The Golden Crystal (35 page)

Three of his men hopped down into the empty moat and walked toward Madu. He waved them over, then poked his head into the round hole. Motioning for his men to follow, he led the way into the darkness.

11:56 AM

ALMOST THERE,
Madu thought. He hadn’t been spotted or heard. He’d lost sight of the trio ahead as they turned a corner. He could hear their voices ahead — apparently there was some sort of large opening, like another hall — they’d come across. 

Another fifty feet and Madu reached a section tall enough to stand up in. This section stretched ahead about a hundred feet, and he could see the three others just at the edge of a great hall. He quickened his pace, careful to remain silent, fingering the long straight-bladed knife in his hand. 

He calculated his attack. He’d run only at ten feet out, when it would be too late to react. 

It was an easy kill, but Madu knew that he was getting old and out of practice. He had seen the Vilocorp guards in action at Petra — and their work at Giza — he knew what they were capable of. 

Head to head, Madu knew he wouldn’t stand a chance. 

Usually he would leave those types of battles to the expendable men outside. Their numbers alone should still be enough to squash any lingering resistance. 

But he still had a thirst for action. 

His anger was growing constantly. The longer he had waited, calculating and collecting his thoughts — the stronger the drive to kill had become. 

He was excited to get an opportunity like this — approach from behind, sink the knife deep, and twist. He remembered the feeling of such a kill — it was ruthless; cold. 

But it was effective. 

He didn’t want a prolonged death, one where he could stand over his victim and watch him die. That was a type of arrogance and foolishness that had gotten many a good soldier killed. 

He wanted revenge — swift, effective, and delivered by his own hand. A quick thrust in the back, followed by sudden death.

He was almost ten feet away — he could
smell
the guard’s blood. 

He licked his lips and began to sprint. 

11:56 AM

“GO!” BEKA shouted in his heavily accented staccato. “What are you waiting for!”

Moments earlier, They had stumbled to the end of the small tunnel. It opened into a large, high-ceilinged room, stretching far out in front of them. It was almost the same size as the temple three or four stories directly above. 

Rows of five-foot thick, floor-to-ceiling pillars lined the hall on each side. They stretched off in every direction.

But it was the shining beam of light ahead that drew his attention. 

The bluish light poured upward through a small hole in the ceiling, and emanated from a stone pyramid at the center of the hall. 

The pyramid looked similar to the ones at Giza — the stone was different from the indigenous volcanic rock the many Moai and buildings here were carved from. 

The light itself was coming from the top of
another
pyramid — much smaller, perched atop the larger base. It was difficult to see the details from where they stood, but it appeared to be about a foot tall and translucent. 

Beka immediately knew what it was. 

The crystal.

It was unimpressive at first glance. There was no mysterious aura, no feeling of revelatory awe upon finally seeing it. 

But he had a job to do.

Why was Cole not moving?
The boy had just stopped; staring straight ahead.

He had mostly been aware of them as they descended — he wasn’t talking much, but he’d responded to questions and statements from Corinne with grunts and one-word answers. While he wasn’t channeling the persona from the library, he was clearly not himself.

“Cole, you ok?” Corinne asked, gently touching his shoulder. He didn’t respond. Beka had had enough.

“Move, boy — “ he brushed Cole out of the way, and stepped forward into the great hall. Cole sidestepped him, ducking and rolling backwards along the tunnel wall. 

Beka lost his balance, stumbled forward, then regained his footing about five feet from the tunnel exit. 

“What — “ Beka suddenly dropped downward. He’d stepped onto some kind of trapdoor. The fall was sharp, but short.

He dropped only five feet before lighting again on the stone slab. He’d bitten his tongue, but that was all. He was standing in a rectangular hole — the floor of the hall stretched away from him at eye level. 

Then he saw Jabari. The Egyptian was sprinting from the tunnel toward Cole and the girl, and he had a wicked looking knife in his hand. Beka tried to bring his rifle around. Corinne was backing away from the exit, staring at the Egyptian. Cole didn’t seem to notice — he just stared at Beka without expression. 

Then Beka felt the heat.

It was a warming sensation that started at his feet and was making its way quickly up his legs. Looking down, he saw a sun-colored liquid seeping around his boots —
melting through them
. Panicked, he tried to jump up to the rim of the stone box. 

His boots had become a rubbery mess, and what wasn’t already burning was stuck to the stone floor. They sucked at his feet, reducing his jump to an ineffective hop, and he landed again in the lava, splashing more of it higher up on his pants.

He screamed as the droplets burned through the fabric and sizzled on his thighs. His feet were on fire, and he felt himself sinking — slowly — into the deepening lava. 

Every inch brought fresh, terrible pain. The excruciating shock now held him in place, unable to move. 

He noticed the smell — the charred, fleshy scent of burning death, mixed with a pall of smoke that made his eyes water.

He lifted his eyes to the others. He thought he cried out to them, though his mind was quickly shutting down — all he could hear were the sizzling pops and squeals of his own flesh melting and dripping from his bones. 

Vladimir Beka was an extremely tough man — and he’d often prided himself on that very fact. As he sank deeper into the molten rock, slowly fading, he wished that his resilience was weaker. He pleaded with God to somehow save what little he had left, but it was in vain. 

No hand reached out to him. There was no angel of mercy to pull him from this personal hell. 

He was alive until the magma reached his chest.

Finally Vladimir Beka slipped beneath the surface of the lava, even as it matched the level of the floor and quickly began to cool.

11:57 AM

“DID YOU hear that?” Vilocek shouted over his shoulder as they ran down the passage. “It sounded like shouting.”

He was slowing slightly as they approached the great hall.

Bryce had heard — it sounded like Beka — but he was more concerned about running blind into another wide-open room. If there was shouting, it probably meant Jabari’s men had caught up with Beka and the others.

Vilocek stepped into the large hall. The stone floor blocks were large, about four feet on each side. They looked like large tiles, as if they were stepping into a hall built for giants. 

Vilocek’s eyes were fixated on the pyramid in the center of the room. Bryce saw it too, sitting on the top of another pyramid made of dark stone. They both knew this was what they’d been searching for. 

As Vilocek’s foot landed on the first stone, he felt a mechanical disengagement from deep below. His reflexes, heightened in the presence of the crystal, reacted and he tried to jump onto an adjacent stone. He managed to plant one foot, landed, but the other fell with the receding block of stone. Bryce reached out and grabbed the collar of his jacket, just as the others ran up behind him. 

They saw Bryce holding Vilocek up as he caught his footing. He gathered himself and looked back at Bryce. As they watched, the hole in the floor started to fill up with steaming lava. A cloud of sulfurous smoke rushed upward on a wave of oppressive heat. 

“Th — thanks,” Vilocek said, clearly shaken. 

“Don’t get used to it — it seems you’re the only one of us who can get to that crystal, Dr. Vilocek.” 

“What do you mean?”

“Look on the other side of the room.” Bryce pointed. “Cole’s standing on the corresponding slab you’re on. The first stone to the left as you enter the hall. 

“It’s like another form of balance — this machine, whatever it is, requires
two
people to approach the crystal at the same time. It’s not just about being infused with the serum — there’s still a failsafe built in. You both have to advance to the center at the same time.”

Vilocek frowned, but he didn’t hesitate. He jumped with
both feet
onto the next stone. 

Bryce watched Cole jump as well — to the stone directly in front of
him.
As Bryce had thought, neither movement triggered any traps. 

Vilocek jumped again, his confidence growing. Cole copied his moves on the other side of the hall. Bryce took a deep breath. He didn’t want Vilocek out in the middle of the room with Cole alone.
Here goes nothing
. 

He grabbed Wayne’s hand and stepped onto the first stone Vilocek had used. 

Nothing. 

He exhaled, nodding slightly. As he did, a shriek rang out from the other side of the room. He knew it was Corinne. 

He jumped ahead again, then was startled to hear gunshots. 

“Stop! Cease fire!” Madu Jabari yelled from somewhere on the other side. “Wait for my command!” 

The three men behind Bryce sprang into action, following his route carefully into the hall. 

The two parties advanced toward the pyramid like two lines of ants methodically approaching an anthill.

Vilocek and Cole reached the area surrounding the pyramid at the same time. The floor here was one large piece of stone, cut in a circle that completely surrounded the base pyramid and the crystal at its apex.
The final circle in the center of the city,
Bryce thought.

He noticed that the pyramid
below
the crystal was darker than the surrounding floor. It was a different type of stone altogether — 

— it wasn’t from this island at all.

Bryce guessed its height, in total, was about thirty feet tall from base to apex — including the crystal on top. As Vilocek paced around the side of it, inspecting the workmanship and engineering, recognition struck him as well. 

“Captain Reynolds — you realize what this is?”

“Yeah — it belongs back in Egypt.”

“Right — I can’t believe it really exists!” Vilocek’s excitement was evident. 

“It’s the capstone of the Great Pyramid of Giza!”

They stared for a few seconds, until the rest of the party caught up. Suddenly Corinne’s voice broke the silence, from the other side of the pyramid.

“Let me go! You ass!” her high-pitched shout was followed by a groan from Madu — it sounded like she’d hit him in a soft spot. She came running around the capstone with Cole in tow. Vilocek ignored Corinne completely and grabbed Cole by the shirt.

“Cole — the crystal! How do we get it down?”

Cole looked at him, his hollow eyes wandering from Vilocek to the crystal and back. He closed his eyes and started humming the strange atonal melody again.

Suddenly, a large crack appeared in the side of the capstone, just as Madu’s men started shooting at them from across the room. Wayne and Jeff ducked behind the capstone, returning fire. 

“What’s happening to it?” Bryce asked Vilocek. 

“I don’t know,” Vilocek said. “ Either he’s doing it intentionally, or it’s breaking down.”

More cracks formed in the capstone, and the crystal on top shifted slightly. The bright beam of light deflected slightly, and a rumbling noise surrounded them. Cracks appeared in the ceiling and spread quickly as the earthquake intensified. 

Madu, enraged and with his face covered in running blood — appeared from around the other corner of the capstone, wielding his large combat knife. 

Karn saw that Madu was going for Corinne, desperate to exact revenge on someone — anyone. Corinne was holding Cole as he stood, trancelike, humming the strange tune. Her back was to the Egyptian. 

Karn lunged with his arms outstretched at the older soldier. 

The knife met with flesh as he tackled Madu. 

Jabari expected to find his knife buried deep into the girl’s back. 

Instead, it was wrenched from his hand as he was struck once — twice — in rapid succession. Stunned, he realized Karn was sitting on his chest —
with his knife lodged firmly in Karn’s arm —
as he pummeled Madu brutally.

The pain was unbelievable, taking Madu’s breath away each time a punch landed — to his broken nose, to his left eye, again to the nose. His face was a bloody pulp, and he couldn’t understand how this man — even as large as he was — could still hit
so hard
with a knife sticking through him. 

12:02 pm

Karn didn’t notice the knife. The mad rush of adrenaline that had surged through him when he saw Madu charging Corinne had numbed him to pain. 

It inspired a rage Karn hadn’t felt in many years — not since his childhood, when his father would beat his mother — and then him. 

Today, he’d feel the same satisfaction killing this man as he’d felt when he killed his father. Although the weapons would be different — he’d strangled his father with a garden hose — the feeling would be similar. 

After several more punches to Madu’s face, Karn stopped. Breathing heavily, he paused to see if Madu was still alive. 

Blood splattered from the man’s mouth as he struggled to breathe. 

Good. 

Karn waited for Madu to open his eyes, then grasped the knife by the hilt. Clenching his teeth, he drew it slowly from his arm.

Then he kicked Madu — hard — out onto one of the blocks on the main hall floor. The block immediately dropped, but Karn held Madu by the hair over the hole. 

Then he jammed Madu’s own knife through his chest. He felt a few ribs break, possibly puncturing a lung. He released his grasp on the man’s hair, and Jabari fell into the square pit.