Authors: Chris Ryan

Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #General, #Juvenile Nonfiction, #Science & Nature, #Environmental Conservation & Protection

Fault Line (24 page)

BOOK: Fault Line

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Felipe lowered Jorges. ‘Come on, Jorges. Your sister’s waiting.’

But as Felipe tried to lead him away he dug his feet in, refusing to move. ‘There’s somebody in there.’

Li, Paulo, Alex and Amber responded as one: ‘In where?’

Jorges pointed back to the wall of rubble. ‘In there. He was talking.’

Amber clambered over the masonry. The ceiling debris had fallen away to reveal broken pieces of dinosaur bone, snapped remains of steel cable. ‘This is the T. rex!’ she shouted. ‘The last bit we couldn’t get to.’

Paulo and Li began to climb after her. ‘Careful, Amber,’ called Li. ‘That doesn’t look very stable.’

‘Amber!’ shrilled Jorges. ‘He said your name.’

‘When?’

Jorges shrugged. ‘A while ago.’

Amber yelled at the jagged mass of bones. ‘Hex! Hex! Are you in there?’ She turned round. ‘Who’s got the goggles?’

‘Me. I’m looking now.’ Alex was wearing them, scanning the wreckage. Was there the slightest trace of body heat?

Three glowing faces looked at him, the question in their eyes. Are we too late?

24 H
EX

‘Come on, Alex,’ said Amber.

Alex stared hard. There was no obvious glowing figure like there had been with Jorges, but was that just the faintest wisp of luminance from a person breathing?

It was the only possible clue. He pointed. ‘Start digging there.’

Alex kept the goggles on as they pulled the pieces of concrete aside. His three friends were exhausted but they worked like maniacs. Alex watched their glowing figures become brighter and hotter as their bodies went into top gear. Li levered debris away with her bare hands. Paulo and Amber pickaxed the rubble with a vigour that bordered on fury. But he saw no new glow.

Amber pulled aside a large piece of masonry. It cut her and the blood oozed bright white on her hand, but she took no notice.

The wisp of breath became suddenly bright like a flame.

‘He’s there!’ cried Alex, pointing.

Amber levered a chunk of concrete aside and heard a voice.

‘Hey, watch where you’re putting that pickaxe.’

She flung the axe down and pulled the masonry away with her hands. As it came away it released a strong smell of stale air and sweat.

Hex’s face and hair were caked in dust, as though he had been made up to look like a statue. ‘Hi,’ he grinned. But his eyes behind the smile were hollow and exhausted.

Li peered forwards. The smell hit her nostrils. ‘Phew, smells like a Turkish wrestler’s armpit in here.’

‘Well,’ said Hex weakly, ‘I have been trying to exercise to keep up my morale.’

Paulo’s face was the next that Hex saw. The curly hair and easy smile were the same as ever. ‘Hey,
amigo,
what took you so long?’

Shakily Hex got to his feet. It felt weird to stand up; as if he had been permanently moulded into one position, like a doll. It felt unreal. In a minute he’d wake up and he’d be in that airless dark hole again.

Behind Paulo was Alex, still wearing the sling, holding the night vision goggles in his good hand. ‘Hey, man, how are you doing?’

‘I hope you’ve been taking care of our toy,’ said Hex. He was working on autopilot, talking to people but not really feeling like he was there.

‘Is anyone else in there?’ Li was peering into the hole. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Paulo?’ she called.

Hex watched as Paulo climbed past him and into the hole. He found himself talking again. ‘She died. There was nothing I could do.’ Even that seemed unreal. Surely he’d wake up in a minute.

Paulo pushed some masonry away to make the hole bigger. ‘We’d better get her out.’

Li squirmed into the hole. ‘No, Paulo,’ Hex heard her say in a low voice. ‘Jorges might see.’ After so long hearing nothing, even the slightest whisper sounded loud. And everyone was so efficient, doing everything so briskly. Hex felt like he was moving in slow motion.

‘She’s stiff anyway,’ said Paulo. ‘Been dead for a few hours.’ He looked at Hex. ‘Are you OK?’

Hex nodded. That felt like autopilot too.

Amber was looking into the hole. ‘That’s quite a small space you were in.’ She looked at the body. ‘Who was she?’

‘A researcher.’ Hex didn’t want to talk about it. Amber had a cut on her forehead. Hex kept wanting to look at that instead of her eyes.

Amber nudged him. ‘I see you kept yourself busy.’

Hex realized his palmtop was still glowing in his hand. There was a text file open on it; the letter he had been writing. Swiftly, he pressed a key and deleted it.

Amber peered over his shoulder. ‘What’s that?’

‘I’m just saving my game,’ said Hex. He closed the palmtop and tucked it away in his belt pack.

In the growing light he could see into the hole. He looked at the body he’d spent so long with. The lolling head. The short dark hair. At least he’d closed her eyes.

‘We’ll come back for her later,’ said Paulo. ‘Let’s get the others out first.’

Hex followed them to a ladder by a window. There was a big man he didn’t recognize and Felipe, the curator, with a mini-Felipe caked with dust like he was. They must have just rescued him.

‘Hi, Hex,’ said Felipe. ‘Good to see you out and about.’

‘I’ve had a good rest while all my mates have been running around,’ smiled Hex. It was easier to make jokes with strangers.

Felipe sent Jorges up the ladder first, then went up behind him. The sky was getting lighter.

Miguel watched Felipe exit safely and signalled to Amber and Li to go up ahead of him. ‘Ladies first.’

‘No,’ said Amber. ‘You first. You’re nearer.’

He was about to object, and not just out of chivalry: it was ingrained as part of his training – get the civilians out first. But he had to hand it to these kids, they seemed as professional as the slickest firefighting team he had worked with. Even the guy who’d been buried all that time – he looked a bit punch drunk, but he was in control and staying with the others, looking for what needed to be done next. Miguel gave Amber a small salute, and gladly climbed the ladder ahead of her.

He disappeared through the window at the top and Alpha Force were alone. Alone – and complete. For a moment, they all looked at each other, seeing four faces – the four people they were closest to in the entire world. No gaps, no one missing. The fatigue of the night was catching up with them. No one could move. No one felt like moving. Outside they heard the first sounds of the dawn chorus.

It was Amber who broke the silence. ‘Er – are we going to leave or have a group hug?’

A sound behind them in the gloom shocked them out of immobility. ‘Hold it right there.’

The five friends turned. Two figures were approaching them. One of them held a big torch, which threw the area around them into darkness.

They torch came closer, like a searchlight.

‘Were you in the quake?’ said Alex. ‘We’ve been looking for survivors.’

The men laughed. Paulo caught a glimpse of something metal and shiny reflecting off their torch. A gun.

It was the looters. And they were armed.

Alpha Force knew when to play it safe. They’d been heroic enough for one day. Human life was more important than a few treasures, however old. Slowly, they put up their hands.

The men came closer. ‘Stand aside.’

Paulo shrugged. ‘Sure.’ He stepped away from the ladder.

The others followed.

‘Put down your weapons.’

Weapons? Paulo was still carrying a pickaxe. He put it down. Li lowered the night vision goggles to the ground.

The light from the window was growing, lighting the plaster and dust that rose like mist inside the room. The two men approached. One was well built, with broad shoulders and an aggressive attitude like a boxer. He had something in his hand; something wrapped in a sack. The other man was thinner and wiry and held the gun nervously.

When the light allowed them to get a proper look, Alpha Force silently committed details of their appearance to memory. It was habit, as natural as breathing. You never knew if it might be useful.

The boxer shone the light on Alex’s sling. He moved it to Amber’s face, then Li’s. ‘It’s them,’ he said. ‘A black girl, a Chinese, an injured guy. They found the tomb robber in the jungle and took him to the police.’

Alex tried to put all his weariness into his voice. ‘You just go. We don’t care who you are or what you’re doing. We’ve had a long night. We just want to get out and have a long bath.’ And he meant it.

‘Do them,’ said the boxer.

Alex, Paulo, Li, Hex and Amber caught something in his voice. They knew when someone was bluffing – and he wasn’t. In all this chaos it would be easy to get away with killing them. Even though it would be obvious that they weren’t casualties of the quake, the looters would have no trouble escaping.

The boxer tried to wrap the piece of sacking closer around the item in his hand. Instead, it fell away. A few rays of the morning sunlight caught what was underneath.

A gleaming piece of gold.

‘Oh, look at that mask,’ said Amber in a steely voice.

Alex thought, I’m not going to die so that you can take that away.

The thin man put his foot on the bottom rung of the ladder to block their escape. There was a click. He’d cocked the gun.

Hex kicked away the ladder viciously. The thin man lost his balance and the gun went off, the bullet pinging off the ceiling.

Li and Paulo charged at the boxer and knocked him to the ground. Amber went for the mask.

Alex thought about an escape route. They couldn’t use the window and they couldn’t go back through the hole in the wall because it was blocked. He still had the fireman’s plans but there wasn’t time to get them out. He tried to remember them. There was another way out, he thought, past this main workshop area. Probably where the looters had come from.

The thin man was groaning and rolling on the ground. Li and Paulo had disabled him. Now was their chance.

Alex grabbed the night vision goggles and pulled them on. He saw the thin man lunging for his gun. His eyes and open mouth glowed demonically white as his fingers closed on the weapon.

Alex snapped a spine off the tail of the fibreglass stegosaurus. With a flick of the wrist he frisbeed it towards the thin man. It sliced into his hand like a knife. The gun clattered to the ground and spun away into the shadows.

Paulo and Li had dropped the torches. One rolled towards Alex and he grabbed it. He flashed it twice then turned it off. The others knew what that meant. Come with me, now.

They got up and ran.

Alex kept the torch turned off. It would give away their position and anyway he was wearing the goggles. He led the way through the green, rubble-strewn room and into a corridor. It was the warren of rooms where ancient treasures were stored. The others pounded behind.

Alex consulted the map in his head. Not that turning. The next. And then out the other side and round in a circle to double back and confuse their pursuers.

They were lucky. The rooms were still intact. Maybe they’d all survived because they were small and weren’t trying to support a large ceiling over a big empty space. Alex was wiry and fast, darting like a fish through room after room. The others stayed on his heels, trusting him and keeping close.

The looters behind fired a shot. Alex turned the group and the bullet ricocheted in an empty room. His tactic was working. The looters didn’t know where he was going, couldn’t see them because they weren’t using a torch.

Alex, able to see clearly, was leading them on a magical mystery tour. He passed a giant head the size of a demolition ball. Huge bulbous eyes stared at him. The next room held the skeletons of tiny dinosaurs in a glass case, arranged like flying fairies. A stele lay in pieces in the next one, as if it had been sawn up for a stage magic act.

Suddenly he was plunged into darkness. He groped out blindly and crashed into a wall. Amber cannoned into him. Li, Paulo and Hex breathed heavily behind him.

They huddled into a group. They had to talk. They tried to do it in the faintest of whispers.

Alex ripped the goggles off his head.

‘Battery gone?’ hissed Hex.

‘Must be,’ panted Alex.

Another volley of shots rang out.

‘How far?’ whispered Amber.

Alex tried to remember the map in his head. ‘Not far. This way,’ he whispered. ‘But the moment we put the torches on they’ll see us so we’ll have to run like hell.’

Alex put the torch on.

It was like a starter pistol. They started running, as fast as they could.

Behind them, the robbers saw the beams and began to fire intensively. A volley of shots rang out close to Alex’s ear. That was uncomfortably close.

BOOK: Fault Line

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