Temple of the Gods - Andy McDermott [198]
Eddie had been through the experience of believing his ex-wife to be deceased twice before; this time, he was almost out of sympathy. Almost. He moved closer, pulling what remained of the parachute over the mangled body. ‘Goodbye, Soph,’ he said, then paused for a moment before reaching down.
Nina cringed in revulsion as he picked something up from amongst the viscera. ‘Eddie, what the hell?’
‘Thought we should take care of this,’ he said, limping back to her. In his hand was the piece of meteorite Sophia had taken from the Temple of the Gods. ‘What do you want to do with it?’
Nina considered the question. The chunk of purple stone contained within it the secrets of earth energy, the untold history of all life on the planet, and potentially more besides. But . . .
She still didn’t believe that there were things man was not meant to know. But there were things man was not meant to have. This was one of them. ‘Get rid of it,’ she finally said.
‘You sure?’
‘Yeah.’ She watched as he turned and threw the stone with all his remaining strength into the empty wilderness. It landed with a puff of dust amongst other nondescript rocks, half buried already; in time, it would be completely lost.
‘So that’s it?’ Eddie asked.
She nodded. ‘Earth energy, the meteorite, the Group, Stikes, Sophia . . . they’re all gone. Finished.’
‘Thank fuck for that. Now we can take a break.’ He gave her an exhausted smile and put his arms round her.
The noise of the helicopter made them turn. Larry had brought the AW101 into an unsteady hover a few hundred yards away, gradually descending into a cyclone of sand. Eddie watched – then stiffened. ‘Shit, that’s not good!’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘That wobble, something’s wrong – Dad!’ He released Nina and waved his arms, frantically signalling for his father to ascend again. ‘Dad, go back up, it’s not gonna—’
Too late.
The tremendous downwash from the main rotor was bouncing back up off the desert floor as Larry lowered the helicopter, drastically affecting the aircraft’s handling. With a completely inexperienced pilot at the controls, the results were inevitable. The AW101 rocked like a toy boat, veering sideways. Larry tried to level out, but overcompensated – and the chopper lurched back, losing height.
Its landing gear dug into the ground, tipping the fuselage over—
The rotor blades carved into the desert with great sprays of sand, shearing off from the hub and flinging broken pieces high into the air. Torque twisted the aircraft’s body round, crunching its nose into the dirt before it fell back down on its belly with a shrilling crash of torn metal.
‘Dad!’ Eddie cried, breaking into a staggering run. Nina caught up, and they hurried towards the wreck. Its engines cut out, leaving an eerie silence punctured only by the thumps of debris returning to earth. By the time they reached it, the stubs of the rotor blades had come to a halt.
The front windows were broken. Through them, Eddie saw Larry slumped over the central console. ‘Dad! Shit, Dad, are you all right?’ No answer. No movement. He opened the side hatch and climbed inside, going to the cockpit. ‘Dad!’
For a moment, he thought his father was dead – then Larry coughed and took in a shuddering breath. ‘Eddie?’ he gasped.
‘Yeah, I’m here, Dad.’ Eddie carefully lifted him off the console. A line of blood ran down his cheek where he had hit a sharp protrusion on the instrument panel. ‘How bad are you hurt?’
‘Not too bad . . . I think.’ Larry opened his eyes, squinting in the sunlight as he tried to regain focus. ‘Tell you something, though.’
‘What?’
‘I definitely need more flying lessons.’ A faint laugh.
Eddie joined in. ‘Yeah, one or two. You’ve just wrecked a twenty-million-dollar helicopter!’
‘Like father, like son,’ said Nina with a grin as she recovered a first-aid kit.
They patched up their various wounds as best they could, then took stock of the situation. Some of the Group’s supplies were still secured at the cabin’s rear, giving them a supply of water, and while the helicopter itself was a complete