Chase ducked back into the guardhouse. ‘Go that way,’ he said, pointing at the doorway opposite. ‘Go on, go!’ As Sophia set off he stopped by the body, looking for extra magazines, but saw none. They were probably in the dead man’s pack, and he didn’t have time to search. Instead, he ran after Sophia, water dripping on to him from high above as he left the shelter.
Hammerstein looked at the two dead men, a twinge of fury twisting his lips. He had known them for years, trained them, commanded them on numerous missions for the Covenant . . . and now they were gone, cut down by a surprise ambush. Which meant that his third man was also dead - he would never have allowed his weapon to be taken as long as there was life in his body.
He briefly raised his head above the parapet, seeing that Chase had retreated, then turned to the two remaining members of his squad - like their late comrades, former members of the Israeli Special Forces or Mossad, true believers in the Covenant’s cause. And like Hammerstein himself, they would want vengeance. An eye for an eye.
But with caution. They had underestimated Chase; he might have left active military service some years earlier, but he was clearly not out of practice.
Hammerstein spat out the stub of his cigar and raised his rifle, like those of his men a menacing black Tavor . . . but with an extra attachment. Beneath the barrel was the broad tube of an M203 40mm grenade launcher. He loaded it, pulling back the sliding barrel to cock it with a clack. ‘I want them
Chase quickly caught up with Sophia. ‘Did you get them?’ she asked.
‘Got two, but there’s at least three more. How’s your side?’
‘Still hurting - but I don’t think anything’s broken.’
‘Good, ’cause you’re going to have to keep up. I can’t support you and shoot at the same time.’
‘As sympathetic as ever.’ She increased her pace, gritting her teeth. The swirling steam grew thicker, rivulets of hot water cutting channels through the ice in the pit below. ‘Do you have a plan?’
Chase pointed at the steam cloud. ‘If we can lose them in that, we can double back and get Nina. Then we’ll head for the hole in the dam and get the fuck out of here.’
‘That’s not a plan,’ Sophia complained as they crossed a bridge. ‘That’s an objective. Plans generally have some
‘God, you’re as pedantic as her! Okay, the
‘It’s the best I’ll get, I suppose.’ She let out a faint laugh. ‘This is rather like how we first met, don’t you think?’
‘Don’t even start—Shit!’ Chase pushed Sophia aside as a chunk of falling ice the size of his head smashed on the flagstones just in front of them. Another, larger lump landed with a splash in a steaming channel that had been melted through the ice beneath the bridge. ‘Jesus, that was close!’
Sophia looked up, flinching as droplets of cold water fell on her face. ‘It’s turning into a bloody monsoon!’
‘Hope the ceiling holds,’ said Chase. He checked for their pursuers. ‘Shit, they’re coming! Leg it!’
They ducked into another guardhouse. Chase looked through one of the slit-like windows. Three men were coming after them, moving in a protective ‘leapfrog’ formation: two taking up positions to cover the third as he overtook them, then the rearmost man repeating the cycle.
He crossed to the doorway to the right of where they had entered. Off to the left was the arena-like area he’d noticed earlier, the icy expanse riddled with twisting trenches carved by hot water. Clouds of steam wafted over it, thick enough to obscure the view. A bridge ahead crossed over a broad passage divided by two deep, winding channels of glossy ice, more steam rising from them. On the bridge’s far side was a larger building - abutting the hypogeum’s outer wall. ‘If we get across there, we can get outside and head back to the temple.’
Sophia shook her head. ‘If they haven’t killed Nina by now, they’ll have captured her.’
‘They might not have found her. I’ve got to look - and I don’t want to hear any more fucking arguments,’ he said as she opened her mouth to object. ‘We’re doing it.’ He moved back across the guardhouse to observe the Covenant advance, then pointed along the bridge. ‘Okay, you go first - keep down below the wall. I’ll be right behind you.’
She got on her knees, sloshing through puddles. Chase looked through the narrow window, but saw no sign of the approaching men. ‘Shit,’ he whispered, moving to the doorway and glancing out. Now he saw them - or rather, two of them, a black gun barrel pointing towards the guardhouse round the end of a wall as the top of another hunched man’s hood bobbed towards it.
If the last trooper was advancing, then where the hell was the man who had taken point?
He leaned out further, trying to find him—
Fire bloomed from the rifle’s muzzle. Chase jerked back as bullets pitted the stone beside his head. But he had seen enough to know that the third man was not coming along the walkway towards him - which meant he had crossed the junction to another bridge parallel to the one Sophia was traversing.
He rushed to the other doorway, seeing that Sophia was just past the halfway point. Poking his head out, he finally spotted the third man. He
He wasn’t firing bullets. Chase recognised the attachment below the barrel, saw Hammerstein tilting the weapon upwards to give the grenade a perfect firing arc . . .
‘Sophia!’ he yelled. ‘
He jumped out from cover, swinging his rifle towards Hammerstein as Sophia sprang forward like a sprinter off the blocks—
Hammerstein fired.
The grenade shot from the launcher - to explode against the bridge’s central support.
The ancient civilisation had built its structures to survive the elements . . . but not high explosives. Pulverised rubble blew outwards, debris scattering over the ice.
The bridge fell.
Chase started shooting - just as the floor dropped out from under him. Flying stones pummelled his body. He glimpsed Sophia falling into one of the channels in the ice before he tumbled into the other one, sliding helplessly down its curved side to splash through the steaming water at its bottom.
The remains of the bridge crashed down behind him, blocking the channel. He staggered to his feet. Hammerstein was watching him from the other bridge.
Gun moving—
Chase fired first. Hammerstein ducked. But he was already shouting to his comrades. Chase tried to climb out of the channel, but the walls of recently melted ice were too slick.
No way out, no way to retreat. He was boxed in.
Hammerstein reappeared, another man running up to him, rifle ready—
Chase slammed the spikes on his boots into the glossy ice - and hurled himself into a headlong dive down the channel, skidding along almost frictionlessly as if on a waterslide.
Bullets tore into the ice, water spraying up - but behind him as he shot under the bridge.
Arms outstretched, spray in his face, Chase skidded down the channel. A curve rose ahead - he hurtled round it, flying up the wall like a human bobsleigh before landing back in the water and zooming onwards. More gunfire as the Covenant members ran to the other side of the bridge after him, but it quickly stopped as he swept out of sight behind the wall of ice.
Another channel shot past where a hot tributary had carved its own path. He was coming into a maze. Steam overhead, and shadows - the passage had taken him beneath one of the hypogeum’s roofed sections.
The ice suddenly dropped away, the hot water having melted all the way down to the stone. Chase came to a stop in a foot-deep pool with a huge splash. Shaking water out of his rifle’s barrel, he stood, quickly taking in his surroundings. He was in a roughly circular bowl in the ice, the surface over ten feet above him, out of reach. As well
