The Mongol Objective [Oct 2011]

by David Sakmyster

  “Hang on,” she said and closed her eyes. Cocked her head, then peered out. “All clear. But at the end, like Orlando said, there’s something. We go up, and there’s a portal. And beyond that I see something bad. Blood, a lot of it. Death.”

  “Ours?” Orlando asked.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Traps?” Renée asked, right beside them now.

  “No. Not that I can see. Although, I’m not sure how the portal opens.”

  “Maybe we need Qara,” Orlando suggested.

  “Well,” said Renée, “that option’s no longer available to us. You’ll get us in, or we blow it open.”

  “Not too smart,” Caleb said. “Unless you want a cave-in.”

  “I’m confident you’ll figure it out. Now move.”

  #

  After nearly thirty minutes of trudging through water that gradually numbed their feet, the cold traveling up their legs, they rounded a bend and came to a complete dead end. Just a blank wall.

  One soldier approached cautiously, then abruptly disappeared. Lights blasted at his last location and they highlighted his escaping air and submerged body, thrashing as he sank into the murky depths.

  “Gone,” Chang whispered, standing at the end of a rounded pit in the floor, shining the light down into the pool. “I see no bottom.”

  All the flashlight beams then turned up, converging on a rounded, twenty-foot-wide barrier, a circular door above the pit. The center was a pure black onyx material that absorbed the light. The outside frame was an exotic marble structure etched with more script all the way around.

  Orlando whispered. “Anyone watch Stargate?”

  “Huh?” Renée asked.

  “Never mind. But since you killed our translator, what do we do?”

  “Stand back.” Renée said. “Chang, set the C-4.”

  “But we cannot reach door. Nothing to stand on.”

  “Then position it carefully as far in as you can. We’ll blow the area around it.”

  Caleb shook his head. “Wait, give us a chance.” He was shining his light about the corridor, checking the ceiling, the walls, even stabbing it into the water, looking for switches or levers.

  “Hurry,” Renée said. “You’ve got until the charges are set.” She glanced at Chang, who was busy with their packs, assembling the explosives.

  “Ten minutes.”

  Renée crossed her arms and nodded to Caleb and Phoebe. “You heard the man. Do your stuff in ten minutes, or I do it my way.”

  #

  Phoebe pulled Orlando closer to her, took both his hands and got up on her tippy-toes to whisper in his ear. “We’ve got to cover for Caleb, so let’s do this.”

  “A little hard to concentrate,” he said, “with you so close. My thoughts are kind of running amok.”

  “They can run amok later. The door. Now. How do we open it? Think about nothing else.” She withdrew her lips from his ear.

  “Easier said than done.”

  She closed her eyes as Caleb splashed over to them. “Give it a try, big brother. Whatever comes.”

  “All right.”

  But that was all she heard, as the surroundings melted away and the water around her feet dried up. . . .

  “It is ready, my lord Ogadai.”

  A man stands in the shadows behind the smoking torches.

  “The markings around the door . . .”

  “As you instructed, master. The scribes have written the curses your father chose. The usual horrors to be visited on any who choose to violate the mausoleum beyond.”

  “And the door, once set?”

  “Can be opened only from the other side.”

  “And only when Temujin rises.”

  The man nods. “For he will need a way out, should life be restored.”

  “Pray,” said Ogadai, “that his spirit prefers the next world to this one. But if not, at least his city awaits. He may rule here as he wishes.” He lowers his head. “Seal the door, and let us depart.”

  Phoebe’s eyes bolted open, and she stared at Orlando.

  “Crap,” Orlando said. “I didn’t see anything about the way in from this side.” He nodded grudgingly to Renée. “You’re going to need to blow it open.”

  “Unless,” said Phoebe, “Montross is already up there.”

  13.

  Nina was pulled out of the vision too soon, hearing a rumbling, grinding sound that made the very floor shake and dust fall on her from overhead.

  But she had been there, in that other vision again . . .

  . . . somewhere so very high up, an impression of being inside the eyes of a giant, a colossus wading into the sea. Looking down over churning waves and boats of all sizes traveling below.

  Her arm hurts, as if struggling to keep something raised high.

  And then she senses two children, as if perched on her head, clinging to her hair, staring down in awe and excitement.

  And then she was ripped out of it and saw Alexander standing a little wobbly as he pulled his hand away.

  “The door,” he whispered. “It’s already open.”

  Nina stood before the mausoleum entrance. She held her head, dizzy, and glanced around. “Where’s Montross?”

  #

  Set in the walls, across each of the eight sides of the chamber, hooded brass lamps came on, their lights dim in the glare of the flashlights.

  “Turn off your lights,” came Montross’s voice.

  Behind him, Nina and Alexander switched off their flashlights. Oil lamps, set in horizontal runners, sparked to life, flickering and then illuminating a cathedral-like interior with a high apex at the crest of the dome overhead.

  “Wow,” Alexander said. “Freakin’ wow.”

  The glow extended and the chamber began to breathe a sound like an exhalation, as if a giant had been holding his breath for centuries and only now let it escape. Everything scintillated with gold; it was plated onto the floor, pounded into the walls, ringing the base of the dome. In marvelous artistic design, beautiful tiles created the shapes of zoological creatures, familiar species and some far more fanciful beasts, all composed of gold, with gems for eyes. They crawled across the floor, scaled the walls, bridged the gap and stretched onto the dome above. Sapphires and rubies blinked in the spreading dawn, and night-black mouths yawned. Oxen frolicked with elephants, reindeer with tigers. Polar bears swam in the night sky over giant scorpions while centaurs rode the backs of sea turtles and gryphons carried immense spiders in their talons.

  “Look at that,” Alexander said, pointing here, then there, walking around open-mouthed. “I guess some of the treasure’s right here.” He hadn’t gotten his fill of the designs and the artwork yet when the centerpiece of the otherwise barren chamber caught his eye and held it fast. An interior tower, a minaret without doors, windows or stairs of any kind, stood in the center of the room like a rocket in a silo. It was plated with gold, ringed in silver highlights like stars in a golden night sky. But at its top, just below the domed roof and level with the sole open window, was a flat surface. A plateau instead of a point, supporting what looked like a coffin made of dazzling gold and surrounded by nine banners. But from this angle, it wasn’t possible to see if the lid was open or closed.

  “We’ve found it,” Montross said. He still held his sketchpad in one hand, the Emerald Tablet in the other.

  Nina caught her breath. “How did you get in?”

  Montross’s gaze remained fixed on the pedestal. “I just opened the door.”

  “What?”

  “It wasn’t locked.”

  “Then why did you—?”

  “Have you focused on it? Frankly, I wanted you thinking about something else. Clearly Alexander’s mind is still elsewhere. With you assisting, I figured you might learn something that could help us later on.” He turned now, lowered his head and fixed her with his steely blue eyes. “So, did you?”

  “I saw something.” Nina shook her head, but pulled her eyes away and looked at Alexa
nder. “I don’t understand it yet.”

  Montross pointed to Alexander. “What about you, nephew?”

  Alexander shrugged, still blinking at all the gold. “I don’t know. I just got this weird feeling of height. Like I’m floating or flying. And there are these two kids.”

  Montross tilted his head. “Interesting.” He gave Nina a long look, uncertainty and distrust flashing in his eyes. Then he continued to the base of the narrow tower and looked up.

  “Wait.” Alexander pointed to Montross’s sketch pad. “What did you draw?”

  Montross tore off a sheet of paper, folded it four times and then, after putting his pad back in this pack over his shoulder, gave it to Alexander. “Look at that later.”

  Alexander reluctantly put it in his pocket. “When?”

  “You’ll know when.” He sighed and returned his attention to the tower and the crypt at the top. “Why don’t you two figure out how we get up there?”

  Nina glanced around, scouting out the walls and the floor, looking for anything out of place. “There’s got to be something that would lift us up there.”

  “Or,” said Alexander thoughtfully, “bring it down here.”

  Montross clapped his hands. “Now that sounds more like it.” He considered the walls, the dome, thinking. But Alexander was ahead of him.

  “The animals,” he said, pointing to the base around the minaret. He turned on his flashlight again to get a better look. “The creatures nearest the tower? In the first row, they’re all set up inside circles, see? And I noticed when I stepped on this dragon-creature here, the floor dropped slightly, and I heard a click.”

  He stepped away, and it slowly rose back up with his weight off it. “See?”

  “We see,” Nina said, turning on her light and shining it around the other animals, then to the walls. “You look for those stepping stones, I’ll look for the traps that waste you when you step on them in the wrong order.”

  Montross stepped back, watching his footing. He thought for a moment, and then set down the Emerald Tablet, pulled out his necklace, so it dangled down his chest. It seemed to be vibrating, tugging alternately between the floor and its brothers, higher above. “We’re almost there. Hurry.”

  He closed his eyes and winced. Held his head as he shook it. “Still there, damn it. Still there.”

  “What?” Alexander asked, distracted as he moved around the tower.

  Montross trembled, then waved a dismissive hand. “Something in the future.”

  Alexander poked his head around the tower, then disappeared again. “Is it where you’re killed?”

  “Of course. But this one in particular, this death . . .” Montross was still shaking his head. “It’s not cleared yet. I had hoped it would be, just by getting this far, but now it seems there’s more to do. It won’t be enough to find all the keys. We have to use them somehow.”

  “I got it!” Alexander yelled. In a few seconds he appeared again. “At least, I think I do.”

  “Do you or don’t you?” Nina snipped. “Did you RV it? Because if not, I’d rather you didn’t guess.”

  “I didn’t, but I don’t think I need to. Look,” he insisted, “I might not have seen all the clues back at our lighthouse, but it’s like it was made for a young boy. A kid like me.”

  “How so?”

  “The animals, there are nine “normal” ones. You know, a monkey, a giraffe, a horse and a rhino.”

  “Yes, normal,” Nina said, “if you’re in the zoo.”

  “Well, normal compared to three creatures that I’d say don’t belong.”

  “Three?” Montross perked up.

  “Yup.” Alexander rubbed his hands. “See, it’s also almost as if he knew we’d be coming, and that there would be three of us. Just like the three keys.”

  “Or,” said Montross, “he knew it would take a different form of three to do what has to be done after gaining these keys.”

  “The three brothers,” Nina whispered. “So where are these three special creatures?”

  Alexander shrugged. “Well, there’s the dragon, which I already found. And then there’s a gryphon and a centaur.” He looked up sharply. “Hm. So, if they’re supposed to represent the brothers, I wonder which one you are? And which one’s my dad?”

  Montross smiled. “Well, since I’m the only one here, I’m picking the one I like.” He circled around until he found the centaur and stood on it. “Nina, be so kind as to set your feet upon the gryphon. And Alexander?”

  “The dragon, I know.”

  “So we’re sure about this?” Nina asked, standing outside the boundary of the gryphon, its forepaws raised up in attack, its jaws wide.

  “Sure about nothing,” Montross said, “except that I don’t die in the next few hours. If this doesn’t bring down Genghis Khan, then we’ll need to think of something else.”

  “But what about me?” Alexander asked, suddenly shivering. “Will I die?”

  Montross shrugged. “No, only one of us will, and very soon.” He shot a glance to Nina.

  “Yeah, I’m ready. Ready for this too.” She took a step, then brought both feet onto the gryphon’s body. It dropped, then all three circular stones turned.

  Suddenly, they were all facing outward, and there was a wind, a rush of air—and all the lights went out except their two flashlights.

  The main door slammed shut and something slid across it with a grating sound.

  The tower rumbled and shook. Then it began to lower into the floor.

  #

  They ducked and winced, afraid of being hit by some kind of protrusion as the tower descended. It fell with incredible speed, grinding through the hole.

  Shielding his eyes, Montross looked up, keeping his attention on the golden centerpiece as it roared down to their level.

  I hope it stops, he thought, just as the entire structure jarred to a thundering halt. About six feet of structure remained, six feet of the tower structure until the apex upon which lay the glorious funeral barge under an open tent of white cloth. The coffin itself was more like a curved boat, carved with circles and sun-wheels and crescent moons, but no text.

  As for the body that lay regally upon it, all Montross could see from this angle was an array of extravagant silk coverings and the shadowy silhouette of armor made of leather and fur, a helmet containing a grizzled face gazing skyward.

  On the side he was facing, he saw three vertical indentations. Footholds.

  “Nina. Now’s the time. Take your position.”

  “Can we step off the circles?”

  “I believe so.”

  “Let’s try,” Alexander said, moving off it. In a moment, he and Nina were together with Montross.

  “It’s not rising,” Nina said.

  Montross set one foot in the lowest groove. “It doesn’t appear so. Maybe it was only designed to descend once. But one thing is for certain. Come with me, Alexander.” He pulled himself up to the second rung, then reached out a hand to the boy.

  “I’m not going up there.”

  “Yes you are. And I’ll tell you the one thing I have seen for certain.”

  Alexander took his hand, and Montross pulled him up. “When I take these keys, when I lift the body of the great Genghis Khan to retrieve them, a door will open and we’ll see your father again. Along with a lot of trigger-happy soldiers.”

  Nina walked away, into the deeper shadows against the farthest wall, taking from her pack the sniper rifle and night-vision scope.

  And a lot of ammo.

  14.

  “Look out!” Phoebe yelled, pulling Orlando back as Caleb leapt out of the way, amazed. The door suddenly burst apart in a blur as something immense dropped into the chasm. And kept dropping. The noise was deafening. Some of the soldiers turned and fled, believing at last the curse of Genghis Khan had caught up with them.

  “What the hell?” Renée yelled, her voice barely audible over the cacophonic sound. She splashed backwards through water that was swif
tly rising .

  “Oh no!” Caleb shouted. “The cylinder. It’s displacing the water from the tunnel.”

  Phoebe fought a wave that had risen almost to her shoulders.” Displacing it onto us!”

  Orlando reached out and caught her hand, just as Caleb grabbed his collar. They stood fast against the swirling waters rising up to their chins, and Caleb immediately had a flashback to the room under the Pharos.

  Stop!

  As if on cue, the corridor rocked and jarred with a thud as the cylinder seemed to have hit bottom. Pebbles and dirt dropped from the edges on the ceiling, and the rounded portion of the block in front of them trembled. And as the lights above the water aimed at it, something appeared. An outline.

  “A door!” Renée said, pointing.

  It shook, trembled again, and then the rectangular section opened, sliding upward and letting in the water.

  “It’s draining,” Caleb said, dropping after trying to stand on his toes. He directed his light into the opening. There was a ladder of sorts, but the rest of the wide cylinder looked like the interior of a hollow tunnel, sucking in the water down into its base.

  Renée splashed forward first and shone a light inside and then up. “Stairs rising in a spiral. Only one direction, so at least we don’t have to make any more choices.”

  “What’s up there?” Chang asked, getting closer, shaking the water out of his gun.

  “Would you believe,” said Renée, “another door?”

  #

  Alexander climbed up after Montross and he stood in the only spot left, right between the body’s feet. “What are you doing?” he whispered, shining his light up to where Montross was fumbling with something around the corpse’s head.

  The corpse . . .

  Alexander shuddered, squeezing his legs together and trying not to touch anything, not even to brush against any part of the body.

  “Just wait,” Montross said. Then as Alexander’s light reached him he snapped, “And shut that off!”

  Alexander flicked off the light. But not before it had flashed onto the face under the helmet. Alexander had seen mummy movies before and read his share of archeological articles with photos showing unearthed Incan kings and Egyptian burials, where they’d peeled off the funeral masks and revealed the leathery, grizzled faces, the sunken eye-sockets, the browning flesh, the long teeth and hair that had continued to grow. This face was similar, and yet more regal, more peaceful. He’s held up pretty good down here, Alexander thought as he shut off the light.