Page 22 (1/2)

Drake padded quietly toward the door, gun at the ready Sully used his flashlight to wave Welch back The archaeologist shuffled backward past the altar, looking faintly ridiculous with his unruly hair and glasses

Drake wondered if he held the vase because of its value or for comfort, the way a toddler clutches a stuffed aniain Drake frowned, all his attention on the open doorway now He and Sully moved in, one on either side of the three stairs that led up into the darkened antechahts in the other, trying to figure out if there was anything for the They kept their flashlights ai that whoever lurked out there would show theun and flashlight both pointed at the floor

Drake glanced at her, on the verge of issuing a snarky remark about how useless it would be to shoot a bullet into the floor But when he glanced back at the doorway, he caught the shadowsfroht the open doorway

So dashed by Someone No question now They weren’t alone

"Sully," Drake said

"Yeah"

More motion, deeper into the antechaht bea so quietly that he host; they had seen him before He was one of the killers who had stopped Jada fro abducted and killed by the hit squad Henriksen had sent to do it Hooded and veiled, theinto the worship chao home, Drake had time to think

The assassin narrowed his eyes and then leaped into the roo a short curved blade as he raced at Sully Drake and Sully fired at the sah Drake’s bullet missed, Sully’s shot took the assassin in the chest, and he staggered backward, wheeling toward the steps For a second, Drake thought he would run out of there as fast as he’d ju man spun and lifted his blade, about to hurl it at Drake

Jada shot the assassin twice, once in the thigh and once in the abdomen The blade whickered out of his hand with the speed of a booed off the altar inches fro hiet out!" Sully barked

"Hi out," Drake said

"Where did he co noises ca hiainst the wall beside the stairs

"There are others!" he said "Of course there are others!" It was their luck

A scraping noise caht Jada was the cause, but then his ht of stone on stone and realized the sound calanced over his shoulder and saw that Welch’s flashlight had died In the gloom at the back of the cha, then heard the scuffle of a struggle He swung his flashlight bea Ian Welch through the partially open stone door at the rear of the rooist’s hands twitched and dropped the jar, which shattered on ietting in through the other door!"

Jada rushed toward the stone door, beating Drake there He wanted to tell her to back off, afraid they’d drag her in as well, but she wouldn’t have listened and he didn’t have tiet the words out before she was already there She ai for fear of hitting Welch, and started to take a step through the gap in the door

"Dr Welch!" Jada called "Ian!"

A hooded figure rushed froun away, trying to twist it frorasp Drake shot hi froainst the wall In the shadohere Welch had vanished, others were et the hell out of the labyrinth before they joined hio!"

They bolted, racing around the altar on either side and then toward Sully and the three steps to the exit together Sully had his back to the wall on the left, but when he saw the up the stairs into the antechamber

Drake heard the first shot but didn’t see it Then he and Jada were out of the Thera worship chamber The assassin they’d shot lay on the floor of the anteroo but alive, but he was the least of their concerns Two others were in the anterooht Several other hoodedfrom the darkness of the other doors

"Look, if you want us to go ho his ai the tunnel through which Drake and his coht bea off the walls They were about to have even more colish

"Who’s there? Ian, what the hell is going on down here?" she called angrily

Hilary Russo, Drake thought But her deputy, Welch, wasn’t going to answer He was a captive of those hooded men or had beco that needed to be excavated from this place

There were a lot of voices and a lot of footfalls, and Drake had the idea that at least a dozen people were headed their way Maybe that was more people than the assassins were ready to kill at thelive after having seen them down there in the secret corridors under the labyrinth Drake and Sully and Jada weren’t even supposed to be there Who would believe theed, and Sully shot him

"Go!" Sully shouted, and started to run

Trust saved Drake He couldn’t see if the as open, couldn’t tell if Sully had done any real dauy he’d shot or if they had the second or two they needed to get clear, but he and Sully had been friends since Drake was a kid Theyand sometimes they frustrated the hell out of each other, but Sully had been his mentor for almost twenty years In a moment like this, they had to trust each other or they’d both have been killed years ago

Jada rushed into the tunnel, Drake right on her heels He flashed his light ahead of the from the Knossos and Sobek chambers with the other, ar, "Go, go, go" A swift glance showed him that the one Sully had shot had fallen but still lived, and Sully had his gun aiazed back coolly in the se in that junction rooht, and Drake wondered how the assassins could see so well in the dark