He concentrated on breathing and walking. It turned out to be more of a lurch, actually, but he made it work for him. He felt the heat coming off the mobile building as he neared it.
Men had already broken the glass out of the windows, but there wasn’t enough room to squeeze through to safety. They screamed at him in frustration.
Increased dizziness clawed at Gary’s mind. He felt the darkness eating away at the edges and waiting to consume him.
The harsh, flat cracks of more gunshots sounded behind him.
Are we winning? he wondered. Even he couldn’t see how they would prevail.
When he reached the building, he almost had to turn back from the heat. Instead, he made himself reach for the door. Someone had wedged a crowbar into the door to block escape. He grabbed it. The heated metal scorched his hand, but he held on just long enough to yank it free. Then he threw it to one side.
The men poured out of the mobile building. Two of them grabbed him up under the arms and carried him away from the fire. All of them spoke Italian, and Gary couldn’t understand most of what they were saying.
Somewhere in there, just as it was starting to dawn on him that he’d been a hero and gotten shot for his trouble, Gary fell into unconsciousness.
Steps carved into the side of the pit tunnel led down into darkness. Even though Lourds added his flashlight beam to Murani’s, the darkness didn’t retreat enough to reveal what was held below.
The glow seemed concentrated down in the bottom of the pit.
Murani pointed his pistol at Lourds.
“You first,” the cardinal commanded.
Lourds thought about objecting and knew it wouldn’t do any good. But that was only a small part of why he started down the steps. The other part, the larger part, was that he had to see what was there.
If the Atlanteans, or whatever they’d called themselves, had taken the time and trouble to hide the Book of Knowledge in such an elaborate place as this, what else could be hidden there?
The smart thing to do was lower a light into the yawning abyss and see what pitfalls—literally—lay ahead. But Lourds knew that neither he nor Murani were willing to wait long enough for a cautious examination of the site.
One of these days that curiosity of yours is going to get you killed, Lourds chided himself.
The pit was colder than the room above. The sea gurgling against the rock was louder as well. Lourds couldn’t help thinking how far below the ocean’s surface they were at the moment. It had to be 250 or 300 feet at least. And it was two miles back to the cave entrance.
The steps were cut narrow and shallow. There was barely enough room for Lourds to walk down. He hadn’t seen any bodies of the Atlanteans, but he was willing to bet they’d been small people.
Footsteps rasped behind Lourds. When he stopped and looked up, he found Leslie behind him.
“It might not be safe down here,” he said.
“It’s not safe out there,” she replied.
“I suppose it isn’t.”
“I couldn’t let you go alone.”
Lourds gave her a small smile. She could have, and they both knew it. He was willing to wager that her curiosity pushed at her as sure as his propelled him.
“Let’s hope that coming down here was the smart thing to do.” He turned and headed back down into the darkness.
A door lay at the end of the steps. It wasn’t locked, and it opened inward easily at Lourds’s touch. The air inside the room was stale and musty, but it carried odors that suddenly made the professor’s heart beat faster and chase away the remaining fear in his head.
“Do you smell that?” Lourds asked excitedly as he went forward with more confidence. He knew those scents immediately, and he’d know them till his dying day.
“What? The dust?”
“Parchment,” Lourds said. “Ink. Lots of it.”
He shone the flashlight inside the room and was astounded to see rows of books. They stood neatly ranked on shelves on the walls as well as in free-standing shelves that occupied the floor space.
Lourds walked to the nearest shelf and plucked a book from the row. The book was bound in a leatherlike material, but it wasn’t leather, at least not any leather that Lourds knew about. Leather wouldn’t have held up for thousands of years without showing some kind of aging. This book—all the books—looked as though they’d just been written.
Lourds balanced the book, bound in bright blue, on his left forearm and opened it with his left hand. He held the flashlight in his right. It was hard doing that with his hands cuffed. Symbols like the ones he’d decrypted on the musical instruments filled the crisp white pages.
He shone the flashlight around the room again. There were hundreds—perhaps thousands—of books on the shelves. The titles hinted at histories, biographies, sciences, and mathematics.
“My god,” Lourds said softly. “It’s a library.”
“Is that all you see?” Leslie sounded distracted. “Look at this!”
Lourds followed the line of her flashlight beam as Murani, Gallardo, and the others entered the room.
Drawn by the beauty before her, Leslie reached out her manacled hands to touch the amber figurine standing at the end of one of the shelves. Light glinted from the polished surface and fired the veins of its matrix with gold.
The figurine stood almost four feet tall and displayed a man holding the model of a solar system in his hand. Six planets of different sizes orbited the sun.
“They had the solar system as sun-centric,” Lourds said. “They were thousands of years ahead of everyone. And the size ratio looks right, too.” Wonder overcame him as he looked at the rest of the books.
“That’s a big deal?” Leslie asked. “I thought everyone knew the planets revolved around the sun.”
“No. In fact, the Church locked up Galileo for heresy for saying as much.”
“You’re kidding.”
Lourds couldn’t believe she didn’t know that. “No, I’m not kidding.”
“Astronomy’s never been my thing,” Leslie admitted.
Like a child in a candy store, Lourds passed through the aisles and sought out titles he could decipher. “Have you any idea of the knowledge that might have hidden here all these years? Do you know what kind of strides might have been possible in the world if other cultures had possessed this knowledge?”
“I’m assuming that all these old books are a big deal.”
“A very big deal,” Lourds said. His head was spinning with possibilities. It made him think of everything that had been lost at the Library of Alexandria. A world of ancient knowledge . . . here . . . at his fingertips. He was overcome with wonder.
“Lourds,” Murani called out impatiently.
Lourds turned and was hit in the eyes with a bright flashlight beam. He raised his cuffed hands. “What?”
“Where’s the Book of Knowledge?” Murani demanded.
“I don’t know. It must be here somewhere.”
“Here,” Leslie called.
Lourds tracked her voice through the stacks. The others converged on her as well.
As soon as the construction workers fled the mobile building, Natasha knew the surviving Swiss Guard’s game plan had altered from offense to defense. He’d also made the mistake of allowing her to get her hands on the second man she’d killed.
She put her pistols away and took up the dead man’s rifle and ammo bandolier. She slung the bandolier across her shoulders and checked the magazine in the rifle. It was nearly full.
It was good having real weapons again.
Calmly, knowing her opponent had only two avenues open to him, Natasha hunkered down in the shadows by an earthmover and waited. She hated not being able to go to Gary. He was unconscious, unmoving on the cold stone of the cavern floor. A few of the men had started for him, though. She hoped Gary was still alive. She hoped those he’d saved would save him.
The Swiss Guard broke cover and ran for the construction workers’ vehicles
. He’d opted for saving his own neck instead of trying to join his comrades in the caves farther on.
Natasha shouldered her weapon, led the man just a little, and squeezed the trigger. The round caught him in the neck just under the protective Kevlar helmet. The shot knocked him down. He didn’t move again.
Satisfied that the cave was clear, Natasha ran to Gary’s side. The construction men scattered away from her, obviously intimidated by the rifle she carried. Many of them headed for the vehicles and started to leave.
The rise and fall of Gary’s chest let her know he was still alive.
Natasha looked up at one of the men. “You,” she ordered in her cop voice.
“Me?” The man looked scared.
“My friend saved your life,” Natasha said. “I want you to save his.”
“Of course.” The man called to another, and together they lifted Gary from the ground.
“Carefully,” Natasha said.
The man nodded and headed toward one of the vehicles. He called out to the driver, and the truck pulled over to them.
The men handed Gary into willing hands, then clambered aboard themselves.
Natasha watched them go. In less than a minute, the cavern had been evacuated. She turned her attention back to the caves ahead just as World War III seemed to open up.
Leslie stood at the far end of the room next to a glass case under a mosaic of colored pebbles. The mosaic showed the First Son standing on a meadow top holding out His arms to call men and women from a dark forest filled with demons and ugly beasts.
Lourds read the symbols beneath the mosaic out loud. “ ‘May we all be called back home again soon.’ ”
A box of pure beaten gold sat on a small table. There was a note. Lourds shone his flashlight on it and read it quietly.
“Can you translate that?” Murani demanded.
“Yes.”
“Then do it.”
The note was short and to the point. “ ‘Here lies the Book of Knowledge. We took it from God’s First Son, who came to the Garden to shepherd us. We pray that God forgives us of our sins.
“ ‘When the Tower fell after we built it to ascend into Heaven, hard times followed. We warred with ourselves because we no longer had a common language. Only a few of us were able to learn this tongue again. We swore that we would never teach it to anyone. But the book is God’s, and there will always be those who assume they can be as powerful as God.
“ ‘They are wrong.
“ ‘After we sank into the sea, only a few of us remained within the caves. Already we’re growing sick with a mysterious malady which has followed us into the depths.’ ”
“Can a sickness survive this long?” Gallardo asked.
“No,” Murani said. “Besides, you have other problems to worry about.”
“More than likely any bacteria or viruses succumbed to barotrauma,” Lourds said.
“What’s that?” Gallardo asked suspiciously.
“Given that these chambers are dry, and that some of the people survived—at least for a time—the caves became a huge hyperbaric chamber. That is to say, the oxygen in the caves became more pressurized. Any time you dive below one hundred twenty feet for an extended length of time, the same thing happens. That’s why divers have to decompress and come up slowly. Or they have to use a decompression chamber, also called a hyperbaric chamber. Barotrauma results from pressure changes inside the body that don’t equalize during a dive.”
“I take it you knew a woman who was into diving,” Leslie said sourly.
Lourds couldn’t for the life of him figure out how Leslie could even possibly imagine being jealous under the circumstances. But there was no doubt she was. He’d seen it—and dealt with it—far too often. And, actually, she was right: He’d dated a woman who had been a diving instructor. A very beautiful, articulate diving instructor in Greece.
“They got sick from being underwater,” Gallardo said.
“Yes. Men have attempted to live underwater in different places—such as Jacques Cousteau’s Conshelf habitats, Sealab, and Aquarius. Dealing with saturation diving, and that’s what the survivors were subjected to in a sense, can cause aseptic bone necrosis, the loss of blood to bones. Possibly the arms and legs became gangrenous.” Lourds was silent for a moment. “It would have been a painful, hideous death.”
“Is there anything further in the note?” Murani asked.
Lourds resumed reading. “ ‘I know that I won’t live much longer, possibly only a few days, but I want to leave this warning for any who find this Book. God willing, the island will never rise again and our sins will remain buried in the ocean. But I have learned that God will do as He wishes.
“ ‘So if you have found this Book, if you can read my message, which is written in the old language that God took from us, heed my warning: Do not read the Book. Put it in a safe place until God returns for it and takes this burden from us once more.’
“It’s signed, Ethan, the Historian,” Lourds finished.
“Back away from the Book.” Murani waved his pistol.
Reluctantly, Lourds gave ground.
Murani put the pistol in a pocket of his robe. He approached the box, removed the lid, and reached inside. When he pulled out the Book, Lourds was truly surprised that the cardinal didn’t burst into flame or vaporize on contact.
The Book of Knowledge was far smaller than Lourds would have guessed such a volume would be. Surely nothing that important would be—or could be—contained in such small dimensions. It might have been twelve inches wide by twenty inches tall, and no more than three inches thick.
How could all God’s knowledge be contained in such a book?
Trembling, Murani opened the Book. At first, the page looked blank. Then it filled with symbols. They appeared so quickly that Lourds felt certain he just hadn’t seen them at first.
Murani stared at the text. He looked angry, frustrated, and dumb-founded. He glanced up at Lourds and held the Book out.
“Read this,” the cardinal commanded.
Lourds did, but the symbols played tricks on his eyes. They seemed to move and weave, and it was hard to hold them still.
“ ‘Know you that this is the Book of God, and that His Word is holy and without—’ ”
Murani snapped the Book closed. “You’re going to teach me this language, Professor Lourds. The fact that I can’t read it myself is the only thing keeping you alive at this moment.”
Lourds couldn’t think of anything to say to that.
“Gallardo, stay with him,” Murani ordered. “Lieutenant Sbordoni, we need to see if we can get back out of here.”
Lourds gave a last look at the books as he was forced up the steps. He hated leaving them. He wanted to look at more of them. But Gallardo put a hand in the middle of his back and shoved again. Lourds barely prevented himself from falling.
Back in the Chamber of Chords, the détente between the two factions of Swiss Guards had reached critical mass. Lourds knew that in a glance from the way Father Sebastian stood protected within one of the groups.
“Cardinal Murani,” Sebastian said, “you need to turn the Book of Knowledge over to me.”
Murani looked belligerent. “And if I refuse?”
“Then we’ll take it from you,” one of the Swiss Guards, the one with the cleft chin, said. “I’d rather not do that.”
“Thank you, Martin,” Sebastian said. “God knows His own.”
“You serve the Society of Quirinus,” Murani said to the Guard. “You’re supposed to help me.”
“To recover the Book for safekeeping, yes. But not so that you can read it,” Martin said. “That Book has done enough damage. It should be put away where it can’t do any more harm.”
“This Book can strengthen the Church,” Murani said. “It can bring us closer to God.”
“No. It will bring God’s wrath down on us,” Sebastian said. He held his hand out. “Give me the Book, Cardinal Murani.” He paused. “Please, Stefano, b
efore your zealousness brings about the end of us all.”
For a moment, Lourds thought Murani might honor the request. Then the cardinal took out his pistol and shot Sebastian before the Swiss Guards around him could close ranks.
That touched off the bloodbath that had been waiting to explode.
When the bullets started flying, Lourds ducked away from Gallardo, who started firing as well. Staying as low as he could, Lourds ran for Leslie and grabbed her by the arm. He ran down the incline to the pit where the library was hidden. It was the safest place he could think of to wait out the gun battle. Swiss Guardsmen dropped all around him.
Murani opened the Book again, and his face—even amid the gunfire—was triumphant.
The cavern filled with noise; then it swelled with it as the cacophony exploded in echoes that doubled and redoubled the auditory assault. Lourds felt the ground tremble beneath his feet and froze beside a tall stalagmite that offered brief shelter from the storm of bullets.
“What is it?” Leslie asked. “Earthquake?”
“No,” Lourds replied. “Harmonic vibration. The cavern is an acoustic chamber designed to pick up and magnify sounds.”
The susurration of water all around them grew louder.
A sinking feeling manifested in Lourds’s stomach. “No,” he whispered. “I think whenever Murani opens that Book, he sets off something even he can’t control.”
Horrendous crackling filled the air and momentarily drowned out the gunfire. Then the walls fissured and split. The hungry sea lying outside the stone walls sprayed inside with enough force to knock men down.
Water covered the cavern floor, then sluiced toward the waiting hole in the center of the cave.
“No!” Lourds shouted hoarsely. He started to go toward the pit, but Leslie grabbed him and held him back.
“There’s nothing you can do!” Leslie screamed. “We’ve got to get out of here!”
After everything he’d been through, after everything he’d survived, Lourds could only watch helplessly. Exhausted, he dropped to his knees as the water level swirled and became a whirl pool that drained directly into the library.
The Atlantis Code Page 43