The sound of the intermeshing rotors of the Kaman K-MAX thundered above them but before anyone could react they all felt the heavy blow of the carousel smashing down on the roof of the Silverado.
“Shit!”
“What is it?”
A metallic crunching sound gave the answer first and then they saw the claws of the four-hook carousel as they tightened around the cab’s roof.
“Cover your faces!”
The hydraulics whined as the hooks tightened on the roof and then punctured through the windshield and side windows, spraying a lethal shower of shattered glass all over them at high velocity.
“They’re not going to try and lift us up?” Lea said.
“Surely impossible!” Khatibi replied.
Hawke shook his head and grimaced. “The good news is that this Chevy probably weighs about five thousand pounds, and the K-MAX can lift six thousand as I recall, and probably around five thousand at this altitude, so absolutely no problem.”
Lea looked at him. “Okay, right. Hang on — if that’s the good news, what’s the bad news?”
“The bad news is because it has twin-intermeshing rotors, that means there’s no need for a tail rotor… and destroying tail rotors is my patented method to bring down a chopper.”
A grim silence filled the tomb as their eyes fixed on the time bomb Korać had left in the sarcophagus. Scarlet returned from her failure to stop Kamchatka, and saw the American CIA man studying the bomb. He turned to face his friends, shaking his head as he did so. “No way.”
“And what does that mean, darling?”
“It means I was right. It has a motion sensor on it, right there,” he leaned in and pointed at what looked like a small battery neatly attached to the side of the bomb. “Touch that or any other part of this thing and it’s going up in half a heartbeat.”
“Shit.”
“Exactly.”
He turned to Ryan. “This means you have precisely four minutes to get what you need out of this place before we’re running for our lives.”
“Oh joy.”
“Hurry up, Ryan,” Camacho said. “Three minutes, forty seconds.”
Ryan looked more closely at the temple layout and saw at once what Kruger had seen — there were twelve alcoves, and in front of each one was a constellation carved into a flagstone.
“These must correspond to the twelve labours of Hercules,” he said with confidence. “And these constellations are the clue. To open the alcoves and find what Kruger saw, we have to stand on the stones bearing the relevant constellation.”
Scarlet stood on one and nothing happened. “Idiot.”
“No — it has to be in the right order! We have to stand on the stones in the order of the twelve labours!”
Camacho looked at the bomb timer. “So let’s get on with it then, shall we? Three minutes.”
The Silverado lurched up nose first and at high speed as the Kaman began to lift the pickup into the air. They grabbed on to anything they could to steady themselves but they were trapped and had nowhere to run. Ahead of them they watched the taillights of Kruger’s pickup disappearing into the distance.
Lea sighed. “Whatever happens, he’s long gone.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Hawke said.
“This is a very precarious situation!” Khatibi said, peering out the shattered window as the Rif Mountains flashed by in a blur.
“No shit,” Lea said.
“And they’re taking us higher,” Hawke said. “Something tells me this is a one-way journey.”
“So what are we going to do?” Lea said.
“Only one thing we can do,” Hawke said, craning his neck to look up at the chopper. “Someone has to climb up that load chain and take out the crew of the Kaman.” He pulled his head back into the cab a paused a beat. “Professor?”
“What!?”
“He’s just kidding,” Lea said, turning to Hawke. “Right?”
“Right. You two stay here. I’ll be back in a sec.”
Ryan turned to Scarlet. “So what was the first labour of Hercules?”
“You’re asking me?”
“No, of course not! I’m just talking to myself out loud. The first labour was to slay the Nemean Lion — Leo!” Ryan ran over to the alcove with the Leo constellation in front of it and stood on the stone. Slowly the rock partition slid down to reveal the first symbol. It was similar in style to the ones that had led them here from Tanit’s tomb. Ryan nodded his head and snapped a picture of it. “That’s the first coordinate. Sweet.”
“Two minutes and thirty seconds,” Camacho said.
“What was the second labour?” Maria asked.
“The Lernaean Hydra,” Ryan said without hesitation. “Everyone search for the Hydra Constellation!”
Scarlet looked from Reaper to Lexi and then to Camacho. “Who does he think we are?”
“You must have learned them for your camping or whatever it is you do in the SAS,” Ryan said.
“Camping?”
“You know.”
“Well, sure… but that was a long time ago,” Scarlet said defensively. “Besides, I’m not a fucking sailor.”
“No, that’s your hobby not your vocation,” Lexi said with a wink.
“Ah! Here it is,” Ryan said. He repeated the process, standing on the correct stone and revealing the next symbol. “That’s the second coordinate.”
“Two minutes,” Camacho said.
“Third labour was the Ceryneian Hind. Look for the… oh, forget it.” Ryan searched and found Scorpio. “The Constellation of Hercules was a stag in the Greeks’ eyes.”
He repeated the process again, activating the alcove partition and taking the picture.
“One minute and forty seconds, Ryan.”
“Fine… fine… I can do this!” He worked his way speedily through the other Twelve Labours — the Erymanthian Boar, the Augean Stables, the Stymphalian Birds and the Cretan Bull.
“Sixty seconds, boy.”
“Mares of Diomedes next then… that just has to be Equuleus, Latin for little horse…” he mumbled and chuckled to himself. “Who knew they had such a good sense of humor?”
Scarlet peered over Camacho’s shoulder and saw the clock down to seconds. “Ryan, just to let you know that I’m going to start edging towards the entrance now, and I think it’s a safe bet Camo, Reap and Lexi will be joining me although perhaps Maria might stay.”
He looked up. “Eh?”
Maria grabbed his shoulders. “For fuck’s sake hurry up!”
“I’m done now — Hippolyta next…” he snapped the image and moved around to the tenth labour. “Cattle of Geryon, as I was explaining earlier…”
“Thirty seconds,” Camacho said. “We’re out of here. That means you too, Ryan.”
“Wait!” He activated the Hesperides alcove and then turned to do the last one — the twelfth labour: Cerberus.
“Twenty seconds… run!”
Ryan snapped the picture and they made a break for it, just reaching the entrance when the bomb detonated. A savage fireball blasted out the entrance of the cave and illuminated the side of the mountain for a few seconds until it burned out. Seconds later a shower of dust and rock splinters rained down on them.
“Talk about close…” Lexi said.
“That was too close,” Reaper said.
Maria coughed some of the dust up and stretched out on her back, looking up at the stars. “Real constellations!” she said.
Ryan groaned, moved over and stretched out beside her. “Oh, shit!”
They all turned to look at him. “What?”