Nighthawk

31

Urco led Kurt and Emma to the base of the second peak and, with a wolf whistle, called several of his people over. “I’ll go first,” he said, stepping into the harness for the ride to the top.

As he disappeared upward into the night, Kurt glanced at Emma. “You don’t have to go,” he said. “I can send the data.”

She shook her head. “I’d never live it down.”

“In that case, think about it this way: it’s so dark, you won’t be able to tell how high you are.”

“That doesn’t help,” she replied.

A double flash from high above told them Urco was safely on the mountaintop. When the harness dropped out of the dark, Kurt grabbed it. “Ready?”

Emma exhaled and nodded. “Here,” she said, handing him the computer. “My hands are shaking already. Won’t do us any good if I drop it.”

Kurt took the laptop as she strapped herself in and gave the thumbs-up signal. “Top floor, please.”

Emma was pulled upward into the dark. Because she was lighter, she rose faster. From Kurt’s angle, she almost seemed to be flying.

His turn came moments later. With the harness around him, he held the rope with one hand and gripped the computer with the other. After the initial liftoff, he turned to look out over the camp. Only the fires near the center of camp and a few lights dotted here and there.

He glanced upward. A soft glow surrounded the rigging at the top. It came from the flashlights that Emma and Urco carried, but it was dim and very far away, like a boat on the surface waiting for him to return from a night dive.

As he neared the crest, the lights converged on him. On this particular peak, there was no need for a ladder to make the final ascent; instead, Kurt continued up until the top of the harness tapped against the pulley above him and his feet were level with a broad wooden platform. He stepped onto it with ease, disconnected the harness and handed Emma the computer.

“You should have had that reporter meet you up here,” he mentioned to Urco.

“Then he might never have left,” Urco replied.

“That was quite enjoyable,” Emma said to Kurt. “I don’t know what you were worried about.”

Kurt laughed at that and took a look around. There was a marked difference between this peak and the one he’d met Urco on earlier. For one thing, it was smaller — a dance floor instead of a football field. It had also been improved. Wooden planks had been nailed together and anchored in the stone. They covered most of the surface. Though some ground remained visible at the edges, the decking sloped away so sharply, it would have been treacherous to stand on.

On Kurt’s right, two plastic storage bins had been nailed to the deck. On his left, a well-braced rig held the zip lines coming to and leading off of the platform. Beyond was nothing but pitiless black.

“Love what you’ve done with the place,” Kurt joked.

“The terrain made it necessary,” Urco said. “The ground here is too uneven, and terribly weathered. It made for poor footing, so we built this platform.”

Kurt moved across the creaky boards to a spot beside Emma. She’d taken a seat near the very center and had already flipped the laptop open and was booting up.

As she worked, a brief schematic appeared, depicting the horizon line, the constellations and the track of several NUMA satellites. The computer chose the satellite with the strongest signal.

“Locked in,” Emma said. “Beginning transmission.”

“I saw your vehicle,” Urco said out of the blue. “You seem to have gone through a great deal just to get here. You must want this airplane back very badly.”

“We do,” Emma admitted.

“It makes sense,” Urco replied. “We all want back what we once had.”

A message popped up on the screen. Download complete. Processing data.

As the computer began combining the data, it displayed a series of calculations. Emma stared as the numbers danced, but Urco acted blithely uninterested, and Kurt had a sudden impression of danger.

He caught a sound in the wind and then heard a squeak from the rigging beside him. He turned to see the zip line from the higher peak tensing and moving. He glanced out into the night and spotted a dark shape rushing toward them.

“Look out!”

A stocky man with square shoulders came flying in on the line. He let go of the T-bar as he crossed the threshold and barreled into Urco.

Another figure appeared out of the dark right behind him. This one, a lithe woman, landed with cat-like grace. She whipped out a pistol, targeted Emma and pulled the trigger all at once.

The shot went wide only because Kurt lunged forward and knocked her arm to the side. With one hand on her wrist, Kurt took her to the ground. Several shots fired, but they drilled harmlessly into the wooden deck.

She counterattacked by slamming a knee into his midsection. The bony impact struck with surprising power, but all Kurt cared about was the pistol. He kept her wrist locked in his grasp and banged her arm on the flooring until the weapon came free.

She stretched for it with her other hand, but he punched it away. It slid off the deck and out into the dark.

In the meantime, Urco struggled with the second attacker. They rolled toward the edge, oblivious to how close they were to falling, as they grasped each other and traded punches.

Emma sprang toward them, wrapping her arm around the assailant’s thick neck, pulling him back. He reared up, arching his back and reaching for her in vain.

Kurt kept his focus on the woman. She’d gotten loose, hopped to her feet and pulled out a knife with almost inhuman speed. He dropped to the ground as she slashed at him. The blade cut the air above, and he spun on his side, sweeping her feet out from underneath. She landed hard on her back, her head whiplashing into the deck. She made an odd noise and went limp, dropping the knife and rolling over onto her side.

Since the woman appeared to be unconscious, Kurt turned his attention to the melee at the edge of the platform.

By now, the big man had thrown Emma off his back, gotten to his feet and doubled Urco over with a shot to the solar plexus. A brutal shove sent Urco tumbling off the platform and onto the weathered slope of the mountain. He slid, grabbing for anything he could reach, but his hands found only loose rock.

Emma dove for him, stretching out her arm. “No,” she shouted.

She missed by several feet and Urco continued downward, his fingers scraping across the ground, until he vanished over the edge.

Kurt knew he had to take this wrecking ball of a man out or they would all follow Urco to their deaths. He jumped toward the man and hit him with a leaping kick. Both feet connected with the small of the man’s back and he stumbled off the deck, vanishing into the dark. A soft thud marked his end seconds later.

“Help me,” a voice cried from down below. “Please.”

“It’s Urco,” Emma shouted.

They rushed to the edge. Kurt noticed one of the excavation’s scaffolding ropes twisting back and forth. “Hold tight,” he shouted, “we’ll pull you up.”

Kurt found a spot to anchor his feet, gripped the rope with both hands and leaned back. Emma joined him, and Urco rose, one foot at a time.

When he cleared the edge and could assist them using his feet on the slope, the archaeologist all but charged back onto the platform. “Thank you,” he said, falling at their feet. “Thank the gods.”

He rolled onto his back, breathing heavily. “Ms. Townsend, your fear of heights is well founded. I’m thinking of taking a similar position—”

He stopped midsentence, interrupted by movement and the sound of steel wheels spinning, as one of the T-bars zoomed away down the zip line.

They turned in unison. The woman was gone.

“She took the computer,” Emma pointed out.

Kurt didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the other T-bar, connected it to the rope and launched himself after her.