Equinox

by Michael White

  Laura reached in and gripped the black tag halfway along the row. It was made from very soft leather. She pulled. It came towards her easily, then clicked into place a foot down from its original position. She looked up at Philip and raised an eyebrow. 'Well, nothing's exploded.'

  'Yet. .' he retorted. 'Try the others — white, yellow, red.'

  She followed the sequence, pulling down the white tag, then the yellow. Finally her fingers tightened around the red leather strip and she gave it a gentle tug. There was a hollow click. But nothing happened.

  Laura got to her feet as Philip picked up the rucksack and kicked the waders away from the door. For several moments nothing happened, then they heard a creaking sound. It grew louder and they stepped back as the stone slab pivoted into the room, revealing a black hole beyond.

  'Here we go,' Philip said.

  Immediately inside the doorway, they saw two ancient-looking wood-and-rag torches in wall brackets. Laura reached for her matches. The old torches cast a poor light and the electric flashlights were still needed to dispel the gloom. Philip took a cautious step forward.

  They were in another stone-walled room, but it was much smaller than the chamber they had just left; and this one was rectangular and low-ceilinged. Directly ahead stood an archway draped in massive cobwebs. They trained their torch beams on the opening. Beyond it a corridor fell away into the darkness. Two feet ahead of them, the floor of the room simply disappeared. Laura gasped and Philip gripped her arm.

  'Wow,' she said.

  They directed their torches towards the gaping hole. A chasm at least twenty feet across, it took up most of the room. On the far side there was another two-foot-wide platform before the archway, and to left and right the hole stretched to the walls of the chamber. It was a yawning black pit, the bottom invisible. But as their eyes adjusted to the light they could make out the faint outline of sixteen coloured circles like stepping stones across the chasm. Each circle formed the top of a narrow pedestal that thrust up from the blackness of the pit.

  'What do you reckon?' Philip said.

  'I can see the black, white, yellow and red at just the right intervals. Come on.' Before Philip could say anything, Laura had stepped onto the black-topped pedestal in the first row.

  With one foot on the strip of floor close to the door and the other alighting on the black circle, it looked for a second as though she had made a good decision and that they would soon be across the void. But as she lowered her full weight the pedestal began to crumble. Laura screamed and lost her balance. The pedestal powdered beneath her feet. She spun round and Philip saw her blind panic as she flailed at the dead air, clutching at nothing. Missing the edge of the pit by at least six inches, she crashed downwards into emptiness.

  Chapter 38

  Oxford: 30 March, 9.35 p.m.

  Monroe felt utterly depressed as he drove along The High, heading out of the city centre towards Headington Hill. Another couple had been murdered. Although it vindicated his suspicions that Cunningham could not be the killer, it also meant that two more young people had died and he was no nearer finding the maniac who was responsible. It also proved beyond doubt that Laura Niven and Philip Bainbridge had been right all along about the astrological connection; this latest abomination had been committed exactly when they had predicted it would.

  He punched a key on his car phone and the duty officer at the station answered almost immediately. 'Any luck contacting Bainbridge?' Monroe asked.

  'Nothing sir, just his voicemail again.'

  'OK, call his mobile every five minutes and keep trying the house. I want to know the moment you reach him.'

  Just before Headington Hill, Monroe turned off into Marston Road. A few hundred yards down on the left he swung the car onto a muddy track called Kings Mill Lane. He saw immediately, fifty yards ahead, the floodlights and the reflective jackets of his team. Three police cars and an ambulance were parked to one side of the lane. As he drew closer, he could see an elderly man sitting just inside the ambulance with a red blanket over his shoulders. An oxygen mask was strapped to his face.

  Monroe pulled the car over beside the other vehicles, and walked over to the ambulance. 'What's happened here?'

  The paramedic took Monroe to one side. 'Old boy found the bodies about forty minutes ago. He's in shock.' Monroe raised an eyebrow. 'Says he walked right past them on his way towards Mesopotamia Walk from Headington but then realised something was up when he saw them again on his way back home. Take a look — you'll see what I mean.'

  The lane was soaked from the heavy rain and Monroe's shoes squelched in the mud. It was all he could do to keep his balance. But a few yards further on, the track led onto a narrow tarmac path that ran on towards an old mill and the river walk.

  Ten yards ahead, Forensics had just finished erecting a white plastic screen across the path. As Monroe approached, a young constable held a flap open for him and he ducked under the retaining bar to emerge on the other side.

  Two floodlights had been set up and they produced a harsh lemon light. Another wall of white plastic stood twenty feet away along the path. It started to drizzle again and the floodlights caught the droplets of water, making them glisten in the pallid night. To his right, Monroe could see a bench beside the path. He caught a glimpse of two figures seated there, but they were partially obscured by someone dressed in a Forensics suit. As the man stood up Monroe recognised a grim-faced Mark Langham, who stepped back to allow Monroe his first clear look at the dead couple.

  They had been positioned to appear as though they were embracing, their faces close together, lips almost touching. A passer-by giving them a casual glance would think that they were simply a couple in love. Monroe felt a momentary frisson of disgust.

  He bent down to take a closer look. In the floodlight beams the skin of their faces and hands had taken on a puce hue. Their dead stares were fixed ahead. Both of them were fully dressed but their clothes were dishevelled and stained. Gail Honeywell had her left palm at Raymond Delaware's neck as though pulling him towards her lips. Monroe felt his jaw clench as he spotted the black and red gash of the victim's ripped throat.

  Langham crouched down beside Monroe. 'They've been dead for at least two hours,' he said. 'And if you look here' — he pointed to a blood-soaked area just above the hem of the girl's opened jacket — 'I would imagine this is where the murderer removed an organ. . assuming it's the same killer, with the same MO. And then there's this. .' He gently turned Gail Honeywell's head.

  The side of the girl's face was a patchwork of deep gashes. Broad streaks of blood ran down her neck and across her right shoulder, drenching her blouse red. Her right eye was missing.

  'The amount of blood would indicate that these injuries were sustained pre-mortem,' Langham remarked. 'This is different from the earlier murders. Really weird.'

  Monroe made no comment. He straightened, staring at the lifeless faces of the young couple. Then he noticed a dull and faded metal plaque screwed to one of the wooden planks across the back of the bench. It must have been there for as long as the bench had stood in this spot. It said: 'Oh Rest a Bit for 'tis a Rare Place to Rest At.'

  'How very droll,' he said under his breath.

  Monroe was a few paces away from the car when his phone rang.

  'Rogers, sir. I thought you wouldn't mind being disturbed. Just got the report back from the lab on the blood sample from the second murder.' 'And?'

  'A perfect match — it belongs to Malcolm Bridges.'

  Chapter 39

  Oxford: 30 March, 10.15 p.m.

  'You fool!' The Master was glaring at him, his eyes bulging, sweat running down his cheeks. 'You moronic. . you could have destroyed everything.' He slapped the Acolyte hard across the face.

  For an instant the Acolyte almost lost control. His right hand twitched.

  The Master noticed the involuntary movement and smirked. He fixed the Acolyte with a look of unalloyed menace. 'Do you not want to strike me? I sense that yo
u do. Or do you prefer to take your pleasures only with young girls?'

  The Acolyte said nothing but stared rigidly ahead of him.

  The Master slapped the Acolyte's face again. A red welt appeared on the man's cheek. The older man hit him again, harder still.

  Taking a step back, the Master appraised the

  trained killer. His face contorting with contempt, he spat in the Acolyte's face.

  The Acolyte did not react even as spittle ran down his cheek.

  'Get out of here. . you barbaric pig,' the Master said. 'If you fail me again I will treat you worse than you treated Gail Honeywell.'

  Chapter 40

  Oxford: 30 March, 10.18 p.m.

  With lightning reflexes, Philip hurled himself forward to catch hold of Laura's arm as she fell. Bracing himself on the edge of the pit he helped her scramble to safety. She was shaking as she sat on the narrow strip of floor. Philip found a space beside her. 'A little silly,' he said, putting his arm around her shoulders. Laura was speechless.

  He reached for the water bottle in his rucksack. 'Here, have a drink.'

  'Shame you don't have anything stronger.' She grinned and took a long swig, wiping her mouth as she handed it back. 'Christ. . thanks,' she said, lowering her head onto her knees.

  'Any time. I don't want to do this on my own, now do I?'

  Laura gave him a weak smile. 'So, what now?' 'Good question.'

  'I was sure the route had to be linked with the alchemical colours.' Philip shrugged.

  'Maybe it's backwards? It doesn't make sense otherwise.'

  'OK, but how are we going to find out?' 'Use the rucksack.'

  'But that's not heavy enough, and if we lose it. .'

  'Better than one of us going down.'

  Philip reached for the bag. Stepping to the edge of the chasm he placed it gently on a red circle next to where the black pedestal had stood. He let go slowly and stepped back. Nothing happened.

  'Right,' he said and pulled the bag back. 'But I'm still not convinced. Let's use the rope. Tie it around your waist and I'll use the wall bracket to brace it. If it holds your weight, then fine. If not, I'll catch you.'

  Laura wound the rope around her waist in two loops and Philip knotted it tightly. Then he swung the other end over the iron wall bracket and stood on the edge with his feet well apart. Laura moved forward carefully to place one foot slowly on the red pedestal. She was breathing heavily and beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. 'Here goes.'

  It held. She turned to face Philip with a look of triumph on her face and he gave her the thumbs-up.

  'Try the next one,' he called to her. 'I'll give you some slack.'

  Laura inspected the pattern of circles in front of her. In the second row, second from the left, stood a yellow platform. Moving as light-footedly as she could, she hopped onto the yellow stone and let out a deep sigh of relief.

  Til go the whole way,' she announced. 'It's too dangerous for both of us to be on these things at the same time.' Then, turning to look again at the 'bridge' of pedestals, she stepped onto the white one in the third row. There she paused for a moment, took a deep breath and then moved onto the black circle in the final row. A few seconds later she was on the other side.

  'OK, your turn,' Laura called, her heart racing.

  She untied the rope and paid it out so that Philip could approach the bridge with it hooked over the bracket and then tied to his waist. On Laura's side of the pit she looped the rope over another torch bracket in the wall near the archway. If one of the pedestals should give way Philip could pull himself over along the rope.

  Moving as quickly but as carefully as he could, Philip followed the same route that Laura had taken — red, yellow, white and black, and in a few moments he was on the far side standing next to her.

  'Phew,' he said and wiped the sweat away from his eyes. Td like to say that was fun. But in all honesty I can't.'

  Through the archway was a short corridor which twisted to the left and then sharply right. As Laura and Philip took the second bend they emerged into a circular room. It was lit from the ceiling. In fact, the whole ceiling seemed to glow.

  It was made of solid rock but the light seemed to be emanating from the stone itself.

  'My God,' Philip said, looking up at the rock over his head. It was lumpy and mottled, and on closer inspection he could see a dusting of yellow crystals covering the entire surface. 'Must be some sort of natural light-emitting crystal,' he added.

  'Clever alchemists.'

  'I guess so. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?'

  The room was bare except for another opening in the wall opposite the archway that they had come through. Laura peered in. Corridors led off left and right. On the wall ahead were two metal discs, each about the size of a CD. Etched into the left-hand disc were two concentric circles. The disc on the right carried another symbol, a circle with what looked like a pair of horns on top and a cross at the base.

  'Any ideas?' she asked.

  Philip peered at the Newton document. 'They're both on here — look, next to the labyrinth.'

  'The one on the left is the symbol for Sol, the sun; the other one is Mercury, isn't it?'

  Philip nodded.

  'So, do we follow the sun or Mercury?'

  'What relevance do either of them have?'

  'Mercury is the winged messenger. The sun. . what? Light … the surface, maybe?'

  'Doesn't help much. Mercury was the most important metal to the alchemist, though, right? One of the three basic elements used to create the Earth.'

  'So we should go this way, then?' Laura pointed to the corridor on the right.

  'Maybe. But the sun is the centre of all things in astrology.'

  The ceilings of both corridors were illuminated in the same way as the chamber behind them. 'I would go for the left, the sun.'

  'OK.'

  Laura led the way. They took it slowly. A few yards in, the corridor curved to the right and then to the left, and soon they came to another fork. Here the path split into two smaller passageways, each one heading off at an angle, ten o'clock and two o'clock. Between the openings stood a rock column. There, at Laura's head height, they found another disc. It was divided by a vertical line. To the left of this they saw again the symbol for the sun, the circles they had seen earlier, and on the right, etched into the metal, was another symbol. It looked like the letter 'h' with a horizontal line through it.

  'Does this mean we just keep following the symbol for the sun? That can't be right.' Laura frowned.

  'No, it doesn't feel correct,' Philip confirmed.

  'Which either means we go this way' — she pointed to the right-hand passageway — 'or we go back to the first pair of symbols and take the other route.'

  Laura took the Newton document from Philip's hand and sat cross-legged on the floor with her back to the rock column that divided the pathways. The light from the ceiling was bright enough to read by.

  'So, what information have we used so far?' Laura said. 'The colour code? We've used that twice, haven't we? And it doesn't seem relevant here. Mercury is a metal, but the other symbols are Saturn and the sun, so the Mercury symbol must refer to the planet.'

  Philip squatted down beside her. 'What about the positions of these symbols?' he mused. 'Maybe they're telling us something.'

  They both stared hard at the paper, trying to match the positions of the symbols with the schematic of the labyrinth that Newton had reproduced from the original.

  'It's not their positions,' Laura said suddenly. 'It's their relationship to the incantation — this.' And she pointed at the lines of Latin they had obtained using

  Charlie's code. Philip rifled through his pockets to find the translation they had written out the night before.

  You are Mercury the mighty flower,

  You are most worthy of honour;

  You are the Source of Sol, Luna and Mars,

  You are Settler of Saturn and Source of Venus,

  You are Empero
r, Prince and most regal of Kings,

  You are Father of the Mirror and Maker of Light.

  You are head and highest and fairest in Sight.

  All praise thee.

  All praise thee. Giver of truth.

  We seek, we beseech, we welcome you.

  'Yes. . "You are Mercury the mighty flower,'" Laura read aloud. 'Third line… "You ate the Source of Sol, Luna and Mars. ." That's it. We took the wrong corridor at the start. We should have followed Mercury, the right-hand passageway.'

  Back at the archway leading from the circular stone chamber, they paused at the two discs on the wall for a moment and then headed off along the corridor straight ahead of them, the right-hand turning off the chamber. A few moments later they reached a T-junction. On the wall ahead of them were two more discs. The right-hand disc carried the symbol for Venus, a circle with a cross at the bottom.

  Into the left-hand plate had been etched the symbol for the sun.

  'There should be four more junctions in the labyrinth,' Philip added, 'and symbols for the moon, Mars, Saturn, and Venus, in that order. It would be absolutely impossible to get through this without the document.' And he led the way along the left-hand passageway.

  The corridor to the next junction twisted and turned and seemed to go on for miles before hitting a steep upward incline. By the time they reached the top they were sweating and panting. Philip bent over with his hands on his knees. Laura wiped the sweat from her eyes and looked at the two plates on the wall designating another choice of route. The right-hand disc carried a crescent, the symbol for the moon. In the centre of the left-hand disc was the sign representing Mercury.

  They paused for a moment to catch their breath and this time Laura led the way to the fourth fork. Here they found the symbol for Mars, a circle with an arrow pointing diagonally away to the right, and they took that route, which ran steeply downhill. At the bottom, they found themselves in a broad corridor some four yards across. At the far end of this section there were three openings in the wall: to the left of the first one there were three discs on the wall. This time the three symbols were for Mercury, Saturn and the sun.