Goodwin glanced behind to see the Anakim Sphinx disappearing into the depths.
A hundred yards closer a dazzle of light shot skyward, leaving a glowing trail in its wake.
Goodwin gazed after it as it vanished into the flickering clouds. ‘Godspeed, Sarah,’ he whispered.
Fires roared on both sides and Hilt wrapped his arms around Susan to protect her from the heat. The Darklight leader withdrew his knife and looked at Goodwin with anguish in his eyes.
Goodwin knew what he intended, better for Susan to die quickly than to suffer the agony of being burnt alive. Goodwin’s eyes filled with the orange glow of flame and he braced himself for their final moments. His lungs burned and his clothing caught alight. Hilt placed his knife to the base of Susan’s skull ready to deliver the killing blow, but before he could do so the ground reared up beneath them. The lava fell away and a massive wall of water rushed in. Steam exploded upwards as cold met hot and the flames were extinguished. The lake was reclaiming its domain and flooded into the abyss at its centre.
The cascade of water roared loudly, and with the heat gone, so had the light. Hilt sheathed his knife and turned on his torches, enabling them to see their bridge of land continued into the lake. But it was far from safe. The ground beneath them dropped away and they leapt forward as gushing waves sought to sweep them away. Somehow they managed to stay upright and Goodwin blinked droplets from his eyes to see the lake’s waters rushing past on either side.
Hilt put Susan down and led the way over slick rock, his powerful frame acting like a human shield against the roaring flow. Goodwin grasped Susan’s hand and followed close behind as the earthquake continued unabated. He glanced back to see their narrow strip of land disappearing into the seething tide. ‘Hurry up!’ he said.
Hilt upped the pace and Goodwin feared the worst as he found himself waist deep before the Darklight leader helped Susan, and then Goodwin, up onto more solid ground. The shaking subsided to tremors as the water continued to speed past. A hundred yards on the natural causeway of rock ended short of the beach, but as Goodwin watched that same shoreline drew closer and closer as the lake’s level fell. Soon the waters had receded far enough for them to drop down to the newly exposed bedrock.
With Susan by his side, Goodwin waded through pools of weed and mud before reaching what had been the lake’s edge. The roar of the water faded behind and he collapsed to the ground in exhausted relief.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply while Susan sat down cross-legged beside him.
But hardly a moment had passed before Hilt redrew his sword and activated its blade. ‘Someone’s coming.’
Can’t I ever get any rest? Goodwin wondered. With a groan, he sat up to see a host of torch lights approaching from the south. ‘Are they friendlies?
Hilt pressed some buttons on his helmet. ‘I don’t know my system’s down.’
‘We could make a run for it.’
Hilt shook his head. ‘If they’re Terra Force they’ll have long range weapons.’
‘Then we wait.’ Goodwin squinted at the torches before transferring his gaze to the distant city, which shone like a colossal beacon of light.
The Anakim towers pulsed with power, and energy crackled up their soaring spires to arc across wide avenues like electrified coils. Susan seemed equally captivated by the scene and Goodwin knew the power released by Sarah inside the sphinx must have been responsible. Where else could such a power go? He frowned. But was I wrong about Genesis? he thought. Everything had made sense at the time, but now …
Storm clouds built over the city and the winds that had died down picked up again as the torch lights drew ever closer.
A short while later Captain Winter came jogging out of the dark with a unit of Darklight mercenaries at his back. ‘Director, thank God, I’d feared the worst.’
‘Captain,’ Goodwin said, getting to his feet.
Captain Winter drew to a halt and saluted his commanding officer. ‘Sir!’
‘At ease, soldier.’ Hilt deactivated his sword. ‘Report.’
‘The Terra Force commandos are in full retreat,’ Winter said. ‘Once their leader abandoned them they lost cohesion.’
‘And what of Colonel Samson?’ Goodwin said.
Winter looked at him. ‘No sign, if he didn’t follow you out, then he didn’t make it.’
Goodwin nodded, his face grim.
‘S.I.L.V.E.R.?’ Hilt said.
‘The assassins haven’t been seen since we engaged them at the standing stones,’ Winter said. ‘When we fell back to shore, we held the causeway. No one came back out.’
Hilt removed his helmet and ran his hand over his head. ‘The lights?’
The captain shook his head. ‘Nothing, yet. We’re still on full alert, if they return, we’ll be ready.’
Hilt appeared satisfied with the news. He turned to Goodwin. ‘I’m sorry, sir … about Rebecca and Joseph. If I’d had more time—’
Goodwin waved away his apology. ‘You lived up to half your promise, Commander.’ He placed his hand on Susan’s shoulder and she looked up at him with innocent eyes. ‘You brought Susan home.’
‘You’re right,’ Hilt said, ‘but not in the way you think.’
Goodwin gave him an odd look. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I did live up to half my promise.’ Hilt held up his malfunctioning headgear. ‘When I first encountered Sarah Morgan, we were able to download the files from her Deep Reach helmet. We have their maps and a route through to the USSB.’
Goodwin gave a sigh. ‘That’s good news, but after recent events any entry into the base would be met with fierce resistance.’
‘For Darklight, maybe,’ Hilt said, ‘but the civilians—’
‘Not an option,’ Goodwin said, ‘I’m not leaving you down here to rot. Darklight are as much under my care as everyone else.’
Captain Winter gave a nervous cough. ‘Don’t you mean Dr. Vandervoort’s care, Director?’
Hilt frowned and looked at Goodwin.
‘It seems my actions led them to believe I was unfit for command,’ Goodwin said. ‘Kara runs the camp now.’
The Darklight leader arched a brow, his expression questioning.
‘The director has been … troubled,’ Captain Winter told Hilt.
‘Troubled, how?’
‘They thought me insane,’ Goodwin said, ‘my actions a danger to others.’
‘And are you?’ Hilt said.
‘What?’
‘Insane?’
Goodwin hesitated and looked at his wrist. The red rash from the crystal bracelet had faded. Does that mean I’m free of whatever was controlling me? Or was it all in my mind all along? The answers remained as elusive as ever. But I was right about the lake, he reminded himself, and there was a way to the surface.
‘Sir?’ Hilt said in concern.
‘I wasn’t myself,’ Goodwin said, ‘I put people’s lives at risk, and …’ – he looked at Captain Winter – ‘people died.’
‘They weren’t the first,’ Hilt said, ‘and they won’t be the last. Leadership comes with many burdens, you know that – we both know that.’
‘But what if my actions weren’t my own?’
Hilt considered him with impassive eyes.
The silence dragged on and Goodwin felt compelled to speak. ‘Joseph was being controlled by the lights, the entity. He attacked me and then Rebecca. The blue crystals didn’t attract the lights, the lights – the Pharos – used the crystals to control us, to control Joseph, Susan … me.’
‘You?’ Hilt said.
‘Maybe.’ Goodwin shook his head. ‘I don’t know, perhaps. I saw things, visions, things that couldn’t be explained. Coincidences, amazing coincidences.’ Goodwin wanted to tell Hilt about the things he’d seen in the Anakim Sphinx, about the biblical passages that linked this most ancient of races with one of humanity’s most precious texts, the Judeo-Christian Bible. But even as he thought it, his crippling doubts returned. Have I
imagined it all? Have I lost my mind? Am I still me?
‘He was quoting scripture,’ said a woman’s voice.
They all turned round to see Dr. Kara Vandervoort moving through the Darklight ranks with a number of civilians in tow.
Goodwin looked at Kara. She looked as beautiful as ever, relaxed even, the weight of command taken in her stride.
She walked forward and stopped in front of him.
Their last meeting had been intense, with harsh words spoken and trust lost on both sides. He still loved her, of course – he couldn’t turn off such emotions easily – but his thoughts turned to Rebecca and he knew his heart had been divided. Kara had known it, too, perhaps before Goodwin himself. And yet while Rebecca was gone, the problem remained.
He gazed into Kara’s eyes, searching for that lost connection, wondering if their union could – or should – be resurrected.
‘Rebecca and Joseph,’ Kara said in her South African drawl, ‘did they …?’
Goodwin shook his head, the heartbreak hitting home anew.
‘Oh, Richard,’ – she touched his cheek – ‘you’ve been so lost.’ She pulled him to her.
He held her in a lingering embrace and the tension between them melted away.
When the moment had passed, Kara pulled away and bent down to speak in low soothing tones to Susan. She called a medic to her and they tried to lead the mentally-handicapped woman away, but Susan refused to leave Goodwin’s side.
‘You were quoting scripture?’ Hilt said, keeping his tone neutral.
Goodwin couldn’t tell what the Darklight leader was thinking, but he could hazard a guess.
‘I heard what you said to Sarah’s friends,’ Hilt continued, when Goodwin failed to answer. ‘I saw your message. Genesis; what does it mean?’
Goodwin held Hilt’s gaze for a moment before turning to Kara. ‘Do you know how long it is since the tower last activated?’
‘I’m not sure,’ she said. ‘Monitors at the camp said over the last twenty-four hours it was discharging energy every thirty minutes.
Goodwin nodded. ‘It won’t be long then.’
‘For what?’
‘To see if I was right.’
‘Right about what?’
‘About the Pharos – the lights – what they wanted.’
‘You figured it out?’ Kara said, shocked. ‘How?’
Goodwin looked towards the city. ‘Does it matter?’
‘Of course it matters!’
‘You’d think; but if I’m right, none of it matters anymore. I thought I’d found a way back to the surface – for all of us – but it wasn’t what I thought it was. But when I saw it … I knew.’
‘Richard,’ Kara said, exasperated, ‘knew what? What did you see?’
‘You’ll think I’m crazy.’
‘You won’t know until you tell us,’ Captain Winter said.
Goodwin looked at Hilt, who gave him a nod of encouragement.
‘There was another frieze in the sphinx,’ Goodwin said, relenting, ‘similar to the one we found in the city. It showed the night sky, full of constellations. And beneath that was the Earth.’ He paused to gather his thoughts. When he looked at it now, afresh, the links seemed more tenuous.
‘Go on,’ Kara said.
‘It was an image of the heavens and earth. But when Sarah activated the Anakim device—’
‘The woman from the base?’ Kara said.
‘Yes, when she activated it, I could see something at its centre … a void.’
Hilt nodded. ‘I saw it, too.’
‘It was like molten metal, shimmering like water, and I could see the Anakim’s silver statue, their God, reflecting in its surface.’
A rumble of thunder echoed through the chamber and everyone turned to the city, which still glowed bright with power.
The winds grew stronger and rippled their clothing with invisible fingers, and lightning flickered over the city’s central, and tallest, spire. Clouds gathered, forming into a giant storm cell that circled the Anakim metropolis.
‘It’s happening,’ Goodwin said.
‘What’s happening?’ Kara looked at him. ‘What have you seen, Richard? Tell us.’
‘Genesis,’ Goodwin said, as a build-up of purple energy swirled around the tower’s base. ‘Chapter one, verse one. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”’
Bolts of lightning hammered down into the city.
‘Verse two,’ Goodwin said, raising his voice as the tempest increased in volume. ‘“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep—”’
Goodwin moved forward into roaring winds and pointed towards the city. A swirl of energy spiralled up the tallest tower and a single orb of pure, radiant light appeared at its peak and floated through the air towards the chamber’s highest vaults. The sphere of energy disappeared into the clouds before it impacted the ceiling and flowed outwards like a sea of sparkling jewels.
‘“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters!”’ Goodwin said.
The air in the chamber was sucked into the city with a great whoosh of noise. The ground shook beneath their feet and more lightning lanced down.
‘Verse three!’ Goodwin raised his hands to the heavens. ‘“AND GOD SAID!!”’
A shockwave exploded from the city and an endless blast of power erupted up from every spire. The stored energy roared forth, igniting the ceiling with a mass of seething electricity. With a tremendous flash, Sanctuary’s dormant ceiling blazed into life. Light streamed out and a wall of energy swept through the chamber and down into the tunnels beneath. Down and down the electricity spread, increasing in speed as it flooded the pitch-black depths with a blazing radiance. Ancient monuments and buildings, hidden for untold millennia, emerged from the gloom beneath the racing brilliance.
Darklight and Terra Force soldiers alike paused to gaze up as the phenomenon streaked past like the essence of life. Tunnels, chambers and long forgotten caves, none were immune to the ceiling’s power. Light filled Sanctuary’s endless halls like time immemorial in an unstoppable, expanding wave.
Goodwin shielded his eyes as the city flared brighter before the towers’ luminance faded and the final stream of energy released into the heavens.
Hilt and Captain Winter moved to his side to look up at the storm of electricity that continued to unfold above. Thunder rumbled and the howling gale died back to a strong breeze as dark clouds flowed out into a white blanket.
Goodwin couldn’t quite believe his eyes. He’d been proven right once more. And yet, he thought, did I really figure out the entity’s motive, its end game, or did it implant the idea in my mind, leaving clues for me to find?
As he struggled with the concept, Kara came to stand by his side and her fingers slid between his as they clasped hands.
He looked down at her before looking back at the chamber’s ceiling and the clearing clouds. Blue skies peeked out through the haze and the glare of a yellow sphere bathed them in its warm, shimmering glow.
‘Genesis,’ Kara said, awestruck.
Goodwin couldn’t prevent a smile from breaking through his depressive mask. ‘“And God said”,’ he whispered, drinking in the sight of the Anakim sun, ‘“let there … be light.”’
Chapter Sixty-Two
Blinding light and the rush of air died away to a pitch-black calm. The silence was deafening, but out of the quiet the sound of dripping water could be heard plip-plopping with an audible echo through a concealed space.
Sarah opened her eyes and groaned. The heat from her pendant faded to a dull ache and she reached out a hand in search of her friends. Pain-filled moments passed, but her fingers found nothing except a cold, flat surface.
Time had no meaning in the dark and Sarah’s consciousness slipped in … and then out … of existence. In with pain … and then back out with relief.
In this twilight state, strange images returned to haunt her and she drifted inside
the clutches of delirium.
♦
The sound of drip … drip … dripping water told Sarah she’d returned to her waking dream. She opened her sand-dry mouth to speak, but she could only manage to emit a faint croak of noise. I’m alive, was the first thought that worked its way into her battered psyche. By all rights, she shouldn’t have been. Before they’d activated the transportation device she’d been knocking, perhaps hammering, at death’s door. If even a hint of her body’s bioelectricity had been removed she would have died. So how, then, she thought, did I survive?
Perhaps you didn’t, said another voice inside her head. Perhaps you’re dead.
Sarah closed her eyes against the all-consuming dark. How can I be dead? I’m in too much pain.
Perhaps you’re in hell, said the voice, perhaps you’re destined to live an eternity alone in endless suffering.
The thought sent a shock of panic racing through her mind.
Where am I? The thought echoed through her head. WHERE AM I?!
The trickle of falling water continued to conduct its monotonous rhythm and Sarah felt herself slipping back into darkness.
Chapter Sixty-Three
‘Trish!’ Jason said. ‘Sarah! Where are you!?’
‘Where are you?’ said the distant echo. ‘Are you … you … you … you … ou … ou?’
Moving his head, Jason angled the torches on his Deep Reach helmet around the cave system he now occupied. He glanced back down at the stone platform on which he’d been deposited by the Anakim transportation device.
That the rectangular stone was not ceramic told him something was different. And that Sarah and Trish were nowhere to be seen, told him something had gone very, very wrong.
You’re alive, aren’t you? he asked himself. Surely that’s better than where you were? His response was swift: Not if I’m alone and trapped!
Bombarded by unwanted thoughts, Jason adjusted the visor on his helmet and approached the edge of the large square structure on which the platform sat. It was ten feet to the ground, so he lowered himself over the edge to hang down and let go.
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