Using hand gestures and broken English, George got the principles of Tariq’s plan. They had been outmanoeuvred by the Americans, who had climbed the cliff onto the plateau from the third 4x4. From that position, they could lie low and pick Zahra’s company off at will, and they had effectively reached a stalemate.

“The best way to fight fire is with fire,” George agreed as they started running along the track. “So we out-flank the out-flankers.”

They rounded a corner and broke into a faster pace, Tariq taking the lead, George trying not to trip on any large stones as he followed several yards behind.

He felt bad leaving Zahra, Manu, Leena and Haji behind. He felt even worse thinking what might have happened to Ben. He couldn’t bear to think where Gail may be and if she was OK. He just hoped that he could fight through the pain and drag his unfit body round the mountain in time to do something about it.

Chapter 68

Gail screamed as Ben shoved her head down behind the passenger seat of the 4x4. Dr Patterson did his best to follow suit.

Walker had ordered the driver to move the car in front of the small building in the middle of the plateau. The other 4x4 followed, parking at an angle behind them. Their new position formed a triangle, the bumpers of the 4x4s meeting at the apex, with the gatehouse to the Library at the base. This provided them with cover from the gulley, and direct access to the cliff edge, where Walker’s men had positioned themselves.

As soon as the shooting had begun, Walker jumped out and fired a quick volley over the bonnet of the car.

“Out!” he yelled at Patterson, yanking the rear door open. He gestured for Ben and Gail to follow. The driver of the other vehicle opened his passenger door and dragged another out. By the way he fell to the floor, it was clear he was either dead, or close to it. Only one soldier got out of the back.

They sat down along the edge of the vehicle, while Walker barked orders into his walkie-talkie. Gail could see the odd head peak over the cliff-edge: Walker’s men from the third 4x4. It reminded her of their initial discovery of the Library all those years ago, when Ben had awkwardly popped his head above the cliff during her phone call to George.

Except these men were dressed in black and were carrying the strangest guns she had ever seen. Not that you’ve seen many, she reminded herself.

The man who had been driving their car loaded a new clip of ammunition into his gun. Standing sideways, he fired half a dozen shots straight through the windows of the 4x4 and into the rocks beyond.

A single shot was returned.

As he came down from his firing stance, his gun arm fell limply and his weapon crashed into the dust. He managed to get to one knee as his legs crumpled under his weight, and then toppled sideways in front of Gail, Ben and Patterson.

It was then that Gail saw the bloody mess where his right eye should have been. Looking away in horror, she saw the look on Ben’s face: he was staring at the strange weapon that had fallen almost into his lap.

He was about to reach for it when Walker intervened.

“One, you’re too slow. I saw that coming a mile away.” He took the fallen gun and removed the magazine with a click. Dropping the empty magazine from his own, he reloaded with the dead man’s ammunition then looked Ben in the eyes. “Two, you wouldn’t even be able to fire it.” He nodded at the small indentations on the grip of the handle. “Unless of course you took his hand with it,” he grinned viciously before turning back to the two remaining soldiers in their improvised fortress.

“Fucking prick,” Gail managed to say under her breath before anyone else got a word in.

Ben looked at her in surprise. “I’ve not heard you swear like that before.”

“I’ve never met such a prick before,” she replied, this time elevating her voice slightly as she swore. Walker gave the faintest of reactions, in the form of a wry smile as he patted the side of his gun.

The three soldiers took it in turns to fire over the top and from underneath the cars, changing position frequently. On a few occasions, as they ducked down after firing, they exchanged tips on where to fire next. Of the three heads that had been popping up from the cliff edge, only two appeared to be firing now.

The opposing gunshots also seemed to be decreasing, with longer gaps between bursts and fewer impacts around them.

Walker dropped down to a crouch after firing a particularly long volley, a wild grin on his face. “Got the Arab bastard!” he exclaimed “Ripped him apart!”

Gail looked at Ben; it was obvious he was fighting to keep down a torrent of emotions. She put her hand on his knee and squeezed hard. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t put a suitable sentence together, so closed it without saying a word.

He put his hand on hers and squeezed back.

Dr Patterson nodded towards the gatehouse, its unlocked door swinging freely on its hinges. The top third of brickwork was covered in bullet holes, though he could see none in the bottom portion. “Bit odd,” he whispered to them both.

“I’m no expert,” Gail said, “but if they’re hidden in an elevated position above us, then they should have an advantage shouldn’t they? And yet I get the feeling they’re the ones taking the most hits.”

Ben took a moment to think about it. “They’re aiming high; they know we’re still here.” He nudged the corpse in front of them with his foot. “Unless they have a clear shot, and then they’ll aim to kill. The problem is, these guys have figured that out.”

Gail looked at the soldiers. With the rhythm they had entered into, it was difficult to see how any attacker could take a good aim at any one of them. Despite there being only five of them left, practically all the gunshots now came from their side, and the louder crackling fire from the gulley had practically stopped, save for the odd burst every twenty seconds or so.

Walker shouted a couple of concise orders, followed by some jerky hand signals, which Gail didn’t get the meaning of.

“They’re moving in,” Ben whispered quickly through gritted teeth. “Gail, George is up there.”

Her heart stopped beating for a fraction of a second. She looked at him in despair. “What?”

“We have to stop them moving in, otherwise it’s over,” he said.

One of the soldiers was crouched down at the back of the 4x4 furthest from the gulley, his gun held against his chest. Walker nodded at him, and then he and the driver who had dragged the corpse from the car levelled their weapons towards the gulley and began firing, while the soldier ran from cover and darted towards the enemy defences.

“Now!” Ben hissed.

He got up and ran towards the doorway, pulling Gail with him. As they ran, he shouted something in Arabic at the top of his voice.

Patterson followed, and they all piled into the building and practically fell down the stone-cut stairway the ancient Egyptians had made thousands of years earlier. On their way, Gail managed to punch the light switch, and the LED bulbs in the stairway and entrance hall beneath lit up.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Gail gathered her senses and looked around, immediately spotting the circular hole cut into the wall of the chamber a decade earlier, beyond which lay the Library itself.

“We made it!” Patterson exclaimed, searching himself for bullet wounds.

Ben was listening intently at the bottom of the steps, a worried look on his face.

“Ben?” Gail asked.

He hushed her with his hand and craned his ear upwards.

After a moment of silence the muffled sound of Walker and his men’s automatic rifles echoed down the stairs. But this time, instead of being followed by the odd return shot, a salvo of gunshots and ricochets came back. Even from underground they could hear glass windows breaking, metal being punctured and the thuds of bullets hitting the dirt.