by Sean Salazar
He tapped his mic and whispered, “Found an opening. Wait a few. Going in to investigate.”
Major Reeves’s voice crackled into his ear piece, “Hurry up.”
Al swung back and forth until the momentum planted his feet firmly on the ground. He let go of the rope, stepped inside and unclipped his pack. He quietly lowered it to the ground, removed his weapon, and attached the light to the barrel.
The first thing he noticed was a large, brown, vault-like door on the right with a medieval brass ring attached in the center. For some odd reason it reminded him of the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her team reached the Emerald City and had to use a ring like that to summon the Wizard.
He continued inside, noticing the oddly shaped walls on both sides protruding out in unusual angles. Decorations covered the walls from top to bottom, including dozens of painted heads with wings attached. Each head had a halo around it as he had seen in old European paintings. Directly ahead, the walls angled up, merging into a high arch. Covering every square inch of the entire back wall under the arch was a very large painting. In the center was a queen with a halo, holding a baby. The baby also had a halo and a crown. All around were other, smaller paintings. To the right was a short passageway covered in paintings, also arched. One thing that seemed out of place were giant stained-glass windows covering the entire left side of the space. He tried to see through them but could not. He realized that he had better get the boys down here fast. He walked back to the opening to get a clear transmission. He glanced up and tapped his mic, “Get down here.”
“On our way,” the major’s voice crackled over his earpiece.
Al turned around and re-examined the right side. Past the vault door, the wall protruded out and led to another opening. He aimed the light inside and shone it again on the paintings. Whoever designed this area sure seemed confused as to what they were up to, he thought to himself. Nothing seemed to match or make sense. He then backed up to the center and aimed his light at the lower part of the walls. Wrapped around the entire space and following each of the odd angles, there was a sort of bench installed at the base of every wall.
The major landed first and pulled out his light. “What in the hell is this?”
“Welcome to my world,” Al answered.
Reeves walked inside, aiming his light around but not saying a word. Once he reached the center, he asked sarcastically, “This is your world?”
“Sure as hell seems like it.”
Sounds of a small explosion came from the shaft followed by a shower of rocks and dirt. Moments later, Harrison landed in a hurry. He let the rope go and raised his gun. “We have company,” he yelled out.
Al aimed his light to the right at the vault door. “That is one possibility.” He turned to the left toward the windows, “next option.” He then stepped in front of the passageway with the half-arched ceiling, “Last option.”
The major stepped in front of the door and perused it. He tapped the surface with his gun, emanating a metal-to-metal sound. “Solid,” he said, turning around.
Harrison stepped to the windows, cupped his hand and peered through it. “I say we break the glass.”
“That would be the logical option,” the major said as a loud explosion echoed down the shaft.
“They are through the rocks now,” Harrison said.
Al aimed his light directly at the glass. “Have at it.”
Harrison turned around and hit the glass with the butt end of his gun and a small section shattered.
Al stood up on the bench and hit the metal that separated the glass. It didn’t budge. He kicked it several times with his boot until the bottom part gave way.
The major stepped to the edge of the shaft, aimed his gun upward, and sprayed it with bullets. “We need to hurry,” he said, rushing back.
Harrison continued breaking the glass as Al continued kicking. The metal frame finally gave enough room for them to climb through.
Harrison removed his pack and climbed through first. He reached back and pulled his pack in. Al did the same, followed by the major.
Harrison was already in the center of the space with his light trained on three large golden pedestals about eight or nine feet tall. The one on the left looked to be larger than the one in the center, which was larger than the one on the right. Al aimed his light up toward the ceiling which was cave-like and very rough, in the shape of a dome. Directly behind the pedestals was a decorated wall divided into squares that covered it from side to side. Inside each square were more painted faces with a halo above each head. Each picture had writing below it.
Al continued looking around for an escape route.
“There,” the major said, his light pointing to the far right at three large oval windows. He stepped closer, aimed his submachine gun, and raked the center window with bullets, shattering it to pieces. He then shone his light inside. “This looks promising.”
Al ran over and looked. Directly ahead, his light was brightly reflecting on a gigantic mounted gold disc. There was clearly writing going all the way around the edges. The disc was set at a slight angle and Al pointed his light to the right, then left, but didn’t see anything else. The ceiling was farther up than his light could reach. He then squeezed between the thin metal rods and stepped inside. Again, he looked around and didn’t see any obvious way out.
The major climbed in next and walked around the disc. “What in the Lord’s name could this be used for?”
“Don’t know,” Al said. “Most of the stuff I’ve seen can’t be explained rationally.”
“Looks like a gold-plated radar dish.”
Al then noticed a door to the right side of the windows.
Sergeant Harrison shouted from the other side, “I found a door.”
Al and the major quickly climbed back through and saw him standing between the center gold pedestal and the wall. He had somehow opened two of the squares lining the wall.
“Found a hidden door,” he said.
Al glanced over at it. “How did you find it?’
“I just noticed the signal fluctuating on several frequencies and I stepped towards this wall and it shot off the chart. I just started pulling on the squares and one opened up.” He showed the device to the major. “I don’t understand.”
“Can you separate the signals?” the major asked.
“Yes sir.”
Al stepped to the side of the door and saw a short hallway with a very wide stone stairway going down. “I was afraid of that,” he said. “Going deeper?” the major asked. Al held his light. “Unfortunately, in my humble experience, going deeper often leads out.” He then noticed an opening on the right side and immediately knew where that led. He stepped inside, aimed his light to the right, and said, “That goes to the golden disc chamber.”
“You’re making it sound poetic,” the major said.
Al took the first few steps down and paused, “Yeah.”
The major joined him. “You think that stairway leads down to the base of the mountain.”
“Well, the elevator shaft seemed to go down a lot farther,” Al answered, taking a few more steps down. “Only one way to find out.”
“Hold on,” Major Reeves said. He walked back over to the glass section and aimed his light through in the direction of the shaft. “They pulled up the rope.” He then began attaching explosives to the lower half of the window in three different sections, feeding the wires back past the pedestals and into the stairway. He handed the wires to Harrison and said, “Stay here and guard the entrance.”
“Yes sir,” he answered, grabbing the wires.
“Give me the device,” the major ordered.
Handing it over, Harrison said, “I’ll be right here, sir.”
Al led the way down the steps and after thirty or so they turned a hundred eighty degrees and went down another direction. After a couple more angle changes, the major stopped. “This feels about right.
We are at the base of the mountain.” Al aimed h
is light down the stairs, “We still have a ways to go.”
“Lead the way.” They continued down for several more minutes until they reached the bottom.
Al aimed his light around, illuminating three separate, partially caved-in tunnels going in opposite directions. “This is what I was afraid of.” The major looked in each direction. “If I was to guess,” he pointed into the tunnel on the right, “that goes to the lake.”
“Fine by me,” Al said. He raised his weapon with the light attached, and began down the tunnel. The ground, walls, and ceiling were very rough and many areas were partially blocked by rocks, forcing the two men to squeeze through sideways. Eventually the tunnel turned to the left and began to go down at a steep angle. They both were holding onto the rocky walls to prevent slipping. After a few minutes of descending, Major Reeves spoke up, “Hold, we’re going in a circle.”
Al held up his light, “I know it seems like it, but keep going.”
“Very well,” he answered, hesitant, and they continued.
Several minutes later, the tunnel ended at a wall of stone. The major stopped and asked smartly, “Your plans?”
“Don’t panic,” Al answered, stepping up to it. He held up his hand and felt a cool draft. “This is good news.”
“How do you know?” Major Reeves aimed his light where Al’s hand was showing a small crevice. “That leads out somewhere. Got a cool draft,” Al said, lowering his hand, “which to tunnel rats like me, means that an exit is near.” He then pulled out his tunnel finder, turned it on, and placed it against the rock wall. After a few seconds, it beeped and Al said, “That works.”
“You’re going to blow it?”
“Yep.”
The major stepped closer and aimed his light over the wall. “Finding an exit would be a good thing.” Al opened his pack and counted his explosive strips—six left. He glanced at the wall estimating what he would need. He attached three in a triangular pattern, saving the other three. He then pushed in wires, and fed them into the tunnel finder. “Back up time,” Al said, motioning the major to move. They both backed up to a slight bend in the passageway.
The major took up a position behind him and asked, “How many of those damn things did you bring with you?”
“Never enough,” Al answered. He closed his eyes and hit the button. A gust of hot air and rocks flew at them, ricocheting off the walls but for the most part missing them.
The major stepped around, shining his light into the new hole and then downward. “Got a problem.”
Al followed. “Uh-oh.” Apparently, the blast not only knocked out the wall, but the ground as well.
“I think we’re over another chamber,” the major said.
Al felt a rush of heat coming out of the hole that was not normal. The heat from blowing out walls usually dissipates in seconds but this heat was intense, like an oven. He cautiously approached the hole, raising his hand to hold back the major.
“Let me check first.” Al got on his knees and slowly crawled over to it. The heat was now like a furnace, which was odd because the initial breeze he felt was not hot, or maybe he just didn’t feel it. He reached the edge and peered below. The heat now burned his eyes. Aiming his light around, he noticed three more large golden discs below. They were all attached to stands, like the others, and were slightly turned upward at forty-five degree angles.
Despite the heat, Al felt a sudden chill. Behind the discs his light caught the lower half of something he recognized. Raising it, he saw illuminated the giant brass phoenix statue with its eyes lit up blood red. It was tall, with a long neck —its wings sticking out and then angling straight up. At that moment something occurred to him. The major and his team have been hunting unidentified submersible and flying objects. That sounds like a fancy way of saying they are UFO hunters. What if the submersibles and UFO’s in Jackson Lake have something to do with this complex inside the mountain? This was a potential connection that Al would have to figure out. If these guys worked for Ed, then Ed would know that answer. The aim right now was to find a way out, so interrogating the major would have to wait. “You’re going to love this,” Al said, slowly scooting back. “You’re kidding, of course,” the major responded. “There is nothing
here that I would actually love.” All waved him over, deciding the ground was solid. The major got on his knees and crawled over. Al pointed with his light. “Do you see that phoenix statue?”
“Yes, what is it?”
“That is exactly like the ones we found in Iraq and Bolivia.”
“Are you saying then that we are on the correct path?”
“Could be,” Al answered, lowering himself to ground level. He walked past the disc and up to the statue. Major Reeves hit the ground and came up behind him. As he stepped up, Al asked, “What is the possibility of the signal coming from that?” The major walked around the bird’s legs, examining it with his light, “What do you mean?”
“Not sure, it’s just an idea.”
“One way to find out,” the major said, pulling the receiver from his pack and glancing at the screen. He looked up, “The signal is maxed out.”
“And that means?”
“We might be at ground zero for the signal.”
“Damn! This must be it,” Al said. “Which is?”
“You just solved a major mystery.”
“I’m not quite following you.” Al aimed his light at the face of the phoenix statue. “This is the third one we’ve found, but we didn’t know a signal was coming out of it.”
“Okay,” the major said. “So, if I was to speculate and appear smart, which I am not, I would suggest that this could be a beacon of some type.”
“Well then,” the major said looking around, “finding a way out is still our priority before we announce the mystery is solved. Wouldn’t you say?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Al said, remaining focused on the phoenix. He then yelled out, “This is what the Brotherhood is searching for!” Al turned around to the gold disc. “Didn’t your man say that satellites were tracking the signal?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Goddammit, this has to be it. They are hunting for this signal! This might explain how the Brotherhood and my team were virtually on top of each other in Iraq and Bolivia. We have to get this info to Ed.”
Major Reeves shot his light around, “Well, let’s get out of here first.”
“You betcha,” Al said. He then realized that he had failed to notice the temperature had doubled since the tunnel. He unzipped his coat and then pointed his light to the left, illuminating a large square opening in the wall. Inside was some type of flat platform. He walked in its direction and said, “The heat draft seems to be coming from that area.” As he approached, he could see the edge of the platform and barren blackness behind it. He did not see a back wall but did see debris and rocks scattered about on the platform.
“I agree,” Major Reeves said, walking to the side of the opening.
The opening was twice the size of a normal garage door with a treaded type of square platform inside. It had a rough surface that reminded Al of the type of surface on the top of Navy aircraft carriers used to prevent aircraft from sliding around in rough seas. There appeared to be a slim gap between the space and the platform, and then it occurred to him what they were looking at. He aimed his light up and saw that it was a shaft, “I think we found the bottom of the elevator.”
The major glanced up, “I was right. We did go in a circle.”
Al aimed his light directly past the platform into the darkness. “There is no back wall.” Al put one foot on the platform and pushed down. It felt solid so he stepped onto it to get a view off the other side. As he reached the center, he felt it shudder slightly. The sudden movement startled him as he realized that he may have just screwed up. He then lifted his foot to back up and as he did the platform dropped rapidly.
The major yelled from behind, “Get off !”
Al turned around and reached for the edg
e, but it was too late. There was no way he could dive off. He glanced up and watched the major with his light aiming down at him rapidly become farther and farther away. He felt weightless as he dropped as fast as a rock. He did not know what else he could do as he dropped into the abyss, so he knelt down, laid his hands flat on the surface, and held on for the ride.
After several seconds, the elevator did not stop as he would have expected but seemed to pick up speed. He slowly raised his weapon with the light attached and aimed it out as he dropped. Nothing but blackness. He pointed it all around. The sidewalls were gone. The main wall was moving so fast that it was only a blur. He continued to brace himself since the platform was moving so fast that he felt like his body was lifting off. He slung his weapon around his shoulder so it would not fly away and used both hands to hold the ground again. Then, suddenly, he saw a shape fly by him. He barely had a chance to see it. It looked like a structure or a building but he went right by it. More structures came into view as the platform began to slow down. He could tell it was slowing down because his body felt heavy.
Major Reeves could not believe what he had just seen. The elevator platform Al was on completely dropped from under him. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. He dropped to one knee and leaned over the edge, aiming his light down, and he barely got a glimpse of Al in the center of the platform before he disappeared into darkness. He quickly checked each wall for any type of control that would drive the elevator. After a few seconds, he gave up and looked around frantically throughout the space but found nothing. He ran back to the hole they blew out. He jumped up, grabbing the edge, deciding it was time to get immediate help.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Once the platform settled to a stop, Al waited for a few seconds before standing up. He was careful not to move too quickly lest he trigger it to drop again. When he aimed his light around and saw dirt, indicating a possible ground floor, he jumped off.
Now standing upright, he removed his gun and pointed the attached light at the elevator. It was not moving because this was the bottom; he could see dirt under it. Now he felt silly for jumping off. What if the damn thing went back up? He took a second to reflect on the speed and time he had traveled. At the speed he dropped, he guessed it could have easily descended a quarter mile or more. Not good.