Gabriel Hunt - Hunt Through Napoleon's Web

With Nizan secured, they walked to the back room where the trap door was located. Gabriel threw back the carpet and dragged the door open. They went down the steps and into the tunnel, moving quickly. They reached the other building’s basement in less than two minutes. Gabriel cocked his head to listen at the foot of the stairs. There were no sounds from above. He climbed the steps and slowly raised the door an inch or two. A glance told him no one was in the pantry—but now he did hear voices, from the next room over.

Gabriel mouthed the word, “Quiet,” and gestured for Sammi to follow. They climbed out of the tunnel, taking care to make no sound and leaving the trap door open for a quick retreat.

Gabriel peered around a corner into the living room, then jerked back. Kemnebi was standing there, his broad back to Gabriel, lecturing two other Alliance men in Arabic. One of the other men said something back in what sounded to Gabriel like an apologetic tone. Kemnebi responded with no sympathy in his voice at all. Gabriel heard footsteps receding as the men walked out of the room.

He gestured to Sammi to remain by the door, and stepped into the living room.

Where he walked right into Kemnebi.

The other men had gone—but not him.

Kemnebi was startled, but just for a moment. He reacted with lightning speed, seizing Gabriel’s gun hand before he could pull the trigger of his Colt. Gabriel punched him as hard as he could with his other hand, landing a blow to Kemnebi’s solar plexus that would have felled most men. Kemnebi felt it—Gabriel could see it in his reaction—but he shook it off and kept squeezing Gabriel’s hand mercilessly.

Gabriel swung a knee up between Kemnebi’s legs, and that had more of an effect. The big man stumbled a few steps backward and bent over, struggling to catch his breath. Gabriel took the opportunity to deliver a second blow, this one a roundhouse to the side of his head. Kemnebi fell against a table, tipping it over and knocking all its contents to the ground.

Gabriel saw Sammi peer out from the pantry, a look of concern on her face. From upstairs came the sound of running footsteps.

“So much for stealth,” Gabriel said.

Sammi whipped out the Browning and took a bead on Kemnebi’s head. “Don’t move.”

“I’m going upstairs,” Gabriel said. “Can you handle him?”

“Yes,” she said, and pulled the trigger. A spray of blood stained the wall. Kemnebi slumped to the ground, dead.

“Jesus,” Gabriel said. “Remind me never to make you mad.”

“They’re not playing around,” Sammi said. “We can’t either.” But her hands were shaking.

Three men in three days. Gabriel tried to push the thought out of his mind. There’d be time for that sort of thinking later. Or there wouldn’t, if he let himself be distracted by it now.

He sprinted to the staircase and took the steps two at a time. One of the guards met him coming down as he and Gabriel both reached the first landing. The guard delivered a haymaker to Gabriel’s chin, which stunned Gabriel for a moment, but he dropped into a defensive crouch and shook off the blow. As the man came in for a second try, Gabriel blocked the punch with his forearm and gave one right back, slamming his knuckles into the man’s temple. The man collapsed against the staircase banister, which snapped under his weight. He fell screaming to the floor below.

Another guard appeared on the landing, but a pair of bullets from Gabriel’s Colt sent him scurrying back upstairs. Gabriel followed, shooting one more time, and then turned off at the landing for the third floor. He raced down the hall to Lucy’s room. It was shut and locked. He banged loudly on the wood with his fist. “Lucy? You in there?”

“Gabriel?” She didn’t sound normal.

Gabriel lifted his boot and kicked the door in, snapping the lock off the jamb.

Lucy was there, dressed exactly as she had been in the airport, her eyes slightly glazed from the lingering effects of whatever drug they’d given her this time.

“You came back,” she said, her voice muzzy.

“Of course I did,” Gabriel said. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

“Don’t think I can climb . . .” she said.

“You don’t have to. Just stay behind me and do what I say.”

“Okay . . . Gabriel?”

“What?” he said, and began pulling her toward the door.

“I don’t hate Michael,” she said sleepily. “I don’t.”

“That’s great. We’ll talk about it later.”

“I just . . . can’t live there, in their home, spending their money . . .”

“Later,” Gabriel said. Then he pressed her back against the wall and followed suit himself just as a spray of bullets came whizzing past.

“Gabriel!” Lucy exclaimed.

He poked the nose of the Colt around the doorframe and snapped off one shot. Then another—and this time he heard someone groan and collapse. “Come on.” He pulled Lucy with him toward the stairs.

They made it halfway down.

Chapter 26

Two guards met them on the second-floor landing. One of them held a lit oil lamp, the other a long-barreled pistol. Both men attacked Gabriel as he pushed Lucy out of the way. Gabriel focused on the man with the gun. He feinted at the man’s face, then grabbed his forearm and used it as a lever to throw the man over his shoulder. The man fired his gun as he flew through the air and through the smashed stair railing, plummeting to join his colleague on the floor below. His bullet thunked solidly into the wooden wall.

By then, the second guard was swinging the oil lamp at Gabriel.

Gabriel ducked and slammed into the guard’s middle. The guard collapsed and the oil lamp went flying. It crashed onto the carpeted floor, spilling its contents and immediately igniting the area in flames.

Gabriel heard Sammi shouting from the first floor. A few seconds later, she appeared on the staircase, trying to see through the curtain of flame that had erupted.

“Cifer!” she called.

Lucy’s head jerked up. “Sammi?”

Sammi ran to her and wrapped Lucy in her arms. She helped her to her feet.

“You were supposed to stay downstairs,” Gabriel said.

“You sounded like you could use some help.” She looked at the smashed railing and the guard lying prone and moaning on the landing. “Guess not.”

“Just get her to safety,” Gabriel said. “You, too.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Sammi said, and led Lucy swiftly through the flames.

Gabriel took a moment to reload his gun, then ran down to the first floor himself. As he passed the pantry, he saw that the trap door was now closed. Good. He ran in the other direction, toward the corridor leading to Khufu’s temple.

One more guard stood in the corridor. As Gabriel ran toward him, the man raised his pistol to fire, but Gabriel beat him to the draw, and the man went over backward with a bullet in his chest.

Gabriel leaped over the guard’s body and rushed to the fake stone slab that served as a door. It swung open when he grabbed the hidden handholds and pushed.

As he stepped into the temple, Khufu’s back was to him. He was still in the ancient Egyptian garb, and he was placing items of value—statuettes and jewel-encrusted treasures—into a large steamer trunk. His scepter was leaning against the throne.

Gabriel aimed the Colt at the center of Khufu’s back and thumbed back the hammer. Khufu stiffened and slowly straightened, extending one arm toward the side.

“Reach for that scepter and you’re dead,” Gabriel said.

Khufu stopped moving. With his arm halfway extended and his back still turned, he spoke. “You are a very foolish man, Mister Hunt. You should never have returned here.”