Chapter 30

Keith’s dark-sensitized eyes began to tear as soon as he came fully into the light.

“Ahch!” he shouted as he shook his head. The wordless expression echoed back at him.

Something was definitely not right about this. He rubbed his good eye to get the water out and blotted his injured eye on his sleeve.

The light was not as bright as his eyes had indicated when he came suddenly into it. It came from a dozen or more torches lit around the perimeter of a large cavern. If there were torches burning, then someone must have lit them and Keith spun around to see who was in the cavern with him.

“Well, well, Dr. Drucker,” Derek said as he released Maddie and gave her a gentle push toward Keith. She rushed into his arms. “Not going to the Euphrates after all, are we?”

“Not dead, you mean,” Keith answered.

“You just can’t get good help these days,” Derek said. Maddie grabbed hold of Keith and for the first time Keith began to take in his surroundings.

The roof of the cavern was so high that it disappeared in darkness, out of reach of the torchlight. Fifty feet across the cavern from its entrance were massive doors flanked by the statues of a man and a woman that rose into darkness from the cavern floor. They were dressed in pharaohic garb holding an ankh and crowned by a serpent, barely visible above their heads. The doors were easily ten feet tall and a frieze of scenes that Keith could not quite make out spanned the distance between the figures from the top of the door to as high as Keith could see.

His wet clothes were clinging to his skin and as the adrenalin dissipated, Keith began to shake uncontrollably.

“I’d have to bring an entire team of engineers in here to open that door,” Derek was saying, “but I’ll bet you know how. Where is Joey?”

“H-he went after you,” Keith stammered.

“Keith, you’re freezing!” Maddie said.

“D-dry clothes in y-your pack,” Keith said.

“Yes, by all means get dry. You’re ruining the carpets,” Derek said sarcastically. Nonetheless he kicked the backpack across the chamber to Maddie. Keith began stripping off the plastic bags and his clothes as Maddie rummaged in the pack. She pulled his dry trousers out of the pack and as she unrolled them, the satellite phone clattered to the floor of the cavern. She looked up frantically at Keith and grabbed for the phone, but Derek snatched it up.

“What have we here?” Derek asked. Keith risked bluffing.

“It’s the tracking phone Homeland Security has been using to follow us. Since you’ve had it, they’ve been following your trail. They’re not far behind.” Somehow his bravado did not sound so brave through his chattering teeth.

“Shut up and put your pants on,” Derek snapped. Maddie helped Keith pull on pants and a sweater and then got his boots back on. At least the bags had kept his boots dry.

“Derek, we have to get him out of here and get help,” she pled. “He’ll die of hypothermia.”

“Give him a torch to hold,” Derek said. “He’ll last.” He pocketed the phone and Maddie retrieved a torch from the wall, hoping it would provide a little warmth for Keith. “You sent an S.O.S. message when we found you this morning. That’s been twelve hours ago and no rescue. Your phone has no signal down here. If help ever comes, they’ll be dragging the pond outside for days before they find this cave.”

“How did you find it?” Keith asked. He looked questioningly at Derek and then at Maddie.

“I’m sorry, Keith,” she said.

“Oh, don’t blame Madeline,” Derek said. “It was you who provided the directions. I knew all along you weren’t headed to the Euphrates.”

“How did you know that?”

“Your instructions are over 500 years old,” Derek said. “Ataturk Dam was only finished 20 years ago. There was no water near Acma 500 years ago—at least not more than a stream that wouldn’t be visible from the mountain. Then I saw your map.”

“What?” Keith asked.

“When I got pain pills out of your pack this morning I saw the map you had so kindly marked your position and direction on,” Derek grinned. “I only needed Maddie to identify which cave.”

“How did you know which cave?” Keith asked. He had stumbled upon it by sheer luck, himself.