and churned it violently.
She barely saw the figure loom from their right and plunge into her, massive hands wrenching the pistol from her grip and hurling her past. Hannah rolled over in mid-air and slammed onto her back on the icy dock as Veer’s voice boomed out above the din of the collapsing cavern.
‘Warner!’
*
Ethan whirled and saw Hannah lying on the dock on her back, Veer looming over her with a pistol in his hand that was aimed down at her head. The big, bearded soldier glared at Ethan.
‘Toss your weapons!’
Ethan glanced at Hannah and then reluctantly tossed his rifle and pistol to one side, the metal weapons skittering across the icy dock.
‘Now, hand whatever you got out of Black Knight to me,’ Veer growled.
Ethan winced at him. ‘It’s already long gone, Veer, and this cavern is about to collapse. If we don’t get out now, we’ll all be dead!’
‘You’re not going anywhere until you give me whatever you found in that device!’
‘Believe me, you don’t want any part of it,’ Hannah snapped up at Veer. ‘Right now it’s floating out of here alongside the US Navy’s finest submarine. You’ll never catch up with them, and even if you could you’d never be able to get it back. It’s over, Andrei!’
Veer sneered down at her as he took more careful aim. ‘It is for you.’
‘Veer!’ Ethan shouted desperately. ‘Right now, you can get the hell out of here and disappear and nobody will ever be any the wiser. You can still get away, but I swear if you shoot her I’ll hunt you down for the rest of my days!’
Veer smiled cruelly. ‘And what makes you think that you’ll be leaving here alive, Warner?’
Ethan had no suitable response to the big man, and then he heard the rumble inside the huge cavern reach a new crescendo. He looked up at the walls near the rear of the base and saw gigantic stress fissures split the ice with cracks like thunder that echoed through the chamber.
‘The whole place is coming down, Veer!’ Hannah yelled.
Ethan glanced to one side and saw the bodies of several of Veer’s men lying on the dock, their heads a mess of bloodied tissue where Saunders’ unwavering aim had cut them down. Several of them were wearing diving suits, oxygen cylinders still on their backs.
‘Then it’s coming down on you,’ Veer roared as he looked at Ethan. ‘Where is the submarine going?!’
‘What the hell difference does it make?!’ Ethan yelled. ‘You can’t get it back now, it’s too late. You’ve lost, Veer, it’s over!’
Veer grinned at Ethan. ‘It’s not over until it’s over, and I have one play left that will send that sub’ to the bottom of the ocean!’
Ethan frowned in disbelief as Veer produced a small GPS device and activated it.
‘What’s that?’ Hannah asked.
Veer did not reply as he tossed the GPS device into the water, the glowing screen a brilliant light that began moving swiftly with the flow.
‘Radar guidance for the weapon that will destroy you, the submarines and everything here,’ Veer roared back as he shot Ethan a malevolent glare of victory. ‘If I can’t have it, then nobody can!’
Through Ethan’s mind ran images of the submarine’s crew, Riggs’ SEAL team and of poor Amy trapped aboard the tiny
Seehund
as the Antarctic base was annihilated by some unspeakable weapon deployed by Majestic Twelve.
Ethan turned and threw himself across the dock, his body sliding across the ice as he reached out. His hand plunged into the freezing water and grabbed for the GPS device as it slid past. The frigid cold bit deep into his skin, ached in the bones of his hand as he closed his grip around it and threw it clear of the water.
Veer roared and turned to aim at Ethan, and in an instant Hannah drew a knife from a sheath inside her boot and slammed it down into the bridge of Veer’s boot. The wickedly sharp blade tore into Veer and he screamed in shock and pain as he tried to swing the pistol back around to aim down at her. Hannah lifted one knee, brought it right back almost to her chin as she then flicked her boot out and it slammed into Veer’s groin with an audible thud.
The huge man’s cry of pain was wrenched off as he doubled over. Ethan scrambled to his feet and hurled himself at Veer as Hannah rolled clear. Ethan slammed into Veer and both of them crashed down onto the ice, Ethan grappling for Veer’s pistol and instead getting a hold of his forearm.
The huge soldier was far too strong for Ethan to batter the pistol from his grasp, but he wasted no time in scrambling to his feet and stomping down on Veer’s wrist. He heard the crackle of bones breaking beneath the blow, Veer screeching in agony as he reached out for Ethan’s jacket.
Ethan jerked away as the soldier attempted to wrench the knife from his boot, but the serrated blade caught in the thick leather and the torn flesh beneath.
‘Run!’ Hannah yelled. ‘Now!’
Ethan turned to flee in pursuit of Hannah, but then the walls of the cavern let out a deafening roar and Ethan saw the surface of the water churn as a fresh flow burst through into the cavern from below and the surface of the dock began to surge upward.
‘It’s too late!’ he yelled to Hannah. ‘We’ll never outrun it!’
Hannah stopped and stared at Ethan, who turned back to look at Veer. The big soldier was trying to stand up, but the blade in his foot was too painful and he could not hope to walk out of the chamber.
Ethan dashed to the bodies of Veer’s fallen men and began unzipping the wetsuits they wore. Hannah realized instantly what he had in mind and began tearing the wetsuit off another of the dead soldiers.