The Labyrinth Key

by Christopher Cartwright

  He was crazy.

  Sam jumped when his back hit the wall. He let out a little sob of a sigh and craned his gaze up. Still nothing. As far back as he could go, and he still couldn’t see.

  He made his way across the cavern until he was standing just under the pedestal. He reached up, but it was just as he’d thought- he was too short to reach. He wasn’t entirely sure he had the strength to pull himself up. Better not risk it.

  He glanced at Ethan. “Give me a boost?”

  After a moment the younger man crouched and braced his hands. Sam steadied himself on the already steady palms and before he could say if he was ready or not, he was rising through the air. He clutched the top of the platform when he could, peering up over the obsidian column.

  Damn.

  “See anything?” Ethan called from below.

  Sam struggled to pull his flashlight from his pocket and shone it over the surface just to make sure. Then he felt with his free hand. Carvings, yes. But…he went over it to make sure.

  Nothing. No wonder he couldn’t see what was on top. There was nothing on top.

  “Come on!”

  Ethan lowered him back down and Sam dusted his hands on his pants as, deep down, his heart sank. He hadn’t ever expected it to be that easy to find the keys, but seeing the empty platform made it real. He took a deep breath. He couldn’t let it get to him.

  Ethan raised his brows. “Well? Did you get it?”

  Sam looked at him. “You were down here alone. How did you get up there? WHY did you go up there?”

  The two men looked at each other and Sam thought of his father, trying to catch him in a lie as a little boy. “Ethan,” he said. “When you came down here the first time, you’re sure the key was here?”

  Ethan blinked, looking truly startled. “Yeah, right up on that platform. Did you get it?”

  “No.” Sam watched Ethan closely and wasn’t surprised when the man laughed.

  “Well, now I know why we came along.” He pushed his sleeves up. “Min!” He called. “Give me a minute…”

  “It’s gone.” Sam kept his tone low and steady, but not unpleasant. He furrowed his brows.

  Ethan stalled, mid-call. “What? No way. It was right here a couple of weeks ago.” Ethan bounded over to the platform, and, easy as breathing, crouched, then surged up in an impressive leap that took him to the top of the platform effortlessly. He hung there with his Marine-toughened arms and legs dangling, searching. Sam had a twinge of hope that Ethan would find something, crushed as Ethan lowered himself back down with a look of disappointment.

  And yet, Sam’s years of experience sensed something was off; instincts and intuition could be misinterpreted, but never wrong. But before Sam had any time to flesh his thoughts out, Ethan reacted with a glare, then looked around.

  “It was right here, I promise. I don’t-”

  “It’s fine.” Sam scowled, running a hand through his hair. Though Ethan wasn’t the reason the key was gone, he felt disappointed in the SEAL but showed restraint in showing it. “Sorry I wasted your time.”

  There it was again, that ‘off’ look. It was gone so fast Sam wondered if he’d imagined it in the dark.

  Sam shrugged as the SEALs muffled their grumbles, remaining professional and climbed their way back topside. Ethan watched them go. “What’s next?”

  Sam sighed, watching their ascent. “Now, I have to go back to Washington.” He turned his full-on gaze toward Ethan, and they stood, regarding each other with pure military-born stoicism. “And tell the secretary of defense that someone beat us to it.”

  Chapter Forty

  Pentagon, Virginia

  Sam sat, hunched over his laptop on his desk for the first time in what felt like years. Maybe it had been years, considering all his recent memories were of life-threatening journeys and explorations around the globe. Now it was like he was just another nine-to-five office worker, same as everyone else.

  It was weird.

  Sam rubbed his temples gingerly. The headache of the situation at Palmyra was wearing him down. He could feel his own exhaustion in his bones, starting with the dull ache at the small of his back and crescendoing to waves of pain spiking his neck and skull. He didn’t know if it was the jet lag, the helicopter, the tension of imminent death, or the potential release of massively classified secrets, but he was in a bad way.

  For a moment he stared at the screen, trying to get a grip on himself as the screen wavered before eyes that were on the verge of tears from exhaustion.

  Maybe I should stop. I’ve looked at nearly everything, he thought, but he knew that he couldn’t quit. He’d pulled some strings both stateside and in the Middle East and one of his military contacts had gotten Ethan’s helmet footage from the day of the attack. It was likely grasping for straws, but Sam had a hunch and he couldn’t leave any stones unturned. Sure, Ethan hadn’t explicitly given Sam permission to look through the footage; in fact, judging from the depths of which his contact had pulled the reel, the SEAL looked like he was trying to hide it.

  Sam tapped some more keys with a little more vigor. No worries. If Ethan thought that his contacts with the military were better than Sam’s, he had another thing coming. Sam could summon the authority and clearance to snatch one of those chaotic helicopter rides, hopping from airport to airport in the Middle East, in his sleep.

  Sleep.

  Sam rubbed his temples and pushed away the thought, glancing around the sterile space. It was business as usual in the Pentagon: Printers hummed constantly and employees murmured and laughed, except the printed papers were likely top-secret and those workers probably needed a high security clearance to even talk about anything here. He still couldn’t wrap his head around how casual it was.

  Better not to think about it. Putting it out of his mind, Sam connected the hard drive into his laptop. The screen with the Pentagon logo faded out into a green background asking for user credentials. He entered the decryption key, then waited as the machine whirred to life. He opened the file and began to watch.

  The video started as the team was in the middle of a desert. The camera was faced at two helmet-wearing SEALs in some kind of vehicle, but it was too shaky to identify exactly whom. Sam assumed they were the same ones that escorted him into the caves. Then the camera lurched and there was a confusion of light and dark, followed by an abrupt shift as all of them suddenly piled out of the truck and ran outside.

  Bright light, chaos of sand, greenery and sky. Figures almost indiscernible in the distance, concealed behind shrubbery and stones. Ethan threw a smoke grenade into the desert in the insurgents’ direction, presumably. Running under the bullets whizzing over his head, Ethan sprinted into the valley that Sam had been in only a few days before. As expected, the leader ushered his team inside the cave, then ducked in himself, making sure to cover the entrance with the bush. Even in a firefight, Ethan kept his wits about him. Impressive.

  Sam kept his eyes trained on the screen as he leaned over and reached into his backpack to pull out a pair of earbuds; he never knew if any sort of clue might come up in audio form.

  He fit them in his ears and had to admit it was going as expected. So far, Ethan’s story checked out.

  The screen now showed Ethan carefully making sure no one in the team had any severe injuries. The SEALs discussed what to do, eventually settling on going deeper inside the cave.

  Yes, it was a military operation and insurgents could arrive at any moment, but Sam was starting to get impatient. He grabbed a bobble head of the President off the desk and started twisting it as he skipped forward in the video. Whose desk was this, even? All he had done was make a couple calls and he had been escorted here. Hopefully they hadn’t kicked some intern off his workplace so Sam could stress out about some dumb keys.

  Guiltily, Sam found the controls and continued to fast forwarded until he came to the part where Ethan and the team nearly fell down the hole. Then Sam slowed the video down to regular speed. Nothing at all. H
e leaned back in the office chair.

  The video looked around the room as Ethan’s head pivoted, then showed the SEAL walking toward the map on the wall.

  Sam twisted the bobble head vengefully. The spring started to stretch.

  Ethan surveyed the map then strode around the massive podium made of obsidian. Ethan said something to his mates that Sam couldn’t make out, limbered up. Something about nervous energy, he thought.

  Ethan made the same impressive leap. The first time, he missed.

  Sam watched with increasing admiration as Ethan struggled up the pillar. No wonder the key had remained safe all these years, he thought. There’d never been a goddamn Navy SEAL going after it before.

  Ethan hauled himself all the way up, muscles bulging. Clearly, he was stronger than Sam. He stood on the top of the stone pillar and surveyed the chamber. Then he bent and swiped at the top of it.

  From the camera angle it was hard to see, but Sam thought he picked something up…?

  A shout from the team and Ethan stood in a rush, as if embarrassed at being caught horsing around.

  Ethan dropped back to the ground, but he didn’t seem victorious. Sam shook his head in disappointment.

  The cam’s footage turned around as Ethan started to walk back toward the team, but Sam caught something on the screen. Wait, what was that? Sam rewound the footage and skipped back to where Ethan had hit the ground. As Ethan crouched, just before he got to his feet, Sam paused the video.

  Sam couldn’t believe it. Didn’t want to believe it.

  Ethan’s hand was clearly inside his jacket pocket.

  And just before that…

  Sam went back five seconds and then inched forward frame by frame by pressing the right arrow button. It wasn’t easy to see, but there was definitely something gripped in Ethan’s hand.

  Sam replayed back the entire minute of footage where Ethan had clambered to the top of the pillar, on the pillar, then his entire journey back down.

  By the time Ethan hit the ground again there was no doubt in Sam’s mind.

  He rocked back in his chair, dumbfounded.

  Ethan had the key.

  Sam could feel his pulse quickening. Why would Ethan let it play out this way?

  Even before he could ask, he knew the answer, no matter how much he wanted to ignore it.

  Sam shook his head. No. There was no way Ethan was working for... them. Before he had called the soldier up for any information the man had about the entire case, he had done a small background check. Everything appeared normal.

  Normal at first, his mind supplied. Remember, the SEAL had refused a more extensive background check for supposed ‘government reasons.’

  Sam grabbed the desk phone. He dialed quickly, his fingers trembling over the keypad.

  He put the phone to his ear. The screen read: Forensics.

  “Yeah, hello? I need a team. Yes. No, no, I’m a guest here, so I should—” He broke off and listened. His brows went up. “An appointment? I need an appointment? Sir, I’m the guest of the sec—” Sam grit his teeth. “Seven days? Sir, perhaps you don’t understand. I’m—” Sam slapped the desk with his free hand so hard it hurt. “I’m sorry, sir. You either schedule me for this meeting immediately or I get off this phone and the next call I make will be directly to the secretary of defense herself, and you don’t want to know who she’ll dial next.” He waited, breathing hard, locked on the frozen image of Ethan on the screen. “Yes. I’ll hold.”

  He slammed the phone down and shook his head. Bureaucracy never changes. He shouldn’t let himself get angry. Emotions clouded judgment and that was the last thing he could afford.

  The green light beeped. Sam picked up the phone and pressed the button. “Yes.” Stammering on the other end. “Conference room D? Ten minutes. Yes, I’ll be there. Thank you very much for your help.”

  He hung up. Then he made another call. It was over quickly.

  Picking up his laptop, he walked with haste to the conference room. He was pleased when he was greeted by the sight of a full forensics team, prepped and ready by the time he’d opened the door. People called the government inefficient, but it was highly efficient when it was needed to be.

  “Hello, gentlemen. And lady.” Sam announced, motioning at the lone woman. “I need consultation on some helmet footage. The file is closed to all, but analysis would still be possible without context. The file is being downloaded to all of your computers now.”

  As if on cue, the analysts’ computers started pinging with the notification of a download. Sam had timed the download before his entrance and had done so to add a bit of dramatic flair. They seemed unimpressed. He continued.

  “The footage is from a SEAL operative. He’s with his team, under fire in an undisclosed location which the taker of this footage declined to describe further. They hide in a cave, fall, and then he retrieves something from the top of an obsidian pillar inside the structure. I believe it is a stone key and if it’s true, that key is of utmost importance. I need you all to find any details that I may have missed, and more importantly, find any clues that could lead us to the key’s recovery.” They looked skeptical, exchanging facial expressions confirming such. Finally, an angry man unstiffened.

  “Madame Secretary gave us clearance, sir. We’ll get you what we can.”

  He didn’t smile. Sam thought he’d probably never smiled in his life. Sam didn’t smile back.

  “Thank you. I’ll be back in one hour.” Sam left the room.

  His heart had settled but it didn’t stop the anger that was now tinging the already frayed edges of his emotions. Why would Ethan lie to me? The man was young, but he wasn’t stupid. Then again, the inexperienced ones always tended to get into the worst situations. No one heard of senior citizens trying to join terrorist organizations or getting indoctrinated by a cult. Idealism made more than a few take crazy risks.

  Sam wondered if that meant he was getting old.

  After pacing back and forth in front of the door of the conference room for five minutes and receiving confused stares from the team working inside, Sam referenced a Pentagon map conveniently placed near one of the elevators to find the nearest cafe. Half of the buildings had no labels, most likely because they were confidential facilities. He sighed and took the elevator down with a woman in a blue uniform and a federal designator tag with her name proudly displayed as “MARY”. The woman stepped off on the second floor and Sam waited an additional floor before he got off and headed for Starbucks. Sam had always found it ironic that among the largest fast-food franchises stationed in the top-security government facility, Taco Bell stood stoically in the middle. He approached the counter and got a coffee and sandwich to calm his nerves. His hand instinctively reached into his back pocket for his phone. Dammit. He’d left it with his backpack upstairs.

  Sam had finished his coffee and sandwich by the time he made it back upstairs and was feeling slightly more human. He balled up the plastic wrapper and stuffed it into his coffee cup, then pitched both in a waste bin before wiping his mouth, checking his shirt and rounding the corner leading back into the conference room. “Report, please.”

  A different man stood up, portly and with the squinty eyes Sam called ‘chronic computer screen stare’. “Sir. We found some interesting things that you would probably like to know about. Would you like a full report?”

  “No.” Sam checked his watch. “Give me a summary now and prepare the footage and data for me to review later.”

  “Three items of interest, sir. First, the key is certainly on the man. The helmet cams now have a lot of features that not even the soldiers themselves know about. One of them being, the camera is constantly on. The man is shown putting the key in his personal backpack back at base. He goes stateside after, so unless he jettisoned the key on civilian time, it makes sense that it would still be on him.”

  Sam bristled. More evidence against Ethan.

  “Second, he was being watched. The camera has infrared and wh
en they dropped into the cave, it saw a camera watching them in this frame.” The man brought up a red and blue picture from the footage. The cave was shown in blue, and then a spot of red. Zoomed in, it was clearly in the shape of a camera.”

  Sam cut the man off before he had a chance to continue. “Show me, first.” After furious typing and mouse clicking, he turned his laptop around and showed Sam the infrared image. It was as accurate as the man’s word.

  “Of course, only SEALs and other special forces I cannot disclose to you get technology like this. Typically, we only look through these cams during hit operations of high-value targets, or in the event one of our servicemen is killed in combat.”

  Before Sam had any chance to process the information, the man rambled on.

  “This one is the most troubling, sir. The cam is programmed to detect any signal waves near or on the soldier that it’s attached to. And it detected a bit stream output to a satellite.”

  Sam felt dizzy. “What does that mean?”

  “The people have a tracker on said Soldier, most likely biological. We have no idea how, when or where it was joined with the soldier, but data doesn’t lie.”

  Sam’s heart felt like it was going to burst out of its chest. “Send me the full report, encrypted, with the data. Thank you all for your time.”

  He didn’t hear the polite formalities returned by the analysts, having quickly exited the room. He had to show this to the secretary of defense as soon as possible. He called the Secretary’s assistant. “This is Sam Reilly,” he said without preamble. “Is she up?”

  By now the woman knew his voice. Sam wracked his brain. Angela. Her secretary’s name was Angela. “She’s in a meeting, Mr. Reilly.”

  “With who? This is important, Angela.”

  “Classified, but I can say that it’s diplomatic in nature, sir. As you know, Madame Secretary is… very busy. If you would like to leave a voice message or arrange a phone appointment for later—”