by Bobbie Peers
“Do you realize how deep we are right now?” Iscia asked, without looking at him. “These submarines aren’t built for depths like these.”
“But Phil says he modified this one and that it’ll be totally fine,” William said, trying to reassure himself as much as Iscia.
He got up and walked over to the TV screen on the wall. It showed only black. William tapped on it a couple of times. “Is this broken?”
“No,” Iscia replied. “It’s been like this for a while, totally dark. The sunlight doesn’t penetrate this far down.”
William looked at the depth gauge. The needle showed that they were almost twenty thousand feet below the surface.
“Look at that!” William pointed to the screen. A glowing fish with pointy spikes and an enormous mouth full of razor-sharp teeth swam by.
Phil walked into the control room. “Get ready,” he said. “We’re almost there.”
“Almost where?” William peered at the screen. “There’s nothing out there!” The fish was gone, and once again the screen showed only black.
“You’ll see soon,” Phil responded. “I haven’t been here for a while. It’s a little weird to be back with someone who’s solved the pyramid.”
“How long has it been since you were last here?” Iscia asked.
“Oh,” Phil said, calculating. “A few million years. Give or take.” William and Iscia exchanged glances.
“There it is!” Phil exclaimed, pointing to the monitor.
“I see it,” Iscia said, stepping closer. She was staring at a small gray spot that was growing on the screen.
“It looks like a pyramid,” she said.
“That’s right.” Phil’s voice quivered with anticipation.
“Why is there a pyramid down here at the bottom of the Mariana Trench?” Iscia turned to Phil.
“Because this is a perfect place for a pyramid,” he responded. “Especially if you don’t want anyone to find it.”
“But why a pyramid?” Iscia asked with a determined voice.
“Have you ever been in the Sahara?” Phil asked.
“No!” Iscia said.
“It’s sort of the same shape as the great pyramids you find there,” Phil said. “Egypt for example. Only, the pyramid shape is also a perfect structure if you want something to withstand great pressure, like we find down here.”
“It looks small,” William said. He was staring at the pyramid, utterly transfixed, unable to take his eyes off it.
“Oh, it’s much bigger than the ones in Egypt,” Phil muttered. He was fiddling with some buttons on the wall. “Three times bigger, actually.”
“Three times?” William repeated, alarmed. “Is this one made of stone too?”
“Metal,” Phil said. “Like that.” He nodded at the orbulator, which was lying on the floor. “They’re actually accurate copies of each other.”
William looked at the orbulator. It was glowing now, although not just the symbols. It was as if the metal itself was beginning to glow. It was pulsing, and with each beat it grew brighter.
“Why is it glowing?” William asked.
“We’re establishing contact,” Phil said.
“With who?”
“With that, there.” Phil pointed. The pyramid on the monitor was glowing now too.
The light from it was pulsing in time with the orbulator.
“You’d better grab on to something,” Phil said. “This is usually where things get a little rough.”
A beam of light shot out from the pyramid on the ocean floor. The beam pierced the dark waters with lightning speed and hit the sub, making the whole structure shake violently. William fell backward and hit the floor.
Then everything exploded in white light.
35
William opened his eyes and scanned the surroundings. They were still inside the sub. Iscia sat next to him on the floor rubbing her shoulder.
“That hurt,” she moaned. “It’s like we crashed.”
“This way,” Phil said, and motioned for them to follow him. “Sometimes tractor beams can be a bit rough.”
“Tractor beams?” William said, stumbling to his feet.
William and Iscia scrambled after Phil out the door.
Phil began opening the hatch in the ceiling.
“What are you doing?” Iscia protested. “There’s tons of water out there.”
“Not anymore,” Phil said, and pushed open the hatch. Bright light shot in through the round opening. “Come!” Phil climbed out the hatch and disappeared in the whiteness.
William was about to climb after him when he felt Iscia’s hand on his arm.
“William,” she said. “We don’t know if it’s safe.”
“We’ve come too far to stop now,” he replied, and climbed through.
William stood on top of the submarine, which seemed to be stranded in a huge white room.
“Come down here,” Phil shouted, waving at him from below. He was standing next to the sub.
“What is this?” Iscia said. She climbed to her feet and stopped next to William.
“I have no idea,” William said. “Let’s find out!”
A minute later William and Iscia stood next to Phil. Except for the huge submarine, which lay dry-docked in the middle of the white room, there was nothing here. Only white.
“Where are we?” Iscia looked every bit as scared as William felt.
“Welcome,” a female voice said. The voice seemed to be coming from all around them.
“Thanks,” Phil said. “It’s good to be back.”
“It’s been two million, eight hundred, and fifty-four years, two hundred and seventy-four days, two hours, and fifty-four minutes since you were last here,” the voice said.
“Whoa, time sure does fly!” Phil said, smiling; he seemed surprised.
William leaned over to him and whispered, “Who are we talking to, actually?”
“Me.” The voice came from somewhere behind them now.
William turned around and saw a woman with long dark hair wearing a white robe. She looked like an angel and was so dazzlingly beautiful that William could neither look at her nor away from her. She smiled as her eyes landed first on Iscia, then on William, and finally on Phil.
“You look tired, Philip,” she said, her voice filled with concern. “You need to rest soon.”
“Thanks.” Phil looked down as if the word “rest” embarrassed him.
“What is she?” Iscia whispered.
“I’m a representation of the data stored down here,” the woman replied.
“Like a hologram?” William asked.
“Precisely,” the woman said, and smiled. She paused and looked at them with bright blue eyes.
“Who solved the pyramid?” she asked.
“He did.” Phil pointed at William.
The woman’s eyes moved to William. And he suddenly felt the urge to hide. What had he gotten himself and Iscia into?
“And what’s your name?” the woman said, and moved closer.
“William Wenton,” William said, paying close attention to her face as he said his name. There was no reaction, except for that pleasant smile.
“Hello, William Wenton,” the woman said, and stopped in front of him. “Perhaps you are wondering who I am?”
William gulped. His mouth was totally dry. So he merely nodded.
“I am the last representation of the civilization that lived down here,” she said, still with a smile on her lips.
“We both are actually,” Phil corrected her, giving his own smile.
“That’s right,” she said, and looked at him. “We are actually two . . . the only two beings left from the vast civilization that once flourished here. Where you saw the pyramid, we used to live in a great underwater city, all built from metal—but only the pyramid has survived the eons of pressure. We call it the Lost City.”
William was taken aback. “A computer program?” he said.
“I can take many forms,” the wom
an continued. “And through me, you have access to all the knowledge the civilization down here amassed through many millions of years of research.”
“That’s a lot of information.” Phil sounded proud.
“And you can access all that information if you pass the final test.” The angelic figure looked directly at William now.
“As you surely know,” she continued, “a great deal depends on you.”
William nodded meekly. He suddenly felt very small. The thought of being responsible for all the knowledge that this civilization had gathered over millions of years was daunting.
“What happened to those who lived here?” Iscia asked.
“Many millions of years ago, humankind was forced to leave the earth through the Crypto Portal,” the woman said in a calm voice. “A small group of people escaped when the luridium took over the bodies of those on the surface. They fled down here. Into the deep. Here, they were safe.”
She paused for a moment before continuing, to let that information sink in.
“They lived down here for thousands of generations. Millions of years. With their eyes on a single goal the entire time: to find a way to defeat the luridium if it should ever return to earth.” The woman paused and looked at William with calm blue eyes.
“And did they?” William asked. “Did they find a way?”
“Yes, they did,” the woman said, and smiled. “After countless generations of trying and failing, they finally came up with something that could defeat that seemingly unbeatable luridium.”
“And what was it?” William gasped.
The woman looked at Phil again. “Do you have it with you?” she asked.
Phil nodded and stuck his hand in one of his large pockets. He pulled out a small pyramid and placed it on the floor in front of them. William recognized it as the orbulator.
“There it is,” the woman said softly.
Phil pointed his remote toward the pyramid.
“You’d better step back,” he said, and motioned for William and Iscia to move.
They did as they were told.
And with a zap and a bright flash of light, the pyramid grew until it towered over them.
“This is the orbulator,” the woman said. “This is the result of millions of years of experimentation. And it will soon belong to you . . . if you pass the final test.”
“But,” William started. He felt dizzy and had a tremendous headache. “What is it?”
“It’s the most powerful weapon in the world,” the woman said. “The only thing that can defeat the luridium.”
She paused. Just stood there, regarding William with her bright eyes. And that’s when William noticed. He hadn’t seen it before, because of the white background. But now, when she was standing in front of the metal pyramid, he could see that she was transparent. Only slightly. But it frightened him.
“And?” Iscia said impatiently. “What is it that can defeat luridium?”
“If William passes the final test,” the woman said softly, “I will tell you.”
“What happens if I don’t pass?” William asked, his voice trembling from fear.
“Then you will have to stay down here,” the woman replied. “Both of you.”
“For how long?” William was afraid he already knew the answer.
“The rest of your lives. And Philip will travel back and continue his search for someone else who can solve the orbulator.”
“And if William passes the test?” Iscia said.
“Then the orbulator is yours, and you can return to the surface. All of the information will then be stored on it, and you can use it to fight the luridium.”
And with those words, she was gone.
36
William looked around. Everything was so dazzling white that it was hard to see where the floor ended and the walls began.
“I don’t like this at all,” Iscia said.
William didn’t like it either, but he didn’t say that out loud. He needed to remain calm.
“Phil’s gone too,” he said. “And the sub. How did everything disappear like that?”
“Because now everything is up to us . . . ,” Iscia said. “Or you, to be more exact.”
“The code probably has something to do with this.” William pointed at the pyramid.
“It’s too big to manipulate,” Iscia said. She walked over to it and placed her hand on the surface. “It must weigh thousands of tons now.”
William looked up at the huge pyramid. It was strange to think that he had been carrying this thing around with him.
“Well,” he said, and braced himself. “I can’t just stand around like this all day. I have to do something.”
He took off his jacket and threw it on the ground. Rolled up his sleeves and looked at the surface in front of him. The pyramid wall filled his whole range of view. He closed his eyes and waited. If there was a code here, his vibrations surely would let him know.
But nothing happened.
“The luridium inside of you can’t help you here,” the woman’s pleasant voice said.
William opened his eyes and looked around. The woman was nowhere to be seen. He looked over at Iscia, who was standing right behind him.
“Did you hear that?” he asked.
“Hear what?” she said.
“Never mind.” William returned his attention to the pyramid.
It had to be the code. Why else would it be here? Besides, there was nothing else here.
He focused all his attention on the strange symbols on the surface. If it was true that the luridium inside his own body didn’t work down here, he would have to rely on his own inherent skills to solve this problem. And that was terrifying.
As William stood like that and let his thoughts race through his head, he suddenly noticed something on the surface of the pyramid. It was directly in front of him and had probably been there all along. But it was partly hidden among all the carved symbols.
It looked like a door.
William lifted his hand and touched the surface. The door was a square indentation. And very well hidden. There was no handle or lock.
“Do you see something?” William heard Iscia say. Her voice was distant, like she had moved farther away from him. But he knew that she was still right behind him.
William didn’t answer. He focused all his attention on the door. Was he supposed to open it? How?
And now he saw that the door was divided into smaller pieces. Like a puzzle. A puzzle William had seen before. On Phil’s skin. William had always had an exceptional visual memory. It was photographic. Something that came in good use when he solved codes.
William closed his eyes and pictured Phil with his mind’s eye. He tried to reproduce every single detail. His head, arms, legs, and long coat. He mentally zoomed in on his face, remembering the white skin that seemed to be made up of small puzzle pieces. When William had first noticed Phil’s skin, he had thought that it was some kind of gimmick. Like a cool look. A design.
Now he knew that there had to be more to it.
Maybe even a solution, or a clue, to the code that William now stood before.
While holding the mental image of Phil, William reached out and touched the door. He let his hand slide across the surface. All the little metal pieces were loose and could be moved around to make a different pattern. William started rearranging them to reproduce the same pattern he had seen on Phil’s skin.
He used both hands to work. Moved the pieces around, faster and faster. It was as if he was in a trance, like when the luridium in his body helped him solve codes. Only now he was doing it. And not the luridium. It was a powerful feeling, and his belief in himself grew with each piece he moved into place.
Suddenly there was a deep rumble inside the door. William took a step back and watched as the heavy iron door slowly swung open.
“You did it,” Iscia said from behind him.
“Not yet,” William whispered. “I don’t think it’s over yet.”
“I’ll come with you,” he heard Iscia say.
“No,” William said firmly. “You have to stay here, in case something happens.”
He stopped right outside the door and looked in. There was nothing but darkness. If he was to solve the code completely, he knew he had to enter. Alone. Both his and Iscia’s lives depended on it. And possibly the whole world. If he failed, they would be trapped down here forever.
William clenched his fists, and his whole body tensed as he walked into the darkness inside the pyramid.
37
William stopped in the darkness.
The inside of the pyramid was chilly. He could feel the cold against his face. And from the light that shone in through the door behind him, he could see how his breath turned into frost.
It was strange how dark it was in here. The light that came through the door should be enough to illuminate the surroundings. But it didn’t.
Maybe there was nothing here. Maybe William had been mistaken in thinking that the solution to the code challenge was inside the pyramid.
“William?” Iscia called from outside.
“I’m fine,” William replied. “There’s nothing here.”
“Then come out again,” she said. “I have a bad—”
Iscia’s voice was abruptly cut off as the door slammed shut behind William. He turned and headed for it but met only darkness. He slammed into the metal wall and came to a violent halt.
His hands desperately searched for the door. But the surface felt almost perfectly flat. Like polished metal. The door was gone.
And William was trapped.
The only things he could hear were the rapid in-and-out puffs of his breath. His heart beat hard and made his head hurt. And it felt even chillier now. Was it getting colder?
William beat the wall with his fists and shouted as loud as he could.
“ISCIA?”
His voice echoed in the darkness. He put his head against the surface. Listened. But there was no reply. Was Iscia still out there? Or had something happened to her? Was this all a trap?
