The Last Odyssey (Sigma Force #15) - James Rollins Page 0,129

door. “Get us in there!” He waved to the rest of the group. “Everyone down.”

With a grin, Kowalski turned, balanced the gun with its giant drum magazine on his hip, and fired another six-round burst at the gold door. The Frag shells exploded brilliantly against the metal gates. The noise deafened, each blast a punch in the gut.

As the smoke cleared, the doors remained intact.

Dented, scarred, but still closed.

“Behind us!” Maria shouted.

Kowalski turned.

The blasts had been heard.

All across the city, trails of flames had been shifting aimlessly, but now they all turned and flowed toward their position. Closer at hand, a pair of fiery dogs, each the size of a pony, appeared on the golden steps below. Green oil slathered from their jaws, splashing into flames on the steps. The pair stalked up toward the group at the top.

More movement rose to the right and left.

Smoke and fire.

Closing in from all sides.

7:04 P.M.

Nehir reached a high terrace overlooking the fiery city of Tartarus. Flames danced everywhere. Hulking creatures stalked about in cloaks of smoke, blazing brightly with fire from within. Tumbling rivers spilled into the churning maw of a large black lake.

This truly is Hell.

Then a sharp series of blasts drew her eye across the cavern to a mighty castle of tarnished bronze and golden gates. She spotted smaller figures there, lit by firelight.

At long last.

The others appeared to be pinned down before the gold doors as fiery shapes moved inexorably toward their position. Fearing the bastards might escape into the shadow-riven depths of the city and vanish, she turned to her second-in-command.

“Ahmad, bring up the launcher.”

The man dashed back and returned with the long black tube of the weapon, already preloaded with a rocket-propelled grenade. She took it from him, balanced it on her shoulder, and dropped to a knee. She steadied her aim and centered the sight’s crosshairs on the milling group.

She savored the kill to come and squeezed the trigger—just as something massive rose in front of the terrace, filling her weapon’s sight, throwing off her shot. With a blast of smoke and fire, the rocket arced high across the cavern, trailing smoke, then blasted into a section of the city beyond the castle.

Shocked, she fell on her rear and scooted backward.

Before her, a wall of bronze with a bullet-shaped head and rings for eyes rose into view. It ignored her, perhaps blind. It heaved up a huge boulder of bronze, the size of an SUV, over its head.

“With me!” she yelled to her team.

She rolled to the side, onto her feet, and sprinted for the ramp that led down to the topmost tier. Teammates followed, racing with her, pounding behind her.

Then a resounding crash threw her forward.

She hit the ramp hard and tumbled end over end. Once stopped at the bottom, she turned to see the terrace break off the wall and shatter at the foot of the bronze giant. It had smashed away the balcony and now jammed its massive boulder into the tunnel. It proceeded to hammer it even deeper, closing off the only exit.

Once finished—with its purpose completed—it sank to its knees and leaned its bronze forehead against the wall and went quiet.

Nehir gathered her team.

Five were missing or dead.

She stared across the cave, her fury building to a white fire.

I will make them suffer.

41

June 26, 7:06 P.M. WEST

High Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Following the blast of the RPG, Gray gathered everyone at the top of the gold stairs. He watched the encroaching fiery bronze army turn away from their position at the palace gates, drawn by the rocket’s explosion, by the churning smoke. Even now, a tower toppled and crashed over there with a resounding clang of metal on metal.

A moment ago, the two massive hounds on the gold steps had leaped in that same direction, going after noisier prey. But Gray knew this reprieve would not last long.

He glanced around the breadth of the city. In the center, the dark lake was nearly full, reflecting the flames. Its surface slowly churned in a circle as more water flooded down the five promenades. Above it, the six-headed beast stirred, waking more slowly than the smaller creations. Its long necks had begun to snake back and forth; its diamond eyes glowed ruddily, flames lapping from its shark-toothed crocodilian jaws.

From this height, Gray suddenly knew what he was seeing, what was represented here. Charybdis and Scylla. The monsters from Homer’s Odyssey. The former was a monstrous maelstrom, a ship-destroying whirlpool. The latter was a giant amphibious