The fire reached the rocket’s tail—
It blasted off with a sizzling whoosh, the stonework on each side channelling it straight ahead. It shot through the entrance, searing past Zec and Tandon as they dived out of its way - and flew into the Chinook’s hold.
One mercenary was set aflame as it passed, another almost decapitated by the cylinder as it smacked into his head. The blow deflected it upwards to hit the ceiling - and ricochet down again.
Into the cockpit.
It slammed into the central instrument console, flicking round madly and blasting fire into the pilots’ faces. They screamed, flailing blindly in unbearable pain - and let go of the controls.
The Chinook rolled violently, slewing away from the ledge. The burning mercenary fell from the rear hatch, other men dashed against the cabin’s unyielding metal wall. Zec and Tandon hurled themselves flat as the rotor blades scythed above them.
The backwash of fire burned through the rocket’s silk-wrapped body - and it exploded, blowing out the cockpit windows. Pilots dead, controls smashed, the helicopter barrelled down the valley in a death-roll—
Straight at the rope bridge.
Eddie was three-quarters of the way across, coming up fast on the plank that had broken under him on the first crossing, when he heard another explosion, nearer but oddly muffled. He looked round for its cause—
‘Oh, fuck,’ he gasped.
The Chinook, smoke pouring from its shattered cockpit, rushed towards him.
He ran, not caring any more if the planks could take his weight. All he cared about now was staying ahead of the deadly blur of the front rotor, the blades a giant circular saw carving through the air . . .
29
Eddie dived as the rotor slashed through the bridge less than a foot behind him.
The severed ropes cracked like whips as their tension was released. The Chinook roared past, sucking a blizzard of loose snow into its rotors. The storm almost blinded him as he grabbed a plank with one hand, swinging with the collapsing bridge. The wall rushed at him through the whirling snow—
His other hand found a rope just as the bridge crashed against the valley side. The plank he was holding snapped, leaving him dangling by only his straining arm, swaying on the line like a human plumb bob. Chunks of smashed wood tumbled past.
A colossal boom shook the valley as the Chinook slammed into the cliff at its end and exploded. Boulders and burning wreckage tumbled down to block the passage beneath a huge cloud of dust and snow and black smoke.
Eddie struggled to find a new handhold. He managed to reach an intact plank above, only to wince as a splinter stabbed into his middle finger. He pulled himself up. The remains of the bridge had turned into a fractured ladder. Some of the planks - now rungs - were broken, others missing entirely, but there were enough left intact for him to reach the fifth tier.
Holding the rope tightly, he pulled the inch-long splinter out from his finger with his teeth, then began his ascent.
From the Dhruv, Khoil gawped at the Chinook’s blazing wreck. ‘What happened?’ he demanded into his headset. ‘Zec, what happened?’
It took several seconds before the Bosnian managed a reply. ‘A rocket - I don’t know where it came from. All my men are dead!’
‘What about Chapal and Dhiren?’
‘Your man Tandon is here with me. The other—’ He broke off at the sound of another explosion in the cavern. ‘The other one, I don’t know. He’s probably dead.’
‘Pramesh, we have the Vedas,’ said Vanita. She tapped the chest, now safely stowed in the cabin. ‘Let’s just go.’
‘Chapal is still down there - and I want to be sure Chase and Dr Wilde are dead,’ he replied firmly. ‘Pilot, move back to the cliff. Tell the gunship to cover us.’ The Dhruv turned and headed back for the Vault.
Eddie reached the top of the makeshift ladder, seeing footprints in the snow where the group had walked along the tier earlier in the day. More snow billowed past as the Khoils’ helicopter moved overhead, lowering the harness.
Nina poked her head out from beneath the statue. Most of the rockets had fired or exploded, the remainder duds, the gunpowder in them broken down by time as Eddie had predicted.
They weren’t out of danger, though. The explosions had stopped, but fires were still burning, the Vault filling with smoke. Most of its treasures would be unharmed beyond being blackened by soot, but there was still enough wood and fabric to keep the flames alive for some time. ‘Can you move?’ she asked Kit.
‘I think I will have to,’ he said, suppressing a cough as grey wisps coiled round him.
She helped him up. Together, they picked their way through the fires to the entrance.
They gave the area behind the ramp a wide berth in case a rocket went off - but then stopped as they saw two figures outside. ‘Damn it,’ Nina muttered, recognising Tandon. ‘We can’t go out there - they’ll kill us.’ She looked for anything that might help, spotting something near the overturned gondola. ‘Wait here,’ she said, propping Kit against a frieze. ‘I’ll be right back.’
The winch line descended above Zec. ‘You go up first,’ Tandon told him. ‘Dhiren might still come. And if Wilde or Jindal are still alive, I want to be sure that they do not stay that way.’
Zec nodded, watching the harness’s descent - then movement caught his eye, someone running along a tier below. He almost laughed. ‘Chase! He must have woken up very early this morning.’
Tandon was not familiar with the Bosnian proverb, but he understood its meaning. ‘His luck has run out. Give me your gun.’
Zec unslung his MP5K and handed it to the Indian. ‘Here,’ he said as he reached for the harness. ‘Wait until he is closer. Then we’ll see how awake he really is.’
Eddie reached the next flight of steps and pounded up them to the seventh tier. He saw two men at the top of the broken stairway: Zec and Tandon, preparing to be winched up to the helicopter . . .
Tandon was aiming an MP5K.
The nearest archway was behind him. Eddie skidded on the snow, turning to retreat—
Tandon fired as the Englishman stumbled, trying to back up and reach cover. Even with the MP5K’s short effective range, he could still hose the tier with automatic fire—
Another MP5K barked . . . inside the Vault. Two shots hissed past him - but a third hit his bicep, tearing out a ragged lump of flesh. Tandon roared, dropping the sub-machine gun, which cartwheeled down the steps to fall to the valley floor.
Zec had just fastened the harness. He spun to see Nina emerge from the Vault, holding the gun of the mercenary Kit had killed. That she had only scored a glancing hit from relatively close range told him all he needed to know about her shooting skills - and he gambled that unlike her husband, she didn’t possess a true killer instinct.
‘Bring me up now!’ he shouted into the headset. ‘Tandon, grab me!’
Even with a gunshot wound, Tandon was quick to react. As Zec was hauled off the ledge, he leapt up and clamped a hand round the Bosnian’s wrist. They swung out over the valley, the helicopter pilot immediately increasing power and banking away from the cliff.
Nina ran out on to the ledge, aiming at the two hanging men - but couldn’t bring herself to fire again. Both were unarmed, one was injured, and killing them would have no effect whatsoever on the Khoils’ plan. She knew that Eddie would have fired anyway, but it wasn’t something she could do. All she could do was hiss ‘Son of a bitch!’ as the pair were carried aloft.