Journey Through the Mirrors (42 page)

“Yes,” Madu said. “My two years in Egypt before leaving to join the Council were spent searching for the secret chamber where the blue orb had taken me. Despite Nadine’s urging, I wanted nothing to do with politics or the government that was emerging after the fall of the Khufus. I only wanted to locate that chamber. My fame provided me with access to all of the sealed areas of the pyramids and also to the many tombs and chambers at the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hathor. At each of those places, I uncovered more clues that confirmed what the blue orb had demonstrated to me: that the pyramids of Giza were more than large gravestones.” With traffic building up, Madu slowed the car and rolled down his window to let in some fresh air. “All the clues pointed to the likelihood that the pyramids had been used as energy devices. When I finally discovered the room under the
Menkaure Pyramid, I was even more inspired to find the key to its activation.”

“You actually found the room?” Mr. Perrot asked.

“I did, Robert. But unfortunately, at that time, I didn’t possess the knowledge or the insight to decipher the mystery further. That was also when Camden contacted me and proposed establishing the Council of Satraya.”

“Do others know about the room?” Mr. Perrot asked.

“Only Nadine and Rigel. No one else. The entrance remains a secret even to this day.”

Mr. Perrot took all this in, gazing out at the square. “And how does Cassandra’s music teacher fit into all this?”

“Yes, Sumsari seemed to understand a great deal about the energy lines that cover the surface of the earth. At the time, I believed his knowledge would assist me with my design. I theorized that a radioactive core would be even more energized if it was located at certain places on the globe. Sumsari talked about something called Sonorous Lines, which I had never heard of. Many years later I came across a reference to something called ley lines, which I think are the same thing. His explanation did help me to understand why pyramids and temples around the world had been erected in certain locations.”

“In her recordings, Cassandra indicated that Sumsari had gained his knowledge during his travels in Europe just after the Great Disruption.”

“Sumsari told me the same thing. Had I known back then that sound, music, and resonance were the actual key, I would have paid much more attention to what Sumsari was explaining to me.” Madu smiled. “If we could find him, I now know what questions I would ask him. Has Valerie made any progress in locating him?”

“Not that I know of. As I said, her main focus is finding the people responsible for the gas well explosions. Another group of agents is looking into Sumsari’s abduction.”

The traffic cleared, but before Madu could accelerate, a black vehicle
screeched to a stop in front of them, and Mr. Perrot saw two men jump out. Madu’s car jolted forward, and Mr. Perrot and Madu were whiplashed backward as a second black vehicle crashed into their rear. Before they could make sense of what was happening, the driver- and passenger-side windows were smashed, and the doors opened. Their assailants stuck small silver objects onto Mr. Perrot’s and Madu’s temples. The last thing either one remembered before falling unconscious was a beeping sound.

47

If no one understands you, why do you lament? Does the rain lament when you tell it to go away?

—THE CHRONICLES OF SATRAYA

NOVACON ISLAND, 6:50 A.M. LOCAL TIME, MARCH 26, 2070

“We’re approaching from the south,” Rigel Wright said, looking at a 3-D map of Pico Island displayed in front of him. Logan, Valerie, and Chetan stood around a small table at the center of Rigel’s submarine, which he affectionately called
Nemo
. Surrounding them, at several control stations, were eight crew members performing various tasks.

Chetan had been right. While neither Valerie nor Logan had liked his idea about how to get to NovaCon Island, it had turned out to be the best option available. Rigel Wright had remained in Washington, D.C., after his meeting with President Salize, and his yacht, the
Water Shadow
, was docked in Chesapeake Bay. Logan had put aside his dislike of Rigel, and it hadn’t taken much effort on Valerie’s part to persuade the billionaire to transport her, Logan, and Chetan to the island in the Azores that Sylvia had identified. The
Water Shadow
lived up to its billing as the fastest ship ever constructed and was able to complete the forty-five-hundred-kilometer trip in less than twenty-four hours. Director Sully and the rest of the president’s cabinet were busy crafting the official
statement they would deliver to the public about the energy crisis. An announcement that NovaCon was working on an energy solution was going to take place in less than twelve hours.

“What’s the plan for entering the facility?” Logan asked. “From what we saw at the lab, their pyramid seems to be pretty isolated and I would assume pretty well guarded.”

“The outer perimeter of the island is covered by heavy vegetation, which will provide you with sufficient cover to get onto the island,” Rigel said, as he zoomed in on the image and panned the map. “But once you make your way toward the volcano and the pyramid device to the west of it, you’ll be on the open lava fields. They’ll be able to spot you for sure.”

“What about a nighttime landing?” Chetan asked.

“You could try, but the terrain is rough. The lava rocks are jagged, and maneuvering over them is treacherous, even by day.”

“We’ll have to risk a daytime approach,” Valerie said.

“What are those green dotted lines on the map?” Logan asked. “They seem to go in all different directions.”

Rigel paused for a moment before answering. He zoomed in on the western portion of the island and one of the dotted green lines that Logan was referring to. “Now, there’s an interesting thought. You might be able to use Gruta das Torres to conceal your approach.”

“Gruta what?” Valerie said.

“A lava tube,” explained Rigel. “All over the western part of the island is a series of interconnected lava tubes, which were formed more than a thousand years ago. Before the Great Disruption, locals and tourists walked through them. Gruta das Torres was the longest recorded lava tube in the Azores, more than thirty-three hundred meters long. And that is just what they were able to explore. Some estimates have it at double that length.”

“How do we know if any of these tubes will lead to the NovaCon device?” Logan asked.

“That we can easily figure out,” Rigel said. He projected another
image next to the one of the island. “This is a more detailed map of the Gruta and its tributaries. If we overlay the two maps, we can see how close you’ll be able to get to the pyramid.”

Valerie examined the merging of the two maps. “The end of the tunnel looks like it brings us pretty close to the pyramid.”

“The opening to the vent tube is near the old tourist center, located here.” Rigel pointed to it. “Based on this map, there is a vent tube at the end of the tunnel that you can use to get back to the surface. It looks like you’ll only be about fifty meters away from the device.”

“Pretty lucky, if you ask me,” Chetan said.

“They must know about the lava tube,” Logan pointed out. “Especially since they built the device so close to it.”

Valerie thought for a moment. “The Gruta is still the best option. Walking across the open lava rock field, by either day or night, seems too dangerous.”

“We’ll surface about four hundred meters from shore,” Rigel said. “The underwater volcanic activity in these parts makes it too risky for us to take
Nemo
any closer.” Logan looked out the huge portals of the submarine and could see large bubbles of steam rising from the sea floor. “Maurice will take you the rest of the way on the skid.”

“ETA ten minutes, Mr. Wright,” one of the crew said.

“We’ll provide you with some equipment—ropes, lights, and such,” Rigel said. “The three of you should get ready. We’ll remain submerged, but we’ll stay in the area until we hear back from you.” Rigel sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re really convinced that Catherine is behind the destruction of the natural-gas wells? That she’s bent on destroying that industry in order to corner the market with her own alternative energy?”

“We are,” Valerie said firmly, as she checked her weapon and put it back into her holster.

“We also think this pyramid device NovaCon built is responsible for the recent earthquakes and the health problems people have been having,” Logan added. “It’s time to see if we’re right.”

Rigel nodded. “Good luck to all three of you. And try not to let Valerie boss you around too much,” he added, looking at Logan.

*  *  *

“This must be the old visitors center,” Valerie said, as she, Logan, and Chetan walked up to a large, vine-covered building with toppled welcome signs out front.

“I feel like a modern-day explorer,” Chetan said.

They tore down the brush growing over the door of the abandoned building, and the words
Gruta das Torres
appeared, etched into the wall next to the door. Logan entered the building, followed by Valerie and then Chetan. Their steps crunched quietly on the scattered debris.

Chetan knelt down to examine something. “These are fish bones and the remnants of shellfish. They must have become trapped in here when the Azores were flooded by the tsunami.”

Valerie held up a glass bottle. A mangled bicycle and rusted cans lay at her feet. “The floodwaters must have carried this stuff from the nearby town.” Valerie walked over to a sheet of tin roofing and lifted it up. She quickly stepped backward. “Along with a few dead bodies.”

Logan looked over and saw a human skull and what appeared to be the rib bones of a human chest cavity. The rest of the body was nowhere in sight. “Let’s keep moving,” he said. “The entrance to the lava tunnel should be really close.”

The rest of the visitors center looked much the same, except that farther into the building, large portions of the roof had collapsed. Logan could see the sky through large holes in the walls. Birds were flying around, and the dirt that had been carried there now gave life to lush vegetation.

“There’s a set of stairs over here,” Chetan said. He used his hatchet to chop away at an overgrown thorny bush. Logan and Valerie cleared away the branches until they could see the crumbling concrete steps that zigzagged downward.

“The tunnel must be down there,” Valerie said, peering into the pitch-black darkness.

Logan opened his backpack and pulled out three small head lamps that Rigel had provided. They strapped them around their heads and turned them on.

Valerie pulled out her PCD and projected the image of the tunnel map they had studied on the submarine. “If the map is accurate, we have about a two-thousand-meter trek from here.”

They started down the stairs, the air thick and humid. Soon they reached the bottom and were walking on a smooth, shiny floor. “I would have expected the ground to be rougher,” Logan said.

“We’re walking on a pahoehoe flow,” Chetan said. “This kind of lava flow has a very slow velocity, which allows the outer skin to cool and form a smooth surface.”

Logan glanced over his shoulder at the natural light that illuminated the bottom of the staircase they’d descended. He was certain that this was the last bit of daylight they were going to see for some time.

“It’s pretty warm down here, isn’t it?” Valerie said. She took off her jacket and tied its sleeves around her waist.

“It shouldn’t be,” Chetan said. “Underground lava tunnels are usually more temperate. I’m not sure where the heat is coming from.”

Valerie led everyone forward. Some portions of the lava tube were quite tall, nearly fifteen meters, while others didn’t break two. From time to time, they heard whistling from above as wind passed through an upper lava tube. Small openings created by gas bubbles allowed air to flow between the layers of tunnels. Logan paused to look at a portion of the wall where tourists had scribbled their names and the dates of their visits into the white bacteria that grew there. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and the once-smooth ground was now dotted with basalt rocks of various sizes that had fallen from the ceiling.

“I don’t see any indications that this tunnel is being used by NovaCon,” Chetan said. “It doesn’t look as if anyone has been here recently.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Valerie said.

They ventured deeper into the lava tube. Bats scurried off as the trio’s head lamps shone into their dens, disrupting their sleep. Valerie pulled out her PCD from time to time to make sure that they were headed in the right direction and that every step took them closer to the NovaCon device.

“It’s getting hotter,” Logan said, stopping to take a sip of water from his canteen before handing it to Chetan.

Valerie glanced at her PCD. “I wonder how my father is doing. He told me he would send me a message once he arrived at Madu’s house.”

“He’s fine,” Logan said, reassuring her and partly himself as he recalled Sebastian’s cryptic words concerning the teacher of the King’s Gambit. “They just have a ton of catching up to do.” Logan put his canteen back into his backpack. “How much farther do we have to go?”

“About eighty more meters,” Chetan said. “In theory, the exit vent is just up there. With any luck, we’ll be right next to—” Chetan stopped and turned off his head lamp. He took a few steps forward, peering down the tunnel.

Logan and Valerie followed. “What is it?” Valerie asked.

“I see a faint light down there.”

“Very faint,” Valerie said, removing her M&P40 from her shoulder holster. “Let’s go.”

She quietly led the way, and the light in the distance grew brighter. Some fifty meters down, the tunnel opened into a spacious cavern illuminated by a floodlight above a stainless-steel door. When they were close enough, Valerie stopped, squatting behind a large boulder. Chetan and Logan joined her there. They turned off their head lamps.

Chetan leaned around the boulder to get a better look. “I don’t see any security cameras by the door.”