On it lay a thin stone tablet of some sort of polished black stone. The tablet was illuminated by what Billie could have sworn was a floodlight. But how…? And then she saw the dust motes dancing in the beacon. The rays were separated, as if shining through a cloud. Her eyes, accustomed to the darkness of the temple and surrounding cave system, could barely make out the hole far above the sarcophagus.
She pointed, and Sam looked up. He pulled a monocular from a pocket and extended it, searched for the hole above, and found it.
“I can see leaves fluttering in the breeze. It must extend from the mountain’s surface, all the way through the tip of the pyramid,” he said in a low voice.
Billie paid him no attention. She had stepped up to the sarcophagus and reverently lifted the tablet. Sam looked back at her just as she stowed it in her backpack and calmly walked away. Behind them, the strange whistling resumed.
“Sam, I think it’s time we go,” Billie said.
“Hell, yes, it’s time to go. I don’t think the Pirahã are going to be indifferent to us much longer – especially once they work out we just stole their map. You remember what happened to Indiana Jones when he removed that artifact from that temple around these parts?”
She smiled at him. “Sam, that’s a movie.”
“Even so. It didn’t end well for him.”
Sam didn’t need to tell her twice to get a move on. She wanted out of the temple just as fast as he did. They retraced their steps between the ranks of guards, walking quickly. When they reached the others, all five of them hurried down the passage to the main tunnel, and started up the incline without pausing.
A strong breeze gusted through the pyramid’s exit and down the descending tunnel, nearly knocking Billie off her feet. It was followed by a second Black Smoke. This seemed particularly dark, and malicious as it forced its way through her, and the rest of their crew, racing toward the Pirahã guards.
“That’s different!” she said.
“What is?” Sam asked.
She swallowed, hard. “I’ve never seen a second Black Smoke.”
To Elise, Sam asked, “Any idea what it is?”
Elise shook her head. “No. Nothing good. I can almost feel its hatred.”
Farther inside the temple, the high-pitched trilling sound finally stopped. It was immediately replaced with a new sound. This one was more resonant, like thunder. It took a moment, and they all realized what was causing the new sound.
They’d almost made it to the entrance when the thunder of 400 pairs of feet reached their ears.
Elise said, “Something really bad just happened!”
“You think?” Billie asked, without hiding her sarcasm.
Sam yelled, “Run!”
Chapter Six
Blood pounded in the back of his ears and his chest throbbed with exertion, but Sam continued to climb the final steps of the main tunnel until he reached the giant entrance to the outside of the subterranean pyramid.
He waited until the rest of his team was out and then removed the safety pin from the smoke grenade and rolled it down the descending tunnel. Three hundred and fifty grams of a thick purple smoke, consisting of potassium chlorate, lactose and a purple dye hissed as it was suddenly released from the canister, until it fully obscured the narrow, descending tunnel.
Tom stopped. “Should we hold them here?”
“Yeah, for as long as we can with smoke grenades. I don’t want to resort to lethal methods unless we have to.” Sam turned to Billie. “Get the stone tablet back to the helicopter.”
Billie said, “I’m on it. Genevieve and Elise are already making their way up the ropes. Once she’s at the top, Genevieve’s going to scout somewhere to cover the entrance to the cave system, where she can pick off any attackers if she has to.”
“Sounds like a plan. Now go!”
Sam didn’t need to tell her twice. Billie disappeared, and Tom threw another smoke grenade into the tunnel.
It didn’t bring them the reprieve they’d hoped for. Instead, their attackers continued through the smoke with the unwavering fanaticism that they’d seen in Billie months earlier. From what Sam guessed, the entire Pirahã tribe were being guided through the smoke-filled tunnel from the same outside source that had told them to attack.
He turned to Tom. “Come on, let’s go. They’ll reach the surface soon.”
“You don’t need to tell me.” Tom started down the pyramid’s steps.
Sam followed him, climbing down the six-foot high stone blocks in a series of fast moving maneuvers in which he swung his legs over the side, while bracing with both hands on the top of the stone – making it appear more like a controlled falling action.
Nearly a hundred feet below, he could just make out the faint glow of a single headlamp, where Billie had finally reached the bottom and was now making her way into the set of narrow tunnels filled with crystals.
They reached the base of the giant stone steps at the front of the pyramid. Behind them, Sam heard their attackers bursting out of the main ascending tunnel. He glanced over his shoulder, running his flashlight across the main entrance. The tribal guards of the sacred temple were spreading out over the giant stairs, taking them in single steps.
Taking the steps as they were, the Pirahã would reach them in minutes.
Sam didn’t stop to plan his next move. Instead he ducked down and into the shallow tunnel toward the outside of the cavern and followed the line of footprints in the sand they’d used to enter the temple. The light of his headlamp reflected off the myriad of crystals the size of an adult that lined the walls and surrounding cave-system. Large stalactites and stalagmites broke the cavern into a complex labyrinth.
He rounded a bend, crawling on his hands and knees – and then stopped. The marks in the sand simply vanished.
Sam shined his flashlight around, expecting to see the footprints and signs of sand being turned over by others shuffling through the sand, but instead he found nothing. There were at least six separate tunnels that branched out of the cavern they were in. He turned around, but there was no sign of anyone back-tracking from where they were.
“What the hell?” he asked.
Tom flashed his headlamp across each tunnel. “The marks couldn’t have simply disappeared. Besides, I watched Billie follow Genevieve and Elise into this tunnel only ten minutes ago.” He shined his headlamp onto the ground, where a few small handprints remained. “See, these would have been made by Elise.”
Sam’s gaze swept the ground of the cavern. He looked closer at what he was seeing and felt the prickly finger of fear tease him as understanding finally reached his mind. The ground was completely smooth. Far too much so to be natural. The rest of the cavern floor showed a multitude of pockmarks and deep indents where dripping water had eroded the ground. In front of him were tiny grooves in the sand.
He touched it with his hand. His fingers easily penetrated the loose sand. A wry smile curled his lips, as though he’d finally discovered the answer to a great mystery. Only the discovery itself almost certainly confirmed his worst fears.
Sam said, “Someone’s intentionally raked this area. By the looks of things, they’ve done so after the girls went through here.”
“Which means, either they didn’t want us to know where the girls went, or they intentionally made sure we couldn’t escape.” Tom flipped the safety on his Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun over to F for fully automatic. “Either way, I think they lost their rights to a fair fight.”
“You might be right, although I’m not sure who we’re fighting yet.”
The sound of four hundred warriors charging echoed like thunder through the cavern. A sign their pursuers were still closing in on them.
Sam said, “All right, we can’t go back the way we came. We’ll keep moving and see if we can find a way out. They can’t have raked the entire cavern since the girls went through this way.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Tom said. “You head to the left and I’ll go
right. We’ll meet back here as soon as we find something.”
Sam nodded. “Good luck.”
By the time Sam reached the edge of the three separate tunnels that headed to the right, he heard Tom call out to him.
“I’ve got something.”
Sam raced along on his hands and knees. “Where?”
Tom pointed, using his flashlight to shine directly on the hand and knee marks in the sand. “What do you think?”
“It looks like only one person went through this way.”
“Could it have been Billie?”
“I don’t know. It might have been, or they could have come from whoever tried to cover the tracks in the sand to make us lose our way down here. Either way, we’re going to have company any minute now.”
Tom shrugged, as though he would deal with whatever company they had when it reached them. “So, we follow it?”
“Yeah.”
Tom, already ahead of him, led the way through the shallow and relatively narrow cavern. It meandered around a series of stalagmites that were larger than either man, before heading in a straight line for more than forty feet, and then making a sharp turn to the left.
It was the first sign they’d deviated from the route they’d taken on the way in, and Sam instantly knew there was something wrong. Behind him, the sound of the pursuing Pirahã tribe was getting louder. They no longer whistled in a soft, melodic way. Instead they were chanting something. The words were incomprehensible, but there was no doubt about their purpose – this was a war cry.
Sam said, “Not to rush you or anything, but our company’s nearly here.”
“Just a minute,” Tom replied. “I think I can see an opening up ahead.”
Sam rounded the next corner and the shallow tunnel opened into a sizeable oval shaped room. It was approximately thirty feet long by twenty wide. He was able to stand up. The entire room – and he thought room not cavern – had been excavated using hand-tools. Rough grooves and indents covered the walls and floors, where rocks and simple tools had been used to hollow out the area. The ubiquitous crystals that had made up most of the rest of the caverns beneath the Tepui Mountains had been removed, and only one single stalagmite remained in the center of the room, as though it had been required to support the ceiling nearly fifteen feet above.
On this giant stalagmite, a man had been bound by his wrist and ankles. The skin over his wrists had been worn off, as though he’d fought to free himself in vain, by pulling his hands through the electrical cable ties. Unable to free himself, the wretched man had spent his last efforts alive staring at something on the wall directly opposite him.
Sam’s eyes darted to the wall. There was a large TV monitor. Ninety inches at least. A complete anachronism in an underground temple built entirely by hand using rudimentary tools. The monitor displayed multiple images from secret digital cameras recording video throughout the temple and its maze of stalagmites, stalactites, and giant quartz crystals.
His eyes returned to the remains of the bound wretch. Two bullet holes wept blood from the man’s chest. It meant that whoever killed him did so only minutes earlier.
His dead eyes were fixed in a state of abject horror.
Sam felt his stomach churn with fear and a sinister and pervasive sense of impending disaster, as he spotted that the man’s eyes were a deep violet color.
There was only one other person he’d ever met who had eyes like that. Her name was Elise, and as far as he knew, she descended directly from the ancient race of Master Builders.
Tom said, “What do you think?”
Sam swallowed. “I don’t know, but it raises the question – has there been a quarrel among the remaining descendants of the Master Builders?”
He swept the entire room with his flashlight. There were no tunnels leading out of it. One way in and one way out. And an army of brutal warriors approaching.
“What do you think?” Sam asked.
Tom leveled his Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine gun at the entrance. “I think we’re trapped.”
Chapter Seven
Sam’s focus shifted back to the huge display monitor.
It showed hundreds of Pirahã guards mobilizing quickly through the crystal maze. The giant pieces of quartz were vibrating in a strange harmony with their deep war cry. He stepped closer, and realized his pursuers were now coming through the section where they’d first discovered the raked sand. He put his hand on the screen. The image size changed. It was a touch-screen. He used his thumb and two fingers to expand the image.
He could now see their faces clearly. Their lips were entirely still, but a strange sound resonated out of their open mouths. The tune was completely unrecognizable, but mesmerizing. It gave Sam a momentary pause.
He smiled, mystified. “Truly fascinating, isn’t it?”
Tom ignored the comment. “We’ve got to go, Sam. I thought you were supposed to be finding a way out of here?”
Sam grinned. “So I was.”
He opened his hand and then ran each of his fingers together until it minimized the screen into a series of smaller mapped documents. It revealed a dozen separate video images. He glanced over them. To the left corner, an image showed Billie approaching the end of the crystal cavern, where the ropes were still hanging at the entrance. Just past that image, was an external video depicting the sandstone face of the cliff. In the middle of the image, he could just make out the two figures of Elise and Genevieve prusiking up the rope.
His gaze swept downward, where he spotted an image of Tom and himself staring at the computer monitor. Two screens to the right displayed the narrow, empty tunnel, through which they had recently crawled to reach the room they were now in. A second or two later, the first of their pursuers entered the tunnel.
Tom said, “They’ll be inside any minute now…”
Sam made a big show of sighing. “Yes… and we’ll be gone.”
He clicked on the video feed directly above their room and expanded the image by opening his fingers across the screen. The room was a hollowed tunnel, carved using rudimentary tools to chisel away at the soft sandstone.
“Would you look at that?” Sam said. “An escape tunnel!”
He swiped the screen to the left, moving to the next screen, followed by another. On the fourth screen, he spotted the back of a man, climbing onto a rope hanging over the sandstone cliff of the Tepui Mountains. Sam couldn’t see his face, but the man had thick black hair with minor graying to the side.
“That’s our man!” Sam said.
Tom grabbed him by the shoulder. “That’s great, but how do we get there?”
Sam smiled. “I thought you already knew?”
“No.”
“Follow me.”
Sam walked behind to the back of the giant stalagmite in the middle of the room. He shined his flashlight across the back of the pillar. Small, dark indents had been carved into the back of its limestone structure.
He locked the safety on his Heckler and Koch MP5 and swung its strap over his shoulder. Climbing hand over hand, he scurried up the limestone ladder. At the very top of the stalagmite, three pillars of quartz crystal met together like a giant prism. From the base of the pillar, it was impossible to see that the ceiling went anywhere, but upon reaching it, Sam spotted a secret entrance had been carved out of the sandstone that formed behind them.
Sam slipped through and climbed into the new tunnel. Unlike the rest of the tunnels they’d found beneath the Tepui Mountains, this one went in a perfectly straight line.
Tom squeezed his broad shoulders through the opening. “They’re flooding into the room now. It won’t take them long to discover the hidden ladder, if they don’t know about it already.”
Sam switched his MP5 submachine gun to F for fully automatic and turned to face the opening.
Tom met his gaze. “You don’t really think we’ve got enough ammo to stop all of them, do you?”
“Not for a second. Even if we had enough rounds and the time to
reload, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for the extinction of an entire tribe. I’ve got a better idea though.”
The sound of Pirahã filling into the room below echoed through the secret passage. As expected, their numbers soared. It would be impossible to hope that they simply wouldn’t spot the hidden ladder, or that they could be fought off once they climbed up it.
A large fragment of quartz protruded out of the sandstone wall next to the opening to the secret room below. It was roughly one foot wide by six long. If it could be convinced to break free of the wall, the stone would fall into the opening, blocking anyone’s progress through it.
Sam removed his backpack and withdrew a single, copper-lined linear-cutting charge of C4. It was used by American Special Forces for cutting through thick sheet steel and solid doors during explosive breaches. He wrapped it around the base of the hanging crystal and attached a twenty-foot line of detcord.
Tom stepped back and nodded. “Clear.”
Sam flicked the switch, and the C4 exploded.
Chapter Eight
The small blast exploded in a flash, sending a torrent of rubble and air down the confined space of the tunnel. The blast-wave ripped into Sam, taking his breath away in an instant. Beneath closed eyelids, he watched as the blast lit up the tunnel, and his ears rang with the continuous echo of the explosion.
In an instant it was over.
Smoke wafted out of the rubble, where fractured shards of crystal littered the secret opening. Sam turned his gaze toward Tom to see if he was okay. Confirming Tom was uninjured, he focused his attention on the pile of rubble. His flashlight shined through the fine dust of the tunnel in ghostly silence.
His eyes fixed on the rubble. The top of the pile shuddered. Nothing more than a fine tremor. It could have been the remains of the debris settling into the small opening. Or it could be something much more significant.
Sam held his breath. The movement stopped. Maybe he’d imagined it? It felt like an abominably long time. He breathed out. The plan had worked and the small cave in served its purpose to block any progress from their pursuers.
The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 3 Page 55
