“How did he know the exact location of this place?” asked Hilts.
“Because I told him,” said the old man. “Just before I left him to die. It was his last wish.”
“You really are a bastard,” said Hilts, curling his lip.
“That too,” said the old man with a shrug. “Most of us were. Foundlings, orphans. The refuse of life. It seemed like a good seeding ground.”
“Us?” asked Finn.
“The Keepers.”
“Of this place?”
“Of what it contains.”
“Which is?”
“The True Word.”
“The Lucifer Gospel.”
“Hardly Lucifer’s. He only guarded it. He was the first Keeper of the Word. This is his place.” He spread his arms, staring upward into the infinity of the soaring stone above him.
“I’m getting confused,” said Finn.
“I’m getting a headache,” said Hilts. “I’m standing in a place that shouldn’t exist lit by lights that shouldn’t be burning, talking to a man who should be dead. None of this makes any sense at all.”
“A thousand years ago the lights were made with mirrors, the rock was carved with the sweat and honest effort of faithful men, and the only reason I have stayed alive is to protect the secret of this place until it can no longer be protected.”
“And then?” Finn said softly. “What then?”
“And then I shall destroy it,” the old man said simply.
“You’re crazy,” said Hilts.
“Perhaps,” said the old man. “But the time for the words of men like Christ is over now. There are new gods, I’m afraid.” He held up the little leather-wrapped package. “When that time comes the Place of Secrets must be destroyed and the Gospel of the Light destroyed along with it. The instructions are quite clear,” he added sadly.
“But why?” Finn urged. “Why destroy all of this?”
“Because if all cannot have it, no one person shall. Light is meant to illuminate, after all, it should not be used as power.”
“Then tell everyone.”
“The simple revelation of its existence would be used against it. It would be used as a rallying cry by Adamson and his people. This place, His Word, was not meant for that. Crusades are fought with blood and swords, not faith and sacrifice.”
The shot rang out like an alien thing in the chamber, striking the old man before it was heard, whirling him around where he stood and dropping him to the floor of the giant cave. There was a series of small explosions, sharp and hard against their ears, and then, almost as though it was a signal, the light in the huge domed cavern was extinguished and total darkness fell. It remained that way for a moment and then the blackness was pierced by half a dozen brilliant narrow beams of green.
“Night-vision glasses,” whispered Hilts. He felt around on the floor and found the groaning huddled shape of the old man.
“You’re hit?” Finn asked.
“The shoulder. I’ll live,” said Devereaux. “For the moment, at any rate. Long enough.”
“We have to get you out of here,” said Hilts.
“You’ve got to get yourself out of here, before it’s too late.”
“We’ve got to get you to a hospital.”
“You are two hundred and thirty-seven feet underground. On the far side of this cavern is an exit that leads directly to the Winter River, separated by a shield of brittle rock that I can remove at any time I wish. Adamson thinks he has won. He thinks he has triumphed. He thinks he has finally gained the ultimate prize that will give him a nation. He has found nothing. Only the darkness.”
“Grab him by the legs,” Hilts instructed. All around them now the green lines of light were twisting back and forth.
“Sinkholes,” gasped the old man as they dragged him across the floor of the cavern. “He’s coming in from the old entrances above.”
Suddenly Adamson’s voice boomed into the air from a bullhorn.
“I don’t know how you did it, but you won’t survive this time!”
“He’s nuts.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” said Finn.
They finally managed to reach the edge of the cavern. Their backs were to the sloping stone wall. She felt the old man gripping the lapels of her jacket.
“You must get away.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” asked Hilts.
“The Medusa Gate.”
“What the hell is that?”
“Over each of the monks’ cells a mask was carved into the stone. Medusa was the patron goddess of Lucifer’s Legion. Find it and you find the way.”
There was a harsh sound like tearing cloth and a flare burst overhead, throwing the dome into stark outline. At least a dozen men were rappelling down on dangling ropes from the ceiling of the cavern. All of them were armed.
“There!” Adamson bellowed. There was a burst of gunfire. Bullets ricocheted off the rock walls beside them.
The garish, hot light from the flare began to fade. Finn spotted something.
“The Medusa!” She pointed.
“Come on, bring him!” said Hilts, taking the old man under the arms again. In the last light from the flare Finn could see the wound. It was bubbling, lower on his torso than the shoulder. A lung, or worse.
“Leave me,” said Devereaux weakly. “If you try to bring me you will fail. Go!” he commanded.
“We’ll get help!” said Hilts.
“Go! Now!” said the old man.
They ran. The flare died out completely, leaving them in utter darkness except for the piercing lines of green. They stumbled over the rocky uneven floor of the cavern.
“One of those guys lights us up, we’re toast,” said Hilts.
There was another tearing sound and the air around them exploded in sudden light. There, only a few feet away now, was the small cell-like entrance marked with the same Medusa image as the one on the medallion.
“Run!” Hilts yelled, pushing Finn ahead of him toward the dark entrance. She looked back over her shoulder and saw the old man, sagging against the wall of the gigantic, wondrous place that had been in his charge for so many years. He was smiling.
Bullets flew, whining like a swarm of angry hornets. She rushed into darkness, ducking her head below the hideous, snake-haired goddess, and stumbled into the little cave. In the light from the new flare she saw that it was no cell at all but the foot of a stone stairway leading upward.
“Climb!” Hilts yelled.
She moved swiftly to the steps and began to struggle upward, the photographer close behind her, his breath harsh and grating as they pressed onward.
Minutes passed and still they climbed. Horribly, from somewhere far below, they heard other footsteps ringing on the stone. Then, with a terrible sound like the very heart of the earth breaking below them, there was a terrible roar and air pushed around them like wind from a tunnel.
“What was that!?”
“Keep going.”
They kept climbing but the sound grew louder, a guttering, windy roar, and then it was upon them, a flushing horror of rock and debris that gathered them in its choking belly and pushed them upward in a tumbling torrent, hammering them with bruising force against the stone walls of the stairwell. The icy flood was like a battering ram that finally expelled them in a geyser of water on a cold stone floor. Gasping, choking, they climbed to their knees as more water flooded up from below, filling the chamber they were in.
“Where are we!?” Finn gasped, climbing to her feet, hanging on to Hilts as she rose.
“Some kind of basement,” he coughed, looking around. He pointed across the swirling pool of filthy water climbing up the walls. “Stairs.” He grabbed her hand and they waded across to the short stairway and climbed upward. There was a plain wooden door at the top. Hilts pushed it open and they stepped out into a musty-smelling country kitchen. There was a woodstove in one corner, an old dry sink, and a rough wood table with a few old chairs in the center of the room. Through a grimy window Finn could see out into the rainy parking lot of the Caverns of Wonder. They were in the kitchen of the old, decrepit farmhouse.
“This is how the old man got in and out, I guess,” said Hilts, dropping down into one of the chairs. “Thank God it’s over.”
“I wouldn’t get too comfortable,” said Finn suddenly. There was a dangerous creaking sound all around them, then a lurching sensation as the floor at their feet skewed and twisted, as though they were in the middle of an earthquake. Hilts got to his feet again. Above them the ceiling began to crack, plaster cascading down. The floor lurched again and the window shattered as the frame twisted out of its slot.