The Covenant of Genesis (40 page)

And caught it.

But it didn’t stop her. The metal was too thin to support her, buckling and swinging her across the statue’s front. She slammed to a stop against a carved protrusion.

The counterpoise broke off. Nina plunged straight down—

Her feet hit the statue’s gilded belt. Even as more pain exploded in her legs, she had just enough presence of mind to throw herself backwards against the great figure’s stone stomach, collapsing on the small ledge at its waist. The long spear of the counterpoise plunged past, hitting the temple floor with an echoing clang.

Chase stared in horror, seeing Nina’s face twisted in pain. ‘Wait there!’ he yelled. ‘I’m coming!’

He started to climb through the window, but Sophia pulled him back. ‘What are you doing?’

‘What do you think?’

‘Even if you manage to climb back up the arm, how are you going to get down to her?’

‘I’ll think of something!’ He tried again to pull himself through the window.

Sophia jammed her arm across the frame, blocking him. His mouth curled with cold anger. ‘If you don’t move, I’ll chuck you off this ledge.’

She knew he meant it, but held her place. ‘Eddie, the Covenant will be here any minute. They must have heard that noise. If they catch us, they’ll kill us all.’

‘I can’t leave her!’

‘You can’t reach her, either. Eddie, we’ve got to go!’

Furious, frustrated, he looked back at Nina. She had managed to sit upright, and was clutching her leg. ‘Nina!’ he called. ‘If you can—’

A noise from above: breaking glass. A man in snow camouflage was using his rifle butt to widen the hole in the window behind the statue.

He ducked through, looked round, saw Chase below—

Chase shoved Sophia away and darted sideways as the Covenant soldier fired, bullets pitting the ancient stonework and shattering the remains of the window. The gunfire stopped; Chase risked a look, seeing another man climbing on to the statue before being forced to jerk away from a second burst.

‘Eddie, come on!’ Sophia commanded, moving to the buttress. ‘If we don’t get out of here now, they’ll cut us off !’

‘
Fuck!
’ Chase roared, thumping a clenched fist against the wall. He knew she was right - but that was absolutely no comfort. And if he tried to shout to Nina, even to assure her that he would come back for her, the Covenant members would know she was there.

And kill her.

Anguished, he followed Sophia to the buttress as she lowered herself over the edge . . . and let herself drop.

The buttress was wide enough for her not to slip off the side, but she still couldn’t hold in a shriek as she hurtled downwards, boots grating on the frozen stone. The slope became shallower as it descended, but Sophia was still moving fast when she reached the bottom, shooting off the end and tumbling across the iron-hard ground. She came to a stop, unmoving for a moment - then gave Chase a dizzy wave.

With a last look back at the window, Chase plunged after her.

Jagged lumps of ice tore at his clothes as he hurtled down the buttress like a luge rider -
sans
luge. He tried to squeeze his feet against the edges to slow himself, but couldn’t find enough grip, still picking up speed as he neared the bottom . . .

Chase was airborne for a moment as he flew off the end - then hit the ground arse first, taking a painful kick to his spine. He bounced over the frozen earth in a spray of ice crystals, skidding along on his back before coming to a halt.

‘Are you all right?’ Sophia asked, hobbling stiffly to him.

‘Fine,’ he grunted as he stood. Muscles ached and knives jabbed at various parts of his anatomy, but nothing seemed permanently damaged. He saw the sled nearby. ‘Come on.’

‘What are you doing?’ Sophia demanded as he headed for it. ‘If you go back in there, they’ll shoot you before you get five feet across the room!’

‘I know. That’s why I’m not going back in - until I get a gun. If Nina keeps quiet, maybe they won’t see her and they’ll go.’ He reached the sled, taking hold of the tow rope. ‘Then I can climb up and get her.’

‘We won’t have time,’ she insisted. ‘And where are you going to get a gun, anyway?’

A shout reached them from the city, where another man in white had emerged from behind a building and seen them. ‘He’ll do.’

‘He still seems to be using it!’ Sophia warned as the man took aim. More men appeared behind him. Chase recognised Zamal’s bearded face amongst the group.

‘Okay, slight rethink!’ There was no decent cover nearby, and going back into the temple would bring them into the sights of the men already inside. Instead, Chase grabbed Sophia and dived with her on to the sled. ‘Hang on!’

He kicked at the ground - and sent the sledge racing downhill along the frozen road bisecting the ancient city.

Zamal’s men opened fire, bullets spitting chunks of ice into the air around Chase and Sophia. But flattened on the sledge they were a tricky target - made the more so as they rapidly picked up speed. ‘Get them!
Get them!
’ shrieked Zamal, opening up with his SCAR on full automatic as he tracked the fleeing pair downhill.

Sharp-edged ice fragments bit at Chase’s face as a line of bullet impacts snaked along the ground beside him, getting closer as the Arab refined his aim - one shot even exploded beneath him as it whipped between the body of the sled and its runner—

They hurtled through the arch and past the first buildings, cutting off Zamal’s line of fire. Chase looked ahead. The road led all the way down to the edge of the city - and the drainage shaft cut through the dam. Their escape route.

But that would mean abandoning Nina, and he wasn’t prepared to do that.

‘Eddie!’ Sophia yelled. Another group of Covenant troopers ahead. They must have come in through the original shaft, making their way up through the city to meet their comrades.

Either they had seen the approaching sled, or Zamal had radioed them. Whichever, they were lining up across the road, preparing to shoot . . .

Chase stuck one leg over the sledge’s side, jamming his boot against the road surface. The sled slewed round, almost tipping over. He lifted his foot and it straightened out - now aiming for one of the side roads.

More gunfire, more cracking impacts around them as the soldiers realised they were about to lose sight of their prey—

Something blew apart with a crunch of shattered plastic. Chase took a blow to his side as one of the pieces of equipment strapped to the sledge was hit. The laser rangefinder had stopped a bullet for him.

But he had no time to reflect on his luck. They reached the side road, a domed wall looming ahead. He jammed both feet down, trying to slow the sledge, then lifted one to steer them round the obstruction.

Too fast—

The speeding sled scraped against the base of the curved wall in a spray of ice shards as it turned, teetering perilously on one runner before crashing down again. The gas cylinder rattled against its restraints, hitting Chase’s leg.

Feet down, toes skittering over the ice. The sled slowed. Beyond the buildings ahead, he could see a roiling haze rising towards the ceiling - steam from the volcanic vent in the hypogeum.

He saw a route leading between the groups of houses and swung them into it. The path was tight, but it opened out ahead—

Over a drop.

‘Shit!’ gasped Chase, slamming both feet as hard as he could against the ice. Sophia did the same. The sledge juddered, slowing - but not enough. ‘
Roll!
’

He threw himself to the left, Sophia to the right as the sled fishtailed over the edge, crashing down on the frozen ground ten feet below. Chase hit a pile of broken wood, twisting round and bending his legs to absorb the impact. The wood shattered along with its prison of ice, pieces flying everywhere as he came to a stop at the very edge of the drop.

Sophia wasn’t so lucky.

With nothing to stop her, she screamed as she careered over the edge—

One hand caught a knobbly chunk of ice. She jolted to a stop . . . and the ice cracked. Clawing for a hold that wasn’t there, she fell, tumbling down a rocky slope.

Chase booted away the wood and looked down. Sophia lay below him, clutching her side. He hurriedly descended the little cliff, jumping the last few feet to land beside her.

‘Sophia! You okay?’ he asked. They had ended up fairly close to the hypogeum; he looked towards the road for any sign of the Covenant. Nothing yet, but it wouldn’t take them long to track them down . . .

‘Don’t know.’ She tried to sit up. ‘Oh, God, that hurts!’

Short of opening her coat and feeling for broken bones, Chase had no way to know whether she was actually injured or just badly bruised - and no time, either. ‘You’ve got to get up. They’ll be coming.’

‘I don’t think I can.’ Chase stood; through the pain, her expression became genuinely frightened. ‘Eddie, don’t leave me, please!’

‘I wasn’t going to.’ He held out both hands. ‘I’m just going to pull you up. It’ll hurt, but . . . well, a bullet’ll hurt more. Ready?’

She winced as she took his hands in hers. ‘Okay.’

‘On three - one, two, three!’

He pulled her upright. She let out a stifled gasp, holding her right side. Chase moved round to her left and supported her. ‘Got you. Come on.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Good question.’ A shaft of light from the hole above cut through the air, the winch line still hanging from it, but even if Sophia could climb they would never reach the icy ceiling before being shot at. It would have to be the drainage shaft, then, but that presented another problem - it was straight, a perfect channel for bullets. Was there a faster way through it?

His gaze fell on the overturned sledge - but the idea that was forming was blown away by a shout. They had been seen. A man on the road waved to his comrades, then ran across the hard ground towards them.

He couldn’t climb back up the slope while supporting Sophia. Instead, they headed as quickly as they could towards the hypogeum.

 

Nina curled up tighter, trying to squeeze as deep into the shadows as she could. The gunfire from outside had stopped, and she had overheard fragments of messages over the walkie-talkie of one of the men above; the frustration in Zamal’s voice suggested that Chase and Sophia had got away, at least temporarily.

But that didn’t help her. She couldn’t even think about looking for a way down until the Covenant team left - and, if anything, more of them seemed to be arriving. She heard a faint crunch of glass overhead: someone else coming through the window. He spoke in German, and she recognised the voice - Vogler. She knew enough of the language to tell that their efforts to find something had been unsuccessful - then felt a cold shock at the sound of her own name.

They were looking for
her
.

Ribbsley’s voice echoed across the shaft. ‘What are you
doing
over there? We need to search the library - let Zamal and Hammerstein go after them!’

‘Only Chase and Blackwood got out of the temple,’ said Vogler, switching to English to address the professor. ‘But I am looking at three sets of footprints. Either Dr Wilde doubled back into the library . . . or she is still in here.’

Fear rose in Nina as a flashlight beam lanced down, barely missing her hiding place. ‘She did not fall to the ground,’ Vogler continued, the beam playing over the broken counterpoise. ‘But part of the statue did. I wonder . . .’

Nina heard ice cracking as he stepped right to the edge of the statue’s shoulders, pieces falling past her. The torch beam slowly scanned across the giant figure’s chest, down to its waist, creeping closer to her as Vogler leaned out further . . .

It touched her leg.

She tried to shrink away, but there was no more room.

‘
There
you are.’

She let out a terrified breath as more pieces of ice fell past: Vogler moving across to the statue’s outstretched arm. For a moment she held on to the hope that he might slip and fall just as she had, but he kept his footing, sliding down to brace himself in the crook of the elbow. He looked across at her. ‘You do not look comfortable there, Dr Wilde.’

‘How about we swap places?’ she said, trying to mask her terror.

Footsteps echoed through the temple below: Zamal and his men entering. He looked up at the statue, impressed despite himself, before noticing Vogler. ‘What are you doing up there?’

‘I thought you were going after Chase and Blackwood,’ Vogler said.

‘The Jew and his men are closer. They—’ Zamal stopped as he realised Vogler was not the only person on the statue. ‘You found her!’

‘Yes, I did. And maybe we would have found Chase and Blackwood as well if you had gone to help Hammerstein.’

Zamal ignored the rebuke. ‘What are you waiting for? Kill her!’

‘Yes,’ said Ribbsley, coming through the window. ‘If you’ve found her, then what’s the delay?’ A bitter tone: ‘You certainly didn’t hesitate to say you’d kill Sophia.’

Vogler gave him a stern look. ‘Perhaps I am not in a hurry to kill an unarmed and helpless woman.’

‘Then perhaps,’ Zamal sneered, ‘you are in the wrong profession.’ He raised his rifle. ‘If you do not, I will.’

‘Very well,’ said Vogler, shaking his head. He unslung his rifle. ‘I am sorry, Dr Wilde. Unlike certain members of the Covenant, I do not take any joy in this. But it has to be done.’

‘You murder people just to protect your secret,’ Nina said accusingly. ‘I don’t think God would approve.’

‘We are a necessary evil,’ Vogler replied, almost sorrowful. ‘We accept the burden of our sins - and will be held accountable for them in time.’ He raised the weapon.

‘It’s a hell of a secret, though, isn’t it?’ The words came out more rapidly as Nina’s fear rose, but she refused to surrender to it. ‘The secret of
Eden
!’