Empire of Gold

33


Eddie saw the Hind through the cave mouth. Even with the water still partially obscuring it, he picked out the colours of the Venezuelan flag. ‘It’s Stikes!’

‘What?’ said Nina in utter disbelief. ‘How the hell could he know we’re here?’

The aircraft moved out of sight. ‘What is going on?’ Zender demanded, caught between confusion and fear. ‘That helicopter - it was Venezuelan!’

‘It used to be one of yours, but it’s gone into the private sector,’ Eddie said grimly. He turned to the two soldiers. ‘You and you – with me, quick!’ The three men hurried away down the steps.

Zender still wanted answers. ‘Tell me what is happening!’

‘Stikes used the helicopter’s weapons to block the river and cut off the waterfall,’ Mac told him. ‘It’ll make it easier for his people to get into the cave.’

‘Who is Stikes?’

‘A mercenary,’ said Nina. ‘He was part of the attempted coup in Venezuela – and it looks like he’s trying to make up for not getting paid by raiding this place.’

Juanita was scared. ‘What – what about the soldiers we left outside?’

‘They’re dead,’ Mac replied bluntly. ‘And we will be too unless Eddie and your other men can hold them off.’

‘You don’t sound confident,’ said Kit.

The Hind came back into view outside. ‘We are slightly outgunned,’ said Mac. He looked towards the plaza. ‘We need to see what’s going on.’ He started down the steps, the others going with him. Nina left the case amongst the team’s gear before following.

Eddie and the two soldiers raced downhill through the narrow streets. They passed the tombs, seeing the reservoir ahead. ‘Where are we going?’ asked Lieutenant Echazu.

‘There’s only one way into this cave,’ Eddie answered. ‘We need to make sure nobody comes up that tunnel.’

‘We? But you do not have a gun!’

‘I’ve got a water pistol, sort of.’ They reached the edge of the hidden city, the ground sloping more steeply down to the shaft. ‘Okay, cover that hole.’

The soldiers split up to take positions overlooking the entrance. ‘What are you doing?’ shouted the corporal, Chambi, seeing Eddie running to the shaft itself.

‘Making sure they get the point!’ he said as he jumped down to the booby trap’s trigger slab. There was a rasp of stone, but it stayed in place.

More sounds echoed up the passage. He looked down, seeing torchlight glinting off the silver spikes. The intruders were already at the bottom of the shaft – and he had left them an easy way up. The hanging rope suddenly pulled tight as someone started to climb it.

He jumped down to the next step. Below was the ledge with the three jaguar heads. Another look over the edge – and he saw a man on the first ledge.

Eddie dropped flat on the cramped step, reaching down with one hand. The two jaguar heads that he had left untouched were just within his grasp, but the third, lowered to deactivate the trap, was a couple of inches beyond his fingertips. Swearing under his breath, he leaned further out. The man on the rope was already climbing to the second step—

A torch beam flashed across his face. Someone shouted in Spanish. The climber looked up, saw him – and dropped back down to the first step, reaching for the AK-47 across his back.

Eddie lunged, grabbing the stone jaguar and yanking it upwards – then rolled back as the Kalashnikov roared. Bullets smacked against the wall, sending ricochets screaming up the shaft. The noise was horrific in the confined space.

The thunder faded to echoes, then to nothing. The AK’s magazine was empty. He heard metallic clicks from below as the gunman kept pulling the trigger.

Not one of Stikes’s men, then – a professional would already be changing the mag. No time to wonder who he might be, though. Instead Eddie leapt and grabbed the rope, swinging round to plant his soles against the shaft’s side as he scrambled up. He couldn’t touch the trigger slab on the step above.

Kla-chack! The gunman had finally reloaded and pulled the AK’s charging handle, chambering the first round—

Eddie heaved himself over the ledge and swung sideways on the rope, thumping against the back wall as another burst of gunfire hammered up the shaft. He was barely an inch above the slab, his leather jacket brushing the stone. A sharp chunk of metal hit his cheek – a bullet had blown the tip off a spike. He flinched, almost falling, straining to hold on . . .

The firing stopped. The rope juddered in his hands as the man below grabbed it and started to climb after him.

Eddie jerked back into motion, pulling himself rapidly up the shaft. He clambered out and drew his knife. The rope was still bar-taut with the gunman’s weight; he sawed at it, threads fraying—

It snapped. A yell of fright came from below as the climber fell – followed by a terrible scream as he hit the spikes. The agonised shrieks continued as the man flailed, trying to drag himself off the spears tearing into his flesh. He succeeded – only to plummet down the shaft. The crack of shattering bone as his jaw caught the edge of a step was almost as sharp as the Kalashnikov’s shots.

The sound was followed by the real thing as the dead man’s companions fired up the shaft. Eddie ran – not because he feared being hit, but because he was only feet from the silver door at the bottom of the reservoir.

If the trap still worked, it would soon open.

The gunshots stopped, replaced by grunts of exertion. Another man was ascending, pulling himself up each step in turn. Shouts followed him as other men crowded into the tunnel to join the pursuit.

He reached the fourth ledge—

The slab tilted under his weight. Only by an inch . . .

But that was all that was needed to release the flap.

The heavy metal door, hinged at its top, flew open under the pressure of thousands of gallons of water. The escaping flood smashed against the great wall before finding an escape route – straight down the shaft.

The deluge swept away the men climbing the steps, dashing them against the spikes and driving the silver points through skulls and torsos. Those at the bottom fared no better, the surge of water pounding along the passage like a piston and flinging them to their deaths on the jagged rocks below.

Outside, Pachac stared at the plume of water gushing from the tunnel in horrified disbelief. He had been about to enter the passage himself – and now all the men who had gone before him were dead! Bodies surfaced and bobbed in the frothing pool, limbs snapped like broken dolls. The rest of his men were equally shocked. ‘Inkarrí!’ shouted one. ‘What – what do we do now?’

The force of the water was already falling. Pachac’s face set into an angry snarl. ‘As soon as the tunnel is clear, we go in – and make the bastards who killed our brothers pay!’

Eddie reached Echazu, the young officer having found a position in a small house overlooking the shaft. Chambi was not far away, crouched behind the wall of a terrace near their route into the city. ‘You got them!’ said the Peruvian.

‘Dunno if I got all of ’em, though,’ Eddie replied. The reservoir was now empty, the silver flap’s weight swinging it shut to reset the trap – but it would take hours, even days, for the streams running through the cavern to refill it. ‘If I didn’t, it won’t take long before they come through that hole. If you see anyone, shoot ’em!’ He ran along the terrace to give the corporal the same instructions.

From the circling Hind, Stikes watched Pachac and his remaining men climb to the entrance set into the towering wall. The gush of water from it had reduced to a modest stream. ‘The Incas didn’t leave their city totally undefended, I see.’

Baine, sitting beside him, looked down at the corpses in the pool without sympathy. ‘Stupid bastards. Must have run right in without checking.’

‘And Pachac’s probably about to do the same thing. He said they killed two soldiers, but that leaves another two – and I suspect the other end of that tunnel is easily defensible.’ His gaze rose from the wall to the cave mouth above it. With the waterfall all but stopped, the faint shapes of buildings were visible in the darkness. Elevated positions, with plenty of cover. . . ‘We might have to give him some help.’ He spoke into his headset. ‘Gurov, get a good firing angle into that cave.’

Nina looked down from the plaza at the great wall. She had seen Eddie running from the top of the shaft as a massive wave crashed into it, but then he disappeared behind the city’s lower buildings. ‘Oh God, where is he?’

‘He got clear,’ Mac assured her. ‘He’ll be okay.’

The other expedition members joined them at the stone balustrade. ‘Look, there!’ said Kit, pointing. A man peered cautiously from the top of the shaft before climbing out—

Gunfire crackled from below. Dust and stones kicked up around the intruder – then he slumped to the rocky ground, dead. Another man behind him hurriedly dropped out of sight.

Zender clenched a fist in triumph. ‘They got him!’

Nina didn’t feel reassured. Even if they could hold off their attackers, they were still trapped inside the city.

And there was another threat. The chop of the Hind’s rotors rose as the gunship descended, slowly pivoting to face the cave entrance.

Eddie reached over to Chambi’s AKM and turned its firing mode selector from automatic to single-shot. ‘You need to save ammo,’ he told the surprised soldier, having noticed that both Peruvians were only carrying one extra magazine. ‘It’ll be more accurate an’ all.’

Chambi’s grasp of English was apparently not great, but he got the gist. ‘You have been in fights before?’ he asked.

Eddie grinned crookedly. ‘You could say that. Whoa, look out – there’s another one.’ The barrel of an AK-47 popped up from the shaft, followed by its owner’s head, his companions lifting him so he could aim his weapon with both hands.

Chambi fired, the shot accompanied by a crack from Echazu’s gun. Eddie wasn’t sure whose bullet hit its target, but was happy with the result either way; the man’s head snapped back with a burst of blood from his forehead, and he disappeared again, this time permanently.

‘Good shot,’ he told the corporal, who seemed pleased by the praise. He saw that the first man to emerge had dropped his Kalashnikov when he was shot. An extra weapon would be a huge help – if he could reach it. ‘Keep the hole covered – I’m going to get that gun.’ He started back along the terrace to tell Echazu his plan.

A change in the Hind’s engine noise caught his attention. He had tuned out the gunship while concentrating on the shaft, but it was now hovering, engines straining at full power to support its armoured bulk.

Its cannon turned—

‘Down!’ Eddie shouted, diving flat behind the wall—

The Hind opened fire, the four barrels of its Gatling gun spitting out a stream of death. Echazu, fixated on the shaft, didn’t realise the danger until it was too late. The bullets ripped through the little building’s doorway, ricocheting shrapnel tearing him apart.

A momentary pause as Krikorian switched targets, then the onslaught began again, this time aimed at the terrace. The wall behind which Eddie and Chambi were sheltering was over a foot thick, but even its blocks splintered and cracked under the pounding storm.

‘Jesus Christ!’ Eddie yelled, shielding his face from stone fragments. He crawled rapidly towards the steep pathway. The soldier had flattened himself against the wall, too terrified to move – and blocking Eddie’s path. ‘Stay with me!’ the Englishman yelled, batting at Chambi’s legs with a fist. ‘If we can get round the corner, we’ll be safe – soon as he stops firing, run up the hill!’

The gunfire stopped. ‘Go!’ Eddie shouted, springing up like a sprinter off the blocks. He heard Chambi set off, a couple of paces behind.

Three yards, two—

The harsh rasp of the Gatling gun and the explosive crack of bullet impacts returned as Eddie reached the corner, rounds chewing into the wall behind him . . .

And into Chambi.

The young corporal was only one step away from safety when the stream of lead caught up with him. Half of his upper body literally exploded, showering the wall with blood and flesh. What was left of him tumbled on to the path behind Eddie. Horrifyingly, he was still alive.

Briefly.

The firing stopped again, the gunner trying to regain sight of his escaped prey.

Eddie shook off his shock. Chambi’s blood-splattered AKM was beside his corpse; he grabbed it and ran up the hill.

In the gunner’s cockpit, Krikorian kept the infrared sights fixed on the corner. A glowing splash of hot blood told him that he had hit one of the two running men . . . but the other had gone. He tipped his head to move the cross-hairs up the slope. A brief flash of body heat between two buildings, but it disappeared before he could lock on to it.

‘Lost him!’ Annoyed, he searched for other targets inside the cave.

A cluster of bright human shapes stood out.

Fear for her husband’s life had paralysed Nina as she and the others watched the Hind open fire – but the sight of the gunship’s cannon turning towards them snapped her back into motion with a surge of adrenalin. ‘Run!’

She and Mac went one way, the rest of the group the other - except Juanita, who started to follow the American and the Scot before Zender’s panicked shout of her name made her double back.

The hesitation cost the young woman her life. Tracer rounds seared over the city, catching Juanita as she tried to run. Her body was thrown back along the plaza, a bloodied rag doll.

The line of death pursued Nina and Mac—

‘Cease fire, cease fire!’ Stikes snarled into his headset. ‘I need Wilde and Jindal alive!’ The cannon’s roar stopped.

All of Pachac’s men had now gone into the tunnel. With the defenders dead they would be able to enter the cave with minimal resistance, but the bloodlust roused by the death of their comrades would almost certainly lead to their killing anyone they found. He had to take control of matters on the ground to prevent that from happening, but it would take him crucial minutes to rope down and catch up . . .

His gaze shifted back to the cave mouth. A moment’s thought, then: ‘Gurov! What’s this thing’s rotor diameter?’

Nina pressed against a building, out of the helicopter’s sights. Mac joined her a moment later. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, but – oh God, Juanita . . .’ The Peruvian woman lay motionless.

‘At least it would have been quick,’ Mac said grimly. He saw the other expedition members reach cover on the other side of the plaza. ‘Everyone else is okay – but why did they stop firing?’

That was not a question high on Nina’s mind. ‘What about Eddie? Did he get away?’ She leaned round the corner – and saw men emerging from the shaft. ‘Shit! More of them!’

Eddie crouched behind one of the tombs, looking back. The Hind had stopped shooting and was now hanging almost hesitantly above the trees. There was nowhere to land – was Stikes about to rope down?

Shouts brought his attention to a more immediate threat. More attackers had entered the cavern, and this time there was nobody to stop them. He pulled himself on to the little tomb’s roof. From here, he could see the shaft. A man scrambled out of it, then another.

Activity, much closer. Two men were heading up into the ruins. One was armed with an AK-47 – the other a rocket launcher. The first man pointed at the plaza.

Eddie aimed his AKM, but before he could shoot the pair moved out of sight.

He knew what they were doing: finding a good firing position.

Keeping low, Kit returned to the plaza’s eastern end. The helicopter was still hovering outside, but its cannon was no longer pointed at him. He raised his head to look down at the city. The shaft was disgorging armed men like an anthill; two, three, four, and no way to know how many were already inside the cave.

‘Kit, get back here!’ Macy cried. He looked round. She was with Osterhagen and Zender behind a squat building, Olmedo and Cruzado peering from inside its doorway.

‘I need to see how many there are,’ he replied. A man in a red beret pulled himself out of the shaft. Nobody followed him. But however many intruders had come through the tunnel, it was enough for the explorers to be outnumbered – and very definitely outgunned.

He was about to return to the others when he caught movement in his peripheral vision—

An RPG-7 warhead streaked towards him.

Kit dived as the rocket shot over the balustrade and hit the building sheltering the two Peruvian archaeologists. The explosion blew in one wall, stone blocks and the remains of the roof crashing down on top of them.

The rebel with the rocket launcher looked in satisfaction at the swelling cloud of dust from the partially collapsed building. The job wasn’t over, though. ‘I think there’s still someone up there. Help me reload,’ he said, kneeling so his comrade could reach into his backpack.

It contained another two RPG-7 rounds. One was taken out, its fuse protector being removed before the missile was loaded into the launch tube. The rebel looked through its sights. The cloud was clearing – he glimpsed someone behind the ruin and took aim—

Bullets tore into his body as Eddie opened fire from a rooftop several tiers above. The rebel fell, toppling over a wall to end up sprawled on a steep pathway, the launcher still clutched in his dead hands. The other man whirled, raising his AK – only to take a lethal round to the forehead.

Eddie hopped from one roof to another, then dropped down to the ground and ran uphill towards the plaza.

‘Macy! Leonard!’ Nina yelled across the plaza. She couldn’t see anything through the drifting smoke.

She heard coughing: Kit. The dust cleared enough for her to see him lying by the balustrade, a hand to his head. Chunks of broken stone were scattered around him. He was alive, but clearly hurt, hit by debris.

She was about to run to help him when Mac pulled her back. ‘Stay in cover!’ he warned. ‘The chopper’s coming in!’

A shocked glance at the cave mouth revealed that he meant it literally. The gunship was slowly advancing through the opening into the cavern itself.

It took all Stikes’s willpower not to show any outward signs of tension to his men as the chopper entered the cavern. The opening was easily large enough to accommodate the Hind – but helicopters were not designed to fly inside enclosed spaces. The enormous force of the rotor downwash could be deflected back at the aircraft in unexpected ways, throwing it into the ancient buildings – or even against the ceiling. He just had to hope Gurov was as good a pilot as he claimed . . .

Wind buffeted the gunship. Shielding his eyes, he leaned out of the hatch for a better view. They were now clear of the wall, and he saw Pachac’s men scurrying up through the city. But his attention went to the plaza, the only place the Hind could land - and to his anger he saw that the revolutionaries had already attacked it, the ghostly trail of a rocket-propelled grenade ending at a newly demolished building. If these communist cretins had killed the people he was after—

Bullets clanked off the helicopter’s flank. Stikes jerked back. Who was firing?

Somehow, he knew the answer: Chase!

Eddie reached the plaza, opening up with his AKM at the approaching Hind. He saw Stikes, his blond hair and tan beret instantly recognisable, duck into the cabin. ‘Everyone get out of here!’ he shouted. ‘Find somewhere to hide!’ Nina and Mac were behind a nearby building; across the paved area he spotted Macy, Osterhagen and Zender struggling upright. ‘Go on, run!’

He was about to follow his own advice when the helicopter swung in his direction—

‘Hold fire!’ Stikes shouted into the headset – but his voice was drowned out by a hissing roar as Krikorian unleashed an S-8 rocket.

In the time it took to blink, it shot down from the Hind’s wing pod and smashed into the plaza.

The explosion flung Eddie off his feet as broken stones were blasted into the air, thrown high and far enough even to hit the Hind. Part of a wall near him collapsed with a ground-shaking crash.

But the destruction didn’t end there. The plaza itself trembled, the foundations of its raised eastern end shifting. A great crack lanced across the slabs – towards Nina and Mac.

The cracks of falling debris were overpowered by louder, deeper crunches. Nina jumped back from the building as its blocks rasped and groaned against each other. ‘I don’t think we’re in a safe place . . . ’

Mac grimaced. ‘Nor do I!’

They leapt over the plaza’s edge – as the wall slammed down where they had been standing with an enormous crunch of masonry.

Flying rubble cascaded after them. A piece hit Nina’s shoulder like a blow from a baseball bat. Mac fared no better, taking a hit to the stomach that left him winded. A billowing grey cloud swirled over them.

The first of Pachac’s men reached the building in which they had landed . . .

And ran past, skirting as far as he could round the rolling miasma. The others behind him did the same, not wanting to risk getting close to a potentially unstable ruin. No one saw the two dust-covered figures inside.

Stifling a groan, Nina listened to the running footsteps move away, then painfully sat up. ‘Mac,’ she whispered. ‘Mac! Are you hurt?’

‘Nothing a spot of death won’t cure,’ the Scot wheezed, wiping his eyes. Nina helped him upright – then they both looked up at a rush of hot, fuel-stinking wind.

The Hind was moving in to land.

Eddie dizzily tried to move, and rapidly regretted it. His entire body felt like one huge bruise. What had happened? He’d shot at the helicopter . . .

The Hind!

It was hovering just feet above the plaza, pointing its Gatling gun at the explorers. Faced with certain and immediate death if they tried to escape, Macy, Osterhagen and Zender had surrendered. Men in black combat gear jumped from the cabin, some aiming at Kit, who raised his hands.

The others came for Eddie.

The AKM was only a few feet away. Ignoring the pain, he crawled towards it—

A booted foot stamped down on the weapon. Eddie twisted to see a gleaming handgun aimed at his head. A Jericho. Behind it was a sneering, aristocratic face.

‘Hello, Chase,’ said Stikes. ‘Fancy meeting you here.’