Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly [104]
Following Zaeed, West avoided every third handbar, which was just as well. Zaeed had been right. West tested the ninth handbar and it just fell from its recess, dropping all the way to the deadly floor.
He was halfway across when he heard the voices. Shouts. Coming from the entry tunnel.
The first chopper—the Israeli Black Hawk—must have dropped its men directly onto the path at the top of the falls.
West reasoned that they were probably commandos from the Sayaret Matkal, the very best of Israel’s elite ‘Sayaret’ or ‘reconnaissance’ units. The Matkal were crack assassins—ruthlessly efficient killers who, among other things, were widely acknowledged as the best snipers in the world. Stretch’s old unit.
Now they were coming in.
Fast.
‘Everybody!’ West called. ‘Get a move on! We’re about to have some really nasty company!’
He started double-timing it across the handbars—swinging like a monkey hand-over-hand—high above the deadly floor.
Then suddenly from the entry tunnel there came the familiar heavy whump of a sliding stone dropping from the ceiling— followed by shouts and the sound of rapidly running feet.
The Israelis had set off a second sliding stone.
West kept moving across the high cavern, swinging with his hands.
Out in front, Zaeed reached the mouth of the opposite tunnel, swung into it. West followed seconds later, swinging his feet onto solid ground. He turned to help the others—
—only to see a red laser dot appear on his nose . . . a dot that belonged to a sniper rifle in the opposite tunnel, a sniper rifle held by one of the Israeli commandos, bent on one knee.
A voice came over West’s radio frequency: ‘Stay right where you are, Captain West. Don’t move a muscle.’
West was hardly going to obey—but then, as if it could read his thoughts, the dot shifted slightly. . .
. . . so that it now rested on the back of Lily’s head.
‘I know what you’re thinking, Captain. Don’t. Or she dies. Cohen! These handrungs. The safe sequence.’
Right then Stretch landed on the ground beside West. Pooh Bear was still huffing and puffing behind him, crossing the handrungs with difficulty.
Stretch glanced sideways at West as he spoke into his mike: ‘Avoid every third rung, Major.’
The Israelis moved quickly, leaping out from the entry tunnel, grasping the handbars, moving across the high ceiling of the cavern.
There were six of them, and they all emerged from the entry tunnel ahead of the sliding stone—it just rumbled out of the tunnel harmlessly behind them, dropping into the quicksand pool.
But they also moved in a brilliantly co-ordinated fashion—so that at any moment, one of them hung one-handed and always had his gun aimed at Lily.
Within a few minutes, they were across the cavern and surrounding West’s little team.
The Israeli leader eyed West menacingly.
Stretch made the introductions. ‘Captain Jack West Jr . . . this is Major Itzak Meir of the Sayaret Matkal, call-sign: Avenger.’
Avenger was a tall man, broadchested, with hard green eyes that were entirely lacking in nuance. For him, black was black, white was white, and Israel always came first.
‘The famous Captain West.’ Avenger stepped forward, relieving West of his holstered pistol. ‘I’ve never heard of a soldier enduring so much failure, and yet still you keep picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and coming back for more.’
‘It’s never over till it’s over,’ West said.
Avenger turned to Stretch. ‘Captain Cohen, congratulations. You have done a fine job on an unusually long mission. Your work has been noted at the highest levels. I apologise for surprising you in this way.’
Stretch said nothing, just bowed his head.
Pooh Bear, however, was livid.
He glared at Stretch. ‘Accept my congratulations, too, Israeli. You performed your mission to the letter. You led them to us and you sold us out just in time to hand them the last available Piece. I hope you’re satisfied.’
Stretch still said nothing.
Lily looked up at him. ‘Stretch? Why .