The breeze was stronger here, cooler too, and Maggie felt it brush hair against her ears. She hardly noticed, for after a few steps she remembered she had her camera. She took as many pictures of the cells and sarcophagi as the wavering gun lights would allow to her, trying different levels of zoom. She knew the light was too dim to do the scene justice and that many of her attempts would be out of focus or too dark to be of any use.
But I have to at least try.
Around half of the cells had their entrances covered with the thick gray mats of web she was starting to come to hate but none of the stone coffins looked to have been disturbed in any way. Maggie couldn’t help but wonder what marvels they were walking past so blithely, what wonders had lay hidden in the stone all these long centuries. A find like this, undisturbed, was unprecedented, and in normal circumstances would mean years of meticulous work in her immediate future.
But these aren’t normal circumstances.
She knew there was no chance of convincing Banks to stop to let her and Kim investigate. His priorities were to get them out and home and they were priorities she agreed with for the most part. All she could do for now was record as much as was possible with the camera and hope against hope to be able to return. Her vow to make that return trip was only strengthened.
“We should… ” Kim started but Maggie stopped her.
“I know. But first we have to survive long enough to get home and tell somebody.” She held up the camera. “At least we’ll have this to show them.”
“It’s not enough.”
“It’ll have to be,” she said.
The alley of cells ran for a hundred paces, heading straight north. As they approached the far end, they noted that all of the openings were covered in web. Maggie also saw that Banks had become even more still and alert ahead of them and decided it was time to stop taking pictures and paying more attention to her own immediate safety. She stowed the camera back inside her shirt, felt Kim take her hand again and, concentrating only on the gun light ahead of them, stepped forward behind the three soldiers.
The alley led to another doorway at the far end and more steps, leading upward this time, a short run of six that brought them up into another chamber with three doorways off, to the north, east, and west. This room was empty save for a single four-foot-tall sculpture in the center, done in white marble of a naked man wearing only a peaked cap, standing tall and wielding a spear that was pointed down at the body of a large dead bull. It looked to be complete, with no cracks, no chips, no bits of anatomy missing from man or bull. Maggie knew that any museum in the world would pay a king’s ransom to have it among their exhibits.
“It’s Mithras,” Kim whispered. “God, that’s beautiful. There’s one in Paris that I’ve seen but this is in much better condition.”
“Who’s Mithras when he’s at home?” Wiggins said behind them.
“An eastern sun god the Romans, the soldiers in particular, took for their own. Statues to him have been found in forts and temples all over the empire. Men like you have been worshipping him for millennia.”
Wiggins laughed.
“Honey, there are no other men like me.”
Banks hushed their chat again and looked to Kim.
“You’ve seen maps of this place. Maggie tells me there’s an exit leading above ground in the synagogue. Any clue how we’d get there from here?”
Kim looked thoughtful, as if calculating directions and distances in her head.
“We must be under it if I’ve got it clear in my head,” she said, then pointed at the rightmost entrance. “That way is my best guess. If I’m right, it goes up toward the square and the old synagogue is at the western end.”
Banks looked to the north passage.
“The wind is coming that way though and I was inclined to follow it. But anything that gets us out will be good by me at this point. Davies, lead the way and look sharp.”
A narrow, winding corridor led upward at a gentle slope from the Mithras room and after only a few minutes brought them into another, much smaller, room. The walls were rough-hewn and solid and it felt tight and cramped when all eight of them were inside. At first, it looked like a dead end. Then Banks spoke.
“Kill your lights,” he said. The soldiers all obeyed and Maggie realized she could see their faces. Banks pointed upward and they all raised their heads, to look up what might at one time have been a chimney. Dim light came from a hole open to the sky five yards above them.
“Just as well it’s not yet full dusk or we might never have noticed,” Banks said. “Who fancies a climb?”
— 19 —
Banks was tempted to try the climb himself but as the officer in charge, he had a duty to all of them, not just to himself, and he was relieved when Wilkins, the smaller of the privates, spoke up.
“I’ll give it a go, sir,” the lad said, passing his rifle to Davies. “I always liked a good clamber.”
They had to boost Wilkins up onto Davies’ and Brock’s shoulders before he could reach up into the chimney and when the lad pulled himself up, it was a tight squeeze. His body now blocked out most of the aperture at the top, so Hynd switched on his gun light and tried to give the younger man some light for the climb. Wilkins put a foot on the surface ahead of him, his other foot on the wall behind, and then began to shuffle himself upward in a classic narrow space climb.
It was slow going and Banks knew how much strain the lad was putting on his ankles with every move. About halfway up, Wilkins paused to catch his breath.
“It’s going to be tight,” he called down, “but I should get up there okay.”
Banks was already thinking it wasn’t a great idea, for if Wilkins, the slightest of them, found it tight, the broader lads like Brock and Wiggins would have no chance of making it. He was about to call Wilkins back when the lad started climbing again, making better time now. Banks let him continue.
At least he’ll get us some intel as to where the fuck we are.
Wilkins reached the top some minutes later.
“Nearly there,” he called down.
“Don’t do anything daft, lad,” Banks called up. “But see if you can get some pointers as to where we are.”
They heard a scrape as Wilkins pushed himself up.
“There’s a big market square here. We’re in the south-west corner by the look of it and… oh fuck.” There was more scrambling above and Wilkins dropped down the chimney, far faster than he had gone up. “Spiders, sir,” he said as he landed, unsteady on his feet beside them. “It’s infested. Fucking hundreds of them and at least a dozen of yon huge buggers the size of cars.
“That settles that then,” Banks said. “We go back to the room with the statue and try north.”
Kim spoke up.
“If we’re in the southwest corner of the square, we must be close to the synagogue.”
Banks smiled grimly.
“And if the square is infested with spiders, there’s not much point in going that way or even looking for that exit. We don’t have the ammo for a prolonged firefight, so it’s best if we sneak along unnoticed for now. If we manage to maintain a track north, we’ll hit the outer wall at some point. You said that’s how the Persians got in?”
Kim nodded.
“But that was many centuries ago.”
“It doesn’t matter. If the way is blocked and we need an explosion, I’ll get Wiggins to fart.”
He looked up the chimney. It was already appreciably darker up there. Dusk was coming on fast.
When they arrived back at the Mithras statue, Banks took the lead again and led them north, feeling the cool breeze on his face. It gave him hope that he was doing the right thing, although the lack of a backup escape route had him worried; if they met the spiders in these enclosed corridors, they’d be able to hold them off for a few minutes, then it would be all over. The need for a clear escape was uppermost in his mind and he walked ahead as fast as he could while allowing the others to keep up at his back.