Burning Angels

39

They ran on, moving at a fast jog along the path.

The rock shelf broadened out into a flat expanse, where the lake came to a natural end. It was here that the rest of the herd had gathered. From the juddering thud of their tusks as they made gouging contact with the rock walls, this was also clearly the site of their salt mine.

This was what they had come for.

Jaeger crouched down in the cover of the cave wall. He needed a moment to catch his breath, and to try to get his pulse under control. He pulled out a water bottle and drank deep.

He waved it in the direction of the path they’d just taken. ‘What’s with moving the corpse? The hyena? It didn’t matter where it fell – dead’s still dead.’

‘Those baby elephants – they would not cross a path blocked by a dead hyena. I was trying to clear a way.’

‘Yeah, but twenty tons of daddy elephant was incoming to do the job properly.’

Narov shrugged. ‘I know that now, but… The elephant is my favourite animal. I could never leave the young ones trapped.’ She eyed Jaeger. ‘And in any case, daddy elephant did not so much as harm a hair on your head, did he?’

Jaeger rolled his eyes in exasperation. What was there to say?

Narov had a magical, almost childlike way with animals. Jaeger had realised as much during their expedition into the Amazon. At times she acted almost as if she had a closer relationship with animals than she did with her fellow humans; as if she understood them far better than her own species.

It didn’t seem to matter what kind of animals, either. Venomous spiders, spine-crushing snakes, carnivorous fish – sometimes all she seemed to care about were the non-humans on this earth. God’s creatures all of them, great or small. And when she had to kill an animal to protect her fellow operators – as now with the hyenas – she was haunted by regrets.

Jaeger drained the bottle and thrust it back into his pack. As he tightened the shoulder straps and prepared to move again, the light of his torch caught momentarily on something lying far below them.

Nature rarely follows straight, angular lines of design or construction, such as humans tend to favour. In nature, they are anathema. It was that – that blocky anomaly; that noticeable, unnatural difference – that had caught Jaeger’s eye.

A river drained into the lake from deeper inside the cave. Just before the point where it did so, there was a bottleneck. A natural constriction.

And on the near side of that narrow point stood a building.

It looked more like a Second World War shelter – like part of the Falkenhagen bunker – than it did a generator housing or a pumping station. But set that close to the water, Jaeger was certain that was what it had to be.

They crept down to the water’s edge. With his ear pressed close to the concrete, Jaeger could hear a faint, rhythmic whir coming from the interior and knew for certain what lay inside.

This was a hydropower unit, sited where the water was funnelled swift and powerful through the choke point. Part of the river ran into the building via a duct, and inside would lie a rotor blade – the modern form of the ancient water wheel. The thrust of the current would spin the blade, which would in turn drive an electricity generator. The building’s massive construction was to safeguard the mechanics from being crushed by a curious herd of elephants.

All of Jaeger’s scepticism had evaporated in an instant. There was something beneath this mountain all right, something hidden way deep; something man-made that required electricity.

He jabbed a finger further into the darkness. ‘We trace the cable. It’ll lead us to whatever needs the power. And this far beneath the mountain—’

‘Any laboratory has need of electricity,’ Narov cut in. ‘It’s here! We are close.’

Jaeger’s eyes blazed. ‘Come on – let’s go!’

They moved forward at a fast pace, tracing the cable deeper in. Encased in a steel sarcophagus to safeguard it from any harm, it snaked far into the bowels of the mountain. Step by step, they were closing in on their target.

The cable terminated at a wall.

The massive structure cut across the entire breadth of the cave. It was several metres high – taller than the biggest elephant. Jaeger didn’t doubt that was why it had been placed here: to stop the herds from penetrating any further.

Where the wall met the river, there were sluices in the structure that allowed the water to gush through. He figured there would be further turbines set within those, the downstream unit being a backup power source.

They paused in the cold shadow of the wall. Jaeger was gripped by a grim determination. The mountain was about to yield its secrets, whatever they might be.

Soon now.

He eyed the structure. It was a vertical sheet of smooth reinforced concrete.

It was the border; but the border to what?

What might lie beyond it?

Who might lie beyond it, even? An image of Ruth and Luke – chained and caged – flashed through his mind.

Always forward. Keep moving. It had been a mantra with Jaeger when he had served with the Royal Marines. In a fight, close the distance. He’d kept it at the forefront of his mind in the hunt to find his family, just as he did now.

He scanned with his eyes for handholds. There were few, if any. It was all but unclimbable. Unless…

He moved across to the side; to where the man-made wall met the natural cave wall. Sure enough, here was a line of weakness. Where the smooth structure butted up against the sharp crystals and bony outcrops, it might just be scalable. He could see where whoever had built the wall had smashed off some of the outcrops during construction.

They’d done so randomly, as those outcrops had got in their way, leaving just enough to offer handholds and footholds.

‘This wasn’t built to stop people,’ Jaeger whispered, as he mapped out the route of the climb in his head. ‘It’s here to stop salt-hungry elephants from going any further. To protect whatever lies on the far side.’

‘Whatever is there that requires electricity,’ Narov hissed, her eyes gleaming. ‘We are close now. So close.’

Jaeger shrugged off his rucksack and dropped it at his feet. ‘I’ll go first. Tie on the packs once I’m up, and I’ll haul them over. You bring up the rear.’

‘Got it. After all, you are – how do you say? – the rock jock.’

Ever since Jaeger was a kid, rock-climbing had been his thing. At school, in response to a bet from a fellow pupil, he’d scaled the bell tower, free-climbing – so using no ropes at all. In the SAS, he’d served in Mountain Troop – the one that specialised in all aspects of mountain warfare. And during their recent Amazon expedition, he’d pulled off several perilous ascents and descents.

In short, if there was something to be climbed, he was the one to attempt it.

It took several tries, but by tying a rock on to the end of the climbing rope, Jaeger was able to hurl it up and snag one of the highest of the bony outcrops. With it looped over that, he had an anchor point of sorts; he could begin the climb with a reasonable degree of safety.

He stripped down to the bare minimum, stuffing all extraneous gear – even his pistol – into his pack. Reaching up with his left hand, he closed his fingers around a knobby outcrop. Was it the fossilised jawbone of an ancient giant hyena? Right now, Jaeger didn’t particularly care.

His feet made contact with similar nodules, as he used the prehistoric remains embedded in the cave wall to haul himself up the first few metres. He grabbed the rope and dragged himself up to the next solid handhold.

The rope held fast, and he was making good progress.

All he cared about now was reaching the apex of that wall, and discovering what it had been built here to safeguard – and to hide.