The Burning (42 page)

R
achel reached forward into the thick, green seaweed. Rays of golden light were coming from behind the weed, fragmenting and flickering as they floated back and forth. She felt coral, rough and knobbly, beneath her fingers and then something metallic, like a blade. Rachel felt a buzz spread through her body; felt the strength return.

It’s here!
she said with her mind.
We’ve found it
.

The Spanish girls began to tear at the weed with their hands, exposing a niche in the rock behind.

For the first time in the tens of thousands of years since it had been hidden away under water, deep beneath the caves, a human hand touched the Triskellion.

The second Triskellion.

The blades glinted against the dark rock, held firmly in place, encrusted with coral and bound by weed. From out of the depths, one or two small silver fish swam up and basked in the glow of the blades. Five or six more followed: bigger, darting faster between the beams. Then ten, twenty more,
until a whole shoal of fish wove between the rays of light and began to nibble and pull at the tangles of weed that had held the Triskellion in place for so many years. Aided by the fish, Carmen and Inez found small stones and sharp pieces of shell, and all of them worked at the coral and cut away the weed until, finally, the three-bladed amulet came free in Rachel’s hand.

Rachel held the Triskellion out in front of her. The twin beams of light which still shone from somewhere deep in the gloom beyond, bounced off the blades and refracted into rainbow colours that cut through the water like lasers. The fish began to swim in formation, weaving in and out between the beams, like a fluid silver ribbon.

We have to go
, Rachel said with her mind.

No …
you
must go
.

Inez’s voice was loud and clear in her head. But as Rachel looked at her, the Spanish girl appeared pale suddenly: the vigour gone from her strong, swimmer’s limbs.

Hurry up
, Rachel pleaded with her thoughts.
We need to get back. We don’t have long
.

We
have all the time in the world
, Carmen’s voice said.

Come on!
Rachel started to swim back towards the tunnel, then turned, aware that she was on her own. Neither of the Spanish girls were following her. Rachel looked helplessly from one to the other as they drifted away, surrounded by fish which darted around them and glinted in the underwater light. Both girls were now very pale: fading before Rachel’s eyes.

Please…
Rachel pleaded, her mind reaching out.

Their black hair floated about their heads like fine seaweed, their limbs swaying loosely with the underwater currents. As Rachel watched, they seemed to float further and further away from her, drawn deeper into the twin beams of light.

What are you
doing?
You have to come with me!
she screamed with her mind, but all the time she could feel herself being magnetically drawn in the opposite direction: sucked back towards the tunnel.

The life was draining from Gabriel as the stick was pressed hard against his throat. “This time you
won’t
get back up.” Wing’s voice was strained with the effort of trying to kill this boy who would not lie down.

Then Wing screamed.

A wild, animal yell reverberated round the cave as the treasured amulet round Hilary Wing’s neck suddenly became white-hot. His claw-like grip loosened on the rod across Gabriel’s throat and it dropped to the ground with a clatter.

An image flashed into Gabriel’s mind: a girl’s arm pushing upwards, breaking the surface of still, turquoise water, a shining amulet held triumphantly in her fist. With the little remaining strength he had, Gabriel reached out and grabbed the other Triskellion that was now hissing as it burned into the scarred tissue of Hilary Wing’s chest.

Wing screamed louder as the amulet was wrenched from
his neck, just as he had torn it from Gabriel’s. Suddenly, the cavern filled with a blinding white light and a howling wind rushed through the room, pulling Wing back. It threw him from wall to wall, smashing his face into the rocks painted with his own life story, before sucking his body into one of the small, dark chambers that lined the cave.

Gabriel gripped the Triskellion tight and felt its power surge through his body. He staggered across to the entrance through which Wing had just been dragged. A low buzz came from within but it was drowned out by Wing’s screams. Gabriel stepped into the chamber.

It was the inside of a gigantic beehive.

Gabriel stared. The room was a scale model of the caves themselves. The walls were thick with layer upon layer of bees, and every nook and cranny was clogged with dense honeycomb. Yellow wax covered every surface and blobs of thick golden honey dripped from the ceiling. As Gabriel entered the room, the buzzing rose to fever pitch and a column of bees peeled off, swarming around his head, covering his face and hands. Gabriel smiled as the bees crawled over him as if tending his wounds, nuzzling and licking like a thousand tiny cats pleased to see their master return.

He turned at the noise from the far side of the chamber and stared at the hideous scene.

Wing had fallen, or been pulled back, into a deep pit of honeycomb alive with the maggot-like pupae of developing bees. He flailed around on his back, but the more he
struggled, the deeper his limbs became stuck in the dense brown honey which shifted around him like sticky, sweet quicksand. His head was a helmet of bees, and his pale blue eyes shone out, terrified, from among the black insects, while their grubs feasted on his rotting flesh. His moans were momentarily drowned out by the drone of the bees, then rose up louder as the insects began to burrow into his ears, mouth and into the cavity where his nose should have been.

Gnawing their way into his head.

A
dam knew that Van der Zee could see it in his face. The enormous wave of excitement, of exhilaration, that he’d felt from Rachel – that had passed straight from her thoughts into his – could only mean one thing, and Adam had been unable to keep it from his expression.

“They’ve found it, haven’t they?”

“Found what?” Adam said, wide-eyed.

Van der Zee shook his head, impatient, and turned back to the desk. The screens were still blank. He grabbed the microphone to address the Hope operatives on the boat. “It’s time to move,” he said. “They’ll be coming out of that cave any time, so let’s get a welcoming committee up on to that beach right now…” The order was acknowledged. Van der Zee turned back to Adam and shrugged. “Soon be over,” he said.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Adam said. “What you think anyone’s
found
.” He took a step towards the control desk but was intercepted by the guards.

“Shame we have no pictures,” Van der Zee said. “But you should be able to hear everything.”

As if on cue, a voice boomed from the speakers. High and edgy – a New York accent. “Talk to me, Van der Zee.”

Van der Zee turned back to the desk. “I believe the artefact has been acquired.”

“That’s good. Very good…”

“So I’ve sent in a team to intercept them. That was the plan, right?”

“Yes, it was.” The man in New York paused. “But plans can change, doctor, you need to be aware of that. We’re dealing with people who are not … predictable. You have to think fast, and be flexible. Do whatever the situation demands. You with me?”

“Yes, I—”

“Get back to me when they’ve come out.”

Van der Zee was about to speak again when the caller clicked off. He turned the chair round slowly until he was facing Adam.

“What does that mean?” Adam asked. “‘Whatever the situation demands’?” Van der Zee said nothing. “And what happens to me, when all this is over?”

Van der Zee stared at the floor for a few seconds and when he raised his head, he could not look Adam in the eye. “That’s not my decision,” he said.

Adam felt the words like a cold hand on the back of his neck.

He knew that there were men on their way to the beach. Rachel and the others would be walking out of those caves into big trouble. He knew that he was in trouble too, and he knew that he could not just sit back and let it happen.

He needed to make a move.

Gabriel unfastened the leather necklace and handed it back to Rachel. When she had threaded the new amulet on to it, he passed across the original Triskellion.

“They belong together,” he said.

Rachel put the Triskellion back on to the necklace and turned so that Gabriel could fasten it behind her neck.

The moment the two amulets touched, they began to move, sliding across each other, singing against Rachel’s skin.

“It’s been a long time,” Gabriel said.

It was as though the metal of each Triskellion had softened: as though one could pass directly through another. The blades kissed and twisted together, weaving intricate patterns, and the light glowing from them laced round Rachel’s throat.

Then it was over, and the amulets faded and slowed until they hung motionless from the cord round Rachel’s neck. They clinked softly when she turned to look at Gabriel.

“You’ve got something on your hands,” she said.

“What?”

“Is it … honey?”

Gabriel wiped his palms against his trousers. “That creature you saw by your bed … he won’t be bothering you again.”

Rachel stared hard at him, then nodded, understanding. “That’s a relief,” she said.

“We need to go.” Gabriel moved towards the steps that led back up into the tomb.

But Rachel had walked back to the edge of the water and stood gazing down into the depths. “Carmen and Inez,” she said. She turned and looked imploringly at Gabriel, but even as she’d spoken their names, she’d known that they would not be coming back up.

Gabriel shook his head. “They knew all along what they would have to do.” He held out a hand. “Come on. We need to catch up with the others and get out, fast.”

Jean-Luc and Jean-Bernard were sitting on rocks, idly tossing pebbles at gulls, when they first heard the boats. They looked up and stared out to sea as the whine of the outboard motors grew louder, then watched as the two motorized dinghies came quickly round the headland.

The boys stood and rolled up their sleeves.

The two boats hit the sand within a few seconds of each other and six men piled out of each. They were dressed head to toe in black and all wore dark glasses and inhibitors.

They exchanged a few words and then began running
hard towards the entrance of the cave, quickly covering the few hundred metres or so between them and the two sixteen-year-old French boys.

Jean-Luc and Jean-Bernard stood and watched them coming. Jean-Luc glanced at his brother. “There are twelve of them,” he said. “It’s not fair.”

“You’re right,” Jean-Bernard said. “The odds are terrible.”

Jean-Luc grinned. “Well, maybe we should each have one arm tied behind our backs. Give them a fighting chance…”

The brothers stepped casually out into plain sight and waited until the last possible second to strike. The man who appeared to be in command signalled to his men that they should be careful, but it was clear from their reactions that they did not see the twin boys – “special” or not – as much of a threat.

Within ten seconds of engaging, two of the men were unconscious, two were nursing broken arms and collarbones, and three more were spitting blood and teeth out on to the sand.

The group’s commander gave the order to back off.

As Jean-Luc threw one man over his shoulder and slammed another into the wall of the cliff, he turned to his brother. “What about tying both arms behind our backs…?”

On the boat, Van der Zee was transfixed by the sounds coming through the speakers: by the grunts and screams and the frantic radio calls for assistance. He didn’t see Adam’s
eyes flutter and then close; didn’t see him slide down in his seat and then topple on to the floor.

“Doctor! The boy…”

Van der Zee turned round to see the guards pointing towards Adam’s body. “What on earth happened?”

“He just collapsed. One minute he was fine, the next—”

They stopped and stared as Adam began to jerk and twist on the floor, as froth oozed from his mouth; as his body gave one final spasm and then was still.

Van der Zee jumped up from his chair and screamed at the guards as he lurched across the cabin, “Well, don’t just stand there!”

The guards moved quickly and knelt down next to the boy. One of them picked up his wrist, feeling for a pulse.

“Nothing,” he said.

“You sure?” Van der Zee asked.

The guard nodded and both men removed their dark glasses and inhibitors.

“What are you doing?” Van der Zee shouted. “Be careful he doesn’t…”

But a second was all Adam had needed; a second to get inside their heads.

Then he had them.