Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly [84]
On the First Floor, however, there was an extra precaution: the Daru Staircase, with all its twists and bends, could be easily sealed off, trapping any would-be thief up on the First Floor. You could disturb Victory, but you could never take her anywhere.
Dressed in their maintenance coveralls, West and Big Ears strode up onto the landing and stood before the high statue of Victory.
They proceeded to move some potted trees arrayed around the landing, unnoticed by the light weekday crowd strolling past the statue.
West placed a couple of trees slightly to the left of Victory, while Big Ears placed two of the big pots far out of the way, over by the doorway that led south, toward the side of the Louvre that overlooked the River Seine. Lily stood by this doorway.
No-one noticed them.
They were just workmen going about some unknown but presumably authorised task.
Then West grabbed a rolling ‘Repair Work in Progress’ screen from a nearby storeroom and placed it in front of Victory, blocking her from view.
He looked at Big Ears, who nodded.
Then Jack West Jr swallowed.
He couldn’t believe what he was about to do.
With a deep breath, he stepped up onto the marble podium that was Zeus’s armrest and pushed the Winged Victory of Samothrace— a priceless marble carving 2,200 years old—off its mount, to the floor.
No sooner had Victory tilted an inch off her mount than sirens started blaring and red lights started flashing.
Great steel grilles came thundering down in every doorway— bam!-bam!-bam!-bam!—sealing off the stairwell and the landing.
All except one doorway.
The southern doorway.
Its grille whizzed down on its runners—
—only to bang to a halt two feet off the ground, stopped by the two solid treepots that Big Ears had placed beneath it moments earlier.
The getaway route.
Victory herself landed in the two potted trees that West had placed to her left, her fall cushioned by them.
West rushed to the upturned statue, and examined her feet, or rather the small cube-shaped marble pedestal on which her feet stood.
He pulled out a big wrench he’d taken from the maintenance room.
‘May every archaeologist in the world forgive me,’ he whispered as he swung down hard with the wrench.
Crack. Crack. Craaaack.
The tourists on the landing didn’t know what was going on. A couple of men stepped forward to investigate the activity behind the screen, but Big Ears blocked their way with a fierce glare.
After West’s three heavy blows, the little marble pedestal was no more—but revealed within it was a perfect trapezoid of solid gold, maybe eighteen inches to a side.
The Third Piece of the Capstone.
It had been embedded in Victory’s marble pedestal.
‘Lily!’ West called. ‘Get a look at this thing! In case we lose it later!’
Lily came over, gazed at the lustrous golden trapezoid, at the mysterious symbols carved into its top side.
‘More lines of the two incantations,’ she said.
‘Good. Now let’s go,’ West said.
The Piece went into Big Ears’s sturdy backpack and, with Lily running in the lead, suddenly they were off, sliding under the propped-open grille that led south.
No sooner were they through than West and Big Ears kicked the pot plants free and the grille slammed fully shut behind them.
Running flat out down a long long corridor, legs pumping, hearts pounding.
Shouts came from behind them—shouts in French, from the museum guards giving chase.
West spoke into his radio mike: ‘Pooh Bear! Are you out there?’
‘We’re waiting! I hope you use the right window!’
‘We’ll find out soon enough!’
The corridor West was running down ended at a dramatic right-hand corner. This corner opened onto a superlong hallway that was actually the extreme southern flank of the Louvre. The hallway’s entire left-hand wall was filled with masterpieces and the occasional high French window looking out over the Seine.
And right then, a second team of armed museum guards were running down it, shouting.
West hurled his huge wrench at the