Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [87]
“Isn’t that going to be a little tough with a busted wrist?”
Sheila shrugged. “I’ve had worse injuries.”
“What about the explosion? It might destroy them all before you have a chance to,” Annja said.
Sheila thought about that for a moment and then shrugged. “The hell with it. As long as they die, I’m good.”
Henderson’s head popped out of the conning tower. “Sheila, darling, are you coming?”
Annja glanced back at Henderson and then at Sheila. “So, that’s the deal, is it? You guys shacking up on the sub ride back to the processing facility. That’s sweet.”
Sheila punched Annja in the gut again. “It’s nothing like that at all.”
“Okay.” Annja gasped and sucked in a breath. “Well, have fun, anyway. He looks like he might need his diaper changed.”
Sheila frowned at the guards. “Make sure you put the bomb right between her legs. I want no chance that she can survive.”
The first guard cleared his throat. “It’s a nuclear bomb. Don’t think there’s much chance she’s going to survive.”
Sheila stormed off.
Annja glanced at the guards. “She’s really a big fan of mine.”
“Yeah, we can tell.”
They led her and Cole off the gangway. Cole kept his head down and basically had to be carried by the first guard. Annja hoped he was okay, but she had no idea what they’d done to him before she got into the submarine.
“What happened to him?” she asked finally.
The first guard shrugged. “Probably lingering effects from the Taser session he had earlier. Maybe all the fight’s gone out of him. He’s ready to die.”
“That makes one of us,” Annja said.
“You don’t have a choice,” the guard said. “Give us any grief and we’ll just shoot you. Play your cards right and you and the quiet man here can have some valuable alone time before the bomb blows.”
“Nothing like going out with a bang,” the second guard said with a laugh.
“Oh, that’s hysterical,” Annja said. “Henderson really does hire the brightest boys he can find, huh?”
They walked up the slope toward the lower level and Annja heard the submarine’s engine switch on. The guards stopped long enough for her to see the submarine head off down the tunnel toward the cavern’s exit.
“That’s it,” the first guard said. “Now it’s just us left.”
The second guard nodded. “Let’s get this done and hightail it out of here. I don’t like being left behind. I’ve been expendable before and it’s no fun.”
“Good point.”
Annja let herself be guided to the lower level into a section that she hadn’t seen before. She could see the shaft that led down to the bedrock that Henderson wanted blown up.
At the bottom of the shaft, she could see a yellow circular case with the international symbol for nuclear material on it.
She looked back at the guards. “That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
Annja nodded. “You know, come to think of it, I don’t really want to die in this place.”
34
Annja summoned the sword and it appeared in her hands in the blink of an eye. She slashed down on the first guard’s gun, knocking it from his hand. The second guard brought his gun up but, at that moment, Cole’s head snapped up and he kicked the guard square in his crotch.
“Annja, my hands,” Cole said.
Annja cut the chain between his cuffs and then turned back to the first guard, who had backed away from Annja after seeing a mystical sword appear out of thin air.
“Still thinking about blowing us up?” she said.
He held up his hands. “I was just following orders.”
“Of course you were.” Annja advanced on him and he stumbled over a crate. He landed hard but then rolled backward. As he came up, Annja saw that he had unholstered his pistol and was bringing it to bear on her center mass.
She slashed down and the guard fell under her blade.
Annja swung back to Cole, who was busy wrestling with the second guard. She saw the second guard score a kick into Cole’s stomach and Cole fell toward the shaft. Annja leaped forward and steadied him with the flat of her blade before he could topple over the edge.
As she guided him from the edge, the second guard grabbed his gun and turned it on them.
“Stop!”
Annja froze, her sword