The lava had already begun pooling in the bottom, but all Madu could manage as his skin scorched was a bubbling groan.
Karn wiped his hands on his pant leg and grunted in disgust.
He looked at Corinne. She had seen the entire fight, and had a look of terror on her face as he started toward her.
Karn smiled. He’d made a mark on her, that was certain. He couldn’t wait to act on it.
12:02 PM
AT THE other end of the capstone, Bryce and the Thompsons were firing short bursts at the Egyptian soldiers. In spite of the rumbling of the earthquake, it was almost like shooting fish in a barrel.
Some of the Egyptians had tried to run for cover —
out into the great hall, away from the small passageways.
Their movements triggered the trap, and inevitably they would fall into a pit. One of the younger soldiers had made it almost to the pillars — two stone slabs away — when he fell into the second-to-last pit. He reacted with amazing speed, propping himself up with his hands to climb out of the pit. As he shifted his upper body weight, the slab dropped out from under him. He landed back in the puddle of lava, and Bryce winced as the soldier looked at him in determination, then fell below the floor level — for good.
The last few Egyptians, now leaderless, fell into disarray. They managed only a few more shots before they were picked off one by one. The tremors in the hall continued, and every now and then a strong quake would surge and shift everyone off balance. Finally, the last of the Egyptian soldiers fell, and Bryce realized that the room — and most likely the temple above — was toppling around them.
“We need to get out! This place isn’t going to hold much longer!” He yelled.
“No!” Vilocek snapped. “I need that crystal!” He didn’t take his eyes off of the crystal. He screamed at Cole
“Cole! Turn it off! Get the crystal and let’s go!” The young man didn’t respond.
The capstone shifted again, lurching violently left and right, and finally settling a few feet deeper. Everyone except Cole was outwardly growing anxious.
The capstone fell deeper still, now beginning to completely break apart. The crystal dropped down to eye level, and Vilocek reached for it. Cole reached out and touched his outstretched arm, sending an electric shock into the older man. He quickly withdrew his arm, rubbing at the sore spot.
“No,” Cole said simply, continuing to watch the self-destructing capstone.
“Ok, that’s it — we’re out,” Bryce said. “Come on — grab him,” he nodded toward Cole and reached for Corinne’s hand. Pulling her along, he stepped onto the slabs, trying to recall the path they’d taken to get here. A pillar collapsed and fell directly behind them, smashing a row of blocks to pieces and throwing up a wave of lava.
“Stop! We don’t leave until I have the crystal!” Vilocek shouted as they started to leave.
Wayne turned toward Bryce and Corinne, but was suddenly knocked off balance by a blow to the head. His rifle clattered to the floor and slid into an open pit. He looked up to see Karn, bleeding and full of rage, looming over him. Wayne rolled out of the way as Karn swung a kick at his head, coming up next to the capstone.
12:04 pm.
Jeff grabbed Cole and pulled him aside. Vilocek was still preoccupied with the crystal. The beam of light was flickering now, like a lightbulb slowly fading and dying. Up close to the shimmering blue stone, Vilocek could now see the area on the crystal that had been chipped off long ago, a void left by the shard that had ended up in the hands of the Founding Fathers and eventually came to him. He turned as Jeff dragged Cole away. “Don’t move! Leave him with me!”
Cole was slowly waking from his daze. He’d started to move on his own, propelled by Jeff’s hand on his collar. They had barely stepped onto the first stone, just one tile behind Wayne.
Jeff didn’t hear the shot, but the impact caught him by surprise. The bullet slammed into his back and took his breath away. He coughed and gasped for air, even as he turned to fight back.
He raised his hands to retaliate, but Vilocek fired twice more, hitting Jeff full in the chest. A third shot struck his stomach, and he fell to his knees.
He coughed blood as Vilocek came closer, standing over him. Jeff stared into his killer’s eyes. He spat droplets of blood in Vilocek’s face.
Vilocek reached up, placing the barrel of the gun directly between Jeff’s eyes.
Jeff didn’t flinch.
The blast blew Jeff’s head straight back, and he crumbled onto one of the stone tiles. It dropped into the lava pool below, and his body was quickly incinerated. Cole turned away and headed toward the fallen pillar, where Bryce and Corinne stood, staring in disbelief.
12:04 pm.
The bottom corner of the capstone was made up of many smaller bricks of stone, and Wayne gouged his back on a sharp protruding edge as he rolled away from Karn’s boot. He kicked at Karn’s knees, connecting with a satisfying crunch.
Karn roared in pain, hopping around on his left leg as he brought his rifle around.
Wayne jumped back up and stood with his back to the capstone, facing Karn. He swung a left backhand as Karn raised his weapon, and swatted the gun from his grip. He followed up with a combination to the face, but the blows barely made Karn flinch.
Weaponless, Karn shoved his head into Wayne’s chest, driving him backwards against the side of the capstone. Wayne grabbed Karn’s ears and swiveled underneath his tackle, using momentum and gravity to smash Karn’s face into a jutting piece of stone. A deep gash split Karn’s face, running from his forehead diagonally down to his cheek.
Karn tried to pull his knife from his belt. Wayne brought his right arm up and down again, smashing into Karn’s bent left arm where Jabari’s knife had laid open the flesh. Karn let out an animalistic wail, and dropped back to one knee in front of Wayne.
Then Vilocek’s gun went off. Wayne looked out the corner of his eye and saw his brother turn to face Vilocek.
“Jeff!” Wayne yelled, forgetting about Karn. Vilocek fired again, and again, and Jeff collapsed to his knees.
Wayne closed his eyes just as Vilocek’s bullet exploded from the chamber. The report made his ears ring, and as his brother’s lifeless body fell backwards into the pit, he felt a powerful rage building in his stomach.
He clenched his teeth and turned back to Karn — just in time. The large man had picked up a loose block and lifted it over his head. He was about to bring the rock down on Wayne’s head.
Wayne moved with startling speed. He shot out a fist, punching Karn in the gut. The man toppled forward and dropped the stone. Wayne withdrew his hand, revealing Karn’s own knife clenched in his fist. Karn’s eyes widened as he tried to back away, gasping for air.
Wayne had never killed with a knife before — he was more of a long-range marksman — but there was always a first time for everything.
With a furious grunt, he jammed the knife through Karn’s left eye — and deep into his skull.
Killed instantly, Karn collapsed to the floor of the stone platform in a messy heap.
12:05 PM
WAYNE POUNCED on Vilocek like a rabid dog — bloody, sweating and enraged.
Although Vilocek was in great shape for his age, didn’t stand a chance. Wayne hurled him against the capstone as it continued to slide into the earth, then pulled him by the collar.
“You bastard — you killed him,” Wayne said under his breath, “and you deserve to die.”
Chunks of rock rained down around them, threatening to crush them at any moment. “Wayne!” Bryce shouted from behind the fallen pillar. “Let’s go! We don’t have much time!”
Wayne glared at Vilocek, weighing his options. A flick of the knife in his hand would slash Vilocek’s throat, killing him instantly.
But he didn’t want
instantly
.
He wanted Vilocek to
pay
for what he’d done to Jeff — to all of them.
He looked over Vilocek’s shoulder. The capstone had now slipped below the floor of the hall. Spurts of magma shot up from below, and a crack was forming in the center of the platform.
Wayne made up his mind.
As the crack opened wider, he reached inside Vilocek’s coat, finding the small object next to his empty pistol. Then he shoved Vilocek away from him. Tanning stumbled backwards, tripping over the edge of the capstone still sticking out of the ground, and almost landing on the crystal.
Wayne was already moving — jumping from one stone to another — catching up to the others. Stones fell away behind him as he went. “Run!” he shouted, just as Vilocek finished reloading and stood up — and finally noticed the object Wayne had dropped at his feet.
Grenade.
Vilocek didn’t think; he dove to one side, instinctively trying to put as much distance between himself and the grenade as possible.
He landed at the edge of the platform as the capstone collapsed away and the crystal fell into the unstable earth, when the grenade exploded.
The blast sent chunks of stone flying in every direction. Vilocek covered his head with his hands and let the shockwave wash over his body.
The others were retreating, taking the route Madu’s team had entered by. Vilocek saw them dodging falling debris and pillars as the world collapsed around him.
The entire hall was falling apart. The capstone had almost completely disappeared into the earth, as a large rift split the floor from the constant earthquakes.
He looked at the crystal; his prize.
It was too late — there was no way to get it and still escape alive — the room was caving in, and most of the floor was flooded with lava pushed up from underground.
The opening in the floor grew wider, and the crystal fell through a crack in the top of the capstone.
He lunged for it, but it was no use.
The crystal disappeared, and Vilocek scrambled over the rubble to see where it had landed.
It was on a ledge about fifty feet down, safely perched above the flow of lava.
A sudden flash of light shone from the crystal and the room quaked violently. Vilocek lost his balance, falling headfirst into the rift.
His head slammed against a rock, knocking him unconscious.
He landed in a contorted position, on the floor of the newly formed pit. The earth continued to shake around him and the cliff faces fell inward on each other, trapping him in a deep pit. The only way out was fifty feet straight up.
2:19 PM
TANNING VILOCEK looked up the shaft, an almost perfectly formed cylindrical tube pointing directly up to the surface. He had done it.
He, Dr. Tanning Vilocek, had found the original pure form of the uranium-crystal material. Down at his feet, the pyramid-shaped object glistened with a blue-silver hue that made it look as if it was filled with water. It was so small — so unassuming — for the powers it held within.
The effects of the bond would be similar to those he’d seen numerous times in the lab. The two elemental materials would stretch and then implode together, colliding into a dust that would hang in the air for a moment. The dust’s particles from the experiments in his lab had provided a fleeting flash of light that would encompass any organism nearby in temporary lucidity — a “beacon,” of sorts — that would allow the subject to experience an unbelievable “awakening” of the mind. As quickly as the experience would begin, it would die out, leaving the subject unharmed but — to their dismay — unchanged.
But not this device. Tanning knew that this object at his feet would react over one-thousand times more powerfully than the small amounts of crystal-uranium in his labs. This pyramid of crystal would provide him that superior knowledge and intelligence, but for a lasting amount of time. He would be able to wield the power of that knowledge like the high priests before him—lording over the rest of the world as a god.
Perhaps, even, as God himself.
Tanning hurriedly slipped the small vial of liquid from his pocket and untwisted the cap.
This was his calling. This moment was the moment that would define — no,
re
define — him. He was about to inherit the knowledge of the ancients — and nothing was left to stop him. Standing above the crystal stone, looking upon it in fascination, he turned the vial and let its contents pour out. They seemed to fall in slow motion toward the rock floor of the small cavern.
Finally, the vial’s liquid made contact with the tip of the small pyramid on the ground. The sound in his ears was no more enlightening than a cup of water being poured onto a rock, and yet he knew it was life-changing sound. And here we go, he thought. In a few seconds the crystal would begin to react with the liquid and the transformation — his transformation — would take place.
The liquid fell down the sides of the pyramid, almost completely covering its four faces. The clear glass vial he held in his hand became empty as the final drops ran out of the tube. He watched in slow motion as the fluid ran to the base of the crystal, and then in an instant, the entire pyramid was completely covered.
A blinding light arose from the crystal’s center that grew to fill the small space Vilocek was in. He grew even more excited, even more impatient. The light became too overbearing for his eyes, and he sensed a humming sound in the back of his mind as the ancient power source awakened. Finally, the light and sound grew to an almost unbelievable level, and had he not been holding the vial by his side, he would have felt compelled to cover his ears. His skin felt prickly, almost as if he was burning from the inside. The hair on his body rose, as if stuck in a field of static electricity. Vilocek wondered if something had gone wrong.
At that instant, almost as if reading his mind, the power source went completely dark for a split second — completely silent — and then Tanning Vilocek’s world exploded in light.
The pyramidal power source suddenly emitted a bathing glow that encapsulated Vilocek in a constant warm light, like being directly in front of an overhead projector the moment the on switch was flipped. His eyes didn’t have time to adjust to the light, but his mind immediately responded to the powerful emission, and his enlightenment began.