Giant Killer. John McNally

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ from the start (when Carla had thought Finn was just a kid on an army base in England who hung out with her older sister), they had enjoyed seeing the world in entirely different ways – America versus Europe, art versus science, girl versus boy. Sometimes she thought it was only the pointless circular arguments that kept them alive, as she slogged on through the real world and Finn ran around her head, full of crazy ideas—

      “Hit him with a rock!”

      “Build a signal fire!”

      “Steal his knife!”

      It was a strategy that had lost ground since Yo-yo had gone missing – Finn’s faithful idiot of a dog, who’d trailed them every step of the way from Shanghai. If Carla attacked, Finn had assured her, Yo-yo would join in. Trouble was, since wolves had closed in a few nights before, Yo-yo had kept his distance.

      Was he even still alive? The further they’d gone, the weaker they’d all become.

      One thing was certain – the brutal trek might never end, but one of them surely would, unless something happened soon.

       How do you kill a giant?

      Finn, lulled by Baptiste’s pace through the snow, suddenly got a flash of inspiration.

      “Hey! We could hypnotise him!”

      “Why didn’t I think of that?” said Carla sarcastically.

      “No, listen. We went to this show once,” said Finn, trying to remember the night in a theatre with Uncle Al and Grandma. “Next time we stop, stare at him, tell him he’s feeling sleepy, then – click your fingers!”

      “Click. Right,” said Carla.

      “Then loop the cable around his neck and pull like hel—”

      “You know what I’m going to do if I ever get out of this?” Carla interrupted.

      “What?” said Finn.

      “Shave my head. I’m going for the totally bald look. That way no one will ever climb into my hair agai—”

      “AAAAAAA!!!”

      Baptiste stopped dead and his sudden cry echoed around the valley like a rifle shot.

      “What is it?” said Finn.

      Carla followed the thug’s gaze. There, peeping just over the top of the ridgeline ahead … was a cross of stone.

      Saliva dripped from Baptiste’s open jaw and he fell to his knees, gasping, overcome. Whatever he was looking for, he’d found.

      “UUUUH!!”

      Carla couldn’t believe it. Finn couldn’t believe it. There he was, a metre away, his neck exposed. Helpless in shock. For the first time. Helpless …

       How do you kill a giant?

      “NOW CARLA!!!” Finn screamed, but her instinct beat him to it.

      Adrenalin surged and with her best softball hitter’s cry, Carla jabbed her bound wrists forward to loop her shackle round Baptiste’s exposed throat, then she yanked back – hard – with every ounce of her weight and being.

      Baptiste gasped, reeled and rose.

      “YES!” screamed Finn, nearly pulling a clump of Carla’s hair out in excitement as she rode the back of the raging, exploding form, clinging on like a rodeo champ as they fell back – SPLASH! – like a great whale in the snow, turning and careering down the slope in a snowball fury, Carla hanging on for dear life, Finn confused, crushed, the mad frozen world tumbling and … THUMP!

      They hit something, stopped dead. A boulder?

      “GAHH!” – with his free hand, Baptiste forced the shackle from his throat to take desperate rasping breaths – “GAHH! GAHH! GAHH!”

      Carla pulled harder, every cell of muscle stretched to breaking point, every sinew hard as nails. “GAHH! GAHH!” cried Baptiste, as they lay locked in the snow, moments stretching to eternity … He was dying … he was dying …

      Until the wolves came.

       OWWOWWWOOWWW!

      Finn saw them first, charging down the slope, leaving powder trails like missiles.

      “INCOMING! CARLA!”

       OWWOWWWOOWWW!

      Carla looked up and in that split second – “GHAUH!” – Baptiste flipped like a salmon, slipped the noose and grabbed the back of her scrawny neck, and before she knew it she was thrown onto her back in the snow – SLAM – and Baptiste was above her, drawing back his fist—

      RRRRAAW! The first wolf hit him all claws and teeth.

      Baptiste, furious, beat it away as if it was a fly, then roared caveman-like at the rest of the incoming pack.

      “AARRRRRRRRRGHGHGH!”

      Fear ran through the wolves and they scrambled to avoid him, sudden cowards. From the snow, Carla saw high above the mayhem an eagle break its glide, disturbed, and at the same time … she felt the earth explode.

      BRBRBRRBRRBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR …

      Thunder rose from the mountain. She saw Baptiste’s momentary confusion, then – WHAM! – the mountain hit him as a wall of white, a wall of energy, of cascading snow.

      “Avalanche!” Finn yelled in her hair. “Hang on!”

      But nothing could be heard, nothing could be sensed in the all-encompassing chaos, the liquid totality of it …

      BRBRBRRBRRBRRRRRRRRRRRBRBRRBRRBRRRRRRRRRRR …

      FEBRUARY 19 15:22 (GMT+2). OBS post South, Carpathian Mountains, Romania

      The Tyro lookout sharpened the focus on the Zeiss T-star image-stabilising binoculars. Her pulse quickened.

      She zeroed in on the white scree slope on the Kalamatov Ridge. The avalanche was obscuring her view, but she could see at least one figure in the snow. Immediately she hit the hard comms link back to the monastery.

      “Trespass alarm! Seven kilometres south-east on Kalamatov!”

       BRBRBRRBRRBRRRRRRRRRRRBRBRRBRRBRRRRRRRRRRR …

      Carla felt only pain – the shackles biting into her wrists as her unseen captor twisted and turned, then a SNAP of sudden release as the avalanche ran itself out, fading from a roar to a sigh …

      She came to a halt, daylight leaking СКАЧАТЬ