Temple of the Gods (62 page)

T
he mountain’s entire upper half disintegrated in a single burst of unimaginable violence, a shockwave racing outwards. Behind it followed a colossal cloud of searing ash and superheated steam, pulverised 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 round, loose items flying through the cabin. Eddie was thrown backwards, grabbing the harness straps on a seat just in time to stop himself from following the dead pilot out of the open rear ramp.

Senses reeling, Larry struggled with the controls. The helicopter spiralled towards the desert plain. The altimeter needle whirled down towards zero with terrifying speed. He applied full throttle and pulled up the collective for maximum lift, but the AW101 was still spinning, still falling.

Eddie dragged himself upright. The landscape blurred past beyond the windows. ‘Dad! Stop the fucking thing!’

‘I don’t know how!’ Larry yelled. Below four thousand feet, and dropping—

‘Turn it!’ Nina cried. ‘We’re spinning counter-clockwise – turn the other way!’

In the turmoil, Larry’s feet had come off the rudder pedals. He found them again, and jammed one foot down to apply full power to the tail rotor. The helicopter rocked sharply, throwing more unsecured objects around its interior. Nina shrieked as an emergency kit rebounded off the console in front of her and broke open, showering her with its contents.

Three thousand feet – but the spin was slowing. Teeth bared, Larry gradually eased his foot up as the aircraft came back under control. ‘Jesus!’ he gasped. ‘I think I’ve got it.’

The chopper straightened out, pointing almost directly back at the ruined mountain. Eddie caught his breath, then returned to the cockpit to look over his father’s shoulder. ‘We don’t want to be going this way, though.’ He pointed at the compass. ‘Go south-southeast, about one-sixty degrees. That’ll take us back to the town we came from.’ A pause, then: ‘Nice work, Dad.’

‘Glad I finally did something you approve of,’ said Larry with a shaky grin.

Nina stared at the volcano. ‘Look at that . . .’ she said breathlessly. Though the initial shockwave had passed, a second destructive front was still advancing as a heavy, corpse-grey cloud swept outwards. A pyroclastic flow, hot gas and pulverised rock scouring and sterilising the earth beneath it. ‘We need to get back into the sky before it reaches us.’

‘I think I can do that,’ said Larry. He brought the AW101 around to the bearing Eddie had given him, then increased power to climb and gain speed. The desert rolled past below.

Eddie looked back. Through the open ramp, the pursuing cloud was visible, but it fell away as the helicopter ascended. Even as it retreated, though, the volcano’s roar still rattled the fuselage. ‘Christ! I know we’ve got away from some big bangs before, but that’s got to be the biggest. A fucking erupting volcano! Don’t know how we’re going to top that one.’

‘I kinda hope we don’t have to,’ said Nina earnestly. ‘We deserve a vacation.’ She looked away from the frightening sight to Eddie’s leg. Though his jeans were covered with dark dust, the torn holes made by the trident’s prongs were glistening; he was still bleeding. ‘Eddie, sit down so I can clean you up. Those wounds might get infected.’

‘In a minute – I’ll close the ramp first.’ He limped down the aisle, using the seats for support.

‘Don’t fall out,’ she cautioned jokingly. The contents of the emergency case were strewn around the cockpit; she started to search for first-aid equipment.

‘How far away is this town?’ asked Larry.

Nina picked up various items from the footwell, putting a cylindrical flare down on the console between the two pilots’ seats before examining a package of sterile dressings and a tube of antibiotic ointment. ‘About seventy miles, maybe?’

He checked the airspeed indicator. ‘It shouldn’t take too long to get there, then. Although I’ll remind you that I don’t have a clue how to land this thing.’

‘You did okay with the takeoff. I think you’ll manage the landing too.’

‘I’ll try to keep it below terminal velocity.’

Nina smiled, then looked round. Eddie still hadn’t reached the rear of the cabin. ‘Hurry up, honey! There’s a draught!’

‘You try walking with holes in your leg,’ he called back.

‘I have done. It sucked!’

He grinned, then turned back to the ramp. Some of the equipment stowed behind the seats had been hurled out of the aircraft during its spin, one of the tarps flapping furiously in the wind. A couple of the parachutes had also gone, but there were still enough left to allow himself, Nina and Larry to bail out if the worst came to the worst. Holding a ceiling strap, he peered at the ground. They were at about seven thousand feet, and still climbing. Nothing below but sand and rock.

He straightened, looking for the ramp controls. There was a control box mounted on one wall. He hobbled towards it—

Something smashed against the back of his head.

Eddie crashed to the deck, stars going supernova in his vision. An intense, sickening pain oozed through his body. He tried to get up, but his limbs refused to cooperate, as weak and limp as a baby’s.

‘Hello, Eddie,’ said Sophia with a triumphant snarl.

She had been hiding beneath the other tarpaulin. The Land Rover had been empty, set to roll away to deny anyone else its use for escape. She stood over her former husband, letting the large wrench she had used as a weapon clang to the floor as she pulled the Jericho out of his jacket. The tool slid down the ramp and spun away in the AW101’s slipstream.

Nina jumped from her seat, but froze as Sophia aimed the gun at her. ‘Well, look at this!’ the Englishwoman shouted over the wind. ‘A family reunion. How sweet.’

‘Let him go, Sophia!’ Nina demanded, surreptitiously scanning the floor for the dead pilot’s gun – but where it had ended up, she had no idea.

‘Oh, I absolutely intend to. But without one of these.’ She revealed the pack of a parachute on her back. ‘I could just shoot him, but that seems like rather poor payback for everything he’s done to me.’ She kicked the helpless man at her feet, producing a groan. ‘I’m going to shoot
you
, though. After you watch him die.’

‘You fucking
bitch
,’ Nina spat.

‘Oh, come on, Nina. An educated woman like you can do better than that, surely?’ Sophia braced herself against the seats and used a foot to shove Eddie closer to the ramp. ‘But then, as I’ve always said, one can’t expect class from an American.’

Larry whispered to Nina from the side of his mouth. ‘I could shake the controls, make her fall out.’

‘Eddie’d fall out too,’ she replied in kind, still desperately searching for a weapon. No gun. Was there anything else she could use?

Maybe – if she could reach it without being shot.

Twisting awkwardly to keep the gun trained on Nina, Sophia kept pushing Eddie nearer to the ramp. ‘I think it’ll take about thirty seconds for him to hit the ground from this height,’ she said. ‘I’m going to watch, just to make sure. Eddie does have the annoying habit of popping up when he’s supposed to be dead, but not this time. This is the end. For both of you.’ Eddie was now almost fully on the ramp. ‘As soon as I see that little Wile E Coyote puff of dirt, it’s your turn.’

A final thrust of her leg – and Eddie slithered down the ramp.

‘No!’ Nina screamed, but there was nothing she could do—

Eddie’s eyes opened – and he grabbed a cargo ring set into the metal surface just as his legs went over the edge.

Straining to hold on as the wind and rotor downwash tore at him, he looked up. The infuriated Sophia towered over him, stepping to the ramp’s top and holding on to its frame with her left hand as she leaned out. ‘
Why
,’ she shouted, trying to jab at his fingers with her outstretched boot heel, ‘can’t you
just
–’ another strike fell millimetres short – ‘
die?
’

The final blow caught his knuckles. Eddie yelled in pain—

And lost his grip.

The gale snatched him backwards, whipping him over the edge of the ramp.

‘
Yes!
’ Sophia cried, the exclamation of victory bursting out of her almost orgasmically. She glanced round at Nina—

A dazzling light shot down the length of the cabin and struck her hard in the back.

Sophia reeled as the flare that Nina had fired spun past, spraying her clothing with sparks and fire. She clutched the frame for support . . . but the two stiff prosthetic fingers prevented her from getting a firm grip. Her gloved hand slipped from the metal – and she followed Eddie down the ramp with a horrified shriek, tumbling away into the empty sky.

Nina dropped the flare’s tube and ran down the aisle. ‘Come and get us!’ she yelled to the stunned Larry. Determination driving out doubts, she passed the last row of seats, snatching a parachute off the rack—

And threw herself out of the back of the helicopter.

The slipstream pummelled her as she sailed into open air, the desert spreading out eight thousand feet below. The noise of the chopper’s engines faded, but the wind’s roar in her ears only grew louder as she picked up speed in free fall.

Parallax revealed two dark shapes against the landscape. Sophia – and Eddie. She forced back her fear, fixing her gaze on him as she grappled with the parachute’s harness. Working her arms through the flapping loops, she strained to fasten the buckle across her chest. It clicked shut – but only then did she realise that there was another set of straps through which she was meant to put her legs. When she pulled the ripcord, the sudden force of braking could tear the parachute right off her body.

But there was no time to remove it and try again. All or nothing . . .

Eddie had been slammed back to full awareness by a massive adrenalin surge – one driven by pure fear. His military training had taught him how to try to recover in the event of a parachute failure . . . but this time he
had
no parachute. And there was nothing below that might save him either – no bodies of water, no tall trees, just flat, hard desert in every direction.

Even so, he rolled face-down and spread his arms and legs. The increased drag would slow his fall – slightly. He would still hit the ground at over a hundred miles per hour.

He was going to die.

He turned his head, trying to find the helicopter in the hope that Larry had at least tipped his killer out of the back . . . and was shocked to see two figures plunging through the sky after him. The nearer was Sophia.

The other could only be Nina.

An awful, nauseating realisation of defeat rolled over him. Sophia had got what she wanted – she had killed them both. And as he watched, a parachute blossomed above his ex-wife. Not only had she killed them, but she would live to gloat about it.

Sophia gasped as the slam of deceleration yanked her harness straps tight. She took hold of the steering lines – then flinched as something shot past her.

Nina!
The American had been at the far end of the cabin – which meant she hadn’t fallen out, but deliberately jumped. She was trying to save Eddie.

Sophia almost laughed at the futility of the gesture. It couldn’t possibly succeed. And now she would have a grandstand view of both her enemies smashing down on the desert floor . . .

Something was wrong.

She could feel heat on one side of her head, but it wasn’t from sunlight. She looked round—

And screamed.

Her parachute’s pack was aflame, ignited by the flare. The wind-fanned fire was rising rapidly up the nylon webbing risers connecting her harness and the cords of the chute itself. She desperately tried to swat out the flames, but they were too big, too hungry, greedily consuming fabric and line.

A
twang
as one of the cords snapped. The parachute’s edge rippled and flapped. A second line gave way, then another and another . . .

Sophia’s cry of utter terror was lost in the wind as the chute collapsed and she plummeted towards the ground, trailing smoke as the blaze spread to her clothes and hair.

Body tilted down, arms held back at her sides, Nina was rapidly catching up with Eddie. Steering herself in free fall had proved to be an almost instinctual matter of twisting her body and limbs to direct the airflow; what she would do when she reached her husband was another matter entirely.

He rolled over on to his back, waving his arms. The signal was clear:
leave me!
She ignored it, guiding herself at him like a missile and arching her back to lift her head and slow down. Her body began to see-saw; she almost panicked before managing to stabilise herself by bringing out her arms and raising her knees.