Lobato reached the kitchen door, only to reel back as the stench of gas hit him. He hurriedly continued along the hallway. To his alarm he saw as it came into focus that the far end was strewn with debris where a section of ceiling had collapsed. But he had no choice except to negotiate it – the stairs Eddie had gone up had been destroyed as well. He began to pick his way over the obstacle, glancing back—
Rubble shifted underfoot. He fell again.
The excavator rolled remorselessly towards him—
Ana leapt out from the stairwell and hurled a chunk of broken concrete at the cab.
The driver flinched as it crazed the windscreen, one hand jerking on the control lever. The excavator turned sharply, its right track tearing into the drywall before hitting something more solid behind it and slamming to a stop.
‘Get out of here!’ Ana shouted, pushing Lobato into the dining room. Parts of its ceiling had caved in, beams and wreckage from the devastated hot-tub room above strewn about.
The billionaire staggered away as she retreated. The earth-mover lurched into motion again, reversing out of the wall before straightening. It smashed through the doors, charging like a bull.
Ana took on the role of matador, hurling bricks at the cab to keep the furious driver focused on her as she angled away from Lobato. The excavator followed her, grinding over wood and brick. She kept up her retreat – until she backed into a heavy joist that had punched almost vertically down through the ceiling.
Sensing victory, the driver brought the machine surging forward to crush her—
Ana dived aside. The scoop smashed into the beam, the excavator driving it backwards and ripping the hole in the ceiling even wider.
Realising that he had been tricked, the driver braked—
Too late.
The hot tub plunged down from the floor above, landing squarely on top of the machine and crushing its cab.
More debris fell with it, scattering across the dining room – and amongst the flying detritus came a bald-headed man in a leather jacket. ‘Bugger-fucking-ation!’ yelled Eddie as he bounced over the dining table, demolishing several chairs.
Lobato had reached a gunfire-shattered window to find relative safety outside. He squinted fearfully back into the dining room. ‘Ana! Are you all right?’
The Brazilian shook off wood and cement. ‘I’m okay,’ she panted. ‘I heard Eddie! Where—’
‘Here,’ Eddie groaned. He regarded the damaged digger and its hot-tub hat. ‘I took out a bad guy while I was in the bath? That’s a first.’
He went to the excavator. ‘What are you doing?’ Ana asked. ‘The others will be coming!’
‘I need to find my gun.’ He climbed up to look inside the tub, but found it piled with chunks of the bathroom’s marble floor. ‘Arse!’ He started to toss them aside, then heard a moan from the flattened cab. Looking in, he was surprised to see the driver had survived. The machine’s roll cage was buckled, but had done its job: the man was slumped in the footwell with the mangled roof inches above his head. ‘You are one lucky bastard,’ Eddie told him – then he punched him in the face. ‘Not that lucky, mind.’
‘Someone is coming!’ Lobato cried, looking outside.
‘Ana, take him that way,’ Eddie ordered, pointing down the hall. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’ He groped in the tub again.
Dark grey metal was revealed beneath a jagged slice of marble. He tugged the gun out – and cursed. It was damaged, the slide bent where falling masonry had pounded it like a hammer. It almost certainly wouldn’t cycle correctly; the single bullet in the chamber was all he could be sure of firing.
But even one bullet was better than none. He jumped down after Ana and Lobato. ‘Where’s Nina?’ he shouted.
Nina ran through the lounge containing the Atlantean marker stone. The pursuing raider fired a couple of wild shots as she darted through a door into a short hallway. Stairs led upwards, but she went instead to an exterior door. If she could get clear of the house and stay ahead of al-Asim’s men until help arrived . . .
She pulled the handle. It didn’t move.
Locked!
‘Shit!’ She turned and raced up the stairs as her pursuer barged into the hallway.
She reached the top and sprinted desperately through the upper floor. ‘Eddie!’ she cried. ‘Eddie, help!’
No reply from her husband – but there was one from someone else. ‘Nina?’ came Maximov’s muffled shout.
‘Oleg!’ She ducked through a side door to keep the gunman from shooting her in the back, finding herself on the balcony overlooking the lounge. A section of plaster had broken away from the wall, cracks running from it. ‘Someone’s right behind me! Where are you?’
‘Stuck in room! I hear you through wall, but—’
Whatever he said next, Nina didn’t catch – she was too busy trying to catch herself as the balcony swayed under her weight. The excavator’s rampage had weakened the cheaply constructed house well beyond the rooms it had destroyed. She grabbed the handrail, almost dropping the spearhead.
The man chasing her burst through the door, only to be caught by the unexpected lurch. But he quickly steadied himself, bringing up his gun—
He held fire as the door at the other end of the balcony was kicked open by a second armed Dhajani. If either shot at Nina, they could hit the other.
But that was little help to her. She was trapped between them, the only way out a fifteen-foot fall to hard marble.
‘Nina!’ Maximov shouted again, his voice coming from the other side of the cracked wall.
‘Oleg, they’ve got me!’ she wailed as both men advanced—
A growl became a roar, getting louder – and the huge Russian exploded through the wall.
The two gunmen froze in shock. ‘Down!’ yelled Maximov. Nina dropped as he whipped out both arms and spun, one of his hock-sized fists hitting the nearest Dhajani’s head hard enough to send teeth flying from the balcony. Their owner followed them as the fearsome blow cartwheeled him over the railing.
Nina threw herself aside as the Russian whirled out of his spin to charge the second raider. The other man recovered from his shock, and pulled his Glock’s trigger just as Maximov grabbed him.
Its muzzle was pressed against the big man’s left arm. The bullet ripped through it, blood splattering the wall. Maximov howled. The raider pulled back to aim a lethal shot at his chest, thinking the pain had rendered his opponent helpless . . .
But it wasn’t pain the former Spetznaz trooper was feeling. The startled Dhajani realised this as he saw the other man grin—
Maximov bent back, winding up – and delivered a brutal headbutt to the other man, the steel plate in his skull magnifying the attack to sledgehammer force. The blow was so hard that the already weakened floor gave way beneath the Dhajani’s feet. He fell through the balcony, bouncing off the marble to end up beside his equally stunned companion.
Maximov turned to Nina, blood smeared across his forehead and an extremely unsettling smile on his face. ‘You okay?’ he asked.
‘Uh, yeah,’ she replied.
‘We find Eddie, da?’
‘Da,’ she said, hopping over the hole in the floor to the door at the balcony’s far end. ‘Was he still in the—’
A sudden jolt threw her against the railing. She yelped, catching herself – as the middle of the balcony broke away and fell. Maximov went with it.
The Russian slammed into the rubble below with a snap of bone that made Nina cringe. She looked down. He was sprawled over the balcony’s remains, one foot twisted at a sickening angle. ‘Oh my God! Oleg!’
He squinted up at her. ‘I am okay,’ he said, voice slurred. ‘I am . . . very okay.’ He peered at his broken ankle and smiled in grotesque ecstasy. ‘Very, very, very . . . okay . . .’
His eyes rolled back, then he slumped.
Nina was about to drop down to help him when one of the Dhajanis groped groggily for his gun. She hurriedly retreated through the door. Ther
e was nothing she could do for the Russian now – her first priority was keeping the spearhead from their attackers.
She rushed through the upper floor. She almost called out Eddie’s name, but silenced herself. Al-Asim’s men would close in if she gave her position away. Instead she ran on, hoping her husband was still in the turret – and still alive.
Eddie followed Ana and Lobato down the excavator-ravaged hallway. A noise caught his attention: someone was running along the floor above. He was about to call Nina’s name when his nostrils warned him of something more urgent. ‘Shit! There’s a gas leak.’
‘The kitchen,’ said Lobato, indicating an open door ahead. ‘The pipes were broken.’
‘Like we don’t have enough trouble already.’ Eddie looked back towards the wrecked stairwell. ‘Nina! Is that—’
‘Look out!’ cried Ana.
A raider appeared at the passage’s far end. He raised his gun and fired—
Ana threw herself in front of Lobato. The bullet that would have hit him in the chest instead struck her shoulder.
Eddie whipped around to shoot back, but another armed man had already joined the first. He only had one bullet: whichever raider he shot, the other would kill him. Instead he tackled both Lobato and the wailing Ana through the kitchen door. Automatic fire tore down the hallway behind them.
The kitchen had been devastated by the earth-mover, debris turning the room into a treacherous obstacle course, but that was not Eddie’s biggest concern. The room stank of escaping gas. Metal pipes jutted from the wrecked wall, propane hissing from their torn ends.
Lobato gagged. ‘We can’t stay in here!’ he said, coughing.
Eddie agreed, but for different reasons. The trail of destruction had opened up a direct path to the main hall, and the two gunmen were already following it towards them. Both hesitated at the stench of gas, then lifted their fingers off their triggers before running for their prey. ‘In here, quick!’
He pushed Lobato and Ana past the shrilling pipes into the next wrecked room. The excavator had made its entrance here, the exterior wall caved in. ‘Go that way!’ he ordered, pointing at the opening as he dropped behind an overturned table. ‘And keep your heads down!’
Despite her pain, Ana turned to look back at him as Lobato helped her through the hole. ‘What are you going to— No!’
But Eddie had already taken aim. He pulled the trigger – and sent his last bullet at the ruptured pipes.
The red-hot metal whipped through the gushing gas, setting it alight – and the kitchen erupted in fire, the two gunmen screaming and hurling themselves backwards as a swelling wall of flame rushed at them.
The blast tore the leaking pipes apart, more gas bursting out and igniting. The shock wave was transmitted back through the metal in a chain reaction, shattering joints and cracking welds. The conflagration swept through the house’s foundations to its source—
The Onans’ isolated mansion was not connected to the country’s gas network, instead using large cylinders of liquefied gas. They were kept in a metal shed tucked against the house’s side – which blew apart as the valves ruptured, ripping the tanks open and detonating all the remaining propane in a huge blast. Every window on that side of the building shattered as a churning fireball erupted into the twilight sky.
The whole house shook. Lobato pulled the wounded Ana clear as dislodged tiles cascaded over the eaves. Eddie took several painful strikes as he raced after them. He swore, then looked back.
The kitchen was in flames, but the inferno had spread far beyond it, the explosion having practically split the building in two. Tongues of fire rose from the roof, smoke swirling from windows. He couldn’t see the gunmen, but if they were still alive, they would be decidedly singed.
He hurried to Lobato. The billionaire had found cover behind a patio wall and was crouched over Ana, who lay on her side, face twisted in pain. ‘What do I do?’ he asked, sounding lost.
Eddie quickly examined Ana’s wound. ‘Got an entry and an exit – looks like the bullet deflected off a bone. Not much we can do right now except stop her bleeding out. Put your hands over the holes and keep pressure on them.’
Lobato stared at Ana’s shoulder in horror. ‘But – there is lots of blood!’
‘Yeah, that usually happens when someone gets shot! Come on, do it.’
The skinny man raised his hands, but couldn’t bring himself to touch the wound. ‘Okay, Gideon, listen,’ said Eddie, trying to contain his impatience. ‘I’ve got to find Nina before these arseholes do – which means you’re the only person who can help Ana. You can do it,’ he added, seeing the other man’s uncertainty. ‘You’re one of the richest men in the world, for fuck’s sake. If you can build a business, you can do first aid. You want to save the planet? Start with saving one person.’
‘I . . . can do it. I can do it.’ Lobato steeled himself, overcoming his revulsion and hesitantly placing his palms on Ana’s shoulder. She gasped, making him recoil.
‘Stay there,’ Eddie growled, pushing his hands back into place. ‘Yeah, it’ll hurt her, but it’ll keep her alive. I’ll be back.’
He checked his surroundings for enemies. Nobody in sight. He vaulted over the wall. If the person he had heard upstairs was Nina, she would be at the pool end of the house. He ran towards it.
Nina had been stymied in her attempt to reach Eddie by the hole outside the hot-tub room. She stood at the edge of the gap, unsure what to do – until a massive explosion shook the house. She whirled—
And saw flames charging down the hallway.
With a wail of ‘Shiiiiit!’ she spun back around and leapt desperately into the hole.
Nina hit a broken beam side-on, her thigh and hip taking the impact. She cartwheeled over its top, the debris-strewn floor spinning at her. She instinctively threw out both arms to protect her head . . .
Letting go of the spearhead.
She gasped as she realised her mistake. The spearhead tumbled past her and hit the rubble. The swirling flecks of light within it flared . . . then stabilised.
The relic bounded onwards, clattering to a stop just inside the wrecked dining room. Nina let out a long, relieved breath. The spearhead was tougher than it looked; if the blow had weakened it in any way, the antimatter would have been released and she, the house, the hill and everything else for miles around would have been annihilated.
Groaning at new bruises, she crawled to the glowing object—
Boots crunched down in front of her.
She looked up to see al-Asim. His gun was aimed at her head. ‘Dr Wilde,’ he said, mouth curling in triumph. ‘You have caused us a great deal of trouble.’
35
‘You’ll get a lot more trouble if you take that thing,’ Nina snapped. ‘Unless I put it back in the vault, it’ll explode – and you won’t even know when!’
‘But you know, don’t you?’ Al-Asim picked up the spearhead, then gestured for her to stand. She reluctantly obeyed. Behind him, she saw that the excavator had been partially crushed beneath, of all things, a hot tub. Its cab was empty, though; the driver must have survived. Flames from the fireball danced around the hole in the ceiling above it. ‘You are an expert on Atlantis. It is how you found the vault, after all – and I think the inscriptions inside have told you all about it.’
‘They didn’t tell me anything,’ she lied. ‘We’d only just opened up the vault when you arrived. I didn’t have time to translate anything.’
‘We shall see. Move.’
She started for the French windows. ‘Where are we going?’
‘You are coming with us, to Dhajan.’ He smiled, far from reassuringly. ‘You are an expert on Atlantis. I am an expert on interroga—’
He was slammed to the floor as Eddie leapt through a broken window and tackled him.
The spearhead skittered across the room. ‘Nina, get out of here!’ the Yorkshireman shouted as he grappled with the Arab.
‘I’ve got to get the spearhead!’ she crie
d, starting towards it—
Al-Asim squirmed beneath his opponent to point the Glock at her. He pulled the trigger – just as Eddie yanked his arm upwards. Nina jumped back in fright as bullets struck the ceiling. Burning wood fell from above. ‘Get out!’ her husband shouted again. This time she ran for the nearest window.
The two men struggled. Al-Asim was younger and taller, but Eddie had the edge in raw strength. He made the absolute most of his slight advantage, shoving his forearm against al-Asim’s throat while trying to tear the gun from the agent’s grip with his other hand.
The choking Dhajani clawed at Eddie’s eyes. The Englishman twisted to block the other man’s arm with his shoulder. Al-Asim’s fingertips caught his chin – and Eddie snapped at them like an angry terrier, catching his little finger in his teeth and biting it, hard.
Bone crunched. Al-Asim screamed, wrenching his hand back. Eddie felt something tear as it jerked free. He spat. Blood and an entire fingernail hit the raider’s eyes.
His adversary flinched. Eddie grabbed for the gun again, this time finding a hold on the grip—
Al-Asim kicked out, not at Eddie, but the surrounding debris. His foot hit a hefty section of broken beam. The sudden jolt as he found leverage unsteadied the Yorkshireman. His arm slipped from al-Asim’s neck, and before he could pull it back, the other man struck at his face again, delivering a brutal punch that knocked Eddie sideways.
Al-Asim forced his adversary away – but in doing so, gave Eddie an opportunity of his own. He rolled, tearing the gun from the Dhajani’s hand as he scrambled back against the earth-mover and whipped the Glock around—
Something hard and sharp smashed against his hand.
The impact knocked the gun away. Eddie cried out, blood running from a deep cut in the ball of his thumb—
The object rushed at him again, heading straight for his face. He threw himself sideways. The weapon flashed above his cheek as he fell, metal blades glinting, then arced around to snap back at al-Asim. The Arab whipped up his wrist to intercept it. It was on a wire, reeling back into his watch—
The Spear of Atlantis (Wilde/Chase 14) Page 35