The Gods' Gambit (36 page)

There it is, the lair of the beast, James thought.

“Getting through that entrance would be a hopeless task,”
said Irina.

“We could position ourselves above one of the cave openings
and climb down to it. It would probably lead us into the mine,” said Lao
looking at Sonam.

Sonam shook his head in disapproval. “We could get lost.
Apart from that, this is the real mine. The subterranean compound I worked in
is far away. To get there we’d need to cross many tunnels.”

“That means a lot of security checkpoints,” said Irina. She
passed James her binoculars. “Look at those heavy-duty vehicles.”

James pointed the binoculars. Several seconds later he put
them down.

“They’re rusty. The dumpster’s tires are flat. They’ve been
out of use for a long time. That may be a sign that the mine hasn’t been
operational for a while,” he said.

“Two of the four-wheelers and the tanker are brand new. And
there are quite a few people hanging around,” said Irina.

“They’d have stopped mining when they made the mine their
base and brought the Eye here. A working mine means outsiders coming and going.
That’s the last thing they would want,” James reasoned.

“Rodnov may keep the mine operational on paper in order to
justify his presence here,” said Irina.

“Remember what was written in that Inca legend,” Lino
interrupted. “The gods kept the Eye in the bowels of the Island Mountain where
there was complete darkness. That means that the artifact functions deep
underground. The base must be deep underground.”

“Right. We can see the situation. Let’s not waste any more
time,” Irina urged.

Everybody turned to Sonam.

“We have to go round that hill,” he pointed out. “The cave
entrance through which I and my father escaped is beyond it.”

They needed an hour to get to the supposed location of the
cave. Sonam was confident that he was going to find it despite the fact that
twenty years had passed. He mentioned that the rocks above the place had a strange
shape and the image had imprinted itself in his mind.

Sonam was right about one thing. With its comb-shaped dents,
the hill range beneath which the cult’s base was supposed to be, stood out
among the scenery. After half an hour walking he suddenly stopped. His face was
pale. His confidence had been replaced by irritation and disappointment.

“Relax. We’ll find the cave,” James tried to calm him.

“I don’t know where to look any more,” said Sonam with
desperation in his voice. “Even now I see the image that I saw the first moment
we came out of the tunnel. In front of us was that lone peak. On our right,
there was a big rock. I remember climbing up it to take a look round the
vicinity. We’ve already checked all the similar rock around.”

“Memories often differ from what they truly represent. Let’s
split up and look around. James and I will go up that hill, you go back.
Whoever finds the cave, calls,” said Irina and patted the portable wireless on
her belt.

“Look for the underground stream which I told you about. It
pops up right at the cave’s entrance. That’s the distinguishing mark of our
cave,” Sonam reminded.

The ‘Fatherland’ cave labyrinth, Pamir Mountains,

Tajikistan

The rock close to the cave was much smaller than Sonam had
described it, which confirmed what Irina had said about the memories. They
found it about quarter of an hour after splitting up.

The bubbling of the underground stream could be heard from
outside. James called the others and then he and Irina entered the cave. The
water was flowing out of the ground about twenty meters ahead forming a pond.
The cave seemed to end there but Sonam’s instruction was that they could dive
into the pond, swim, and then come up on the other side. The tunnel continued
sloping down until it reached the heart of the cult’s base.

“I’m going in. We need to stretch a rope under the water.
It’ll help the others to pass through,” said Irina.

James intended to object to this but she was already taking
off her clothes. He turned aside, overtaken by sudden embarrassment.

“Hold this end of the rope,” said Irina a minute later. She
was dressed in a neoprene wetsuit – every one of them carried the same type.

He took the rope that she handed him and Irina quickly
packed her clothes in the waterproof backpack. She waded in the water, walked
to the deep end, and then dived in. The rope started unfolding until about
seven or eight meters of it had disappeared. The wireless in James’ pocket
began ringing.

“It’s not difficult to pass through. The passage narrows
coming out the other side. You’ll have to take off your backpacks,” said Irina.

James crossed last. On the other side, the stream appeared
out of the ground at the near end of an elongated chamber. The tunnel they had
to walk through was about fifteen meters ahead at the other end of the chamber.

“I’ll go ahead to have a look around,” said Irina and set
out toward the tunnel. She left them alone to change out of their neoprene
suits.

While putting on his clothes, Lino stepped on something that
crunched.

“Damn it!” he cursed and pointed his flashlight. Beneath his
foot was the rusty wreckage of a rectangular electric torch.

On seeing it Sonam got emotional. He said that thanks to
this old electric torch he and his father had managed to find a way out of the
darkness.

* * *

They advanced slowly, descending all the time. The tunnel
was only wide enough for them to walk single file. In some areas, the ground
was covered with loose stones, which made walking difficult.

“We’ve been walking through here for less than thirty
minutes but it seems hours to me,” Lino complained. His height made him feel
quite uncomfortable in the tunnel.

Irina, who was walking second behind Sonam, cut him off,
“Quiet!”

In the silence, the sound of a distant rumble came to them.

“Let’s be more careful. Point the lights low as you move,”
said Irina.

The rumble continued for a few minutes and then stopped.

The tunnel widened. Now, three people could walk shoulder to
shoulder. The rumbling re-started and then stopped. Ahead they saw a wider,
slightly brighter area. When they came close to it they saw that the tunnel
ended, partitioned off by a metal grating.

“This was not here before,” Sonam whispered.

Irina put her index finger to her lips. Quietly, they
reached the grating. Behind it was a large chamber illuminated by muted red
light. In this twilight, stalactites with whimsical shapes could be seen on the
ceiling. Several big fans were built into the opposite wall. A line of bulbs
above them dispersed the red illumination.

“This’s a ventilation station,” Lino commented. “Behind the
fans are downcasts. They must be part of net of downcasts. Through them we
should be able to reach any point in the base.”

James shoved his head between the metal bars and looked
around with the help of his flashlight. “It’s empty,” he said.

“Step back,” said Irina. She took a chunk of plastic
explosive out of her backpack.

The grating was made of thick horizontal bars secured in
holes drilled into the rocky frame. Irina pinched two pea-grain size pieces of
the explosive and put them at each end of the middle bar. On both she placed a
miniature digital detonator and then returned to the others who had taken cover
behind a protrusion in the tunnel’s wall at a distance of about fifteen meters.
Several minutes passed before the fans started spinning and rumbling again.
Irina pressed a button on the remote she held in her hand. The blast echo was
partially muted by the fan’s noise. The metal bar had come off from its stone grips
leaving enough space for a person to get through.

Apart from the ventilation downcasts, in the chamber’s
ceiling there were two wide vertical shafts.

“When I worked here we bore downcasts like these,” Sonam
said.

“We must find a way to the central part of the base. That is
the most sheltered area. Malee and the artifact should be there,” said James.

The red light couldn’t hide the embarrassment that changed
Sonam’s expression. “I don’t know where these tunnels would lead us. None of
them was completed when I was here. But I can find the way to the dormitories.
They were not far from here. Maybe Malee is there.”

They discussed his proposal and decided it was worth trying.
Although all of them agreed that not everything should be staked on just that
one option. They decided to separate into two groups. Sonam, James, and Lao
were going to find the dormitories; Irina and Lino were going to enter the cave
base through one of the downcasts.

Irina was giving last instructions on how to set and
activate the explosive charges when they heard a loud metallic squeaking. A
metal door in the wall not far from the place they were standing began to open.
All of them ran from the strip of light that was getting bigger as the door
opened. Lino ran last but tripped on his backpack which had been in his way on
the floor. He sprawled full length on the ground. Before he’d managed to
release his entangled foot from the backpack’s shoulder-straps and get up, two
men had entered the chamber. He quickly squatted behind a stone. The two men
walked ahead chatting in Russian. They spotted Lino simultaneously and reached
for their shouldered machine guns. Distracted by Lino, the two men didn’t see
Lao and James rushing at them. Both were knocked down – each by a single
precise fist blow.

“There’s another one,” shouted Lino indicating towards the
door.

Sonam, who was close to it, jumped into the light. In the
tunnel ahead a man was running. Sonam pulled his handgun with the silencer and
began shooting. On the fourth shot the gun misfired. He threw it and grabbed
his Kalashnikov.

“Don’t shoot! Too much echo!” Irina shouted. She pushed him
aside and aimed carefully with her handgun. The bullet hit the runner in the
neck and he lay dead just before he was able to get to a sharp turn in the tunnel.

“They’ve discovered us.” Sonam was looking about, tensely
holding the Kalashnikov.

“No. They’d have sent more people if that were the case,”
Irina disagreed.

“These are workers. Maintenance probably,” said Lao. He was
leaning over the fallen bodies scavenging one of the bags they had been
carrying. “There are tools and some measuring devices in here,” he announced.

The two men were dressed in dark green overalls, which
confirmed Lao’s thoughts. Sonam and Lao dragged the corpse of the third man
into the chamber. Irina asked the three men to take the overalls off the
Russians and put them on. That would help them later when they were going to
enter the underground compound. Then she tied up the two unconscious men and
blocked their mouths with tape.

James bent over and picked up a tablet PC that lay where the
two men had fallen. It was on and some software was running. One of the
Russians must have been carrying it when Lao and James had attacked them. It
displayed some sort of schema – probably electrical wiring – digits and a short
list written in Russian.

James clicked on a few icons. “That’s it!” he exclaimed.
“That must be the schema of the whole base.”

The rest gathered around him. A 3D blueprint of a
multi-level structure had appeared on the display.

“Lino, I need your help,” said James.

Linguistics was a big interest of Lino’s. He could speak
eight languages, to varying degrees, and could read in about twice as many
more. Slavic languages, and especially Russian, were some of his favorites.

They examined the blueprint for few minutes. In the centre
of the structure, there was enormous chamber and everything else was built
above and around it. Judging by the shape of the chamber it must have been a
natural formation, like where they were now, although much bigger.

“The Divine Eye must be in that chamber. It’s the lowest
zone in the compound,” said Lino. He continued touching the display to zoom
into different parts of the plan.

“Hold on. What’s this?” Irina focused his attention on
several smaller chambers right above the main chamber. In them were drawings of
some large cylindrical objects which had pipes going out and spreading through
the whole underground structure.

“It’s written here … propane gas containers … petrol, diesel
… hydrogen …,” Lino said.

Irina reached over and with several quick touches on the
screen produced different perspectives of the chambers. “These are for fuel and
chemical storage. The containers are huge. If we blow them up, the cave
structure in that zone will collapse. The artifact would be buried under
millions of tons of rock. With a bit of luck, most of the base could be
destroyed,” she said.

“That’s our chance,” said Lino.

“The question is how to get to the containers,” said Sonam.

“Through the ventilation downcasts, of course. They reach
practically everywhere in the base,” said Irina.

“Our first priority is Malee. There might be other innocent
people with her there. We must take them to a safe place before detonating the
charges,” said James.

For few moments, there was silence. Nobody thought that they
could do all this and get out alive from there.

“Yes. That’s what we should do,” said Lao.

“Look,” Lino zoomed in on a part of the blueprint. Its
detailed view showed that in that tunnel were many cells. He pointed to the writing
overlapping the schema. “In translation it means, ‘House of the Seers’,” he
said.

Irina and Sonam took most of the plastic explosive and set
out through a downcast to the fuel storage sector. Lino had drawn a map of the
way for them because the two other tablets they found in the bags of the
Russian maintenance team required passwords.