He pushed, and pushed, and pushed some more.
Until the ancient arch gave way.
Then he gazed at the wreckage and said a prayer for his friend.
McNutt jumped down from the arch above and stared at the body of the monstrous thug. Without saying a word, he calmly handed the pistol back to Cobb. He then stepped forward and retrieved the assault rifle from the pile of guts on the floor. Wiping away the thick film of gore that coated the weapon, McNutt’s eyes gleamed with joy.
‘Happy now?’ Cobb asked.
‘Very,’ McNutt answered.
‘Good. Let’s keep moving.’
‘Right behind you.’
As Cobb crept through the tunnels in silence, he followed the markings on the walls that he had left earlier. Because of his foresight, there was no need for Garcia to guide them through the system. This allowed Cobb and McNutt to focus their attention on the sounds of the underground network instead of directions.
Hearing a noise, Cobb suddenly froze.
He crouched into a defensive stance and listened.
McNutt nearly tripped over him as he stepped backwards through the darkness, covering their rear. He turned to see why Cobb had stopped and was met with the sight of Cobb’s closed fist. In the military, the signal meant to stop immediately.
No movement. No questions. No sound.
Cobb slowly opened his fist and tapped his finger to his ear.
There was something out there, and Cobb could hear it.
Both men peered into the darkness, searching for the source of the sound.
In the end, they felt it before they saw it.
‘The tunnel’s flooding,’ Cobb said as he stood.
McNutt did the same. He looked down and saw wet circles on his pants legs, the result of kneeling on the floor. He was pretty sure he hadn’t pissed himself, so he agreed with Cobb’s assessment. ‘I think you’re right.’
The surprises didn’t end with the flooding.
With the water slowly rising around their feet, an eerie glow sprang to life across the ceiling. Unfortunately, the light was nestled on top of the arches — too far away for Cobb and McNutt to see from the bottom of the cistern. Like indirect lighting, they could see the glow but not the source.
‘What the hell is that?’ Cobb demanded.
‘You can see it, too?’
‘Of course I can see it!’
‘Thank God! I thought I was seeing things again.’
Cobb growled in annoyance. ‘Cover me.’
With McNutt standing guard, Cobb tucked his pistol into his waistband. Then he used the carved slots in the wall to climb up to the next level. Once he was on top of the bottom arch, he pulled out his gun and called down to McNutt. ‘Your turn.’
‘Coming, chief.’
From that point on, they alternated their climbs until they could determine the source of the light — one man covering the other as they made their way from the bottom of the cistern to the very top. With unknown forces still in the tunnels, Cobb and McNutt couldn’t risk lowering their weapons at the same time because that would leave them defenseless.
Unfortunately, when they reached the ceiling and saw what they were facing, they realized that their guns couldn’t protect them at all. Instead, they simply stared at the sources of the light as the horror of their discovery crept in.
‘Holy fuck,’ McNutt said in awe.
Multiple packs of explosives had been attached to the highest arches. Not one or two packs, but more than a dozen, spread out in all directions in the cistern. Each pack included a booster charge — a detonator that would trigger a much bigger blast — and a digital timer. It was these timers that cast the eerie glow.
Cobb glanced at the closest one.
4:48… 4:47… 4:46… and counting.
Though McNutt was the expert, Cobb had enough experience with explosives to understand the gravity of the situation. He shined his light on the nearest bomb pack and could see the telltale red coloring of Semtex. The explosive would, at the very least, bring the whole room down on itself. Given the amount of Semtex spread across the ceiling, the more likely result would be a massive, smoldering crater that would devastate anything and anyone above the cistern.
In that moment, dozens of questions flooded Cobb’s mind.
How long had the explosives been there?
Had they been placed prior to his rekky the night before, or had his rekky led to the placement of the bombs?
If his rekky forced their hand, what were they trying to hide?
Was it information about Alexander’s tomb, or were the tunnels being used for criminal activities such as break-ins or drug running?
Ultimately, Cobb knew this wasn’t the time or place to worry about any of those things. At that moment, the only thing that mattered was a single, crucial question that would determine their fate.
He glanced at McNutt. ‘Can you defuse them?’
McNutt shook his head. ‘No time.’
There were no more pictographs in the final tunnel. The walls were bare and roughly hewn, without carvings or decorations of any kind. The only thing Sarah found as she pushed deeper into the passageway was a number of steps leading up toward the surface. Appearing in pairs, the steps created tiers rather than stairs. A few of the paired steps were only a few paces apart, but others required a longer walk between them.
Sarah hadn’t bothered to keep track of how many steps she had taken, but she knew she had to be getting close to the surface.
She scanned the farthest reaches of her light, searching for an exit.
A few minutes into her exploration, Sarah caught the glint of her flashlight’s beam as it reflected off the floor of a large cavern. Stranger still, it almost seemed like the shimmery floor was swaying back and forth inside the tunnel. Intrigued by the phenomenon, she jogged forward and found she wasn’t looking at the floor at all.
She was staring at a pool of water.
The walls of the tunnel widened, rising high above the grotto. The natural cave was encircled by massive pylons that supported the rotunda above — all constructed from the same Roman concrete described by Jasmine earlier. Sarah raised her flashlight and could see where the dome had been smoothed and polished. She traced her light across the curved ceiling, then back down the opposite wall to the water’s edge.
Amazingly, the movement of the floor wasn’t an illusion at all. It was actually the ebb and flow of water as tiny waves were pushed into the cave and then sucked back out again. To her, it was a welcome sign. The ever-changing volume meant the pool was fed by the sea. And if it was, they could swim their way to safety.
Sarah breathed a sigh of relief.
Things were finally going their way.
Not only had they survived the collapse of the stone archway, but they had found evidence about the tomb and the library. As long as Cobb and McNutt handled the goons — and she was confident they would because they could handle just about anything — then this day had turned out better than she had hoped.
But her tranquility didn’t last long.
Confusion set in the moment she turned to her left and spotted an object that didn’t belong in an ancient chamber forgotten by time.
There, in the corner, was a plastic cylinder.
Not a remnant of the past, but a product of today.
Cursing softly, she plucked it from the ground and examined it in the beam of her flashlight. Unfortunately, one glance confirmed her fears.
It was a glow stick.
A fluorescent glow stick.
That meant she and Jasmine weren’t the first ones there.
‘Son of a bitch!’ she cursed as she flung it against the wall. Then she picked it up and was ready to throw it again.
‘Sarah?’ said a crackling voice. After being out of range for several minutes, she was finally close enough to the surface to make contact. ‘Is that you?’