Temple of the Gods (57 page)

Alexander Stikes, seated directly behind the pilot, would have much preferred the twenty-four places to be filled with mercenaries under his command, but the surviving members of the Group had decided they wanted to witness the discovery of the meteorite first-hand. They had arrived in the Ethiopian capital the previous day and waited in Addis Ababa’s most luxurious hotel, such as it was, for the ongoing search to produce results. It was a harsh irony: one of the world’s poorest countries being visited incognito by a small group of people whose personal net worth outstripped that of the entire nation.

He turned to speak to Warden. ‘We’ll be there in a few minutes.’

‘Are you sure this is the place?’ the Group’s chairman demanded.

‘Not one hundred per cent, but considering the circumstances it seems highly likely. A volcano would fit nicely with the Atlantean priestess’s reference to the forge of Hephaestus. Benefits of a classical education,’ he added at Meerkrieger’s raised eyebrow. ‘And our aerial reconnaissance drone spotted a vehicle crossing the desert towards it some hours ago; it’s still there.’

‘Wilde and Chase?’ said Warden.

‘Who else?’ Sophia said from beside Stikes.

The former officer nodded. ‘Considering that there’s absolutely nothing in this part of the desert that would be of value to man or beast, they’re the only people I can think of who would have a reason for coming out here.’

‘But we don’t know they’re in the country,’ Brannigan said from behind Meerkrieger.

‘And we don’t know they’re not. Chase has proved very adept at getting around the world unnoticed.’

‘Good for him,’ said Larry loudly. Eddie’s father was seated towards the back of the cabin with the mercenaries, under guard. The man next to him had standing orders from Stikes if the prisoner made a nuisance of himself, and he carried them out by driving an elbow hard into Larry’s stomach. The older man curled up in pain, gasping for breath.

‘We know they left Switzerland,’ Stikes continued, dismissing the interruption, ‘and they didn’t return to the US, so it’s highly probable that they’re here. Wilde apparently has some sort of inbuilt direction finder, after all. And they have a very strong incentive to find the meteorite before we do.’

‘You’d better hope they haven’t,’ Warden said, with an undercurrent of threat.

Stikes concealed his look of derision until he had turned away to check the view ahead. The volcano was rapidly growing. His cold eyes scanned it, searching for anything standing out against the barren rock . . .

‘There,’ he said. ‘There they are!’ He pointed, indicating his find to the pilot, who turned the helicopter towards it.

Warden leaned forward to look. A small block of colour was visible on the mountainside: a vehicle. ‘Land as close to it as you can,’ he ordered, then addressed Stikes. ‘Will you be able to find them?’

‘Tracking is one of my specialities,’ the Englishman told him smugly.

The pilot brought the helicopter into a hover over the small plateau, its downwash whipping up a storm of dust and grit that buffeted the parked 4×4. He brought the aircraft down with a bump. ‘Right,’ said Stikes, addressing the members of the Group, ‘I think it will be best if you all wait in the chopper until my men and I find Chase and Wilde and locate the meteorite. It should—’

‘We’re not going to sit here baking in this thing,’ said Warden firmly. The pilot was in the process of shutting down the engines; once the cabin’s air conditioning was switched off, the temperature in the enclosed space would quickly become intolerable. ‘I want to be there to see the stone the moment it’s found.’

‘So do we,’ said both the Bull brothers simultaneously. The others agreed, even the elderly Meerkrieger undeterred by the prospect of negotiating the rough terrain.

‘As you wish,’ Stikes said. ‘In that case, if you’ll follow me . . .’ As Warden picked up the case holding the statues, the mercenary leader made his way down the narrow central aisle to his eight men at the rear. ‘Everyone arm up and move out. Remember that in no circumstances is Dr Wilde to be killed. Anyone else who might be there is fair game – except Chase. He’s mine.’ He reached past several parachutes on a rack to push a button, and the broad rear ramp lowered to the ground. ‘All right, let’s go.’

He strode down the ramp, the Group members – looking obviously out of place in the raw natural environment despite their newly bought expedition clothing – and Sophia following. The mercenaries pulled back tarps and collected their weapons and survival gear from behind the ranks of seats, then marched after their leader, two of them pushing Larry between them.

Gleaming Jericho drawn, Stikes checked that the Land Rover was empty, then surveyed the steep and barren landscape. There was nobody in sight.

But he spotted a small depression in the blanket of stones covering the ground. On its own it would have meant nothing, but near it was another, and another . . .

A trail of footfalls, leading away from the 4×4 up the volcano’s side. Two trails, in fact, one lighter than the other.

Sophia recognised his curling smile of triumph. ‘You’ve found them?’

‘I have,’ he replied. He called out to the others, ‘This way!’

They set off up the slope, Stikes leading the pack like a foxhound.

Eddie had eventually found two promising spots on the meteorite to plant his charges, and was now carefully traversing the top of the great rock, looking for a third. If the explosives shattered it along its natural fault lines, the combined blasts might have more chance of pulverising the separate pieces.

It was a long shot, though. So Plan B would have to come into effect, and even that had a major flaw – one that he only had to look up to see. If the worst came to the worst, people could descend on lines from the top of the crater. Considering the Group’s resources, if they found the place it wouldn’t take long for them to realise that.

And he was increasingly thinking there was no ‘if’ about it. They had already triangulated the meteorite’s general position based on the bearings taken in Japan and Switzerland, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that the plane he had seen was carrying out reconnaissance. Finding the Temple of the Gods was a matter of money, material and manpower, and the Group had all three in abundance.

He dismissed the grim thought as he spotted a wide crack in the meteorite’s surface, deep enough to swallow his entire arm. That should do the trick.

It would take a few minutes to rig the detonator and place the explosive. He glanced at the towering temple, seeing the flash of Nina’s camera from the second tier. ‘Might have bloody known she’d wander off,’ he grumbled, before raising his voice to a shout. ‘Oi! I’ll only be a couple more minutes – come back down!’

On the temple, Nina heard him, and reluctantly waved to show her agreement. There was still so much more to see; as well as the statues, the walls were inscribed with more Atlantean texts: accounts of the builders’ journey across Africa and how they had constructed the temple despite the extreme conditions.

But now nobody would ever know their story. The temple was well within the fifty-yard blast radius Alderley had mentioned, so blowing up the meteorite would bombard it with debris, smashing the statues and shattering the ancient records behind them. She would be the only person ever to see the hidden wonder of the lost civilisation close up.

She knew the sacrifice had to be made, though. Taking one last picture of a statue, whom she took to be Eupraxia, the goddess of well-being, she headed back to the narrow flight of stairs.

By the time she returned to the ledge, Eddie was out of sight on top of the meteorite, lying down to push the primed explosive as deeply into the rock as possible. She aimed her camera upwards, trying to get as much of the temple as she could into frame with the mouth of the crater high above . . .

A sound caught her attention. A soft scuff, like someone stepping on gravel.

She moved across the temple’s front to the tunnel entrance. Nothing but darkness was visible. She listened for several seconds, but the noise didn’t recur. Dismissing it as just the breeze shifting grit on the floor, she turned away, lining up her photograph again—

Crunch
.

The same noise, louder, closer.

She whirled – and saw Stikes emerge from the lava tube, his gun pointed at her. Behind him, other faces came out of the shadows, all equally unwelcome: Sophia, Warden, the other members of the Group. And Larry, held at gunpoint by an unsmiling mercenary in desert combat gear.

‘Dr Wilde!’ said Stikes with malevolent brightness. ‘We can’t go on meeting like this.’

‘Eddie!’ Nina yelled. ‘They’re here, they found us! Set off the—’

Sophia rushed past Stikes and slammed a gloved fist against Nina’s jaw. The blow knocked the redhead to her knees. She spat out blood and whipped up one leg, trying to plough a retaliatory strike into the other woman’s stomach, but Sophia neatly sidestepped the attack and drove a boot into her chest. Nina let out a choked gasp of pain.

‘What’s the
matter
, Nina?’ Sophia snarled as she delivered another savage kick, this time to her abdomen. ‘Eddie not been
keeping
–’ a third impact – ‘up with your
training
?’ She stamped on Nina’s stomach, leaving her writhing and struggling to breathe.

‘That’s enough!’ ordered Warden. ‘We need her alive!’

With evident reluctance, Sophia withdrew. Ignoring Nina’s moans, Stikes surveyed the ledge. ‘Chase!’ he called, his voice echoing off the temple. ‘Show yourself or I’ll kill your father!’ The mercenary forced Larry forward, gun pressed hard into his back.

A head slowly rose into view over the top of the meteorite. ‘Let ’em go, Stikes!’ Eddie shouted. ‘This thing’s wired to blow – if you don’t, I’ll take us all out and this whole thing ends right here.’

There was a flurry of consternation amongst the Group, some of them pushing back through the mercenaries into the tunnel, but Stikes was unbowed. ‘You’re bluffing. You won’t let your wife die, especially not at your hand. Or even your father.’

‘Well, Eddie?’ asked Sophia. ‘What are you going to do?’ She kicked Nina again, drawing another pained cry.

‘Leave her alone!’ Eddie demanded.

‘Or what? You’ll blow us all up? Hardly. I know you better than that.’

‘We’re wasting time,’ said Warden irritably. ‘Mr Chase, I
will
let Mr Stikes carry out his threat if you don’t surrender right now. If you do, then . . . I’ll let you and your father live.’

‘What?’ snapped Stikes.

‘What can they do? We have the meteorite, and we have Dr Wilde – as you say, he won’t risk anything happening to her.’ He turned back to Eddie. ‘What do you say, Mr Chase? This is your chance to end this without any more death or violence.’

To Nina’s shock, Eddie held up his hands, then climbed down the sulphur-covered rock, jumping the last ten feet and walking out of the circle of statues towards the entrance. ‘Eddie!’ she gasped. ‘You can’t let them—’ Her words were cut short by another blow from Sophia’s boot.

‘She’s right,’ said Larry, forcing the words through his fear as the mercenary jabbed the gun harder into his back. ‘Edward, you can’t just give up!’

Eddie didn’t reply, stopping ten feet short of Stikes and Warden. The American nodded. ‘Good. You’re doing the right thing.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ Eddie replied. ‘That thing you said about ending this without more death and violence?’

‘Yes?’

He grinned. ‘Not my style.’

Before anyone could react, he pushed the trigger button.

A
deafening explosion rocked the ledge – but it didn’t come from the meteorite.

The trigger’s selector dial was set to detonate only a single bomb: the one Eddie had planted in the entrance chamber. The blast shattered the stone beam running across the room . . .

And the hammer fell.

The enormous stone block plunged to the floor – splattering those Group members who had retreated in fear and some straggling mercenaries to a bloody pulp.

But the carnage didn’t end in the entrance chamber. The earthquake force of the impact collapsed the roof of the lava tube. Rubble flattened more people—

Then the temple itself began to crumble.

A section of the first tier above the entrance splintered away, statues spinning through the air as it dropped. The people closest to the lava tube could do nothing but scream as it obliterated them like ants beneath a boot. The entire ledge shuddered, a great wedge-shaped chunk breaking from its edge and tumbling down to the lava lake far below.

Those further away were flung off their feet as the ground bucked beneath them. Eddie landed hard on his side, bringing up his arms to protect his head from flying debris.

As the echoing rumble of stone died away, coughs from inside the dissipating dust cloud revealed the survivors. There were not many. Of the twenty-four passengers from the helicopter, only ten remained alive, the others all buried under tons of broken rock.

Stikes painfully picked himself up and wiped his eyes. Sophia was sprawled on top of Nina, while Larry and his guard were both crumpled nearby. Warden sat up, moaning, while a few feet from him Meerkrieger held a hand to his bleeding head. The only other Group member who remained alive was Brannigan; behind her, what was left of the Bull brothers lay partially visible beneath a smashed stone slab, united in death as in life. Three other mercenaries were also stirring. Everyone else was dead.