Billie could now see the men’s bodies were painted red, and they carried small shields. The women had small rawhide ‘aprons’ suspended from their waist strings, along with intricate tattoos on their faces.
The whistling went on until Billie thought she might go insane, and then suddenly stopped. Like an old movie effect of Moses parting the Red Sea, the tribespeople moved back to each side of the passage, and stayed there, looking straight ahead. Billie’s eyes danced back and forth, intently studying what she was seeing.
“What the hell do we do now?” Sam asked. He didn’t bother lowering his voice, since the Pirahã clearly didn’t seem to care about their presence.
“I think they’re going to let us pass,” Billie answered.
Sam spoke to Elise. “You have any idea what the Black Smoke wants?”
“No.”
“But you understand it?”
Elise smiled. “It’s not like what you think. It isn’t the sort of telepathy you’re thinking of. I have a sense about how the Black Smoke feels, that’s all.”
Sam persisted. “Okay so what does it feel like?”
“It feels content.”
“That’s it?” Billie asked.
“That’s it,” Elise confirmed.
Billie continued through the Grand Gallery. She ignored the temple guards. If they wanted to pretend to be sculptures, who was she to interrupt them? Two minutes later, she reached the King’s Chamber.
Sam was right behind her.
In the center of the King’s Chamber lay a sarcophagus. Billie felt her arms and legs moving, but it was almost like being in her recurring dream again, knowing what she should do next. She drew a long breath and then let it out on a sigh as she gazed at the sarcophagus.
On it lay a thin stone tablet of some sort of polished black stone. The tablet was illuminated by what Billie could have sworn was a floodlight. But how…? And then she saw the dust motes dancing in the beacon. The rays were separated, as if shining through a cloud. Her eyes, accustomed to the darkness of the temple and surrounding cave system, could barely make out the hole far above the sarcophagus.
She pointed, and Sam looked up. He pulled a monocular from a pocket and extended it, searched for the hole above, and found it.
“I can see leaves fluttering in the breeze. It must extend from the mountain’s surface, all the way through the tip of the pyramid,” he said in a low voice.
Billie paid him no attention. She had stepped up to the sarcophagus and reverently lifted the tablet. Sam looked back at her just as she stowed it in her backpack and calmly walked away. Behind them, the strange whistling resumed.
“Sam, I think it’s time we go,” Billie said.
“Hell, yes, it’s time to go. I don’t think the Pirahã are going to be indifferent to us much longer — especially once they work out we just stole their map. You remember what happened to Indiana Jones when he removed that artifact from that temple around these parts?”
She smiled at him. “Sam, that’s a movie.”
“Even so. It didn’t end well for him.”
Sam didn’t need to tell her twice to get a move on. She wanted out of the temple just as fast as he did. They retraced their steps between the ranks of guards, walking quickly. When they reached the others, all five of them hurried down the passage to the main tunnel, and started up the incline without pausing.
A strong breeze gusted through the pyramid’s exit and down the descending tunnel, nearly knocking Billie off her feet. It was followed by a second Black Smoke. This seemed particularly dark, and malicious as it forced its way through her, and the rest of their crew, racing toward the Pirahã guards.
“That’s different!” she said.
“What is?” Sam asked.
She swallowed, hard. “I’ve never seen a second Black Smoke.”
To Elise, Sam asked, “Any idea what it is?”
Elise shook her head. “No. Nothing good. I can almost feel its hatred.”
Farther inside the temple, the high-pitched trilling sound finally stopped. It was immediately replaced with a new sound. This one was more resonant, like thunder. It took a moment, and they all realized what was causing the new sound.
They’d almost made it to the entrance when the thunder of 400 pairs of feet reached their ears.
Elise said, “Something really bad just happened!”
“You think?” Billie asked, without hiding her sarcasm.
Sam yelled, “Run!”
Chapter Six
Blood pounded in the back of his ears and his chest throbbed with exertion, but Sam continued to climb the final steps of the main tunnel until he reached the giant entrance to the outside of the subterranean pyramid.
He waited until the rest of his team was out and then removed the safety pin from the smoke grenade and rolled it down the descending tunnel. Three hundred and fifty grams of a thick purple smoke, consisting of potassium chlorate, lactose and a purple dye hissed as it was suddenly released from the canister, until it fully obscured the narrow, descending tunnel.
Tom stopped. “Should we hold them here?”
“Yeah, for as long as we can with smoke grenades. I don’t want to resort to lethal methods unless we have to.” Sam turned to Billie. “Get the stone tablet back to the helicopter.”
Billie said, “I’m on it. Genevieve and Elise are already making their way up the ropes. Once she’s at the top, Genevieve’s going to scout somewhere to cover the entrance to the cave system, where she can pick off any attackers if she has to.”
“Sounds like a plan. Now go!”
Sam didn’t need to tell her twice. Billie disappeared, and Tom threw another smoke grenade into the tunnel.
It didn’t bring them the reprieve they’d hoped for. Instead, their attackers continued through the smoke with the unwavering fanaticism that they’d seen in Billie months earlier. From what Sam guessed, the entire Pirahã tribe were being guided through the smoke-filled tunnel from the same outside source that had told them to attack.
He turned to Tom. “Come on, let’s go. They’ll reach the surface soon.”
“You don’t need to tell me.” Tom started down the pyramid’s steps.
Sam followed him, climbing down the six-foot high stone blocks in a series of fast moving maneuvers in which he swung his legs over the side, while bracing with both hands on the top of the stone — making it appear more like a controlled falling action.
Nearly a hundred feet below, he could just make out the faint glow of a single headlamp, where Billie had finally reached the bottom and was now making her way into the set of narrow tunnels filled with crystals.
They reached the base of the giant stone steps at the front of the pyramid. Behind them, Sam heard their attackers bursting out of the main ascending tunnel. He glanced over his shoulder, running his flashlight across the main entrance. The tribal guards of the sacred temple were spreading out over the giant stairs, taking them in single steps.
Taking the steps as they were, the Pirahã would reach them in minutes.
Sam didn’t stop to plan his next move. Instead he ducked down and into the shallow tunnel toward the outside of the cavern and followed the line of footprints in the sand they’d used to enter the temple. The light of his headlamp reflected off the myriad of crystals the size of an adult that lined the walls and surrounding cave-system. Large stalactites and stalagmites broke the cavern into a complex labyrinth.
He rounded a bend, crawling on his hands and knees — and then stopped. The marks in the sand simply vanished.
Sam shined his flashlight around, expecting to see the footprints and signs of sand being turned over by others shuffling through the sand, but instead he found nothing. There were at least six separate tunnels that branched out of the cavern they were in. He turned around, but there was no sign of anyone back-tracking from where they were.