Jack said, ‘You got shot down covering some Delta pricks who then left without you.’

‘What about my—’

‘He didn’t make it. I’m sorry. Do you know how to fly a 747?’

‘If it’s got wings, I can fly it,’ the chubby copilot said determinedly.

Minutes later, as the three hundred–strong force of Republican Guards charged into the hangar with their guns blazing, the giant plane rumbled out of it, blasting right through its flimsy hangar doors.

It raced out into the twilight, powered up and took to the air, safe and away.

In the cockpit, the Kiwi pilot turned to Jack.

‘Hey, thanks for the rescue, especially since it was supposed to be us rescuing you.’

‘Don’t mention it,’ Jack said. ‘What’s your name?’

‘The name’s Ernie. Ernie Shepherd. But most people call me Sky Monster.’

‘Jack West. Huntsman.’

‘Nice to meet you, bro. Gotta say, this is a pretty sweet plane.’

It certainly was. It had offices, meeting rooms, a state-of-the-art communications centre, and even a plush bedroom at the back with its own bathroom and a gold toilet.

‘I know,’ Jack said. ‘I think I’ll keep it.’

Jack and Sky Monster would remain friends for the next twenty-five years.

Jack would also encounter Cal Kallis again, during his search for the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Their final meeting would be a bloody hand-to-hand fight on a platform erected on the summit of the Great Pyramid during the almost cataclysmic Tartarus Rotation.

Jack would kill Kallis by hurling him off the top of the pyramid and through the blurring blades of a helicopter circling below them, dicing him into a thousand pieces.

A fitting end, all things considered.

THE FINAL SECTION

OF THE

FOUR-SIDED MAZE

The Four-Sided Maze

29 December, 0330 hours

96 minutes till Omega

After an entire day of nerve-jangling travel through the rotating maze, at last the end of it came into view for Jack and his team.

As they made their way down the superlong maze, they had kept pace with their rivals: Rastor and his last two men, and Sphinx with Cardinal Mendoza.

Rastor’s group maintained their lead, staying about a hundred metres ahead of Jack’s team the whole time.

It was different with Sphinx: Jack’s team steadily gained on Sphinx and as the end of the maze came into sight, Jack’s team was moving level with Sphinx’s, albeit on opposite walls.

From his position on the right-hand wall, Jack gazed out at the end of the gargantuan maze.

At first it was just a hazy, darker section, but as he and the others came closer to it, Jack could see that the maze ended at a high pyramid-shaped hill of ornate steps that rose up the face of a sheer stone wall.

A single arched doorway stood at the summit of the hill right in the middle of the wall.

The only exit.