Moon Mask Read Online Free PDF Page B

his eyes and fired!
    The flare shot out of the gun and drove straight into the crocodile’s gaping mouth. It exploded inside the beast’s head, blasting out skull, bone, teeth and brains in a downpour of gore.
    The body rolled off the shelf and was instantly set upon by the other crocs, all thrashing about, tearing great lumps of flesh from one of their own. The crocodile that had been plodding up the ramp rolled into the water to join the feast, thus leaving King’s way to the rope free. He didn’t waste a second as he ran forward, grasped the rope and heaved himself up.
    Sid and Nadia took the strain and tried to pull him up but, half way to safety, a commotion below caught his attention.
    He glanced down to see the crocodiles suddenly discard their meal, lunging beneath the water in a new frenzy, one which smacked of fear and survival themselves.
    Beneath the floating carcass a dark shape moved, twisting and undulating, sliding through the water carelessly. Whatever it was, it was massive and whatever could scare away ten-foot long crocodiles was not something he wanted to hang around to see.
    He continued with renewed haste towards the hole in the ceiling and was helped through by Sid and Nadia, while below him, the carcass was dragged silently beneath the surface.
    He afforded a quick glance back down the hole to note that the chamber was still once more, that the crocodiles and whatever leviathan that had scared them had vanished. Then he turned his attention to the object he retrieved from his satchel and stared wide-eyed at his prize.
    The Moon Mask.
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
    3:
    Sari . . . Sari . . .
     
     
    Airborne over Jaua-Sarisariñama National Park,
    Venezuela,
     
     
     
    The Huey swung low over the treetops, its downdraft blasting at the canopy of the Amazon rainforest. Sprawling for thousands of miles in all directions was an endless ocean of green, broken only by the snaking meanders of the Orinoco’s tributaries.
    The small helicopter hurried south, passing mountain ranges and plateaus, magnificent waterfalls and gaping chasms. The noise of its propellers caught the attention of some of the jungle’s higher life forms, breaking into the grooming patterns of monkeys and scattering flocks of brightly coloured parrots.
    Nathan Raine threw the chopper from side to side, banking sharply, twisting and spinning the aircraft in ways that stretched the laws of physics to their limits.
    As tumultuous clouds gathered to the south, purple and menacing, he dropped the Huey into a nose dive and then pulled up sharply, flying only meters above the uneven canopy of the Amazon. The green ocean whipped by beneath him in a blur as he pushed the engines to their maximum one hundred and thirty miles per hour.
    It was a waste of fuel, he knew. But after being cooped up around Caracas Contract Choppers headquarters for so long, he used his fortnightly supply run as a chance to stretch his wings. Besides, he knew exactly how much the Huey could take, exactly how much fuel he needed to get to Sarisariñama and back again.
    The storm hit him violently, the sudden down pour hammering against the metal skin of the helicopter. The rain fell with such intensity that even with the Huey’s wipers on full, his view was obscured. But he did not decrease his speed but kept ploughing ahead, thundering through the vortex that whirled around him, battling to control the aircraft in the buffeting wind, even as its skids screeched by precariously close to the canopy.
    All it would take, he knew, was a single giant tree standing out above the rest and it would all be over. But he welcomed the danger. Nathan Raine wasn’t a man to live a comfortable, safe lifestyle. He thrived on peril, on knowing that any moment could be his last.
    After forty minutes, he spotted the river and swung the Huey across the treetops, dropping down even lower into the narrow chasm the churning brown water had cut through the trees. The rain continued to