The Golden Crystal (17 page)

“It must be the way out!” Vilocek said. “Somehow we activated the chamber — that’s why the symbols lit up, and why this door opened.”

“I’ll bet the builders wanted to make sure they’d have another exit, in case of an emergency,” he continued. He walked toward the new opening, but stopped short of the threshold. “What — “ he blurted out to no one in particular, and at the same moment a head poked out from the opening. 

Taking no chances, he unholstered his pistol and bent down, putting himself face-to-face with the young man who had just emerged. 

“Ah, Mr. Reed; how good to see you again! I thought we’d lost you back in D.C., but I see now that you just couldn’t leave well enough alone. Why don’t you and your crew step out of there and give us a hand?”

9:34 PM - GIZA, EGYPT

Bryce stepped out of the tunnel, arms up, with his gun in his right hand. He could see Cole in the opposite corner of the room, weaponless and held at gunpoint by one of Vilocek’s goons. Both Thompson brothers recognized the men with Vilocek immediately from the break-in at Whittenfield Research, and Bryce had to grab Jeff’s wrist as he stepped into the room to prevent the younger man from doing something to put them all in a more dire situation. 

“Well, well. Seems Whittenfield wasn’t up for the trip himself — old age gets to him, I guess,” Vilocek said, snickering as the group came into the chamber.

“You know, it seems like only yesterday his father and mine would stay up late at night, discussing the possibilities of their latest research. It is a shame they could not be here today, to see the culmination of what they’d sought for so many years.”

“You’re a thief and a liar,” Bryce interjected. “You stole the crystal from Whittenfield Research to further your personal cause.”

“Ha — is
that
what he told you? James is quite the storyteller! Yes, I was given the crystal by my father, who indeed had taken it from Whittenfield Sr. But you must understand, Captain Reynolds,” he continued, “Mr. Whittenfield’s father
needed
my father — and now me — to continue his research.”

“What do you mean?” Cole asked.

“My father and the senior Whittenfield found that by combining the crystal’s components with different elements, strange effects can be achieved. We’ve been able to duplicate many of these effects in our own laboratories, and some of the results have been truly miraculous. 

“However, they also found that the duplications they tried to make had minor flaws — none were materially ‘perfect’ in their makeup. Any experiments they produced in the lab with the
original,
unaltered crystal, were effective — however weak. But any experiments using the ‘synthetic’ crystal substances were more powerful, but the effects didn’t stay.”

Bryce pondered this for a second. “So the tests they ran with the
real
crystal weren’t strong, but they were effective — and the ones run with the
fake
material were much more powerful, but not lasting? Like after a certain amount of time, the effects wore off?”

“Yes. After 48 hours, the effects of the tests had completely disappeared. However, it was the
after-
effects that concerned our fathers: About 72 hours after the testing, the subjects seemed to enter a state of confusion — they lost their peripheral vision, experienced short-term memory deficiencies, and general degradations of their minds.

“They discovered that the tests caused symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s and in rare occurrences, even mild autism. But it didn’t stop there — after a certain amount of time, sometimes months, sometimes years — all of the patients succumbed to the ailments eventually.”

“Meaning?” asked Wayne. 

“Meaning, gentlemen, that all of the tests were a complete failure. Every one of the test subjects was deceased within five years.”

The weight of the statement hit everyone. Whatever they were all after down here — if it was even here — was dangerously powerful. In the back of Bryce’s mind, he began to hope they wouldn’t find anything here. 

“Needless to say, the possibilities of this crystal are endless — I’m hoping we can unlock serious potential in the advancement of non-steroid human enhancements. And, of course, the associated health benefits,” Vilocek finished. 

“But what about Whittenfield’s father? Why did he
need
your father to continue the research?” Wayne asked. 

“Isn’t it obvious? Like I said — the test subjects injected with the crystal substances all experienced heightened senses, followed by a drastic — and fatal — crash. My father needed to find either an antidote to the crystal synthetic or the pure form of the crystal itself — in order to save the lives of the subjects involved with the study. Whittenfield’s father included.”

Bryce cocked his head slightly. “Wait — you mean — “

“Yes, Captain Reynolds. Whittenfield, Sr. was one of the first subjects who received testing with the crystal material. Like the others, he had a brief period of extremely impressive intellect, and — also like the others — he was gone within five years.

“Before he died, James Whittenfield, Sr. asked my father to continue the research they had started together — and that, Bryce, is why we are here today. I am trying to continue his research and find the answers to life’s most intriguing questions — you, on the other hand, are here to prevent us from doing that. Also, I’m guessing, you have been tasked with tracking down whatever it is we’re looking for, to reach it before we do, and bring it back to your altruistic benefactor.”

He looked down at Bryce with ever-deepening eyes. Vilocek was growing more impatient and upset by the second, and Bryce wasn’t sure if he wanted to be in his line of fire when the man’s wrath became too much to hold in. Staying calm and collected, he looked to the others in the room and then back at Vilocek. “Look, man — we’re not here to hurt anyone. We just want the same thing you want, and it seems to me that it’s not here. I don’t know where it is, just like you don’t, but if we put our heads together we can figure this out. I’m more interested in getting my men out of here alive than in meddling between you and my boss’ petty differences.”

“Well said, Captain. However, I’m failing to see how exactly you are going to be any help to me,” Vilocek responded. 

“What if I told you I know where the crystal is?”

Bryce walked toward the center of the room, watched closely by Vilocek’s men. “I noticed that when entering this chamber from the passageway, a square stone was blocking the way. On this stone was a symbol that we
also
saw on the door that led into the passageway.” Looking to Vilocek, he saw the man nod in agreement. Over against the far wall he could see Professor Jensen Andrews perk up just a little, his interest in the conversation now heightened.

“Ours was the same — two doors, each with a symbol on the center of it. What of it?”

“Well, at first I thought it was just a simple marking — a method for letting outsiders know the way.” 

“Like ‘entrance’ or ‘passageway’ or something,” Vilocek said. 

“Right — except,
both
our passageways had these markings, and they
both
led here. You would think that one would be an entrance, and one would be an exit, no?”

“Go on.”

“So, it must be something more — it must be a way of pointing to the crystal’s hiding place. So in here, if we can only find the same symbol…“ Bryce’s voice trailed off as he looked down into the well shaft.

Vilocek hustled over and they looked down the well. About thirty feet down, at what they assumed was the floor of the shaft, was a large symbol, again outlined in glowing blue.

“Ha! That must be it!” Vilocek’s excitement was impossible to hide. “Well, what are we waiting for? Find out what that symbol is leading us to!” he shouted to his men. 

The men exchanged uneasy looks, and Vilocek remembered that they were not equipped to climb down the well shaft. He was about to fly into a rage when Beka spoke up. “Hey boss — maybe this will help?”

Vilocek looked over at Beka, who was holding in his hands a silver arrow-shaped object. He unfolded it, the single point dividing into three separate arms. It was a Botach Technical MR Grappling Hook, rated for up to 3,000 pounds on just two of the blades. Beka had produced the hook and 200 feet of rope from Sean Bartlinski’s pack.

Vilocek’s smile came back. “Great — you and Karn stay here and watch the rest of them; I’m going down right after our friend.” 

Bryce knew Vilocek was referring to him, and his mind began to race. He couldn’t go down the shaft
and
ensure his team — and the two civilians — would be safe up here. At the same time, he didn’t want Vilocek getting his hands on the crystal.

He drew a deep breath. 

He would be putting everyone — including himself — in more danger now, but there was no other option. They had been relieved of their weapons and had no way of getting free. He looked toward the shaft — 

— And had a revelation. They had been relieved of all their
weapons
, but like Sean’s grappling hook, they still had most of their gear.

He needed to get to higher ground, someplace where he could get a signal out. 

Slowly formulating a plan in his mind, Bryce stepped forward and walked completely around the shaft, looking closely at every side. Vilocek knew Bryce was calculating — checking the integrity of the thousand-plus year-old stone well — and let him be. Finally satisfied, Bryce took the grapnel from Beka, secured it to the lip of the well, and cautiously swung his body into the shaft.

With a quick glance up at Vilocek, Bryce pushed back with his feet and plunged downward into the well. 

9:42 PM - GIZA, EGYPT

There was nothing there. 

Bryce and Vilocek stood on the center of the symbol, its flailing arms outstretched almost to the edges of the well. Here at its bottom, the well ended in a circular room about fourteen feet across. The floor was carved out of the same stone as the walls, perfectly smooth and level. 

The symbol was the same they’d seen before, but about 100 times larger. It spanned the entire floor. Besides the giant blue symbol, however, there were no other markings or symbols, and the room was completely empty.

This seemed to irritate Vilocek beyond belief. “Where is the crystal? What is this supposed to be — some sort of tomb?” he cried out, his anger flooding the room. 

Bryce’s stayed calm. “Tanning — listen to me. I’ve been thinking about this since we came down here, and I think we can help each other.” Vilocek looked at him, suspicion clouding his features.

“I know it was you and your boys who murdered those guards outside, and I know it was you who called in the Egyptians.
However,
I’m sure you didn’t admit to your contact that you murdered his men, which means that whoever’s after us now is probably going to be just as pissed at you when he finds out he was duped.”

“What’s your point?” Vilocek snapped. 

“The way I see it — “ Bryce continued, “you can run out of here and leave us all behind, knowing that we’ll be killed — or worse — by those guys.
Or
, you can admit that you need our help. Whittenfield’s resources, like his father’s journals, aren’t here — and you won’t get to them without us.

“My offer is that you help us get out of here — alive — and we’ll help you find your rock. Whittenfield wants the same thing you do, so it seems like you’d both be better off working together — at least until you find what you’re looking for, and we get these Egyptians off our back.”

Vilocek stared at him, deep in thought. He had already played out every possible scenario in his mind — if he left Bryce’s group here, they would certainly tell Madu’s men what had really happened. Whether or not they ended up killing Bryce and his team, Vilocek knew Madu would suspect who the real killers were, and would want vengeance.

And he couldn’t just walk out of the pyramid hand-in-hand with Bryce, either. Then Madu would know they were working together and would never let any of them leave Egypt alive. At the same time, he’d run out of options down here — the crystal had obviously been moved, and Vilocek was out of leads.

He hated to admit it, but Bryce was right. They needed each others’ help. 

10:55 PM - GIZA, EGYPT

The run back
up
the tunnel had proven more exhausting than Cole had expected. Bryce’s team had been given their weapons back, save for Cole — he’d had to give up the weird paralyzing rifle he’d been carrying — Vilocek had wanted it back. Instead, Bryce gave Cole his own sidearm and some ammunition. Cole was in good shape, and easily the most experienced distance runner here, but the lack of air and constant curving incline seemed to take its toll on him. He saw the blue symbols on the walls around him as he ran, each section seeming to pulsate even brighter as he passed. He wondered if whatever had been injected into his bloodstream would have lasting side effects. Vilocek’s men hadn’t mentioned it — but if the crystal caused long-term damage, they would certainly know about it.

Cole ran toward the Lower Room, following his new teammates. They’d all decided to leave the hidden room through the hole Cole had popped out of, since it led to the antechamber of the Lower Room — closer to the Descending Passage, and closer to freedom. 

Vilocek had agreed to protect Bryce’s team until they were out of Egypt, in exchange for Whittenfield’s resources back at the lab and his team’s continued help tracking down the location of the crystal. 

As soon as one team or another reached the crystal, however, all bets would be off. 

Cole hoped he would be long out of the way by then. His main reason for being here, at least initially, was Corinne Banks. They had barely spoken, but something about her seemed compelling. The little he knew about her had given him enough of a reason to want to stay along and help.  

Corinne, on the other hand, hadn’t looked his way since they’d been inside Vilocorp headquarters in New Mexico. He hoped her apathy toward him was simply a result of her protective focus on her uncle, but still, it was nerve-wracking to not even get a look in his general direction throughout this whole ordeal.