He clambered through the gap, finding himself on the statue’s broad, squared-off shoulders. Ice covered the stone and the golden ornamentation. “Is it okay?” Nina shouted across to him.
“Yeah, come on over. Just don’t slip.” Now that he was up here, he realized that the statue’s left arm, raised as if giving a gift, wasn’t at as steep an angle as he’d thought. It might be possible to climb down it … though that still left the problem of where to go next. The statue’s hand was at least thirty feet in the air.
Nina rounded the ledge. He moved back to the window to help her through, then waited as Sophia negotiated the narrow path. “All right,” he said as she reached him, “we’re still sixty feet up without any rope. Suggestions would be good. Even daft ones.”
Nina knelt to look over the edge of the statue’s shoulders at the golden necklace reaching partway down its chest. “Would this be strong enough to hold us? If we could climb down one of the counterpoises, we might be able to drop down—it looks like there’s a ledge around its waist, where the belt is.”
Chase leaned out to see. “You’d have to drop at least ten feet—and the ledge doesn’t look all that wide. And you’d still be a long way up.”
Sophia directed her light down the back of the statue. “Eddie, the statue’s quite close to the wall here. We might be able to do a chimney climb down it.”
He went to her and checked. It did indeed look as though it would be possible to descend by pressing their backs firmly against the statue and using their outstretched feet to lower themselves down the wall—but there was one problem. “We might,” he said, “but Nina can’t.”
“What?” Nina protested. “Now she’s some super-mountaineer, but I’m not, is that it?”
“No, it’s that you got shot in the leg four months ago!” Chase replied. “You might think it’s okay now because it’s stopped hurting, but if you try to do a chimney climb, you’ll put a load of strain on it—and if the muscle tears, that’s it, you’ll fall. We need another way.” He returned his attention to the outstretched left arm. The hand’s upturned palm was almost flat—and not all that far from the temple wall, where there was one of the tall, narrow windows … and a ledge just below it.
Nina had seen it too. “How far’s the jump?”
“Five feet, maybe six.” He tried to picture the temple’s exterior. There had been similar ledges running around the outside beneath each row of windows … at the same level as the tops of the buttresses. “If we can jump across to the window, we’ll be able to slide down those supports on the outside!”
“If we can get to the hand,” said Sophia, regarding the route uncertainly. The shoulder was thick with ice, and apart from a pair of metal bands around the upper arm and wrist, the statue offered almost nothing in the way of handholds.
“I’ll go first,” Chase said. He cautiously stepped across the statue’s shoulder. Ice squeaked and crunched under his weight. He dropped to all fours, turning to descend the arm feetfirst.
The first golden band was only a few feet below. Using it to brace his feet, Chase lowered himself until he was able to grip the edge of the metal and continue down. There was a depression in the statue’s elbow that had filled with ice; he rasped at it with his crampon spikes until he found a foothold.
Though terrified that he might fall, Nina couldn’t look away—until she heard a noise behind her. “Eddie,” she called, worried, “they’re in the library!”
Chase acknowledged her with a nod, then continued. There was less purchase on the forearm; not only was it narrower than the upper arm, but it was also longer, the stylized proportions not the same as a human body’s. The band around the wrist was nearly eight feet below the elbow, and there were no protrusions he could hold.
He put his hands on the cold stone, fingers splayed to maximize his grip, and edged downward. Probing with his toes, he felt for the golden band. No luck. Looking down, he saw there was still more than a foot to go.
No choice but to let go. He inched one hand down, then the other, moving them slightly farther each time—
His left hand slipped.
He slithered down the statue’s arm on his stomach, clawing for a grip and finding only ice. Instead, he opened his arms and tried to wrap them around the stone, his toes scrabbling for any purchase as he felt himself rolling over the edge—
His feet slammed against the top of the giant bracelet. Chase squeezed his arms around the statue, his heart thudding as he arrested his fall. He wriggled sideways until he was back atop the arm, then lowered himself onto the stone hand.
“Eddie!” Nina shouted. “Jesus, are you okay? Eddie!”
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Chase panted, slowly getting to his feet. “You just need to watch that last little bit there.” He looked at the nearest window, a vertical slash of backlit blue. It was farther away than he’d initially thought, but still reachable.
He hefted the pickax. “All right, here I go. If I make it, I’ll break the window so I can get through and grab you from the other side. If I don’t make it …” He glanced at the shadowed floor below. “Then I hope I land on my head, ’Cause that’s a break-both-legs kind of fall.”
“Thanks for that reassuring image, Eddie,” said Sophia.
Nina unconsciously reached for her pendant as Chase prepared to make the jump, realizing what she was doing only when she couldn’t touch it—it was hidden under several layers of clothing. Hoping it was the thought that counted, she held her breath, watching as he psyched himself up, readying the ax, drawing back …
And hurling himself across the gap.
Chase swung the pickax just before he landed on the narrow ledge, smashing the glass. He hacked with the ax, trying to hook it on something secure. Lead bent and glass broke, one of his feet slipping off the ledge as he overbalanced, toppling backward—
A harsh clink of metal on stone. The pickax found the window’s frame. Arm straining, Chase pulled himself upright, regaining his footing and reaching through the broken window to grip its sill. He used the pickax to knock out more of the glass, wrenching away the leading until the gap was large enough to fit through.
He poked his head through to check that there actually was a ledge outside. To his relief, there was. One of the buttresses curved away to the ground a few feet to his right.
To his dismay, he also saw figures making rapid descents from the shaft cut by the second ice burner. The Covenant was coming from two directions, maybe even three if they were also using the shaft Trulli had drilled—and he, Nina, and Sophia were caught between them.
Spurred on by the sight, he climbed through, then leaned back into the temple over the sill. “Okay, come on!” he called, seeing that Sophia was already descending. “Jump and I’ll grab you!”
She reached the hand with little trouble. Eyes locked on his, she made the jump, sailing across to land almost perfectly on the ledge. Chase seized her arms, holding on until she had fully recovered her balance, then shuffled sideways so she could climb through.
“Wait for me at the top of that,” he said, indicating the buttress. He returned to the window as Sophia edged along the ledge. “Okay, Nina. Do what I did—no, wait, do whatever Sophia did and come down the arm. My way was a bit pants-filling.”
Nina gave him a small smile and stepped across the statue’s shoulders.
She didn’t even reach the arm.
The ice shrouding the stone, weakened by both Chase’s and Sophia’s footsteps, sheared apart. She stumbled, trying to regain her footing—and a spear of pain from overstressed muscle pierced the wound on her right thigh. Her knee buckled. She landed hard on her side, grasping in panic for anything that could stop her from going over the edge—
There was nothing.
She slithered down the statue’s chest toward the sheer drop below.
TWENTY-SIX
Nina!” Chase screamed. She hit one of the necklace’s long rectangular counterpoises.
And caught it.
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But it didn’t stop her. The metal was too thin to support her, buckling and swinging her across the statue’s front. She slammed to a stop against a carved protrusion.
The counterpoise broke off. Nina plunged straight down—
Her feet hit the statue’s gilded belt. Even as more pain exploded in her legs, she had just enough presence of mind to throw herself backward against the great figure’s stone stomach, collapsing on the small ledge at its waist. The long spear of the counterpoise plunged past, hitting the temple floor with an echoing clang.
Chase stared in horror, seeing Nina’s face twisted in pain. “Wait there!” he yelled. “I’m coming!”
He started to climb through the window, but Sophia pulled him back. “What are you doing?”
“What do you think?”
“Even if you manage to climb back up the arm, how are you going to get down to her?”
“I’ll think of something!” He tried again to pull himself through the window. Sophia jammed her arm across the frame, blocking him. His mouth curled with cold anger. “If you don’t move, I’ll chuck you off this ledge.”
She knew he meant it, but she held her place. “Eddie, the Covenant will be here any minute. They must have heard that noise. If they catch us, they’ll kill us all.”
“I can’t leave her!”
“You can’t reach her, either. Eddie, we’ve got to go!”
Furious, frustrated, he looked back at Nina. She had managed to sit upright and was clutching her leg. “Nina!” he called. “If you can—”
A noise from above: breaking glass. A man in snow camouflage was using his rifle butt to widen the hole in the window behind the statue.
He ducked through, looked around, saw Chase below—
Chase shoved Sophia away and darted sideways as the Covenant soldier fired, bullets pitting the ancient stonework and shattering the remains of the window. The gunfire stopped; Chase risked a look and glimpsed another man climbing onto the statue before a second burst forced him to jerk away.
“Eddie, come on!” Sophia commanded, moving to the buttress. “If we don’t get out of here now, they’ll cut us off!”
“Fuck!” Chase roared, thumping a clenched fist against the wall. He knew she was right—but that was absolutely no comfort. And if he tried to shout to Nina, even to assure her that he would come back for her, the Covenant members would know she was there.
And kill her.
Anguished, he followed Sophia to the buttress as she lowered herself over the edge … and let herself drop.
The buttress was wide enough for her not to slip off the side, but she still couldn’t hold in a shriek as she hurtled down, boots grating on the frozen stone. The slope became shallower as it descended, but Sophia was still moving fast when she reached the bottom, shooting off the end and tumbling across the iron-hard ground. She came to a stop, unmoving for a moment—then gave Chase a dizzy wave.
With a last look back at the window, Chase plunged after her.
Jagged lumps of ice tore at his clothes as he hurtled down the buttress like a luge rider—sans luge. He tried to squeeze his feet against the edges to slow himself, but he couldn’t find enough traction, still picking up speed as he neared the bottom …
Chase was airborne for a moment as he flew off the end—then hit the ground butt-first, taking a painful kick to his spine. He bounced over the frozen earth in a spray of ice crystals and skidded along on his back before coming to a halt.
“Are you all right?” Sophia asked, hobbling stiffly to him.
“Fine,” he grunted as he stood. Muscles ached and knives jabbed at various parts of his anatomy, but nothing seemed permanently damaged. He saw the sled nearby. “Come on.”
“What are you doing?” Sophia demanded as he headed for it. “If you go back in there, they’ll shoot you before you get five feet across the room!”
“I know. That’s why I’m not going back in—until I get a gun. If Nina keeps quiet, maybe they won’t see her and they’ll leave.” He reached the sled, taking hold of the tow rope. “Then I can climb up and get her.”
“We won’t have time,” she insisted. “And where are you going to get a gun, anyway?”
A shout reached them from the city, where another man in white had emerged from behind a building and seen them. “He’ll do.”
“He still seems to be using it!” Sophia warned as the man took aim. More men appeared behind him. Chase recognized Zamal’s bearded face among the group.
“Okay, slight rethink!” There was no decent cover nearby, and going back into the temple would bring them into the sights of the men already inside. Instead, Chase grabbed Sophia and dived with her onto the sled. “Hang on!”
He kicked at the ground—and sent the sled racing downhill along the frozen road bisecting the ancient city.
Zamal’s men opened fire, bullets spitting chunks of ice into the air around Chase and Sophia. But flattened on the sled they were a tricky target—made the more so as they rapidly picked up speed. “Get them! Get them!” shrieked Zamal, opening up with his SCAR on full automatic as he tracked the fleeing pair downhill.
Sharp-edged ice fragments bit at Chase’s face as a line of bullet impacts snaked along the ground beside him, getting closer as the Arab refined his aim. One shot even exploded beneath him as it whipped between the body of the sled and its runner—
They hurtled through the arch and past the first buildings, cutting off Zamal’s line of fire. Chase looked ahead. The road led all the way down to the edge of the city—and the drainage shaft cut through the dam. Their escape route.
But that would mean abandoning Nina, and he wasn’t prepared to do that.
“Eddie!” Sophia yelled. Another group of Covenant troopers ahead. They must have come in through the original shaft, then made their way up through the city to meet their comrades.
Either they had seen the approaching sled or Zamal had radioed them. Whichever, they were lining up across the road, preparing to shoot …
Chase stuck one leg over the sled’s side, jamming his boot against the road surface. The sled slewed around, almost tipping over. He lifted his foot and it straightened out—now aiming for one of the side roads.
More gunfire, more cracking impacts around them as the soldiers realized they were about to lose sight of their prey—
Something blew apart with a crunch of shattered plastic. Chase took a blow to his side as one of the pieces of equipment strapped to the sled was hit. The laser range finder had stopped a bullet for him.
But he had no time to reflect on his luck. They reached the side road, a domed wall looming ahead. He jammed both feet down, trying to slow the sled, then lifted one to steer them around the obstruction.
Too fast—
The speeding sled scraped against the base of the curved wall in a spray of ice shards as it turned, teetering perilously on one runner before crashing down again. The gas cylinder rattled against its restraints, hitting Chase’s leg.
Feet down, toes skittering over the ice. The sled slowed. Beyond the buildings ahead, he could see a roiling haze rising toward the ceiling—steam from the volcanic vent in the hypogeum.
He saw a route leading between the groups of houses and swung them into it. The path was tight, but it opened out ahead—
Over a drop.
“Shit!” gasped Chase, slamming both feet as hard as he could against the ice. Sophia did the same. The sledge juddered, slowing—but not enough. “Roll!”
He threw himself to the left, Sophia rolling to the right as the sled fishtailed over the edge, crashing down on the frozen ground ten feet below. Chase hit a pile of broken wood, twisting around and bending his legs to absorb the impact. The wood shattered along with its prison of ice, pieces flying everywhere as he came to a stop at the very edge of the drop.
Sophia wasn’t so lucky.
With nothing to stop her, she screamed as she careered over the edge—
One hand caught a knobbly chun
k of ice. She jolted to a stop … and the ice cracked. Clawing for a hold that wasn’t there, she fell, tumbling down a rocky slope.
Chase booted away the wood and looked down. Sophia lay below him, clutching her side. He hurriedly descended the little cliff, jumping the last few feet to land beside her.
“Sophia! You okay?” he asked. They had ended up fairly close to the hypogeum; he looked toward the road for any sign of the Covenant. Nothing yet, but it wouldn’t take them long to track him and Sophia down …
“Don’t know.” She tried to sit up. “Oh, God, that hurts!”
Short of opening her coat and feeling for broken bones, Chase had no way to know whether she was actually injured or just badly bruised—and no time, either. “You’ve got to get up. They’ll be coming.”
“I don’t think I can.” Chase stood; through the pain, her expression became genuinely frightened. “Eddie, don’t leave me, please!”
“I wasn’t going to.” He held out both hands. “I’m just going to pull you up. It’ll hurt, but … well, a bullet’ll hurt more. Ready?”
She winced as she took his hands in hers. “Okay.”
“On three. One, two, three!”
He pulled her upright. She let out a stifled gasp, holding her right side. Chase moved around to her left and supported her. “Got you. Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“Good question.” A shaft of light from the hole above cut through the air, the winch line still hanging from it, but even if Sophia could climb they would never reach the icy ceiling before being shot at. It would have to be the drainage shaft, then, but that presented another problem: it was straight, a perfect channel for bullets. Was there a faster way through it?
His gaze fell on the overturned sled—but the idea that was forming was blown away by a shout. They had been seen. A man on the road waved to his comrades, then ran across the hard ground toward them.
He couldn’t climb back up the slope while supporting Sophia. Instead, they headed as quickly as they could toward the hypogeum.