The Sacred Vault

and grip them as tightly as she could, wedging her feet against the framework. The ramp dropped away before her, the ski-jump at its end seeming laughably inadequate to get them airborne. ‘Oh, crap, what are we doing . . .’

Eddie struck the match and touched it to the fuse. It flared with a hiss, spitting sparks. ‘Houston, we are go for launch!’ he cried, scrambling between Nina and Kit and yanking the cords to pull out the chocks from the vimana’s runners.

With a grating screech of corroded metal on stone, the glider lurched a few inches down the ramp - then stopped.

‘Okay, that didn’t work like I hoped,’ said Eddie, grimacing. He grabbed what he hoped were the control rods, looking back to see the fizzing fuse almost fully burned away. ‘Shake us loose before it fires!’

They jerked at the frame. The runners squealed, shifting slightly. ‘Harder, harder!’ said Nina. ‘This is one time I really don’t want to be stuck on the runway!’

One final combined push—

The rocket fired - just as the glider jolted free.

The flecks of corrosion spitting from the metal were replaced by a shower of sparks as the flying machine screeched down the ramp. Before they knew it, they were at the bottom, G-force pressing them down against the slats as the glider hurtled up the ski-jump . . .

And took off.

All three passengers screamed as the vimana cleared the doors, the broken edge of the ledge rushing past beneath them. The screams got louder as something else shot below - another RPG round. It hit the ramp and exploded in a shower of shattered stone. One side of the structure collapsed, crushing several of the parked gliders.

Their own glider was of more concern, however. The rocket was pushing it forward, but it was no longer gaining height - it had reached the top of its parabolic trajectory and was arcing inexorably downwards. The wooden wings creaked frighteningly. Eddie pushed the controls forward, hoping the vimana would respond like a hang-glider and level out, but it only steepened their descent.

Nina glimpsed Shankarpa and the other surviving guardians watching in wonder as they flashed past - then they disappeared from sight as the glider dropped below the uppermost tiers. ‘Up would be good. Up, up, up!’

‘I’m bloody trying!’ Eddie shouted. If pushing forward made them go down, maybe pulling back would do the opposite . . .

He hauled at the wooden levers. More alarming creaks came from the wings, the fabric rippling and flapping. But it seemed to be working - the vimana’s nose began to tip upwards—

‘Eddie, look out!’ cried Kit. The MD 500 came into view directly ahead, descending towards them.

‘Whoa, shit!’ Not having a clue how to steer, he jammed the controls sideways in the hope it would bank the glider. It worked - the vimana veered left.

But now it was heading for the valley wall, the carvings on the tiers reaching out to snatch at its fragile wingtip—

He yanked the controls back the other way, pulling them to gain height. The vimana was buffeted violently in the downdraught as they passed the gunship. The rocket was still burning, thrusting them along the valley with ever-increasing speed.

Towards the cliff at its end.

A column of oily smoke roiled from the wrecked Chinook, but it couldn’t mask the great wall of grey stone rising ahead. ‘Whatever you did to make us go up,’ Nina said fearfully, ‘do it more!’

Eddie strained to pull back the controls. Pops and cracks came from the overstressed wood. The snow- covered clifftop came into view as the vimana climbed, but the glider was losing speed, even the rocket’s power not enough to overcome the weight of three people. ‘Come on, you bugger,’ he gasped. If they didn’t increase their angle of climb, they would crash into the rock wall just short of the summit. ‘Come on, come on, fucking come on!’

The wings crackled, fabric stretched to tearing point - but they weren’t going to make it . . .

Nina screamed as they hit - and kept going, bursting through the thick snowdrift atop the cliff. She spat out snow. ‘Jesus Christ, Eddie!’

‘I wasn’t worried,’ he lied. They flew over the pass through the ridge, an updraught raising them higher. Mount Kedarnath rolled vertiginously before them. With the weather far clearer than on the previous two days, they could see all the way to the distant lowland plains. ‘Look at that!’ he whooped, laughing. ‘We did it, we got out of there! Yes!’ He took one hand off the controls for a moment to pump his fist. ‘So my hearing’s a bit knackered - so what? I don’t need ears to kick arse!’

‘That you don’t,’ Nina told him, managing a quick smile.

‘Without wanting to sound negative,’ said Kit, who had only just opened his eyes to take in the landscape wheeling below, ‘we are not exactly home and dry yet.’

Eddie gestured to the southwest. ‘We’re not far off, though. We can fly this thing back to Kedarnath. Maybe even all the way to Gaurikund!’

‘Just like the priests of Shiva,’ said Nina. ‘This is incredible! Terrifying, but incredible.’

Kit was more pragmatic. ‘You can fly it . . . but can you land it?’ ‘Find out soon, eh?’ Eddie said, turning southwest.

The rocket popped and fizzed, then burned out. Nina looked back to make sure nothing was on fire - and saw they hadn’t escaped all the threats in the lost valley. ‘Eddie! The chopper’s coming after us!’

The MD 500 had turned to follow its unexpected prey, accelerating after the vimana. The gunner withdrew the rocket launcher, the M249 returning in its place.

‘Bollocks!’ Eddie hissed. Even if the gunship didn’t shoot them out of the sky, it could simply follow until they landed and pick them off from the air - or even force them to crash by flying overhead and using the rotor downwash as a weapon. He had to lose the helicopter if they were to have any chance of survival - but how?

The view ahead gave him an answer. He banked the vimana back towards the towering mountain.

‘What are you doing?’ Nina asked, anxiety rising as the peak filled her view.

‘I’ve got a plan.’

‘Is it a good one?’

‘Probably not - but it’s all I’ve got!’ He glanced back. The chopper was about five hundred metres behind, and closing. ‘Tell me when he points the gun at us.’

Nina looked over her shoulder as Eddie’s attention returned to the looming mountain. While the sky was mostly clear, the ever-changing weather of the Himalayas had formed bands of clouds around Mount Kedarnath. One in particular had caught his eye. He banked towards it.

The wings shook as another gusting updraught caught them. But even though they were climbing, they were still getting closer to the ground every second as it rose up steeply before them.

‘Eddie, gun!’ Nina warned. He shoved the controls sideways, banking the vimana to the left. Tracer bullets whipped past on their right. He swung back in that direction before the next burst was unleashed, the bullets this time passing to the left.

Nearer than before. He pulled the rods back to gain more height, heading for the wedge of cloud jutting from the mountainside. Another cry from Nina and he banked hard right as more shots seared past, getting closer and closer as the gunner tracked the glider—

Flat whaps from the wing as bullets ripped through it were followed by a terrifying crack of wood: a support spar had been hit. The vimana lurched, veering left as it lost lift on that side. Eddie forced the control levers over even harder to compensate. They were now almost beneath the cloud, a great grey mass tilting upwards from the mountainside . . .

A flag cloud. The harbinger of a storm.

And they were heading right into it.

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