Charlie's code. Philip rifled through his pockets to find the translation they had written out the night before.
You are Mercury the mighty flower,
You are most worthy of honour;
You are the Source of Sol, Luna and Mars,
You are Settler of Saturn and Source of Venus,
You are Emperor, Prince and most regal of Kings,
You are Father of the Mirror and Maker of Light.
You are head and highest and fairest in Sight.
All praise thee.
All praise thee. Giver of truth.
We seek, we beseech, we welcome you.
'Yes. . "You are Mercury the mighty flower,'" Laura read aloud. 'Third line… "You ate the Source of Sol, Luna and Mars. ." That's it. We took the wrong corridor at the start. We should have followed Mercury, the right-hand passageway.'
Back at the archway leading from the circular stone chamber, they paused at the two discs on the wall for a moment and then headed off along the corridor straight ahead of them, the right-hand turning off the chamber. A few moments later they reached a T-junction. On the wall ahead of them were two more discs. The right-hand disc carried the symbol for Venus, a circle with a cross at the bottom.
Into the left-hand plate had been etched the symbol for the sun.
'There should be four more junctions in the labyrinth,' Philip added, 'and symbols for the moon, Mars, Saturn, and Venus, in that order. It would be absolutely impossible to get through this without the document.' And he led the way along the left-hand passageway.
The corridor to the next junction twisted and turned and seemed to go on for miles before hitting a steep upward incline. By the time they reached the top they were sweating and panting. Philip bent over with his hands on his knees. Laura wiped the sweat from her eyes and looked at the two plates on the wall designating another choice of route. The right-hand disc carried a crescent, the symbol for the moon. In the centre of the left-hand disc was the sign representing Mercury.
They paused for a moment to catch their breath and this time Laura led the way to the fourth fork. Here they found the symbol for Mars, a circle with an arrow pointing diagonally away to the right, and they took that route, which ran steeply downhill. At the bottom, they found themselves in a broad corridor some four yards across. At the far end of this section there were three openings in the walclass="underline" to the left of the first one there were three discs on the wall. This time the three symbols were for Mercury, Saturn and the sun.
'The middle one,' Laura said confidently, and they followed a narrow passageway just wide enough for Philip to pass through without his shoulders grazing the walls. It sloped downhill, and at the far end they emerged into a circular room with a domed ceiling. Placed evenly at six points around the room were six archways. To the left of each they found the usual discs. Each disc contained a different symbol representing the planets listed in the incantation. The opening labelled with the symbol for Venus was second to their left.
Philip took off the rucksack and passed the water bottle to Laura. As she drank, he checked his watch. It was 10.43. He unzipped another pocket in the bag and tried his mobile.
'No signal, of course,' he said and stuffed it back inside.
Laura checked hers. 'Ditto. Not a great surprise. There must be — what? Eighty, ninety feet of rock over our heads?'
Philip shouldered his rucksack. 'OK?' he asked.
Laura nodded.
'Ever onward, then.'
The corridor was extremely narrow at first. Philip had to take off the rucksack again and his elbows scraped painfully against the jagged rock face. But after about ten yards the passage widened and there was enough room for them to walk side by side.
Here the crystal lights were more densely clustered along the ceiling, and the tunnel was much brighter than the others had been. They quickened their pace. Immediately ahead they could see an archway leading to another chamber. Philip stopped abruptly and peered down at the ground. Laura was a few yards behind and she could see him looking at something on the dirt floor. He began to walk slowly forward, half crouching to the ground while studying the marks. 'Hey, look,' he called back to her. 'Some writing in English. It says. .'
Laura heard the swishing sound before she saw anything move. It seemed to be coming from inside the wall to their right. Then came three more thuds. Something hit Philip and two other speeding objects flashed past him and struck the wall to their left. He fell to the floor and the sounds stopped immediately. Laura dived to the ground and crawled along until she reached him. 'You OK?'
'I think so. What the hell happened?'
On the floor to his left Philip could see two shattered arrows, each one just a few inches long. Two more were stuck in his rucksack. 'Stay low,' he hissed, as they crawled slowly towards the opening.
On the other side of the archway Philip sat up slowly and pulled out one of the arrows. 'That could have been a bit nasty,' he said and threw it to one side.
'Looks like that rucksack saved your life.' Laura examined the sharp tips of the other arrows. 'What were you looking at on the floor?'
'Some words in English. In gold letters: "Only the pure may pass.'"
Laura stared into his eyes and was about to say something when they both felt rather than heard a low rumble. For several long seconds the walls seemed to vibrate. They scrambled to the far wall, clutching at each other. Dust fell from the ceiling and powdered their hair. Before the sound died completely they felt a wave of air rush past them, and it seemed as though every molecule of oxygen was being sucked from the room. A massive block of stone crashed down from the lintel of the archway, landing squarely with a thump on the dusty floor. They were sealed in.
Chapter 41
Oxford: 30 March, 10.38 p.m.
Monroe looked at the clock on the wall of his office and watched the seconds click by. He had just sent out a dozen officers to three different locations in Oxford to try to track down Malcolm Bridges — his tiny flat on Iffley Road, Lightman's house in Park Town in the north of the city, and his office at the Psychology Department. He had little hope that the man would be found at any of them.
So, Bridges had been at the scene of the second murder. He had no watertight alibi for the time of that murder, but he did have one for the first, which meant that he had to be working with someone. But to Monroe this instinctively felt wrong; and besides, there was absolutely no evidence to support the idea.
So what was the situation? Another murder, four separate incidents, six dead kids, and what did he know for sure? Bridges was involved somehow, but couldn't have been working alone, and another
murder was due to be committed tonight, just after midnight. How would he be able to stop that unless he had Bridges? And, even then, would the man's arrest stop the killing? Rubbing his eyes, Monroe suddenly felt incredibly tired.
The phone rang. 'Monroe,' he said wearily.
'It's Howard.'
'I hope you have some good news for me.'
'Well, I do have some news,' Smales replied. 'But I don't really know what to make of it. It's just, well, the sample has thrown up a. . how shall I put it? A rather sensitive ID.'
Chapter 42
Oxford: 30 March, 10.43 p.m.
Laura and Philip were in total darkness. There were no crystals in the low ceiling of this chamber, and when the stone had crashed down it had blocked out the meagre light that had penetrated from the corridor. Philip swung his rucksack off his shoulder and found the main zipper. Slipping his hand inside, he felt around for the torches. He flicked them on in the bag and pulled them out, handing one to Laura. They both sat back against the wall and trained the spots of light around the room. Then Philip stood up and went to inspect the place where until a few seconds earlier the doorway had been. He ran his torch's beam over the smooth rock surface. In this light he could see no trace of a join. The stone block must have fitted almost perfectly.