“Thanks for clearing that up,” Hawke coughed, and clambered to his feet.
“You bastards know nothing,” Kruger snapped. “All around us in the air, water vapor is hanging on tiny, microscopic pieces of dust, and in that water is where the static electricity is stored. Imagine that — as much electrical power as you could ever want, right in front of your face. It’s one of the holy grails of the environmentalist lobbies — trying to turn the static electricity into a live, usuable current.”
“And that’s what you think this sword does?” Reaper said.
“So I'm told, yes… and in a big fucking way.”
Lea and Hawke shared a look, and then she said, “So what do you want me to do?”
“I want you to pick it up — by the grip.”
“She’s not doing it,” Hawke said. His hand involuntarily brushed against the engagement ring box and his mind turned to the proposal. Watching Lea get electrocuted to death wasn’t part of the plan.
“Hush now, Hawke. Don’t be a silly boy.” Another sniff. “She opens the bag and wields the sword or Vermaak here cuts you all down with the MP5.”
To undercore the point, the commando slid a round into the chamber and raised the muzzle in their direction. He wedged the weapon’s stock in his hip and gave them a grin and a wink. “Go on, please give me just one chance and I’ll spray your insides all over that pretty bookcase.”
“I hope you don’t kiss your mother with that mouth,” Mack said.
“Just once chance — I beg you.”
“Enough, Vermaak! Enough of this bullshit. Donovan — open the bag and lift the sword or you die right here, right now and I find some other little angel to do it for me… and if you try anything funny you’ll be dead before that thing farts a single thunderbolt, got it?”
Lea ignored him, but dropped her eyes down to the bag. The sword was partly wrapped in the cloth they had seen when it was back in the tomb, and it was still glowing. Hawke had been right — it was the same sort of light they had seen back in Atlantis and her heart began to quicken as she wondered what the connection might be.
Her speculation was ended abruptly by Kruger barking at her to hurry up, and then her eyes turned to the two dead men on the floor just a few meters away — stone cold corpses because they had attempted to lift the sword.
Hawke moved closer to her and held her arm, but she brushed him away. “You know how electricity works, ya eejit.”
Reaper gave her a look of serious respect and admiration as she put her hand in the bag and wrapped her hand around the grip.
She felt a jolt, but it was gentle, like when she was a kid in Galway and they dared each other to touch the low-voltage electric fences holding the cows back. A warmth crept up her arm and she squeezed her hand around the grip, and she gasped gently as the blue glow from the sword began to creep into her hand and turn it the same shade of neon blue.
She released the sword and jumped back, but Kruger wasn’t satisfied. His eyes were sparkling like black diamonds. “Do it again, and this time wield the sword properly.”
She glanced at the machine pistol in Vermaak’s hands and obeyed, wrapping her hand around the sword’s grip. It was easier the second time, and she watched the blue creep over her hand and up her forearm not with fear, but with fascination. “It feels so warm.”
Kruger took a step back. “Wield it! In the air.”
“Maybe I should wait outside,” Zito said.
“You’ll wait where I fucking tell you!” Kruger snapped. “Now — do it, Donovan!”
Lea obeyed again, and lifted the sword. It was heavy, but she could just about manage to hold it aloft. It began to vibrate in her hand and she got scared. “Joe…”
“Just let go!”
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Kruger said.
Suddenly a bolt of lightning shot up from the tip of the sword and crawled all over the ceiling like blue fire. They could all feel the power, a strange sort of static crackling in the air and now the sword began to judder more severely.
“None of my men got this far,” said Kruger, glancing at the corpses strewn on the floor. “Maybe you’ll survive it.”
Then an immense burst of power shot along the blade of the sword and forked out into two bolts. The first reached out to Reaper and Mack who were now standing closest to her and knocked them both for six, and the second snaked up in a loop and raced back down the blade, blasting Lea off her feet. She lost her grip on the sword as she flew backwards and the ancient weapon fell to the floor with a chunky smack.
“Pick that thing up, Adem,” Kruger said. “The Oracle wants it before nightfall.”
Lea was dazed, and stared up at the blackened, smouldering ceiling as if she was on drugs. She was dimly aware of Hawke running to her and helping her up, but she felt numb and sick.
Kruger looked at the unconscious Reaper and Mack and then kicked the Scotsman in the ribs. He looked over at Hawke and Lea. “And bring those two pricks as well.”
“Where are we going?” Hawke asked, helping Lea to her feet.
Kruger took a deep breath and stared at them. “We have a world to shock with the greatest terror attack in history.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Ryan stretched his arm and extended his fingers as far as he could in a bid to reach the rivet shaver. It was millimeters beyond his grasp and Bruno’s knee was pushing down into his throat.
“Now we see what happens when a diamond blade goes through a human skull, no?”
Ryan watched, helpless as the stronger man lowered the panel saw toward his face. The blade reflected the LED work lights strung beneath the two and a half ton Bell and the terrible whining sound was a hundred times worse than anything he had heard in any dentist’s room.
The Italian laughed and nodded his head up and down with enjoyment as the whirring blade neared the young man’s face. He waved it back and forth to prolong the agony and increase the pleasure he was taking in torturing the young man.
“Now, for your skull!”
Ryan heaved against the man’s weight, but he was just too heavy. He still had his arms pinned down and a knee in his throat… and the blade was a millimeter from the skin on his forehead. He screamed in terror but the sound of the cutter drowned out his desperate pleas for help. Ryan imagined the blade biting into front of his skull and wondered how long he would be conscious; how long until he finally passed out from the fear and the pain.
Worse, now Bruno had him pinned down, a large man emerged from the office to the rear of the hangar and walked casually over to the fight. “You want some help, Bruno?”
“No, this bastard’s mine. You get Mr Zito and Kruger out of here.”
“Roger that. Enjoy!”
The man laughed, walked across the tarmac and climbed up into the Agusta’s cockpit. The engine whirred faster and then the helicopter lifted into the air and started to fly toward the main house.
Ryan cursed. Not only was he going to die, but he had failed his one mission — to sabotage the Agusta. He clamped his eyes shut as the blade drew closer to his face and prayed for a miracle.
They were walking back down the slope toward the maze, but Kruger pulled up a few dozen meters short of it and set the leather bag on the smooth, clipped lawn. Vermaak was covering Hawke and Lea with a Milkor BXO submachine gun and their hands were tied behind their backs. Zito keeping well back from everyone, and now Kruger scanned the sky for a few moments before taking a few seconds to look at his watch.
“This should just about do it.”
Hawke took a step forward. “What’s going on, Kruger?”
“I already told you — we’re going to change the world today, and we’re going to see what this sword can do when you really open her up. People will talk about this moment for the rest of their lives, believe me. There’s not man or woman alive who won’t remember exactly where they were at this precise moment.”