Oracle (4 page)

“I’m not suggesting that the chamber is going to contain the remains of Quetzalcoatl or Jesus Christ,” he continued. “All I’m saying is, the Dominion might believe that, and if they do, then you can bet they’ll be watching to see what you discover.”

Jade processed this for a moment.
“Okay. You said two reasons.”

Professor nodded his head in her direction.
“You’re the other reason.”

“
Me?”

“
You’ve foiled their best laid plans a few times now, Jade. They aren’t likely to forget, and they certainly aren’t going to forgive.”

She laughed mirthlessly.
“So that’s how you were able to act on this so quickly; been keeping an eye on me. Well, I appreciate the concern, but you can go back and tell Maddock that I’m a big girl. I don’t need protecting.”

Professor felt a twinge of irritation at her assumption that he was acting as Maddock
’s lackey. “I’m not here to protect you,” he replied, speaking slowly to avoid letting any bitterness creep into his tone. “I’m here because if there’s even a chance the Dominion might show up, I want to be ready to crush them.”

She flashed a sardonic smile.
“You sure know how to make a girl feel special.”

“
Damn it, Jade, make up your mind,” Professor snapped. “Which is it? Do you want someone watching your back, or not? You can’t have it both ways.”

Jade
’s lower jaw shifted slowly to the left, as if biting back a scathing retort. When she finally spoke, her voice was low, smoldering with pent up anger, but she didn’t address the subject directly. “What about your friend, Hodges? Is he really a robot expert, or is that just cover?”

“
Brian knows what he’s doing,” replied Professor with equal intensity. “He got his training in Naval EOD. He also hates the Dominion more than you and I put together. His wife and baby daughter died at Norfolk.”

Jade blinked. The mere mention of the Dominion attack on Norfolk, in which thousands had died in a catastrophic tsunami wave, triggered by an ancient Atlantean device, seemed to have broken through her tough girl facade. Then she shook her head, dismissively.
“Well, it’s probably not going to matter. What I’m really going to need is someone who can drive a robot into that chamber. Like I said, there’s nothing here that’s going to be of interest to the Dominion. It’s just straightforward archaeology.”

Professor raised his glass again.
“Well, here’s to straightforward archaeology.”

Jade stared at
the strange looking bundle of metal rods. “That’s a robot? It doesn’t look anything like WALL-E.”

Hodges grinned.
“Some of them do, but in order to explore a vertical shaft, we need a unit that can climb walls. That’s why I brought Shelob here.”

“
Shelob. Cute.” She took a step back, giving him room to assemble the robot, but Paul Dorion quickly occupied the space she had vacated.

“
How does it work?”

Jade had not seen the particle physicist look so excited since the discovery of the hidden tunnel, though in truth, she had not seen much of him or Sanchez in the past few days. They had made themselves scarce while she had been laboring to dig the exploratory shaft, probably afraid that she would put them to work.

Hodges seemed only too happy to share. “Most wall climbing robots use suction cups or magnets, but those won’t work here. The stone isn’t magnetic and it’s too porous for a suction cup to adhere. I designed Shelob to work in chimney shafts and inside wet walls where the surface material would be unpredictable. Like her namesake—”

“
I’m sorry, her namesake?” inquired Sanchez.

“
Shelob is the giant spider from Lord of the Rings,” supplied Professor.

Hodges nodded.
“That’s right. She’s got eight fully articulated legs—two sets of four—which can extend in any direction. One set of legs will extend out to brace her in place between opposing surfaces while the other set reaches up or down, taking a step as it were. When those legs are braced, the other set disengages and takes the next step.

“
Watch this.” Hodges slipped on a headset microphone. “Shelob, run diagnostic.”

The metal rods abruptly unfolded from the thorax, which looked sort of like a tool box with a
GoPro attached to one end, and began whirring and rotating until they made contact with the stone floor. The movements were mechanical and jerky, but it nevertheless looked very much like a silvery spider, though instead of a silk thread, it trailed a length of black coaxial cable that connected to a spool which was in turn hooked up to Hodges’ laptop. The display screen showed the view from Shelob’s camera. The robot went through a series of maneuvers, scuttling around chamber as if exploring.

“
The legs can telescope out like the adjustable legs of a camera tripod,” Hodges said, “for a total reach of just over eight feet, which should be just about perfect for your tunnel.”

As if on cue, the robot
’s legs began to lengthen, shooting out to their full length until it more closely resembled a daddy-longlegs than a spider, which in Jade’s opinion did nothing improve its appearance.

“
Great,” muttered Jade. “Robot spiders. Nothing freaky about that.”

“
You afraid of spiders?” Professor whispered in her ear.

She ignored him. Despite his persuasive arguments in the cantina, she was far from happy about the way he
’d hijacked her dig. The only reason she hadn’t blown the whistle and told Acosta about it was that Hodges did happen to have a robot that would let her see the hidden chamber and she didn’t want to wait another week for Acosta to find someone else.

I
’m not afraid of spiders,
she thought grumpily.
But
robot
spiders? That’s just wrong.

If she had still been keeping score, that probably would have been strike three for Hodges, but she wasn
’t, not after learning about Norfolk.

She had never regretted walking away from Tam Broderick
’s offer to join the Myrmidons. She was an archaeologist, not a secret agent, and besides, the last thing she needed was to be working alongside Maddock again. But that didn’t mean she was apathetic about the threat posed by the Dominion.

Still, they weren
’t going to show up here. She was sure of that.

“
Looks like it’s working just fine,” she told Hodges. “Send it in.”

Hodges spoke into the mic again.
“Shelob, end diagnostic.” The robot’s legs retracted and it crab-walked over to stand in front of its master. Hodges picked up one of two joystick controls wired to his computer and spoke again. “Initiate manual guidance.”

The robot began moving again, only now it was responding directly to Hodges
’ will. It walked toward the small hole Jade had excavated and proceeded within.

“
Shelob, light mode.”

A light flashed on inside the rocky niche, and Jade saw the interior of the access tunnel appear on the computer screen. The robot continued forward at a plodding but relentless pace, and in less than a minute, reached the junction with the vertical shaft
, which appeared as a dark hole in the center of the image. Jade had peeked through during her excavation but there had not been much to see.

She had tried to convince Acosta to let her go in. She was an average climber, maybe not ready for Yosemite, but more than capable of making this ascent. Ever since that business in Germany, she had made a point of always bringing climbing gear along wherever she went. Acosta however steadfastly insisted that the initial survey be done with the robot. Jade suspected the reason for this had more to do with Acosta
’s fascination with technology than a desire to preserve the site. Similar remote surveys conducted by a competing team the previous year had revealed previously undiscovered passages under the nearby Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, along with a collection of mysterious metallic orbs, the significance of which were still being debated. Robots and futuristic technology was sexy. Old fashioned archaeology? Not so much.

Shelob advanced until the camera was looking directly through the hole, shining its light into the dark vertical shaft beyond.

“Here’s where my girl will show you what she’s made of,” Hodges said with a triumphant grin. He set down the joystick. “Shelob, autonomous mode.”

The camera view lurched forward and then swung around with dizzying abruptness. When the image finally stabilized, it showed what looked like an ordinary tunnel shaft, but Jade knew the camera was now facing directly up. The robot was making the ascent without any input from Hodges.

The next few minutes were interminably long as the robot shuffled up the six-foot wide vertical shaft. In the glow of its high-intensity light, the smooth, perfectly round walls gave the impression of traveling through an old pipe. After the first twenty feet or so, the texture of the walls changed from ordinary bedrock to a more uniform surface that was unnaturally smooth and blood red in color.

“
Painted limestone mortar,” intoned Acosta. “Remarkably well preserved. We’ve moved above the foundation and into the interior of the pyramid. The exterior would have been painted similarly and adorned with murals.”

Jade noted the absence of decorative artwork and wondered again at the reason for this well shaft that seemed to lead nowhere and which had been sealed off by its builders. Acosta
’s speculation about it representing a passage to the Underworld was plausible enough, but Jade was beginning to wonder if they weren’t perhaps moving in the wrong direction.

A few minutes later, the end of the tunnel came into view. The light shone past the mouth of the shaft, and reflected off the domed ceiling of a larger chamber. The robot paused there for a moment as if allowing the people watching the video feed to appreciate the view.

“She’s trying to figure out how to climb out of the shaft,” explained Hodges. “It’s a little tricky, but she knows what to do.”

“
Can you reorient the camera?” Jade asked.

“
Sure thing.” Hodges picked up the second joystick and as he toggled it, the view began to change. Jade could now see more of the curving ceiling, including uniquely stylized images rendered in bright yellow and green against the red background.

“
That’s the Great Goddess!” Acosta exclaimed, pointing at the screen.

Jade recognized the image, a spider-like figure that was believed to represen
t a deity unique to the Teotihuacan culture, in Mexico at least. “That might explain the vertical tunnel” she said. “The Great Goddess is believed to be the spirit of the Underworld, as well as a symbol of creation, similar to the Spider Grandmother in Southwestern Native American lore.”

“
More spiders,” Professor said in a stage whisper.

“
But no Quetzalcoatl,” replied Jade, matching his tone. “So much for that bright idea.”

“
I did not realize the ancient Americans worshipped a spider god,” Dorion said.

“
Spiders show up in a lot of cultural traditions on the North American continent, sometimes as a trickster—”

“
You mean like the West African spider god Anansi,” interjected Professor.

“
Yes, but more often the spider is seen as a creative or wise force. Her webs are the ideas that hold the universe together.”

Dorion pondered this for a moment,
then asked, “Is there a connection to Arachne of Greek mythology?”

Jade was surprised at the physicist
’s insight. “Not a direct connection, but you find a lot of these archetypes throughout history. Spiders have always been seen as magical creatures for their ability to spin intricate webs. It makes sense that ancient peoples began to see them as a symbol of creation.”

The conversation fell off as the robot succeeded in lifting itself out of the shaft, giving them an unrestricted view of the chamber. There were more murals, many with familiar themes, but nothing else—no artifacts and certainly no evidence of human remains.

“Well,” Acosta said after a long silence. “It’s not everything we could have hoped for, but it is certainly a remarkable find nonetheless.”

Jade wasn
’t ready to admit defeat however. “Send the robot down the shaft,” she told Hodges, and then turning to Acosta, added. “What if this was a sacrificial well? We might find a lot more at the bottom than at the top.”

“
Like a Mayan cenote? But why would they seal it off?”

Jade didn
’t have an answer for that, but Acosta evidently did not require convincing. “Mr. Hodges, can you take us down?”

“
No problem,” replied the robotics expert, and then amended, “unless you need to go more than a hundred meters. That’s the limit of Shelob’s cable.”

“
It’s much more likely that we’ll hit groundwater and have to turn back. But since we’re here, we may as well have a look.”

Water, Jade knew, would not necessarily mean it was—metaphorically sp
eaking—a dry hole. The Maya made extensive use of sacred cenotes—limestone sinkholes—for sacrificial purposes, and some of the greatest troves of Mayan artifacts had been discovered therein. There was a growing body of evidence to support the idea that the Teotihuacanos had performed ritual human sacrifice, though not of the heart-wrenching variety that would later be performed by the Aztecs, but not all offerings were blood sacrifices. The Maya would throw valuable artwork into cenotes—jewelry and golden sculptures—to appease their gods.

Jade mentally began assembling a shopping list of equipment she would need in order to dive. Professor could help her with that; the former SEAL had been her dive-master in Japan, and had a lot more expertise in the water than she. Maybe his intrusion would prove fortuitous after all.

The camera view swung around to show the top of the shaft, and after a few more minutes of maneuvering, the robot lowered itself into the tunnel and began descending. Jade found herself straining to catch some glimpse of what lay at the bottom of the long shaft, but it remained an impenetrable black dot at the center of the screen.

A
spot of illumination appeared at the center of the darkness.

“
Does anyone else see that?” Jade asked.

“
Could be the light reflecting off water,” Professor suggested.

As the robot continued deeper, past the opening leading back to the chamber where the group was watching and down into parts of the shaft that had not been revealed by Dorion
’s muon detectors, the spot of brightness grew more intense. Meanwhile, the tunnel walls became more irregular. It was still too perfectly vertical to be naturally occurring, but it seemed to Jade as if the craftsmen who had carved out the passage had gradually lost interest in maintaining perfect symmetry.

“
Fifty meters,” Hodges reported. “This sucker is deep.”

The descent went on for several more minutes until, just as the cable was almost played out, the robot reached the far end of the passage. The source of the reflection however remained maddeningly indistinct; a bright spot directly below. Hodges tried moving the camera, but the bright spot continued to dominate the screen. The glare made it impossible to tell how much deeper the source of the reflection was.

“End of the line,” announced Hodges.

Jade turned to Acosta.
“You’ve got to let me go in.”