33
Eddie saw the Hind through the cave mouth. Even with
the water still partially obscuring it, he picked out the colours
of the Venezuelan flag. ‘It’s Stikes!’
‘What?’ said Nina in
utter disbelief. ‘How the hell could he know we’re
here?’
The aircraft moved
out of sight. ‘What is going on?’ Zender demanded, caught between
confusion and fear. ‘That helicopter - it was
Venezuelan!’
‘It used to be one of
yours, but it’s gone into the private sector,’ Eddie said grimly.
He turned to the two soldiers. ‘You and you – with me, quick!’ The
three men hurried away down the steps.
Zender still wanted
answers. ‘Tell me what is happening!’
‘Stikes used the
helicopter’s weapons to block the river and cut off the waterfall,’
Mac told him. ‘It’ll make it easier for his people to get into the
cave.’
‘Who is
Stikes?’
‘A mercenary,’ said
Nina. ‘He was part of the attempted coup in Venezuela – and it
looks like he’s trying to make up for not getting paid by raiding
this place.’
Juanita was scared.
‘What – what about the soldiers we left outside?’
‘They’re dead,’ Mac
replied bluntly. ‘And we will be too unless Eddie and your other
men can hold them off.’
‘You don’t sound
confident,’ said Kit.
The Hind came back
into view outside. ‘We are slightly
outgunned,’ said Mac. He looked towards the plaza. ‘We need to see
what’s going on.’ He started down the steps, the others going with
him. Nina left the case amongst the team’s gear before
following.
Eddie and the two
soldiers raced downhill through the narrow streets. They passed the
tombs, seeing the reservoir ahead. ‘Where are we going?’ asked
Lieutenant Echazu.
‘There’s only one way
into this cave,’ Eddie answered. ‘We need to make sure nobody comes
up that tunnel.’
‘We? But you do not
have a gun!’
‘I’ve got a water
pistol, sort of.’ They reached the edge of the hidden city, the
ground sloping more steeply down to the shaft. ‘Okay, cover that
hole.’
The soldiers split up
to take positions overlooking the entrance. ‘What are you doing?’
shouted the corporal, Chambi, seeing Eddie running to the shaft
itself.
‘Making sure they get
the point!’ he said as he jumped down to the booby trap’s trigger
slab. There was a rasp of stone, but it stayed in
place.
More sounds echoed up
the passage. He looked down, seeing torchlight glinting off the
silver spikes. The intruders were already at the bottom of the
shaft – and he had left them an easy way up. The hanging rope
suddenly pulled tight as someone started to climb it.
He jumped down to the
next step. Below was the ledge with the three jaguar heads. Another
look over the edge – and he saw a man on the first
ledge.
Eddie dropped flat on
the cramped step, reaching down with one hand. The two jaguar heads
that he had left untouched were just within his grasp, but the
third, lowered to deactivate the trap, was a couple of inches
beyond his fingertips. Swearing under his breath, he leaned further
out. The man on the rope was already climbing to the second
step—
A torch beam flashed
across his face. Someone shouted in Spanish. The climber looked up,
saw him – and dropped back down to the first step, reaching for the
AK-47 across his back.
Eddie lunged,
grabbing the stone jaguar and yanking it upwards – then rolled back
as the Kalashnikov roared. Bullets smacked against the wall,
sending ricochets screaming up the shaft. The noise was horrific in
the confined space.
The thunder faded to
echoes, then to nothing. The AK’s magazine was empty. He heard
metallic clicks from below as the gunman kept pulling the
trigger.
Not one of Stikes’s
men, then – a professional would already be changing the mag. No
time to wonder who he might be, though. Instead Eddie leapt and
grabbed the rope, swinging round to plant his soles against the
shaft’s side as he scrambled up. He couldn’t touch the trigger slab
on the step above.
Kla-chack! The gunman had finally reloaded and
pulled the AK’s charging handle, chambering the first
round—
Eddie heaved himself
over the ledge and swung sideways on the rope, thumping against the
back wall as another burst of gunfire hammered up the shaft. He was
barely an inch above the slab, his leather jacket brushing the
stone. A sharp chunk of metal hit his cheek – a bullet had blown
the tip off a spike. He flinched, almost falling, straining to hold
on . . .
The firing stopped.
The rope juddered in his hands as the man below grabbed it and
started to climb after him.
Eddie jerked back
into motion, pulling himself rapidly up the shaft. He clambered out
and drew his knife. The rope was still bar-taut with the gunman’s
weight; he sawed at it, threads fraying—
It snapped. A yell of
fright came from below as the climber fell – followed by a terrible
scream as he hit the spikes. The agonised shrieks continued as the
man flailed, trying to drag himself off the spears tearing into his
flesh. He succeeded – only to plummet down the shaft. The crack of
shattering bone as his jaw caught the edge of a step was almost as
sharp as the Kalashnikov’s shots.
The sound was
followed by the real thing as the dead man’s companions fired up
the shaft. Eddie ran – not because he feared being hit, but because
he was only feet from the silver door at the bottom of the
reservoir.
If the trap still
worked, it would soon open.
The gunshots stopped,
replaced by grunts of exertion. Another man was ascending, pulling
himself up each step in turn. Shouts followed him as other men
crowded into the tunnel to join the pursuit.
He reached the fourth
ledge—
The slab tilted under
his weight. Only by an inch . . .
But that was all that
was needed to release the flap.
The heavy metal door,
hinged at its top, flew open under the pressure of thousands of
gallons of water. The escaping flood smashed against the great wall
before finding an escape route – straight down the
shaft.
The deluge swept away
the men climbing the steps, dashing them against the spikes and
driving the silver points through skulls and torsos. Those at the
bottom fared no better, the surge of water pounding along the
passage like a piston and flinging them to their deaths on the
jagged rocks below.
Outside, Pachac
stared at the plume of water gushing from the tunnel in horrified
disbelief. He had been about to enter the passage himself – and now
all the men who had gone before him were dead! Bodies surfaced and
bobbed in the frothing pool, limbs snapped like broken dolls. The
rest of his men were equally shocked. ‘Inkarrí!’ shouted one. ‘What
– what do we do now?’
The force of the
water was already falling. Pachac’s face set into an angry snarl.
‘As soon as the tunnel is clear, we go in – and make the bastards
who killed our brothers pay!’
Eddie reached Echazu,
the young officer having found a position in a small house
overlooking the shaft. Chambi was not far away, crouched behind the
wall of a terrace near their route into the city. ‘You got them!’
said the Peruvian.
‘Dunno if I got all
of ’em, though,’ Eddie replied. The reservoir was now empty, the
silver flap’s weight swinging it shut to reset the trap – but it
would take hours, even days, for the streams running through the
cavern to refill it. ‘If I didn’t, it won’t take long before they
come through that hole. If you see anyone, shoot ’em!’ He ran along
the terrace to give the corporal the same
instructions.
From the circling
Hind, Stikes watched Pachac and his remaining men climb to the
entrance set into the towering wall. The gush of water from it had
reduced to a modest stream. ‘The Incas didn’t leave their city
totally undefended, I see.’
Baine, sitting beside
him, looked down at the corpses in the pool without sympathy.
‘Stupid bastards. Must have run right in without
checking.’
‘And Pachac’s
probably about to do the same thing. He said they killed two
soldiers, but that leaves another two – and I suspect the other end
of that tunnel is easily defensible.’ His gaze rose from the wall
to the cave mouth above it. With the waterfall all but stopped, the
faint shapes of buildings were visible in the darkness. Elevated
positions, with plenty of cover. . . ‘We might have to give him
some help.’ He spoke into his headset. ‘Gurov, get a good firing
angle into that cave.’
Nina looked down from
the plaza at the great wall. She had seen Eddie running from the
top of the shaft as a massive wave crashed into it, but then he
disappeared behind the city’s lower buildings. ‘Oh God, where is
he?’
‘He got clear,’ Mac
assured her. ‘He’ll be okay.’
The other expedition
members joined them at the stone balustrade. ‘Look, there!’ said
Kit, pointing. A man peered cautiously from the top of the shaft
before climbing out—
Gunfire crackled from
below. Dust and stones kicked up around the intruder – then he
slumped to the rocky ground, dead. Another man behind him hurriedly
dropped out of sight.
Zender clenched a
fist in triumph. ‘They got him!’
Nina didn’t feel
reassured. Even if they could hold off their attackers, they were
still trapped inside the city.
And there was another
threat. The chop of the Hind’s rotors rose as the gunship
descended, slowly pivoting to face the cave entrance.
Eddie reached over to
Chambi’s AKM and turned its firing mode selector from automatic to
single-shot. ‘You need to save ammo,’ he told the surprised
soldier, having noticed that both Peruvians were only carrying one
extra magazine. ‘It’ll be more accurate an’ all.’
Chambi’s grasp of
English was apparently not great, but he got the gist. ‘You have
been in fights before?’ he asked.
Eddie grinned
crookedly. ‘You could say that. Whoa, look out – there’s another
one.’ The barrel of an AK-47 popped up from the shaft, followed by
its owner’s head, his companions lifting him so he could aim his
weapon with both hands.
Chambi fired, the
shot accompanied by a crack from Echazu’s gun. Eddie wasn’t sure
whose bullet hit its target, but was happy with the result either
way; the man’s head snapped back with a burst of blood from his
forehead, and he disappeared again, this time
permanently.
‘Good shot,’ he told
the corporal, who seemed pleased by the praise. He saw that the
first man to emerge had dropped his Kalashnikov when he was shot.
An extra weapon would be a huge help – if he could reach it. ‘Keep
the hole covered – I’m going to get that gun.’ He started back
along the terrace to tell Echazu his plan.
A change in the
Hind’s engine noise caught his attention. He had tuned out the
gunship while concentrating on the shaft, but it was now hovering,
engines straining at full power to support its armoured
bulk.
Its cannon
turned—
‘Down!’ Eddie shouted, diving flat behind the
wall—
The Hind opened fire,
the four barrels of its Gatling gun spitting out a stream of death.
Echazu, fixated on the shaft, didn’t realise the danger until it
was too late. The bullets ripped through the little building’s
doorway, ricocheting shrapnel tearing him apart.
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
towards 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 on to
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 cross-hairs up the slope. A brief flash of body heat
between two buildings, but it disappeared before he could lock on
to 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 paralysed Nina as she and the others watched the
Hind open fire – but the sight of the gunship’s cannon turning
towards them snapped her back into motion with a surge of
adrenalin. ‘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 round 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 round. 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 towards 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
towards 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 had 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 recognisable, 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
– towards 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
each other. ‘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 grey 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 round 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 towards
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.’