because he feared being hit, but because he was only feet from the silver door at the bottom of the reservoir.
If the trap still worked, it would soon open.
The gunshots stopped, replaced by grunts of exertion. Another man was ascending, pulling himself up each step in turn. Shouts followed him as other men crowded into the tunnel to join the pursuit.
He reached the fourth ledge—
The slab tilted under his weight. Only by an inch . . .
But that was all that was needed to release the flap.
The heavy metal door, hinged at its top, flew open under the pressure of thousands of gallons of water. The escaping flood smashed against the great wall before finding an escape route – straight down the shaft.
The deluge swept away the men climbing the steps, dashing them against the spikes and driving the silver points through skulls and torsos. Those at the bottom fared no better, the surge of water pounding along the passage like a piston and flinging them to their deaths on the jagged rocks below.
Outside, Pachac stared at the plume of water gushing from the tunnel in horrified disbelief. He had been about to enter the passage himself – and now all the men who had gone before him were dead! Bodies surfaced and bobbed in the frothing pool, limbs snapped like broken dolls. The rest of his men were equally shocked. ‘Inkarri!’ shouted one. ‘What – what do we do now?’
The force of the water was already falling. Pachac’s face set into an angry snarl. ‘As soon as the tunnel is clear, we go in – and make the bastards who killed our brothers pay!’
Eddie reached Echazu, the young officer having found a position in a small house overlooking the shaft. Chambi was not far away, crouched behind the wall of a terrace near their route into the city. ‘You got them!’ said the Peruvian.
‘Dunno if I got all of ’em, though,’ Eddie replied. The reservoir was now empty, the silver flap’s weight swinging it shut to reset the trap – but it would take hours, even days, for the streams running through the cavern to refill it. ‘If I didn’t, it won’t take long before they come through that hole. If you see anyone, shoot ’em!’ He ran along the terrace to give the corporal the same instructions.
From the circling Hind, Stikes watched Pachac and his remaining men climb to the entrance set into the towering wall. The gush of water from it had reduced to a modest stream. ‘The Incas didn’t leave their city totally undefended, I see.’
Baine, sitting beside him, looked down at the corpses in the pool without sympathy. ‘Stupid bastards. Must have run right in without checking.’
‘And Pachac’s probably about to do the same thing. He said they killed two soldiers, but that leaves another two – and I suspect the other end of that tunnel is easily defensible.’ His gaze rose from the wall to the cave mouth above it. With the waterfall all but stopped, the faint shapes of buildings were visible in the darkness. Elevated positions, with plenty of cover. . . ‘We might have to give him some help.’ He spoke into his headset. ‘Gurov, get a good firing angle into that cave.’
Nina looked down from the plaza at the great wall. She had seen Eddie running from the top of the shaft as a massive wave crashed into it, but then he disappeared behind the city’s lower buildings. ‘Oh God, where is he?’
‘He got clear,’ Mac assured her. ‘He’ll be okay.’
The other expedition members joined them at the stone balustrade. ‘Look, there!’ said Kit, pointing. A man peered cautiously from the top of the shaft before climbing out—
Gunfire crackled from below. Dust and stones kicked up around the intruder – then he slumped to the rocky ground, dead. Another man behind him hurriedly dropped out of sight.
Zender clenched a fist in triumph. ‘They got him!’
Nina didn’t feel reassured. Even if they could hold off their attackers, they were still trapped inside the city.
And there was another threat. The chop of the Hind’s rotors rose as the gunship descended, slowly pivoting to face the cave entrance.
Eddie reached over to Chambi’s AKM and turned its firing mode selector from automatic to single-shot. ‘You need to save ammo,’ he told the surprised soldier, having noticed that both Peruvians were only carrying one extra magazine. ‘It’ll be more accurate an’ all.’
Chambi’s grasp of English was apparently not great, but he got the gist. ‘You have been in fights before?’ he asked.
Eddie grinned crookedly. ‘You could say that. Whoa, look out – there’s another one.’ The barrel of an AK-47 popped up from the shaft, followed by its owner’s head, his companions lifting him so he could aim his weapon with both hands.
Chambi fired, the shot accompanied by a crack from Echazu’s gun. Eddie wasn’t sure whose bullet hit its target, but was happy with the result either way; the man’s head snapped back with a burst of blood from his forehead, and he disappeared again, this time permanently.
‘Good shot,’ he told the corporal, who seemed pleased by the praise. He saw that the first man to emerge had dropped his Kalashnikov when he was shot. An extra weapon would be a huge help – if he could reach it. ‘Keep the hole covered – I’m going to get that gun.’ He started back along the terrace to tell Echazu his plan.
A change in the Hind’s engine noise caught his attention. He had tuned out the gunship while concentrating on the shaft, but it was now hovering, engines straining at full power to support its armoured bulk.
Its cannon turned—
‘
The Hind opened fire, the four barrels of its Gatling gun spitting out a stream of death. Echazu, fixated on the shaft, didn’t realise the danger until it was too late. The bullets ripped through the little building’s doorway, ricocheting shrapnel tearing him apart.
