Two more strips of pale light traced a pathway into the darkness and Sarah found herself passing row upon row of all manner of artefacts, their shrouded forms impossible to identify in the gloom.
The illuminated walkway ended, and Zinetti stopped and activated a series of floodlights, which lit up a sunken area forty feet wide. As Sarah’s eyes adjusted to the sudden radiance, her eyes grew wide at the sight before her.
‘You’ve seen something like this before, haven’t you?’ Avery said.
Sarah nodded and made to climb down into the rectangular pit.
‘Wait!’ Zinetti said. ‘You’ll contaminate the surface.’
Avery produced a pair of white cotton gloves and two similarly coloured overshoes from a pocket in his robe and handed them to her. ‘Then it’s just as well I came prepared, isn’t it?’
He gave Sarah a wink and she couldn’t help but conceal a smirk at Zinetti’s livid expression.
After she’d eased on the gloves and overshoes, she grasped Avery’s proffered hand and descended three feet, to the floor of the sunken area below.
She gazed down at the object, which gleamed darkly under the lights. She crouched down and touched the cracked surface. ‘Is it onyx?’
‘We believe it’s a compound of three materials we’ve yet to identify,’ Avery said. ‘We’re still carrying out tests.’
Sarah stood up and a wave of nausea made her grasp the edge of the pit.
‘Are you okay?’ Avery said.
She inhaled a deep breath. ‘I’m fine.’ She was damned if she was going to let them know she was suffering. I don’t need any drugs, she said to herself. I don’t need any. I’m fine. She steadied herself and took another slow breath, which calmed the trembling in her hands.
She turned back to the ancient frieze beneath her feet. The black sheen created a ripple effect as she gingerly walked along its edge. Sculpted forms of Anakim warriors carved in deep relief covered its lower half, while the background of a breaking ocean wave rose above them, topped by a starlit sky represented by an incredible array of diamonds.
Sarah reached down and traced the outline of an unknown script that flowed around its border. ‘Was this found at the site?’
‘Yes,’ Zinetti said, ‘it was shipped out just before we lost contact with the expedition.’
Sarah shivered. ‘The air’s cold down here.’
‘It’s to protect the collection,’ Avery said. ‘What do you think of it?’
‘The collection?’
‘The artefact.’
Sarah blinked, she was having trouble concentrating and the air was definitely getting colder, she could see her breath.
One of the floodlights flickered. The bulb buzzed and then popped, its blown filament dimming to a faint glow and throwing half the area into shadow. Sarah knelt down, feeling lightheaded.
‘Don’t kneel on the artefact!’ Zinetti said.
Sarah ignored him.
‘Her skin’s touching it,’ he said to Avery, ‘get her out!’
Sarah heard Avery say something, but she found herself staring at the flowing script as a powerful headache pulsed behind her eyes.
The ancient text wavered before her like running water. She reached out a shaky hand to touch the lettering, which seemed to move beneath her touch. ‘Can you see this?’ she said, her voice a whisper.
The ground swam beneath her and she grimaced in pain. ‘I can see it, I ... I can read it.’ The words made sense. She didn’t know how, or why, but she could see a single phrase among the meaningless symbols. She sank lower, her cheek pressed against the surface as she stroked the carving. Her eyes fluttered on the edge of vision, her breathing faltering. ‘I can see it,’ she whispered. ‘I can see it ... I can see ... heaven’s ... gate.’
The sound of someone dropping down behind her was the last thing she remembered, as her body twisted into spasm and all became dark.
Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
‘Miss Morgan?’
A hand shook her shoulder. ‘Miss Morgan, can you hear me?’
A thumb lifted her eyelid and a bright light blinded her.
She pushed away the offending hand and struggled to rise, but someone pushed her back down.
‘You need to rest, Sarah,’ said a familiar Irish voice. ‘You’ve had a seizure.’
‘Avery?’
‘Yes, I’m here.’
Sarah opened her eyes, blinked a few times, and focused on the faces around her.
Avery Cantrell and Zinetti stood at the end of her bed, the former now wearing the red cassock of a Vatican cardinal. Another red robed prelate stood just behind them: Cardinal Dolmante. He was the elderly cardinal she thought she knew, and a man who’d made his feelings for her perfectly clear. Dolmante’s eyes narrowed as she looked at him. He looked away and whispered a few words to Avery and Zinetti, and then left through a large oak door.
Sarah took in the surroundings of her private room in what she assumed was the Vatican’s hospital wing. A doctor lifted her wrist to check her pulse. There was no sign of Ruben.
The physician noted something down on a chart and said something to the two cardinals, before turning back to Sarah.
‘You’re suffering from withdrawal,’ he said. ‘The drugs given you by the GMRC, whatever they were, have rendered you dependent. The fit you experienced was a result of your body reacting to it as it left your system. I’ve given you a powerful tranquiliser to take the edge off, although I fear you’ll need an extended course to help you through the side effects you’re experiencing, which I imagine include pain in your extremities, headaches, visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting and tremors. The seizure you experienced was a culmination of these withdrawal indicators.’ The doctor glanced at Avery and then looked back at Sarah, his face turning grave. ‘Without anything to stop them, the seizures will worsen and you could go into cataphylactic shock and die.’
Sarah’s heart beat faster at the thought.
‘To prevent this,’ he said, ‘you’ll need to be weaned off your dependency. I’ve left a treatment plan and a supply of drugs with Cardinal Cantrell, who can help you transition into self-administering the doses when he deems you capable.’
Scared, and angry at being so vulnerable, Sarah gave a nod of her head in acknowledgement and the doctor left her alone in the recovery room with the two churchmen.
‘It seems you’ll be relying on us for some time to come, Miss Morgan,’ Zinetti said.
Sarah lifted her head from its position of rest to look from Avery to Zinetti, their clerical attire doing little to ease her suffering.
She slumped back onto her pillow, stared up at the ceiling and heaved a sigh.
♦
‘“Heaven’s gate”, that’s what I said?’
Avery nodded.
‘I don’t remember anything after the floodlight going out and my vision going funny.’
‘Try harder,’ Zinetti said angrily.
‘Getting annoyed at her won’t help,’ Avery told him.
Sarah had been out of bed for an hour and was now clothed in loose-fitting black trousers and a blouse. She’d already come to terms with her newfound frailty by accepting it without condition. If she wasn’t used to being unable to control her life by now, after all that had happened over the last few years, she didn’t know when she would be. She sat down on the edge of her bed and rubbed her eyes. ‘What do you think it means?’
Zinetti glanced at Avery. ‘We have no idea, which is why you need to remember.’
‘I can’t remember what I can’t remember.’
The Italian cardinal muttered something in Latin, which elicited a look of disapproval from his Irish counterpart.
‘Why are you so bothered anyway? I was hallucinating. It could mean anything.’
‘Because, child,’ Zinetti said, his tone condescending, ‘we have no record of such a phrase from your records.’
‘Plus, we know “Heaven’s Gate” was mentioned in some files we m
anaged to acquire from Dagmar Sorensen’s laboratory.’
‘And let me guess, they didn’t know what it meant either?’
Avery shook his head.
Sarah thought for a moment and then looked at Zinetti. ‘Hang on. You have records on me?’
The Italian cardinal adjusted his red skullcap and smoothed down his similarly coloured robe. ‘We have records on many people.’
‘No, I don’t think so.’ Sarah stood up. ‘It’s more than that, isn’t it? Those questions your conclave asked me, you knew all the answers already, didn’t you?’
‘Did we know your answers to Sorensen’s questions?’ Zinetti said. ‘Yes, but it’s always helpful to hear it first-hand, especially for those of us who needed further convincing.’
‘So the questions you asked me were for their benefit?’
‘And to test your resolve,’ Zinetti said. ‘We know you loathe us, Miss Morgan, and in your mind, perhaps, with good reason, but things are not always as they seem and you’d do well to realise not everything is black and white, but an infinite shade of grey.’
‘Except the light,’ Sarah said. ‘Except God.’
Zinetti waved away her assertion as if it meant nothing, making her wonder if he really believed what he preached, or just used it as a means to an end.
I should have known they were testing me, she thought. Has my pain made me that distracted? She hoped not, although when she allowed herself to look at her reality with the cold eyes of truth, she saw how fruitless her life had become: devoid of any joy since Riley’s death, a death which was due to her own selfish pursuit of the truth and a desire for justice. Even now, when Avery offered her a chance to dig into the heart of the organisation she’d always blamed for all her woes, she found herself wondering why. He wouldn’t offer it if he thought they were guilty, would he? Doubtful, she thought. And how can I trust anything they find, anyway? He said it would be independent, but how independent can an enquiry be into an order whose upper echelons operate behind closed doors?
She also knew anything she found out about Homo gigantis would be swept under the carpet quicker than she could blink.
‘So,’ she said, ‘now you know my condition, do you still want me to help you find your missing expedition?’
‘That’s not why we need your help,’ Zinetti said.
‘I thought—’
‘You thought wrong.’
Sarah looked at the two older men before her. ‘Then what do you need me for?’
Zinetti looked down his nose at her. ‘There’s something else we didn’t tell you. Something contained in the scroll.’
‘Why does that not surprise me?’
‘We would have told you, Sarah,’ Avery said, ‘but your seizure interrupted our plans.’
The door to the recovery room opened and Ruben entered, holding a large book.
Zinetti took it from him and placed it on the bed. ‘The scroll speaks of a map located at the City of Naphil.’
‘The City of Giants,’ Sarah said.
‘Indeed. It says this map is part of a larger design made of black glass and decorated with gemstones and the forms of man.’
‘You think the frieze you showed me is part of this map?’
Zinetti nodded and opened the book, which was an atlas of the world. ‘The scroll also says that this map leads to a place called “Aghartisia”, or perhaps you know it in its shortened form—’
‘Agharti,’ Sarah said. ‘The Buddhist myth? The subterranean kingdom?’
‘Yes.’
Sarah shook her head in disbelief. ‘The myth behind the legend of Agartha. The lost city at the centre of the Earth?’
‘It appears, in this instance, that legend and myth might be based more on fact than fiction.’
‘Then it can only mean one thing,’ Sarah said. ‘It’s a map leading to Sanctuary.’
‘The scroll is quite specific,’ Avery said. ‘Adam travelled through what is now the Middle East and into Asia, which means Aghartisia is located somewhere beneath the Eurasian landmass, not the Americas.’
‘Then you mean—’
‘It doesn’t refer to Sanctuary at all.’ Avery took a step towards her. ‘There’s another underground world hidden beneath our feet, Sarah, out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered.’
‘Another Sanctuary?’ Sarah’s mind reeled at the prospect.
‘Yes,’ Avery said, ‘and we want you to help us find it. The Americans think they have it all: Sanctuary, their precious God Device. All of which they stumbled upon with blind luck.’
‘We need you, Miss Morgan,’ Zinetti said. ‘Outside of Sanctuary itself, you are the foremost expert in Anakim exploration.’
Avery pointed to the atlas. ‘We don’t just want you to help us locate this new world; we want you to lead the expedition itself.’
Shocked, Sarah shook her head. ‘No, why would you want me to lead? It makes no sense; I despise everything you stand for.’
‘You don’t despise everything we stand for, Sarah,’ Avery said. ‘You said it yourself, you have faith, you believe in God’s will. We have more in common than you would care to believe.’
‘And your independence provides an outside perspective,’ Zinetti said, begrudgingly.
Avery nodded. ‘Plus, your desire to discover all things Anakim means you will leave no stone unturned in your quest.’
‘You’re both forgetting two things,’ Sarah said, as she caught Ruben glaring at her.
‘And what are they?’ Zinetti said.
Sarah dragged her gaze away from the monk and looked at the cardinals. ‘One, hell will freeze over before I help the Vatican, and two,’ – she walked over to the room’s door and opened it – ‘you think I give a damn.’
The oak door slammed closed behind her and the three men were left standing looking at it, their carefully laid plans in ruins – the silence in the room complete. If there was to be a second expedition, it would be without the person they needed more than any other, it would be without Sarah Morgan.
Chapter One Hundred Sixteen
‘Miss Morgan, wait!’
Sarah strode down a vast hallway, looking for the quickest way out of Vatican City.
‘Sarah,’ Avery said, hurrying to catch up, ‘wait, please!’
Two Swiss guards used their pikes to bar a doorway ahead of her and she turned right into another corridor.
A powerful hand grasped her arm.
Sarah swung round and slapped Ruben round the face.
He didn’t flinch, but released his hold.
‘Sarah, let me explain,’ Avery said.
Sarah glared at Ruben and then looked at Avery, as Zinetti rejoined them.
‘There is nothing to explain,’ Sarah said. ‘You’ve said your piece. I’ve told you to go to hell. What else is there?’
‘You can’t survive without your medication,’ Zinetti said, holding up the pouch previously given to Avery by the doctor.
Sarah looked at the Italian in contempt. ‘So you’d blackmail me?’ She turned to Avery. ‘That’s what’s left to explain?’
Avery shook his head, snatched the drugs from Zinetti and handed them to her. ‘You can have your drugs—’
Sarah grasped the pouch and walked away.
‘—but your friends will be disappointed if you don’t join them!’
Sarah slowed her pace, stopped, and then turned around.
Ten paces away Avery remained where he was, his expression hopeful.
‘What did you just say?’
‘I said your friends will be disappointed if you don’t join them.’
Sarah’s heart skipped a beat. ‘My friends?’
‘They are being flown in to the staging area as we speak, you’ll be able to see them as soon as you arrive.’
‘What friends?’ she said, trying to stay calm.
‘I believe you know them as Trish Brook and Jason Reece.’
‘Trish and Jason?’ Sarah wiped at her eyes, which brim
med with emotion.
Avery smiled. ‘They’ll be pleased to see you.’
Sarah’s expression turned grim. ‘More blackmail? What have you done to them?’
‘We’ve done nothing. They’re fit and well. I thought you would be pleased,’ Avery said, looking downcast. ‘It wasn’t easy smuggling them out of Mexico. The GMRC are everywhere.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘Believe what you will,’ Zinetti said, getting angry.
‘They’re looking forward to seeing you,’ Avery said.
‘Why didn’t you bring them here?’
‘Because Italy isn’t immune to the GMRC’s control. It was easier to take them direct to the meeting point.’
Sarah wanted to believe him. She wanted to see her friends more than anything. Even hearing their names made her feel safer. She would do anything to see them again, but to do so she would have to help – and put her trust in – those who she hated the most.
‘There’s something else,’ Avery said, seeing her indecision. ‘Something you might not have had time to consider.’
Sarah looked at him, her mind in turmoil.
‘Have you considered the possibility,’ he said, ‘that unlike Sanctuary, this new underground world might not be a barren wasteland?’
Sarah focused on him. ‘What?’
‘Sanctuary has been abandoned for millennia, everyone knows this. But Agartha has never been found, let alone explored. Who knows what secrets lie within?’
‘You think the Anakim didn’t die out at all,’ Sarah said, ‘you think they’re still down there, living out their lives permanently cut off from the outside world?’
Avery walked to an exquisite map of the globe painted onto a nearby wall. ‘That’s the beauty of the question, isn’t it?’ He placed his hand on the Asian continent, his eyes alight with excitement. ‘Don’t you want to find out? Don’t you want to know?’ He held out his hand to her imploringly. ‘Come with us, Sarah—’
She took an involuntary step forward.
‘—come with us ... and together, we’ll change the world.’
Chapter One Hundred Seventeen
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 61
