The Covenant of Genesis (35 page)

Nina walked to the entrance. ‘Only one way to find out.’

Chase and Sophia switched on their own torches as they followed her. The sound of ice crunching beneath their boots changed as they moved inside, echoing from the inner walls of a large, high space.

Nina suddenly stopped, flashlight aiming upwards. ‘Eddie?’

‘Yeah?’

‘You know you said their god might still be in here?’

‘Yeah?’

‘You were right.’

T
he other two torch beams moved upwards to join Nina’s. ‘Christ on a bike,’ said Chase, amazed. ‘That’s a
big
fucking statue.’

The stone figure before them was at least sixty feet tall, a giant standing against the back of the high circular chamber, reaching almost to the domed ceiling. It was male, carved in the same elongated, blocky style as the statues outside, but on a much greater scale. Its right arm hung down by its side, holding what looked like a sickle; the left was extended across the chamber, palm upturned as if scattering seeds. It wore a necklace of copper, or possibly gold, the style reminding Nina of an ancient Egyptian
menat
necklace of the kind worn by the pharaohs, though with several long metal counterpoises extending down over its chest. A similarly ornate belt ran round the statue’s waist, a long copper loincloth descending from it.

And between its feet, at floor level between the statue’s heels, was a low opening, less than three feet high, leading to another chamber behind it. The rest of the room before the mighty figure was empty, an open space in which the faithful could worship.

Nina directed her light at the statue’s head. It had the same high forehead and narrow jaw as the smaller statues outside. She was about to look at the necklace when something else caught her attention - not on the statue, but just behind it. ‘That remind you of anything?’ she asked.

‘It’s a stained-glass window,’ said Sophia unenthusiastically, more interested in the gold adorning the statue’s accessories.

‘No, I don’t mean the window itself - I mean its shape.’

Chase saw what she meant. ‘Lofty’s got a halo.’ The window was circular, lines of coloured glass radiating outwards. It was unmistakably a representation of a light or fire surrounding the figure’s head.

‘Yeah. Now that
is
interesting.’

‘What, so the sixty-foot-tall bloke inside a temple buried in Antarctica isn’t?’

‘You know what I mean. Haloes are an almost universal piece of religious iconography - they appear in ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek art, as well as Buddhist. But they’re most closely associated with the Abrahamic faiths, even Islam. Modern Muslims don’t portray Muhammad in artwork, but ancient Muslims did, and he was almost always shown with a halo or heavenly fire around his head.’

‘But this predates any of them,’ Sophia pointed out. ‘By a long time.’

‘I know. That’s why it’s so interesting.’ She crossed to the hole between the statue’s feet. ‘The way to the tree of the gift . . . Let’s take a look.’ Small icicles hung from the top of the low opening. She swatted them with one hand, sending them tinkling to the ground, then crawled through the gap. ‘It
is
a form of supplication,’ she said. ‘If you want to follow the path, you’ve got to grovel at your god’s feet.’

The passage was short, emerging in a circular room about fifteen feet across. She stood, finding that the room was actually a shaft, extending upwards. Unlike the enclosed temple, the open shaft was blocked by a roof of ice. She could make out the other side of the stained glass window, but of more immediate interest was a set of steps, blocks of stone protruding from the wall at roughly two foot intervals, spiralling upwards. Icicles hung from them, thicker and heavier than the little ones she had dislodged.

‘Come on through,’ she called. Chase and Sophia soon appeared. ‘I think I know what this is for - apart from being a stairwell, obviously. It was open at the top, so if you were inside the temple, daylight would come in and light up the halo behind the statue’s head.’

‘Fascinating,’ said Sophia in a bored tone. She examined one of the stone blocks. ‘Are we supposed to climb up these? They look rather slippery. Maybe we should go back to the sledge and get the climbing gear.’

‘I thought you were the one in a hurry,’ Nina countered.

‘That was when we were on solid ground. I’m more than happy to slow things down if it means not plummeting to my death.’

‘Eddie? What do you think?’

‘We could get the ropes,’ Chase said, ‘but it’d mean a lot of buggering around, and it’d definitely slow us down.’ He climbed the first few steps, the crampons’ spikes making a grating rasp. ‘If you’re worried, then yeah, I’ll rig something up, but if you think you can keep your footing . . .’

‘I’ll be fine,’ Nina proclaimed. ‘Don’t think you can manage, Sophia? English rose wilting?’ Sophia looked annoyed, but took the first step.

Chase leading the way, Nina at the rear, they picked their way upwards, backs pressed against the wall. Ten feet, twenty. Nina paused to cast a light towards the top of the shaft, seeing a darkened passageway opposite the giant window. ‘Well, at least we’ll be able to get out.’

‘Would’ve been a good idea if you’d found that out before we started climbing,’ Chase said. He put his foot on the next step and climbed up. Ice crackled - then with a sharp snap a piece on the outer face of the block broke loose, an icicle on the underside dropping with it. Both shattered into millions of fragments on the stone floor below. Chase grunted, double-checking his footing.

‘Good thing it didn’t fall from above us,’ said Nina. The ice sheathing the blocks overhead was thicker, the icicles longer - and sharper.

They kept ascending, passing thirty feet - the halfway mark to the icy ceiling. At around forty feet up, Chase stopped. A large chunk of ice had become frozen against the wall, sticking out enough to make getting past it a tricky proposition. He looked up. The coating of ice got thicker higher up. He guessed that lumps had broken loose from the ceiling as the water level dropped, bobbing on the surface, only to stick to the wall as it froze.

‘Hold still,’ he said, taking a small pickaxe from his belt. ‘I’ll have to chip this thing off the wall.’ The clink of metal on ice echoed round the shaft as he hacked away at it.

Nina used the wait to take a better look at the window above. The metal used to hold the pieces of coloured glass together was not lead, but gold. ‘Wow, look at that,’ she said, amazed. ‘I think we just found one of the world’s most expensive windows.’

‘They certainly weren’t short of gold,’ Sophia remarked. ‘Did they bring it with them, or did they find another source here?’

‘Antarctica’s got plenty of mineral deposits - it’s just getting to them that’s the problem. For us, anyway. Not having to dig through hundreds of feet of ice would have made it a lot easier.’ She looked past the other woman to Chase. ‘How’s it going, Eddie?’

‘Not bad,’ he said, still chipping away. The ice creaked, its weight pulling it loose. A final strike of the pick, and the misshapen block of ice broke away with a gunshot crack, plunging downwards to explode against one of the steps below. Smashed shards rained over the bottom of the shaft.

‘Anyone need ice?’ Chase said with a grin. ‘Okay, we’ll—’

Another crackle, this one deeper, more menacing. The layer of ice coating the wall above them fractured, a jagged line leaping over their heads towards a much larger hunk of precariously hanging debris.

A smaller crack shot straight up to the icicles hanging from a higher step—

With a sound like breaking bones, the frozen spikes fell.

Chase tried to dodge, but had nowhere to go. One spear of ice hit his arm, slashing through his coat. Another hit the step, shaking it.

He toppled forward—

Sophia slammed an arm against his chest. He wavered, back arched, arms whirling . . .

She pushed harder, one spiked boot slipping with a shrill of metal on stone. Chase hung at the point of no return . . . then tipped backwards against the wall with a relieved gasp.

But the danger wasn’t over.

More ice showered over the trio as the crack above them widened. The large lump higher up ripped free, scattering shards in all directions. Nina yelled as it whooshed past, barely missing her - but hitting the previous step.

This time, it wasn’t the ice that broke, but the stone, the weight of the plummeting mass wrenching it out of the wall. The preceding step almost followed, left hanging by one corner as the rest of the debris smashed on to more steps below before hitting the floor with a hideous echoing crash.

‘Shit,’ Chase gasped, looking past Nina at the damaged wall. ‘Think we’re going to have to find another way down.’ With one step missing and another on the brink of giving way, the next secure footing was six feet away and nearly three lower - a dangerous leap given the treacherous ice.

Sophia’s arm was still across his chest. ‘Thanks,’ he said to her.

She nodded. ‘You’re welcome.’

‘Although . . . I’m a bit surprised.’

‘What, that I didn’t let you fall?’

‘Yeah. Realised that you couldn’t live without me after all?’

She smiled. ‘Not quite. It’s just that, for the moment, my chances of survival are far higher with you around. Saving you was simple self-interest.’

‘And if it’d been me who was about to fall?’ Nina asked, regarding her coldly. The smile vanished; the loathing in Sophia’s dark eyes gave her a crystal-clear answer.

‘So now what do we do?’ Chase asked, recovering his composure.

‘We go on,’ Nina told him. ‘I mean, we don’t really have much choice. Are you okay?’

He pulled at his torn sleeve to check the wound beneath, wincing at a jab of pain. ‘Arm’s cut. Doesn’t look too deep, but I’ll need to bandage it. It can wait till we get to the top, though.’ Pushing himself against the wall, he stepped across the gap to the next step.

More carefully than before, they continued upwards, ascending the spiral until they reached the level of the window. A narrow ledge led round the shaft to it. The glazing was almost fifteen feet in diameter, the shape of the statue’s head vaguely discernible beyond.

But it was the passageway opposite the window that dominated their attention. The entrance was arched, a vaulted ceiling retreating into the dark. The floor was thick with pooled ice. Pillars with ancient writing scribed upon them lined each side . . .

Glinting with gold.

Sophia stepped eagerly forward, but Nina put out an arm to stop her. ‘At least let Eddie get fixed up first, huh?’

‘There’s no need to wait,’ Sophia said impatiently. ‘Whatever it is the Covenant want, we’ve beaten them to it. And it’s just down there.’

‘And it’ll still be there in five minutes. Eddie, do you need any help?’

Chase had shrugged off his coat and retrieved a first aid kit from his pack. ‘Nah, I’ll just sit here and stitch myself up while you two keep arguing.’

‘Oh, don’t you start. It’s bad enough having her sniping away in one ear without you doing the same in the other.’

He snorted. ‘You’re the one who brought her along. I would’ve left her in Ribbsley’s camper van if it’d been up to me.’

‘That hasn’t stopped you getting all pally with her again, has it?’ she snapped.

Chase gave her a disbelieving look. ‘Where the fuck did
that
come from? We swap a couple of jokes and suddenly you think we’re nipping off behind the icebergs for a quick shag?’

Nina’s look of disgust was matched by Sophia’s. ‘I can assure you, Nina, that absolutely did not and will not happen.’

‘It better not,’ Nina muttered.

Chase glared at her. ‘You going to help me, or what?’

She huffed. ‘What can I do?’

‘Just pull my sleeve back a bit so I can get at it,’ he told her, peeling the torn material from the cut.

Nina held the fabric open as he ran an antiseptic swab over the cut. ‘Does it hurt?’

‘Take a guess,’ Chase said, grunting as he pinched the edges of the cut together and applied a Steri-Strip dressing across it, then wrapped a bandage over it. ‘That should hold it - unless we have to do any climbing or anything else that’ll rip it.’

‘Let’s hope there’s an easier way back down.’ Nina looked round as he put his coat back on, and saw Sophia crouching by one of the pillars. ‘Hey! I said to wait.’

‘Yes, you did,’ was the dismissive reply. ‘I can read some of this text - it’s talking about the tree of life.’ She stood, anticipation clear on her face. ‘Whatever it is, it’s here.’ Sophia’s flashlight illuminated the passage, revealing a chamber at the far end. ‘Come on.’

She hurried down the corridor. Exasperated, Nina caught up, Chase following.

The three torch beams swept across the chamber’s entrance to reveal what lay inside. Beneath the omnipresent ice, Nina made out stone shelves, much like those she had seen inside the ruined chamber in Australia . . . but these were intact.

And still held their contents.

‘Oh . . .’ she said in wonder as she entered the room, moving the light along the length of one of the shelves. It was filled with clay tablets, a long rack containing dozen upon dozen of the flat rectangles, standing on edge like books. She continued to pan the beam, revealing more tablets . . . and more . . . and more.

And beyond them, more shelves. And more. The chamber stretched away as far as her light could reach, a vast warren of ancient knowledge. Chase and Sophia also probed the room, finding yet more stacks of tablets receding into the distance.

‘We - we need more light,’ she gasped, pulling off her backpack and fumbling in it for a packet of glowsticks. Almost dropping them in her haste, she bent them to crack the inner glass tubes, chemicals mixing and fluorescing to give out an orange light, the first warm colour she had seen since entering the frozen cavern. ‘Look at this! Look!’ she cried, almost skipping into the nearest aisle in her excitement as she placed glowsticks on the shelves. ‘It’s a
library
! It’s the entire knowledge of the Veteres!’