Six Sacred Stones Part 48

But Jack wasn't listening anymore.

He was staring into s.p.a.ce.

"Riddles," he said aloud. "Aristotle's Riddles..."

He turned sharply to the Sea Ranger. "Have you got any sat phones on theRaider, video capable? We need to call in some expert help."

Of course, the Sea Ranger had several satellite phones on board theRaider. He even had some small helmetmounted cameras that could be connected to them. He had them brought out.

Handing one to West, he said, "Jack, if you put out a call on that thing, anyone in the area with even a basic scanner is going to know we're here."

"Believe me, they'll know we're here soon enough. And if we're going to survive this, we need help."

With that, Jack called theHalicarna.s.sus on the videophone.

WHEN THE SATELLITE PHONE console on theHalicarna.s.sus suddenly started ringing, everyone on board exchanged worried glances.

Zoe picked up the phone and cautiously said, "h.e.l.lo?"

"Zoe! It's me."

"Jack!"

Quick greetings were exchanged and an overjoyed Lily blurted out a brief summary of their quest through Africa before finis.h.i.+ng with the explosive arrival of Wolf's forces at the kingdom of the Neetha and the loss of Alby and the Pillar to him.

Wizard leaned in to the mike. "Jack. It was great to get your message. We didn't know if you were alive. But now we're in dire straits. We can't get into South Africa. We're sitting on an airstrip in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, just north of South Africa, while Wolf has gone to the Second Vertex. Where are you?"

"I'm at the Second Vertex,"Jack said.

Wizard's jaw dropped.

"And I need all of your help."

Moments later, Wizard, Zoe, and Lily were gathered around the videophone monitor peering at the feed coming from Jack's helmetmounted camera.

Wizard saw the underground city and breathed, "The city of bridges..." but Jack directed their attention to the carved words of Thoth on the first rooftop's tonguelike platform: "Lily?"Jack asked.

Lily read the text quickly.

"It says, 'What is the best number of lies?'" she said.

Standing to Lily's left, Wizard frowned. "The best number of-wait a minute..."

But then, from her right, Zoe said, "Hey! I've seen that carving!"

"Where?" Wizard asked.

It was Jack who answered over the radio: "Somewhere in the Neetha realm, I imagine.

Along with a list of other carvings, carvings that looked like numbers maybe."

"Yes," Zoe said. "Yes. They were in the very center of the maze there. Carved onto a beautiful whitemarble podium. But how could you know that, Jack?"

"Because this is one of Aristotle's Riddles,"he said.

"Of course," Wizard said. "Of course..."

"I don't get it," Zoe said.

Jack explained, "At the Academy in Greece, Aristotle was Hieronymus's favorite student, the same Hieronymus who found the Neetha. It makes sense that Hieronymus told his favorite student about the Neetha and what he'd discovered there. Aristotle's Riddles aren't Aristotle's at all. They're Hieronymus's. Riddles that Hieronymus found during his time with the Neetha, riddles that I imagine he got someone among the Neetha to translate for him."

"So what is the best number of lies?" Lily asked.

"One," Wizard said. "You know the old saying, if you tell one lie, then soon you'll find yourself telling another and then another to sustain it. But if you can tell only one, it is optimal."

In the vast cavern of the Second Vertex, Jack checked the carvings on the three stepping stones in front of him.

"You sure about that, Wizard?"

"Yes."

"Would you stake your life on it?"

"Yes."

"Would you stake mine on it?"

"Er...well...I, I mean, I think..."

"It's OK, Max. I'm not stupid," Jack said. "I'm gonna wear a rope around my waist when I make the jump."

Jack gazed at the steppingstone to his right: it bore a single horizontal slash on it. One.

The steppingstone seemed to hover above the black void beneath it. Jack still had Astro's miniMaghook with him, so he cinched its cable around his waist and handed its launcher to Wickham.

"Here we go," he said.

Then without another thought, he jumped, out over the void, leaping for the stepping stone to the right- -JACK'S BOOTS landed on the steppingstone and it caught him, holding his weight.

Jack stood on the small flat stone, high above the dark hollow core of the tower beneath him.

After another leap, he was standing at the base of a long stepped bridge that soared upward to the roof of the next tower.

"Hey, Cowboys," he called back to the twins. "Go grab some spray paint or something from theRaider and then follow us, painting the correct stones as we go. Oh, and if something happens to us, you'll have to take our place, jumping across these stones."

Lachlan and Julius both gulped. Then they raced back to the submarine to find some paint.

And so Jack made his way across the labyrinth of high bridges-leaping onto stepping stones-guided by the voices coming in over his headset, answering the riddles.

"What is the best number of eyes..."

"One,"Wizard's voice had answered. "The allseeing eye that appeared on capstones."

"What is the best life..."

"The second life, the afterlife,"Wizard said. "Jump onto the stone saying 'Two.'"

He made good progress, with the Sea Ranger and the twins running after him across the bridges and over the hollow towers.

As they advanced across the dazzling bridged city, Jack looked out across the cavern, trying to gauge Wolf's progress-and to his dismay, he saw that Wolf was moving just as fast, if not faster, than he was.

Then suddenly bullets started pinging off the walls above his head.

Alerted by his radio transmissions, Wolf's men had spotted him and were now firing at him whenever they got a clear line of sight through the dense forest of towers and bridges.

Jack and the Sea Ranger came to a ledge that burrowedinside one of the hollow towers.

Inside the tower, they were presented with another triple choice, only here there wereno carvings at all on the three available steppingstones.

Lily quickly translated the inscription on the ledge. "What is the direction of Death..."

"It's west,"Wizard said,"the direction of the setting Sun. The ancient Egyptians always thought that the Sun was born every morning in the east and died every evening in the west. That's why they always buried their dead on the western side of the Nile. The answer is 'west.'"

Jack jumped for the steppingstone to the west of him.

It held and he ran up the stairbridge to the next tower, followed by the Sea Ranger.

They'd made it halfway to the ziggurat in the center of the minicity when suddenly they heard some shouts and Wolf yelling, "Okay! Switchblade and Broadsword! It's all yours!

Go! Go!"

Jack peered out around the corner of a building-and spotted Wolf's CIEF team scampering up the stairs on the front face of the ziggurat, looking like ants against the scale of the structure.

d.a.m.n it, no!Jack thought.

They'd reached the ziggurat first and were now heading for the ladder that led across the ceiling to the great pyramid.

Jack saw Wolf with his son, Rapier, and Alby on the stairs of the ziggurat with the main cl.u.s.ter of CIEF troops. Then he spotted two men das.h.i.+ng out ahead of the main group, running up the ziggurat: one was Caucasian in appearance and wore the uniform of a Delta operator. The second man was of Asian appearance and wore the distinctive battle dress uniform of a Marine Force Reconnaissance trooper.

Switchblade.

The traitor.

And so despite the fact that he was still well behind in this race, Jack just kept going as best he could.

Never stop,he thought.You never give up.

Across the bridges he flew.

Up the ladder, Broadsword and Switchblade went.

Jack leaped across more riddle jumps, aided by Wizard and Lily from afar, all the while under fire from Wolf's men guarding the ziggurat.

Broadsword and Switchblade reached the top of the ladder, started venturing out across the ceiling of the supercavern, hanging from the rungs by their hands high above the underground city.

Jack's course from the western harbor took him in a wide northward curve that pa.s.sed close to the suspended pyramid. Here Jack discovered that there was indeed another abyss delving deep into the Earth directly beneath the immense bronze pyramid.

He came to a tower at the very edge of the city, one that adjoined the abyss itself-the tower's northern side actually blended perfectly with the near wall of the abyss-and from there Jack got a clear view of the pyramid itself.

He watched as the two CIEF men climbed hand over hand down a line of hand rungs cut into the spine of the pyramid. Dangling high above the seemingly bottomless pit, they edged downward, moving ever closer to the pyramid's peak.

And Jack came to a horrific realization.

He was too far away.

He was too late.

He couldn't get there in time-there was no way he could get to the ziggurat, somehow get past Wolf 's men there, and then scale the ladder and the spine of the pyramid and stop Switchblade from doing whatever he planned to do.

The two CIEF men reached the inverted peak of the pyramid-and Jack watched in wonder as the Delta man named Broadsword slung a climbing harness over the last hand rung and, hanging from it, used his nowfree hands to extract from his chest pack...

...the Second Pillar.

Cleansed and ready to be set in place.

On the ziggurat, Wolf also gazed in awe at the scene, his eyes glistening with delight.

With him stood Rapier and Alby and the warlock of the Neetha, flanked by two guards.

Wolf's mind buzzed with the possibilities.

The reward would be his:heat. According to his chief researcher, the MIT professor, Felix Bonaventura, it was heat generated by the secret of perpetual motion. Energy without fuel.Limitless energy that could power electricity grids, airplanes and cars, but which would not require coal or oil or gasoline. The Saudi stranglehold on America would be broken the entire Middle East would become irrelevant.

It was of course at that precise moment, as Wolf reached a rapture of delight, that the most unexpected thing of all happened.

For then, as Wolf watched in horror, out on the inverted pyramid's peak-while Broadsword readied the Pillar for placement-Switchblade drew a KaBar knife and sliced it across Broadsword's throat, grabbing the Pillar from him as he did so.

Broadsword went instantly limp, blood flowing from the gaping hole in his neck and dribbling down into the abyss like a macabre waterfall.

Then Switchblade callously cut Broadsword's harness and the dying Delta operator fell from the peak of the pyramid, dropping into the fathomless void, his limp figure disappearing into darkness.

"What the f.u.c.k...?" Wolf said. "Switchblade!"

From his position on the nearest tower, Jack also watched as Switchblade killed Broadsword.

"Oh, G.o.d..." he breathed as he saw Broadsword fall.

Out on the pyramid, Switchblade now hung from his own harness, holding the Pillar in one hand. He held it up for Wolf to see and shouted, "Welcome to the end of the world, Wolf! A world that gloried in the humiliation of my people! Now that world will be no more! Nippon was never defeated!"