False Horizon - Alex Archer [83]
He glanced back down the staircase, half expecting to see the shadowy wisp of Hsu Xiao coming after him. Tuk had no illusions about whether he would live or die. His survival depended on gaining his freedom to call Garin.
Tuk shoved again, but the stone didn’t budge. He took a huge breath and shoved once more, but the stone did not seem to want to give in the slightest. Tuk brought his arms back down and rested them for a moment.
He hadn’t expected the weight to be so incredible.
He frowned and looked back up at the series of bolt locks. He counted them off and then to his horror saw that he’d missed two corner locking mechanisms that were of a different type than the simple slide bolts.
They weren’t taking any chances with this door being discovered, he thought.
Tuk immediately focused his attention to the two locks. They looked like dead bolt locks, but with a simple turning mechanism. He twisted the first knob and heard the satisfying sound of the bolt sliding away with a solid thunk. He quickly did the same to the other lock and then brought his arms back down to rest again.
He’d never known that working overhead could so rapidly tax his arm muscles like this. He took a series of deep breaths and then launched himself right at the trapdoor, hoping that it would move.
He impacted and then he drove the door back and up.
A rush of cold air slapped him in the face and Tuk had an instant shiver. The wind swept in from the cave opening, but he was back.
Back on the other side.
He scrambled out of the staircase, but as he did, the little cell phone tumbled out of his pocket and fell over and over again back down the stairs, coming apart at the bottom. Tuk gasped as he saw the little phone split into two pieces.
“No!”
He scrambled down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, he scooped up the components and then raced back up. Better to be on this side, and if Hsu Xiao’s face suddenly appeared, at least he could slam the rock down on her head.
Tuk examined the components in his hand. Was the phone broken? Would it even work again if he was somehow able to put it back together?
He looked at the pieces and then frowned. There didn’t appear to be anything broken. Perhaps it was just the battery that had come away.
He quickly slapped the battery back into place and then powered the phone up. For a few tense seconds he waited and then he nearly shouted with joy as the screen illuminated and Tuk saw that he had reception.
He pressed the number two. After about thirty seconds, the phone on the other end rang.
“Tuk?”
“Garin!”
“Where are you?”
“There’s not much time. Annja’s going to have to give up her sword if you don’t hurry and get here.”
“Tell me where you are.”
“We’re in the cave near the crash site. The place I told you where we found shelter. From the outside it looks like a small crack but you should be able to just fit inside.”
“Tuk, we found that place. We searched it inside and out and couldn’t find a thing. Are you sure that’s the location?”
“It is! Listen to me! Once inside, there’s a trapdoor in the floor of the cave that leads down a staircase and back over to the other side where we just were. But you’ve got to hurry.”
“I’ve got the rotors turning now on the chopper. Hang in there. I should be there within twenty minutes.”
“That will be twenty minutes too late! Annja made a deal to surrender if I was set free.”
“Why on earth did she do that?”
Tuk sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Tuk, she can’t surrender that sword. If she is able to give it away and it goes to someone villainous like these people seem to be, then the entire balance of good and evil in the universe will be thrown out of whack. She must not give up her sword. She’s got to hold on to it at all costs!”
“But what am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know, but you’ve got to stall them somehow. I need time to