They’d posted sentries.
Roche glanced at the doors leading into the mess hall. They were different from all the others in the outer buildings. The panels next to them controlled what looked like heavy hydraulic barriers that would slide into position with the push of a button. Something big was going down. He didn’t like the idea of being sealed inside here, but, at the same time, vastly preferred it to being outside.
Kelly’s face was devoid of expression. It was as though she’d retreated somewhere inside of herself, a reaction common in people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder when exposed to repeated trauma. He didn’t blame her, and it certainly wasn’t a reaction that was within her control, but now was not the time for her to shut down. He needed her sharp if they were going to figure out what was happening around them.
He tipped up her chin and looked directly into her eyes.
“Stay with me, okay?”
She barely seemed to recognize him at first, but managed to nod her head. He saw Tess from the corner of his eye and grabbed her before he lost her in the crowd again.
“What’s going on?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is they’ve raised the alert level, which means we’re all stuck in here until further notice.”
“Does this have anything to do with the search assignments on the boards outside?”
“I don’t know. Scientific doesn’t participate in the searches.”
“What are they looking for?”
“Hollis Richards, or so I’m told. They recently doubled the assignments, though. I heard someone say they were searching for something else, and no one’s seen Greg Jonas or Bryan Berkeley in a while.”
“What happened to them?”
“No one tells us anything. There’s a distinct line drawn between scientific and military personnel.”
“Is that what all of these people are? Scientists?”
“Most. Those guys over there are mechanical and mainly work on the rig up top, so we don’t see them very often. Those two at the table? They’re archeology. They work in the ruins. Anna Messerschmidt and Mats Karlsson. One’s a paleoarcheologist; the other’s a lexicologist, but I don’t remember which is which.”
“Who’s that?”
Roche inclined his chin toward the woman sitting at the end of the adjacent table. Her hands shook when she brought her coffee mug to her lips. Her face was stark white.
“Moira Murphy. Her bunk’s across from mine.”
“Would you mind introducing me?”
Tess looked at him, then at Kelly, as though inwardly judging him, but led him across the room anyway.
“Moira, this is—”
“Martin Roche. I know. I’ve studied the footage from the research station.”
Roche took the seat across from her and looked directly into her eyes. His initial assessment had been right. She knew exactly what was going on, and it scared the hell out of her.
“What’s out there, Moira?”
“Nothing that can get in here.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I hope.”
“Tell us, Moira. We need to know. Cameron Barnett is not the kind of man prone to overreacting. In fact, quite the opposite. So if something out there has him taking these kinds of precautions, I guarantee you, we’re all in serious danger.”
She glanced up at him and he read the truth in her expression.
“What is it?” he asked.
“If anyone else finds out, it will cause mass panic, which will only make things worse.”
“Christ,” Tess said. She sat down at the end of the table and buried her face in her hands.
“That’s how people end up getting killed,” Roche said.
“Trust us,” Kelly said, and slid into the seat beside him. “When everything happened here before, Barnett knew, and still he waited to evacuate us until the very last second. People died because of that decision. If something like that is happening here now, we need to know so we can protect ourselves.”
Moira’s gaze lingered on each of them before she apparently reached a decision.
“We don’t know what’s out there,” she finally said.
“So it’s not Richards,” Roche said.
“Not as far as I know.”
“Then what is it?”
“We had two men working in the ice caves down below. Whatever they found, it killed them and dragged one of their bodies into the tunnels. I originally thought they must have startled it and it attacked them, but after I saw what it did to Agent Berkeley . . .”
“Is it like Dale Rubley?” Kelly asked. “Like what he became?”
“As far as I can tell, it’s some sort of animal.”
“No animal could frighten Barnett like this,” Roche said.
“The problem is we don’t know for sure what it is. No one’s seen it. All we know is that it has a carapace like an armadillo, the jaws of a crocodile, and can climb straight up walls.”
“You’re telling me something has been alive down there all this time?” Tess said.
“No. I believe it was in a state of cryobiosis and they somehow awakened it.”
“So this thing killed two men and no one thought to evacuate us?”
“It’s only an animal, Tess. It can’t be much larger than a dog. We didn’t see a reason to panic.”
“But here we are now,” Roche said, “which means that something else has happened.”
“Oh, God,” Moira said, and looked straight up at the ceiling. If it were possible, she was even paler when she lowered her head and let her tears drain down her cheeks.
“I want both of you to look around this room and tell me if anyone who should be here is missing.”
Tess stood and surveyed the mess hall. There had to be at least twenty people sitting at the tables, milling around the snack table, or talking in groups.
“The little guy,” Tess said. “The one who looks like Steve Buscemi.”
“Desmond Bly,” Moira said. She turned around and searched the room for him. “I don’t see him, either.”
“Where does he work?” Roche asked.
“That’s the thing. He’s a speleologist. It’s his job to map all of these tunnels. He could be anywhere.”
“Beyond the range of the siren?”
“You don’t understand. He literally disappears for days at a time. This is nothing out of the ordinary for him.” She paused and furrowed her brow. “Of course, he was the one who found the nest. I can’t see him straying too far off on his own. Not after that.”
“What nest?”
“Where it took Berkeley after it killed him. We found him cocooned and his remains partially consumed.”
“What are we still doing here?” Tess said. “We should be halfway to the surface by now.”
“Is there a way to reach this Bly?” Kelly asked.
“We all carry transceivers when we leave the base, but their range is limited.”
“It’s worth a try,” Roche said. “Can you get ahold of a transceiver?”
There was a charging station in every building, where anyone could exchange a dying unit for one that was fully charged. Moira grabbed one from the rack and waited until she returned to the table before turning it on. Between the various specialties and work groups, they utilized more than a dozen different frequencies. The main channel broadcast an emergency signal.
“Which frequency would Bly use?”
“Channel seven, I think,” Moira said, and dialed in the number.
“. . . I repeat,” a woman’s voice said from the speaker. “Dr. Bly, if you can hear this, please acknowledge. Protocol Delta is in effect. Return to Forward Operating Base Atlantis immediately.”
“May I?”
Roche took the transceiver from her hand before she could respond and clicked through channel after channel of static before he found what he wanted.
“. . . stay sharp.”
“What are we supposed to be looking for?”
“Apparently t
hat’s on a need-to-know basis.”
“And no one thinks we need to know? We’re the ones out here in the open.”
“Just keep your eyes open. You see anything that shouldn’t be here, you put a bullet in it. You hear me?”
“His beacon,” Moira said. “Bly has an RFID beacon implanted in his hand and a range extender built into his cave suit, which allows the system to track him through the tunnels and create a virtual map of the passages.”
“Can anyone access it?” Kelly asked.
“All of the data is available to the entire research staff. I don’t see why not.”
“So we should be able to find him, right?”
“If he’s out of the transceiver’s range, I can’t imagine the system will be able to find him, either.”
“At least we’ll know where he was last,” Roche said.
“It’s worth a try.”
Moira rose from the table and led them through the corridor into the main building with the long table covered with computers. A uniformed agent sat at a console at the opposite end of the room with his back to them, silhouetted by a half-dozen monitors displaying surveillance footage from both the cameras on the helmets of the men outside and static units positioned so that they faced the buildings.
“Nothing from any of the motion detectors,” he said into his headset. “I don’t see anything in the ruins, either.”
Moira sat at the closest terminal, turned the monitor away from the agent, and pressed the power button. The agent heard the click and whirled to face them.
“You can’t be out here,” he said. “Get back to the mess.”
“I just need to check one thing, Agent Young. It’ll only take a second.”
“It’s for your own protection, Dr. Murphy.”
“Two seconds. I promise.”
Young pressed his hand to the speaker on his ear as though to better hear whoever was talking. He grimaced, waved her on, and returned his attention to the screens.
Within a matter of seconds Moira brought up Dr. Bly’s ever-expanding map. It reminded Roche of the inside of an anthill. There were easily ten times as many tunnels as he expected and seemingly all of them were connected like capillaries. Bly’s beacon was in one of the larger branches, just outside of the main cavern. It funneled into what remained of the old elevator shaft, which Roche tried his best not to think about.
“He’s almost here,” Moira said. The relief in her voice was palpable.
“Then why isn’t he responding?” Roche asked.
“Probably just to be difficult. I’ll introduce you when he gets here. He’s what one might consider an acquired taste.”
“He’s an arrogant prick,” Tess said.
The beacon moved slowly toward their location on the map until it looked like it was right outside of the main entrance.
“This is Midnight,” Young said. “Still nothing on my end.”
Roche furrowed his brow and watched the beacon until it was right on top of the very building inside of which he now stood. The door never opened, nor did Young appear to acknowledge Bly’s arrival.
Something wasn’t right.
“According to the map, he should be here already,” Moira said, and then louder. “Do you see anyone outside, Agent Young?”
“Negative,” he said without turning. “There’s no one out there.”
“Are you sure?”
“I can see everything within a hundred feet of the door. I’m telling you, nobody’s out there.”
“Then why is Dr. Bly’s RFID beacon right on top of us?”
“What?”
Young slid back from his station and hurried down the aisle to join them.
“See?” Moira said.
He leaned over her shoulder and studied the monitor.
“That can’t be right.”
Roche had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something Moira had said suddenly returned unbidden.
All we know is that it has a carapace like an armadillo, the jaws of a crocodile, and can climb straight up walls.
“Get your men off the roof,” Roche said.
“Why the hell would I do that?” Young asked.
“Get them inside. Now!”
Young stared at him for a split second before recognition dawned.
“Hurry!” Roche shouted.
Young yelled into his microphone as he ran back to his console.
“Harrison! Do you copy?”
“This is Harr—”
“Look up! At the roof of the cavern!”
The image on the monitor to the left followed the pyramid to its apex and then continued up the slope of the ice dome—
A bright orange shape eclipsed the view.
Thud.
The roof buckled overhead.
Tess screamed.
Shouts erupted all around them.
33
JADE
Teotihuacan
Condensation dripped from the stone roof with a soft plinking sound. They moved in minuscule increments, keeping their shoulders beneath the water, but even then the sloshing sounds were far too loud. It was all Jade could do to keep her mouth and nose above the surface with as badly as her legs and buttocks were starting to burn. From the increasingly haggard sounds of the others’ breathing, they weren’t in any better shape than she was. It was only a matter of time before her body betrayed her, but the mere thought of grabbing onto anything to help support her weight scared her to death.
She clung to what little residual sense of determination remained. If she was right, they were heading north, toward the entrance to the maze, only from the opposite side. At least the movement of the water helped define her surroundings. She could hear it slapping against the walls to either side, which made it possible to navigate between them, although any second now they were going to be faced with their first critical decision, and if they chose wrong, they could only hope that whatever mechanism activated the trap had rusted.
She grazed her fingers across Evans’s back, just to make sure he was still there. He reached behind him beneath the water and touched her hip. She drew reassurance from the contact, for as long as it lasted.
Evans stopped in front of her. She could feel the disturbance under the water as he felt around him with his arms. The sloshing sounds were louder to her right, but she couldn’t feel a proportional increase in the movement of the water. She realized with a start that the men hunting them were mere feet away, on the other side of the wall.
A faint tapping sound. Then another. An elbow bumping the wall as someone swam, maybe. A beam of light shot through a pin-size hole between the mortared stones before darkening once more.
Once their pursuers reached the end of that straightaway and turned right, they would be able to clearly see Jade and her friends.
“Keep going,” Jade whispered.
“Left,” Evans whispered.
The current of his passage guided her around a ninety-degree bend. Anya laid her trembling hand on Jade’s shoulder before returning it to the water.
They moved as fast as they dared. If they could get a couple more turns between them and their hunters, they could risk turning on the light again, but unless the men following them made a wrong turn, they would continue to gain on them with every passing second. Fortunately, their pursuers must have recognized the danger surrounding them or they would have already overtaken them.
Jade’s fingers brushed the obsidian paneling beside her and she nearly cried out.
Evans slowed once more. The water sloshed against the walls ahead of them and to their right, which meant there was only one way to go.
“Left,” Evans whispered. He led them around the turn, but suddenly stopped.
Jade heard the susurration of water all around them now. They had swum into a dead end.
She gasped at the realization. Her heart rate accelerated as panic took root.
“It bends back upon itself,” Evans whispered.
A
faint light materialized behind them.
Jade could see he was right. The route bent parallel to the last corridor, at the end of which was the origin of the light. The men were still distant, but they were gaining.
She followed Evans around the bend and the light once more vanished. The sloshing sounds became chaotic. There were walls to all sides of her, and yet she could sense several openings as well. Evans hesitated before advancing in maddeningly small increments.
“Careful to your right,” he whispered.
Jade eased left, but not far enough to avoid the sharp object that raked her ribs. She reached for it and felt a sharp metal tip protruding from an object she recognized immediately. The spike was horizontal and had passed through one side of the victim’s skull and out the other, shattering the temporal bone above the spigot-shaped external auditory meatus.
She worked her way around it and focused on slowing her heartbeat for fear the throbbing in her ears would mask the more subtle noises that could make the difference between life and death.
Anya whimpered behind her.
“I can’t do this,” Villarreal whispered.
“Shh!” Jade rounded on him. He was going to get them all killed. “You can and you will. Do you understand?”
She turned around again and bumped into Evans.
“There are two left turns,” he whispered. “Or we can keep going straight.”
Jade closed her eyes, for all the difference it made, and listened.
Either left turn could lead them into a dead end. Odds were that at least one of them did. Maybe even both.
“Straight,” she whispered.
“Are you sure?” Evans whispered.
“No.”
“As long as we’re clear on that.”
Evans started forward once more. Jade wasn’t going to make it much farther. Not without resting her legs. They hurt from the accumulation of lactic acid, which was rapidly decreasing the efficiency of her muscles.
“Stop right there,” Evans whispered. “There’s something—”
A loud crack and a groaning sound overhead.
Evans shoved her squarely in the chest without warning. Her head went under. She cried out and inhaled a mouthful of fluid.
Something large passed through the water, generating a wave that knocked her backward again. She reached for the surface and found nothing. Splashed and flailed. Someone grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up. She emerged coughing and there was no way of stopping it.
Forsaken Page 19