“What’s back there?” Bones asked, pointing into the gloom. Kaylin redirected the light to reveal a lidded, stone coffin. It was every bit as large as those of Goliath and his brothers. They moved forward to examine it. Kaylin shone her light across the lid. Something was carved in the surface, the deep shadows cast by the flashlight’s beam distorting the image. As the beam fell directly onto the image, Kaylin gasped.
The being carved into the coffin lid was like no other Dane had seen. It was tall, much like Goliath, but impossibly slender. Its arms were disproportionately long for its body, and ended in large hands with long, wormlike fingers. The odd appearance did not end there. Its head was too big by a third. Garbed in a simple robe, the odd being had large, round eyes and a serene face. Just looking at it gave Dane a strange sense of inner calm, as if this were the gentlest of beings.
“Little green men,” Bones whispered. “Well, big green men in this case.”
He placed a tanned hand on the lid and pushed. With a soft, scraping sound, it gave way, exposing a sliver of darkness where the lid shifted from the lip of the coffin. “It’s not beveled,” Bones whispered in surprise. He pulled his own small flashlight from his pocket and shone it down into the coffin. Dane and Kaylin hurried over to look inside, but Bones turned the light out before they could reach his side. He looked up, the disappointment evident on his face even in the semi-darkness. “Empty,” he said.
The crystals on the wall had absorbed enough stray light to cast a dusk-like glow around the room. Aside from the well and coffin, the room was obviously empty. Nonetheless, they made a quick search, looking for any sort of hidden egress, but they found nothing.
Leaving the room, Dane led them to the right. They moved counterclockwise around the second story hall, turning left at each corner. They found that each hallway was exactly like the one before: courtyard window at the center of the inside wall, doorway to an empty burial chamber on the outside wall. At each inside corner, a spiral staircase wound down to the first floor.
The differences between the crypts, as Kaylin called them, were few. The rooms on the north and south sides of the main chamber lay directly above the underground river. The wells in these rooms emptied down into the water. The biggest differences lay in the images carved on lids of each empty sarcophagus. In the second room, they found the image of a squat, simian-looking hominid with a prominent brow and short, thickly-muscled legs. Its face was angry, and exuded violence. In the third room, they found a representation of a small creature, no more than four feet tall. In terms of proportion, the body was very much like that of a human child. The features of its narrow face were those of an adult, though its eyes were vaguely impish.
They stood now in the room that lay upstream of the main chamber. The carving on this sarcophagus was that of an angel, but unlike any angel Dane had ever seen. No trumpet-bearing herald or Valentine cherub, this creature was fully ten feet tall, with broad, powerful shoulders, a narrow waist, and muscular legs. It wide forehead shaded narrow, slightly upturned eyes. Wrapped around its shoulders and cloaking its body were huge wings, rendered in such fine detail that Kaylin reached out and stroked the feathers.
“They’re all empty,” Bones said. “I don’t get this place. All of these halls are just alike. I guarantee you that downstairs on the other side of the river is nothing but a mirror image of the side we were on. Just an empty, square tunnel.”
Something clicked in Dane’s mind. “It’s a deathtrap,” he said, suddenly quite certain of himself. Anyone who finds this place just runs around in circles while whoever is defending the place picks you off one-by-one.”
“Why haven’t they gotten us yet?” Bones asked. He paced to the open doorway as he spoke, looking into the hallway.
“Maybe they’re so busy slugging it out with the other guys that they haven’t really paid us much attention,” Dane said, shrugging. The answer was not satisfactory, but he had no other at the moment. “That, and we’ve been lucky.”
“Why did they ever build this place?” Bones said, turning back to face Dane. “If it’s a killing ground, then it has to exist to protect something else.” A faint tremor shook the room.
“Don’t know, don’t care,” Kaylin interrupted, putting a slender hand on the sarcophagus as if to balance herself. “I’m sure I’ll wonder about it later, but all I want right now is to get out of here.” As if to punctuate the point, a quick burst of gunfire, the first they had heard since reaching the second level, echoed down the corridor.
“Where do we go?” Bones asked. “The tunnel’s blocked.”
Something in what Bones had said earlier gnawed at Dane’s consciousness. The thought broke through with a sudden and surprising clarity. “I’ve got it!” he said. “If the two halves of the first level are mirror images of one another, then there should be…”
“A tunnel leading back to the well!” Kaylin said, completing his thought. “There was more than one tunnel leading off of the well. The guys who shot at us in the main room must have come in that way.”
“But won’t they be guarding the exit?” Bones asked.
“They weren’t guarding the other one,” Dane said. If the battle between the two yet-unidentified groups continued, perhaps the three of them could slip through the net. “You take the lead. I’ll bring up the rear. With my legs the way they are right now, I can’t keep up with you anyway.”
“We’re not going to leave you,” Bones said.
“No matter what happens, you are to get Kaylin out of here. I’ll take care of myself,” he gave Bones what he hoped was his most commanding stare.
Bones stared back for a moment before shrugging. “Let’s try it,” Bones said. He led the way out of the room. Turning left, they ran to the end of the hall, where it turned to the right. Like the other three corners, a stone staircase spiraled down from the inside corner. They mounted the steps, moving with care and listening for any sounds of approaching enemies. They were on the northeast corner of the big room, Dane thought, thus putting them as close as possible to where the exit tunnel should be. As they wound their way down to the bottom, he thought he heard distant shouts coming up from below. He bit his lower lip and steeled himself for another firefight.
They hit the bottom of the stairs at a trot. Bones looked around quickly and shouted, “Run!” He sprinted out the door, spraying bullets down the hall to the right.
“I’ll cover you!” Dane called to Kaylin. Taking his Walther in his left hand, he reached around the doorway and blindly fired three shots down the hall. Then, giving Kaylin a push, he leapt out in front of her, opening up with his weapon.
Bones had taken out one man. He lay limp on the ground, his rifle near him. Two others, wearing the same style white shirt and brown pants as the man Meriwether had killed, charged down the hall, firing erratically. Dane fired another burst, then turned and ran around the corner. Ahead of him, Kaylin reached the end of the hall and disappeared to the left. He had been right. There was a tunnel there!
Behind him, another shot rang out, and a voice shouted in English for him to stop. Is this guy kidding me? Dane thought. He dodged right, then left, thankful that the pursuers did not have automatic weapons. He was within twenty feet of the tunnel when another tremor shook the ground. This one was the strongest yet. He fell hard, his Walther clattering from his grip. He still held on to the rifle, and turned and fired another burst at his pursuers, who had fallen to the ground. Both had lost their weapons, and Dane, still oozing with cold anger over Meriwether’s death, took them out without compunction. He hopped to his feet and turned around. What he saw made him curse. The mouth of the tunnel had collapsed.