“Looks like there’s a room up ahead.” Bones raised the AK-47 to his shoulder and took the lead as they moved along the silent corridor.
A low wall barred entry to the first chamber, which was empty.
“Maybe it’s a guard room?” Jade offered.
“Makes sense. All I know is, it’s weird.” The room was almost square, the walls almost perpendicular, but off just enough to give Dane a feeling of discomfort. The arched, ribbed ceiling bulged in places, and the center line not quite straight.
“It’s like we were swallowed by a snake,” Bones said.
“All I know is, looking at it makes me dizzy.” Jade rubbed her eyes. “Let’s get out of here.”
Up ahead, the lava tube ended, with a passageway running off to either side. They chose the one on the right, and found it to be cut at the same, not quite square, angles.
“Don’t look at the walls,” Dane said. “Keep your focus straight ahead and you won’t feel so dizzy.” Taking his own advice, he locked his gaze on the way ahead, and they soon found themselves in a much larger, if no less disorienting, room than the previous one. What they found stopped them all in their tracks.
The walls were covered in maps and star charts, cut with such precision that they could not have been made with primitive tools. Running all around the base of the walls, like a giant honeycomb, a waist-high band of meter-wide, hexagonal cubes held stacks of stone tablets. Stone benches ringed a table in the center, where more tablets lay, as well as a few crystals and an object that looked like a titanium pencil.
“This is their archive!” Sofia picked up one of the stone tablets at random and examined it. “The writing is the same as in the codex I found in Spain. I’ll bet,” she looked around, eyes as big as saucers, “the whole story of Atlantis is here. What might we learn about human history once we translate them?”
“I think we’ll find that the Atlanteans, at least the original ones, came from somewhere out there.” Bones pointed to a star chart. “Probably from a planet orbiting one of the stars in Orion.”
“Five years ago, I would have laughed at you,” Dane said. “But it makes sense. Remember Goliath’s sword?”
“How could I forget?”
“If you guys are going to reminisce about things we weren’t there for, you really ought to give us a bit more information.” Sofia sounded affronted.
“It’s a long story. Actually, it’s several long stories.” Dane wondered how long it would take to recount their exploits of the past few years.
“I’ve heard bits and pieces of them from Avery. Just hit the highlights.”
Dane paused, considering how to sum it all up. “We’ve found things made of metal that didn’t come from earth. We’ve found things powered by crystals that could do things that were so advanced that they seemed like magic… or very advanced technology.”
“Like the tsunami machine and the gun,” Sofia said.
Bones nodded. “That and more. An almost perfect cloaking device, a blade that could cut through stone, spears that fired bolts of energy, and all of them were powered by ambient light. And that’s not even all of the things we’ve seen.”
“And we found them in different places: Jordan, Germany, England, Ireland, even America.” Dane looked around as he spoke. “Looking at these maps, and taking into account the book Tam and Avery found, I think it’s a reasonable assumption that this is where it all started.”
“They had knowledge of the entire world,” Jade said. “Every continent is mapped accurately.”
“Some people believe that the great accomplishments of the ancient world were made possible by contact with aliens,” Bones said. “But that’s definitely a story for another day.”
“I know you’d like to stay here and begin your studies,” Dane said, “but we should keep moving. I want to catch up with the Dominion before they get their hands on the Revelation Machine.”
They left the library and entered a crypt. Skeletal remains filled alcoves in the walls. They were tall and slim, their arms too long for their bodies and their fingers too long for their hands. Their heads were overlarge, the skulls elongated, and their eye sockets large and round.
“These look like… aliens,” Sofia breathed.
“Another thing we’ve seen before,” Dane said. “We…”
A thunder of gunfire cut him off in mid-sentence. Sofia’s body jerked as a torrent of bullets ripped through her. Dane knew in an instant there was no hope.
Jade dove behind one of the stone benches while Dane and Bones took shelter behind the table and returned fire. Dane saw a Dominion operative fall, clutching his throat, and felt a wave of satisfaction.
“You two duck out the back!” Bones shouted. “I’ll cover you.” Not waiting for a reply, he opened up with the AK-47.
Dane grabbed Jade by the back of her belt, hauled her to her feet, and shoved her toward the exit beneath the world map. Bullets spattered the ground at their feet as they fled.
“Keep going!” Dane shouted. “We’ll catch up.”
Jade looked up at him, tears streaming down her face and grabbed his collar. “You kill them, Maddock. Kill them all.”
“I’ll try.”
Jade yanked down on his collar and kissed him, hard and fast, and then turned and ran.
Dane heard Bones’ AK-47 fall silent and hurried back to the doorway.
“Your turn, Bones!” Dane emptied his Walther while Bones, ducked down as low as his frame would allow, ran for it.
More shots rang out and Bones dove for the tunnel, hit the ground and rolled, and came up in a kneeling position. He squeezed off two shots with his Glock.
“I’ve got one reload left. How about you?”
“Same here.” Dane ejected the magazine and reached into his pocket for a reload.”
“Don’t bother,” said a cold voice. “Now, turn around slowly or the girl dies.”
Chapter 48
Jade stood, hands on her head, her lips pressed tightly together. She trembled slightly, but the fire in her eyes told Dane she wasn’t frightened, but enraged. A tall, weedy blond man stood behind her with his rifle pressed against the back of her neck. A second man, dark-haired and broad shouldered, trained his weapon on Dane and Bones.
“You two drop your weapons, put your hands on your heads, and stand up slowly.” The dark-haired man gestured with his rifle.
Dane assessed the situation in an instant and knew there was nothing he or Bones could do without Jade paying the price. Charging the men or throwing their knives was out of the question — the distance between them was too great and retreating to the archive room wouldn’t work. The men would kill Jade and probably get to Dane and Bones before they could reload their weapons. And then there were the men coming up behind them. He dropped his Walther and stood, Bones following suit an instant later.
“Don’t hurt her. We’ll cooperate.” His only hope was to stay alive long enough to rescue Jade and, hopefully, sabotage the Revelation Machine.
“I’m sorry, Maddock. I didn’t see them until I ran right up to them,” Jade said through gritted teeth.
“It’s all right.”
He heard footsteps behind him, and felt the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed against his neck.
“Wilson, they got Douglas,” a voice behind him said to the dark-haired man. “I think we should waste them right here.”
“I don’t know. I think the Bishop should make the call. Frisk them. And if you two,” Wilson’s eyes moved back and forth between Dane and Bones, “do anything stupid, I’ll kill you in a second. The girl, I’ll kill slowly.”
The agent patted them down one at a time, relieving them of their recon knives and spare magazines. When he got to Dane’s front pocket, he paused.