He looked ahead. If the A380 held its course and altitude, it would pass right over the fjord and fly just above the remains of the biolab to plow into the mountainside behind it.
He activated the autopilot, hand hovering over the control stick in case the computers tried to ascend or turn back towards the runway. They didn’t. All other instructions deleted, the autopilot held the Airbus on a steady course and speed.
He turned and clamped one hand around his leg, ignoring the pain. He could already feel the telltale sensation of blood loss swirling at the fringes of his consciousness, dizzying weakness circling him like a pack of jackals, waiting to strike. There wasn’t much time. Limping, he traversed the stairs from the cockpit into the crew area-
And stopped in horror.
A spattered trail of blood led to the door of the hold.
Painfully he snatched up his gun and staggered to the door.
The Suzuki was freed of its restraints, supported by its stand. The keys were in a plastic bag taped to the fuel tank; Nina ripped it open and took them out, the documents with them immediately scattered by the blasting wind.
Her experience with motorbikes was limited, but she managed to get the Suzuki running with little trouble. The fuel gauge was flat against “empty,” however, all but the last dregs having been drained for transport. She looked around to see if Chase had finished in the cockpit-
And saw Kari leaping at her!
She tackled Nina from the bike. Both women landed heavily. Nina tried to push Kari off her-only to have Kari’s elbow smash into the side of her head. Stunned, she looked up.
Kari’s hands clamped around her throat. The Norwegian’s face was twisted with pain and fury, framed by a windblown mane of blond hair. “Bitch!” she shrieked, teeth speckled with blood. “I gave you everything, and you betrayed me!”
Nina couldn’t breathe. She pulled at Kari’s hands, but they were like steel, unmovable. Her fingers tightened, thumbs pressing deep into Nina’s windpipe. Blackness swirled in, a hissing noise rising in Nina’s ears that overpowered even the thunder of the wind.
Farther up the hold, Chase saw Kari on top of Nina, strangling her, but the two women were too close together for him to risk a shot-
Unconsciousness loomed, death close behind it. All Nina could see now was Kari’s enraged face above her. She made a last feeble attempt to pull her hands from her neck…
Her fingers brushed against something cold and hard.
Something
Her pendant-
With the last of her strength, she gripped the piece of orichalcum and slashed it across the inside of Kari’s right wrist.
Kari shrieked. She jerked back, blood spurting from the cut as she released Nina, and looked down in disbelieving shock-
Nina punched her in the face. Kari fell backwards, rolling off Nina to slump dazed on the deck.
“Nice punch!” Chase shouted as he staggered to Nina.
“Thought I’d try things your way,” she gasped.
“Get on the bike!” Through the cargo door, he saw the coastline receding into the distance behind them. The plane was now less than two miles from the biolab, and the A380 would cover that distance in under a minute.
He straddled the Suzuki, gasping in pain from his wound. Nina clambered on behind him. The insanity of what they were about to do hit home. There was almost no chance of survival…
But even a tiny chance was better than none. She wrapped her arms around him.
Kari sat up, saw what they were about to do.
Chase twisted the throttle. The rear wheel whirled, the noise of the high-performance engine becoming a buzzing screech as the bike shot from the pallet and raced down the hold towards the open door.
Kari grabbed at Nina, but it was too late.
By the time the Suzuki reached the cargo door, it was already doing seventy miles per hour, and still accelerating.
Chase turned the handlebars, and the bike flew out into open space.
Riding out from the back of the plane had canceled out some of their forward airspeed-but not enough. And they were over solid ground, falling fast!
He’d mistimed it, and now they were
“Close your eyes!” he yelled, as the clifftop on the northern side of Ravnsfjord shot past just beneath them.
They were falling into the fjord!
Chase looked down. Water rushed towards them at terrifying speed-
Kari staggered back to the cockpit, blood running from her wounds. If she could reactivate the autopilot, the computers could still bring the A380 back to an emergency landing.
But as she entered, she realized she was too late.
Her home flashed past to the right. Coming up below were the ruins of the biolab, and directly ahead were the mountainside and the expansive windows of her father’s office-
She screamed.
Frost was paralyzed with shock by the sight of the airliner as it flew over the fjord, charging right at him. Now movement returned, the primal urge to flee overpowering all other thought, but there was nowhere to go, and no time…
Chase kicked with his good leg, throwing himself clear of the tumbling bike. Nina did the same. Together they plunged towards the water-
The Airbus plowed into the mountainside at over a hundred miles per hour.
Five hundred tons of metal and composites and jet fuel was more force than even the reinforced containment area could withstand. The four massive engines ripped free on impact, tearing through the walls of concrete and steel like bombs. Behind them, fuel ignited as the wings disintegrated. A wave of liquid fire swept through the complex and incinerated everything it touched.
The inferno reached every corner of the containment area. The lab in which the virus had been developed and
