by David Meyer
And that worried me. Two weeks of radiation had been enough to harm Pacho and kill a severely weakened Rigoberta. And they'd lived above ground, far away from where I thought the source was located. What would happen to us as we neared the so-called death gods?
I kept a wary eye on the blades as I walked forward. What was the point of Razor House anyway? As far as I could tell, it was exactly the same concept as Jaguar House, only with blades instead of teeth.
I slowed a bit. There had to be something to those old legends. Blades might not be able to move on their own accord. But the cave could contain hidden projectiles. If I stepped on the wrong rock, it might release a spring mechanism and …
I shook my head. The idea was ridiculous. Spring-loaded darts wouldn't last a year without maintenance, let alone a dozen centuries. And all of Hunahpu's traps had been simple, yet durable enough to last for the long haul. There was no reason to think he would've changed his strategy so close to the finish line.
The ground shifted strangely under my feet. I veered to the right.
Looking ahead, I saw a dozen sharp points. Quickly, I planted my boot on a safe spot. But the awkward movement forced me to stumble again.
I shot even further to the right, coming dangerously close to the blades mounted on the wall. Planting my left foot, I forced myself away from the ancient metal objects.
I stumbled into the middle of the cavern. I tried to slow my momentum, but I found myself being forced to the left. The ground groaned loudly. Rock crunched against rock.
What the hell?
I looked down. Substantial cracks lined the ground. They separated the area on which I stood from the rest of the limestone.
This isn't ordinary rock. It's an artificial platform.
Sweat poured from my brow as I felt myself propelled closer to the left wall. My nerves went haywire as I threw my hands up in front of me.
It's not just a platform. It's a pivoting platform. And it's pivoting me right into those blades.
Chapter 103
"Get out of there," Graham shouted. "It's—"
The crunching rock drowned him out. I twisted my neck around. Lurched backward. My right foot hit a safe spot, free of blades. My left foot slammed down just a foot away.
Think, Cy, think.
The platform shifted again, pivoting me toward the right wall. I reeled back and nearly lost my balance.
Five or six blades pricked my skin at the same time. I clenched my teeth, knowing impalement was mere moments away.
I planted my right foot. Then I struggled in the opposite direction. The pricks vanished.
It's using my momentum against me.
The platform beneath me consisted of a limestone block. Hunahpu had evidently carved it out of the floor. Then he'd inserted some kind of object, most likely a large rolling pin, directly underneath it. Effectively, the platform was equivalent to an ancient seesaw.
I swung toward the left wall. Shifting my feet, I brought myself to a halt. The platform paused for a brief second as I neared its center of gravity. My body relaxed just a bit.
Abruptly, the platform tilted. To my surprise, it pitched forward.
It's not mounted on a rolling pin. It's mounted on a ball.
Embracing the momentum, I ran forward.
The platform tilted with me.
I ran faster.
The platform continued to tilt as I ran down it. Abruptly, it slammed into rock. My body jolted.
I was now running several feet beneath the platform's original position. Looking ahead, I saw a short rock wall. Tiny glints of metal caught my eye.
I groaned inwardly. Hunahpu had, as always, thought of everything. He'd left the top section of wall completely clear, which gave the platform plenty of room to tilt downward. But he'd cemented blades of increasing length onto the lower section of wall.
And I was running right toward them.
My brain screamed at me to stop. But I ran faster. Then I jumped.
My fingers touched limestone. My feet kicked to the side as I propelled myself upward. Moments later, I rolled onto solid ground.
I bent over to catch my breath, nearly oblivious to the congratulatory shouts coming from the other end of the cave. "Seven levels down, Hunahpu," I whispered between breaths. "Two to go."
Chapter 104
"Amazing." Tum's voice dropped to a low hush. "It's a miniature ballcourt."
Dr. Wu rubbed his forehead. "What's a ballcourt?"
"It's a common feature in ancient Mesoamerican sites. More than thirteen hundred of them have been found throughout Central America."
"What were they used for?"
"They were probably multi-functional, used for everything from wrestling matches to giant feasts. But their most famous use was for the Mesoamerican ballgame."
The cavern was roughly one hundred feet long by fifty feet wide. I estimated the height at about twenty feet. Identical structures jutted out from both sides. A tight alley ran through the middle of them.
I walked into the alley and focused my gaze on the structure to my right. It looked a bit like an ancient dugout topped with elaborate walls. A three-foot vertical wall stood nearest to my position. It gave way to a two-foot wide horizontal bench. Behind the bench, a second wall sloped gently toward the ceiling. This in, turn gave way to a second vertical wall. Small rings, maybe three feet in diameter, were mounted near the top of that wall.
"So, how do we play this ballgame?" Beverly asked.
"No one knows," Tum replied. "In fact, there may have been multiple versions of it. But the most popular version is believed to have been a little like volleyball, only using hips instead of hands. Teams would pass a small rubber ball back and forth until one of them hit it out of bounds or let it bounce too many times."
She nodded at the rings. "What about them?"
"Think of them as vertical basketball hoops. Putting a ball through one of them would've been a rare event and likely, instant victory for the team that managed it. But again, this would've been exceedingly rare. Most people figure the vast majority of games were decided by points." Tum rubbed his jaw. "Come to think of it, the Xibalba legend features a ballcourt."
I arched an eyebrow.
"Hunahpu and Xbalanque faced the death gods on a ballcourt," he continued. "The gods tried to use a ball with a blade in it, but Hunahpu stopped them. He and his brother threatened to leave. The gods agreed to use a rubber ball and the game continued until the two men deliberately threw the match."
"Why'd they do that?" I asked.
"Each time they lost, they were sent to a new house. The implication, if memory serves me correctly, is that they had to defeat all the houses in order to fully overcome the gods. The strategy worked until Bat House. They had to spend the night in it, surrounded by circling bats. So, they squeezed themselves into their blowguns. But Hunahpu got impatient and wanted to see if the sun had risen. He stuck his head out a little too early. Camazotz, a horrible bat god, decapitated him."
I was reminded of Dr. Wu slamming his head against the rock ceiling. "Pretty gruesome."
"The next day, Hunahpu's head was hung over the ballcourt. But his brother managed to retrieve it by substituting something else, possibly a turtle, in its place. Hunahpu was brought back to life. Then he and Xbalanque defeated the death gods."
"Odd story." Graham frowned. "How does it help us?"
Tum shrugged. "Beats me."
I edged further into the space. In the middle of the right side structure, I noticed a thin passage, sloping down into the earth. "There's a tunnel over here," I said.
"Be careful," Tum replied. "The death gods were fond of trickery, especially when it came to the ballcourt."
I pointed my beam into the passage. It was extremely skinny, barely wide enough to fit a single person at a time.
Exhaling softly, I squeezed into the passage and took a few steps. It sloped downward. The others fell in behind me and slowly we worked our way through it.
&nbs
p; "I see something," I said after a short walk.
"What is it?" Beverly asked.
"A dead end."
"Anyway around it?"
"I don't see one."
"Then Tum was right." She sighed. "This is a trick passage."
"Wait a moment." I walked to a large slab. "This is definitely manmade. It doesn't extend all the way to the ceiling. And it doesn't touch the rock on either side of it either."
I shifted my beam. It illuminated two giant half moons carved onto the slab's surface. Hundreds of small stars surrounded them.
I studied the ground. A giant orb had been carved into it. Thick points shot out on all sides of it. It looked a little like a sun beaming in the sky.
I studied the area where the floor touched the slab. Then I stepped forward. Taking a deep breath, I leaned against the slab. It moved a fraction of an inch. At the same time, the ground under my feet shifted upward.
"The slab is connected to the floor in an 'L' shape," I said. "If we all lean forward, it should tip over and spill us out into the other end of the passage."
"That's it?" Graham said.
"Let's hope so." I cleared my throat. "Okay, everyone squeeze together and lean toward me."
The others crowded in until I could barely breathe. Ever so slowly, the wall tipped forward while the ground shifted upward.
"Push harder," I hissed.
Sweaty bodies slammed into me. The slab tipped over. With a loud bang, it crashed to the ground. The impact sent me rolling into the other side of the passage.
The passage had previously sloped gently into the ground. But now, it featured a far steeper descent and I found myself rolling over smooth rock at a high rate of speed.
Five seconds later, I skidded to a stop. Some bodies crashed into me. Others rolled right over me before coming to a halt.
"Well, that was fun." Graham sat up, rubbing his head. "Hey, does anyone else hear that?"
"It sounds like rocks scraping against each other," Emily said slowly.
I retrieved my flashlight and pointed it behind me. The giant sun carving, previously at our feet, had flipped upward and now faced us.
My jaw dropped as the L-shaped rock started to move. When we'd pushed it over, a set of ancient stone wheels had landed on the ground. Now, gravity was directing the whole thing in our direction.
I leapt to my feet. "Run."
The others jumped up and we raced forward. I shot a quick glance over my shoulder. The vertical part of the L-shaped rock was on the far side of the base. If the rock was about to run me over, I figured I could jump onto the base and ride it the rest of the way down the tunnel.
I looked forward. My heart skipped a beat. The tunnel didn't open up into another cave. Instead, it dead-ended at a wall. A closer look revealed a slot at the bottom of the wall. It was large enough to fit the wheels and base of the L-shaped rock. Effectively, anyone standing on the base when the slab hit the wall would be crushed to death.
Graham and Beverly darted ahead. They leapt to the left and vanished from sight. Emily was right behind them, followed by Tum and Dr. Wu.
Rock smacked against rock. The noise sounded close.
I doubled my speed. The L-shaped rock was so close I could almost feel its base pressing into my legs.
I spotted a gap on my left. I dove toward it. The rock hurtled past me, barely missing my body. Its base slid into the slot and its upper half smashed into the wall.
Beverly glided to my side. "Are you okay?"
My chest was bruised. Long, bloody scrapes covered my hands. "Never better," I replied.
"We made it." She helped me to my feet and looked around. "This must be Metnal, the ninth level of Xibalba."
"Cy," Graham said. "You've got to see this."
I turned toward him. My tongue expanded, filling my mouth. My eyes bugged out as I stared at the magnificent sight. "Is that …?"
"Yeah." He shot me a toothy grin. "We did it. We found the lost Library of the Mayas."
PART V
The River
Chapter 105
Shiny gold, distant yet unbelievably close, glittered under my beam. It was brighter than anything I'd ever seen in my life. Speechless and half-blinded, I wandered forward.
"Be careful," Beverly said. "There could be another trap around here."
But I knew she was wrong. This time, there would be no traps. No bats. No shifting platforms. No rolling L-shaped walls.
I shifted my beam. Gigantic stalactites reached down from the ceiling. Humongous stalagmites reached up to greet them. The cavern was gigantic, easily the largest one yet. I couldn't even begin to estimate its massive size or its incredible height.
A vast river flowed through the middle of it. Its dark waters gurgled loudly and I realized it was the same waterway Hunahpu had used to create his artificial marsh. But I barely looked at the water. Instead, my gaze was fixated solely on it.
The Library of the Mayas.
Two massive domes—constructed entirely from gold plates—towered before me. They stood in the middle of the river and rose almost to the ceiling. The sheer amount of gold astounded me. But the knowledge it contained, well, that was enough to make me speechless all over again.
I walked to the edge of the river. Water splashed against my boots. Mist assailed my eyes. But I didn't step back. Hell, I couldn't step back.
My boots and socks were still wet from Rattling House. So, I didn't take them off. Instead, I just lowered myself into the river. It was chest-deep. The swift current crashed against me.
I couldn't feel the water or sense its temperature. I didn't hear it either. And I couldn't smell the dust or taste the staleness of the air. It was as if all my senses, sans vision, had malfunctioned at the exact same moment.
The gold domes grew larger as I waded across the river. They completely dominated my view until I could see nothing else.
I stopped in front of the larger dome and ran my hand over the plates. They were malformed so as to fit together. Tiny etch marks had been engraved onto each plate. I couldn't decipher them, but they were definitely Maya hieroglyphics.
The current gained a little speed. I thrust out my hands and steadied myself against the gold plates.
"Amazing." Dr. Wu's head burst out of the river a few feet away from me. "I've never seen so much gold. It goes all the way to the bottom."
"And each plate is a separate book," I replied. "This is going to rewrite Maya history. It's going to change the world."
Emily waded out to join us. She produced a small camera and aimed it at the larger dome. But the current intensified and she had trouble maintaining her balance.
"Want me to do that?" I asked.
She nodded and handed me the camera. Quickly, I started to take pictures of the individual plates as well as of the domes themselves. But after a few minutes, reality seeped into my consciousness. "We can't stay here."
A frown creased Emily's visage.
"We don't have any equipment. And even if we did, it could take days, maybe weeks, to dismantle these domes. We won't last that long, not with Votan looking for us."
"We can stop him."
"With what? We've got a handful of guns between us. He's got a helicopter full of armed goons." I shook my head. "We have to find an exit."
She eyed me closely. "But what about the library?"
"I don't know about you." A change, sudden and permanent, came over me. And at that exact moment, I knew I couldn't retire from treasure hunting. Maybe I was risking an untimely death. But that was better than living a life I wasn't meant to live. "But I don't need it anymore. I got what I came here for."
With a frown, she turned away from me. Her fingers gently brushed against one of the plates. "That's interesting. There are hardly any gaps."
I examined the larger dome. Then I waded over to join Dr. Wu at the smaller one. "This one has a few gaps," I said slowly. "I see rock under here."
"Step aside."
I whirled aro
und at the sound of Beverly's voice. She stood several feet away, up to her shoulders in river water. She clutched the handheld mass spectrometer in her hands. "You're going to analyze it?" I frowned. "But that'll take hours."
"More like minutes."
"Will it be accurate?"
"Accurate enough."
I glanced backward. The passage we'd used to access the library was quiet and still. But I knew it wouldn't last that way forever. Eventually, Votan would get past Hunahpu's traps. It was only a matter of time.
Beverly harvested a couple of samples from the two domes. A few minutes passed while she used the spectrometer to analyze them. "Okay, the gold appears to be layered over a blend of rock and metal. I'm getting initial readings for iron-60, lead-205, samarium-146, and curium-247. In other words, the same materials I found in the red rain, the pyramid blocks, and the wall. Only the concentrations here are much stronger."
"Is that all?" I asked.
"Not exactly. I'm picking up a faint, but rather large concentration of uranium. I think we've found our radiation source." She cast a wary eye at the two domes. "Or rather, sources."
I took a few steps back as I realized the truth. "They're meteorites," I said softly. "The impact scattered the lower limestone layer, sending chunks of it toward the surface. Over time the river carved out this cave system."
"Hang on a second." Beverly's gaze tightened. "The stuff under those domes isn't ordinary uranium."
"What do you mean?"
"It contains an unusually large amount of uranium-235." She exhaled loudly. "In other words, it's the same stuff used to make nuclear weapons."
Chapter 106
Graham's eyes bugged out of his head. "They're fissile?"
Beverly hoisted herself out of the water. "I'm afraid so."
I waded to the ledge. While I waited for Dr. Wu to climb out of the river, I noticed deep marks etched into the limestone, maybe a foot beneath the surface. I realized the river had carved them over a long period of time. That meant the water level had risen recently. Was it because of the rain? Or was it something else?
