He intentionally lied, knowing that one man amongst them was a traitor.
Armel brazenly interrupted. “And what of Mr. Reilly and his companion?”
“Both men have been eliminated,” Andrew replied confidently. “Gentlemen, soon we must prepare for what is to come. In less than two weeks, the world will be a very different place!”
There was a strong cheer amongst the members of the Phoenix Resistance.
Kazimir, the Russian, hushed them all. “I am afraid to inform you, Master. Sam Reilly and Tom Bower were not killed as you were led to believe.”
“That’s impossible, I saw them killed with my own eyes. Multiple hand grenades exploded right next to them!” Andrew did not believe what the Russian was telling him.
“Then your own eyes deceived you.”
“What do you know?”
“Two days ago, I received word from an agency of mine — Sam Reilly’s Gulfstream arrived in Tunguska.”
Andrew swore. “But who got out?”
“Master, I have photographs of Sam Reilly and Tom Bower. They had borrowed a Kharkovchanka from a local, and loaded it with Atmospheric Diving Suits — which means…”
“I know what it bloody well means!” Andrew swore again. “I thought you said your grandfather took care of the problem in 1908 when he and Teddy Roosevelt came to the agreement that all information concerning Atlantis must be destroyed, or at least locked away in a time capsule until it could no longer cause harm!”
Kazimir put his hands up in a pacifying gesture. “I assure you, we have taken steps to stop would-be explorers from stumbling upon the truth. Sam Reilly will find nothing of use to him. And as for the American time capsule, it can’t be opened until the end of the month — when it no longer has the ability to do any harm to our operation.”
“Yeah — then why the hell did two people in Nepal feel the need, after nearly being killed by my men, to go directly to Siberia with fucking Atmospheric Diving Suits?”
“I have no idea, sir. But I can assure you, I have already arranged for the systems in place to ensure they don’t reach it.”
“You better hope they work better than your grandfather’s pact to keep it secret. Otherwise we’re all going to have a lot more to deal with then we bargained for!”
Andrew then canceled their connection.
It was time for him to take Dr. Swan and visit Atlantis with the code.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Sam and Tom made two reconnaissance circuits of the area from above. Sam imagined that this place eleven thousand years ago might have been above ground. The rings would have served as massive moats, designed to keep enemies out, each one more protected than the preceding one. Then, in the southern end of the inner-most indentation, Tom spotted an opening in the rock wall, inside the moat. Next to it was a large rectangular stone, broken in two, and roughly matching the dimensions of the opening.
“Shall we?” Sam asked, looking at the opening and hoping his ADS machine would fit inside.
“After you. I’ll fix a bolt into the wall here so we have something else to use to pull ourselves out with if we become stuck.”
Sam waited while Tom inserted the bolt into the wall and then connected his safety tether to it. He then shined his flashlight into the tunnel. The light dimmed in the distance, and he couldn’t quite tell if the tunnel changed direction, or the light simply couldn’t penetrate its depth. The tunnel was quite large. Nearly ten feet in height and another five wide. Plenty of room for his ADS machine, but not as much as he’d like. In his left hand, inside the suit, Sam adjusted the angle so that he entered the room horizontally, instead of vertically. This provided him with more maneuverability, if more obstacles stood in their way.
“You with me, Tom?” he asked as he reached fifty feet inside the tunnel.
“I’m right behind you.”
At a hundred and twenty feet the tunnel opened into a large room. A quick scan revealed it to be a large square approximately forty feet wide. At the far end the tunnel continued deeper into the temple. Only the tunnel didn’t continue forever. Instead, its ceiling, presumably hinged on large hidden bolts, dipped in height in a gradual downward direction until it touched the floor. The roof space was covered in wooden spikes that gave Sam a clear indication of what the roof would do to a person who failed the challenge. At the center of the room a steel bar hung from the ceiling above a stone chair and table in which a person could lock their legs. The mechanism had most likely failed, but there was no doubt in his mind what it was once used for. The only question was, could they progress through the temple, if the mechanisms had failed?
Above the chair some text could be seen on the stone roof in large, bold, lettering, the same used by the Master Builders. Sam moved closer to the inscription and examined it. The individual lettering had been damaged but enough were intact that he could make out the words.
Sam read each one slowly and out loud, “Strength, intelligence, sacrifice, and wealth”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Tom said.
“No, I can’t say it does. By the looks of things, the ancient people of Atlantis went to some extreme lengths to ensure that only the worthy reached their temple. I couldn’t imagine any of the mechanisms are still working after all these years.”
“Even so, I’d like to understand how each of these rooms operated before we get ourselves killed by an eleven thousand year-old booby-trap.”
“Only in Indiana Jones stories are these things still active,” Sam said, with a confidence he didn’t entirely feel.
Moving toward the end of the downward sloping tunnel with the remains of spikes on the room, Sam found something to reassure himself. At the end of the tunnel the roof had been pried open with a pair of hydraulic struts. “There, this room must have once been the test of strength. Somehow, you needed to lift the roof or something. Of course, whoever did reach this place in 1908 weren’t playing by the Atlantean’s rules.”
Entering the second room, Sam was greeted by a massive room with a chasm in the middle nearly twenty feet wide. The remains of a bridge could be seen at the bottom — not that it would be required now that the entire room had been flooded. Next to it, a golden pair of scales stood, as though they were forever waiting for someone to balance them. On the wall, where they approached was the word, INTELLECT. Across the chasm, a steel ladder had been strung. At its base, the small emblem of an American Flag shined bright.
“Okay, so I guess we did make it here in 1908. The question is, where was here?” Tom said. Then, to clarify he said, “If it wasn’t at the bottom of a five-hundred-foot lake, where was it?”
Sam studied the ladder. Clearly whoever had used it weren’t swimming at the time. “I have no idea.”
The two men carefully powered their ADS machine toward the end of the room, along another tunnel and finally into the third room. This one had the word SACRIFICE at its entrance. It was relatively small compared to the other rooms. Five pillars stood approximately forty feet above another chasm’s floor. To the side of the middle pillar, about three feet away, stood a single totem pole. Above it, an enormous axe remained attached to the ceiling more than ten feet above, forming a perfect pendulum of death.
“Now I’m really feeling like I’m in one of Indy’s nightmares,” Tom said.
Sam laughed. “No Tom, I think Indy would have felt safer inside an ADS machine. Come on, let’s go find the reward.”
The electric propulsion units whirled into life as they crossed the seemingly easy test of SACRIFICE.