He was about to pin the future of humanity on a rusted old prototype, one that had never been proven to work.

With the tripod set up, Cade and Quintus lifted out the gun. It was surprisingly basic, a cylinder with a barrel protruding from one end and a square block on the other. At the base of the cylinder were two openings, where Cade imagined the bullets were inserted and the casings were jettisoned out. The only other detail was a button at the back, likely the trigger.

It was a simple thing, and Cade was glad of it. Anything more complex and they would need far more than the five minutes they had remaining to figure out how it worked.

He borrowed Quintus’s gladius and levered open the top of one of the metal boxes, and was relieved to find bullets there, each connected in a long belt.

With quick calculation, he unspooled the belt, guessing there were two hundred rounds.

He’d learned from his mistake with the pistol, so he checked the other box and found an identical belt within. Four hundred bullets would wipe out most of the ant army.

“This could work,” Cade whispered.

“What could?” Quintus asked.

“This gun is like the pistol, but it will fire … well, I don’t know how fast, but a lot of bullets. Our only problem is accuracy. Pointless firing four hundred shots if you only hit forty.”

Quintus pondered Cade’s problem, but Cade already had an answer.

“The tunnel. They’ll be funneled right down the middle,” Cade said. “We might even hit two with each bullet.”

Quintus grinned and nodded, but his eyes widened as he looked at the timer.

00:04:37

00:04:36

00:04:35

“Marius!” Cade called.

The man came quickly, having watched their activities from the walls even as he was giving orders. He came down with hopeful eyes.

“A cannon?” he asked.

“A machine gun—remember when I told you about those?”

Marius’s eyes widened. “Place it on the walls,” he said. “We’ll thin their numbers.”

Cade shook his head. “We only have four hundred shots. Most will miss from the walls, or almost anywhere else for that matter.”

Marius spat. “What use is it, then?”

“If we set up the gun at the tunnel, they’ll be like rats in a barrel.”

Marius furrowed his brows, confused by the idiom, but bit his lip. “You want me to abandon the walls?” he asked.

Cade closed his eyes, considering the question. “Survive the first wave,” he said. “Then retreat down the tunnel before the second wave hits. We’ll fight them there.”

Marius looked skeptically at the machine. “Does it work?” he asked.

Cade held up a finger and carefully fed the end of the bullet belt into the gun until he felt it stop.

He leaned the gun back until it pointed toward the mountainside, above the heads of the milling Romans.

Breathing a prayer, he gave the button at the back a hard tap.

Crack.

The gun jolted slightly but remained in its seat on the tripod. Halfway up the mountain, a puff of dust erupted outward. Cade gulped, noting that it was a fair way off from where he had pointed the gun.