Dane regained his feet, and as the monster flew toward him, he let his Walther fall to the ground and struck out with his open hand, catching it below its snapping jaws, striking in the throat with all his might. Sharp claws raked his shoulder and he caught a whiff of fetid breath as he knocked it back. Before it could spring again, he kicked it hard in the side with both feet, sending it tumbling over the edge and into the darkness.
He allowed himself only a moment to recover and holster his empty Walther before regaining his feet and continuing along the path. Whatever lay ahead, he would have to meet it with his bare hands.
“What’s our next clue?” Bones stood in the center of the pit, directly atop Fray Marcos’s symbol, letting his light play across the faces of the gargoyles. He couldn’t help but be amused at the way the moving shadows seemed to make them come to life.
“If you’ll stop playing for a minute, I’ll tell you,” Amanda said. “Under the stairs in the pit.” She turned and shone her light back toward the stairs they had just descended. “Under the stairs…”
“This is the other clue Jade doesn’t have,” Bones said. “If she made it this far, she probably went down that passageway over there, which means we’re ahead of her.” He inclined his head toward the tunnel on the other side of the pit. There was no way of knowing whether or not any of Jade’s party had survived the cave-in, but he held out hope that Maddock was alive and well, and somewhere in this warren of dark tunnels.
“I just don’t see anything ‘under’ the stairs,” Amanda said. “They hug the edge of the pit. It’s just solid stone. Maybe one of the steps comes up, or something.”
“Could be,” Bones said. He decided they should take the systematic approach. “Tell you what. We’ll start at the bottom. You check each step, I’ll work my way along the wall.”
The steps had been carved into the natural rock, and everything about them seemed solid. He ran his hand across the smooth surface, seeking an imperfection, a recessed area, anything that would indicate a doorway. He was just beginning to think they were in for a long day when his light fell on a sight they had somehow missed.
“Amanda, get down here!” Her hurried footsteps padded down the heavy stone, and she was at his side in seconds. “I was so busy checking out the gargoyles that I didn’t notice it.”
“Fray Marcos’s symbol,” she breathed. “Do you think…?”
“It’s got to be.” He said. “The entrance to this place was under the tenth step. The symbol here is…”
“Under the tenth step!” She squeezed his arm with delight. “I wonder why ten and not seven?”
“Who cares? Let’s go.”
The clover outline was carved in shallow relief, but the cross in the center was cut deep. A closer look revealed a thin circle two feet in diameter encompassing the symbol. Bones slipped his fingers into the grooves of the cross and twisted. Nothing. He tried again. Still nothing.
“Maybe counterclockwise?” Amanda suggested.
“What am I thinking?” he muttered. “Righty tighty; lefty loosey.” He changed his grip and heaved with all his might. The stone moved an inch, then another, and slowly began to turn until it had rotated ninety degrees and then stopped. Bones kept pushing, but to no avail. He stepped away from the wall, about to try out some of Crazy Charlie’s favorite Cherokee curse words, when a hissing sound filled the pit and the stone shot back into the wall with a pop like a champagne cork.
“They hermetically sealed it!” Amanda whispered. “You must have broken the seal and the suction pulled the stone through.”
“Glad I wasn’t still holding on,” Bones said, imagining tumbling down a dark tunnel with his fingers stuck in the disc like a drunken bowler on ten cent beer night. He shone his light through the hole and saw another set of stairs leading down into more blackness. He went headfirst through the opening, with Amanda close behind. From somewhere down below, a sound came like a whisper but, as they drew closer, grew to a roaring crescendo. Water. As they continued their descent, a hazy, green glow emerged in the distance, first as a fuzzy pinpoint of light, growing to an arched doorway ten feet tall.
They stepped out onto a walkway running above an underground river cutting through an oval-shaped cavern. Shining bands of green twisted in irregular paths through the natural rock all around them, giving the entire chamber an ethereal glow.
“What’s making it glow like that?” Bones asked. “It’s nothing biological; it’s in the rock.” He knelt to get a closer look at one of the glowing streaks. “Radiation?”
“Radioactive material doesn’t typically glow,” Amanda said. “But sometimes radiation can cause other minerals to glow. I wrote an article on it once.” She stood and took his hand as they paused, admiring the sight.
On the far end, water poured out of a clover-shaped opening forty feet up the wall, and tumbled over a series of seven terraces before emptying into the channel that flowed beneath them. The walkway on which they stood ran directly down the middle of the channel, ending at the seven-terraced waterfall.
“Where is all this water coming from?” Amanda asked.
“We’re pretty far below ground level,” Bones said, consulting his Pathfinder. “I suppose some sort of underground stream runs through here.”
“Well, this fits, at least. I think the next two clues go together,” Amanda said, taking out her notes. “’On the third terrace in the cave on the eastern side inside the waterfall.’ Looks like we’re going to get wet.”
“And to think I didn’t even bring my umbrella,” Bones said. “Who’d have thought we’d need one down here?”
From the stairwell behind them a cold voice spoke.
“I wouldn’t worry about that. You won’t be needing it.”
Chapter 27
Issachar knew something was wrong the moment he entered the chamber. A foul stench filled the air, the faint sound of something… many somethings… running, and then…
A vicious snarl, and then a bloodcurdling scream. Confused shouts. Gunfire. Muzzle flashes. Confused interplays of light as the squad members searched for their attackers. And then he saw one.
A flash of gleaming white fangs, a slick, black snout, and burning eyes hurtled toward him from out of the darkness. He brought his Kalashnikov up and blew its head apart. So they could die. That was all he needed to know.
A flare blossomed in the darkness, setting the cavern aglow. Some of the creatures shied away from it, but others continued to attack. The surviving members of the squad fell in together, keeping up a steady fire and moving as one across the cavern.
Issachar picked off another leaping beast. In the glow of the flare he could see a little more of them. Their low-slung bodies were lithe, like greyhounds, and covered in dark hide. What were they?
“This way!” The Elder shouted. “Keep moving!”
Another squad member fell to one of the creatures. Issachar fired at it and missed. The beast began dragging the body away. He fired again and brought it down.
Reaching the far side of the cavern, Issachar and Benjamin laid down a steady rate of fire, trying to keep the creatures at bay as the men climbed into the passageway, but the creatures had fallen back into the darkness. Issachar caught a glimpse of booted feet as the beasts dragged the corpse of one of their men away into the darkness.
That’s everyone, Elder,” Benjamin said as Issachar scrambled into the tunnel. “The rest are dead. The creatures are…” he paused, his face twisted in disgust. “The creatures are dragging their bodies away. They’re even dragging away the carcasses of their own dead.” Sweat shone on his florid face, and he voice quavered.