They were safe. For now.

He could hear the screams of dying men, along with barked orders and demands for light and water. The sound was muffled, and Cade knew that behind the barrier of fallen stone, the slavers would be in total darkness.

Now Cade and his group were trapped down here. With little air and a small army baying for their blood outside.

“What the hell was that?” groaned Scott, staggering to his feet.

His voice was tinny in Cade’s shellshocked ears, but he had time now to see most of the Roman soldiers had survived the explosion with just a few bruises, though a couple were limping or nursing broken arms.

“A grenade,” Cade replied, the question finally filtering through his addled mind.

He spotted Amber and Quintus huddled against a wall, pawing at their eyes where dust had gritted them closed.

“Hold still,” he said as he unstopped his flask, letting water trickle onto their faces, careful to not waste it. Who knew how long they would be down here?

Even if they did find treasure, or the slavers gave up their chase, they might spend days digging their way out.

And of course, that didn’t account for the journey back. So much to think about. But one problem at a time.

“Are you guys okay?” Cade asked as Amber looked up at him through red-rimmed eyes.

“We’re okay,” she whispered. “Quintus?”

The boy pointed at his ears, shaking his head. Then nodded regardless after patting himself down.

Cade stood, pushing through the groups of legionaries huddled around the three torches that had survived the explosion. He crouched beside one of the corpses, hoping for more modern weapons. Enough to turn the tide in the next round.

But to Cade’s disappointment, he found no further weapons on the body, only empty holsters and straps. He found nothing on the others either. Only the pistol, which he scooped up from where he had dropped it in the corner.

The bodies had clearly been there for a long time, if the state of their decomposition was anything to go on. In the dry, sheltered environment there was still skin and hair hanging from the yellowed skulls, and sinew keeping them attached to the heads.

Strangest of all though was their clothing. The men were wearing wet suits, and fins on their feet. Like they had been scuba diving, only without the tanks.

“Is that it, Abaddon?” he muttered. “Stripped them of their weapons, left us with hardly anything?”

“Seems like it,” Amber said, crouching beside him.

There was no other response, but the Codex floated close by. As if it wanted him to ask it something.

“Who are these guys, Codex?” Cade asked.

“Remnants are the remains of four members of SEAL Team Six from 1983. They were on a failed regime-change mission, Operation Urgent Fury, following a communist revolution in Grenada. They were last seen when their transport plane veered off course in a storm and they parachuted into the ocean. Overloaded with equipment, they were assumed drowned—their bodies were never recovered.”