Juggernaut

Toon picked up his torch. They stood over the body. A withered skull face. A necrotic abomination, mouth open in a gaping yawn.

‘Jesus fucking Christ,’ muttered Amanda.

Strange metallic tendrils coiled through muscle and bone

The creature tried to sit. Broken spine. It rolled and tried to crawl, fingernails raking stone. Amanda and Toon backed away.

‘Ever see anything like that?’ asked Amanda.

‘No. Never.’

The creature looked up and hissed.

Amanda stared into jet-black eyes. She felt herself appraised by a strange, implacably hostile intelligence.

‘What the fuck are you?’ she murmured.

Toon shot the malignant creature in the face. He fired until the mag was dry. He pulverised its head.

They fetched a jerry can of fuel from the chopper and slopped gasoline.

Amanda took a blue fifty-dinar note from her pocket. She lit the note and tossed it. The creature burst into flame. Flesh crisped and crackled. The skeletal corpse slowly curled foetal as it burned.

‘It didn’t come from the convoy,’ said Toon. ‘It came from behind us, from the citadel. It was hiding in the ruins. Could be plenty more.’

‘We need a ring of light.’

Raphael and Gaunt grabbed boxes and benches thrown from the choppers and propped them in circle round both Hueys.

Toon and Amanda tore open a pack of cyalume sticks. They cracked the sticks and scattered them on flagstones. The chemical lights glowed blue, surrounding the helicopters in a ring of ethereal light.

Toon kept them covered.

They crouched by the choppers, weapons trained on deep shadows.

Raphael looked scared. Gaunt chewed gum.

Toon reached for the transmit button of his radio.

‘Boss? Boss, do you copy? We got to get moving. We’re starting to draw serious heat.’

Lucy leant against the drill as it cut steel with a shrill whine. The bit lurched forward as it broke through an air pocket within the vault door.

She shut off the drill and pulled foam beads from her ears.

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘We’ve reached the locks.’

‘Yeah?’ said Voss.

‘Smile. We’re nearly done.’

She disengaged the magnets. She and Voss took the weight of the drill as it fell away from the truck door. They threw it aside.

‘We pile the equipment and set it alight before we leave all right? Water bottles, food wrappers, everything we touched. You can bet other senior Ba’ath officials knew about this stash. Probably behind wire in some internment camp right now, but soon as they bust free they’ll come looking for the gold. And then they’ll come looking for us. Chase us down, if they can. They won’t give up easy.’

Lucy opened a plastic case. A fibre-optic borescope in a foam bed.

She plugged the borescope into a Toughbook. She threaded the scope into the hole next to the upper combination lock. The probe slid down the narrow steel channel.

Camera view: the micro-lamp lit spiral drill-grooves, like the rifled barrel of a gun.

The wheel pack. The combination lock mechanism. Six titanium disks on a spindle.

Voss held the Toughbook. Lucy watched the screen and turned the dial. One by one the lock wheels aligned. Faint click as a bolt released.

Same procedure for the lower lock. She manipulated the combination drum. Clack of a retracting bolt.

She turned the crank handle and hauled the door wide.

She picked her TASC radio from the floor. She spoke into the throat-piece.

‘Okay, folks. We’re in.’

Double-Cross

The vault. Metal shelves braced against each wall. Black, high-impact boxes floor to roof.

Lucy climbed inside. She dragged a black box from a shelf. She dumped it on the steel plate floor. She flipped latches and threw open the lid. Gold jewellery. Watches, bracelets, pendants.

She dragged another box from a shelf. More jewellery.

She picked out a wedding band. Arab inscription. She threw it aside.

She pressed the transmit button on her webbing.

‘Jabril, get the fuck up here.’

Jabril and Amanda came running. They entered the temple. Lucy jumped from the truck. She held up a fistful of jewellery.

‘What the fuck is this shit?’

‘Gold.’

‘You said there would be bullion.’

‘No. I didn’t mention coins or ingots. I didn’t say there would be a big stack of bars. I promised you gold. Three tons. And there it is.’

‘Look.’ Lucy held up a gleaming nugget. ‘A tooth. An actual gold tooth.’

‘Saddam killed thousands of men,’ said Jabril. ‘Tens of thousands. No point pushing a man wearing a Rolex into a mass grave.’

‘We’re not grave robbers.’

‘You are mercenaries. You fight for money. Besides, if you don’t take this gold, sooner or later someone else will find it. If Peshmergas overcome their fear of this place they will discover this truck and use the gold to buy weapons. Blackmarket ordinance from Pakistan. Rifles, rockets, bombs. More of your countrymen will die.’

‘Teeth. You sick fuck.’

Huang lay on a stretcher in the Talon cargo compartment.

‘How are you feeling?’ asked Toon.

‘Fucking migraine. Eyes are messed up. Little squiggly lights, like fireflies.’

‘Let’s take a look at your neck.’