Truthseekers (28 page)

“I need intel fast,” Abbey yelled. “Where are they?”

Just then she rolled to her left, the same way she had been thinking about before the fire, and popped her upper half up, peeling off two shots before ducking back down.

“Ok, that’s two less of them.”

David looked at her mesmerised. She simply said “Intuition baby. Feel not think.”

John had arrived behind the scene. He was in the central courtyard with Chant. He climbed up on a ledge to get a look at the situation about sixty metres behind the action. At the first shots, a few villagers who were coming to look at the hotel scattered. It was starting to be a battlefield and the innocent were leaving. His breath quickened and his pulse raced. His men were experts and it seemed they might finally have the group cornered.

“Take them,” he spoke coldly into his comms.

Abbey was ten metres from Phillip, who had dragged Stacey and Lone Bear to the ground. Lone Bear’s men were trying to get to him, but were cut off. One of them was wounded slightly.

“Throw me that rifle, Phillip, you won’t hit anything and I don’t want you wasting bullets,” yelled Abbey.

Phillip thought the better of it, but then he took a look at Stacey who was giving him that ‘do it’ look and he threw the gun. It landed in the dirt beside Abbey. She checked it and yelled, “Cover me!”

Rocko, who had been dusting himself off and feeling the pain in his side from the jolt, leapt up with an automatic pistol in his hand. Several of Lone Bear’s men leapt up to follow Rocko’s lead. Rocko wasn’t quite ready for what he saw. Advancing toward them some thirty metres across, making their way over the small walls and rubble of the magazine, were no less than twenty well-armed warriors.

“I may as well go out fighting,” he thought to himself and started shooting. Strangely, though, people were dropping in front of him. He felt some bullets whizz by, close but none finding their mark. He tried to hide behind a part mound of dirt. Abbey was a few metres to his left. She was firing systematically and dropping almost a man with
each bullet. The front row and most of the second row of attackers had been felled.

“Incoming!” yelled Abbey “Drop!” Instinctively she dived sideways as a rocket aimed firmly at her position took out the mound in front of her. She was covered in clay and rubble, but shook it off and rolled further away from the group. A few scratches and bumps was nothing for her.

John stood on a ridge behind a Doric column and saw the carnage.

“What the…?”

He couldn’t believe he had already lost half his troops to just a few shooters with small arms. He was confused and wondering what to do. Both groups had hunkered down again and were moving for position. Just then he saw one of the female soldiers crawling for their left flank, where Stacey, Lone Bear and Phillip were hiding. She drew a knife and leapt over the mound.

Stacey got the fright off her life when a woman brandishing a knife landed right in front of her. She immediately screamed and the woman looked left, seeing two men, and decided in an instant she would take them, knife in one hand. Lone Bear stood straight before her and she expertly threw the knife at him point blank. He fell heavily, clutching his chest. Phillip was too quick. He leapt straight over the falling Lone Bear and before the woman could peel off another strike he was up on her. He hit the ground, rolled and pulled up into a springing kick from his forward roll and sent her flying. She was sprawled on the ground. He then grabbed her legs and flipped them as she grabbed another knife from her belt. She attempted to lash out with the knife, but Phillip had felt the cut from the fake blades so many times he was numb to it, so he didn’t act like any ordinary human she had attacked before. He stunned her with a head butt and disarmed her. He threw the knife away and managed to make her slice herself pretty badly in the process by inverting her wrist. She then dropped the knife and he broke her wrist. He then dislocated her knee sideways with a pressure kick. She would never walk the same again. She was screaming in pain.

“Sorry,” he said, and stood up to go to Stacey.

It was then that the whole mound that Phillip was behind erupted in a vortex of stone and dirt. A rocket had hit it. The last thing Stacey saw was Phillip’s body going up in the air and then landing heaving in the dust.

“Phillip, nooooooo!!!” yelled Stacey frantically. She was about to go to him when David grabbed her hand with all his might and dragged her across the rocks toward him. “Stacey, no babe, no.”

Stacey was bawling and shaking – she tucked her head into David’s chest and let her world explode outwardly. The more she screamed the tighter David held her.

Rocko had made his way over to Abbey. He was just a couple of metres away.

“Stay down big boy, just fire over the top. Don’t stick your head up too far please.”

“You damn women… I’m not your sissy lover boy you know,” Rocko glared over.

“Yes, but I’ll never hear the end of it if you cop one.”

“Good,” said Rocko and then smiled and winked.

Abbey looked at him and said: “Now.”

Both of them raised an eye over the mound and fired. They hit a couple of standing positions and Rocko was sure Abbey hit the guy with the rockets who was about fifty metres back.

Now to her left she saw two of Lone Bear’s men raise their heads and start to peel off shots as well. Stupidly they were too exposed and only metres from an adversary. He lobbed a grenade only ten metres and they were killed instantly. Abbey rolled to her left and popped one into the mercenary that made him lift and slump.

On the ridge behind the column, John was confused.

“What the hell is going on John?” said Chant, confused himself. Chant was hiding behind a wall keeping his head down.

“Shut up… just shut up…” John exploded at his boss of many years. “I will handle it.”

Chant slumped. The situation was not good.

Behind the mound Rocko slid up next to Abbey. Both of them had a few bumps and bruises and were not quite back to full hearing again. The near misses from rockets were deafening and disorientating.

“We need to get out of here Abbey,” Rocko said.

“I know Rocko, but we are hemmed in by this damn fence. Even if I blew it, we would just get picked off getting out.”

“How many do you think there are?” said the New Yorker.

“I think we have got about twenty of them. There must be only seven or so left.”

“We have to go… I’m damned if I’m going to die at the home of a Minotaur on Greek soil. I don’t even like Greek food,” Rocko semi-quipped.

“Look, Rocko, Phillip and Lone Bear have been hit, I can’t see them. David has Stacey and both of them are not equipped for this. There are about two of Lone Bear’s people left and we can’t rely on them if he is gone. We need to draw them in. We need a plan and we need it quick or we are all going to die in this temple. I don’t know about you, but I can think of a few more things to do before I go.”

Rocko looked across at his old pal David.

“Buddy, do you think you can shoot that gun you have. Make a noise, do something, we need a bit of a hand here.”

David was still holding Stacey close. He didn’t have to reply. She did through her sobs.

“Yes, we will both shoot. We have to.”

“You’re damn right we will,” said David. Rocko had never heard such a conviction in his pal’s voice. Something had happened to David in this place. He had Stacey firmly under his arms, he winked at Abbey and they knew with his mind he had a plan.

“David – here, come here.”

The voice came from beneath them almost. It was Professor Miltosis. They could see his eyes glint in the morning sun. In their haste to get out of the attack and counter attack they had missed something.

“David,” Miltosis spoke “The drains. We must take the drains.”

It was clear to them. They were lying on top of the old drainage system of Knossos. One of the first in the world this system ensured water ran clean in its day beneath the palace. The queen even had a flushing toilet. These days they were just more holes to be excavated, yet it was potentially a way out.

In a minute Abbey had lobbed another grenade to occupy their attackers and fired some shots, while David and Stacey crawled over to the drains. The entrance was partly covered by a large rock but Miltosis was slim enough to get in. Rocko helped shift the stone and Stacey then David then Rocko joined him in there. Abbey stayed outside near the entrance.

“Pass me your guns. I’m nearly out of rounds and I have just one grenade left.” Abbey held out her hand to Rocko on the others.

“Abbey, come on… hurry,” said David anxiously. Miltosis was sure he could move them out of danger through this system. There had been nothing from any other of Lone Bear’s crew in several minutes. They were possibly all dead, like Lone Bear and Phillip. Stacey couldn’t get the picture of his lifeless body floating up in the air out of her mind.

“No, my love,” Abbey smiled knowingly back. “I must stay. Someone has to hold them off. If they realise we are in here they will be able to pick us off easily from behind. We will all die.”

“But…” David started to try and find other logic but it was Rocko who spoke.

“But… she’s right dude. Let’s get the hell out of here, while we can. She’s a big girl. Probably got more chance without her having to look out for us.”

“Rocko’s right,” Abbey continued. “I will come soon. I promise.”

“We must go… now!” Miltosis urged.

David strained his head out of the drain. The sun had broken behind them and the morning light was vibrant, pink and yellow. For a mere split second there was absolute silence. His eyes met those of the love of his life and she lent down and he kissed her. Passionate, wet, hard, and with the love of centuries of knowing she almost fell into his soul. Then she drew away and shook her head.

“Go… please,” she said.

David slumped back into the drain. Everything in his heart told him to stay, yet he left. He had to fulfil this mission or else it would all be useless – Ghost Wolf ’s death and most surely that of Lone Bear, Phillip and the others. He knew Abbey was cunning, smart and the best fighter he had ever seen, but she was low on ammunition and she was outnumbered.

Miltosis clambered on hands and knees through the drainage system. The others followed. At any other stage Rocko would have been on cloud nine focusing on Stacey’s cute butt wiggling its way in front of his face, but today he felt all of his mid-life years. The pain in his side had returned. He was sure he had split his stitches. His ears rang and his knees and elbows were truly knocked about. He did, however, smile that at least David was following and looking at his big butt wiggle through the drainage system. By the light of just cell phones it surely must have been a magnificent sight.

They had crawled only about twenty metres and branched off when all hell seemed to erupt above them. David could hear the gunfire that seemed like cannons as it reverberated along the shaft. He heard Miltosis say, “Keep moving, follow me – hurry,” and they did. He heard what must have been the grenade and then they turned a corner in the shaft that was the drain. They were crawling fast now, occasionally grazing their backs and heads on the roof of the drain that was less than a metre off the floor. Then all of a sudden the shooting stopped.

The group all but came to a stop. There was silence for the first time in a few minutes.

“Oh my God,” thought David. She must be out of ammunition.

Then he heard one clear final shot, its reverb trailing down the drainage shaft toward them. “No… please God.” he thought. His mind raced with scenarios but all he heard was: “Move!”

Miltosis picked up the pace. The others followed. David was no longer in his body. A tear found its way out and cascaded down his cheek. In his heart he knew she was gone.

37

John could not believe his eyes. The scene that had played out in front of him was a battlefield. Every one of his team was down. If not dead they were writhing on the ground or passed out from their injuries. The past three minutes had seen numerous attempts at them getting over the small walls into the enclosure with the others and now it was silent.

Something was strange. As a seasoned warrior, John was not feeling why this had all gone wrong. It didn’t make sense. He assumed that David and the team must have been expecting them. They had certainly found a way out of the hotel and had almost lured them to this spot, where they could conceal themselves and take out his team. They were probably expecting him to be with them, in the front line, but he was not. He had stayed well concealed.

He saw someone stumble forward. It was not a man he recognised and he was bleeding from a wound in his torso. It was not one of his team. It must have been one of Lone Bear’s team. John got down from the ledge behind the column and walked out into the courtyard. He strolled across the space littered with his dead and dying and the man saw him approaching.

“Help me,” the man was barely audible. He wore the insignia of Lone Bear’s security detail.

“Where are they? Where are the others?” John stopped seven metres from the man who was clutching his side.

“I… I don’t know…. Help me please.”

“OK, as you wish,” spoke John. In a swift movement with his undamaged left hand, John drew a Mauser pistol from behind his left side and capped the man in the middle of his forehead. The back of the man’s skull exploded and he fell empty and lifeless to the rubble. John walked on purposefully.

He stepped over the wall where the others were. Several bodies lay on the ground, including that of the actor. John was tempted to shoot the actor again for simple satisfaction, but decided to save ammunition. It was clear to him in the morning sunshine, that had its first pallor of heat in it, that David’s group had gone into a drainage system.

“Shit,” John swore.

Two metres below John, Abbey did not move a hair on her body. She clearly heard him and wondered what poor soul was alive that had been shot. She instantly recognised his accent and the intensity of his energy and she knew where he was; yet there was nothing she could do. She was out of ammunition. She didn’t even have a knife to throw at him and her intention was to get to David as soon as possible. She doubted that John would enter the drain, as he would be too exposed in there. She knew a man of his defiance would not limit his opportunities that way. She also knew that for him to be standing in the open above her that he was alone. She waited for a couple of minutes until he started to move away and as she did the plan came clear in her mind. Abbey knew what she had to do. She turned and crawled with stealth and speed in the direction of David and the others.