She heard Shaban’s prayer continuing over the growl of the engine and Macy’s panicked pleas to stop. ‘I am Set, lord of the desert, master of darkness, the god of death!’
Grant’s hands shook as he held the knife over Eddie. He tried to back away - and felt a gun held by another guard press against his spine.
Shaban fixed him with a malevolent stare. ‘I have slain the coward Osiris, and now in blood I take dominion over all things!’
‘We’re gonna crash!’ Macy squealed.
Nina gripped the steering wheel, eyes fixed on the drawbridge. The nearer section was at a twenty-five degree angle, and still rising.
She didn’t slow.
The Mitsubishi hit the drawbridge with a bone-jarring crash - and continued up it. It shot off the end, clearing the widening gap and smashing down on the far side with an impact that shattered two of the side windows. Macy screamed.
The front airbags exploded from their compartments, kicking Nina painfully back into her seat - but she saw the pyramid ahead and aimed straight at it.
Shaban’s voice rang in her ears. ‘I am Set! Set! Set!’
‘And match!’ Nina cried—
The Shogun ploughed through the pyramid’s glass wall.
31
Eddie stared up at Grant. He could tell from his eyes that the actor wasn’t going to drive the knife into his chest. Which was good.
But it was also bad, because it meant Shaban’s followers would kill them both.
And pinned to the table, hands tied behind his back, there was nothing he could do to stop it—
Boom!
Everyone on the stage spun at the noise - and, with a colossal crash of exploding glass, the Mitsubishi careered through the double doors.
Heading straight for the altar.
Lorenz tackled Shaban out of the truck’s path. Broma rolled the other way. The guards holding Eddie scattered.
The Shogun skidded, swerving to miss the altar - but it couldn’t stop in time to avoid colliding with one of the statues. The chrome-plated figure rocked as the 4×4’s hefty bullbar smashed a chunk out of its legs, almost toppling into the pit . . . then tipped back and fell. The marble floor was smashed under its weight - as was the scientist. The canister spun away.
The fallen statue rolled and demolished the altar as Eddie flung himself clear, knocking the stunned Grant with him. It continued over the end of the stage, flattening another guard - then the stairway collapsed beneath it, sending the rest of the men flying. Cultists screamed and scrambled backwards to escape being crushed.
Eddie sat up, expecting to see one of the ASPS inside the battered Shogun - and was startled, but delighted, to find Nina at the wheel instead. ‘That’s what I call gatecrashing!’ he called.
‘Eddie, come on!’ she shouted back - only for her expression to change to alarm. ‘Look out!’
Broma was pointing a gun at him—
A flat thump came from the 4×4 - and something streaked across the stage to hit Broma’s chest with a crack that broke his sternum. He fell backwards into the pit as the object that had injured him bounced back and clanked across the marble, streaming white smoke.
Only it wasn’t just smoke. Eddie felt a stinging, burning sensation in his eyes and nose. Tear gas. He looked back at the Shogun to see Macy hefting an Arwen 37 out of the broken window.
‘Hold your breath!’ Eddie warned. ‘Grant, cut me loose!’
The bewildered Grant remembered he was holding a knife. He sawed at the zip-tie with the bloodied blade until it snapped. Eddie shook off the plastic restraint and stood. The tear gas was swirling across the stage, thick clumps of white mist obscuring his view, but he could make out Shaban and Lorenz still on the floor by one of the statues.
He checked the pit. With the stairs destroyed the cultists couldn’t reach the stage directly, but there was another way out—
‘Shit!’ Some of Shaban’s followers had already come to the same conclusion and were heading for the stairs at the temple’s opposite end. If they got out, he and the others would be massively outnumbered, and probably torn to pieces by the mob.
He ran to the truck. ‘Gimme that,’ he said to Macy, snatching the Arwen from her and firing the remaining four canisters across the pit at the other set of stairs. The crowd immediately turned back, coughing and clutching at their faces as they tried to escape the searing vapour.
‘Get in!’ Nina shouted from the 4×4.
‘No, you get out!’ he countered. ‘That gas won’t stop ’em for long - we’ve got to keep them trapped down there!’
‘How?’
‘With the truck.’
‘But we need it to get out of here!’
‘Did they raise the drawbridge?’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Then we won’t have time to lower it before that lot come after us like bloody zombies! Come on, shift! You too, Macy!’
Macy climbed out of his side of the Mitsubishi, Nina the other, as Eddie leaned across the passenger seat. ‘This worked for Shaban, hope it works for us,’ he muttered as he put the Mitsubishi in Drive - and used the empty riot gun to jam down the accelerator.
The 4×4 roared towards the broken stairs as Eddie rolled backwards out of it. He thumped down painfully on debris from the ruined altar, skidding across the marble—
Grant dived and grabbed his arm just before he slithered into the pit, his legs dangling over the edge.
The cultists scattered screaming as the Mitsubishi smashed down to their level. Through some collective obedience the aisle was still more or less clear, though a couple of green-blazered goons were slammed aside as the truck, its suspension grinding, charged along the pit.
It disappeared into the billowing cloud of tear gas—
Another huge crash of breaking glass and steel echoed round the chamber as the 4×4 hit the other flight of stairs, getting halfway up them and leaping out of the miasma like a whale breaching the ocean surface before they collapsed beneath it.
Eddie scrambled back on to the stage. ‘Thanks, mate,’ he told Grant. With both staircases destroyed, the cultists were trapped in the pit. ‘So how do you like real action?’
Grant was still shaken. ‘I, uh . . . I prefer the Hollywood version.’
‘Let’s get you back to it, then. Come on.’
They rounded the broken altar. The tear gas from the first canister was still spreading, forcing Nina to retreat towards them. Eddie looked round in alarm. ‘Where’s Macy?’
Nina’s eyes watered as the stinging vapour attacked her mucous membranes. ‘In there,’ she gasped, pointing into the wafting mass.
‘Macy! Can you hear me?’ He heard a feminine cough from somewhere in the cloud. ‘Okay, we’ve got to go through it. Hold your breath, keep your eyes and nose covered, and grab hold of me.’ He held out his hands.
Grant was also suffering the effects of the pungent chemicals, face screwed up in discomfort. ‘Aren’t you feeling this?’ the actor asked Eddie as he and Nina took hold of him.
‘Nah, this is pretty weak - the SAS chucks you in rooms full of way worse stuff in training. You get used to it, like vindaloo. Okay, ready?’ They both nodded, holding their noses. ‘Go!’
He rushed into the cloud, pulling Nina and Grant behind him. His eyes immediately started streaming, and his exposed skin felt as though it was being jabbed by hot needles - his training had made him more resistant than most to the effects of tear gas, but not immune, and it was several years since he had last undergone the experience. But he kept going until they emerged into clearer air on the other side.