Threshold (55 page)

As Cainan’s body began to lose its form, Bishop swiped into it again, tearing it in half. It fell to the floor as two large clumps of wet clay.

Bishop’s eyes locked on the man’s duplicate, staring at him with wide eyes. He lunged.

The man ran.

Raking his hands down Mahaleel’s back, Bishop tore large chunks of flesh turned clay. The Ridley golem staggered forward and fell. Bishop took the man’s leg in his hands and bit into it. The flesh turned to clay in his mouth.

Spitting the clay out, Bishop roared and turned on the third, and last Ridley. Fueled with bloodlust and anger toward the form of Ridley, he charged. Arms outstretched. Fingers bent like hooks. Drooling jaws open wide. He would tear Ridley apart, eating his flesh until his stomach burst. Then he would heal and continue his meal until Ridley’s body had been consumed. But Ridley’s flesh would regenerate as quickly as Bishop ate it and the two would continue in the vicious cycle indefinitely.

Fear gripped Ridley as he realized this potential outcome, but it was replaced by confidence. He had the knowledge to stop it.

As Bishop dove for his throat, Ridley shouted a string of words similar to those he had used to purge Adam from his body. It felt strange to be shouting words of healing at an attacking enemy, but it would stop the attack. Not only would Bishop’s mind and moral compass return, but he’d no longer have his regenerative abilities. The man would be killable.

The effect was immediate.

Bishop’s legs failed him and he fell to the floor before reaching Ridley. He shook his head and pushed himself up. He held his clay-covered hands up before his eyes. The taste of the stuff filled his mouth. Bishop looked at Ridley. “You … you cured me?”

Ridley grinned. “Just in time, it would seem.”

A brute force struck Bishop from the side and sent him sprawling to the floor.

*   *   *

WITH RIDLEY’S LIFE
in jeopardy, all the golems in the room had turned their attention to him. The first thing King saw was Knight, sneaking out of the side tunnel. He made a dash to the center of the room, moving fast, staying low, and drawing as little attention to himself as possible. He scooped up Fiona, saw her condition, and quickly produced the insulin shot he carried. He stabbed the needle into her leg and depressed the plunger. But there was no time to see if it would return the girl to them.

The two soldiers locked eyes.

“Get her out of here,” King said.

Knight gave a quick nod and ran back the way he’d come.

Seeing Fiona’s limp body in Knight’s arms, filled him with an anger he’d never experienced before. It gripped his body and trained his mind on the man responsible for his girl’s condition.

Ridley!

King acted quickly. He’d seen the way Bishop’s grenade had worked on the golem and left one of his own behind as he made his escape.

The booming explosion from his grenade threw him forward. He landed between Queen, who was just getting back to her feet, and Bishop’s weapon. He rolled to Bishop’s weapon, picked it up, and fired a barrage at the golem still holding Alexander. The golem stumbled back as several rounds struck its arms.

Just as many rounds struck Alexander. He shouted in pain as his body was torn apart.

“What are you doing?” Queen shouted.

But King didn’t answer. As the golem regained its balance Alexander had already healed from the wounds and pushed against the weakened arms. They shattered and exploded out.

Alexander—Hercules—was free.

And pissed.

He launched himself on the golem that had been holding him and tackled it to the ground, pummeling it with his fists, which were bloodied with each strike, but healed in time to strike again.

Queen’s headless golem arrived, raising its arms to strike her down. She ducked down as King raised the XM25 and fired into the stone giant’s midsection.

In the chaos, King saw the opportunity to create a clear path for the team to escape with Fiona.

There is no greater love than a father who is willing to lay down his life for his children.

He shouted to Queen over the barrage of bullets. “Get Bishop! Cover Knight and Fiona!”

Queen nodded and dove past the headless golem. As two more of the stone giants headed for her, she reached Bishop and yanked him up. He was conscious, but injured.

Injured.

“Snap out of it, big man,” Queen shouted at him. “It’s time to bug out!”

Bishop carried some of his weight, allowing Queen to help him toward the exit where Knight stood with Fiona over one shoulder and his XM25 in his hand. He raised the weapon, holding it with one arm, and fired.

The round zinged past Queen and struck the golem behind her. The impact slowed the golem, but came far from stopping it. And with Fiona over his shoulder, Knight could only fire one round at a time. Even a three-round burst might throw off his aim enough that he’d hit his teammates.

As Queen and Bishop reached him, they all rushed into the tunnel that led down at a steep grade. A golem filled the space behind them and squeezed itself into the tunnel. On its hands and knees, the fit was tight, but the golem paid the scraping of its marble body on the stone walls no heed. It pursued them relentlessly down the tunnel, toward the exit—

—an exit that Queen only now remembered had been sealed with a solid wall of stone.

*   *   *

THE HEADLESS GOLEM’S
midsection gave in to the barrage of exploding rounds and cracked. The top-heavy torso fell away and smashed on the floor. King saw Queen, Bishop, Knight, and Fiona disappear into the exit tunnel, but one of the golems shoved itself in behind them and gave chase. He took aim at the second golem about to enter the tunnel and fired off a few rounds.

The golem turned toward him and stood.

“Duck!” came Alexander’s voice.

King listened and felt a breeze rush by his head. A marble arm swished past and struck the wall next to him. He turned to rejoin Alexander, but found the large-bodied man flying through the air toward him. In his moment of distraction—saving King’s life—the golem beneath Alexander had struck him hard.

The two warriors stood as the remaining six golems walled them in against the curved wall of the chamber. Behind them was a carving depicting five crude winged figures in the sky above a ziggurat that had to be Babel before it was buried beneath a pyroclastic flow.

Ridley stepped past the outer rings of golems. He looked at King and Alexander, knowing neither man posed a threat. His eyes trailed from the two men to the large carving behind them. Slowly, his countenance morphed from confidence to anger. He stepped back without a word and walked to the laptop that had somehow made it through the battle unscathed.

With a finger hovering over the keyboard’s Enter key, Ridley turned to King. “Not every prophesy comes true, King.”

What’s he talking about?
King thought. Alexander’s hand on his shoulder turned him around. The big man pointed to the stone carving behind them. King looked at the image with a new perspective. It depicted a prophecy. Five angels descending over Babel. But were they angels or men? Were they wings … or parachutes? As King’s eyes widened, a
click
whirled him around.

Ridley pushed the button.

The golems closed in.

EIGHTY-THREE

AS THE BULK
of the golem pursuing them blocked the light from below, Queen couldn’t determine the length of the tunnel. But she could see the hulking shape of the golem as he ground its way toward them.

With Bishop’s weight supported by one of her arms, she yanked her night vision goggles from her neck with her free hand and placed them against her eyes. Looking down past Knight, who descended the incline with Fiona over one shoulder, she saw the end of the road seventy-five feet ahead.

If the golem caught them there they would all be pounded into oblivion.

She ran through their options.

C4 would take too long to rig.

A grenade in the tight confines of the tunnel might shred them.

Her eyes locked on Knight’s weapon again.
It might work,
she thought, and said, “Knight, give me your XM.”

Knight paused and shrugged his weapon from his shoulder and handed it back to Queen.

She nodded to Bishop. “Can you handle both of them?”

“You know I can,” Knight said, and then took Bishop’s weight off of her with a grunt.

Free of Bishop’s bulk, Queen ran ahead, raised the XM25 to her shoulder, and pulled the trigger. The end of the tunnel lit up as it was struck by a ceaseless barrages of exploding rounds. A sound like thunder rolled down the tunnel. Queen ran forward, finger on the trigger, hoping to punch through the wall before she ran out of ammunition.

*   *   *

“I’LL GET THEIR
attention,” King said to Alexander. “You try to get Rid—”

But Alexander had his own ideas. He popped the cap from a small vial of black liquid and raised it to his lips. King recognized it as the adrenaline-boosting drink Alexander had taken back in Rome.

“Give me some,” King said.

Alexander paused. “It could kill you.”

“They’re definitely going to kill me.”

Alexander poured the liquid under his tongue and then quickly handed the bottle to King. There were a few drops left. Wasting no time, King shook the remaining drops under his tongue.

At first he felt nothing.

Then his heart beat hard, like a punch to his chest.

Then again.

And again.

It was like a monster had been unleashed beneath his rib cage. He felt his blood flow through his body, pulsing with energy. As the pressure grew stronger, a hot stinging covered his skin. The tiny blood vessels in his body were bursting.

Then the effect struck his mind.

He’d taken LSD once as a teenager. The mind-altering drug had nothing on this stuff. King viewed the world as though in slow motion, but not because things were moving slowly, his mind simply processed and reacted more quickly to his sensory input. And the energy flowing through his body gave him the ability to respond just as quickly.

The pain from his many wounds, including the deep stab wound, faded away, allowing him to react without pause.

And it saved his life as the nearest golem dove for him. King leaped in the air, and took hold of the top of the carving, pulling himself out of harm’s way. Now above the golem he fired his weapon into its back, pulverizing a hole straight through. When the XM25 ran out of ammunition, King tossed it to the side.

Alexander barreled into the golem nearest him, striking it with a force King could never achieve. While he’d only had a few drops of Alexander’s adrenaline booster, Alexander had taken almost the whole vial. Combined with his ability to heal, he was nearly as strong as the golems, and he was twice as fast. As the golem stumbled backward into a second, Alexander jumped back and looked for a weapon. He found it in the shattered remains of the golem King had blasted apart. He picked up the broken marble arm, wielding it like a club, and smiled.

Seeing him with the club, King recalled a statue he’d seen in Florence, Italy, depicting Hercules battling Caccus the Centaur. The sculptor had captured his likeness so accurately that King now wondered if Alexander had commissioned the sculpture himself.

A lizard-headed golem launched toward King. He reacted without thinking, diving toward the golem.

He sailed over its shoulder, wrapping an arm around its head as he passed. Holding on to the golem’s head, he swung around, planting his feet on its back. With his hands gripping the lizard-headed golem beneath its chin, King used his whole body to yank the monster’s head back. It bent back and reached its arms up, trying to grab hold of him. But the movement combined with King on its back threw off its center of gravity.