Eagle Strike

the air and the ground underfoot was soft and wet. What traps were waiting for him here? He remembered the robotic snakes that had barely managed to get close when he played the game, and searched warily for the tracks that would propel something similar his way.

    There were no tracks. Alex took another step forward and stopped, paralysed by the horror of what he saw.
    There was a snake, and, like the leaves and the creepers, it was real. It was as thick as a man‟s waist and at least five metres long, lying motionless in a patch of long grass. Its eyes were two black diamonds. For a brief second, Alex hoped it might be dead. But then its tongue flickered out and the whole body heaved, and he knew that he was facing a living thing—one that was beyond nightmares.
    The snake had been encased in a fantastic body suit. Alex had no idea how long it could have survived wrapped up like this. As terrifying as the creature was, he still felt a spark of pity for it, seeing what had been done. The suit was made out of wire that had been twisted round and round the full length of the animal, with vicious spikes and razors welded on from the neck all the way to the tail. Looking past the tail, Alex could see dozens of lines cut into the soft ground.
    Whatever the snake touched, it sliced. It couldn‟t help itself. And it was slithering towards him.
    He couldn‟t have moved if he had wanted to, but something told him that keeping still was the only chance he had. The snake had to be some sort of boa constrictor, part of the Boidae family.
    A useless piece of information he had picked up in biology class suddenly came back to him.
    The snake ate mainly birds and monkeys, finding its victims by smell, then coiling round and suffocating them. But Alex knew that if the snake attacked him, this wouldn‟t be how he would die. The razors and spikes would cut him to pieces.
    And it was getting closer. Wave after wave of glinting silver rippled behind it as it dragged the razors along. Now it was just a metre away. Moving very slowly, Alex lowered the crossbow from his shoulder. He pulled the wire back to load it, then reached into the waistband of his trousers. The broken spear was still there. Trying not to give the snake any reason to attack him, Alex fixed the length of wood into the stock. He was lucky. The spear was exactly the right length.
    He wasn‟t meant to have a weapon in this zone. That hadn‟t been part of the program. But despite everything Cray had thrown at him he still had the crossbow and now it was loaded.
    Alex cried out. He couldn‟t help himself. The snake had suddenly jerked forward, dragging itself over his trainer. The razors cut into the soft material, only millimetres away from his foot. He instinctively kicked out. At once the snake reared back. Alex saw black flames ignite in its eyes.
    Its tongue flickered. It was about to launch itself at him. He brought the crossbow round and fired. There was nothing else he could do. The bolt entered the snake‟s mouth and continued out of the back of its head. Alex leapt back, avoiding the deadly convulsions of the creature‟s body.
    The snake thrashed and twisted, cutting the grass and the nearby bushes to shreds. Then it lay still.
    Alex knew that he had killed it, and he wasn‟t sorry. What had been done to the snake was revolting. He was glad he had put it out of its misery.
    There was one more zone left—the mirror maze. Alex knew that there would be Aztec gods waiting for him. Probably guards in fancy dress. Even if he got past them, he would only find himself facing the pool of fire. But he‟d had enough. To hell with Damian Cray. He looked up.
    He had disabled one of the security cameras and there weren‟t any others in view. He had found a blind spot in this insane playground. That suited him perfectly.
    It was time to find his own way out.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ALEX

    There are no gods crueller or more ferocious than those of the Aztecs. That was the reason why Damian Cray had chosen them to inhabit his computer game.
    He had summoned three of them to patrol the mirror maze, the fifth and last zone in the huge arena he had built beneath the compound. Tlaloc, the god of rain, was half human, half alligator, with jagged teeth, claw-like hands and a thick scaly tail that dragged behind him. Xipe Totec, the lord of spring, had torn out his own eyes. They were still dangling in front of his gruesome, pain-distorted face. And Xolotl, bringer of fire,