The Malta Escape

by Chris Kuzneski

  Payne doubted they would, but he preferred to take precautions.

  With gloves on his hands and a pack of equipment strapped to his back, Payne climbed through the opening and began his descent into the world underneath Valletta. Metal steps attached to the inner wall led him to the walkway below, where he picked up the glow stick and used it to examine his immediate surroundings.

  As expected, he was in the middle of a long utility tunnel with a slightly arched ceiling that ran north and south for as far as his eyes could see. Roughly ten feet in height and six feet in width, the corridor had several utility lines mounted to the ceiling above, along with motion-activated lights every thirty feet or so. Once their eyes adjusted to the gloom, there would be no need for flashlights for this part of their journey.

  “We’re clear,” Payne whispered up to his team.

  Jarkko went next, followed by Ulster, Marissa, and then Jones. All of them carried equipment on their backs except the rotund historian, who could barely squeeze through the tight entry shaft and struggled to climb down to Payne. Once they were all safely at the bottom, Galea put the manhole cover back into place, sealing them into the tunnel system before he drove away.

  No sense drawing extra attention to their point of entry.

  Payne glanced at his team. “Everyone good?”

  Ulster smiled. “Winded, but enthused!”

  Marissa placed her hand on his back. “If you need a break, please let us know.”

  Jones pointed at Payne. “That goes doubly for you. If you start to get hungry, please get something to eat. The last thing we need is for you to hulk out in a tunnel. You could bring down an entire city like Sokovia. The Avengers are still taking heat over that.”

  Jarkko laughed. “Jarkko has been to Sokovia. Beautiful women!”

  Marissa whispered to Ulster. “Where in the world is Sokovia?”

  Ulster whispered back. “What’s an Avenger?”

  Payne ignored their banter as he pulled out his phone.

  Prior to leaving the yacht, Jones had uploaded very precise GPS data to their devices that would reveal where they were in relation to the secret tunnel system designed by Cassar. The corridor they were standing in ran extremely close to the ancient system, nearly breaching it in more than one location. Payne’s plan was to walk in the comfort of the maintenance shaft until they reached one of those points, specifically the one underneath St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral.

  That is where he hoped to cross over to the older tunnels.

  “Quiet,” Payne whispered as he wrote EXIT on the wall with a piece of white chalk to mark the shaft in case anyone got lost or separated. “I know everyone’s excited, but we’re currently trespassing down here. The less we talk, the better.”

  The team quieted down as they fell in line behind Payne, who turned north and walked toward the substructure of the church. He shifted his gaze between the corridor and his phone as digital blips kept him in tune with the ancient tunnel that ran near the modern one. They walked over fifty feet before Payne started to slow down. According to their calculations, they were getting close to the spot where they had planned to punch through the concrete.

  He walked a few more feet before he stopped.

  “Okay,” he said as he turned to his right and made a mark on the wall. “If our calculations are correct, ‘X’ marks the spot. Cassar’s tunnel system is right through there. Unfortunately, to find out if we’re actually correct, we need to break a few more laws.”

  “Several,” Jones stressed. “And the local cops are already pissed at us.”

  Payne nodded. “So now is your last chance to back out. Because once I start busting through this wall, our culpability goes to a whole different level.”

  Jarkko grinned. “Jarkko is staying.”

  Ulster smiled. “So is Petr.”

  Marissa nodded. “And Marissa.”

  Jones shrugged. “I’m screwed either way. If the cops see me out at this time of night, they’re gonna shoot me on sight. So I might as well stick around for the fun.”

  Payne laughed as he pulled the pack off of his back. Although it was stuffed with an assortment of small digging tools (designed for archaeological fieldwork), it did not contain any sledgehammers or explosives. Instead, he planned to bust through the wall using a tiny device that was built by Payne Industries for the U.S. military.

  Nicknamed the magic wand in honor of Payne’s love of magic, the sonic baton came in a wide variety of sizes. Some were as small as a penlight. Others were as large as a car. But the physics involved was still the same. The device produced a high-frequency sonic pulse that turned solid rock into rubble without the scorching or blast radius of an explosive.

  The prototype in Payne’s bag—which was the only one at the Payne Industries facility in Rome—looked remarkably similar to a cordless drill, so much so that Jarkko started to laugh when Payne took it out of its case.

  “Jarkko is confused. How we break through wall with drill? We should have brought hammer instead. Jarkko is strong like rhinoceristus. No, like rhinopocaurus. Like rynoseripitis. Shit! Jarkko can’t pronounce word, so Jarkko strong like bear.”

  Jones patted him on the shoulder. “You almost had it.”

  Jarkko shrugged. “How you say word?”

  “Rhinoceros.”

  “Rhynesitus? Shit! Jarkko stick with bear.”

  Payne laughed as he held up the device. “I know this doesn’t look like much, but it’s actually much better than a sledgehammer. Have you ever seen the spring-loaded batons that firemen use? The ones that puncture safety glass to rescue accident victims? Well, this works in a similar way, only it uses a sonic pulse instead of a steel tip.”

  Jones was fully aware of the device’s capabilities. “Back when Jon and I were in the military, we were constantly under threat of mortar fire. I can’t tell you how many times we came upon a village and found people trapped underneath fallen roofs. Unfortunately, it was impractical to haul around a forty-pound hammer when you’re doing recon, plus the last thing you want to do in that scenario is to start pounding debris on top of the wounded.”

  “So when I left the military,” Payne explained, “I tasked the engineers at Payne Industries to come up with a lightweight device that soldiers could carry in the field that could cleanly cut through stone. It took several years of research, but they finally got it right about a year ago. This thing is truly amazing.”

  Marissa glanced at the wall. “What kind of damage will it do to the other side?”

  “Unlike explosives, this will be a precise cut. That’s one of the reasons that I brought the chalk. I’ll let you historians draw on the wall, then I’ll follow your lines. Depending on the depth of the wall, this process may take a few hours, but when we’re done, we’ll be able to push the concrete slab to the other side. It might literally weigh a ton or two, but thankfully one of us is strong like a rhinoceristus. I mean, bear.”

  After a brief discussion, Marissa and Ulster decided to draw a full-sized door on the wall. They figured if they had, in fact, managed to locate Cassar’s tunnel system that their passageway would be used by thousands of people in the coming years. But before they did any major cutting, they wanted Payne to puncture through to the other side to view and record the ancient tunnel with a video borescope, a flexible fiber-optic cable with an embedded chip that relayed images to a monitor/recording device. Not only would this allow the team to see if they had found what they were looking for, but more importantly, it would prevent them from cutting a massive door through something of historical importance.

  In order to puncture through the thick wall of concrete, Payne first had to cut a notch that was wide enough for the tool and his extended arm. They settled on an eighteen-inch square at shoulder height along the left side of the chalked door. Ulster marked it with precision as Payne put on a pair of safety glasses and an industrial dust mask. Marissa recorded everything on a 4K video camera while Jones turned on a few LED lanterns for the p
roper lighting. Although they realized the recording could be used against them in a court of law, they were willing to take the risk. Ulster promised if they found anything of value, he would be sure to upload it to the Archives’ video cloud once it was fully operational.

  Or, more accurately, have his butler do it for him.

  Unsure of what to expect, the group took a few steps back when Payne turned on the device, but the magic wand barely made a sound. He brought the tip of the device to the top-left corner of the small, chalked square then watched as concrete seemed to melt away.

  No messy fragmentation.

  No shards flying around the tunnel.

  Merely dust, falling to the ground like leaves from a dying tree.

  “Good heavens,” Ulster said as he took a step closer to investigate. He wore glasses in his everyday life, so he wasn’t concerned about debris. “That device is truly amazing.”

  Payne stopped for a moment. “I believe I stated that earlier.”

  Ulster nodded. “Well, I officially concur.”

  Payne glanced back at him. “I can build you one if you’d like. I may not be the boss anymore, but I still think I have a few connections at Payne Industries.”

  Marissa cleared her throat. “If you’re giving them away, I’d like one, too.”

  Payne smiled at her. “How about this? The two of you can share a single device. I think it would do both of you good to see each other more often, and this will be a great excuse. Consider it joint custody.”

  Marissa put her arm around Ulster’s shoulders. “Works for me.”

  Ulster nodded. “Me, too.”

  Jones rolled his eyes. “Call me crazy, but maybe we should save the Hallmark moments until after we make a discovery. While you two are hugging it up, I’m back here sweating bullets. You know damn well if we go to trial, I’m the only one who’s going to see jail time.”

  Payne laughed. “Inmate zero-three-two-five-four-zero is correct. I need to get back to work, but the truth is I actually stopped for a reason. I need Marissa’s help with something.”

  She stepped forward. “With what?”

  Payne pointed at the notch. “I need your help with all this dust. Inside your pack is a portable vacuum. There should also be safety goggles and another mask. It will save a lot of time if you can keep sucking up this mess as I create it, like a dental hygienist in a dentist’s office.”

  “Yuck,” she said as she reached into her bag for the portable vacuum. “Can you imagine flossing other people’s teeth all day?”

  “Shut up!” Jones blurted from behind. “Seriously, just stop it!”

  Marissa froze, unsure what had set him off.

  Payne touched her arm and whispered. “DJ hates the dentist. Totally freaks him out. He would rather walk through a field of landmines than get his teeth cleaned. I used to mess with him on purpose, but it simply isn’t worth it. I’m talking PTSD-level anxiety.”

  Jones shook his head. “Come on, man! Quit your damn whispering and get back to work, or else Jarkko and I are going to shoot through the concrete with our guns.”

  “Sorry,” Payne said. “Just showing Marissa what to do.”

  “David,” she said as she turned around. “While I’m doing this, would you mind filming our work? I don’t want to miss a thing.”

  Jones nodded. “My hands are shaking, but I’ll do my best.”

  Jarkko frowned. “Does this mean no guns?”

  Payne’s speed increased significantly with Marissa’s help. Instead of stopping every thirty seconds to clear away dust and debris, Payne maintained a constant pace until he made it through the concrete tunnel and hit the limestone behind it. According to their calculations, he had roughly six more inches to go until he would hit the ancient tunnel system designed by Cassar.

  Then five inches. Then four.

  Then three. Then two. Then one.

  Then limestone. And even more limestone.

  Which is when the group started to get worried.

  Because of the extra depth of the shaft, Payne found it more and more difficult to reach into the eighteen-inch notch that he had originally created. Marissa was no longer able to work beside him because he had to twist sideways and shove his entire shoulder into the hole in order to drill deeper, so she took the camera back from Jones and filmed Payne as he struggled to work.

  Behind him, Ulster, Jones, and Jarkko started to discuss secondary plans. Either they could increase the size of Payne’s workspace—which would allow him to drill deeper into their current spot—or they could locate the other parts of the utility corridor that nearly intersected with the ancient tunnels and opt to drill there. The three of them were in the middle of deciding what to do when they heard a muffled pop. They quickly turned to see what had happened and saw Payne pull his arm out of the notch before he removed his goggles and mask.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said directly into the camera, “we have just breached the secret tunnel of the Knights of Malta.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

  Despite Payne’s proclamation, they wouldn’t be sure of what they had found until they used the video borescope to view what was on the other side of the wall.

  Covered in a fine layer of concrete, Payne dusted himself off, then quenched his thirst with a bottle of water while Jones readied the equipment. He had used similar devices in the military when the MANIACs were entering guarded compounds, rescuing hostages, and/or searching for IEDs, but technology had advanced at such an incredible rate that this modern iteration put the old ones to shame. Not only would they get high-definition images, but with a proper computer network, he could have literally streamed the incoming video to everyone’s phone.

  But in the depths of the tunnel, the team would have to crowd around the wired 10-inch touchscreen while Jones fed the flexible optic tube through the tiny hole that Payne had punctured in the inner wall. The moment Payne had heard the pop, he had stopped drilling at once and had pulled his arm out of the workspace. Then with a flashlight, he had visually inspected the hole on the far side of the notch and realized that he had definitely pierced a chasm of some kind. They assumed it was the tunnel system that they were looking for, but this would be the moment of truth.

  Jones stared into the notch. “What did you do with the glow stick?”

  Payne glanced at him. “It’s in my pack. Why?”

  Jones held up the camera end of the borescope. “There’s a small lamp on the end of this tube. It’s more than adequate to light a few feet, but it’s not bright enough to fill a tunnel. I think the hole you drilled is wide enough for you to slip the glow stick through.”

  “Good idea,” Payne said as he bent down to retrieve the fluorescent tube. “Any objections from the historians?”

  Marissa answered as she continued to film the proceedings. “None from me. As far as I’m concerned, the more light in there, the better.”

  Ulster agreed. “As long as we dispose of it once we’re through, I have no objections at all. I don’t want to step on it and soil the tunnel floor with luminescent green.”

  “Dispose of it?” Jones said with a laugh. “I’m gonna sell that thing to the highest bidder. After all, it will be the first object inside the tunnel in two hundred years.”

  “Here it is,” Payne said as he tried to hand it to Jones.

  Jones just stared back at him. “What am I supposed to do with that?”

  “You just said you wanted the glow stick for the tunnel!”

  “Dude,” he said. “Look at your monkey arms, then look at my normal arms. Do you really think I can reach the hole on the far side of that notch?”

  Jarkko spoke up. “Jarkko has body part that can reach any hole.”

  Marissa groaned. “Come on, Jarkko! I’m filming this!”

  Jarkko shrugged. “Wouldn’t be first time Jarkko is filmed.”

  Payne rolled his eyes. Now he knew why Galea had given him such a hard time about the makeup of his team. “She’s right, Jarkko.
We’re filming this for posterity, so please watch what you say. And DJ, there’s no need for insults. You should’ve just asked me to do it.”

  Jones pointed at the camera. “Rewind the damn tape. I did ask you to do it! I said the hole is wide enough for you to slip the glow stick through.”

  “Move,” Payne said as he bumped Jones out of the way. “And for the record, there’s no ‘tape’ inside Marissa’s camera. It is strictly a digital device.”

  “I know that, Jon. It was merely a figure of speech.”

  Marissa whispered to Ulster. “Do they always bicker like this?”

  Ulster grinned. “They do, and I love it!”

  With the glow stick tucked in his fingertips, Payne stuck his hand into the notch and stretched his arm as far as he could. In order to reach the hole on the far side, Payne had to twist his body and put his right cheek against the rough texture of the concrete tunnel as he maneuvered blindly in the void. It took a few tries before he was able to line up the tip of the glow stick with the unseen hole and finally push it through. But it was definitely worth the effort. Once he pulled his arm out of the notch, the hole glowed neon green.

  Getting even for the earlier bump, Jones shoved his best friend out of the way in order to work the borescope. First he fed the black optical tube through the notch with his hands until the camera tip was near the hole. Then he used the touchscreen to control the unit.

  Inside the tube was a series of high-tech mechanical fibers that allowed him to control the articulation of the device. By sliding his fingers across the screen, he could rotate the camera in any direction. He could also sharpen the camera’s focus or change the brightness of the light. With his left hand, he snaked the tube forward, and with his right, he used the touchscreen to raise the tip of the camera until it practically crawled through the hole.

  “I’m in,” Jones said as the team crowded behind him to look at the screen.

  Expecting to find nothing but an ancient tunnel, they jumped back in fright when they saw a green specter dancing in the chasm. Jarkko screamed and leapt back so far that he practically knocked over Ulster and the work lights behind them. All of them breathed a huge sigh of relief when they realized the apparition was merely a product of the limestone dust floating in the stale air and the light from the fluorescent green glow stick.