Crocodiles lurked at the perimeter of his vision, hovering in the void, just watching the Zodiac"s slow freefall.
Then in ultraslow motion the Zodiac hit the bottom, kicking up silt, and one of the crocs moved in.
It glided through the water, propelled by its thick tail, zeroing in on Alby, jaws opening as it approached, and Alby screamed a soundless underwater scream as it rushed at him and- -stopped.
Stopped dead, three inches from Alby"s face.
Its snarling teeth were halted right in front of Alby"s bulging eyes, and it was only then that Alby saw the great big KaBar knife-Pooh Bear"s knife-that had been lodged up into the soft underside of the crocodile"s lower jaw.
Pooh Bear had reached over with his free hand and stabbed it up through the creature"s jaw, just in time.
But then Alby saw the big man"s eyes-they were wide open and bloodshot, running out of air. That lunge, it appeared, had been Pooh Bear"s last act on this Earth. He visibly sagged.
Then a second croc advanced from the other side, again coming for Alby, the smallest prey, and this time Alby knew there was no escape. Pooh was done. Astro was too far away.
The crocodile zoomed in toward him, jaws opening, charging.
Running out of air and now totally out of heroes, Alby shut his eyes and waited for the end.
BUT THE END didn"t come.
There was no explosion of pain or slashing of teeth.
Alby opened his eyes-to see Jack West, wearing scuba gear, wrestling with the gigantic crocodile, rolling and struggling the croc bucking and snapping.
And then suddenly someone jammed a scuba regulator to his mouth and Alby sucked in glorious air. Zoe hovered beside him in the water, also scubaequipped.
Then she dashed to the limp Pooh Bear"s side and inserted the regulator into his mouth.
He came to life instantly. She moved on to Astro.
As for the fight between Jack and the crocodile, it was now a rolling struggle, hidden amid a cloud of roiling bubbles.
Then all of a sudden, Alby saw the croc bite down hard on Jack"s left hand-only to see, two seconds later, Jackextract his hand from the great beast"s jaws!
And just as Alby recalled that Jack"s left hand was made of metal, he saw the crocodile"s head explode underwater and spontaneously become a cloud of red. As it bit him, Jack must have left a grenade in its mouth.
At that moment, Zoe fired a shot through Alby"s handcuff and did likewise with Pooh"s and Astro"s bonds and then Jack was right beside him, sharing his regulator, and Alby found himself being guided to the surface, somehow alive.
They broke the surface together and swam for the rocky island, where Jack pushed Alby up the slope, clear of the waterline, until he could lie safely on the lesssteep upper surface.
Pooh and Astro were pushed up next, then Zoe and last of all, Jack, keeping a watchful eye on the crocs-but thankfully, most of them were preoccupied with eating the corpse of their nowheadless comrade.
Jack lay on the island, sucking in great heaving breaths.
"How did-how did you get out?" Alby gasped.
"There were crocs in the entry tunnel," Jack said. "They"d got in by another entrance on the other side, a small cleft in the rock that was probably created by a tremor sometime.
We came out through there."
Then Jack propped himself up on his elbow and looked back out over the lake. "Did they head back for Abu Simbel?"
"Yeah," Alby said.
"They took Lily?"
"And Wizard. Are you angry, Mr. West?"
West clenched his teeth. "Alby, angry doesn"t even begin to describe how I"m feeling right now." He keyed his radio. "Vulture! Scimitar! You copy?"
His radio remained silent. No reply.
"I say again! Vulture, Scimitar! You guys still at the dock?"
Again there was no reply. Just silence on the airwaves.
Jack swore. "Where the h.e.l.l have they got to?"
AT THE SAME TIME this was happening, Lieutenant Colin Ashmont"s stolen Zodiac was arriving back at the docks not far from the great statues of Abu Simbel, flanked by two smaller inflatable speedboats-which had been inflated out on the lake and were now filled with the other eleven members of his squad of Royal Marines.
The first convoy of tourist coaches was just now arriving in a parking lot not far from the docks.
Tourists of all nationalities piled out of the buses-German, American, Chinese, j.a.panese-and they variously stretched their legs and yawned.
Ashmont shoved Lily and Wizard out of the Zodiac, pushing them toward a couple of white Suburbans with tinted windows parked nearby. Iolanthe led the way, striding quickly, all business, carrying West"s rucksack with the Pillar inside it.
As Lily and Wizard were guided toward the two British Suburbans, some of the tourists from the nearest bus came closer.
They were cla.s.sic j.a.panese tourists-four older men with Nikon cameras slung from their necks and wearing bulky camera vests and sandals with white socks.
One of the j.a.panese called to Ashmont: "Halloo, sir! Excuse me! Where statues?"
Ashmont, now wearing a Tshirt over his wet suit, ignored the man and walked right past him.
Lily wanted to shout to the j.a.panese men, to scream- -but then she saw the first j.a.panese man"s eyes follow Ashmont, glinting with purpose, and she suddenly realized that something was very, very wrong here.
The four old j.a.panese tourists were arrayed around Ashmont"s cars and team in a perfect semicircle.
Heart thumping, Lily scanned their faces, and saw only steely eyes and grim expressions.
And then, fleetingly, she saw the forearm of one of the j.a.panese men...and beheld atattoo on it, a tattoo she had seen before, a tattoo of the j.a.panese flag with a symbol behind it.
"Tank..." she said aloud. "Oh, no. Oh,no ...Wizard! Get down!"
She threw herself into the bewildered old professor, tackling him around the legs, felling him just as the j.a.panese "tourist" nearest to Ashmont opened his photographer"s vest to reveal six wads of C4 strapped to his chest. Then the kindlylooking little old man thumbed a switch in his palm and he exploded.
FOUR SHOCKINGLY violent blasts ripped through the air as all four of the j.a.panese suicide bombers justdisappeared in identical outward sprays of smoke, fire, and body parts.
The windows of every car in a sixtyfoot radius blew out simultaneously, showering the area with gla.s.s.
Ashmont was. .h.i.t hardest by the blast. He was flung into the side of his Suburban with terrible force and dropped to the ground like a rag doll.
Three of his men, those closest to the j.a.panese suicide bombers, were killed instantly. All the others were hurled every which way.
Iolanthe was farther away and thus more sheltered from the blast-she was only thrown back fifteen feet by the concussion wave, where she hit the ground hard, banging her head, knocked out cold.
Tumbling to the ground on top of Wizard, Lily felt a wave of searing heat hit the back of her body-like a slap to her bare skin-then she smelled something burning, but the sensation didn"t last long, because an instant later, she blacked out.
In fact, the only person to survive the attack completely unscathed had been Wizard- thanks to Lily"s lastsecond tackle-which put him below the blast zone.
His ears ringing, he raised his head, to see Lily lying on top of him, her shirt on fire!
He wriggled out from under her and quickly used his jacket to extinguish her flaming shirt. Then he picked her up-unconscious and limp-and stood there openmouthed amid the carnage: smoke, the damaged cars, and the b.l.o.o.d.y remains of Ashmont"s Royal Marines.
There came a shrill scream, and Wizard spun.
Thereal tourists in thereal buses nearby had seen the horrific blasts and, fearing a terrorist incident like the one that had occurred at Hatshepsut"s Mortuary Temple in 1997, stampeded back into their coaches.
Wizard"s eyes swept the area and landed on Iolanthe and the rucksack on the ground beside her.
Carrying Lily on his hip, Wizard raced over to Iolanthe"s body and scooped up the rucksack with the Pillar inside it. Then he swung into one of Ashmont"s Suburbans, gunned the engine, and sped out of the lot.
"Sky Monster! Sky Monster!" Wizard yelled into his radio as he sped away from Abu Simbel, heading south. He had a clear signal. Ashmont"s jamming device must have been destroyed in the suicide blasts.
"Wizard! Where"ve you been! I"ve been trying to contact you guys for the last twenty min-"
"Sky Monster, it"s all gone sour!" Wizard blurted. "The British blindsided us and then got blindsided themselves! Now Lily"s out cold and Jack was sealed inside the shrine and Alby, Pooh Bear, and Astro were left to die in the lake with the crocodiles! Oh, Alby-"
"Alby"s fine,"another voice came in over the airwaves.
Jack"s voice.
Jack was walking quickly around the far side of the pyramidal island, skirting its lower edge, followed by the others.
"He"s with me. So are Pooh, Astro, and Zoe. We"re all safe. What happened, Wizard?"
Wizard"s voice said,"Four men, j.a.panese, just blew themselves up near Ashmont"s escape cars at the dock. It was an ambush. They were waiting. It was like they wanted to destroy the Pillar. I"m in one of the British escape cars now, heading south, away from the town."
"What about Iolanthe and the Pillar?"
"She was knocked to the ground, so I took the Pillar. Not sure if she"s dead or not."
"OK," Jack said. "I want you to get as far away from there as you can, to a spot where Sky Monster can grab you. Sky Monster, Stretch: we need you to give us a boatdrop so we can get back to the sh.o.r.e and catch up with Wizard-"
Sky Monster"s voice came in."Er, Huntsman, I don"t think that"s going to be possible-"
Circling in the sky high above Abu Simbel, Sky Monster peered down at the vast body of Lake Na.s.ser and the highway leading into the town from the north. Stretch sat in the copilot"s seat beside him, also gazing down at the landscape.
"-This is what I"ve been trying to tell you," Sky Monster said. "It"s why I"ve been trying to get in contact. Thatsecond convoy we saw earlier is now only about three miles out from the town, approaching fast from the north and it"snot just comprised of tourist coaches. The coaches are cover. It"s a military convoy: rapidstrike cars, armored jeeps, Humvees, and troop trucks. My guess, it"s the Egyptian Army-tipped off by someone.
They"re gonna hit your town in about four minutes."
Sky Monster and Stretch looked down at the highway coming from the north, a thin ribbon of black overlaid upon the dull yellow of the desert.
There they saw the convoy speeding along it.
Tourist coaches led the way, kicking up a tail cloud of dust behind them as they hit the shoulder of the highway, a cloud that concealed dozens of military vehicles: trucks, Humvees, and machinegunmounted jeeps. All up, the convoy looked like it possessed about fifty vehicles and maybe three hundred men.
"This is seriously deep s.h.i.t," Sky Monster breathed.
JACK SAID,"OK then. The plan stays the same. Wizard, you run: get out of there take the highway and head south for the Sudanese border. Sky Monster can scoop you up somewhere down there. We"ll follow as best we can and try to catch up."
"Okay..."Wizard said doubtfully.
Sky Monster said,"Huntsman, standby. I"m sending you two packages. Couple of early Christmas presents."
From his rocky island, Jack looked up to see the dark shape of theHalicarna.s.sus bank around in the dawn sky.
Then he saw the big 747 swing low, barely a hundred feet above the lake, and as it roared by something dropped from its rear loading ramp-something with a parachute attached to it, arresting its fall. Perfectly released, the speeding object landed with a great splash about fifty yards out from Jack"s rocky island.
As soon as it hit the water, the object sloughed its outer casing and inflated rapidly- revealing itself to be a brandnew Zodiac complete with outboard engine.
"Merry Christmas," Jack said.
Minutes later, he and the others were skimming across the surface of Lake Na.s.ser, heading back for the western sh.o.r.e.
They hit land a few miles south of the ma.s.sive statues of Abu Simbel, at a remote fishermen"s dock.
No sooner had the Zodiac slid to a halt on the decrepit boat ramp than a second parachute equipped pallet from theHalicarna.s.sus landed lightly on the desert floor a few hundred yards in front of them.
Sitting on the pallet was a compact Land Rover Freelander fourwheel drive-donated to the Halicarna.s.sus by the British at Mortimer Island-stripped and modified for military work.
And sitting at the wheel was Stretch.
"Need a ride?" he asked.
The Freelander"s tires squealed as the little fourwheel drive shot off the mark.
Jack sat in the pa.s.senger seat while Stretch drove. Piled into the back were Astro, Alby, Pooh Bear, and Zoe-nestled amid a pile of guns and Predator rocket launchers that Stretch had brought along.
Jack tried his radio again, "Scimitar! Vulture! Come in!" No reply. They were meant to be covering the dock, Jack thought, but Wizard had made no mention of them in his report of the suicide attack. Scimitar and Vulture were suspiciously absent without leave.
The little Freelander sped across the desert, kicking up a dust cloud behind it, heading for the blacktop highway leading south.
On that highway, Jack and the others could see the chase at hand: Wizard"s lone white Suburban out in front of the convoy of Egyptian Army coaches, jeeps, trucks, and Humvees.
"If nothing else," Jack said to Stretch, "we have to get that charged Pillar out of here safely. The knowledge on it is priceless."