The wave of terror and confusion all around them gave Hawke and Snowcat a moment to consider their next move.
“I can’t believe those nutcases fired on innocent tourists!” Hawke said.
“I can,” Snowcat muttered, almost to herself.
“Something’s not right here. This can’t be about Maxim Vetrov trying to kill us. It just doesn’t feel right.”
Before Snowcat replied, the smoke and dust began to clear and they saw the Apache turning once again in their direction.
The missile attack had brought chaos to half of Giza, and now the whole area was alive with the noise of sirens and screams and in the distance somewhere a man was shouting orders at the panicking mob in Arabic through a megaphone.
“They’re not done with us yet!” Snowcat said.
“Into the pyramid!” Hawke shouted.
The pyramids were a lot bigger than Hawke had thought, and as a consequence it took much longer to get to them than he had judged. With the Apache closing in at their backs, they sprinted closer to the protection of the Great Pyramid, but it just seemed like it never got any closer.
“They’re almost on us, Joe!”
Snowcat’s warning was backed up by the terrifying chatter of the massive chain gun, rising even above the noise of the four whirling stainless steel rotor blades. Seconds later the ground either side of them was torn apart by the impact of hundreds of thirty mil M788 rounds as they strafed through the dusty gravel and exploded all around them.
Hawke and Snowcat scrambled to their feet and ran along the final stretch of path until they finally reached the entrance to the pyramid. They raced inside and the walls around them exploded into dust as the Apache chain gun unloaded a few more rounds at them.
“They’re destroying the bloody pyramid!” Hawke screamed. “Richard would seriously disapprove of this.”
“I’m more worried about us, right now…” Snowcat said, looking with despair at the two rounds left in her Makarov.
“And more bad news — just like the wankers in the Escalade, they’re bloody Brits as well.”
“How do you know?” the Russian asked.
“Engine sound — that thing’s running on a Rolls Royce and the Yanks use General Electric. I noticed it back there when they stopped to aim the chain gun. I just can’t work out why my own bloody people are trying to kill me.”
“Another problem for later, but for now we can presume they will do whatever it takes to kill us.”
“Including blowing up one of the world’s oldest bloody monuments?”
“The stakes are higher than you can imagine, Hawke.”
“Oh God,” he said, rolling his eyes. “No more bloody secrets, please.”
“I don’t know what you mean — I have kept no secrets from you. All you need to know now is that your enemies are closer than you think. You can trust me if you like. If you choose not to trust me then it makes no difference to me.”
“But no one even knows I’m here in Cairo…”
“No one?”
“Well, only Sir Richard Eden, Scarlet, Lexi Zhang, Ryan and Alex.”
Snowcat’s words went round in his head — your enemies are closer than you think — what could it mean? Between the accents he’d heard and the sound of the Rolls-Royce engine in the chopper now hovering outside the pyramid, it was obvious that it was the British who were trying to kill him, but the only people who knew he was in Cairo were his friends — or those he presumed were his friends. Had one of them sold him out for some reason? Maybe someone had decided he was getting too close to the truth about his wife — the initial assault on them had happened in the Sheraton before the Russian agent had a chance even to talk to him, after all.
He shook the thought from his mind. He’d known for some time that there was more to Sir Richard Eden than met the eye — but a traitor who would order his assassination in the heart of Cairo? Hawke couldn’t imagine the old man making such an order against him, and as for the culprit being Scarlet Sloane or Ryan — or Alex… it was impossible to accept.
That left Lexi Zhang, and he didn’t have such a hard time believing that — but she could have killed him at any time — the thought of her somehow engaging Apache attack helicopters to kill him was ridiculous, not to mention the fact she was Chinese and those currently hunting him were all British.
His mind spun with questions but there wasn’t an answer in sight. Clearly Agent Snowcat knew more than she was letting on, but as she said, now was not the time to be pursuing the matter.
Because now they were trapped inside the Khufu Pyramid by an Apache chopper which had started to unload its chain gun on them once again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
With the chopper still blasting huge chunks of limestone out of the Khufu Pyramid, Hawke knew he had to switch his mind to battle mode and do something fast. In a surprise attack situation it was never a good idea to focus on strategy. The smart thing to do was work out what to do about it — think tactically. Revenge came later.
“Give me your weapon!”
“What?” Snowcat looked at him like he was insane.
“Your gun — hand it to me — now!”
“Russian agents do not give their guns to British soldiers.”
“Former soldier — now I’m just a loveable rogue. Now hand it over.” He put his hand out for the weapon and waggled his fingers.
“This is most unorthodox…”
“It’s now or never, Snowcat!”
She handed him the compact Makarov and he checked it was loaded and ready to fire. Two rounds.
“What are you going to do?”
Hawke jabbed the gun in the direction of the Apache. “I’m going to shoot that bloody thing down.”
“You can’t bring down a helicopter with a handgun, Hawke — especially an Apache!”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
She sighed. “And just how the hell are you going to do it?”
“We’re going to split up. You’re going to sprint over there toward that pyramid…”
“The Pyramid of Khafre?”
“If you say so, love.”
She looked at him with horror on her face. “You want me to be bait for an Apache helicopter’s chain gun?”
Hawke shrugged his shoulders. “Unless you think you stand a better chance of shooting it down?”
Snowcat looked at him and nodded in reluctant agreement. “All right, I’ll do it. I am not afraid of anything.”
“Good job — you go toward the Pyramid of Coffee or whatever you said it was called, and the bastard will turn to fire at you. When he turns I’ll get a clear shot at his rear rotor and bring him down.”
“This will work?”
“The slightest obstruction in those rotor blades at the back and that thing’s uncontrollable,” he said coolly.
“And if you miss?”
“If I miss you get shot with the chain gun and then they’ll turn around and put a hundred holes in me as well.”
She smiled awkwardly. “In that case, I’d prefer it, Englishman, if you did not miss.”
“Trust me, I won’t.”
Hawke watched Snowcat sprint from the entrance of the Pyramid of Khufu past the ancient boat pits and over the road. Just as he thought it would, the Apache responded in an instant, turning to port and moving forward slightly to close in on its new target. The sound of the engine was overwhelming from so close, and its downwash was kicking up a storm of sand and grit.
As Snowcat approached the Pyramid of Khafre, the Apache opened fire. Hawke watched in horror as a trail of bullets flicked up in the sand behind her with the terrible chak chak chak sound of the chain gun as it unloaded its lethal thirty mil rounds all over the young Russian woman.