Eddie jumped.
One hand fell an inch short—but he clamped the other around the skid as the helicopter turned.
His weight made the aircraft sway, its occupants instantly realizing they had another passenger. “Shake him off!” Shaban ordered.
Eddie pulled himself up to get a grip with his other hand—as the helicopter tipped sharply, trying to jolt him loose.
The guard slammed Grant’s head down, squeezing his neck harder. The actor grimaced, eyes bulging. “Your movies,” the man grunted, “are crap!”
Grant tried to gurgle a riposte as he struck at the guard’s head, but he couldn’t score a solid blow. The man dug his thumbs deeper into his neck, pushing down on his carotid artery—
“Hey!”
The guard looked around—and Nina kicked him in the face. He rolled off Grant, spitting out blood and broken enamel. But he wasn’t out of the fight. He spotted Nina’s gun and scrambled for it.
His own pistol had landed farther away. Nina dived, landing painfully as she snatched it up and twisted to face her opponent.
He was taking aim—
Nina fired first. A bloody hole burst open in his green blazer as she shot him in the stomach. He screamed, all thoughts of returning fire eradicated by agony.
“Jesus!” Grant gasped. “You shot him!”
“No shit! Get the gun!” As the shocked Grant crawled over and pulled it from the man’s shaking hand, Nina rushed into the booth. CCTV screens showed the main gate, the drawbridge, and the road on the shore—where she could see the ASPS van and the other Shogun waiting to cross.
Where were the drawbridge controls? There—a panel on one wall. She shoved the lever to the down position and stabbed at a green button. A buzzer rasped, followed by the whine of a motor, then both noises were drowned out by the clank and rattle of chains as the drawbridge descended.
She ran back outside and saw the helicopter rise unsteadily into view from behind the glass pyramid.
Someone was hanging from the skids.
Eddie.
The pilot jerked the cyclic control stick sideways. The helicopter lurched, veering toward one of the castle’s towers before he pushed the stick back to counter the sudden move. The passengers jolted hard in their seats, and something banged against the fuselage under the pilot’s-side window. Macy shrieked.
“Is he gone?” Shaban demanded.
The pilot leaned over to get a better view of the skid—
The door flew open.
A deafening whirlwind blasted into the cabin as the rotor downwash came through the door—followed by Eddie. He had used the chopper’s roll to swing up and hook his legs around the skid, letting him reach the door handle. The startled pilot took a savage punch to the face, and before he could recover Eddie muscled his way inside and put him in a chokehold. “Land this thing!”
“Shoot him!” Shaban barked.
Lorenz raised the gun—and Eddie hit the struggling pilot again, twisting him into the line of fire. The Dutchman swore, trying to aim around him—
Eddie yanked back the cyclic stick.
The chopper’s nose tipped up sharply, throwing everyone backward. Alarms honked and buzzed: stall warnings. The EC130 was now flying backward—and descending rapidly, the rotor blades’ steep angle not generating enough lift to maintain height.
In the corner of his eye, Eddie saw the pyramid approaching fast—
He released the stick. The pilot slammed it forward and jammed down a rudder pedal in a desperate attempt to regain control before the helicopter smashed into the pyramid. The EC130 pitched forward, spinning. Centrifugal force threw Eddie outward, only his grip on the pilot keeping him in the aircraft.
He clawed for another handhold—the buckle of the pilot’s harness.
His thumb pushed down on the release.
The pilot let out a choked scream of fear as the belts popped free. The only thing now keeping him in his seat was his grip on the controls. The pyramid whirled past, the Eurocopter’s tail sweeping barely a foot from the dark glass.
“Take it down!” Eddie roared. “Now!”
“Take us up!” Shaban bellowed. He unfastened his own seat belt, leaning across the cabin to pull Eddie’s arm off the pilot—
Macy slammed her elbow into the Egyptian’s face. He jerked back, headdress flying off.
Lorenz pointed the gun at Macy—
Eddie grabbed the controls again.
Horrified, Nina watched as the helicopter reeled drunkenly back behind the pyramid, losing height. “Oh my God!”
Grant stood, rubbing his throat. “Whoa, I wouldn’t want to be in that. Where’s Eddie?”
She gave him an anguished look. “Where do you think?”
The van sped past and skidded to a halt, the Shogun following. Assad jumped out of the latter as his troops deployed, glancing questioningly at the now unconscious guard. “Dr. Wilde! Where’s the zodiac?”
She pointed at the keep. “Third floor—but listen, the cultists are all trapped in the pyramid! You’ve got to keep them there until the authorities arrive. If any of them escape with the spores …”
Assad was torn, but reluctantly nodded. “I’ll split the ASPS into two teams, one for the zodiac, the other for—” The helicopter wobbled back into view, still spinning. “What in Allah’s name?”
“Shaban’s aboard—and so are Eddie and Macy!” The EC130 dropped behind the pyramid once more. Nina stared helplessly after it—then jumped into the empty Shogun.
“Dr. Wilde, wait—stop!” Assad cried as the Mitsubishi peeled away after the helicopter, Nina not even bothering to close the door. “Not again!”
The Eurocopter was only twenty feet above the courtyard, the pilot unable to increase power as he clung by his fingertips to the collective control lever between the front seats.
Eddie kept his fearsome grip around the man’s neck. His grab at the controls had stopped Lorenz from shooting Macy, but the Dutchman was recovering from the dizzying spin.
As was Shaban. Macy tried to hit him again, but he twisted her arm upward and back. There was a popping crackle from her shoulder, and she screamed. The Egyptian shoved her against the door. She moaned in pain.
Another clack of a seat belt buckle, and Lorenz leaned forward, pointing the gun around the pilot for a clear shot. Eddie grabbed the weapon with his free hand, trying to aim it away from himself.
Both men’s hands trembled as they fought to overpower the other, but Lorenz had more leverage. Grunting with effort, Eddie brought one foot up off the skid and into the cabin, forcing himself inside.
The shuddering gun pointed toward the pilot. If Lorenz fired, he would be signing his own death warrant. Eddie pushed harder—
Eyes blazing with hatred, Shaban lunged forward and smashed a fist into his face.
Eddie toppled backward, losing his grip on the gun … and the pilot.
He fell—and slammed painfully against the skid. His foot was tangled in the seat belt. Dangling upside down, he was less than ten feet above the ground—and the helicopter was still dropping, about to crush him!
Nina slewed the Shogun round the corner of the pyramid—and saw the helicopter ahead, still spinning, losing height—
Coming right at her.
“Shit!” she shrieked, stamping on the brake and diving out of the open door as the EC130 whirled like a sycamore seed at the 4 × 4—
The gasping pilot sat up—and flinched in shock as he realized how close he was to the ground. Jamming down the other rudder pedal to counter the spin, he twisted the throttle to increase power.
Eddie’s outstretched hands scraped the ground—then the helicopter leveled out. He saw Nina sprawled beside the ASPS’ second 4 × 4 as he was whisked past.
The Shogun—
Nina jumped up. “Eddie!” she yelled as the chopper steadied, hovering above the courtyard.
“The winch!” he shouted back. “Chuck it to me!”
“What?”
He
jabbed both hands at the Mitsubishi’s front end. “The winch, the cable! Throw it!”
The four-by-four had a winch system affixed to its front bumper, 150 feet of steel cable with a hook at the end. She ran to it as the EC130 drifted back toward her. Pulling the release lever to let the spool turn freely, she grabbed the hook with one hand and tugged out a length of cable with the other.
“Get us out of here!” Shaban snapped. The pilot applied more power. The helicopter rose again.
Nina looked up at Eddie as he swept past. Their eyes met.
She didn’t know if she had pulled out enough cable, but it was the only chance she had to save him.
He stretched out his hands.
She hurled the hook with every fiber of her strength.
The line arced toward him, whipping in the downdraft. He stretched out, grabbed—
Caught.
His forefinger closed around the very tip of the hook. He pulled it up, getting a grip with both hands—
The cable reached the limit of the slack Nina had drawn out. It pulled tight, the spool whining as more line was unwound.
It spun faster. She looked up. The helicopter was ascending ever faster.
Straining, foot twisting in the tangled seat belt, Eddie bent at the waist. He couldn’t quite reach the skid. With a roar he pulled harder, crunching his body, but the tension of the cable stopped him short.
The pilot briefly took his hand off the cyclic to close his door, but something obstructed it. Hand back on the stick, he glanced at the straining harness beside his seat. “He’s still here!”
“Lorenz!” Shaban snapped. “Lean out and shoot him!”
Lorenz looked back uncertainly. “Lean out?”
“He’s hanging from the skid! Shoot under us!” He stabbed an angry finger at the floor. The Dutchman looked more dubious than ever, but obediently turned to take a firm grip on one of his seat belt straps before unlatching his door.
Nina looked frantically between the helicopter and the winch. The cable had almost run out.
Lorenz pushed the door open and leaned out, craning his neck to get a view under the EC130’s fuselage. He spotted the flailing figure on the other side of the aircraft and moved out farther, taking aim.
Eddie made one final desperate lunge as Lorenz fixed him in his gun sights—
The hook caught on the skid.
A split second later the cable reached the end of its reel.
Nina leapt back as the Mitsubishi jumped violently. Above, the slamming jolt as the rapidly ascending helicopter came to an abrupt stop flung Shaban and the pilot upward, the latter smacking his head on the canopy. Macy, strapped in, cried out as she was thrown against her restraints.
For the two men outside the cabin, the effects were more extreme.
Eddie, a moment earlier struggling to reach the skid, was suddenly hurled up against it. On pure instinct, he wrapped his arms around the metal tube, clinging to it.
Lorenz was less lucky, his gun hand catching the edge of the door frame and knocking the pistol back into the cabin as he was thrown upward—
His head clipped the rotor blades.
Red and gray sprayed across the windshield, then he fell, the top of his skull missing in a neat line just above his eyes. The tumbling body smashed on the unyielding stone 150 feet below.
The dazed pilot slumped against the instrument console, the cyclic stick pushed under him. The helicopter slewed sideways toward the pyramid, trapped on the cable like a hooked marlin leaping from the sea.
Nina yelped and jumped out of the way as the four-by-four followed it. The Eurocopter didn’t have enough power to lift the two-and-a-half-ton Shogun—but it could drag it.
Eddie pulled up his free leg and hooked it around the skid. A glance down: The chopper was over the pyramid, heading for the shaft of light stabbing skyward from its summit.
He shook his foot free of the seat belt, then hauled himself on top of the skid. A look through the window revealed the pilot, groggily sitting upright, and Macy behind him. Her face was contorted in pain as she clutched one shoulder.
Shaban was bent over beside her, reaching for something in the footwell. At first Eddie thought he was trying to retrieve the spore canister—then he spotted the steel cylinder on the empty seat next to the Egyptian.
He realized what Shaban was after just as the other man found it and snapped upright, pointing the gun at Eddie—
Macy hit his arm as he pulled the trigger.
The side windows were obscured by a burst of gore as the bullet hit the pilot’s head at point-blank range, blowing out half his skull. His body spasmed, kicking down hard on one rudder pedal. The helicopter went into a violent spin.
The pilot’s door swung open. Eddie dragged himself inside, climbing over the corpse. Shaban had been thrown over to the cabin’s opposite side. Gun still in one hand, he clawed for a handhold with the other.
A blinding light filled the cockpit as the helicopter whirled through the pyramid’s beam. Eddie screwed up his eyes, dazzled for the briefest moment.
The flash faded—to reveal Shaban’s gun pointing right at his face—
Below, the Mitsubishi crashed through the pyramid’s glass side—and the cable snagged on the structure’s steel frame. The impact tossed Eddie into the empty front seat and flung Shaban against the door.
It burst open.
The fury in his eyes replaced by fear, Shaban clawed at the door frame. The gun went off in his hand, the shot punching a hole in the rear bulkhead. He dropped the weapon to get a firmer handhold. It spun down to the pyramid below.
Warning buzzers rasped urgently from the console, red lights flashing. Eddie’s gaze flicked to them to see one gauge dropping rapidly. Oil pressure. The bullet had damaged the engine.
The EC130 jolted again, straining against the cable. The canister rolled across the rear seats. Eddie and Shaban both looked at it, then each other.
Save it, or destroy it—
Eddie scrambled over the seat as Shaban dragged himself back inside. The cult leader reached the canister first, whipping it up by its handle and catching Eddie a vicious blow on his temple. Another silent explosion of light filled the cabin as the helicopter whirled back through the beam, unable to tear free of its vehicular anchor.
Shaban clutched the cylinder to his chest, kicking at Eddie. “You are nothing!” he screamed. “You can’t beat me! I’m a god!”
“If you’re a god,” Eddie snarled, seeing the other man gripping the door frame, knuckles white, “let’s see if you can fly!”
He punched Shaban’s hand with all his might.
Pain erupted in Eddie’s fingers, skin splitting and joints crunching—but it was nothing to what Shaban felt as his hand was crushed against the hard-edged metal. The longest bone of his middle finger snapped. With a scream, he let go—and Eddie drove his bloodied fist into the Egyptian’s scarred face.
The Eurocopter swayed back into the dazzling beam … and Shaban fell.
Still clutching the canister, he plunged almost seventy feet down the blinding shaft of light—and hit the pyramid’s peak with a spine-splintering crack.
Eddie stared down at the splayed figure now blocking the beam, the tip of the summit poking up through his stomach. “Get the point?” he yelled.
But Shaban wasn’t quite dead.
Blood streaming from the massive wound where he was impaled, he still had just enough strength to raise one hand as he tried to open the container—and scatter its deadly contents into the wind.
Eddie was no longer watching—the increasingly noisy warnings from the console had captured his attention. The oil pressure gauge was in the red, dropping rapidly. The engine was about to fail.
Wincing at the pain in his hand, he slid back across the cabin. “Macy! You okay?”
“He pulled my damn shoulder out,” she said through clenched teeth. “Can you land this thing?”
“Nope.”
“What? But—but I thought you
were some kick-ass super soldier! You mean you can’t fly a helicopter?”
“I keep meaning to learn,” he replied, releasing her harness, then reaching over her to open the door.
She gaped at him. “What’re you doing?”
“We’ll have to jump.”
“But we’re miles up!”
“Not for long.” The klaxons were overpowered by a grinding from the engine compartment. “When I tell you to—”
The driveshaft sheared apart. Broken metal clanged against the bulkhead like hailstones.
The helicopter fell.
“Jump! Jump! Jump!” Eddie roared. The rotor was still turning, slowing the fall—but with no power and no pilot, the EC130’s death plunge would only last a few seconds. He shoved the shrieking Macy out and leapt after her.
They dropped, ten feet, twenty—
And hit the pyramid’s sloping side.
The toughened glass cracked—but didn’t break. Every nerve on fire from the hard landing, Eddie slithered down the structure, Macy tumbling alongside him.
Shaban turned the lid, needing only one more small movement to open the container …
And froze as his pain-dulled eyes saw the helicopter plunging at him.
He screamed—
The EC130 slammed down on top of the pyramid—and continued through it, falling into the laboratory amid pulverized glass and shredded metal. It hit the floor and exploded, a searing shock wave pounding through the chamber.
Reaching the hidden C-4.
The explosive detonated, ripping apart the gas tank. The lab was consumed by a colossal wave of fire, the entire top third of the pyramid blowing apart like the eruption of a glass volcano.
Eddie and Macy were already more than halfway down. Below, Eddie saw Nina running from the blast, the Mitsubishi half buried in the wall—
“Jump!” he cried.
Despite her pain, Macy managed to slam her heels against the glass as Eddie did the same. He went left, she went right, passing on each side of the Shogun—