a fast decision.
Better to stay.
She knew a firefight here would alert Gray of danger. So there was no need for her to run down there. But that wasn’t the real reason she stayed. She decided to place her confidence where it best belonged.
Gray is not wrong.
She stared into the dark cave, lit by sunlight streaming through the boulder pile. But that wasn’t the only light source. The bronze basin in the stone slab glowed a ruddy orange, still red-hot—perhaps hot enough to be keeping these gates open.
Seichan knew the truth.
I have to hold my ground until that cools.
Only then would the doors close.
She shifted to the side and slipped out her SIG.
Can I last that long?
Aggie eeked in her ear, correcting her, reminding her.
Right.
Can we last that long?
36
June 26, 6:10 P.M. WEST
High Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Gray stood at the dark threshold to Hell.
The large tunnel ended at a wide terrace overlooking a colossal cavern. The space looked roughly oval, a quarter mile wide, maybe twice that long. It was hard to get the full breadth of its dimensions. Even the reach of the team’s flashlights only offered a shadowy glimpse of the distant wall.
“It’s amazing,” Maria whispered.
Kowalski grunted his agreement.
The group cast their lights all around.
The cavern appeared to be natural, but long ago its limestone surfaces had been polished to a perfect smoothness. Upon that blank canvas had been carved a continuous bas-relief. A forest of cedars climbed the walls, with monkeys scampering in the branches and larger beasts hiding deeper in the woods, visible mostly by the bronze disks of their eyes. Higher up, inscribed clouds billowed across the roof, swept by falcons and seabirds taking wing. There was even the starburst of a dark sun above, its face an imbedded plate of bronze.
But such artistry was only a fraction of the wonders below.
Standing at the stone rail, the group had a grand view of the city stretched beneath them. It descended in tiers down from the terrace. Many hundreds of homes crowded those steps. Most were single story, both square and round. Others climbed upward in high crooked stacks, like children’s toy blocks. But many more rose up into taller sculpted towers with flared tops.
Gray recognized the shape of those last structures. He had seen them before. He focused on one nearby, sweeping his bright beam across its dark surface. “They’re near matches to the nuraghe constructions on Sardinia. What the Greeks called daidaleia.”
Gray wondered, Does this support the idea that Daedalus had originally come from here, shared his knowledge with the greater ancient world?
“But these structures aren’t made of stacked stones,” Mac said. “Look at how smooth the walls are. And those dark surfaces aren’t plaster. Even the roof tiles look made of the same material. Tarnished metal.”
Gray nodded. He had already noted the uniform hue to the city, a dark brown, nearly black, making the place look like a hellish firestorm had swept through it, burning every surface, leaving it covered in ash.
But he doubted there was any wood used in the construction here.
“It’s all bronze,” Gray said.
Kowalski waved to the tunnel. “Like back there.”
Mac turned to Gray, his eyes wide and bright, reflecting the light. His words were breathless. “An entire city made of bronze.”
“At least plated in it,” Gray said, tempering and centering the group. “And only as much of the city as we can see.”
The black mouths of tunnels dotted the walls of the tiers, indicating that this space was likely only the town center of a larger subterranean maze, likely a labyrinth worthy of Daedalus. Five of the largest openings were locked behind bronze gates at the top, equidistant from one another. Broad staircases led down from those gates, the steps descending through the city to a dark stone basin in the center. Framing both sides of the stairways were hundreds of bronze statues, standing guard over the place.
It was clear what they were protecting.
Gray shone his light across to the far side, to the city’s largest structure. High bronze walls bulged out in a half circle from the other wall, flanked by spiraling, graceful towers that reached halfway to the roof. The gates in the center shone brighter, showing little tarnish.
Gold.
Mac noted the direction of Gray’s beam. “I’m guessing that’s the palace.”
“Where do we even begin to search this place?” Maria said.
“I say we just leave,” Kowalski suggested. “We opened the gates to Hell. Found this place. Let’s hightail it out of here and let Painter know what we found.”
Gray seriously