The Golden Crystal (25 page)

They got about twenty paces past the block of explosive before Sergeant Aines detonated it. The deafening blast shook the tunnel, lifting them off their feet and throwing them to the floor. They slid and rolled out of the tunnel and into a small square chamber, as the shock wave blew over their heads and dissipated in the closed-off room.

5:22 AM 

BRYCE HEARD the shots ahead. Unsure of what was happening, he sped up and tried to see around the bend. Beka and another Israeli guard passed him as Wayne, Jeff and Sean came up behind.

Then he caught sight of the three civilians, running up and away from the shooting. He couldn’t see Madu or the other soldier who’d been with them. The numerous gun-mounted flashlights almost fully lit the passageway now, and his eyes caught something small on the floor close to Vilocek and his men. He strained his eyes, trying to make out the object. Then he froze. “GET DOW — “

Oddly, he didn’t hear the explosion. But he saw Vilocek and Karn outlined in darkened silhouette as they were violently thrown forward. He couldn’t see Beka, but assumed he’d fared about the same. One of the Israeli soldiers had been flung backwards, almost to Bryce’s feet, and the other soldier had simply disintegrated. 

Bryce turned his attention to the soldier laying on the floor in front of him, and knelt to get below the smoke. As he crouched, the Israeli wriggled toward him, more shivering than crawling.

He did a double-take. The man
wasn’t
moving — at least not on his own. Instead, the floor beneath the man was snaking into thousands of tiny cracks. A larger crack was approaching the man’s feet…

Shit.
Bryce lunged forward, but it was too late. The floor beneath the soldier gave way, the entire section falling into oblivion. The man’s feet and torso sunk down into the new chasm, but he remained hanging by his arms from the edge. Bryce stretched his rifle toward the man, and he grabbed hold of the barrel. Wayne started to come up alongside Bryce to offer a hand, but Bryce waved him off. 

“Stop!” he shouted. “There’s not enough support anymore — the three of us together will be too heavy. See if you can find a way out of here.” Wayne turned back. 

The soldier was heavy. Bryce could barely hold on to the rifle, much less pull the man up. He struggled against the weight, worried about the shaft disintegrating.

The cracking continued, though it was almost inaudible. It was emanating from
within
the thick floor and walls of the tunnel, and Bryce knew he wouldn’t be able to hoist the man up and over the ledge without the shaft crumbling away. 

The Israeli cursed — he heard it too. “Hang on,” Bryce yelled, not even sure the man understood English. “We’re going to get some rope or something,” he said. A louder crack rang out. 

He heard footsteps coming up from behind. Wayne must have found something. Bryce shifted his position, trying to get as much leverage as possible to buy them time. 

“Hey, I got something,” Wayne shouted. The footsteps were now accompanied by a heavy dragging, clunking sound. 

A few more chunks of floor fell away, and Bryce knew Wayne wouldn’t reach them in time. The Israeli, muttering something to himself, pulled himself up on his elbows. 

He looked at Bryce, nodded once, and released his grip on the gun. 

“No!” Bryce knew it was too late. The man was already gone. He didn’t scream as he plunged to his death, and they couldn’t hear him hit anything at the bottom — if there was a bottom. Bryce was stunned, knowing the man had sacrificed his own life to save the team. 

Wayne, Jeff, and Sean all watched over Bryce’s shoulder. They stood for a moment in silence, then Wayne spoke up. 

“Found this.” 

He was holding one end of a large gold chain, the rest of it trailing on the floor at his feet. It looked heavy — each link was about half an inch thick, and the whole thing must have weighed almost seventy pounds. It was a good thing they wouldn’t need to throw it far, Bryce thought.

But how to get it over the gaping hole in the floor?
Deja vu,
Bryce thought. Although the gap this time was much shorter — probably no more than eight or ten feet — it was also slightly uphill. He looked at the chain, then back at the hole.

Without a word, Jeff suddenly burst past him.

Bryce only had time to look up before Jeff launched himself from their side of the broken passageway into the air. He flung his body forward with a grunt, his arms outstretched toward the far edge of the tunnel. With a heavy
thud,
he landed awkwardly, his arms barely holding on to the floor, the rest of his body dangling in space — just as the Israeli had done. 

It seemed impossible, but Jeff slowly pulled his torso, then his lower body up and over the edge. Finally he collapsed on the floor. “Nothing to it!” he shouted back. “Send the rope!”

Bryce shook his head and grinned as he hurled the end of the gold chain up and over the gap. Jeff caught it with one hand. Pulling it tight, Jeff and Bryce braced it for the other two men to cross. 

Wayne, the largest of the four, almost dragged the three of them into the hole, but luckily there wasn’t far to go. Bryce motioned to Sean to follow, but Sean hesitated. 

“I’m a little smaller than you,” Sean said. “I should go last, since I’ll need to jump. I’ll tie the chain around my waist in case I can’t get over.”

Bryce agreed, and climbed hand over hand to the other side. He reached the edge with no trouble, and the Thompsons lifted him bodily onto the ledge.

Three down, one to go.

Sean breathed deeply a few times, to calm his nerves, and looped the heavy gold chain around his waist. 

He took a few steps back, to give himself room for a running start. He pictured Jeff making the jump a few minutes earlier, and tried to memorize his technique. Another deep breath, and he started running. At the extreme edge, Sean leapt as high as he could and felt the sudden sensation of flying. 

The others gathered on the far side, holding out their arms to grab him. Then he began to fall, and like Jeff, he hit the opposite floor with the upper part of his torso. 

Unlike Jeff, however, Sean wasn’t able to get a grip on the ledge, and he bounced back and down, until the chain jerked tight around his waist. He held on like a rock climber waiting for the rope to stop swinging, and looked up at Bryce, peering over the edge. “Hey boss,” he said, grinning. “I think you’re gonna have to pull me up.”

The three men hauled on the chain, slowly raising Sean toward them.

There was a sudden splitting sound. Bryce and the others froze. Sean looked up and saw a new a crack forming in the floor, where the chain and the rock met. “Guys… ” Sean didn’t notice a single weakened link in the chain just above his head, now close to separating from the rest of the chain. It had been pulled tight, and the soft gold had stretched slightly under the weight of the men hanging and pulling on the chain. Now, it was barely holding together as Sean dangled helplessly, inches from safety. 

They started pulling again, slower this time, not wanting to widen the crack in the floor. Sean held as still as possible, and looked at the chain.

His eyes widened as he finally noticed the single link of gold that held his life in the balance — now pulled almost completely straight by the force.
“Shit,”
he muttered to himself. Slowly, carefully, he reached with his left hand up and over his head, trying to grab the chain
above
the weakened section — 

The chain snapped. 

Sean seemed to hang in the air for a brief moment, as his left hand closed around empty air. Sudden weightlessness pushed his stomach into his throat as the animal fear of death took over. He writhed around, looking for something — anything — to grab. The lights from his teammates’ flashlights flickering above him receded into tiny pinpricks of light. He didn’t scream — he couldn’t. He swallowed once, then again, and tried to turn his body around to see — 

Everything went dark. 

Bryce and the Thompsons stared helplessly down into the depths, their lamplight lost in the immense darkness. 

Bryce clenched his jaw, his eyes darting around, hoping to see Sean hanging on to something below. But he knew the answer — Sean hadn’t hit anything. They’d heard only the faint metallic snap of the chain as the weak link had separated.

“Oh, man,” Jeff said. “What the hell?!” Wayne frowned, not saying anything, then pulled the rest of the chain up and heaved it away. It disappeared into the darkness.

The three turned and wordlessly continued along the shaft. Bryce didn’t need to give orders — they would regroup at ground level and figure out what had become of the rest of the group. If Whittenfield was still online somewhere out there, he’d brief him and ask if anything new had happened. 

And he would make sure
somebody
would pay for all this bullshit. 

6:07 AM 

THE SHAFT dumped them out slightly to the southwest of the Treasury, facing south toward the Sacrificial Palace. Again, the exit was hidden from the world by a strangely misleading right-angled crack in the cliff. Without knowing where it was, it would have been impossible to find. 

Cole, Corinne, and Jensen squinted and blinked in the dawn light. It wasn’t necessarily
bright,
but the morning sunlight was a marked difference compared to the heavy darkness their eyes had grown accustomed to in the passages below. Madu and Aines were busy jabbering about something, but Cole could only tell that it wasn’t in English. A few seconds later, Madu looked to the three civilians, scowled, and turned on his heel toward the south. Unsure, Cole looked at Aines. 

Aines glared back and waved them over. In halting, choppy English, he said, “My commander has ordered me to remain with you until he finds the crystal. We are to head to the island as well, but he has insisted that he not waste any more time — how should I say? Yes,
babysitting
you.” He said the word
babysitting
like it was a curse, as if the word itself held a negative connotation. Cole hardened his eyes at the scrawny man in front of him. 

“Why do we even need to be there?” he asked. “This whole wild-goose chase hasn’t turned anything up anyway.”

“Yes, well,” Aines said. “I would happen to agree with you. My commander is not one to be questioned, however, and it seems he’s also now searching for some sort of lost part of his childhood. Nonsense or not, I have my orders.

“We are to go to the helicopters; about a kilometer south of here. Commander Jabari is meeting with the rest of our men, and they should be reaching the lift-off point in about ten minutes. I would like to be not much longer.” Aines looked pointedly at Professor Jensen, huffed in disapproval, then collected his gear and walked away. “Let’s go,” he called over his shoulder.

Corinne was only growing more and more worried as her uncle’s strength diminished. Cole wasn’t sure what to do, so he grabbed Jensen’s left arm, steadying him, and began walking. He thought he heard a sniffle from Corinne but kept his eyes focused on the ground ahead, unwilling to embarrass her. 

They were halfway across the plaza when they heard a shout from behind. Turning, they saw Vilocek, Karn, and Beka emerge from the passageway in the cliff. Cole didn’t see anyone following them — he knew what that meant. 

Professor Jensen let out a yelp, and Cole felt the man being tugged backwards. He turned to see Aines holding the professor by a tuft of his hair. Aines held his sidearm to the professor’s right temple. Jensen’s face was contorted in fear and surprise; his hands hanging limply by his sides. “What is this? Take your hands off me!” he protested. 

Cole took in the scene. The three Vilocorp men were closing in. Aines was growing more and more agitated the closer they got, and shouted for them to halt and drop their weapons. 

Cole launched his body at Aines an attempt to tackle him from the side, knock the professor from his grasp and hopefully give Vilocek and his men a shot.

Cole’s aim was spot-on, but his strength had suddenly left him.
What the hell?
His legs were moving, but they felt rubbery and weak. He couldn’t build any momentum as he lunged at the Egyptian. Aines was focused on the advancing Vilocek and his men. Cole brought his arms up, hoping he had enough power to knock Aines down before he saw the attack coming.

Then Cole’s face was crushed by a devastating left backhand. Aines was much stronger than his wiry frame would lead one to believe, and his lightning fast reaction time took them all by surprise. 

Cole’s nose erupted in a spattering of blood and mucus, and his eyes teared up, blinding him. He collapsed to the ground beside Aines and Professor Jensen. Corinne cried out and knelt beside Cole, who was groaning and spitting blood.

“You’re lucky I have this sack of bones to contend with, boy, or I would have ended you.”

Vilocek and his men spread out, and a standoff ensued. “Let that man go — he’s innocent,” Vilocek said, putting on a mask of nonchalance.

“I believe he is no help to us,” Aines replied. “My commander is merely out for revenge, and this hunt you are both on seems to me a ridiculous sideshow. If you expect me to release him, please put down your weapons and place your hands above your head.” 

“Actually, you’re right,” Vilocek said, his voice raspy and dry. “This man is of no use to us anymore. He has played his role, but now he seems to be slowing things down.”

Vilocek lowered his rifle, and both teams relaxed a bit. Then he suddenly flipped his wrist, unholstering his pistol in a blur. He fired twice in rapid succession, and Jensen Andrews crumpled, slipping from Aines’ grip. The gunshots reverberated through the canyon, ringing in their ears.

Corinne stared, bewildered and unbelieving. Her mouth opened slightly, but no words escaped. Cole blinked a few times, still trying to clear his head and unsure of what had happened.

“You bastard!” Corinne screamed. “You killed him!” She ran at Vilocek like a deranged cat, rabid and fearless. Karn stepped forward to grab the kicking, screaming young woman.