Part 40 (2/2)
Diane Ca.s.sidy stared down at his body with a mix of disgust and b.l.o.o.d.y triumph.
Wizard scooped up the fallen chief's shotgun and grabbed Ca.s.sidy's hand. ”Come on!
Time to go.”
THE DRAWBRIDGES AND THE TOWER.
WIZARD'S GROUP hurried through the templefortress of the Neetha priesthood.
It was like running through a Gothic freak show.
b.l.o.o.d.y skeletons hung from torture devices, steaming pots of foul liquids simmered, ancient inscriptions lined the walls.
They hurried up some stairs and came to a long drawbridge that led to the central tower out on the lake. A second matching drawbridge stretched out from the tower itself, meeting with their lowered bridge in the middle.
”This way!” Ono said, rus.h.i.+ng out onto their drawbridge.
The group raced across it.
But when they were halfway across, a call stopped Wizard dead in his stride.
”Epper! Professor Max Epper!”
Wizard turned...to see Wolf standing down near the Fighting Stone, looking directly over at him.
”We found you, Max! You knew we would! You can't win this! My son couldn't, so how can you?”
Wolf held up something for Wizard to see: A battered and worn fireman's helmet, bearing the badge: ”FDNY Precinct 17.”
Jack's helmet.
Beside him, Wizard heard Lily gasp as she saw it.
”I watched him die, Epper!” Wolf called. ”My own son! You're all out of heroes! Why keep running?”
Wizard instinctively clenched his teeth. ”Not completely out,” he said softly, taking Lily by the hand and racing into the tower.
On their side of the lake, Zoe and Alby were also heading for the central tower inside the priests' enclave.
They were rus.h.i.+ng along a narrow lakeside path toward a small fort nestled up against the ravine wall when a new wave of Wolf's men entered the ravine, this time from the north, from above the waterfall.
They came abseiling down the cliffs there on drop ropes, two dozen Congolese and American troops, covered by one of the Black Hawks.
Alby was gazing up at this new wave of attackers when suddenly a Neetha warriormonk popped up into view on the roof of the little fort in front of him and fired-of all things-an Angolan RPG up at the Black Hawk!
The RPG hit its mark, and hovering above the lake, the Black Hawk exploded, blasting apart. Bleeding smoke, it nosedived into the water, landing with a ma.s.sive splash not far from the tower.
”Jesus, I think these Neetha guys have kept every weapon they've ever found,” Zoe said.
As the Black Hawk crashed, the warriormonk who'd fired the rocket ducked from sight, probably to reload.
His disappearance gave Zoe and Alby the opening they needed to race to the cliffside fort, dash inside it, and climb its internal stone stairs.
One floor up, they came to a stone halfbridge stretching out from the fort toward the central tower. Mounted on several stone columns, this halfbridge was designed to meet the island tower's eastern drawbridge when it was fully lowered-as it was now.
As they looked out across this doublebridge, they spotted Wizard standing in the doorway to the tower, waving them over.
”This way! Hurry!” he yelled as, without warning, the drawbridge in front of him began to rise.
Wizard seemed perplexed. He wasn't doing it. Someone else was.
”Run!” he called.
”Run!”Zoe said to Alby.
She and Alby dashed out into open s.p.a.ce, gunfire and explosions ringing out all around them, an RPG zooming past them, its smoke trail slicing through the air before it slammed into the cliffside fort behind them and detonated. The fort erupted. Rocks and debris flew every which way.
But the RPGfiring warriormonk who had been on its roof had already got out of there- and he came charging out of the little fort behind Zoe and Alby, also seeking to cross the doublebridge and get to the tower.
The drawbridge was rising-one foot above the leading edge of the halfbridge. Two feet...three...
Zoe and Alby were almost at it.
The monk was sprinting hard behind them.
Zoe and Alby got there as the rising wooden drawbridge rose four feet above the gap. Zoe quickly picked up Alby and hurled him at the rising bridge's edge.
Alby flew through the air and thudded chest first into the leading edge of the drawbridge.
The hit winded him but he got a handhold, and held on, halfbent over the edge of the rising bridge.
With Alby safely on the drawbridge, Zoe jumped for it herself, leaping from the end of the stone halfbridge, arms outstretched, and she caught the edge of the drawbridge with her fingertips and exhaled a sigh of relief.
Until the warriormonk behind her also leaped for the drawbridge and, since he could no longer reach it, caughther by the waist!
Zoe was jerked downward, yanked by the extra weight, but she held on, her fingers going white as they gripped the edge of the ascending drawbridge.
Ever rising, the drawbridge pa.s.sed through twenty degrees, thirty, then fortyfive degrees...
Bent over the leading edge of the rising bridge, clutching the Second Pillar in one hand, Alby saw Zoe beneath him, struggling with the warriormonk. He s.h.i.+fted awkwardly, juggling the Pillar, so that he could get into a position to help her...
...when-thunk!-without warning the whole huge drawbridge stopped with a violent lurching jolt that sent the unbalanced Alby flying clear off its upper edge and tumbling down its length, headinginto the tower!
Alby rolled down the steep drawbridge, trying his best to keep hold of the Pillar. But at the very bottom of his fall, he landed heavily on the stone base of the halfraised drawbridge and the Pillar popped from his grip and bounced away from him, through the tower and out onto theother drawbridge, the one that stretched back toward the village.
Alby watched in horror as the gla.s.slike Pillar came to rest out on the other drawbridge, right at the point where it joined with the matching drawbridge that folded out from the templefortress.
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