Eddie sprang to his feet as Stikes charged at him. The two men crashed together, clawing and punching and kicking. Stikes slammed a balled fist against his opponent’s bullet wound, making him roar in agony – only to cry out himself as Eddie gouged his thumb deep into the ripped flesh of his forearm. They backed apart, sizing each other up once more.
Sophia reached the top of the slope and looked down to see Nina still in pursuit. She snatched up a lump of debris and hurled it at her. Nina yelped and ducked aside, the missile barely missing Larry. Sophia picked up another stone . . .
Part of the meteorite, a ragged purple chunk from the heart of the disintegrated rock. She stared at it for a moment, expression calculating – then shoved it into a pocket and ran along the tier.
Nina swore. If Sophia escaped with the meteorite fragment, there was a danger that the Group’s plan could be still carried out – with the worst person imaginable now in charge.
She scrambled up to the top of the slope, about to follow her—
Another seismic shock made her reel as the broken stones shifted underfoot – then a section of the tier ahead fell away and crashed down on to the level below, cutting her off from the lava tube. On the far side, Sophia reached its entrance and looked back at her with a mocking smile, then disappeared into the darkness.
The gap was too large to jump across. ‘Son of a bitch!’ Nina snarled.
‘Over there,’ Larry gasped as he caught up, pointing in the other direction. ‘There are stairs at the far end – we can go up to the next level, then jump down by the tunnel.’
It appeared that he was right. They would have to scale a tilting pillar to reach the undamaged stairway, but it seemed negotiable. ‘Okay, you go first.’ She turned to look for her husband as Larry began to climb the column – and saw that he was in trouble.
Stikes had backed Eddie perilously close to the edge of their lava-lit arena. The gases rising from below were painfully hot, and parts of the shuddering ledge looked on the verge of plummeting towards their source. Eddie knew he had to make a move, and quickly. The safest manoeuvre would be to try to break past Stikes for less dangerous ground, getting clear of the edge before resuming the battle.
Instead, Eddie charged straight at him to attack head-on. The best way to end the fight was by doing the unexpected—
Stikes twisted aside.
He had predicted the move, expected the unexpected – and now Eddie paid for it as the other man’s elbow smashed against his temple. He staggered, senses sloshing glutinously inside his skull . . .
Stikes’s arm locked round his neck, vice-tight.
The mercenary had grabbed him from behind in an unbreakable hold, crushing his windpipe. Eddie tried to claw at his face, but could only reach with his wounded arm, the pain sapping the strength from his strikes. He tried to bend forward to flip his opponent over his shoulders, but Stikes was too well braced.
Nina was about to run back down the pile of fallen stone to help him – when she saw a chunk of the ledge only yards from the two men split away and fall towards the lava.
The remainder of the rocky outcrop would follow at any moment.
‘I always win, Chase,’ the former officer hissed. The pressure on Eddie’s neck increased, blood pounding in his head. ‘I always win!’
The gloating words flooded Eddie with anger. He was not going to be beaten – not by Stikes! He shifted his feet. ‘Not . . . this . . . time!’
Stoked by fury, he straightened his entire body – and lifted Stikes on his back.
He only raised him by a couple of inches, but it was still enough to unbalance the mercenary. Eddie took full advantage of the moment and bent at the waist, pulling his enemy over with him – then threw himself backward with every remaining ounce of strength.
Stikes gasped, winded, as he thumped down on his back with Eddie on top of him. The Yorkshireman smacked a reverse headbutt into his face, then, drawing in choked breaths, managed to stand.
A few steps away was a piece of the meteorite, a jagged chunk about two feet across. He picked it up. Pain burned in his injured arm as he raised the heavy rock above his head, about to smash it down on Stikes’s skull—
Another section of the edge dropped away into the liquid inferno below – and a crack lanced across the ground near the temple. He heard Nina’s voice over the volcano’s thunder. ‘Eddie! The ledge is gonna collapse!’
Survival outweighed justice. He threw the rock at Stikes then ran, scooping up the Jericho as he raced for the temple. Behind him, more chunks broke away from the ledge and tumbled down the shaft, luminous splashes exploding from the lava lake as they hit.
Stones rattled and slipped underfoot as he shoved the gun into his jacket and clambered up the makeshift ramp. Nina was at the top, waving him on. ‘Nina, come on!’ Larry shouted. ‘We’re running out of time!’
She reluctantly turned away from Eddie to climb the pillar. The constant quakes almost jolted her loose, but finally she was within reach of Larry’s outstretched arm. He grabbed her hand and helped her up the final few feet.
Eddie reached the summit of the slope and started to climb after her. Nina reached down, giving him a look of encouragement – which turned to horror. ‘Eddie, look out!’ Something stabbed agonisingly into his thigh.
The pain made him lose his footing. He dropped back down to the tier – driving the spikes deeper into his flesh.
It was the head of the trident, hurled by Stikes – who had scrambled up the slope after him, swinging the broken shaft like a club to deliver a savage blow. Eddie cried out, trying to dodge as Stikes struck again, but the pain of his impalement was so intense that he couldn’t move his leg.
Nina watched helplessly. Short of throwing herself off the pillar at Stikes, there was nothing she could do to intervene.
Except—
A broken piece of purple stone the size of a fist lay on the floor. She grabbed it; it glowed.
Stikes raised the bronze shaft high above his head, about to plunge its jagged point down into Eddie’s chest—
Nina hurled the stone.
She could have sworn that it veered slightly, as if guided to its target by her sheer willpower. Whether it did, or if she was just imagining it, the result was the same. The lump of rock cracked viciously against Stikes’s nose, blood spurting from both nostrils. He staggered, the spear still held high . . .
Eddie wrenched the trident’s head out of his leg, fury overpowering the pain, and stabbed it deep into the other man’s stomach.
Stikes let out a gurgling scream. He dropped the shaft, clutching both hands to the bronze fork buried in his gut and staring at Eddie in utter disbelief. ‘You can’t . . .’ he gasped. ‘You can’t have!’
‘Yeah, I can,’ Eddie rasped, struggling upright. ‘For old times’ sake!’
He drove his boot into Stikes’s groin with the force of a train. Convulsing in agony, the ex-officer reeled . . . and fell from the tier to the ledge below, slamming down on his back.
With a crack that shook the chamber, the entire outcrop sheared away from the wall of rock.
The huge wedge of stone plunged down the volcanic shaft, the hellfire glow up its sheer sides growing brighter with each moment. Paralysed with agony, Stikes couldn’t even scream—
The severed ledge hit the churning lava lake, the viscid magma absorbing some of the impact that would otherwise have instantly killed its unwilling passenger. Even so, the shock of landing felt to Stikes as if someone had dropped a car on him, ribs cracking and organs rupturing. Spitting blood, he lay sprawled and broken as the rock beneath him slowly sank into the molten sea.
The heat set his clothes alight as a glowing orange wave rose over the fractured edges of the stone raft. It surrounded him, closing in like jackals around dying prey. The pain became unimaginable as his blond hair seared and caught fire, a burning halo blistering his skull. Now he managed to scream as the molten circle shrank around him, consuming his feet, then his hands, incine
rating his entire body inch by inch . . .
High above, Eddie watched with savage satisfaction as the fallen ledge was finally swallowed up by liquid fire. ‘Got you,’ he growled.
‘Eddie!’ He looked up to see Nina on the tier above. ‘Are you okay?’
One hand pressed hard against the stab wounds in his leg, he limped to the pillar. ‘I’ll live.’
‘What happened to Stikes?’
‘He’s a lava, not a fighter.’
Nina withheld comment, clambering back down to assist him. Larry looked over the edge, relief filling his face. ‘Oh, thank God! I thought – I thought he was going to kill you.’
‘He bloody nearly did,’ Eddie admitted. He saw the wound on his father’s head. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Got hit by a rock, but never mind me. Come on.’ He lay down on his front, both hands reaching for Eddie as Nina supported him from below. The constant rumbling grew stronger. ‘We need to get out of here PDQ.’
‘Where’s Sophia?’
‘She went up the tunnel,’ said Nina as Larry hauled Eddie up. She climbed after him. ‘Part of the floor collapsed – we’ll have to go across the level above and jump down.’ Rising steam and fumes continued to be drawn into the lava tube. It was still clear, then – but with the quakes growing stronger all the time, it might not remain so for long. ‘And Eddie . . . she’s got a piece of the meteorite.’
He set his jaw against the pain as they hurried past toppled statues towards the stairs. ‘Can she get the DNA from it?’
‘I don’t know, but we can’t take the chance. We have to catch her.’
‘There’s always fucking something, isn’t there?’
The temple shuddered as they made their way up to the higher tier and crossed it. Nina glanced down, and regretted it; the lava was rising after them, no longer a lake but a maelstrom boiling over the top of the magma chamber. ‘I think Stikes gave it indigestion! We didn’t bring the world’s largest bottle of Pepto-Bismol, did we?’
‘How the hell do you manage to make jokes at a time like this?’ Larry asked in disbelief.
‘A habit I picked up from your son. It’s either that or scream and panic!’ They passed over the entrance to the second lava tube. ‘Okay, I think we can get down here. I’ll go first. Larry, you help lower Eddie so I can support him.’
‘Might be safer if you both lowered me,’ Eddie suggested.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Larry. ‘I won’t drop you.’
‘That’s what you said when I was six, and I’ve still got the dent in my head!’
‘God, you have one butterfingers moment, and nobody ever lets you forget it . . .’
Nina had already settled the issue by dropping to the tier below. No sign of Sophia beyond the dark opening in the wall, not that she had expected her to hang around. ‘It’s clear. Come on.’
She reached up to hold Eddie’s legs as his father eased him down as far as he could. ‘You got him?’ Larry called.
‘Yeah. Ready?’ she asked Eddie. He nodded. ‘Okay, let him go!’
Larry released his hold. Even with Nina’s support, it was still a heavy landing. Eddie gasped in pain as his wounded leg hit the ground. ‘Oh God, I’m sorry!’ she cried.
‘Not – your fault,’ Eddie said, grimacing. ‘Fucking Stikes! If I had an asbestos fishing rod I’d haul him back up just so I could kick him off again.’
‘You might not need the rod to reach him in a few minutes,’ Nina warned him as she took another look over the temple’s side. Though it was still hundreds of feet below, the lava was visibly rising. ‘Larry, come on!’
The elder Chase dropped down with a grunt as Nina and Eddie entered the lava tube. It was smaller and steeper than the one through which they had entered, the air within as choking as a poisonous sauna. But it was their only hope of survival. Eddie recovered his torch from a pocket and shone it ahead. The tunnel wormed away into darkness. ‘Can’t tell how long it is,’ he said.
‘It goes up, that’s the main thing,’ Nina replied. ‘How fast can you move?’
‘Faster than that fucking lava, I hope.’ He set off in a limping half-walk, half-run, Nina supporting him by his uninjured arm. Larry caught up and they hurried along the passage, which shuddered around them. Ominous crunching sounds came from the walls and ceiling, dust and grit dropping from newly formed cracks.
‘This whole place is going to come down!’ said Larry between coughs. ‘We’ll never make it.’
‘Oi!’ snapped Eddie. ‘Less of that – we will bloody make it. Know why? ’Cause I’m not having my niece go to three funerals on the same day!’
Abashed, Larry picked up the pace. Nina looked ahead. ‘I can see daylight!’
‘And I can see stuff falling in front of it,’ said Eddie in alarm. Larger pieces of rubble were dropping from the ceiling. ‘Both of you, run! Go on, get out!’
‘We’re not leaving you,’ said Nina – at the same moment as Larry. They exchanged looks, then carried Eddie between them towards the oval of light ahead.
A loud boom echoed up the tunnel as part of the ceiling caved in. There was a sharp crackling noise like the opening of a gigantic zipper – and suddenly they were inundated by dust as a gash split open along the length of the roof. ‘Oh, fuck!’ yelled Eddie, the pain in his leg forgotten as he broke into a panicked run. ‘Go, go, go!’
Nina and Larry didn’t need to be prompted. All three charged for the exit. More ground-shaking thumps like a pursuing giant’s footfalls came from behind as the entire tunnel collapsed section by section, displaced air shrieking past. A rock hit Nina hard on one shoulder, but she kept running for the light.
They reached it – and found nothing under their feet as they burst from the tunnel.
It opened on to a steep slope near the volcano’s summit, another landslide having torn away the barricade the Atlanteans had built to block it. Flailing and wailing, the trio arced through the air amidst flying debris before hitting the ground. Larry immediately tripped, Eddie managing a few loping steps before he too stumbled. Nina lasted longest, but even she couldn’t keep her balance on the treacherous surface. They rolled down the hillside before finally slithering to a stop on a shallower ledge.
Nina groaned as a dozen new bruises made themselves known. She sat up and discovered that her camera had caused at least one of them. Its lens had broken off, black dust trickling out of the body. She looked round at a moan from nearby. ‘Larry?’
He lay on his back, one hand over another cut on his head. ‘I’m – I’m all right,’ he mumbled. ‘But I think I’ll just stay here for a while.’ The ground shook, loose stones rattling. He hurriedly sat up. ‘Or maybe not.’
‘Where’s Eddie?’
‘Over here.’ She turned and saw her husband sprawled against a large rock. He gave her a pained grin. ‘Give us a hand, will you?’ As she helped him up, he looked towards the summit. The plume of steam that had been rising from the crater when they arrived was now much bigger – and darker.
‘You were right,’ said Larry as he stood. ‘We made it!’
Another tremor rocked the mountainside. ‘Yeah, but we’re still standing on a volcano that’s about to go Krakatoa,’ Eddie reminded him. ‘We can’t be too far from where we went in, so the Land Rover should be that way.’ He pointed downhill.
‘If your ex hasn’t taken it,’ said Larry.
Nina started down the slope, Eddie following. ‘How would she know where we left it?’ he said.
‘We landed right next to it,’ Larry replied.
‘You came in a chopper?’ Eddie asked. His father nodded. ‘Did the pilot stay with it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good. Saves us a drive, then.’
‘Again, if Sophia hasn’t taken it,’ Nina added. She pocketed the memory card before abandoning the broken camera. At least pictures of the Temple of the Gods would survive . . . if they could escape the eruption.
The ledge where they had left their vehicle came
into view below; as Larry had said, the AW101 that had ferried the Group into the desert was waiting. The 4×4 itself, however, was not. ‘There!’ said Nina, pointing. The Land Rover was heading downhill. It dropped out of sight as it picked up speed.
‘Shit!’ Eddie spat. ‘That bitch took our ride!’
‘At least she left us the chopper . . .’
The helicopter’s rotors began to turn.
‘Damn it!’ said Nina. ‘I have got to stop with the fate-tempting!’
‘We can still make it!’ Larry said, overtaking the couple. ‘It took ages to get up to takeoff speed when we flew here.’
Eddie winced at the resurgent pain as he took his hand from his thigh to draw the gun. ‘I’ve got our boarding pass.’
Nina still supporting Eddie, they hurried towards the helicopter. Its rotors picked up speed, the shrill whine of its three Rolls-Royce engines rising. The rear ramp was still open; the pilot had apparently decided that getting off the ground before the volcano erupted outweighed standard operating procedure. ‘Come on, quick!’ cried Larry as he ran for the gaping entrance.
‘Dad, watch out!’ Eddie shouted. He was sure the pilot would be another of Stikes’s mercenaries – and unwilling to accept stowaways. He pulled free of Nina and raised the gun.
Larry reached the metal ramp and hurried up it. The passenger seats were all empty, tarpaulins bundled over the expedition’s supplies behind them.
The pilot was at the controls at the far end of the cabin. He looked back—
And drew a pistol.
Fear froze Larry’s muscles as the gun came round . . .
Eddie dived at him, knocking him down – and unleashed four shots in mid-air. Two punched through the cockpit windows … but the others hit their target. The pilot slumped over the console, making the helicopter lurch as the cyclic control stick was pushed forward beneath him.
Nina reached the foot of the ramp, seeing from the splatter of blood and brain matter on the windows that the pilot was no longer a threat. She vaulted the two men and hurried up the aisle to pull the dead mercenary back upright. The AW101 jolted again as the stick returned to the neutral position. ‘Are you okay?’ she called down the cabin.
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