Deity (43 page)

The
second man had managed to stay on the spoke, but the sudden change in the
wheel’s momentum had forced him to cling to the beam on all fours, effectively
stopping his advancement. Tarah however, appeared undisturbed by the speed. Like
a cat she continued to round the wheel’s great rim.

A
pistol shot whizzed overhead, reminding Lori and Peet that the wheel had spun
them back into Abe’s line of sight. With Peet’s goading, Lori shifted around
the pillar, but the stone couldn’t shield them much longer. If they continued
to shift with the wheel’s movements, they’d eventually align themselves with
the man riding the spoke arm. He’d already pulled himself up to straddle the
beam, careful to keep his legs from dropping into the water, preparing for his
shot.

But
again, it was Tarah that posed the more immediate threat. With each shift to
keep the pillar between them and Abe, Tarah’s trip around the rim was shortened
tremendously. And with the wheel continuously speeding up, it wouldn’t be long
before they would be in her line of sight.

“Spin
the ball again!” Lori yelled above the pillar’s whining engine. She needn’t
have bothered for Peet was already counting off the last thirteen clicks of the
ball.

Lori
shifted behind the pillar again. This had to work. There had to be another
door. The wheel was spinning at a dizzy speed and still gaining. The momentum
of the spoke beams began to kick up a spray of water as they flew only inches
above the surface and Tarah was now in line for a shot.

It
couldn’t get any worse than this.

Lori
cringed as Tarah stopped, securing her balance as she lifted her pistol. The
pillar ball clicked to its final stop and a door did suddenly open. But it
wasn’t an escape hatch. It was a flood gate, high above the broken waterwheel
where the spring trickled out of the rock. As the gate opened, the trickling
spring grew into a roaring river—a deafening waterfall.
A
watery death trap.

Lori’s
heart caught in her throat.

The
worst was yet to come.

Inertia

The
pillar was all but useless. The pillar ball was jammed tight with no more
combinations to complete. Peet yanked Lori out of Tarah’s line of sight but a
quick shot from Abe’s Sig Sauer warned him that he was now exposed to a different
danger. There was nowhere to hide. There was no time to hide.

“Lori!
Run for the beam!” he yelled, pushing her as he rose.

Lori
didn’t hesitate. With hands still cuffed behind her back, she ran onto a spoke
beam with Peet hot on her heals. Keeping up with the wheel’s inertia was tricky
enough, but holding Lori’s balance while maintaining his own was infinitely
more challenging.

Tarah
shot just as Abe did. Peet felt the heat of one of the bullets as it clipped
his thigh. He faltered, nearly losing his balance and throwing Lori off the
beam. He grabbed her hips and together they fell forward, just enough ahead of
the sweeping beam to land squarely on it.

Lori
groaned beneath him as he held her to the beam. Water sprayed into their faces
and that’s when Peet realized the water level had risen by the sudden influx
from the spring. What had been three or four inches of breathing space between
the thrashing surface of the water and the whipping wheel was now reduced to
one or two inches. No breathing room at all.

Tarah
and Abe were now openly firing at them. Peet felt another bullet slam into his
shoulder. They were a harder target lying there on the beam, but it would only
be a matter of seconds before they swung over the ground again—right to Abe’s
advantage.

They
were sitting ducks.

Peet
had no choice. “Deep breath, Lori!” he yelled.

He
felt her inhale just beneath his chest and with
that,
he pulled her off the beam.

Peet
used his weight to pull them deep under water before they could begin their
frantic kick beneath the cyclonic wheel. He held tight to Lori’s arm, pulling
her along as she kicked with all her might. And then she broke free. Whether
from the lubricating water or sheer will, or both, Lori slipped a hand free
from the cuffs and
was
swimming through the darkness
beside him. Peet couldn’t see her, but he felt her, stroke for stroke, pulling
through the water.

With
their buoyancy threatening to lift them toward the chopping wheel, they swam
for the darkest end of the pool. Random bullets sliced the water around them as
Tarah swung somewhere overhead, and then they quit. Still, they continued to
pull and kick their way through the darkness. Peet’s lungs began to burn. He
didn’t know how much longer he could stay under. That’s when he realized there
was less thrash on the water’s surface above.

That’s
when he realized Lori was no longer with him.

Peet
cautiously broke the surface, nose first for air. There was no spray, no
whipping wooden beams. He finally rose safely to tread water. The outer rim of
the wheel was churning two feet away but at least he was out from under it. And
so was Lori, gasping and panting as she pulled herself through the water toward
him.

“Where
to…now?” she sputtered.

Peet
glanced around to find the chamber wall less than a yard away. There was
nowhere else to go and if Tarah was still riding the rim of the wheel, she’d
soon swing back around.

The
wheel was screaming at a high pitch now, its speed was out of control. At first
he found consolation in the fact that Tarah would hardly get a shot off before
being whipped back around again, but he didn’t want to take the chance that she
wouldn’t get a lucky shot. With any luck at all, the speed of the wheel would
have flung her off by now.

But
again, he didn’t want to take that chance.

“Do
you hear that?” Lori asked.

“Hear
what?”

Lori’s
face had fallen deathly serious. “That low rumble. It sounds like it’s on the
other side of that wall.”

Peet
listened. Just beneath the whining, whipping wheel he could hear something. It
was a strange sound.
Almost a growling sound.

“Dr.
Peet,” Lori said. “The water is a lot warmer here.”

Peet
hadn’t noticed until then, but Lori was right. The water was warmer.
Much warmer.

There
was a groan from the wheel as the water rose into the woodwork. A ghostly
cyclone of water shot into the air. The wheel groaned some more as it fought
against the constraint of the water.

Something
snapped.

The
monolithic wheel suddenly broke free and took flight. It spun within its
cyclone before the water pulled it back down. Then, to Peet’s disbelief, the
wheel skimmed right off the surface of the water. For an instant it looked like
it was headed straight for them but spun off course by its own energy. Like an
alien saucer it flew straight for the far wall of the chamber.

Straight
toward the growling stomach of the volcano.

House
Of
Fire

The
howl of the calendar’s engine filled the long, dark corridor. Chac picked up
his pace, leaving Father Ruiz to decide whether or not to close the Calendar
Room door behind them. He flipped on the corridor lights. They were dim, offering
just enough light to see by. He knew they had only a twenty minute charge from
the solar panels disguised within the rock outcropping outside. They had to
move fast.

With
Father Ruiz trotting behind him, Chac led the way deep into the corridor. As he
listened to the engine far ahead he hoped he wasn’t too late, but feared the
worst. The engine running at full throttle was a sign that the combination
pillar had been breached. The end was about to begin, if it hadn’t happened
already. Timing would be everything.
Timing and placement.
Chac’s efforts might be useless if Peet wasn’t near enough to rescue.

With
each step Chac launched himself ever faster, pulling away from the panting
priest. The corridor seemed endless but he knew he was coming to the end for
the engine noise was growing louder and louder. It had reached a deafening
pitch by the time Chac came to the junction in the corridor. A ninety-degree
turn to the left would lead him straight into the engine room. To the right a
steel ladder rose to a rock platform overhead.

Chac
started to climb.

He’d
just reached the top when a terrible noise violently shook the platform. Chac
clung desperately to the rock as the ladder danced out from beneath his feet
and crashed to the floor of the corridor, leaving him suspended. Chac summoned
all his strength and pulled himself onto the platform. If that tremor was what
he thought it was, then time had just run out.

Desperately,
Chac pulled himself up and charged to the wall supporting the platform. He
headed straight for the steel door seated within the stone wall. Beside the
door awaited two options—a loaded AK47 and a life preserver. Chac chose the
life preserver. In almost the same movement, Chac strongarmed the door open and
received a face full of steam.

One
look into the adjoining chamber confirmed his fears. From his viewpoint just
meters above the dark pool of water he immediately spotted the calendar wheel
imbedded into the wall of rock, itself busted into monolithic splinters while
the stone wall it had slammed into crumbled around it. There was the glorious
red glow of a magma pool on the other side, belching clouds of steam as the
chamber pool lapped at the rock and trickled into the lava.Then he saw Peet. The
professor was caught in the flow of water rushing toward the magma. And he
wasn’t alone!

The
worst case scenario was playing out just as the Zapatistas feared. Chac
squeezed the life preserver. At least they had prepared for it.

The
rock around the calendar wheel continued to fall away, releasing more water into
the lava. The combination proved explosive as another belch of steam threatened
to blow out the rest of the wall.

There
was little time before the draining water would sweep the two victims to their
doom. Chac yelled at them but neither heard his voice. He knew he had only one
shot. He reared back and threw the life preserver for all it was worth. It
landed in the water squarely between Peet and his partner, surprising them
both. Instinctively, they both grabbed on, Peet catching the rope and finally
looking up to see where it had come from.

Even
from the distance, Chac could read the relief written all over his face as he
strained against the rope. Pulling two bodies against the current put every
muscle in Chac’s body to the test. The Zapatistas may have prepared for this
rescue. What they hadn’t planned for were two victims. There was no place to
tie the rescue rope off at. No extra support to handle the weight. Chac was
anchor and wench all on his own. If his strength gave out now, he risked being
pulled into the water with them, dooming them all.

Peet
must have sensed the peril for he began kicking and prompted his partner to do
the same. Together they all fought the surging water as more of the chamber
wall caved in around the shattered wheel, creating a wider opening for even
more water to pour into the magma. The volcanic chamber belched with steam. The
air grew thin and hot. They were fighting on borrowed time.

Chac
managed to pull them to the chamber wall where Peet found the steel rungs
directly beneath the door. Chac waited as Peet helped his partner to the first
rung and for the first time, Chac realized he was looking at a young woman.

He
was looking at Lori!

* * * *

Peet
had never been so happy to see Chac Bacab in all his life. As he climbed out of
the volcanic chamber and stepped onto the platform he wrapped his arms
gratefully around the stout Mayan.

“I
didn’t know if I was about to be boiled, steamed or incinerated!” he exclaimed,
but Chac wasn’t celebrating.

“We’re
not out of the woods yet,” he said gravely. “We have to get the hell off of
this mountain!”

Together
they spun around to the edge of the platform where Lori was already standing,
looking down. “How do we get off of here?” she asked.

Right
on cue, the ladder popped up and banged against the lip of the platform. Below,
Father Ruiz stabilized the base of the ladder. He called to them but his words
were lost beneath the wailing of the wheel engine now, having lost its load,
screamed out of control.

One
by one they quickly descended the ladder. Without missing a step, Chac led the
race back up a dimly-lit corridor. Or was it a mine shaft? Peet couldn’t tell,
nor did it really matter. The noise quickly faded behind, aided tremendously by
the ringing in his shell-shocked ears.

And
then the explosion came.

Peet
was knocked off his feet and landed in a pile amongst the others. The corridor
shook violently beneath a mountainous rumble. The air became searing, but not
in waves. It simply and quite suddenly boiled. If God wasn’t trying to shake the
evil from the earth He was certainly going to cook it out.