Eighth Fire (20 page)

“Okay, the information I’m getting is there’s a
possibility of radiation. Check the radiation exposure badge in
your kit.”

He pulled the badge out. “It’s not registering
any exposure.”

“Good. Have you got anything with you that you
can use to collect a sample to bring with you when you come out?
Something to keep it from getting contaminated.”

He dumped the bandages from a zip-lock bag in
the rescue kit. “Zip-lock bag okay?”

“That should do it.”

He chipped up a few gooey crystals, put them in
the bag and headed back.

The next morning Mrs. Shadowitz briefed Mark.
“The analysis of the sample you brought out yesterday is rather
interesting. The main mineral is chlorophane, which is heat
luminescent. It will actually start to glow just from the heat of
your hand.

“The gooey stuff is a mineral slime formed by a
reaction with a mild sulfuric acid. The acid is from the water in
the pool and would only be a problem if one were exposed to it for
a long time.

“The danger is in the air. The air contains
several sulfur and chlorine compounds as well as mercury. The Life
Sciences Lab estimates you would lose consciousness in about ten
minutes if you were breathing that air; definitely within fifteen
minutes. Death would follow. No one could get to you in time.”

Mark nodded, “Yes ma’am. I understand.”

She handed a different kind of lantern toward
Mark and rotated its head while she spoke. “There are several
filters in this light that will help you explore this room.”

He took the light, looked at it and put it into
Aaron’s Grasp. “I didn’t see any openings in that room. It looked
like a dead end.”

“You didn’t see the opening under the water
either.”

“I see your point.”

“Mr. Day told me the rest of the legend. A
spirit being accompanied and instructed Xocotli in the construction
of these traps. This spirit being just happens to have used the
same name as an angel of some… notoriety. Raphael is known for
understatement, and if that spirit being was in fact Raphael, you
need to explore this room carefully. Some things may not be what
they appear.”

The water was still cold even though he was now
wearing a suit designed to protect him from the water. He turned
the lantern on, sat it down and hopped out of the water. He
couldn’t stand on the slimy floor so he just sat there and used the
lantern to look around.

He said to the radio, “I see a small opening on
the other side: about fifty yards away. Most of the floor looks
like a pool of mercury and the rest of the floor is too slippery to
stand on.”

The voice in the headset said, “Try throwing
something like a rock into the pool to see if it really is mercury.
If it is mercury it shouldn’t sink but a fraction of an inch.”

Mark looked around for rocks and didn’t see any.
He removed the staff from Aaron’s Grasp and let the crooked end
rest on the silver pool. It didn’t look like it sunk at all. “Is
the camera picking that up?”

The radio voice said, “That looks like mercury.
You can probably push yourself across with the staff.”

“How do I know this is the way I’m supposed to
go?”

“We can’t be sure, but it can’t hurt to check it
out.”

After several tries Mark was able to catch the
lip of the pool with the staff and then pull himself over to it. He
pushed himself out as far as he could and then tried to push off
from the bottom of the pool. He couldn’t push the staff more than
half its length into the mercury before it bobbed back up, but each
try put him a few inches closer to the other side. It took two more
oxy-caps before he reached his destination.

“I’m at the opening. It looks like about ten
feet in it is just about closed over with stalactites. I don’t know
if I can make it through.”

The radio voice said, “They look too thick to
break by hand. If you have any rope, tie one end off there and go
get your climbing hammer. The rope will make it easier to get
back.”

“I’m going to try and squeeze through first.
There’s a spot right over there that might work.”

Mark stepped back, laid down and rolled on the
floor covering his torso with the slippery goo. Back in the opening
he was able to squirm through the largest opening.

He stood, looked around in the large room.
Stalactites merged with stalagmites forming large columns
throughout the room. A half hour later he had found four openings.
“Any suggestions?”

“You’re probably going to need to explore them
all. It’s best to do it systematically.”

He started walking and said, “I’ll start with
the one on the right of where I came in.”

That opening was an ancient lava tube that came
out on the back side of the hornet’s nest.

“That was easy enough. At least I know I’m on
the right track.”

The next two openings were lava tubes as well,
but dropped off steeply about a mile in. The last opening didn’t
have a drop-off; it just kept going down at a moderate incline.
After about three miles the radio began to fade and he didn’t have
any more repeaters with him as he’d left the duffel bags just past
the seesaw trap.

“I think that’s enough for today. I’m coming
out.”

The next morning it took him more than an hour
to transfer the contents of two duffel bags through the water into
the next room. Aaron’s Grasp couldn’t hold more than a person could
normally carry and this limited how much he could force beneath the
surface. The meal packs were remarkably buoyant and the most
difficult item to transfer to the next room.

It took another hour to string a rope across the
mercury pool and break one of the stalactite columns.

Mark hung the two duffel bags on the pull cart
Mr. Day had given him. Mr. Day said he and his wife played golf on
occasion and he used it for pulling their golf bags around. It
certainly made hauling two duffel bags around a lot easier.

After several hours of walking, Mark stopped for
lunch. He noticed a thin layer of dust on the floor. He bent,
swiped his finger across it and noted the rock surface was much
warmer than even the surfaces back in the glowing room. He looked
at the dust on his finger, sniffed it and promptly sneezed.

“I’m seeing dust on the floor. Is that
normal?”

The radio voice said, “It doesn’t make sense for
it to be dusty. Cave surfaces are normally damp.”

“These aren’t. They’re hot and dry.”

After a brief moment the radio voice said, “The
recommendations I’m getting here is that you should put on your
mask. It could be anything from volcanic ash to mold spores.
There’s no way to tell exactly what it is, but nothing it could be
is good to breathe.”

Mark put the mask on and backtracked a good way
past any of sign dust. He ate and resumed following the tunnel.
About fifteen minutes later he noticed it was getting harder to
breathe.

“Um…” He wheezed into the mike, “I can’t…” He
forced in a breath, “breathe.” He sat on the floor and began
rubbing his throat.

The radio voice said, “Get the epinephrine from
your kit…Wait, Mrs. Shadowitz says don’t take any chances, use the
healing oil and a fresh oxy-cap.”

He retrieved the small vial of healing oil from
his pocket. After putting a fresh oxy-cap in his mouth he tinked
out a drop of oil on his finger and rubbed it on his forehead.
Immediately a deep, reassuring peace settled over him and he fell
asleep.

He knew he was dreaming. The man sat
cross-legged a couple of feet away and Mark realized he must still
be laying down when he looked up into his face. His beard was
thicker than Tim’s but his smile was just as pleasant.

Mark sat up and asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Raphael.” A staff that looked just like
Mark’s appeared in his hands. “The third button from the bottom
releases the sword.” He pushed the button, twisted the metal foot
and pulled a thin, double-edged blade from the shaft. The metal
handle folded down forming a guard.

Mark recognized this sword; he had used it to
escape Benrah’s forces in a dream he had before coming to The
Seventh Mountain. He reached into Aaron’s Grasp for the staff but
it wasn’t there.

Raphael replaced the sword, folded the guard
back and gave the foot a twist before handing the staff to Mark.
“This sword will serve its purpose in your hand. Guard this secret
well.”

Raphael vanished.

“Wait! What am I supposed to do with it?”

Raphael didn’t return and there was no
answer.

It was just under an hour before Mark awoke. He
reached into Aaron’s Grasp. It was still there. He took the headset
off, laid it on the floor facing the camera toward the wall and
removed the staff. He pushed the third button and pulled the sword
out. It was just like the one in his dreams.

He put the tip against the wall and pushed the
blade in up to the guard. It took no effort. He sliced a funnel
shape. The rock cone slid out and fell to the floor. He held the
sword in front of his face and grinned. The sword he had believed
to be just a dream fantasy was now in his hand. He replaced the
sword and put the headset back on.

“Mark… Mark, can you hear me? Mark…Mark.”

“I’m okay. I can breathe now.”

“You need to start heading back now. We need to
check you over.”

“No, really, I’m okay. I think I’m supposed to
go on.”

“You can continue tomorrow; there’s no need to
push yourself.”

“I’m not pushing myself; I feel great. I’ve got
everything I need here and it’s got to be more than ten miles
back.”

“It’s more like fifteen by our calculations and
somewhere between one and one and a half miles deep.”

Mark had no idea he was that deep
underground.

After a pause the radio voice said, “Mrs.
Shadowitz says you can continue if you feel up to it. Just be
careful.”

The tunnel continued for several more miles. The
armor’s natural air circulation wasn’t working well enough to keep
him cool under his clothes now so he stuffed his jeans and shirt
into a duffel bag.

There hadn’t been dust on the floor or walls for
some time. He pulled the mask back and smelled the air. “Oh man!
Rotten eggs.” He let go of the mask and its elastic band snapped it
back to his face.

“That means you’re likely getting close to a
source of something burning with sulfur in it. What’s the
temperature now?”

He retrieved the thermometer. “One hundred and
nine.”

“Turn the light out and see what you can
see.”

It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust to
the dark. “There’s a faint reddish glow ahead.”

“Probably a lava pit. It might be a good idea to
leave your stuff there while you check it out.”

It was just a half-mile walk to the red glow. It
was a lava pit in a large room. He couldn’t see the walls of the
room to the right or left, but he estimated the pit itself was only
about twenty feet across and the lava was more than a hundred feet
down. The pit wasn’t round like he expected, it was more like a
crevice in the floor, stretching more than fifty yards to either
side. The lava must have been near the top at some point, the edge
of the crevice looked crusty and charred.