The wall that had closed to seal them in broke free and crashed into a large chamber where the elevator had come to rest. Dust swirled about as coughing and crying could be heard. From somewhere high above, natural light filtered into the highest chamber of the pyramid as Jack quickly stood and pulled Jenks out.
"Quick, Carl, get everyone out!" the major shouted.
Now the others heard what he had, the splintering of wood coming from the shaft. There was a general panic as the students rushed, were pulled, or crawled out of the elevator as the popping and cracking became louder. Just as Sarah cleared the doorway, the elevator gave a huge lurch and then it quickly vanished back down the shaft in the swirl and vacuum of the air.
As they all looked at one another in turn, most still in shock at their double narrow escape, the silence seemed to be a blessing.
"I guess the brakes gave out," Sarah said weakly as she turned over and lay on her back to stare upward at the intricately carved pyramid top two hundred feet up.
But of course it was the gruffness of the man in the most pain who broke the ice of terror that shrouded the company. Jenks sat up on one elbow and looked around.
"Goddamned Incans can't design worth a shit!"
23
The dim light at the top of the pyramid had faded to nothing as Jack gathered torches and relit them and passed them around.
The new level they were in was fresher than anything they had come across since their arrival inside El Dorado. Jack had surveyed the extreme topmost of the apex and found the main vents that gravity fed the canal system throughout the mine. The point of the pyramid must have protruded from the river above, as its windows were above the surface. The torrent of water came down inside a culvert from the falls above and emptied into another large grotto at the center of the floor. The speed of the current was adjustable, he could see, by a system of floodgates controlled from this room. A large handle was set into one stone wall, and that in turn was attached to a dam door. The flow of water into the grotto was smooth and even, creating a current of a gentle five or six miles an hour down the gravity-fed canal system.
"There must be close to three hundred miles of interior canals inside the mine. The structure is unlike anything uncovered in history. A team could spend a lifetime in here and never uncover anything," said a woman's voice.
Jack turned and saw Sarah as she came up behind him. She was also admiring the dam engineering inside the wall.
"Well, you discovered enough to save our asses down there," he said as he turned back to the wall and held a hand to it.
"Lucky guess," she said as she, too, placed a hand on the dam. "There must be thousands and thousands of gallons of water inside that wall. In its heyday, the Inca may have had several hundred treasure boats traversing this system."
"There's eight of them right there," Jack said, moving his torch so Sarah could see the strangely crafted boats near the canal. "More over there, although they don't look in as good a shape."
Sarah observed that several of the boats had been laid along the far wall, and had been damaged severely.
"But I think with a little luck, these may hold up," Jack continued.
"Are you thinking of using the canals to get back down to Teacher?"
"You and the others are, but Carl and I have some searching to do."
"The bomb?"
"Yeah," was all he said as he made his way back to the group.
The interior was now well lit by at least thirty torches that were either in the hands of people or arrayed in their holders around the room.
"I think this room was nothing more than a way to control the water in the canals. We have to get down. The only way is to use what we have," Jack announced. "It may take hours, or maybe days, to get out on foot. But with the canals we can be assured of going one way, and that's down. Teacher is down there and the way out is also. We haven't a choice."
The students looked at one another. They nodded their agreement that it might be the only way.
"Everyone get over here and select the most structurally sound of these boats. They're large enough to fit everybody."
Carl wasn't paying any attention, as he was looking around the giant water room with Virginia in tow. The cavernous area had several doorways sliced into the stone walls. He would run the torch inside one and then quickly bring up the XM-8 and look inside. He was tired of being surprised and wanted to know his surroundings a little bit better.
"Carl?"
"Yeah," he answered Virginia as he backed out of the fifth room he had looked into.
"This place is giving me the creeps."
He looked at the strained features on Virginia's face in the torchlight.
"You mean more than just the mere fact that we're stuck in probably a ten-thousand-year-old pyramid that was reverse engineered and constructed inside a mountain surrounded by a lagoon that seems to be torn from the pages of a Jurassic history book. Why would that be less creepy than being here in the penthouse of a place that probably killed thousands of innocent Indians?"
Virginia rolled her eyes. "Smart-ass," she said, but she still looked about nervously. "I mean, can't you feel it? It's like we stepped into a cemetery here."
"Look, go on back with the master chief, he seems to become half human when you're around, Doctor. I'll take a look at these other rooms."
"Don't treat me like a child, Carl," she said, as she turned and led the way to the next room.
As Carl smiled and followed, his nose did pick something up that had not been there only moments before. He extended the torch into a room with downward spiraling stone steps. He thought for a moment that he heard something. He listened closely but then figured it had only been the sound of the canal echoing off the walls the deeper he went on this level.
"This must be the peasant's way down," he said.
Virginia didn't answer. Carl leaned back out of the opening and held up the torch. He saw Virginia's back as she stood frozen in the stone archway of the next small chamber. Carl raised his weapon and moved forward. He gently moved the doctor out of the way and brought the torch inside. His eyes took in the sight and he swallowed. Virginia had been right; this level was creepy for a reason. He stepped into the room and shined the torch around. He had entered a mausoleum.
"Go get Jack and Sarah."
* * *
The major stepped into the room and saw what had stopped Carl short. The navy man had lit several of the interior torches and was bent low, examining some of the treasure in the room. Not the treasure of El Dorado, but treasure that marked the march of time throughout history.
"Oh my god," Sarah said, as she squeezed by Jack.
In every conceivable position, bodies, skeletal remains actually, were laid out across the floor. Artifacts from the history of El Dorado accompanied these humans from the past in their journey to wherever each soul's journey took them. There were breastplates of conquistador armor, stacked next to a case of old World War II K rations. A rusty Thompson submachine gun was lying across the case. Swords were strewn about. Spears, stone axes. But by far the strangest and most bizarre artifacts were the bodies. They were arrayed in all positions, but Jack noticed one very puzzling thing: all were chained to the wall with bronze manacles.
"The animal."
He turned toward Virginia. Carl and Sarah glanced at her with quizzical curiosity, then Sarah looked down at a sixty-plus-year-old body of an American soldier. The remains were in remarkably good condition because of the dryness of this particular chamber. Both bony arms were raised in mock surrender as the chains held them up. The body next to it was that of a conquistador, the red shirt still clinging to the bony frame, the empty eye sockets staring blankly at the intruders.
"The bodies were brought here postmortem. Their blood has stained the stones around them. The beast brought them here and actually chained them to keep them from escaping the mine, still doing its job after centuries and centuries."
"That's a stretch, Docto
r," Carl said.
"It is still an animal, Commander; it hasn't a concept of death, impending or otherwise, its own or another animal's. It just does what it was trained to do."
"Bring back escaped slaves," Sarah said as she went over to another set of bones. "Major, here's a fellow soldier, look."
As Jack and the others stepped to a far corner where Sarah was standing, they could see a skeleton that was chained by only one arm. The man, centuries before when still alive, had worked his right hand free of the manacle that dangled above him. In the torchlight Jack could see that the dying man had used a lead ball, a musket round, which now lay by the bony fingers, to etch something in the stone flooring. Sarah had seen the first few letters and already guessed at the rest. Jack leaned over and blew some of the layers of dust away from the remaining letters.
"I'll be damned," Carl said over Jack's shoulder.
"'Captain Hernando Padilla, 1534,'" the major read aloud.
"What does the rest say?" Virginia asked.
As Jack lightly and reverently moved the bony fingers of the long-dead conquistador away from his final words, the musket ball rolled away and lodged in a flooring crack and stayed. He again took a breath and blew air over the remaining words.
"'Perdoneme,' " Sarah murmured, and then stood and walked away. "Even though he was dying, he was ashamed of what he had done."
"What does the word mean?" Carl asked.
Jack patted him on the shoulder and walked away, sad for a fellow soldier lost long ago and in a place he didn't want to be. No different than any man in the world.
" 'Forgive me,' " Jack answered. "It says simply 'forgive me.' "
Carl looked back down at the skeleton and then the armor lying next to it. The scratch marks, the dents. He couldn't fathom the remarkable journey this man had made, the horror of losing everyone in his command. He shook his head and straightened up just as he heard Virginia intake breath sharply. She had begun slowly backing away from something in a far corner.
"Major, that item you were looking for, what color case was it in again?"
"It should be yellow and—"
Jack's words were cut short when he heard a soft beep coming from the far corner that Virginia was backing away from. Then he saw the case. The weapon was lying in a pile of other items from the Zachary expedition. The beast must have deposited it here along with its other finds. It was as if the animal simply brought anything of shiny or colorful material to its nest, its home. It was a scavenger.
The lieutenant commander joined the major, and they both looked down on the case that protected the five-kiloton nuclear weapon.
"Jack, I think we've found what we were looking for."
* * *
Jack leaned over and easily unlatched the lid of the protective case. He had sent Sarah and Virginia back to hurry the others in their preparations for getting out of there.
"Damn," he said as he saw the LED readout on the aluminum facing of the weapon.
"Looks like we finally caught a break," Carl said as he looked over Jack's shoulder.
"Countdown's frozen at thirty minutes. Yeah, we may have. Kennedy turned the key but didn't initiate the countdown. I think we may have that creature to thank for that."
"Yeah, remind me to thank him if we run into him," Carl joked.
Jack closed the case and nodded for Carl to take the other end. They both gently lifted it off the stone floor. As they made their way out of the room, they paused and looked at the remains of the soldiers from the past. Then Jack looked at Carl and shook his head.
"Let's be sure not to join these fellas."
"I always liked the way you think, Jack."
They made their way out of the lighted chamber and into the darker passageway. They had gone just past the opening with the descending staircase when they were suddenly flanked by two men with automatic weapons. One came from the main chamber, the other was hidden in the dark opening and came out after they had passed. The man in the back gestured for them to continue on into the main chamber.
As they entered the lighted main water room, Jack saw that Sarah was there with Virginia and the students. They all looked dejected and terrified.
"Ah, this is like old home week. Major Jack Collins and the resourceful Commander Everett, I am but truly amazed. You two are like the taste of bad wine; I can't seem to get rid of you."
"I'm sorry, Jack," Sarah said.
"Do not speak again, senora," Mendez said as he raised his hand with the gun in it, ready to strike Sarah.
Jack tensed and was about to drop the warhead when Farbeaux's words stopped him and Mendez.
"Stop! You do not strike a lady for being concerned, Senor Mendez."
Mendez's hand was stayed in midair. He turned toward the Frenchman and saw to his bemusement that Farbeaux was looking not at him but at the American major.
Jack looked his way and their eyes locked. They remained fixed like that for a full thirty seconds.
"What is in the case, gold?" Mendez asked as he gestured for his remaining three men to take the case from the Americans.
"I wouldn't do that, mate," Carl said as he was relieved of the weight of the warhead.
Jack continued to look at the Frenchman as he allowed the handle of the case to be pried from his grip.
The two men, the third continuing to hold a gun on the two Americans, took the case over to Mendez. The greedy look in the heavy man's face was one that history had seen millions of times as men of avarice thought they were about to gaze upon a mother lode of riches.
"Gold, artifacts? What is in it?" he asked as he leaned over the yellow aluminum container. He reached out for the heavy-duty clasps.
"Don't!"
Mendez looked up into the face of Farbeaux, who said to Jack, "Explain why he shouldn't open the case, Major."
"By your temperament, I can see you've guessed at it. I prefer not to say anything to the pig," Jack said calmly. He caught Mendez's sneer out of the corner of his eye and just hoped the fat man would make a move in his direction.
"I believe what you have there is a means to seal El Dorado for all time. Am I correct?" Farbeaux reached into his satchel, placed a heavy glove on his hand, then reached inside again and pulled out a greenish lump of stone. It was coursed through with a white, chalky substance. He held it out toward Jack. "To rid the world of the source, this source." The room became silent as everyone stared at the same.
"Mass murder doesn't seem to be a part of your resume, Colonel," Jack finally said.
"The selling of material has always been my way of making ends meet. As you Americans say, I have to keep up with the Joneses."
Farbeaux replaced the enriched sample of uranium in his satchel and removed the glove.
"What you are looking at in the aluminum case, senor, is a five-megaton nuclear warhead. What the Americans fondly call a Backpack Nuke. It's manufactured by the Hanford Nuclear Weapons Facility in Washington State. It is designed for minor troop arrest in a battlefield theater. But would do nicely in bringing down, oh, say a pyramid."
Mendez quickly backed away from the case.
"My Colombian friend may be slow on the uptake, Major, but the man truly does understand death and all its forms. Now as I was saying, this source material is very valuable; even in its rough form, it is capable of creating a weapon of—"
"A dirty bomb, a poor man's nuclear device, I'm still not buying it, Colonel. It's not — you."
"You will share in this also, and you will—" Mendez furiously started to say.
"Senor, please be quiet while we adults speak." Farbeaux smiled as he looked from Mendez to Collins. "Being a supplier of such material to others does not a murderer make. But I admit you're right to a certain degree, Major Collins. Commander Everett, your reputation has preceded you, sir; please do not move another inch toward that fool's weapon," Farbeaux said as he removed his own nine-millimeter and pointed it toward the commander.
Carl stopped inching toward one of the
Colombians who, still taking in the situation, hadn't noticed him moving. The man snapped to and shoved him backward.
"As I was saying," Farbeaux's eyes lingered for a moment on Carl and then slowly moved to Jack, "The material has been bought and paid for by a former employer of mine, and his cause is the same as your country's: the elimination of certain terrorist cells across the world. An untraceable source of dirty material that can be sent into mountains and valleys in far-off barbaric places. So you see, our ends are the same."
"I'm afraid you have misjudged Americans, Colonel; we still do things the hard way, and some would say the stupid way. But to introduce radiation into the atmosphere to kill everything along with terrorists, well, the line has to be drawn somewhere."
Farbeaux saw the flick of Jack's eyes toward the darkened corridor from where they had come. He grimaced when he realized the major was playing for time. And Jack had indeed seen something that was sure to occupy Mendez and his men in the next few minutes.
"You're beyond belief!" Farbeaux shouted just as the creature burst from the deep shadows of the corridor.
Farbeaux fired twice as the animal took down the first Colombian by slashing at him with its claws. The Frenchman's bullets did little to slow the beast as it advanced into the chamber.
"Get them in the boat!" Jack shouted toward Carl who had taken out the man he had initially set his sights on — he had simply reached out and snapped the mercenary's neck. Picking up the man's fallen Ingram, he ran toward the cowering students and started to help Sarah and Virginia as they pushed the first boat they came to into the canal.
Several more rounds struck the creature and it roared in pain. It fell to one knee as it grew weak from this and the earlier attack.
Legend egt-2 Page 42