Cecilia was dragging Sophia by her neck to the west entrance. Nasira aimed the stolen PEP rifle past Sophia’s head but held her fire.

‘Shoot!’ Sophia yelled with what little energy she could draw upon. The words felt like broken glass in her throat.

Nasira tightened her grip on the rifle. Her eyes narrowed.

Sophia felt the hold around her neck relax, and suddenly Cecilia was sprinting through the west entrance, down the hall. Sophia didn’t see much after that. Her legs gave way and she collapsed to her knees.

‘Get her.’ Her voice felt brittle.

Nasira didn’t go after Cecilia. Instead, she slammed Cecilia’s escape door shut and pushed a fallen cabinet against it. There was a blast from the hall. It rattled the door. More Elohim, covering Cecilia’s escape.

Darkness leaked into Sophia’s vision. She almost lost consciousness as Nasira helped her onto her feet.

‘It won’t take long for them to blast their way through,’ Nasira said.

She was supposed to be dead. Jay had no reason to lie about that.

Another shockwave. The air exploded. The cabinet shuddered a few inches from the door.

Nasira shoved it back in place and then, with Sophia’s arm slung over her shoulder, helped her back to the galley kitchen. Benito and Lucia were waiting anxiously for them. They stood next to two new bodies. Elohim. Dead.

Sophia tried to walk by herself. She could do it, but lack of balance sent her sideways into the kitchen tables. Lucia picked up a PEP rifle, then took over from Nasira and helped Sophia walk.

Summoning all of her concentration, Sophia followed Benito and Nasira up the winding tunnel to the loading bay.

‘I thought you were dead,’ she said.

Nasira looked over her shoulder. ‘Jay’s electric current stopped my heart.’ She shrugged. ‘And started it again. The shocktroopers, on the other hand, weren’t so lucky.’

There were two helicopters in the bay: the Akhana’s standard non-stealth helicopter and the Speedhawk. Benito started immediately for the Speedhawk.

‘No!’ Nasira snapped. ‘Those motherfuckers are booby-trapped. Get on the platform.’

She placed her PEP rifle on the platform, then darted for the rail controls.

Lucia helped Sophia onto the platform. ‘We got confirmation back from the other bases,’ she said. ‘They’ve deployed the mosquitoes.’

Sprinklers shot water into the loading bay and the tunnels behind them.

‘You tripped the silent fire alarm,’ Sophia said, her voice weak.

‘I know,’ Nasira said.

Looking down at the wet platform, Sophia noticed a length of rope that ran taut from one side of the platform to the other, but couldn’t work out what it was for. The fake-rock doors were still open. Outside, the rails were extended to the edge of the cliff. In fact, they were extended further than usual. Then she noticed something next to the ends of the rails.

Nasira operated the controls, bringing the rail back inside, but only a fraction. Under each end was a single grenade, its spoon pressed firmly against the rail, pin removed. As the rails retracted, the grenades rolled onto their sides, releasing their spoons. They detonated, shattering the ends of the rail into tiny pieces.

Immediately, Nasira reversed the rail movement so the jagged edges extended out again, right to the edge of the cliff. Now there was nothing on the ends of the rails to stop the platform flying off completely.

Sophia realized what Nasira had in mind.

Benito was on the platform alongside Sophia. Lucia stepped on after him. She placed her PEP rifle at her feet and lay on top of it to keep it dry from the sprinklers.

Nasira called out to them: ‘Hold onto the rope!’

Sophia lay down between Benito and Lucia and gripped the rope with her one good hand, tightly enough that her fingernails dug into her palm. She looked over her shoulder at the tunnel. Four Elohim were running towards them. She felt the on-board motor hum to life underneath her.

‘Are you insane?’ she yelled as Nasira leaped onto the platform.

Nasira slid onto her back and grabbed the rope with both hands. ‘All signs point to yes.’

Sophia’s neck jolted. The back of her head smacked the platform as it shuttled them out of the base. This was a bad idea. She held the rope with her good hand. The rails, then the ground itself, disappeared underneath her. They were sliding down a mountain on nothing more than a metal plate.

Two seconds of eternity. The platform floated through the air, then dropped and bounced against a rocky mountainside. She could see the glistening canopy of the Belizean jungle waiting to consume her.

The rocky cliffside scraped violently against the platform’s underbelly. Then, abruptly, the rock ended. They slid over the precipice. She held her breath as their platform plunged sideways. All they could do was hang on as the platform grated against treetops.

Before it hit the ground, it jarred to a halt, tearing the rope from her grasp. She fell through ferns and hit the ground. When she opened her eyes, Benito was lying beside her. Lucia had dropped into a neat roll. High above, Nasira was still hanging from the rope.

The platform dropped an inch, and then another. Nasira let go, landing next to Sophia and rolling onto her feet.

Above them, branches snapped. The platform dropped again, slicing through the foliage, one corner bearing down on Sophia. Benito seized her wrist and pulled hard. The platform hit the ground, its corner plunging into the damp undergrowth. Ignoring the pain that racked her body, Sophia forced herself onto her feet. From the corner of her vision, she noticed the platform sway. Jesus, it was going to tip right onto them.

It was her turn to take Benito by the arm. She wrenched him across the undergrowth, staggering, then rolling as the platform fell flat right behind them. Lucia and Nasira were there in an instant to pull them to their feet.

‘Where’s your transport?’ Sophia asked.

‘The pyramids,’ Nasira said.

‘Great.’

But the Mayan ruins weren’t too far. They could make it on foot if they were lucky.

***

All Sophia could focus on as they swam the Belize River was trying to stay conscious.

Lucia’s and Nasira’s pistols ended up submerged in water, and their PEP rifles endured a great deal of splashing. It would be too dangerous to attempt firing either of them. They were defenseless, Sophia realized, as she emerged with her own pistol missing. She’d lost it in the river.

They followed Nasira up a slight incline, penetrated a line of thick jungle and found the ruins. Sophia spotted the Speedhawk resting on a temple roof. The roof was on top of a step pyramid located on the far side of the plaza.

There was movement behind them. Splashing. She heard the tearing of palm leaves as the Elohim reached the edge of the river and pushed through the jungle strip. That wasn’t the work of a knife. She remembered the rack of rapiers in Cecilia’s quarters. If Sophia knew how to use them, then the Elohim would too. They’d had the same martial arts training in Project GATE. With their PEP rifles ruined by the sprinklers, the Elohim would’ve armed themselves with seventeenth-century Spanish rapiers instead.

Benito had one arm over Sophia’s shoulder, helping her towards the plaza. He didn’t say a word. All she could hear was his heavy breathing. They were still 600 feet from the pyramid; Nasira and Lucia were 100 feet ahead. A pair of Elohim cut between their two groups. Sophia halted, slowing Benito. He saw it too. Nasira and Lucia were far enough ahead to make it to the Speedhawk, but they weren’t.

Sophia tried to formulate a plan, but her brain refused to cooperate. Every thought was sluggish and painful.

Benito pulled her to the left. There was a 200-foot step pyramid right next to them. There was no helicopter on this one, but, as he helped her up the limestone steps, she realized what he was thinking. The only way out of here was up.

It didn’t help that the steps were three times larger than those in an ordinary flight of stairs. The Mayan rulers preferred their loyal patriots to struggle in their servitude, she supposed. It was nice to know some things on this planet never changed.

She looked back to see how far they’d climbed and was surprised to find an Elohim already at the base of the pyramid, rapier in hand. They had scaled two-thirds of the pyramid, but the Elohim was closing in. Benito must have figured they’d never make it, because he yanked her around to another pyramid face. She looked down, disappointed to see another Elohim, rapier in hand, moving up this face as well.

‘Well, that didn’t work,’ Benito said, between breaths.

Sophia forced herself up the stairs, one hand clinging to each step. She could hear rotor blades throbbing. Nasira had the bird in the air. She looked over her shoulder. The second Elohim was already halfway up. The first would be just as close, if not closer. She didn’t need to run to another pyramid face to know there would be an Elohim ascending there too. If she were coordinating the pursuit, that’s what she’d do.

They’d almost reached the top when her body was seized by more flavors of pain than she cared to catalogue. It was hard even to process her thoughts. Her vision reduced itself to a smear with patches of blurred color. Just trying to focus on the next step gave her a headache.

Benito was beside her, slowing to match her pace. She didn’t want to look behind but knew she had to. The Elohim was three-quarters up. In less than ten seconds, he’d be in range with his rapier.

The Speedhawk thundered overhead. Shunting all remaining energy to her legs and arms, Sophia scrambled the last dozen steps. She could hear the Elohim’s nimble footsteps. She could hear several footsteps. Rapier blades whistled through the damp air.

The Speedhawk reached them. She was two steps from the top. Benito was only a step behind her. And behind him, the Elohim. Rapier poised to thrust.

She pulled at the Elohim’s wrist and wrenched him sideways. The rapier sliced through a gap of air between Benito’s stomach and arm. He saw the blade for the first time and sprang forward. They’d made it to the top.

Ten feet away, another Elohim crawled to the top. On their left, yet another. One behind them, two in front, and fuck-all room to move.

Benito dropped his hands to his sides in exhaustion, facing the Elohim. ‘No,’ he said.

The Speedhawk came in dangerously low, pedaling sideways towards them. Lucia was in the back, secured in a harness, one arm outstretched.

Sophia pulled Benito with her, away from the pursuing rapier seeking his flesh. She crouched low, then jumped up to the Speedhawk. Her hand clamped over Lucia’s wrist. Lucia’s hand clamped over hers. She waited for Benito to wrap his arms around her legs. But it didn’t happen.

Lucia hoisted her up so she could grab the Speedhawk’s lifting wing. She looked down at Benito. He was still on the pyramid. What the hell was he doing?

‘Shit! Get Benito!’ she yelled.

She held on with her good arm as the Speedhawk tilted dangerously. The top of the pyramid came into view. The Speedhawk rolled sharply to one side, rotor blades whipping down, creating a deadly barrier that separated two Elohim from Benito. Great idea. But it left him defenseless against the third.

Lucia aimed her PEP rifle at the two Elohim. She hadn’t seen the third.

‘You’re aiming at the wrong one!’ Sophia yelled.

Lucia couldn’t hear over the noise of the blades. Her rifle blast knocked one Elohim clean off the pyramid. The sound of the shockwave echoed over the Belizean jungle, sending flocks of birds into the sky.

Sophia clenched her teeth. She held onto one wing as the other dipped past Benito. He wrapped his arms around it. A rapier slithered through the air towards him, skewered his leg.

The Speedhawk leveled out. Benito was still holding on. But he wasn’t the only one.

An Elohim climbed on top of the wing and, ignoring Benito, crawled across it. With a knife in one hand, he jumped into the Speedhawk. Lucia, strapped into her harness, moved to shoot him. With one clean motion, he sliced through her jugular. Lucia collapsed in her harness, blood pouring from her neck.

The Elohim stood before Sophia. She was next.

A thin blade punctured the front of his neck. A rapier. He dropped face-first before her. The end of the rapier protruded from the back of his neck. At the very end, the bell handle wobbled.

Sophia realized Benito had pulled the rapier from his own leg and used it to stab the Elohim. She hadn't known he had it in him. Well, he didn’t now; the rapier was in the Elohim’s neck.

She lost her grip on the wing. Benito dropped to his stomach just in time to wrap his hand tightly around her wrist. He was sliding towards her. And she was pulling him out onto the wing.

His gaze shifted over her head and she followed it over her own shoulder. A fleet of helicopters encircled them, each manned with Blue Berets. They were surrounded.

‘Don’t let me go!’ she yelled.