“Okay, just hang on. I’ll get you to the Humvee.” The 4×4 waited at the foot of the cliff, the tracks of its sister vehicle disappearing into the trees. Streaming with water, Chase carried Nina to it. She opened the passenger door for him, and he placed her inside. “Oh, cock,” he said as he checked his watch.
“How long?”
“Four minutes.” He climbed into the driver’s seat, starting the engine. The 6.5-liter turbodiesel growled as he made a U-turn to face along the shore.
“We’ll never make it,” said Nina, a chill running through her. “Callum had that much of a head start on us, and he hasn’t even gotten around the end of the ravine.”
Chase pushed down hard on the accelerator. The Humvee’s wheels spun, slipping sideways in a spray of mud and earth before finding grip and surging forward. “We’re not going around the ravine.”
“We’re not?”
They charged through a stream, kicking up a massive shower of crystalline droplets. “Taking a shortcut.”
Nina gripped her seat as the Humvee bounced back onto dry land. “I don’t think this thing’s gonna fit over that log!”
“I’m not going for the log.” Chase swerved around a tree, wheels carving through the water before he straightened out and smashed the 4×4 through some bushes onto a small hill.
“What are you going for?”
Despite the rockier terrain, Chase kept the pedal down, building up speed as they approached the top of the rise. “You remember The Dukes of Hazzard?”
Nina blanched. “You’re going to jump the ravine?”
“If we go the long way round, we’ll never make it!”
“And we’ll never make it if we jump! We’re not in an action movie, and this thing must weigh five tons!”
They reached the top, the western side of the Garden of Eden opening out before them. Verdant jungle lit by shafts of sunlight to the right, the dark crack of the ravine slashing across the landscape ahead—
“There he is!” Chase yelled, catching a flash of reflected light on the far side of the ravine. Callum’s Humvee was bounding along the edge of the cliff, squeezed between the trees and the near-vertical drop. He pushed the pedal to the floor, the engine surging. “How long?”
“Three minutes!”
The log bridge was off to the right; almost directly ahead was the large, slanted rock Chase had noticed earlier, protruding over the side of the chasm. Callum was still short of the log, but he would reach it in seconds. “Soon as we stop on the other side, no matter what happens, you run for the tunnel!” he told Nina.
“And if we don’t reach the other side?”
The Humvee picked up speed as it descended the rise, flattening everything in its path. Chase aimed for the rock, then looked at Nina. “Then this is your last chance to say I love you!”
“I love you,” Nina said, grimacing. “But I hate the way you driiiiiive!”
The Humvee hit the rock at over fifty miles an hour and shot up the impromptu ramp—
And flew across the ravine.
FORTY
Callum glimpsed movement to his left as he passed the log. He looked around—and froze at the sight of the black colossus arcing across the gap at the head of a trail of dust and dirt from its still-spinning wheels.
Fear snapped him back to life as he realized that the other Humvee was not only going to make it over the ravine but would collide with him if he didn’t stop—
He slammed on the brakes. His Humvee slewed on the damp ground as the other vehicle smashed down in front of him.
Even with the soft earth absorbing the impact of Nina and Chase’s 4×4, its suspension collapsed, one wheel ripping away. Amid a whirlwind of churned soil and shredded foliage, the Humvee tore through the tangled net of vines hanging from the trees before slamming sidelong into the trunks and bouncing back toward the cliff …
Smashing into Callum’s skidding vehicle.
Glass shattered and metal tore with a banshee screech. The colliding 4×4s swept over the edge, teetering on the brink before starting to fall—
And abruptly jerking to a stop.
The wrecked suspension of Nina and Chase’s Humvee was entangled in vines and branches. It hung sideways over the edge of the cliff at a forty-degree angle—as Chase discovered when he opened his eyes to find that the steep tilt of the world around him wasn’t due solely to his dizziness.
He saw blood on the steering wheel where he had banged his head against it. Below him, Nina was crumpled in the footwell.
Pulling himself upright, Chase forced open his door, immediately seeing how perilous their position was. Even as he watched, the vines holding them vibrated like plucked guitar strings, the weaker ones twisting … and snapping. The little pops and cracks sounded like someone stepping on bubble wrap—but each break put more strain on the others. It was only a matter of moments before the Humvee fell.
“Nina, get up,” he said, reaching down to take hold of her arm.
She raised her head, looking dazedly at him. “Did we make it?” she asked absently. He nodded. “Oh, good.”
“We’re not safe yet. We’ve got—shit, two and a half minutes.”
“Until what again?”
He pulled at her. “You know? The bomb?”
“What bomb?” Her eyes finally focused on him. “The bomb! Oh, shit, the bomb!” She tried to stand, only to gasp in pain. “Oh, God, my leg still hurts!”
“Think you can walk?”
“I’m gonna have to! No, wait,” she added as she forced herself up, “I’m gonna have to run!”
A much louder snap from outside was accompanied by a jolt. One of the thicker vines had just given way. “This thing’s going to fall! Come on!” Chase put both feet against the high transmission tunnel between the seats and straightened his legs, lifting Nina up. “Climb over me!”
“But—”
“Quick!” He shoved her through the door. More snaps. The Humvee lurched.
Nina scrambled clear. Chase gripped the door frame and pulled himself up, using the steering column for a step as he dived out—
Several vines snapped at once. The battered Humvee swung around, tipping over the edge—and plummeted into the ravine, bouncing off the rock face and cartwheeling into the darkness below.
Nina hobbled to Chase, who lay at the lip of the chasm, both legs hanging out over nothingness. Despite the pain, she pulled him clear. “Jesus! Are you okay?”
Chase could hardly speak, his heart slamming in his chest. He managed a thumbs-up before seeing that they were not alone.
Callum’s Humvee hung almost vertically over the cliff edge, nose-down at what seemed like an impossible angle until Chase saw that it was suspended from a pointed rock, the tip of which was wedged under the 4×4’s rear axle. The engine was still running, and the front doors were both open, extended like stubby wings—revealing Callum slumped over the wheel inside.
Unconscious.
“Get to the tunnel,” Chase said, standing.
“Not without you,” Nina said. “What are you doing?”
“I can use his radio to delay the strike—I remember the code. Look, go!” he ordered, seeing that she was about to object. “There’s only two minutes left!” He waited until she reluctantly turned and began a limping run toward the exit, then bunched together several vines and used them to climb down the cliff.
Not sure how much weight the passenger-side door could take, he kept hold of the vines as he gingerly put his feet on it. The hinges creaked. Wincing, he eased himself into the cabin. The armored windshield was cracked, loose gear strewn across it. Figuring it might not support his weight, Chase instead stood on the dashboard and looked more closely at Callum.
The white-haired agent still seemed out cold, a deep cut across his cheek. His jacket hung open. There was no sign of a radio in the equipment on the windshield, so it was probably still in his pocket.
Chase edged closer, alert for any noises or movements warning that the Hu
mvee was about to fall. It swayed as he crossed the cabin, but the rock supporting it seemed solid—for now.
He reached Callum. The American was still breathing. Chase hunched lower, carefully slipping his arm through the steering wheel to reach Callum’s inside pocket. His fingers touched the fabric; something hard and heavy inside. He edged his hand up, feeling plastic, switches …
Callum’s eyes opened.
He grabbed Chase’s outstretched arm and slammed it against the wheel, sweeping his other hand across to deliver a crunching backhand blow to the Englishman’s face. Chase tried to pull back, but Callum bent his wrist backward over the wheel’s rim until the joint crackled, pinning him as he swung at Chase’s head again, catching his jaw.
Chase retaliated with a punch of his own, then gouged Callum’s eye with his thumb. Callum jerked away, releasing his grip on Chase’s arm.
Chase stumbled back, one foot slipping off the dash, onto the windshield. Fractured glass squealed, cracks spreading out from beneath his boot like thin ice. He hurriedly lifted his foot—
Callum hit him in the chest. Caught off balance, Chase staggered … and fell backward.
He landed on the open door—which buckled, one of the hinges snapping. With a yelp of “Oh, shit!” Chase slid down it and was pitched into the chasm below—
His hand clamped around the window frame.
The jolt as he stopped his fall almost wrenched his arm from its socket. He slammed against the Humvee’s mangled front quarter panel, swinging helplessly. More cracks came from the door’s overstressed hinge as it was bent past its limit.
Callum crossed the cabin. He saw Chase’s hand gripping the frame, knuckles white. A nasty smile crossed his lips as he edged closer—and smashed his heel down on the door. The hinge groaned. Another strike, and another. Metal strained, split—
Snapped.
The door dropped into the ravine—just as Chase caught the Humvee’s front quarter panel with his free hand. He slammed face-first against the wheel as the door fell past him, hitting his shoulder and almost tearing him loose. With blood seeping from his fingers where he clutched torn metal, he kicked and flailed before finally finding a second handhold.
Callum leaned out of the doorway above him. Their eyes met. For a moment Chase thought Callum was going to lower himself out and stamp on his hands, but then he retreated into the cabin.
He knew why. The Humvee was hanging from a single rock; a couple of kicks would send the entire vehicle plunging to its doom. If Callum reached the top of the cliff before he did—
The thought spurred him to action. He pulled himself up, climbing hand over hand until he managed to get a foothold on the bumper.
Callum heard him moving as he was about to climb out through the driver’s-side door. He halted, spotting something in the footwell. A pistol.
Chase kept climbing. He reached the doorway, looked inside—
To see Callum bringing up a gun.
He ducked as Callum fired. Two shots zipped just above his head, a third striking the door frame. The Humvee shook as Callum climbed across the cabin, coming to finish the job.
Nowhere to go …
Except down.
Chase released his grip—and dropped.
He caught the front wheel, hands slipping over the mud clogging the tread before finding purchase. Without a pause, he swung himself underneath the Humvee, grabbing the front axle and clambering along it as if it were monkey bars.
Callum returned to the doorway and looked down again. No sign of Chase. With a satisfied smirk, he peered up the cliff, comparing the vines Chase had used to climb down to the ones on the other side of the vehicle. Deciding that the latter appeared stronger, he turned back across the cabin.
Reaching the other end of the axle, Chase hauled himself around the wheel and pulled himself up beneath the open door. Through the window, he saw Callum negotiating the steering wheel, not wanting to stand on the damaged windshield.
Chase grabbed the dangling vines beside the door and rapidly climbed upward. Callum, halfway through the door, heard the noise—as Chase pulled up both legs and booted him back into the cabin. The gun clattered onto the windshield. Chase dropped onto the door, the hinges screeching. He grabbed the door frame—and smashed a nose-breaking punch into Callum’s face.
The American fell, sprawled over the dashboard. Chase stepped inside and plucked the radio from Callum’s jacket. He pulled back, reaching for the vines outside.
Callum’s hand closed around the gun. Eyes narrowed to pain-filled slits, he brought it up, taking aim—
Chase stepped on the accelerator.
The Humvee’s wheels spun, finding grip even on the cliff face—and wrenching the rear axle off the pointed rock.
Clinging to the vines with one hand, Chase yanked his leg out of the cabin as the Humvee fell. Callum’s scream echoed up the canyon as the vehicle disappeared into the shadows—then was cut off by a huge crash of metal on stone.
Gasping, Chase shoved the radio into the waistband of his jeans before gripping the vines with both hands and climbing. He could feel the plants straining under his weight. Only six feet to go, five, the edge of the cliff tantalizingly close—
A loud snap. One of the larger vines gave way, the smaller ones bunched with it in his hand also ripping. He snatched at others, but they had been damaged by the Humvee when it ground over the edge and broke instantly. He swung, the vines in his other hand tearing …
Hands gripped his flailing wrist. Startled, he looked up.
Nina.
“I got you,” she said.
She pulled. Toes scrabbling against the rocks, Chase forced himself upward until he was able to get one hand over the edge. He dragged himself onto solid ground, staring up at Nina as he panted in relief. “I told you to get out!”
“Like you say, I never listen to you.” She helped him sit up. “I wasn’t going to leave you here.”
“Thanks.” He examined the radio. He didn’t recognize the type—some kind of spook special, he guessed—and hoped Callum hadn’t changed the frequency. “Okay, let’s give this a try.”
“You’re not going to do your John-Wayne-with-brain-damage voice, are you?” said Nina as he switched it on.
“Shh.” He put on his best attempt at an American accent, trying to remember the codes Callum had used. “Abaddon, Abaddon, this is Archangel, urgent. Code alpha hold, repeat, this is a code alpha hold!”
Silence. Nina and Chase looked at each other in concern. Then: “Archangel, this is Abaddon.” Chase pumped his fist in silent triumph. The B-2 crew thought he was Callum, and would stop the drop—
“We, uh …” The pilot’s hesitant tone vaporized Chase’s jubilation in an instant. “We released the bombs five seconds ago.”
“What?” Nina yelped. She looked up at the cavern’s ceiling. “Son of a bitch!”
“Say again, Archangel?”
Chase jumped up, grabbing Nina’s hand and pulling her after him. “Leg it!”
“Ow, ow, ow!” Nina gasped with every step on her injured leg. “How long have—aah!—have we got?”
“Not long!” From sixty thousand feet it took a person in free fall more than five minutes to reach zero altitude—but the GPS-guided Massive Ordnance Penetrators each weighed fifteen tons, and their terminal velocity would be supersonic. They would hit the ground in a fraction of the time.
They reached the edge of the jungle, emerging on the dry riverbed. The tunnel was a dark arch directly ahead. They entered it, their running footsteps echoing through the curving passage. Light ahead. The Covenant had cleared the entrance to accommodate the Humvees. “Come on, we can do it!” Chase cried, running faster. Nina responded, increasing her pace as they sprinted for the open desert, and safety—
The bombs hit the cavern.
The first MOP speared through the roof as if it were wet paper, hitting the ground just outside the temple walls. The combination of its weight and speed punched the reinforced bomb
casing almost a hundred and fifty feet into earth and solid rock.
The second bomb went deeper, by a fluke dropping through one of the holes in the ceiling and plunging into the ravine.
Body broken, organs ruptured, Callum was nevertheless still alive, lying in the Humvee’s mangled wreckage. Through pain-racked eyes he could see a circle of sky high above—in which a black dot appeared, rushing at him before he even had time to scream—
The MOP hit the Humvee, utterly disintegrating it and its occupant as it slammed through them and dug deep into the ground—before detonating.
Each bomb carried three tons of high explosives. The power of the blast added to the sheer kinetic force of the impact was enough to pulverize solid rock, sending out a massive shock wave that acted like a localized earthquake.
The whole mesa shook as the ground pulsed, bulging upward beneath the impact points before smashing back down again in two huge craters. The temple walls collapsed, the stacked archives shattering. The statue’s outstretched arm broke off and exploded into stone shrapnel as it hit the ground, the rest of the enormous figure toppling into the jungle.
But there was worse to come. A tsunami surged from the lake, sweeping away everything it touched and causing a huge swath of the southern wall to fall. For a moment, the whole of the Garden of Eden was lit by bright daylight—before the rest of the great chamber collapsed.
Chase and Nina were almost at the exit when the subterranean shock wave blew them off their feet, a vaporous wall of compressed air surging down the tunnel and blasting them out into the open. They tumbled across the sand, the ground reverberating with more enormous impacts as the mesa fell in on itself. Nina couldn’t even hear herself scream as she curled into a ball, trying to protect her head from the noise and debris.
Finally the tumult faded.
Nina risked opening her eyes. Dust and sand swirled around her, but even through the haze she could see that the entire shape of the mesa had changed, the high walls and flat top replaced by ugly, jagged peaks and mounds of boulders.
The Garden of Eden had been destroyed.
She slumped in defeat, barely able to believe the sheer pointlessness of the devastation. The most significant archaeological find in history, to say nothing of the world-shaking anthropological revelations it had contained … and now it was gone, wiped from the face of the earth. Not by the wrath of God but by the will of man. One man: Victor Dalton.