Chapter 115

Chapter One Hundred Fifteen

When Mosiah had talked about an underground crypt or vault that he and his people had plundered for the relics, Connor had expected something big—maybe a hundred meters on either side.

That barely encompassed the chamber they’d descended into.

Deep underground now, surrounded by—the place didn’t give the impression of a tomb or vault so much as a prison with its thick walls. Certainly, the sulfuric smell was overpowering, trapped by the design of the place.

Coolness was trapped, too. It wasn’t just cooler than aboveground but cold.

Mosiah took the lead, eyes squinting to dredge up old memories. His voice rasped and bounced around the cavernous ceiling as he recalled details.

At first, he led them along narrow pathways, some with smooth walls, others with niches.

Selen hung close behind Mosiah, always focused on the way ahead.

She didn’t pay any attention to the inexplicable, alien architecture.

That architecture reflected the ruins aboveground in shape and design, proving Elise’s claim that the materials weren’t so much stone as some sort of formed composite.

The archaeologist stayed a few steps ahead of Connor, who was protecting the rear while the Moon twins angrily dragged the crates on wheeled litters.

Her jaw hung open as her light caught details. “Niches. Amazing.”

At one point, she skipped off the meters-wide path and ran her fingers over a pillar covered in strange symbols. “An alphabet!”

She pulled her pocket computer out and recorded the symbols.

When Connor stopped, Selen spun around. “What’re you two doing?”

Elise’s eyes lit up. “It’s the discovery of a lifetime. This is an alien—”

“Keep up with the rest of us.” Selen scowled at Connor. “If she gives you any trouble, throw her over your shoulder. You like that, right?”

Connor indicated Elise should follow the others with a jerk of his head. “We’ll get imagery on the way out.”

Elise pouted. “All those people died—”

“I know. And I know this is what you live for, but Selen’s right.” For once. “If we get separated from the others, we’d be in real trouble. Those tentacle creatures…”

The archaeologist shivered. “You’re right.”

She snapped one more shot, then ran to catch up with the retreating lights of the main group.

When Connor slowed down at the back, she drifted back to his position. “Connor?”

“Yeah?”

“You realize this is construction, right?”

“I guess. Like you said, some sort of composite material, right?”

“Yes.” She pulled a palm-sized chunk of the stone-like material from her overalls. “It shouldn’t be able to hold up like this.”

“You know how old it is? You said you could estimate.”

“Well, I’d need some sort of testing equipment—”

“Right.”

“But it’s definitely the same material.”

“How’s that impressive?”

“The wear and tear down here—it’s negligible.”

“No weather—”

Elise shook her head. “It can be worse underground. If there’s seismic activity, for instance. Or if there are heavy concentrations of minerals. The downslope…that should have drained rain down here.”

Connor had forgotten about the rain. “So there’s drainage.”

“No matter what, it shouldn’t look like this: almost brand new.”

“There’s weathering. I’ve seen cracks.”

She sighed. “Not like you should. There should be extremely visible wear.”

“They have better materials science. That’s not shocking, is it?”

“You don’t get it.”

“I think I do. An alien species built this place, and it’s tougher than the ruins, right? It’s holding up better than it has any right to.”

“Because it’s a different design. It’s like a fort compared to a house.”

Or a prison. She was only reinforcing his thinking this wasn’t a temple to hold gold and artifacts but something meant to contain something worse.

Ahead, Mosiah and the others came to a stop in front of shadow. The lights mounted to the crates barely reached the ceiling overhead and failed to reach the depths of whatever was in their path.

The old man pulled out a flashlight and ran it along the lip of the floor. “There’s a ramp down—” He stopped. “Ah!”

A wide slab of the same white material led down. On either side, waist-high rails were the only protection.

It was a bad place for an ambush.

Connor hurried to the front, where the Moon boys were looking at each other, lips pressed tight.

Mosiah rubbed his chin. “This is the way down.”

Connor put a foot on the ramp. “It’s steady enough, I guess.”

“They built it on a good support platform.”

“They? You know who these people were?”

The old man’s mouth opened, then he swallowed. “Is it really a stretch to make the assumption that this is the product of alien construction?”

“I’m just trying to understand what’s assumption, and what’s known.”

“What’s known is that we came here a long time ago and took something that wasn’t ours. Now I intend to reverse that ill-advised act.”

Selen stomped to Connor’s side and tugged him by the arm until they were a few meters away from the rest. “What are you doing?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

“I’m doing what you should be doing, Selen. This guy wants us to head deeper underground—”

“And we’re going to do exactly that. He paid us—”

“Money doesn’t matter here. He’s not telling us everything. Elise is—”

“Oh, shut up about your little archaeologist.”

“She’s the expert. I think we should be listening to her.”

“No.” Selen patted her chest. “I’m the expert. I’m the one who took this job. Remember? No choice. Someone told me that. Now we’re here, and we’re just a little bit away from getting paid. So I say, suck it up, and let’s go.”

“Don’t you care about what we’re doing?”

“Completing the mission. We do that, and we get paid.”

“Mosiah isn’t telling us everything.”

Selen touched Connor’s cheek. “All that matters is the job. We get this done, and we can get out of here.”

“So, just shut up and follow orders?”

“That works.” Selen walked back to Mosiah, then pointed down the ramp. “Tim, Tom…let’s go.”

The twins’ shoulders sank a little, but they lifted their litters and headed down the ramp, their lights revealing more and more of the way as they went.

Connor waited at the top of the ramp until Mosiah and Selen were headed down, then waved Elise forward.

She paused, then held something out. “I thought I’d give you this later, but…” She bit her lip. “Give it a look when you can.”

Once she was on the ramp, a hand dragging along the rail, he glanced at his palm.

But he already knew what she’d given him: the broken pocket computer.