Return to Atlantis: A Novel (59 page)

“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 flashlight 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 toward 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 onto 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 amid 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 around 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 toward 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 four-by-four 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.

“Dammit!” 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 toward 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 around …

Eddie dived at him, knocking him down—and unleashed four shots in midair. 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.

Eddie pushed himself off his father. “Are you?” he asked.

“I … I think so,” said Larry, breathing heavily. “My God! You …” He regarded his son, wide-eyed. “Eddie, you saved my life. Thank you.”

Eddie feigned a casual shrug, but was unable to keep an appreciative smile off his face. “All part of the job. Come on.” He stood, helping Larry up. The smile quickly faded as he regarded the red-tinged cockpit windows. “Buggeration and fuckery. Don’t suppose you know how to fly a chopper, do you?”

“Well, er, funnily enough …”

“You
do
?” Now it was the turn of Eddie’s eyes to widen. “Shit, come on! You’ve got to get us out of here!” He pushed his father down the aisle.

Larry was already having second thoughts. “Okay, I’ve been at the
controls
of a chopper. The real pilot did all the hard stuff. Like taking off. And landing. I’ve only had about two hours’ experience total.”

“That’s two hours more than me and Nina. Do what you can.” He guided his father to the empty copilot’s seat.

“I don’t really think—oh, Jesus.” Larry recoiled from the dead man in the neighboring position.

“Just don’t look at him.”

“How can I not? He’s right there! And some of him’s all over the windscreen!”

“We’ll move him,” said Nina. “Just try to look
through
the window and not
at
it.” She and Eddie started to haul the corpse from the seat.

Larry could still barely contain his nausea. “How can
you be so … so
nonchalant?
It’s a bloody dead body! Literally!”

“Sad fact is, you kinda get used to them,” Nina said, briefly reflecting on just how much she had changed over the past five years. But there were more pressing matters to think about. They pulled the dead man into the aisle, Eddie dragging him back toward the ramp as she dropped into the newly vacated space. “So, Larry—can you fly this thing?”

Still trying to keep the worst of the gore out of his eyeline, Larry surveyed the controls. “It’s about five million times more complicated than anything else I’ve ever flown, but … cyclic, collective, that must be the throttle, rudder pedals. I recognize the basics. I have no idea if I can actually get it into the air, though.”

A tremor rattled the aircraft, a thunderous rumble coming from the volcano’s peak. “Take your best shot,” said Nina urgently.

Larry licked his dry lips and gripped the two sticks, placing his feet on the pedals. “All right. Okay. How did they do it? The instructor talked me through it once. Let’s see—hold the main rotor in a flat pitch”—he held the cyclic control in front of him in its centered position—“bring the throttle up to takeoff revolutions—I don’t know how fast that is …”

“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.

T
he 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.