Munoz had known insane before, but never at this level. He listened to Cafferty quickly relay to Ellen up top what they had found in the cavern. Finished, Tom turned toward him and Bowcut.
“Can either of you disarm it?” Cafferty asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Munoz shook his head while snapping photos of the weapon with his phone. “For all we know, even opening the glass case could set it off. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Cafferty peered at the bathtub-sized device in its strange glass casket and imagined an enormous mushroom cloud blooming above the London skyline, then a scorching blast wave flattening the city in the blink of an eye.
“Neither would I,” Bowcut added. “They didn’t train us how to disarm nuclear weapons on the SWAT team. My question is this: Why tomorrow at midnight? Are they timing it for some reason?”
“The bastards did the same for the inaugural run of the Z Train,” Munoz spat. “So . . . what’s happening here in twenty-five hours?”
None of the three had an answer.
“We have to alert the deputy prime minister and the president,” Cafferty said. “Evacuate as many people as possible.”
Munoz shrugged. “I dunno. I wouldn’t act so fast, Tom. See that antenna sticking out the side? I think that’s a remote detonator.”
“So . . .”
“So Van Ness can probably detonate the bomb whenever he’d like.”
“Jesus . . .” Cafferty whispered to himself.
“I betcha if Van Ness sees people evacuating the city, it’s game over, man.”
The three continued to stare at the weapon of mass destruction sitting right in front of them. The power to destroy millions of creatures—and millions more people—in an instant. A truly nuclear option, with no chance for discussion or nuance. This was Van Ness playing judge and executioner, having no time to even bother with a jury.
“Either way,” Cafferty said finally, “we need to tell Brogan and the British authorities what’s going on right away.”
“Agreed.”
Bowcut wrapped her hands around the rope to begin the ascent. “All right, let’s get out of—”
Suddenly, all the brilliant strobe lights that had been protecting them on the ledge flew off the ground and off their belts into the vast cavern below, pulled by some unseen force. They were plunged into total and utter darkness, and the silence in the cavern—a silence they hadn’t even noticed—was now deafening.
“They’re using their telekinetic powers!” Cafferty shouted, rapidly pulling out his laser. “Fire!”
In that instant, a creature’s tail whipped from behind a rock formation right at the team. Cafferty fired his laser and tore the creature’s tail off only inches away from severing his and Diego’s legs in half.
Bowcut and Diego pulled out their lasers and fired in all directions, slicing through dozens of creatures scaling the walls, rapidly bounding toward them, moving in to kill their prey. Two creatures crashed onto the small ledge, lunging forward with their powerful legs right at Cafferty. He fired rapidly while stumbling backward. The dazzling red beam zipped through the darkness and sliced right through the creatures’ abdomens. Their guts spilled out, steaming messes that filled his nostrils with a burnt, putrid smell. Both corpses collapsed to the ground in heaps at Cafferty’s feet.
He looked down at the dying creatures, illuminated only by the red glow of Bowcut’s and Diego’s rapid laser fire. Those soulless black eyes brought everything back from the New York nest. The snarls. The teeth. The spine-tingling shrieks. The thrashing tails.
He froze, mesmerized by the depth of black in those now sightless orbs.
Bowcut fired continuously. She switched her aim to a creature on the right wall and sliced off its legs. It slid down with a roar.
“Watch out!” Munoz bellowed.
A creature leaped off the wall right at the distracted Cafferty. He looked up in terror with no time to react, and the creature’s leg battered his shoulder. Claws raked his arm, tearing through his flesh. He crashed to his knees and swayed over the front of the ledge. Blood dripped from his fingers and pattered against the rock. He was finished, and he breathed a good-bye to Ellen—
Diego’s laser beam burned right through the monster, carving it into pieces as it towered over Tom. Streams of hot blood spattered Cafferty’s face, and he frantically wiped his eyes. The carcass crashed into him, forcing his body to fall backward over the edge. He somehow was able to grab the lip of the overhang, but with the wound in his arm, he wasn’t going to be able to hang on.
In just a matter of seconds, he was saved from death only to be facing it once more. He was going to plummet thousands of feet down and could do nothing to stop it.
As his hold weakened—the blood loss draining his energy, the blood on his hands causing his grip to slip—a strong hand grabbed his shoulder, pulling Cafferty firmly back onto the ledge.
“I gotcha!” Bowcut said, still firing her laser with her free hand.
Not that it was doing much good.
Creature after creature crashed onto the tiny ledge, shaking the very rock they were standing on. Cracks began to spider their way across the carboniferous limestone rock under their feet.
“There’s too many of them!” Diego shouted, firing at all angles, searching for where the creatures had gathered in the overwhelming darkness. “We’re sitting ducks on this ledge!”
Cafferty nodded a quick acknowledgment. And even though he knew they had to climb back up the rope, he was also sure they’d be torn to pieces if they attempted it. He fired his laser and sliced through three creatures in rapid succession, for all the good it was doing.
Munoz continued to fire as well, until a tiny reflection of light caught the corner of his eye when he fired into the darkness. He glanced down quickly and traced its origin to an unused strobe grenade that had gotten wedged under the thermonuclear bomb. The single strobe had not been yanked off the ledge when the creatures focused their telekinetic powers.
“Cover me!” Munoz shouted, and even before his team could react, he dove for the grenade.
Their working so closely together the last year paid off, though, as Bowcut and Cafferty spun, blasting away at the dozens of creatures closing in from all sides. Brilliant red beams speared directly over Munoz’s head, making the place appear like a demented underground disco. As he dove, all he could hear was Donna Summer playing in his head.
Last dance. Last chance for love . . .
The adrenaline coursing through his body was making him crazy.
Creatures smashed into the ledge all around them. The team was surrounded on all sides with no way out.
Munoz crashed to the ground, driving the air out of his lungs. He could hear his impending death scuttling and screeching its way toward him, and he reached under the bomb. His fingers grasped the strobe and pulled . . .
But it was stuck.
This is it . . .
“No!”
Munoz got a better grip and pulled with all his strength. The ball popped out from under the bomb, and he used the momentum to let himself be turned onto his back, squeezing the sides of the silver sphere.
It came to life.
It came to light.
A brilliant flash of white burst out of the strobe grenade in all directions at the speed of light, painfully blinding the creatures instantly. The screeching turned from that of a triumphant predator to an animal in pain, and the creatures leaped off the ledge at breakneck speed, disappearing into every dark crevice and cave they could find. In seconds, Bowcut, Munoz, and Cafferty were once again alone on the ledge. Creature blood soaked every inch of the overhang, and still-sizzling appendages were piled all around them.
“Holy fuck . . .” Diego said, desperately trying to catch his breath.
Cafferty took the flashing strobe grenade from Munoz, clutching the life-saving device as if it were the most precious thing he’d ever held. Bowcut helped Munoz to his feet.
“Thank you for saving my life again,” he said to her.
“Thanks for saving ours,” she replied, looking at the strobe grenade.
“Am I the only one singing Donna Summer?” Munoz asked. Bowcut cracked a smile.
Cafferty winced at the pain from his wounded arm and the gashes on his legs, but he smiled as well. They were alive, and that was due to acting like an actual team.
We can fight them if we stick together.
Suddenly, a loud cracking sound came from underneath their feet. They looked down, only now realizing the splintering in the limestone ledge had reached critical levels.
“The ledge is gonna snap!” Bowcut shouted, noticing it as well. “Climb the rope! Climb!”
“But what about the bomb?” Cafferty yelled, firmly affixing the flashing strobe grenade to his belt.
The splintering sound grew louder. Large chunks of the overhang cracked off and plunged downward into the depths of the cavern.
“There’s no time!” she snapped. “Jump!”
The three leaped for the rope just as the entire ledge—and the bomb—plummeted into the abyss below.
“No!” Cafferty screamed, as they hung dangling over the darkness, shock waves of pain running through his arm.
“Is the bomb gonna blow when it hits bottom?” Bowcut asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe . . .” Diego answered, clinging to the rope.
“How long?”
Diego did the math quickly in his head, based on the data he had seen in the chart up top. “Three thousand feet deep . . . if we’re still here in twenty seconds, we’re good.”
Twenty seconds.
The three of them hung over the depths of hell, silently counting down in their heads. Twenty seconds. Not enough time to climb up. Not enough time to warn anyone. Not enough time for Cafferty to tell Ellen he loved her. Not enough time for him to apologize for failing his team, for failing New York, for failing himself.
Cafferty hung his head down, counting the seconds, waiting to learn his fate.
He had dreamed about taking out Van Ness for so long that he never really accepted the possibility of failing his mission. His hubris in New York cost the lives of more than a hundred people. His hubris here was about to cost the lives of millions.
Ten seconds.
It was too much for Cafferty to bear, the thought of it ending this way, incinerated at a temperature of 150 million degrees Fahrenheit. The thought of getting beat by Albert Van Ness. The thought of losing.
Five seconds.
Bowcut, Munoz, and Cafferty held their breath.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
Silence.
No detonation. No nuclear holocaust.
“Goddamn it, we’re still alive!” Diego shouted.
Bowcut let out a primal, exuberant scream.
Cafferty held on to the rope silently. Slowly, determination spread throughout his bruised body.
This war may kill me—Van Ness may kill me—but not here, not in this place, and not like this.
“The bomb must have split apart on impact,” Munoz added.
“Okay, let’s climb,” Bowcut said, lifting herself hand over hand back toward the breach and subway tunnel above. Diego and Cafferty followed closely behind, the flash grenade keeping the creatures hiding in the shadows. Cafferty’s eyes stung, pain seared from the gouge on his arm, and blood trickled down his leg, but he’d be damned if they didn’t make it to the abandoned Underground.
Bowcut reached the top first and helped Munoz and Cafferty up. For a moment, the three sat on the tracks in silence, catching their breath, taking fresh oxygen deep into their lungs.
“I’m going to bring Ellen up to speed,” Cafferty said, lifting his comm to talk.
“One sec,” Diego said, staring at the assorted handheld electronic equipment next to the crane. One of the tablets was blinking. He lifted the iPad-sized device and looked at the screen, which read:
24:52:18
24:52:17
24:52:16
“My God,” Diego said. “It’s still counting down. The bomb is still intact. At the bottom of that nest. Three thousand feet down.”
The team’s spirit faded with the realization.
“There’s no way the British can recover that in time and stop it,” Bowcut said.
“We’re fucked,” Diego replied morosely.
Cafferty’s head pounded and anger coursed through his body. He tried to quiet the rage and focus. There must be a way . . .
“The remote detonator!” Cafferty shouted. “Van Ness has the ability to trigger the bomb at any time.”
“Yes,” Diego replied.
“So it stands to reason that he can remotely turn off the timer as well.”
“Yes . . . yes, I follow.”
Determined, Cafferty locked eyes with his team. “We’re going to Paris. We’ve got to stop that bomb from wiping out London.”
Cafferty didn’t need a vote—he could see Bowcut and Munoz agreed. He activated the comm to relay the plan to Ellen.
“Ellen, we’re heading back topside, lots to fill you in on,” Cafferty said.
Nobody responded.
“Ellen,” he repeated. “Are you there?”
Still nothing.
“Could just be the reception,” Diego said, but his words had little conviction. The reception had been fine before.
All three exchanged looks of concern, then broke into a sprint through the tunnels. Their boots pounded up the dilapidated escalator stairs, and they raced through the old ticket hall, along the corridor, and up the flights of stairs. Cafferty shoved the door open and hurtled into the street.
“Oh my God,” he gasped.
Munoz and Bowcut flanked him as he approached the dark, powerless van. Its front window had completely frosted over and so had the lights. A creeping sense of foreboding turned into a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when he drew closer. The driver’s- and passenger-side windows had been smashed in. He moved around to the back and opened the now unlocked doors.
Ellen was gone.
The interior of the van showed signs of a struggle.
Ellen was gone.
A small white rectangle caught his eye, lying on the center of the floor. Cafferty reached inside and plucked it between his fingers.
It had the Foundation’s name printed across in bold letters and the address for its Paris headquarters below.
Ellen was gone, and Van Ness had her.
And it was his fault.
“What is it?” Munoz asked.
Cafferty didn’t reply. He couldn’t. Instead, he attempted to control the rage erupting inside him like a supervolcano.
“Tom,” Bowcut said. “Is it the Foundation?”
He slowly nodded. “He’s got her.”
Enraged, Cafferty crumpled the card in his hand and balled it into a fist. The thought of Ellen being accosted by Foundation thugs raced through his mind. If they touch her . . .
But this was bigger than Ellen. She was everything to him, but he wasn’t the only one on this team. And he definitely wasn’t the only one in this city. He stood there, his mind flipping back and forth, rapid-fire, between Ellen and the lives of the millions of innocent people all around him.
Cafferty was on the brink. He could feel it.
Ellen’s kidnapping now confirmed that there was only one way to stop Van Ness, the man who was blackmailing the world and threatening humanity’s existence with nuclear war and a terrifying new type of creature that could live aboveground.
“We’re going to Paris. We’re going to stop this bomb. And then . . .”
“Tom?” Munoz asked.
“And then I’m going to kill him.”