The Golden Crystal (15 page)

8:40 PM - GIZA, EGYPT

They didn’t know what it was, and they didn’t care. Cole placed his open palm on the stone, covering the symbol. Almost immediately, a low grinding noise emanated from the cracks around the block, and it slowly receded into the wall, going about two and a half feet before stopping. In its place was a large rectangular hole in the floor — a hidden opening to some unknown shaft. The rush of air that escaped the pitch-black hole smelled of earthy antiquity — similar to the “breathing” effect in caverns and cave systems. 

Bryce made a snap decision. 

“Everybody in. I’ll take my chances with the dark scary hole. At the very least, we can assume there’s no guns down there.”

Cole led the way. If this was in fact a secret passageway built by the same people who’d left the invisible script, Bryce knew Cole was the only one who could guide them through it. Most likely no one but the original builders had ever traversed this passage, and it was completely unknown to the many archeologists, geologists, and lucky tourists who’d been this far inside the Great Pyramid. 

The hole was about three feet deep, and Cole’s torso stuck out the top when he stepped inside. He crouched and knelt down, looking around to find an opening. At the back of the hole, he could sense an opening before him in the darkness. He shuffled forward on his hands and knees and realized that his head was no longer underneath the entrance block. He carefully stood, and with outstretched hands found the ceiling of the new passageway about five feet above the ground. They would need to stoop over a bit, but they’d be able to walk upright nonetheless. 

Bryce followed after Cole. His headlamp was still switched off, but as he stood up next to Cole, he realized he wouldn’t need it anyway. 

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Cole asked. Bryce looked around, blinking in awe. 

The entire space was filled with bluish light — the walls, floor and ceiling sparkling in a polished sheen. More pictograms in the same strange style covered the passageway. Bryce and Cole could only see a few paces ahead, but the tunnel appeared to curve downward — completely unlike the rest of the pyramid’s passageways, which were straight and angular. Cole took a few steps forward and the glow seemed to follow him — lighting the way a few steps in front and behind him.

“Hot damn, this is pretty cool,” Jeff muttered as he stepped into the tunnel. As the rest of the group entered in single file behind him, the giant entrance block suddenly slid back into place. There was no visible mechanism, yet the two-ton piece of stone moved as easily as if it were on a well-oiled track. 

“You think it’s on a timer?” Wayne wondered aloud. 

Gary voiced the concern they were all feeling. “I hope there’s another way out… it looks like this was a one-way door.” 

As the slab settled back into place, its edges were as flush with the adjacent stones as if it had never moved. No visible gaps, no thin blue line, and no cryptic symbol marking the stone’s location. It was just another massive block in a very solid, impenetrable wall.

8:40 PM - GIZA, EGYPT

Madu sniffed the air. He wasn’t sure if there would be any noticeable difference between the fork in the path, but his sixth sense about things like this usually didn’t fail him. Raising one hand to halt his men, he looked up at the Ascending Passageway and then down again. He decided the men he was after had gone downward, and shouted a curse after them.

The massacre they’d stumbled upon outside the pyramid was beyond mention. The poor souls had been remorselessly slaughtered. Some of them had been esteemed security officers, with ranks and awards that demanded respect. Jabari had worked with some of their fathers on occasion — he only hoped he would not have to deliver the news of their sons’ deaths.

If not for his friend, Vilocek, the killers may have escaped unnoticed. But Vilocek had called him again, frantic, stumbling over his words. 

“The — the men — we’ve taken casualties — Madu, send in a force! We’ve been ambushed!”

Madu told him to slow down, to repeat what he’d said. 

“Send reinforcements! The security force is taking heavy losses, and I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get out of here — we’re inside the Pyramid of Khufu, descending toward toward the Lower Chamber — hurry!”

“Tanning — who ambushed you? What other force is there?”

“I think we’ve been followed by one of my competitors. He’s been shadowing us ever since we left the States. I never thought he’d — “ his voice trailed off; for a moment Madu thought he’d lost the signal. Then Vilocek continued, his voice hushed. “I never thought he’d come in force. And now — Madu, I’m so sorry…” 

“No, my friend,” Madu reassured him. “You have done nothing wrong — retreat to a safe place inside the pyramid, and stay down. I can have a force there within the hour.” Madu was already planning the mission, his years of combat training and teaching wartime strategy instantly putting his mind in motion. 

“Madu — “ Vilocek went on, “I don’t know who this man has hired, but you’re going to need the best men you can find; and as many as you can find.” 

“I understand. Give me an hour, and I give you my word I will be there.” Jabari hung up the phone, and immediately dialed another number. Within fifteen minutes he’d assembled a force of forty special forces troops. A few more calls and he’d secured transport vehicles and weapons.  As promised, Jabari was headed out toward the pyramids within the hour, determined to rescue his friend from the forces who’d desecrated the sacred site and violated his country’s territory. 

Now, descending into the pyramid, he could taste revenge in his mouth — the distinct combination of anger, pride, and humiliation that had driven him to overcome and decimate his enemies since he was a young man. He was a proud leader, and he knew that these forty men were perfectly suited for this situation. They were all professionals who would follow his commands without question or hesitation. Jabari felt a rush of adrenaline in anticipation of the coming fight. 

He had left half the men to stand guard outside, establishing a perimeter around the base of the giant structure. Even though there was only one entrance, he didn’t want to take any chances. He’d split his remaining men again — ten with him, and ten spread out throughout the passages inside. If anyone so much as heard a squeak — from inside the pyramid or otherwise — he was to be alerted immediately. He’d also given a kill-on-sight order for any unauthorized personnel inside. Madu was certain that anyone — friend or foe — who dared enter or exit the pyramid would have to answer to him and his men.

Jabari continued down the Descending Passage. Behind him, his men moved like robotic clones, mutely following their leader downward. They made no pretense of stealth, their weapons and gear clanging and rattling around, and their boots and helmets scraping and banging the rock as they went. 

Madu stepped into the small antechamber leading into the Lower Room. Seeing no trace of any people, he started to second-guess his decision to come this way.
If there was anyone down here,
he thought,
we would see or hear them by now.
Maybe his instincts had failed him, and the enemy was already returning down the
Ascending
Passage behind him. 

As his men came in behind him, Madu quickly scanned the entire room. 

Nothing. 

He walked in a circle around the room, checking every wall. Then, he turned and looked toward the “well” in the center, the shallow shaft filled with thousands of years of debris and dust. He had seen it countless times, on trips here as a child, and a few times as an adult. Nothing out of the ordinary. The rounded shaft carved vertically into the rock, the smooth walls without hand or footholds. About eight feet down, the dim light couldn’t penetrate any further, and the well became a seemingly bottomless pit. Madu knew better though — the well was barely deeper than the eight feet he could see. He did not need to shine a light into the shaft to know that it was empty. Taking a quick glance to ensure no one was hiding there, he eliminated the well as a possibility.

Madu had two immediate objectives: extract Vilocek and his men safely, and second, overwhelm the intruders, drag them outside the pyramid, and kill them as they had killed the guards — slowly and painfully.

He looked forward to it. As a politician, he knew exactly how to dodge the media outcry denouncing his vengeance, and he also knew how to use the guards’ deaths to fan certain political flames that interested him. Even now, his men outside would already be taking pictures and preparing stories that he would later feed to the press. He grinned slightly as he thought of how well his “rescue” here would further his career.

His sergeant suddenly interrupted his thoughts with a shout. 

“Commander! The men have found something in the pit!”

 
How could that be?
He had just looked in the shaft and knew it to be empty.

Madu moved over to the well and looked in.

He expected it to be, as it always had been, filled almost to the top with random rocks and debris. 

But not this time. 

The well was empty. 

Instead of the usual solid floor of debris eight or nine feet down, the perfectly formed circular rock sides continued straight down for at least a hundred feet. Even combined, the beams from his team’s lights weren’t powerful enough to light the well to the unknown depths at its
real
bottom — now somewhere far below where they stood. 

“Impossible…“ Madu couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but there was no denying that the well, which had for millennia been completely filled in — was now empty. One of the men snapped a glow stick and threw it in; its green luminescence easily visible against the stark black shaft. The stick fell a long time before it simply disappeared from their view without a sound. 

Madu was stunned. He didn’t know of any projects underway at the Great Pyramid, and certainly nothing so ambitious as clearing the well of debris. Whoever had emptied the well had done it in record time. There was no place to put the rubble, much less any time to move it without anyone noticing.

He had no idea how he was going to search for the intruders now. He could scour the remainder of the pyramid, but by now the rest of his team had likely checked all of the known chambers and passages, including the small ventilation shafts leading outward from the pyramid’s center. Since he had not yet heard otherwise, he assumed they had found nothing out of the ordinary. 

They had to search the well if Madu was going to declare the mission complete. But without proper climbing equipment — or even just a good rope long enough to get them all the down the shaft — there was no way to know for sure if anyone had escaped that way.

“Hafsa, Gahiji, remain here,” Madu ordered. “Guard the shaft; the rest of you––come with me.”

There
must
be another way down
. Desperate, he strode toward the passage on the South wall. He knew that at the end of this hallway would be a —  

It couldn’t be.
Five feet from the end of the South hallway, he noticed something different. There was a square hole in the wall about 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide. It was easily large enough to fit a man, though they would have to crawl. Still, it was much larger than the numerous ventilation shafts throughout the rest of the pyramid. This was something different. Until today, this hole simply
hadn’t been here
.

But because this shaft was horizontal, they didn’t need extra gear to explore it. Jabari sent two of his men into the shaft, then he and the remaining six men followed. The small passage almost immediately turned at a right angle straight down. Unlike the well-shaped circular shaft of the well, this section had hand and foot holds carved out of the rock, allowing the team to get down with little trouble.

They descended with a purpose, quickening their pace. Madu felt much more comfortable descending this new passage, as it was meant for human use. The rungs were spaced about every foot and a half, and were carved about four inches into the stone, providing a solid hold at each step.