‘They’re close behind us!’ Rapha said.
‘Yep,’ Sam replied, running down the stairs. ‘Follow me and don’t hesitate!’
He jumped up on the steeply slanted stone balustrade covered in damp moss and slid down, picking up incredible speed by the time he reached the bottom and shot off the end as if from a cannon. He stumbled across the floor of the landing, Rapha not far behind him, landing in an awkward tumble.
‘Come on,’ Sam said, helping his friend to his feet and the two of them ran down the tunnel to the right, soon coming to the booby-trapped chamber again. The stone wall was still in place, blocking their escape.
‘Run and jump to the first monkey!’ Sam said behind Rapha, and he didn’t need to be told twice. With a long stride, Rapha made it to the first monkey, Sam landing to his left on another monkey tile.
‘Now what?’ Rapha said.
‘The tile you stood on before that triggered the wall,’ Sam said, ‘it had a spider on it. And there must be a way of resetting the chamber otherwise how could they get in and out?’ He looked at Rapha with a shrug. ‘It has to be worth a try, right?’
Sam pressed his foot gingerly on a spider engraving.
A grinding noise made them jump.
I hope I haven’t just made things worse …
The stone wall slowly rumbled in front of them, sliding upwards and back into the recessed ceiling above.
‘Nice!’ Rapha said. He readied himself and leapt to the next group of monkey tiles, Sam following.
They caught their breath at the landing at the top of the spiral stairs, but not before Sam went back and stepped on a spider tile.
CLONK!
Another stone wall came down from the ceiling as Sam leaped to safety.
‘That should slow them up for a while,’ Sam said.
Rapha nodded and sucked at the air, too exhausted to talk and they set off down into the darkness. Breathless, they emerged out onto the stone ledge where they’d landed in the ultralight.
‘Oh no!’ Rapha cried.
‘What?’ Sam spun around, expecting to see one of his enemies standing there.
But there was no-one.
‘They’ve disabled the plane!’ Rapha said.
‘Can you fix it?’ Sam asked.
‘They’ve cut the fuel line,’ Rapha said, ‘and removed the spark plug. It’s not flying anywhere.’
‘Well, we have to get off this ledge,’ Sam said. He looked around, his hope fading.
Rapha stared at his ultralight. ‘I have an idea,’ he said.
Sam watched him working, realising within a few seconds what Rapha was thinking.
‘Good thinking, do it,’ Sam said. ‘We dismount the wing then we can hang onto the crossbar underneath.’
‘And use it to glide down to the basin level below.’
Sam kept watch, wary of Hans’ men appearing. As he looked around, something by his feet seemed out of place. There were footprints in the dirt. Big, like the combat boots of …
Agents.
‘Rapha …’ Sam said, looking over to his friend as he unhooked the large glider wing. ‘How could Hans’ guys get down here and attack your plane? I mean, they must have discovered another way to get to the city, not up this cliff face.’
Rapha shook his head as if he was trying to make sense of it as he held the wing up above his head, then stopped and looked back at Sam with a shocked expression.
‘Sam—behind you!’ he called out frantically.
Sam turned. An Agent was slumped over there, ten metres away, bending over against the cliff wall. He had climbing gear on … he wasn’t moving. Sam went over to him. He’d been shot through the neck by a skinny arrow.
‘He’s dead,’ Sam said, ‘A couple of them must have been here—I don’t think this guy had time to mess with our plane. Looks like he stood on the wrong tile then staggered back out.’
‘There’s no-one here now,’ Rapha urged, turning away from the dead body. ‘We must jump quickly before they come back.’
Sam threw the Agent’s pistol into the waterfall and grabbed the radio headset. He put it on and immediately heard Stella’s voice giving out commands to her troops.
‘OK, we’re out of the tunnel system,’ Stella said. ‘Most of them just lead to look-outs in the cliffs. Keep your wits about you, I just heard shouting.’
‘We have to go,’ Sam said quietly to Rapha, who now had the hang-glider wing fully detached and held up high. He stood next to Rapha, gripping the bar overhead. ‘With any luck they’ll take care of Hans’ guys—’
A piercing scream echoed from the tunnel entrance behind them.
‘That’d be someone else stepping on the wrong tile,’ Sam winced.
‘Ready?’ Rapha asked.
Sam looked out at the jungle swathed in silver clouds. He could still tell that the drop from up there was immense.
‘Not really,’ he said. ‘But that’s never stopped me before.’
‘Let’s go,’ Rapha said. ‘Run as fast as you can, and when we clear the ledge, lean away from the cliff.’
‘Got it.’
‘OK.’
‘Wait—no countdown?’ Sam asked.
‘All right. One,’ Rapha said. ‘Two …’
‘Three,’ they said in unison, running full pelt with the glider canopy held over their heads until the ground gave way beneath them and then they were soaring into the cloud cover below. Sam’s heart jumped into his throat as he forced himself not to look down. He turned to Rapha who was grinning from ear to ear.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The third shot he felt. A dart had hit the back of his leg, but his Stealth Suit protected him. He looked over his shoulder. There stood Stella on the ledge, dart gun in her hand.
‘That was—’ Sam trailed off. Next to him, Rapha was slipping into unconsciousness, two darts in his back, his grip on the bar above quickly loosening.
‘Rapha!’ Sam shouted, ‘Rapha, hang on!’
Rapha passed out, letting go of the bar and tipping backwards away from Sam. Sam threw out his arm and caught Rapha’s left wrist. ‘Wake up, Rapha!’ he yelled but he knew it was no use.
As they spun helplessly out of control in the air, he heard Stella’s laugh echo around them.
‘Try getting out of this one, Sam!’ her voice sneered from high above.
Rapha dangled from Sam’s grip, getting heavier by the moment, pulling them downwards and towards the rocks of the jagged mountainside. His jacket started to come loose—
RIP!
Sam watched in horror as the tear widened, pulling Rapha further away from his slipping grip.
No, I can’t lose him.
Sam’s arm burned as he frantically tried to hold onto Rapha. He closed his eyes as the cliff face came crashing towards them.