body screaming for survival, that he should run. But he couldn’t leave the scrolls behind. He knew that Marias had taken a couple, but Lourds couldn’t stand the idea of leaving them to be destroyed or lost to someone else.
He ran back to the room, sliding past the three soldiers that raced to join Corporal Rahimi.
Fitrat stood at the opening with a pistol in each fist, lit up by the flare someone had tossed onto the steps outside the room. He stared incredulously at Lourds. “What are you doing?”
“Saving as many of these as I can.” Lourds dumped his backpack onto the floor, saved the original scrolls he’d gotten from the tomb in Afghanistan, and scooped a dozen others into his backpack.
He was still putting more inside when Fitrat grabbed him by the arm and yanked him toward the passageway at the back of the Oracle room. He stumbled and nearly went down but managed to stay on his feet.
***
“Colonel, they’re abandoning the cave.” Gedenidze focused on the cave with his thermal imager. “There must be another tunnel.”
Linko didn’t bother replying. He reloaded his rifle and ran up the steps as the flash at the top of the stairs sputtered and died.
A sudden maelstrom of gunfire dawned behind him, and he paused at the opening of the cave to yell at his men to stop shooting before they hit him.
However, below, the men were firing back the way they had come.
“Sir, we’re being attacked from the rear.”
“By who?”
The gunfire below increased in volume, and the passageway became lit up like a full-scale war. For a moment, Linko thought perhaps the Afghan soldiers had somehow come up on them from behind and caught them by surprise. But he knew that wasn’t probable. If those men had a chance to escape, they would take it.
He returned his attention to the doorway and charged through, depending on his armor to keep him safe. Inside the room without incident, he spotted two running figures ahead of him, pinned in the high-intensity beam of the light affixed to his assault rifle.
One of the figures turned and opened fire while still running. The bullets sailed past Linko’s head, then he brought the assault rifle up and fired.
***
Bullets screamed and ricocheted from the tunnel walls as Lourds ran toward the intersection. He was going to turn to the left, but Fitrat suddenly stumbled into him and drove him to the right.
Turning, frightened, knowing what had happened even though he didn’t want to admit it, Lourds caught Fitrat and helped the captain stay in motion. His pistols fell from his hands, and he went weak in Lourds’s grip, no longer able to help himself.
“I am sorry.”
Lourds didn’t know what to say. He felt the man’s blood on his hands and hoped that Fitrat wasn’t dying. He didn’t want this death on his hands too. He kept moving, tugging the captain after him. Whoever was chasing them through the tunnel was still firing, preventing him from crossing into the other tunnel.
Desperate, Lourds pulled Fitrat into the room that had glowed red earlier. He dragged Fitrat around a small corner and hoped they would be out of sight.
Out of breath, he dropped to his knees beside the prone captain and dragged in air. The faint, sweet smell was still there. Lourds felt woozy and light-headed. He couldn’t get enough air no matter how he tried. He bent over Fitrat and felt for a pulse.
He found it.
He sensed someone at the doorway to the small cave. When he looked up, an old, withered man in a black cloak stood holding a long pole. “There you are, Professor Lourds. You have avoided me for far too long.”
54
The Underworld
Elis
Peloponnese Peninsula
Hellenic Republic (Greece)
February 23, 2013
“Charon?” Lourds couldn’t believe the being was standing there before him. He tried to get up, but Charon pushed him back down again. He didn’t think he would have made it anyway. His head felt like it was floating off his shoulders.
“Stay there. You will not get away this time.”
Lourds thought of all the ways he had cheated death before, all the narrow escapes he’d had, and he knew that he owed death on several accounts. He had been inordinately lucky. Especially over the past few years.
Now, though, that was over.
Charon stepped into the small chamber with him. The old man’s face was wrinkled and wept blood in places. His lips were so thin that his teeth showed through them.