The Five Greatest Warriors

by Matthew Reilly

  Which was how they came to be here, flying in the midst of a nighttime storm above the furious Bristol Sea.

  After a time, they came to that part of the coast where the rock formation known as “The Well” could be found. It was low tide and the formation was visible, and it looked just like the image on Genghis Khan’s shield.

  The chopper swung into a hover above the rock formation. Pooh Bear was lowered by winch cable down to it.

  It was certainly peculiar, Pooh thought as he dangled from the chopper in the pouring rain. It was cylindrical in shape but the single piece of rock that formed it—whether by an accident of nature or by the hand of an ancient culture—had been fashioned into the shape of a brick well. The waves of the Channel sloshed over the unusual formation, draining away through the joins between the “bricks.”

  Hanging from the helicopter, with the cleansed Fourth Pillar in his chest pack, Pooh Bear touched down on the Well and he peered into it.

  It wasn’t very deep. The shaft of the Well ended with solid rock a short way down, barely a few feet. This added to the conclusion that its formation was merely a fluke of nature.

  But then as Pooh leaned further down, bringing the Pillar closer to the rock formation, a curious thing happened.

  That solid rock base of the Well suddenly rotated and retreated back into the rock, leaving a deep black void plunging into darkness.

  Pooh Bear’s eyes went wide.

  “Open Sesame,” he breathed. “The twins were right. We found it . . . ”

  THE ISLAND OF DIEGO GARCIA

  DIEGO GARCIA, INDIAN OCEAN

  MARCH 18, 2008, 0500 HOURS

  2 HOURS BEFORE THE 4TH AND 5TH DEADLINES

  AT THE same time, Jack and Lily were arriving at the remote island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

  While it was just after midnight in the UK, it was five in the morning here; the eastern sky glowed purple, announcing the coming dawn.

  As they began their descent, Jack was sitting at his laptop, examining one of the digital pictures of Stonehenge taken during the light show, specifically at the shaft of light marked “5”:

  It all made sense now. As with Hokkaido, the coastline had changed a lot over the millennia—Sri Lanka had been completely detached from mainland India—which was why Jack’s team hadn’t been able to pinpoint the Fifth Vertex. But Wolf had, either through good research, good contacts or prior secret knowledge.

  And there it was, in the middle of the Indian Ocean: Diego Garcia.

  On the way to the remote atoll, Jack had looked into its history.

  It was certainly intriguing.

  Lying a thousand kilometers south of India, technically it is owned by Britain—although, like the Rosetta Stone and the Basin of Rameses, it was actually owned by Napoleon’s France before the British seized it from the French in 1814.

  In 1971, however, an eager British minister—perhaps unaware of the island’s importance—allowed the atoll to be used as a military base by the US. It is still the launching point for all of America’s military activities in the nearby Persian Gulf.

  Its other activities, however, are highly classified.

  What is known is this: Diego Garcia supports a standing squadron of B-2 Stealth Bombers; it is technically part of US Space Command; and perhaps most curiously of all: no family dependents of service personnel are allowed to live on the island. This is most unusual for an offshore US base.

  For the last 37 years—and perhaps the 200 years before that—activity at Diego Garcia had taken place under the tightest of security, unobserved by the rest of the world.

  Jack shook his head. Napoleon, the British, and now America. They had all known about Diego Garcia’s importance for some time.

  “Why am I always the last to know,” he said aloud as the Halicarnassus touched down on a long island runway at the southern tip of Diego Garcia.

  The big black 747 taxied to the end of the runway, coming to a halt between a pair of semitrailer-sized MIM-104 Patriot missile launchers.

  A motorcade of Humvees, jeeps, and motorcycles-with-sidecars was waiting for it, plus about thirty Army Rangers.

  And there, standing at the head of this welcoming party, leaning lazily on the bonnet of the first Humvee in her hiking boots and cargo pants, was Miss Iolanthe Compton-Jones of the British Royal Family.

  JACK EMERGED from the Halicarnassus with Lily close behind him and two Spetsnaz guards flanking him. They stepped cautiously down some airstairs onto the tarmac, where they were met by Iolanthe.

  “Isn’t it wonderful to be met at the airport?” Iolanthe said lightly. “So nice to see you again, Jack. I hear you might be single again.” She winked suggestively.

  Jack just glanced at the Army Rangers flanking the line of Humvees. They looked pissed as hell. Clearly Jack and Iolanthe were not welcome guests, but Wolf—no doubt unhappily—had made the call to allow them total access before being imprisoned completely in his tank.

  Iolanthe guided Jack to the most senior American, a gray-haired three-star general. “Captain Jack West Jr., this is Lieutenant General Jackson T. Dyer, commander of the base here at Diego Garcia.”

  “So this is Wolf’s prodigal son,” Dyer said, assessing Jack. “I’ve known your father a long time. He’s a great patriot.”

  “Are all you Caldwell Group guys ‘great patriots’?” Jack asked.

  “Yes,” Dyer snorted. “Yes, we are. Welcome to Garcia.”

  Standing with the general was a hunched, bespectacled man Jack hadn’t seen since Genghis Khan’s arsenal: Felix Bonaventura, Wolf’s archaeology expert from MIT. Bonaventura’s little black eyes peered at Jack through John Lennon glasses.

  “This is Dr. Bonaventura,” Iolanthe said. “He’s been based at Diego Garcia for many years now. He’ll be taking us to see America’s hidden jewel here.”

  “The site is remarkable. Beyond anything you will have seen so far,” Bonaventura said.

  “You’d be amazed at what I’ve seen,” Jack said.

  General Dyer said, “I have instructions to allow West, the girl, and the woman inside, but those two Russian assholes are going to have to wait out here.”

  “Fine by me,” Jack said. “They’re not traveling with me by choice.”

  “That’s okay,” Iolanthe said calmly. She spoke quickly to the Spetsnaz guards in Russian. They nodded obediently although clearly not entirely comfortable with waiting on a US military airfield.

  “You ready, then?” General Dyer said.

  Iolanthe turned to Jack: “I have the Firestone, the Basin, and the springwater. Did you bring the Fifth Pillar?”

  “I did.”

  Iolanthe smiled. “Then, yes, we’re ready. After you, General.”

  Leaving Sky Monster and the Spetsnaz guards with the Halicarnassus, Jack, Lily, and Iolanthe were driven from the runway onto the atoll proper via a sweeping mile-long causeway not unlike those found in southern Florida.

  In shape, Diego Garcia resembles a warped “V”—with a sheltered lagoon in the middle and most of the main military facilities on the left-hand western arm of the V. Jack’s motorcade joined the V at its base and zoomed up the right-hand arm.

  After passing through several checkpoints, they arrived at a twelve-foot-high chain-link fence covered with opaque black material. Here their Ranger escorts were left behind, and only Jack, Lily, Iolanthe, Bonaventura, and the general progressed.

  It was 5:31 A.M.

  They had two hours till the Fourth and Fifth Pillars had to be laid simultaneously.

  Jack keyed his radio. “Pooh Bear? You read me?”

  A moment later, his earpiece crackled. “Loud and clear, Huntsman.”

  “Are you in position?”

  “We’re at the entrance to the Fourth Vertex! I’m entering it now with Stretch and the Twins!” Pooh Bear had to shout over the roar of his helicopter.

  “We just arrived at the Fifth Vertex and are about to go in,” Jack said. “Stay in voice contact b
ecause we have to plant these Pillars at exactly the same time, two hours from how.”

  “Good luck, Huntsman.”

  “Same to you.”

  As he said this, Jack’s Humvee emerged from the final checkpoint and Jack saw what lay beyond the high black fence.

  A superlong hangarlike building stretched away from him. Apart from its size, it was actually a pretty simple structure: just a peaked tentlike roof mounted on steel supports, open to the air at the sides.

  “Daddy?” Lily asked, confused.

  “It’s an awning,” Jack said, “to conceal whatever’s underneath it from satellite observation.”

  Their car sped into the hangarlike tent and Jack and Lily got to see what lay beneath it.

  “Wow . . .” Lily gasped.

  An enormous rectangular pit yawned before them, completely covered by the massive temporary roof. It resembled an open-cut mine, at least seven stories deep, with a broad earthen ramp running down into it.

  Parked around the great pit were many eight-wheeled HEMTTs— Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks, the workhorses of the US military. The size of a semitrailer, a HEMTT is a versatile eight-wheel-drive that can be adapted for many uses: most of the HEMTTs here had been configured as dump trucks and bore trays on their backs filled with earth. Others, however, towed mobile Patriot missile launchers. They guarded the rim of the pit.

  At the far end of the pit—in total contrast to its tentlike roof and dirt walls—was a sparkling modern structure, a cube made entirely of glass that butted up against the northern wall of the pit.

  An air lock, Jack realized.

  As their Humvee zoomed down the earthen ramp into the pit, Jack discerned an object inside the glittering glass cube.

  Built into the face of the brown earthen wall, not unlike the famous rock-cut buildings at Petra in Jordan, was a beautiful arched stone doorway.

  LUNDY ISLAND

  Pooh Bear, Stretch, and the twins entered the Well, free-roping down its tight vertical shaft. Two of Iolanthe’s Royal Marines accompanied them to make sure they did what they were supposed to.

  Rain fell on them as they roped down the shaft. The harsh white spotlight of the chopper danced overhead.

  After about a hundred feet they emerged in a wide tunnel that led downward at a gentle angle. Glowsticks were cracked, flares ignited. The four of them, plus their two armed Royal Marine guards, walked cautiously down the tunnel, before they came to an ornate arched doorway that opened onto a larger space.

  “Whoa . . .” Julius breathed.

  DIEGO GARCIA

  Jack, Lily, and Iolanthe were driven into the big glass cube at the end of the enormous pit.

  The cube itself was three stories tall, an air lock that could hold within its clear walls an entire semitrailer rig.

  Their Humvee stopped briefly at the towering ancient doorway cut into the dirt wall of the pit. It must have been sixty feet high. Hieroglyphs covered it. The circular symbol for the Machine was carved above its great stone doors.

  Jack pulled out a printout of Genghis Khan’s shield, and noted the image at the upper left corner:

  It was the same door, perfectly replicated on the shield.

  But it was far more impressive in real life: it was utterly huge and impossibly ancient. The dirt path passing through it was wide enough for HEMTTs to fit and easily big enough for their Humvee.

  The Humvee drove through the massive ancient archway, looking positively tiny, then headed down a long sloping passageway beyond it, before it arrived at a larger space and stopped.

  Jack, Lily, and Iolanthe stepped out of the car, their jaws dropping.

  “Whoa . . .” Lily said, just as Julius had done on the other side of the world.

  THE 4TH VERTEX

  LUNDY ISLAND, BRISTOL CHANNEL

  THE SUMMIT

  LUNDY ISLAND (4TH VERTEX)

  Pooh Bear, Stretch and the twins stood at the summit of a vast and complex boxlike structure mounted on the wall of an enormous abyss.

  Directly in front of the wall-mounted structure, dwarfing it, was the inverted bronze pyramid that was the Fourth Vertex.

  But unlike the other Vertices so far—where a pyramid had been suspended above a narrower abyss, or where the abyss itself had been surrounded by a viewing hall or a model city or a lava lake—at this Vertex the entire cavern was the abyss, one giant four-sided shaft.

  “This is beyond vertiginous,” Lachlan said, peering out at the bottomless darkness.

  The boxlike structure was a complicated tangle of interconnected towers, all clustered in a descending pattern one on top of each other, like a miniature city mounted on a wall, until at the very bottom of the irregular structure there appeared a long half bridge of stone that stretched out to meet the peak of the inverted pyramid.

  “What are these gaps?” Stretch nodded at some curious voids built into the waist-high stone walls on the summits of all the towers. They looked like open gates. Every rooftop bore at least one such void, while some, like their current one, bore as many as three.

  Julius looked at the three gaps on their rooftop. “There’s a hand-rung ladder cut into the wall below each gap. It’s a pathway down the structure, but you have to choose the correct ladder. The question is how?”

  “Lily said the golden plaque from the First Vertex called this place ‘The City of Waterfalls,’ ” Lachlan said. “I don’t see any waterfalls.”

  “The plaque!” Julius said. “That’s where the answer is. Jack said the frame of that plaque contains clues to getting safely through each of the last four Vertices.”

  While the other three hurried to check Julius’s laptop for an image of the Golden Plaque, Pooh Bear stood on his own, gazing far to the left of their position, looking out at another odd feature of this already very odd place.

  An ultranarrow path led around two walls of the square-sided abyss, a quarter of the way around the pyramid itself, before arriving at a terrifying wall ladder which led down to a tiny stone platform.

  “What about that?” he said.

  The twins looked up from the computer.

  “Looks like an observation platform of some kind . . .” Julius offered absently.

  “But to observe what?” Pooh Bear asked.

  “Here’s the plaque.” Julius brought it up on his screen:

  “Jack said the bottom edge of the frame solved the maze protecting the Third Vertex,” Julius said.

  “So which edge solves this one?” Lachlan asked.

  “Don’t know—” Julius said.

  “It’s the left side,” Stretch said. Taking the laptop from Julius, he walked a short way out onto the ultranarrow path and pointed back at the wall of their tower, just below the gap cut into its rail.

  “There’s a symbol cut into the wall beneath the gap,” he said. “Three diagonal lines. Just like the symbol here, at the top of the left side of the plaque’s frame.”

  Pooh Bear joined him on the path and saw the carving. “You’re absolutely right, that must be the—”

  A deep rumbling noise cut him off.

  Everybody spun.

  It had come from the tunnel through which they had entered the Vertex.

  A sudden blast of wind hit them, rustling their clothes. It was closely followed by a fast-moving trickle of seawater that came sweeping round the final bend in the tunnel, bouncing against its outer wall.

  “Something’s coming down that tunnel . . .” Julius said softly.

  “Run!” Pooh Bear called. “Now!”

  But the group was standing in two clearly defined groups: Pooh Bear and Stretch out on the narrow path; the twins on the rooftop, near the gap in its rail, with their two Royal Marine guards next to them.

  “Which wa—” Lachlan began, but then he saw it.

  A huge foaming body of seawater came rampaging around the bend in the tunnel. It roared as it moved—violent, charging, blasting. It would be on them in seconds. Not enough time for the twins to get to th
e safety of the path.

  Lachlan froze.

  “Lachie! This way!” Julius yanked his brother to the left side of the rooftop and pushed him over the gap on that side, where they found another wall ladder cut into the tower’s flank.

  Following behind Lachlan, Julius ducked below the rim of the gap just as the surging torrent of seawater hit the rooftop, picked up the two Royal Marines within its surging mass and flung them into the stone rail ringing the rooftop like a pair of rag dolls.

  The rest of the great body of water swirled on the summit rooftop, as if it were a living, thinking creature searching for a way down.

  It found it in the other two gaps on the tower top, which were marginally lower than the left-hand one, and a moment later the two Royal Marines were swept over one of those gaps—looking like two small objects disappearing down a kitchen sink—dropping from view with matching horrified looks on their faces, doomed to die somewhere down below.

  From his position on the narrow path, Pooh Bear saw it all happen. He also realized that he could never cross the fast-flowing stream of seawater now gushing out onto the rooftop.

  Below him, the twins were clambering down their wall ladder. In moments, the water would flow over the gap above them . . . and pour down on them hard.

  Pooh Bear’s eyes searched the space for an answer—and he found it in the form of the tiny platform over to the side.

  “It’s an observation platform . . .” he breathed. “What does it observe? It observes the correct path through this maze.”

  He snapped up.

  “Boys!” he called into his radio. “Wait on the next rooftop down! I understand this place now! We have to guide you through this maze from over there!” He pointed to the faraway platform.

  “What!” Julius looked up at him from the rooftop fifty feet below.

  Pooh Bear just threw him the Pillar, underhand.

  Julius caught the priceless diamond brick on a reflex, surprised and shocked. He looked up. “You want us to do this?”

  “You have to do this! Now go!”

  As they hustled down the narrow path, Stretch called to Pooh Bear: “You can’t be serious? The fate of the world depends on those two geekboys successfully navigating a rapidly flooding maze and planting that Pillar? Lachlan loses his breath walking to the cupboard to get a donut.”