by PJ Hoover
“What did you do, Benjamin?” Heidi asked. She moved closer to him as the room settled.
“We’ve temporally phased,” Cory said. “I can tell.”
“Brilliant deduction,” Kronos said. “And what gave it away? The crunching sounds, or has your heads-up display re-synchronized?”
Benjamin immediately checked his own heads-up display and gasped. “We’re ten years in the future.”
“One hundred-and-thirty phases of the moon to be exact,” Kronos said. “I never grew totally accustomed to that horrible Gregorian calendar. Dropping days. Adding minutes. Months with different days. How much more confusing could they make things?”
“Why did you bring us to the future?” Cory asked. “I thought you wanted to live free now that the shields were down.”
“I do, my dear little Spartan,” Kronos said. “But first we need to see what the future will look like. What better way to plan my strategy than to see the state of the world? With that knowledge, I’ll be able to plot out my own plan to rule the world.”
“Rule the world?” Ananya said. “You want to rule the world?”
“You may have some competition,” Benjamin said. “You’re forgetting about Caelus and Gaea, aren’t you?”
“My mother and father?” Kronos laughed so hard, he grabbed his chair to keep from falling over. “They won’t be around. That’s one thing I know for sure.”
Ananya raised her eyebrow. “Oh, do you now?” she said. “Why don’t we just go on out and see what the world has in store for us?”
Kronos regained his composure and stood up, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. “I couldn’t have made a better suggestion myself.” He headed for one of the stone walls, and with a flick of his hand, it vanished.
Sand caked under Benjamin’s feet, and heat drove across the desert in waves. And in the distance, Benjamin saw the pyramids—as in the Great Pyramid. They were in Egypt. He’d been here last summer, but everything had been crumbling to bits.
Ten years in the future, everything was not crumbling to bits. Every single temple Benjamin saw radiated in the sun. They were painted in gaudy colors and had gold and marble accents. They probably looked better than they had three thousand years ago.
Kronos smiled. “Well, things are off to a nice start.” And then he looked across the network of stone and rage crossed his face. “Why is the Temple of Hapi bigger than mine?” he bellowed. “He’s a baboon! And Isis! Look at her temple. She’s a worthless goddess. And what—tell me—what is that horrible monstrosity in the center of everything?”
Benjamin wished Gary were here. He had no idea what Kronos was griping about. Hapi? There was a temple to a baboon?
“It’s on the site of the old necropolis,” Ananya said. “They’ve rebuilt it.”
“Everything completely overshadows my temple,” Kronos said. “Even the temple of Isis.” He considered this. “But that may not be a bad thing.”
Ananya ignored him and looked back to the necropolis.
“We should head down there,” Cory said. “But we’re going to stand out.”
Kronos didn’t even turn. His face held its enraged expression even as he flicked his wrist, and their clothing all changed.
“How do you do that?” Heidi asked, looking down at her clothes.
“Millennia of practice,” Kronos said. “And just for the record, I go by Thoth around these parts. Egyptian God of Time. Now let’s go.”
Cory led the way, and Kronos didn’t argue. He was probably too mad to think about anything but the size of his temple just now.
“Stick together,” Ananya said. “This place has a hideous feel.”
Heidi nodded. “I feel it too, ever since Kronos opened the chamber.”
“Thoth,” Kronos said.
Heidi ignored him. “I recognize a presence.”
“Gaea?” Benjamin asked.
Heidi nodded. “She’s nearby, and I’m willing to bet Caelus is too.”
Benjamin’s mind flew to Phoebe.
“She may be here,” Heidi said, responding to his unanswered question. “You have to be prepared for it.”
“We all need to be prepared for anything,” Cory said. “Phoebe. Nathan. Anything.”
Benjamin stayed quiet, and threw up a mind block around all of them. Except Kronos. Benjamin figured Kronos could manage on his own.
As they walked across the sand, people shuffled by with their heads down, moving along as if they didn’t want to risk any chance of being noticed.
Maybe Cory didn’t pick up on this, because he kept trying to ask questions.
“Can you tell me what’s in that building?” Cory asked a man he managed to stop.
The man barely lifted his head as he turned to look to the atrocity where Cory pointed. And then he looked back down and ran before Cory had a chance to say anything else.
The next person Cory stopped gave about the same response, except he shoved Cory off him before he went.
Cory grabbed the arm of the third person. “What is in that building?” he demanded of the man.
The man shook like a leaf, but Cory didn’t release his grip.
“Please, let me go,” the man said. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I swear it on the names of Caelus and Gaea, may they live forever and rule so generously.” He made a strange motion with his hand and his forehead.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” Cory said. “We just want a few answers.”
“I know nothing,” the man said. “And if you have any brains in your head, you’ll know nothing also. And be happy about it.”
“Are Caelus and Gaea in that building?” Benjamin asked.
The man looked at the building and then studied his shoes. “They are the wisest and the kindest rulers man ever desired,” he said. “May they live forever.”
“You already said that,” Benjamin said.
“Let him go,” Ananya said, and Cory did.
The man ran off in the opposite direction he’d been heading only minutes before.
“These people are scared to death,” Ananya said.
Kronos walked up to join them. “They’ve managed to at least keep a tight fist around here,” he said. “Mind you, that’s no excuse for the size of my temple, but it is encouraging.”
“Encouraging!” Heidi said. “How can you say that? Did you feel that man’s emotions?”
Kronos shrugged. “Felt pretty good to me.”
“You’re a monster,” Heidi said. “You deserve whatever fate has in store for you. I hope you are cut to little bits and buried in the earth.”
They reached the outer wall of the necropolis. Benjamin stared at it and his face fell.
“There’s no way we’re getting through there,” he said. “It’s huge and thick and impossible to climb. And I don’t think we can dare risk teleporting to the other side.”
“Maybe you don’t,” Kronos said, and vanished.
Ananya frowned. “We’re better off without him.”
“So what do we do?” Heidi asked.
“Well, I don’t mean to contradict you, little brother,” Cory said, “but I don’t think it’s impossible.”
Benjamin noticed Cory studying the wall.
“You forget I fought in the Spartan army for fifteen years,” Cory said. “Breaking though defenses used to be my specialty.”
“So what are you thinking, little brother?” Benjamin asked. Truthfully, he didn’t mind Cory calling him little brother, though he had no intention of telling Cory that.
“It’s all about having a strategy,” Cory said.
Cory found a hiding spot next to the Sphinx. They sat watching people come in and out of the necropolis for an hour. It seemed Caelus and Gaea commanded quite a bit of ceremony. Guards marched around the gates. Sentries held positions on the top of the wall. The longer Benjamin watched, the more he doubted Cory would be able to find them a way in.
“Okay, I got it,” Cory said.
“You do?�
� Benjamin asked.
“Did you doubt me?” Cory said.
Benjamin raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t told us your plan yet.”
Cory leaned close and strengthened the mind block around the four of them. “Here’s what I’m thinking.”
“No way,” Heidi said before he’d gone any farther.
“It’s the only way,” Cory said. “You’ve been watching, too.”
“I’m not going to do it,” Heidi said. “And that’s final.” She turned. “Right, Ananya.”
Ananya sighed. “Cory may have a point. And we do need to get inside.”
“Would someone mind filling me in on the plan?” Benjamin said. “You know, all of us aren’t as good at telepathy as Heidi.”
“You would be if you ever practiced,” Heidi said.
“I do practice,” Benjamin replied. But inside, he knew Heidi was right. He made a mental note to practice telepathy more if he returned alive. “Regardless, I still need to know the plan.”
“It’s not the plan,” Heidi said. “I’m not doing it.”
“Doing what?” Benjamin asked.
“Dressing up as a priestess,” Heidi said. She nodded to Cory. “He wants Ananya and me to dress up like priestesses of Isis.”
“The only women who’ve been admitted to the Necropolis in the last hour are priestesses of Isis,” Cory said.
Heidi sighed. “Okay, let’s hear the whole plan.”
“Great,” Cory said. “First, we’ll sneak over to the Temple of Isis and find some clothes for Heidi and Ananya to wear. Next, we knock out a couple guards and change into their clothes. Once we’ve done that, the rest should be easy. We just walk up to the gates of the Necropolis and get permission to enter.”
“And what happens once we’re inside?” Heidi asked. “Why are all those priestesses going in there anyway?”
Ananya put her hand on Heidi’s arm. “We won’t be staying long enough to find out. And anyway, we’ll have Benjamin and Cory to protect us.”
They looked over at Benjamin and Cory, and Benjamin gave his best the-crap’s-not-scared-out-of-me smile. He didn’t think either Heidi or Ananya was fooled, but the determined look on Cory’s face reassured even him. And so they walked over to the Temple of Isis.
Five guards stood at the front door, so they headed around back.
“It’s about time you got here.” Lulu hovered mid-air at the back of the temple and scowled.
“What are you doing here?” Benjamin asked. Did Lulu turn up everywhere?
Lulu shrugged. “Came to play a few games of Drop Squash with Cory. Ready?”
Cory narrowed his eyes. “I’m not really sure now’s the time.”
Lulu snapped her fingers. “And speaking of time, how about we get this little time traveling adventure moving into full gear.”
“You’re here to help us?” Benjamin asked.
Lulu put up her hand. “Don’t ask. Just suffice it to say I’m way better than Jack at time traveling. And he owes me big time this time. Have you seen this place? It sucks.”
“What do we need help with?” Cory said. “We have it under control.”
Lulu put her hands on her little hips. “Do you, now? So then tell me, once you get inside the temple and deal with the guards and do all the other little stuff you’ve planned out, how are you going to mask your DNA?”
“What do you mean: mask our DNA?” Benjamin said.
Lulu looked at him like he was an idiot. “You know, aside from time, other things change in the future. Technology gets better. And if you take one step inside that god-awful necropolis without masking your DNA, you’re totally hosed. Like caught in two seconds hosed.”
“Seriously?” Benjamin said.
Lulu smirked. “Yeah, seriously, Einstein.” She held out her hand and something teleported into it. “This here is a DNA de-phaser. A couple tweaks from this, and you’ll be good to go.”
Benjamin looked at Heidi who nodded.
“Okay, fine,” he said. “So you de-phase our DNA. What do we need to do?”
He’d hardly gotten the words out when Lulu disappeared and reappeared next to his ear. And then he felt something shoving inside it. He jerked his head away.
“Stop moving,” she hollered. At least it felt like she hollered. She was right next to his ear.
“What are you doing?”
“I told you,” she said and shoved the de-phaser in his ear again. But this time Benjamin tried to hold still, and in a few seconds it was over. She levitated over until she was right in front of his face staring at him.
“What?” he said.
“What do you think?” Lulu said.
He rubbed his ear. “That hurt.”
She lifted her lip in a snarl.
Benjamin sighed. “Fine. Thank you.”
Lulu crossed her arms. “You’re welcome. So who’s next?”
Once they were all de-phased, Lulu showed them the best door to sneak into the temple of Isis. “It’s how all the priestesses sneak in and out after hours. Naughty priestesses.”
“How did you know to come here anyway?” Benjamin asked.
Lulu flipped around and stopped in front of his face. “You asked Jack to ask me to meet you here. Once again, everyone assumes I run errands for a living.”
“In the past?” Benjamin said. He wanted to make sure he got it right.
“Duh,” Lulu said. “Anyway, there are two guards around the corner.”
“I’ll sneak up and hit them over the head,” Cory said.
“Why don’t we just do this?” Heidi asked, and a second later the two guards collapsed to the floor.
“Good thinking,” Ananya said, smiling at Heidi.
“What did you do?” Cory asked. If Benjamin hadn’t known they were in a hurry, he would have sworn Cory was disappointed.
“I knocked them out with telepathy,” Heidi said. “Once I considered knocking out Ryan Jordan one time just to see if it would work.”
They dragged the unconscious guards into a small room, and within minutes, Benjamin and Cory had exchanged clothes with the men. Benjamin’s uniform looked huge on him. Why hadn’t he spent a little more time working out?
Cory motioned with his head. “How long will they be asleep?”
Heidi looked at them, and they started breathing deeper. “I just added an extra level for them to break out of, so I’d say we have a good two hours before they even think about getting up.”
“Great,” Cory said. “That should give us enough time to get in the Necropolis and see what’s going on.”
“So you really do have rocks in your head?” Lulu said.
“What do you mean?” Cory asked.
“The Necropolis,” Lulu said. “You’re really gonna go through with it?”
“Of course,” Cory said. “We have to.”
“Just for the record, did you happen to notice how few people actually come out?” Lulu said.
Cory thought for a moment. “Less than the number that went in, but I figured they worked inside.”
“Think again, rock-head,” Lulu said. “Why do you think it’s called the Necropolis? Because it’s a great place to work? I’m outta here.” And she teleported or time traveled or whatever away.
“Necropolis means ‘City of the Dead,’” Ananya said. “They’re sacrificing people in there.”
“They’re what?” Benjamin said.
“Shhhh!” Ananya said. “Sacrificing people.”
“And you didn’t think to mention this before?” Benjamin asked.
“We needed to get inside,” Ananya said. “I didn’t see how the information was relevant. Anyway, Heidi knew.”
Benjamin whirled on Heidi. “You knew about this?”
“Why do you think I didn’t want to dress up as a priestess?” Heidi said.
Benjamin shook his head. “This changes everything. Heidi and Ananya can stay here while Cory and I go inside.”
“I’m not staying here,” Heidi said.
“Yes, you are,” Benjamin replied.
“No, I’m not,” Heidi said. “I have just as much right to go in there as you do.”
“Stop arguing,” Cory said. “The fact of the matter is that we need Heidi and Ananya to even get inside. Otherwise, we won’t have any reason to go in.”
Benjamin didn’t say anything. Even though Cory may be right, it still irked him that now he’d have to spend all his energy protecting Heidi.
“You know,” she said to him with a smile. “I’m not that helpless.”
He didn’t reply. He figured that if he didn’t have anything nice to say, then he shouldn’t say anything at all.
CHAPTER 22
Things Can Always Get Worse
The DNA de-phaser worked like a charm. They walked right out of the temple of Isis through the front door. The sensors clicked green, and the guards didn’t suspect a thing; they even smiled at Benjamin and Cory. And getting into the Necropolis worked as well as Cory had suggested. Benjamin held Heidi’s arm as if he were guiding her, and Cory did the same for Ananya. The priestesses they’d seen had been under the control of their guards. When they passed the guards at the main gate, they leered at Heidi and Ananya. Benjamin felt Heidi shudder under his grip.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Those men,” she said. “They’re horrible.”
“That’s probably part of the job description,” Benjamin said, hoping to lighten her mood. It didn’t work.
As soon as they were out of sight of the guards, Cory and Benjamin led them into a side room and Cory slid the door shut. And then Heidi started to cry.
Benjamin slid his arm around her. “It’s okay, Heidi. Everything’s going to be fine.”
“It’s this place,” she said. “Can’t you feel it? I feel it deep in my mind. I can’t even begin to describe the horrors that go on here. The only reason for this entire place is to build fear. Fear of the Necropolis builds fear of the rulers and increases their control.” She looked back in the direction they’d come from. “Those men bring the women to sacrifice them in front of the rulers.”