The Sixth Seal полностью

That wasn’t the news Henri was expecting to hear. He lowered his aim. So did everyone else.

The floor shivered.

“And the journal?” Henri asked.

“Leave it,” Hammet said. “Let it burn.”

Everyone raised their rifles again — except Zahra. Her weapon was still on the hangar floor.

Henri’s eyes were intense. “I can’t let that happen.”

“Why not?” Zahra asked. It was a simple question and one she wanted the man to answer honestly. When he didn’t reply, she pressed him. “Your own organization just tried to kill you — both of you — and yet, you still want that?” She pointed at the little, black, blood-splattered book still clutched in the dead master chief’s hand. “Without Krause and the Sixth Seal, what good is it?”

Henri smiled like a shark. “Who said anything about not having the Sixth Seal?”

Oh, duh!

“You plan on taking over, don’t you?”

Henri didn’t get to answer. The next audible sound they heard was something straight out of War of the Worlds. A bwomp bwomp like that of the movie’s tripods rose from beneath them and shook the hangar violently. Zahra could not even describe the feeling of the sound waves blown through her. They pounded her body and made her wince as her vision was rattled.

“Ah!” she screamed, holding her head and falling to her knees.

The others were being affected similarly. Zahra shut her eyes until the five pulses ended.

Suddenly, the floor cracked.

They stood, all in different states of recovery from the sonic assault.

“What was that?” Henri asked, yelling louder than he needed to.

Yana shook her head like a dog. “I believe it’s a spaceship taking off underground!”

Hammet helped Zahra up. The low, mechanical whale call had hit her the hardest.

The floor cracked again; this time, a section of it fell and knocked Henri and Emil off their feet. Zahra was yanked free of Hammet’s grip and went down to one knee as she watched the two men disappear. The master chief and the journal he held went with them.

Good riddance.

The top three ranking Sixth Seal operatives slid towards the north wall. From what Henri could see, that was where fractures had originated. They spread out like tentacles from there. The bomber, still under construction, sat to their left. Pieces shook free and fell, their metallic composition ringing around them.

Henri and Emil clutched one another’s coat sleeves, clawing at the floor with their free hands. Henri’s palm was cut and bleeding, leaving a crimson trail behind as they continued deeper into the widening crater. Henri knew the floor would eventually give out completely, and they’d fall into the void beneath the Reliquary.

How far would we fall?

Emil unsheathed his knife and jammed its tip into the rock but was unsuccessful at stopping them. The blade was torn free from his grip and slid away. Henri attempted the same maneuver.

His blade tip caught.

Emil quickly latched onto Henri’s available hand and held on.

“Where’s the journal?” Henri asked.

Emil leaned around him and pointed. “There!”

Henri gritted his teeth and looked over his shoulder. Luka’s lifeless body was quickly catching up to them. Another loud crack exposed them to the frozen world below… and to a strange pulsating purple light. A less disorienting bwomp greeted them as well, though this time, it didn’t stop.

Emil’s hand slipped.

“Use your other hand, Lieutenant. Climb up me.”

Emil’s eyes flashed back to Luka’s advancing corpse. It was picking up steam now.

“The journal!”

Henri shook his head. “I will not lose another man over it. Climb, Lieutenant.” His loyal number two opened his mouth to say something, but Henri cut him off. “Climb, Emil.”

Lieutenant Emil Becker met eyes with Henri, then looked past him as something approached just outside of Henri’s periphery.

Emil locked eyes with him. “Remake the world, Henri. Do it for all of us.”

The lieutenant reached out and grabbed Luka as he slid past them. The added weight jerked Emil free of Henri’s grip. Emil valiantly plucked the journal free of the master chief’s hand and tossed it back up toward Henri.

He fumbled with the journal at first but finally had it. He went to check on Emil, but he and Luka were already gone.

He sighed. “For you, Emil.”

Henri slipped the journal into the admin pouch on his chest rig and was surprised when his knife broke free. But what surprised him more was that he didn’t fall. Something had grabbed the back of his vest. He craned his head up and around to find Zahra. She hung from her grappling hook and was risking her own life to save his.

She flicked both her eyebrows. “Told you it was useful in a pinch. Now climb, you kraut!”

Ignoring what she had just called him, Henri worked himself around until he could grab hold of the cord. Once he was secure, he had to know. “Why?”

“Call it ‘professional courtesy.’ I owed you one for saving me and my friends.”

“I did it for myself.”

“I know, but you still kept us from being executed like common street dogs. Oh, by the way…”