PROLOGUE
It was chaos. The Atlantean
Akitiraks, Martags and Ketaks, with Milo Thatch and
his group riding them
were managing to out-gun Rourke’s troopers. Meanwhile,
the commander and I
desperately tried to bring the gyro-evac, with the
crystallized princess,
Kida, in tow, up to the surface through the volcano shaft...
Just then Milo leapt
from the machine, grabbing hold of the netting that covered
the balloon... It sagged
as Thatch’s machine hit it...
“We’re loosing altitude!”,
Rourke shouted. “Lighten the load!”.
Obediently, I tossed
the last of the fuel tanks overboard, but there was nothing
else we could lose...
“That’s it”, I said,
“Unless someone wants to jump”, I added sarcastically...
I was so intent on keeping
up the gyro-evac’s altitude that I never saw Rourke
come behind me...
“Ladies first!”, I heard
him say.
Before I could react,
he roughly shoved me out of the basket... But I managed to
grab a hold of the edge
and skillfully swung myself back into the cockpit, taking
him by surprise.
“You said we were in
this together!”, I snarled, landing a fierce kick squarely in
Rourke’s stomach, knocking
him down. I aimed another kick at him. “You
promised me a percentage!”.
But he had recovered
from the shock. This time he was ready for me.
“Next time get it in
writing!”, he snapped as he caught my foot... then in one
rough heave he shoved
me over the side again...
“Nothing personal!”,
I heard him call as I fell, screaming to the bottom of the
shaft...
I landed, stunned and
in pain, on the cold hard ground... Every muscle felt like it
was on fire, every bone
in my body felt as though it were broken or shattered... I
gritted my teeth, breathing
heavily. Anger giving me strength, I managed to raise
myself to my hands and
knees, pulling the flare gun from my holster... I then
collapsed onto my back,
but managed to aim the gun directly at the gyro-evac... I
fired it straight at
the balloon...
“Nothing personal”,
I whispered as it burst into flames...
For a few moments I
just lay there, oblivious to what was going on with Thatch
and Rourke above me,
barely able to move, certain that I was dying from the
fall... Then the ground
began to tremble and grow hot under me... I moved my
eyes just enough to
see it begin to break...
I muttered a curse as
I struggled to raise myself to my hands and knees, which
was almost impossible.
One arm hurt too much to use, and the pain in my legs
and in my side was growing
greater, but somehow I managed to half-slide
half-crawl my way over
to a large, cave-like crevice in the wall of the
underground volcano...
I could hear the loud, panicked voices of Milo, Audrey,
Vinny, Sweet, Cookie
and the others, but I paid no attention... I bit my lip as I
forced myself up and
over the rocks and into the cave. I had to get in there
before the poisoness
gasses were released, or else there would be no need for
me to save myself from
the coming lava!.
With a gasp of pain,
I thrust myself into the cave, barely dodging the loosened
rocks and boulders that
were beginning to fall, sealing the entrance...
I was to weak from exhaustion
and pain to move any more... I could only lay
there, staring into
the darkness of the volcano’s cave as the deafening sound of
the eruption filled
my ears, but my eyes were growing as heavy as my
breathing... My last
thought before my eyes closed, and I gave myself up to the
darkness, was that if
I was going to die, either from the fall or the volcano, at
least I was taking Rourke
with me...