The Last Odyssey (Sigma Force #15) - James Rollins Page 0,126
leap all on their own?
Or was another hand involved?
Two years ago, Maria had been involved in another adventure with Sigma, where she met Joe, and where Baako played an important role. Back then, Sigma had come across the trail of mysterious teachers of the ancient past. A people whom Sumerian texts called Watchers, a shadowy group who also appeared again in Jewish texts.
She stared around the dark city.
Is this place further evidence of these Watchers’ influence?
Either way—whether self-taught or at the hands of unknown teachers—the Phaeacians had certainly produced miracles.
Both wondrous and monstrous.
At the bottom of the long stairs, the promenade ended at a vast bowl polished into the limestone. It was an empty lake easily a quarter mile across and half as deep. The other stairways terminated here, too. Along the rim of the dry basin was a circle of hundreds of giant bronze fish, the scales dark and tarnished. Each had a high curled tail and was posted at an angle, noses pointed high, mouths sculpted open.
She imagined water spraying high from those open mouths, hundreds of fountains arching into the mirror of a vast indoor lake. Directly overhead was a bronze disk, meant to represent the sun, imbedded in the roof.
She pictured the populace picnicking here under that cold sun, parents watching children splashing in the waters, dancing under the spray of the fountains. She imagined little boats plying its placid surface.
It was indeed wondrous.
But also monstrous.
On the opposite side of the lake from the palace, one final bronze sculpture loomed over the dry bowl. It towered three stories high, perched at the lake’s edge but with two clawed forelimbs dug into the dry bed itself, as if it were about to wade in. The creature looked like some monstrous mother to the hundreds of bronze fish, an amphibious beast, with six long necks snaking high over the lake, ending in crocodilian heads.
She stared up at the gaping jaws lined with sharklike teeth.
Okay, maybe kids wouldn’t want to come down here to play after all.
And that wasn’t the only danger.
Joe pointed his weapon toward the lake’s center, where a large drain hole gaped, dropping straight into the earth. “You know, maybe that’s the true entrance to Hell.”
As steep and smooth as the bowl’s walls were, no one was willing to go look.
Especially as we’re running out of time.
Gray got them moving faster again. He pointed around the edge of the lake, to a narrower stairway that led up to the city’s palace. The steps over there reflected the glow of their flashlights.
“Looks like they’re gold, too,” Mac noted.
“Apparently a red carpet wasn’t good enough for these royals,” Joe muttered.
They headed quickly around the lake toward those steps—when a thunderous boom echoed over the vast space. They all froze momentarily, sharing glances. Except for Aggie, who chirped on Seichan’s shoulder and ducked his face into the crook of her neck.
Joe shook his head. “Sounds like we got company.”
39
June 26, 6:52 P.M. WEST
High Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Aboard the cruiser, Elena ducked as the rocket blasted a hundred yards away. The noise, trapped between the two sheer walls of limestone, was deafening. She straightened enough to see a flume of rock dust and smoke billow from the cave opening.
Lower down, black figures ran out of the woods toward the cliffs.
Elena had already heard what had happened earlier, how Nehir had failed to get through some hidden bronze doors before they closed. Then two men had returned from the helicopter to the south. One had hauled the tube of a rocket launcher, while the other had carried two long rocket-propelled grenades.
From the cabin of the cruiser, Elena watched the soldiers scale the cliff and vanish into the fading smoke. She waited several breaths. No one came back out. Apparently there was no need to fire the second grenade.
They did it.
They must have succeeded in blasting their way through the gates.
Elena turned, worried for Joe and the others. But what she saw next made no sense. Charlie drew a pistol from under a pillow and lifted it as she turned. With both Monsignor Roe and Kadir equally focused on the cliff, Charlie stepped forward and fired.
The first round struck the monsignor in the leg, dropping his thin form away from the doorway. As he fell, the second shot hit Kadir in the head—or rather his helmet. The round ricocheted away, but the impact knocked the man back, tripping him over the stern and into the water.