Matt Reilly Stories (13 page)

Even
Chase knew Breslin's links with the American government were strong. It was
widely known that Breslin was a regular guest at the White House and a
long-time friend of the President's.

'The
US Government needs our help,' Chase said, deadpan. 'With what?'

THE
DESCENT

'With
some stone tablets we've found,' the Air Force general said, as he guided
Breslin, Chase and Kenny G down a set of steel stairs that led underneath the
hangar.

The
general's name was Haynes, Washington Haynes, and he was the officer-in-charge
of this facility.

'Mister
Breslin tells me you're from Australia,' he said to Chase as they descended the
stairs.

'UWA.'

'Yes,
I am.'

'You
studied under Hans Ziegler, right?'

'Yes.
I was lucky. He was there as a Visiting Fellow when I was doing my doctorate.'

'Hmmm,'
Haynes nodded thoughtfully, then changed the subject. 'Always wanted to go to Australia.
Good skiing, they tell me. Nice old castles, too.'

'I
think you mean
Austria
,' Chase said.

'Oh.
Yeah.'

Typical
Americans
, Chase thought. They could build stealth bombers
and neutron bombs, but they couldn't tell the difference between Australia and
Austria. And this guy was a
general.

The
stairwell took them down into the earth.

As
they approached a landing, Chase heard pained shouts coming from within. When
they came to the landing in question, Haynes and Breslin just walked straight
past the open doorway.

Chase,
however, looked in.

And
she gasped.

She
saw four men lying in hospital beds, in various states of disarray.

Two
were horribly bloodied and bandaged, their sheets awash with red splashes.
Another        man lay comatose, attached to a life-support system. The fourth
man was struggling with two hapless doctors. Kicking and squirming, for a brief
second, his feet protruded from underneath his sheets.

Chase
held back her revulsion. The man's feet were horribly deformed-it looked as if
they had been
crushed flat
.

Kenny
had also stopped to look. 'Tell me we're not going where he went,' he said
flatly.

THE
TABLETS

They
caught up with Haynes and Breslin on the next floor below, at a laboratory-type
room. Chase took in the room.

A
few benches, some wash trays, and at the far end, a solid-looking steel door
that looked like a bank safe. Nearer to Chase stood a whiteboard with
hand-written messages slashed              across it:

'PRE-AZTEC
MINE, POSSIBLY TEOTIHUACAN…'

'VAULT
STRUCTURE ON LOWEST LEVEL - OPEN IT BY USING THE TABLETS, BUT IN WHAT ORDER???'

'WHAT
IS TRIGGERING THE DAMN BOOBY TRAPS!'

'7
MEN LOST: 4 WOUNDED, 3 DEAD…1 BEING A CIVILIAN.'

'WHAT
IS IN THERE? HAS TO BE THE VISITOR'S STONE…'

In
front of the whiteboard stood a long stainless-steel table. Chase approached
it, saw what lay on top of it.

Five
stone tablets.

Five
glistening black
stone tablets.

They
were rectangular in shape, each about the size of a hardback book

But
it was their blackness that seized her attention. They were more than just
black—they were jet black, black-on-black. Chase guessed that they were cut
from some kind of volcanic glass, obsidian maybe.

Carved
into each rectangular tablet was an image that looked something like an
elongated face.

Chase
picked up one of the tablets. Heavy. She turned it over in her hands. On the
rear side of the tablet there was a hollowed out section in the shape of a +.

'Is
this why you brought us here?' she asked Breslin. 'To decipher these.'

'That
and a few other glyphs that the general is having…trouble…with,' Breslin said.

Chase
looked at her boss hard.

'I'll
have to run them through the database,' she said, at last. 'And even then I'll
have to make some educated guesses. But for that I'll need my laptop and our
scanning equipment. They're up in the jet.'

Haynes
nodded to one of the lab technicians, who dashed upstairs.

Chase
said, 'Right. I think I've been more than co-operative. Now it's your turn.
Blacked out jets, non-disclosure forms, men with flattened feet and ancient
stone tablets. I think it's time you boys told us what the hell is going on
here.'

Breslin
exchanged a look with Haynes, who nodded.

'Why
don't you come this way,' the Air Force general said, ushering Chase and Kenny toward
the thick steel door at the far end of the lab.

He
punched a code into a keypad and the big door hissed open. Haynes swung it
wide.

Chase
stepped through…

…and
her jaw dropped.

THE
MINE

She
found herself standing in the entrance to a dirt-walled cave, about twenty
yards square. The earthen cavern was illuminated by a series of halogen
light-stands, arrayed in a circle around a squat stone structure.

It
was about the size a single-car garage, and built in the shape of a solid
little pyramid…and in the distinctly Teotihuacan style.

A
square entryway filled its centre, yawning wide, inviting the unwary to enter
its inky black depths.

Haynes
and his scientific team had encased the little structure in a Lexan-glass
airlock-a giant clear-glass cube that completely covered the squat little
building-creating a bizarre mix of the dusty-and-ancient and the very
high-tech.

Chase
stared at the little stone portal.

She'd
seen structures just like it dotted all around Teotihuacan.

It
was the entrance to an ancient mine.

PART
2

THE
TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Chase
walked around the glass-encased mine entrance, evaluating it with a cool gaze.

'Teotihuacan
structure,' she said. 'Late fifth century.'

'Correct,'
Breslin said.

'Design
is similar to that of some of the gold and diamond mines on the outskirts of
the main metropolis in Mexico,' she said. 'I assume you've encountered booby
traps.' Teotihuacan mines often featured elaborate traps as a deterrence to
thieves.

'Yes,
we have,' General Haynes said.

'But
this baby's a long way from home…' Kenny G said.

'Yes.'
Chase rounded on Haynes. 'Although it would help if we had some idea just how
far from home we are.'

Haynes
eyed her carefully, then said, 'Nevada. We're in southern Nevada.'

Kenny
turned to Chase. 'Could be Xutu.'

'What's
Xutu?' Breslin asked.

'It's
a legendary Teotihuacan prison,' Chase said, 'reputedly built in the desert far
to the north of the main city. The Teotihuacan version of Alcatraz. Legend has
it that Xutu was also filled with lethal booby traps, and-at its lowest
levels-was patrolled not by human guards, but by animals.'

'Animals?'

Kenny
said, 'Most likely domesticated American marsupial wolves. Although-'

'The
thing is,' Chase said, 'Xutu could just be a myth. Talk of it only arises from
the disputed translation of a handful of glyphs in Teotihuacan.'

The
lab technician arrived from upstairs with Chase's computer gear. Her laptop was
connected to a device that looked like a police radar gun: Kenny's image
scanner.

Chase
looked expectantly at Breslin and Haynes.

'Okay.
So what do you want us to do?'

Haynes
said, 'We want you to go down into the mine, and using that little database of
yours, open up its biggest secret.'

ENTRY

The
door to the Lexan-glass airlock surrounding the mine entrance opened with a
loud hiss.

Chase
and Kenny stood before it, now surrounded by eight fully-armed soldiers-their escort-whom
Haynes merely said 'were from Delta'. Their leader was a lieutenant named William
'Tank' Kowalski.

A
long length of nylon rope was also now tied firmly around Chase's waist, connecting
her to Kenny.

'Buddy
system,' Kowalski had said as he'd tied the rope around her slender hips.

Chase
had noticed that all the Delta men were joined together in a similar way, tied
off into pairs. She wondered why.

The
airock swung open, and a knot of apprehension materialised in her throat. She swallowed
it. She was frightened, but her curiosity had got the better of her. She wanted
to know what lay inside this mine.

And
with that, they entered the airlock, and disappeared inside the ancient mine.

THE
WELL-SHAFT AND THE LONG STONE

The
first thing Chase saw were four close stone walls and a hard-packed earthen
floor. In the middle of the dirt floor, however, was a dark circular hole, into
which hung a knotted rope.

Following
the Delta men, Haynes and Breslin, she climbed down the well, aided by the knots
on the rope.

The
walls of the shaft were perfectly sheer, and dripping with moisture. Every
brick was set flush against the next. There was not a fingerhold to be had up
its entire cylindrical length.

Which
was odd, Chase thought. Most Teotihuacan mines allowed easy access to and from the
digging levels.