Part 17 (1/2)

'No choice then. I'll go up and over,' West said.

Within seconds, he was free-climbing up the cliff-face, gripping cracks in its surface with only his fingertips, crossing it sideways above the trap-laden void.

As he climbed, Wizard peered anxiously at the pursuing CIEF force. They were themselves trying to negotiate the two stepping-stone ledges fifty yards below.

West landed on the other side, and quickly strung a rope-with a flying fox attached to it-across the void.

The CIEF team got past the first stepping-stone ledge.

West pulled the others across the void on the flying fox. First Lily, then Zoe, Big Ears and Wizard.

One of the Delta men leapt onto the second stepping-stone ledge-and a gush of superheated mud mud came blasting out of the now-exposed wall-hole there and enveloped him. came blasting out of the now-exposed wall-hole there and enveloped him.

The mud was a deep dark brown, thick, viscous and heavy. It was volcanic mud. It seared the skin from the man's body in an instant before its immense weight hurled him down to the water 80 feet below.

Wizard's eyes boggled. 'Oh my...'

The remaining CIEF men were more cautious, and they skirted the wall-hole carefully.

In the meantime, Stretch and-last of all-Pooh Bear were hauled across the wider void on the flying fox.

No sooner had Pooh Bear's feet touched solid ground than the first member of the pursuing CIEF team arrived at the other side of the void, only twenty feet away!

West immediately cut his team's rope, letting it fall into the abyss, and took off around the next bend.

The first CIEF man, energised by how close he was to his enemy, immediately set about using the handholds gouged into the wall of the void.

It happened when his hands. .h.i.t the second and third handholds.

Like slithering tentacles, two bronze manacles came springing out of the wall and clasped tightly around his wrists.

Then, a great man-sized bronze cross fell out fell out of the X-shaped recess in the wall, of the X-shaped recess in the wall, right in front of right in front of the hapless CIEF man. the hapless CIEF man.

And the operation of the crucifix trap suddenly became apparent to the CIEF trooper: the manacles were attached to the big heavy cross and he was now held tight by them.

He shrieked as the cross tipped out of its recess and fell 150 feet straight down the sheer cliff-face, plunging into the water at the bottom with a gigantic splash...

...where it sank, taking the CIEF man with it.

He screamed the whole time, right up to the point where the weight of the cross took him under.

West and his team ran.

The Sinkhole Cave

It was probably the first time in history someone could claim to have been helped helped by Adolf Hitler's n.a.z.i regime, but it was largely the n.a.z.is' bridge-building efforts from 60 years previously that kept West and his team ahead of Kallis's men. by Adolf Hitler's n.a.z.i regime, but it was largely the n.a.z.is' bridge-building efforts from 60 years previously that kept West and his team ahead of Kallis's men.

At the next bend in the chasm, halfway up the high vertical wall, the ledge-path bored into into the cliff-face, cutting the corner. the cliff-face, cutting the corner.

The short tunnel there took them to a square diorite-walled sinkhole cave, 20 feet across and 30 feet deep. Steaming, bubbling volcanic mud-heated by a subterranean thermal source-filled the entire base of the sinkhole. The tunnel continued on the opposite side of the cave.

But the n.a.z.is had once again bridged this gap-so West's crew ran across the bridge, then promptly kicked it into the sinkhole behind them.

The Second Staircase (Descending)

They emerged on the other side of the bend-where they fired some new flares-and beheld a steep staircase that plunged down the curving wall of the chasm before them, hugging it all the way down to the water at its base.

Indeed, the staircase seemed to continue into into the water ...right into the mouth of a swirling whirlpool. the water ...right into the mouth of a swirling whirlpool.

But yet again, the n.a.z.is had bridged this peril with a gangway.

West flew down the stairs-running beneath a large and rather ominous wall-hole mounted above the tunnel's doorway.

'Jack!' Wizard called. 'Trigger stones! Find them and point them out for the rest of us, will you!'

West did so, avoiding any step that was askew or suspicious, and identifying it for the next person in their line.

Their progress was slowed at two places along the staircase- where the stairs had decayed and fallen away, meaning they had to make precarious jumps over the voids.

It was just as the last man in their line-Pooh Bear-was leaping over the second void that another CIEF trooper appeared at the top of the staircase!

Pooh Bear jumped.

The CIEF man charged.

And in his hurry, Pooh Bear landed awkwardly ...and slipped ...and fell, dropping clumsily onto his b.u.t.t, and landing squarely on a trigger stone.

'Blast!' Pooh Bear swore.

Everyone froze, and turned.

'You stupid, stupid Arab...' Stretch muttered.

'Stretch ...not now,' West snapped.

An ominous rumbling came from the wall-hole at the top of the long curving staircase.

'Let me guess,' Stretch said. 'A big round boulder is going to roll out of that hole and chase us down the stairs, just like in Raiders of the Lost Ark Raiders of the Lost Ark.'

Not exactly.

Three wooden boulders, all a metre in diameter and clearly heavy, came rus.h.i.+ng out of the hole in quick succession-and each was fitted with hundreds of outward-pointing bronze nails nails.

They must have weighed 100 kilograms each and they bounded down the stairway, booming with every impact, bearing down on the team.