“Volcano, about to go boom,” Eddie reminded him loudly.
“Okay, okay!” He increased power, the airframe swaying in response. “Get it up to speed, and then increase the collective pitch …”
He cautiously pulled up the collective control lever beside his seat. The AW101 shuddered—then rose slightly, its landing gear creaking as the weight on it was reduced. “That’s it, that’s it!” said Nina. “Keep doing more of that!”
Larry gingerly lifted the collective higher. The helicopter bounced alarmingly on its wheels. He stifled a yell and jammed the throttle to full power, bringing up the lever—
The chopper lurched again—and left the ground.
Ten feet up, twenty, and rising with increasing speed. The mountainside spread out below as it ascended. Eddie returned to the cockpit, grabbing Nina’s seat for support. “Okay, now get us out of here.” The AW101 kept climbing—vertically. He looked back, seeing the volcano’s summit coming into view through the open rear ramp. The smoke and ash belching from it were now almost completely black, globules of glowing lava spitting into the air. “Dad, we need to go forward!”
“Yes, I know!” Larry snapped. “Let’s see if this works …”
He pushed the cyclic. The aircraft’s nose tipped downward … and it started to move. More pressure, and the tilt increased, the helicopter picking up speed away from the mountain.
“That’s it, keep going!” Nina cried. She looked down at the ground. The barren hillside swept past below—as did the Land Rover. As she watched, the four-by-four slewed out of control and flipped over, mangled debris flying from it as it tumbled down the slope. “Whoa! Sophia just wiped out!”
Eddie glanced at the wreck, but the growing thunder of the volcano was foremost on his mind. The earth energy that Nina had unleashed might make it explode at any moment—and the helicopter was still dangerously close. The shock wave alone could swat it out of the sky. “Dad! How fast are we going?”
“You find the speedo and tell me!” Larry shot back, concentrating on keeping the AW101 in the air.
Eddie scanned the console, finally spotting the dial of the airspeed indicator. Sixty knots and accelerating. Another look over his shoulder. The retreating volcano was framed in the open ramp, more lava spewing out of the crater. As he watched, part of the hillside suddenly flowed like liquid, the subterranean quakes triggering a landslide. One had exposed the entrance to the Temple of the Gods—and now a vastly larger one was erasing it from the face of the earth.
Ninety knots, and three thousand feet in altitude. They were well above the summit, but still only about two miles from where they had taken off. Nina twisted in her seat, gawping at the sight that greeted her. “My God!” Great sprays of molten rock burst from the crater, splattering down on the crumbling cone of rock below.
It struck her that she had been the cause. One person, channeling earth energy, was directly responsible for a volcanic eruption. Any lingering doubts about whether she had done the right thing instantly vanished. Nobody should have that power.
And now nobody ever would. The meteorite and the primordial DNA it contained were destroyed, consumed by the rising lava, and the piece Sophia had taken would end up buried beneath dozens of feet of ash. Even the Group itself had been eliminated. That threat had ceased to exist.
Another remained, however, growing more deadly with every passing second. The gouts of lava became stronger as pressure built up inside the confined shaft, even the noise of the helicopter overpowered by the basso roar of escaping gas. More landslides stripped the volcano’s flanks. One whole side of the mountain began to bulge, visibly swelling as she watched.
Four thousand feet. One hundred and twenty knots. Three miles from their start point. Still climbing and accelerating, but it might not be enough …
The distended mountainside pulsed, rippling from within. For a moment, the jet of lava and ash choked as the enormous pressure rising from below was blocked, the mouth of the shaft too narrow for it all to escape at once …
Then it forced its way through.
The volcano erupted.
THIRTY-SIX
The mountain’s entire upper half disintegrated in a single burst of unimaginable violence, a shock wave racing outward. Behind it followed a colossal cloud of searing ash and superheated steam, pulverized rock and globs of red-hot lava churning within like a lethal blizzard. The explosion would be heard hundreds of miles away, and shake buildings in Dubti.
The helicopter was much closer.
There was a strange silence after Nina and Eddie witnessed the obliteration of the volcano’s summit, light outpacing sound—then the blast wave caught up with them. It was as if the AW101 had been rammed from behind. Nina screamed, but couldn’t even hear it over the earth’s uncorked fury. The chopper swung around, loose items flying through the cabin. Eddie was thrown backward, grabbing the harness straps on a seat just in time to stop himself from following the dead pilot out of the open rear ramp.
Senses reeling, Larry struggled with the controls. The helicopter spiraled toward the desert plain. The altimeter needle whirled down toward zero with terrifying speed. He applied full throttle and pulled up the collective for maximum lift, but the AW101 was still spinning, still falling.
Eddie dragged himself upright. The landscape blurred past beyond the windows. “Dad! Stop the fucking thing!”
“I don’t know how!” Larry yelled. Below four thousand feet, and dropping—
“Turn it!” Nina cried. “We’re spinning counter-clockwise—turn the other way!”
In the turmoil, Larry’s feet had come off the rudder pedals. He found them again and jammed one foot down to apply full power to the tail rotor. The helicopter rocked sharply, throwing more unsecured objects around its interior. Nina shrieked as an emergency kit rebounded off the console in front of her and broke open, showering her with its contents.
Three thousand feet—but the spin was slowing. Teeth bared, Larry gradually eased his foot up as the aircraft came back under control. “Jesus!” he gasped. “I think I’ve got it.”
The chopper straightened out, pointing almost directly back at the ruined mountain. Eddie caught his breath, then returned to the cockpit to look over his father’s shoulder. “We don’t want to be going this way, though.” He pointed at the compass. “Go south-southeast, about one sixty degrees. That’ll take us back to the town we came from.” A pause, then: “Nice work, Dad.”
“Glad I finally did something you approve of,” said Larry with a shaky grin.
Nina stared at the volcano. “Look at that …,” she said breathlessly. Though the initial shock wave had passed, a second destructive front was still advancing as a heavy, corpse-gray cloud swept outward. A pyroclastic flow, hot gas and pulverized rock scouring and sterilizing the earth beneath it. “We need to get back into the sky before it reaches us.”
“I think I can do that,” said Larry. He brought the AW101 around to the bearing Eddie had given him, then increased power to climb and gain speed. The desert rolled past below.
Eddie looked back. Through the open ramp, the pursuing cloud was visible, but it fell away as the helicopter ascended. Even as it retreated, though, the volcano’s roar still rattled the fuselage. “Christ! I know we’ve got away from some big bangs before, but that’s got to be the biggest. A fucking erupting volcano! Don’t know how we’re going to top that one.”
“I kinda hope we don’t have to,” said Nina earnestly. “We deserve a vacation.” She looked away from the frightening sight to Eddie’s leg. Though his jeans were covered with dark dust, the torn holes made by the trident’s prongs were glistening; he was still bleeding. “Eddie, sit down so I can clean you up. Those wounds might get infected.”
“In a minute—I’ll close the ramp first.” He limped down the aisle, using the seats for support.
“Don’t fall out,” she cautioned jokingly. The contents of the emergency case were strewn around the cockpit; she started to search f
or first-aid equipment.
“How far away is this town?” asked Larry.
Nina picked up various items from the foot well, putting a cylindrical flare down on the console between the two pilots’ seats before examining a package of sterile dressings and a tube of antibiotic ointment. “About seventy miles, maybe?”
He checked the airspeed indicator. “It shouldn’t take too long to get there, then. Although I’ll remind you that I don’t have a clue how to land this thing.”
“You did okay with the takeoff. I think you’ll manage the landing too.”
“I’ll try to keep it below terminal velocity.”
Nina smiled, then looked around. Eddie still hadn’t reached the rear of the cabin. “Hurry up, honey! There’s a draft!”
“You try walking with holes in your leg,” he called back.
“I have. It sucked!”
He grinned, then turned back to the ramp. Some of the equipment stowed behind the seats had been hurled out of the aircraft during its spin, one of the tarps flapping furiously in the wind. A couple of the parachutes had also gone, but there were still enough left to allow himself, Nina, and Larry to bail out if worse came to worst. Holding a ceiling strap, he peered at the ground. They were at about seven thousand feet, and still climbing. Nothing below but sand and rock.
He straightened, looking for the ramp controls. There was a control box mounted on one wall. He hobbled toward it—
Something smashed against the back of his head.
Eddie crashed to the deck, stars going supernova in his vision. An intense, sickening pain oozed through his body. He tried to get up, but his limbs refused to cooperate, as weak and limp as a baby’s.
“Hello, Eddie,” said Sophia with a triumphant snarl.
She had been hiding beneath the other tarpaulin. The Land Rover had been empty, set to roll away to deny anyone else its use for escape. She stood over her former husband, letting the large wrench she had used as a weapon clang to the floor as she pulled the Jericho out of his jacket. The tool slid down the ramp and spun away in the AW101’s slipstream.
Nina jumped from her seat, then froze as Sophia aimed the gun at her. “Well, look at this!” the Englishwoman shouted over the wind. “A family reunion. How sweet.”
“Let him go, Sophia!” Nina demanded, surreptitiously scanning the floor for the dead pilot’s gun—but where it had ended up, she had no idea.
“Oh, I absolutely intend to. But without one of these.” She revealed the pack of a parachute on her back. “I could just shoot him, but that seems like rather poor payback for everything he’s done to me.” She kicked the helpless man at her feet, producing a groan. “I’m going to shoot you, though. After you watch him die.”
“You fucking bitch,” Nina spat.
“Oh, come on, Nina. An educated woman like you can do better than that, surely?” Sophia braced herself against the seats and used a foot to shove Eddie closer to the ramp. “But then, as I’ve always said, one can’t expect class from an American.”
Larry whispered to Nina from the side of his mouth. “I could shake the controls, make her fall out.”
“Eddie’d fall out too,” she replied in kind, still desperately searching for a weapon. No gun. Was there anything else she could use?
Maybe—if she could reach it without being shot.
Twisting awkwardly to keep the gun trained on Nina, Sophia kept pushing Eddie nearer to the ramp. “I think it’ll take about thirty seconds for him to hit the ground from this height,” she said. “I’m going to watch, just to make sure. Eddie does have the annoying habit of popping up when he’s supposed to be dead, but not this time. This is the end. For both of you.” Eddie was now almost fully on the ramp. “As soon as I see that little Wile E. Coyote puff of dirt, it’s your turn.”
A final thrust of her leg—and Eddie slithered down the ramp.
“No!” Nina screamed, but there was nothing she could do—
Eddie’s eyes opened—and he grabbed a cargo ring set into the metal surface just as his legs went over the edge.
Straining to hold on as the wind and rotor downwash tore at him, he looked up. The infuriated Sophia towered over him, stepping to the ramp’s top and holding on to its frame with her left hand as she leaned out. “Why,” she shouted, trying to jab at his fingers with her outstretched boot heel, “can’t you just”—another strike fell a fraction of an inch short—“die?”
The final blow caught his knuckles. Eddie yelled in pain—
And lost his grip.
The gale snatched him backward, whipping him over the edge of the ramp.
“Yes!” Sophia cried, the exclamation of victory bursting out of her almost orgasmically. She glanced around at Nina—
A dazzling light shot down the length of the cabin and struck her hard in the back.
Sophia reeled as the flare that Nina had fired spun past, spraying her clothing with sparks and fire. She clutched the frame for support … but the two stiff prosthetic fingers prevented her from getting a firm grip. Her gloved hand slipped from the metal—and she followed Eddie down the ramp with a horrified shriek, tumbling away into the empty sky.
Nina dropped the flare’s tube and ran down the aisle. “Come and get us!” she yelled to the stunned Larry. Determination driving out doubts, she passed the last row of seats, snatching a parachute off the rack—
And threw herself out of the back of the helicopter.
The slipstream pummeled her as she sailed into open air, the desert spreading out eight thousand feet below. The noise of the chopper’s engines faded, but the wind’s roar in her ears only grew louder as she picked up speed in free fall.
Parallax revealed two dark shapes against the landscape. Sophia—and Eddie. She forced back her fear, fixing her gaze on him as she grappled with the parachute’s harness. Working her arms through the flapping loops, she strained to fasten the buckle across her chest. It clicked shut—but only then did she realize that there was another set of straps through which she was meant to put her legs. When she pulled the ripcord, the sudden force of braking could tear the parachute right off her body.
But there was no time to remove it and try again. All or nothing …
Eddie had been slammed back to full awareness by a massive adrenaline surge—one driven by pure fear. His military training had taught him how to try to recover in the event of a parachute failure … but this time he had no parachute. And there was nothing below that might save him either—no bodies of water, no tall trees, just flat, hard desert in every direction.
Even so, he rolled facedown and spread his arms and legs. The increased drag would slow his fall—slightly. He would still hit the ground at over a hundred miles per hour.
He was going to die.
He turned his head, trying to find the helicopter in the hope that Larry had at least tipped his killer out the back … and was shocked to see two figures plunging through the sky after him. The nearer was Sophia.
The other could only be Nina.
An awful, nauseating realization of defeat rolled over him. Sophia had gotten what she wanted—she had killed them both. And as he watched, a parachute blossomed above his ex-wife. Not only had she killed them, but she would live to gloat about it.
Sophia gasped as the slam of deceleration yanked her harness straps tight. She took hold of the steering lines—then flinched as something shot past her.
Nina! The American had been at the far end of the cabin—which meant she hadn’t fallen out, but deliberately jumped. She was trying to save Eddie.
Sophia almost laughed at the futility of the gesture. It couldn’t possibly succeed. And now she would have a grandstand view of both her enemies smashing down on the desert floor …
Something was wrong.
She could feel heat on one side of her head, but it wasn’t from sunlight. She looked around—
And screamed.
Her parachute’s pack was aflame, ignited by the flare. The wind-fanned fire was
rising rapidly up the nylon webbing risers connecting her harness and the cords of the chute itself. She desperately tried to swat out the flames, but they were too big, too hungry, greedily consuming fabric and line.
A twang as one of the cords snapped. The parachute’s edge rippled and flapped. A second line gave way, then another, and another …
Sophia’s cry of utter terror was lost in the wind as the chute collapsed and she plummeted toward the ground, trailing smoke as the blaze spread to her clothes and hair.
Body tilted down, arms held back at her sides, Nina was rapidly catching up with Eddie. Steering herself in free fall had proved to be an almost instinctual matter of twisting her body and limbs to direct the airflow; what she would do when she reached her husband was another matter entirely.
He rolled over onto his back, waving his arms. The signal was clear: Leave me! She ignored it, guiding herself at him like a missile and arching her back to lift her head and slow down. Her body began to seesaw; she almost panicked before managing to stabilize herself by bringing out her arms and raising her knees.
Eddie was right below her, still gesturing for her to abandon him.
Not a chance—
The collision was like a tackle. They both spun and tumbled before Eddie brought them under control. Nina clutched his jacket, screaming into the wind. “Grab on to me!”
He tried to push her away. “It’ll kill us both!”
“No! You and me! Always and forever!”
Their eyes were locked for a precious moment before he relented. “You’ve put this on wrong!” he cried as he hooked his right arm into one of her chute’s loose leg straps and wound it tight.
“I was kinda rushed!”
Return to Atlantis_A Novel Page 45