Hammer of God: Alex Hunter 5.5 (13 page)

Alex checked his watch. “Three minutes. About to get real hot, people.”

The deep detonation was an earthquake that threw them around like they were encased in a toy, and a vent of flame shot from the tunnel, blasting into the dark sky, making the night into daytime while Sam struggled to hold the wheel.

The flame was shut off, as the tunnel caved in on itself. They sped on, and behind them the world collapsed. They had over 150 miles of night desert to cross, in a hostile territory, while outpacing a toxic, nuclear shock wave.

Not a single one of them would complain for a second.

Jack Hammerson leaned back in his chair, a pair of strong blunt hands clasped together across his stomach. He faced a huge screen set into his office wall that showed an image of the nighttime desert in the Mashhad District of Northern Iran. Even though it was night, the illumination settings of the VELA satellite feed made it as clear as daytime.

The small town of Tous suddenly rose about fifty feet in the air, like it was sitting upon a huge blister about to pop, and then with a venting of boiling gasses from a million cracks over a two-mile radius, it simply fell back in on itself, forming a massive sunken crater. Anything and everything below ground would have ceased to exist.

Hammerson continued to watch the screen. To him, it looked like the earth had just been pounded by a mighty fist, or titanic hammer.

“So strikes the hammer of God.” He smiled. “That’s what happens when you play with fire.”

He knew the drill; mining accident, the government would say for the local and international press. Nuclear accident, the Iranian military would agree.

Hammerson grunted. They did it to themselves, Hammerson would say, if any of his superiors asked of their involvement. He turned away from the screen. His recovery teams were already waiting in Turkmenistan to pull Alex and the team out.

He closed the folder and got to his feet, crossing to the window. He stood looking out over the parade ground, hands clasped behind his back.

“You push, and we push back harder.” He watched a storm rolling in from the west for several more minutes before hearing his computer ping with a message. He turned back to his desk, and sat down reading the new data, and watching the new satellite feed.

He grunted. “One last loose end to tie off.” He placed a headset over his head and prepared to initiate the order.

*

The huge figure lumbered toward the ancient city of Misrata in Libya. It joined the masses of humanity heading in toward the busy coastal city, once called the Riviera of Libya, now just another boiling pot of sectarian violence.

The figure was bent under the weight on its back, but it still towered over the people around it. The giant plodded on, unfeeling, uncaring, and unswerving in its allotted task. A cowl was pulled forward over a heavily scarified face.

A man fell in beside it to its left, and the giant ignored him. Another fell in to its right. This one was also ignored. The behemoth plodded in, its designated target – Rome – all that mattered.

Eyes watched from a thousand miles overhead, and single word was spoken into the ears of the men on each side of the hooded figure. Immediately, long knives were drawn, and in a single sweep the large head was removed from the body. The two attackers didn’t stop, slashing at the shoulders and removing both arms to the horror of those who watched. The massive drum fell from the torso to thump on the dirt.

The two then didn’t stop their hacking until there was nothing but chunks of flesh, some still twisting and writhing at their feet like small animals.

A covered truck slid to a stop, and small crane swung out to lift the large package into the rear. The driver jumped free with a canister, pouring gasoline over the remains, and then igniting them.

In another few seconds, the truck, and the attackers, had vanished, leaving a trail of greasy smoke rising into the air, the only remnants of the magic and monstrosities of the world’s last great alchemist.

The Arcadian returns to the dark ice in a reprisal of one of his first and most deadly missions. But this time the stakes couldn't be higher.

In 2008, a top secret US submarine went missing on its test voyage off the coast of Antarctica. After years silent, its emergency beacon is suddenly activated, but strangely, the beacon is emanating from a point miles below the ice sheets of the frozen continent.

The race is on. The Chinese government, alerted at the same time as the Americans, is after the submarine's secrets. And the Americans need to retrieve their technology, quickly and quietly, from a place now marked as an international forbidden zone. 

With the reluctant assistance of petrobiologist Aimee Weir, Alex Hunter and his team of HAWCs return to the location of their first mission together. 

But only a few members of the team know the truth. A treacherous horror lies in wait for them, deep beneath the Antarctic ice.

Perfect for fans of Matthew Reilly, Steve Alten, Myke Cole, Graham Masterton, James Rollins and Michael Crichton.

For more information, please visit 
momentumbooks.com.au/books/kraken-rising-alex-hunter-6
.

Greig Beck grew up across the road from Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. His early days were spent surfing, sunbaking and reading science fiction on the sand. He then went on to study computer science, immerse himself in the financial software industry and later received an MBA. Today, Greig spends his days writing, but still finds time to surf at his beloved Bondi Beach. He lives in Sydney, with his wife, son and an enormous black German shepherd.

The First Bird
Book of the Dead
Return of the Ancients
Arcadian Genesis: Alex Hunter 0.5
Beneath the Dark Ice: Alex Hunter 1
Dark Rising: Alex Hunter 2
This Green Hell: Alex Hunter 3
Black Mountain: Alex Hunter 4
Gorgon: Alex Hunter 5