Eddie looked up at the craft. ‘This thing’s not supposed to be flying,’ he said. ‘So why’re the engines going?’
Nina saw that the propellers were slowly turning, diesel engines rumbling. ‘Maintenance?’ she offered, not convinced.
‘Let’s ask.’ They headed cautiously for a door. Eddie opened it, flinching as an electronic bell made a loud beep-boop noise. ‘So much for the element of surprise,’ he muttered before raising his voice. ‘Hello?’
No response for a few seconds, then: ‘Yo! Come on in.’
‘Wait here,’ Eddie told Nina, wary. He entered a reception area. It was empty, but a large photograph behind the desk of the airship at night told him he was in the right place. Another doorway went through to an office area overlooking the airship’s landing pad.
‘Anyone here?’ he said. The office was apparently shared by the airship’s flight and ground crews and those who sold advertising space on the giant craft’s sides, a nest of cubicles surrounded by whiteboards and flip-charts showing sales figures and targets. But there was still no sign of any staff.
He rounded a battered couch, noticing an overturned coffee cup on it. A faint rush of cold air told him that an exterior door had been opened. In the far corner, a fire exit swung shut—
He froze. Poking out from behind one of the cubicle dividers was a foot, a man lying on the floor. There was a dark, glistening stain on the cheap carpet tiles nearby. Eddie instantly knew it wasn’t spilled coffee.
Another door opened, this one behind him—
He dived behind the couch as Washburn burst out of a back room, gun in hand. Bullets punched through the sofa’s back, spewing shredded foam stuffing over him as he scrambled towards a small desk bearing thick ring binders of paperwork.
The scar-faced man skirted the couch after him, seeing the Englishman go underneath the table. He bent lower to take a shot—
Eddie jumped up — bringing the desk with him. He hurled it at the gunman. Washburn fired, but the round hit only wood and paper. An instant later, wood and paper hit him, the table knocking him to the floor and landing on top of him.
The gun was still in his hand. Eddie rushed over and stamped a heel down hard on his wrist. A pained gasp, and the pistol thumped to the carpet. The Yorkshireman snatched it up. Washburn shoved the table away — only to take a bullet to the head from his own weapon.
Shouts from outside, Nina’s voice amongst them. Eddie ran back through the reception area, checking for further enemies before emerging.
His wife had gone.
But he could still hear her. He hurried to the corner of the building and looked across the landing field—
To see Cross dragging the struggling Nina with him as he and Norvin headed for the airship.
The cult leader had a gun to her head, using her as a shield. Eddie whipped up his own weapon, but knew he couldn’t shoot at Cross without risking hitting her. He aimed instead at Norvin, but before he could fire was forced to jerk back as the bodyguard sent several shots at him.
Another man sprinted towards the airship’s cabin. Eddie recognised him: Hatch. He had released the mooring lines, the cables now hanging limply from the bulbous envelope. Paxton was visible at the controls in the gondola.
Norvin fired again, forcing Eddie to retreat further as bullets smacked off the wall. When he looked back around it, Hatch had reached the cabin, Norvin following him aboard. He saw Nina shout, but couldn’t hear her over the noise as the propellers revved. Cross pulled her inside, and the door closed.
Eddie ran into the open, raising his gun. He knew it wouldn’t deflate the airship, but the envelope wasn’t his target. Instead he took aim at one of the engines. There were two pusher propellers mounted on the stern, and he opened up on the nearest. The fibreglass cowling cracked apart.
The gondola’s door slid open again, Cross leaning out — with a sniper rifle.
Eddie immediately abandoned his attack and sprinted for cover. A bullet tore the air barely a foot behind him with a supersonic crack. He threw himself behind a parked van as another shot exploded brickwork in his wake. Before Cross could fire again, he hunched into a tight ball behind the front wheels. The whole vehicle jolted as a third round struck the engine block.
The airship’s propellers grew louder. Eddie looked up to see it pulling away from him. He fired his remaining rounds at the second engine, but this time caused no visible damage, and even with its cowling broken the port engine was still running.
The airship gained altitude, slowly at first but with increasing speed as its forward engine nacelles tilted downwards to provide extra lift. It cleared the landing field, turning north over the East River towards the United Nations.
With Nina trapped aboard.
38
‘Watch her,’ ordered Cross as he went to the front of the cabin. It was equipped for sightseeing, ranks of aluminium seats on each side of the central aisle. Norvin and Hatch shoved Nina into a window seat opposite the door, the hulking bodyguard squeezing beside her to block her in as the other man took the place directly behind.
‘So this is your plan?’ Nina said over the buzz of the engines. ‘You’re going to drop the angel on the UN and kill the “kings of the world”?’
‘Babylon will fall, Dr Wilde,’ Cross replied. He put down his rifle and took the eagle-headed statue from a bag. ‘The prophecy will come true.’
‘But it can’t come true,’ she insisted. ‘We stopped Simeon’s attack in Mecca, and his statue’s been secured. It’ll never be loosed, which means the sixth angel’s instructions can’t be carried out. Until that happens, it’s impossible to fulfil the prophecy.’
Cross glared at her, eyes wide in mania. ‘It doesn’t matter! The Witnesses are dead. That means the seventh angel is about to sound — and when I destroy Babylon,’ he held up the figurine, ‘the end time will come!’
‘No it won’t!’ Nina shot back. She realised how dangerous he now was, clinging to his delusion even as it crumbled in the face of the evidence, but she couldn’t help challenging him. ‘You’re picking and choosing pieces of Revelation to suit yourself! What happened to the seven angels who pour out their vials of plague over the earth? What about the Beast, and the dragon? Where are they? You’re ignoring anything that doesn’t fit your interpretation!’
‘I found the angels!’ he shouted. ‘That proves my interpretation is right. I saw through all the layers of hallucination and metaphor in John’s writing — I saw the truth. The only truth! God’s word was revealed to me, and now I’ll reveal it to the world!’
‘You’re insane,’ was the only response she could manage.
Fury clenched his face. ‘You’ll soon see,’ he growled. The airship was now passing over the Williamsburg Bridge, the United Nations complex visible on the west bank a few miles ahead. ‘The gas will kill everyone at the UN. “And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning.”’
‘And how are they going to do that if they’re all dead?’ Nina demanded. Cross did not reply, instead regarding the view ahead with growing anticipation. ‘You can’t answer that, can you? You’ve lost it.’