By Lily’s count, they had used all but two of the symbols from the plaque. After they placed the Pillar in that carving of the Machine, there must be one more choice to make.
As Jack rounded the final ring, still twenty yards away from the tongue of stone, the basket from the second crane slowly lowered itself into view.
Felix Bonaventura and Iolanthe were in it, along with General Dyer.
Bonaventura was ecstatic. Stepping out of the basket onto the last few feet of the spiraling roadway, he opened his arms and smiled broadly. “Well done! No one’s managed to tame this place the way you have!” He took a step onto the long tongue of stone leading to the pyramid’s peak. “Now all we have to do is—”
“No!” Jack skidded to a halt and leaped off the motorcycle. “Wait! Not yet, stop—!”
But it was too late.
By virtue of its advanced sensory mechanism, the Vertex knew that someone had crossed that last carving of the Machine without the Pillar in their possession.
From the upper regions of the cavern, the ominous rumbling echoed again.
It sounded like thunder.
Jack snapped up, so did Lily and Iolanthe.
Both Bonaventura and General Dyer looked upward in horror, since they knew what this place looked like when its master trap went off.
“Dear me, no . . .” Bonaventura whispered a moment before the Vertex was plunged into absolute mayhem.
THE 5TH VERTEX’S MASTER TRAP GOES OFF
IT CAME exploding out from the wide tunnel in the uppermost section of the spiral: a huge whitewater wave, seven feet high and sixty feet wide, taking up the full breadth of the roadway.
It thundered down the descending roadway, sweeping around its curve, bounded on the inside by the stone guardrail, galloping forward like a stampede of buffalos.
The rampaging wave blasted past the entry archway, shooting by it, before it smashed into the concrete barrier protecting the upper crane. Unexpectedly, the wave completely collected the barrier within its mass and hurled it into the crane itself, knocking the crane over!
As he watched the crane topple, Jack wondered if previous occurrences of the massive wave had been weaker. Perhaps, since this wave had been set off by a transgression at the very epicenter of the Vertex, it was bigger, stronger, more deadly.
Either way, Bonaventura’s thick protective concrete barrier had been picked up by the wave as if it weighed nothing at all and the upper crane now tumbled along within the angry wave.
What followed was as spectacular as it was horrifying.
Jack turned on the spot as he watched the giant wave sweep around the perimeter of the cavern, roaring as it went. It wound quickly downward, a raging foaming river that sped down the descending curve of the spiral, bounding over the chasms as if they were minor inconveniences, charging angrily toward the intruders at the center of the system.
“You stupid, stupid man!” he yelled at Bonaventura.
They were completely screwed.
When that wave hit the innermost ring of the spiral, it would bounce off a final wall and shoot out across the thin tongue of stone: sweeping away whoever happened to be standing on it at the time.
The second crane was an option, although not a great one, since the upper crane hadn’t been able to withstand the rushing body of water.
Bonaventura and General Dyer figured it was better than nothing. Before Jack or Iolanthe could stop them, they scrambled back into the basket and started rising up the crane’s vertical cable.
“Hey!” Iolanthe called.
But it didn’t save them.
Moments later, the speeding wave slammed into the base of the second crane and ripped it off its mounting, causing the whole crane, still stretched out over the innermost ring, to lurch sickeningly and topple downward— into the abyss! Bonaventura and the general fell into the darkness, screaming, with the entire crane falling after them.
“No one likes to see that,” Jack observed drily.
He checked his watch: 7:28 A.M.
They had to plant the Pillar at precisely 7:31 A.M. They had three minutes to go. But the rampaging river would be on them in less than one.
He keyed his radio. “Pooh Bear! How you doing!”
“The twins are almost at the Vertex! They’re going to get there with about thirty seconds to spare! You?”
“Things just got really nasty here.” The whitewater wave was past halfway now. “We’re at our Vertex, but waiting at the peak is gonna be a problem! Let me know when the twins are in position! We’ll only get one shot at this!”
Jack turned to Lily and Iolanthe. “This way.”
Gripping the Pillar in his hand, he led his two female companions out onto the tongue of stone, to the peak of the great bronze pyramid.
The descending wave was three-quarters of the way down the system now, galloping downward at frightening speed.
At the very end of the tongue of stone, Jack searched for something, something he couldn’t find, completely ignoring the stupendous pyramid two feet in front of him and the chaos all around him.
“What the hell are you looking for!” Iolanthe shouted.
“Lily, there’s still one symbol on the plaque we haven’t used yet, right?” he said.
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“I checked three times.”
Iolanthe saw the incoming wave sweep into the lowest ring of the spiral. It looked incredibly powerful and it was almost on them.
To her complete incomprehension, Jack wasn’t even looking at it. He actually lay down on his belly and peered over the very end of the tongue of stone, looking at its underside.
“There it is!” he called triumphantly. He sprang up. “Lily, Iolanthe, over the edge, now. There’s a series of hand rungs carved into the underside of this half bridge and they lead to a pair of tunnels cut into the wall of the abyss: the last choice. Go!”
As the charging whitewater wave came round the final curve of the spiral, the three tiny figures of Lily, Iolanthe, and Jack lowered themselves over the end of the long tongue of stone.
Then the deadly wave hit the wall at the bottom of the spiral and bounced out over the tongue of stone, spraying across it, all the way down its length, showering off its edges in a spectacular three-sided waterfall.
And there, hanging from the hand rungs cut into the underside of the narrow stone tongue, dangling above the bottomless abyss, glistening curtains of water falling all around them, were Jack, Iolanthe, and Lily.
LUNDY ISLAND (4TH VERTEX)
Julius Adamson’s watch ticked over to 2:30 A.M. as he and his brother, Lachlan, raced out onto an open forecourt at the base of the Fourth Vertex’s mini-city, passing between two obelisks before dashing down a flight of steps that gave access to this Vertex’s half bridge and pyramid.
The minicity above and behind them was now literally teeming with waterfalls: a complex network of streams that twisted and turned, at some times diverging, at others converging, on their inexorable journey down the watercourse toward the forecourt that the twins had just crossed. Once the water hit that forecourt, there was no way back for the twins.
From their position on the spotting platform, Pooh Bear and Stretch had guided the twins expertly through the maze, always one step ahead of the water chasing them.
They now watched tensely as the two tiny figures of the twins raced out across the half bridge at the base of the minicity, arriving at the peak of the inverted pyramid.
Julius got there first, clutching the Pillar. Huffing and puffing, Lachlan peered back up at the waterfalls chasing them.
“We’re here!” Julius yelled into his radio. “How about you, Jack!”
His watch hit 2:31 A.M.
DIEGO GARCIA (5TH VERTEX)
Jack’s watch beeped as it struck 7:31 A.M.
Clear curtains of free-flowing water continued to stream off the tongue of stone from which he hung. Beside him, Iolanthe had looped her belt over a ha
nd rung and strapped it round her right wrist to help her hang on. It was a smart move that Lily had copied.
Jack pursed his lips in thought.
There was only one way to do this, he figured, and that required doing something he wasn’t so happy doing: trusting Iolanthe.
“I need your help!” he yelled. “I have to swing up through that water curtain to plant the Pillar—but as soon as I lay the Pillar, the water’s gonna take me down into the abyss. I need you to hold my belt and catch me!”
His eyes locked on hers. The beautiful British royal stared back at him with her mesmerizing green eyes, water dripping down her face. She was inscrutable. She gave nothing away. He couldn’t tell if she would help him or not.
“Okay!” she yelled back.
“Right . . .” Jack said, unsure, but with no other choice. He needed an adult to hold him. Lily wasn’t strong enough.
He shuffled to the very end of the stone tongue, directly underneath the pyramid’s peak.
Into his radio: “Okay, Julius! On my mark! In three—”
He glanced at Lily and wondered if this would be the last time he saw her.
“—two—”
LUNDY ISLAND (4TH VERTEX)
Julius brought his Pillar up to within an inch of the peak of his pyramid. Behind him, the roar of the many waterfalls was deafening.
“—one—mark!”
Julius jammed the Pillar into its matching slot in the pyramid.
DIEGO GARCIA (5TH VERTEX)
With a heave that took all his strength, Jack swung himself up through the curtain of water flowing over the tongue of stone above him.
He burst up through the flowing stream, water slamming into his face, opened his eyes and saw the peak of the pyramid right above him. He reached out and thrust his Pillar up into the pyramid’s peak.
The Pillar locked into place and Jack released his grip on it—and just as he’d anticipated, he was instantly hurled by the flowing water over the edge and thrown down into the abyss . . .
. . . WHERE IOLANTHE caught him!
She was hanging by one hand from her belt, still looped over a hand rung, while gripping his waistband with the other.
She could easily have let him fall—and given their rival sides in this quest, could well have been expected to.
But to Jack’s surprise she hadn’t.
She’d saved his life.
He climbed up her body and grabbed hold of a hand rung, just as the Vertex came to life.
A blazing white beam of light shot like a laser down from the peak of the inverted pyramid into the dark abyss beneath them, illuminating the depths of the great shaft, disappearing into infinity.
LUNDY ISLAND (4TH VERTEX)
A similar event was happening at the Fourth Vertex.
Julius and Lachlan Adamson stood in stunned awe as the inverted pyramid at their Vertex loosed its own blinding white beam into the abyss beneath their half bridge. The great pyramid thrummed loudly as the entire cavern was lit up by the harsh white light.
“Good God!” Julius shouted.
Then abruptly, the mighty shaft of light vanished, plunging the wide abyss back into the pale light of their glowsticks and flares.
The Pillar pulsed in the pyramid’s peak, crystal clear, white Thoth glyphs appearing on its sides, glyphs that described its reward, life, in detail.
Julius reached out and grabbed it, and the glasslike Pillar came away from the peak, leaving a small pyramidal part of itself there.
“Julius! We have to go!” Lachlan called, eyeing the still-falling series of waterfalls gaining on them.
“Right!” Julius started running.
Guided once again by Pooh Bear and Stretch, they struggled back up the minicity, following a winding vertical path through the labyrinthine watercourse.
Like Jack, Pooh and Stretch had counted the symbols they’d used to this point: to get to the pyramid, they’d used exactly half the symbols. It was Stretch who’d realized that the remaining symbols provided the safe path back up through the minicity.
Streams of water still flowed off every tower top but on a select few it was shallow and had formed into gentle swirling pools—this was the safe way up.
At one point, the exhausted Lachlan, trudging against the knee-deep flow, lost his footing and was swept ten feet backward, toward the brink of a large fall. Diving back, Julius managed to grab his arm and hold him.
But Lachlan had lost it. Lost the will. “Go, Julius! Get out of here! Don’t let me slow you down!”
“Shut up, Lachie . . .”
“I’m sorry, Julius!” Lachlan called. “I’m sorry I can’t keep up! I just can’t! And I’m sorry about Stacy Baker, too!”
In the endless spray of the waterfalls, the two brothers stood there, facing each other, wondering what to do.
Some time later, Pooh Bear and Stretch were standing again on the summit of the miniature city, waiting tensely.
At length, Julius’s hand appeared above the edge of their tower and he hauled himself over the rim, soaking and breathless.
There was no immediate sign of Lachlan, and Pooh Bear gasped.
Then he saw him. Draped over Julius’s back, clinging to him piggyback style.
Julius had carried Lachlan up the last half of the journey.
The two young men rolled to the ground, sucking in air. Pooh and Stretch rushed to their side.
Stretch bent to help Julius, grabbing Lachlan’s other arm. “Here, let me help, he must be heavy.”
Julius smiled grimly, his face dripping with water. “He’s not heavy, he’s my brother.”
DIEGO GARCIA (5TH VERTEX)
At the Fifth Vertex, the water kept flowing down the spiral roadway, but after a few minutes it began to lose its intensity and diminished to a trickle.
When the flow was weak enough, Jack again hoisted himself above the water curtain and snatched the Pillar from the pyramid’s peak, then swung back down to his hand rung on the underside of the stone tongue. Like the Pillar at Lundy Island, this Pillar now glowed with lines of ancient white text: text that outlined its reward, death.
“What now?” Iolanthe asked.
“Well—” Jack began.
“Captain West!” a voice over a megaphone called from somewhere above them. “We have just received some new orders . . . from your father. He has informed the entire force here at Diego Garcia that after successfully laying the Pillar, you and the royal are not to be permitted to leave this island alive. The entire American garrison at Diego Garcia has been ordered to kill you.”
Out on Diego Garcia’s southern runway, Sky Monster saw clear evidence of his hosts’ change of heart almost immediately.
Six fearsome Avenger-class Humvees came rushing across the causeway, speeding toward the island airstrip. Each Avenger was equipped with two upwardly pointed pods containing four Stinger surface-to-air missiles. That meant eight missiles per car, forty-eight missiles in total.
A dozen Army Rangers started running on foot toward the 747 from the airstrip’s tower, while five pilots in full flight gear hustled across the runway toward some F-15 Eagle fighter jets.
The timing of all this wasn’t lost on Sky Monster. The time for laying the Pillar had just passed. Jack must have set it in place and now the bad guys were doing what bad guys did: fucking you over after you saved their asses.
Diego Garcia had just declared war on Jack and his team.
Closing the exterior door and running for the cockpit—with no objection from his two Spetsnaz minders—Sky Monster decided to declare war right back at them.
•••
Inside the Vertex, Jack, Lily, and Iolanthe were still hanging from the stone tongue.
“We can’t go out the way we came in,” Jack said. He jerked his chin at the pair of square stone holes at the end of their line of hand rungs. “We make the last choice and see where it takes us.”
The left-hand hole was the correct one and it opened onto a long upwardly slopi
ng tunnel that wound higher and higher until it ended abruptly at a dead end made of a single sandstone block.
As they arrived at the dead end, Sky Monster’s voice came through Jack’s earpiece: “Huntsman! You still alive down there? I just came under attack on the runway and had to take off and launch about a billion countermeasures! It’s pandemonium up here!”
Explosions boomed in the background.
“Can you touch down at all to pick us up?”
“Er, negative.”
“What about an aerial option? Is that available?”
“I can do that. Near the runway’s hangar. Hurry, Jack. I can hold them off for another ten, maybe fifteen minutes. After that I’ll be a sitting duck up here.”
“We’ll get there as fast as we can. Thanks, Monster.”
Outside, explosions boomed and columns of smoke rose as the Halicarnassus banked in the sky above the island runway, unleashing tracer bullets and dropping incendiary bombs on the airstrip below.
Sky Monster’s first wave had taken out the two Patriot missile launchers at the end of the runway; his second had created deep craters in the runway that prevented the launching of the F-15s.
Stinger missiles lanced into the sky from the Avengers on the ground, but the Hali’s electromagnetic countermeasures were way too good for them and they just veered wildly away before ditching into the sea.
The F-15 fighters themselves were Sky Monster’s next target. Although they couldn’t take off now, they might later—and Sky Monster was just pissed off—so he nailed the first three on the short taxiway outside their hangar, hitting them in their forewheels, so that they crumpled nose down onto the taxiway, their broken carcasses blocking the way of the two unhit fighters.
He swung in a wide circle over the V-shaped atoll and loosed another pair of missiles at Diego Garcia’s main runway on the western arm. High-spraying explosions of asphalt and dirt rose into the air. That runway wouldn’t be launching anything either.
“You want a war!” Sky Monster shouted. “I’ll give you a motherfucking war!”
Shwack!
The blast from Jack’s C-2 plastic explosive was short and sharp and it cracked the thick sandstone brick blocking their way.
The Five Greatest Warriors Page 25