12
‘Get through the gate!’ Eddie yelled. The group was
still short of Paititi’s thick outer walls. As everyone ran, he
glared at Nina. ‘This is why we had to go five minutes
ago!’
‘Don’t you try to put
this on me!’ she shouted back. ‘You said they were coming by road,
not helicopter!’
‘Well, I’m not a
fucking oracle, am I?’ They reached the gate, the narrow opening
forcing them into single file to pass through.
The helicopter
slowed, preparing to hover. The tree cover was far too dense for it
to land, even inside the settlement. ‘It’s going to drop troops,’
Eddie warned as everyone scrambled across the remains of a
defensive trench. ‘They’ll be able to shoot you from about two
hundred metres away through this much jungle, so keep as many trees
behind you as you can. Oscar, get everyone to the Jeeps. Kit, you
and me are going to cover the rear.’
‘I don’t think I like
the sound of that,’ the Indian said unhappily.
Nina wasn’t keen
either. ‘What are you doing?’
Eddie pointed back
towards the lost town. ‘In about thirty seconds, they’ll have boots
on the ground – and another thirty seconds after that, the guys we
tied up’ll have told them we just did a runner out of the gate. We
need to slow ’em down long enough for you to get to the
trucks.’
‘We’re not going to
leave you!’ she protested.
‘It’s a tactical
withdrawal, not a last stand. We’ll be there, you can bloody
believe it!’ She was still hesitant, so he gave her a reassuring
smile. ‘We’ll be fine. Go on, see you soon.’
‘I’ll hold you to
that,’ she said with a faint smile of her own, before going after
the others.
Eddie watched her
retreat, then turned to Kit. ‘You ready?’
‘No, but that never
seems to matter, does it?’ A grim grin from the Interpol officer.
‘What do we do?’
‘Keep your gun on the
gate. Soon as anyone comes out of it, fire a couple of rounds.
We’re trying to buy time, so we need to keep ’em bottled up for as
long as we can.’
‘Are we shooting to
kill?’
‘They will be.’ The
Mil tipped out of its hover, swinging round to circle the area.
‘Okay, they’re down,’ said Eddie. ‘Soon as the shooting starts,
we’ll do a running retreat. You back up by twenty, thirty metres,
get behind a tree and cover me while I move, then I do the same for
you.’
‘Okay.’ They hunched
behind an earth mound, about sixty metres from the gate. The team
had been extremely unlucky, Eddie thought; the chopper must have
been visiting the radar base for it to have responded to the
soldier’s SOS so quickly. It also still posed a threat – it was a
transport, not a gunship, but it could follow the fleeing 4×4s and
report their position.
There were more
pressing worries, though. He sighted the AK on the gate. How long
before the soldiers reached it?
He got an answer a
few seconds later. A man cautiously looked out—
Eddie fired two rapid
shots. The first went slightly wide, cracking off the stonework.
The Englishman immediately adjusted his aim, but the soldier had
already pulled back.
‘Move,’ he told Kit,
who started his retreat. Eddie kept his gun fixed on the gate. The
man reappeared, unleashing a three-round burst from his AK. Bullets
smacked into the mound in front of Eddie. He ducked, then returned
fire – but that had been all the time another two soldiers needed
to rush past their comrade and dive headlong into the
trench.
The soldier at the
gate fired again, the rounds whipping over Eddie’s head. He crawled
back and waved for Kit to shoot. It was going to be a tough
escape.
But not
impossible.
Kit fired a couple of
rounds, and Eddie quickly scuttled backwards. He passed the Indian,
and kept moving until he reached shelter behind the vine-throttled
trunk of a large hardwood tree. Nobody was in clear sight, but the
jolting of a small bush told him that one man was crawling along
the trench. The other was probably doing the same in the other
direction. They were spreading out, making it harder for himself
and Kit to cover them all.
They weren’t
advancing, though. For now, that was what mattered: it would buy
Nina and the others the time they needed to reach the
trucks.
‘Kit!’ he called. The
Interpol officer dropped low and backed up to pass him. He readied
his weapon—
Two more soldiers
rushed out of the gate. Eddie fired again. Somebody yelled, but
more in surprise than pain – a very narrow miss, perhaps even a
grazing impact. A good scare would make him more reluctant to put
his head up.
But there were still
at least four other men to deal with. He released another round to
encourage them to stay down – then jerked into cover himself as a
soldier in the trench opened fire on full auto. Chunks of shredded
wood exploded from the trunk.
Kit was in position
behind another tree. Eddie fired a single shot, then ducked and
hurried to overtake him. The Indian unleashed more bullets, hitting
nothing but soil and wood, then moved back as Eddie took up the
cover fire.
The man at the gate
reappeared. Eddie aimed at him – then snapped his gun round as he
saw a soldier rise and rush out of the trench. Two pulls of the
trigger, and the man tumbled into the dirt, shrieking in
Spanish.
If the soldiers were
professionals, some would break off to help the wounded man . .
.
Money was their
motivation. The screams continued as the gunfire intensified, the
angry Venezuelans advancing. Eddie fired again as another man ran
for a tree, but a spray of bullets from two others chewed into his
cover and forced him back behind it.
But he and Kit had
done their job. The others would be almost at the Jeeps by now. He
registered that the helicopter was still circling somewhere behind
him, but ignored it. Time to go.
‘Give me cover, then
run!’ he called to Kit, who fired again. Eddie bent low and
scurried from the tree – then, when he was level with his friend,
broke into a sprint. Kit fired a last burst before following. AKs
chattered behind them as they ran.
Valero’s injuries
were slowing him, the Venezuelan clutching his ribs as his run
became a faltering plod. Nina moved alongside him. ‘Leonard, help
me carry him!’
‘No, keep going,’
Valero wheezed as Osterhagen hurried over. ‘We’re almost there – go
on!’
Nina took his weight
on one side, the German supporting him on the other. ‘No, we stick
together,’ she insisted.
Another expedition
member didn’t share that view. Cuff broke from the group and raced
up the earthen bank ahead. ‘Day, wait!’ cried Loretta.
‘If he takes one of
the trucks on his own,’ Nina growled, ‘he’ll need more than a
dentist when I’m done with him.’
‘I’ll help,’ Macy
added.
‘He wouldn’t do
that,’ Osterhagen assured her. ‘I think . . . ’
Macy ran to catch
Cuff as they brought Valero up the slope. At the top, Nina spotted
a flash of red through the greenery – one of the Land Cruisers.
Osterhagen saw it too, and they guided the winded man towards
it.
Cuff reached the
nearest 4×4, yanking open the driver’s door. Nina expected him to
jump in, but instead he stood unmoving. ‘Start it up!’ Macy yelled
to him as she reached the vehicle. ‘Come on, get—’
She too froze,
suddenly silent.
Nina realised that
something was horribly wrong, but it was too late to do anything
about it – they were only a couple of dozen yards from the trucks
with nowhere to run, nowhere to take cover.
Macy looked back,
frightened. Nina now knew why.
Someone was in the
Land Cruiser. But how—
The helicopter. She hadn’t paid it any attention,
distracted by the gunfire. Now, though, she knew what it had been
doing. The only way to leave Paititi was along the logging track,
and it had dropped more troops ahead to catch them in a
pincer.
Figures emerged from
behind trees and bushes, weapons aimed at the archaeologists and
their guide. Loretta screamed. One soldier pointed at Valero, then
gestured towards the ground. With a faint moan of defeat, Valero
dropped his gun.
The man in the Land
Cruiser emerged, Cuff stepping back in fear. Tall, late forties,
tending towards the spread of middle age but still intimidatingly
powerful. An officer, his crisp and clean uniform contrasting with
the sweaty fatigues of his men. He regarded Nina and her companions
coldly from behind a pair of aviator sunglasses. ‘Who are you,’ he
said in thickly accented English, ‘and what are you doing in my
ruins?’
Eddie and Kit weaved
through the jungle, plants whipping at their faces. ‘Over there!’
Eddie said, seeing footprints heading up the bank. He followed
them. ‘Just up this, and we’re—’
Figures standing
around the 4×4s.
Too many
figures.
Instinct kicked in
and he dropped flat, dragging Kit with him as more rifles fired.
Bullets ripped into the ground just above them.
The gunfire stopped.
Gesturing for Kit to stay still, Eddie crawled sidelong until he
was below a plant’s dangling fronds. Very cautiously, he raised his
head and peered through the leaves.
The other team
members were lined up on their knees before the Land Cruisers,
hands behind their heads. Nina was at the centre, between Macy and
Cuff. None appeared to have been harmed.
Yet.
A man wearing a tan
beret was partially visible behind the nearer 4×4, but Eddie fixed
his attention on the person in charge: a Venezuelan officer in
sunglasses standing behind the prisoners, one hand on his holstered
automatic. ‘Throw your guns over the top and raise your hands above
your heads!’ he shouted.
‘What do we do?’ Kit
whispered.
They were
outnumbered, only limited ammo remaining, and, with the prisoners
held at gunpoint and more soldiers closing from behind, the chances
of taking down the Venezuelans without suffering multiple losses
were almost zero. ‘We’ll have to give up,’ Eddie reluctantly told
him. Kit looked shocked. ‘Yeah, it’s a pisser, I know. But if we
don’t—’
The officer shouted
again. ‘If you do not surrender by the time I count to three, I
will kill one of your friends!’ Eddie looked through the leaves
again, his blood chilling when he saw that the man had drawn his
gun and moved behind Nina. He started to count, with almost no
pause between the numbers. ‘One, two—’
‘No!’ Eddie yelled,
flinging his AK over the rise and jumping up with his hands held
high. Kit did the same.
The cold gaze behind
the sunglasses regarded them for a moment. Nobody moved.
Then—
‘Three.’
He pulled the
trigger.
The bullet hit the
back of Cuff’s skull from point-blank range. It shattered into
fragments as it punched through bone, red-hot metal chunks
liquefying brain tissue. One of the pieces exploded from his right
eye socket at the head of a terrible gout of grey and red. Cuff
slumped lifelessly in his own blood.
Nina had been almost
deafened by the gunshot barely two feet from her head. The ringing
in her ears gradually faded, only to be replaced by another sound.
Screaming. Loretta was wailing hysterically at the sight of Cuff’s
body. The other prisoners were also in shock.
The officer gestured
to two of his men. Weapons locked on Eddie and Kit, they recovered
the discarded AK-103s, then brought the explorers to their
commander. The three golden stars of his insignia told the former
SAS man that he was a major general – one of the highest Venezuelan
military ranks. He removed his sunglasses, revealing dark, narrow
eyes, blinking as infrequently as a lizard’s. ‘Are there any more
of you?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Eddie
replied.
‘If you are lying, I
will kill you all. Starting with her.’ He pointed his pistol at
Nina. She looked fearfully at her husband.
‘This is all of us.
I’m not lying,’ said Eddie.
The officer stared at
him for several seconds before finally turning away, appearing
satisfied. His gaze moved on to Loretta, who was still crying.
‘Rojas,’ he said to a man nearby, a sergeant. ‘That noise. Silence
it.’
Rojas stepped up to
Loretta and with a swift, savage move smashed a fist across her
face, knocking her to the ground. ‘You fucker!’ Eddie cried,
lunging at him, only to have two Kalashnikov muzzles stabbed hard
into his chest, then the stock of a third rifle slammed against the
back of his head. He dropped to his knees in pain.
The man standing
behind the Land Cruiser spoke. ‘Always did try to play the white
knight for the ladies, didn’t you . . . Chase?’
Eddie looked up in
shock. He knew that voice. The speaker strode out and stood before
him, a smug smile on his chiselled face.
It was Alexander
Stikes.