Eden Relics (A Zac Woods novel #1): Author royalties for Cancer Research

by N Williams

  Gates clumped noisily down the ladder behind them.

  ‘You okay, Zac?’

  Deep breaths - slow deep breaths.

  ‘Yeah, I’ll be fine.’ Zac stepped off the path into the tunnel feeding water into the larger chamber.

  Gates hopped over the path. His thick-soled boots slipped and splashed into the little stream; cold drops propelled in all directions and into Zac’s face.

  ‘Shit! This is some place. Beats the hell out of the sewer tours in London. Must have deteriorated a lot since Adelina’s time. I can’t imagine Edward the Seventh walking through this shit.’

  Zac forced a smile, wiped the water from his nose and quickly checked his compass. The oval-shaped passageway seemed to run roughly west to east, perpendicular to the valley above. The route east seemed to drop abruptly away just a few metres ahead, but it was the route west they’d need to take. That would lead in the direction of the extensive cave system already discovered in the west side of the valley, but this also revealed two dark exits, one heading north and the other directly west. Both tunnels had obviously been blocked off at some time. The remnants of old cement and broken Onllwyn and Banwen factory bricks were testament to that. Someone had done a good job sealing the tunnels, but the heavy rainfall of the recent past had done an even better job of demolishing that handiwork. The top three feet of each wall was still in place, but there was enough room to crawl through the former obstructions.

  Both the tunnels could lead towards the Dan-yr-Ogof cave complex, but with caves it was impossible to guess their route. Water-cut passages formed along the weakest parts of rock; fissures, cracks and fault lines easily expanded by millions of tons of blind, rushing rainwater.

  The cave below the castle was unknown to the local caving club. Thirteen kilometres of the system had been discovered in the west side of the valley, and another two caves over twenty-five kilometres long had been surveyed and recorded on the east side. Nothing, as far as anyone could determine, lay between.

  The coloured geological map showed the route of the Tawe fault line - now the host to the River Tawe. Zac knew the river would be to the east of where they stood. That was a good thing. The weather had been so unpredictable of late, and the last thing he wanted was a storm swelling the little stream. Caves could fill up with water extremely quickly, and many unsuspecting or inexperienced cavers had been trapped beyond submerged lakes and forced to wait out the storm for the waters to run off. Something Zac knew only too well. He quickly checked out both passages, shining his helmet light up through the holes in both walls.

  ‘I think we need to take the left one…that’s west,’ said Zac.

  ‘But if I’m right, that would take us away from the castle,’ Sally pointed out.

  ‘What would women know about navigating?’ Gates teased.

  Sally elbowed the big man.

  ‘I was thinking about what Gates said earlier. Edward the Seventh wouldn’t travel through a difficult cave passage. The tunnel to the right looks like it’s been made for easy passage. The one on the left doesn’t. I’d guess that the right tunnel is the one that will lead to the castle and this other one is taking us someplace else. I can’t imagine Adelina leaving the relics somewhere along a well trodden path. I’d bet my pension the relics are down the other tunnel somewhere.’

  Gates was about to make another sarcastic comment, when the sound of gunfire echoed through the cave.

  Sally was shocked rigid. ‘Shit! What was that?’

  ‘My best guess would be gunfire,’ said Gates, the sarcasm exorcised.

  ‘I know it’s gunfire, but whose?’

  Gates raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

  ‘It’s probably the two tossers we left down here earlier. They must have found their way into this part of the cave.’ Zac checked the map on Sally’s iPad. ‘Can’t be there yet. According to this, we still have a fair way to go.’ He stuffed the iPad back into Sally’s pack. ‘Be on your guard. Looks like we’re not on our own.’

  Gates pointed to the larger and easier tunnel. ‘That one looks a bit bigger than the other one. That would suit me fine.’

  ‘No, it’s this one,’ said Sally, pointing to another partially submerged concrete path a little further down the tunnel. ‘I think Zac’s right.’

  Zac led the way. Twenty metres along the little stream running between their legs, they reached the west fork. A keyhole-shaped fissure appeared to be leading upwards. That was a good thing for Zac. Even though he was probably too deep to be rescued in the unlikely event of a cave-in, the feeling of climbing rather than descending provided some comfort, however ridiculous. He tried to block out the thoughts of the rapidly increasing mountain of rock above as he climbed further into the side of the u-shaped valley.

  ‘Why hasn’t anyone found this place before?’ said Gates.

  ‘I think a few people suspected there was a link between the west and east systems but thought the bit in the middle had been ground away by the glacier passing down the valley thousands of years ago. I never thought it could still be here, lower than the other two and running below the castle.’

  The passageway began to get narrower as it rose at a gentle angle. Zac’s thighs were burning from the extra effort of lugging the heavy body armour and the MP5 slung over his back. As long as the headroom stayed well above him he knew he’d be okay. It was the thought of being unable to escape quickly, of being trapped with no hope of escape that ate away inside.

  Gates was finding the narrow passage a lot more difficult to negotiate. His big frame was constantly squeezed and compressed as he wriggled through the old watercourse.

  As the passage began to get wider, Zac stopped suddenly. Gates popped out of the squeeze and stood alongside him in a large cylindrical chamber. The ceiling here was at least ten metres above. The vertical sides of the cauldron must have been carved under enormous pressures, the water swirling around, trapped until an escape had been found and gradually widened to release the pressure.

  Ahead of them was a sheer wall, on top of which was the continuation of the passageway. The little stream seemed more active here, dropping out of the overhead tunnel into a five-metre diameter pool, before splitting into three smaller streams to disappear in different directions. Around the pool was a metre-wide perimeter of various sized smooth boulders, each slick with years of dripping calcite and the inevitable assortment of stalagmites. The concrete path led around one side and projected into the pool at its midpoint.

  ‘Looks a lot like the one in the other part of the cave. I think we have a bit of climbing to do,’ sighed Gates.

  Zac nodded and unslung his MP5 to get at the coil of rope. ‘I’ll go first. I think I can probably get up the side of the face over there. I’ll find something to tie off the rope for you.’

  Gates was relieved. Heights didn’t figure within his top ten most enjoyable experiences.

  Zac slung his weapon over his back once more and hopped down onto the little path around the chamber towards the far wall.

  The overhead tunnel had clearly followed the route of a fault line. The large crack began at the bottom left corner of the top passage and dropped diagonally down to the chamber floor. The irregular face looked like it was ideal to climb, as long as he was careful. He surveyed the climb, visualising each hand and foothold in advance. The only rock climbing Zac had done previously had been underground over thirty years ago, but he had used the equipment many times to abseil down buildings during his time as a tactical firearms officer.

  Satisfied with his route, he was about to jump to catch the first small ledge when something caught his eye.

  Backtracking to the middle of the path, Zac walked slowly out into the centre of the lake. Just beyond arms’ reach, submerged in the water, was a dark shape. Shining his light down into the water, he took a deep breath and pushed his head into the frigid lake.

  Gates looked at Sally, who shrugged her shoulders and walked along the path to join a smiling Zac.


  ‘What are you smiling for?’ asked Sally.

  ‘I’m smiling because I think we just discovered the mother lode.’

  Zac stripped off his webbing and weapons and dropped into the lake. ‘Oh shit! It’s fffucking fffreezing.’

  ‘Girly-boy!’ Gates laughed.

  ‘You want to do this?’

  ‘Nah. You’re a better swimmer than me.’

  Zac grimaced, took a deep breath and dived down beneath the surface. The others watched the vague image of his hands fiddling with something at the bottom of the lake. It seemed like minutes before his head broke the surface, and he passed a thick heavy chain to Gates. ‘Here, pull on this.’

  ‘Why? Is it the plug to drain the lake?’

  ‘Just pull the effing thing.’ Zac hauled himself out of the water onto the narrow walkway and watched as Gates tugged the chain, drawing the dark object closer to the path.

  ‘What’s that?’ asked Sally as a black-coloured sack broke the surface.

  ‘Give me a hand,’ Gates puffed as Zac shuffled past Sally to help.

  The large black object was pulled onto the path. It was indeed a black sack, coated in something that Zac thought looked like tar. ‘Let’s get it open and see what all the fuss has been about.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Sally. ‘Surely you’re not going to open it here? This could be of immense archaeological value. We can’t just open it without ensuring the conditions are safe.’

  ‘Safe? You think it’s safe here? We can’t carry this thing out of here like this. Whatever’s inside has to come out here and now!’ Gates was in no mood to argue.

  ‘He’s right, Sally. I know this is against your code of ethics, but we can’t hang about. Either we open it here and find some other way of carrying it or we leave it to Schwarzenegger and Stallone back there.’

  Zac pulled a knife from his bag and cut away the black tarpaulin. Inside was a large clay pot, sealed at the top with the same tar substance. It was clear that another gel coating had been applied around the top at a later date. 'Looks like it’s been opened before, but how are we going to pry that thing off?’

  ‘I know,’ answered Gates as he trotted past his friends to the rocks at the side of the chamber and returned carrying a large rock.

  ‘No. You can’t be serious,’ gasped Sally as Gates smashed the rock into the pot, shattering it into dozens of large pieces.

  All three stopped and stared at the sight of the objects inside.

  CHAPTER 73

  The voices were very near now. Zac checked the diagram from the diary on Sally’s iPad. ‘Sounds like they have found the connecting tunnel.’

  ‘So what do we do with E.T?’ asked Gates.

  ‘I need to understand why an alliance of churches would want to get their hands on these things, and why they would be prepared to kill anyone who gets in their way. If we understand their motives we’ll have a better idea of how to deal with them,’ said Zac.

  ‘Just think of it,’ said Sally. ‘If they let something like this get out it would bring down each and every one of them.’

  Zac fished two soluble tablets from his pocket, ‘I can clearly understand the motive of Sir Eddie Stockwell - that’s just self-preservation, but I still find it hard to accept that the religions of the world would carry out indiscriminate murder to destroy something that is clearly a hoax. And even if they were real, they’ll have no genetic value for Stockwell after all these years.’

  Sally handed Zac a bottle of water for the tablets, ‘We simply don’t know how much genetic material would still be useable. It may be that the conditions in which the things were preserved may have done the same on a micro-level.’

  ‘Looks fucking odd to me,’ Gates said, holding one of the strange little figures up to his helmet light. No bigger than a small child, the dark leathery skin had shrunk tightly to the bones beneath. The arms and legs were bent into a posture that any good yoga practitioner would be proud of. But it was the head that was strangest of all. Two large oval eye sockets had long ago lost their contents. The nose was nothing more than two small holes and the jaw was barely noticeable. ‘There’s no way I’m descended from this monstrosity.’

  ‘Hard to say what it is, but I’m sure it’s not Adam and Eve,’ agreed Sally. ‘Looks like two male creatures to me,’ she continued.

  ‘Oh great, Adam and Steve,’ chuckled Gates.

  ‘I don’t give a shit what they are. All I know is that a couple of friends, and God knows how many others have been killed because of these things and I don’t want us added to the list. Let’s get out of here.’

  Zac emptied his holdall and distributed his things into the other two bags before he stuffed the little objects into the space he had created.

  ‘Time to exit stage right.’

  CHAPTER 74

  Quickly retracing their route, the team ran back towards the junction where the brick walls had once sealed both tunnels.

  In the centre of the wall of the chamber they had passed through earlier, was a bright green translucent pillar formation, from floor to ceiling. Zac hadn’t noticed it before, too wrapped up in getting through the cave to the castle. He was amazed at the colour of the pillar. It was stunning. At the far side of the chamber, the passageway continued on towards the stairwell to the exit at Penwyllt station.

  As Zac entered the chamber behind Sally, he noticed a large fissure in the floor to his left, no wider than his shoulders. The fissure dropped about four feet and then seemed to disappear horizontally.

  Zac hoisted the holdall, dragging it behind him. The two figures inside were surprisingly heavy. Sally, by this time, was crawling through the remains of the wall ahead. He could hear the sound of running footsteps closing in from the other tunnel. The pursuers were making ground on them, and Zac knew he’d have to do something to slow them down.

  The cave had not seen powerful rushing water since the caves were formed over millions of years, but the occasional heavy rain caused parts of it to flood from time to time. A variety of different-sized river stones had been discarded on the floor of the passage, a remnant of those dramatic natural forces.

  Zac had an idea. Entering the crack in the floor, he found a small choke of rocks. Moments later he raced to catch up with his friends just as the first of a volley of shots rattled off the walls around their heads.

  Gates had forged ahead, finding the going easier than the shorter-legged Sally.

  Zac retrieved a grenade from his webbing and pushed Sally on. ‘Go and don’t look back. I’ve got to stop these bastards.’

  The pursuers were at the entrance to the green pillar chamber. He couldn’t let them get further. It was risky. He knew they could lose everything they had worked for, but the killers had to be stopped. He could hear them talking, the resonance in the chamber different from that of the tunnel he was in.

  Zac pulled the pin from the grenade and threw it across the floor. He saw it bounce on the rocks near the two men’s feet and the look of terror on their faces as they realised what had joined them. Both of the big men jumped back into the passageway and ran as fast as they could away from the explosive. Four seconds later the grenade exploded. The noise rang in Zac’s ears as he set off at a run after the others. He knew they would be at the end of the tunnel soon and would have to decide what to do with the alien-looking creatures, but Zac had a couple of aces still up his sleeve.

  They were rapidly running out of passage, nearing the stairs to fresh air. The cave opened up into the stairwell. Gates raced on, climbing the steps with ease.

  Sally was breathing heavily as she hauled herself up the first flight.

  ‘Shit!’ Zac could hear the two men close behind. The grenade hadn’t stopped them. He had three of the explosives left.

  Sally stopped and dropped down the steps, gently touching Zac on the cheek. ‘When this is over I’m taking you out for a slap-up meal.’

  Zac smiled. ‘I’ll hold you to that. You paying?’

  ‘Of course,’
smiled Sally.

  They could hear the echo of the killers’ boots running through the tunnel towards them. ’Fire in the hole,’ Zac shouted as he pulled the pin on another grenade. ‘Go,’ he ordered Sally. Sally turned and ran up the steps.

  Gates came down the stairs just as their pursuers’ lights came into view. Zac let off a shot from his Glock down the tunnel to hold them back and heard the men shuffling and shouting as they took cover.

  ‘Get out of here, Bill,’ Zac ordered. ‘Look after Sally. I’ll sort them with this. I’ll join you as soon as I can.’

  Before Gates could object, Zac handed the big man the holdall and pointed the Glock at him. ‘Please mate, take this and go.’ He let off another round down the passageway as Gates took the hint and ran up the stairs with Sally in tow.

  CHAPTER 75

  ‘Come on,’ said Gates as they reached the top of the stairs and breathed the fresh mountain air. ‘We’ve got to get you and this bag out of here.’

  Mac was nowhere to be seen. Gates wasn’t impressed. ‘Where’s that idiot?’ He ran to the car and checked the ignition; the keys were gone and the doors locked. ‘Shit!’

  ‘I’m not leaving Zac,’ said Sally emphatically.

  ‘Look I’m not happy about it either, but he made me promise I’d look after you if…’ Gates paused, unwilling to finish off the sentence. He knew Zac too well. He had a knack of coming through situations most others would fail. ‘Okay. We’ll wait, but we won’t have much chance of making it over that ridge if those twats get past Zac.’

  Sally nodded. She knew the situation but wasn’t prepared to leave Zac behind; not if there was any chance of getting him out. She peered into the rising pall of smoke as it swirled vertically out of the hole then began to twist around in ever widening spirals. The smoke was grey and full of grit. It stung Sally’s eyes as she struggled to see through the cloying mass.

  ‘Stand back,’ said Gates as he sat down on the edge of the hole. ‘I’ll get him.’

  *