The Atlantis Stone (20 page)

CHAPTER 51

"Damn it, Selena, you scared the hell out of me," Nick said. "What if you'd been wrong?"

"But I wasn't, was I? Besides, I would've gotten out of the way before that rock fell on me."

"Maybe. Maybe not. What was the combination?"

"Homeland. It's not one word, it's a four character phrase. The characters were on the design. I just had to put them in sequence. Nothing else made sense."

"Pretty ballsy," Lamont said.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Selena said.

"Wow," Ronnie said, "look at that."

The door opened onto a room two hundred feet long and half as wide. The walls were made of fitted stone, the work of a master mason. A soft, bluish green light came from flickering strips on the walls. Sections of the strips were dark but there was enough light to see hundreds of wooden chests arranged in neat rows. In the center of the room was a table. On top of the table was a smaller chest.

Nick took a step and felt something crunch under his boot. He looked down.

"Watch for scorpions. These black ones are really nasty."

"Why are there always bugs?" Ronnie muttered.

"Technically, a scorpion isn't a bug," Lamont said.

"What are you, mister nature man? It crawls, it's got too many legs and it bites. It's a bug."

"Scorpions sting, they don't bite."

"Whatever."

"I don't believe this," Selena said.

"It's real enough," Nick said.

She walked over to the nearest chest and tried the lid. It was fastened with leather hinges. They fell apart as she opened the chest. She set the lid on the floor.

"What's inside?"

"Scrolls. It's full of scrolls."

"You think all these chests are like that?" Ronnie asked.

"Probably. "

She picked up a scroll. It crumbled into fragments.

"I hope that wasn't what we're looking for," Nick said.

"It will take years to sort through this. If these chests are full of scrolls, each one will have to be treated before it can be opened up and read. It may not even be possible."

"That's not our concern. We've done what we came here to do, find this archive. We'll leave the rest to the politicians."

"How do these lights work?" Lamont said.

Nick looked at the flickering strips. "Probably some kind of phosphorus. Or a chemical compound. Pretty impressive that it still works after all this time."

"The Egyptians are going to go nuts when they learn about this," Selena said. "This room was here long before the pharaohs showed up on the scene. It's proof their historical timeline is wrong."

"When do you think all this stuff was stashed in here?" Ronnie asked.

"If the people who left all this are the same ones who carved out the Sphinx, ten or twelve thousand years."

"What do we do now?" Lamont asked.

Selena threaded her way through the chests until she reached the chest in the middle. She lifted the lid and looked down.

"Oh, my."

Selena reached into the chest and took out a smooth object a little larger than a football, rounded at the ends. It was translucent, scarred with black pits and long scorch marks as if it had been through an intense fire. It felt warm and heavy in her hands. She held it up for them to see. It began to glow with soft, blue light.

"That's really something," Lamont said.

"The Stone of the Gods," Nick said.

"It has to be." Selena turned it in her hands. "It almost feels alive. It's getting warmer as I hold it."

"Better put it back in the box," Nick said.

Selena placed the stone in the chest and closed the lid. She picked the chest up and walked back to the others.

"I think it must be a kind of meteor," she said. "I wonder how they made it work?"

"Someone will figure it out. We're done here," Nick said. "We'll go back to the surface and call Harker."

"I don't think so."

The voice came from the doorway behind them. They turned to see Rostov pointing a pistol at them. Valentina stood beside her, a pistol in her hand.

"Valentina!"

"Hello, sister. We really have to stop meeting like this."

"How... What are you doing here?"

Valentina waved her pistol at the room. "The same thing as you. Looking for this room and what's in that chest you're holding."

Rostov pointed her pistol at Selena.

"Put the chest down."

Selena set it on the floor.

Rostov swiveled her pistol to Nick.

"Tell them to take their weapons out and lay them on the floor. Any attempt to fight, I kill you. I warn you, this pistol has a sensitive trigger. Be careful. My finger is nervous."

Nick looked at the wrong end of Rostov's Makarov. The barrel was steady. He looked at her eyes. She wasn't bluffing.

"Do as she says."

He drew his pistol with two fingers, bent down and laid it on the floor. The others followed suit.

"Good dogs," Rostov said. "Now kick them away."

The guns scraped across the floor.

"Get over there, against the wall."

"Let's talk about this," Nick said.

"Against the wall. I won't ask again."

They lined up against the wall.

"What are we going to do with them?" Valentina asked.

"What do you think?"

"You can't kill them."

"Why not?"

"These people aren't low level agents. The consequences would be bad. The Americans will retaliate."

"You think we should let them go?"

"Look at this room," Valentina said. "There isn't any way to keep this secret. What do you think will happen when they come in here and find four dead bodies?"

"They won't find four," Rostov said. "They'll find five."

She turned and shot Valentina. Selena's sister staggered sideways and fell. Her pistol clattered on the floor toward Selena. Ronnie reached for the gun in his ankle holster. Nick and Lamont dove for their weapons. Selena ducked down and grabbed Valentina's gun as Rostov fired at her. The bullet missed and ricocheted off the wall into one of the flickering light strips. A viscous waterfall of green gushed out and splashed onto the wooden chests below.

The ancient wood ignited in a burst of flame. The room began to fill with black, oily smoke.

Nick picked his gun off the floor, raised up and fired at Rostov. He missed. She backed away to the entrance and through the doorway, firing as she went. Smoke swirled past her, sucked into the passage behind. Nick fired again. Rostov went down. As she fell, her pistol went off.

The bullet struck the ceiling above and triggered the trap. A slab of granite dropped from the ceiling and crushed her, cutting off her scream. It sounded as though someone had stepped on a very large bug. Blood oozed out from under the stone.

"Jesus," Lamont said.

Selena bent over Valentina.
Rostov's bullet had entered her side.

"I didn't know she was going to do that," Valentina said. Her voice was strained.

"She's dead." Selena said.

"Good."

The fire was spreading.

Nick came over. "Selena, we have to get out of here."

"Valentina, can you stand?"

"Maybe. Help me."

"Nick, help me lift  her."

Valentina gasped with pain as they pulled her to her feet.

Smoke hung in a dark cloud below the ceiling of the room. The wooden chests popped and crackled as the flames reached them and the ancient parchments inside ignited.

Ronnie said. "How do we get out of here? The entrance is blocked."

"Blow it."

"Ain't happening," Lamont said.

A wall of flame stood between them and the entrance. They retreated to the other end of the long room, coughing in the thick smoke. Nick and Selena supported Valentina between them. Nick looked at the advancing flames. It wouldn't be long before the fire got to them or they ran out of air.

"Look," Ronnie said. "Scorpions."

A stream of panicked scorpions scurried toward the back wall where they stood. They were coming out of the chests, dozens of them. The sound of their claws clicking and clattering as they scrabbled across the stone floor made a bizarre counterpoint to the crackling of the flames.

Lamont took out his pistol.

"Forget about it, Lamont. They're going somewhere."

More scorpions appeared, a steady stream. The head of the stream reached the wall and disappeared, the others following behind.

"Where are they going?" Selena asked.

"There must be another passage behind that wall," Nick said, "a way out."

The fire worked its way toward them down the rows of chests. The crackling of the flames had turned into a steady roar. The layer of smoke on the ceiling had dropped to a foot above their heads.

The wall where the scorpions had vanished was covered with tiled squares, each one marked with a character in the language of Atlantis. Selena felt the heat of the fire on her back as she looked at the wall. She tried to understand what she was seeing.

Was it a combination of things, like the entrance? Was it a single tile? There was no time to study it. Snapping noises came from the burning chests behind her as the flames came closer.

If I'm in the room,
she thought,
I don't need a combination to get out of it.

"Start pressing tiles," she called over the roar of the fire. "One of them has to be the key."

They began to press against the tiles. It was getting hard to see and hard to breathe. Valentina leaned against the wall.

Ronnie felt a tile sink into the wall under his hand. A hidden door opened at the corner where the scorpions had gone, revealing another tunnel.

Coughing and bent low to keep under the smoke, they hurried to the doorway and into the passage beyond. Nick took the lead. Ronnie and Lamont had Valentina between them. Selena brought up the rear.

The scorpions were nowhere to be seen. Smoke poured into the tunnel.

"Keep moving," Nick said.

"I hope this doesn't lead to a dead end," Lamont said.

After a few minutes they came to an iron grill blocking the way.

Nick gripped it. "This isn't old. It must've been put up to keep people out of this tunnel."

Lamont looked at the gate. "It won't take much to blow it."

He took C4 from his pack and began working. The smoke was thicker.

"Move back."

He detonated the charge. The grill fell away, clanging against the floor. They stepped over it and found themselves in a lightless chamber with a rounded wall.

Selena played her flashlight over the interior of the chamber, then along the wall.

"There's an opening over there. It's been sealed with cement."

"Seems to be our day for breaking things open," Nick said.

"That cement looks old," Lamont said.

"Blow it before the smoke gets any worse."

Lamont placed the last bit of C4 against the walled up opening. They retreated to the far corner and detonated the charge. Fresh air blew into the chamber.

They climbed through the opening and out into the Egyptian night. Nick looked up at the stars and took a deep breath of cool air.

"Look where we are," Selena said.

They stood next to the Sphinx. The opening was in the right hind leg of the statue.

"You were right all along," Nick said.

"Everything's gone," she said. "All those records. Safe for ten thousand years and now they're gone. The history of a civilization."

"And the Stone of the Gods. Don't forget that. Nobody will ever know what it was or how they used it."

The smoke had found its way to the opening. A lazy column drifted out of the Sphinx.

"Take a look at the pyramid," Ronnie said.

A column of black smoke rose from the pyramid entrance.

Lamont sneezed. "Might be time to get out of here."

Valentina slumped unconscious between Ronnie and Selena.

"We need to get help for her," Selena said.

They almost made it to the parking lot before the police surrounded them.

CHAPTER 52

General Basu Karimi had put the prisoners in isolation. None of the police who'd arrested them would talk. Not if they knew what was good for them.

The Ministry of Antiquities screamed for the heads of the vandals who had defiled the ancient symbols of Egypt. They didn't know Karimi had them in custody. They weren't going to know, unless he decided to tell them.

Karimi had moved his prisoners to a private facility outside of Cairo that he used for special interrogations. The place had a dark reputation. No one would bother him there. He'd arranged medical care for Valentina. Now he waited for his aide to bring the American leader to him.

Nick entered the room.

"Leave us," Karimi said to his aide.

"General. Are you sure? This man is a threat."

"Are you deaf? Leave us." His voice was full of menace.

The man left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Sit down."

Karimi indicated a hard chair in front of his desk. Nick sat down.

"I know who you are. You are part of a covert team sent here by your director, Harker. It was I who allowed you to enter my country."

"You have an advantage over me."

"Ah, please excuse my rudeness. I am General Basu Karimi."

"The chief of the Mukhabharat?"

"I am pleased that you know of me. After a few formalities, you and your companions will be returned to America."

"What formalities?" Nick asked.

Karimi ignored the question. "What were you doing in the pyramid?"

"Would you believe me if I said we were sightseeing?"

"Please do not make the mistake of annoying me, Mister Carter. I know that you were looking for something. I know the Russians were looking for the same thing. By the way, where is Major Rostov?"

"She made a mistake. Right now she's pressed flatter than a postage stamp under tons of granite."

"That is unfortunate. Tell me about the fire."

There was no point in lying.

"We found a sealed tunnel in the descending passage of the pyramid. It led to a hidden room filled with wooden chests. The room was lit with strips of some phosphorescent material set on the walls. That's what caused the fire."

"How?"

"Rostov followed us in and was going to kill us. She shot Valentina and took a shot at Selena. The bullet hit one of the strips. Whatever was inside spilled out on the chests and everything began to burn."

"Why would Rostov shoot her associate?"

"I assume she had a grudge. Rostov was FSB. Valentina is SVR."

This was new information for Karimi. He would use it to leverage the Russians.

"What was in the chests? Gold? Artifacts?"

"No gold, General. We only opened one before Rostov showed up. It was full of parchment scrolls. As far as I know, they all were. Records. The room was an archive of Atlantis."

Nick saw no point in telling Karimi about the Stone of the Gods. What good would it do?

"Do not try to deceive me, Carter."

"I'm telling you the truth, General. Since you know who we are, you can ask Director Harker if you don't believe me."

"I will. You had better hope she verifies your story."

"Everything was destroyed," Nick said. "There's no reason to try and hide it. When your people get into that room they'll find plenty of evidence to back me up."

"The room no longer exists. It is filled with many tons of stone. The heat from the fire brought down the roof."

"Then you'll have to take my word for it."

"Why were you seeking this...archive?"

"We were looking for information about an unknown energy used by the Atlanteans to build their civilization. We thought those records would tell us what we needed to know, if we could find them. The same energy was probably used to move the stones in your pyramids and lift them into place."

Karimi gave him an incredulous look. "You expect me to believe that?"

"General, I don't expect anything. You asked me what we were doing there. I told you. I know you're not a man to be trifled with."

Karimi had considered torturing the Americans to get at the truth but had decided it would be more profitable to return them unharmed and claim a reasonable reward. Carter's story confirmed his decision. No one would make up a story like that and tell it to the man who could turn his life into agony.

"You said everything was destroyed."

"Yes. Wood doesn't get any drier than those chests. The fire went through them like they were soaked in gasoline."

Karimi pressed a button on his desk. The door opened. The aide waited for instructions.

"Take him back to the others."

Nick got up and walked out the door, the aide a step behind.

Karimi thought for a moment. First he would call Harker and see what she said about Carter's story. Then he would offer to return her operatives to America without unpleasant interference from the authorities, for a small consideration. That left the Russian.

Karimi had dealt with SVR in the past. He knew the director, Vysotsky, a reasonable man who understood how things worked in Egypt. Vysotsky would pay well for the return of his operative and the avoidance of bad publicity for the Federation.

That left the question of who would take the blame for defiling the pyramid and the Sphinx. The answer was simple. Karimi would blame everything on ISIS. It would be easy enough to round up suspects.

Visions of his ever-increasing bank account danced in his mind's eye. Karimi took out his satellite phone and called Director Harker.