Destiny

ONE-HUNDRED-SIXTEEN

Marcus watched Waterton work the helicopter controls, using his feet in unison with one hand on the cyclic stick. Marcus could feel the physics of lift and propulsion. “You ever fly a chopper?” Waterton asked.

“No. You make it seem easy.”

“Nothing to it that practice won’t conquer.”

Mount Etna was less than a mile away. It rose more than ten thousand feet above Sicily. The neck of the old mountain wore a scarf of snow. Silvery smoke drifted from its crater. Alicia said, “It’s breathtaking. Etna is fire and ice together on a podium high above the rest of earth.”

Waterton nodded. “No matter how many times I fly Etna, she always looks a little different. Sometimes it’s the light, the weather, or the mood Etna’s in at the time.”

Marcus said, “Maybe Etna’s in a cooperative mood. It looks like the wind is blowing the smoke to the north. Maybe we can get closer than what you thought.”

Waterton studied the smoke for a moment. “Like I was saying, Etna always looks different, but as many times as I’ve flown people up here, I’ve never seen the smoke sort of bow down like somebody’s pulling it in a near straight damn line north. Wish I’d brought my camera.”

Alicia glanced back to the west. Her eyes opened wide. “Paul, we’ve got company. A helicopter is coming behind us.”

Waterton looked to the west. “That’s my second bird! Who the hell’s flying it?”

Marcus watched the helicopter in the distance. “Get us over the summit! Fast as you can! Whoever it is wants to stop us. We’re so close.”

Waterton accelerated, banking into the wind and turning the helicopter to approach the volcano from the south. “Hold on. You never know what the winds will be like when you fly above her throat. God help us if the mountain decides to burp. Our uninvited guest will be here in less than a minute.”

Marcus removed the spear and the flash drive from his pocket. “Just a little closer…we’re almost there.”

Kazim held his bleeding stomach with one hand and worked the controls with the other. Blood soaked the towel, seeping between his fingers. Sweat poured from his ashen face. He lifted the rife from the seat next to him, used his feet to control the rotor blades, and held the helicopter stationary in one position near Mount Etna. With his pistol, he shot out the window next to him. The noise from the rotors was deafening. Wind blew hard through the open hole. Kazim rested the rifle on the hole in the window. He aimed, centering the cross hairs in the scope over his target, the helicopter now approaching the mouth of Etna.

He fired.

The bullet blew apart the windshield closest to Marcus. The round hit Waterton in his arm and entered the side of his chest, destroying ribs and collapsing a lung. He lost control of the helicopter for a brief moment.

“I’m shot!” he said, his face tightening in pain. “I’ll try to set her down.”

“No!” Marcus shouted over the prop noise. “We’re almost there.”

Waterton said nothing for a few seconds, his jaw line popping. He glanced down at the spearhead Marcus held in his hand. “You say that spear goes back two thousand years?”

Alicia said, “Yes!”

Waterton nodded. “Let’s make that delivery!” He pushed the controls and flew the helicopter over the crater. Marcus looked down. He could see the orange glow of molten lava bubbling, crawling inside the volcano like a life form, its gases and smoke swirling from the caldron.

“Get me to the center!’ Marcus shouted, cracking open the side door, the wind rushing against his face.

Alicia looked behind them. “He’s catching us! Paul, hurry! Drop it!”

Marcus held the flash drive and the spear in one hand. He opened the door all the way and leaned out, beyond the skids. He felt instant heat, as if he’d opened the door to a blast furnace. Marcus dropped the flash drive and spear, both falling far below and into the seething red and orange lake of fire. “Let’s go!”

Waterton accelerated, moving quickly across the wide mouth of Etna. He could see the chase helicopter was less than three hundred yards behind him.

Kazim gripped the pistol with one hand and flew the helicopter over the lip of the crater. He pointed the barrel in the direction of his target and fired two shots. Both missed as he dipped the helicopter to adjust the trajectory with his speed.

Waterton cleared the other side of the crater, his breathing labored, stomach filling with waves of nausea. “Hang in there!” Marcus shouted.”

“I’m bloody trying! We’re clear from Etna’s blowhole!”

Kazim’s helicopter was in the center of the volcano’s mouth. He cursed Marcus and tried to accelerate faster, sweat dripping from his face, the hot wind howling through the hole in the windshield.

Alicia and Marcus looked back just as Etna exploded. An enormous ball of orange fire blew up from the crater. The heat and force of the explosion disintegrated Kazim’s helicopter. The blackened shell dropped into the mouth of the volcano.

The energy from the scorching blast rocked Waterton’s helicopter like a leaf caught in a tornado. The helicopter bucked and pitched, almost rolling end over end in midair, the powerful kinetic force against the rotors pushing the helicopter far away from Etna. There was a second, larger explosion spewing fire, red lava and rocks a half mile above the summit. Etna disgorged flames and lava as if it were an enormous fountain of fire, the blast witnessed for more than a hundred miles in any direction.

Marcus glanced over at Waterton. Blood trickled from the pilot’s mouth. He was losing consciousness. He looked back at Marcus and said, “Use your feet for the blades…they have to work together. The controller in the center is the gas…like the throttle on a motorcycle…and this…the cyclic is how you aim her.” He smiled. “How’d we do?”

Marcus blinked, his eyes watering. “We did fine…and you did great.” He touched the top of the man’s hand.

Waterton nodded, pressed the button to unbuckle his harness, and died in his seat. The helicopter started a slow spiral.

Alicia looked at Marcus. “Can you fly it?”

“I don’t know. I have to get behind the wheel.” Marcus gripped the cyclic as the helicopter began spinning faster. He pulled Waterton’s body from the pilot’s seat and climbed in fighting to bring the helicopter under control. It pitched violently in the air. Alicia saw blue sky then the earth rush up. More sky. Then the enormous fire from Etna in the distance. Then the sea. They were close to the sea.

Marcus fought the controls. He worked the pedals with his feet, trying to find a balance. He gripped the cyclic to stabilize his direction. He was dizzy and disoriented from the spinning. It was as if the helicopter was caught in a vortex he couldn’t break.

“Paul…” Alicia reached up from the back seat and placed her hand on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and prayed — prayed harder than she ever had in her life. Through tearing eyes, she said, “I love you, Paul.”

Seconds later, the helicopter crashed into the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The force threw Alicia into the front of the helicopter, her head slamming violently against the console. Blood poured from a large gash. Marcus grabbed her, pressing one hand to her bleeding forehead. She was unconscious. Marcus could smell fuel mixing with seawater, and the sound of hot engine parts touching the incoming water. “Alicia!”

No response.

“It’s going to be okay. Breathe! Damn it! Breathe!”

The sea poured into the cockpit. Alicia was still, like a ragdoll in Marcus’s arms. “Don’t die! Please!” He tried to wipe the blood from her face, the water rising, covering his waist. He reached for the radio, keying the microphone. “Mayday!” he shouted. “Mayday! We need help!” No signal. The radio was dead. He dropped the mic and held Alicia as the water swirled around them. Marcus tried to move. He looked around, scanning the front and back area of the helicopter, looking for life preservers. Nothing but rising water. Marcus held Alicia’s head above the water and tried to kick out the door.

Within seconds, the helicopter tilted, cantering to the far left. Marcus looked up through the shattered window at the hard blue sky. “Please! God! Don’t let her die. Please! I can’t lose her…not now…not again.” Marcus wept, holding Alicia’s head to his chest, the water swirling around them as the broken helicopter shuddered and sank into the emerald sea. “No!” Marcus used both legs, now kicking at the splintered glass, in one final attempt to free them as the sunlight dimmed beneath the surface of the ocean.