by Nick Thacker
Perfectly timed, the explosion erupted from the sandy floor, shooting rock fragments, debris, and shrapnel straight up in a thick cloud.
At the same time, Karn and Beka switched their rifles back to the “stun” setting and fired them into the cloud of debris. The entire cloud immediately froze in place, a semi-transparent, sand and rock formation in some places more than twenty feet tall.
The men in the Treasury stood stunned, their view suddenly blocked by a wall that hung in front of them, defying gravity and common sense. After a few seconds, two of the men clambered down the Treasury steps and tried to get themselves through the thin wall, noticing that they could see through it in most places. But as soon as they came into range of the invisible force holding the cloud together, they immediately froze in place as well — paralyzed with an arm or leg halfway through the wall. Confused and shocked, the rest of the Egyptians hesitated, wasting precious seconds before resuming their attack.
But it was too late.
Bryce and the others had made a break for the canyon to the north where Cole, Corinne and the professor had gone. Karn and Beka continued to fire their rifles towards the Treasury as they ran, holding the wall of sand in place. They were almost around the bend in the canyon before the Egyptians recovered and opened fire again. A few stray bullets bounced off the walls around them, echoing through the towering canyon, but no one was hit. Safely around the bend, they paused to catch their breath.
“Impressive, Captain,” Vilocek said. “You could be a useful part of my team.”
Bryce glared at him. “I don’t work for you, Vilocek. We just happen to have a shared interest at the moment.”
Vilocek smiled, full of self-confidence. He seemed amused by the younger man’s response. Karn smirked.
“Check it out!” Sean shouted from about thirty feet away. “Looks like somebody’s been down this way.” He was staring at the ground where a narrow cleft opened in the cliff face, just wide enough for a person to pass through. There were several footprints leading into the cleft.
Karn walked up. “Crack doesn’t go all the way up,” he said. “Probably can’t see it from above. Lucky we stumbled across it at all.”
“What are you waiting for, then?” Vilocek asked, impatient. “Let’s get in there and catch that rat bastard. He’s got something that belongs to me.” Without waiting for a response, Vilocek plunged into the tight crevice. Karn and the others followed, one by one.
Bryce sighed and followed them into the side of the cliff.
CHAPTER 39
4:35 AM
THE FISSURE took a hard turn to the right. The narrow, A-shaped opening forced the men into a crouch almost as soon as they entered. The entrance was nondescript, but as they got further in it became obvious that the passage was not a natural feature. The tunnel quickly took on the shape of the elliptical shafts below the Giza pyramid. It curved slightly to the southwest, back toward the Treasury. After about ten feet, the walls became perfectly smooth.
Bryce knew it was an exact replica of the shafts they’d found at Giza — he also knew that somewhere due south of their location, they would probably find a mirror image of this shaft. Like the Giza shafts, there would be two conjoined “Golden Spirals” beneath Petra.
Vilocek had come to the same conclusion. He pulled out the shard of crystal he’d been carrying and held it up to the wall. The familiar blue symbols came slowly into focus. The three Israelis looked around in wonder as the symbols appeared on the walls, floor and ceiling. Vilocek kept moving forward, calling for the rest to keep up. Where does he get his energy? Bryce thought. Tanning never seemed tired; never seemed out of breath. He doesn’t seem human.
As they continued down, the symbols grew brighter. Cole must be down here, Bryce thought, remembering how the writing on the walls of the pyramid and in Whittenfield’s notebooks lit up in the presence of the young man. They were getting close.
“Whoa — hold up!” Vilocek said, pulling up suddenly. “Shit!” Bryce came up behind, nearly piling into Karn, looking to see why they’d stopped.
In front of Vilocek and Karn was a gaping hole. The shaft ended at the edge and a deep, empty space stared back at them. Karn pointed his light into the void. The darkness consumed the anemic beam like a black hole. About fifty feet ahead on the other side of the chasm, the shaft continued slightly below them. Karn’s light barely illuminated the circular opening, but they could just make out more of the bluish symbols glowing in the interior.
Bryce realized something else: they were not standing in a tunnel, but in something more like a large tube, somehow suspended in an immense cavern as if it was held by an unseen hand.
“Now what?” Karn asked no one in particular. “How the hell do we cross this?”
“Beats me,” Wayne said. “How did Madu and the others get across?”
“Look!” Jeff pointed his flashlight toward Vilocek’s feet. Wedged tightly in a crack in the wall was a grappling hook attached to a thick piece of climbing rope. Karn hauled up the rope, finding the end slashed. The remainder was too short to reach the other side. “Bastard cut it so we couldn’t follow him. Damn,” Jeff said.
Suddenly, Vilocek snatched Karn’s rifle from his hands. “What the — “ Karn protested, as Vilocek whipped the weapon around, pointed it at Karn, and pulled the trigger.
The distinctive whirr sounded as Karn’s body went rigid. Vilocek smoothly and slowly turned the weapon toward the abyss. Beka’s eyes widened “B-boss — we don’t know for sure that it can sustain that kind of range — “
“Shut it!”
They all watched in fearful silence as Vilocek moved the beam — and Karn’s helpless body — out over the yawning gap. Vilocek held the trigger with one finger as he used his other hand to adjust a setting on the side of the rifle. The particle beam increased in intensity, and Karn slowly drifted backwards — levitating just feet from the edge.
Time stood still. Karn’s eyes burned with a rage that belied his rigid posture. The rest of the group stared in fascination and horror.
Finally Karn came to a halt just feet from the other side. He was suspended in thin air over an endless drop — the gun didn’t have the range. Vilocek looked at the weapon and tried to turn the knob farther. It was at its limit — he couldn’t push Karn all the way across.
Vilocek looked up at Karn and casually released the trigger. Karn immediately came to life, spinning and twisting in the air, grabbing for the passageway behind him. With an acrobatic lunge, he caught the edge of the floor as his body started to plunge downward. He dangled for a moment, catching his breath. He finally hauled himself up and over the edge, and sat up on the floor. “Bastard!” he said, glaring at Vilocek before collapsing on his back, exhausted.
Vilocek laughed. “Well, that was easy! Who’s next?”
One by one, Vilocek transferred the rest of the reluctant group to the other side. He got better at it as they went, realizing that if he ran toward the edge and released the trigger, the momentum would send the hapless subject tumbling closer to the other side. Beka went across last, with his own particle rifle slung over his shoulder. When the others had dragged him to safety, he powered it up and turned to Vilocek.
“Ready,” he said.
“Don’t miss,” Vilocek said, “or I’ll find a way to fly over there and wring your neck.”
Beka smirked as the older man sprinted ahead and jumped into the void. Beka waited until Vilocek’s trajectory reached its apex before he fired, catching the man in mid-air. He backed up carefully as he decreased the intensity, electronically reeling Vilocek in.
As soon as Beka released him from the beam, Vilocek hurried past the others and continued down the passage, as if nothing had happened.
CHAPTER 40
4:57 AM
IT HAD taken them an extra ten minutes to string together a grappling hook and rope swing, but they were here.
Madu and Sergeant Aines stared, wide-eyed.
They had reached
the chamber at the bottom of the twisting, turning shaft, and they were all breathing heavily from the exertion.
They were standing before an unbelievable amount of treasure that towered in the center of the room, spilling over to each corner and piled in some places to chest level. Jensen, Corinne and Cole stood just inside the room, dumbstruck.
The hoard would have netted millions without even considering its historic value.
Madu finally found his voice.
“It’s the treasure of the Pharaoh,” he said. “It’s the reason they named this place the ‘Treasury.’”
“I thought there was no treasure,” Jensen said. “Wasn’t it just a myth?”
“That’s what we’d been led to believe,” Madu explained. “When the Pharaoh chased Moses out of Egypt, it was said that his army brought with it the massive treasury. Pharaoh decided that its weight had been slowing them down, and he therefore ordered the men to create the ‘Khaznat al-Faroun’ — the ‘Treasury of the Pharaoh.’
“It was supposedly nothing but a myth, but many people used to shoot at the urn above the Treasury’s main entrance, hoping that gold would begin to fall out.”
“But it was just a myth,” Jensen said.
“That’s the thing about myths,” Madu said. “Usually they originate from somewhere or something based in truth.”
“Looks like this one’s more than just based on truth…” Cole said, fingering a handful of gold and silver coins. As he poured the coins from one hand to the other, his eyes fell on the wall behind the pile. “Look! The symbols!”
The others all turned to look. The now-familiar symbols shone with an intense bluish light from the walls, ceiling, and floor.
“What about it?” Corinne asked, exasperated. “They look the same as they have all along — “
“I can read them,” Cole said, pointing to the wall. “This one — the one that looks like a creature coming out of water — I think it says ‘our people,’ or something similar.”
“What do you mean you can read them? They’re gibberish!” Corinne’s voice climbed an octave. ‘This is all gibberish — the myths, the legends, the treasure — “ she flung a coin against the wall. It’s probably not even real!”
“Stop,” Madu said softly. “I assure you, this treasure is real. The myth, the legend my father told me as a boy; it seems all of it is very real.” He turned to Cole. “What can you read? How?”
“I don’t know,” Cole said. “It’s not like reading in English. It’s like I see the symbols — some of them — and I just understand.” He looked around, his eyes darting back and forth and finally falling on another symbol. “Like this one. The squiggly lines that intersect. I look at it and I think — no, I know — that it means ‘journey,’ or ‘travels.’ I can’t read them all, but from what I can read, these symbols were written by a small group of ‘travelers’ who came here and built these passageways — long before the city was erected, I think.”
They all stared at Cole as if he’d lost his mind. He was busily perusing the countless symbols in front of him, his tongue half-sticking out of his mouth and his skin radiating a pale bluish hue. He looked otherworldly.
“Yeah. Yeah, it says they came from ‘the opposite world,’ or something. An island tribe — that’s why they use the person-water symbol as their mark.”
Madu’s head snapped up. “‘Island’?” From the other side of the globe, by any chance?”
“Yeah — I think they’re referring to an island somewhere beyond the horizon — “
“That’s right,” Jensen said, his voice low. Madu looked at him. “The island is a place I’m quite familiar with. I can’t believe it hasn’t struck me until now.”
“What island Uncle Jensen?” Corinne asked. “How do you know?”
“Because this language — the symbols — it’s called Rongorongo. It was, up until right now, indecipherable.”
“Like Sumerian cuneiform?” Sergeant Aines asked.
Jensen nodded, surprised by the soldier’s knowledge. “There are only two languages known to historians that remain to this day completely indecipherable. One of those is Sumerian cuneiform, and the other — is Rongorongo. The language of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.”
“Easter Island?” Madu asked. “With the heads?”
“Yes — the Moai are statues built as shrines of supposed Rapa Nui leaders and chiefs, and there are over one hundred of them on the island altogether.”
“The Rapa Nui must be the original owners of the crystal,” Cole said. “They built these tunnels and chambers, and added the symbols on the walls as a way of marking where they’d been. I can’t read it all, but maybe they were planning to use this chamber — and the one at Giza — as a secret storage place for the crystal?”
“That would make sense, I guess,” Jensen agreed. “They may have wanted to ensure that the crystal would be safe, but never lost — if they ever came under attack or catastrophe, they’d have numerous locations available to hide it in.”
“What does this mean for us?” Madu asked. “Is the crystal here somewhere? Under all of this gold?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think so,” Professor Andrews replied. “Surely Pharaoh’s men — the people who would have found this chamber and stashed this treasure here — wouldn’t have left something as powerful as the crystal if they’d found it here. Either it’s somewhere on Easter Island, or…” his voice trailed off.
They all knew what he meant. If they couldn’t find the crystal on the island, they’d be too late. They could certainly go through each of the locations Whittenfield had identified, but governments and possibly other entities would probably be alerted to their search by that time. Who knew how many other private firms and “research” organizations were already aware of the crystal’s existence?
Also, Jensen, Cole, and Corinne knew that the crystal would eventually “break down,” whatever that meant.
It was a race against time, and they didn’t even know where the damn thing was.
Suddenly they heard shouts from behind them, in the shaft.
“They’ve gotten across!” Aines said as he crossed the chamber to the exit on the opposite side. “We need to get out, commander!”
“Prepare the passageway,” Madu said. “The rest of you, look around — quickly!” He started rifling through the piled treasure.
Cole started digging as well. The rest joined in, every few seconds glancing back toward the passageway.
A sudden thunderclap burst from the passage into the small chamber. “They’re here! Go, go!” Madu yelled, waving his weapon. The captives had no choice but to comply, and they headed for the exit. As they ran, Cole wondered what Madu had meant by “prepare the passageway.” He had the idea that he wouldn’t like the answer.
CHAPTER 41
5:19 AM
COLE FELT the sides of the tunnel as he ran blindly up the passageway. Madu’s flashlight shone from behind, casting a jittery, bouncing glow with every one of the man’s footsteps. Aines, with the other light, was up ahead somewhere.
Cole wondered how the others were doing. Corinne was probably fine, but her uncle was hacking and heaving for air, his feet landing heavily as fatigue and stress began to take a toll on him. Cole hoped he’d be able to stay on his feet — if he fell now, he knew Madu wouldn’t have the patience to wait around for him.
Finally Cole saw a dancing light in the tunnel ahead. Then Aines came into view, hunched over a small boxlike object, intently focused. As they approached, jogging and sweating, Aines stood up, nodded at Madu, and fell in next to him at a trot.
Suddenly, gunshots sounded from behind. Cole instinctively ducked, as did Corinne and her uncle, but Madu continued to run past them, zigzagging his way around the three civilians. The gunfire continued as Vilocek and his man Karn emerged around the corner. They stopped shooting, but ran faster as they saw Madu retreating up the tunnel.
Cole realized suddenly why Madu had kept running
— it wasn’t out of fear of being shot. He looked at the small box, inconspicuous in the dim light. Terror rose in his chest as he grabbed Corinne and Jensen by the arms. “Come on!” he shouted. “Run!”
They got about twenty paces past the block of explosive before Sergeant Aines detonated it. The deafening blast shook the tunnel, lifting them off their feet and throwing them to the floor. They slid and rolled out of the tunnel and into a small square chamber, as the shock wave blew over their heads and dissipated in the closed-off room.
CHAPTER 42
5:22 AM
BRYCE HEARD the shots ahead. Unsure of what was happening, he sped up and tried to see around the bend. Beka and another Israeli guard passed him as Wayne, Jeff and Sean came up behind.
Then he caught sight of the three civilians, running up and away from the shooting. He couldn’t see Madu or the other soldier who’d been with them. The numerous gun-mounted flashlights almost fully lit the passageway now, and his eyes caught something small on the floor close to Vilocek and his men. He strained his eyes, trying to make out the object. Then he froze. “GET DOW — “
Oddly, he didn’t hear the explosion. But he saw Vilocek and Karn outlined in darkened silhouette as they were violently thrown forward. He couldn’t see Beka, but assumed he’d fared about the same. One of the Israeli soldiers had been flung backwards, almost to Bryce’s feet, and the other soldier had simply disintegrated.
Bryce turned his attention to the soldier laying on the floor in front of him, and knelt to get below the smoke. As he crouched, the Israeli wriggled toward him, more shivering than crawling.
He did a double-take. The man wasn’t moving — at least not on his own. Instead, the floor beneath the man was snaking into thousands of tiny cracks. A larger crack was approaching the man’s feet…
