The Resurrection Key

by Andy McDermott

  He looked back at the radar. One of the signals within the iceberg, he now knew, was the Dionysius. Its being upside-down explained why he hadn’t identified it at once. The second object, though, was still a mystery.

  But now there was a third—

  ‘What the hell?’ Tate barked. A new shape had just appeared off to starboard. He darted to the windows. Another ship was rounding the towering wall of blue and white, about a kilometre away.

  He grabbed binoculars and fixed them upon the newcomer. A freighter, one of the many independent tramp ships plying their trade between the widely scattered countries around the Southern Ocean. He focused on the name upon the bow: Tahatu.

  Activity on the foredeck. Several men, a blond looking back through his own field glasses. One of his companions crouched, supporting a length of metal pipe on his shoulder and also staring at the Torrox through a telescope.

  No, not a telescope. A sight.

  Fear rushed through the Australian. The man wasn’t holding a pipe. It was a launcher—

  The blond shouted a command – and smoke and flame erupted from the tube.

  The Javelin anti-tank missile took under two seconds to lance between the ships. Tate had just enough time to yell a terrified warning to his crew before over eight kilograms of high explosive blasted the Torrox’s bridge into flaming shrapnel.

  ‘What do you mean, it got out?’ said Eddie. ‘They’re coffins! Aliens I can believe in, but not bloody zombies.’ He was about to say more when he heard a distant boom. ‘What was that?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Nina replied, listening. The sound didn’t reoccur. ‘Ice cracking?’

  ‘More than just a crack. That sounded big.’ He returned to the stairs. ‘Anyone else hear that?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Vorster. ‘Might have been part of the berg calving into the water. If it was too close, we’ll need to leave.’

  ‘Giving up your salvage?’

  ‘Treasure’s no use if you can’t spend it,’ was the pragmatic reply.

  The Yorkshireman looked back into the crystal chamber as Nina examined first the open sarcophagus, then one of its intact neighbours. ‘Are they the Veteres?’ he asked.

  She peered through the thick crystal at the figure within. Like the armour they had seen earlier, it was tall, and big, the shoulders broad and powerful compared to the elongated, almost willowy bodies of the extinct race. ‘They must be, but . . . this one’s much larger than the mummies we found in Eden.’ She carefully crossed the inclined floor to another sarcophagus. All the coffins, she noticed, had the same recess for the mysterious key at their foot. ‘So’s this.’

  Eddie shone his light at the debris below. ‘You want a proper look at one, I think there’s a body down there.’ A long, pale arm protruded from beneath one fallen sarcophagus. ‘Must have come from the open coffin.’

  ‘A body?’ cried Imka from the top of the stairs. ‘Who is it?’

  ‘It’s not anyone from the Dionysius,’ Nina hurriedly told her. ‘This is . . . a mausoleum, I guess. The bodies of the people who built this thing are here.’

  Cheng made his way down the steps, flashlight beam darting excitedly from one coffin to another. ‘The shells aren’t broken! They’re intact!’

  ‘Most of them,’ said Nina. ‘I think some came loose when the iceberg rolled over.’

  Eddie made his way to the elaborate sarcophagus at the room’s centre. ‘Must be their king in here. Looks like he’s wearing a crown.’ Metal glinted around the head of the entombed figure as he swept his light over it, and he noticed secondary reflections from other items around its feet. ‘They buried him with his stuff.’

  Nina picked her way over to him. ‘It’s definitely an important figure. Although some of the others have things in their coffins as well. Maybe they were like the ancient Egyptians, and were buried with their greatest treasures?’

  ‘That’s not a treasure.’ The sudden alertness in Eddie’s voice made her look around. He was again aiming his torch at the bottom of the chamber. ‘That’s a weapon. It’s a bloody trikan!’

  ‘It can’t be, they’re Atlantean—’ she began – but he was right. The beam was fixed upon a convex orichalcum disc resembling a yo-yo, three curved blue blades sweeping outwards from its rim. Macy’s toy was based on a real example found in the sunken ruins of Atlantis . . . but now it seemed that that in turn had been modelled upon one even older.

  And larger. The Atlantean weapon was sized to fit in a person’s hand. This was more like a dinner plate, each sweeping blade almost a foot long. The weapons of the lost race were as super-sized as their armour – and themselves.

  Cheng followed Nina’s path down into the chamber. Imka hung back on the stairs, not wanting to enter, while Vorster took up station at the upper threshold. ‘So if they’re not from Atlantis, where are they from?’ the shipowner asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Nina replied absently. The leader’s face was blurred and warped by the crystal, a yellow tint discolouring it, but she could see enough to tell that its head was not the same shape as a human’s. It was larger, the rear of the skull extending backwards – like the image on the key.

  Again, it wasn’t the same as the remains of the Veteres. They too had elongated heads, facial features resembling the popular conception of a Grey alien – or perhaps that very image was some residual racial memory of Homo sapiens’ former masters. But these seemed simultaneously somehow more and less like humans: the faces more so, the giant bodies definitely less.

  Another species entirely? Could a second advanced race have existed at the same time as the Veteres? She doubted it. As history had proved several times, other intelligent hominids did not survive contact with a more advanced – or more violent – species.

  Then there was the Veteres writing on the key. So were the bodies here some racial variant, or had the mummified remains in Eden been unusually small?

  Answers would only come through detailed scientific analysis. Which meant the main issue now was how to deal with a find of this magnitude. ‘Okay,’ she said, addressing the others, ‘we’ve made an amazing discovery. So we need to decide what to do next.’

  ‘I told you, the law of finds applies here,’ said Vorster without hesitation. ‘The ship and everything in it are all ours – we just have to stake our claim, and we can do that by radio from the Torrox.’

  ‘It’s also an archaeological find, though,’ Nina countered. ‘And a burial site.’ She indicated the sarcophagi. ‘I should notify the International Heritage Agency. They’re equipped to handle discoveries like this.’

  ‘And then what happens to our claim?’ Vorster demanded. ‘We can’t sit around waiting for lawyers to argue it out in some court. The iceberg’s melting! It won’t be long before it breaks apart – and then this whole thing will end up at the bottom of the ocean.’

  ‘We still have to find out what happened to Arnold and the others,’ Imka added quietly.

  ‘But we must protect the find,’ said Cheng. He gazed at the towering shape within the nearest sarcophagus, then regarded the recess near its foot. ‘The key will fit in this . . .’

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ Nina cautioned. ‘Nobody touches anything in here. This is a find on the level of the tomb of Tutankhamun. It needs to stay intact until it can be properly surveyed and—’

  ‘By who?’ cut in Vorster forcefully.

  She ignored him. ‘—and catalogued. And we still don’t know what happened to the crew of the Dionysius . . .’

  Nina trailed off. Something had changed. The only illumination in the chamber had been the team’s flashlights, but now she could pick out details in the shadows. ‘What’s wrong?’ Eddie asked.

  ‘I’m not sure.’ She closed her eyes and clicked off her light. ‘Everyone, turn your flashlights out.’

  ‘Why should—’ Vorster began.

&
nbsp; ‘Just do it,’ she snapped. The others switched off their torches. Nina waited a few seconds, then opened her eyes again.

  The eerie sapphire light from above silhouetted Imka and Vorster on the stairs. But she could see her surroundings quite distinctly, lit by a low but clear white glow.

  ‘That wasn’t there before,’ said Eddie. ‘Where’s it coming from?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ The source was elusive yet ubiquitous, emanating from all around them. ‘It’s behind the walls . . .’

  ‘It’s not behind the walls,’ said her husband with alarm. ‘It is the bloody walls! The whole place is glowing!’

  ‘What?’ gasped Imka. ‘How is that possible?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Eddie growled. ‘But the last time we saw a crystal glowing like that, it blew up like a fucking H-bomb twenty-four hours later. Time to leave.’

  ‘We don’t know that it’s anything like the Atlantean spearheads,’ Nina protested.

  ‘And we don’t know that it isn’t. We’ve seen weapons, we’ve seen armour – this place is a military installation. Come on!’ He guided her upwards. ‘For all we know, we’ve just set off a booby trap!’

  ‘Captain, come in. Captain Tate? Torrox, can you hear me?’

  Naider stood outside the fortress, the walkie-talkie raised to his ear to catch any reply through the radio interference. None came. His concern grew. Tate was a professional seaman and would never leave the bridge unmanned, especially with a shore party in a potentially risky situation.

  Worried, he turned back to the hatch. He had to let the others know he’d lost contact—

  A sound reached him over the ice’s constant moans and creaks. An outboard motor, getting closer. Thank God! He went to the end of the ledge and looked towards the cave mouth. A boat came through it.

  His relief only lasted moments, replaced by confusion. The Torrox’s only other craft was its lifeboat, bright orange with a fibreglass hull, but this was another rigid inflatable. And there was a second behind it. The new arrivals, four in each boat, weren’t his shipmates. So who were they?

  A man in the lead RIB pointed something up at him. He stared at it, refusing to believe what his eyes were telling him. It couldn’t be a gun—

  It was.

  A flash of fire – and Naider fell back against the icy wall as a bullet smashed through his right shoulder. He staggered . . . and slipped off the ledge.

  He tumbled down the cliff, screaming – then his cry was abruptly silenced as he was impaled on the needle-sharp spikes of ice below.

  The two boats pulled up beside the Torrox’s RIB. Their occupants jumped out and started to follow the explorers’ path.

  Eddie had just re-entered the throne room behind Nina when he heard the sharp crack. ‘We didn’t bring any guns, did we?’ he asked Vorster.

  ‘No,’ said the shipowner, startled. ‘But it might have been ice breaking.’

  ‘That wasn’t ice, that was a fucking rifle round. I think we’re in trouble.’ He hurried to the broken window and looked out at the ice cave. ‘Oh, yeah. We’re in trouble!’

  ‘What is it?’ asked Nina.

  ‘Two boats full of guys, and they’re all armed – and climbing up this way.’

  ‘What about Marc?’ said Imka. ‘He was outside!’

  Eddie couldn’t see Naider, but a splash of bright red blood on the ice where they had entered the ship told its own story. ‘They shot him. If he isn’t dead, he soon will be.’

  Cheng looked around in fear. ‘What are we going to do? Hide?’

  ‘If we hide, they’ll find us,’ Nina told him. ‘They’ll come looking for us – they must have known we were here.’

  ‘How could they know?’ protested Imka.

  ‘Don’t ask me, but they did. They want something – they want this.’ She held out her arms to encompass the structure around them.

  ‘But they couldn’t have known it was here,’ Eddie said. ‘We didn’t know it was here!’

  ‘Maybe somebody else talked to Krämer, or Stapper. But it doesn’t matter now.’ She made her way to the altar. ‘We can’t fight them. But if we wait for them, we can find out what they want – and we might spot a chance to get away.’

  Eddie was not happy, but he nodded. ‘Okay. We’ll let them make the first move. Just hope it doesn’t involve pulling a trigger.’

  Vorster looked towards the broken window. ‘Are you crazy? We should get out while we can! We can jump from there.’

  ‘Go for it,’ the Englishman told him. ‘It’s only a sixty-foot drop into freezing water.’ Vorster considered it, then let out an angry, frustrated breath.

  Eddie joined Nina at the altar. Cheng followed, Imka holding back fearfully at the top of the mausoleum stairs. Vorster peered out cautiously from the window. ‘They’ve reached the top ledge,’ he reported. ‘They’ll be here any minute.’

  ‘They didn’t even give us time to work on our welcoming speech,’ Eddie replied dourly. He squeezed Nina’s hand, then noticed she appeared distracted. ‘You with us, love?’

  ‘It’s getting brighter in here,’ she replied. ‘The crystals in the walls – they’re glowing as well.’ The crystalline ribs running up to the domed ceiling were indeed emitting a soft but gradually strengthening light. She examined the recess in the altar. ‘I think my touching the key started it all off. Just like when I opened the vault in Turkey – it needed someone of Atlantean descent who could channel earth energy to provide the spark.’

  ‘Great, so if we don’t get shot, we’ll blow up?’

  ‘There’s nothing like the spearhead here.’ She glanced towards the lower chamber. ‘I think these people were like the Atlanteans, and the Veteres. Some of them had the specific sequence in their DNA that let them control earth energy, and they made use of it.’

  ‘For lights?’

  ‘And who knows what else? We’ve seen earth energy trap antimatter, levitate statues, make a sword chop through things like a Star Wars lightsaber. This place might use it for something just as incredible.’

  ‘“Incredible” is the right word,’ Imka said, disbelief plain. ‘What you’re saying sounds like magic.’

  ‘It’s not magic, it’s science. Just . . . extremely weird science. And I don’t pretend to understand it myself. All I can say is: it’s real. I’ve seen it.’

  ‘And you can control it,’ Cheng observed.

  ‘I wouldn’t say control. Influence, maybe. There were people in Atlantis who thought they could control it, weaponise it – but they were wrong. They tried to use it to give Atlantis unlimited power, but it ended up destroying them.’

  Vorster had made his way to the entrance. ‘We’ve got more than mumbo-jumbo to worry about. I can hear them coming.’

  ‘Get over here,’ Nina told him. ‘Don’t give them any excuse to shoot.’

  ‘They might not need one,’ Eddie warned. ‘They already killed Marc.’ He moved around the altar. ‘Get behind this thing. At least take some cover.’

  She joined him and Cheng behind it as Vorster scrambled down to rejoin Imka. All eyes went to the entrance. Sounds echoed up from below, feet scuffing on metal and snatches of curt speech. Flashlights probed the stairs.

  Nina tensed, holding Eddie. The muzzle of an assault rifle came into view, followed by a man wearing a black balaclava. He surveyed the room warily, eyes and gun locking onto the figures by the altar. ‘They’re in here!’ he called. The accent was Nordic; Nina guessed Norwegian.

  The intruder quickly and professionally checked for potential ambushers, then came fully into the room, the tactical light attached to his weapon fixed upon Nina, Eddie and Cheng. Another man in identical black cold-weather gear followed him in, his own gun aimed at Imka and Vorster. ‘Are there any more people?’ the leader demanded. ‘If you lie, I shoot one of you.’

  ‘We’re the o
nly ones here,’ said Nina. ‘Where’s Marc, the man outside?’

  ‘Dead.’ The response was as icy as the surroundings. Imka gasped.

  ‘What about my ship?’ growled Vorster.

  ‘Sunk.’

  ‘Sunk?’ The bearded man’s eyes widened in fury. ‘You bastards! Where are my crew?’

  ‘They are dead too. We shot them.’ Several more black-clad men had now entered; the leader pulled off his balaclava.

  Nina recognised the hard face beneath. ‘You!’ It was the blond who had led the chase in Hamburg.

  He had a red cut down one cheek where he had been hit by a stiletto boot. ‘How are you heeling?’ Eddie asked mockingly.

  The Norwegian gave him a hostile stare, then signalled for his men to spread out and cover the chamber as he made his way down the inclined floor to the altar. He regarded the recess at its centre, then looked back at Nina. ‘Where is the key?’ The gun came up at her for emphasis.

  ‘I – I have it,’ Cheng said fearfully.

  ‘Give it to me.’ He stared past the trio to Imka and Vorster. ‘Where are the coffins?’

  Both Nina and Cheng reacted with surprise. ‘How did you know about them?’ gasped the student.

  The man did not answer. ‘Maybe they talked to the guy in the asylum,’ said Eddie.

  ‘No, they couldn’t have!’ Cheng insisted. ‘Professor Wilde was the only—’

  ‘The key,’ the man said with impatience. ‘Now.’ He swung his rifle towards the young man’s chest. Cheng hurriedly delved into his backpack.

  Eddie eyed the weapon. The SIG MCX, with its distinctive skeletal handguard around the barrel, was a relatively new weapon, and sales of the compact SB model the intruders were carrying was supposed to be restricted to police and military forces. Yet the accents he had heard as the group approached were varied enough to rule out their being from one specific country. Mercenaries, then – but who was paying them? ‘What do you want?’ he said. ‘Apart from the key, obviously – you wanted that enough to chase us halfway around the world, but what else?’