Morgan's Choice (31 page)

“Frescoes. Down here. This place is amazing.”
He crossed to a pillar and let his fingers trail on the surface.
Underneath the dust the stone gleamed with a soft luster.

He ventured further into the chamber, between
the columns, Morgan close behind. It was like a forest, pillar
after pillar. He counted them as they walked past; ten pillars. The
pattern had changed. A double line of columns, their tops connected
by a decorated arch, ran at right angles to the direction in which
they walked.

“This looks like the nave. And look down
there.” He played the light around his feet, revealing a pattern of
intertwined leaves. “See how an edging pattern goes along both
sides?”

They walked side by side to the left, under
the arched colonnade.

“There’s light here,” Morgan said.

“There is?”

“Yes. Faint. Coming down in a single beam
onto whatever’s up here.”

He stopped and switched off his lantern.
Ahead of them a soft light shone on something that gleamed dimly in
response. He turned his lantern back on. “Best see what it is,
first.”

He shone the light on the rear wall. A group
of carved figures stood together in a raised area. A bundle lay on
the floor propped against the plinth.

They walked on, listening for sounds, smells,
whispers of air—anything, his eyes fixed on the carvings. The
plinth proved to be the carved surrounds of a pool, the water
reflecting the light from the shaft high above. Four figures, a
little larger than life size, stood along the back edge of the pool
where it met the cavern’s wall. Two figures, much taller than the
others but headless, stood on pedestals in the pool. The heads lay
face up in the water.

He shone the lantern on the bundle on the
floor.

It was a skeleton.

The figure sat with its back against the pool
surround, the skull propped back against the stone, the lower jaw
hanging open. It wore a robe of dark material, collapsed into the
cavity under the ribs. White digits protruded from the long sleeves
and the feet still wore sandals. A knife lay next to the right
hand.

He picked up the knife and tested the edge.
“Not bad. But I can sharpen it.”

She frowned. “Unwyn’s colleagues will want to
investigate.”

“Then I’ll give it back to them. We have a
greater need.”

Questions lined up in his head. Who was he or
she? How long had they been dead? Why? What happened?

She must have been thinking the same thing.
“Trapped here?”

“Maybe. Maybe left here to die, or to commit
suicide.”

“Why do you say that?”

“There’s been violence here. The central
figures have been decapitated. Look at the bas relief. I’d guess
they are the four classes of manesa. See? The Shuba carries a
spade, the Hasta a laboratory flask, the Vesha has sacks of goods
around his feet and the Mirka carries weapons. The things in the
middle… some sort of Gods?” He stepped closer to play the light on
the fallen heads.

“Round eyes.” She went still again, staring
at the heads in the water. “These are the people from that secret
room upstairs. The match is ninety percent.”

He stared at her. Was there no end to what
she could do?

She gave him a shame-faced grin and pointed
at her head. “I have an on-board computer, remember?”

“Would they have had?” He jerked his head at
the statues.

She turned to the skeleton. A tremor ran
through her body and she gasped. “It has an implant. I can’t read
it, but it’s there, near its ear.”

“But… that’s… that’s incredible.” This place
had to be thousands of years old. He walked around to the other
side of the skeleton and peered, lantern in hand. The light glinted
off a disc attached to the skull just above where the ear would
have been.

Incredible but true.

He shone the light beyond the figures on the
wall at the carving around them. A sun and planets; a solar system.
And a word.

“Maybe these two brought the manesa here,”
she said. “Don’t ask me how. And that solar system is where they
came from.”

And where she came from? But an image of a
sun and its attendant planets could be anywhere. “My impression of
this place is that the two in the middle assumed the status of
gods. This place is a monument to them. The manesan figures are
smaller, so they had lesser status. And then somebody decided they
weren’t gods.” He gestured at the corpse beside the pool. “And
that’s one of them or perhaps a high priest or
something.”

“Based on a skull comparison there’s a very
good chance this is the man; the Orionar male we saw up there in
the shrine.”

He was past being surprised. A Supertech;
such an understatement. Brilliant and beautiful. “Demoted and left
to die, like any other mortal. I can’t see any obvious cause of
death. The woman… I felt the room up there was a shrine to her.
Perhaps she’d died of natural causes. So many questions. But
fascinating as it is, it doesn’t get us out of here.”

“No, it doesn’t. I wonder how the people got
into this place?”

“Good question. Let’s go down the other
end.”

They walked together between the columns, all
senses on high alert. But no stir of air disturbed the darkness, no
footprints except their own had marred the pristine dust. The place
had been defiled and deserted, maybe thousands of years ago, very
likely before Krystor had been abandoned.

The far wall emerged from the gloom as they
approached. The lantern light illuminated a magnificent arch
supported by two elaborate pillars shaped in the likeness of trees.
But the massive door between the pillars was locked.

Chapter
Thirty-Seven

Asbarthi glared at his
sanvad
and slid it back into its holder. Still no answer
from Lakshmi. Where was the woman? “I can’t wait any longer. I have
important matters to attend to.” Like slicing out Ravindra’s heart.
He felt a frisson of pleasure at the thought.

The newly-promoted commander of Zaffra Bay
military base leaned his elbows on his desk behind the polished
name plate; Admiral Iniman. “You need have no concerns on our part.
The base is secure.”

So it seemed. Outside a squadron of fighters
wearing the decals of the new government lined up, preparing for a
routine practice which would take them across some of the smaller
cities. Just to make the point. The engines filled the air with a
howl of sound. Quite deafening, really. Why a commander would want
to have his office quite so close to all that noise was beyond his
understanding.

“
Well then…” he rose and his
sanvad
chimed. At last. Lakshmi. No.
Barad’s face looked at him from the screen.

“Barad?” The fellow swallowed, dithered. His
pulse beat a little faster. The noise from outside grew. “What has
happened?”

“
Admiral Ravindra has escaped,
Hai
Sur
.” He gabbled the
words, blurted them out.

He froze, white hot rage surging through him,
tensing his body. “What?”

“We found the guard in his cell, dressed in
his uniform.”

“Alive?” He wouldn’t be for long.

“No. He’d been killed.”

What a pity. He would have enjoyed
twisting a knife into the incompetent idiot’s gut. Selwood. Selwood
must have rescued him. Maybe they
were
lovers. Lakshmi was right, he couldn’t trust the woman,
should never have trusted her. “Has
Hai Sur
Sayvu arrived?”

“
Yes,
Hai Sur
.”

“Convey my apologies. I shall remain
here.”

He ended the call and shot a glance at
Iniman, rigid with shock in his chair. “Seal your perimeters,
Iniman. Ravindra is alive. I expect he’ll aim for here.”

“Ravindra.” Iniman gaped like a hooked
fish.

“
Oh, close your flapping mouth. He’s just
another
Darya
. He will
bleed, as they all do.” Oh yes, he would bleed; and he’d make the
Orionar freak watch. Meanwhile, Lakshmi needed to know. He pressed
the re-dial. Still no answer.

****

Lakshmi wriggled in her seat. The blasted
copter would have to be the most uncomfortable contraption she’d
ever, ever been in. They’d been here… how long? Three hours. The
men leaned up against the wall under the porch, even the pilot. If
even he didn’t want to sit in here, maybe she should have realized
from that. She clambered out onto the damp rock, the omnipresent
mist swirling around her. That was one good reason to endure some
discomfort. At least she’d stayed dry.

Telmus shoved himself upright as she
approached. “No sign of anyone,
Hai Suri
.” He looked damp and bedraggled. “I think we
should go and meet them. We can’t be sure nothing’s happened to
them, either. Maybe they’re stuck somewhere.”

She stared between him and the gap in the
warped metal door. “But if they’re on their way down, they’ll hear
us.”

“
Just Wes and I will go,
Hai
Suri
. We have the
sensorpack. We’ll know they’re coming well before they see
us.”

“Fine.” She made a shooing gesture with her
hand. “Get on. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be
back.”

The two men squeezed between the doors and
disappeared. The sun had slid away and half the gorge lay in
darkness. The endless noise was beginning to get on her nerves. Let
alone the water. She blew a pendulous drip off her nose.

****

Lakshmi wrung her hands together. The sun had
begun to set up there in the real world. Down here the gloom had
deepened since noon, the light retreating up one wall of the chasm.
Cold and damp wormed its way under her clothing. She paced, more to
warm herself than anything else. When she got her hands on that
bitch and her professor, she’d make them suffer for this.

The two men under the portico rocked from
foot to foot, huddled into their clothing. Huh. At least they wore
combat fatigues. They’d have to be better off than she was. They
both straightened, suddenly alert, their attention on the door.

At last. Telmus squeezed out first, then Wes.
Alone.

She strode over to them, arms folded. “What’s
happened? Where are they?”

Telmus rubbed a fist over his face. “There
was a fall a few klicks up the passage. Nothing could have got
through there.”

A fall. No point in asking if they were
underneath the rocks. They wouldn’t know. And if they weren’t,
they’d be trapped in the dark under the mountain. Wouldn’t Selwood
be enjoying that?

“That’s disappointing. I was looking forward
to having a full and frank discussion with Unwyn.”

“
By your leave,
Hai Suri
.” Telmus bowed.

“What?”

“I was thinking. What if they got through
before the fall? It looked very recent.”

“You mean they’re out already?”

He lifted his shoulders. “It’s possible. Not
likely, but possible.”

She put her hands on her hips. Already out,
eh? She’d suffered all this cold and damp for nothing. Oh, somebody
was going to pay. “Where would they be?”

“
We could try here,” Wes said, gazing at
his
sanvad
. “This
Riverport place. It’s just a dot on the map but it’s marked as
having food and a bed.”

“Into the copter, boys.”

Chapter
Thirty-Eight

Morgan couldn’t help glancing over her
shoulder. The skeleton was invisible but its presence weighed on
her mind. There had to be a way out of here; there had to be. While
Ravindra examined the surface she scanned the structure for some
sort of mechanism.

“It slides,” she said. “See the track? And
there has to be some sort of door opener. Even if it’s broken.”

He pointed at a device, set into the
stonework of the entrance. “This door has been locked from the
outside. If it could be opened from within, he would have opened
it.”

Of course he would.
Idiot
. In her mind the
skeleton grinned. ‘So nice to have company.’

“
Don’t give up hope yet,
Suri
. This
pillar looks a bit unstable. Perhaps we’ll find a
weakness.”

He was right. The left hand pillar leaned.
Whereas all the joins she’d seen so far had been precise, a gap
separated the top of the pillar from the arch. He shone his lantern
over the ground at its base. A few tiles had split and come away,
forced out by the leaning pillar.

“Stand back.” He pulled out the gun.

She put out a hand. “Hey. What are you going
to do?”

“Create a larger weakness. Force the pillar
to fall.”

“But… we might get trapped in here.”

He smiled. “
Suri
… Morgan… we
are
trapped in
here. Stand between the pillars in the nave.” He looked up the
ceiling. “Let’s hope this doesn’t bring the entire roof
down.”

She retreated, her heart thundering. Let’s
hope indeed. He was crazy. And yet he was right. What other choice
was there? He pulled a few tiles away and fired down into the
floor. Fragments sprayed and spattered, punctuating the steady
hiss-zip as he kept the trigger closed. Light from the blue beam
bounced off the carvings, casting weird shadows. When he stopped
and bent to remove the debris from the hole, she ran out to
help.

A whisper of sound halted them both.
Particles of dust drifted down from the lintel. She could swear
that gap was wider. “It’s working.”