Torchwood: Exodus Code

giggled.
    Winding the extra rope over his shoulder, Renso began to climb the rock.
    In the grotto, Gaia stirred.
    Jack watched, mesmerised, as the beautiful young Indian woman shook off the blanket, stretched her naked body and began walking along the ledge towards him. Her movements were graceful, her smile inviting. Jack could taste ginger. He could smell her pleasure. She lifted her arms enticing Jack into an embrace. In the thin beam of moonlight, her eyes shone like cobalt. Jack could feel his loins ache for her. He took another step.
    ‘Jack, stop! Snap out of it, Jack!’
    Jack looked up. Renso was standing at the precipice, paying out the rope. Behind him, Jack heard a low feral growl. Without looking back, he tugged on the rope.
    Jack was yanked off the ledge. For a second, he was swinging loosely over the precipice.
    ‘Jack,’ yelled Renso. ‘A little help would be good.’
    Grabbing the rope, Jack used the momentum to climb.
    Then he looked back and saw the Indian woman, her arms outstretched, her dark eyes pleading with him to return. Jack hesitated. The rope released a little. Jack slipped back towards the ledge.
    In that instant, Gaia whipped her sword from behind her back and swung it at Jack’s neck.
    ‘You must not leave!’

15
    RENSO HAD FOUND enough crevices in the rock face to move with speed and efficiency, which was good, because the air inside the mountain was heavy with ash, and the stink of sulphur made his eyes water.
    When he was almost at the top, Renso looked back down. Jesus, no.
    Jack had moved. Behind him, the creature was slinking along the ledge, and Jack was walking to meet it, his hand outstretched. It was a mountain lion, a sleek black puma, animals that used to be everywhere in the Andes and were now extinct in this region. The beast had a pulpy cut above its eye where Resnos had thumped it, which was still bleeding into the surrounding rock.
    Renso dug his foot into a crevice near the top and hauled himself up and out, rolling quickly away from the opening, unwinding the rope as fast as he could. The moon was full and the plateau was bathed in its soft white light. Scrambling to his feet, Renso ran to an outcropping of rocks, tied off his end of the rope, then sprinted back, wrapping two loops around his own waist.
    Bracing himself above the basin, Renso slung the rope down and called to Jack. The puma was poised to leap. Renso knew that it would take Jack with it down into the volcano.
    ‘Jack, stop! Snap out of it, Jack!’
    He felt Jack’s tug on the rope.
    He saw the mountain lion pounce.
    He hauled on the rope. For a second, Jack was swinging against the precipice, the puma snarling and snapping at his bare feet.
    ‘Jack,’ yelled Renso. ‘A little help would be good.’
    Thank God. Jack was climbing. Renso relaxed.
    A sudden tug on the rope, and Renso knew that Jack had fallen back. He heard the roar of the puma.
    Renso pulled his pistol, firing into the darkness.
    ‘Jack! Are you OK?’
    Jack was staring down at the creature lying on the ledge, her shoulder bleeding. ‘You shot her. She was so beautiful.’
    ‘You’re hallucinating, Jack. You’re stoned. What I shot was not a woman. It was a mountain lion. Now move before the damn thing gets up again and wants to eat you.’
    Minutes later Renso pulled Jack out of the basin. ‘We need to get back to civilization and fast.’
    Jack stared back down at the body, a deep despair washing over him. If he was hallucinating, why did this all feel so real, and why did he feel that he should remain here with her?
    After Jack’s slow clumsy climb, Renso hauled him from the maw of the mountain. By this time, the ground was trembling so violently, the smoke and sulphur so strong, that even Renso was having a difficult time remaining on his feet as he pushed and cajoled an unsteady Jack towards the steep canyon pass.
    About halfway down, Renso spotted a clearing and a deserted pueblo village. ‘At least whoever lived here got out safely.’
    A stone temple, shaped like a round pyramid, had been built in the centre of the clearing. If the mountain was still standing when this eruption stopped, Renso decided, he’d come back. Might be Inca treasures still buried in this place.
    Jack stopped outside the cairn. ‘I think I was here.’
    ‘How’s that possible?’
    Jack pressed his body against an irregular block of stone that was obstructing the entrance to the temple. It wouldn’t budge. He began to laugh. ‘Hey,