The force of David’s lunge took his target to the ground, and David slammed the heel of his hand into the man’s forehead. The soldier’s head hit the iron floor with a crack, and a pool of blood spread out around it.
Four feet away, Patrick was struggling with the other solider. The young soldier was on top of him. The Nazi had a knife and was pressing it into Patrick’s chest. David jumped on the man, and pulled him off of Patrick. David knocked the knife out of the soldier’s hand and pinned him to the ground. Patrick was there, beside him, holding the knife to the man’s throat. The Nazi stopped struggling in a silent surrender, but David still held his arms to the floor.
David didn’t speak German, but before he could open his mouth, Patrick began interrogating the man in German. “Wieviele männer?”
“Vier.”
Patrick tore the knife from his neck and dug it into the man’s left index finger.
“Zwölf,” the man cried.
“Herr Kane?”
The soldier nodded. He was sweating profusely now. “Töten Sie mich schnell,” he said.
Patrick questioned him a little more while David pinned him to the floor.
“Schnell,” the man pleaded.
Patrick drew the knife across his neck and the flow of blood and death followed in rapid succession after.
Patrick dropped the knife beside the man and collapsed onto the floor. Blood dripped from his own chest wound.
David crawled over the dead man and gathered the remains of the black goo from his own mostly-healed chest and shoulder wounds. He wiped the paste into Patrick’s wound, and the older man grimaced as it made contact.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be good as new within a few hours.” David grinned. “Maybe sooner.”
Patrick sat up. “If we have that long.” He motioned to a door in the direction the soldiers had come from. “There’s no question now, we’re in Antarctica.” He drew a few quick breaths.
“How many are there?”
Patrick looked at the dead soldiers. “Twelve. Ten now. Kane is with them. If they get in this chamber, it will be genocide, and after that, maybe… it will be… very bad news for the human race.”
David began scavenging the men’s bodies, gathering weapons and anything that might be useful. “Did they say anything else?”
Patrick looked at him, confused.
“Have they seen anyone else?” David said hopefully.
Patrick caught his meaning. “No. They haven’t seen anyone. They’ve been here for almost three months, which makes sense if they arrived around 1938. A year per day, a month for every two hours. They said they just found this chamber and a man had gone back to report it.”
David handed Patrick one of the machine guns and held his arm out to help Patrick up. “We should hurry then.”
Patrick grabbed David’s arm and struggled to his feet. He glanced back at the dead soldier who had overpowered him. “Look Vale, I haven’t been a soldier in 25 years—”
“We’ll be just fine,” David said.
CHAPTER 138
Dorian held the children by the shoulders as he marched behind his father.
This was the way of the world: life could turn on a dime. He and his father, reunited, on their way to finish their great work: to save the human race. All his sacrifices, all his decisions… He had been right.
Ahead of them, gunshots rang out.
CHAPTER 139
David dropped the two guards standing at the doors to the tombs before either could get a shot off. To his left, another guard rounded the corner and sprayed bullets into the iron wall beside him, but Patrick caught the soldier full in the chest with three quick shots, sending him quickly to the floor.
David swept the other way in the corridor. Clear. He turned and jogged to catch up with Patrick, who was inching around the corner from which the third soldier had emerged.
“I’ll take point,” David said. He peeked his head around and— a gunshot whizzed past his head.
“I’ll cover you,” Patrick said as he extended his handgun around the corner and fired several shots.
David stepped into the corridor and closed on the man who was pressing against the adjacent wall. David hit him with two shots in a tight grouping on his chest. Four down. Five plus Kane left. Still not great odds. And they’d lost the element of surprise. One step at a time.
Patrick was beside him, and both men eyed the double doors the soldier must have come from. They took up positions on each side of the door, and Patrick worked the glass panel until the doors parted, revealing a room with twelve glass tubes holding… ape-men?
David had to focus. Patrick seemed less fazed. He stepped quickly into the room, sweeping his gun from side to side. David followed. The room was empty.
Then, from behind him, David sensed someone closing on them. He spun around and raised the machine gun to fire—
Kate. She had been hiding behind the control station.
He jerked his finger off the trigger and dropped the gun to his side. He moved toward her, ready to sweep her up. Just as he reached her, Kate’s eyes met Patrick’s. She turned from David. “Dad?”
The old man stood there, a look somewhere between remorse and disbelief on his face. “Katherine…”
A tear dropped from Kate’s eye as she walked to him and embraced him. He grunted as he hugged her back. She pushed back. “You’re alive.” She wrinkled her nose. “And you’re hurt, and what, is, that sme—”
“I’m ok, Katherine. I. Oh, God, you look so much like her.” Tears welled in his eyes. “I was so worried, but I know you… it’s… for me, only a few weeks have passed…”
Kate nodded. She seemed to have already put it together. David marveled at her as he stood there, a little awkwardly. She held her arm out, and he walked over and hugged her, pressing his face into the side of her head.
She released them and said, “How did you—”
“Gibraltar,” her father said. “A door in the chamber I found — it was a portal to Antarctica, to this larger structure. There are more men. We need to—”
“Yes,” Kate said. “They have the children. Dorian is making them carry backpacks with nuclear bombs.”
David looked around, thinking, and then said, “There’s a chamber with tubes; it goes on for miles. I bet that’s where they’re going. You stay—”
Kate shook her head. “No.” She walked to the dead man who had run out of her room and picked up his machine gun. She deadpanned at David. “I’m coming. And I get a gun this time. I’m not asking.”