The Manhattan Puzzle

by Laurence O'Bryan

  ‘You will pay if our son is harmed,’ said Sean. ‘I promise you that.’

  Li smiled.

  Isabel was looking at the call plate for the gold elevator. It was this button Li had pressed. It had the BXH logo on it. The letters had a square around them and an arrow above them.

  ‘If you cooperate,’ said Li. ‘And if I get what I want, I will save your son, Mr Ryan.’

  The golden elevator doors opened and Li led the way in. He kept the gun pointing at them. His assistant pushed his gun into Sean’s side.

  Then Li tapped a code into a keypad beneath the plate indicting the floors. She saw him press the # and * buttons and some numbers near it. She looked at the buttons indicating the floors.

  There were seven basement levels. Three of them weren’t lit up, as if they were unused, until he tapped in the code, then they lit up like the other round yellow buttons.

  Li pressed the bottom button of these three. Then he pressed the two buttons above the bottom one.

  ‘I want you to see what’s on these floors too,’ he said. The elevator went down for a long time. It took almost as long as it had taken to ride up to the executive floor. Could the basement really be this deep?

  Then there was a rattling, as if it was passing a choke point. The lights flickered. Isabel’s nose wrinkled. A damp smell had seeped into the elevator. There was a sudden grinding noise, as if they were rubbing up against something and were vulnerable to being squeezed.

  Then the elevator stopped and the doors pinged open. What greeted Isabel was the exact opposite of what she’d expected.

  It was the wall of a coal mine, black, cracked with protrusions pushing forward. There was a narrow ledge at the level of the elevator. It looked as if the floor of a passage had fallen away. The roof above was curved, cracked.

  A strong smell came into the elevator. It was the smell of sewers.

  Li pressed the button to close the doors. ‘We explored that yesterday,’ he said. ‘There is no way out. It would be easy to die there, if no one came to rescue you. Maybe we leave you there if you cause trouble, either of you.’ He pressed the close door button.

  The wait was short this time, and there was more grinding. When the doors opened Isabel’s head was pounding. She could feel the distance they had travelled down and she didn’t like it.

  The smell was the first thing that hit her, physically. Isabel had to cover her nose. The spill of light from the elevator showed an expanse of sand, dotted with dark patches. There was a rock wall to the left again. It was similar, but smoother than the one on the floor above.

  A rustling sound came to her as the noise of the elevator died away.

  There were spots of red in the distance, in the shadows.

  They seemed to be coming towards them. Li pressed the button to close the doors.

  ‘Every time they come quicker,’ he said. ‘They must be hungry.’

  The doors seemed to take a long time to shut. In the seconds that it took she saw giant white rats racing towards them.

  They were albinos. She’d never seen anything like it. Her mouth opened.

  They covered the sand like a shifting carpet. And they were scrambling over each other. They were racing towards them, their thin legs jumping forward and their scrawny faces intent.

  Isabel was gripped by revulsion. Her muscles tightened. Every single one. She lifted her hands to ward them off.

  Sean and Li were pushing the doors closed.

  And then she heard the squealing.

  ‘Push, Mr Ryan,’ said Li. ‘They are very quick.’

  ‘What the hell was that?’ shouted Isabel, as the doors closed. An explosion of scratching echoed in the elevator as it went down again. There was a ferociousness to it that she’d never heard before.

  ‘I saw animals just like that in Vietnam,’ said Li. ‘Rats that live without ever seeing the sun, and they all eat each other. And anything else they can find.’ He widened his eyes. Then he laughed.

  ‘Cannibal rats,’ said Isabel. The thought of the rats sent her shifting from one leg to the other as the elevator continued on down. There was another gap before the doors opened again.

  Isabel gripped Sean’s shoulder.

  What the hell else could be down here?

  She was near the front of the elevator, ready to push them closed again if more rats appeared. But this time the space they were looking into was lit by a tripod of floodlights near the elevator and another tripod of lights at the far end of a high cavern.

  A thick orange cable ran from the elevator to the floodlights. But even with the lights, part of the cave was in shadow.

  ‘We have seen no rats on this level, Mrs Ryan. It is a sealed cavern,’ said Li.

  ‘I read about this,’ said Sean. ‘Apparently the builders came across a shaft into the gneiss bedrock of Manhattan when they were digging the basement levels of the bank out.’ The two of them stood still in the elevator, watching, taking the space in.

  ‘There were rumours of huge caverns going around for decades. They were always denied.’

  Isabel wasn’t sure about getting out. The cavern looked empty of those vile creatures, but the thought of them was still sending shivers across her skin.

  Li walked out of the elevator, turned and beckoned Isabel and Sean out onto the grey, slate-like rock floor of the cavern. Isabel stepped forward. Sean followed her. The roof curved, but was natural looking, with darker rocks jutting out against the grey background. It was fifty feet above their heads. And it was pitted with cracks and folds. The walls, a hundred feet away on each side, were similarly cracked and uneven.

  ‘There are Indian markings on the walls,’ said Li. ‘And there are bones somewhere over there.’ He pointed at the far end of the cavern.

  That was when Isabel saw the four tombs. They were square, squat, and looked to be made of the same rock as was all around. ‘This way,’ said Li.

  Sean and Isabel followed him. The cavern was a sight that made her head go back and turn as she walked forward to take it in. It was a natural underground hall. She was shocked at the size of it.

  As she turned, she saw that around the elevator door there was an arch of yellow bricks in an art deco style. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble down here.

  There was no noise in the cavern, just an echo of their footsteps. There was no smell either, which reassured her. No smell meant no horrible animals eating each other down here.

  As they came up to the tombs Isabel saw that they were bigger than they’d looked from the far side of the cavern. They were ten feet high, flat-roofed and laid out as if at the points of a compass.

  They reached the bottom of the compass first. Sean walked around it quickly.

  ‘This is not the interesting tomb,’ said Li.

  When Isabel walked past it she saw that it had a gate made of iron bars. The gate was open. She walked near it. Inside there was a stone sarcophagus with the lid pushed aside at the far end of a large chamber.

  ‘There are only bones in there,’ said Li, pointing at the tomb Isabel was looking into.

  ‘This is the one that will interest you, as you are looking for your son.’ He pointed at the tomb at the north point of the compass. It was far bigger than the others, though it had the same flat-roofed style and was made from the same black rock, rough cut into large blocks.

  Each tomb had a ridge jutting out from the roof about ten feet from the ground. The roof had been made to extend over the walls.

  ‘Who the hell is buried down here?’ said Isabel.

  ‘Past presidents of BXH,’ said Sean. ‘This is a company mausoleum.’

  ‘Yes. Come on.’ Li looked back towards the elevator. Then he looked at his watch.

  Sean came up beside Isabel as they walked behind Li. ‘I honestly thought I could sort this all out myself,’ said Sean.

  She squeezed his arm and looked back at the elevator. It seemed a long way off. ‘I hope to God we save Alek. I hope they haven’t done anything to
him.’

  As they got closer they saw that the gate in front of the last tomb was open too. This gate was double height and width, and made of pitted iron bars, like the first one they’d passed.

  ‘Go inside,’ said Li.

  The chamber was far larger than in the other one and had an altar at the far end, as if it had been used as a chapel. Isabel felt uneasy as soon as she went in. The light was poor, coming from slits in the walls. But what set her most on edge was what was on the side wall to their left.

  There was a carving of the square and arrow symbol in a large piece of black rock embedded in the other, smaller pieces that made up the wall.

  And in front of the altar was one heavy wooden pew, where people could kneel.

  Li’s assistant had pushed them forward while they were walking here, and now he stood at the door, his gun pointing towards them.

  ‘Kneel,’ said Li.

  ‘This is total bullshit,’ said Sean. ‘We’re not playing some stupid game for you.’

  ‘This is no stupid game,’ said Li. ‘You will do what I say or you will not see your son again. It is not my fault your wife joined us, Mr Ryan. It was bad timing for her and you, that is all.’ He looked at his watch again.

  ‘Come on, kneel or my friend will put a bullet in your thighs and you will certainly kneel then. But very painfully.’

  Sean and Isabel went to the wooden pew and knelt. The pew had a front piece where you could rest your arms. It also had holes in it, where you could put your arms through. There were spaces for five people to kneel.

  Isabel didn’t like the look of it. Then, after peering over the front edge, she noticed the manacles on the far side. They were iron. She liked that even less.

  ‘What the fuck is this?’ said Sean. He went to stand up.

  Isabel turned just in time to see Li pressing a gun hard into his back. Then she felt something hard and cold pressing into her backbone.

  ‘My friend will shoot your wife and you can watch her bleed to death or you can do what I say and you will see your son,’ Li shouted.

  ‘Sean, kneel,’ said Isabel. They had to wait for the right moment before doing anything.

  Sean grunted angrily, but he knelt.

  ‘Both of you put your hands through the holes.’

  Isabel had been debating with herself at what point to try to get away, but with a gun pressing hard into her back this was not the moment for heroics.

  ‘Is Alek here?’ she cried out. ‘I want to see him.’ She pushed her arms through the holes.

  ‘You will have your wish.’ Li went around and lifted the manacles that had been dangling in front of the pew. They fitted perfectly over their wrists and when they were closed, with only a simple thumb-sized piece of iron through a hole, they were trapped. You could release the manacles just by pulling the piece of iron out, but without a hand to reach it, you were imprisoned.

  ‘Where the fuck did you get all this?’ said Sean.

  ‘It was here. I imagine they used it to punish people.’

  They were kneeling on a rough wooden board and facing the altar.

  Li looked at his watch again.

  ‘Are you expecting someone?’ said Isabel.

  A voice answered from behind them.

  ‘You brought the two of them, Li. We are in luck.’

  Isabel turned. Two people had entered the chapel. One of them was carrying her son. She let out a strangled shout and tried to get up, yanking hard at the pew. The manacles prevented her. They cut deep into her skin. She didn’t care. She pushed more against them. She twisted her body around following the man who was carrying him, her eyes wide, her muscles straining.

  ‘You sick bastard, let him go. How did he get here?’ She pulled her hands back, trying to free them. The iron cut into her skin. A rush of fear for Alek sent her body rocking backwards and forwards.

  Whoever the man was, he was cruel looking. He was tall, hard-faced and dressed in a black suit and shirt. His grey hair was slicked back. He had half-sunken eyes and pale skin.

  ‘Stay quiet,’ shouted the man. He walked past her. ‘You are here for a reason.’

  Sean shouted. ‘What the hell are you doing here, Xena? You were Mark’s friend.’

  Behind the man carrying Alek was an Ethiopian woman. Isabel looked at her, then peered closer. Xena had been with Mark in Cairo. She’d been injured during their rescue in the Judean Hills.

  She must have been a traitor all along. Was she why Mark had died?

  ‘We learned a lot in Israel,’ said the man, as he headed for the altar.

  ‘And I am not yours to judge,’ said Xena. She stood behind them.

  The man carrying Alek laid their son on the altar. Whether he was sleeping or dead they had no way of knowing.

  Isabel tried to move the pews forward now, but they were too heavy. She strained upwards to see Alek’s face, but all she could see was his cheek. She let out a protracted groan. Her hands were in fists.

  ‘What have you done?’ she shouted.

  ‘Your son is still alive,’ said Xena.

  ‘What the hell do you want him for? He’s a child!’ Her voice shook with desperation.

  ‘Do you remember Robert Maximilian Kaiser?’ said the man now standing over Alek on the far side of the altar. He had placed Alek lying face-up on the stone.

  ‘Yes, we do,’ said Sean. ‘Somebody burnt him to death.’

  ‘Well, before he died he told us that you were probably the only people who knew the truth about the symbol and the book, because you knew where it had been found.’

  Isabel was leaning up as high as she could go, staring at Alek. He had a black silk band tied around his forehead. Was he injured? Please, no.

  ‘What have you done to him?’

  ‘He is sedated, but he will meet a fate worse than Kaiser’s, if you do not cooperate.’

  ‘What the hell do you want from us? What the hell is this?’ Isabel screamed.

  ‘You will see,’ said the man.

  He bent down and then stood straight. In his hand was a knife. He raised it in the air above his head and began mumbling something over and over.

  ‘Quarto quattuor invocare unum.’ After he had repeated it four times, louder each time, he moved the knife slowly downwards, towards Alek.

  Isabel shrieked, ‘No.’

  She looked around. Would anyone help them, help Alek? All eyes were on the altar.

  ‘Someone stop this!’ she shouted.

  No one moved.

  ‘You’ll pay for this!’ shouted Sean.

  The room reverberated with echoes of their panicked shouts.

  ‘Innocent blood is the most powerful,’ said the man, softly, as if he hadn’t heard them.

  ‘You bastard. What are you doing! Alek!’ Isabel’s scream ripped the air.

  Xena was at the altar. She’d lit a black candle. She was holding something into the flame. It smouldered thickly and filled the air with a pungent, sickly odour, the odour of death.

  85

  Henry looked at his screen. It showed an image of a broken brick wall and NYPD officers standing around.

  ‘They still haven’t found the other floors,’ he said. There was frustration and tiredness in his voice.

  ‘Are they still planning to drill through the bottom level?’ said Finch.

  ‘There’s some issue about the sewers in the area,’ said Henry. ‘Apparently there’s all sorts of strange underground vermin in that part of Manhattan. They’re bringing in pest control specialists before they go down any further.’

  He put his head in his hands.

  ‘I really don’t think they have time for that.’

  ‘What the hell was in that book that’s so particularly disturbing you?’ said Finch.

  Henry looked up at her. ‘Every drop of blood is drained from a child’s body, while human skin is burnt as incense.’

  Finch let out her breath in a slow whistle.

  ‘You don’t want that on your conscien
ce.’

  86

  Isabel screamed again. She hadn’t seen the first cut being made, but she had seen the knife with blood dripping from its edge being raised afterwards.

  She roared louder, her throat straining, as the knife was lowered again. This time the man sliced at Alek’s bare leg; he only had his underwear on.

  A trickle of blood flowed.

  Isabel let out a muffled, heart-rending, moan.

  Alek groaned softly, as if in reply. Then the knife went up in the air again.

  ‘The next cut will be deeper,’ he said.

  ‘You bastard! You sick bastard. Why are you doing this?’ screamed Isabel. She could almost feel the blade on her own skin. She was pulling at the manacles rhythmically now, hoping they might break from the repeated strain.

  But they didn’t.

  Then Alek groaned again.

  Sean was shouting. ‘Leave him, take me! Kill me, please!’

  ‘It’s not your blood we want,’ said the man.

  He raised the knife again.

  ‘What are you doing this for?’ shouted Isabel.

  The man lowered the knife.

  ‘Your son will die if I go on.’ He paused, looking from Isabel to Sean. ‘But I will stop, if you succeed where we have failed.’

  ‘Succeed? How?’ Xena had been holding the edge of a square piece of what looked liked dried parchment in the candle flame. As the man spoke she took it out of the flame and laid it on the altar near Alek’s feet.

  He pointed at the wall on their left. ‘You will solve this puzzle. That block of stone has holes in it. I believe it can be opened by someone who knows the secret of that symbol.’

  Sean and Isabel turned to the symbol on the wall. It did have small holes where the lines intersected.

  ‘Only this will save your son.’

  ‘What? Are you crazy?’ said Isabel.

  ‘No, far from it.’

  ‘This is totally sick.’ Sean pulled at the manacles, trying to free himself.

  Xena came forward and watched. The skin on his wrists looked raw.