Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly [63]
Judah couldn’t be sure, but as he watched the tunnel-borer race across the bridge, he could have sworn he saw a figure leap off its roof and drop into the narrow black gorge, splashing into the water below.
Either way, as soon as it was across the ancient bridge, the tunnel-borer again lurched leftward, crunching against the wall, before grinding to a slow laboured halt about 80 metres down the tunnel.
The escort cars converged on it, unloaded their men, guns up—
—and found the two golden Pieces still in it, safe and sound.
The driver of the M-113 and the four CIEF guards in it were all dead, shot to bits. Their blood covered the walls of the hold. All had got their guns out—but not a single one of them had got a round off.
Judah just gazed at the human wreckage inside the tunnel-boring vehicle, the work of Jack West Jr.
‘West, West, West. . . ’ he said to the air. ‘You always were good. Perhaps the best pupil I ever had.’
Then he reorganised his men and the convoy shot off down the tunnel again, safe and away.
Sniper rounds slammed into the cliff all around Pooh Bear’s team as they tip-toed across the cliff-face to the fortress’s left-hand tower.
The Warbler in Big Ears’s backpack was working admirably— bending the bullets away—and one by one, Pooh’s team made it to the high-spired tower attached to the fortress.
Far below them, mud continued to flow out of the mouth of the great citadel, while above them, the dark ceiling of the chasm was close now, barely twenty feet above the peak of their tower.
Then abruptly Kallis’s men stopped firing.
Pooh Bear exchanged a worried look with Wizard.
Change of tactics.
A brutal change of tactics.
Frustrated by the electromagnetic field of the Warbler, Kallis and his team started firing RPGs at the tower.
It looked like a fireworks display: long hyper-extending fingers of smoke lanced upward from their tunnel, streaking up toward the mighty ancient citadel.
‘Oh my Lord,’ Wizard breathed. ‘The Warbler won’t work against RPGs! RPGs are too heavy to divert magnetically! Somebody do something—’
It was Stretch who came up with the answer.
Quick as a flash, he unslung his sniper rifle, aimed and fired it at the first oncoming RPG!
The bullet hit the RPG a bare thirty feet from the tower and the RPG detonated in mid-flight, exploding just out of reach of the tower.
It was an incredible shot. A single shot, fired under pressure, hitting a high-velocity target in mid-flight!
Even Pooh Bear was impressed. ‘Nice shot, Israeli. How many times can you do that?’
‘As long as it takes for you to figure out a way out of here, Arab,’ Stretch said, eyeing a second incoming RPG through his sights.
Pooh Bear evaluated their position. Their aqueduct was shattered, uncrossable. The main entrance to the fortress was filled with flowing mud. No dice there. And the main chasm, with its traps and deadly whirlpools, was guarded by Kallis’s CIEF team.
‘Trapped,’ he said, grimacing in thought.
‘Isn’t there any way out of here?’ Big Ears asked.
‘This place was sealed long ago,’ Wizard said.
They all stood in silence.
‘Why not go up?’ a small voice suggested.
Everyone turned.
It was Lily.
She shrugged, pointed at the ‘planked’ granite ceiling not far above the pinnacle of their tower. ‘Can’t we go out that way? Maybe with one of Pooh Bear’s demolition charges?’
Pooh Bear’s frown became a grin. ‘Young lady, I like your style.’
A minute later, as Stretch kept the incoming RPGs at bay, Pooh Bear fired a grappling hook up at the high ceiling of the chasm, almost directly above his tower.
The hook he fired was a rock-penetrating climbing hook—but instead of rope, attached to it was a Semtex-IV demolition charge.
The climbing hook slammed into the granite ceiling, embedded itself in it.
One, one-thousand.
Two, one-thousand.
Three—
The Semtex charge went off.