The Covenant of Genesis

‘What about the rest of the library?’ demanded Zamal, waving a hand at the shelves. ‘There must be something here that can help us!’

‘Perhaps - but it would take months of study. And, unfortunately, Dr Wilde is probably right - the Veteres took the most valuable tablets with them. We might be able to locate some of the other sites on the map, but that’ll take time.’

‘Time we don’t have,’ said Vogler. ‘If Chase and Blackwood get away . . .’

‘They won’t,’ Zamal insisted. ‘My men will stop them.’

‘If they get away,’ Vogler went on, ‘we need to catch them.’ He held up the empty pouch of Nina’s camera. ‘They have pictures of the map.’ He turned to his men, gesturing at four of the five. ‘Get back to the surface, take two of the paracraft and find where that shaft leads. If Chase and Blackwood make it out of the cavern . . . I want you to be waiting for them.’

‘The shaft is that way,’ said Sophia, pointing towards the dam as they emerged from the hypogeum.

‘Yeah, but the sledge is this way,’ Chase replied.

‘So are the rest of the Covenant.’

‘They’re not here yet,’ said Chase, with a glance towards the road. He reached the sled and righted it. Most of the gear was scattered over the ground nearby, but some pieces - including the gas cylinder - had stayed secured. He picked up the rangefinder’s heavy tripod and tossed it aboard, then hurried back downhill, tugging the sled behind him like a recalcitrant dog. ‘Get a shift on!’

Sophia ran with him. ‘Shit! Here they come!’ Five men in snow camo barrelled round a building after them. ‘You’d go faster if you let go of that thing!’

‘We need it!’ They reached the edge of the ‘lake’ at the base of the dam, where water had pooled below the bottom of the shaft. Chase was fairly sure it would have frozen thickly enough to support their weight, but the ice still creaked alarmingly as they rushed across it.

The troopers were catching up. Ahead, the sloping face of the dam rose to meet the flat ceiling of ice, the dark circle of the drainage shaft at its foot.

Sophia headed for it. ‘Eddie, hurry up!’

‘What do you think I’m doing?’ The sled rasping over the ice behind him, he clomped towards the shaft entrance, heart pounding. A look back. The Covenant soldiers had split up, three of them still running, spreading out, the remaining pair stopping, crouching, taking aim—

‘Incoming!’ he warned as Sophia reached the hole and ducked inside. Chase dived after her as the soldiers opened fire, bullet impacts showering him with cold soil and stones. The bottom of the shaft was caked with ice that had frozen as the last dregs of lakewater flowed away. A tiny point of light shone in the distance.

The sled bumped to a stop against his legs. ‘Okay, get on!’ he told Sophia as he drew the gun.

She gave him a deeply dubious look, but obeyed. ‘How many bullets have you got left?’

‘One.’

‘One?’

‘It’ll be enough.’ I hope, he didn’t add as Sophia climbed aboard the sled. He lay on top of her. ‘This doesn’t mean we’re back together, by the way.’

‘God forbid,’ she sighed. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Giving us a kick-start!’ Left hand gripping the frame, feet braced against the rear cross-member, he aimed the gun - not at the entry to the shaft, but at the gas cylinder taped to the sled. ‘Threetwoone - ignition!’

Two soldiers sprang into view, rifles at the ready—

Chase fired, blowing the brass valve off the end of the cylinder.

Highly pressurised, highly flammable gas jetted out - and was ignited by the gun’s muzzle flame.

A ten-foot-long lance of fire sprang from the gas tank, sweeping over the two men like a blowtorch - and sending the sled rocketing down the shaft.

Chase dropped the gun, struggling to grip the sled’s frame as it hurtled down the passage. The roof of the shaft was less than a hand’s-width above him, his clothing scraping against it with every bump. Sophia screamed, and he could understand why - the cylinder was straining against their legs, trying to rip free of its restraints.

If it came loose they would be dead, crushed as the sled flipped or incinerated as the tank shot past . . .

Blue light surrounded them - they were through the dam, into the glacier on the other side. But if anything, emerging from the darkness only made the ride more terrifying: now they could see just how fast they were going.

And they were no longer going straight, the sled lurching off course and riding up the side of the shaft—

Chase joined in the screaming as the sled corkscrewed up the wall, on to the ceiling - and dropped down again on the other side, having made a complete rotation. It reached the bottom again, snaking from side to side before straightening out.

The roar of the flame stuttered and died. The sled began to slow.

‘J-Jesus!’ said Sophia, voice quavering. ‘You are a bloody maniac!’

Chase’s only response was a whoop of something between exultation and terror. He let the massive kick of adrenalin start to disperse, then looked up to see how much of the shaft remained ahead.

Not much.

‘Sophia?’

‘What?’

‘How high off the ground did this come out?’

‘Oh, God!’ she cried as they shot out into empty space.

29

Chase opened his eyes to find himself in an alien landscape. It took a few seconds for his mind to process what he was looking at, strange gnarled and twisted columns rising all round him like the bones of some giant glass monster. He realised where he was; the jet of water from the drainage shaft, coming out under enormous pressure, had carved a great cave out of the other side of the crevasse, the water then flowing away to leave a collection of bizarre blasted shapes as the ice refroze.

And he and Sophia had ended up in the middle of it, slamming down on the ice and skidding into the surreal amphitheatre before crashing to a halt.

He staggered upright. The sled’s journey was over; one of its runners had been torn off, the frame bent around the lump of ice that had brought it to an abrupt stop and catapulted its passengers into the weird cave. He took a step, wincing at a sharp pain in his shin. The sled’s contents were strewn all around. He picked up the tripod to use as a makeshift crutch, its spiked metal feet digging into the ice as he turned.

‘Sophia!’ She was sprawled about twenty feet away in a pile of fragmented ice. He limped over to her. She was still breathing, little clouds drifting from her nose. Blood ran from a deep cut on her chin. ‘Sophia? Come on, wake up.’

‘Eddie, not now,’ she mumbled in complaint, before her eyes snapped open and she clutched at her jaw, her glove coming away with a Rorschach patch of blood on the palm. ‘Ow, oh God! My face, Eddie, you’ve wrecked my bloody face!’

‘If that’s all you’re bothered about, you’re probably fine,’ Chase growled. ‘You should put some ice on it.’ He looked at their frozen surroundings, then gave her a theatrical shrug. ‘Dunno where we’re going to find any, though.’ He smiled as he turned away from her look of fury and raised the walkie-talkie, hoping it had survived the beating. ‘Matt! Matt, it’s Eddie. Are you still there?’

Silence for a long moment, then: ‘Eddie! Christ, mate, you’re cutting it fine - your hour’s almost up! Where are you? Are you okay?’

‘We’re in the crevasse, where the drainage shaft came out. How long will it take you to get here?’

‘We’re about eight clicks away, so . . .’ A pause as he consulted Larsson. ‘About five minutes.’

‘We’ll be here.’

‘Okay, on our way.’