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Jade turned to him. “You think Hodges is coming to finish what he started?”

“I don’t think we can afford to take the chance that he isn’t.” He scrambled back up to the top of the cave in and peered into the hole he had made. “I think it’s big enough to get through. Come on.”

Jade turned to the two men still waiting below. “Paul, Noe. Let’s go.”

“But Dr. Acosta…?”

Jade felt a pang at abandoning the administrator to an uncertain fate, but she knew that nothing she could say would dissuade Acosta. She found herself wishing that the Earth stone — or whatever strange phenomenon had been at work — had shown her this outcome. What if the light was from a rescue party?

“Jade!”

Professor’s shout snapped her out her reverie. She knew that Professor, with his quaint ideas about chivalry, would not go through until she was safely on the other side, so she climbed up, plunged head and shoulders into the narrow gap and started crawling.

It was a tight fit, so tight that she wondered how the larger men would get through, but after scooting just a few feet, she felt the dirt move beneath her, and then she was sliding down a steep slope.

The air beyond was stale and smelled of dampness and decay. Her headlamp revealed only a little of what lay beyond, but it was enough for her to see that the tunnel, unlike the vast cavern, had not been sealed off from the outside world.

There was a scrabbling noise behind her and she turned to see Dorion struggling to get through the opening. She reached up, caught one flailing hand, and pulled.

Dorion shot forward like a cork from a champagne bottle and they tumbled down the slope together, landing in a tangle at the bottom. She was back up in an instant, ready to help the others through, but no one came. She could hear Professor shouting to Sanchez, urging him to move. She ascended to the opening once more and peered through, adding her own voice to the effort.

There was a bright flash at the center of the cavern.

Jade heard Professor shout a rare profanity and propel himself into the mouth of the dugout tunnel with such forcefulness that when he burst through, it triggered a small avalanche.

“Get down!”

Jade did, covering her head, but not before she caught a glimpse of another figure struggling to get through the opening. It was Sanchez. Professor threw a hand up to pull him through, but as their fingers touched, Sanchez’s eyes widened in alarm.

The world jumped, as if God had banged a fist down on the earth’s crust. Dirt flew up, fine dust particles creating a choking cloud, and suddenly the air felt as hot as the throat of a dragon. The shockwave of an explosion — not a mere firecracker like the IED in the robot, but a detonation that felt like the end of the world — vibrated through every fiber of Jade’s body. It was like being hit by a bus while in free fall.

She saw Sanchez writhing in agony, Professor struggling through the chaos to pull him free and then, he was gone, snatched away by some invisible force. Through the opening, she could see nothing but fire.

Jade felt the air sucked out her lungs. She couldn’t cry out, couldn’t even gasp. A gale force wind swept out of the unexplored darkness behind them, carrying with it a dust storm that scoured her exposed skin as it was sucked through the opening where Sanchez had been only a moment before.

Then, only silence.

* * *

Half a mile from the pyramid, Hodges felt only a faint thump rise up from the earth. He held his breath, half expecting the enormous man-made mountain to fly apart or crumble into a heap of stones, or perhaps simply sink into the earth in one piece, filling the void where the strange cavern had been.

When it became evident that none of those things would happen, Hodges felt strangely relieved. At least he would not add the destruction of the one-of-a-kind historical monument to his list of crimes.

The thermobaric weapon had been relatively small and if the cavern was indeed as large as Chapman had indicated, most of the bomb’s explosive force would have been diffused, compressing the air in the chamber without necessarily weakening the surrounding rock.

Gutierrez nodded in satisfaction. “It’s done.”

“How will we explain what happened here?”

“Tomorrow morning, the news will report a minor earthquake. No one will question this; I will see to it. The site will be closed to the public until the extent of the damage can be assessed. I doubt there’s anything left down there, but we will fill the cavern with concrete to ensure that every trace of this discovery is sealed away forever.” As if sensing Hodges next question, the billionaire continued, “When you report to your superiors, you can tell them that your colleagues were killed in the cave in. That should ensure your cover remains intact. You may wish to remain here for a few days.”

“Surely you don’t think they survived that?”

“No, but for appearances sake, you should make a token effort to search for them.”

“And then?”

“Then? Go back to your assignment. Our war has only just begun.” Gutierrez clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t look so depressed. You may have just saved the world.”

EIGHT

Jade’s first breath burned in her lungs like acid. It seemed as if the oxygen in the air had been used up, replaced by some poisonous vapor, but her body demanded that she inhale. She coughed, feeling grit in her mouth and throat, and tried again with only marginally more success.

She sat up and straightened her headlamp, which miraculously had survived the blast. She saw Dorion and Professor — the latter was already on his feet and climbing up to look through the hole leading back to the cavern. Jade shuddered as the image of Noe Sanchez, sucked through that hole and into the heart of the firestorm, came unbidden into her mind.

“What the hell was that?”

“A bunker buster,” snarled Professor without looking back. “A fuel-air explosive. Military grade. When I get my hands on Hodges…” He faltered, unable to conceive an act of retribution sufficient to balance the scales. “Are you okay?”

“Hard to breathe.”

“It’ll pass.” He slid down to join her. “The bomb burned most of the oxygen in the cavern, but the resulting vacuum sucked fresh air, relatively speaking, up from this tunnel. That’s good news at least. It probably means there’s a way out.”

He sighed, looking defeated. “Jade, I’m sorry. I didn’t see this coming.”

She stared back at him, wondering if she had any right to be angry with him. “Forget it,” she said, hoping it didn’t sound as insincere as it felt. She coughed and tried again. “If it hadn’t been Hodges, it probably would have been someone else. You saved us.”

“Not all of us,” he muttered.

Jade turned away and knelt to rouse Dorion. The physicist was awake, but had a wide-eyed, shell-shocked expression, and Jade thought it best to use a light touch. “Paul, we have to keep moving, okay?”

Dorion looked past her as if unable to focus, but nodded.

Jade turned her light into the depths of the tunnel ahead. The walls were rough, cut from the surrounding igneous rock, much like the tunnel that had led from the surface into the first chamber beneath the pyramid, but broader, more open. There was evidence of further collapse along the length of the tunnel, but nothing of the same scale as what had blocked the opening. As they advanced, Jade tried to imagine the ancients rolling the enormous golden sphere through the passage to its final destination, and then wondered if there was anything left of it now.

She wanted to ask Dorion about the spheres and dark matter, and how he seemed to know about her prescient vision, but he seemed in no state of mind to answer such questions. She turned instead to Professor. “What I don’t get is this: if Hodges is working with the Dominion, why destroy the spheres? That’s not their style.”