Chapter 97 - Siege of the Scriptorium
The sound of cocking submachine guns echoed off the limestone pillars. The private security force had found the lower catacombs.
"They've bypassed the outer gates!" the archivist cried in panic, darting into the labyrinth of tombs.
"Take the children to the hoist!" I ordered Clara, drawing my revolver with its single remaining round. From the archivist's desk near the crypt wall, I grabbed a heavy iron fire poker and a cluster of ancient brass oil lamps.
Three men in tactical black gear rounded the corner, their weapon-mounted flashlights cutting through the holy gloom. They didn't shout a warning; the lead shooter brought his suppressed rifle to his shoulder and opened fire.
Rounds chipped chunks of stone from the sarcophagus, showering us in limestone dust. I hurled the heavy oil lamp directly at the floor before their boots. The glass shattered, spreading a pool of antique lamp oil, and with my final bullet, I fired into the slick.
A wall of fire erupted across the narrow tunnel corridor, cutting the mercenaries off with an impassable barrier of roaring heat and dense black smoke. The suppressed rounds sprayed wildly through the flames, striking only empty stone.
"Julian, the hoist is open!" Clara yelled from a recessed archway behind the altar.
Evelyn was already inside the narrow wooden freight lift, her face grey with exhaustion, her fingers clutching a flare gun she had taken from the barge's emergency kit. Clara stood beside her, the twins secured in a heavy leather harness across her chest.
I sprinted toward the lift just as a shotgun blast roared through the smoke, sending heavy buckshot tearing through the wooden frame of the gate. A shard of splintered oak sliced across my forehead, blinding my left eye with blood.
I threw myself into the cage, pulling the iron gate shut and engaging the brass abbey key in the hoist's winch mechanism. The counterweights groaned, chains rattling as the wooden platform began to rise rapidly through the vertical stone shaft, away from the gunfire and fire below.
"They're going to converge on the Chapter Hall!" Evelyn warned, fighting to stay conscious. "They know this lift comes out directly into the assembly room!"
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"Let them," I said, wiping the blood from my eyes and gripping the cold titanium cylinder against my ribs. "The world is about to hear the truth."
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