Fault Line by Chris Ryan Page A

flash.
    Amber watched him as he bounded up towards the sky. ‘He didn’t want to come down,’ she said. ‘He offered to stay on watch at the top. Only I told him there was nothing to watch.’
    ‘Amber,’ said Alex, ‘sometimes you are a pure sadist.’
    But Amber was shining her torch around the walls, curious to see her surroundings. Suddenly she gasped. ‘Oh wow, what’s all this?’ Her beam found a detailed frieze in green and rusty red. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.
    Alex ran up the stairs. The heli was due to fly overhead soon on its way to the rigs. If they were going to catch it today they had to set up the signal immediately.
    He found his bergen and drew out a bag. Then he had to pick his spot. It didn’t have to be somewhere the heli could land, but it did have to be under a gap in the tree canopy so they could communicate by hand signals. He found one just a few metres away.
    He unpacked the signalling equipment. There was a large red balloon and a big rubberized bladder. Alex filled the bladder with water from their supplies, trying to keep the opening upright. It looked a bit disgusting, like a cow’s udder. There was a sachet of chemicals, printed with warnings not to eat them. Alex tore the wrapper open and poured the powder into the water. When it hit the liquid it started fizzing. Good. Now he had to get the red balloon over the mouth of the bladder of water. He suspected it wouldn’t be as easy as it sounded. In his experience balloons tended to squirm away at the crucial moment, especially from sweaty fingers. But to his surprise the balloon went onto the bladder easily.
    The water was fizzing furiously and the bladder was warm. Whatever those chemicals were, they were producing a fierce reaction. The balloon was growing. He had visions of it pinging off the bladder and zooming into the trees with a rubbery fart. He secured the two together with a metal twist tie, taking no chances.
    The balloon was now a metre wide. Alex took the last item out of the kit – a piece of cord. He tied one end around the neck of the balloon, tied the other around a secure branch and stood the whole thing on the ground, lined up with the gap in the trees. Now he didn’t mind if it lifted off.
    The balloon grew to two metres and began to rise. Alex grinned with triumph as it lifted past the trees, sending birds scattering in a flutter of wings and startled hoots. Soon the cord was taut, moving as the balloon drifted on air currents above. Alex remembered when they first arrived: the vast plain of green that was the tree canopy seen from above. Now there would be a big red blob in the middle of the green, tethered above their position.
    Alex heard noises from the tomb. Amber came into view, walking backwards very slowly with the handles of the stretcher. Alex rushed to help but they seemed to have enough manpower. Paulo and Hex were at the other end, holding the stretcher on their shoulders like pallbearers so that they could get the awkward load up the stairs. Li brought up the rear, shining her torch so it lit the way for Paulo and Hex. In her other hand was the gold mask.
    When Amber reached the surface Alex took one of the handles. Once Hex and Paulo were on level ground the four of them manoeuvred the stretcher onto one of the walls at the edge of the tomb and set it down gently. That way, it would be easier to lift again.
    ‘Heli should be passing over soon,’ said Alex.
    Paulo drew a hand across his forehead, getting his breath back as he checked on the patient again. ‘We’ll have to check his circulation every twenty or thirty minutes. In case a blood vessel’s been crushed.’
    Hex shook his head to get rid of the drops of sweat dribbling down his forehead. ‘We can use the infra-red goggles. It will show if his extremities are getting cold.’ He slicked his fringe back and looked around. ‘Where are they, by the way?’
    Paulo suddenly felt rather alarmed. Alex had