Authors: Flyboy707

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Matt Reilly Stories (14 page)

BOOK: Matt Reilly Stories

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After
about sixty feet of climbing, she came to the bottom of the well-shaft, and
found herself standing in a stone corridor that was perfectly square in shape.

Battery-powered
lamps sat on the floor, bathing the tunnel in spooky diffused light.

Kowalski
stopped Chase from stepping any further down the corridor.

'Whatever
you do, don't step on the long stone.'

It
was then that Chase noticed the tunnel floor in front of her. It was made up of
hundreds of small flat floorstones. One stone, however, stretched for the
entire width of the hallway-a long, wide rectangular slab. Beyond it was a
doorway leading into another passageway. If she hadn't been forewarned, Chase
would almost certainly would have stepped on it.

Everyone
leapt over the long stone. When they were all safe on the other side, Kowalski turned
to Chase. 'Want to know why?'

'Okay.'

The
lieutenant raised his gun and fired a single shot into the long stone.

The
bullet sparked off the stone----and then with shocking suddenness, a large
square section of the ceiling rushed down from above them and banged down
against the long stone, before retreating quickly back into the ceiling,
leaving the tunnel silent once more.

Chase
was stunned.

It
had happened so fast! It had looked like a pile driver of some sort, an
enormous stone mechanism designed to flatten the unwary soul who stepped on the
long stone…or maybe just flatten that person's legs.

THE
PASSAGEWAY OF ANIMALS

They
pushed on, heading deeper into the ancient mine.

They
entered a long extra-narrow passageway that they could only pass through
single-file indeed, it was so confined, their shoulders brushed against its
uneven rocky walls.

Carved
animal heads lunged out from the walls on either side of them. Sinister
alligator heads, snarling snakes, and some older creatures: a woolly mammoth, a
sabre-toothed tiger.

There
was even one statue that looked like an enormous wrinkle-snouted rat.

'What
the hell is that?' one of the soldiers said as he bumped up against the giant
rat's bared fangs.

'Megafauna,'
Chase said. 'Overly large prehistoric mammals. Every continent had them, but most
died out with the arrival of man about 10,000 years ago. Mastodons in North
America.

Marsupial
lions in Australia. Some species survived until quite recently. For example,
this species of giant rodent-rodentus carnifex-is known to have lived in the
fourth century A.D.

Not
surprising, really, rodents are the most resilient animals on earth.'

'A
giant rat…' the soldier frowned.

'Sort
of. Carnifex was six-feet-tall and partially bipedal. It was carnivorous, and
in appearance, kind of like a cross between a rat and a velociraptor-long tail,
powerful hind limbs, fast mover. The Teotihuacans sometimes used them as guard
animals, but mainly they were used for bloodsport-they'd put two carnifecia in
a pit and bet on the outcome.'

'Basically,
cockfighting with big rats,' Kenny G said.

'Oh.'

After
they'd passed through the ultra-narrow passageway, Kowalski demonstrated its
secret.

He
touched a small floor panel with his foot. There was a four second delay…

…and
then suddenly the narrow passageway's floor-the whole floor, about fifteen
yards of it-just dropped away on a hinge, revealing a ten-foot-deep pit beneath
it filled with viciouslysharpened wooden stakes.

Kowalski
pressed the floor panel again the hinged floor rose back up into place,
resetting itself.

'Ouch,'
Kenny whispered.

THE
SPIRAL RAMP

They
came to a spiralling ramp that cur ved downward, bending around and out of
sight. A rivulet of condensation ran in a trickle down its moss-covered floor.

An
imposing stone statue glared down at them from an alcove at the top of the
ramp. It was basically just a seven-foot-tall head, the face of an angry god.
Long lethal-looking stone spikes jutted out from the face's cheeks, nose and
brows.

They
headed down the slippery spiralling ramp, slowly.

Kenny
G walked beside Chase. 'Did you see that whiteboard upstairs?' he whispered.

'Uh-huh.'

'See
the part about the Visitor's Stone.'

'Yes.'

'What
do you think?'

'It's
possible. It would fit the legend.'

The
legend of the Visitor's Stone was a famous one in Mexican lore. Teotihuacan
myth had it that at the height of their power, the Teotihuacans were visited by
a strange otherworldly individual. He bestowed upon the Teotihuacans a single
gift, a sharp pointed pyramid-shaped piece of silver stone.

Legend
had it that this stone-known as the Visitor's Stone-possessed incredible
properties.

When
dipped in water, it would bestow upon that water the gift of life…eternal life.
Whoever drank the water would live forever.

But
the lure of eternal life proved too much for the Teotihuacans, and they
descended into infighting and murder. And so the stone was taken to a most
secret location-a secure place far away from the city-and hidden there, never
to be found again.

'Do
you think the Stone even exists?' Kenny asked.

'I
don't know,' Chase said. 'But it would seem that if it does, the American
government wants it.'

THE
BELLY OF THE MINE

After
about three storeys' worth of downward circling, the spiralling ramp levelled
out at an Lshaped corner, which opened onto a long square tunnel. The wall
facing the ramp was heavily battered and crumbling, as if it had been pounded repeatedly
with a sledgehammer. Large chunks of broken stone lay everywhere.

Chase,
however, didn't notice them.

She
only had eyes for what lay at the end of the new tunnel that branched off to
her right. At the far end of it, she saw an enormous beautifully-crafted
archway.

Strangely,
however, the ceiling of this tunnel was made up of a grid of wide square-shaped
alcoves. A lone object leaned against the wall halfway down the tunnel-a
six-foot-tall golden cage, covered in broken cobwebs.

'It's
okay,' Kowalski said. 'Just don't step on the farthest edges of the
floorstones.'

Chase
did as she was told, careful to step only in the exact centre of each
floorstone. By this stage, she didn't even want to know what surprises lurked
in the shadowed alcoves in the ceiling.

When
they reached the decorated archway at the end of the tunnel, she gazed out
through it.

And
her eyes widened.

'Oh…my…Lord…'
she breathed.

THE
UNDERGROUND KINGDOM

It
looked like a cathedral, a spectacular subterranean cathedral. A
gigantic cavern, at least a hundred feet high.

And
standing proudly in the exact centre of this enormuous underground space, was a
beautiful freestanding pyramid.

It
was about eighty feet high, flat-topped and tiered, and it was surrounded by a
wide glistening moat that was fed by a gentle waterfall at one end of the cave.

Chase's
eyes, however, were drawn to a flat tier halfway up the pyramid.

While
the rest of the building was made of densely mortared stone, this section was constructed
of glistening black obsidian-just like the tablets.

A
set of stone stairs built into the side of the pyramid led up to the black
tier.

The
tiny figures of Chase and Kenny, Haynes and Breslin, and their military escorts
crossed the moat surrounding the pyramid via a long granite bridge. Then they
climbed the great building until they came to the obsidian tier.

There
they found a wide stone doorway, also constructed of glassy black rock. Even
the large rectangular stone filling the doorway was a glistening black.

And
on the floor in front of the doorstone, arrayed side-by-side in a neat line,
lay five carved rectangular slots-each the size of a hardback book. In the
middle of each slot was a raised stone carving in the shape of a + sign.

'Looks
like your tablets fit here,' Chase said.

'Yes,
we know,' Haynes said. 'But it would seem the order in which they are placed is
crucial. That was anothe r painful discovery.'

Chase
exchanged a look with Kenny.

Leonard
Breslin stepped forward. 'What we would like you to do, Jessica,' he said, 'is
figure out the sequence to the tablets, and open this pyramid.'

Chase
and Kenny immediately started examining the mysterious entrance.

Breslin
and Haynes moved a short distance away, watching them work. Then Breslin whispered
casually to Haynes: 'Once they've opened it up, kill them.'

PART
3

THE
ORDER OF THE TABLETS

Jessica
Chase stared at the five rectangles carved into the floor in front of the
pyramid's entrance-slots into which General Haynes' five stone tablets
would fit perfectly.

'Let
me see those tablets again,' she said.

The
Delta men brought the tablets out of their packs.

Kenny
G took snapshots of them with his scanner. A moment later, their images came up
on Chase's screen.