Nate grabbed a torch from a fallen mercenary, his body crushed by a fallen piece of stone and hurried over to the second door, debris raining down on him, and turned the handle. It was locked.
"Oh, come on!" he yelled. He moved aside and raised the Steyr, aiming near the handle and pulled the trigger. A burst of bullets thudded into the door around the handle, splintering the wood and then he kicked it. The handle shattered and the door slammed open and Nate took off.
He was in another hall and he turned the torch on, the strong beam bouncing off the walls. He jogged down the hall, the rumbling and shaking not as prevalent here but he was not sure how long that would last, the whole place was going to cave in he was sure and he wasn't keen on being buried by half of Budapest.
The hall extended on and on and the trembling became a minor tremor and Nate felt a moment of relief that maybe he will get ahead of it for god.
His relief was soon dashed when a cacophony of bullets pinged and chipped the stone around him. He took off at a sprint, bullets buzzing past like metal bees, and blindly returned fire in an attempt to buy himself some time. He knew that he couldn't stand his ground, not without any cover and an unknown number of mercs behind him.
How did they even get behind him? Did they come from the church? Was Khanoğlu crazy enough to send his men into the church just to chase after them? That last point wouldn't have surprised Nate, there was something unsettling about that man.
Nate came to a juncture and took a blind turn left, hoping he was going the right way, if there even was a right way. But at the far end he saw a faint glimmer of light and as he got closer saw it was natural light. Adrenaline and excitement rushed through his body and he put on an extra burst of speed. The bullets resume behind him, his pursuers having rounded the corner, but he blind fired in return until he felt the click of an empty gun. Tossing it away, he elected to keep the handgun in his waistband and continued forward. Eventually he came to a set of wide, stone steps. He ran up them and emerged into a small hall leading to a circular room with a pole in the middle. To the side was a large lever, he ran over to it and pulled it. Behind him he heard voices, he ran to the side of the entrance for cover, Yavuz in his hand. A grinding started and Nate watched as the pole rotated and the roof above began to open, revealing a set of stairs winding down like a peeled apple skin.
He glanced back down the hall and let off three shots when he saw his pursuers appear then he then bolted for the stairs and took them two at a time, climbing up and up until he burst out into another building, startling a number of onlookers who were peering into the hole.
Looking around he saw he was in a church with a geometric floral tiled floor in colours of reds, greens, blacks and yellows and the walls were covered with mosaic tiles. In front of him was the altar, choir and the apse beyond with six long, rectangular stained-glass windows and another six smaller ones above it. To his right was the raised sandstone pulpit, the outer ring supported by arches and a pillar. Around the sides of the pulpit were carved statues of eight Saints and to the left was a small chapel.
This was the Matthias church which meant he was about 200 meters south of the Red Hedgehog House. Voices shouted out from the steps below and Nate turned and hurried down the nave towards the entrance, pushing past a crowd of tourists who were staring in shock at the sudden staircase appearing in the floor in the middle of the church.
He was halfway down the nave when those same tourists began shouting and screaming and he assumed his gun-toting pursuers had ascended the stairs. He reached the bottom of a two-step staircase ahead of the rush of tourists and visitors when the front doors opened and five more mercs entered.
"Oh shit" Nate said skidding to a stop, he fired a couple of bullets, he didn't hit any of them but caused them to scatter. More screams echoed off the vaulted ceilings and tiled walls and the church was in chaos with people running everywhere, trying to avoid the gunmen and find a way out. Nate abruptly changed direction, turning left and heading up another set of stairs. Behind him the shouts of the mercs could be heard over the screams of the crowd and he headed left up another bank of stairs and out through a door. He was greeted with an icy blast of wind as he ran outside on to the cobblestone path. It was chaos outside with people shouting and screaming in all directions trying to get away from the church. In the distance he could already hear sirens and as Nate tried to blend in with the crowd, he noticed more mercs in a spread formation approaching the church, Steyr's held up at the ready and unconcerned about the approaching sirens.
He was cornered. Beside him was a narrow passage so he turned and ran into it, bullets flying after him, pinging and chipping the stonework.
He was in a tower now, tall and narrow with a circular staircase leading up. He hesitated for a moment, there was only one way in and one way to go: up. Seeing no other choice, Nate hurried up the staircase, his shoes slapping on the cool stone, as he circled round and round and continued to climb higher and higher. Below him he heard the mercs enter and start up the stairs behind him. Sunlight filtered through small square windows as he moved. He realised the narrow stairs with their floor to ceiling walls served him a purpose, the mercs following him could only go up in single file, going only as fast as the one in front but also couldn't see where Nate was. It gave him an idea.
He stopped just past the curve in the stairs and pulled out his gun, turned and waited. When the first black-clad Merc appeared, Nate pulled the trigger three times striking the Merc in the chest and he fell back into his colleagues. Nate turned and hurried up the stairs, hoping the delay while they untangled themselves from their injured or dead colleague, would give him enough of a gap to work out what the hell to do next.
Eventually he reached the end of the stairs coming to the observation area, a square open area with rectangular viewing windows in each wall. There was a door leading to the viewing platform and a ladder set against the far wall leading up to a trap door into the belfry. He couldn't hear anyone coming and assumed they were moving silently and cautiously trying to avoid another ambush. Grabbing onto the rusted rungs of the ladder he quickly climbed up and pushed on the wooden trapdoor. It was locked.
"Of course," he groaned pulling the handgun from his waistband. Below he could now hear the mercs and they were getting closer. He fired into the wood around the bolted area and shoved with his shoulder, he felt it splinter, crack and give a little. He gave it another shove, straining with all he could give in the awkward position, it gave a little more and then with a sharp snap the trapdoor sprung open. Below were the shouts of his pursuers and just as he clambered over the lip bullets rang out, thudding into the wooden floor and the bell, the room reverberating with low 'tings'.
Kicking the trapdoor shut, Nate quickly took in the belfry which only consisted of the twin bells, a low-lying table with a toolbox and a rotating handle set into the wall that connected to the bell via a series of gears and pulleys and also to the counter weight connected to the bell. The walls were made of simple stone blocks about a metre high and half that in width with small protruding impost edging sandwiched between each stone, perfect for climbing. He shoved the toolbox off the table and dragged it over to the trapdoor, thankful for the heavy wood. He flipped it over on top of the trapdoor, but he knew it would only give him a couple of minutes.
Bullets punched through the floor and Nate dived out of the way. He scrambled to the wall and started climbing as he heard a thump on the trapdoor. Hurrying up the wall, using the imposts as hand and foot holds, he found himself among the gears. The gears were thick and attached to thick wooden beams, Nate climbed up until he was level with the bells. He examined one of them and found it to be bolted tightly to the timber. He moved to the other and found it was also bolted and unless he had a wrench, there was nothing he could do.
Then he remembered the toolbox. He looked down and amongst the tools he could see a large pipe wrench.
Finally, some luck.
He climbed down the beams and dropped the small distance to the floor and hurried to pick up the pipe wrench. It was massive, the head bigger than his hand but it should do. Just as he picked it up, he heard thumping on the trapdoor. He didn't have long.
Securing the wrench inside his jacket, Nate climbed back up to the bell and pulling the wrench out, he attached it to the connecting nut, tightened the teeth and tried to it.
It didn't budge.
The table on the trapdoor started jumping as the mercenaries were pushing up against it. Feeling desperate, Nate tried turning the wrench again, putting his all into it and felt beads of sweat on his forehead.
The table crashed over and the trap door popped open. A handgun, then the arm and then the head of a mercenary peered through and looked around, trying to find Nate. Not seeing him, he called down to his colleagues and started climbing into the belfry.
The nut gave a little, and then it turned, and Nate rotated it as quickly as he could, loosening it up.
There was a shout and Nate looked down to see the mercenary pointing at him and then lift his gun just as he spun the nut off and pulled out the bolt and kicked the bell as hard as he could.
The bell broke free and, for the longest moment, seemed to hang in mid-air before crashing through the wooden floor along with the counterweight and the pulley wires, a loud gong followed as it crashed through the next floor and kept going. Eventually it stopped somewhere in the winding stairwell with a louder gong. Looking through the gap in the floor, Nate looked for the mercs but was certain they were caught up in the bell or the subsequently disintegrating of the floor beneath them. Fortunately, he had bought himself some time he hoped, unfortunately he destroyed his only way down.
Nate began climbing down the beams, having to leap across the gaps where the bell had smashed through until he got to the door leading out to the balcony. Once out on the balcony he was buffeted by strong winds and he circled the tower looking for a way down but all he saw was the red tiles of the roof and the fleeing crowd interspersed with black clad mercenaries and their black SUVs. A few blocks over he could see the flashing lights of the police. The balcony was surrounded by a chest-high wire barrier, but Nate was about to climb over it when he noticed one of the mercs pulling something from the back of one of the cars.
Nate's eyes widened as he recognised what it was. An RPG!
"Are you crazy!" he shouted as the merc got down on one knee and raised the RPG to his shoulder. Nate quickly leapt over the barrier and hung from the outer of the belfry, above him the lantern and spire pointed to the blue sky above and below the tower seemed even bigger from his position. Planting his feet on a carved criss-crosses protruding from the tower, he began to climb down and around the tower as quickly as he could, knowing he had no chance to beat the RPG but if he could get out of sight, with luck they may decide not to use a rocket launcher on a historical church. But while Nate was blessed with a luckiness that bordered on him having a guardian angel, he still found himself in situations that were nothing less than batshit crazy.
And it was about to happen again, he heard the blast of the RPG and watched the smoke trail of the rocket until it slammed into the tower in a thunderous explosion. The resulting shockwave caused Nate to lose his grip and he cried out as he hung, swaying along with the rocking tower, chunks of stone and timber raining down onto the pavement below. Somehow the tower remained upright.
Grabbing another hold with his free hand, he urged himself on, quickly climbing down and around the tower, out of sight of the merc with the RPG but moments later he heard another blast and the rocket slammed into the tower. The tower shook so violently that Nate almost lost his grip again as he kept climbing down. Somehow the tower still held but he knew it was hanging by a shoestring now. He was about ten meters from the nave roof when the third rocket slammed into the tower and it crumbled, stone slabs and tiles falling in all directions, crashing onto the nave roof, poking it with holes. Nate held on for dear life as the top half of the tower tilted, held on for a breath and then broke free, tumbling towards the nave roof.
Just as the tower was about to crash into the roof, he leapt off it and landed on the tiled roof.
Momentum and gravity carried him, and he slid down the tiles. He yelled as he tried to slow his progress but there was nothing to grab onto. Behind him the tower crashed onto the roof with an almighty roar and then the roof started to cave in. Dust and debris flew into the air, a great big cloud blotting out the sun while Nate slid down the collapsing roof towards certain death.
Just as he was about to slide off the roof he reached out and grabbed hold of one of the pinnacles. His body jerked at the sudden stop, wrenching his shoulder. He cried out in pain while his legs and half his torso hung over the edge, his arms hugging the pinnacle base like an infant holds his mother and let out a long-held breath.
"Holy shit" he groaned taking a moment to try to calm his racing heart while behind him the sounds of falling tiles and stone continued. Below him, people were running in terror while others stood transfixed by the sight of the destroyed church. He hadn't been seen by the mercs and he hoped they assumed he was dead and would go home and he would be free to continue on his merry way without any more danger, but he was never that lucky.
Pulling his legs in, Nate half crawled, half stumbled across the roof of the church. He wasn't sure what the structural integrity was like now that the bell tower has destroyed most of the roof but he assumed it wasn't good and it was going to get worse so he moved as quickly as he could towards the back of the church where there was less damage and, hopefully, no mercs. When he was near the chapel located off to the side of the choir and transept, Nate climbed down to the chapel roof using the various gaps and holds on the vertical buttress. The roof here was flat, surrounded on two sides by the taller walls of the church and the other two by waist-high roman-style balustrade. He leapt over the balustrade and hung on to it from the other side, then he let go, dropping until he grabbed hold of the ledge of the chapel's stained glass portal window, then he dropped again, grabbing the ledge of the church window below it before dropping a final time to the cobblestone ground. Immediately he headed behind the church and straight for the arch-entrance of Fisherman's Bastion hoping to disappear in the crowd of people staring at the destruction of the church. Inside, the stone archway had three soldiers carved on either side 'guarding' the entrance, just as Nate turned to head down the stairs a bullet buzzed past his ear and hit one of the guards in the face, chipping off his nose. He ducked, turned and saw more of Khanoğlu's mercenaries in pursuit.
"Crap" Nate said and ran down the stairs, he reached the landing where he was greeted with a panoramic view of the Buda Castle district and the Danube a few blocks down. He ran down another set of stairs, turned left and down another short set of stairs all the while bullets buzzed past him, pinging off stairs and balustrades. People shouted and screamed, running in all directions, knocking Nate off balance as he made it to the landing, leaping over the balustrade, he landed on his feet on the road, sprinting across a circular island of grass and back onto the road while bullets peppered at him, bullets pinging off the bitumen.
Somewhere along the way he had lost his gun so instead of cursing his luck again he continued running past the guardhouse and on a gently descending road that curved round a block of buildings. Just as he was about to reach a crossroad a black Humvee screeched to a halt blocking the road and mounted on the top of it was a gun turret!
"What the hell!" Nate skidded to a stop. Khanoğlu was not messing around! He looked around, to his left was a building and his right an embankment that went up and under a set of stairs that led back to Fisherman's Bastion. Seeing no choice, he rushed up the embankment just as the turret fired, bits of bitumen and asphalt exploding at his feet. He climbed the embankment, bullets following him, the turret roaring like a hungry lion, until he was under the stone staircase and, for the moment, safe. On the other side of the staircase he ran across a grassy field and down on to the road behind the Humvee. The merc controlling the turret saw him and fired but Nate was shielded by parked cars and they took the brunt of the bullets, tearing them to metallic shreds. Nate rounded the corner while the Humvee tried to turn around in the tight space at the intersection. He ran on to Csónak Street, a small road with cars parked on his left and a stone retaining wall on the right. He ran along the narrow sidewalk, using the cars as shields as the Humvee roared around the corner, smashing into cars and bullets flying all around him. The parked cars were slowing down the Humvee as it rammed through them allowing Nate to create some separation. He took a left and ran down a tree-lined path into a parklands area. Behind him he heard the revving of the Humvee as it crashed through the trees and made a beeline for him, the seemingly endless puttering of bullets flying all around him, tearing chunks out of trees and gouging the earth.
Nate cut back along a switchback path, heading downhill via another path and the Humvee sped past, slamming on the brakes but unable to gain any grip on the grass. A huge crack echoed as the Humvee hit a mature elm tree.
Nate whooped, "Take that!"
He continued down the path, the sound of police sirens, fire trucks and ambulances could be heard all around him, and eventually he came out to another car-lined street with only a handful of pedestrians who stood around talking and no doubt wondering what all the noise was about. Sweat pouring off him and exhaustion setting in, Nate crossed the road and headed down a set of stairs and into an alley adjoining the Carlton Hotel. Just as he passed the hotel restaurant on the corner two mercenaries on motorbikes skidded into the alley, blocking his way.
"Give me a break" he gasped, his chest tight with pain.
One them trained his gun on Nate, indicating to put his hands up while the other one parked his bike and spoke into a radio. When he finished, he got off the bike and, with Steyr drawn and aimed, approached Nate. His colleague waiting on the bike behind him in the middle of the alley.
Just as the approaching merc was about to reach him, Nate heard a familiar roar and dived aside just as the Humvee roared down the alley, smashing signs, tables and chairs and flew off the top of the stairs careening into the two mercenaries, skidding across the road and slamming into a building on the other side of the road.
"Heh, roadkill" Nate chuckled. He hopped on one of the idling motorbikes that, somehow, didn't get taken out by the Humvee. He kicked the stand up and throttled the engine, skidding around until he faced the road. In front of him was the Humvee, facing the other direction, and the turret seems damaged, rotating side to side but seemed unable to rotate its full 360 degrees. Nate pulled on the throttle and the motorbike lurched forward, he turned right out of the alley and sped down the street, weaving through stopped cars and people who looked back to see what was going on. Behind him the Humvee backed away from the building, it's front completely destroyed as well as the passenger door hanging by a thread.
The bullets started flying again when Nate reached the roundabout in Adam Clark Square, he took a left onto the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. The small two-lane suspension bridge only had a handful of cars heading over across the Danube to the Pest side, but the other way was bumper-to-bumper traffic, delayed probably, due to all the destruction and emergency services converging on Matthias Church.
The Humvee roared onto the bridge behind him, smashing through cars causing more damage to the front of the truck which was already a mangled wreck. Nate weaved his way past cars as bullets continued to buzz around him like bees. Just as he was about to pass by another car a bullet shattered the rear window. The car skidded to a sudden stop and Nate, having no time to react, crashed the front of his bike into it and he flew over the handlebars and landed on his back on the roof of the car.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch" he muttered, his head pounding. The roar of the Humvee broke him out of his fogginess, and he got to his feet but before he could do anything the out of control Humvee slammed into the car. The impact threw Nate off the car and he tumbled through the air and over the side of the bridge. At the same time the Humvee mounted the hood of the car and onto the girders before getting airborne and followed him over the bridge.
The air whipped at his clothes as Nate tumbled over and over through the air before crashing into the Danube with a giant splash. Icy cold water lanced his body and his nerves felt like they were on fire as he thrashed around, trying to surface. His head broke the surface a moment later just as the Humvee, which had crashed into the water only a few meters away, disappeared into the murky waters. The waves pushing him away from the crash site.
"Enjoy the swim" he said and swam away.