by Greig Beck
Matt groaned as Alex helped him to sit up. ‘Wait till I tell people I got attacked by Cerberus.’
Alex snorted. ‘Sure, Prof.’ He stuck a field patch over the wound. ‘This has got steroids, antibiotics and painkillers all in one nice little cocktail. Should keep you together until we can get you home.’
He pulled the material back over the wound, and Sam slapped Matt’s good shoulder. ‘Good as new. And by the way, did we mention how the Hammer feels about people talking about what we do?’ He grinned.
‘Oh yeah, right.’ Matt coughed as Alex pulled him to his feet. He rolled his shoulder, feeling the grating pain recede as the painkillers kicked in.
Sam made him sip some water from his canteen. ‘You just lost the equivalent of a marathon runner’s fluids in a few minutes,’ the big HAWC said.
Matt looked properly around the chasm floor for the first time, and saw the carnage left behind by the Cerberus creatures over the years. There were bones and broken stone body parts in a thick layer on the ground, and coins too.
‘There’s thousands of them,’ he said. ‘And a fortune in gold and silver. They probably offered the coins in tribute to the Gorgons, not realizing Magera and her sisters didn’t want them – they wanted the Minoans themselves. All the people that lived in those houses – they must have been brought down here by the priests.’ He frowned. ‘Was it just to feed to these creatures?’
Sam kicked at a long bone. ‘Somehow the Gorgons escaped, or were forced out. If not, who knows how many more people would have ended up like this.’
‘Well, our job’s to ensure no one else ends up like this,’ Alex said.
Casey Franks leaned over the edge of the chasm above, looking down at them. Beside her, Reece Thompson had a scope to his eye.
‘What you wanna do, boss?’ Franks called down.
Thompson yelled over the top of her. ‘We need to find Barclay.’
Matt saw Alex’s jaw set as he turned briefly in the direction the huge animal had taken the SAS man. Jackson’s helmet was lying among the rocks, covered in blood. Alex retrieved it, and rubbed away some of the gore.
‘He’s dead,’ he told Thompson.
‘We don’t know that, he could be –’
‘Sergeant Thompson!’ Alex’s voice boomed around the chasm.
The SAS man fell silent, but glared at the HAWC.
Alex met his gaze. ‘If he was alive … I’d know it.’
The SAS man shook his head. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck.’ He shouldered his rifle and moved away from the edge.
‘Hey,’ Alex yelled. Thompson turned back, and Alex tossed the helmet up to him. ‘Be prepared to use it.’
Thompson’s jaw clenched as he stared at the helmet, then he lowered it and walked away.
Alex pointed to the large orb on the other side of the chasm. ‘You wanted to check that out,’ he said to Matt. ‘You up to it?’
Matt looked up at the wall. The chasm seemed much deeper from down here than it had from up there. He nodded, not trusting his voice to mask his doubt.
Alex went over to Sam and looked over the damaged MECH suit. Some of the tubes were crushed and the wiring on one side hung loose – all impossible to repair in the caves.
‘Not going to be easy getting you up there,’ Alex said, ‘but you can’t stay down here. Our friendly pups might return.’
Sam blew air between his lips. ‘They’ll think twice before trying to make dog chow outta either of us again.’
Rebecca’s head was just visible at the edge of the chasm. She looked like she was lying on her belly. ‘Matt, you okay?’ Her face was creased with concern.
Matt grinned, and waved. ‘Sure; just a scratch. Pain and me are old friends now.’ He pointed to the orb. ‘Can you get across from up there?’
Rebecca kneeled up and turned to Casey Franks, who had a scope up to her eye. She said something to Rebecca, who dropped back onto her stomach again.
‘We think we might be able to get across at the end of the street where it meets the wall,’ she told Matt.
Alex nudged Sam. ‘Our turn. I can give you a leg up … if you need it.’
Sam’s response was to snort derisively.
Alex rested a hand on Matt’s shoulder. ‘It’s a tough climb, but there’s plenty of handholds. How do you feel?’
Matt swung his arms, rolled his shoulders and nodded. ‘I can do this.’ He looked back up at the fifty feet of jagged rock and repeated it silently: I can do this.
Alex nodded. ‘Good man. Okay, you go first. The field patch is numbing the pain, but when it wears off you’re going to be in a world of hurt.’
‘Well, that’s something to look forward to,’ Matt said, looking for a place to start.
*
Borshov and his two Spetsnaz lay on the high precipice above the ancient village, watching Hunter and one of his HAWCs scale out of the chasm. A second group at the far end of the enormous cavern were edging along a rock ledge. Their goal was obviously the strange-looking orb structure at the rear of the gigantic cave.
Borshov turned his attention to the cave floor, then the houses and the street. There were plenty of places for concealment … and for ambush.
He turned to his men. ‘We’ll go down into the town and take up attack positions there. Let them bring the Magera weapon to us.’
One of his Spetsnaz grabbed Borshov’s forearm. ‘No, we should stay here, up high. We can pick them off from here.’
Borshov placed one of his huge MECH-suited hands over his agent’s hand and brought his fingers together, just enough to bruise the other man’s bones. The man gritted his teeth, hissing as he sucked in the pain.
‘I like your idea,’ Borshov said. ‘Thank you for the suggestion. But I don’t get to fight Arcadian from up here.’ He let the man’s hand go. ‘You ready to follow now?’
The Spetsnaz withdrew his hand and nodded.
They made their way down the stone steps, the two Spetsnaz men sometimes sliding on their bellies, and Borshov carefully moving his armored body like a crab on all fours.
*
It took Alex, Sam, and Matt twenty minutes to scale the chasm. Alex grabbed Matt’s hand to haul him over the last few feet. The young professor rolled over to lie on his back for a few seconds, puffing hard. Sam was already on his feet, scanning the darker areas of the cave. Alex could see the rest of his team edging across a narrow path cut into the cliff face. He looked across the deep rent in the earth at the village. It was a surreal sight – still colorful and vibrant, but empty and without movement, save for the flames that danced on the surface of the dark pools of oil.
Sam joined Alex and Matt, who was looking pale and weak.
‘Stay with us, Matt,’ Alex said. ‘We need you.’
‘I’m fine; just a little light-headed.’ Matt spoke through gritted teeth. ‘By the way, if you ever have another opening for an ancient languages professor, don’t call me.’
Alex smiled. ‘I think you already mentioned that last time. And yet here you are again.’ He peeled back Matt’s collar; the wound was sticky-wet. ‘Let me know if you need any help or painkillers.’
Matt waved him away. ‘Let’s just get through this. I miss the sunshine.’
‘You and me both,’ Sam said. ‘Let’s do this.’
The orb stood before them – huge, smooth, and almost luminous.
Matt paced in front of the enormous structure. ‘Well, definitely not built by the Minoans.’
Alex stood back a few paces to take in the whole thing. ‘I don’t think it was built by anyone from around here – there’s no door, not even any cracks or seals.’
‘Must have punched in from above. Maybe the limestone grew over it.’ Matt looked up at the cave ceiling hundreds of feet above. ‘Can’t see the roof – it’s too dark. But I’m guessing this must have made one helluva hole.’
Alex stared upward with his enhanced vision. ‘The roof is intact. And there are no impact fissures around the orb, which you’d exp
ect if it landed here.’
Franks and the others joined them. Rebecca pointed her flashlight to join Alex’s beam.
‘There’s a reason there’s no hole in the ceiling,’ she said, moving her light around the sides of the structure. ‘I don’t think this thing is being buried. It’s emerging – look.’ She pointed. ‘The geology here isn’t flowstone. The caves in these parts were formed by water running through limestone over millions of years.’ She turned to face them, accidentally shining her light into Matt’s eyes. ‘I think this thing is actually being exposed by erosion, and has been here for a long time … well before the time of the Minoans, or even the Paleolithic tribes.’
Alex motioned to the village across the chasm. ‘And that?’
She nodded. ‘Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that. Maybe the early Minoans, or some other earlier race, discovered the orb and somehow managed to open it.’
Matt spoke softly. ‘And gods came out.’
Sam grunted. ‘Hungry gods by the look of all the bones.’
Rebecca waved her light over the smooth surface again. ‘Maybe the turning to stone is just an accident. Whatever came out of this orb is so different to us that we can’t comprehend what it wants. For all we know, it had – has – no idea that it’s hurting us.’
‘Are you kidding?’ Sam said. ‘News flash: it’s not hurting us … it’s freakin’ killing us without mercy. Believe me, we’ll give it the same treatment.’
‘I agree with Sam,’ Alex said. ‘It’s lethal, and we won’t be taking any risks.’ He looked at the orb’s white surface. ‘We need to open it. Ideas, people?’
‘Just one.’ Sam stepped up, raised the still functioning arm of his MECH suit and crashed it down on the orb’s surface. Even though the blow had the force of a pile-driver, there was no dent or abrasion.
Matt smiled. ‘Yeah, I’m betting the early humans used that approach. Good to see we’ve evolved from that.’
Sam scowled, and Matt winked in return.
Alex ran his gloved hand over the smooth surface, pushing out his senses, trying to get an impression of … anything. Nothing came back to him – no images, sounds or sensations at all. It was if the thing was a solid, inert mass.
‘We could try blowing it,’ Sam said to Alex, eyebrows raised.
Matt snorted his derision.
‘We’ll put that option on the shortlist,’ Alex said, touching the surface again. ‘Somehow the Minoans opened it. Think – what would they have had? What did they use?’
Rebecca shrugged. ‘Did they open it? I mean, maybe the occupants sensed they were there and came out to meet them.’
Alex nodded. ‘Either way, it must be able to be opened. We’re running out of time.’ He turned to Sam. ‘Your option is moving up the list.’
Sam bowed and turned to grin at Matt.
Matt groaned. ‘What did the Minoans do? They probably chipped at it, bashed it, maybe even tried to set it on fire. But its skin was impervious. So maybe they tried something less forceful.’
‘They would have touched it,’ Rebecca said. ‘Before anything else, they would have laid their hands on it.’
‘We did that,’ Alex said.
Rebecca shook her head. ‘No, we’ve laid our gloved hands on it. But there’s been no flesh contact.’
Alex pulled off his glove and placed his palm against the smooth surface. He closed his eyes and concentrated. This time he felt something. It was like a swarm moving continuously in his head.
‘I feel something. Like a hive.’
‘Look.’ Franks pointed to his hand.
A circle had appeared around it, glowing. The circle moved away from Alex’s hand to the center of the orb, concentrated like a spot of light from a laser. The glowing dot widened, moving outward like a ripple on a pond. When it got to about ten feet across, it stopped and the center of the circle vanished, leaving a black hole.
Alex stepped back. ‘Seems we’re the key – it needed to feel flesh before it would open.’
Sam lifted his gun to his shoulder. ‘Maybe it needed to know food was available to its crew.’
‘You know what this is?’ Matt said, turning to them. His tone was excited. ‘This is why Magera’s been moving across Turkey, making her way here. Whatever’s inside, it’s important enough for her to come out of hibernation after all those millennia of imprisonment.’ He turned back to the orb. ‘I think it’s where she came from … really came from.’
He stepped forward, but Alex yanked him back. ‘Give us a few seconds first. Franks, Sam.’
Franks and Sam stepped forward, their guns ready. Alex moved toward the hole in the orb, then paused. He turned slowly, looking back over his shoulder at the ancient village.
‘We okay here, boss?’ Franks’ gun was trained on the Minoan street. ‘Your puppy dogs back?’
‘No,’ Alex said slowly, ‘but something.’ He turned back. ‘Thompson, you’re on watch.’
The SAS soldier nodded.
Alex stepped up to the black hole in the orb. ‘Let’s get this done, and then get the hell out of here.’
He felt Sam and Franks a pace back at each shoulder as he stepped through the hole. As soon as they entered the black interior, a dim illumination kicked in, as though motion sensors had detected their presence.
‘Holy shit,’ Sam whispered.
The interior wasn’t a sphere at all; the three HAWCs were standing in a long tunnel. The lights continued to come on, all the way along the tunnel, until they stopped at a wall about a quarter of a mile in.
‘Just how big is this thing?’ Sam said. He took a few steps and more lights pinged on – smaller this time and on walls and panels. The big HAWC pulled out a small silver box and held it up, moving it over the interior.
‘What’ve you got?’ Alex hadn’t moved any further along the tunnel.
Sam waited a second or two, then spoke without looking up. ‘No detectable signs of life.’ He looked up. ‘Or known life, I should say.’ He read the screen again. ‘About 1500 feet before we hit that wall.’ He frowned. ‘Holy shit, there’s more beyond the wall. I mean, it’s not just a wall, it’s probably a bulkhead.’
Alex finally stepped forward. ‘Rebecca was right – this thing didn’t crash and embed into the wall down here. It’s been eroding out of it for millions of years.’
Franks was looking at a control panel. ‘Yep, this baby definitely ain’t from around here.’
‘And then just powers up after all that time?’ Sam said. ‘There’s no radiation trace, so what’s the power source?’
‘Bring the others in,’ Alex said.
Sam walked to the entrance and waved in Matt, Rebecca, and Reece Thompson. Matt and Rebecca almost fell over each other clambering in, their eyes wide with wonder.
Thompson paused, taking it all in, then exhaled slowly. ‘So, eons ago, humans knock on the door of this thing and the Gorgons walk out.’
‘One didn’t,’ Alex said.
He’d moved further inside the enormous hangar-like room, and was now standing in front of a recessed section that held a ten-foot-high tube filled with a cloudy fluid and lit from within by a soft blue light. The figure suspended inside the milky liquid was enormous.
‘Oh my god.’ Matt’s mouth hung open. ‘Is that Magera? How did it get here before us?’
Rebecca peered at the tube. ‘Bipedal, two arms, and just the one head, unlike those damned dogs. And what a head.’ She moved to one side, trying to improve her view. ‘You can see where the legend of the snake-hair came from – it looks like growths all over the cranium and neck, like rubbery extrusions … more representative of digits, I think. Maybe an extra set of fingers.’ She shrugged. ‘Or maybe sensory organs.’
‘That is one ugly mother,’ Franks said, blowing air through her teeth as she looked up at the thing’s face.
Alex could see that its eyes were closed. The flattened face had no real nose, just two slits with a flap of skin either side that would probably opera
te like a valve. The mouth was a long slit with tough rubbery lips. Though it was hard to discern through the milky fluid, the Gorgon’s skin seemed to have the pallor of wet clay.
‘Holy crap – it’s got scales,’ Sam said, pointing to the small overlapping discs running from the neck to the torso, where they were larger, the size of poker chips. He stood back. ‘Jesus Christ, tell me again how this thing is supposed to be a woman?’
There were no discernible genitalia; instead, below the creature’s waist blood-red tendrils hung down to its knees. Alex placed a hand against the tank. He sensed a living presence – but not a single one; more like millions all operating in unison.
‘I have no idea whether this is Magera or not,’ he said, ‘but this thing is alive. It’s a cryo tank.’ He took his hand away, flexing the fingers.
‘We still haven’t tried to speak to her yet,’ Matt said. ‘We should at least make the attempt.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘I volunteer.’
Alex turned to look at him. ‘Matt, these … things have given us no indication at all that they can, or want to, communicate with us in any way. We don’t even know if they’re sentient. Maybe the real owners of this ship are dead, and these Magera things are just specimens they collected on their travels.’
Rebecca stepped in front of Alex. ‘Colonel Hammerson said we could –’
‘On a mission I make the calls,’ Alex said, cutting her off. ‘Sorry, Matt, Rebecca, we are not letting this thing out. No one’s been able to overpower one of them so far. And I’d really like to have some sort of defense in place before the Magera out there joins our little party. So let’s find whatever it was the priests used to subdue it.’
‘Before we kill ’em all,’ Casey Franks finished grimly.
CHAPTER 35
When he was sure they were all distracted by the huge white orb, Tony turned and slipped away. In a few minutes he was edging back across the narrow ledge, stopping several times to regain his balance. The weight of the gold secreted around his body surprised him – for such little objects, the coins were enormously heavy. Still, the gold value was one thing; the value of the coins themselves to collectors on the black market was incalculable.