“I think, for safety’s sake, we should assume that’s the case,” Dane said. “We can help you here. You see, we found Fawcett’s personal copy of The Lost World.” He grinned at Tam’s look of surprise. “Now we need the Path of Five Steps. Kaylin, what’s the first one?” He hoped that by asking her to contribute, even in a small way, he could assuage some of her guilt at surrendering their secret.
“All about me I see enemies. Rome, the scent your funeral pyres is the finest perfume.”
“Weird.” Matt frowned. “Couldn’t they just say, ‘Push this button and go here’?”
“You have definitely been spending too much time with Bones.” Kaylin shook her head. “Remember, this is a combined translation from Fawcett and a native. It’s not going to be crystal clear, especially if it was some sort of secret code.”
“So what does it mean?” Tam looked and sounded impatient.
“You like what you see, but not what you smell.” Dane said. “Sounds like we need to pick its nose.” He looked at Tam. “Go for it.”
She smirked. “Scared to try it for yourself?”
“Nope, but if I’m wrong, I don’t want to lose one of my people.”
“Fine by me.” She strode over the skull and peered into the hole where the nose should be. “There’s a handhold in here.” She glanced up at the eye sockets and down at the gaping mouth. “Also one in each of the eyes, but not the mouth. That’s just a blank wall.” She looked back at Dane. “Mister Maddock, you had better be right about this.” Gingerly, she reached into the sinus cavity, set her jaw, and pulled.
Nothing happened.
Tam stepped back, hands on hips, looking at the skull like it was a man she’d just caught with another woman. And then a loud, creaking sound resonated above the sound of falling water, and with a scraping like the opening of a crypt, the wall at the back of the skull’s mouth slid down into the floor, revealing deep, impenetrable darkness behind it.
A ragged cheer went up among the group. Dane grinned and tossed Tam a flashlight. “In you go.”
They had to proceed on hands and knees through the mouth of the skull. On the other side, they could stand, though Bones and Willis had to duck down in places to keep from hitting their heads. The tunnel ascended at a steep angle, and Willis, his leg bleeding again, was forced to accept help as they made their way up.
They reached a spot where the path leveled out and the way opened up into a large chamber. Standing before them were two statues: a horse and an elephant. Each stood about four feet tall at the shoulder. They could see no door, nor any other obvious means of egress.
“Now this is a puzzler.” Dane scratched his chin. “What’s the second step, again?”
“The vile Numidians,” Kaylin replied.
“What else?” Tam turned to Kaylin with a quizzical look. “That can’t be all.”
“That’s it.” Kaylin nodded insistently. “It was the easiest one to remember. Maddock has them written down if you want to double-check.”
“No need,” Dane said. Something had clicked into place. “The Numidians were the finest cavalry in the ancient world. The horse would represent them.”
“So who is the elephant?” Bones asked.
“Carthage.” The more Dane thought about it, the more certain he was that he was correct. “Carthage was known for its elephant cavalry. It used the Numidian cavalry against Rome early in the Punic wars, but the Numidians later turned on them, and things went downhill from there. When you consider that Rome was the bitterest of Carthage’s enemies, the first clue also makes sense in that context.”
“You think Kephises is a Punic city?” Kaylin suddenly gaped. “Remember what Wainwright said! Fawcett recognized some of the words the young man spoke as being Punic.”
“It could be,” Tam mused. “They were descended from the Phoenicians, the greatest sailors of the ancient world. There are legends of the Phoenician sailors reaching the Americas. Perhaps the knowledge was preserved and passed down, and someone from Carthage came here.”
“That’s how I see it,” Dane agreed.
“So if these are cavalry mounts,” Tam said, “we hop on the back of Carthage’s finest.” She took two steps and sprang up onto the back of the elephant.
“You see, Maddock?” Bones said. “I did the right thing keeping her around. She’s our very own canary in a coal mine.”
His words were drowned out by a rumble as the elephant began to sink slowly into the floor. Tam’s eyes bulged, but she kept her seat. The girl was brave, no doubt. She disappeared from sight, and the rumbling ceased, leaving them standing in awed silence.
“You can come down!” Tam called. “There’s another passage heading back from here.”
Matt went down first, and he and Bones helped Willis down. Willis grumbled and cursed the whole way, but did not refuse the assistance. When the last person had climbed down, they took a minute to bandage up his wound again. As they were working, the elephant suddenly rose back up and locked into place with a loud clack, closing them in the tunnel. They could see now that it was supported by a rectangular block of stone.
“How do we get back out?” Kaylin looked the column up and down with nervous eyes.
“We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.” Dane gave her hand a quick squeeze. “Time to move on.”
“This can’t be right. Tam lied to me.” Kennedy hated to admit he’d been duped, but there was no hiding it from the others. “When I find her, I’ll kill her.”
“Where do you think she is?” Smithson tapped the trigger of his F88 as if he, too, was eager to dispose of the woman. The three ScanoGen agents were still alive, and had managed to meet up with Kennedy. He’d had doubts about their loyalties, as Tam had hand-picked them for a the mission, but they were all ex-military, and not inclined to take orders from a civilian, even if that civilian was Salvatore Scano’s favored son, or daughter, as it were.
“I don’t know, but the mission remains our top priority. We won’t seek her out, but should we come across her, your orders are to shoot on sight. Anyone have a problem with that?” No one spoke. “Good. Our first order of business is to find the last landmark, and then see if this Path of Five Steps is for real. I’ll bet we find Broderick somewhere along the way.”
“Sir, I saw her headed in the direction of the waterfall.” Wesley was the youngest of the group, and a bit too eager, but he wasn’t stupid. “Should we try there?”
“That’s as good an idea as any. Remember to keep an eye out for Dane Maddock and whoever he brought along. Don’t underestimate him or his companions. They know what they’re doing.”
“Same orders as with Broderick?” Brown, a big, red haired brute with a southern twang, grinned.
“Correct. Shoot on sight. But do it right, gentlemen. You are professionals. We want every man, and woman, in their party dead.”
He bit the inside of his jaw, relishing the pain and the taste of blood. It always whetted his appetite for action. Despite all that had gone wrong on this mission, it felt good to be back in the field, ready to kill if necessary. And now, with Maddock and Bonebrake on the prowl, he had additional targets. Eliminating them would be a pleasure.
Chapter 25
They came to a fork where the passageway to the left was guarded by lions carved in the walls on either side, while wolves stood sentinel on either side of the passage on the right. Dane grinned. He doubted he even needed the clue for this one.
“Time for the third step,” Kaylin said. “Rome is forever cursed.”
“There’s got to be more,” Matt objected. “You know, something about wolves and lions. This is crap! If we go down the wrong tunnel, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”