‘Stop there, Ben,’ Kirby said in a strange voice.
Ben walked on a couple more steps, then stopped and turned slowly.
Kirby was standing there with the gun raised in one fist, aimed right at Ben’s head.
‘What are you doing?’ Ben asked.
‘Put your pistol on the ground,’ Kirby said. ‘Nice and slow. No clever stuff
Ben hesitated, and eased the Jericho out from behind his hip. Dangling it on one finger from the trigger guard, he crouched down and laid it on the rock near his feet.
‘Good. Now put your phone down next to it,’ Kirby said. ‘That’ll come in handy for me.’
Ben took out the phone and placed it next to the gun.
‘And now the idol,’ Kirby said, with a glitter in his eyes as he glanced at the gold statuette in Ben’s belt.
Ben tugged out the artefact and put it down with a heavy, solid clunk.
‘Now step away from them.’
Ben stepped away. ‘You don’t want to be doing this.’
‘Yes, I do. I’m sorry. I can’t let you give away the treasure. It’s mine.’
Ben said nothing.
‘You think I’d have dragged myself after you and gone through all this just for glory?’ Kirby asked. ‘You think that’s all I’m interested in? You think that’s what Morgan and I were planning, just to get our names in some academic journal? Think again, soldier boy.’
‘I can see I really misjudged you, Kirby.’
‘You certainly did. And this is as far as you go. I’m sorry.’
‘No, you’re not. Why pretend?’
Kirby shrugged. ‘Heck, you’re right. I’m not really.’
‘Just a couple of problems. One, you’re stranded out here. You’ll never get out alive.’
‘I’ll take my chances. There’s always a way. I suppose you want to tell me the second problem?’
‘I’ll let you figure it out.’
‘Fine. I will. Got any prayers to say before I kill you?’
‘Not really,’ Ben said.
Kirby nodded. ‘OK. So it’s goodbye, Ben. Thanks for making me rich.’
Then he squeezed the trigger. He didn’t close his eyes, or flinch. Instead, he took his time, and did it properly. At that short range, even with a snub-barrelled handgun, it was impossible to miss a man-sized target. Ben saw the cylinder turn as the internal hammer levered back, the mechanism aligning the round in the next chamber with the firing pin as it came down to punch the primer under spring tension.
The dry click of the empty chamber echoed in the cave entrance.
Kirby stared at the gun. He fired again. Another click.
Ben hadn’t flinched either. ‘I’m still alive,’ he said. ‘Want to know the second problem now?’
Kirby clicked again, and again, gaping in open-mouthed horror at the revolver.
‘No use, Kirby.’ Ben reached in his pocket and opened his fist to show the .38 lead roundnose cartridges that rolled clinking in his palm. ‘Here’s your second problem,’ he said. ‘I just emptied your gun.’
Kirby’s eyes boggled.
‘I lied about having misjudged you,’ Ben said. ‘I knew ages ago that you’d pull a stunt like this after we found the treasure. I saw the way you were eyeing up Claudel’s mansion and his Ferrari, despite your whole hate-the-rich routine. I knew you weren’t really the sort who’d take risks just for glory. So I took precautions. I taught you that if you could see the cartridge rims between the cylinder and frame, the gun was loaded. But what I didn’t tell you was that it looks just the same loaded with spent shells. Why else would I have got you to fire off a few? For practice? I’m afraid not, Kirby. I just wanted some empty brass. So now you’ve gone and proved me right. And you’re in the shit.’
Kirby’s face was twisted and mottled as he searched for the right answer. ‘I was just k-kidding,’ he stammered. ‘It was just a gag, that’s all.’
‘You mean you knew it wasn’t loaded?’
‘No. I mean yes. I mean—’
The crack of a gunshot blasted through the silence. The top of Kirby’s head was blown away like a lid. Blood splattered on the cave wall. His knees crumpled and he collapsed straight down in a heap, like an empty suit of clothes. The revolver tumbled across the rock.
Ben whirled around.
Three men were standing in the moonlit cave entrance. One of them was holding an AKS with a wisp of smoke trickling from the muzzle.
But Ben hardly even registered him. He was looking at the man in the middle.
It was Kamal.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Kamal smiled. ‘And here we are again.’ His gaze landed on the gold statuette that was glimmering in the soft moonlight. He stepped over to it and snatched it up with a triumphant look. ‘It seems you’re always a step ahead of me,’ he chuckled. ‘And you have killed a lot of my men. A worthy adversary. There aren’t enough of them in this world.’ He motioned at Kirby’s corpse. ‘That’s why I didn’t want him killing you. I would like to reserve that pleasure for myself
‘I’m deeply honoured,’ Ben said.
Kamal gripped the statuette tight in his fist. ‘But, before I do, you’re going to show me where you found this.’
‘Die if I do, die if I don’t?’ Ben said. ‘You need to think that one through again, if you want my help.’
‘There are different ways for a man to die,’ Kamal said. ‘Some merciful, some less so. I think we understand each other?’
Ben didn’t answer. It was a straight choice. A slow, horrible death now, or a chance to buy some time and think about his next move. He didn’t need long to decide.
‘Fine, Kamal. I’ll take you to the treasure.’
Kamal put out his hand, and one of the men passed him a pair of stubby black tubular Maglite torches. He tossed one to Ben. ‘Lead the way. Emad, you go next and watch this son of a whore. Fekri, you follow me.’
Ben stepped over Kirby’s body. The moon’s reflection shimmered in the blood pooling on the cave floor. He walked back the way he’d come, down into the shaft, pointing the Maglite ahead of him. The terrorist called Emad followed with his AKS at Ben’s back. He was about thirty, muscular and volatile-looking. Kamal followed behind him, and the smaller, darker one called Fekri brought up the rear.
They walked. The bright white beam of the torch picked out every crag and crevice. The hard muzzle of the assault rifle dug into the small of Ben’s back.
Behind him, Kamal’s cold voice echoed in the tunnel. ‘Know that when I get the treasure, your Western world will change forever. My plans are complete.’
‘So regular terrorism is just a little too warm and cosy for you. Murdering innocent train passengers getting a bit stale. You want to move on to something bigger.’
‘You’ll never live to witness what I can do,’ Kamal replied. ‘But many will, and soon.’
‘It’s a lot of money to blow on Kalashnikovs and Semtex,’ Ben said. ‘But do you really think that’s going to change the world? You don’t think they’ll just hunt you down like all the rest?’
‘Kalashnikovs and Semtex are for children to play with,’ Kamal said. ‘I have something else in mind.’
‘And you’re dying to tell me.’
Kamal gave a short, humourless laugh. ‘How about the complete destruction of five major Western cities?’
He named them. And then he described how he was going to make it happen.
Ben’s step faltered. He made no reply.
Kamal sounded pleased. ‘At last. You begin to understand who you’re dealing with.’
‘You’ll never succeed, Kamal.’
‘No? And why not? You believe your Western security forces have any hope of preventing it?’
‘No,’ Ben replied. ‘I don’t believe they do. You’ll never succeed, because I’m going to stop you. You’ll be the baddest guy in the graveyard. That’s as far as you’re going to get. Believe me.’
‘Fine speech,’ Kamal said. ‘Ve
ry patriotic.’
‘I’m not interested in patriotism,’ Ben told him. ‘I don’t fight under a flag. I don’t care about oil or economics or politics, or any of the dirty double-dealing that gives elected gangsters the excuse to bomb someone else’s country and call it justice. I was part of that hypocrisy once, and I walked away. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let a damaged little rat’s arse like you murder millions of innocent people.’
‘I could kill you now,’ Kamal said. ‘Just for talking to me like that.’
‘Then you’d never find your way through the maze of tunnels down there,’ Ben replied. ‘There are a hundred hidden shafts, and as many false doorways.’ It was a wild bluff, but he needed to buy all the time to could to think of a way out of this. ‘You could spend years searching. Kill me, and you can kiss your private little jihad goodbye.’
Kamal’s voice was tight with fury. ‘Fuck you. Keep walking.’
‘You’re scared, aren’t you, Kamal? Scared shitless you’re not going to find anything down there. You know that the kind of people you’re buying these nukes from aren’t going to tolerate you not coming up with the cash. You thought you were the hardest, meanest guy in the world. But now you’ve done a deal with the devil, and you’re pissing your pants.’
Kamal was about to reply when another rumble groaned through the rock around them. A ripping crack echoed through the shaft. In the white torch beam, Ben saw a fissure open up to the width of a man’s thumb. Powder and dust cascaded from the ceiling, followed by a stream of small rocks that formed a pile up ahead.
‘What was that?’ Kamal asked, his fierce self-assurance slipping for an instant.
‘Something I forgot to mention,’ Ben said over his shoulder as he walked on, kicking rocks out of the way. ‘The tunnels are becoming unstable. Your treasure just slipped a little further out of reach.’ This time, it was no bluff.
Kamal quickly regained his composure, and laughed darkly. ‘Then there’s no time to lose. Move faster.’
Emad prodded the rifle hard into Ben’s back, shoving him onwards. As they rounded the bend in the tunnel shaft, the giant cavern opened up ahead and the torch beams picked out the shape of the rope bridge.
‘Keep moving,’ Kamal said.
More dust and stones showered down around them. It was getting steadily worse. Cracks were forming everywhere, slowly widening. The ridge was crumbling, with them inside.
Another painful jab from the AKS behind him, and Ben stepped out onto the bridge. ‘I don’t know how safe it is for four men to cross,’ he said truthfully.
‘Walk.’
Ben stepped forwards. The bridge gave a long, juddering creak under the extra weight as Emad followed, then Kamal, then Fekri. Ben held his breath and kept moving. The torch beams bobbed and danced ahead of him, throwing long tubes of light into the dark.
Dangling over a bottomless, spike-filled chasm, outnumbered three to one, unarmed with a gun in his back, no possibility of escape and time fast running out. He was sure he’d been in tougher situations-but he really couldn’t remember when.
Just then it got even worse. There was a grinding crack from somewhere high above them, and a huge dark shape hurtled through the beam of light ahead.
It was a falling stalactite, a solid rock spike, as thick as an oak tree, twice the height of a tall man. It narrowly missed the bridge. Seconds later it impacted on the stalagmites below with a roaring crash that shook the cavern and made the bridge sway alarmingly. Ben gripped the ropes at his sides and struggled to keep his footing. Fekri swore in Arabic. His voice was tense and frightened.
Then it happened again. A boulder as big as a large car plummeted not ten feet from where Ben was standing, and he felt the wind as it passed him. Another massive rumbling crash as it shattered into a million pieces on the spikes below. Smaller rocks rained down. A stone the size of a cannonball came crashing out of the darkness above and punched through the wooden slats of the bridge between Ben and Emad. Emad wobbled off balance, almost dropping his weapon as he grappled to stay upright.
Ben felt the impact’s shudder running under his feet the whole length of the bridge. He looked down, and in the dim light he saw one of the ancient ropes beginning to unravel. The outer strands splitting, slowly rotating and peeling away; then the next layer, and the next.
That was when he knew they weren’t going to make it across.
Crack.
They all looked up.
Fekri screamed.
Another giant stalactite had sheared off and it was plunging straight for them. Ben saw its craggy point looming up fast as it speared downwards. In the instant before it hit, he thrust the Maglite in his belt, looped his arm through the side of the rope bridge and held on tight.
Fekri was staring up, open-mouthed, as the massive spike caught him right in the face. It tore off his jawbone and kept going, lancing through his body, tearing him in two.
Then it crashed straight through the floor of the bridge and parted it like thread.
Ben fell through space. The wind roared in his ears as he sailed downwards. He had the rope in a death-grip. There was no time to pray, or even to think. Then a stunning impact as the severed bridge came swinging down and hit the wall of the abyss. Ben was winded for a few seconds, and it was all he could do to hang on. He blinked to clear his head and the pain that shot through his whole body.
He slipped the torch out of his belt and shone it upwards, hanging by one hand. The broken bridge had become a wildly swinging rope ladder, and he was dangling from it like a fly caught on a web.
He shone the light downwards, and his heart jolted.
Kamal’s snarling face was staring up at him. The terrorist had managed to cling on, and he was scaling the rope ladder towards him. Between them, Emad hung limply from the ropes. The impact had smashed his skull. His weapon had dropped into the depths.
Kamal hung by one hand as he grabbed the dead man’s belt and tore him forcefully from the ropes. The corpse somersaulted away into the darkness. A crunch as his fall was halted by the point of a stalagmite.
Kamal’s teeth were bared in hatred as he kept climbing rapidly upwards, his hands shooting up like pistons, one after the other. He made a grab for Ben’s ankle. Ben kicked out for his face, but Kamal dodged the blow. His hand went down to his belt and came up with a combat knife. He slashed at Ben’s legs with it. Ben drew his knees up just in time to avoid the blade, lashed out again and caught Kamal’s shoulder, driving him down several spars of the bridge. The terrorist screamed in anger and pain. The blade of the knife glinted as he flipped it over endwise in his hand, catching it by the tip between finger and thumb. He drew back his arm and hurled it straight at Ben.
The knife cartwheeled through the air. If it had been travelling horizontally it would have struck with lethal momentum, but the near-vertical trajectory robbed it of most of its kinetic energy and Ben just had time to twist out of its way. The sharp tip clanged and sparked against the rock an inch from his head and then spiralled away into the darkness. Kamal came on, punching and gouging. Ben swung down with the Maglite and caught him on the arm. Kamal cried out. Kept on fighting like a wild animal. The two of them swung crazily over the abyss.
At that moment the ropes gave way with a crack.
They hurtled down, locked together, the wind roaring in their ears.
Two seconds of freefall. Three. Four. Then another crashing impact as Ben felt himself hit a stalactite, narrowly avoiding being impaled by its point. He slid and bounced down its conical length. Rough stone tore at his flesh. Kamal’s hands were still locked on to him, punching and gouging frenziedly even as they plummeted to their deaths.
They hit the bottom.
And went plunging underwater with a stunning splash. Dazed by the impact, Ben felt his body go limp. But with the first gulp of cold water he came to his senses and started swimming for his life. Bubbles erupted from his lungs as for an instant he was panicking in the murk, unable to tell which wa
y was up and which was down. Then he realised he was still clutching the precious torch. The light beam sliced through the water and found the surface. He kicked out hard, and let out a wheezing gasp as his head and shoulders burst free of the water.
Kamal broke the surface a few feet away, saw him and swam towards him. His hands closed around Ben’s throat. Kicking wildly in the water, Ben lashed out with the torch and felt it connect with something solid. Heard a grunt of pain. He clubbed him again, harder.
Now the current was carrying them along fast, breaking their hold on one another as each man struggled to stay afloat. Another falling rock splashed down violently nearby, sending up a choking wave of spray. Ben coughed and blinked and flailed desperately against the powerful tide. Felt the brutal scrape of rocks as the surging water carried him through a narrow opening and down another tunnel. He went under for a few seconds, and came spluttering back to the surface, shining the Maglite around him.
Then Kamal was splashing violently back towards him. Something glinted gold in the terrorist’s hand, came lashing down and caught Ben across the shoulder. An inch to the right, and it would have shattered his collarbone. Kamal raised the weapon up again. It was the gold falcon statuette. Ben blocked the blow, twisted the precious artefact out of his hand and smashed it hard into his ribs. Kamal fell back, gasping.
The current was dangerously fast now, threatening to suck Ben under as swirling eddies grasped and tugged at his legs like the hands of water demons intent on drowning him. He kicked against them with all the strength he had left, but with both hands full it was nearly impossible to swim properly. He didn’t dare lose the torch, and he couldn’t let go of the gold statue. It was the evidence he needed to save Zara-it meant everything.
Just when he thought he was going under, he felt the hard surface of a rock under him. He clung on to it, dragging himself up out of the water, wheezing and coughing up water. Crouching on the rock with the underground rapids foaming all around him, he shone the light. Saw Kamal’s thrashing body carried past the rock. The terrorist’s eyes were round with horror as he tried to latch on to the slimy stone. But the water was too powerful. It carried him onwards.
The Ben Hope Collection: 6 BOOK SET Page 132