Nowhere to go, but somewhere to go past . . .
Clutching the Crucible, Nina burst back outside. The tunnel was filling with vapour, the sound of the impending steam blast still growing. She looked back as she ran towards it.
The mercs were gaining.
Eddie saw the Mil’s cabin door open as the helicopter swept down to hover a hundred feet from the ledge. A man leaned out.
The Englishman instantly recognised his weapon as a Russian Dragunov sniper rifle, or a Chinese copy of one. His only chance of survival was to keep moving, and hope the chopper was unsteady enough in the shifting wind to affect the mercenary’s aim—
Muzzle flash. Eddie had already darted sideways, the bullet smacking like a hammer against the rock right beside him. The rifle tracked him. This time the Yorkshireman dropped to the ground as the next round impacted where he had been standing. The mercury canister was only a few feet away; some instinct prompted him to grab it as he rolled to dodge a third shot. He wasn’t even sure why – it wasn’t as if he could throw it at the helicopter . . .
Not throw. Shoot.
He sprang up and dived into the crevice. Steam roiled from the vent, the angry hiss of pent-up pressure growing ever louder. A round shrilled off the rock face, but the crack in the cliff was just deep enough to block him from the helicopter’s view. He jammed the container as far as he could into the opening, then turned and crouched, waiting.
The Mil returned, hovering directly in front of the crevice. It was close enough for Eddie to see the frustration on the sniper’s face – which changed to sneering pleasure as he took aim again. He hadn’t expected his prey to be so hard to hit, but now there was nowhere else for him to go . . .
Nina kept running, but the snow was like the ground in a nightmare, bogging down each step. Another look back. The two mercenaries were at the cave mouth, guns rising—
The rumble became a roar – and a searing blast of steam consumed them.
Eddie dropped flat as the thunderous noise reached a crescendo, tugging up his hood and burying his face in the snow to protect himself. ‘Start the reactor!’ he yelled.
With the vent plugged, the first jets of superheated steam gushed out around the mercury container with the shriek of a hellish kettle – but then the pressure became too much and the blockage was blasted clear.
It shot over the Englishman like a cannon shell – straight at the helicopter.
The pilot didn’t even have time to scream before it punched through his window and hit him. The impact left little of his skull intact, the gory spray of blood and pulp mixed with shimmering quicksilver as the canister burst open. His body slumped, foot spasming on the rudder pedal – throwing the Mi-2 into a spin.
The sniper had unfastened his lap belt for greater freedom of movement, but now he was granted the ultimate freedom as he was thrown from the open door. His terrified shriek echoed off the uncaring wall of rock as he fell to the ground far below.
The helicopter kept whirling, reeling drunkenly towards the higher ledge . . .
The thunder of steam escaping the cave faded, the billowing cloud wafting upwards to reveal the two mercenaries writhing on the ground. Their faces had been scoured red-raw, horrifyingly blistered, with strips of skin hanging off as if they had been flayed alive. Airways seared shut, they couldn’t even cry out in their agony. Nina felt a pang of appalled pity, even knowing that they had been about to kill her.
The venting steam had caught the other attackers by surprise. Most had dived to the ground in panic, one man on the fringe of the blast howling in pain at a burn to his cheek.
She looked around for Eddie – and instead saw the helicopter careering towards the ledge.
A moment of shocked paralysis – then, still clutching the Crucible, she ran for the ladder. Some of the stunned mercenaries reacted as she passed, only for any thoughts of shooting her to vanish in favour of self-preservation at the sight of the spiralling aircraft. Mercs and monks alike scattered.
The shrill of the Mi-2’s engine grew louder. The chopper plunged towards Nina as if drawn by a magnet—
She screamed and dived as it swept over her, blowing up a blinding swirl of snow in its downdraught before its rotor blades hit the unyielding cliff face. The impact flung the helicopter around, slamming it hard against the cave entrance. The fuselage was smashed flat, fuel tanks rupturing—
The aircraft exploded, scattering burning debris across the ledge. One mercenary was impaled through the torso by a javelin-sized shard of rotor blade. The ageing wooden beams inside the tunnel were blasted apart, the ceiling collapsing with a pounding boom of falling rock.
Burning shrapnel struck Nina’s shoulder. She cried out, rolling over to extinguish the flames. Her coat was torn and singed, but the pain was more from the blow than the fire.
She recovered the Crucible and sat up to see the Gurkha nearby, his guards sprawled around him. ‘Jayesh!’ she called. She was about to tell him to head for the ladder, but he was already moving, launching himself at the nearest dazed mercenary and cracking an elbow down on the back of his head with brutal force. The man slumped into the snow. Jayesh pulled his kukri from the merc’s belt and turned towards Nina – then suddenly hurled the blade.
It whooshed just inches above her head. Before she could even be shocked, she heard a solid chut and a truncated scream from behind. Whirling, she saw the gunman at the top of the ladder facing her, his AK dropping from numbed hands as blood pulsed from the machete embedded in his throat. He collapsed, twitching.
‘Go! Go down!’ Jayesh ordered, before yelling more commands in Nepalese. Amaanat hurried to the cliff edge and called for his fellows to follow him.
Nina held the crystal in the crook of one arm and rapidly descended the ladder, to her immense relief finding a familiar face waiting below. ‘Eddie! Oh, thank God!’
He saw the rip in her coat. ‘Are you all right?’
‘It’s nothing. What happened to the helicopter?’
‘Things got a bit steamy. Come on, we need to move before they come after us.’ He picked up the Kalashnikov from the snow as the monks came down the ladder.
‘No bullets?’ said Nina at his grimace when he checked the magazine.
‘Not enough. Is Jayesh okay?’ Single-shot cracks from an AK at the top of the ladder gave him an answer. ‘Yep, he is. Jayesh! We’re going!’
‘So don’t wait – shift your arse!’ the Nepali called back.
‘I guess he picked up some English slang in training,’ said Nina as Eddie led her to the first of the wooden platforms.
‘Not the only thing he picked up, the dirty sod,’ the Yorkshireman said with a half-grin, before becoming completely serious. ‘We’ll have to go a lot faster than we did coming up.’ He looked back. Amaanat was now descending, Jayesh crouching above ready to come after him. Eddie aimed his rifle at the upper ledge. ‘Get going, I’ll cover you. If anyone pokes their head over the top, they’ll regret it.’ Nina nodded and started along the walkway.
Jayesh fired a last couple of rounds, then shouldered his gun and yanked his kukri from the corpse’s throat to slot it effortlessly into its scabbard. He scuttled down the ladder after the abbot. A mercenary appeared at its top, only to hurriedly retreat as Eddie shot at him. As soon as Amaanat cleared the foot of the rungs, the Gurkha let go and dropped to the ledge.
Nina moved as fast as she dared along the platforms. They had been precarious enough on the way up; now they felt little wider than a shoelace. Holding the Crucible under her left arm, she clutched at the rock with her free hand, desperately seeking out any holds.
A look back. Axelos peered from the higher ledge, but the Greek was careful not to expose himself to fire from Eddie or Jayesh.
He could see her, though. A rush of fear went through Nina as he took aim, then thought better of it. ??
?Eddie!’ she called. ‘They aren’t shooting at me – they don’t want to risk losing the Crucible!’
‘Doesn’t help the rest of us,’ he countered. The monks lined up behind him at the end of the ledge, Jayesh at the rear. ‘Okay, I’ll go first so I can cover you when I reach the next ladder,’ he told them. ‘Jayesh, watch my back.’
‘They have what they came for,’ said Amaanat as the procession started along the platforms. ‘There is no need for more violence!’
‘They still want the other Crucible,’ Eddie replied. He checked behind him, to see a mercenary aiming at the pathway. He fired a single shot, driving him back – but too late. The man had already pulled the trigger. A ragged bullet wound tore open in the shoulder of the monk following the Englishman. He wailed, staggering . . . and one foot slipped over the plank’s edge. He tumbled down the mountainside, his petrified cry fading to nothingness.
Eddie watched him fall, helpless, then snapped his attention back to the clifftop. He still had five monks to protect as well as Nina. All too aware of the alarming creaks of complaint from the weather-worn wood beneath his boots, he increased his pace.
Nina reached the next ledge and found cover behind a small outcrop. Relieved, she leaned out to check on the others. Eddie was moving across the platforms at a pace that made her heart freeze, the monks filing along in his wake.
Axelos reappeared, a mercenary beside him—
‘Eddie, look out!’ she warned. Her husband twisted to fire his AK, Jayesh unleashing another couple of shots. None of the bullets found their targets, but they drove the attackers back out of sight.
He hopped from the last platform on to solid rock. ‘Keep going past me,’ he shouted to the others.
Nina headed for the ladder. ‘Why couldn’t the Atlanteans have invented cable cars?’ she muttered.
Eddie alternated his gaze between the advancing monks and the upper ledge. It seemed that none of the mercenaries were willing to put their heads above the parapet.
For now. Axelos was surely planning something . . .
The first monk reached him. ‘Come on, keep going and you’ll be safe,’ Eddie said, trying to give the fearful young man some reassurance as he squeezed past. The next monk arrived a few seconds later. ‘That’s it! Keep coming!’
A head popped into view. Axelos. Eddie locked his rifle on to him, but the Greek had already dropped out of sight. Recon; he was checking on the progress of his targets.
Preparing for an attack—
‘Everyone down! Jayesh!’ yelled Eddie, keeping his AK-74 aimed at the ledge. The Gurkha echoed his warning in Nepalese, crouching and bringing up his own gun as figures sprang up over the lip of the little plateau.
Eddie and Jayesh fired first. The Englishman’s instincts had been correct: Axelos had ordered his men to make a simultaneous assault on the fleeing group, gambling that sheer firepower would catch them. One merc reeled as a bullet clipped his arm, others hurriedly diving back into cover as rounds whipcracked past.
But the Greek’s gamble was not a complete failure. A burst of bullets chewed a line across the cliff, hitting a hunching monk in the back. He keeled over, one hand clawing feebly at the rock before he toppled from the platform.
Eddie sent a furious shot at his killer, but the merc had already ducked. The nearest monk stared at him, eyes wide in terror. ‘Come on!’ yelled the Yorkshireman, hoping the man wasn’t paralysed by fear. If he were, it would be almost impossible for the others to get around him. ‘You can do it! Now!’
The monk gritted his teeth, then to Eddie’s relief started moving. The Englishman kept his gun fixed on the ledge as the man passed. The others followed, Amaanat, then finally Jayesh. ‘You okay?’ Eddie asked the Gurkha, seeing blood on his leg.
Jayesh shrugged. ‘Yeah. Why aren’t they following?’ He glared suspiciously back at the little plateau.
Eddie looked beyond it, at the second helicopter. The AW169 had retreated into the distance, the larger Crucible still hanging beneath it . . . but it was now making a slow, wide turn to reverse course. ‘Shit. They’re going to pick us off from the chopper! How many rounds’ve you got left?’
‘Two. You?’
‘One. So we’re fine if we’re attacked by the Fun Boy Three, otherwise we’re pretty much screwed!’ He looked for Nina. She was waiting at the top of the long ladder. He quickly caught up with Amaanat and explained the situation.
The elderly monk’s face was filled with sadness. ‘This is as I feared. Revealing the secret of the Midas Cave has brought nothing but violence and death.’
‘There’ll still be more coming unless we get out of here. Follow us.’ There was just enough room on the ledge for Eddie and Jayesh to squeeze past the monks; they moved ahead and hurried to the ladder.
A simple headcount had given Nina the bad news. ‘Oh God, I’m so sorry,’ she said to Amaanat as the group arrived.
‘It is all right,’ he said, through tightly drawn lips. ‘We shall all become again, in time.’
‘We’ll try to make it a long time,’ Eddie assured him. The helicopter had passed out of sight as it turned, but the thud of its rotors was growing louder. ‘Okay, I’ll go down. Once I’m in position at the bottom, everyone follow me. Jayesh’ll cover you from up here. Fight to the end, mate,’ he told his friend as he started his descent.
‘Fight to the end,’ the Gurkha echoed.
‘Eddie,’ Nina called after him. ‘Stay safe. Macy’s waiting for her daddy.’
A strained grin. ‘No pressure, then.’
He quickly clambered down. Thirty feet into the descent, a damaged rung reminded him that he was nearing the one that had almost caught him out on the ascent. Which was it?
The split rung beneath it helped him identify the danger, about twenty feet below. A glance along the valley: the helicopter was still blocked from sight, but it couldn’t be far away. He continued downwards, carefully negotiating the risky rungs. A relieved breath, then he picked up the pace again. Two thirds of the way down, three quarters. He checked for the helicopter once more—
A rung snapped under his foot.
He only had one hand on a higher bar, caught mid-movement. His other foot slipped on icy metal. He dropped sharply before jerking to a halt—
His handhold tore out of the cliff.
14
‘Eddie!’ Nina screamed as he plunged. No ledge to catch him this time, just the valley floor far below—
The rung was still in his hand. A desperate swing and it hooked the ladder’s very bottom step with a piercing clank, jarring him to a brutal stop against the unyielding rock.
He fought through the pain to keep his death grip on the rusted metal bar. ‘Chase! I’m coming!’ Jayesh shouted.
The bottom rung shifted, rasping out of the rock in stuttering half-inch steps. Toes scraping against the cliff, Eddie reached for the nearest wooden platform. It was just beyond his grasp. He strained to raise himself higher—
The rung jolted another inch out of the stone, spitting flecks of corroded iron into his face. The scabrous bar started to bend . . .
Jayesh neared him. ‘Hold on!’
‘Thanks for the tip!’ Eddie yelled back. ‘What do you bloody think I’m doing?’
‘Being an idiot who falls off cliffs!’ The Gurkha swung down on to the platform. He crouched and grabbed a secure rung. ‘Here!’
The Englishman stretched out his free arm. Jayesh’s hand clamped around it, then he pulled hard to lift him. ‘Okay, I’m going for it,’ Eddie warned, giving his friend a moment to brace himself – then lunging for the platform—
The bottom rung finally tore free, spinning into the void below with the makeshift hook. But Eddie’s hand had found solid wood.
Jayesh shouted for the others to climb down, then pulled Eddie up. ‘You okay???
?
‘Yeah,’ said Eddie between gasps.
‘Good. Wouldn’t want to lose you. Bad for my rep.’
Eddie managed a strained smile. ‘Glad you’re not getting sentimental on me.’ But he knew the Gurkha well enough to recognise the glimmer of amusement in his eye. ‘You’d better go first. Where’s that chopper?’
The answer came as the AW169 lumbered into view. The Crucible was still suspended beneath it, swaying in the downdraught. ‘Shit!’ Eddie looked up, seeing Nina coming down the ladder with her own crystalline container held awkwardly in one arm, the monks above her.
The winch operator peered out of the chopper’s side hatch as it approached. Eddie still had the Kalashnikov, but with only one bullet remaining couldn’t risk wasting it, and the man was currently too far away to be a viable target.
Jayesh set off along the platforms. Eddie helped Nina on to the plank, then started after the Gurkha. ‘All right, follow me. Quick!’
‘Jesus, Eddie!’ she called after him. ‘I thought you were going to die! Are you okay?’
‘I’m not going to disappoint Macy yet,’ he said, hopping across a gap. ‘Plenty of time for that when she’s older.’ He looked back, seeing the first monk reach the platforms – and the AW169 looming ever closer. ‘Jayesh!’
‘Seen it,’ Jayesh replied. He stopped, bringing up his rifle and firing a single shot. From the aircraft’s abrupt bank away from the mountain, Eddie guessed it had scored a hit. ‘Only one round left.’
‘Snap,’ the Yorkshireman replied grimly. They carried on along the platforms. The helicopter overtook them, staying well clear. The thought occurred to Eddie that he didn’t know what Axelos and the remaining mercenaries were doing. He looked back, spotting someone cautiously making his way along the higher ledge. ‘They’re coming after us,’ he warned.
‘Oh, like we don’t have enough to worry about!’ said Nina.
‘They’re sending the chopper ahead to block us,’ he realised. ‘If it can pin us down from the front, the others can pick us off from behind.’