The Rising Sea (NUMA Files 15)

The flashover engulfed Kenzo and threw him backward at the same time. He was flung to the floor like a rag doll with his clothes on fire.

Joe ripped off his coat and lunged for Kenzo, covering him with the jacket and smothering the flames. Gamay helped him put the flames out as Paul slammed the door shut to keep the fire from pouring into the rotunda.

“His face is burned,” Gamay said. “And his hands. I think his clothes took the worst of it.”

Kenzo moaned once or twice but said nothing.

“He hit his head pretty hard,” Joe said. “I think he’s unconscious. Let’s hope he stays that way until we can get him help.”

He picked Kenzo up in a fireman’s carry and pointed to the door up above. “Up the stairs,” Joe urged. “It’s our only chance.”

“We’ll be exposed,” Gamay said, gripping the mace.

“We don’t have much choice. We’re rats in a burning maze and Kenzo was the only one who knew the layout.” He urged them to move. “Make sure the ledge is clear. I’ll carry Kenzo.”

Paul went up first, with Gamay right behind him. They checked the door for heat before they opened it and went through.

Joe followed with Kenzo over his shoulders. He ducked through the door, careful not to harm Kenzo in the process.

Paul and Gamay were standing on the parapet, awestruck. The entire pagoda was ablaze. All four levels of the ornate wooden structure alive with flames.

“I hope Kurt’s not still in that tower,” Gamay said.

“He’s too smart for that,” Paul replied.

“Keep moving,” Joe urged. “We need to get to the water.”

They pressed on, crossing the bridge headed for the outer wall. As they neared it, the door swung open behind them and a pair of men came running out.

“They’re headed this way,” Paul said. “If they spot us, we’ll be sitting targets down on the rocks.”

“We have no other choice,” Joe said. “Take Kenzo. Find a place to hide. I’ll keep our friends occupied as long as I can.”

Paul put down the pike, leaning it against the wall, and took Kenzo from Joe. With the injured man over his shoulder, he followed Gamay, picking his way down toward the water’s edge.

As they left, Joe grabbed the pike, turned around and crouched in the dark.

The pursuers were coming on fast, racing through the smoke across the bridge. They, too, were escaping the inferno, more than anything else, but they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Paul, Gamay and Kenzo if they found them. Joe wasn’t about to let that happen.

He stayed

hidden, waiting until they were almost on top of him before rising up. He swung the pike in a tight curve. It caught the first man in the stomach, doubling him over. In response, the second man aimed a pistol at Joe, but a return stroke of the metal pike caught the weapon and knocked it from the assailant’s hand.

The gun fell onto the rocks and discharged harmlessly. But the man lunged for Joe and tackled him. They struggled and then fell over the wall. Not forward toward the lake but backward into the dry moat, where the Komodo dragons waited.

* * *

• • •

KURT CLIMBED down the stairs with Kenzo’s antipersonnel cannon in his arms; eyes burning and half blind with tears, he almost tripped over Akiko. She was lying on the floor near the gap in the door. A chimney-type effect was bringing fresh air in, funneling it up the stairs, keeping them alive in the process.

Kurt exhaled and took a breath as he set the cannon on the floor.

Akiko crawled toward him and helped to set it up. They packed it with powder and an eight-pound solid steel cannonball. Unable to find a proper linstock, or lighter, Kurt used a wadded-up piece of paper. He touched it to the fire coming down the stairwell and held it against the fuse. For a long couple of seconds, nothing happened. Then the fuse sizzled to life, the powder charge went off and the eight-pound ball thundered into the door, blasting it to splinters.

“And I thought this thing wouldn’t be useful,” Kurt mused.

Shoving broken pieces of wood aside, they enlarged the gap and climbed through, crawling over a pile of furniture that had been used to block them in. “Which way to the garage?”