“There’s another lever. It’s about halfway down the tunnel and almost undetectable unless you know where to look. If I turn that lever, every time you lift the cantilever in the main room, the fulcrum moves an inch away from you. By the time you’ve done that enough, the weight of the bar along with one of our backpacks should be enough to hold the ceiling upright.”
“Okay, you know where the secret lever is, so I’ll pull on the main cantilever,” Edward said.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Edward took grip of the steel bar and pulled using his body weight predominantly to lower his side of the cantilever. She watched him relax as the pulleys began moving and the ceiling started to lift. Slowly he lowered himself to the stone chair. “Go. I can hold this for a while. You do what has to be done.”
“Okay, let me know if you can’t hold it anymore, because we both know what happens if you let go.”
“I know… I know… Just go!”
Billie didn’t wait any longer. Instead, she moved quickly along the tunnel until she reached the same place where she found the lever that moved the fulcrum in the same challenge in Atlantis.
Only it wasn’t there.
She went back and forth until she conceded it was missing. She shouted back, “How are you holding up there, Edward?”
“I’m up to the third increase in weight, but I think I can still hold it for a while longer.”
“Good, I just want to a look at something and then I’ll be back.” Billie didn’t wait for his response. Instead she ran to the very end of the tunnel and pulled on the lever — but nothing happened. She watched the wall for another thirty seconds, and then returned to the main room in case Edward should lose the ability to hold the bar.
The instant she was inside the room and clear of the ceiling covered in spikes Edward slowly released the bar, as a weightlifter would in an attempt to avoid jarring the equipment. A series of sounds rang through the walls and roof. It was like one of those old coin donation machines in which the donator received the pleasure of watching the coin roll down each section, triggering a reaction. In this case, those reactions were slight movements of the fulcrum and pulleys being returned to their resting state, with the hinged ceiling flat on the surface of the tunnel.
The tunnel they needed to pass.
She swore loudly.
“You okay Billie?”
“I’m all right, but I think we have a problem.”
“Don’t tell me. It’s not the same challenge?”
“It would appear not. It’s actually very similar to the one I overcame in Atlantis, but there’s no secret lever which changes the position of the fulcrum. It appears this really is a test of strength.”
“So you should have chosen Mark, not me!”
“Christ, I didn’t bloody know that they would change the challenge! I assumed when I heard the challenges involved a test of strength, intelligence, and braveness that they were identical!”
“But they weren’t!”
“No, and now we’re going to have to pay!”
“Now what?” Edward still looked to her for solutions.
“We try again. Only this time, we look at it as a simple test of strength. See how far we get. I’m quite small. Perhaps I can slide into the opening in the wall before the weight becomes too much for you?”
“Oh that’s great!” Edward complained. “Even if I’m successful and you do get through, then I remain trapped and likely to be killed?”
“No. The challenges were designed to be beaten by two people. Normally, once reaching the other side, there is a master lever. The purpose of this one is to set the entire system to neutral and allow the contestants to simply walk through.”
They tried again and failed once more. Then twice, but on the third attempt, Billie grinned at Edward.
“What is it?”
“What if we’re looking in all the wrong places?”
Chapter Fifty-Two
Billie laughed at its simplicity.
“It’s nothing more than deception and sleight of hand!”
Edward stared at her. As though certain she was insane. “I’m afraid those spikes are very sharp, and the roof remains too heavy for me to hold for any length of time.”
“That’s okay, because we don’t have to hold it very long at all.” She sat down on the stone, and casually reached up to take hold of the pulley. Gently taking it off its first hinge, she said, “Look what happens to the roof behind us.”
And there it was. While the lever was being pulled, the ceiling behind them lowered, leaving a section to climb out of. The most obvious of solutions, except painfully hidden to those who were focusing so much on the area in front because their lives depended on it.
Edward smiled. “You’re a genius Dr. Swan!”
“I was wrong, this was a test of strength of mind, not body.”
Edward then held the bar while Billie climbed through the exit and into the second room. There she quickly found the reset lever and the entire ceiling from the first challenge rose.
A moment later, Edward quickly emerged.
“Okay, so this must be the second challenge — the test of intellect.”
Billie stared at the room. It was a similar size with a large canyon in the middle. A gap of nearly ten feet blocked their progression. Below it, the stone floor appeared lethal at nearly thirty feet below. There was no way to climb down. A brass pedestal stood at the precipice to the chasm. At its base, a large pile of gold ingots were stacked half a foot high, their luster unaffected by the thousands of years they’d spent inside the ancient cavern.
Both of them resisted the inkling to take any — some riches are only valuable if you live long enough to spend them.
In the middle of the room, a single plaque made of orichalcum glowed red. Billie approached it quickly. The inscription was written in an Atlantean script, which was almost indistinguishable from that which the Master Builders used. It explained that to pass this challenge the contestant needed to calculate the weight of the tiny gold ingots to balance the exact weight of the bridge. Too much and the bridge would fall to the ground below. Not enough, and the bridge would be pulled higher.
“This is almost identical to the one that I overcame in the other Atlantis. Only this one involves counting piles of gold instead of orichalcum.”
“Did you work out how much orichalcum was needed to open the drawbridge?”
“Yes, but it will be completely different using gold ingots!”
“Pity.” Edward walked to the edge of the chasm, and looked at its unforgiving and vacant expanse. “Where’s the bridge?”
“In Atlantis, the bridge was hidden, and swung toward the middle when I worked out the riddle.”
“Riddle? I haven’t seen anything to at least guide us with our task.”
Billie looked worried. “I’m not sure. Last time, it was left nearby the chasm.”
“Like that?” Edward suggested.
In the corner of the room a single set of brass scales stood lonely. At its base, another plaque was inscribed with the Atlantean ancient text.
Billie walked to it and began reading out loud…
“Place precisely 10 stadia on the pedestal. If you place more or less weight on the pedestal, the bridge will automatically collapse.”
“What the hell is a stadia?”
“Plato’s Critias Dialogue describes the length of Poseidon’s temple by the unit of measure of stadia. Of course, no one has ever been able to work out exactly how much length that was. Some have suggested it was equivalent to a Greek stadium, but I think that’s merely Plato playing on the superiority of Athens. Now, here it appears to be a measure of weight. Perhaps a length of it correlates to a certain weight. Either way, there’s no other explanation than it being a measurement of weight used by the people of Atlantis.”