Part 49 (1/2)

Judah was yanked off his feet, doubling over as he was sucked backward through the air. Then he entered the engine and- thwack-thwack-CHUNK! thwack-thwack-CHUNK!-was chewed alive by its hyper-rotating blades.

And suddenly the summit of the Great Pyramid was still.

Seeing the awesome blast of light from the Sun and the deaths of their summit team, the American force at the base of the Pyramid fled, leaving West and Wizard up on the platform, alone.

Moments later, Zoe's Black Hawk landed on the platform and Zoe, Fuzzy and Stretch came rus.h.i.+ng out of it-at the same time as Pooh Bear leapt onto the platform from the Halicarna.s.sus Halicarna.s.sus's wing.

They all arrived on the platform to find West-watched by Wizard-crawling underneath the Capstone to check on Lily.

West bellycrawled through the tight channel carved into the stone beneath the Capstone.

He came to Lily, found her lying motionless inside the human-shaped cavity in the Capstone's lowest Piece. Her eyes were closed. She seemed calm, at peace ...and not breathing.

'Oh, Lily ...' West scrambled forward on his elbows, desperate to get to her.

His head came alongside hers. He scanned her face for any movement, any sign of life.

Nothing. She didn't move at all.

He deflated completely, his entire body going limp, his eyes closing in anguish. 'Oh, Lily. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry'

He bowed his head, tears rolled from the corners of his eyes, and he said, 'I loved you, kiddo.'

And there in the cavity, in the golden glow of the Capstone, lying before the body of the happy little girl he had guarded and raised for ten whole years, Jack West Jr wept.

'I love you, too, Daddy...' a soft voice whispered weakly from nearby.

West snapped up, his eyes darting open, to see Lily staring back at him, her head rolled onto its side. Her eyes were milky, dazed.

But she was alive, and smiling at him.

'You're alive...' West said, amazed. 'You're alive!'

He scooped her up in his arms and hugged her firmly.

'But how ...?' West asked aloud.

'I'll tell you later,' she said. 'Can we please get out of here?'

'You bet,' he breathed. 'You bet.'

Minutes later, the Halicarna.s.sus Halicarna.s.sus powered up and lifted vertically into the sky, rising on its eight ma.s.sive retro thrusters. powered up and lifted vertically into the sky, rising on its eight ma.s.sive retro thrusters.

Once it was high enough, it pivoted in mid-air and allowed itself to drop, nose-down. It fell briefly, plummeting towards the ground, before it engaged its regular engines, using the short vertical fall to get up to flight speed. Its main engines firing, it swung up at the last moment and soared away from the Pyramids on the Giza Plateau.

The Great Pyramid was left standing there behind it, with the half-destroyed platform shrouding its summit, and the American helicopters and cranes lying smoking and broken on its flanks. The Egyptian Government that had aided and abetted the American ritual would have to clean it all up.

Importantly, however, the peak of the Pyramid was also once again nine feet shorter than it should have been.

West and his team had taken the Capstone-the entire Capstone-with them.

Inside the main cabin of the Halicarna.s.sus, Halicarna.s.sus, West and the others gathered around Lily, hugging her, kissing her, clapping her on the shoulders. West and the others gathered around Lily, hugging her, kissing her, clapping her on the shoulders.

Pooh Bear embraced her: 'Well done, young one! Well done! done!

'Thanks for coming back for me, Pooh Bear,' she said.

'I was never going to leave you, young one,' he said.

'Nor was I,' said Stretch, stepping forward.

'Thanks, Stretch. For saving me at the Gardens, for staying with me when you could have gone.'

Stretch nodded silently, to Lily and also to all the others, especially Pooh Bear. 'They don't come often,' he said, 'but every now and then, there come times in your life when you have to choose a side; choose who you are fighting for. I made my choice, Lily, to fight with you. It was a hard choice, but I have no doubt that it was the right one.''

'It was the right one,' Pooh Bear said, clapping a hand onto Stretch's shoulder. 'You are a good man, Israeli ... I mean, Stretch. I would be honoured to call you my friend.'

'Thank you,' Stretch said with a smile.'Thank you, friend.'' friend.''

When all the back-slapping was over, West was eager to understand how Lily had survived.

'I went willingly,' she said simply.

'I don't get it,' West said.

Lily grinned, obviously proud of herself. 'It was the inscription cut into the wall of the volcano chamber where I was born. You yourself were studying it one day. It said: 'Enter The Embrace Of Anubis willingly, and you shall live beyond the coming of Ra.Enter against your will, and your people shall rule for but one eon, but you shall live no more.Enter not at all, and the world shall be no more.

'Like the Egyptians, we thought it was simply a reference to the G.o.d Horus, accepting death and being rewarded for that with some kind of afterlife. But that was wrong. It was meant to apply to me and Alexander-to the Oracles. It's not about accepting death death willingly. It's about entering the cavity, the embrace of Anubis, willingly. willingly. It's about entering the cavity, the embrace of Anubis, willingly.

'If I entered it of my own accord, I would survive. If I went unwillingly, I'd die. But if I didn't go at all, and the ritual was not performed, you would all have died. And I, well, I didn't want to lose my family.'

'Even if that meant giving Zaeed power for all eternity?' Pooh Bear said in disbelief.

Lily turned to him, and her eyes glinted.

'Mr Zaeed was never going to rule,' she said. 'When he grabbed me, I saw the soil in his jade box.' Lily turned to West. 'It was a kind of soil I'd seen many times before. I've been fascinated with it for a long time. It has been sitting in a gla.s.s jar on a shelf in Daddy's study for years. When I saw it in Mr Zaeed's box, I knew exactly what it was, and so I knew I wasn't giving Mr Zaeed any power at all.'

Pooh Bear said, 'Did del Piero know this, too? Is that why he treated Alexander like a little emperor, ready to rule? Did he want Alexander to enter that cavity willingly?'

'I think so,' West said. 'But there was more to it than that. Del Piero was a priest and he thought like a priest. He wanted Alexander to survive the ritual not because he wanted the boy to live and rule, but because he also wanted a saviour saviour, a figurehead, a focal point for his new ruling religion. A new Christ figure.'

Through all this, Wizard sat alone in a corner of the cabin, silent, head bent. Zoe sat with him, holding his hand, equally shocked at the death of her brother, Big Ears.