The Atlantis Plague(26)

Kate began to speak, but Martin rose quickly and motioned to the narrow passageway between the buildings near the middle of the alleyway. They resumed their frantic pace as they rushed through the cramped space.

Several minutes into their run, the narrow corridor opened onto a larger alley, which flowed into an open-air promenade with a large stone fountain.

“Martin, you have to come with us—”

“Stay quiet,” Martin snapped. “This isn’t a discussion, Kate.” He stopped just shy of the promenade. He got the small mirror out of the pack again and held it up to catch the sunlight. Across the square, flashes of light mirrored his gesture.

Martin turned to her just as explosions rocked the square and dust filled the air. Kate’s ears rang, and she could barely see through the dust. She felt Martin grab her arm, and she in turn grabbed Adi and Surya as they waded out into the chaos erupting in the courtyard.

Through the settling dust, Kate saw Immari troops pouring in from the side streets and alleyways. Soldiers wearing Spanish military uniforms—no doubt the SAS extraction team Martin had signaled—took cover behind the massive stone fountain and opened fire on the Immari. Within seconds the sounds of grenades and automatic gunfire became deafening. Two of the SAS soldiers fell. The remaining men were outnumbered and surrounded.

Martin tugged at Kate, pulling her toward a street to the north. Just as they reached the opening, a wave of people rolled in from the cross street and flowed toward Kate, Martin and the boys.

Kate looked back at the square. The last pops of gunfire faded, leaving only the sound of thunder—the rumble from the wall of people bearing down on them. The SAS soldiers lay dead, two in the now-red water of the fountain, two others facedown on the cobblestone street.





CHAPTER 23


Old Town District

Marbella, Spain


Kate couldn’t take her eyes off the Immari soldiers behind them. She had expected them to rush through the promenade and capture her, Martin, and the two boys, but they hadn’t. They simply loitered at the streets and alleyways that fed into the square, pacing in front of the massive trucks, some smoking, others talking on radios, all holding automatic rifles, waiting for what, Kate didn’t know.

She turned to Martin. “What are they—”

“It’s a loading zone. They’re just waiting for the people to come to them. Come on.” He charged into the narrow street, running straight for the oncoming mob of people.

Kate hesitated, then fell in behind him. The crowd was a hundred meters away and closing fast.

Martin tried the closest door—that of a ground floor shop—but it was locked. He looked around.

For what? Kate wondered. Something to break the window?

Martin tried the next door. Locked.

Kate ran across the street and tried the door to a cafe. It wouldn’t budge. She pulled the boys closer to her. The crowd was fifty meters away. She tried the door of the townhome next to the shop. Also locked. The crowd would be upon Kate and the boys in seconds, trampling them. Maybe she could put the boys in front of her, press them into the doorway, shield them. She moved them in front of her and waited.

She heard Martin run up behind her. He was going to position himself to protect her, in the same way she was covering the boys.

The crowd was thirty yards away. Several runners had separated from the pack. They charged on with determined, lifeless eyes. They didn’t glance at Kate, Martin, and the boys as the first of them passed.

In a second-story window, someone pulled a thin white curtain back. A face filled the window, a woman about Kate’s age, with dark hair and olive skin. She looked down, and her eyes met Kate’s. A moment passed and the woman’s expression changed, from alarm to… concern? Kate opened her mouth to call to her, but the woman was gone.

Kate pressed the boys into the doorway. “Be still, boys. It’s important.”

Martin glanced back at the oncoming crowd.

Then the door before them clicked and swung open, sending Kate, Martin, and the boys spilling onto the floor. A man pulled them up as the woman from the second-story window slammed the door. The low rumble of the crowd seeped in through the door and windows.

The man and woman led them deeper inside, out of the anteroom and into a living room with a large fireplace and no windows. Candles lit the eerie space, and Kate struggled to acclimate.

Martin began conversing rapidly in Spanish. Kate inspected the boys, but they twisted and resisted her prodding. They had had about all they could take. Both boys were agitated, tired, and confused. What was she going to do? They couldn’t take much more. Can we hide here? Those were Martin’s words: run or hide.

She unzipped the pack on Martin’s back and took the two notebooks and some pencils out, then handed them to Adi and Surya, who grabbed them and scurried off to the corner. They needed a little piece of normalcy, something they knew, if only for a moment, to calm them.