‘No, the other side,’ Eddie replied.
‘So we might be able to use it to get across the cenote?’
‘Maybe, if that explosion didn’t shred it or knock the pitons out of the wall.’
‘We need to check.’ She secured the bandage. ‘How does that feel?’
Jared sat up slowly, face drawn tight with pain. ‘Like I got stabbed in the leg.’
Nina helped him up. ‘Can you walk?’
He took a couple of experimental steps. ‘Just about,’ he gasped.
‘Guess you won’t be winning this month’s Mossad fun run,’ said Eddie.
Jared gave him a strained grin. ‘At least I’ll be trying, old man.’
‘Yeah, you’re bloody trying all right. Come on, let’s see what’s left of the bridge.’ He waved the Desert Eagle at Dalton. ‘Oi! Commander-in-Chief, lead from the front. Let’s go.’
The group made their way back down the decorated passage. Some of the paintings near the doorway had been damaged by flying debris, but to Nina’s relief the majority were intact; even given their grim situation, part of her was still overjoyed that the temple and its contents had not been destroyed.
Whether she would ever tell anyone about her find was another matter. ‘That’s… not ideal,’ she said, shining her light at the empty space where the bridge had been.
Eddie had reclaimed his own torch from Jared. ‘Nor’s that.’ He illuminated the rock blocking the tunnel across the shaft. ‘Looks pretty unstable, but I don’t fancy trying to pull it loose from that hole.’
‘We could send Dalton over,’ suggested Nina jokingly. The politician was not amused.
Eddie redirected his torch at the rope. As he had feared, it had been damaged by the blast — the outer layers of strands closest to the grenade’s point of impact were torn and ragged — but it was still in one piece. He pulled on it, testing both that the pitons were still fixed to the rock and that it would not snap under stress. ‘It’ll hold. I think.’
‘What are you going to do?’ Jared asked. ‘Run it around the shaft and try to pull that rock out of the way?’
‘It won’t reach.’ The length of line was just enough to span the shaft’s diameter, but the smooth, curved walls forming the cenote’s circumference were much longer.
‘Then we’re trapped here?’ exclaimed Dalton.
‘At least we’ll have something to eat,’ said Nina, staring at him for just long enough to make him uncomfortable before indicating a clump of mushrooms that had survived the explosion. ‘Actually, we’d probably find some of these inside the jar in the Ark. It’s supposed to contain manna, the food God sent to the Israelites, and the description of manna was like a kind of mushroom or fungus.’
‘These are in a cave, not out in the desert, though,’ Jared pointed out.
‘Yes, but we saw them in—’ An electric thought hit her. ‘The pool outside, the sinkhole. There were some floating in the water!’
‘So?’ asked Dalton. ‘They probably grow all over this place.’
‘But we’ve only seen them in the tunnels. So,’ she pressed on, ‘there’s water at the bottom of this shaft, and we came up a slope for some distance to get here. What if it’s the same water in both, at the same level, and they’re connected? The mushrooms we saw outside might have come from here!’
Eddie looked down the shaft, seeing a glimmer of a reflection from his torch. ‘It’s a long drop — seventy feet, easy.’
‘But the rope’s about thirty feet long. If someone hung from the end before letting go, that would cut the drop to not much more than thirty feet. And they’d be landing in water.’
‘We don’t know how deep it is,’ said Jared. ‘If it’s only shallow, they’d break their legs.’
Eddie picked up a hunk of broken stone and lobbed it over the edge. The sound of a loud splash rolled up the shaft. ‘It’s more than a foot deep,’ he said, ‘or we would’ve heard it hit the bottom. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be a soft landing for whoever tries it. Who, let’s face it, will be me.’
Jared hobbled to the edge. ‘No, I can do it.’
Eddie snorted. ‘Stabbed,’ he told the Israeli. ‘Pregnant,’ he said to his wife. ‘Wanker,’ he concluded, jabbing a thumb at the affronted Dalton. ‘I’m the only one who can do it.’
Nina was already having second thoughts. ‘If there isn’t a way through to the sinkhole, or it’s too narrow to fit through, you’ll be trapped down there.’
Jared looked back towards the throne room. ‘I’ll probably be struck dead for suggesting this, but we could tear up the tapestries to make a longer rope. Or maybe take down the Tabernacle—’
‘And how long’ll that take?’ Eddie cut in. ‘Cross’ll be on the way back to his helicopter by now. Once he’s gone, we’ve lost him — and the angel.’ He tested the hanging rope again. ‘Buggeration and fuckery. I’m actually going to have to do it, aren’t I?’
Nina tried desperately to think of an alternative, but came up with nothing. ‘Eddie, just… don’t die. Please. In fact,’ she continued, pleading giving way to determination, ‘you’re not allowed to die. Your daughter needs you.’
The torches weren’t pointing at his face, but his smile still lit up the shaft. ‘We’re having a little girl?’ he exclaimed, delighted.
Nina beamed at him. ‘Yeah. I know you wanted it to be a surprise, but if there was ever a time when you should know…’
‘We’re having a girl!’ he cried, embracing her. ‘Holy shit, we’re having a daughter. That’s amazing!’ He kissed her.
‘Well, it was that or a boy, a fifty-fifty chance,’ she reminded him with a grin.
Jared clapped him on the back. ‘Well done, old man.’
‘Congratulations,’ said Dalton, with considerable sarcasm. ‘Now maybe we can try to get out of here?’
Eddie released Nina. ‘Okay, you’re right,’ he told her. ‘No fucking way am I going to die before I see her. And preferably not for a long time after that.’ He pocketed his gun and flashlight, then took a firm hold of the rope and moved to the edge. ‘We’re getting out of here. I mean, I’ve got to be there to take her ice-skating at Rockefeller Center, intimidate her first boyfriend…’
‘Be nice,’ Nina told him. ‘And be careful!’
‘Always am. Usually. See you soon.’ He blew her a kiss, then stepped backwards to begin his descent.
The damaged rope was rough to the touch, scraping his palms. He could feel the fibres straining under his weight. But he was now committed to the climb — either it would hold, or his drop would be even longer than expected.
He had made many such descents before, and this one was no more challenging than any other. The only complication was the sheer smoothness of the cenote’s wall, forcing him to bring his feet up higher than he liked to maintain grip with his soles. But he made quick and steady progress, until…
‘I’m out of rope!’ he shouted. He took all his weight with his left hand as he wound the line’s severed end around his right, then held himself in place as he took out the torch and directed it downwards.
A black pool shimmered below. It filled the entire shaft. No protruding rocks broke the surface, or even debris from the destroyed bridge, but he couldn’t tell how deep it was. He could judge the distance to the surface, though: it was still a thirty-foot drop, about as far as an Olympic high-dive. A simple landing if the water was deep enough. If it wasn’t, or he hit wreckage, his bones would shatter.
‘Can you make it?’ Nina called from above.
‘Going to have to!’ Eddie brought his feet up until he was almost perpendicular to the wall. Landing on his back would hurt, but it would bring him to a stop at a shallower depth than if he dropped vertically.