2041 Sanctuary (Let There Be Light) (55 page)

‘If this forms a circle,’ Rebecca said, ‘it’s massive.’

Goodwin gauged the arc created by the standing stones that were visible in the torchlight. He had to agree, it could be a mile in diameter, maybe more.

‘Be careful,’ Manaus said, ‘there’s more of that black sludge on the ground.’

Goodwin shone his light down to find he stood in a pool of the stuff.

‘It’s everywhere,’ Walker said.

Goodwin moved on. ‘Don’t let it touch your skin; if it’s the same stuff as in the lake it could be dangerous.’

They continued with care, but avoiding the carpet of thick, black oil was nigh on impossible. Also, the further they went, the deeper the pools became.

A shout came from behind and Goodwin spun round. One of the soldiers had fallen in up to his waist.

The man struggled against the tar-like substance, unable to move. Two other soldiers went to pull him free before he let out an inhuman scream and fell back into the oil. Clawing at his throat, he thrashed wildly as he tore through skin to sink gory fingers into his carotid artery.

Blood flowed and flesh fell before a gunshot rang out and a bloody hole appeared in the soldier’s forehead. With a sigh, he slid beneath the dark surface.

Everyone turned to see a wisp of smoke spiralling up from the barrel of Priest’s automatic weapon.

‘I’d want anyone to do the same for me,’ he said.

Silence fell as the shock of what had just happened sank in.

‘These pools must contain a hallucinogenic agent,’ Goodwin said, in detached horror, ‘like the lake, but concentrated.’

‘Whatever it is, there’s too many of us to get through it without further incident,’ Manaus said. ‘It’s too dangerous.’

Goodwin felt a surge of irritation at the delay. ‘What do you suggest?’

‘We split up; the majority stays here while a few of us go on.’

‘You six,’ Priest gestured to some soldiers, ‘with me, everyone else, except the Lieutenant and the Director, stay here and wait our return.’

‘No!’ Rebecca said, hugging a trembling Joseph to her. ‘Where Richard goes, we go.’

‘And if you think you’re leaving me here,’ Walker said, ‘think again.’

Priest swore, seized Walker and put a gun to his head. ‘Very well, but if anyone tries anything they’ll wish they hadn’t. Understand?’

‘You’re still in charge,’ Manaus said, staying calm, ‘we know that.’

Priest released Walker. ‘Good, and don’t you forget it.’

Walker scowled and then spat on the floor, his eye and cheek twitching in nervous anger.

With the group split in two Goodwin struck out once more, his party now twelve strong, while the remaining soldiers, looking fearful, retreated back to the standing stones to await their return.

The corporal moved closer to Goodwin as they travelled in single file. ‘We can take them,’ Walker whispered, ‘if we get the chance.’

Goodwin glanced back at Priest and his cronies. ‘I’m no fighter, Corporal,’ Goodwin said, ‘and I won’t risk Rebecca and Joseph on a roll of the dice.’

‘Then it’s just as well I don’t care what happens to them,’ Walker said. ‘If I see a chance I’m taking it, I recommend you do the same.’

Goodwin didn’t reply. Instead he turned his helmet’s visual enhancer back on and moments later he glimpsed something through the mist, which had returned with a vengeance. ‘Lieutenant, I see something up ahead.’

Manaus waited for him to catch up. ‘Where?’

He pointed up at a forty-five degree angle. The mist parted and a distant structure appeared out of the gloom.

‘It’s high up,’ she said, pressing a button on her helmet, ‘perhaps we’re nearing your way out at last.’

Goodwin wasn’t sure height had anything to do with what he looked for. He wanted to get to the surface, of course, but he knew they must still be beneath the lake and if that was the case the route out would likely be more complex than a simple staircase leading up.

They pressed on before Goodwin, who’d been looking at the ground to ensure he followed in the lieutenant’s footsteps, bumped into the Darklight officer’s back.

‘I think whatever you’re looking for,’ Manaus said, ‘might be in there.’

Goodwin looked up to see an enormous edifice barring their way.

Walker arrived behind them. ‘Is that what I think it is?’

‘Looks that way,’ Goodwin said, not quite believing what he was seeing.

The largest monument he had ever seen – and that included anything in Sanctuary itself – emerged through the swirling mists like a fabled leviathan from the deep. But what was most astounding was the form the ancient sculptors had chosen for this mightiest of works. As with everything else in the Anakim world, when compared to the human equivalent it was immense, dwarfing its counterpart twenty times over. But what Goodwin couldn’t understand – couldn’t even begin to get his mind round – was how it resembled what it did. His eyes drank in the scene: the giant claws, furled wings, the muscular hindquarters, the long, elegant back and rearing chest. Of course, the face was different, the entire head for that matter, along with the sweeping headdress that hung down to drape over its outstretched forelegs. But one thing was certain; it bore an uncanny resemblance to one of the most well-known sights on the surface, perhaps the greatest architectural mystery of them all, the Great Sphinx of Giza.

Chapter Sixty Eight

‘I don’t understand it.’ Corporal Walker craned his head back as they approached a set of stone steps that led up into the sphinx’s mist-wreathed chest. ‘How can this be here? Did the Anakim build the one in Egypt, too?’

‘More likely humans visited this place and recreated it on the surface,’ Goodwin said, ‘who knows.’

‘The Anakim could have created the one in Giza,’ Rebecca said. ‘There are theories the sphinx is far older than the pyramids themselves. Some say its erosion indicates weathering that only heavy rainfall could explain, and that amount of rainfall could only have occurred thousands of years before the pyramids were built. Although, saying that, I think that idea is disputed by the wider scientific community.’

‘Even the wildest theories can sometimes prove true.’ Goodwin looked up at the symmetry of the Anakim face high above. ‘How do you know all this?’

‘I told you before, the Discovery Channel.’

‘So the Egyptian sphinx could be thousands, or even tens of thousands, of years older than they think it is?’

‘It could be,’ Rebecca said, ‘no one knows for sure as you can’t carbon date stone. One thing they do know is that a pharaoh found the sphinx hidden in the sand in fourteen hundred B.C., and it was really old then. Sphinxes aren’t exclusive to Egypt, though, they’ve been found elsewhere throughout history.’

‘She’s got smarts,’ Walker said, ‘eh, Director?’

Goodwin glared at him. He knew full well what Walker was doing, attempting to ingratiate himself now that he’d become an outcast from his unit. The man was anything but subtle.

Trying to resist the urge to punch Walker in the face, Goodwin helped Rebecca up onto the first step of the staircase. Built by – and for – much larger people, each stair’s height was too great for them to walk up with ease and by the time they reached the top Goodwin was breathing heavily.

With torches blazing bright, Lieutenant Manaus led them into the body of the Anakim Sphinx.

More towering statues lined the interior, much like the ones in the hall they’d seen before, although if anything these were bigger.

Less frightening than their counterparts, these works of sublime art were no less dynamic. The ancient artisans had embodied Anakim warriors battling with the beasts of land and air in striking poses, the same animals that must have roamed the wilds alongside Homo giganthropsis at the dawn of their civilisation. Goodwin recognised giant sloths, woolly rhinos, mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers amongst many other weird and wonderful fauna. There were even statues of reptiles that looked curiously like feathered dinosaurs.

Much like everywhere else in the dank, dark underworld they now explored, every surface lit up by their torches glistened with the residue of water.

‘Do you think the water is coming in from the lake?’ Rebecca said, her voice quavering.

Manaus shone her torch in Rebecca’s direction. ‘This place could be eons old; it stands to reason it would leak a little.’

Rebecca murmured an agreement while tightening her grip on Joseph, who kept his head bowed.

The party moved on into a network of soaring columns, their light beams sweeping the surrounding area as each person’s torch found its own direction. Revealed in the shadows, Goodwin glimpsed huge tombs and abstract forms.

After a while the way ahead opened out into a great plaza, but rather than relieve the oppressive silence it accentuated it, their intruding footfalls consumed by distant recesses. Either side of this high vaulted expanse stood a single row of Anakim warriors. Male and female alike, side by side they remained at eternal attention, dressed in strange garb and armed with fanciful weapons.

Made of stone, their expressions had long since eroded away, which Goodwin thought was strange.
They’re inside a building
, he reasoned,
they should be free from such weathering
.

Walker moved past the lieutenant to take the lead. ‘Look here!’ he said, his voice echoing back through the great hall.

Goodwin removed his helmet, which had grown heavy, and detached the light bar from the top to use as a handheld torch. He followed the corporal forward, as did everyone else.

A host of ornate thrones, set in pairs, sparkled under illumination and stretched across in front of them between the two sets of statues. The seats were big, but not as massive as everything else they’d seen.

‘These aren’t decoration,’ Goodwin said, walking around one the thrones, ‘they were used by whoever ruled.’

Manaus shone her torch at the cracked surface. ‘They look transparent.’

‘Some kind of crystal,’ Walker said, digging at one with his knife, ‘very hard crystal.’

Goodwin felt a tingling itch come from his wrist. He put down his helmet and gave the rash a satisfying scratch before resuming his search.

Behind the thrones, a ten foot high wall of un-worked rock had been left to form a natural barrier to a level above, and in the centre of the wall the ancient sediment rose up into a distant peak. Near to this miniature mountain Goodwin thought he could see the glint of gold. Passing his helmet to Rebecca, he called the lieutenant to him. ‘Give me a boost, will you?’

Manaus nodded and held out her hands.

Goodwin jumped up and grabbed onto the upper level and hauled himself up, while Priest and his men milled about below.

‘What do you see, Director?’ Walker said.

Goodwin turned his torch onto a dark mass that sparkled with the sheen of metal ore.
It looks
like a meteorite
, he thought, tapping it with his torch to produce a dull ring. Either side of this strange formation, two gigantic statues loomed in the dark, their shape identical to the sphinx’s exterior. Beyond these silent guardians the interior of the complex continued on, and he could tell this section was far older than what had come before as cracked and crumbling stone walls ran off into the black, their surfaces adorned with carvings, many barely recognisable in their decay.

Goodwin walked round the tall outcrop of rock and shone his light on something that took his breath away.

Precious metals glittered in the dark as the light reflected from an immense creation that soared above him. A lustrous gold surface shone rich with diamonds of every description and size. It was another throne that merged into the metallic rock behind it, but unlike the grand seats of power below, this mighty singularity was enormous, easily six times bigger and reserved for someone of great import. And that person sat before him now, towering over him like a legendary Greek titan. Wrought entirely from silver, the figure of a beautiful Anakim woman posed in regal majesty, ruling over her subjects, who would have congregated before her. The effect was so lifelike anyone would have been forgiven for thinking the statue could have got up and walked away, or that it was flesh and blood made metal. Whatever the case, the effect was awe-inspiring.

He moved back and leant out over the edge. ‘There’s more to see up here.’

‘We’ve found an easier way up,’ Manaus said, pointing to her left, ‘a slope.’

Goodwin nodded and a minute later everyone had joined him, with many unable to take their eyes off the silver woman and her gold and gemstone surround.

Walker, ever the opportunist, tried prising out some of the jewels. ‘They’re stuck fast,’ he said, muttering to himself.

‘How has she not tarnished?’ Rebecca said, staying close to Goodwin.

He didn’t know. ‘Nano technology, maybe? The Anakim were really advanced, or so Walker tells us.’

‘You only have to see their city to know they were advanced,’ Walker said, giving up on his quest for riches. ‘And it’s not just me, is it? You forget,’ he gestured at Priest and the other six soldiers, ‘we’re all from USSB Sanctuary. Ask any of them, they’ll tell you the same.’

Goodwin didn’t care what any of them had to say, he just wanted to find a way out. The group moved on, but Goodwin paused as Rebecca remained where she was, holding Joseph’s hand and looking down from where they’d come and then back up to the silver statue.

He went back to her side. ‘What is it?’

‘How many thrones are down there?’

‘I’m not sure, twenty, thirty maybe.’

‘I need to know exactly.’

Priest turned back and rested his rifle on his shoulder. ‘What’s the hold up?’

‘Why
exactly
?’ Goodwin said to Rebecca.

‘Just humour me.’

Manaus, overhearing the request, returned to use her helmet’s visor to scan the level below.

‘There’s twenty-four, isn’t there,’ Rebecca said.

Manaus raised her visor, her expression annoyed. ‘If you knew why did you ask?’

‘I didn’t know, I guessed.’

‘What’s going on, Rebecca?’ Goodwin said. ‘What’s this about?’