The obelisk’s impact shook the structure, bouncing the lizard into the air. It landed on its side, and then slid off the edge, falling ten feet to the ground.
When the obelisk dropped away beneath King, he fell forward. Pain pulsed through his body when he landed on his stomach. Now lying on the obelisk, his descent didn’t slow. The steep incline pulled him over the smooth metal ribs like it was a giant slide. Using his hands to keep himself centered, King left a smear of red behind him—blood from his wounded hand.
He saw Alexander take off running with Davidson still over his shoulder. He was headed to a nearby construction site where piles of sand and stacks of cement bags waited to form the foundation of a new building. A moment later, the giant lizard lunged after them. It moved swiftly, but seemed slightly off balance, perhaps from the fall or because of its missing tail.
King rolled onto the cobbled walkway and onto his feet, giving chase. He could see Alexander and Davidson in front of the lizard, and the construction site beyond. Seeing the sand triggered his memory. He’d seen something like this before, only small enough to hold in his hand. It was a sandfish, a species of skink native to Iraq. While on a stakeout in Iraq, before being assigned to the Chess Team, he had watched the small creatures and marveled at their abilities.
That’s why he knew, without a doubt, that sand was the wrong place to be with a killer sandfish.
* * *
THE CONSTRUCTION SITE was a labyrinth of building materials and equipment. Alexander ran through the maze, not just searching for a way through, but also for the perfect place to stop. He found it between two stacks of cement bags. The bottleneck would allow him to confront the lizard head on, and hopefully give Davidson enough time to make his escape.
He skidded to a stop, his feet sliding through the deep sand covering the construction site. He put Davidson down. The man was panicked and clung to Alexander’s back like a child not wanting to be separated from its mother. He’d seen the beast behind them and feeling his legs go wobbly beneath him, knew he couldn’t outrun it.
“Why are you putting me down? Keep running!”
Alexander pushed him away. “You go. I’ll stop it.”
“But—”
“Go!”
The look in Alexander’s eyes and the boom of his voice triggered Davidson’s feet. He bolted deeper into the construction site. Though he quickly disappeared from view, his high-pitched squeaking breaths could be easily tracked, and Alexander had no doubt the creature would be able to follow his scent as well. The man was oozing fear pheromones.
Then the creature appeared. Thirty feet away. It paused on the sand, flicking out its tongue.
When it charged, the lizard didn’t focus on Alexander’s head, or torso, or any other vital location a predator might strike. Instead, it was looking down, at his feet.
Not at my feet, Alexander thought. In front of them.
Before he could figure out the meaning of the charging lizard’s strange attack, it leaped into the air. Alexander raised a fist to strike the beast’s head, but never got a chance to swing. The lizard arched its back and began a face-first descent toward the sandy ground. Its body began wriggling back and forth, slowly at first, then building in speed until almost a blur.
It struck the sand like an Olympic diver, and just as gracefully disappeared into the sand as though it were liquid. Alexander felt a slight undulation beneath his feet.
The lizard had passed beneath him!
He spun around and saw the creature emerge from the sand twenty feet away. Without pause, it continued in its relentless pursuit of Davidson. Alexander gave chase, fueled by his anger at being outsmarted by an oversized reptile.
* * *
DAVIDSON STUMBLED AS he ran—if you could call it running. His legs felt useless, as though in a dream. His hand landed on a stack of metal beams, but the weakness in his legs had moved to his arms and he fell forward, striking his head. Still on his feet, but dazed, he struggled forward. His vision narrowed. His head spun from a mixture of pain and fear.
Then a voice cut through his body’s fear-induced stupor. “Davidson, it got by me!”
Though he’d only just met the man, he recognized the voice as belonging to the inhumanly strong Alexander.
He felt a thump inside his chest. Then another.
His vision suddenly returned. His head cleared. And his muscles not only lost their gelatinous weakness, but they itched with energy. The knowledge that the creature was almost upon him had triggered an adrenaline rush. But it was too little, too late.
The lizard had found him.
It rounded the corner at top speed, its short legs flinging out in wide circles as it ran.
Two things saved Davidson’s life. First, he ran. Second, the creature’s missing tail removed its ability to stabilize its body. A combination of speed and not enough room to make a wide turn sent the lizard rolling into a large pile of sand. A layer of sand sheared away with the creature’s impact, creating an avalanche that quickly buried the upended beast.
Davidson saw this and paused, a smile creeping onto his face.
The smile disappeared when the large sandfish launched from the sand pile, once again moving at top speed. Realizing he wouldn’t escape this attack, Davidson let out a scream of horror.
Then he was struck hard.
Davidson fell to the ground. Alive. He looked up and saw King standing in his place as the lizard lunged.
The monster struck King in a blur and both fell, landing on Davidson’s feet. Pinned beneath the weight of King and the lizard, he shouted and clawed at the ground, pulling himself out from the tangle of bodies. Once free, he quickly stood.
Expecting to see the lizard tearing King apart, he glanced back as he began to run again. But the creature lay motionless. Davidson stopped. A long metal pole entered the lizard’s mouth and exited out its sheared-off tail. A giant lizard shish kabob!
A grunt emerged from beneath it. King was alive. “Think you could get this thing off of me?”
Davidson took hold of the pole protruding from the creature’s mouth and lifted. But he only managed to wiggle the heavy reptile.
Alexander arrived a moment later, quickly understood what had happened, and lifted the lizard away with little effort. Davidson just stared at him in awe. He felt like he’d met David and Goliath, but they were on the same team.
Alexander helped King to his feet. “I’m impressed,” he said with a smile.
King grunted. Unlike Alexander, his body couldn’t heal quickly, and he knew the pain he felt now would only intensify over the next few days. He looked at Davidson. “Unless you know a fancy physics trick for becoming invisible, we’re going to have to take care of you the old-fashioned way.”
FORTY-THREE
Again, 20,000 feet
AFTER GIVING DAVIDSON a wad of cash, putting him up in a random hotel under a false name, and telling him to stay put until told otherwise, King and Alexander had returned to the airport and took off for England.
King hung up his cell phone and paced in the small open space at the front of Alexander’s Gulfstream jet. He was trying to wrap his mind around the idea that Ridley was in two places at once, which meant that one of them was an impersonator. Either that or they were—he hated thinking it—clones. That there could be more than one Ridley was bad on its own. But it also meant they had no idea where Fiona had gone. If there were two Ridleys, there could be three. There could be fifty.
And Fiona could still be in Rome. The entire trip to England could be a massive waste of time. But it was all they had. And even though this Ridley might not have Fiona, he might know where she was being held.