The Illuminati Sanctum (The Relic Hunters 6) David Leadbeater (new reading .txt) 📖

Jemma’s yell reached his ears. “Got it!”

 They were vulnerable back there, crouched in the middle of the path. Bodie tried to keep as many Hoods and mercenaries pinned down as possible. Yasmine and Cassidy did the same from their vantage points.

Cassidy was looking over at him, spreading her arms to indicate, What now?

For once, Bodie had no answer. They were trapped. They’d come all the way from Mexico to the Himalayas only to be ensnared as they drilled for ore. Another ten minutes and they’d have been clear.

The enemy’s main force was coming.

Bodie took a second gun from his back pocket. He was going to need it.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

With nowhere to go, Bodie saw just one harrowing and terrifying option.

“Up!” he cried. “Go up!”

Though his words were short, and cryptic to a degree, everyone knew what they meant. Cassidy stared at him as if he’d gone mad.

“Up? You mean up Mount fucking Everest?”

Bodie shrugged. What choice did they have?

The trail began to their right, only a few hundred yards distant. It wound along some relatively low slopes at first and between rock clusters that were easily defendable. Beyond that, Bodie didn’t like to imagine.

Lucie and Jemma hared off, staying low. A couple of bullets kicked up dirt behind them. Bodie returned fire at the shooters, forcing them into cover. The police, though down to around three men, were still keeping many mercs and Hoods busy in the center of Base Camp, and no doubt radioing for backup.

Bodie wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

He waved at Yasmine; first the Moroccan and then Cassidy broke cover and ran for the higher hills, keeping their heads down. Bodie kept up a constant barrage of gunfire to protect them. When they were safe, they returned the favor, enabling him to run across to their shelter and take a quick breather.

“You wanna climb fucking Everest now?” Cassidy blasted at him.

“We’re here aren’t we? Might as well have some fun.”

Cassidy shook her head. Yasmine gave him a grim smile. “The odds are not good.”

Bodie looked to Jemma and Lucie. The track leading to them was curved and relatively sheltered. It took the trio another few minutes to make it that far.

“We good?” he checked with Lucie.

“I have the ore,” she said. “But there’s no way to stop them getting it.”

“I like your attitude,” he said, glad she was even considering that option under the circumstances.

Taking a moment to ensure everything he wore was zipped and secured, he led the way up the lower slopes of Mount Everest, still very much at base camp level. There was another camp, he knew, about two thousand meters further up. Their route would take them across the Khumbu Glacier and past the icefall. And yet, all that way and they’d still be on the vast glacier.

Bodie urged them on, trying to get some distance between them and the Illuminati soldiers. Their breath came fast and shallow, the altitude hurting them as they were pushed to full exertion. Still, Yasmine put her head down and forged up first, sticking to the pathways. Bodie came last, watching their backs.

The hope was they wouldn’t encounter weather, a whiteout or an avalanche.

The ground was all rock and ice, a pass steepening between two peaks. Bodie checked below as much as he could, first seeing the Hoods led by Nimrod approaching the hole they’d dug in the ground and then seeing the Hoods’ leader stare upward after him. At this range there was no discerning the expression on those features, but Bodie doubted it would hold much affection.

They climbed further, and harder. The weather held. Lucie fell back, but Bodie called a halt and they took ten minutes out, sitting on rocks around the icefall. Despite everything that had happened, there was an unbreakable primeval peace among these old mountains, a sense of agelessness. The team drew energy from it.

They passed between two slopes, followed an incline for a while and then climbed once more. The glacier was a flat, endless snow field.

Soon, the area became marked by enormous crevasses running laterally across the basin, too deep and frequent to cross. They were pushed east, in the footsteps of all those that had come before, shielded from the wind by the age-sculpted valley.

Bodie slowed. It was hard work, even harder than he’d imagined. The valley’s wide arms reflected the snow, augmenting the solar radiation and drastically raising the temperature. Often, they stopped, looking back, trying to see if they were being followed.

Bodie dared to hope the Hoods and their pet mercenaries wouldn’t be stupid enough to follow in their footsteps.

It was hot, stagnant and quiet. Bodie guessed they were traversing a place climbers called the Valley of Silence, a dangerous four-kilometer, avalanche-prone stretch.

Cassidy and Yasmine came to an abrupt halt ahead.

“What the hell was that?”

Bodie had heard it too. The ice never stopped moving and, sometimes, cracks occurring deep in the glacier below were audible. Unnerved, they moved on, avoiding even the smaller gaps that might suggest huge crevices underneath.

Bodie wondered if they should rope each other together. The risk of slipping into a fissure was high.

Then the endless silence was crudely broken.

A sound built from behind, making Bodie scan the air and then his surroundings. The sound grew, deep and ominous, eventually making him reach for his gun. The helicopter appeared seconds later, and Bodie could already see Nimrod leaning out of it. A second chopper wasn’t far behind, full of mercenaries.

On this mountain, on this glacier, there was nowhere to hide.

Bodie took deep breaths, fixed his polycarbonate Oakleys, and ran at the lead chopper. He pulled his trigger three times, passed underneath the bird and then shot up into its belly. At