A shrill of buckling metal — and the fuselage toppled over the edge behind him as he hit the carpet.
Heart racing, Eddie looked up to see a stylishly dressed woman in her fifties staring at him in stunned amazement. ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘Sorry about the mess. There’s a bloke called Oswald Seretse at the UN, he’ll pay for the damage…’
Her gaze went back to the gaping hole in the wall as a shadow fell over the room. Eddie turned to see the airship drawing closer. Without the lift from the engines at full power, the craft was being pulled downwards — and back towards the building — by the helicopter wreckage.
Nina grabbed a seat just in time to arrest her slide as the cabin pitched backwards. But she had dropped the rifle, and it was now slithering down the aisle.
Towards Cross.
She caught it with one hand — as Cross lunged at her. He landed on her legs, catching her shrapnel wound. She cried out in pain as he clutched at the gun. ‘Give it to me!’ he roared.
‘Go to hell!’ she snarled, pulling one leg free and thrashing at his chest. He grunted in pain, but still managed to grip the rifle. He forced the barrel towards her head and clawed at the trigger—
She let go of the seat.
They both skidded down the central aisle, slamming against the seats behind the open door as the swinging helicopter made the airship roll sideways. Nina grabbed the rifle with her free hand, pushing it away from her — as Cross found the trigger.
The boom of the rifle at close range was agonisingly loud. Nina felt the muzzle flash scorch her hair as she screamed — but it was Paxton who was hit, the bullet striking him squarely in the back of the skull and exploding his face across the windshield.
Eddie watched in horror as the airship reeled towards the tower. If it hit the roof’s edge side-on, multiple buoyancy cells would be slashed open at once and it would fall out of the sky like an airborne Titanic as the helium escaped, taking Nina with it—
The behemoth rolled, a whale turning on to its other side. The wreck of the LongRanger had swung away from the tower as it fell, but it was now coming back, changing the airship’s centre of gravity.
The helicopter would smash into the building several floors directly below him. And the Airlander was still approaching, blotting out the sky…
‘Get back!’ he told Harvey and the penthouse’s occupant as he judged the movement of the mooring cable, waiting for the impact—
What was left of the chopper pounded against the featureless black glass face of the Trump World Tower. The fuselage was flattened by the blow — and the rotor assembly disintegrated, the central shaft tearing loose. The cable whipped free as the heavy debris fell away.
Eddie burst into a run — and leapt out of the window at the quivering line.
He seized it with both hands, swinging away from the building as the airship, shorn of the helicopter’s weight, shot upwards. Pulling the cable to his chest, he used his feet to secure himself in place, passing it under one foot and back over the other.
First Avenue rolled past far beneath him as the Airlander angled back towards the United Nations. ‘Okay, maybe Harvey was right about this being a fucking stupid idea…’ muttered Eddie as he started to climb.
Cross pulled himself over Nina, using his weight and greater strength to shove the rifle down to the deck with one arm, then clamped the other hand around her throat. ‘“True and righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the great whore!”’ he snarled.
‘Don’t you… call me a… whore!’ she gasped as he squeezed, clawing at his arm with her fingernails. ‘You Bible-thumping prick!’ She drew blood, making him flinch. He leaned away from her, trying to force the rifle out of her grip.
Realising there was no way she could keep hold of the weapon, she instead let go of it, lashing her now-free hand at his eyes. Cross gasped, reflexively jerking back to save his sight.
But his hand was still wrapped around her throat. He pulled her upwards — then slammed her head back down against the deck, once, twice. Nina’s vision blurred, pain overwhelming her. Cross squeezed harder, forcing a choked rasp from her mouth… then he let go.
A thin line of blood running from the corner of his eye, he collected the rifle and stood. Terror surged through the breathless Nina as she thought he was going to shoot her, but instead he hurried past her to the controls. The engines’ roar grew louder as he increased power, aiming the craft back towards the United Nations.
Eddie was still climbing the mooring line when he heard the propellers speed up. He looked ahead. The airship was heading for the plaza outside the General Assembly. The crowd was spreading, people running for the exits to First Avenue, but it seemed that for every person who had fled, at least two more had replaced them as politicians and diplomats and officials spilled from the complex’s buildings. Several helicopters were hovering nearby, one a heavily modified Black Hawk in green-and-white livery: Marine One, the transport of the President of the United States. But despite the efforts of the Secret Service and UN security to clear a landing space, the panic at ground level was making it impossible.
Aware that he was rapidly running out of time, he brought himself a few last feet higher and secured himself. He was not far below the gondola; from this low angle, he had a partial view of its interior through the large windows and open door. No sign of Nina, but he saw movement at the front—
Cross! He was at the controls, looking down through a gruesome film of blood on the windscreen as he lined up the airship with the plaza. Then he stood and moved down the cabin. The Englishman felt a brief fear that he was going to throw the statue from the doorway, but instead he went past the opening, turning from side to side as if searching for something.
There was only one thing it could be. The last angel.
Time was up.
Eddie kicked his legs back, then thrust them forward, building up momentum as he started to swing from the line. His original plan had been to reach the gondola’s door, but Cross was armed, and would shoot him before he could recover from the landing. Instead he aimed at the cult leader himself. One of the windows was broken, revealing it as flimsy Plexiglas; if he had built up enough of a swing to reach the cabin, he would be moving fast enough to smash straight through another thin acrylic panel and hit the man behind it.
He hoped.
Another sweep brought him closer to his target. Two more would do it. He fell back, the wind whistling in his ears as he swept backwards, then in again towards the airship’s underside. The boundary of United Nations territory passed below. One more swing to go, the gondola just feet away as he reached the top of his arc…
Nina clutched at Cross’s leg as he moved back down the aisle, but he pulled away without even seeming to notice. She struggled to roll on to her side, feeling a new wave of pain as she raised her head.
The cult leader was looking for the fallen angel. She could see under the seats from her position on the floor, spotting the statue a few rows back from the open hatch. Breathing heavily, she started to pull herself up, feeling dizzy as her head throbbed again…
A dark shape moved past the doorway, just for a moment, before falling away. Nina blinked, not sure what she had seen. It hadn’t been another helicopter — it was much too close, only a few feet from the gondola.
But the mystery object vanished from her mind as Cross finally found the object of his search. He bent down — and grabbed the angel.
Eddie kept his eyes fixed upon the American as he dropped away. Out as far as he could go, the Airlander’s bloated flank hanging above him like a solid cloud… then he whooshed back at the gondola, bringing up both legs as he hurtled towards the window.