SIXTY-THREE
THE FOUR HYBRIDS charging up the street toward the team’s position on the staircase stumbled and fell as the massive amount of explosives planted by King detonated. The temple burst like a volcano, raining Volkswagen-sized chunks of the temple around the city. Buildings imploded as the giant pieces of wall, stairs, and balustrades descended like missiles. The fragments launched from the center of the blast shot up and struck the great crystals above.
From the outside, Mount Meru really did look like a volcano as smoke filtered out of the holes in the mountainside. But not all of the smoke made it out. Torrents of rain mingled with the smoke and fell back inside, collecting on the city walls as sludge.
The ground shook violently as a deafening shock wave shot out from the blast and ricocheted off the cavern walls, lingering painfully in the ears of everyone in Meru—human and Nguoi Rung alike. As the shock wave subsided, a new rumble filled the air, this one slower yet growing in volume. The hybrids in the street stood, still dazed. They looked at each other, then, as a group, retreated toward the outskirts of the city.
After watching the hybrids retreat, King entered the small second-floor room, rejoining Queen, Bishop, Rook, and Sara. They were looking out a window. Through it, a massive plume of smoke rose from the temple. Chunks of stone still fell around the city, mixed with the rain.
Portions of the temple twisted and fell, the sound of their collapse mingling with the still-expanding roar.
Sara turned away from the spectacle suddenly, looking at King. “Weston’s close.”
“Your senses are back?” King asked.
“I can smell him!”
King sniffed. His nose filled with an odor close to that of a spoiled French onion soup. He turned toward the door just as Weston entered wielding a pistol. He fired.
King grunted in pain and fell to the floor, grasping his shoulder.
“What have you done?” Weston shouted, moving toward the window while waving his gun at the team, forcing them away. He looked out the window, at the smoldering, ruined temple. The city began to shake around them. The rumble grew louder.
“No . . . ,” Weston said quietly as the source of the steadily growing vibrations surged into view. A river of water spilled from the fifth gallery gate, flowing down the main street. At its front rolled stone debris, ruined balustrades, and the bodies of more than fifty hybrids and a few of the old mothers. Mixed in with their bodies were scores of bright orange and white fish. The subterranean fishpond had been emptied. Merging with the already considerable flow of rainwater, the torrent washed quickly down through the inclined city.
A loud snap, like the crack of a falling tree amplified through loudspeakers, drew Weston’s attention up, above the temple. One of the large crystals that grew from ceiling to the city floor cracked and slowly fell.
The size and weight of the crystal was that of two 747s end to end. It struck the city below, crushing what remained of the temple with a force above and beyond the C4 explosion King had created. The shock wave flattened the fifth gallery wall, crumbled several buildings throughout the city, added force and speed to the river flowing down the main street, and loosened the other crystals above.
Meru was coming undone.
With wild eyes, Weston turned his gaze from the city to the team. He shook. Sweat beaded and dripped down his face. The gun moved from Sara, kneeling by the door with King, who was just now sitting up, to Rook, Bishop, and Queen on the other side of the room, seeing the three of them as more of an immediate threat.
The gun stopped at Bishop. Weston stared at him with wide, fear-filled eyes. “I—I saw you die.” He pulled the gun’s hammer back. “You should be dead.”
Bishop grinned. “I’ve heard that before.”
Then he charged.
Weston put two bullets in Bishop’s chest before the two collided. They stumbled back together, toppling out of the large rectangular window just moments after the stone-filled front line of the river flowed past. They fell into a six-foot-deep, fast-moving river.
King launched to his feet and ran to the window. “Let’s move,” he said, and jumped in. Sara, Queen, and Rook followed at his heels.
The raging waters slid through the city streets like a giant snake, swerving with the bends and surging down inclines. The team, and Weston, were at its mercy. Swimming did nothing, so they simply tried to stay above water and avoid being crushed by the churning debris or smashed into the side of a structure or gate as they were whisked through the city.
Bounding across rooftops, several hybrids raced alongside the river yelling, “Father! Father!” as they attempted to free Weston from the river’s grasp. One of them leaned from a stone overpass and pulled Weston up by his arm. The Chess Team flowed quickly past. He didn’t want to be rescued. He wanted vengeance. “Put me back in!” Weston shouted.
The hybrid looked confused. “Father?”
Weston yanked himself free and fell back in. He was swept away, in pursuit of his enemies, the destroyers of Meru, the killers of his family. Of Lucy.
The Chess Team quickly passed through Meru’s third and second gates in thirty seconds. As they approached the first and final gate, Knight waved to them from atop a statue, then leaped into the water. He’d seen the destruction from below, witnessed the city falling apart, and had a clear view of the hybrid horde fleeing over the rooftops. Diving into the raging water, even with an injured ankle, was far preferable to staying any longer. After passing through the final and smallest of the gates, they were free of the city. The flow spread wide and slowed as they entered the stone clearing between city . . . and river. Sara swam to King, who struggled to stay above water with his wounded shoulder.
“Do you need he—!” Sara’s words were cut off as King shoved her underwater.
Weston took aim from twenty feet back and fired twice. King ducked down as the water around them absorbed the bullets. When he came up he saw Weston again, but then the water fell out from under them and they were tumbling through the air.
They landed in the twisting moat that flowed around the city and were pushed down deep by the river falling from above. King fought the current with his good arm, to no avail. He tried using his injured arm, but the blinding pain that came with the movement almost sapped his consciousness. Then he was pulled up. Sara again. She took him by the shirt and pulled him away from the newly formed waterfall.
The normally calm river flowing around the city raged with white water, fueled by the monsoon outside and the fresh addition of the temple’s fishpond. As they were swept away and around the city, Queen, Bishop, Rook, and Knight pounded through the water and rejoined them.
“We have to get out of here,” Knight said, looking toward the river exit, which was now full to the ceiling. There would be no surfacing in the underwater river. But the smooth vertical walls of the river offered no purchase or chance of escape. They’d been designed to sweep enemies away.
“Stay close and stay down!” King shouted as they neared the river exit. “Deep breath and curl up!”
The team began taking very fast breaths, saturating their bodies with oxygen. Sara mimicked them as best she could. Ten feet from the exit, three shots pinged off the stone around them. Weston, still behind, still enraged, shook the gun at them and swam closer. He shouted to the hybrids still running along the river’s banks. “Get them outside! Go. Now!”
The hybrids obeyed, breaking off the chase and heading for the city’s other, more secretive exits.
King looked back at Meru and saw more of the giant crystals falling from above. The whole mountain was coming down. Groups of hybrids and a few of the old mothers fled, funneling out through small tunnels he hadn’t seen before. He turned back toward the tunnel exit. It loomed above them like jaws of the underworld.
The Chess Team pushed under the water and curled into fetal positions. The orange glow of the fire-fueled crystal light disappeared moments later as they were plunged into the pitch-dark underground river.