The Mahogany Ship (Sam Reilly Book 2) (4 page)

The air was stale, and utterly devoid of humidity.

It was the first time since entering the glowing chamber
that Sam even noticed. For that matter, he was only just now able to examine
his surroundings. He hadn’t been aware of the unique dryness until now.

When he first dragged Tom’s unresponsive body through the
opening and up into the dry stone surface, Sam’s only interest had been whether
or not the gas was breathable. His watch monitored air quality and had quickly
confirmed his suspicion that the hydrogen cyanide was confined to the water. Then
he’d commenced Tom’s resuscitation.

His eyes glanced over the room which now served as their
rescue chamber.

It was small, no larger than someone’s bedroom. The walls
were built out of solid, cubed stone blocks, four feet wide. The stone walls
and ceiling were entirely smooth. Above them, at the perfect center, was a
square opening – just big enough for a man to climb through. It was from this
opening that the strange blue glowing light radiated. Fifteen feet above, it
would be nearly impossible to access without specialized equipment. Most
likely, Sam guessed, this chamber served only as a deterrent for would be
thieves.

His eyes returned to the walls.

Although smooth, there were a number of painted markings
covering the entire chamber; pictographs which depicted warriors, with their
weapons drawn as though they were placed there, ready to defend the upper
levels of a vault.

Something about the pictures disturbed him.

He’d seen them somewhere before. Maybe in an archeological
book or documentary on the Discovery Channel, but he doubted it. Somehow, he
felt that he’d seen similar work with his own eyes. That in itself wasn’t
particularly surprising. After all, Sam’s work with Deep Sea Expeditions, and
as a ghost agent for the Secretary of Defense, often brought him to ancient archeological
sites. He remembered a number of past missions that took him to Mayan sites,
but failed to recall similar markings.

Without giving it any more consideration, he noticed Tom had
sat up by himself, his hand instinctively reaching for the needle in his neck.

“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” Sam said.

“What is it?”

“It’s a giant needle I just used to save your life.”

“Do I still need it?” Tom asked.

“Probably not, but the doctors back Stateside recommended
that I leave it in place, with its medical lock, until you’re on the surface…
something about an air embolism or something. How do you feel?”

“Not bad, given my recent exposure with hydrogen cyanide and
concoction of otherwise lethal chemicals that you provided me with.”

“You’re welcome.”

Tom’s eyes skittered across the smashed remnants of his dive
helmet, “That’s mine?”

Sam nodded his head.

Tom’s hand reached for his forehead. A slight smile overcame
his otherwise pensive face. “My helmet appears to have taken most of the
damage.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Not much. I saw the light up ahead and figured it must have
been your light, so I turned mine off. There must have been a crack in the
outer wall, from which water was gushing at high pressure. I didn’t even see
it, but as I swam past, I was expelled through the water in an uncontrolled
spin. My faceplate must have hit the stone, and then all I could see was the
rush of Hydrox bubbles escaping my dive helmet. I knew I didn’t have long to
live, so when I thought I could see light in the distance, I swam towards it,
hoping it was you – not that I had any idea what you could do for me. I guess
somewhere along the way, my Hydrox ran out, and I succumbed to hypoxia.”

“You were rambling gibberish when I got you out of the water,”
Sam said.

“Thank you.”

“What for?”

“Saving my life – again.”

Years ago, Sam had saved Tom’s life on a training mission,
when a $2 oil seal had failed, resulting in a total loss of oil pressure to the
gearbox, and forced engine shutdown. Sam had managed to guide the helicopter
into a lake and put it into a controlled descent through autorotation.

The other SEALs escaped the sinking craft, but when Sam
surfaced, and a head count was performed, Tom was missing. Several of the SEALs
had attempted to reach the helicopter, which had rapidly sunk to the bottom of
the 80-foot lake. Sam, with his background in professional free diving, was the
only one capable of reaching it. Inside, he found Tom in the cockpit, trapped
by his malfunctioning seatbelt locking mechanism. 

Sam laughed at the memory, as he recalled that Tom had been
able to access his pilot’s oxygen mask, and had been comfortably breathing the
entire way to the bottom, but unable to free himself. When he’d opened the
door, his friend had just looked at him, sitting comfortably in the pilot seat,
as if to say, what took you so long? 

“You’re welcome Tom. If you count that airship last year,
The Magdalena, that free dive in Saratoga, and the cave dive in Mexico when we
were kids – you’ve still saved me more than I’ve saved you. I still owe you
one.”

“Keep it,” Tom said. Then, looking around, asked, “Are you any
closer to working out where we are?”

“I’m still pretty confident we’re in the entrance cavity of
a Mayan king’s final resting chamber.”

“Ajtzak’s?”

“Judging from the representation of the Ark of Light at the
entrance, which disappeared shortly before Ajtzak’s death, I think there’s a
good chance this is it.”

“What about our rescue team – do you think we’ll make it
until they can reach us?”

“The air’s dry, but the quality is surprisingly good. We
have plenty of time. Matthew will get us out of here – don’t you worry. It will
take them another hour for the rescue team to reach us,” Sam cast his eyes
around the cavern. “Care to take a look around?”

*

Sam examined the opening in the ceiling above.

It was ten feet above them and perfectly square, with smooth
edges of cut rock. When he was younger and played basketball at college, he
could easily have jumped high enough to touch it. But he needed more than that.
He needed to be able to climb into it, and once there, he would have to find a
way to climb up the vertical shaft.

“You feeling strong Tom?”

“Strong enough – what have you got in mind?”

“I was thinking if I could stand on your shoulders, I might
just be able to reach high enough into the opening to climb it.”

“I can get you up to it, but I haven’t a clue how you plan
to climb it once you get there,” Tom replied.

“Leave that to me.”

Tom stood up, his entire six feet five inches making the
challenge seem less daunting. He was tall and lanky, but his muscles were
misleading, and he was probably the naturally strongest man Sam had ever met.

“You okay?” Sam checked again before climbing the monster of
a man.

“I’ll be fine.”

Tom took a firm stance with his feet square to his giant
shoulders and his arms in the air.

“Count of three?”

“Sure.”

“One… Two… Three…” Sam climbed up Tom’s back as though it
were a tree stump. It was strong and hard as one, too.

Standing firmly on top of Tom’s shoulders, he was now able
to reach the entrance. The stone walls inside the shaft were smooth like those
below, making any thoughts of climbing next to impossible. Sam calmly withdrew
a small metal device from his pocket. It looked very much like a flashlight. He
placed it horizontally inside the opening and then pressed a green button. The
device opened wider as its hydraulics moved outwards, until it became firmly
lodged between the stone walls.

Sam then placed a second one just a little higher, and then
gripping the higher of the two rods, he lifted his feet on top of the first and
swung himself up. Once standing fully on the first bar, Sam was easily able to
reach the top of the vertical tunnel.

“What did I say? Easy…” Sam gloated.

“Cheat.” Tom looked at him from below. “Am I coming with
you?”

Sam then unrolled a small, nylon ladder. It was attached to
the second rod, which he’d fixed to the very top of the vertical opening.

“Come on up.”

The second chamber appeared to be identical to the first,
only this one had giant statues on either side of the opening. One at each end,
both stood at least seven feet high. It was impossible to determine if they
were supposed to be enemies or friends – both were fully clad in warrior garments.

“Do you think one of these guys is Ajtzak?” Tom asked.

“Could be. I’ve never seen a picture of him.”

Directly above the opening through which Sam had entered the
chamber was another shaft extending high above them.

Sam took a step back to examine the place, and felt the
block below his foot move slightly. Below, a sound of high pressured liquid
moving stone, could be heard.

He looked around the room, half expecting the walls to cave
in on him, “Any ideas where they came from Tom?”

“I heard it, but I can’t see anything.”

Sam bent down to disconnect his hydraulic device from the
shaft below.

“Say Tom, did you happen to notice those spears there on our
way up?”

“What spears?”

Tom looked down the shaft they had just climbed.

Four large spears, made of iron, had appeared from the floor
below.

“Whoever built this didn’t plan on any grave robbers,” Sam
said.

“Yeah, well I have no desire to rob from the dead, but do
you have a plan to get out of here?”

“Not yet. I’m working on it.” Sam then looked around the
room and at the shaft above. “Shall we continue?”

“After you.”

 Sam followed the same plan as the first one they had used
to reach the next chamber. The only difference was that this time the stakes
had lethal consequences if he failed.

Sam climbed the stone ladder nearly seventy feet before he
came to the final chamber. His head had barely passed the opening, and he was
certain that they had discovered the final resting place of a king,
but
which king?

Tom popped his head up through the shaft a moment latter.

“I’ll be darned!”

“What is it, Tom?”

“We’ve just found the final resting place of king Ajtzak.”

*

At the center of the room, directly above the shaft that ran
all the way to the entrance of the pyramid’s chambers more than a hundred feet
below, Tom was able to see the source of the strange bluish glow. A perfectly
round ball, no larger than his fist and made of a dark blue crystal-like stone,
resonated light, as though it were a diamond.

Where it drew its light from remained a mystery – Tom could
only guess. The Mayans who had built it had somehow drawn light from hundreds
of feet above, perhaps so it would always shine on their old king.

It must still be daytime outside.

The room was large, maybe forty feet wide. Its walls rose in
a perfect pyramid, culminating in the roof high above and meeting where the
blue stone rested, like a world globe illuminating the room. At each of the
four walls, a single man stood with his hands above his head as though he were supporting
the roof above. There, more than a hundred intricate pictographs and
hieroglyphics adorned the room.

At the center of the room, a sarcophagus rested.

On top of it, a pictograph depicted a man holding a scepter.
Only, the man was garlanded in colorful stones, and the scepter was formed by
an indentation on the sarcophagus, as though the real scepter awaited to be
returned.

“What makes you so certain this was king Ajtzak’s tomb?” Sam
interrupted his examination of the room.

“Because that’s his family emblem.”

“What is?”

Tom touched the pictograph at the base of the sarcophagus,
“Here. See these
four horsemen, carrying spears? They’re
looking up and worshiping their deity – a man with a hawk head and headdress
with a sun disk.”

“AKA, Ra, the Sun God in ancient Egyptian
culture,” Sam stared at it in wonder.

“Right you are. Hey, what do you know about
Egypt?”

“You’d be surprised.”

Tom ran his hands along the crest of the
deity, and then added, “I only remember it because when I called a professor of
Mayan archaeology at the University of Mexico, he said that Ajtzak used a very
specific symbol, which looked almost exactly like that of Ra, the God of Sun.
But, as even I know, the mention of Ra was only ever found in Egypt, never on
this side of the Atlantic. What’s stranger still, this reference to Ra, can’t
be found anywhere else throughout his bloodline or the rest of the Mayan
culture.
”

“The Egyptians believed that Ra was swallowed every night by
the sky goddess Nut, and was reborn every morning. They also believed that he
traveled through the underworld at night,” Sam repeated what he knew about Ra.

“So the real question to ask is, what is an Egyptian sized
pyramid and Egyptian God doing on this side of the Atlantic, at the burial site
for a Mayan King?”

“I have no idea. But if we can get this cyanide problem
fixed, I’m sure some archeologists are going to have a field day in here.” Sam
regarded the walls again. “I had a quick look at Mayan mythology on my tablet
while waiting for you to come round earlier. It appears this room is an
abstract combination of the Mayan beliefs.”

“Such as?”

“The Maya believe in a universe consisting of heavens above
and underworlds below, with the human world between. Linking the three realms
was a giant tree whose roots reached into the underworld and branches stretched
to heaven. The gods and the souls of the dead traveled between worlds along
this tree.”

“Interesting. So we’ve just found the inner sanctum of king
Ajtzak’s tomb?” Tom tapped on the sarcophagus. “Are you starting to get the
feeling that no one really knew this king? As though, maybe, he came from
somewhere else?”