The wind whistled in Cassie's ears: rushing by, whipping her hair across her face and behind her glasses, stinging her eyes, and tossing her around like a kite in a hurricane. About twenty feet above her, Tristan's helicopter roared through the sky, the pulsing hum of the rotors being the only thing that could be distinctly heard over the wind.
Crack!
Crack! Crack!
Well- the only thing that could be heard, that is, besides the gunfire.
Cassie glanced over at the helicopter flying alongside her, an Ocelotl goon standing in the open side door with a rifle in hand and the crook of one arm looped through a strap to brace himself. His shots had missed, mostly due to how much she was being thrown around by the turbulence, but Cassie knew that sooner or later he would get lucky. Gritting her teeth, Cassie reached further up the line of her grappling hook with one hand, trying to haul herself to the chopper before she got shot down.
Naturally, then, it was the split-second in which she only had one hand on the line that Tristan's chopper banked steeply to the right. The sudden change of velocity threw Cassie hard to the side, the rope paying through her fist as she slid a good six feet down it. She yelped and clapped her other hand back on to the rope to catch herself, already feeling the warmth on her left palm where she would no doubt have a nasty friction burn later.
"This sucks- SO hard!" Cassie groaned as she locked the tail of her grappling hook's rope between her boots.
The chopper to her left was still keeping pace, and the goon let another bullet fly in her direction before he paused, withdrawing a bit inside the side door of the chopper and reaching up to touch his headset. Her heart racing and her knuckles white from holding on so tightly, Cassie watched as he spoke into the mic on his helmet, pointed at her, and then jabbed his finger in a downwards motion. A moment later he turned, looked directly at Cassie with a mocking grin, and tossed her a salute.
"What the-" Cassie's sentence caught in her throat as Tristan's helicopter dropped abruptly in altitude, plunging her toward the forest below. "Oh, crap! Crap! Not good!" she screamed.
As she crashed into the branches Cassie lifted her legs, tucking her knees and curling in on herself as dozens of branches pummeled her in lightning-quick succession. "Come- on!" she cried, her voice raspy. "Give me a break!" A pine bough snapped as she smashed into it hard enough to knock the wind out of her and send her spinning erratically across a clearing in the wood. Mercifully, Tristan's chopper chose that moment to begin ascending again, hauling her up and out of the rainforest.
"Oh, thank god!" Cassie breathed, laughing in relief between her ragged panting for breath. With blood trickling down her left bicep from a fresh cut on her arm, Cassie once more started hauling herself up the rope as staccato gunfire rang out from the nearby choppers. She made it within ten feet of the landing skid when a sudden drop in engine tone from the chopper to her left, followed promptly by Tristan's helicopter rising sharply, made her stop. The sudden altitude gain wrenched on Cassie's shoulders and threatened to shake her loose, but it was when the two aircraft leveled off again that a sudden panic twisted Cassie's stomach into a knot. Their new position relative to each other now put Cassie's midsection roughly in line with the other helicopter's rotors- a fact Tristan clearly planned to take advantage of as his chopper turned sharply towards it. Cassie eyes went wide, and she suddenly felt like she was going to throw up. "Oh shit!"
The seconds that followed passed as if in slow motion. The goon on the opposing chopper fired once, twice, three times at her. Cassie kicked out, dodging the shots as she leveraged her body weight to swing towards him. Reaching the apex of her arc as the two helicopters closed in on each other and only moments away from being diced in the rotors, Cassie yelled and flicked her grappling hook to dislodge it from Tristan's chopper. Nearly a thousand feet in the air and freefalling, Cassie passed within inches the razor-like helicopter blades as they sliced through the air at 400 RPMs. She twisted her body away, squeezing her eyes shut as the bassy thrumming of the rotors pounded in her eardrums and chest with terrifying intensity and the displaced air tore at her hair and clothes with the force of a small tornado. Cassie threw one arm up to shield her face while reaching out blindly with her other, and she screamed as she hoped desperately to find a handhold without losing her arm in the process. As her body smashed into the side of the helicopter and bounced off, Cassie only just managed to catch the edge of the landing skid with one hand as she fell past it. Rattled to her core, Cassie sucked in a shocked breath and reached up to take hold with her other hand as she dangled from the bottom of the helicopter, miraculously alive and in one piece.
"Oh my-" Cassie choked on the sheer volume of wind rushing by her and filling her lungs, her cry of disbelief swept away as it left her mouth. "Oh my god!"
"What's going on over there?" Cutter's voice came over the earpiece, just barely audible over the deafening white noise around her.
"I almost just lost my ass!" Cassie replied as she adjusted her grip. "Literally!"
"That would have been the real tragedy!" Ian said in response.
"It's… not really the time for all that, Foss!" Cassie yelled back. She looped both forearms over the landing skid, hugging it to her chest as she hooked one foot over the back and started to pull herself up. Immediately, she was stopped by the barrel of an assault rifle which appeared out of nowhere, suddenly mere inches from her nose. Cassie gulped as she stared down it at the angry, scowling face of the Ocelotl goon. As his finger squeezed the trigger to blow Cassie out of the sky, she swept the gun barrel aside with her arm, grabbing it just behind the muzzle, and let herself drop back down, pulling the goon with her as she did. He screamed as he fell past her to his death.
"Real sorry!" she yelled as she pulled herself up again and finally made it into the helicopter. The relative terra firma of being inside a chopper had never felt more reassuring, and Cassie took a moment to breathe deeply and steady herself against the frame of the door. "Holy shit!" she gasped.
A fist suddenly struck her left cheekbone with staggering force, sending Cassie reeling into the dividing wall between the cabin and the cockpit. The back of her head struck the metal bulkhead, and she groaned as she slid to the floor.
"You should've given up a long time ago, little girl," said a second goon as he stepped out of the shadows from the back of the chopper with his fists raised.
"Heh, right!" Cassie wheezed as she straightened her glasses. "There's more of you. Terrific." Wincing in pain, she held out a placating hand as she picked herself up. "Just… be a gentleman and let me at least get up?" Cassie flexed her back as she stood and felt her spine crack, then adjusted the neckline of her sweat-soaked tank top and shook out her arms to dispel the tension. "Alright!" she said, assuming a fighting stance. "Let's go!"
The goon stepped toward her and swung wide. Cassie side-stepped it, and his fist hit the bulkhead instead. Cassie swung an uppercut into his gut and followed with a hook to the jaw that set him back a step, but when she swung a third punch, he caught her fist easily. Smiling evilly at her, the goon proceeded to twist her hand back until the joints in her arm felt like they were about to break, then he grabbed her shoulder and threw her into the back of the cabin. Cassie grunted as she hit the bench seat along the back wall and fell to the ground.
"Rude!" she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. The goon rushed at her, but Cassie grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall at the end of the bench and threw it at him. It hit him in the head, momentarily stunning him, and then bounced out the open side door of the chopper. Cassie leaped to her feet and swung another punch at him, then rammed her elbow into his jaw off the back end.
The helicopter banked steeply to the left, stalling the fight momentarily as both Cassie and the goon struggled to keep their balance. In the cockpit the radio squawked, and Cassie heard Tristan's voice crackle over it. The pilot picked up the receiver and said something in response, casting a worried look in her direction as he did.
"Ugh!" Cassie had barely even realized that she was distracted until she felt the goon's fist drive into her stomach. Feeling the bile rise in her throat as she staggered towards the door, Cassie caught herself on the frame just in time to keep from plummeting to her death. "Cheap shot!" she yelped, windmilling her free arm for balance as she swung out over the side. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the goon rushing at her again, and she yanked herself back inside the cabin, drawing her knife from its sheath on her thigh as she did. Ducking under the goon's arm as he swung at her, Cassie twisted around, drove the knife into his side, and then rolled out of the way as he roared in pain. "This could all be over if you'd just let me do my job, my dude!" she shouted as she emerged behind him.
Growling in frustration as he clutched his bleeding side, the goon gave her an ugly sneer as he hunched over, pulled an AK-47 off his back, and opened fire. Cassie gasped and dropped onto her back, barely avoiding the burst of gunfire that erupted from the gun's muzzle. As her shoulders hit the floor, Cassie lashed out wildly with her foot and kicked the AK-47 away from her. Dragging a deadly fan of stray bullets across the bulkhead and into the cockpit, the gun flew to the side and out of the goon's hands, and over the cacophony of ricocheting rounds, Cassie heard the distinctive and blood-curdling sound of the pilot's strangled scream. Cursing in Spanish as he lost the machine gun over the side, Cassie's opponent stumbled forward as the newly unguided chopper pitched violently to the right, throwing both him and Cassie to the side. Cassie screamed as she fell, reaching her arm out to catch the edge of the door frame just as she was launched off the side of the helicopter and the full force of both the wind and the chopper's erratic movement threatened to wrench her free from her tremulous grip on safety before she could catch hold with her other hand. For his part, the goon fell heavily against the wall on the opposite side of the door, groaning as he clutched his side where a growing bloom of scarlet blood was spreading across his uniform. An alarm, loud and grating, began to blare inside the helicopter, accompanied by flashing red lights as the aircraft spiraled out of control and Cassie desperately fought to drag herself back inside. Grabbing onto a loose cargo strap, she managed to haul at least her torso back into the chopper and looked over toward the Ocelotl goon across from her. He locked eyes with Cassie, glaring at her with pure hate before reaching behind the bench and pulling an armful of parachutes. Cassie watched wide-eyed as he threw the first and then the second off the side, never taking his eyes off of her as he did.
"Hey!" Cassie shouted, trying to catch one of the chutes as it passed by her. The wind caught it before it even came close to her outstretched hand, and in a flash it was ripped away and flung into the rainforest. "What the hell?!" Cassie said, grabbing back onto the strap before she lost her grip.
Sliding the straps of the final parachute over his shoulders, the goon sneered at her. "Adiós, chica," he said, pushing himself away from the wall. "You should've known better than to get involved with this."
"Wait! Wait hold up!" Cassie shouted as the man turned and threw himself out the door. Caught by the wind as the chopper continued its chaotic course through the sky, the goon was immediately swept out of Cassie's sight. "Son of a-"
"Well now," Cutter's voice in her ear caught Cassie by surprise. "That looks like a bit more smoke than is supposed to be coming from a chopper. Any chance you're on that particular one, Cassandra?"
"Wait, where?" Ian said, sounding concerned. "Oh. OOHH. Yeah, that looks bad."
"I see I can still count on you to show the bright side of a situation," Cassie grunted as she hauled herself hand over hand up the cargo strap. "Also, why do you automatically assume that the on-fire helicopter is the one that I'm on?"
"Have you met your father?"
Cassie rolled her eyes but didn't respond to Cutter's snarky reversal of her own words back on her. She reached the door to the cockpit and hauled herself through, wedging herself between the door frame and the copilot's seat to keep from her balance as the chopper swerved wildly to the left. As the alarms screeched deafeningly in Cassie's ears, she scanned the control panel and its myriad of gauges, flashing lights, and warning messages, all of which were splattered with the blood of the pilot who sat slumped in his chair. "This is not good!" she groaned, pushing the dead pilot out of the way and taking his seat. "Cutter, you fly- what do I do?"
The Englishman scoffed before replying, "Yeah, call me crazy but I'm not sure this is really the time to be giving crash courses on helicopter piloting, luv."
Almost as if imbued with a life of its own, the chopper curved hard in the opposite direction and spun almost a full 360 degrees. Cassie's stomach churned as she watched the world pass by in a blur beyond the windscreen.
"Cassie!" Ian yelled over the earpieces. "You have to get off that thing- NOW!"
Cassie looked around and gulped, her anxiety spiking as she ran through her available options with as level a head as she felt could reasonably be expected under the circumstances. "Foster! There's no parachutes!" A loud POP and a burst of sparks came from one of the screens in front of her, and Cassie watched as blue flames began to lick up from inside the panel.
"It's going- TO CRASH!"
"I know!" Cassie shot back, not angry so much as she was just totally at her wit's end. "Well," she said with resignation, sucking air through her teeth. "It's been nice knowing you guys-"
"Cassie, don't even go there!" Ian yelled back, sounding almost desperate. "Just get off that damn helicopter!"
Cassie shook her head and muttered to herself, "Easy for you to say." She glanced through the bay door at the scenery that whipped by at an absolutely dizzying pace: sky, water, trees, then sky again- all spinning in a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors as the chopper spiraled out of control. A sudden and brief flash of red caught her attention, and Cassie leaned forward in her seat, trying to track it through the sky. It was a parachute, she realized- the parachute of the goon who had just jumped out a minute ago. It was as that observation sank in that the chopper tilted back the other direction, revealing that she was plummeting towards a sheer cliff face and only moments away from impact. "Oh shit!"
Without a moment to lose, Cassie flung herself from the pilot's chair and dove back through the cockpit door as the rock face rushed up to meet her. In a blur of red lights, screaming alarms, and tumbling cargo, Cassie was swept through the chopper and out the side, banging her shoulder on the way, and in an instant the frantic noises of the failing helicopter gave way to the relative calm of the wide-open Yucatán skies. "OHHHMYYYGOODDD!" Cassie yelled as she tumbled through the air like a person in the eye of a storm. As she fought to gain control of her fall, she spotted the goon's parachute in the corner of her field of vision and angled herself towards him.
"Cassie? Cassie! Are you ok?"
"Working… on it!" she called over the sound of wind in her ears. The goon with the parachute began to turn, and she could see that she was going to just barely miss him. "Damn it!" Cassie pulled out her grappling hook, swung it in a tight circle, and released it, allowing the end to fly out and wrap around the parachute cords just above where they connected to the backpack. The rope pulled taut, and Cassie yelped as she swung down beneath the goon, whom she thought she heard give a cry of surprise at the sudden increase in weight, but it was drowned out as the helicopter crashed into the side of the cliff far above them and exploded in flame. Both Cassie and the Ocelotl goon shielded themselves with their arms as they dropped into the canopy of the rainforest below, with both the parachute and the grappling hook line becoming entangled in the branches as they crashed through.
"Ugh!" Cassie shook her head and spat bits of leaves from her mouth as she finally came to a stop suspended about eight feet off the forest floor. Hanging across from her- and looking equally worse for wear- the goon coughed and clutched at his shoulder where the barbs of her grappling hook were digging into his skin. "That's what you get for not leaving me a parachute!" Cassie said crossly.
The sound of a blaring automotive horn drew both of their attention, and they turned to see a truck emerging from the foliage and heading straight for the goon. The man at the wheel attempted to swerve to avoid his hapless comrade, but there was not enough time or space to avoid him and the truck collided with him head-on as it raced by, its horn still sounding. Cassie covered her eyes and turned away as the truck passed, and when she looked back both the goon and the truck were gone.
"Yeah! Suck it, jerk!" she called after them.
From the other direction, Cassie heard another vehicle approaching and braced herself for more of Tristan's men. Instead, a lone jeep burst through the trees with Ian Foster at the wheel; he skidded to a stop upon seeing her suspended in the trees, and stood up with his hands on the top edge of the windshield. "Cassie?" he said.
"Foss!" she called back, laughing in relief.
"Cassie!" he repeated, looking equally happy to see her. "Jesus, you're a sight! Come on, get in!"
He pulled the jeep forward so that the passenger's seat was directly beneath her and Cassie dropped into the jeep, leaving her hopelessly tangled grappling hook behind. "Where's Charlie?" she asked as she landed on the seat beside Ian.
"He ended up in a separate vehicle," Ian explained as he shoved the gear shifter forward and started driving again. "It's been pretty hot down here."
Cassie snorted. "I bet. It's been pretty hot up there!"
"So I noticed." The jeep went momentarily airborne and then crashed back to earth as they cleared a small rock shelf. "Cutter?" Ian spoke into his earpiece as he swerved around a massive pine. "Cutter, I got Cassie. We're headed to the shrine."
"I'll watch for the smoke," the Englishman drawled sarcastically.
Cassie settled in as Ian drove, and she allowed her head to flop back against the seat, even closing her eyes for a second as she tried to let go of some of the tension of the last several minutes. "Sheesh," she breathed, earning a chuckle from Ian as she pressed the heels of her hands into her eye sockets. Basking in the welcome- if temporary- moment of rest, Cassie gradually became aware of a sound coming from somewhere behind them. It was a low, bassy kind of percussive sound, almost like…
Her eyes snapped open and Cassie gripped her seat back, twisting around just in time to see another of Tristan's military trucks careen through the undergrowth behind them and slam directly into the back end of their jeep. The impact threw her into the dashboard and made Ian fight for control of the jeep as the armored vehicle shoved them forward. "Drive!" Cassie screamed as she pushed herself back into her seat.
Dropping the jeep into fourth, Ian slammed his foot down on the gas and jerked the wheel to the left, narrowly avoiding a tree trunk as they swerved out of the way of the truck. Cassie watched in horror as a turret mounted on the truck's roof swiveled in their direction and launched rocket after rocket into the forest, toppling trees and sending showers of dirt and debris in all directions. "Step on it!" she cried, ducking down behind the seat.
"I'm stepping on it!" Ian snapped back.
The turret fired again, shooting a missile past them and into the base of a massive tree. The tree swayed, groaning ominously before slowly tipping to fall across their path. "Heads up!" Ian shouted, cutting the wheel and sending the jeep into a skid. Both Cassie and Ian ducked below the dashboard as they slid beneath the tree, passing close enough under it that the windshield shattered against the log and showered both them and the front seat with shards of glass.
"That was way too close!" Cassie said as she raised her head again.
"Yeah…" Ian checked the side mirror just in time to see the Ocelotl truck smash through the tree trunk and swerve out behind them. "Next time- I'm stealing one of those trucks instead of a car."
The noise of the truck's engine grew to a deafening roar as it accelerated and rammed the back of their jeep again. Cassie tightened her grip on the armrest and asked, "They do know that this is their jeep, right?"
"I'm not sure they care!"
The truck slowed just enough to let Cassie and Ian pull away, and then rammed them a third time, causing the jeep to lurch forward into a thicket of brush. Blinded by branches and vines that whipped and scratched at them- unhindered by the now smashed windshield- Cassie shielded her face with her hands as Ian struggled to maintain control of the vehicle. As they burst through the other side, Cassie looked up and saw the barren, craggy edge of a bluff only a dozen yards ahead. "Foster!" she shouted. "Thatsacliff, THATSACLIFF!"
"I see it!" he yelled back, spinning the wheel hard to the left. Losing traction in the mud at the edge of the forest, the jeep slid towards the precipice and for a terrifying moment it looked like they were going to go straight over the side. Then, at the last second, the tires found their grip on solid rock and bit in, pulling them back in the nick of time. Cassie grinned and was just about to complement Ian's driving when the Ocelotl truck burst suddenly from the trees, its engine howling and its tires churning the earth as it smashed broadside into them and catapulted the jeep sideways off the cliff.
"NO!" Ian screamed.
Cassie watched as their vehicle flew out into space on a trajectory nearly perpendicular to the path they had been on mere milliseconds before and then started to sink as gravity and inertia teamed up to pull them to their deaths, while the truck managed to skid to a halt with only its front axle hanging over the cliff. As the blood drained from her face and her stomach twisted into a knot, Cassie braced herself for the imminent and sickening plunge into the gorge. Then, in the next instant, Cassie felt Ian's arm wrap around her waist, pulling her tight against him, while in the same motion he threw his grappling hook with his other hand. The gleaming steel hook sailed toward the tree line and wrapped around a thick branch; the rope pulled taught, and both her and Ian were yanked from the front seat as their momentum launched them in an arc back towards the cliff.
"FooooSSSTEEEEER!" Cassie wailed.
They hit the ground and half-bounced, half-rolled into the brush at the edge of the forest. When they finally came to rest in an awkward tangle of arms and legs, Cassie and Ian both looked toward the truck and saw the turret on top swiveling around to point at them. Ian pushed himself off of Cassie, yanked a grenade from his belt, and hurled it towards the truck. "Look out!" he called, pulling Cassie behind a fallen log.
Seconds later, the truck lifted off the ground as the grenade exploded, igniting the vehicle's fuel tank and ammunition in a searing ball of fire. Cassie and Ian crouched low behind the tree with their arms wrapped over their heads for protection until the shrapnel stopped falling, then cautiously peeked out from their cover. The truck sat in flames at the edge of the cliff, with none of Tristan's men in sight, while all around them the rainforest was starkly and unexpectedly calm as night began to fall in earnest. Cassie looked at Ian in stunned silence, and then they both burst into laughter.
"Oh, man!" Cassie said between giggles as she wiped her eyes. "I can't believe we're still alive!"
Ian laughed and scrubbed his hands down his face; Cassie didn't bother to point out the way the motion left streaks of mud in the shape of his fingers on his skin. "Holy hell…" he mumbled. "That was insane."
They both sat, breathing in heavy, grateful breaths for a few moments, and then Ian stood and offered Cassie a hand. "You ready to go?"
Cassie met his eyes, swallowed thickly, and sighed. "Actually… do you mind if we just rest a minute longer?" she said, a bit hesitantly. "I just jumped out of a helicopter without a parachute, and we both almost died in a horrible car accident…" She straightened her glasses and winced. "I just… I just need a minute."
Ian sniffed and gave her an affectionate, crooked smile. "Of course."
As he plopped back down beside her, Ian winced and let out a groan, massaging his knee with one hand. "Ugh. Is twenty-five too young to be pulling the 'I'm too old for this shit' line?"
Cassie chuckled brightly. "Pretty sure. I think you need to be at least thirty before you use that." She flashed him a smile, then cocked her head towards him. "Do you mind?" she asked timidly.
Ian looked at her and shook his head. "Go for it," he said simply.
Cassie pushed closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder. Closing her eyes for a few moments, she listened to the sound of his breathing as it mingled with the noises of insects chirping. When she opened her eyes again, her gaze was drawn to the ruined truck turned blazing inferno, which sat silhouetted dramatically against the late evening sky. "It's almost kind of pretty," she said, holding up her hands to frame the image in her field of vision, "if you sort of half-close your eyes."
Ian leaned in closer to her, his head briefly touching hers as he put himself into her perspective. "Oh yeah," he mused. "I see what you mean." They spent a few moments admiring the fiery wreckage before Ian scoffed and shook his head. "We're really messed up, aren't we?"
Cassie laughed softly. "You better believe it."
Ian wrapped his arm around her shoulders and a comfortable silence fell between them, interrupted only by the sounds of the forest until he eventually asked, "So- on the off-chance that we all get filthy rich out of this whole deal- have you thought about what you'll do with the money?"
Cassie looked over at him skeptically. "Filthy rich?" She paused to consider it. "Not really. I mean, we walked away from Avalon with nothing but this ring." She slid it out of her shirt to admire the silver ouroboros. "Which, to be fair, was more than fine by me."
"If we did, though?" Ian pressed, kicking at a pebble near his feet with the toe of his boot.
Cassie frowned contemplatively. "Hmmm… I guess I'd go back to Louisiana, buy a car and a crappy house on the beach…"
"Why would you buy a crappy house?" Ian asked, looking over at Cassie with raised eyebrows. "If we were 'filthy rich' you could buy something nice."
Cassie shrugged dismissively. "I mean- it's just me, so…"
Nodding slowly, Ian looked toward the visible horizon and chewed his lip. "What if it wasn't just you?"
"Mmm," Cassie raised an eyebrow and smirked at him. "Who else would it be?"
"You could get a cat," Ian suggested, trying to play it off.
"I've always been more of a dog person."
"A dog then." He cocked his head to one side and sniffed. "And- you know- I could maybe stop by every once in a while… if you want."
Cassie gave a wry smile. "I could maybe put up with you now and then. Maybe I'll learn to bake or something," she pondered. "Mmmm, oatmeal raisin cookies!"
"You disgust me," Ian said, making a face. "I mean, for the effort of adding raisins, you could just as easily add chocolate chips."
Cassie laughed softly, turning to look him in the eye. They were both filthy and ragged looking, but she felt a warmth rise in her chest. "Fine," she added primly, smiling into his polo as she pressed her face into his shoulder again. "Chocolate chip here and there- just for you."
"You're too kind."
The two young treasure hunters stared contentedly into the fire, listening to the snaps and pops of burning electronics and ammunition as the last sliver of sun disappeared below the horizon, leaving behind only the deep reds and oranges of dusk. Inhaling one last deep, cleansing breath, Cassie stood and dusted off her jeans.
"Alright," she said, grinning at Ian. "Let's go finish this son of a bitch."