Seven Ancient Wonders jw-1

by Matthew Reilly

  Minutes later, speeding through the streets of Rome in a rental car, heading for the airport, Wizard sent a short encrypted text-message to Doris in Kenya. It said:

  Mission accomplished. On our way back now. Wizard.

  Shortly after, his car arrived at the airport and swung into the parking lot—

  —just as the air all around it was pierced by sirens and police cars appeared from every side, swooping in on Wizard's car, blocking it, surrounding it.

  Wizard, Zoe and Fuzzy could do nothing.

  VICTORIA STATION

  KENYA

  18 MARCH, 2006, 9:45 P.M.

  2 DAYS BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF TARTARUS

  In the basement radio room at the farm in Kenya, Doris Epper spoke into her mike: 'That's great news, Huntsman. Wizard is on his way, too. He just text-messaged me a few hours ago. The mission in Rome was a success. He'll be here in the morning. See you in a couple of hours.'

  With a spring in her stride, she hurried up the steps to the kitchen. She was relieved that everyone was okay and that their missions had succeeded and she wanted to prepare a nice dinner for when they got back.

  She stepped up into the kitchen ... to find that someone was already there.

  'That's wonderful news, Mrs Epper.'

  Doris froze.

  There before her, sitting casually at her kitchen table, was Marshall Judah. Standing behind him were twelve heavily camouflaged, heavily armed US special forces troops.

  Judah's head was bent, his eyes low, his voice laced with menace. 'Take a seat, Doris, and let's wait for them together.'

  VICTORIA STATION

  KENYA

  18 MARCH, 2006, 11:45 P.M.

  2 DAYS BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF TARTARUS

  West and his sub-team returned to Kenya.

  On the way, they'd stopped in Spain to refuel, at which point Lily had had another breakthrough with the Callimachus Text. She was suddenly able to read the next entry.

  'What's it say?' West asked.

  'It's about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,' she said. 'It says:

  The Hanging Paradise of Old Babylonia.

  March towards the rising Sun,

  From the point where the two life-givers become one.

  In the shadow of the mountains of Zagros,

  Behold the mighty falls fashioned by the Third Great Architect

  To conceal the path he hewed

  A path that climbs to the entry of the Paradise

  That mighty Nebuchadnezzar built for his bride.'

  West tousled her hair. 'Nice work, kiddo. Nice work. Wizard's going to be thrilled.'

  The Halicarnassus landed with a roar on Victoria Station's airstrip just before midnight. It was a classic African night—a swollen full

  moon illuminated the grassy plains like a floodlight, while the low hills loomed, dark teeth against the moonlit sky.

  About a kilometre from the runway stood the farmhouse, its windows glowing orange. The emergency signal—the lights on the juniper bush in the front garden—was not on.

  Sky Monster swung the plane toward the hangar dug into the hill at the end of the runway. As it taxied slowly, everyone grabbed their gear, preparing to disembark.

  None of them could know that as they did so, two hundred pairs of eyes watched them closely.

  Turbines whirring, the Halicarnassus came to a halt just outside the doorway of the brightly-illuminated hangar.

  A flight of airstairs waited for it there, just outside the open doors. And beyond the airstairs, maybe forty yards away, stood a welcoming party of one: Doris, standing by the hangar doors themselves.

  It was impossible for those on the plane to know that she was standing there at gunpoint.

  The plane stopped alongside the airstairs at the entry to the hangar, its nose section poking into the actual hangar (it had to cool down outside for a few hours before it could be brought fully inside for storage).

  As soon as it had stopped, its forward side door was flung open from within and Big Ears and Lily—eager to see Doris and show her the Zeus Piece—dashed out of the plane and scampered down the airstairs. Big Ears wore his backpack, containing the Piece.

  Not far behind them came Pooh Bear and Stretch, escorting Zaeed—now flex-cuffed again. They emerged from the plane into the fresh night air, began stepping down the stairs.

  Sky Monster and West lingered in the plane—Sky Monster to

  do a post-flight check; West just to collect all his things: notes, parchments, Hessler's Nazi diary.

  It was noisy outside—the Halicarnassus's four massive wing-engines still whirred loudly, winding down.

  Big Ears and Lily were halfway to Doris.

  'Hey, Doris! We did it!' Lily called over the din, but Doris's usually warm face was stony, cold—as though she knew something that she couldn't disclose.

  Then she seemed to regather herself, smiled kindly, and called back: 'Well done, little Eowyn! What a triumphant return. This is all a bit like Gimli returning to Moria, isn't it!'

  At Doris's words, Lily slowed her stride.

  Then she stopped completely.

  Big Ears paused, turned to her. 'What is it?'

  Worried, Lily peered fearfully at the dark grassy fields that surrounded the hangar's entrance. Apart from Doris, the area was completely deserted.

  'Big Ears, we're in trouble,' she said evenly. 'We have to get back to the plane. This is a trap.'

  'How do you know—?'

  'Just go! Now!' she said with an authority that belied her age.

  And abruptly, she spun, grabbing Big Ears's hand, and together— still twenty yards from the plane—they bolted back towards the Halicarnassus.

  No sooner had they moved than all hell broke loose in the hangar.

  Every door on every side of the hangar burst open and disgorged dozens of black-clad American troops.

  A maintenance door behind Doris was also thrown open and Marshall Judah rushed out of it, accompanied by a CIEF team led by Cal Kallis.

  Kallis pushed roughly past Doris and opened fire on the fleeing pair with a god-almighty fury.

  When the gunfire started, different people did different things:

  West.

  He raced to the forward door of the Halicarnassus, to see what was going on.

  Sky Monster.

  He peered out the cockpit windows—to see Lily and Big Ears running together back towards the airstairs, chased by an oncoming swarm of enemy troops.

  Zaeed.

  He was at the bottom of the airstairs when the gunfire began, flanked by Pooh Bear and Stretch, his hands still flex-cuffed. But his eyes, far from being wild and crazed, were watchful and focused now.

  He'd actually just managed to extract a blade hidden in his pants and saw halfway through his flex-cuffs, and was three seconds away from stabbing Stretch between the ribs and commencing his escape when the gunfire had started. At that point, he'd slid the blade back into his pocket and clambered back up the airstairs as they were hammered with bullet impacts.

  And Judah.

  While his men hurried past Doris, he stopped right in front of her and said, 'I told you, no warnings.'

  And then, without the slightest hesitation, he drew a Glock pistol, placed its barrel against her head and fired.

  West arrived at the forward door just in time to see Doris fall. 'Oh, God, no . . .' he breathed. 'No . . .'

  He beheld the rest of the scene in the hangar.

  Pandemonium reigned.

  A massive American force had emerged from every corner of the hangar. Most of them were on foot, but then West saw three Humvees come blasting out of the grassy fields outside.

  The American troops were converging on the big black 747 like an army of ants, their collective movement focused on the two fleeing figures of Big Ears and Lily.

  West zeroed in on the running pair.

  One thing was clear: they weren't going to make it to the airstairs.

  The Americans' angle of fire would
cut them off before they got there. And he noted that the Yanks weren't aiming to kill them—just stop them from escaping. They knew not to harm Lily.

  But Big Ears and Lily did make it to a portable electricity generator wagon just short of the airstairs. The generator wagon was the size of a small trailer. Normally, once the Halicarnassus was fully stopped, Sky Monster would get out and attach the generator to it, providing external electrical power. But he hadn't been able to do that yet.

  Lily and Big Ears dived behind the generator wagon, and Big Ears immediately opened fire on his closest pursuers, causing them to halt and duck for cover.

  So now West stood at the top of the airstairs, while Stretch and Pooh Bear were huddled at the base of those same stairs, ducking gunfire. Zaeed was in the middle, halfway up the steps, getting away from the action.

  And Lily and Big Ears lay crouched—cut off, pinned down by enemy fire—a tantalising five yards from the base of the airstairs.

  West keyed his radio mike. 'Sky Monster! Fire her up again! We gotta get out of here!'

  'Roger that'.'' A moment later the great jet turbines of the 747 roared back to life, the thunderous noise drowning out the sound of gunfire.

  'Big Ears!' West called into his mike. 'I hate to do this to you, but you've got to find a way to get Lily back on this plane! Now!'

  Huddled behind the generator wagon, Big Ears was thinking fast.

  Five yards. That was all it was. Five yards.

  Only those five yards looked like a mile.

  And then suddenly—with a kind of crystal clarity that was new to him—the situation became clear to Big Ears.

  No matter what the outcome of this situation, he was going to die.

  If he ran for the airstairs, he'd be shot for sure—even if they didn't shoot Lily, they'd nail him.

  Alternatively, if he and Lily were caught by the Americans, they'd kill him then too.

  And with that realisation, he made up his mind.

  'Lily,' he said, over the raging din all around them. 'You know something. You've been the best friend I've ever had in my life. You were always way smarter than me, but you always waited for me, were always patient with me. But now I have to do something for you—and you have to let me do it. Just promise me, when the time comes, you do what you were put on this Earth to do. And remember me, the dumb grunt who was your friend. I love you, little one.'

  Then he kissed her forehead and, with his MP-5 in one hand, he picked her up with the other, and shielding her with his body . . .

  ... he broke cover . . .

  . . . and ran for the airstairs.

  The American response was both immediate and vicious. They opened fire.

  Big Ears only needed six steps to make it to the airstairs. He made four.

  Before a crouching US trooper nailed him with a clean shot to the head.

  The bullet passed right through Big Ears's skull, exploding out the other side and he fell instantly—crumpling like a marionette whose strings have been cut—falling to his knees midway between the generator wagon and the airstairs, dropping Lily from his lifeless hands.

  'No!' Lily screamed in horror. 'Noooo!'

  The Americans charged, moved in on the girl—

  —only to be stopped by a curious sight.

  At exactly the same time, in exactly the same way, two figures dived out from the base of the airstairs, each of them holding two MP-5 sub-machine guns, the weapons blazing away in opposite directions as they flew through the air toward Lily.

  Pooh Bear and Stretch.

  They couldn't have planned the move. There simply hadn't been time. No, they had actually both dived independently of each other.

  Yet their identical dives had been motivated by the exact same impulse:

  To save Lily.

  The Arab and the Israeli slid to simultaneous halts alongside Lily, bringing down four Americans each as they did so.

  Lily was still kneeling beside Big Ears's body, her cheeks covered in tears.

  Still firing repeatedly, Pooh Bear and Stretch each grabbed one of her hands and crouch-ran with her back to the cover of the airstairs.

  Up the stairs they stumbled, as the steel side railings of the airstairs were riddled with a thousand dome-shaped bullet impacts.

  Off-balance and firing blindly behind them, Pooh Bear and Stretch reached the top of the stairs and flung Lily in through the door, rolling themselves in after her, while above them West jammed the door shut and yelled, 'Sky Monster! Go! Go! Go!'

  The giant 747 pivoted on the spot, rolling around in a circle until it was re-aimed back up the runway—bullets pinging off its black armoured flanks.

  As it completed its circle, it crunched right over a US Humvee that got too close, flattening the car.

  Then Pooh Bear and Stretch took their seats in the Halicarnassus's wing-mounted gun turrets and let fly with a barrage of tracer fire, annihilating the other two Humvees.

  Then Sky Monster punched his thrusters and the big black 747 gathered speed—thundering up the runway, its winglights blazing, chased by jeeps spewing gunfire, returning tracer bullets from its own turrets—until it hit take-off speed and lifted off into the night sky, escaping from its own supposedly secret base.

  A grim silence hung over the main cabin of the Halicarnassus.

  West held Lily in his lap. She was still sobbing, distraught over the deaths of Big Ears and Doris.

  As the jumbo soared into the night sky, heading for nowhere in particular, everyone who had survived the gunbattle in the hangar returned to the main cabin: Pooh Bear, Stretch and Zaeed. Sky Monster stayed in the cockpit, flying manually for the time being.

  With Lily in his arms, West's mind raced.

  Big Ears was dead. Doris was dead. Their secret hideaway had been exposed. Not to mention the most frustrating fact of all— when he'd been killed, Big Ears had been carrying the Zeus Piece.

  Shit.

  Up until a few minutes ago, they'd actually succeeded on this impossible mission. Against all the odds, they had actually obtained a Piece of the Capstone.

  And now . . .

  Now they had nothing. They'd lost two of their best team-members, lost their base of operations, and lost the one and only Piece they'd ever got.

  Hell, West thought, he didn't even know why Lily and Big Ears had suddenly turned and run back to the plane. Gently, he asked

  Lily.

  She sniffed, wiped away her tears.

  'Doris gave me a warning. She said our return was like Gimli's return to Moria. In The Lord of the Rings, Gimli the dwarf returns to the dwarf mines at Moria, only to find that the mines have been overrun by ores. Doris was sending me a secret message. She obviously

  couldn't say anything directly, so she spoke in a code I'd understand. She was saying that the farm had been taken over by our enemies and to get away.'

  West was amazed at Lily's quick deduction—and at Doris's selfless sacrifice.

  'Nice work, kiddo.' He stroked Lily's hair. 'Nice work.'

  It was Pooh Bear who asked what they were all thinking. 'Huntsman. What do we do now?'

  'I have to talk to Wizard,' West said, moving to one of the communications consoles.

  But just as he reached it, the console—as if by magic—started blinking and beeping.

  'It's the video phone . . .' Stretch said. 'An incoming call.'

  'It must be Wizard,' Pooh Bear said.

  'No,' West said, staring at the console's readout. 'It's coming from Victoria Station.'

  West clicked the 'Answer' button and the screen on the console came to life. Filling its frame was the face of. . .

  Marshall Judah.

  He was sitting at a console inside the hangar back in Kenya, flanked by Kallis and some of his men.

  'Greetings, Jack. My, my, wasn't that a narrow escape for you all. Sorry—' he corrected himself—'not exactly all of you escaped.'

  'What do you want?' West growled.

  'Why, Jack. How could I want
anything from you? I already have everything you can give me: the Zeus Piece, to add to the three Pieces I already possess. Oh, and I am not sure if you're aware of the fate of your friend Epper in Rome. Seems he's fallen into the hands of our European competitors. I do hope he'll be all right.'

  West tried not to let his surprise show. He didn't know that the Europeans had captured Wizard's team.

  'Epper's capture,' Judah said, realising with a grin. 'You weren't aware of this.'

  Shit.

  'Why are you calling us?' West demanded. 'To gloat?' 'To remind you of your status, Jack. Look at you. Look at what you have achieved. Your band of pissant nations shouldn't have tried playing at the grown-ups' table. At every juncture in our parallel missions, I have comprehensively beaten you. In the Sudan. In Tunisia. And now here in Kenya. Can't you see? There is nowhere you can go that I cannot follow. There is nowhere on Earth you can hide from me, Jack. My scientists are at this very instant about to uncover the location of the Hanging Gardens and, unlike you, we have long been aware of the importance of the Paris Obelisk—and in two days' time, we will use those measurements to reveal the location of Alexander's Tomb in Luxor: the resting place of the final Piece.'

  'Are you finished?'

  'How about I finish with this: you never had a chance on this mission, Jack. Let me give you a quick lesson in the law of nations: there are big fish and there are little fish. And the big fish eat the little ones. You came up against a bigger fish, Jack, and you got eaten. Your mission is over.'

  'I'm going to kill you, Judah,' West said flatly. 'For Doris.'

  'As if you could, Jack. As if you could.'

  With that, Judah cut the signal and West found himself staring at an empty screen.

  For a long while, no-one spoke.

  West just stared at the blank screen, his teeth grinding. 'Stretch, try and call Wizard,' he said. 'See if Judah was telling

  the truth.'

  Stretch went to the satellite radio console, tried every channel that Wizard, Zoe and Fuzzy could be on. He even tried their cell phones.

  He received no reply.

  'Nothing,' he said, returning to the group. 'There's no answer from Wizard, Zoe or Fuzzy. They're off the air.'