“Leave him here,” he said before striding out with his men, leaving Alby alone, on top of the ziggurat in the middle of the city.
The Sea Ranger and the twins.
They just stood motionless on the roof of the tower from which Jack had swung only moments before.
The Sea Ranger stared at the scene, digesting what had just happened.
The twins stood with their mouths agape. Horus, who had been sitting on Lachlan’s shoulder, flew off toward the abyss.
“He did it…” Lachlan breathed. “He fucking-A did it. He set the Pillar in place.”
Julius shook his head. “The guy is frigging Super Jack.”
“You can say that again,” the Sea Ranger said, glancing around them.
None of them had seen Alby through the labyrinth of buildings.
“Come on, gentlemen,” Wickham said. “We can’t stay here. We have to get back out that entry tunnel before Wolf’s buddies send a destroyer to seal it off. Come on.”
They hustled back to the Indian Raider.
“What about Horus?” Lachlan said as they moved.
“That bird’s destiny is with Jack,” Wickham said grimly. “Always has been.”
Alby.
Standing alone on the summit of the ziggurat in the middle of this vast underground space, abandoned by his captors and with darkness descending all around him as their flares began to fade, he felt the most profound sense of aloneness.
The sight of Jack West plummeting from view had shocked him to his very core—till now Jack had seemed indestructible, incapable of dying, but now he was gone, swallowed by the great abyss, dead.
And with that thought, a cold horror swept through Alby’s body as he realised that he was going to die here, in this huge dark cave, alone.
Standing there on the ancient ziggurat in the encroaching darkness, clutching Jack’s helmet, he softly began to cry.
Wizard, Zoe, Sky Monster, and Lily.
They saw it happen on their videophone monitor.
Watching it all first from Jack’s helmet camera and then from the camera that Lachlan had been wearing, they watched in horror as the ultratiny figures of Jack and Switchblade fell away from the tip of the immense pyramid, dropping down into the abyss, before they both disappeared from sight.
“Daddy…!”Lily cried, leaping at the screen. “No!No, no, no…!”
“Jack…” Zoe’s eyes filled with tears.
“Huntsman…” Wizard whispered.
Sky Monster pointed at the screen. “Look, he laid the Pillar before he fell! He did it! The crazy bastard did it…!”
But then an alarm siren blared out in the cockpit and Sky Monster went to check on it and he called, “Zoe! Wiz! We have incoming South African aircraft! F-15s! We have to get out of here!”
Despite their tears, Zoe and Wizard hurried off to man the wing guns, leaving Lily staring at the monitor— alone, frozen, stunned—sobbing deep wrenching sobs and searching for some sign, any sign, that her father was alive but knowing in her heart that he could not possibly be.
“Oh, Daddy…” she said again. “Daddy…”
Then The Halicarnassus powered up and they took to the air, flying north this time, away from southern Africa, fleeing yet again, uncertain and unnerved by the knowledge that now without any shadow of a doubt, they faced the remaining challenges of their quest—the placing of the last four Pillars in March of 2008—alone, without Jack West Jr.
THE END OF
THE 6 SACRED STONES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WRITING A NOVEL can be a somewhat solitary experience: you spend months alone at the keyboard, lost in the world you have created. I happen to find this enormously fun, which is why writing novels is the best job in the world for me.
But when you decide to write a book with ancient Chinese characters and Japanese military language in it, you have to call for help, and this is where I get to thank those many people who helped me along the way.
As always, my wife, Natalie, is the first to read my stuff and her comments still manage to be both insightful and gentle. Having read all my books in draft stage plus all my screenplays, she’s now really quite an experienced manuscript reader!
To my good friend John Schrooten, who (again) read this one while sitting in the M.A. Noble Stand at the SCG while waiting for the cricket to start. The cricket commenced and he just kept on reading, so that was a good sign! Great friend, great guy.
For technical support, I am indebted to Patrick Pow for getting the ancient Chinese scripts from China, and to Irene Kay for putting me in touch with Patrick.
