They
moved with shocking speed, covering the distance between the bridge and the archway
in seconds.
The
two Delta men standing with Chase and Kenny bolted, charged off down the
tunnel.
Chase
and Kenny--still cuffed at the wrists and tied together by their rope--took off
after them.
The
two hairy creatures stormed into the tunnel a second later, squealing with
rage.
Chase--running
last of all-looked over her shoulder as she ran, and in a fleeting instant, she
knew.
They
had her.
And
as she turned, wide-eyed, for a final glance, she saw the first creature move
in close behind her and launch itself into the air, its jaws bared wide, and
all Chase could do was shut her eyes and wait.
PART
4
THE
JAWS OF DEATH
As
the creature launched itself at Chase, there came an almighty CLANGGGG!
followed by a squeal of rage from the animal.
Chase
opened her eyes.
She'd
forgotten about the booby trapped ceiling of this tunnel.
As
it had thrown itself at her, the creature must have stepped on the
near
edge of one of the square floorstones-causing a heavy old cobwebbed cage made
entirely out of gold to rush out from one of the shadowy alcoves in the ceiling
and thunder down on top of the animal, stopping it in
mid-leap
, trapping
it inside the cage!
'Whoa,'
Chase breathed. 'Close.'
At
the same moment, the second creature crash-tackled one of the Delta guys,
sending both of them sliding across the floor.
Instantly,
another six-foot cage shot out from the alcoved ceiling and clanged down around
them, encasing
both of them
inside it!
The
creature mauled the soldier mercilessly, a captive meal.
Chase
saw the soldier get rammed up against the bars, saw his K-Bar knife on his
belt. She reached through the bars, grabbed the knife, then used it to slit her
and Kenny's rope and flexcuffs. She also saw something else dangling from the
soldier's belt and grabbed it, too.
'Come
on,' she said. 'We've got an obstacle course to run if we want to get out of
this place.'
BRESLIN
For
a 52-year-old billionaire, Leonard Breslin could run pretty fast.
He
entered the cage-dropping tunnel on the fly, the two Delta men with him firing
their guns at the horde of hairy monsters behind them.
Breslin
saw Chase and the others at the far end of the tunnel, about to head up the spiraling
ramp.
'Come
on!' he yelled.
UP
THE RAMP
Up
ahead, Chase, Kenny and their surviving Delta man dashed the moss-covered spiraling
ramp.
But
the Delta guy slipped and fell, hitting the sloping floor hard-and abruptly the
section of floor beneath him dropped a fraction.
A
trigger stone
, Chase realised.
It
must have just been stuck with age. All it had needed was a bit of
extra
weight to set it off.
But
nothing happened.
Strange
…
The
Delta man scrambled to his feet, and now alongside Chase and Kenny, hurried
with them up the ramp.
Then,
suddenly, Chase heard it.
Boom
…
Boom
…
Boom
…
Getting
faster.
Boom
…
boom
…
boom
…
Faster.
Boom-boom-boom
…
And
then she saw it--saw the huge seven-foot statue carved in the shape of a head
that had been at the top of the ramp--come
bouncing
down the curving
slope toward them!
The
statue thundered down the curved ramp, consuming nearly half the width of the
tunnel.
'Left!'
Chase yelled, and they all dived away as the statue thundered past them.
The
statue continued on its rampaging run down the ramp, reaching the base just as
Breslin and his two Delta men arrived there.
They
scattered instantly, avoiding the oncoming statue by inches.
A
snarling rodent that arrived there right behind them wasn't so lucky.
The
spiked statue hit the animal with tremendous force, pinning it against the
opposite wall.
The
rodent just exploded under the enormous weight--splattering everywhere in a
star-shaped blast of blood and gore.
The
statue itself didn't last much longer. When it hit the wall, it shattered into
pieces--pieces that looked just like the large chunks of rock that already
littered the floor at the base of the ramp.
Breslin
clambered to his feet, charged up the ramp with one of the Delta men.
The
other soldier never made it. As he made to stand, a hairy black claw grabbed
his ankle and sucked him--screaming--back into the tunnel.
THE
PASSAGEWAY OF ANIMALS
Chase,
Kenny and their Delta man came to the ultra-narrow passageway, the one with the carved
animal heads protruding from its close stone walls.
They
leapt over its floor panel and hurried in single-file down the passageway's
tight fifteen-yard length.
They
were almost through when it happened.
The
floor just dropped away beneath them
.
Suddenly.
Without
warning.
The
Delta man fell fast, and--
shluck!
--was impaled on the wooden stakes
positioned ten feet below the false floor.
Chase
and Kenny had had better reflexes.
When
the floor had dropped, they'd both lunged at the nearest carvings. Now Kenny
clung to the carved stone head of a woolly mammoth, clutching it in a full
hands-and-feet bear-hug, while Chase--ironically--hung from the carving of the
giant rat head.
It
was then that she saw Leonard Breslin, standing at the inner end of the
passageway, his foot next to the trigger panel that had activated the floor.
Then
Breslin hit the floor panel again and the passageway's floor swung back up into
place.
OF
RATS AND MEN
Breslin
and the last Delta man charged down the ultra-narrow passageway-the Delta man
with his gun up, Breslin with the Visitor's Stone tucked under his arm.
'Don't
move,' Breslin said as he and the Delta man squeezed past them, the gun trained
on their noses. 'If you follow us, you will be shot.' The two men then
disappeared out the far end of the passageway.
Chase
and Kenny released their grips on their carved stone heads.
'Great,'
Kenny said. 'Now we're stuck between
two
sets of rats. What do we--'
A
sniffing sound made them turn.
They
spun to see one of the creatures step slowly and menacingly into the passageway
from the other end, thirteen yards away.
'At
least we have a chance against Breslin,' Chase said.
'I
agree,' Kenny said. 'Run!'
THE
RACE
Chase
and Kenny ran--ran for all they were worth.
They
came to the long stone with the rodents close behind them, jumped over it like hurdlers.
The
knotted rope still dangled from the well-shaft.
Chase
and Kenny grabbed the rope and started climbing. A second later, they heard the
resounding
bang!
of the piledriving mechanism.
The
rodents had discovered the long stone.
Chase
could see Breslin and his Delta bodyguard halfway up the well-shaft, climbing
the rope.
The
bodyguard fired down at them one-handed--but after a single shot, his gun went
dry.
He'd
used up his bullets downstairs.
But
they still had the upper hand.
Breslin
would almost certainly cut the rope once he was safely at the top of the well,
letting Chase and Kenny drop back--There came a sudden tug on the rope.
Chase
looked down.
The
creatures were climbing the rope!
'Hey,
Miss Former Gymnast,' Kenny said. 'Think you can climb this rope in record
time?'
'Right…'
Chase said grimly.
And
she started climbing--
fast
--hand over hand, gymnast-style, all arms, no
feet.
THE
MINE ENTRANCE
Leonard
Breslin stepped out of the well-shaft-still holding the Visitor's Stone-closely
followed by his Delta bodyguard.
'Cut
the rope,' he ordered.
The
Delta man unsheathed his knife, brought it to the edge of the well-shaft----just
as a female hand reached up out of the hole, grabbed his wrist, and yanked him
down into the well!
The
Delta man wailed all the way down, just missing Kenny as he sailed past him.
Up
in the small mine entrance, Breslin tried to make a break for the airlock door,
but Chase was too fast. She swung herself up out of the well-shaft and dived at
his legs, tackling him rugby league style.
The
two of them hit the floor hard, just outside the squat stone entrance to the
mine. The Visitor's Stone tumbled to the floor.
Kenny
emerged from the well-shaft shouting, 'They're
coming!
'
As
the first creature's claws appeared on the rim of the well-shaft, Breslin
clambered for the Stone, crawling through the dirt.
Chase
and Kenny just ran for the airlock's doorway.
Breslin
grabbed the Stone, and he smiled--just as he was sucked violently back across
the floor by one of the creatures!
'No!'
he shouted as he was yanked back inside the dark mine entrance, the Visitor's
Stone dropping from his grasp.
Kenny
dashed through the airlock's Lexan doorway. Chase, however, paused in it.
'Jessica,
come on,' Kenny urged.
Chase
was gazing at the Visitor's Stone on the ground in the entryway to the mine.
'There's
one more thing to do,' she said, as she pulled from her pocket the second
object she had taken from the mauled Delta man down in the cage-dropping
tunnel.
It
was a grenade.
She
pulled the pin and tossed the grenade toward the mine entrance. It rolled to a
stop next to the Visitor's Stone, right in the doorway to the mine.
Chase
then ducked through the airlock doorway and sealed it shut behind her.
The
grenade detonated.
The
cube-shaped airlock spontaneously
filled
with rapidly-expanding smoke as
the mine entrance was blasted into a thousand pieces.
Chunks
of rock
slammed
into the superstrong Lexan-glass, while clouds of dust
billowed up against its clear-glass walls.
When
the dust eventually settled, there was no longer any mine entrance--just a pile
of rubble, packed solid, completely covering the well-shaft.
The
Visitor's Stone--so close to the grenade blast--had been completely destroyed.
DEPARTURE
The
hangar complex was now deserted.
It
had been three hours since Chase and Kenny had arrived and Breslin's corporate
jet had long since departed. The medics and the wounded men in the infirmary
were also gone.
Chase
and Kenny emerged from the hangar into brilliant desert sunshine. The complex around
them looked old and decrepit--deliberately made to look disused.
The
dull-brown Nevada landscape stretched away from them in every direction.
They
walked for several miles down a pitted dirt road until they came to a gate.
Beyond that they found a highway where they thumbed a ride.
As
she sat in the back of a pick-up truck, swaying with every jolt, Chase reflected
on the past few hours.
The
tablets--the booby traps--the subterranean pyramid--the Visitor's Stone--and of
course, the rampaging hairy creatures.
She
snuffed a laugh.
The
creatures. How
had
they survived for so long inside the subterranean
pyramid?