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The stairs, which had been built to accommodate the longer legs of the Laestrygonians, were just as awful as he originally thought. Jessie, slung over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, didn’t weigh a lot, but he was so depleted that every additional pound felt like a hundred. He felt like he was climbing an escalator made of quicksand moving in the wrong direction.
The king let out another roar, buffeting Bones like the hot wind off the furnace. He was close, so close that Bones didn’t even dare look. But an ember of defiance still glowed within him.
“Shut the hell up, bro!” he shouted—or tried to. It came out as more of a series of rasping grunts. “If I want a comment from the peanut gallery I’ll ask, thank you very much!”
Jessie mumbled something in his ear.
Good. She was coming to. Maybe she’d be able to walk on her own. Too bad he couldn’t stop even for the second or two it would take to set her down.
“What?” He leaned in closer to her face.
She repeated what she said.
“Good one...”
Bones grinned. “I have my moments.”.
He reached flat ground a few steps later and dashed into the dark passage. He smiled when the tunnel lit up in the aura of a familiar light. Despite the awkwardness of her perch, Jessie had the wherewithal to turn on her Maglite.
“Thanks,” he said.
With the path lit and the temperature dropping, Bones got his second wind and continued ahead at a slow jog.
When he was sure that the king was falling further behind, he paused long enough to set Jessie down, and after making sure that she was more or less able to stay on her own feet, they started running again. Unfortunately, the king also seemed to catch his second wind.
They had just reached the center of the throne room, and were preparing for one more torturous ascent, when the king emerged from the east entrance behind them.
They bounded up the steps, sprinted past the alcoves and through the burial chambers, passing the partially consumed remains of the graduate student. Bones could feel the cool night air on his face, telling him they were close.
But then, as they ran out of the queen’s burial chamber, Jessie’s foot caught one of the extinguished stand lights. She stumbled and fell, crashing into Bones, and taking him out too. Flailing to regain their balance, they half-tumbled through the passage and finally skidded to a stop in the main excavation pit, gazing up into the calm night sky above Sardinia.
“Come...on...” he panted.
Grabbing Jessie’s feeble hand, he hauled her to the ladder. She needed to scale it herself, though. He’d never admit it aloud, but Bones wasn’t sure he had enough energy left to pull her up with him. Plus, the ladder was in no shape to hold them both at the same time. It had barely held Bones by himself.
The beast’s roar was close and reverberated through the tunnel, smacking Bones right in the face. Jessie cursed and started climbing, but she was moving slow. Too slow.
“Move that sweet ass! We have incoming!”
He drew his pistol, leveled it at the passageway, and waited, checking on Jessie’s progress every few seconds. When she was halfway up, he went against his better judgement, slid the gun into his jeans at the small of his back, and then mounted the ladder to begin his own climb. The giant arrived a few moments later, stalking over and grabbing at Bones’ dangling foot.
On his third attempt, the giant caught it and squeezed. Bones recalled how easily the giant had crushed the stone at the edge of the cave-in and waited for him to do the same to his ankle. Panicking, Bones latched on tighter with his hands and released his free foot, dangling fifteen feet above the ground. Looking between his legs, he started slamming his free foot into the king’s face. In between blows, he noticed that the giant was only using one hand. The other was clutching his badly bleeding side. The repeated blows broke the giant’s nose, shaking him loose and spilling him back until he crashed into the sarcophagus.
The impact knocked the lid askew, and it slid off to reveal a skeleton of a being even larger than the one beneath Bones—easily twelve feet tall, despite being reduced to nothing but bones.
But there was no time to study this amazing discovery. Bones quickly climbed the rest of the way up, favoring his now throbbing right ankle as he did.
His eyes widened when the ladder creaked, then buckled. The top moorings, the only ones still attached to the wall, were about to come loose and drop him. He struggled to grasp the rope that dangled off to his left, missing it as the ladder sagged away from the wall.
Clawing his way up, he was startled when Jessie reached out for his wrists, just as the ladder ripped free and plummeted into the excavation.
"I can’t... hold you,” she said between grunts.
Bones pulled his left hand free and latched onto the rope. He found a foothold, pushed with his good leg, and, along with Jessie’s help, practically launched himself out of the hole. They fell away from the edge of the excavation and crashed to the ground.
Jessie landed on his chest, almost knocking the wind out of him. He groaned from the impact and she quickly sat up, smiling.
“I just noticed something.”
“What?” he croaked.
“Where’s your shirt?”
Still on his back, he pointed to the cave-in. “Back in the hole. Burned it up pretty good back there.”
Jessie huffed. “Well, at least you made it out on your feet. I had to be carried.”
He stood and helped her to her feet. “At least you had a half-naked hunk to cling too.”
Bones picked up his felled weapon and slowly made his way to the edge of the cave-in. He didn’t want to get any closer than he had to, but he needed to know what happened with the king. He put a finger to his lips and motioned for Jessie to stay back. She too held her gun firmly and stepped out to his right for a better angle. The last thing either of them needed was for Bones to get a bullet in the back—from Jessie no less.
Another step.
Come on.
Another step.
Dammit, show yourself.
Another step.
Um...maybe he left?
One more step and he’d be able to see most of the pit. He could already see a third of it and the giant was nowhere to be found. Bones prayed that the giant had decided to cut his losses and retreat.
Bones leaned over the edge....
And was clubbed to the side.
He took the shot to his left shoulder and attempted to roll out of it, but instead landed on a chunk of something in the ground. Whatever it was jabbed him in the back hard enough to make him gasp for air, halting his movements.
The next thing he knew, the beaten and bloodied Laestrygonian king was standing above him teeth bared, snarling like a rabid dog. Jessie opened up with her pistol. The 9mm rounds bit into his skin but did little else. The king only had to raise his thick arm and block the bullets from hitting anything vital.
After her mag ran dry, Bones knew he was done for.
The king raised his clenched fist, looked Bones square in the eyes, and brought it down like a guillotine. With inches to spare, the giant halted his deathblow at a sound that Bones recognized. Somewhere behind him tires screeched, protesting their owner’s sudden stop. Doors popped, and men shouted. With his attention elsewhere now, Bones slowly inched away from the still dangerous beast.
He winced when his jeans scraped against gravel. The king looked his way once more and growled but then the air was filled with the thunder of automatic weapons. The giant staggered back, buffeted by the attack. Bones rolled away, landing on his belly, facing his rescuers. Nico, and the two men from before, his brothers, all had their weapons trained on the agitated monster. Behind them was a black Mercedes SUV. Its windows were down, giving Bones a look at its occupants.
Dr. Santi, Mayor Giolito, and Vivianna were jammed into the back seat.
Bones turned to face the giant, who seethed with rage, blood and saliva draining down his chin as he snarled and shouted what could only be Laestrygonian obscenities.
Not wanting to give the king a third chance to squish him like a bug, Bones scrambled to his feet and headed for the three gunmen, but then a crazy plan came to him. He shifted direction and went for the SUV instead.
Nico gave him a questioning look, but Bones hardly paid him any attention. His focus was on the vehicle. As he climbed in, he looked into the rearview mirror and simply said, “Out.”
Santi and Vivianna immediately threw open their doors and slid out, but a still-sweat-soaked Giolito defiantly crossed his arms and locked eyes with Bones in the mirror.
Grunting, Bones turned and faced the man. “Either you get out, or you become a permanent addition to this site.”
Giolito’s stare wavered slightly. For an extra kick in the ass, Bones shifted the SUV into drive. In time with the click of the transmission, Giolito’s eyebrows arched and his nostrils flared. The man was furious and for a moment, Bones thought he would call the bluff.
And it was a bluff. Bones wouldn’t have sacrificed Giolito’s life to kill the giant. But before he could come up with a better solution, the mayor opened his door and slid out.
Problem solved.
––––––––
Bones cranked the wheel and floored the gas pedal, stomping on it hard. The same screeching sound he had heard before erupted beneath him as the SUV’s wheels spun. When they caught, it and Bones were thrown forward off the main road in the direction of the excavation.
He blared the horn, getting Nico and the others to move. They parted, diving out of the way and giving him a direct line to the king. Bones kept the SUV’s trajectory straight and true and initiated phase two of his plan: His escape.
He popped the driver’s side door, checked one last time that he was on target, and jumped. He landed badly, rolling half-a-dozen times, all the while sliding forward. He was still moving too fast and of he didn’t get control, he would face the same fate he had threatened Giolito with.
Bones was about to become a part of history.
Only feet away ahead of him, the two-and-a-half ton Mercedes plowed into the beast, taking him off his feet, driving him back over the edge of the pit.
Bones didn’t stop to revel in his success. He didn’t stop at all. He couldn’t.
But as he reached the edge, he spied the safety rope he had rigged up earlier next to the spot where the ladder had been. He grabbed ahold of it on his first try, but instead of yanking him to a standstill, both he and it continued forward, right over the edge. From the corner of his eye, he saw that the rope had come loose from its anchor. There was also a lone figure standing near the post where it had been tied off.
Giolito?
But then, just as his momentum carried him over the edge, the rope went taut, and he was whipped into the wall. In the same instant, he heard a tremendous crunch of metal as the SUV smashed into the stone below. The shock wave buffeted him like a hot wind.
A glance down at the explosion of blood beneath the mangled vehicle confirmed the king’s final fate.
Still dangling over the excavation, Bones allowed himself to breathe easy. Then, the rope strained, and he was pulled back up and over the edge of the site. Jessie was there, as was Santi and Vivianna. The woman gave him an apologetic nod and stepped aside.
Nico’s brothers both held the end of the rope in their hands. They had been the ones to pull him to safety. Nico, however, wasn’t with them. He was with the mayor, near the post where the rope had been tied off. He had his knee in the mayor’s back, and was holding Giolito’s right arm behind him.
“What’s going on?” Bones asked.
“That,” Nico replied, tilting his chin to the ground beside him.
Lying next to the struggling mayor was a pocketknife. Bones turned and saw that the knot he had tied was still intact. It could still be seen attached to the light post. Giolito had tried to kill him. It’s why the rope failed to arrest Bones’ death-defying escape.
“You bastard,” Bones growled. Jessie softly grabbed his arm before Bones could do anything he’d regret. He calmed and grinned when Nico’s brothers stepped next to him. One of them was still holding the rope.
Bones didn’t understand a word Giolito said while Nico and the others went about tying him up like a potbelly pig, but it was pretty easy to guess from his tone.
Bones nudged the man with his foot. “Hey, watch your language. There are ladies present.”
Off in the distance, the sound of police sirens was audible, growing louder by the second. Bones turned to Nico. “Uh, oh,” he muttered with a grimace. “This isn’t going to be easy to talk around.”
Nico smiled, reassuringly. “Do not worry, my friend. We will take care of this.”
Bones pointed at the squirming Giolito. “I don’t think he’s going to just let it go.”
Nico knelt beside Giolito, holding his gaze. “That’s exactly what he’s going to do. The secret of the Laestrygonians must be preserved, even though they are no more. Leonardo understands this. If the truth were to come out, he would bear the greatest responsibility. You don’t want that to happen, do you, Leonardo?”
Giolito glowered, but gradually the fire in his eyes dimmed and shook his head tersely.
Nico turned to Bones. “I will set charges and collapse the tunnels. The deaths of the dig team will be attributed to an accidental cave-in. There will be no further investigation. But I think it would be best if you were not here.”
Bones laughed. “I wish somebody would have told me that yesterday.” He glanced over at Jessie. “You think Rose would spring for a few more days in Monaco?”
Despite everything that had happened, Jessie manage a wry smile. “Why would you want to go back there? The Grand Prix is over.”
“Who cares about that,” Bones shot back. “I don’t plan on leaving the hotel room. You did say you’d make it worth my while.”
Her smile grew. “Yes I did.”
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If you enjoyed Skin and Bones, try Berserk, A Dane Maddock Adventure
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