The Judas Strain - James Rollins [114]
Five hours.
“We’ll need more than the second key we found here,” he said. “More than even the third key.”
Seichan nodded.
Gray stared up at Seichan. “We’ll need to have solved the obelisk’s riddle. We’ll need Marco’s map.”
Seichan simply stared, waiting.
Gray knew what he had to do. He flipped the phone over. With fingers numb and uncooperative, he fumbled with the battery in back.
Vigor stepped up and covered his palm over Gray’s fingers. “Are you sure, Gray?”
He lifted his eyes. “No…I’m not. I’m not sure of a damn thing.” He slipped his hands free of the monsignor’s and peeled the battery off the phone, cutting the last ring in half. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t act.”
Gray turned to Seichan. “What now?”
“You’ve just thrown down the gauntlet. Nasser will be calling his henchmen. We’ve got maybe a minute or two.” She pointed into the depths of the church. “This way. Kowalski’s got a car. He’ll meet us out at the east exit.”
She led them down the nave. People milled, unsure, voices echoed. Sirens closed down upon their location. Seichan fished something out of her pocket.
“Nasser must have snipers at that exit, too,” Gray said, striding up to her.
Seichan held out her palm. “Concussive grenade. A flash-bang. We’ll detonate it in the center. As everyone goes rushing out the exits…out we’ll go, too.”
Gray frowned.
Vigor voiced his concern as they circled past a crowd of schoolchildren, all wide-eyed and fearful, clutched in a group. “If the snipers see any of us, they’ll open fire. On the crowd.”
“No other way.” Seichan sped faster. “We’ll have to take the chance. Nasser’s men may already be coming—”
A gunshot cracked loudly in the church.
Gray felt something whine past his ear. A bit of wall mosaic blasted in a shower of gold.
The crowd panicked, fleeing in all directions.
Vigor was knocked to a knee. Gray dragged him up as a second shot sparked against a marble column. The blast echoed.
Staying low, the trio fled to the side and down the length of the nave. As they reached the center, Seichan prepared to pull the pin on the grenade.
Gray grabbed her hand, restraining her. “No.”
“It’s the only way. There could be more shooters ahead of us. We’ll need to trample with them to reach the exit.”
And if we’re spotted amid the crowd, he thought, how many innocent people will be killed?
He pointed. “There’s another way.”
Still holding his hand clamped to hers, he led them all to the south side, toward the wall of scaffolding he had scaled earlier.
“Up!” he said.
However, there remained one obstacle.
The scaffolding guard had not fled his post. He remained crouched behind a wooden barrier, his rifle up, ready to shoot.
Gray snatched the grenade out of Seichan’s fingers, pulled the pin, and tossed the bomb behind the barrier. “Close your eyes!” he yelled at Vigor, pulling the monsignor down. “Cover your ears.”
Seichan crouched, her head wrapped in her arms.
The explosion felt like a kick to the gut. A sonic boom trapped in stone. A flash seared through Gray’s lids, even with his head turned away.
Then it was over.
Gray yanked Vigor up. Screams echoed, sounding muffled through the residual ring in his ears. He rushed toward the massive scaffolding. The crowds parted, fleeing toward the east and west exits.
But they weren’t going with them.
At the scaffolding, the guard was down, dazed on his back, moaning.
He’d have a bad headache, but he’d live.
Gray took his rifle and waved Seichan and Vigor up the scaffolding staircase. They’d have to move fast. The stampede would slow the shooters, but only for so long.
He clambered up after Seichan and Vigor.
“Where are we going?” Seichan called down. “We’ll be sitting ducks up here!”
“Go!” Gray said. “Get your asses up there!”
They fled around and around, leaping steps.
They reached the halfway point when a spray of automatic fire rang off the bracings, wildly shot, but effective enough to chase them off the outer stairs and into the heart of the scaffolding. They pounded along the planked flooring of this level.
Gray pushed ahead of the others. “This