Indiana Jones & the Peril at Delphi

She had an answer for everything and the answer always sounded reasonable. That was her gift.

'There's one thing I still don't understand. If you were just faking it in the vapors, why did you fake this last fit when you took the Omphalos from me? What was the point of that?'

'No. I didn't fake that. I don't know what happened, and I don't want to think about it, either.'

Now that she'd admitted the truth, Indy knew that he couldn't so easily dismiss his own experience with the Omphalos as a meaningless dream.

Just then a car horn honked. Indy slung the knapsack over his shoulder. 'Good-bye.'

'You're taking the Omphalos?'

'Yes. I'll see that it gets into a museum.'

'Take me with you, too. I can't stay here now.'

'No.'

'Please.' She grabbed his arm. 'You don't know what kind of things Alex would do to me.'

The car honked again. 'All right. Under one condition. I'm taking you to the king's palace and you are going to confess to your part in the assassination plot and turn in Mandraki.'

'Okay. I'll do it. Whatever you say.'

They stepped outside the hut and both gazed toward Apollo's Temple. With his free hand, Indy reached into his pocket and pulled out his watch.

'It's eight minutes to four.' The vapors should have been rising for three minutes now, but there was no sign of them.

'The pattern's broken,' Dorian said softly.

23

Escape from Delphi

A shiny Pierce-Arrow was parked outside the ruins, and for an instant Indy thought it must belong to the king. Then he saw Conrad behind the wheel. 'Is that Mandraki's car?'

'One of them,' Dorian said as they hurried toward the car.

Back in the States, you could buy a flivver for two hundred eighty dollars or five dollars a week on the install ment plan, but few people could afford an elegant Pierce-Arrow, and no doubt the cost for one in Greece was much higher. 'He must have money.'

'Lots.'

'Let's go,' Conrad said from behind the front seat as he eyed Dorian warily.

'Where're your uniforms?'

'The soldiers were gone.' Conrad glanced over at Shannon. 'We almost didn't get away. Jack told Nikos to go back to the hotel for his cornet, and while we waited half the village came out to see the car. I think word got around.'

Indy peered down the road toward the village. 'Let's get the hell out of here.'

'What's she doing here?' Shannon asked.

'I'm taking her to the king.'

Shannon smirked. 'You're what?'

'She's going to confess.'

'Sure.'

'Well, I can't leave her here. Mandraki will kill her, if he's still alive.'

'I heard two soldiers talking,' Nikos said from the back seat. 'The colonel is okay. The bullet hit his ammunition belt.'

'Nice shot,' Indy said to Dorian. 'Nikos, you better get out. We've got to go.'

'I want to go to Athens with you,' he beamed. 'My father gave me permission.'

'Did he know how you were going?'

'Well, no.'

'It could be dangerous.'

'You think so?' he asked hopefully.

Suddenly, a military truck appeared on the road, coming from the direction of the village. Conrad cranked the engine, stepped hard on the accelerator pedal. It sputtered.

'It's flooded,' Shannon yelled.

Conrad tried again.

The truck closed in on them. Indy jerked open the back door and grabbed Dorian by the arm. 'Get in.

Quick.'

The engine revved to life.

But Dorian surprised him. She twisted her arm away and ran toward the truck.

'Dorian,' he shouted, and leaped from the car. But the knapsack snagged on the door. He pulled it loose, but it was too late. She was running directly at the oncoming truck, waving her hands and calling out to Mandraki. The truck braked.

She's dead, he thought.

'Get in, for chrissake,' Conrad yelled as he started to drive away. Indy trotted after the car, and leaped onto the running board. He looked back and saw Mandraki embrac ing Dorian in the middle of the road.

'What the hell?' Indy exclaimed.

A dozen soldiers poured out of the back of the truck and

opened fire. Conrad stepped hard on the accelerator as Shannon returned the fire.

Indy swung the door open and was about to slide into the back seat when he felt something strike him between the shoulder blades. He dropped face first onto the seat.

Shannon let out a whoop as they roared away. 'I got their front tires.'

Indy was gasping for breath. 'Good. But I think they got me.'

Nikos helped him shed the knapsack. Indy expected blood and pain.

'You're not shot,' Nikos said.

'What?' He rolled over and saw Nikos holding up the knapsack.

'See, there's the hole, but only through the back of it. The bullet hit the thing you found. It saved you.'

Indy opened the knapsack and stared incredulously at the Omphalos. He considered picking it up to look for the bullet's mark, but thought better of it.

'You okay?' Conrad called over his shoulder as they raced down the mountain.

'Just fine.'

'You're as lucky as Colonel Mandraki,' Nikos said.

Shannon turned in his seat. 'I don't understand Mandraki. The woman shoots him and he welcomes her like someone who had just saved his life.'

Indy shook his head. 'I don't get it, either.'

The telegraph operator in the back of the truck finished tapping out the message. He waited until he received acknowledgment, then nodded to Mandraki. 'They'll nev er make it to Athens,' Mandraki said, and he smiled at Dorian, pleased with himself.

'Good,' she said. 'But we can't hide their deaths. Too many witnesses.'

Mandraki frowned. 'We can't admit to killing them, either. The king will use it against me.'

'Relax, Alex. It will be no problem. They stole an officer's car, and an archaeological artifact, a national trea sure. They were killed in a gun battle as they tried to escape. Simple as that.'

'You are a complex woman, Dorian. But I like your simple solutions. Now tell me which one of them shot me.'

It was twilight as they descended the hills to the outskirts of the capital. The lights of Athens were blinking on below them. Indy was tired, thirsty, and hungry, but most of all he was anxious to get to the presidential palace. It was the one place he felt that they would be safe for the night. If they could get through the front gate.

'You ask me, we should skip the visit to the palace and go on to Piraeus, and take the first boat out of here,' Shannon said. 'With luck, we could be in Paris tomorrow night.'

'That wouldn't be luck. That would be a miracle,' Conrad quipped. 'But it might be a good idea to get out of here if we can.'