The Sacred Vault

touring the city if they couldn’t see it . . .

He stiffened, suddenly alert as he registered that something wasn’t quite right. It was the headlights. They were pointing directly at the windows.

But the street ran past the exhibition hall, not towards it—

The headlights moved.

Coming at him.

‘Mr Mayor!’ he barked to Boyce. ‘Get security, there’s—’

The windows exploded under blasts of gunfire.

4

‘Everyone down!’ Eddie yelled, covering Nina with his body. Shattered glass spilled across the polished floor. The hall filled with panicked screams - which were quickly drowned by the roar of engines.

Several motorcycles charged into the room, their riders sheathed in black leather, faces hidden behind mirrored visors. More gunshots crackled as the riders spread out across the hall, firing MP5Ks in sweeps just above the guests’ heads to force them to the floor - then aiming lower to pick off specific targets. Blood-spattered bodies tumbled, the hall’s security personnel and the mayor’s bodyguards cut down.

Another engine, louder, a vicious snarl. A vehicle smashed through the remains of the windows and made a sweeping 180-degree handbrake turn, swatting aside people unlucky enough to be in its path and demolishing a display case. It resembled a Range Rover, only hugely bulked up and steroidal, thick bullbars protecting its front and rear and oversized tyres bulging beneath its heavy-duty suspension. A Bowler Nemesis, a powerful off-road racing vehicle that could outpace many sports cars - and do so over the most punishing terrain.

The bikes were also off-roaders, Eddie saw. The attackers had a getaway plan that would take them somewhere no police car could follow.

The Nemesis backed further into the hall, people on the floor scrambling out of its way. Some of the bikers dismounted, guns covering the crowd, while three rode towards Eddie and Nina’s position.

Nina’s gaze went to the Atlantean crown. Priceless, she had called it less than thirty minutes earlier - but now someone intended to find exactly what that translated to in the real world.

The bikers stopped and climbed off their machines, guns raised. No shouted orders, no demands, no threats. They had made their intentions perfectly clear - and another burst of fire from an MP5K as a prone security guard tried to draw his weapon hammered the point home.

‘What do we do?’ Nina hissed. ‘We can’t let them steal the crown!’

‘Y-yes, we can!’ Boyce said, voice quavering. He raised his head as the faceless trio approached. ‘I’m the mayor of San Francisco. Please, take what you came for and leave. Nobody else has to get hurt.’ Nina scowled at him, but knew there was nothing else they could do.

The Nemesis kept reversing. Its rear bullbar clipped another display case, which toppled over and smashed. The golden trident clanged across the floor as the big 4x4 stopped behind the three men.

They regarded the crown impassively . . . then at a gesture from the tallest of the trio, apparently the leader, moved to the next case.

The one containing the Talonor Codex. Through her fear, Nina felt a moment of shock. That was their objective?

Rowan’s reaction was a more exaggerated version of her own. ‘No, you can’t take it!’ he cried, springing up —

The leader shot him.

A bullet hit Rowan’s upper chest, slamming him back down with a spurt of blood. His head cracked against the floor.

‘Rowan!’ Nina screamed. Eddie forced her down as she tried to crawl to him. Her friend was still alive, feebly writhing, but blood was running down his shirt.

The leader fired a single shot at the case. The toughened glass splintered, crooked cracks radiating out from the bullet hole, but didn’t entirely break - until a blow from the butt of his MP5K finished the job. He lifted out the Codex, cradling the heavy book in his arms as another man went to the Nemesis and raised its hatchback. There was a large metal box inside, lined with foam rubber. He lowered the ancient artefact into it, then closed the case and slammed the hatchback shut. The off-roader’s engine revved.

The bikers closest to the broken windows rode out into the fog. The Nemesis bulled its way through the scattered debris and terrified guests after them.

The trio who had taken the Codex mounted up. Two of them set off without a pause; the leader glanced back at Nina’s group before moving—

Eddie dived, landing by the golden trident. He snatched it up and leapt to his feet, flipping it round so the three spearheads were pointing backwards.

Nina rushed to Rowan. ‘Somebody help me!’ she cried, pressing her palm against the wound to try to staunch the bleeding. He groaned.

The Nemesis and the first two bikers reached the windows, crunching over the glass. The leader followed—

Eddie hurled the trident. It flew across the hall like a gleaming javelin, spearing down at its target . . .

Not the rider, but his bike.

The shaft shot between the rear wheel’s spokes to be slammed against the forks, instantly locking the wheel. The rider was thrown off as the bike crashed to the floor.

Eddie ran at him. Catch the leader, and this would be over—

The raider rolled, cat-like, back on his feet in a moment - and drew his gun.

Eddie hurled himself behind one of the surviving display cases as bullets sprayed across the room. They smacked into the thick glass, crazing and cracking it - then the onslaught stopped. The gunman dropped his weapon. Out of ammo.

Engine snarl. The Nemesis’s driver had heard the gunfire and quickly reversed back into the hall. The rider ran to the vehicle and jumped in.

A siren grew in volume outside. Somebody on the street had called 911, the police responding rapidly to an incident at the mayor’s location—

More gunshots as the bikers opened fire on the approaching cops. Staccato clangs of lead striking steel and cracks of glass, then the police car veered across the plaza, coming to an abrupt stop against a concrete planter. The siren fell silent, strobes flicking eerily through the fog.

The Nemesis surged away with a V8 bellow.

Eddie ran to the abandoned bike and yanked the bent trident out from the wheel. He pulled the vehicle upright. It had stalled; he jumped on and slammed his heel down on the long kick-start lever. The engine rasped to life. He twisted the throttle, pulling the front wheel round.

‘Eddie!’ Nina yelled across the hall. ‘What’re you doing?’

‘Going after them!’

‘No, wait—’

Too late. He powered through the opening, turning hard to head after the fleeing Nemesis. The bike’s tail light vanished into the fog.

One of the guests, a balding, middle-aged man, hurried over to Nina and Rowan. ‘I’m a doctor,’ he told her. ‘Please, move your hand - I need to see the wound.’

Nina reluctantly lifted her hand from Rowan’s chest, cringing as a thick crimson gush pumped from the hole. ‘Will he be okay?’

‘I don’t know,’ said the doctor, quickly assessing the damage before putting his own palm firmly over the injury. ‘It missed his heart, but it might have punctured a lung.’

‘I’ve called for an ambulance,’ one of his companions reported, waving a cell phone.

Anguished, Nina looked between the injured man and the broken window through which her husband had just disappeared. Rowan read her expression. ‘Nina,’ he gasped, his breathing hoarse and laboured. ‘Go help Eddie. Get - get the Codex back.’

‘But I can’t leave you!’