momentarily shocking them both, the base of the narrow staircase itself.
They were in the center of the maze.
Alby gazed up the superhigh staircase. Its steps stretched up and away from him into the lofty heights of the hollowed-out volcano, wide enough only for one person at a time and without any kind of safety rail. Fierce-looking warrior-monks bearing spears and guns stood along its length.
At the base of the stairs, in the exact center of the entire maze, stood an ornate marble podium. Carved into it was a list of some sort, written in the Word of Thoth:
Given the podium’s central position, Alby figured the carvings on it were important, so he quickly snapped off some photos before Zoe yanked on his hand. “Come on, we have to get through the second half, and we still have those dogs on our tai—”
A blur of brown knocked her off her feet, tearing her away from Alby.
Alby fell backward, his mouth falling open as he saw the massive animal straddling Zoe.
A hyena.
The thing was huge, with foul brownish fur, matted and speckled, and the signature stunted hind legs of the hyena.
But it was alone. The pack must have split up in their hunt.
Zoe rolled underneath the snarling jaws of the hyena. Then she slammed it with her boot into the marble-like wall of the maze and the animal yelped. But it instantly pounced back at her, jaws bared—only to impale itself on the now sharpened crocodile bone held in Zoe’s outstretched right hand.
Zoe extracted the weapon, allowing the lifeless hyena to slump to the floor.
Alby stared. “This is hard-core…”
“Fuckin’-A it is,” Zoe said, already on her feet again. “I bet your mother wouldn’t want to see you doing this. Let’s go.”
Out in the village, again Lily heard a message over Ono’s radio:
“—Rapier, this is Switchblade. Neutralized the bogeys who were sneaking up on our chopper. Natives. Nasty. They were trying to sabotage the chopper. We’ve found the entrance to their base—due east of the carved forest; a fortified gate of some sort; heavily guarded. Gonna need some more men.”
“—Copy that, Switchblade. We’re on the way, coming in on you signal.”
Lily looked up in horror.
With Zoe and Alby in the maze, and Wizard and her trapped on their platforms, Wolf’s men were arriving at the main gate and they were about to storm the realm of the Neetha.
Desperate running through the maze.
Zoe and Alby didn’t dare stop. Now they were making their way through the southern half of the maze, heading away from the central staircase.
They encountered more muddy croc pits, a few deep holes, and even more human remains.
Halfway across, a second hyena caught up with them, but Zoe smashed it in the face with a crocodile skull, using the skull’s teeth as a multiedged blade that pierced the side of the snarling hyena’s head. The hyena howled and skulked off, blood all over its face.
They kept running, until after a time, brilliantly guided by Alby, they entered the outermost circle of the maze and charged around its long sweeping curve until they came to a high archway just like the one through which they had entered the maze.
The southern entrance.
Zoe halted twenty yards short of it. “We don’t want to leave the maze too early,” she said. “We have to wait for the time to be just right.”
“And when will that be?” Alby asked.
Just then, right on cue, the distinctive blast of a grenade explosion echoed out from somewhere in the Neetha ravine system.
“Now,” Zoe said. “The badder guys just arrived.”
WOLF’S ROGUE CIEF force stormed the main gate of the Neetha, led by the Marine trooper named Switchblade and a Delta man named Broadsword and supplemented by no less than a hundred Congolese Army troops bearing AK-47s.
Essentially bought with Saudi money, the Congolese soldiers were there literally as an army for hire, and Switchblade used them as such, as frontline fodder.
He hurled them at the main Neetha defenses in the mouth of the ravine—a series of booby traps and hidden positions that took out a point man or two, but which were soon nullified by the sheer number of advancing troops.
Some of the Neetha guards had guns—but most of them were old and poorly maintained, and they were no match for the modern weapons of the invading force.
And so Wolf’s force advanced through the ravine system, killing Neetha defenders on every side. The Neetha fought fanatically, giving away nothing, fighting to the bitter end. Many Congolese troops were killed, either by gun or by arrow, but their numbers were too great and their techniques too good, and soon they were spilling out onto the main village square.
As the invasion of the ravine system began, pandemonium broke loose all around the prisoner platforms.
