King Solomon's Curse

25

The sound echoed down the passages below. Lydia froze. ‘Oh God! Steven!’

‘We can’t stop!’ Nina told her. ‘Howie, help her.’

‘Come on, Lids. Come on,’ Howie said, taking the New Zealander’s hand. Numbed, she followed him.

The whole tunnel was now reverberating as the Imashamir absorbed ever more energy through the breached lead sarcophagus. Nina’s light revealed another turn ahead. She rounded it. The passage sloped more steeply — and she felt a distinct breeze on her face. ‘Wait, wait a second,’ she told Lydia and Howie as she flicked off the torch. They dropped into darkness… but below, a dim glow was visible. ‘I can see daylight!’ she cried, hurrying downwards. ‘We’re almost out!’

The others picked up the pace behind her. ‘Nina! How far?’ Eddie shouted from the rear.

‘Almost there!’ she replied. One last crooked bend in the passage would bring her to its end. She rounded it, finally able to stand upright. Cut stone was replaced by raw rock. Squinting into the near-blinding daylight, she ran through the opening—

And lurched to a panicked stop as her eyes adjusted just in time to reveal what awaited her.

The drainage tunnel emerged from the promontory above the river — close to a hundred feet over the turgid water. ‘Oh, crap!’

Lydia almost ran into her. ‘Whoa!’ gasped Howie as he pulled her back. ‘Not good!’

‘No kidding,’ said Nina. The drop was near-vertical; probably climbable, given time, but that was a commodity they didn’t have. Nothing to her left but an inhospitable rock wall — but on the right—

‘This way!’ she said, sidestepping on to a narrow ledge.

‘Are you out of your mind?’ Lydia squealed. ‘It’s like — an inch wide!’

‘One inch is better than none!’ The New Zealander was underestimating, but not by much. Even with her heels against the wall, Nina’s toes overhung the edge. She moved along it as quickly as she dared. ‘We can do it — come on!’

‘But what if it stops around the cliff?’

‘Then we got thirty feet farther than we would have!’

A brick-sized chunk of stone clattered down from above and smashed on the outflow’s edge. Howie hurriedly passed Lydia and started after Nina. ‘No offence, but I’m gonna go for it even if you’re not,’ he said, gripping the slim laptop tightly with one hand as the other groped along the cliff face.

Rivero and Paris brought Ziff into the daylight. ‘Hey, where’d the others go — oh,’ the cameraman said in dismay. ‘How the hell are we gonna carry David along there?’

‘You… you’re not,’ Ziff said weakly. ‘Leave me. Please. Save yourselves…’

Eddie arrived behind them. ‘We’re not leaving anyone else,’ he said firmly. ‘Paris, Lydia, get your arses along that ledge. Jay, you an’ me’ll take him. And leave that bloody camera!’

‘No way,’ Rivero insisted. ‘It’s made it this far, and it’s still recording.’

‘Well, the last thing it ever records might be you falling off a fucking cliff — and taking me and the Doc with you!’

‘Jay, I’ll take it,’ Lydia said, to their surprise. ‘Hey, I’m already carrying all my audio gear and the backups.’ She glanced at her backpack. ‘Might as well complete the set.’

‘Professionals,’ Eddie sighed as Rivero handed her the Sony. ‘They’re all the bloody same…’

He waited for her to get clear, then with the cameraman leading, started to carry Ziff along the new path. The subterranean rumble became more evident as his back pressed against the rock. He dropped his chin to keep falling grit out of his eyes — but knew it would not be long before larger debris started to cascade down the cliff.

And there was another threat almost upon them. The Insekt Posse’s echoing shouts grew louder. ‘Jay, we need to move faster!’ he warned.

‘I’m going as quick as I can!’ Rivero replied through gritted teeth. The bulky man’s injured back was scraping along the rock wall.

‘I’m telling you… leave me…’ Ziff whispered. He was barely able to hold his head upright, the hand held to his stomach now drenched in blood.

‘Not going to happen,’ growled Eddie. ‘Stay with us, Doc.’

Ahead, Nina edged around an outcropping. The huge boulder rising from the river came into sight — and between it and the cliff, until now hidden from view, was a steep, narrow slope. It looked as if it would intersect the path linking the ruined city and the river…

A jolt almost pitched her over the edge. She threw herself back against the rock wall, only to feel the entire escarpment trembling. It wasn’t an earthquake’s aftershock, though — rather, the precursor. The Mother of the Shamir was waking from her long sleep.

And she was angry.

Howie yelped as a dry waterfall of stones and dust fell past him. ‘Holy shit!’

‘Keep going!’ Nina cried as she moved on. ‘If we can reach that path down there, we can get to the boats!’

‘If we can reach it!’ said Lydia. ‘The whole bloody cliff’s going to collapse!’

Eddie glanced back at a shout from the drainage outflow. The first of the Insekt Posse appeared. He saw the Yorkshireman and smiled evilly as he raised his gun—

An explosive bang came from above him as rock sheared from the crumbling cliff.

The African looked up — and was crushed flat by a hunk of stone the size of a car. Gore splattered out from beneath it.

Startled cries came from the tunnel. Eddie saw an arm grope around the fallen boulder, but there was not enough room for anyone to squeeze past. The precariously balanced stone wouldn’t hold them for long, though. ‘Keep going!’ he urged Rivero.

‘I’m almost there!’ Nina shouted back to the others. The drop to the steep path was still too far to risk, but she would soon reach a point where it was survivable — probably. She pulled into a concavity in the cliff. ‘Howie, get past me. Drop down to that slope as soon as you can.’

‘What’re you doing?’ he asked.

‘Waiting for Eddie.’

He gave her a dubious look as he squeezed past. ‘You think he’d want you to do that?’

‘I’m his wife, why would I do what he wants me to do?’ She managed a grin. ‘Go on, get to the boats.’

Lydia reached her next, the other woman giving her only an angry look before going by. Nina was about to make a cutting comment, but remembered just in time that her lover had been murdered minutes earlier; there was no need to make matters worse. Instead, she waited for Paris. ‘Where’s Eddie?’

‘On the way,’ the mercenary assured her.

She looked past him to see Rivero edge around the outcropping, supporting Ziff. To her relief, Eddie soon followed. ‘What about Fortune?’

Paris gave her a grim look as he moved on. ‘I don’t know. We got separated.’

‘Oh, God…’ She watched the three men approach. ‘Eddie! Where are the militia?’

‘The first guy’s feeling a bit flat,’ he replied. ‘A rock fell on him and blocked the tunnel. Won’t take the rest of ’em long to shift it,’ he added, cutting off her premature hope. ‘Why are you waiting? Keep going!’

‘I’ll take over from Jay and help you carry David.’

‘I can do it,’ Rivero insisted in a strained voice.

‘No, you’re hurt! The way your back’s torn up, I’m amazed you haven’t passed out already.’

‘What can I say? I’m just that tough,’ said Rivero through a pained smile, though he surrendered the Israeli to Nina.

One look at the pale, barely conscious Ziff filled her with alarm. ‘David, can you hear me?’

A reply took a moment to come. ‘Yes. And… I think you’re insane for… not leaving me.’

‘That’s the way I work,’ she told him. ‘You should be used to it by now!’

They set off again. She looked along the ledge. ‘Howie! How long before we can get down?’

‘Not far!’ Howie answered. ‘Past those little trees, I reckon—’

A loud crash came from behind — followed by exultant cries. ‘They’ve moved the rock,’ Eddie warned. ‘We’ve got to get down to the ground, now!’

‘We’re too high up!’ said Rivero. ‘We’ll break our legs — or our necks!’

Howie passed some small trees clinging to the slope below. ‘Okay, I’m gonna chance it,’ he announced. He lowered the laptop as far as he could before releasing it. It fell into a bush, branches crackling as they caught it. ‘Thank God for solid-state hard drives, huh?’ he said before clambering over the edge, hanging by his fingertips for a moment before letting go. A thud and a loud ‘Oof!’ came from below — but then he jumped upright. ‘I’m down!’

Lydia passed him, traversing the ledge for another twenty feet before fearfully dropping. Her fall was shorter, but she still cried out on landing. ‘The camera okay?’ Rivero asked as he prepared for his own descent.

‘He ought to marry that bloody camera,’ Eddie muttered — only to clutch at the rock wall as a tremor shook the cliff. Stones broke loose from above, Nina crying out as a fist-sized lump hit her shoulder.

Cracks ripped through the ledge, a yard-long section just behind them sliding away to smash on the slope below. The subterranean rumble grew ever louder. ‘It’s gonna go any minute!’ said Nina. ‘We’ve got to jump!’

Eddie looked down. The drop to the slope directly below was over thirty feet with nothing but thin underbrush to cushion their touchdown, a bone-breaking or even fatal fall. ‘Too high — we’ll have to jump into those trees!’

More debris tumbled down the rock face. The couple hauled Ziff along the ledge as stones pelted them. Rivero and Paris made their drops, the others already scrambling up the slope. Nearly at the trees—

Someone shouted. Eddie looked back. The Insekt Posse were catching up, the leader readying his gun.

Still short of the trees — but they were out of time. Eddie was about to order Nina and Ziff to jump—

The cliff behind them gave way.

It was as if a giant scythe had swept through the promontory’s end. A great chunk of the towering wall plunged away — obliterating the militia amidst thousands of tons of disintegrating rock.

But Nina and Eddie were still not safe. The ledge crumbled yard by yard as if chasing them—

The Insekt Posse’s demise had given them the few extra seconds they needed to reach the trees. ‘Jump!’ roared Eddie.

They leapt with Ziff into the scrubby trees below — as the path cascaded after them.

Branches snapped, broken stubs slashing through their clothing — then thicker boughs caught them. The trees lurched violently as falling rocks hit their trunks, roots almost tearing out of the thin soil. Nina screamed as she was snatched away from Eddie and Ziff, dropping towards the churning rubble below—

The air was punched from her chest as she folded painfully over one of the trunk’s forks. Gasping, she hung helplessly as broken scree flew around her…

The destruction stopped.

Nina strained to raise her head. The trees were partially buried beneath smashed stone, the channel between the cliff and the massive boulder now clogged with debris. Eddie and Ziff were both entangled in branches. ‘Nina,’ her husband gasped, also winded. ‘You okay?’

‘Super fine,’ she croaked, managing a weak thumbs-up. ‘What about David?’

‘Oh, shit.’ Eddie kicked loose, then clambered to Ziff. The Israeli was bent unmoving over a bough — the sharp stub of a severed branch buried bloodily in his side. ‘Doc! Can you hear me?’ He checked for a pulse. ‘He’s still alive,’ he reported. ‘He’s losing blood, though — a lot of blood.’

Nina slithered painfully off the tree. The fallen rubble was not secure, stones shifting under her weight — and beneath it all, she could still feel the rumble from the underground chasm. The cliff’s collapse was a mere preview of the Mother of the Shamir’s full fury.

Eddie lowered Ziff to the slope. The older man had been unconscious, but the movement woke him. He let out a gurgling cry, blood bubbling on his lips.

Nina gave her husband a fearful look. ‘I know,’ he said grimly, not wanting to voice the awful truth.

Ziff did it for them, however. ‘I’m… not going to… make it, am I?’ he whispered.

‘We’re not giving up on you,’ said Eddie firmly. With Nina’s help, he picked up the Israeli and carried him up the hill. The other expedition members waited above, watching anxiously.

‘It’s not… your decision,’ Ziff wheezed. ‘And… Nina?’

He feebly raised a hand; she clutched it. It was as cold as the stones around them. ‘Yes?’

‘I can die… happy.’

‘What?’ she asked in disbelief. ‘Why?’

‘Look… what we discovered. The lost… city. Solomon’s palace. His greatest… treasure, hidden all this time. But we… we found it, Nina. We found it!’ He squeezed her hand. ‘I spent my whole life… searching for the wonders of King Solomon. And… we found them.’

‘You found them,’ she told him gently. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you.’

‘Nor I without… you.’ A very faint laugh. ‘I would never have… imagined… that we would make… such a good team. Thank…’

She waited for another word, but none came.

Ziff’s head rolled lifelessly against Eddie’s chest. ‘Oh, God,’ she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘David…’

Eddie reluctantly halted and gently lowered the old man to the ground. Above, Lydia made a sound of despair. The Yorkshireman closed Ziff’s eyes, then glared at Rivero, who had reclaimed the Sony and, despite his stricken expression, was filming the scene. ‘Turn that fucking camera off.’

‘Eddie, it’s okay. He’s just… doing his job.’ Nina had to force the words past the lump in her throat. ‘We still need to get out of here.’

‘You can’t just leave him!’ Lydia wailed as the couple stood.

Eddie gestured at the cliff. ‘That’ll come down any minute. If we don’t get to the boats, we’ll be buried with him.’

‘He’s right,’ said Paris. ‘Come on.’ He led the way uphill.

The others followed with varying degrees of reluctance. Nina’s was the greatest of all, standing over Ziff until Eddie drew her away. ‘Come on, love,’ he whispered.

‘Those bastards,’ she snarled. ‘Psycho bastards…’

They ascended the steep slope. ‘Hopefully they’re all dead now, so we won’t have to worry—’

Everyone reacted with alarm at a shout from ahead. It was not the frenzied howling of the Insekt Posse, though, but a familiar voice. ‘Paris! Eddie! Are you there?’

‘Fortune?’ Eddie exclaimed, surprised. He quickened his pace up the slope, pushing through the thickening undergrowth. ‘Where are you?’

‘Up here!’ The group broke through the bushes to find themselves part-way up the path to Zhakana. Fortune, brushing dust off his clothes, hurried down it. ‘You are okay?’

The delighted Paris was first to greet him. ‘Mon ami! I thought you were dead!’ said the scruffy mercenary.

‘How the fuck did you get here?’ Eddie added, shaking his friend’s hand.

Fortune shrugged as if the answer was self-evident. ‘I followed the tunnel. It came out on the cliff on the far side of the palace.’

The Yorkshireman sighed. ‘You really are the luckiest bugger on earth.’

Lydia shot Nina a venomous glare. ‘You mean — we went the wrong way? You took us the wrong bloody way? Steven died back there! He died because of you!’

‘All right, that’s fucking enough!’ Eddie shouted. She flinched back. ‘We don’t have time for this. We’ve got to get to the boats.’

Howie nodded. ‘Yeah, come on. The river’s not far.’ He jogged down the path, the laptop under one arm.

‘Lydia, I’m sorry,’ said Nina as the rest of the group followed him. ‘But I made the choice based on the information I had.’

‘I would also have gone the way you did,’ Fortune added. ‘Nina did nothing wrong.’

‘Yeah, well, tell that to his family,’ the other woman snapped, wiping away an angry tear.

The words stung Nina, but she had no time to reply. More shouts came from behind — though these were anything but friendly. ‘Oh, shit,’ said Rivero, nervously looking back. ‘Some of them got out!’

Eddie drew alongside Nina. ‘You’ve still got Mukobo’s gun?’

‘Yeah.’ She handed him the gold-plated revolver. ‘I don’t know how many bullets it’s got, though.’

‘Not enough even if it’s fully loaded, by the sound of it.’ There were definitely more than six surviving militia.

Howie paused beside a tree, the laptop clutched to his chest. ‘I can see the boats!’ he shouted excitedly, turning to face his companions. ‘We can—’

A gunshot cracked through the jungle — and a hole burst open in the computer’s casing.

The young man twitched, eyes wide in shock. A thin line of blood dribbled out through the cracked aluminium… and he slumped to his knees before toppling dead into the undergrowth.