“This is a lava tube.” Jade shone her light around the rock-encrusted tube. “And maybe not the most stable one. There are cracks everywhere.”
Dane looked up at the fragmented crust coating the tunnel and winced.
“Maybe Bones should walk a little more softly,” Sofia said.
“The day a white person teaches me how to walk softly…” Bones began.
“Hello? Latina here.”
“Oh. You shut it too.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Dane said. “How about we hold it down in case there’s a Dominion agent or two waiting around the corner?”
“He’s such a killjoy, but I suppose he’s right.” Bones checked the safety on his Glock.
The lava tube ended in a wall of rubble, and they were forced to retrace their steps. The second passageway was similarly collapsed a short way in.
“That leaves door number three,” Bones said.
They entered the third passageway moving cautiously, not knowing when they might happen upon the Dominion. This lava tube was in a condition similar to the others, with cracks running through the rocks and shattered stones all over the floor, remnants of minor ceiling collapses. More than once, Dane froze when he thought he heard the sound of cracking rock.
“It’s held for more than ten thousand years,” Jade whispered. “Surely it can last a little longer.” She snaked her arm around Dane’s waist and gave him a quick squeeze.
“It’ll be all right. Just keep moving.”
Several anxious minutes later they came to a spot where two tunnels crossed.
“Holy crap.” Bones glared at the tunnels as if they’d given offense. “This is going to take forever.”
“Now I see how Atlantis could have gone undiscovered for all this time,” Sofia said. “It’s in an unlikely location, the cave was hard to find, and even if a local were to stumble upon it, they could wander around down here forever without ever finding anything of interest.”
“And I’ll bet you need a crystal to get inside. Dane thought of the door to the Hall of Records and what Tam had told him about the entrance to the vault beneath the Jefferson Memorial.
“You figure the Dominion will blast their way in?” Bones asked.
Before anyone could reply, a deafening explosion rocked the ground beneath their feet. Dane covered his head as chunks of ceiling began to fall.
“Which tunnel did it come from?” Bones cried, dodging a chunk of rock.
Dane looked around and saw dust drifting out of the nearest tunnel. “That one. Come on!” He grabbed Jade by the arm and ran, Bones and Sofia hot on their heels.
As they ducked into the lava tube, the ceiling continued to crash down. They kept running along the curving passageway, the sound of falling rock loud in their ears. Finally, when they heard no sound except that of their own feet pounding the floor, they stopped to catch their breath.
“What’s your plan, Maddock?” Bones shone his light back the way they had come. The tunnel behind them had completely collapsed. They were trapped.
“We do the only thing we can. Keep going.”
Chapter 47
“I don’t understand.” Robinson nudged a silver box with his foot. “In most ways this place is primitive, but some of the things we’re finding seem advanced — alien, even.”
“Do not make assumptions. I am sure all will be made clear in time.” Hadel kept his voice calm, though his mind was in turmoil.
In searching for Atlantis, he’d expected to find the remains of an ancient, human civilization, one that had perhaps stumbled across a previously unknown, yet terrestrial, power, and the discovery of the crystal-powered weapon seemed to confirm that, but now, he was not so certain.
It was true that there was an ancient world feeling about this place — every passageway or chamber they passed through thus far had been a natural formation or a room carved from stone. No one else seemed to notice that those rooms were carved with more precision than even the most advanced of the ancient stone masons. And their shapes were… off — the angles not quite square, the ceilings undulating, rather than flat. The deeper they’d penetrated into Atlantis, the more uneasy he felt. This place felt… wrong.
They entered another of these disorientingly-skewed rooms and Hadel felt his insides twist into knots as his mind sought to resolve what he saw into a normal picture. Here, the walls were hive-like, with oval pockets carved everywhere. It appeared to be a storage room of some kind, with clay pots and jars in some, and more alien-looking objects of various size and shape in others.
“I don’t like this place,” Robinson muttered under his breath.
Hadel turned an angry glare on Robinson, who did not wither under the Bishop’s stare as so many of his underlings might have. It wasn’t that he disagreed with the statement. It was the way Robinson gave voice to Hadel’s own fears that annoyed him.
The artifacts, the crystals on the wall that absorb light and pass it along. What if they’re dangerous?” Robinson asked.
“Some of them are likely to be dangerous,” Hadel said. “That is why we are here, is it not? To find the Revelation Machine so that we may complete our work.”
“Yes, but with so many things down here we don’t understand, maybe we should take you somewhere safe, and then the men and I can come back here and complete the search.”
“Is this a coup? Do you want to control the Revelation Machine?” Hadel snapped. He’d never have believed Robinson capable of such machinations.
The blood drained from Robinson’s face. “Of course not. I only meant that we’re expendable. You’re essential.”
“Very well.” Hadel forced a smile and struggled to calm his nerves. Where had that flash of paranoia come from? Robinson had always been one of his most loyal lieutenants.
Somewhere in the distance, a shot rang out. Robinson froze, listening. After a few seconds, he turned to Hadel. “That must be Thomas. He wouldn’t fire unless he had reason.”
“Whatever is happening at the door, these men can see to it.” Hadel inclined his head toward the five operatives who trailed behind them. “You and I will find the Revelation Machine.”
It took one shot to eliminate the guard posted in front of the door to Atlantis. Dane kept his Walther at the ready as he crept forward, keeping his eyes peeled for more enemies.
“Nice shot,” Bones whispered. “Next one is mine.”
Dane relieved the guard of his AK-47 and paused to examine the remains of the door to Atlantis. The Dominion had blasted a hole in it large enough for a person to crawl through, but most of it still remained — a stone block half a meter thick, twice his height and nearly as wide. Like the door to the Hall of Records, someone had carved Orion into the stone.
“I could be wrong, but I’m beginning to think Orion is important,” Bones said.
Dane ignored him. He climbed through the hole, and waited for the others to join him. They were still in a lava tube, but here, the floor was perfectly level. Up ahead, the passageway shone with opalescent light.
“That looks familiar.” Dane shone his light on an opaque, diamond-shaped crystal. As soon as the beam struck the crystal, the surface swirled, and the light became brighter and more iridescent, gaining in strength until the passageway shone as bright as day. It set off a chain reaction as crystals further down the hall absorbed and amplified the light.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Sofia marveled.
“We have,” Dane and Bones said in unison.
Dane thought back on all places he and Bones had been and the things they had seen in the past few years: so many devices, and even weapons, powered by crystals, the powers of some of which were nothing short of miraculous. Was Atlantis the source of it all?