A Hitman's Guide To Becoming A Hero

The roar of collapsing bedrock was deafening, a deep, grinding thunder that shook the entire tunnel.

The subterranean passage leading out of the ruins was violently falling apart. Fissures spread across the smooth black-stone walls, splitting ancient geometric carvings as huge sections of the ceiling collapsed beneath the weight of the Sahara Desert. Gray sand poured through the cracks, filling the air and making it difficult to see.

"The rovers are right ahead!" Selena shouted over the roar. She raised an arm to shield her face from the falling debris. "Get the engines running! Move! Move!"

The three heavy, six-wheeled off-road rovers were parked on the lower staging shelf, their frames shaking as the ground moved beneath their tires.

Nectron reached the second rover first, wrenching open the driver’s door and slamming the ignition switch. The reinforced diesel engine roared to life. Up ahead, Zero climbed into the lead vehicle alongside one of the local guides and hit the accelerator, sending the heavy-tread tires spinning against the loose stone as the rover charged up the steep exit ramp.

"Everyone into the vehicles!" Nectron bellowed, sticking his head out the window as he backed the second rover into position. "The main support arches are buckling! If we aren’t out in two minutes, we’re going to be compressed into a fossil!"

Nicholas ran at the rear of the group, his dark blue eyes following the rapid collapse above them.

Directly over the narrowest part of the ramp, a massive stone slab, easily forty feet across and weighing dozens of tons, cracked with a sound like an explosion. The piece of black granite broke away from the ceiling and dropped directly toward the path of the rovers.

If it hit the ramp, the entire exit would be blocked, trapping them hundreds of feet underground.

Nicholas didn’t slow down. He planted his boots against the fractured stone and thrust both hands toward the falling mass.

Gravity Manipulation.

A deep vibration ran through Nicholas’s arms as he unleashed a powerful upward gravitational force. The force struck the bottom of the falling stone, stopping its descent only a few feet above the ramp.

The air around Nicholas warped as he strained against the enormous weight. Cracks spread across the ground beneath his boots, but he kept the stone suspended.

"Drive through!" Nicholas roared, his voice cutting through the noise. "Now!"

Zero didn’t hesitate. The lead rover raced beneath the suspended stone, its tires kicking up showers of sand and shattered rock.

Vixen used a quick spatial fold to cover the distance, appearing instantly in the passenger seat of Nectron’s rover as it accelerated up the ramp beneath the floating stone. Selena sprinted past the entrance and jumped into the front seat beside Nectron.

Julie ran behind them, coughing as she struggled through the thick dust.

Her oversized khaki sunhat was gone, lost somewhere in the collapsing hangar. She clutched her camera rig against her chest as she scrambled up the steep, crumbling slope, but her foot caught on a jagged crack in the bedrock.

Julie stumbled onto her knees, sliding across the loose gravel.

Her grip slipped, and her prized rose-gold tripod tumbled from her hands, sliding backward down the slope toward the widening gap below.

"My tripod!" Julie screamed, looking back at the falling piece of metal. She instinctively reached toward it, trying to scramble down the collapsing slope. "Not the rose-gold mount! That was limited edition!"

"Are you insane?!" Selena leaned out of the passenger window, her eyes widening when she saw Julie hesitate. "Julie, leave it! Run!"

A section of the ceiling broke directly above Julie. A shower of jagged rocks came crashing down.

Nicholas moved.

Keeping the massive stone suspended with his left hand, Nicholas blurred forward. He crossed the distance in a fraction of a second and grabbed Julie by the heavy collar of her safari jacket.

"Phantom, my trip—"

Nicholas didn’t let her finish. With his strength, he lifted Julie off the ground and threw her forward.

Julie flew through the air, shrieking as she sailed straight through the open rear door of Nectron’s rover. She crashed into a pile of emergency sleeping bags and supply packs in the back, her boots flailing as the door slammed shut behind her.

"I’m in! I’m in! But my artistic legacy is dead!" Julie’s muffled wail came from the back of the rover.

With Julie safe inside, Nicholas released the stone.

The moment the force disappeared, the massive rock dropped.

Nicholas didn’t try to outrun it. He focused for a moment, and space twisted around him in a shimmering ripple.

BOOM!

The stone crashed into the ramp, smashing through the road and sealing the lower passage beneath a cloud of dust and broken rock.

An instant later, space twisted again, this time beside the third rover. Nicholas appeared on its running board, grabbed the reinforced roof rack with one hand, and swung himself through the open passenger window just as the vehicle accelerated.

"Floor it!" Selena yelled over the radio. "The whole foundation is giving way!"

The three rovers raced up the final, winding section of the underground ramp. Behind them, the tunnels continued to collapse. The walls buckled inward as pockets of ancient ozone and purple gas escaped through the cracks, followed by a flood of dark desert sand rushing into the empty spaces.

The ceiling ahead collapsed in huge chunks. Rocks battered the reinforced roofs of the rovers, denting the alloy frames and cracking the windshields.

Then, through the choking dust, they saw a small point of natural white light.

The surface.

The opening of the sinkhole was narrowing quickly. The ancient black pillars around the edge were tilting inward as the surrounding dunes began collapsing into a huge whirl of sand.

Nectron pushed the accelerator to the floor. The six heavy tires dug into the loose gravel as the engine screamed.

With a deafening roar, the lead rover burst out of the underground entrance, clearing the collapsing edge by mere inches. Nectron’s rover came out second, followed immediately by the third, their heavy frames briefly leaving the ground as they crossed the crumbling threshold.

They slammed onto the desert floor, their suspensions groaning as the tires found solid sand.

The bright Sahara sunlight washed over them, almost painful after the darkness of the ruins.

Behind the speeding vehicles, the earth let out one final groan.

The entire sunken basin—the black pillars, the underground ramp, and the ancient stone arches—collapsed into the earth. Millions of tons of yellow and gray sand poured downward, swallowing the extraterrestrial ruins completely.

A massive cloud of dust and displaced air spread across the dunes, rolling over the retreating rovers before slowly fading into the empty horizon.

Inside the second rover, Nectron kept his foot on the accelerator for another half-mile before gradually slowing down. The convoy eventually came to a stop on a high, stable sandstone ridge.

Silence settled over the desert.

The only sounds were the uneven rumble of the engines, the ticking of overheated metal, and the team’s ragged breathing.

Julie slowly pushed herself up from the pile of sleeping bags in the back. Her hair was covered in dust, and her oversized sunglasses hung from one ear. She looked through the cracked rear window at the wide, flat crater where the ancient ruins had once stood.

Then she looked down at her handheld camera. The small red light was still blinking, while the battery icon flashed critically.

"Chat..." Julie whispered into the microphone, her voice filled with awe and disbelief. "If you are watching this... we just survived the collapse of an alien tomb. And my tripod died an honorable, heroic death."

Selena let out a long, shaky breath and rested her forehead against the steering wheel for three seconds before sitting upright again. She reached down and checked the sealed containment case attached to her belt.

The latch was secure. The ancient parchment containing the broken coordinates was completely intact.

Selena turned toward Nicholas, who sat calmly in the passenger seat beside her, brushing a thin layer of stone dust from his dark jacket. His expression remained as cool and unreadable as ever, as though he hadn’t just held up a forty-ton boulder with one hand and thrown a screaming girl across a collapsing cave with the other.

"Everyone accounted for?" Selena asked, her voice returning to its usual steady tone.

"All clear in the lead," Zero’s raspy voice crackled over the radio.

"We’re good back here," Nectron replied, wiping sweat from his neck. "Just down one tripod and about five years of my life."

Selena picked up the radio receiver, her eyes fixed on the distant northern horizon.

"Set course for the Cairo staging camp," Selena ordered. "We have the coordinates. Let’s get out of this desert and go home."𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢