“Tommy?” Dufort said with a glance over his shoulder. “You’re next.”
Tommy’s forearms burned as he lowered his body down into the canyon. He didn’t dare look down. Scared of heights or not, this sort of thing would terrify anyone. He knew there was no way he’d have been physically able to perform the task a few years before. He’d been in no condition for something so extreme.
He knew June and Adriana would be fine, barring some kind of freak accident. That possibility lingered in the back of his mind as he neared the path below.
His feet touched down, and he felt a surge of relief course through his body. He swung his arms around to get the tightness out of his tendons and muscles.
“Over here,” one of the henchmen said.
Tommy stepped to the side and stole a quick look down to the canyon bottom. They were in a huge room that was probably the span of an American football stadium. He recalled football games he’d attended at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and figured it was close to the same size.
The river flowing from one end of the cavern-like space to the other was clear as glass. It rippled gently, meandering through the canyon until it reached a dark opening in the shadows on the other side and disappeared through the rock.
“Truly an oasis city in the middle of the desert,” Tommy said quietly to himself.
He heard a zipping noise from above and looked up. Adriana leaped out over the edge of the opening and dropped at a frightening pace. Tommy started to make a move to get under her, but one of the guards grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him to stay put.
Adriana fell until she was only ten feet from the landing when she squeezed her gloves and instantly slowed. The rope bobbed for a second under her weight as she gradually lowered herself the final few feet. Once her boots touched the ground, she unhooked a rappelling brake and whipped the rope around to signal she was off.
Tommy looked incredulous. “They gave you a rappelling brake but made me climb down like these guys?”
Adriana shrugged and joined him off to the side while the rest of the group came down the same way she had.
Tommy wanted to stand under June as she slid down the rope at a less aggressive pace than Adriana, but again Dufort’s henchmen kept him away. Fortunately, she knew how to operate the mechanism, and after a thirty-second drop she found herself standing on the narrow stone path that spiraled down into the chasm.
What Tommy’d said was true. No way Sean would want to find himself in this situation. It was a small consolation, but Adriana and Tommy needed anything they could find at this point.
When everyone was on the path, Dufort turned to Tommy and waited for instructions.
“What?” Tommy asked, uncertain of what the Frenchman wanted.
“Where do we go next?” Dufort asked. “You’re the expert.”
Tommy’s initial instinct was to slap him with some smart aleck remark or tell him to jump. He knew that wouldn’t get him anywhere. The real issue was that Tommy was just as in the dark as everyone else. Getting to the gate was difficult enough. Once inside the opening, he had no idea what to do next.
The one thing he did know was that he couldn’t share that information with Dufort. The second Tommy and the ladies outlived their usefulness would be the second Dufort cut the cord.
Tommy looked over his shoulder toward the wall where the path wound down to the bottom. “This way,” he said with as confident a tone as he could muster.
“Good. Lead on.”
His eyelids widened for a second as he passed the two women a look that told them he had no clue what he was doing.
He spun around and started marching down the path, keeping one hand on the wall as he moved along to make sure he kept his balance.
The group had to walk in single file since the ledge was only wide enough for one person at a time. The trail bent back around in the previous direction with a sharp turn at each end. More than anything, Tommy wanted to twist around, grab the mercenary behind him, and shove the guy over the cliff, working his way back until he tossed Dufort to his death.
It was a fanciful daydream and one that had absolutely zero possibility of happening. But Tommy and his friends were still alive, which meant the window of opportunity could come at some point. He’d just have to stay alert.
After a long and sketchy hike down, the group stopped and stared straight ahead.
They’d seen it from above but couldn’t tell what the structure was. Now it was clear.
A massive stone temple, carved straight from the canyon rock, towered over them against the wall. There were ruins of other buildings, mostly just blocks of stone toppled over from years gone by. The temple, however, remained intact.
Tommy stared up at the impressive structure and examined the figures standing guard over the staircase that ascended to an entryway. The statues—figures of lions—were made from granite, which was definitely not native to the area and stood out as a stark contrast to the sandstone that surrounded them. The gigantic cats were permanently frozen with their mouths open wide, brandishing menacing teeth to any trespassers who might dare to enter the temple.
“Assyrian?” Dufort asked as he stood next to Tommy, looking up at the stone sculptures. “Babylonian, perhaps?”
“The style is similar,” Tommy said, “but no. Too far from where those empires were founded, and this stuff is much, much older. And then there’s the question of the granite. Where did that come from?”
“So?”
Tommy shook his head. “I have no idea. Precursors to the Egyptians, I’d guess. Although the style is far more developed than any pre-Egyptian stuff I’ve seen.”
“Can we hurry along with the art lesson?” Hank asked. “Maybe get to the good stuff?”
“You know, Hank,” Dufort said, sounding annoyed, “I would have thought after that incredible display of supernatural power you witnessed above that you’d be a little more invested in what’s really at play here.”
Hank took a step forward with a cold, intense glare in his eyes. “I came here for one reason and one reason only, Gerard. Money. Now show me where this treasure is.”
Dufort rolled his shoulders and faced Tommy. “You heard the man, Thomas. Lead the way.” He motioned forward with his hand.
Tommy drew in a deep breath and started up the stairs.
When the group reached the top of the short flight, they were greeted by an open doorway. It was dark beyond the threshold, unlike the rest of the canyon that was well lit by the blazing desert sun above.
Strange hieroglyphs were etched into the stone frame over the open doorway. Dufort scanned them multiple times before turning to Tommy. “What does it say? It’s not like anything I’ve seen before.”
Tommy gazed at the images and symbols. “I have no idea,” he said with an absent shake of the head. “It’s new to me, too. Probably says something about where we are and what this place is.”
“Well, obviously it’s a temple of some kind.”
“To which god, though?”
“Does it matter? Come on. Keep moving,” Hank urged with another wave of his pistol.
“I’ll need a flashlight,” Tommy said. “It’s dark in there. Don’t know what kinds of things may be lurking in the shadows.”
Dufort turned to one of his men and motioned for a light. The guy stepped up and placed it in Tommy’s palm.
“Thanks.”
The mercenary said nothing in response and simply returned to the middle of the pack.
Tommy turned on the light and moved cautiously over the threshold and into the first room.
He was immediately struck by the almost complete lack of imagery anywhere. There were no idols, no mosaics, no frescoes, no reliefs, nothing related to who the building was constructed for or why. The bare walls matched the cylindrical stone columns that rose high into the air and supported the ceiling. The only difference in the plain appearance of the place was the floor, which featured huge stone tiles. The rows of squares were colored diff
erently with paint that had barely faded through the thousands of years since it must have been put down.
Tommy wandered over to a row of white tiles that wrapped around the outside of the room. Hank and Cody followed him, along with the two women and another henchman.
Dufort stood at the entrance to the room and looked around while two of his men walked up the middle, down a row of red tiles. They’d no sooner stepped on the first square when the floor gave way. The tile tilted down, and both men slid into the darkness below, screaming until the hinged flooring swung back up to flush with the rest of the surface.
Everyone in the room noted the sudden stop of the men’s voices.
“Quick,” Dufort said to Cody. “Come back over here. They might still be alive.”
Tommy knew Dufort didn’t care about the men or their lives. But with two men already dead from falling into the canyon, losing two more started to make things a little less comfortable for the Frenchman.
“Hank,” Dufort said, “Watch them.”
Hank nodded and wielded his weapon at the three captives.
Dufort knelt down on the neutral tile next to the rows of colored ones and waited until Cody and two of the other three mercenaries joined him.
“Press down on this corner,” he ordered. “You, press on this one,” he said to a younger guy with a ponytail.
The two men obeyed and pushed down on the heavy slab. Dufort turned on a flashlight and pointed it down into the opening. He immediately saw why the two men who fell stopped screaming. Their bodies were pierced in multiple places by tall stone spikes.
“Let it go,” Dufort said. “They’re dead.”
“Dead?” Hank asked from across the room. “What happened?”
“See for yourself. This whole place could be a deathtrap, so you better be careful.” Dufort gave his warning in a way that made it sound like he almost wished Hank would fall prey to a trap.
Tommy passed a knowing glance over his shoulder at Adriana and June. They didn’t know what the look was for, and he couldn’t tell them at the moment.
“Keep moving,” Dufort said.
They pushed forward. This time, the entire group followed Tommy to the other end of the room until they reached the far wall. Two doors were cut into it, one on the right and one on the left.
Over the doorway was another symbol. It looked like the head of a bird looking down on them. The animal’s features were made from sharp geometric lines.
Dufort pointed his flashlight into the dark corridor. Then he looked over at the other doorway. “Which one do we take? Or do they both go to the same place?”
“You know,” Tommy said, “you keep asking me all these questions like I’ve been here a million times.”
He shuffled his feet to the right, heading for the other door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Cody asked, stepping in his way.
“Um, the other door. Where do you think?”
Cody flashed a questioning eye at his boss. Dufort nodded, and the young man stepped aside.
Tommy stopped under the doorway and looked up at a different image carved into the rock.
“What is it?” Dufort asked.
“Looks like a cat…maybe,” Tommy answered. “These drawings are pretty elementary.”
“So, which door?”
Tommy thought hard. He didn’t know the right answer. What he did know was that he was running out of time.
He remembered what he knew about Egyptian mythology regarding cats. They were the guardians of the underworld, which could mean that this cat was protecting something related to death. The bird, on the other hand, could have been an early reference to Horus, the falcon. In the ancient Egyptian religions, it was believed that the pharaoh was the human embodiment of Horus and when the king died he’d return to the sky god.
Both symbols looming over the doors represented the potential for death if Tommy’s reasoning was correct. Of course, this temple could have nothing to do with ancient Egypt, which would change everything.
He walked slowly back over to Dufort and looked him in the eyes. “Both of those symbols could mean death,” he said. “There’s only one way to know.”
Dufort leveled his weapon, pointing it at June’s chest. “Which tunnel will you take?”
“It’s a 50/50 chance either way, Gerard. You choose.”
Chapter 34
Sahara Desert, Egypt
“I’m tired of waiting on you two,” Hank blurted. He turned to two of the other mercenaries. “You two, come with me. We’ll take the tunnel over there. You all can take this one with the bird.”
Dufort considered challenging Hank but decided splitting up might not be such a bad idea. He’d force Tommy and the two women to go ahead of him, and if there was something dangerous along the path they’d be the ones to die.
“Go ahead,” Dufort said to two of his men. “Cody, Simpson, you’re with me. Keep an eye on these three.”
The other two mercenaries followed Hank across the room and cautiously stepped into the corridor.
“Now,” Dufort said to Tommy, “shall we continue?”
Tommy gave the faintest of nods and started moving forward into the passageway.
The stone walls were clean, free of the cobwebs and dust that usually blanketed ruins such as this. Then again, Tommy couldn’t imagine how spiders or anything else would get down there.
He scanned the walls and floor as he tiptoed forward, keeping June close behind. He reached back and grasped the tips of her fingers to give her a little comfort—and if he was honest, to give himself a bit of courage as well.
Dark lines were painted into the walls on both sides. The passage curved around toward the center of the temple. Tommy expected the floor to give way or the walls to collapse at any second—another trap triggered by their mere presence in the corridor.
Nothing happened, though, and soon the group of six found themselves standing in the middle of another large room. It was half the size of the first chamber. There were the same cylindrical pillars reaching up to the ceiling. While the first room was empty, however, this one wasn’t.
The flashlight beams drifted across shiny objects lining the walls. Each person in the group stared with wide eyes at the incredible treasure before them. Gold bars, coins, crowns, jewels, encrusted swords and shields, armor, and every type of treasure imaginable wrapped around the room at least eight feet deep until the mass of unimaginable wealth stacked up against the walls.
Cody swallowed hard at the sight. He’d never seen anything like it. Dufort sighed in relief. He’d found it. He’d found Zerzura.
The treasure, though, was only a small part of what he sought.
A loud thud came from somewhere in the temple, and everyone jumped with a start. Their heads snapped around in all directions to see what happened, but after the loud noise and the momentary vibration through the temple there were no other anomalies.
“What was that?” June asked Tommy in a whisper.
Tommy didn’t know, but he had an idea. If he had to guess, Hank and the other two men just set off a trap. They’d gone the wrong way.
“Watch them,” Dufort said as he wandered deeper into the treasure room.
Cody and the other guard kept their weapons trained on their prisoners, watching their employer venture on.
Dufort stopped and cocked his head to the side. He turned back to the others. “Switch off your flashlights for a second.”
“Sir?”
“No. You know what? Muffle the light with your shirt. I want to see something.”
The two guards did as they were told and pressed their lights against their shirts to diffuse the beams. Tommy hoped that might be his chance to make a move, but the men could still see him and the two women.
With the lights turned down, the group realized there was something else illuminating the room.
A faint eerie glow emanated from the far wall, between the pillars. Tommy craned his neck to the righ
t to see down the middle of the room.
Dufort padded reverently down the aisle toward the source of light. He stopped short of a five-foot-tall stone cube. In the center, a stone embedded in a medallion glowed, casting a pale corona on its immediate surroundings. The sound of water accompanied it.
“Bring them over here,” Dufort ordered.
Cody shoved Tommy forward. Tommy’s fingers slipped away from June as he was marched ahead. The second guard forced the women forward as well.
They halted a few strides short of where the Frenchman stood, staring at the bizarre relic on the altar.
“How?” Cody asked. “How is that possible? Where is the light coming from?”
Dufort took a step closer. He looked up at a stone pipe jutting out from the wall. A steady stream of clear water flowed from it, dropping three feet until it hit the amulet and dispersed through four troughs on the altar—each delivering the water to a respective drain in the floor.
“Sometimes, it’s best not to wonder how,” Dufort said. “Just accept that it is.” He reached out his hands to touch the shiny yellow metal and the crystal-clear gem embedded in its center.
“Maybe you should leave that where you found it, Dufort,” Tommy said. “I doubt the people who put it there wanted it moved.”
Dufort didn’t look back at his prisoner. His eyes were fixed on the prize. He was in a trance now, unable to avert his gaze.
“Immortality,” he said to himself. “The Athanasia Symbol…it’s mine. I will be like a god.”
“Whoa!” a familiar voice shouted from the back corner near the doorway. “Look at all this loot!”
Tommy, the two women, and their guards twisted around to look at Hank. He stood in the doorway with a hand on his hip.
“What happened to the others?” Cody asked, unconsciously lowering his weapon a few inches.
“Oh, they’re dead. Flat as pancakes,” Hank said. “Which is fine. More booty for us, right?”
“Dead?”
“Yep. They set off one of those traps. Huge slab of rock fell on them from the ceiling. I was lucky it missed me.” He stuffed his gun in his belt, hurried over to the nearest pile of gold, and started stuffing his pockets and a small shoulder bag he’d brought.
The Sahara Legacy Page 27