The Nemesis Origin

XXI

Ethan hurtled down the hillside with Lucy hot on his heels, and behind them he could hear the Americans plunging through the undergrowth in pursuit. He recalled that they were wearing jungle kit and were laden down with water, webbing and weapons. Ethan and Lucy were encumbered only by their light rucksacks, but the soldiers’ fitness would likely even the odds.

Ethan began to slow slightly as they descended the mountain side, knowing that even the slightest injury would render them unable to escape. Lucy closed in behind him as they ran, aiming for the open tracks used by the motorcyclists and tourists to reach the waterfalls below. Both of their mopeds were parked down there, and although Ethan was certain that such battered old vehicles would not have been stolen he could not be sure that the headlights worked.

A shot cracked out behind him and he flinched instinctively as the round smacked into a tree to his right.

‘Get in front of me,’ Ethan insisted as he moved to the right and allowed Lucy to pass him.

Another shot impacted close beside Ethan’s head and sprayed him with wood chips as he ducked down and followed Lucy through the darkness. Moments later she found the path that they had followed up the hillside, a slightly clearer passage through the forest toward the waterfalls below. Lucy picked up the pace as she regained her confidence on the narrow trail and Ethan likewise accelerated as they raced through the darkness.

‘Why the hell are Americans shooting at us?’

‘I don’t know and stop talking, they can hear us!’

Ethan heard the crashing of the waterfall as they approached it, a useful feature that would help disguise the sound of their movement. He quickly began considering his options, wondering whether it might be better to hunker down in the jungle and hope the American soldiers would pass them by rather than continuing their headlong flight down the hillside. The solution came as another shot cracked out and narrowly passed between Lucy and Ethan in the darkness. Two highly accurate shots in otherwise pitch black forest could mean only one thing: the platoon sharpshooter was using night-vision to pick them out as they ran.

Ethan began dodging left and right on the path in an attempt to spoil the sharpshooter’s aim, but two more shots cracked out and hit the path almost at his feet. He heard Lucy cry out as though she had been hit as she stumbled, but she picked herself up and kept moving.

A voice bellowed out from the jungle behind them.

‘Another step and we’ll shoot to kill!’

‘Keep moving!’ Ethan growled ahead to Lucy, knowing that the soldiers were intent on killing them anyway.

The path plunged away down the hillside a short distance ahead and circled the elephant pool, the water just visible now plunging into its limpid depths. Lucy ran down to the edge of the pool and circled it with Ethan close behind. They were almost at the edge of the tree line when a fresh shot cracked out and hit the path directly in front of them. Lucy skittered to a halt and Ethan almost collided with her as he turned and saw the shape of the sharpshooter silhouetted against the dimly illuminated sky at the top of the falls, his weapon aimed down at them.

Ethan spotted a bright red light appear on his chest, quivering slightly with the sharpshooter’s heartbeat as he kept the weapon aimed directly at Ethan’s body.

‘That’s as far as you go!’ the sharpshooter called over the crashing sound of the waterfall.

Ethan desperately tried to think of a way out of the situation, but he knew that if he so much as flinched the soldier would shoot him dead. He could just about hear the sounds of the rest of the American platoon advancing behind the sharpshooter, and he realized that there was nowhere to go.

The remaining soldiers broke from the tree line and appeared alongside the sharpshooter above them. They had been reduced from eight men to six, evidently some of the villager’s bullets having found their mark, but that now meant that the soldier’s blood would be up and there would be no quarter given to either Ethan or Lucy. In the middle of dense jungle and at night, there would be no witnesses to whatever was about to happen.

The leader of the American platoon directed a mock salute at Ethan as he nodded to the sharpshooter.

‘Take them down.’

Ethan prepare to leap to one side in a desperate attempt to protect his own life when suddenly the sniper cried out and his weapon snapped up in the air and fired high as Ethan saw his face illuminated in a bright green light, a narrow beam streaking from the nearby forest to hit the soldier’s face and blind him through his night vision goggles.

Ethan turned and without hesitation grabbed Lucy and sprinted for the tree line behind them. A crescendo of shots hammered the elephant pool as the remainder of the soldiers attempted to hit them without the benefit of night-vision. The bullets smacked into the path behind them and Ethan heard ricochets hit the trees nearby but with a gasp of relief they plunged into the tree line and the dense cover of the undergrowth.

‘Keep moving,’ Ethan whispered harshly. ‘We’ve got to make it to the motorcycles.’

To his right Ethan heard another figure crashing through the undergrowth, and they burst out onto the path directly behind him.

‘You’re welcome,’ Lopez whispered as she ran behind him.

‘Who the hell are they?’ Ethan demanded as they ran.

‘No idea. They must’ve followed you here.’

‘Nobody knew we were coming,’ Lucy snapped back from somewhere ahead. ‘They just s likely followed you!’

‘We’ll deal with it later,’ Ethan cut them both off. ‘Nice work with the laser pen,’ he added as they descended towards the main access road to the mountain.

Lucy reached the road first, Ethan behind as he spotted the motorcycles they had abandoned. He rushed over to them as Lopez broke from the tree line behind and hurried across.

‘They haven’t been tampered with,’ Ethan said as he examined the engines.

‘There would have been a lot of motorcycles here when they arrived during daylight,’ Lopez guessed.

Lucy clambered onto a motorbike and made to use the kick start. Ethan grabbed her ankle to prevent her from starting the engine.

‘No, push off and use the motorcycle as a pushbike. We need to get away as quietly as possible or they’ll be onto us. They must have their own transport to have reached us so fast.’

Lucy nodded and pushed away toward the path that descended down the hillside, the moped accelerating slowly away. Ethan climbed aboard his own and then looked at Lopez.

‘Get on.’

Lopez didn’t hesitate to jump on the pillion seat and Ethan pushed away as hard as he could with his legs. The scooter reluctantly began to move even as he heard voices shouting from behind them amid the jungle as the troops closed in on their position. The scooter gradually gathered speed and began to roll of its own free will down the hillside, only the faint crunch of the tires on gravel giving their position away.

‘Well, I didn’t see us doing this so soon,’ Lopez said to Ethan in a soft whisper.

‘Don’t get overexcited,’ Ethan replied. ‘If you hadn’t pulled that stunt with the laser pen I would have left you on this mountain.’

Ethan could sense the smile on Lopez’s face in her tone as she replied.

‘You and I both know you would never have done that.’

Ethan did not reply as he followed Lucy’s moped down the hillside. They were gathering speed and the breeze was a welcome relief from the overwhelming humidity and heat. Through gaps in the forest below them he could see the flickering lights of Siem Reap in the distance, close enough that they would be able to hide among the crowds if they could get off the hillside unobserved.

Then, above the crunching of their tires on the dusty road, Ethan heard a new sound growing in intensity. He turned his head as he tried to make out what it was, and quickly he was able to distinguish the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of rotor blades beating the air.

‘Helicopter!’ he yelled ahead to Lucy. ‘They’re sending one in! Use your engine now!’

Ethan clicked the moped into second gear with the clutch held closed, reached down to turn the ignition key on, and then dumped the clutch. The little motorbike growled into life as the back tire briefly locked up on the dusty path and then bit once more. Ahead, he heard a cough and a splutter from Lucy’s machine and then it whined into life, a cloud of blue smoke billowing from its exhaust.

Ethan twisted the throttle wide open and the little motorbike surged away. Flocks of birds vaulted in panic from the trees in thick clouds of wings that streaked across the dark sky above, and Ethan saw Lucy’s bike quiver as its engine caught and she accelerated away.

‘Watch out for the trees!’

Lucy swerved her motorbike further out toward the edge of the track, the plunging hillside vanishing to their right into a dense canopy of trees.

Lopez shouted out to Ethan above the wailing noise of the engine. ‘They’re coming in from the right!’

Ethan nodded as he glanced out over the jungle and saw the helicopter sweeping in, a black silhouette against the clouds. The thundering rotors vibrated through the motorcycle beneath him as a brilliant halo of light suddenly exploded into life and illuminated the dusty track as though it were daylight.

The track weaved between the dense jungles, switching back on itself every few hundred yards as it descended the mountain’s precipitous sides. Ethan kicked the motorbike up a gear, sweeping it through a long right-hand bend that followed the epic curve of the mountainside as they plunged beneath a canopy of trees, then braked hard and switched back in pursuit of Lucy. Warm droplets of water showered down upon them as the heavens suddenly opened above, and Lopez’s grip on Ethan’s waist tightened as the bike leaned out almost to the edge of the drop. Ethan leaned into the turn as the rear wheel skipped and spun on the damp track. He twisted the handlebars to the right, counter-steering against the rear wheel’s grip and letting it spin freely as he broadsided around the rest of the turn and then opened the throttle wide, the bike coming upright as the track straightened out toward the lowlands of Siem Reap a mile away.

Within moments Ethan’s shirt was drenched with water, his hair and eyes thick and heavy with moisture as the rainfall began hammering the road ahead. He could already see Lucy slowing down, her motorcycle slipping and sliding as the dust turned into slick mud as she tried to maintain control in the blinding light and heavy rain.

A deafening crack burst the air around Ethan as the helicopter opened fire and in an instant he saw a spray of woodchips burst from the foliage as a tree plunged out of the forest ahead, thick branches rushing down toward the track. Lucy swerved to avoid the falling tree and her motorcycle twisted sideways as it fought for grip.

‘Get down!’

Ethan swerved out and they plunged beneath the falling tree, damp leaves and fronds slapping across them as the bike raced beneath the plunging trunk and out the other side. The motorbike weaved and kicked and Ethan struggled to keep it upright as they shot out into clear air.

Ethan closed the throttle to give the bike a chance to steady itself and yelled over his shoulder to Lopez.

‘Use the pen again!’

Lopez reached into her pocket and retrieved the laser pen as a fresh salvo of shots hammered the track through the rain. The torrential downpour was forcing the pilot of the helicopter to fly at an awkward angle alongside the mountainside to fight the brisk winds and keep the track beneath him in sight, the cockpit almost facing the motorcycles as armed men fired from an open hatch on the helicopter’s port fuselage.

Lopez activated the pen and aimed it at the cockpit, and suddenly the helicopter jerked violently to the right and veered away from the hillside as the pilot was blinded by the laser beam.

The troops aboard the helicopter fired again at the motorcycles and Ethan heard the front tire suddenly squeal as something struck it and it buckled under the blow. The tires lost their grip as all balance was ripped from Ethan’s hands and they toppled toward the dusty surface of the track racing past beneath them.

‘Jump!’

Lopez hurled herself clear of the saddle, her arms out before her as she crashed down. Ethan hurled himself off and the breath was smashed from his lungs as he rolled across the muddy earth with his arms wrapped around his head. The motorbike bounced past him on its side, the metal engine scraping with a high-pitched squeal across the rugged terrain.

Ethan rolled to a stop and peered through eyes filled with damp grit. The helicopter had swung out across the valley, its rotors thundering as its pilot gave himself a chance to recover his eyesight from Lopez’s laser pen. It was almost invisible through the blustering wind and rain, the cloud base above lowering with every passing minute.

Ethan heard the sound of an approaching engine and saw Lucy’s scooter ride back up the hillside to join them.

‘What happened?!’ she yelled.

Ethan glanced at his motorbike’s ruined front wheel. ‘Lucky hit, they took out the wheel!’

Ethan knew that there was no way that they could all ride on Lucy’s motorbike. He got to his feet as Lopez brushed herself down.

‘We should make for the treeline down there,’ Lopez pointed to a lower track than the one they were on.

Ethan was about to agree with her when he heard the sound of the helicopter’s engine begin to rise again as it swung back toward them. He peered down the steep hillside and then along the track, where it doubled back on itself and descended below them. An idea sprang into his mind.

‘Lopez, get on Lucy’s bike and ride down there as fast as you can! When you get there, lay the bike down and make as though you’re just getting up!’

‘What the hell for?’

‘Just do it!’

Lopez did not hesitate a moment longer. She jumped on the back of Lucy’s motorbike and rode away.

Ethan grabbed the damaged bike and hauled it upright. The front tire was lost, ragged rubber hanging on to the rim. He dragged it back into the treeline through the pouring rain as he heard the helicopter thundering back toward them, the searchlight emerging from the gloomy sky. He pulled the bike back and clambered onto the seat, then kicked down on the starter. The engine rattled wearily into life beneath him as fat drops of warm rain splattered onto his head from the dense canopy above.

He saw the helicopter swing out of the falling veils of rain and pull in alongside the cliff face, and then begin to descend as its searchlight picked out where Lucy and Lopez were on the track below. Blinded by Lopez’s laser pen and out of sight through the clouds, the pilot had lost track of exactly where he had last seen the two motorcycles. The wind and rain gusted into Ethan’s face as the helicopter’s rotor blades thundered and he saw the shape of two soldiers in the back aiming their weapons down at the track below. The helicopter was within twenty yards of the cliff face and struggling to stay in position against the winds as it descended out of sight below the cliff edge.

Ethan twisted the throttle and the motorbike hurtled out of the treeline toward the edge of the track, the front wheel rattling on its rims across the rain splattered ground. He saw the top of the helicopter’s rotors and the two soldiers leaning out of the side and aiming down at Lopez and Lucy and then he hurled himself out of the saddle as the plunging abyss yawned open before him.

Ethan landed hard and grasped for a handhold as the motorbike flew off the edge of the cliff. Its engine noise faded instantly as it revolved lazily toward the helicopter below, and one of the gunners spotted its motion at the last instant.

Ethan grabbed hold of a dense clump of foliage and looked over his shoulder to see the man open his mouth to bellow a warning to the pilot, just before the motorcycle smashed into the helicopter’s spinning rotors and they flew apart in a lethal cloud of blades and debris.

Ethan covered his head with his free hand and pulled his legs up protectively as shrapnel hammered the cliff face and the helicopter’s engines shrieked as the vehicle banked away out of control and spun a complete revolution before it smashed down into the trees further down the hillside and the engines split open and ignited their fuel.

The helicopter exploded in a brilliant fireball that blossomed like a brief sunrise against the darkened forest below before it was swallowed by black smoke and the flames were quenched by the torrential downpour. Ethan managed to maintain his grip on the foliage as he dragged himself back up onto the track and then turned and looked down below.

Lucy and Lopez huddled together on the track beside the remaining scooter, and he wasted no time in jogging down the track and doubling back to where they were. He saw Lopez look up at him and give him a thumbs-up as she called out in the rain.

‘Nice to see you haven’t forgotten how to show a girl a good time.’

Ethan helped Lucy to her feet. The scientist, dazed and shivering, looked up at him. ‘Remind me why I asked you to join me out here?’

Ethan wrapped one arm around her and squinted up into the rain.

‘We’d better keep moving. Those soldiers won’t have missed that explosion.’

Together, Ethan, Lucy and Lopez turned and began the long walk toward the distant lights of Siem Reap.