The Cult of Osiris (38 page)

barked. 'Pull!'

Leaning back, Nina pulled with all her strength. Eddie forced himself upright and dragged her up. She cleared the edge, and all three fell over, Macy landing on top of Eddie.

Nina sat up. 'You okay?' she asked Macy, who nodded. Good. Now get off my husband.

Macy's chest was on Eddie's face. 'I'm fine with it,' he joked, muffled, before helping her off him.

Thank you,' she whispered, shaking.

A low, crackling rumble made them all look up. Don't thank us yet,' said Nina. She aimed her flashlight at the ceiling, and saw water leaking from more cracks above them. Come on!'

They jumped up and ran down the slope—

An entire section of ceiling smashed to the floor where they had just been - and thousands of gallons of water followed, the remaining contents of the pool above bursting out. The deluge exploded down the passage after them.

No way to outrun it—

Macy was scooped off her feet as the churning maelstrom caught her, crashing against Nina and Eddie as they too were swept down the passage. They bounced painfully off the walls and floor, pieces of shattered stone pummelling them.

And there was a new sound audible even over the frothing thunder - a rhythmic pounding, growing louder . . .

Macy's flashlight had been caught by the wave's leading edge, a glowing point spinning ahead of them. Eddie saw movement, something rising up past another set of pillars - then the light vanished, crushed flat as the object slammed down with a monstrous boom. ShitT he yelled as they were carried inexorably towards it. Grab on to me!'

Nina clutched his arm, Macy a leg as he jammed his other heel into a gutter. The force of the torrent was too great for him to stop them, but he could slow them just enough to pass through the pillars while the crusher was moving upwards.

If his brief glimpse had been enough for him to judge its timing . . .

Another echoing slam of impact. He raised his foot—

They whipped between the columns, hitting a flat floor. Something huge plunged at Eddie's head—

The crusher smashed down an inch behind him as the water flung him into the chamber beyond. The room was much wider than the passage, the wavefront quickly spreading out and losing its power. The three unwilling watersliders were deposited on the floor, coughing and flapping like beached fish.

The crusher kept pounding, slowing down. Nina retrieved her flashlight and shone it at the source of the noise. It was a stone block, painted with the figure of a woman raising her feet as if stamping on ants. The gutters had channelled the flood into a pair of water wheels; not large enough to power the crusher itself, but capable of tripping some mechanism. T guess that's our Lady of Might,' she said, wiping wet hair off her face. She really does try to "trample on those who should not be here".

Women with big feet, not my thing,' said Eddie tiredly. The heavy tools in his pack had bashed against his back, bruising him. 'Is everyone okay?'

Macy stood as the crusher juddered to a standstill. 'Not feeling so good,' she admitted. She held up her hands, unable to stop them shaking. Oh, God, I think I'm gonna puke/

Eddie stood in front of her, resting his hands on her upper arms. 'Hey, you're okay. And you're not going to puke. Know why?'

She looked into his eyes, uncertain. 'No?

' Cause you'd puke on me! And then we'd have to have words, and that'd be bad all round. So you're going to be fine.' He smiled. It took a few moments before Macy managed to respond in kind, and then only faintly, but it was at least genuine.

Nina smiled as well. It's okay, Macy. We beat this trap -
two
traps, actually.'

Yeah, but there're another three to come,' she glumly reminded them.

Four-nil to us, so far,' said Eddie, searching for the next exit. Another passage, this one stepped, led downwards. And I bet we can make it seven-nil. This Osiris bloke can shove his traps right up his mummified arse!' A grin broke through on to Macy's face.

Okay, so the next
arit
was the Goddess of the Loud Voice, right?' Nina asked. Macy nodded. 'Let's see if we can shout her down.

At the entrance to the inverted pyramid, nothing moved except for sand drifting in the breeze. The Land Rover waited silently for its passengers to return, no sound disturbing the emptiness of the desert.

Then ... a noise came from the northeast.

Growing louder.

A cloud appeared on the horizon, dust swirling through the shimmering heat haze. But it was not o sandstorm. It was too small - and moving with purpose. Heading directly for the ruins.

Something became visible through the rippling air, a slab-like grey and black shape. The noise increased, a roaring thrum of powerful engines and the rasp of whirling propeller blades.

But this was no aircraft.

Sebak Shaban gazed through the bridge windows of the massive hovercraft, a Zubr class assault vehicle designed to corry tanks and other armoured vehicles over almost any terrain. After observing the abilities of the four Zubrs bought by the Greek navy, the Egyptians had recently decided to follow the example of their friend/rival across the Mediterranean and purchase two of the enormous craft from Russia.

Officially, this Zubr was currently undergoing trials before entering full service. That it was almost one hundred kilometres from the isolated desert range where said trials were supposed to be taking place was down to one of the other men on the bridge. T like this a lot,' said Shaban to General Tarik Khaleek When the plan is successful, perhaps you could loan one to the Temple. Though I'm not sure where we would park it.

Anywhere you want, my friend!' laughed Khaleel. And if anyone complains, it has rocket launchers and Gatling guns.' He nodded at the turrets on the foredeck below. 'It's amazing how quickly people shut up when you point a six-barrelled cannon at them.'

The threat of death is always persuasive, isn't it?' Both men shared sly, knowing smiles. How much further?

Just under two kilometres,' said the pilot.

Good.' Shaban entered the weapons room behind the bridge. 'We are approaching the coordinates,' he announced. As well as a member of the Zubr's crew, the room contained Osir, Diamondback, Dr Hamdi. . . and the group's newest addition.

Dr Berkeley,' Osir asked the IHA archaeologist, are you absolutely sure they're correct?'

As sure as I can be,' said Logan Berkeley, annoyed at being doubted. 'The inverted pyramid on the zodiac, the marking representing the Nile, the symbol in the Osireion, the position of Mercury relative to the end of the canyon - it all fits together.' He indicated his laptop, which in one window displayed a satellite image of the desert overlaid with lines marking distances and directions, a photo of the Eye of Osiris inside the Osireion pulled from the IHA's massive Egyptian database in another. 'Either the Pyramid of Osiris is here, or it's somewhere that'll never be found.'

I hope it's the former,' said Shaban, with a menacing undercurrent.

Berkeley's annoyance increased. 'I'll do what I'm being paid for,' he snapped, 'so there's no need to threaten me.' He looked at Osir. It's funny. If you'd tried to buy me off a week ago, I would never have accepted. Now? Ijust want to get something out of the whole fiasco at the Sphinx.' His face clenched with anger. T should have been on the front page of every newspaper in the world, but that
bitch
Nina Wilde turned me into a joke. At least the money will make up for some of that.'

The weapons officer called Khaleel into the room to point out something on a monitor. Osir raised an evebrow. 'Funnv that vou should mention Dr Wilde.'

Why?'

Because I think she's beaten you again.' The screen displayed an image from one of the hovercraft's targeting systems; the Land Rover would have been unmissable against the blank plain even without the cursor the weaponry computer had locked on to it.

What? God
damn
it!' Berkeley glared at the monitor. Diamondback sniggered.

Who is this Dr Wilde?' Khaleel asked.

A competitor,' Osir told him. He looked more closely at the ruins. 'But she may have done us a favour. There's nobody there, so she must have found a way in. We won't need to use all those bulldozers and diggers we brought after all!'

He went into the bridge, Khaleel, Shaban and Diamondback joining him. Ahead, the faded yellow void of the desert was broken by the spot of colour that was the Defender. The pilot eased back the throttle to slow the 500-ton hovercraft, the three huge propellers above its stern losing speed. 'Your men,' Osir quietly asked Khaleel. 'Are they totally reliable? If one word of this gets back to the government. . .'

I will vouch for Tarik,' said Shaban firmly. T owe him my life.'

And I will vouch for my men,' added Khaleel. 'We only have a skeleton crew, but I hand-picked them. They will keep your secret... for the price you're paying, certainly.'

Good.' Osir looked back at the ruins as the Zubr wallowed to a stop, settling on its huge rubber air cushion in a cloud of billowing sand. 'Let's find Osiris . . . and Nina Wilde/

24

253

'Wow,' said Nina, aiming her flashlight upwards and finding no end to the black void above. ■Tnat's
tali:

'You know where we are?' Eddie said, indicating the two pipes running down the far wall. 'Right under that bridge. If the trap'd been working and we'd been chucked off, this is where we would have ended up. It's at least a two-hundred-foot drop. Splat.

Nina tried to picture the whole pyramid in her mind's eye. 'Jeez. This place must be as big as the Great Pyramid. Maybe even be bigger.'

'That'd explain why nobody tried to out-do Khufu's pyramid,' said Macy thoughtfully. 'If the Great Pyramid was almost, but not quite, as big as Osiris's, no other pharaoh could make their monument bigger than Khufu's without insulting Osiris. And nobody would dare do that.

'So the pyramids were really just giant dick-waving exercises?' asked Eddie. 'People haven't changed much over five thousand years, have they?' He turned his attention to the pipes. They were connected, one narrowing considerably at its base before widening out conically below a broad horizontal slot. A woman's face had been painted around it, the opening forming her mouth.

'It's like a church organ,' Nina realised. 'They must blow air through it somehow - and that's where the loud voice comes from.

'If they dropped something down the other tube, it'd work like a piston.' There was another passage near the pipes, this one blocked by a barred metal gate. 'Let me guess. Try to open the gate, the trap goes off, and the whole room gets as loud as a Led Zep concert.'

'The who?' Macy asked.

'No, Led Zep.' Ignoring her blank look, he moved towards the opening. 'Careful, Eddie,' Nina warned.

Don't worry, I'm not gonna move it. I just want to find the trigger.'

'No, I meant the gate might not
be
the— A slab shifted beneath his foot. '—trigger,' Nina concluded.

Get into the other tunnel!' Eddie shouted, turning back the way they had come—

A second gate slammed down inside the entrance, making Macy jump. No sooner had its echo faded than another sound began to rise, a deep, mournful note, quickly becoming louder.

And louder.

Air gusted from the slot, the sound resonating up the pipe's length and bouncing back, amplified. The whole room vibrated, dust dancing from the floor, paint and plaster cracking off the walls.

And the chamber's occupants were also affected. 'Jesus!' Nina gasped, a nauseating sensation rising in her chest cavity. Her own organs were vibrating in sympathy with the booming bass note. She tried to lift the fallen gate, but it refused to budge.

Eddie had no more luck with the other gate. He turned to the pipes. Block it! Shove something in it!

Nina could barely hear him over the thunderous din, but got the gist. She shrugged off her pack and tipped out its contents, balling up the nylon. Macy followed suit. Eddie was already at the pipe, face screwed up in discomfort as he jammed his jacket and his own empty pack into the slot. The note's pitch changed slightly, the escaping air screeching shrilly as its exit was obstructed.

The women staggered across the trembling floor to him. He grabbed their balled-up packs and stuffed them into the gap. Nina dropped her flashlight and clapped both hands over her ears, but it made no difference; the sound was
inside
her, trying to shake her apart from within.

It was doing the same thing to the pyramid. Pieces of masonry fell down the shaft and shattered on the stone floor - small lumps at first, but the cracks spreading across the walls warned that there would be larger ones coming.

Unable to shield his ears, Eddie was finding the noise agonising - but it eased slightly as he twisted the makeshift bungs to block the gaps. Pipe organs were closed at the top, air only able to escape through the slot. If he could completely seal it. . .

The vibration began to die down. All he had to do was hold everything in place and endure the noise for as long as it took for the machine to run out of air—

A clanging shudder ran up the length of the pipe as the pressure rose - then rippled back down it. A blast of compressed air hit the mouth like a sledgehammer blow, Bring the blockage out of the slot and bowling Eddie to the floor. With a ground-shaking
whump
like the clearing of the world's mightiest throat, the terrifying bass note resumed - at full volume. Plaster splintered from the walls, even the paving cracking.

The noise was so overpowering that Nina could barely think. The beam of her dropped flashlight illuminated the bottom of the pipes. Blocking the mouth had failed, but there had to be another way . . .

Something Eddie had said forced its way through the disorientation.

Two pipes, a piston in one, forcing the air ahead of it as it dropped. The air itself acted as a cushion slowing its fall - there was only one relatively small hole through which it could escape, and the hourglass-shaped pinch at the bottom of the organ pipe restricted it further.