Eddie tensed, retreating further behind the open scanner as Ellison drew level with the tracked shelves. He would have a clear line of fire within seconds…
Ellison suddenly stopped, head tipping quizzically as he listened to another order via his headset. He looked back at the other intruders for confirmation. ‘Do it,’ said the leader.
‘We’ve got your wife,’ the gunman called to Eddie. ‘Give up the angel and she won’t get hurt.’
They weren’t willing to let the statue be destroyed, then. That gave him an edge, however small. ‘Let me talk to her,’ he replied. ‘To prove you’ve got her.’
Another brief exchange through the earpiece, then Ellison took off the headset and held it out as he edged closer. Eddie warily watched the other armed men as he shifted the statue to his left hand. All were alert, staring back at him, but while their guns were up, their forefingers were off the triggers. They were obeying the order to let him talk to Nina… but it would only take them a fraction of a second to fire.
He had to make the fullest possible use of that moment.
Impatient, Ellison twitched the headset to prompt Eddie to take it. Eddie raised his left hand to make it clear that the statue would be dropped if anything happened to him, then reached out with his right. Ellison leaned closer—
Eddie lunged — grabbing not the proffered gadget but the hand holding it, He bent the other man’s fingers backwards, hard, as he yanked him nearer. Ellison’s little finger snapped at its first joint.
His scream of pain jolted his comrades into life, laser sights flashing on to their target. But Eddie had already pulled Ellison to him, turning the gunman into a human shield.
His prisoner overcame his initial shock and tried to slam an elbow into Eddie’s chest, but the Englishman easily absorbed the blow and savagely wrenched the broken finger around by almost ninety degrees. Ellison let out a blood-curdling shriek. ‘All right, let’s try this again!’ Eddie shouted. ‘Guns down, back off, all the rest.’
The other attackers briefly remained still, but instructions soon came over their radios. They spread out to round the first workbench, keeping their guns fixed on the whimpering Ellison, ready to shoot the man behind him the moment they had the chance…
‘Oi! Prof!’ Eddie called to Rothschild, still curled behind the second bench. ‘Can you catch?’
‘Wh-what?’ she asked, blinking up at him.
‘Can you catch this?’ He waved the statue.
‘I… I don’t know. I can try.’
‘Good, ’cause here it comes!’ He lobbed it at her.
She gasped, flinging out both arms to catch it — more by luck than judgement, as her eyes were squeezed tightly shut.
Trant and the other masked men flinched, but when it became clear the statue had survived, they resumed their advance, MP7s raised and locked as Eddie backed behind the scanner. They would soon reach Rothschild — and the angel.
He spotted a control panel on the machine’s side. One of the illuminated buttons read SCAN. Rothschild’s eyes were still closed—
He stabbed the button.
The scanner hummed — and a swathe of brilliant green light lanced from the laser.
The intruders instantly fell into disarray as the dazzling beam overpowered their optic nerves. Eddie took advantage, slamming Ellison face-first against the shelves, then shoving the stunned gunman’s head into the gap between two of the storage units and spinning the nearest wheel.
The units rolled smoothly along their tracks — and a splintering crunch came from the shrinking space between them as Ellison’s skull suddenly became a few inches narrower.
The laser continued its sweep, but even blinded, most of the attackers had dropped into cover. One man was still standing, though, reeling with a hand over his eyes—
Eddie grabbed Ellison’s gun and felled the man with a three-round burst, then hurried to Rothschild and pulled her to her feet. ‘Come on!’
He directed her past the scanner to the second exit. ‘My God!’ she shrilled, opening her eyes to see Ellison’s limp corpse slumped between the shelves.
‘Don’t look at it, just get to the door. And keep hold of the angel!’ He backed up behind her with his gun ready.
Nobody poked their head above the workbenches. Rothschild opened the door, Eddie following her into a corridor. ‘Which way?’ she cried.
He spotted a green sign, an arrow beside a running stick-man. ‘There!’ They ran to the emergency exit as furious orders were shouted behind them.
Eddie kicked the door open to find a narrow stairwell. He descended two at a time. ‘What about Markus?’ Rothschild wailed.
‘They just knocked him down. He’ll be okay,’ Eddie replied, hoping he was right.
He reached the foot of the steps and barged through another door to find himself back in the museum proper. They were in the long hallway he had seen earlier, the walls decorated with gleaming tiles displaying paintings of stalking lions. At its far end he recognised the Ishtar Gate, but his only concern now was getting out of the building. The gunmen had made no attempt at stealth; that meant the museum’s security staff were either prisoners or dead, and after what had happened in Rome, more likely the latter.
The restoration work had blocked off the nearest apparent exit, but he spotted another emergency evacuation sign. ‘Down here,’ he told Rothschild, going right at a run. Past the stairs they had ascended with Derrick was the marked door. ‘Okay, through this,’ Eddie said as he reached it—
He flinched back as if the handle were electrified, hearing noises beyond, getting closer. Not all of the Prophet’s men had gone to the upper floor. ‘Or not,’ he amended, rushing to a smaller door across the corridor only to find it locked. The only way out was through the Ishtar Gate. ‘Hurry up!’
‘I’m sixty-seven years old!’ gasped Rothschild. ‘I can’t go any faster!’
‘You’ll have to if you want to be sixty-eight!’ He reached the great arch, throwing aside the barrier and charging through.
They emerged from the Miletus Gate on the other side. Eddie looked back as another black-clad gunman burst through the emergency exit. A moment later, Trant appeared from the stairwell, his surviving companion behind him. The Englishman fired another three-round burst to force them into cover, then caught up with Rothschild as she reached the doors to the room containing the Altar of Zeus.
Nobody was waiting for them in the cavernous space. The entrance through which Derrick had brought them was in the centre of the long wall to the left, facing the temple. He glanced at Rothschild as they ran towards it. The old woman still held the statue, and despite her heavy breathing was maintaining her pace — fear was a great driver. They might get out alive after all— A shadow stabbed along the floor from beyond the glass doors.
‘Shit!’ Eddie cried, pulling back and firing a wild burst as a man appeared at the entrance. One of the doors exploded into fragments, the gunman hurriedly jerking back.
Shouts from behind. Trant and the others were in the Roman room, cutting them off, and if they tried to reach the other exit in the far wall, the man at the shattered door would have a clear shot—
‘Up there!’ yelled Eddie, swinging Rothschild towards the towering altar.
‘There’s no way out!’ she protested.
‘I bloody know!’ They reached the broad marble steps. ‘Set off the fire alarm — I’ll try to hold ’em off until the cops arrive!’ He turned, trying to cover both the entrances from which their enemies would come.
The man at the glass door leaned into view. Eddie loosed another burst. All three rounds went wide, smacking against the wall, but it forced the gunman to retreat. The Englishman reached the top of the stairs and darted behind a column. Rothschild still had several steps to go. ‘Quick! Get—’