Atlantis Endgame Part 13

"It's the big quake," Eveleen whispered, appalled, but afraid to look away.

Wave after wave of shaking toppled walls, and cracks spiderwebbed up the few standing higher buildings. Then, with majestic slowness, the three-story buildings came crashing down, walls crumbling in either direction.

From somewhere jugs emerged, rolling down a cliff, some smashing, others hopping, until they fell a hundred yards into the sea below. Flames shot up somewhere else, as up in the sky, great writhing clouds of black sent out deadly jets of burning flame to lick the top of the mountain.

"Oil," Kosta said, pointing.

All it would take was one untended lamp and spilled olive oil; the flames spilled hungrily from the windows of a storehouse, just to be doused by the thunderous rumble and choking dust of a landslide.

On and on the shaking went, the clouds moving eastward raining down black bits of obsidian first in boulders, then in rocks, then pebbles, and finally in small, stinging bits of gla.s.s, until at last the firestorm and motion gradually subsided. By now the waves shuddered back and forth, some slapping back up onto the beaches, drenching terrified people, forcing them back up onto land.

But down they came again, from wherever they had been hiding during the deluge of burning rock, carrying children, animals, birds, and household goods, to cram into the boats.

Eveleen turned her head. Already many of the ships and boats were plying southward as fast as they could, oars rising and falling with fear-driven jerks, sails tautened by terror-strengthened hands.

They would get away. Maybe they would even make it to Crete, their beautifully painted jugs and vases to influence the painters there into a new style, a new way of looking at the world.

Eveleen, with a mental shrug, wished them well, and turned her attention back to the sh.o.r.eline.

Where was Boss?

"Let us land," Stavros said at last. "Over there, out of sight of the evacuation. We must find Murdock, Ashe and Linnea Edel."

CHAPTER 18.

AFTER ROSS'S "WHAT'S next?" he stepped back to wait for a reaction.

Ashe shook his head, but before he could speak, the Kayu spoke with clear urgency into the translator.

"This segment of the mountain is unstable. We will have to evacuate at once. The onset of chaos in the gravitational knot is releasing more energy than we expected. Now the Earth must find its balance point again."

Action, reaction.

Ashe said grimly, "It's going to be interesting, getting down the mountain if he means what I think he means."

Ross and Gordon turned their attention to the aliens, who had embarked on a fast exchange.

Gordon muttered under his breath, "I wish I could reverse that d.a.m.n translator of theirs."

Then the first Kayu beckoned to the two Time Agents. "We shall give you our two wind vessels, though you cannot use our 00 00 for returning to the mountain. But you do not need that."

Wind vessels? Ross mouthed the words to Ashe. Ross mouthed the words to Ashe.

Ashe said under his breath, "Use 'em to spy on the Greeks and Baldies, I'll bet."

"You musst come now," the Kayu said.

Ross and Ashe followed the swaying robes, not back to the surface, but farther inside. Ross noted that they pa.s.sed the room where he and Eveleen had been imprisoned for a night, and then they were all three enclosed in a cylindrical elevator shaft made of some stonelike white material, with a source of light impossible to detect.

A whoosh of air carrying a faint smell of ozone hit their faces, but they felt no accompanying drop in stomach like one experienced with elevators in their own time. Ross didn't know if they'd gone up, down, or sideways. The opaque door slid open again, and they emerged onto a cliff. Hot, smoky wind teased hair and clothing; the smell of sulfur fingered its way in even past their breathing masks.

The Kayu touched some kind of control that Ross didn't see because of the limited field of vision caused by his mask; a section of what had looked like solid rock flickered out of existence, leaving what at first appeared to be two giant bird shapes.

"Hang gliders," Ashe said.

"Sort of," Ross amended. He'd been hang gliding with Eveleen. These things looked different.

The Kayu said in its hissing speech, "It holdss humanss."

Gordon gave a shrug and bent over the closest one. Ross also bent, but what he tried to spot was the video projector that had projected the holographic rock. He couldn't find anything, even when he ran his hands over the rough pumice.

"Come on," Gordon said.

A tremor growling deep underground underscored the urgency.

He and Ross dragged the gliders out. At once the wind tried to take them, even though the wings were folded down.

Gordon examined them swiftly; from the look on his face he was doing some fast mental calculations.

Ross bent his attention to the controls, which appeared to be simple. Levers controlled the wing struts and the tails: levers for hands up front, for feet at the back. Out beyond the glider platform someone had painted great gla.s.sy bird-eyes on either side of a raptor's beak. So the Kayu had used these to glide in the air over the island, then, and to the locals they would look like giant birds. Had the Baldies seen them? If they were just gliding, there would be no energy signature to detect.

His thoughts were broken when Gordon thumped his arm and pointed. "Lie here. Strap in like this. I think we'll need to balance them for weight up front," Gordon said. "I suspect, from the look of these things, that the Kayu are lighter than we are."

"Is this a really stupid idea?" Ross asked Gordon as they dragged the gliders to the back of the cliff, giving themselves maximum running room. The straps, Ross noted, were made from some silky material that had enormous tensile strength. "I mean, where did that Fur Face go?"

"I don't know, but it looks as if this is the only way down," Gordon said. "And if they've used them, well, so can we." His mouth tightened in an ironic smile.

Another tremor shook the mountain, this one with an odd, jolting hop in it. A sudden roar beneath them sent both men to the edge of the cliff. Far down, just barely visible in the haze, they saw a tremendous landslide.

"Right," Ross said. "Let's get out of here."

"Now or never," Gordon agreed.

They gripped the handles of the gliders, flicked up the wings, and began to run.

Almost at once the gliders bucked and sidled as the wings and the wind played tug-of-war. Five, four, three, two- There was the cliff edge, with a thousand-foot drop beyond. Ross's palms p.r.i.c.kled with sweat, his heart thumped in his ears, as he swung himself out and slammed onto the platform.

The straps slapped themselves round him, the nose edged over the cliff, and the glider dropped.

"Whoo-eeeeeee!" The sound tore out of Ross as his guts plummeted, then the wind current caught the glider and tossed it up back toward the cliff. The sound tore out of Ross as his guts plummeted, then the wind current caught the glider and tossed it up back toward the cliff.

"Rank! Bank!" Gordon roared from fifty feet away and out.

Ross turned his head, saw the cliff zooming toward him. He jammed his feet against the tail controls and the right wing; the glider banked sharply, sailing with amazing smoothness within a yard of the rocky face of the cliff, then outward and away.

There below was the entire island ring, visible between gouts of smoke rising to join the sheep-backed clouds flocking eastward from the south. Storm coming, Storm coming, Ross thought as he lifted his head and gazed to the north. There, beyond the north sh.o.r.e of Akrotiri's peninsula, were the green waters surrounding the pre-Kameni Island. Weird whitish water spoiled the emerald perfection of that vast lagoon. Steam vents? Ross thought as he lifted his head and gazed to the north. There, beyond the north sh.o.r.e of Akrotiri's peninsula, were the green waters surrounding the pre-Kameni Island. Weird whitish water spoiled the emerald perfection of that vast lagoon. Steam vents?

Not a storm, Ross thought in slow, chilling shock as his wing moved and he could see past it to the huge, black, tentacled plume thrusting up from the island. It was not a storm, but something far worse: an eruption from what would very soon-maybe even now-be the center of the entire caldera. Ross thought in slow, chilling shock as his wing moved and he could see past it to the huge, black, tentacled plume thrusting up from the island. It was not a storm, but something far worse: an eruption from what would very soon-maybe even now-be the center of the entire caldera.

Are we too late?

That question, too, was swept away when the quake hit.

Afterward, Ross could never pinpoint where the fault slipped. What he became aware of first was the sound, a great, roaring, grinding growl deeper and more terrifying than mere thunder, which was just air. This sound was far more powerful, the restless shifting of immeasurable strata as magma began forcing its way upward. What Ross saw were rings chasing outward, and then reverberating back, through both land and water.

The gliders emerged round a great fold in the mountain just in time for Ross and Gordon to look down and see Akrotiri trembling, like a toy city when children stomp on the floor all around. With excruciating slowness the remaining roofs toppled inward as walls fell outward, sending rubble, broken furnishings and jars, and clouds and clouds of reddish gold dust spewing into the air.

"Up," Gordon shouted. "Under the cliff, as close as you can!"

Ross didn't need the order. He already had his wings spread to the maximum, riding the updraft. Overhead the snaking tunnels of fire-laden smoke reached out, burning everything they touched. The two Time Agents would be barbecued in midair unless they used the quaking mountain as protection.

A terrifying rain of black stone smashed down behind Ross into the sea, sending up hissing steam columns, some of them high enough to mix in with the smoke overhead.

Hot air whooshed round the cliffs, followed by cold drafts. Both men fought to keep their craft within the lee of relative protection. It was the hot steamy drafts that kept them airborne. They circled round and round, the wings sometimes rattling and trembling as occasional shots of fine gla.s.sy black rock rained over them and then fell to the sea below, until, at last, the worst of the fiery smoke began to subside.

They could not stay up forever; already they were circling lower and lower.

It was time to try to land. They did not want to fall on the still-shaking ground anywhere near that city, or on the slipping cliffs that slid down here and there on the mountainsides.

They arced away from their cliff shelter and flew out over the ocean, both looking back, trying to see past the great stretches of their wings.

"What's that?" Gordon cried, peering down through the drifting smoke.

They had emerged far enough around the goat-tracked cliffs to see the harbor, which was filled with little craft, most of them with handkerchief-size sails luffing in the wind.

"Evacuation, looks like!"

"Our people must have found something out," Gordon shouted back.

Ross frowned, looking down there. Eveleen, where are you? Eveleen, where are you? he called silently. he called silently.

Now they were out beyond the city, which mostly lay in ruins. Not all the buildings had fallen, but most. They did not see any bodies on those rubble-filled narrow streets. Still, Ross felt his guts tighten. Just because they couldn't see past all the rubble and the smoke didn't mean things weren't really bad.

A fretful gust of wind shook the glider, making the wings clatter, and the nose dove down. Ross tightened his grip on the controls and managed to get the craft to straighten out.

Ross stilled the trembling in his fingers, renewed his grip on the handholds, and urged the glider upward again, trying to gain alt.i.tude and time. He glanced over. Gordon was about twenty feet above him, maybe fifty feet away. Ross could see Gordon squinting through the smoke and dust haze to the sh.o.r.es.

Ross turned his attention downward. Would they see Baldies even if they were there? He remembered the business about holographic images. Both the Baldies and the Kayu had them. They definitely had the tech edge; the Time Agents hadn't even dared use their radios.

That would have to change, Ross thought. Ross thought. Meanwhile, what's to keep them from shooting at us up here? Meanwhile, what's to keep them from shooting at us up here?

Yet they drifted on, and nothing happened. As they emerged from one dust cloud, they could see the crumbled remains of tiny villages dotting the lower peninsula of the crescent-shaped island. I hope the people got out, I hope the people got out, Ross thought. Ross thought.

Reminded of the evacuation, Ross craned his neck and looked directly below. They were nearly past the harbor now. On the sh.o.r.e chaotic scrambling resolved into some desperate fights to gain ships: as he watched a line of men emerged from one of the rocky hills behind the farthest warehouses and ran down to the sh.o.r.e, where they attacked a family trying to load household items onto a fishing boat. Ross watched in growing but impotent anger as the burly men struck down family members; his fists tightened unconsciously on the controls, momentarily sending his glider bucketing dangerously in the wind. He shifted his attention to fighting for stability, and when the craft had smoothed out, though the wings hummed and rattled, he looked back. He was relieved to see that two parties of fisher folk had come to the aid of the family. Ross's last glimpse of the altercation was of the attackers, now tiny dots, retreating into the hills.

The hills. He frowned, thinking- "There's our ship," Gordon shouted.

Ross whipped his head around and saw Gordon pointing downward. Well beyond the ma.s.s of boats drifting south lay their own craft. As Ross stared into the sunlight, he thought he caught a brief glint from field gla.s.ses.

"Let's aim for 'em," he called, pointing with his chin.

"After you," Gordon answered.

Ross banked his glider. Now that the flight was nearly over, he discovered he was almost sorry.

He realized they were going to have to crash-land on the water and wondered if the gliders would survive. He wondered if he would survive.

The air currents buffeted them hard, cold, hot, sulfur-and-hot-rock-smelling, dust-laden, cold again. Their speed increased as they spiraled downward. The horizon tipped up crazily; for a moment all Ross could see was dark green.

Then the ship revolved into view, pa.s.sing again. Ross caught a glimpse of Eveleen's pale face. She stood on the taffrail, poised to dive.

Down, and he spread the wings in a desperate attempt to flatten out. Splash! That was Gordon, hitting the water.

Ross skimmed just above the waves. White water splashed up, making him gasp. Then he hit, and would have been wrenched badly had the straps not retracted with efficient, alien speed. He rolled off the platform and plunged into water.

After that nearly effortless flight, he felt heavy, clumsy. He splashed, kicking up his feet, and then struck out swimming.

A moment later an arm appeared, and there was Eveleen. Hands closed around his neck, and lips met his, warm/cold, in a trembling, salty kiss.

CHAPTER 19.

"ALL RIGHT," GORDON Ashe said at last. "What have we got?"

Eveleen scooted closer to Ross. She was not the least bit cold-if anything, the air was more sultry than it had been during the day-but the amount of EM in the air, left over from the extraordinary fire the day before and the lightning now, and the subsonic rumblings that came ever more frequently, put her flight-or-fight instincts on overdrive.

Rain hammered down on the canopy overhead, a drenching, stinging rain full of grit and dust. The fleet had vanished southward during a fierce, blood-crimson sunset, the last sails tiny dots on the horizon as the limb of the sun vanished in a sinister purple haze.

For a time the outriding storm clouds had paraded on to the east, underlit like a villain's face in an old movie. There was nothing subtle in that spectacular sunset; the colors were brilliant, as if the sky had been painted by all the ancient G.o.ds with their elemental pa.s.sions.

Lightning flaring from time to time promised no mercy during the night, either; before they'd exchanged stories, Ashe and Stavros both insisted everyone get the ship battened down.

Because of that quake the island was no longer safe at night, not without a thorough exploration. One thing for certain about major quakes: you never get just one. There are always aftershocks, and some of these can be as bad as the original event.

So they'd all worked to get equipment locked down, and Stavros had used the engines to move the ship eastward to a little cove that might afford some protection from the oncoming weather. There was no one around to hear the growl of the engines, not with the continuous rumble of thunder across the sky.