Loose rocks shifted beneath his feet, causing him to slide, but he continued his ascent. His muscles strained as gravity’s clutching hands fought to hold him back. As the way grew even steeper, he was forced to find handholds in the volcanic rock, and he moved along in a half-crawl. Somewhere in the distance he heard the keening cry of what he hoped was a bird of prey. More likely, it was a pterodactyl. He hoped Talisa was right about the pyramid keeping the dinosaurs, or the stelli as she called them, at bay.
Humidity and his own perspiration quickly soaked through the fabric of his clothing. The exertion felt good. He hadn’t realized how much he missed climbing. Before he knew it, he’d reached the top of the volcano.
Gazing through the haze of volcanic gases wafting up from the crater, he scanned the dark rock, looking for any sign of a cave. Not for the first time, he wished his grandfather had left more explicit instructions.
Cracks in the rock, many cast in deep shadow, lay all about. Any one of them could hide the entrance. It would take forever to search them all. He needed to find a way to narrow things down.
He sat down on a nearby rock, allowed his eyes to slide out of focus, and began the breathing technique he’d learned in the Far East. In and out, focusing all his awareness, bringing all his senses and mental acuity to bear.
When his eyes snapped open, he once again scanned the inside of the volcanic cone, this time with machine-like precision. His eyes took in every detail, his brain processing the information in a flash. In moments, he had discarded entire sections of the cone as unlikely spots for a cave due to the steepness of the sides, the thinness of the cracks, or the emission patterns of the gases that poured forth from beneath the earth.
He quickly identified the most likely spot into which his grandfather would have descended. He concentrated on it, and his sharp eyes picked out, not a path, but a line in which the angle of the slope was a little less steep. It was so subtle he had overlooked it the first time, but now it seemed to shine as his eyes locked on it.
He made his way down to the spot he’d seen, where he found a narrow crevasse that cut at a sharp angle down into the volcanic rock. Not sure if it would prove to be a dead end, he squeezed his bulk into the narrow space and began working his way down into the darkness. The confining quarters constricted his chest and restricted his breathing. A less-experienced man might quickly succumb to claustrophobia and panic, but this was hardly Stone’s first caving experience and he knew that any spot he could get into, he would be able to get himself out of again.
He pressed on, sometimes having to force the air from his lungs in order to negotiate a particularly narrow spot, but finally the way opened up enough for him to move easily and, more important, breathe freely. A few more minutes of feeling his way in the dark and he was able to walk normally. With room to now get into his rucksack, he retrieved his flashlight and shone it up ahead.
He was in a lava tube. The way ahead sloped sharply downward at a dizzying angle. He would be able to climb back out, of that he was sure, but it would be a chore. He once again thought about his friends and reminded himself it was important that he find whatever lay ahead as quickly as he could, and then make tracks back to the city.
He slid down the steep tube. At the bottom, it angled sharply to the right before opening up into a large chamber.
Stone regained his feet, took two steps inside and shone his light all around.
“My God,” he breathed. “It’s incredible.”
To his left, a strange script covered the wall — some form of hieroglyphics, if he didn’t miss his guess. To the right, a map of the earth adorned the smooth stone. Sprinkled throughout were images of pyramids. He saw some in the expected places: Egypt and Central America, but there were many more, some in North America, which he presumed might be Indian mounds, but others were located in surprising places, such as Eastern Europe, Japan, and even Antarctica. Wavy lines radiated outward from all of them, linking up with other pyramids. He had no idea what they meant, but they had to be important. Was this his grandfather’s secret? Was this the great danger of which he needed to be aware? Did John Kane seek this knowledge, or did he even know what lay on this island?
He searched the cavern to make certain he had not missed anything, and quickly satisfied himself that the map and strange writing were the secrets intended for his eyes. He drew a pencil and notebook from his rucksack, sat down, and prepared his mind for the task. Once focused, he set to copying the hieroglyphs. His hand zipped across the pages, sketching perfect copies of the symbols at a breakneck pace — another skill he had picked up after his military service. When he’d filled more than twenty pages, he turned and copied the map of the earth.
He sat there, feeling an odd sense of incompleteness. Something was not right. If his grandfather’s secret was locked in a map and a set of symbols, why had it been necessary for Stone to come to this place? Couldn’t his grandfather have copied them down as Stone had just done? There had to be more. Perhaps there was something to be gained here that could only be experienced.
He laid his pencil and notebook aside, closed his eyes, and calmed his thoughts. He reached out beyond the confines of his body, feeling the energy of the space. Something pulsed in the air…something powerful and deadly. The world map seemed to detach from the wall and drift toward him. Despite his closed eyes, he could see it clearly. It encircled his body and formed a sphere that slowly rotated around him.
Energy seemed to flow up from within the earth into the pyramids. As Stone watched, shadows encroached from all around, and the pyramids began to glow. It soon became evident that the grid formed by the network of pyramids was keeping the darkness at bay.
His eyes snapped open. He stood, his mind alive with the vision he’d just witnessed. He didn’t fully understand what he had just seen, but something had changed inside him. What was the darkness the pyramids held at bay, and what was his connection to it? He hoped the secret lay in the hieroglyphs, or perhaps buried in his subconscious. Somehow, he felt as if knowledge had seeped inside him, insinuating itself into the deepest recesses of his mind. But he could spare no time now to figure it all out. He needed to get back to Trinity and his friends.
26- The Battle
Stone heard the commotion long before he reached the valley. Alarmed shouts, sharp commands, and loud cracks and crashes emanated from far below. He quickened his pace, and the noises solidified into the unmistakable sounds of battle. His heart raced. What had happened? Were Trinity and the others all right?
He shot down the steep path at full speed. Several times, he almost lost his footing but managed to remain upright. A fall down the steep, rocky face of the volcano could be deadly, but he did not consider the risk. He’d left his friends alone and now he feared they were paying the price.
He topped a rise and Ogygia came into view. Down below, the Ogygians battled the caveman-like Varri. Stone searched the chaos for signs of his friends and quickly spotted Moses, who had presumably emptied his pistol and now fought with a cudgel in one hand and his machete in the other, battering and slashing the powerful but slow Varri. Nearby, Alex had found a spear and was desperately trying to keep a determined Varri at bay.
He saw no sign of Trinity.
It felt like an eternity before he finally burst into the city and into the midst of the battle. He drew his Webley, dropped to one knee, and selected his target — a brute of a warrior, armed with two clubs, who was driving Alex backward, in Stone’s direction. He took careful aim and squeezed off a single shot that whizzed past Alex’s ear and took the huge Varri in the eye socket.