Part 48 (2/2)
”One,”Wizard's voice had answered. ”The allseeing eye that appeared on capstones.”
”What is the best life...”
”The second life, the afterlife,”Wizard said. ”Jump onto the stone saying 'Two.'”
He made good progress, with the Sea Ranger and the twins running after him across the bridges and over the hollow towers.
As they advanced across the dazzling bridged city, Jack looked out across the cavern, trying to gauge Wolf's progress-and to his dismay, he saw that Wolf was moving just as fast, if not faster, than he was.
Then suddenly bullets started pinging off the walls above his head.
Alerted by his radio transmissions, Wolf's men had spotted him and were now firing at him whenever they got a clear line of sight through the dense forest of towers and bridges.
Jack and the Sea Ranger came to a ledge that burrowedinside one of the hollow towers.
Inside the tower, they were presented with another triple choice, only here there wereno carvings at all on the three available steppingstones.
Lily quickly translated the inscription on the ledge. ”What is the direction of Death...”
”It's west,”Wizard said,”the direction of the setting Sun. The ancient Egyptians always thought that the Sun was born every morning in the east and died every evening in the west. That's why they always buried their dead on the western side of the Nile. The answer is 'west.'”
Jack jumped for the steppingstone to the west of him.
It held and he ran up the stairbridge to the next tower, followed by the Sea Ranger.
They'd made it halfway to the ziggurat in the center of the minicity when suddenly they heard some shouts and Wolf yelling, ”Okay! Switchblade and Broadsword! It's all yours!
Go! Go!”
Jack peered out around the corner of a building-and spotted Wolf's CIEF team scampering up the stairs on the front face of the ziggurat, looking like ants against the scale of the structure.
d.a.m.n it, no!Jack thought.
They'd reached the ziggurat first and were now heading for the ladder that led across the ceiling to the great pyramid.
Jack saw Wolf with his son, Rapier, and Alby on the stairs of the ziggurat with the main cl.u.s.ter of CIEF troops. Then he spotted two men das.h.i.+ng out ahead of the main group, running up the ziggurat: one was Caucasian in appearance and wore the uniform of a Delta operator. The second man was of Asian appearance and wore the distinctive battle dress uniform of a Marine Force Reconnaissance trooper.
Switchblade.
The traitor.
And so despite the fact that he was still well behind in this race, Jack just kept going as best he could.
Never stop,he thought.You never give up.
Across the bridges he flew.
Up the ladder, Broadsword and Switchblade went.
Jack leaped across more riddle jumps, aided by Wizard and Lily from afar, all the while under fire from Wolf's men guarding the ziggurat.
Broadsword and Switchblade reached the top of the ladder, started venturing out across the ceiling of the supercavern, hanging from the rungs by their hands high above the underground city.
Jack's course from the western harbor took him in a wide northward curve that pa.s.sed close to the suspended pyramid. Here Jack discovered that there was indeed another abyss delving deep into the Earth directly beneath the immense bronze pyramid.
He came to a tower at the very edge of the city, one that adjoined the abyss itself-the tower's northern side actually blended perfectly with the near wall of the abyss-and from there Jack got a clear view of the pyramid itself.
He watched as the two CIEF men climbed hand over hand down a line of hand rungs cut into the spine of the pyramid. Dangling high above the seemingly bottomless pit, they edged downward, moving ever closer to the pyramid's peak.
And Jack came to a horrific realization.
He was too far away.
He was too late.
He couldn't get there in time-there was no way he could get to the ziggurat, somehow get past Wolf 's men there, and then scale the ladder and the spine of the pyramid and stop Switchblade from doing whatever he planned to do.
The two CIEF men reached the inverted peak of the pyramid-and Jack watched in wonder as the Delta man named Broadsword slung a climbing harness over the last hand rung and, hanging from it, used his nowfree hands to extract from his chest pack...
...the Second Pillar.
Cleansed and ready to be set in place.
On the ziggurat, Wolf also gazed in awe at the scene, his eyes glistening with delight.
With him stood Rapier and Alby and the warlock of the Neetha, flanked by two guards.
Wolf's mind buzzed with the possibilities.
The reward would be his:heat. According to his chief researcher, the MIT professor, Felix Bonaventura, it was heat generated by the secret of perpetual motion. Energy without fuel.Limitless energy that could power electricity grids, airplanes and cars, but which would not require coal or oil or gasoline. The Saudi stranglehold on America would be broken the entire Middle East would become irrelevant.
It was of course at that precise moment, as Wolf reached a rapture of delight, that the most unexpected thing of all happened.
For then, as Wolf watched in horror, out on the inverted pyramid's peak-while Broadsword readied the Pillar for placement-Switchblade drew a KaBar knife and sliced it across Broadsword's throat, grabbing the Pillar from him as he did so.
Broadsword went instantly limp, blood flowing from the gaping hole in his neck and dribbling down into the abyss like a macabre waterfall.
Then Switchblade callously cut Broadsword's harness and the dying Delta operator fell from the peak of the pyramid, dropping into the fathomless void, his limp figure disappearing into darkness.
”What the f.u.c.k...?” Wolf said. ”Switchblade!”
From his position on the nearest tower, Jack also watched as Switchblade killed Broadsword.
”Oh, G.o.d...” he breathed as he saw Broadsword fall.
Out on the pyramid, Switchblade now hung from his own harness, holding the Pillar in one hand. He held it up for Wolf to see and shouted, ”Welcome to the end of the world, Wolf! A world that gloried in the humiliation of my people! Now that world will be no more! Nippon was never defeated!”
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