The Oracle's Message (13 page)

Roux nodded. “It’s an evolution of a fascinating, naturally occurring object that then gets transformed into something godlike.”

“So, why don’t the Jiao get sick from it?” Annja asked.

“Who knows? Gradual exposure over the millennia? Perhaps they have evolved to be able to withstand the level of radioactivity without succumbing to it. Of course, whenever someone from the surface comes here, they obviously lack that immunity. So they get sick and die,” Roux said.

“You really think it’s radioactive?”

Roux nodded. “I’m convinced of it.”

“Well, that certainly explains a lot.”

Hans helped Annja to her feet. “You still need to rest, Annja.”

“What I’d like,” Annja said, “is to get the hell out of here. See the sun again, not some nuclear-powered light.”

“That’s a good idea,” Roux said. “What are the odds that the Jiao will keep their word and let us go?”

Spier shrugged. “I don’t think it will be a problem, provided one of us stays behind like they said.”

Annja shook her head. “No way. We all get out of here together or we all fight our way out.”

Spier frowned. “You’re in no shape to fight these warriors. They’d overwhelm us with sheer numbers and then what good would that do? Senseless violence is a silly thing. And our deaths would be for nothing.”

“So, what, you’re saying that we should leave someone behind?”

Spier shrugged. “We could draw straws or something.”

“Annja is excused from the draw,” Hans said. “She already put her life on the line for all of us. Several times over, if I recall properly.”

Annja shook her head. “Nice of you to say so, but I’m in this with you guys. I’ll take my chances like anyone else.”

Roux glanced around. “We seem to be a bit short on straws, however. Anyone have any ideas on how we’ll figure this out?”

“No clue,” Annja said. She looked at Hans. “Got anything you can use?”

“No.”

Annja looked at Mueller and Gottlieb but neither of them had anything, either. She looked back at Hans. “Hey, where did Heinkel go?”

Hans looked at her. “What?” He glanced around and then saw that Heinkel was missing. “I have no idea.”

Roux frowned. “I’m afraid we were all a little concerned about the state of your health, Annja. Heinkel might have slipped out during the confusion.”

“Why?” Annja asked. “Where would he go?”

Hans glanced at Spier. “Do you think?”

Spier shrugged. “It’s possible. But how would he know how to get there?”

“He’s a smart man,” Hans said. “He could figure it out easily enough.”

“What are you two talking about?”

Hans looked into her eyes. “He may have gone for the pearl.”

“What? No,” Annja said. “And, of course, he has no idea that it’s radioactive. What’s he going to do, bring it back here and get us all sick?”

“We’ll find him,” Hans said. He nodded at Gottlieb and Mueller. They all left the room together.

Annja looked at Roux. “How would he transport the pearl if he finds it?”

“The only safe way,” Roux said, “is with a lead-shielded bag or something similar. But he doesn’t have anything like that.”

Spier shook his head. “He has no idea it’s radioactive, anyway. He’d have no reason to think he has to be careful with it.”

“This is not good,” Annja said. She turned and winced as more pain lanced through her side. “If the Jiao find out one of us is trying to rob them of their precious oracle, I think we can kiss our chances of escape goodbye. They’ll kill us all, for crying out loud.”

“This is my fault,” Spier said. “If I hadn’t been so obsessed with finding the pearl, Heinkel would never have taken it upon himself to go after it.”

“Heinkel bears responsibility for this,” Annja said. “After all, you didn’t tell him to go get it, did you?”

“Of course not.”

“Okay. Let’s just hope that Hans and the others can find him before he gets us all killed.”

Roux sighed. “We might be too late for that.” He nodded toward the entrance to the arena area and Annja followed his gaze. A dozen of Hsusia’s warriors stood with Heinkel in their custody.

The lead warrior came over to Annja. “We caught this man in the oracle room.”

Annja looked at Heinkel. “What were you doing?”

He frowned. “I was doing what we came here to do.”

Annja looked back at the warrior. “He acted alone. He was under no order to disturb your oracle. Any damage he caused was due to his actions alone.”

The warrior considered this and then frowned. “The rule of law is that anyone attempting to take the oracle will be put to death.”

Annja shook her head. “Whose rule of law was that?”

“The queen’s.”

“The queen is dead,” Annja said. “So, too, must her laws be struck down.”

The warrior shook his head. “We have yet to elect a new ruler. Until such time as we do, the old laws remain in effect. Your man here must be executed for his crime.”

“I cannot allow that,” Annja said.

“Yours is not to say,” the warrior replied. “If you attempt to stop us, you will also be killed.”

Annja shook her head. “Did you see me battle your queen?”

“Of course.”

“And I bested her in armed combat, correct?”

The warrior nodded. “You defeated her according to the rules of the bout. Yes.”

“So you’re well aware of what I am capable of as a warrior, like yourself. You know that I will not simply let you kill one of my men.”

The warrior considered this for a moment. “I would not be in a hurry to fight against you, if that is what you mean.”

“It is.”

“What do you propose, then?”

But the answer came to Annja in startling detail. As she looked at Heinkel, he seemed to pale, and then he slumped over, vomiting.

Annja waited until he was finished. “Did you touch it?”

Heinkel took a breath and then nodded. “I removed it from the basin. When they came into the room, I accidentally dropped it.”

“You dropped it?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve got radiation poison, Heinkel. The oracle is some sort of naturally occurring radioactive substance.”

“Is that why you got sick earlier?”

“Yes.”

Heinkel looked at her. “But you got better.”

“I got better because of the sword,” Annja said. “I don’t know how to help you battle the sickness that is ravaging your body right now.”

The warrior frowned. “It would appear that the oracle is dispensing its own justice here.”

Annja nodded. “It seems that way.”

The warrior seemed satisfied. He turned to his men. “We will return to the oracle room and make sure that the oracle is once again properly positioned.”

But as they turned to leave, a thunderous sound echoed across the chamber. The lights flickered and went out briefly before coming back on.

The floor shuddered.

Roux frowned. “Annja?”

Annja looked at Heinkel. “What the hell did you do?”

He shook his head. “I put it back after I dropped it. I’m telling you the truth. Honestly.”

Annja shook her head while Heinkel slumped to his side moaning in pain. She glanced at Spier. “You’d better hope your guys get back here soon. Something tells me this place isn’t going to be very hospitable once they figure out what happened.”

Hsusia’s warriors ran out of the room. Annja looked at Roux. “What are the odds we can find our way back to the cistern?”

“I don’t know, what are you thinking?”

“That we need to leave. Our time seems to be almost up.”

Roux frowned. “We don’t have enough air in our tanks to make the journey back.”

“Then we’ll have to share as we swim.”

“What about that hot water? It’s bound to be radioactive.”

Annja shrugged. “I’m open to suggestions, Roux. I think we can stand the exposure provided we get through the tunnel as fast as possible. If we stay in the hot water, we’ll be cooked. But once we get free, we should be all right.”

“In that case, we’d better get going.”

The floor beneath them rumbled and shook. Annja fell and hit her side, crying out as she did so. The pain was incredible, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing the agony to subside.

Spier knelt over Heinkel, but then shook his head and stood. “He’s gone.”

A giant crack appeared in one of the walls of the arena, running from the ceiling to the floor. Again, the lights flickered.

“We need to leave,” Annja said. “Now!”

Hans, Mueller and Gottlieb came running back into the room. They took one look at Heinkel and then kept moving. Hans rushed to Annja. “The entire place is falling apart. We have to try to get away!”

Annja leaned on him. “Lead on, Hans. We’re right behind you.”

The corridors of the underground kingdom were filled with the Jiao people, screaming and huddled in corners away from the falling debris. Chunks of marble tumbled to the ground as the very foundations themselves seemed to be rocked to their core.

“What the hell did Heinkel do?” Annja shouted.

“He may have upset the very thing that has kept this place in a state of suspended safety for all these years,” Roux said as he dodged a chunk of marble. “By dropping the oracle, he may have severed the sense of balance and containment this place has.”

“Great.” Annja clutched her side, which ached terribly, as they threaded their way through the corridors.

Hans seemed to have an innate sense of direction and led them back toward the corridor where they’d first seen the painting. As they passed it, Annja looked upon the face of Hsusia and frowned. I wish there’d been another way, she thought. Then she ran on amid the showering stones.

The Jiao themselves seemed woefully unprepared for their destruction. None of the mighty warriors seemed to have the first inclination on how to lead their people to safety. But even if they had, where would they have gone? How would they have escaped? Annja wasn’t sure they would survive on the surface world. Just as she knew that none of them would have ever been able to survive trapped down here.

They reached the corkscrew staircase and dashed up it. At the top, the altar slab had to be pushed aside from inside the stairs. Hans and Gottlieb were able to shove it out of the way, finally, and then they spilled out.

Things on this floor weren’t much better. Giant cracks split the walls, running ragged down toward the floor. Worse, Annja tasted salt in the air. “The ocean is breaking in,” she said. “We’ve got to hurry!”

They made it back to the cistern and saw that the floor was already a few inches under water. They grabbed their gear and slid into it.

“How are we going to do this?” Roux asked.

“We share the air we have left,” Annja said. “It’s the only way we’ll make it back alive.”

She grabbed Heinkel’s tank. “We’ve got one extra. We ought to have enough to get free of the tunnel.”

The water rose to their knees and Annja felt its warmth, although the heat seemed to be dissipating. “I wish they’d get the oracle back into position. It might stop this destruction.”

Spier appeared before Annja with his oxygen tank in hand. “Take this.”

Annja looked at him. “What are you doing?”

“I’m staying.”

Annja shook her head. “Don’t be a fool. This place is coming down around us. If you stay, you’ll die.”

Spier smiled. “I’m eighty years old, Annja. I don’t have much time left, anyway. I might look healthy, but I’ve been living a lie. You asked about my diet and how I could eat like that? It’s because I’ve got terminal cancer. Doctors gave me a few months to live and I came here.” He shrugged. “And now I know how I want to go out. By giving you all a better chance to live.”

Hans appeared next to Spier. “This wasn’t part of the plan.”

“I changed the plan. Take the tank and go.” Spier smiled. “Besides, according to the oracle, one of us was supposed to stay, anyway. I’m fulfilling that request.”

“The oracle wasn’t a prophecy,” Annja said. “It was only Hsusia casting the bones.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Spier said. “You don’t have much time. Now go!” He turned and pushed his way through the waist-deep water, up the stairs and out of the room.

Gottlieb went to follow him, but Hans merely shook his head. And in the next instant, a giant chunk of ceiling came down, blocking the exit from the cistern.

Their mind was made up for them.

“We go now,” Roux said. “Or we all die here.”

Annja nodded and they descended into the tunnel. Annja could taste the stale air in her lungs, but they’d have to make do. The water grew hot again, but they sank quickly with their weight belts.

As they descended, more rocks and marble came crashing down through the water. Annja risked a glance up and saw that the top of the tunnel was now blocked.

Even if Spier wanted to get out, it was too late. The finality of it weighed heavy on Annja’s mind as they continued to sink.

Spier and Heinkel were gone forever.

They dropped closer to the bottom of the tunnel and then turned. The temperature of the water increased as they did so, but then started to cool off. Annja saw her first fish. But even still, the walls around them continued to shudder and shake, and Annja felt that at any moment they might be crushed by the falling debris.

As they ascended through the tunnel, they saw more fish, but the walls still shook violently. Annja had been in an earthquake or two in her lifetime, but being in one underwater was a new experience entirely.

And it wasn’t one she wanted to repeat any time soon.

Annja took a breath and nothing came out. Her tank was totally empty. She ripped the mouthpiece out and dropped the tank. It was useless now.

Hans shoved his into her mouth and she sucked deep, tasting the same stale oxygen. But it was air and her lungs took it greedily.

Behind her, Gottlieb and Mueller were already sharing Heinkel’s tank. Out of all of them Roux seemed the only one who wasn’t having a hard time breathing.

Annja frowned. He’s probably half fish, anyway, she thought. After all, when you’ve been around for six hundred years, you’ve got time to evolve some gills.

Hans pointed suddenly and Annja saw it. The opening archway where they’d first come into the tunnel.

They pushed for it and then Hans went through first, helped Annja through and then Roux, Gottlieb and Mueller followed. They headed immediately for the surface.

As they ascended, Annja looked down at the reef but the shaking had apparently stopped. She saw no signs that there was any type of earthquake at all.

That’s strange, she thought.

But she didn’t have time to dwell on it. Her air bubbles stopped coming and she realized she’d just taken her final breath on that oxygen tank, as well.

Hans was already holding his breath and rising toward the surface. Annja had to do the same.

She ditched the tank and watched it fall toward the ocean floor. Unburdened by her gear, she rose quickly and then broke the surface.

The sun was setting and the choppy waves showed signs that a storm was on its way.

Hans gasped in the surf next to her. “You all right?”

Annja brought her hand away from her wound. Only a small trace of blood showed. “I think so. The seawater seems to have helped stop the bleeding.”

“Either that or the radiation,” Roux said, having suddenly surfaced next to her. “But that’s a good thing. I don’t think any of us are eager for a confrontation with a shark right now.”

“I’m certainly not,” Annja said. “I want to sleep for about a thousand days.”

Gottlieb surfaced next and then a minute later Mueller bobbed up alongside of them. Annja frowned. “What took you guys so long?”

Mueller smiled. “I was appreciating the view on the way out. I’m happy never to have to go back to that place.”

“Dinner’s on me tonight,” Annja said. “We just have to get home now.”

“Where the hell is the boat?” Hans asked.

They bobbed in the swells and Annja turned around trying to see their sloop. But Hans was right. The boat was gone.

Roux frowned. “That damned dive master probably came out and towed it back into shore. We’ve been gone far too long, after all.”

“Yeah, but if they thought we were dead, wouldn’t they have a recovery team out here looking for our bodies?” Annja asked.

Roux sniffed. “I think you might be giving him too much credit. Odds are he was more concerned about his boat and gear than he was us.”

“But the other people of the resort would want to know,” Annja said. “Dr. Tiko would make him launch some sort of rescue.”

“Perhaps,” Hans said, “they simply don’t know yet.”

Mueller frowned. “Regardless, we are without a boat. And we are perhaps a mile away from shore. Anyone up for a swim.”

“Not a mile-long swim,” Roux said miserably. “My old bones won’t take it.”

Annja clutched her side, but the pain was quickly dissipating. “Well, in that case, you can always stay here and act as bait for any sharks we happen to attract.”

Roux shook his head. “You’re just trying to rattle my nerves, Annja Creed. I’ll have you know that I once battled a shark myself. In the waters of the Mediterranean, on a dare no less.”

“Awesome,” Annja said, already starting to do a breast stroke toward the shore far in the distance. “You can tell the tiger sharks all about that. Me? I’m going to get a good meal and a stiff drink.”

Hans swam next to her. “You don’t think he’ll stay, do you?”

“Not a chance. Roux hates sharks. Despite what he says. It’s false bravado.”

Sure enough, Roux started swimming toward them, pleading for them to slow down so he could catch up. Mueller stopped and treaded water until Roux was safely in the midst of them. Then they all started swimming together toward the shore.

Annja heard the boat motor long before she could see it over the cresting waves that swirled around her. “Someone’s coming!”

Hans bobbed up and then waved his hand high in the air. “It’s one of the resort sloops.”

They stopped and treaded water while Hans flagged the boat. It drew alongside them and the smiling face of the dive master appeared above them. “I thought I’d better come back and find my gear. Those tanks are expensive, you know!”

“Great, he wasn’t concerned about saving us,” Annja said. “He just wanted to protect his investment. What a humanitarian.”

The dive master helped them on board, one by one. When they were seated, he looked at them. “Okay, where’s all my stuff.”

“Down on the reef,” Annja said. “If you like, you can go back and get it. We’ll wait here.”

The dive master looked at the darkening sky. “It’ll keep until tomorrow, I think. Besides, the night is coming and that’s when the sharks come out to feed. It would be better for all of us if I got you back to Club Noah.”

“You sure?” Annja asked. “I can see how much it would hurt you to lose a buck.”

The dive master shook his head. “I will get it tomorrow.” He turned back to the rudder but then stopped. “Where are the other two?”

Hans shook his head. “They didn’t make it.”

“What?”

“They’re dead. Now get this boat going. We need to see the doctor and then we need to get food.”

“Dead?” The dive master shook his head and gunned the engine. “This is what happens when you foreigners don’t listen to me.”

They cut through the waves toward the shore. As the boat skipped over the water, Annja finally caught sight of Club Noah in the distance. I never thought I’d be so happy to see that place again, she thought.

The dive master brought them into the dock and then they tied off. Hans helped Annja off the boat. “You’d better see the doctor—get your wound looked at. Make sure it hasn’t gotten infected.”

Annja felt the puncture and then shook her head. “I actually think I’m all right for the moment. Something tells me that the water down there maybe have helped kill off any infection. I’ll go see the doctor after we get something to eat.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.”

Roux stepped onto the dock next to Annja. “Well, that was a little more adventure than I was actually intending to have.”

“There’s an understatement,” Annja said.

“Shame about Heinkel and Spier,” Roux said. “But I guess there’s no accounting for what some people will do.”

“Spier gave his life for us,” Annja said. “He should be honored for his sacrifice.”

“He lied to us, as well,” Roux said. “Had we known about the cancer, would you have gone diving with him?”

“Sure, why not?”

Roux just shook his head and walked away. Annja looked after him and sighed. As if Roux had never told a lie in his life.

Hans came over to her. “We’re going to get cleaned up and then have dinner. Will you dine with us?”

Annja nodded. “Absolutely.”

Together, they walked off toward their cabanas.