Finally, the top of the deck midway between bridge and bow folded back and a single domed turret emerged from below. After rotating through three hundred and sixty degrees and pivoting the 120mm gun barrel from horizon to zenith, it disappeared into the bowels of the ship, helping it regain the quasi-zero radar profile that made it one of the most advanced warships afloat.
China was ready.
Chapter 77
Gail stood, frozen to the spot, as the corridor sealed itself behind them. The memory of Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s piercing red gaze was still fresh in her mind.
Patterson ran back to the door, reaching it the moment it closed, and slammed his palms against it. “No!” he exclaimed.
Ben started towards him but was caught off balance by Walker, who slammed him against the floor and easily prised the pistol from his hand.
“Fucking Arab,” he muttered as he stood up and kicked Ben in the stomach. He pointed the gun at his heart and started to squeeze the trigger.
“Wait!” Patterson shouted. “Don’t shoot!”
Walker hesitated long enough for Patterson to explain his objection.
“We may still need him,” Patterson struggled to come up with a valid reason quickly enough. “What if we find something heavy that needs lifting, what if we need to force this door open?” He knew it was a tragic excuse, and he almost winced as he gave it.
Walker weighed up his options briefly. As far as he was concerned, he’d waited long enough already. He’d played the nice guy long enough to get out of the crumbling tomb he’d woken up in following the explosion. Now he was in a corridor lit by electricity, with increasingly fresh air being pumped in from somewhere. He was in no doubt that from hereon in he could fend for himself. He couldn’t rule out the possibility that there may be a need for more manpower, but on the other hand he didn’t consider the Arab to be particularly strong anyway.
“I doubt it,” he surmised.
Gail was going from turmoil to anguish. In the last five minutes she’d had her academic beliefs finally shattered, and now she was faced with one of her dearest friends being brutally executed.
“If you kill him, then I won’t get you out of here. I would die with him rather than help you.” She was amazed at how calm her own voice sounded; it was like hearing someone else speak.
“You’ll help me if I point this gun at you,” he threatened.
Gail shook her head simply, a wry smile appearing on her face. “You kill him, and we all die down here.”
After a moment or two, he lowered the gun and stepped away from Ben. “Your lucky day, Mohammed,” he jeered.
Ben stood up, helped by Gail and Patterson.
“Thanks,” he whispered to them both, with a nod to Gail.
For the first time, Walker was in control. “You,” he said pointing the pistol at Gail, “find out how to open this door.”
She knew now that Ben was only alive because there was a chance she could still be useful. Thinking hard, she desperately tried to live up to that promise. The corridor they were in was very similar to the airlock found on Mars. The Russian, Captain Marchenko, had entered it first, and when the airlock opened for a second time, to let the other crew members in, he was gone. That meant that Marchenko had passed through the airlock successfully. And he must have been groggy, with hardly any air and no power to his suit, she thought.
Looking around, she noticed for the first time the engravings on the walls. Processions of Xynutians, along with dozens of different species of animals, heading towards the door that Walker was standing by.
She breathed in deeply, and noted that the air was almost fresh now, and at a pleasant temperature, rather than the chill of the hall behind them.
It’s just an automatic airlock, she realised suddenly. How else was it possible for an astronaut to make his way through while suffering from a lack of oxygen, which would have impaired his thought processes?
She walked towards the door and pushed past Walker. No time to lose, this thing could open any second now! She moved her hands over the inscriptions on either side of the door and settled for the head of one of the Xynutians, who was wearing a particularly elaborate headdress and holding another staff, this one double-headed, aloft. Pressing hard twice, she stood back and observed the door anxiously.
“Well –” Walker began, but before he could continue his sentence the door slid open silently, and what was revealed instantly made him forget what he’d been about to say.
For staring right back at them, its staff held aloft and its teeth bared in a gruesome sneer, was a Xynutian.
Chapter 78
George sat down, exhausted. Tariq and Manu were gulping down the last of their own water, while Leena had descended to Ben’s Toyota to fetch more.
He looked across at Zahra guarding the American, who was shifting uncomfortably against the hand and ankle ties that made sure he wasn’t going to try and escape.
“We need some help,” he said. “We need medical help.”
After an hour or so of excavating, he had been able to squeeze his entire arm and head into the hole they had created, but despite all of their cries and shouting, no one had responded from beneath the rubble. If there was still a chance that Gail was alive, or Ben for that matter, the fact that they weren’t answering meant that they probably needed urgent medical assistance.
Zahra nodded her head. “On their way,” she answered. “But by car, and from al-Minya. They’ll be here as soon as they can.”
George did the sums in his head and worked out that they were still at least twenty minutes away. Zahra had only called for backup when there had been no response from inside the Library.
It was easy enough to explain what five members of the Tourism Police were doing in Amarna, as it was still fairly common for tourists to request armed escorts into the lesser travelled parts of the country, and Egypt had more Tourism Police than it sensibly knew what to do with.
And the fact that they’d been involved in a battle with an unknown terrorist organisation would probably help.
But Haji was dead, and she was dreading having to explain that. The shock of losing Ben had dissipated now, and she was only left with the harsh reality of her situation. What she had thought would be a fairly simple operation had turned into a bit of a nightmare.
Leena returned with the water, a large five litre plastic container with a handle, and they all refilled their bottles.
“Torches?” George made what he hoped was the international hand signal for ‘torch’, and not something deeply offensive.
She nodded and put them down on the ground. It made sense to pack a torch if you were going anywhere away from the beaten track, and Ben had packed two large Maglites before setting off from Cairo.
George gulped some more water down thirstily. The Sun had already set, sinking into the Sahara almost half an hour earlier. In the twilight, it was clear that the batteries running the lights inside the Library had run out, as no light emerged from the hole in the rubble.
Tariq, Manu, Leena and George stood in a small circle over the hole in the ground. Only one more stone. They had needed the rest, but now he felt a resurgence of energy, a desire to reach Gail, whatever her condition, and be with her.
It felt like years since they’d last held each other, since he’d said goodbye to her in England, although it had been barely a week. However long, it had been too long.