FORTY-THREE

 

Pierce waited about five minutes after Fallon’s departure to start working on the problem of escape. He had no intention of sitting on his butt for three hours, leaving Gallo in Fallon’s clutches, but he also knew better than to test the tech billionaire’s resolve. Fallon might not have the stomach to pull the trigger himself, but Pierce knew the mercenaries would follow the standing order.

He studied the cross on the floor and the opening above for a few minutes, and reached a decision. “Fi, are you ready to get out of here?”

“Yeah,” Fiona replied. “But you heard what that jerk said.”

“I did. He said he was going to have one of his hired goons watch the entrance. But maybe there’s another way out of here that he doesn’t know about.” He pointed to the hole in the ceiling. “Think that goes all the way to the top?”

Fiona shook her head. “Maybe it used to, but I think if it did, someone would have found this place by now.”

“Good point. So maybe the Templars covered it over once they were done removing the Ark.”

“So how do we get up there?”

“That’s the flaw in my plan,” Pierce admitted. He sank down onto the floor to consider the problem.

He was still doing that when a hot breeze issued from the passage, spiking the air pressure and forcing him to work his jaw to pop his ears. A moment later, a loud boom, like the report of a cannon, rushed out of the tunnel and shook the ground underfoot.

“What the hell?” Pierce jumped to his feet as the tunnel vomited a cloud of dust over them. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to hold his breath as the grit filled the air. “Son of a bitch,” he coughed. “He blasted the entrance.”

Fiona covered her mouth and nose with a sleeve and squinted at Pierce through the haze. “He tried to kill us.” Then she lowered her arm and broke into a grin. “He doesn’t know what I can do.”

Pierce answered with a smile of his own. “No, he doesn’t.”

They didn’t wait for the dust to settle, but started down the passage at a jog. The air cleared as they ran, but a cloud of anger soon replaced it for Pierce. Anger at Fallon. Anger at himself for having misjudged the man. Anger at his inability to save Gallo. He barely noticed the cracks and fissures that now crisscrossed the walls and ceiling, or the piles of rubble that littered the floor of the passage. Then he saw something moving in the gloom.

He skidded to an abrupt halt. Fiona slammed into him from behind.

“Go back!” he shouted, spinning around. He grasped hold of her shoulders, then turned her as well. “Now! Faster!”

She waited until they were moving again to ask him why.

Pierce glanced back, his headlamp revealing dozens of writhing shapes. “Snakes.”

‘Why did it have to be snakes?’

They resembled diamondback rattlesnakes, minus the rattle. Most were two or three feet long, a couple—the fastest—were even bigger. All had a distinctive tiger-stripe pattern of black and gold scales and arrow-shaped heads, a feature common to the type of venomous snakes known as pit vipers. Pierce recalled the Nehushtan sculpture on the mountain above them. Maybe the story was only figurative, but the ‘fiery serpents’ mentioned in the Bible—Palestinian vipers—were a very real problem in the region.

The snakes were not moving very fast. In fact, even at a regular walking pace, Pierce and Fiona were already pulling away from the swarm, but unlike most wild animals, including snakes, which preferred to keep humans at a distance and attacked only when approached, these vipers were still coming, and appeared to be pissed off.

“That explosion must have cracked open their warrens and dumped them down here,” Pierce said, as they reached the domed chamber at the end of the passage.

“They’re between us and the exit,” Fiona said.

“Yeah.”

“We’re stuck down here. In a snake pit.”

“Yeah.”

“Got any ideas?”

“I’m working on it.” Pierce ran to the center of the room and stared up at the opening. “We’ve got to get up there.”

“It’s too high.”

“I’ll boost you up.”

Pierce bent over and laced his fingers together to form a step, but Fiona just stared at him. “Who’s going to boost you?”

“I’ll figure something out.” He glanced at the mouth of the tunnel, and his light revealed one of the vipers slithering out into the open. It was not alone. The creatures were still on the warpath. Pierce shook his joined hands. “Go!”

As Fiona stepped on his hands, he lifted her up, shoving her toward the opening. Even with the boost, her fingers just grazed the edge.

“On my shoulders,” Pierce grunted, keeping his eyes on the advancing snakes. “Hurry.”

Fiona planted one foot on his shoulder and stepped up. She wasn’t all that heavy, but her full weight pressing down on his collar bone nearly drove him to his knees. He gritted his teeth against the unexpected pain, and then, just like that, the pressure was gone. He looked up and saw her legs dangling down as she wormed herself up onto a concealed ledge.

There was no time to savor the minor victory. A snake, as long as Fiona was tall, was almost within striking distance. He danced back a few steps, even as more of the vipers slithered out of the passage.

He slid out of his backpack and swung it at the closest snake. Instead of retreating, it struck at the pack, sinking its fangs into the nylon. As the pack continued through the arc of the swing, Pierce could feel the sudden change. The pack was a good ten pounds heavier and shaking. The snake was still attached, its fangs snagged in the fabric. He heaved it away and quickly regretted it.

Now he had nothing with which to fend off the rest of the swarm.