The Swords of Babylon (Matt Drake 6) (18 page)

The first of Block’s cells hit Iceland’s tomb like an arctic storm. With little to do for months, and orders for heightened vigilance having only just being issued, the defending force was more than a little unprepared for the professional team of crack mercenaries that attacked and overwhelmed them.

Shooting mercilessly, the dozen-strong team killed or incapacitated every guard, but made sure they
took several civilian hostages, most in the form of scientists and archaeologists. Their boss had said they need hold out only for a day and a half – this seemed the most proficient way.

Leaving a few men to keep an eye out for the cavalry
, the leader of the cell proceeded to secure the remainder of the tomb of the gods that had been found first.

****

Though not in direct contact, the Singen cell struck at exactly the same time. Their job would be more difficult at first, infiltrating the harder-to-reach tomb, but, after that, keeping the local forces at bay for the allotted time shouldn’t be a problem. They took Cayman with them – the man they would make absolutely, terribly sure would stand at the center of the tomb when ordered to by the boss – and lugged along his double holdall of bones. Their leader didn’t question a thing. Their payday would be nothing short of the stuff his dreams were made of.

****

In Hawaii, the first cell achieved a strike so precise it could have been sliced by a scalpel. Their initial incursion took them all the way to Odin’s daunting black throne, past defenses they had scrutinized for days, and caught an acceptable amount of scared civilian specialists in the process, some of them especially high up the local pecking chain. The leader was pleased, and only when the mission had ended did he experience an unusual stab of agitation.

Now
his team would wait for the arrival of their boss.

The second Hawaiian cell positioned themselves where they might prove most useful, dormant for now, but prepa
red to move at a moment’s notice . . . if the boss demanded it.

Throughout that same day
, the SPEAR team and their helpers sought to unravel the mystery surrounding the Swords of Babylon. Akerman read the inscriptions again and again, compared them to all current translations of the language of the gods, which were being stored online in a secret server very few people so far had access to, and lamented about the close relation of the symbols Alexander had chosen to use.

Patterson helped him, bringing all his archaeological expertise and knowledge of Alexander to bear. Dahl stayed with them for a while, but
eventually lost interest and went to call his family. Drake and the rest of the team assembled in the kitchen quarters of the billet they had been temporarily assigned in Camp Babylon.

Hayden poured coffees. “Time for a sit rep, I think guys. We have Zoya
’s address in Moscow. Zanko and Razin are on the run, their operations shut down. We have six of the seven swords, but not the leader of the pack. Hopefully—” she motioned next door. “The old boys will quit wasting time and crack the code.”

“Problem is
.” Kinimaka accepted his mug with a smile. “Short of knowing that Cayman and co. have another way to activate the doomsday device, we’re not aware of his role in all this. I don’t normally dramatize but that’s—”

“A big problem
,” Hayden finished.

Drake stared at them “You two should be a double act. You
’ve definitely been working together too long.”

The couple looked affronted at exactly the same time. Mai laughed and pocketed her phone. Drake wanted to ask who she
’d been texting, but knew this wasn’t the time. Her buried past had risen to haunt her and, as soon as this Babylon thing was out of the way, it would be time to exorcise that malevolent ghost.

“A trip to Moscow sounds good to me
.” Dahl wandered in and stared out of the single sand-scoured window. Arid desert met his gaze, the earth already encroaching on the man-made camp, reclaiming its own. The sounds of men shouting and vehicles being driven over short distances hard and fast, the consistent clanging and booming of an Army base, gave life to the environment but it was still an arid, life-sucking landscape out there.

Drake was about to reply when they heard raised voices from the next room.
Patterson had mentioned something and Akerman had praised him. Dahl raised an eyebrow. “That means one of two things. Either Patterson just gave Olle an idea or showed him a picture of my wife.”

They moved into the living quarters. Akerman was almost capering with glee. “
Listen to this, ja? We mentioned that Alexander the Great embraced many religions in order to rule so many lands. He embraced many myths and local beliefs. He was a king, ja? A pharaoh. And do you remember what we initially said about the language of the gods?”

Drake tried to remember back a few months to when they had first encountered Olle.
“We had just escaped tomb three at Singen when Dahl called you. Didn’t you say that the language was a complete
syllabary?”

“Spot on. A syllabary is a complete writing system that uses symbols to represent all the syllables of a language,
ja? Remember?”

Hayden and Kinimaka both nodded.
“Ja.”

Drake grunted.
“A mix of Greek, Chinese, Mayan and so on.”

“Exactly!
And that is also what Alexander’s inscriptions are based on. It’s why the symbols are slightly different. The writing system draws on scripts used in many of the lands he conquered. And purposely so. It’s a kind of code, impossible to crack until the tombs were discovered and, consequently, the language of the gods. If we never found the tombs – the swords would never be translated and never actually be needed. Very clever.”

Patterson positively glowed.

“Can you translate them?” Hayden asked.

Akerman gloated. “Put me in
front of a computer and a light-fingered female.” He stared at Mai. “I’ll have it down in no time.”

The Japanese woman gave him a dangerous look. “
I save these fingers for killing.”

“Then at least I
’d die happy.” Akerman was incorrigible and scooted across the room to the little corner PC. He began to type, humming happily. Dahl grabbed a chair and sat next to him, sending a look of apology across to Mai.

“Speaking of dying happy,” Drake murmured. “Have you heard from Smyth lately?”

Mai’s expression remained hard for almost two seconds before she allowed a slight smile to curl the sides of her lips. “What do you think?”

“Not getting under your skin is he,
Maggie
?” Drake joked.

“Matt,” Mai sighed. “Smyth would have more chance with Maggie Q, believe me.”

****

It took
hours, and Akerman would not reveal even a single word until he was finished, but, slowly, painstakingly, the inscriptions on the six swords began to make a sort of sense. Akerman insisted he reveal the swords in order – as best he could divine – and moved to stand before them like a lecturer in a classroom. The team gathered around and Hayden made sure to include Karin and Komodo by speakerphone.

“Okay,” he said.
“First sword. It says this—” He cleared his throat and began to narrate.
“The device that was made by the hands of the Gods can be unmade.”

“A direct reference to the doomsday weapon
,” Kinimaka said immediately, voicing the thoughts of everyone. “This is for thinking.” He tapped his head and pointed at his feet. “These are for dancing.”

Hayden shook her head.
“Well, at least we know we can stop – or even destroy – the device. At least that’s something.”

“But not how
,” Yorgi spoke up, trying to get involved.

“Sword two.”
Akerman shushed them
“What was suspended at Ragnarok can be recreated.”

Minutes of silence followed, then, “Armageddon?” Hayden wondered. “Are they saying the swords could bring about Armageddon?”

“I don’t think so,” Karin’s tinny voice warbled through the little speakerphone. “If you remember Odin purposely
prevented
Armageddon at Ragnarok at that time because he knew all the gods would die, but he didn’t stop it forever. He prevented it so, at a later date, he could return. And Ragnarok was all about the deaths of the gods.”

Kinimaka let out a breath. “I don
’t get it.”

“The inscription – the message – says we can actually bring about the true deaths of the gods, preventing them from
ever returning, and ending this threat once and for all.” She coughed. “Forever.”

“It
’s a thought, but listen further,” Akerman interrupted. “And so to the third sword.
What was written in time can be erased.
Speakerphone girl, I think this corroborates your theory.
”

“Yes it does
,” Karin said. “The prophecy of the gods’ return was written in time.”

“And the fourth bears further fruit.” Akerman paused.
“That which is only sleeping can be destroyed forever.”
He nodded to himself. “The gods.”

“Two to go.”
Patterson rubbed his hands together excitedly.

“Well these two are real doozies
,” Akerman said with a touch of gloom. “I have
no
idea what they mean together. First –
take two swords each to the tombs and the Great Sword to the pit.
And the last one –
and channel the fires of your own destruction.”
He stopped.

Drake
glanced around, seeing blank faces and knitted brows. Karin remained quiet. At last Kinimaka said, “What the hell does
channel
mean?”

Drake shrugged. “I have no idea. But we
’re clearly missing one thing here. The seventh sword. Actually the Great Sword. Its inscription might tell us all we need to know.”

“And
. . .” Karin spoke up. “Count the swords. Two swords to each tomb makes six. My guess is the seventh has a different purpose.”

“If they can destroy those tombs,” Drake said. “And the device, I
’m beginning to think it’s not such a bad thing.”

Hayden looked a little horrified. “You can
’t say that,” she blurted. “You work for the U.S. government.”

Drake laughed. “Since when did that ever stop us blowing things up?”

“Think of it,” Mai said. “The threat of the device
and
the gods – gone forever.”

Professor Patterson moved to stand beside Akerman.
“Consider this. Earth energy is heavily involved here somewhere. Pure elemental power. I believe that is what the doomsday device was all about in the first place?” He looked to his left.

Akerman nodded.

“The swords were made by someone who knew all about earth energy and how to negate an earth energy vortex. Alexander. He knew about the gods and the device but wasn’t dumb enough to try and use it. He sought instead to counteract its effect. Wherever earth energy gathers in a vortex is called a sacred place, and, in many of them, you often find standing stones placed there by the ancients who had – shall we say – more time to contemplate these things. The three tombs are more than likely built atop the three most powerful in existence. But there are also
vile vortexes
around the world. Think – areas where ships and aircraft disappear, where radios and compasses don’t work, where regular upheaval occurs in the Earth’s crust, where monsters are seen, where people exist perpetually in a state of unrest. There are many, many reasons why these swords could have been created.”

“But the existence of earth energy has never been proven
,” Hayden insisted.

Patterson sighed as if he
’d heard it all before. “You should read more. When I say ‘mystical energy’ you immediately qualify me as a wacko. If I was to tell you that I studied in
pseudoscience,
what would you say to that? Probably the same.” He laughed. “There are literally hundreds of electro-magnetic aberrations around the world and no convincing explanation has ever been forthcoming.”

“But there
’s still no proof.”

“And there never will be. Do you think your stuffy academics want to be seen investigating events
so far out of their comfort zone? The Daily Telegraph reported that the Austrians brought in local earth energy consultants to reduce the number of accidents on Austria’s worst stretch of Autobahn. Roadside monoliths were erected to help restore the natural flow of earth energy. Since that day, over a stretch of two years, the number of accidents fell to zero. But the biggest substantiation of earth energy came from none other than the great inventor himself and employee of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla. An electrical and mechanical engineer, physicist, and contributing designer to the modern A.C. electricity supply system, even he later became known as the ‘mad scientist’. He found the Earth to be, quote – ‘literally alive with electrical vibrations’. Tesla believed that when lightning struck the ground it emitted mighty waves that went from one side of the Earth to the other, a great tree of energy. ‘The Earth is a wonderful conductor,’ he said. ‘I could transmit unlimited amounts of power to any place on Earth with virtually no loss’. He even said that it would be possible to split the planet apart by combining vibrations with the correct resonance of the Earth itself. The Earth’s crust would vibrate so vigorously that it would rise and fall hundreds of feet, throwing rivers out of their beds, wrecking buildings and practically destroying civilization. And—” Patterson grinned. “He even tested his theory.”

The entire team
found their mouths agape. Kinimaka said, “Get outta here.”

“He called it
‘the art of telegeodynamics’, described by him as a controlled earthquake. He stated that the invention could be used to the greatest effect in war.”

“Of course
,” Mai breathed,

“Then there is HAARP
,” Patterson went on. “A huge $250 million project funded by the U.S. Air Force and Navy, curiously located in the
same place –
Colorado Springs – that Nikola Tesla conducted his own earth energy experiments. They’re studying the ionosphere.”

Drake waved a hand. “Okay, you
’ve convinced us, for now. But all this gets us no closer to finding out what Cayman and his backers are up to.”

Then Karin
’s voice cut in. “This might. I have Secretary of Defense Gates on the line. And brace yourselves – I don’t think it gets worse than this.”