The Revelation Code (Wilde/Chase 11) Read Free Page B

explosions ripping down the shore. More screams, some abruptly cut off as another fusillade scattered mangled bodies.
    ‘ No! ’ Cross cried as the line of detonations reached the ruins—
    The saw-toothed pillar disintegrated in a flash of flame. More rockets hammered what remained of the temple into rubble, then the Mi-24 veered back out over the lake.
    Rosemont jumped up, raising the LAW to his shoulder. He peered through the sight, fingers resting on the rubber trigger bar. ‘Cross! It’s coming back around – get ready!’
    But the other man was staring in horror towards the ruins. ‘No,’ he whispered. ‘The angel can’t have been destroyed. It can’t !’
    ‘Worry about your damn angel later. We’ve got—’ Rosemont broke off as a new sight was picked out by the flickering light of burning reeds.
    Something was swelling on the shore, a dirty mustard-yellow mass. It took a moment for the CIA leader to realise that it was a cloud , some sort of gas boiling up from the edge of the ruins. But it was like nothing he had ever seen before; far thicker and heavier than the smoke from the vegetation, almost like a liquid as it churned and spread outwards.
    It reached a dazed Ma’dan, roiled around him – and the man screamed. Clutching at his face, he tried to run, but could only manage a drunken stagger before collapsing. The still-expanding cloud swallowed him, and his cries became a gurgling wail of agony before abruptly falling silent. Other men nearby joined the terrifying chorus as the gas reached them.
    Rosemont’s eyes widened in fear. ‘Holy shit, they’re using chemical weapons ! MOPP gear – suit up! Suit up! ’
    The United States had long accused Saddam’s regime of possessing weapons of mass destruction, and now it appeared that the proof was rolling towards them as the deadly cloud kept growing. The CIA agents had come prepared, their webbing holding a pack containing Mission-Oriented Protective Posture clothing – an oversuit, gloves and mask to protect against nuclear, chemical and biological agents – but they had not expected to need them.
    Panic rose in both men as they dropped the LAWs, shrugged off their gear and tore open the pouches. More sounds of terror and death reached them as the sulphurous fog spread, swamping the fleeing tribesmen. Cross worked his arms into the thick nylon overalls and tugged them up over his shoulders, then hurriedly pulled on the gas mask before zipping up the garment and drawing the hood over his head. Rosemont sealed his own outer covering a few seconds later, closing the hood tightly around his mask before starting to don his gloves. He looked back down the shore— ‘Gabe!’ he cried, seeing a familiar figure in the firelight.
    Arnold was thirty metres away, desperately trying to secure his gas mask as he ran. Its straps were twisted, costing valuable seconds as he attempted to straighten them. At last he managed it and raised the hood, but his hands were still uncovered.
    He pulled on one glove, fumbling with the other as the cloud reached him—
    Contact with exposed skin was enough to kill, Rosemont saw with horror. Arnold suddenly grabbed at his unprotected hand, clawing it as if being bitten by a million insects. His shriek was clearly audible even through the mask. Then he dropped, writhing in the sand before the yellow haze consumed him.
    The Marsh Arabs all suffered the same fate as the wind carried the cloud along the lake’s edge. Kerim was among the last to fall, firing his AK-47 into the malevolent yellow mass in a final act of defiance before he too succumbed.
    His second glove secured, Rosemont was about to run from the approaching miasma when he remembered that there were still other threats to deal with. The Hind’s roar grew louder. ‘The rockets!’ he yelled to the fully suited Cross. ‘Get the rockets!’
    They retrieved the LAWs. There was nothing to aim at in the black sky, and with their thickly lined hoods up, it was hard