“That’s all well and good, Dom, but what’s the significance.”
“I don’t want to tell you what to see, in case we’re wrong. I want you to—”
“What the hell,” Duncan whispered as he saw a familiar face in the image. The man was walking behind the couple, carrying a backpack. No one paid him any attention. He wore the same comfortable smile he did in the brochures his company had published. But his presence in the image made no sense. How could Richard Ridley be in England and Guatemala at the same time?
“I take it you found him?”
“How’s this possible, Dom?”
“I’m afraid that’s a question your team is best suited to answer, but his presence at both locations, as impossible as it seems, solidifies his apparent interest in ancient sites around the world. Shall I divert Queen, Bishop, and Knight to Guatemala?”
“Do it,” Duncan said. “I’ll inform King.”
FORTY-TWO
Haifa, Israel
A STREAM OF Hebrew curses flew from Davidson’s mouth as he lay beneath King on the floor of his office. Their bodies were coated in glass and plaster from the ruined ceiling. But it wasn’t the destroyed office that held either man’s attention, it was the glistening metal lance tip that had stabbed through the window and far wall. Twenty feet of stainless steel separated into vertical ribs that normally made the structure appear to be rotating, had impaled the building.
On his back, staring up at the glistening structure, Davidson recognized what it was. “It’s the obelisk.”
Alexander reached a hand beneath Davidson’s desk. “Take my hand.”
Davidson reached out and was snagged by Alexander, who easily pulled the physicist out of harm’s way and into the hallway. King crawled out behind him and stood in what little remained of the office. He instinctually reached for his weapon before remembering he was unarmed.
Shuffling forward through the sea of glass, he chanced a peek out of the window. While twenty feet of the obelisk had impaled the building, its remaining sixty-two feet were jutting out the side, like a giant spear. A large chunk of concrete clung to the end, where it had been ripped out of the ground. Gravity began to work on the protruding end, pulling it down. The force both bent the obelisk and caused the tip to tear into the ceiling. Flakes of plaster crumbled down on King’s head.
“I don’t understand,” Davidson said with a shaky voice. “Why would someone want to destroy the obelisk?”
“They weren’t trying to destroy the tower,” Alexander said.
Davidson fell silent, wondering what he meant.
“I didn’t see anything outside,” King said.
Alexander twisted his lips. “They’ve most likely assumed he’s dead.”
King agreed, but he knew they were far from safe. “They’ll check to be sure.”
“What are you talking about?” Davidson shouted. “Who are ‘they’ and who will they assume is dead?”
King reached down and pulled Davidson to his feet. “I was trying to tell you before, Professor. You’re a target now.”
The man’s eyes went wide behind his thick glasses, but not from King’s statement. He was looking beyond King, down the hallway. King spun and saw what appeared to be a large reptile. Something about it seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place it. The creature was built similarly to a komodo dragon, but its back was tan with brown stripes and its underbelly was white. Aside from its eight-foot length, sharp teeth, and clawed toes, what bothered King the most was the look of menace mixed with intelligence in its eyes.
A long forked tongue flicked out of its mouth—tasting them from a distance. Knowing it was here for Davidson, King looked for an escape route. The only door between them and the lizard was another office. The hallway behind them was blocked by the obelisk.
As a breeze tickled King’s cheek he turned toward the broken window. The ribbed obelisk continued its slow bend toward the ground five stories below. It was the only way out.
He turned to Alexander. “Take him through the window.”
“I’ll fight the beast,” Alexander replied, rolling up his sleeves.
“Sorry, Herc,” King replied. “I’m not strong enough to carry him.”
Davidson blanched. “Carry me?”
Alexander grunted in defeat, then took Davidson and slung him over his shoulder. “See you in Elysian Fields, King.” Then he was moving. He ran through the destroyed office and leaped out of the window. Davidson screamed the entire way until Alexander took hold of one of the stainless-steel ribs and swung them atop the structure.
King turned back to the lizard and shouted. It had already charged, moving silently over the linoleum floor. As it reared up to strike, King saw its claws, retracted for silent movement, reemerge and swipe toward his neck.
King ducked the blow and sidestepped, allowing the creature’s momentum to carry it past him and into the obelisk. It struck with a force that reverberated through the entire structure.
Alexander stumbled, still holding Davidson over his shoulder. He managed to remain upright and continued moving toward the slowly lowering base.
Unsure of how to fight the giant reptile, King struck out with a hard kick to its back, hoping to break its spine. But the string of vertebrae simply flexed with the impact and then pushed back. King fell to the hallway floor. As he righted himself, the lizard hissed at him and then bolted into the office. Despite King’s attack, the lizard only had eyes for its target.
Davidson.
King scrambled to his feet and gave chase. As the creature climbed onto the obelisk, King dove out, snagging its tail. The lizard lurched back, unable to pull King along with it. With one arm wrapped around the thick, but stubby tail, King reached out with his free hand and picked up a shard of glass. He swung it high and stabbed it into the beast’s lower back, slicing open his hand in the process.
The creature wailed and violently shook its back end. King thought the lizard was trying to shake him free, but as he fell to the floor, still holding the tail, he realized it had shed its tail. The open wound where the creature’s tail used to be oozed a few drops of blood and then dried. Like many lizards in the world, this one could shed its tail to distract predators while it escaped. But King wanted nothing to do with the still wriggling tail in his hands.
As the lizard ran out the window, he climbed on to the obelisk and gave chase.
Davidson let out a shout when the monster appeared behind them, its legs flailing out to each side as it charged down the obelisk. His shout was cut off as Alexander’s shoulder rammed his gut. Had there been any air left in him, he would have screamed again as he and Alexander went airborne.
Alexander leaped into the air, landing on the concrete base of the obelisk, sixty-two feet from the physics building. The sudden weight sped the obelisk’s descent. But not fast enough. The lizard was nearly upon them.
King shouted at the beast as he pursued from behind, but his hurled words did little to slow it down. He wouldn’t reach them in time. Alexander was on his own.
Turning to face the creature, Alexander showed no fear for his life, but without knowing the creature’s capabilities he wasn’t sure if he could protect Davidson. But he didn’t have to. Gravity provided a temporary solution as, fifteen feet from the ground, the obelisk finally gave way and bent quickly. Just before the base struck the cobbled walkway that stretched up the center of the Technion campus, Alexander jumped away with Davidson. The pair fell five feet and rolled away from the concrete base as it crashed into the hard ground.