Temple of the Gods

‘Yeah.’ She watched as he turned and threw the stone with all his remaining strength into the empty wilderness. It landed with a puff of dust amongst other nondescript rocks, half buried already; in time, it would be completely lost.

‘So that’s it?’ Eddie asked.

She nodded. ‘Earth energy, the meteorite, the Group, Stikes, Sophia… they’re all gone. Finished.’

‘Thank fuck for that. Now we can take a break.’ He gave her an exhausted smile and put his arms round her.

The noise of the helicopter made them turn. Larry had brought the AW101 into an unsteady hover a few hundred yards away, gradually descending into a cyclone of sand. Eddie watched — then stiffened. ‘Shit, that’s not good!’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘That wobble, something’s wrong — Dad!’ He released Nina and waved his arms, frantically signalling for his father to ascend again. ‘Dad, go back up, it’s not gonna—’

Too late.

The tremendous downwash from the main rotor was bouncing back up off the desert floor as Larry lowered the helicopter, drastically affecting the aircraft’s handling. With a completely inexperienced pilot at the controls, the results were inevitable. The AW101 rocked like a toy boat, veering sideways. Larry tried to level out, but overcompensated — and the chopper lurched back, losing height.

Its landing gear dug into the ground, tipping the fuselage over—

The rotor blades carved into the desert with great sprays of sand, shearing off from the hub and flinging broken pieces high into the air. Torque twisted the aircraft’s body round, crunching its nose into the dirt before it fell back down on its belly with a shrilling crash of torn metal.

‘Dad!’ Eddie cried, breaking into a staggering run. Nina caught up, and they hurried towards the wreck. Its engines cut out, leaving an eerie silence punctured only by the thumps of debris returning to earth. By the time they reached it, the stubs of the rotor blades had come to a halt.

The front windows were broken. Through them, Eddie saw Larry slumped over the central console. ‘Dad! Shit, Dad, are you all right?’ No answer. No movement. He opened the side hatch and climbed inside, going to the cockpit. ‘Dad!’

For a moment, he thought his father was dead — then Larry coughed and took in a shuddering breath. ‘Eddie?’ he gasped.

‘Yeah, I’m here, Dad.’ Eddie carefully lifted him off the console. A line of blood ran down his cheek where he had hit a sharp protrusion on the instrument panel. ‘How bad are you hurt?’

‘Not too bad… I think.’ Larry opened his eyes, squinting in the sunlight as he tried to regain focus. ‘Tell you something, though.’

‘What?’

‘I definitely need more flying lessons.’ A faint laugh.

Eddie joined in. ‘Yeah, one or two. You’ve just wrecked a twenty-million-dollar helicopter!’

‘Like father, like son,’ said Nina with a grin as she recovered a first-aid kit.

They patched up their various wounds as best they could, then took stock of the situation. Some of the Group’s supplies were still secured at the cabin’s rear, giving them a supply of water, and while the helicopter itself was a complete write-off, the radio was still functioning. Eddie sent out a Mayday. The eruption of the volcano had already roused official attention; while the Ethiopian authorities were surprised that anybody had been near the isolated mountain, they nevertheless assured him that help was on the way, though the lack of precise GPS coordinates meant it might take a while to arrive.

He climbed out of the chopper and joined Nina and Larry, sitting nearby. ‘So,’ said Larry, mopping the blood off his cheek, ‘this is what you do for a living, then?’

‘It’s not all like this,’ Nina told him. ‘Sometimes there’s actual archaeology involved.’

‘All the same, I’m impressed. Still quivering with terror, but impressed. I can’t believe the things I’ve seen today. Floating rocks, exploding volcanoes…’ He shook his head. ‘My daughter-in-law throwing herself out of a helicopter at eight thousand feet…’

Eddie gave him a mock shrug. ‘Meh. You get used to this stuff after a while.’

‘Speak for yourself!’ Nina cried. ‘You know, before I met you I’d never once had anyone shoot at me. Or been in a car chase. Or a plane crash, or jumped a Humvee over a canyon, or been attacked by tigers and hippos and crocodiles—’

‘They were caimans, not crocs,’ Eddie corrected. ‘But if you hadn’t met me, you wouldn’t have found Atlantis either, would you? Or the Tomb of Hercules, or Excalibur, or the Garden of Eden…’

‘The what?’ said Larry. ‘Did you just say…’

Nina nodded. ‘Uh-huh. But… yeah, you’re right, Eddie.’ She signalled for him to sit beside her. He did so, and she leaned against him. ‘I’m glad we met.’

‘So am I,’ Eddie replied. This time, bruises weren’t enough to stop them from kissing.

Larry waited for them to finish before speaking again. ‘You know,’ he said, ‘I’d like to hear about some of these adventures of yours.’ He was addressing them both… but looking at his son with a smile that held more than just the hope of hearing a story.

Eddie smiled back. ‘Sure, Dad. We’ve got time.’