Part 17 (2/2)

West scooped up Lily. 'Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!'

The team bolted down the stairs, chased by the nail-ridden boulders.

So did the lone CIEF trooper.

West came to the base of the stairs, to the n.a.z.i gangway balanced across the whirlpool there at an odd angle.

He sprang across it, leading Lily by the hand, followed by Zoe and Big Ears, then Wizard and Stretch.

But the CIEF man was also fleet-footed and, chased by the nail-boulders, he hurdled the two voids easily and almost caught up with Pooh Bear, running last of all, red-faced and breathless.

But at the final moment, Pooh dived forward, leaping full-stretch onto the gangway. The CIEF man did the same, but in the instant he leapt into the air, the first of the nail-boulders slammed slammed into him, piercing his body with at least twenty jagged nails, and swept him into the whirlpool at the base of the stairs, closely followed by the other two boulders, which bounced off the gangway's handrails and away into the water. into him, piercing his body with at least twenty jagged nails, and swept him into the whirlpool at the base of the stairs, closely followed by the other two boulders, which bounced off the gangway's handrails and away into the water.

'Ouch...' said Pooh Bear, lying on the gangway.

'Come on, Pooh!' West called. 'No time for resting now.'

'Resting? Resting! Pity those of us who don't have your energy, Captain West.' And so with a groan, Pooh Bear hauled himself up and took off after the others.

The Drowning Cage Crossing the n.a.z.i gangway, they arrived at a sizeable stone platform separated from the next large stepping-stone by a five-foot-wide gap of water.

A further five feet beyond that stepping-stone was another staircase, going upwards. However, this staircase was difficult to access-its first step lay seven feet above above the swirling water, an impossible leap. the swirling water, an impossible leap.

The biggest problem, however, lay above the stepping-stone itself.

A great cube-shaped cage was suspended above it, ready to drop the moment someone landed on it.

'It's a drowning cage,' Wizard said. 'We jump onto the stepping-stone and the cage traps us. Then the whole platform the whole platform lowers into the water, cage and all, drowning us.' lowers into the water, cage and all, drowning us.'

'But it's the only way across...' Zoe said.

Stretch was covering the rear. 'Figure something out, people. Because Kallis is here!'

West spun- -to see Kallis emerge from the sinkhole cave at the top of the staircase behind them.

'What do you think, Jack?' Wizard asked.

West bit his lip. 'Hmmm. Can't swim around it because of the whirlpools. And we can't climb up and around it: the wall here is polished smooth. There just doesn't seem to be any way to avoid it...'

Then West looked over at the ascending staircase beyond beyond the drowning cage's stepping-stone. the drowning cage's stepping-stone.

Three n.a.z.i skeletons lay on it-all headless. But beyond them, he saw something else: A square doorway sunk into the wall, covered in cobwebs.

'There is is no way to avoid it,' he said aloud, 'so don't avoid it. Wizard. The Templar Pit in Malta. Where we found the Museion scrolls. It's just like that. You have to enter the trap in order to pa.s.s it.' no way to avoid it,' he said aloud, 'so don't avoid it. Wizard. The Templar Pit in Malta. Where we found the Museion scrolls. It's just like that. You have to enter the trap in order to pa.s.s it.'

Stretch urged, 'Some action, people. Kallis is halfway down the stairs...'

Zoe said to West: 'Enter the trap in order to pa.s.s it? What do you mean?'

'Hurry up up, people...' Stretch said. 'Warblers don't work at point-blank range.'

West spun to see Kallis gaining on them, still with nine more men, only thirty yards away and closing.

'Okay, everyone,' he said, 'you have to trust me on this one. No time to go in groups, we have to do this together.'

'A bit all or nothing, isn't it, Jack?' Zoe said.

'No other choice. People, get your pony bottles ready. Then we all jump onto that stepping-stone. Ready ...go!'

And they all jumped together.

The seven of them landed as one on the wide stepping-stone- -and immediately, the great cage above it dropped, clanging down around them like a giant mousetrap, trapping them under its immense weight- -and the entire ten-foot-wide stepping-stone began to sink to sink into the swirling depths of the waterway! into the swirling depths of the waterway!

'I hope you're right, Jack!' Zoe yelled. She grabbed her pony bottle from her belt, put its mouthpiece to her mouth. You breathe from a pony bottle just like you do from a regular scuba tank, but it only has enough air for about three minutes.

The cage went knee-deep in water.

West didn't answer her, just waded over to the wall-side of the cage and checked its great bronze bars.

And there he found it-a small archway cut into the cage's wall-side bars, maybe three feet high, large enough for a man to crawl through.

But the stone wall ab.u.t.ting that side of the cage was solid rock. The little arch led nowhere...

The cage sank further into the swirling water and the little arch went under.

Waist-deep.

Big Ears lifted Lily into his arms, above the swirling waterline.

On the stairway behind them, Cal Kallis paused, grinned at their predicament.

'Jack...' Zoe called, concerned.

'Jack...' Wizard called, concerned.

'It has to come,' West whispered to himself. 'It has to-'

The cage went two-thirds under, and as it did so, West cracked a glowstick, put his pony bottle to his mouth, and ducked under the choppy surface.

Underwater.

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