Startled cries came from the tunnel. Eddie saw an arm grope around the fallen boulder, but there was not enough room for anyone to squeeze past. The precariously balanced stone wouldn’t hold them for long, though. ‘Keep going!’ he urged Rivero.
‘I’m almost there!’ Nina shouted back to the others. The drop to the steep path was still too far to risk, but she would soon reach a point where it was survivable — probably. She pulled into a concavity in the cliff. ‘Howie, get past me. Drop down to that slope as soon as you can.’
‘What’re you doing?’ he asked.
‘Waiting for Eddie.’
He gave her a dubious look as he squeezed past. ‘You think he’d want you to do that?’
‘I’m his wife, why would I do what he wants me to do?’ She managed a grin. ‘Go on, get to the boats.’
Lydia reached her next, the other woman giving her only an angry look before going by. Nina was about to make a cutting comment, but remembered just in time that her lover had been murdered minutes earlier; there was no need to make matters worse. Instead, she waited for Paris. ‘Where’s Eddie?’
‘On the way,’ the mercenary assured her.
She looked past him to see Rivero edge around the outcropping, supporting Ziff. To her relief, Eddie soon followed. ‘What about Fortune?’
Paris gave her a grim look as he moved on. ‘I don’t know. We got separated.’
‘Oh, God…’ She watched the three men approach. ‘Eddie! Where are the militia?’
‘The first guy’s feeling a bit flat,’ he replied. ‘A rock fell on him and blocked the tunnel. Won’t take the rest of ’em long to shift it,’ he added, cutting off her premature hope. ‘Why are you waiting? Keep going!’
‘I’ll take over from Jay and help you carry David.’
‘I can do it,’ Rivero insisted in a strained voice.
‘No, you’re hurt! The way your back’s torn up, I’m amazed you haven’t passed out already.’
‘What can I say? I’m just that tough,’ said Rivero through a pained smile, though he surrendered the Israeli to Nina.
One look at the pale, barely conscious Ziff filled her with alarm. ‘David, can you hear me?’
A reply took a moment to come. ‘Yes. And… I think you’re insane for… not leaving me.’
‘That’s the way I work,’ she told him. ‘You should be used to it by now!’
They set off again. She looked along the ledge. ‘Howie! How long before we can get down?’
‘Not far!’ Howie answered. ‘Past those little trees, I reckon—’
A loud crash came from behind — followed by exultant cries. ‘They’ve moved the rock,’ Eddie warned. ‘We’ve got to get down to the ground, now!’
‘We’re too high up!’ said Rivero. ‘We’ll break our legs — or our necks!’
Howie passed some small trees clinging to the slope below. ‘Okay, I’m gonna chance it,’ he announced. He lowered the laptop as far as he could before releasing it. It fell into a bush, branches crackling as they caught it. ‘Thank God for solid-state hard drives, huh?’ he said before clambering over the edge, hanging by his fingertips for a moment before letting go. A thud and a loud ‘Oof!’ came from below — but then he jumped upright. ‘I’m down!’
Lydia passed him, traversing the ledge for another twenty feet before fearfully dropping. Her fall was shorter, but she still cried out on landing. ‘The camera okay?’ Rivero asked as he prepared for his own descent.
‘He ought to marry that bloody camera,’ Eddie muttered — only to clutch at the rock wall as a tremor shook the cliff. Stones broke loose from above, Nina crying out as a fist-sized lump hit her shoulder.
Cracks ripped through the ledge, a yard-long section just behind them sliding away to smash on the slope below. The subterranean rumble grew ever louder. ‘It’s gonna go any minute!’ said Nina. ‘We’ve got to jump!’
Eddie looked down. The drop to the slope directly below was over thirty feet with nothing but thin underbrush to cushion their touchdown, a bone-breaking or even fatal fall. ‘Too high — we’ll have to jump into those trees!’
More debris tumbled down the rock face. The couple hauled Ziff along the ledge as stones pelted them. Rivero and Paris made their drops, the others already scrambling up the slope. Nearly at the trees—
Someone shouted. Eddie looked back. The Insekt Posse were catching up, the leader readying his gun.
Still short of the trees — but they were out of time. Eddie was about to order Nina and Ziff to jump—
The cliff behind them gave way.
It was as if a giant scythe had swept through the promontory’s end. A great chunk of the towering wall plunged away — obliterating the militia amidst thousands of tons of disintegrating rock.
But Nina and Eddie were still not safe. The ledge crumbled yard by yard as if chasing them—
The Insekt Posse’s demise had given them the few extra seconds they needed to reach the trees. ‘Jump!’ roared Eddie.
They leapt with Ziff into the scrubby trees below — as the path cascaded after them.
Branches snapped, broken stubs slashing through their clothing — then thicker boughs caught them. The trees lurched violently as falling rocks hit their trunks, roots almost tearing out of the thin soil. Nina screamed as she was snatched away from Eddie and Ziff, dropping towards the churning rubble below—
The air was punched from her chest as she folded painfully over one of the trunk’s forks. Gasping, she hung helplessly as broken scree flew around her…
The destruction stopped.
Nina strained to raise her head. The trees were partially buried beneath smashed stone, the channel between the cliff and the massive boulder now clogged with debris. Eddie and Ziff were both entangled in branches. ‘Nina,’ her husband gasped, also winded. ‘You okay?’
‘Super fine,’ she croaked, managing a weak thumbs-up. ‘What about David?’
‘Oh, shit.’ Eddie kicked loose, then clambered to Ziff. The Israeli was bent unmoving over a bough — the sharp stub of a severed branch buried bloodily in his side. ‘Doc! Can you hear me?’ He checked for a pulse. ‘He’s still alive,’ he reported. ‘He’s losing blood, though — a lot of blood.’
Nina slithered painfully off the tree. The fallen rubble was not secure, stones shifting under her weight — and beneath it all, she could still feel the rumble from the underground chasm. The cliff’s collapse was a mere preview of the Mother of the Shamir’s full fury.
Eddie lowered Ziff to the slope. The older man had been unconscious, but the movement woke him. He let out a gurgling cry, blood bubbling on his lips.
Nina gave her husband a fearful look. ‘I know,’ he said grimly, not wanting to voice the awful truth.
Ziff did it for them, however. ‘I’m… not going to… make it, am I?’ he whispered.
‘We’re not giving up on you,’ said Eddie firmly. With Nina’s help, he picked up the Israeli and carried him up the hill. The other expedition members waited above, watching anxiously.
‘It’s not… your decision,’ Ziff wheezed. ‘And… Nina?’
He feebly raised a hand; she clutched it. It was as cold as the stones around them. ‘Yes?’
‘I can die… happy.’
‘What?’ she asked in disbelief. ‘Why?’
‘Look… what we discovered. The lost… city. Solomon’s palace. His greatest… treasure, hidden all this time. But we… we found it, Nina. We found it!’ He squeezed her hand. ‘I spent my whole life… searching for the wonders of King Solomon. And… we found them.’
‘You found them,’ she told him gently. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you.’
‘Nor I without… you.’ A very faint laugh. ‘I would never have… imagined… that we would make… such a good team. Thank…’