The Covenant of Genesis

spreading out from beneath his boot like thin ice. He hurriedly lifted his foot—

Callum hit him in the chest. Caught off balance, Chase staggered . . . and fell backwards.

He landed on the open door - which buckled, one of the hinges snapping. With a yelp of ‘Oh, shit!’ Chase slid down it and was pitched into the chasm below—

His hand clamped round the window frame.

The jolt as he stopped his fall almost wrenched his arm from its socket. He slammed against the Humvee’s mangled front wing, swinging helplessly. More cracks came from the door’s overstressed hinge as it was bent past its limit.

Callum crossed the cabin. He saw Chase’s hand gripping the frame, knuckles white. A nasty smile crossed his lips as he edged closer - and smashed his heel down on the door. The hinge groaned. Another strike, and another. Metal strained, split—

Snapped.

The door dropped into the ravine - just as Chase caught the Humvee’s wing with his free hand. He slammed face first against the wheel as the door fell past him, hitting his shoulder and almost tearing him loose. Blood seeping from his fingers where he clutched torn metal, he kicked and flailed before finally finding a second handhold.

Callum leaned out of the doorway above him. Their eyes met. For a moment Chase thought he was going to lower himself out and stamp on his hands, but then he retreated into the cabin.

He knew why. The Humvee was hanging from a single rock; a couple of kicks would send the entire vehicle plunging to its doom. If Callum reached the top of the cliff before he did—

The thought spurred him to action. He pulled himself up, climbing hand over hand until he managed to get a foothold on the bumper.

Callum heard him moving as he was about to climb out through the driver’s-side door. He halted, spotting something in the footwell. A pistol.

Chase kept climbing. He reached the doorway, looked inside—

To see Callum bringing up a gun.

He ducked as Callum fired. Two shots zipped just above his head, a third striking the door frame. The Humvee shook as Callum climbed across the cabin, coming to finish the job.

Nowhere to go . . .

Except down.

Chase released his grip - and dropped.

He caught the front wheel, hands slipping over the mud clogging the tread before finding purchase. Without a pause, he swung himself underneath the Humvee, grabbing the front axle and clambering along it like a monkey bar.

Callum returned to the doorway and looked down again. No sign of Chase. With a satisfied smirk, he peered up the cliff, comparing the vines Chase had used to climb down to the ones on the other side of the vehicle. Deciding that the latter appeared stronger, he turned back across the cabin.

Reaching the other end of the axle, Chase hauled himself round the wheel and pulled himself up beneath the open door. Through the window, he saw Callum negotiating the steering wheel, not wanting to stand on the damaged windscreen.

Chase grabbed the dangling vines beside the door and rapidly climbed upwards. Callum, halfway through the door, heard the noise - as Chase pulled up both legs and booted him back into the cabin. The gun clattered on the windscreen. Chase dropped on to the door, the hinges screeching. He grabbed the door frame - and smashed a nose-breaking punch into Callum’s face.

The American fell, sprawled over the dashboard. Chase stepped inside and plucked the radio from Callum’s jacket. He pulled back, reaching for the vines outside.

Callum’s hand closed round the gun. Eyes narrowed to pain-filled slits, he brought it up, taking aim—

Chase stepped on the accelerator.

The Humvee’s wheels spun, finding grip even on the cliff face - and wrenching the rear axle off the pointed rock.

Clinging to the vines with one hand, Chase yanked his leg out of the cabin as the Humvee fell. Callum’s scream echoed up the canyon as the vehicle disappeared into shadow - then was cut off by a huge crash of metal on stone.

‘Fuck you, whitey!’ Chase gasped, shoving the radio into the waistband of his jeans before gripping the vines with both hands and climbing. He could feel the plants straining under his weight. Only six feet to go, five, the edge of the cliff tantalisingly close—

A loud snap. One of the larger creepers gave way, the smaller vines bunched with it in his hand also ripping. He snatched at others, but they had been damaged by the Humvee when it ground over the edge and broke instantly. He swung, the vines in his other hand tearing . . .

Hands gripped his flailing wrist. Startled, he looked up.

Nina.

‘I got you,’ she said.

She pulled. Toes scrabbling against the rocks, Chase forced himself upwards until he was able to get one hand over the edge. He dragged himself on to solid ground, staring up at Nina as he panted in relief. ‘I told you to get out!’

‘Like you say, I never listen to you.’ She helped him sit up. ‘I wasn’t going to leave you here.’

‘Thanks.’ He examined the radio. He didn’t recognise the type - some kind of spook special, he guessed - and hoped Callum hadn’t changed the frequency. ‘Okay, let’s give this a try.’

‘You’re not going to do your John-Wayne-with-brain-damage voice, are you?’ said Nina as he switched it on.

‘Shh.’ He put on his best attempt at an American accent, trying to remember the codes Callum had used. ‘Abaddon, Abaddon, this is Archangel, urgent. Code alpha hold, repeat, this is a code alpha hold!’

Silence. Nina and Chase looked at each other in concern. Then: ‘Archangel, this is Abaddon.’ Chase pumped his fist in silent triumph. The B-2 crew thought he was Callum, and would stop the drop—

‘We, ah . . .’ The pilot’s hesitant tone vaporised his jubilation in an instant. ‘We released the bombs five seconds ago.’

‘What?’ Nina yelped. She looked up at the cavern’s ceiling. ‘Son of a bitch!’

‘Say again, Archangel?’

Chase jumped up, grabbing Nina’s hand and pulling her after him. ‘Leg it!’

‘Ow, ow, ow!’ Nina gasped with every step on her injured leg. ‘How long have - aah! - have we got?’

‘Not long!’ From sixty thousand feet it took a person in freefall over five minutes to reach zero altitude - but the GPS-guided Massive Ordnance Penetrators each weighed fifteen tons, and their terminal velocity would be supersonic. They would hit the ground in a fraction of the time.

They reached the edge of the jungle, emerging on the dry river bed. The tunnel was a dark arch directly ahead. They entered it, running footsteps echoing through the curving passage. Light ahead. The Covenant had cleared the entrance to accommodate the Humvees. ‘Come on, we can do it!’ Chase cried, running faster. Nina responded, increasing her pace as they sprinted for the open desert, and safety—

The bombs hit the cavern.

The first MOP speared through the roof as if it were wet paper, hitting the ground just outside the temple walls. The combination of its weight and speed punched the reinforced bomb casing almost a hundred and fifty feet into earth and solid rock.

The second bomb went deeper, by fluke dropping through one of the holes in the ceiling and plunging into the ravine.

Body broken, organs ruptured, Callum was nevertheless still alive, lying in the Humvee’s mangled wreckage. Through pain-racked eyes he could see a circle of sky high above - in which a black dot appeared, rushing at him before he even had time to scream—

The MOP hit the Humvee, utterly disintegrating it and its occupant as it slammed through them and dug deep