Chapter Two Hundred Thirty-Eight
At the outer edge of the pyramid’s chamber, Jason Reece waited by Trish’s side, as she continued to mutter in her sleep. The Vatican soldier left to guard them watched the men he served enter the pyramid’s newly opened entrance.
‘Nice sword,’ Jason said, looking up at his armoured protector.
The Swiss guard turned to look down at him, his expression disapprovingly aloof.
Jason motioned at his own eyes. ‘Your visor not working, then?’
The soldier continued to stare at him in silence, then returned his gaze to the pyramid, before a noise made him turn. Something flashed towards his head and he screamed as a blade plunged through his open visor and into his face.
Terrified, Jason dragged Trish away as the Swiss guard toppled to the floor with a clatter.
The soldier’s dead eyes stared back at Jason; he tore his gaze away from the fatal wound as a dark figure loomed above him.
Jason glanced at the fallen sword and lunged for it, but it was kicked from his grasp, sparks of flame from its tip cascading across the floor.
Jason cried out, but a large tattooed hand clamped down over his mouth from behind. More robed figures emerged from the darkness and one of their number placed a sword to Trish’s throat.
Jason struggled against the man who held him and then tried to shout again, but his muffled voice fell on deaf ears.
‘Shhh,’ a Russian voice said in his ear, the owner’s lips brushing against his skin like a lover. ‘Be still, little rabbit, be still.’
♦
Ruben stepped down to the stone floor inside the pyramid and turned as Sarah passed him, followed by two of Lanter’s five remaining Swiss guards. He thought the English archaeologist was unusually quiet.
The entrance to the pyramid had turned out to be more of a tunnel than a direct route into the hollow interior, the odd-shaped passage leading them left along one of the monument’s three triangular sides, before it cut right and opened out into the large area enclosed within.
‘Did you hear that?’ Ruben said to a Swiss guard.
The man looked at him. ‘Hear what?’
Ruben listened and then gave a shake of his head. ‘It’s nothing.’ He turned back to survey the pyramid’s dark interior, the faint light from their five torches doing little to dispel the gloom. Major Lanter held his sword higher, the oil-soaked cloth from Ruben’s monk’s habit continuing to burn with a ruddy glow.
Mirroring the monument without, the heart of the structure was a reverse of the pyramid itself. The inverted point, which must have resided above, wasn’t visible, but the nearest wall was, and it sloped down to the floor at forty-five degrees, in parallel to the exterior. In two of the corners, to the right and left, two huge twenty-foot high Anakim sphinxes, carved from dark stone, gleamed in the half-light. The monsters’ mouths gaped wide, displaying rows of teeth and large, spout-like tongues.
As the Vatican explorers ventured forward, a large five-sided pentagonal altar emerged from the surrounding darkness. It stood in the pyramid’s centre, the four-foot-high block of grey stone carved deep with runic symbols and Anakim script. Beyond it, in the third and final corner, an even larger sphinx, hewn from the same material, loomed large, its forty-foot height dominating the pyramid’s interior.
Zinetti moved further inside, his torch casting shadows upon the walls. ‘I expected a sarcophagus.’
‘What’s that?’ Lanter pointed beyond the altar.
Something covering the far walls glittered in the torchlight and Zinetti headed towards them. Lanter grabbed his arm.
‘You forget yourself, Major,’ the Italian cardinal said, furious at being manhandled.
Lanter released his hold and gestured to the floor, where a covering of dust trickled down into a small hole. Zinetti stepped back, his movement disturbing more of the surface. Other holes appeared and everyone backed away as the openings spread around the altar, revealing a section of whatever lay beneath.
Nicola Dowling bent down and wiped away more of the dust.
‘It’s a metal grate, or covering of some kind,’ Avery said.
‘A very elaborate one.’ Ruben inspected the strange design.
Dowling brushed away more, exposing a human-like face contorted in pain. ‘That’s unnerving,’ she said, unable to take her eyes off it, the hole itself corresponding to the creature’s mouth.
‘There’s more here,’ Avery said, wiping away more dust with his foot. ‘They look like tormented souls.’
‘It’s covered in them,’ Zinetti said. ‘Remarkable.’
‘Watch your step.’ Avery crouched down to where three interconnecting holes disappeared into the depths. ‘Where do you think it goes?’ he said, peering down through the pitch-black opening.
‘That’s where the breeze was coming from,’ Ruben said, moving past Dowling and Sarah for a closer look.
‘A way out?’ Zinetti said, sounding hopeful. ‘If we widened it?’
‘Perhaps.’ Major Lanter held his torch over the hole revealing nothing but more blackness. ‘Are you volunteering to go first?’
Zinetti scowled at the Swiss Guard’s leader.
Avery chuckled. ‘That’s a “no”, then.’
The party of ten gave the rest of the pyramid’s centre a wide berth and approached the far wall.
‘It’s like the mirrors outside,’ Zinetti said, keeping his distance from the gleaming surface.
‘It’s darker,’ Ruben said. ‘Like it has no power.’
Zinetti held his torch higher and let out a yelp.
Large, fearsome inhuman faces gazed down at him from above, their features and bulging eyes stretched into masks of horror.
‘It’s just a sculpture,’ Lanter said. He ran the tip of his sword across the three-dimensional artwork, the flame highlighting the metal surround, which bordered the mirror that covered two of the stone pyramid’s three interior walls.
‘Why couldn’t we see them before?’ Zinetti said, confused.
‘The metal absorbs the light,’ Ruben said, walking past him. ‘There’s more on the other wall, too.’
Lanter shone his torch lower. ‘I think they’re both connected to the grate around the altar.’
Zinetti added his light to the major’s and they raised them aloft to reveal scores of life-sized Anakim men and women in various poses of sexual debauchery, reaching up as high as a two-storey house, and the worse the debauchery, the more of the participants’ skin and flesh peeled back exposing organs, muscles, sinews and bone in a display of stomach-churning lust. These giant figures, cast out of a dark pewter-like metal, dwarfed the Vatican explorers who gazed up at them; their human size childlike compared to the monstrous proportions of their ancient ancestors.
High above, just visible in the faint light, the final forms in the sculpture reached a pinnacle where no skin remained, the faces leering masks, as putrid flesh was indulged and consumed in equal measure, while those they literally devoured mirrored back the pain and despair inflicted upon them.
‘Such amazing detail,’ Zinetti said, transfixed by the scene.
Ruben reached up and grasped the silver crucifix that hung round his neck, just as a low howl came from behind them. The wind had picked up through the holes in the floor and the flames of the torches guttered and nearly went out.
Having almost been thrust into total darkness, everyone moved closer to the torchlight. If the flames were to go out they’d be blind, and after what they’d just seen, not to mention the dark holes nearby, that wasn’t an appealing prospect; no one wanted to be left in such a place with only the sense of touch to guide their way.
Ruben dragged his gaze from the lurid giants and back onto the mirrored wall. ‘There’s something inside it.’
Major Lanter held his torch closer to the shiny surface, looked behind and then back to the mirror again. ‘He’s right, and it’s not a reflection. I think it’s a sarcophagus.’
‘But ho
w can that be?’ Zinetti said, peering into the mirror image of the room in which they stood. ‘If it’s in the pyramid’s wall, it’s not wide enough to house something so big.’
‘An optical illusion?’ Avery said. ‘Whatever it is, we need to get inside.’
‘What?’ Zinetti said, continuing to stare at the anomaly. ‘Why?’
‘It holds the answer we seek.’ Avery moved as close as he dared to the wall without touching it and pointed. ‘A way to open Heaven’s Gate.’
Everyone looked to where something else glinted in the room, something that defied the laws of physics. Much like the impossibility of the creation around it, a single metallic disc hung suspended in the air in front of the enormous sarcophagus.
‘It’s a pendant,’ Zinetti said, amazed. ‘Like the one Dagmar Sorensen cut from Morgan’s chest.’
The pentagonal artefact gleamed in the darkness, the flicker of flame from the torches casting their glow upon it.
Lanter tapped the mirror with his armoured hand, eliciting a metallic ring which echoed round the pyramid.
The sound grew louder and louder as it continued to resound around the chamber until gradually fading away.
‘We need to hurry,’ Ruben said. ‘Cardinal Zinetti is right, the asteroid is almost here.’
‘The pendant and altar are key.’ Avery made his way with care to the stone altar at the centre of the room, his passage sending more dust cascading down into the darkness below. He ran his hand over its ancient inscriptions. ‘Sarah,’ – he looked towards the mirror which gleamed darkly in the torchlight – ‘we need you to activate it.’
Ruben looked round and frowned. ‘Where is she?’
Everyone turned to look for her, but the pyramid was empty and Sarah Morgan nowhere to be seen.
TERMINOLOGY
USSB – United States Subterranean Base
GMRC – Global Meteor Response Council, aka the Council
The Committee – Secret organisation / society
Darklight – World’s largest private security contractor
Terra Force – Special Forces Subterranean Detachment (SFSD)
S.I.L.V.E.R. – Elite military unit available to the highest bidder
Deep Reach – Special survey team working within the SED
SED – Sanctuary Exploration Division
Sanctuary – Ancient underground structure
USSB Sanctuary – A man-made base built within the Anakim creation, from which the U.S. Subterranean Base took its name
Anakim – an extinct species of Hominid, Homo giganthropsis
—————
Swiss Guard – Catholic military unit based in Vatican City
Holy See – Government of the Roman Catholic Church
Vatican City – Independent city state located in Rome, Italy
The Vatican – Informal term for the Holy See, or Vatican City
Knights of the Apocalypse – Catholic fundamentalists
[For ease of reference this page is duplicated in the final Appendix]
Chapter Two Hundred Thirty-Nine
The White House, Washington D.C.
John Henry stared into the face of the man sent to kill him and knew his time had come. There was no way out and no one left to help him. His wife and best friend were dead, and he was about to join them. He was out of time and out of luck.
Ophion Nexus held the tip of his sword to John’s throat and adjusted his grip to deliver the killing thrust. ‘The Committee thanks you for your service, Mr President,’ the assassin said, and John tensed for the inevitable, when the elevator behind him pinged and its doors opened.
John toppled backwards, away from the sword, and Ophion followed him into the elevator car, his huge frame filling the entrance.
The doors closed behind him and Ophion thrust the sword at John’s head, before stopping it a millimetre from his right eye.
The razor-sharp point filled John’s vision and he wondered why he wasn’t dead.
‘If you kill John Henry, Ophion Nexus,’ said a familiar voice, ‘you will have failed the mission given you by Selene Dubois.’
The assassin stared into the eyes of Da Muss Ich whose image had appeared on the interior of the elevator’s wrap-around screen. But the cyberterrorist wasn’t the only person who’d appeared on the screen; Professor Steiner’s image was next to him.
‘As you can see,’ Bic said, ‘Professor Steiner is alive and well. If you kill John Henry now, the order of your targets’ deaths will be incorrect and you will have broken your contract.’ The hacker smiled in satisfaction. ‘I told you I wouldn’t let you kill him, didn’t I?’
‘Let the president go,’ Steiner said, ‘and take me in his place.’
Ophion withdrew his sword and looked down at his would-be victim, then back at the screen and Professor Steiner.
‘You’re thinking this might be another trick,’ Bic said. ‘But you will remember the interference you experienced in your visor after the professor’s supposed death. You ran a diagnostic, did you not? Now you know that I was manipulating your reality, you must know this is no trick.’
Footage of Steiner’s assassination appeared on the screen, while next to it another graphical window played the same scenario without Bic’s interference, clearly showing the bullet grazing the side of the professor’s head rather than going straight through it.
Ophion switched off the display and ripped out the elevator’s cameras with an armoured hand. He sighed and hung his head, and then looked at John, whose life had just flashed before his eyes.
John returned the assassin’s deadly gaze and tried to slow his breathing, his chest rising and falling in quick succession, his brush with death fuelling the rush of adrenaline that now coursed through his body.
‘It seems, you have a reprieve, Mr President.’ Ophion pressed the down button and the elevator car descended from the presidential residence, towards the secret compound below. ‘For now.’
John could tell Da Muss Ich was beginning to try the assassin’s patience. His first target had risen from the dead and he was back to where he’d started. As they continued their descent, John could relate. It seemed no one was immune to the hacker’s capacity to manipulate and infuriate in equal measure. Although, John thought, touching his throat where the sword had pricked his skin, he did just save my life.
The thought was disturbing, but as the elevator came to a stop, he knew it was not an altruistic act, but one that was a means to an end. Da Muss Ich still wanted the nuclear launch codes and it seemed he was willing to sacrifice anyone to get them.
♦
Inside the nuclear bunker Professor Steiner waited for John Henry’s arrival, a myriad of thoughts cascading through his mind. If the surface is to be saved, the president must live. But that means I must die! Steiner’s mind screamed at him to alter the decision, but it was already made. His life for another, his life for everyone else’s, it was a very small price to pay. It’s just that the part of him that wanted to live forever – the part that didn’t want to cease to exist – didn’t want to go down without a fight. There must be another way! he told himself. There must be! But there wasn’t.
‘They’re outside,’ Bic said.
An image of Ophion and the president waiting beyond the blast door displayed on the nuclear bunker’s giant wallscreen, and Steiner knew his time had finally run out.
‘Professor,’ – Jessica grasped his arm – ‘you can’t do this!’
Professor Steiner looked around at those gathered and then to Jessica. ‘There’s no time to argue. I’ll hand myself over to the assassin in exchange for the president.’
‘He won’t stop at killing you,’ Brett said. ‘He’ll try and kill you both.’
‘What else can we do?’ Steiner said. ‘We need those launch codes and Ophion needs me. There’s no other choice. The decision has been made.’
‘John Henry has unlocked the door,’ Bic said.
Steiner hugged a tearful Eric and
an equally emotional Jessica, before turning to Brett. ‘You know what to do.’
She nodded and embraced him.
Steiner shook Captain Radcliffe’s hand and gave a nod to the Chinese premier, Liang Junhui, then walked past the four other Darklight soldiers, who formed up around him as he moved to the exit.
Steiner stopped, as Colonel Samson blocked his way. ‘Move aside, Colonel,’ he said.
Samson held his armoured helmet under one mighty arm and shook his head. ‘I can take him.’
‘This is not a negotiation,’ Steiner said. ‘Get out of my way.’
‘You don’t understand.’ Samson donned his headgear, activated its visor and then shouldered his oversized beam weapon. ‘I wasn’t asking.’ Samson strode to the massive hatch.
‘Colonel!’ Steiner said. ‘No – WAIT!’
But it was too late, Samson heaved open the blast door and surged through the opening.
Chapter Two Hundred Forty
John Henry stood facing the entrance to his nuclear bunker, having unlocked it at Ophion’s insistence. The assassin stood close behind him, his sword held firmly to John’s neck.
‘Whatever happens,’ Ophion said, his voice unnaturally calm, ‘do not move a muscle or you’ll slit your own throat.’
John wasn’t about to nod, speak, or even blink as the pressure of the blade cut into his skin and a trickle of blood ran down his chest.
His heart beat loud in his ears as the silence stretched on and then, at last, the blast door swung open.
John heard raised voices and then his eyes grew wide as an armoured figure came sprinting out towards them.
The sword vanished from John’s neck and he was thrust into the soldier’s path.
An instant later John was flung to the floor, the air knocked from his lungs by the impact; he felt like he’d been run over by a truck. He looked up with blurred vision as the assassin swung a sword at his attacker’s head and the fight began.
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 120