Empire of Gold_A Novel

  A momentary pause as Krikorian switched targets, then the onslaught began again, this time aimed at the terrace. The wall behind which Eddie and Chambi were sheltering was over a foot thick, but even its blocks splintered and cracked under the pounding storm.

  “Jesus Christ!” Eddie yelled, shielding his face from stone fragments. He crawled rapidly toward the steep pathway. The soldier had flattened himself against the wall, too terrified to move—and blocking Eddie’s path. “Stay with me!” the Englishman yelled, batting at Chambi’s legs with a fist. “If we can get ’round the corner, we’ll be safe—soon as he stops firing, run up the hill!”

  The gunfire stopped. “Go!” Eddie shouted, springing up like a sprinter off the blocks. He heard Chambi set off, a couple of paces behind.

  Three yards, two—

  The harsh rasp of the Gatling gun and the explosive crack of bullet impacts returned as Eddie reached the corner, rounds chewing into the wall behind him …

  And into Chambi.

  The young corporal was only one step away from safety when the stream of lead caught up with him. Half of his upper body literally exploded, showering the wall with blood and flesh. What was left of him tumbled onto the path behind Eddie. Horrifyingly, he was still alive.

  Briefly.

  The firing stopped again, the gunner trying to regain sight of his escaped prey.

  Eddie shook off his shock. Chambi’s blood-splattered AKM was beside his corpse; he grabbed it and ran up the hill.

  In the gunner’s cockpit, Krikorian kept the infrared sights fixed on the corner. A glowing splash of hot blood told him that he had hit one of the two running men … but the other had gone. He tipped his head to move the crosshairs up the slope. A brief flash of body heat between two buildings, but it disappeared before he could lock onto it.

  “Lost him!” Annoyed, he searched for other targets inside the cave.

  A cluster of bright human shapes stood out.

  Fear for her husband’s life had paralyzed Nina as she and the others watched the Hind open fire—but the sight of the gunship’s cannon turning toward them snapped her back into motion with a surge of adrenaline. “Run!”

  She and Mac went one way, the rest of the group the other—except Juanita, who started to follow the American and the Scot before Zender’s panicked shout of her name made her double back.

  The hesitation cost the young woman her life. Tracer rounds seared over the city, catching Juanita as she tried to run. Her body was thrown back along the plaza, a bloodied rag doll.

  The line of death pursued Nina and Mac—

  “Cease fire, cease fire!” Stikes snarled into his headset. “I need Wilde and Jindal alive!” The cannon’s roar stopped.

  All of Pachac’s men had now gone into the tunnel. With the defenders dead they would be able to enter the cave with minimal resistance, but the bloodlust roused by the death of their comrades would almost certainly lead to their killing anyone they found. He had to take control of matters on the ground to prevent that from happening, but it would take him crucial minutes to rope down and catch up …

  His gaze shifted back to the cave mouth. A moment’s thought, then: “Gurov! What’s this thing’s rotor diameter?”

  Nina pressed against a building, out of the helicopter’s sights. Mac joined her a moment later. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah, but—oh God, Juanita …” The Peruvian woman lay motionless.

  “At least it would have been quick,” Mac said grimly. He saw the other expedition members reach cover on the other side of the plaza. “Everyone else is okay—but why did they stop firing?”

  That was not a question high on Nina’s mind. “What about Eddie? Did he get away?” She leaned around the corner—and saw men emerging from the shaft. “Shit! More of them!”

  Eddie crouched behind one of the tombs, looking back. The Hind had stopped shooting and was now hanging almost hesitantly above the trees. There was nowhere to land—was Stikes about to rope down?

  Shouts brought his attention to a more immediate threat. More attackers had entered the cavern, and this time there was nobody to stop them. He pulled himself on to the little tomb’s roof. From here, he could see the shaft. A man scrambled out of it, then another.

  Activity, much closer. Two men were heading up into the ruins. One was armed with an AK-47, the other a rocket launcher. The first man pointed at the plaza.

  Eddie aimed his AKM, but before he could shoot the pair moved out of sight.

  He knew what they were doing: finding a good firing position.

  Keeping low, Kit returned to the plaza’s eastern end. The helicopter was still hovering outside, but its cannon was no longer pointed at him. He raised his head to look down at the city. The shaft was disgorging armed men like an anthill; two, three, four, and no way to know how many were already inside the cave.

  “Kit, get back here!” Macy cried. He looked around. She was with Osterhagen and Zender behind a squat building, Olmedo and Cruzado peering from inside its doorway.

  “I need to see how many there are,” he replied. A man in a red beret pulled himself out of the shaft. Nobody followed him. But however many intruders had come through the tunnel, it was enough for the explorers to be outnumbered—and very definitely outgunned.

  He was about to return to the others when he caught movement in his peripheral vision—

  An RPG-7 warhead streaked toward him.

  Kit dived as the rocket shot over the balustrade and hit the building sheltering the two Peruvian archaeologists. The explosion blew in one wall, stone blocks and the remains of the roof crashing down on top of them.

  The rebel with the rocket launcher looked in satisfaction at the swelling cloud of dust from the partially collapsed building. The job wasn’t over, though. “I think there’s still someone up there. Help me reload,” he said, kneeling so his comrade could reach into his backpack.

  It contained another two RPG-7 rounds. One was taken out, its fuse protector being removed before the missile was loaded into the launch tube. The rebel looked through its sights. The cloud was clearing—he glimpsed someone behind the ruin and took aim—

  Bullets tore into his body as Eddie opened fire from a rooftop several tiers above. The rebel fell, toppling over a wall to end up sprawled on a steep pathway, the launcher still clutched in his dead hands. The other man whirled, raising his AK—only to take a lethal round to the forehead.

  Eddie hopped from one roof to another, then dropped down to the ground and ran uphill toward the plaza.

  “Macy! Leonard!” Nina yelled across the plaza. She couldn’t see anything through the drifting smoke.

  She heard coughing: Kit. The dust cleared enough for her to see him lying by the balustrade, a hand to his head. Chunks of broken stone were scattered around him. He was alive, but clearly hurt, hit by debris.

  She was about to run to help him when Mac pulled her back. “Stay in cover!” he warned. “The chopper’s coming in!”

  A shocked glance at the cave mouth revealed that he meant it literally. The gunship was slowly advancing through the opening into the cavern itself.

  It took all Stikes’s willpower not to show any outward signs of tension to his men as the chopper entered the cavern. The opening was easily large enough to accommodate the Hind—but helicopters were not designed to fly inside enclosed spaces. The enormous force of the rotor downwash could be deflected back at the aircraft in unexpected ways, throwing it into the ancient buildings—or even against the ceiling. He just had to hope Gurov was as good a pilot as he claimed …

  Wind buffeted the gunship. Shielding his eyes, he leaned out of the hatch for a better view. They were now clear of the wall, and he saw Pachac’s men scurrying up through the city. But his attention went to the plaza, the only place the Hind could land—and to his anger he saw that the revolutionaries had already attacked it, the ghostly trail of a rocket-propelled grenade ending at a newly demolished building. If these communist cretins h
ad killed the people he was after—

  Bullets clanked off the helicopter’s flank. Stikes jerked back. Who was firing?

  Somehow he knew the answer: Chase!

  Eddie reached the plaza, opening up with his AKM at the approaching Hind. He saw Stikes, his blond hair and tan beret instantly recognizable, duck into the cabin. “Everyone get out of here!” he shouted. “Find somewhere to hide!” Nina and Mac were behind a nearby building; across the paved area he spotted Macy, Osterhagen, and Zender struggling upright. “Go on, run!”

  He was about to follow his own advice when the helicopter swung in his direction—

  “Hold fire!” Stikes shouted into the headset—but his voice was drowned out by a hissing roar as Krikorian unleashed an S-8 rocket.

  In the time it took to blink, it shot down from the Hind’s wing pod and smashed into the plaza.

  The explosion flung Eddie off his feet as broken stones were blasted into the air, thrown high and far enough even to hit the Hind. Part of a wall near him collapsed with a ground-shaking crash.

  But the destruction didn’t end there. The plaza itself trembled, the foundations of its raised eastern end shifting. A great crack lanced across the slabs—toward Nina and Mac.

  The cracks of falling debris were overpowered by louder, deeper crunches. Nina jumped back from the building as its blocks rasped and groaned against one another. “I don’t think we’re in a safe place …”

  Mac grimaced. “Nor do I!”

  They leapt over the plaza’s edge—as the wall slammed down where they had been standing with an enormous crunch of masonry.

  Flying rubble cascaded after them. A piece hit Nina’s shoulder like a blow from a baseball bat. Mac fared no better, taking a hit to the stomach that left him winded. A billowing gray cloud swirled over them.

  The first of Pachac’s men reached the building in which they had landed …

  And ran past, skirting as far as he could around the rolling miasma. The others behind him did the same, not wanting to risk getting close to a potentially unstable ruin. No one saw the two dust-covered figures inside.

  Stifling a groan, Nina listened to the running footsteps move away, then painfully sat up. “Mac,” she whispered. “Mac! Are you hurt?”

  “Nothing a spot of death won’t cure,” the Scot wheezed, wiping his eyes. Nina helped him upright—then they both looked up at a rush of hot, fuel-stinking wind.

  The Hind was moving in to land.

  Eddie dizzily tried to move, and rapidly regretted it. His entire body felt like one huge bruise. What had happened? He’d shot at the helicopter …

  The Hind!

  It was hovering just feet above the plaza, pointing its Gatling gun at the explorers. Faced with certain and immediate death if they tried to escape, Macy, Osterhagen, and Zender had surrendered. Men in black combat gear jumped from the cabin, some aiming at Kit, who raised his hands.

  The others came for Eddie.

  The AKM was only a few feet away. Ignoring the pain, he crawled toward it—

  A booted foot stamped down on the weapon. Eddie twisted to see a gleaming handgun aimed at his head. A Jericho. Behind it was a sneering, aristocratic face.

  “Hello, Chase,” said Stikes. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  THIRTY-FOUR

  The Hind had landed, Pachac and his men had reached the plaza—and the prisoners were being held at gunpoint.

  “Some familiar faces, I see,” said Stikes, giving Macy and Osterhagen dismissive looks before turning his attention back to Kit. “There’s one that’s conspicuously absent, though. Where’s your wife, Chase?”

  Eddie said nothing, fixing the other Englishman with a defiant stare—which earned him a fierce blow from a rifle butt, knocking him to his knees. “He asked you a question, Chase!” shouted Baine, following the strike up with a boot to the side. He was about to deliver another kick when a gesture from his commander stopped him short.

  “Well?” said Stikes. “Where is she?”

  “Buggered if I know,” Eddie groaned, standing back up. Nina’s location was preying on his mind as well. She and Mac had been beside a building on the plaza’s southern side—which had now collapsed.

  “You may well be. I doubt Pachac’s men have a lot of female company hiding out in the mountains—they’re probably desperate enough to find even your hairy Yorkshire arse appealing.” He turned back to Macy. “But I think it’s fairly clear who’d be at the top of their list. Should I give her to them, Chase?” He raised the Jericho to her head. Macy’s lips tightened, trembling. “Or should I just shoot her now? So. Where’s your wife?”

  “She was behind that building,” Eddie growled in defeat, knowing the former SAS officer would pull the trigger without hesitation. He gestured at the rubble.

  Stikes’s eyes flicked toward the wrecked structure. “Cagg, Voeker, check that. See if she’s buried in it.” His two men moved off to search the ruin. Stikes lowered the gun. Macy let out a whimper of relief.

  “So you brought this arsehole with you,” said Eddie of Baine, enduring another kick in an attempt to direct Stikes’s thoughts away from his hostages. He didn’t recognize any of the other mercenaries. “What about Maximov?”

  Stikes scowled. “I fired him. Anyone stupid enough to be outwitted by you isn’t somebody I want on the payroll. And speaking of stupidity …” He faced the helicopter. Both cockpits were open, Krikorian examining the nose cannon while Gurov climbed onto the fuselage to inspect a large dent where a flying rock had hit one of the engine intakes. “Gurov! Is there any damage?”

  “I don’t know,” the Russian replied. “I need to check the turbine blades.”

  “How long will that take?”

  “Twenty minutes.”

  “Do it.” Stikes glared at Krikorian, who noticed his employer’s ire and shamefacedly moved behind the gunship. Stikes returned his gaze to Eddie. “Idiot. Firing a missile in a confined space—when I’d already given specific orders that I wanted you taken alive.”

  “Nice to know you care,” said Eddie sarcastically.

  “Oh, I don’t. Not about you, at least.” He looked across at Kit. “But Jindal and your wife are going to do something for me.”

  “What thing?”

  Eddie hadn’t expected an answer, but his chances of getting even a hint fell to zero as Pachac and a couple of his men hurried down the stairway. “Stikes!” shouted the terrorist leader excitedly. “It is here, it is here! The Punchaco!”

  “You found it?” said Stikes.

  Pachac ran to him. “Yes, yes! In the temple. It is—it is magnificent! And huge! Three meters high, at least.”

  “Over twice the size of the sun disk from Paititi, then,” said Stikes thoughtfully. “At least four times the volume of gold.”

  “At least. And it is covered with gems, diamonds and emeralds and more!”

  “That should fund a revolution or two.”

  Pachac’s enthusiasm dampened. “The Punchaco is the greatest symbol of my people. I cannot sell it—it would be a betrayal.”

  “What about the rest of the gold?”

  “There is no other gold,” said the Peruvian. “Not that we have found.”

  Stikes frowned. “That doesn’t seem likely. Since we’re standing in the heart of the legendary city of gold.” He stood before Osterhagen. “You’re the expert, Dr. Osterhagen—where’s the gold?”

  “The Punchaco is the only gold we have seen,” said the German.

  “I find that difficult to believe.”

  “We haven’t had time to explore,” Macy protested. “You got here right after we did.”

  “How did you get here so quick?” Eddie demanded. “Only a few people knew exactly where we were going.”

  A smug smile slithered onto Stikes’s face. “I have your father to thank for that.”

  “What?”

  “He called me after you threatened him in Bogotá. He was rather worried, but I assured him there wouldn’t be any proble
ms.” The smirk broadened. “He also told me that your wife was searching for El Dorado in Peru. And I knew someone with a lot of contacts here.” He nodded at Pachac. “So I made a deal with Arcani, and he put the word out to his informants, his sympathizers, and most importantly his network of drug dealers to watch for a certain red-haired woman in charge of a team of foreigners. We knew that you’d arrived in Lima, we knew you spent last night in Chachapoyas, and we knew when you passed through the village down the road. But you didn’t reach the next village to the north, and there are only a handful of places you could possibly have turned off the road … so all Arcani’s people had to do was look for your tire tracks. Simple.”

  Eddie held in the surge of rage he felt toward his father, focusing it on more immediate targets. “So you’re in this for the gold? You might have a problem getting your cut if your new mate here doesn’t want to sell it.”

  Stikes laughed. “I don’t want gold, Chase! Who am I, Mr. T? No, the deal was that apart from enough to pay my men all they’re owed, plus a bonus, Pachac can keep everything that he finds here … except for the three statues your wife is so interested in.”

  Eddie reacted with surprise—but noticed that, if anything, Kit seemed even more shocked. “What the hell do you want those for? They’re just bits of stone.”

  “We both know that’s not true.” Stikes turned as Voeker and Cagg returned. “Well?”

  “She’s not there,” said Cagg. “But there were some tracks in the dust. Looks like she went down the hill.”

  Stikes whirled, staring toward the shaft. “Dammit! We can’t let her get away—Baine, make sure she doesn’t get out of the cave. Do not kill her; I need her alive.” Baine raised his M4, which was fitted with a telescopic sight, and ran to the end of the plaza. The mercenary leader addressed his other men. “The rest of you, spread out and find her. We need to find the statues too. Where are they, Chase?”