Quest (Dane Maddock Adventures) (25 page)

“Bring it on any time.” Although he was only ninety-seven percent sure she wasn’t going to try to kill him, Bones couldn’t help but like this girl. “My friends and I are to meet up here. If they agree to it, you can come along.” He had to laugh. He could only imagine what Maddock was going to say.

Dane was not sure what to make of this new development, but he trusted Bones’s judgment, and his own instincts told him that Tam was all right. He didn’t know what to think about her claim that she was investigating the Dominion. What were the odds that name would crop up again? Until she proved herself, however, he was going to watch her closely.

He heard a rustling over the sound of the waterfall, and turned to see Matt and Willis come into view, the former supporting the latter’s weight. Willis’s right pants leg was soaked with blood. 

“He caught a spear in the thigh,” Matt grunted as he helped his friend ease down onto a nearby rock. “It looks worse than it is, I think.”

“Says you.” Willis winced as Bones ripped open the gash in the fabric in order to get a better look. “How come it’s always the black man that has to die first? Tell me that, any of y’all.”

“You’re not dead. If you were, you wouldn’t be so freakin’ talkative.” Bones chastised. They stood guard as Matt hastily cleaned, dressed, and bandaged the wound. “I’d stitch it up, but that would take a while, and there’s no telling when those natives will be back.”

“I think we just ran out of time!” Dane had spotted movement in the distance. Shadowy forms were coming their way, and that meant danger, whether it was the natives or ScanoGen who were on their trail. “Let’s get to the waterfall. Even if Tam’s wrong about that being the last landmark, that will cut down on the approaches they can take to get to us.”

They picked their way across the narrow, rocky path that ran between the base of the cliff and the dark pool fed by the waterfall. Cool mist coated their faces and made the way slick. Dane put Tam in the front so he could see if she tried anything. Willis refused further help, and managed the trek reasonably well, though Dane was worried about his comrade. Bones had confided in him that the wound was deep, and would require better attention than the quick treatment Matt had given it.

As they drew close to the waterfall, Dane could see that the cliff face was hollowed out behind it. Hope rising, he urged Tam to quicken her pace before they were spotted. Skirting a head-high boulder, they stepped behind the curtain of water into a cave ten feet across running twenty feet back into the rock. Light filtering through the water cast the place in a flickering glow, and made it easy to see what awaited them inside the cave.

A giant skull was carved into the back wall. The mouth, nose, and eye sockets were all large enough for a person to crawl through. The irregular light sent shadows wavering across its surface, seeming to bring it to life.

“Wicked,” Bones observed as he, bringing up the rear, entered the cavern.

“This is it.” Tam put her hands on her hips and stared at the huge stone skull. She seemed to have already forgotten her position as a prisoner amongst a group of armed captors. “The problem is, I don’t know where we go from here. Fawcett’s map only takes us this far. It’s entirely possible this is rigged so that someone who doesn’t know the trick gets it.” She dragged a finger across her throat and made a squelching noise.

“I think, for safety’s sake, we should assume that’s the case,” Dane said. “We can help you here. You see, we found Fawcett’s
personal
copy of
The Lost World
.” He grinned at Tam’s look of surprise. “Now we need the Path of Five Steps. Kaylin, what’s the first one?” He hoped that by asking her to contribute, even in a small way, he could assuage some of her guilt at surrendering their secret.

“All about me I see enemies. Rome, the scent your funeral pyres is the finest perfume.”

“Weird.” Matt frowned. “Couldn’t they just say, ‘
Push this button and go here’
?”

“You have definitely been spending too much time with Bones.” Kaylin shook her head. “Remember, this is a combined translation from Fawcett and a native. It’s not going to be crystal clear, especially if it was some sort of secret code.”

“So what does it mean?” Tam looked and sounded impatient.

“You like what you see, but not what you smell.” Dane said. “Sounds like we need to pick its nose.” He looked at Tam. “Go for it.”

She smirked. “Scared to try it for yourself?”

“Nope, but if I’m wrong, I don’t want to lose one of my people.”

“Fine by me.” She strode over the skull and peered into the hole where the nose should be. “There’s a handhold in here.” She glanced up at the eye sockets and down at the gaping mouth. “Also one in each of the eyes, but not the mouth. That’s just a blank wall.” She looked back at Dane. “Mister Maddock, you had better be right about this.” Gingerly, she reached into the sinus cavity, set her jaw, and pulled.

Nothing happened.

Tam stepped back, hands on hips, looking at the skull like it was a man she’d just caught with another woman. And then a loud, creaking sound resonated above the sound of falling water, and with a scraping like the opening of a crypt, the wall at the back of the skull’s mouth slid down into the floor, revealing deep, impenetrable darkness behind it.

 A ragged cheer went up among the group. Dane grinned and tossed Tam a flashlight. “In you go.”

They had to proceed on hands and knees through the mouth of the skull. On the other side, they could stand, though Bones and Willis had to duck down in places to keep from hitting their heads. The tunnel ascended at a steep angle, and Willis, his leg bleeding again, was forced to accept help as they made their way up.

They reached a spot where the path leveled out and the way opened up into a large chamber. Standing before them were two statues: a horse and an elephant. Each stood about four feet tall at the shoulder. They could see no door, nor any other obvious means of egress.

“Now this is a puzzler.” Dane scratched his chin. “What’s the second step, again?”

“The vile Numidians,” Kaylin replied.

“What else?” Tam turned to Kaylin with a quizzical look. “That can’t be all.”

“That’s it.” Kaylin nodded insistently. “It was the easiest one to remember. Maddock has them written down if you want to double-check.”

“No need,” Dane said. Something had clicked into place. “The Numidians were the finest cavalry in the ancient world. The horse would represent them.”

“So who is the elephant?” Bones asked.

“Carthage.” The more Dane thought about it, the more certain he was that he was correct. “Carthage was known for its elephant cavalry. It used the Numidian cavalry against Rome early in the Punic wars, but the Numidians later turned on them, and things went downhill from there. When you consider that Rome was the bitterest of Carthage’s enemies, the first clue also makes sense in that context.”

“You think Kephises is a Punic city?” Kaylin suddenly gaped. “Remember what Wainwright said! Fawcett recognized some of the words the young man spoke as being Punic.”

“It could be,” Tam mused. “They were descended from the Phoenicians, the greatest sailors of the ancient world. There are legends of the Phoenician sailors reaching the Americas. Perhaps the knowledge was preserved and passed down, and someone from Carthage came here.”

“That’s how I see it,” Dane agreed.

“So if these are cavalry mounts,” Tam said, “we hop on the back of Carthage’s finest.” She took two steps and sprang up onto the back of the elephant.

“You see, Maddock?” Bones said. “I did the right thing keeping her around. She’s our very own canary in a coal mine.”

His words were drowned out by a rumble as the elephant began to sink slowly into the floor. Tam’s eyes bulged, but she kept her seat. The girl was brave, no doubt. She disappeared from sight, and the rumbling ceased, leaving them standing in awed silence.

“You can come down!” Tam called. “There’s another passage heading back from here.”

Matt went down first, and he and Bones helped Willis down. Willis grumbled and cursed the whole way, but did not refuse the assistance. When the last person had climbed down, they took a minute to bandage up his wound again. As they were working, the elephant suddenly rose back up and locked into place with a loud clack, closing them in the tunnel. They could see now that it was supported by a rectangular block of stone.

“How do we get back out?” Kaylin looked the column up and down with nervous eyes.

“We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.” Dane gave her hand a quick squeeze. “Time to move on.”

“This can’t be right. Tam lied to me.” Kennedy hated to admit he’d been duped, but there was no hiding it from the others. “When I find her, I’ll kill her.”

“Where do you think she is?” Smithson tapped the trigger of his F88 as if he, too, was eager to dispose of the woman. The three ScanoGen agents were still alive, and had managed to meet up with Kennedy. He’d had doubts about their loyalties, as Tam had hand-picked them for a the mission, but they were all ex-military, and not inclined to take orders from a civilian, even if that civilian was Salvatore Scano’s favored son, or daughter, as it were.

“I don’t know, but the mission remains our top priority. We won’t seek her out, but should we come across her, your orders are to shoot on sight. Anyone have a problem with that?” No one spoke. “Good. Our first order of business is to find the last landmark, and then see if this Path of Five Steps is for real. I’ll bet we find Broderick somewhere along the way.”

“Sir, I saw her headed in the direction of the waterfall.” Wesley was the youngest of the group, and a bit too eager, but he wasn’t stupid. “Should we try there?”

“That’s as good an idea as any. Remember to keep an eye out for Dane Maddock and whoever he brought along. Don’t underestimate him or his companions. They know what they’re doing.”

“Same orders as with Broderick?” Brown, a big, red haired brute with a southern twang, grinned.

“Correct. Shoot on sight. But do it right, gentlemen. You are professionals. We want every man, and woman, in their party dead.”

He bit the inside of his jaw, relishing the pain and the taste of blood. It always whetted his appetite for action. Despite all that had gone wrong on this mission, it felt good to be back in the field, ready to kill if necessary. And now, with Maddock and Bonebrake on the prowl, he had additional targets. Eliminating them would be a pleasure.

They came to a fork where the passageway to the left was guarded by lions carved in the walls on either side, while wolves stood sentinel on either side of the passage on the right. Dane grinned. He doubted he even needed the clue for this one.

“Time for the third step,” Kaylin said. “Rome is forever cursed.”

“There’s got to be more,” Matt objected. “You know, something about wolves and lions. This is crap! If we go down the wrong tunnel, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Don’t worry. I got this one.” Tam smiled, and Dane could tell she was thinking the same thing he was thinking. “Romulus and Remus were the founders of Rome. They were abandoned as babies and…”

“…nursed by a mother wolf!” Kaylin exclaimed. “So it’s a choice between the African lion and the Roman wolf.”

“No choice at all, really.” Tam smiled and took the passage on the left.

The way continued upward in a steep ascent. They must be nearing the top by now, Dane thought. Just then, the tunnel leveled out, but after only a few paces, Tam stopped and put her hands out.

“Wait!” she snapped. “I think we’ve come to the next step.” She shone her light across the floor. It was made up of square tiles, five wide and at least twenty deep. Each tile had a symbol engraved on it.