“Sent them back up top after a stern talking-to,” Joe said.
“Do you think they’ll come back?”
Joe looked around. The cavern smelled of smoke from the explosions and gunfire. It was barely lit and rapidly filling with water. “Would you?”
“Not on your life,” Kurt said, climbing in.
“Guessing you didn’t catch up with Renata,” Joe said.
Kurt shook his head. “Got pinned down by these guys. Let’s go find her and get out of here. Otherwise, we’re going to end up swimming for it.”
Joe put his foot on the gas and the Sahariana went forward, pushing a small wave ahead of its bow and leaving a wake behind its stern in the dark. At a low point in the tunnel they almost washed out, but the air intake was high on the frame and they forded the dip and rose up the other side.
“Where is all this water coming from?” Joe asked.
“The Nile,” Kurt replied. “I reversed the pumps. Shakir’s system is now forcing water from the river back into the aquifer at high pressure. I guess it’s bubbling up here.”
“And filling up the dry lakes in Libya and Tunisia,” Joe said.
Kurt grinned. “I’m hoping for geysers in downtown Benghazi.”
They continued forward, passing two bodies floating in the water—Shakir’s men.
“Renata’s been this way,” Kurt guessed.
They continued moving, and farther down the water was halfway up the side of the car.
/> “Don’t suppose this thing is amphibious?” Kurt asked.
Joe shook his head. “Another foot or two and we’re sunk.”
They rumbled through the tunnel and out into the central burial chamber. “The lab is on the other side,” Kurt said.
Kurt scanned the room as Joe drove them into the open space. No one was in sight, but halfway across a sudden whoosh caught his attention.
From the corner of his eye, Kurt saw a trail of smoke and fire streaking their way. There was no time to react or even shout. The RPG hit several feet in front of them and off to the side. It blasted a giant crater in the flooded floor, mangled the front end of the AS-42 and flipped the vehicle over on its side.
Kurt remained conscious, but his ears were ringing and his head pounding. He found himself in the water.
He looked forward to the driver’s seat. “Are you all right?”
“My legs are pinned,” Joe said. “But I don’t think anything’s broken.”
He was straining, trying to get loose. Kurt put his shoulder against the bent metal of the dashboard and forced it.
Joe came free and landed in the water beside Kurt.
“We’re lucky that missed,” he said in obvious pain. “A direct hit would have killed us.”
“I guess the place isn’t totally abandoned yet,” Kurt said.
“No, it isn’t,” a voice shouted from beyond the wrecked vehicle.
Kurt recognized that voice. It was Shakir’s.
61
Kurt and Joe pressed against the wreck of the AS-42, which was sitting in two feet of water that was slowly getting deeper. The antitank cannon was useless and Kurt’s Beretta submachine gun was nowhere to be found.