A simple headcount had given Nina the bad news. ‘Oh God, I’m so sorry,’ she said to Amaanat as the group arrived.
‘It is all right,’ he said, through tightly drawn lips. ‘We shall all become again, in time.’
‘We’ll try to make it a long time,’ Eddie assured him. The helicopter had passed out of sight as it turned, but the thud of its rotors was growing louder. ‘Okay, I’ll go down. Once I’m in position at the bottom, everyone follow me. Jayesh’ll cover you from up here. Fight to the end, mate,’ he told his friend as he started his descent.
‘Fight to the end,’ the Gurkha echoed.
‘Eddie,’ Nina called after him. ‘Stay safe. Macy’s waiting for her daddy.’
A strained grin. ‘No pressure, then.’
He quickly clambered down. Thirty feet into the descent, a damaged rung reminded him that he was nearing the one that had almost caught him out on the ascent. Which was it?
The split rung beneath it helped him identify the danger, about twenty feet below. A glance along the valley: the helicopter was still blocked from sight, but it couldn’t be far away. He continued downwards, carefully negotiating the risky rungs. A relieved breath, then he picked up the pace again. Two thirds of the way down, three quarters. He checked for the helicopter once more—
A rung snapped under his foot.
He only had one hand on a higher bar, caught mid-movement. His other foot slipped on icy metal. He dropped sharply before jerking to a halt—
His handhold tore out of the cliff.
14
‘Eddie!’ Nina screamed as he plunged. No ledge to catch him this time, just the valley floor far below—
The rung was still in his hand. A desperate swing and it hooked the ladder’s very bottom step with a piercing clank, jarring him to a brutal stop against the unyielding rock.
He fought through the pain to keep his death grip on the rusted metal bar. ‘Chase! I’m coming!’ Jayesh shouted.
The bottom rung shifted, rasping out of the rock in stuttering half-inch steps. Toes scraping against the cliff, Eddie reached for the nearest wooden platform. It was just beyond his grasp. He strained to raise himself higher—
The rung jolted another inch out of the stone, spitting flecks of corroded iron into his face. The scabrous bar started to bend…
Jayesh neared him. ‘Hold on!’
‘Thanks for the tip!’ Eddie yelled back. ‘What do you bloody think I’m doing?’
‘Being an idiot who falls off cliffs!’ The Gurkha swung down on to the platform. He crouched and grabbed a secure rung. ‘Here!’
The Englishman stretched out his free arm. Jayesh’s hand clamped around it, then he pulled hard to lift him. ‘Okay, I’m going for it,’ Eddie warned, giving his friend a moment to brace himself — then lunging for the platform—
The bottom rung finally tore free, spinning into the void below with the makeshift hook. But Eddie’s hand had found solid wood.
Jayesh shouted for the others to climb down, then pulled Eddie up. ‘You okay?’
‘Yeah,’ said Eddie between gasps.
‘Good. Wouldn’t want to lose you. Bad for my rep.’
Eddie managed a strained smile. ‘Glad you’re not getting sentimental on me.’ But he knew the Gurkha well enough to recognise the glimmer of amusement in his eye. ‘You’d better go first. Where’s that chopper?’
The answer came as the AW169 lumbered into view. The Crucible was still suspended beneath it, swaying in the downdraught. ‘Shit!’ Eddie looked up, seeing Nina coming down the ladder with her own crystalline container held awkwardly in one arm, the monks above her.
The winch operator peered out of the chopper’s side hatch as it approached. Eddie still had the Kalashnikov, but with only one bullet remaining couldn’t risk wasting it, and the man was currently too far away to be a viable target.
Jayesh set off along the platforms. Eddie helped Nina on to the plank, then started after the Gurkha. ‘All right, follow me. Quick!’
‘Jesus, Eddie!’ she called after him. ‘I thought you were going to die! Are you okay?’
‘I’m not going to disappoint Macy yet,’ he said, hopping across a gap. ‘Plenty of time for that when she’s older.’ He looked back, seeing the first monk reach the platforms — and the AW169 looming ever closer. ‘Jayesh!’
‘Seen it,’ Jayesh replied. He stopped, bringing up his rifle and firing a single shot. From the aircraft’s abrupt bank away from the mountain, Eddie guessed it had scored a hit. ‘Only one round left.’
‘Snap,’ the Yorkshireman replied grimly. They carried on along the platforms. The helicopter overtook them, staying well clear. The thought occurred to Eddie that he didn’t know what Axelos and the remaining mercenaries were doing. He looked back, spotting someone cautiously making his way along the higher ledge. ‘They’re coming after us,’ he warned.
‘Oh, like we don’t have enough to worry about!’ said Nina.
‘They’re sending the chopper ahead to block us,’ he realised. ‘If it can pin us down from the front, the others can pick us off from behind.’
‘Mr Chase, Dr Wilde!’ called Amaanat. ‘If we give them the Crucible, they may leave us in peace.’
‘They won’t.’
‘You have such little faith in others?’
Nina gave the abbot a world-weary look. ‘If they catch us, we’ll all be reincarnated pretty damn soon!’
The helicopter pulled into a hover two hundred metres from the mountainside. The larger Crucible swung beneath it. The winch operator supported himself against the door frame and leaned out—
‘Gun!’ yelled Jayesh.
Eddie had seen it too. The mercenary was armed only with a handgun rather than a rifle, but was still within range. ‘Everyone down!’
The winch operator fired, twice, three times. He was concentrating his fire on the greatest threats, the two armed men — but hit nothing except stone. One round cracked off the cliff wall between the crouching Eddie and Jayesh, but the other bullets impacted below the ledge.
‘He missed!’ Nina cried.
Eddie was less jubilant. The shooter hadn’t been that far off target, even firing one-handed through the turbulent downwash of an unsteadily hovering helicopter. The merc reached the same conclusion, shouting an order to the pilot. The aircraft tipped sideways, lazily moving closer.
Jayesh lifted his gun. ‘Wait!’ said Eddie. The Nepali arrested the movement. ‘Let him get nearer.’
‘Are you crazy?’ Nina said.
‘We’ve only got one shot each. We need to be sure of hitting him.’
‘He’ll hit us soon,’ snapped the Gurkha. But his rifle remained still.
Eddie watched the helicopter intently. The AW169 was well within his Kalashnikov’s range; the question was, could he be absolutely certain of hitting his target? Given even one more round he would already have fired, using the first as a sighter for the second, but right now he couldn’t afford to miss…
The mercenary shifted, muscles tensing. About to fire…
Jayesh snapped up his own rifle. His last bullet cracked across the gap—
And missed. Only by a couple of centimetres, shock flashing across the merc’s face as it struck the cabin roof above him, but it may as well have been by a mile. Jayesh hurled the useless gun into the void in frustrated defiance.
The helicopter kept closing. The mercenary recovered, lining up his pistol—
Now Eddie fired.
His shot was on target.
The final Kalashnikov round hit the mercenary squarely in the centre of his face, splintering as it tore through bone and brain before bursting from the back of his skull. The dead man flopped grotesquely out of the open door and plunged into the valley below.