by James Phelan
“No, I don’t think they did either,” Dr. Dark said, “but there’s a lot we still don’t know about ancient history. Some people believe that the stones used in the pyramids form a battery, a storage device for power. The king’s chamber is made of granite, so it could be an ‘engine room.’ Granite under so much pressure creates its own perpetual energy, just like the quartz crystal in a watch.”
“So you’re saying the pyramids were some kind of machine, rather than a fancy grave for pharaohs?” Eva said.
“Possibly,” Dr. Dark said.
“But machines?” Eva said, looking up at the massive building of stone. “I mean, that’s—that’s amazing!”
“Amazingly crazy,” Lora chimed in. “It’s a theory, Eva, nothing more. One of many theories about what these were built for and what the Dream Gate could possibly lead to.”
“What’s—is that … does anyone …?” Alex said, walking away with a curious look on his face.
“Alex?” Eva asked, watching him. “What is it?”
“Look at that, up there,” Alex said, pointing to the top of the pyramid. “There are people up there!”
Eva squinted, trying to focus in the darkness. As her eyes settled there, she could make out pinpricks of lights and a handful of tiny figures on top of the Great Pyramid, their silhouettes hard to see against the night.
Lora grabbed a pair of night-vision binoculars. She put them to her eyes, staring at the top of the pyramid.
She pulled them away from her face almost instantly. She turned to the others, her face ashen. “The rest of the last 13 are already here.”
26
SAM
The Bakhu was complete.
Sam, Solaris and the Professor stood back and took it in.
Solaris carefully turned the handle. Sam watched as the Gears spun and whirred. The Professor’s eyes were wide in silent awe.
“Yes!” Solaris’ pleasure at seeing the machine come to life was almost as tangible as Sam’s disappointment that he was not the one to do it. Sam looked up to the evening sky—the moon continued its steady rise and more and more stars were puncturing the heavens above them.
Sam looked down and saw a jet below. It sat there, waiting.
The others must have already gotten here. Where are they?
“We wait, up here,” Solaris said, looking around at the sky, “until the stars and moon are in the right alignment.”
They sat in silence, waiting. Sam glanced at the Professor. He looked old, all of a sudden. The emotional horror of discovering Sebastian was their enemy was taking its toll. He’d tried to speak to his son but Solaris had brushed off the Professor’s words, sitting on the opposite side of the pyramid, waiting, watching the moon rise.
As Sam’s mind wandered, going back over the events of the last few months and all the adventures he’d had, he glanced down once more at the jet and was startled to see something had changed. There was a camp fire down there now, people gathered around it. He couldn’t make them out clearly enough to recognize anyone—were they friends, or enemies?
Sam looked out at the clouds of dark smoke that rose from Cairo.
Solaris stood up abruptly. “Time to find out if this race was truly worth it,” he said, pointing up at the sky. “Any moment now …”
Sam looked up. The full moon was now almost directly above them. But that wasn’t what Solaris was pointing at. He was pointing at a cluster of stars, a constellation opposite Orion.
Ophiuchus.
Solaris held up the machine. He turned Sam’s Gear, the key.
CLICK.
The machine whirred. Solaris held it in both hands. He turned the handle to line up the tiny holes through the Gears with the Ophiuchus constellation in the sky. The Gears cranked and clanged, turning around and spinning until—
CLONK!
It stopped.
Solaris looked at the last Gear, the astrolabe, visible on the top of the machine. It lined up with notches that lined the inside of the box.
“What are these markers?” Sam asked, almost to himself.
Nudging ever closer, it was the Professor who replied. “Each represents a specific distance. According to da Vinci’s journal, each is a thousand cubits.”
“Cubits?” Sam said.
Solaris snorted. “An Ancient Egyptian measurement—about forty-five centimetres,” he said. “You really don’t know what you’re doing, do you? Some hero …”
Sam could feel the Professor’s steadying gaze on him.
Solaris tapped on a small screen on the inside of his wrist. Sam could see that it brought up a map with a blinking marker that was zooming in on a location.
“Yes! It’s working!” Sam couldn’t contain the thrill of seeing the machine finally work. The marker became fixed, blinking in place now.
“That’s it!” Solaris turned to Sam with what almost felt like shared excitement. But the moment passed in an instant and Solaris gave the machine to Sam with a rough shove. “Now, how about we get your friends down there to give us a ride?”
27
GABRIELLA
Gabriella watched on as Eva took the binoculars. She was glued to them for a long moment, then turned back to the others.
“They’re up there—Sam, the Professor and Solaris. But Solaris has two men with him, I think they’ve got them captive. The Professor was waving down to us and Sam had the Bakhu machine in his arms.”
“Have they put it together, do you think?” Gabriella gasped. “It must be, no?”
“It’s a long hike back down from there, especially for the Professor,” Lora said.
“What are you suggesting?” Xavier said.
“I think we need to take the jet up there and winch them up,” Lora replied.
“Are you crazy?” Gabriella cried, several of the others nodding in agreement.
Have they forgotten how much that man wanted to hurt us?
“No, Lora’s right,” Phoebe said. “We have to. Like it or not—and I don’t—we need all of the last 13 together to open the Dream Gate.”
“So we play along, for now,” Lora said. “We take the jet up there, winch them aboard, find out where we have to go. We take care of Solaris and his men whenever and however we can.”
“I agree,” Dr. Dark said. “There is no other way.”
“OK, we’re moving, now,” Lora said, heading toward the jet. She waved at the pilots to start up the engines. “Everyone on board. And keep your wits about you, this is going to be tricky.”
“Let’s do this,” Alex said.
Questo è matto!
The jet roared straight up into the sky and then tilted toward the top of the pyramid. Gabriella was glued to her window, Maria and Xavier next to her. The others were spread out in the rows behind, Phoebe and Lora closest to the door. She watched as they circled the top of the pyramid, the aircraft’s powerful lights bathing it in their harsh glare.
Sam, the Professor and Solaris looked up, shielding their eyes from the dust whipping up as the jet hovered directly above them.
Lora opened the cabin door and tossed out a harness and rope attached to a winch. The sound of the jet’s engines was almost deafening with the door open.
Gabriella looked below. The machine had been put into Sam’s backpack. He had it strapped on tight as he slung the harness over his head and under his arms. He gave a thumbs up.
Phoebe threw a switch and the winch whirred into action.
“Sam’s coming up,” Lora announced into the cabin.
It was hard to be excited when they knew Solaris would soon be joining them. Everyone’s faces were a mixture of relief and anxiety.
Sam rose up slowly, spinning above the pyramid, his arms and legs tucked in. Near the jet, he disappeared from view for a moment, but as Gabriella leaned forward anxiously, she saw Phoebe and Lora reach down and help him on board. Everyone cheered and called out to Sam as he stood there smiling, just for a second, before his face clouded over.
It�
��s not finished—it’s just started.
“You found it?” Dr. Dark asked eagerly. “The machine worked?”
“Yes,” Sam said. He looked at everyone in the cabin, drinking in all their faces, all of them together. “It worked, just like they said it would—the world’s first GPS.”
“Where does it point to?” Shiva said.
“Solaris has it programmed into a map on his wrist,” Sam said. “We need him in any case. He’s the last of the 13 … we can’t open the Gate without him. And we can’t leave the Professor.”
Gabriella watched as first Dr. Dark, then Phoebe and finally Lora all nodded in agreement.
Lora unhooked Sam from the harness, tossed it out the open door and let the rope wind out.
Solaris’ men came up next, expertly keeping a tight hold of their guns as they came on board. They spread out, one sitting close to the winch, the other pushing through the rows of seats to stand at the back of the jet, behind the last 13. He leered at Gabriella and Maria as they turned around to glare at him.
This is not good.
Sam crashed down into a seat next to Eva and Alex, across the aisle from Gabriella, Maria and Xavier. He gently rested his backpack on the cabin floor between them.
“You guys OK?” Sam asked.
“We’re fine,” Eva said. “But we had a run-in with Stella and her men.”
“You should have seen her, Sam,” Alex said, pointing to Eva, “she was whooping those guys all over the place.”
“And Xavier too,” Gabriella added with a smile. “All of us, I think.”
“So where’s Stella now?” Sam asked. “Please tell me she’s knocked out and tied up someplace dark and cold …” he trailed off at the sight of their faces. “What?”
“She picked a fight with Lora,” Eva said, “and then she fell … she’s dead, Sam.”
“Wow,” Sam said, leaning back in the chair. “That’s … huh. I’ve got a bit to catch up on.”
He doesn’t even know about the others yet. Dio mio!
But there was no time to fill Sam in as the Professor came into the cabin, Jedi jumping up to greet him.
The winch sprung to life for the final time.
Solaris hung onto the harness with a strong mechanical grip, coming closer with every passing second. His soldier stepped forward to bring him on board, the other raising his gun to show he had his eye on the others. Lora edged back from the door as Solaris appeared, Phoebe moving to stand in front of her.
As Phoebe shut the cabin door, Solaris pulled himself up to his full height, surveying the group as they tried to hide their fear. Gabriella forced herself not to shrink back from him, but the memory of that terrifying night in Rome came flooding back. Turning to Xavier and Maria, she could see their nightmares flashing before their eyes too. She grabbed their hands and squeezed tight.
We can do it, if we stick together. We must believe it.
The world needs us.
Lora looked as if she was about to jump out of her skin, all jangling nerves and barely restrained anger. Her face flushed a deep red and both Phoebe and Jedi held onto her arms.
Please don’t do anything stupid, Lora. We need you.
“I hear your second-in-command is no longer with us,” Sam said, squaring up to Solaris. There was no reaction from him. “Didn’t you hear me?” Sam went on. “Stella’s dead!”
Solaris simply shrugged his shoulders and turned on his heel to go forward to the pilots, barking out coordinates. The jet roared off into a slow turn, heading north.
He doesn’t care about anyone, not even his own people.
Solaris stalked back to the main cabin. “So here we all are, at long last. The thirteen of us together. Feels like … destiny,” he mocked.
He turned to Lora, his head tilting to one side. Sam moved toward her, Lora’s eyes now filling with tears as she came face to face with her boyfriend, the one she thought she’d lost, the one she’d grieved for.
Gabriella felt her own eyes grow wet as she witnessed Lora struggle to control her emotions.
“I—I thought you …” Lora began. “How could you let us think … what happened to you?”
“Enough!” Solaris roared, darting forward to seize the Professor by the neck.
Everyone was on their feet, shouting at once.
“Let him go!”
“You’ve got what you wanted, leave him alone!”
Gabriella heard Sam mutter, “Your time is nearly up,” and saw Eva hold him back.
Solaris waved them all away. “Save your pathetic noises. And mark my words—anyone tries anything and Daddy here is the first to go.”
28
SAM
After a short, tense ride, during which no one spoke, the jet started to make a descent. Sam looked at his watch.
Barely fifteen minutes in the air. We’re still in Egypt.
They touched down in the widest section of a dry riverbed. Jedi and Shiva passed out flashlights to everyone. Solaris was the first to the exit, pushing the Professor out in front of him, his wrist-mounted flame weapon pointed at his father’s head. They jumped down one by one, switching on their lights to light up the enveloping darkness.
“Keep walking up this riverbed until I say otherwise. We’ll be watching you all, and if there’s anything I don’t like, the Professor will feel my wrath. Got it?”
The group was silent.
“UNDERSTAND?” Solaris screamed.
“Yes!” Sam and the others muttered. “Got it.”
The whole group set off after him, guided only by their flashlights and the light of the moon and the stars.
“Dream a path through time and space,” Eva said, “there to find the sacred place.”
“The final lines of the prophecy,” Sam said.
“So ‘time and space’ is referring to the night sky?” Alex asked.
“Gotta be,” Sam replied.
“And ‘sacred place’ … maybe we’re looking for a temple? And the Dream Gate is hidden there?”
“But where are we?” Sam whispered.
“Near a small village called Qantir,” Alex said, reading a crumpled map he’d found in the jet. They stumbled on in the dark, the rest of the last 13 fanned out behind them. Solaris remained out in front, checking the coordinates, his burly mercenaries prodding them on. “It’s to the east of the Nile delta, about a hundred kilometres north of Cairo.”
“It just kills me that we’re walking right to the Dream Gate with him,” Sam said, motioning at Solaris, “and there’s not a thing we can do about it.”
“Not now,” Alex said, “but we’ll get our chance. And we’ll have to be ready to take it.”
“So why do you think the Bakhu brought us here?” Sam said, changing the subject as Xavier and Zara came up behind them to listen in. Underfoot, the riverbed cracked and crumbled with every step.
“Maybe there is a link to Ramses,” Zara volunteered. “This area near the delta is supposed to be where he built his palace. But the Nile shifted course and there was no more water so they moved on.”
“How do you know that?” Xavier said, impressed.
“I read,” Zara said. “What do you think I’ve been doing all these weeks while we’ve been waiting for Sam to find thirteen of us?”
“Right,” Xavier said, “fair enough.”
“The Ramses connection would make sense,” Eva said. “Maybe the Dream Gate was in the most obvious place all along—right where Ramses lived and ruled.”
“Out here?” Alex said. “There’s nothing …”
“Perhaps it’s hidden,” Eva said.
“How do you hide a temple?” Alex asked.
They walked on, each of them thinking, Sam knew, of what they might find and how they might beat Solaris.
But can we stop Solaris if he manages to open the Gate?
“Wait,” Solaris commanded, his metallic voice loud in the still night. “Stop here.”
They gathered in a group, the Professor, Lora an
d the others trying to stand protectively between Solaris and the rest of the last 13. Sam saw Phoebe shiver in the cold air but her expression was determined. They were far enough north of Cairo that the air was clear of smoke. The last gasps of a sea breeze blew in from the Mediterranean Sea to the north.
It’s time to save the world but it feels like we’re a million miles away from everyone else on the planet.
It all comes down to this handful of people in the middle of nowhere.
Is this what Ramses and da Vinci had in mind?
How shocked would they have been to discover Solaris was part of the last 13?
I guess you can’t have good without evil to push against it.
“Stay where you are!” Solaris ordered, pacing ahead and checking the map on his wrist, using it to get to the exact spot that the machine had pointed to. He stopped, hesitating, going over the coordinates again.
“Maybe it’s gone,” Alex said, “been wiped off the map.”
“It can’t be,” Gabriella said. “Not after everything we’ve gone through.”
The riverbed flattened out to a large space, where several old rivers must have met and joined to pour out into sea.
“This is it,” Sam said to them, “It’s here. But Eva’s right—it’s hidden someplace.”
“The Dream Gate is here?” Xavier said, looking around. “I see dry riverbeds. I see embankments, dusty fields and a few rocks.”
“But there’s nothing here,” Cody countered. “Certainly no city.”
“Well, there was until the water diverted,” Xavier said. “With no water, the city would have been unliveable and abandoned. Over time, it became ruins and then nothing. Zara was just telling us, right?” he added as Zara grimaced at him.
Sam looked around. There were no ruins in sight now. Nothing but small sand dunes and the tops of the old riverbeds, some towering up to four metres high, topped with tufts of desert grass.
“So,” Alex said. “What do we do now?”
“We wait,” Sam said, sitting down, watching Solaris pacing and checking his GPS. “We wait.”