Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly [103]
The first trap struck.
With a heart-stopping boom, an enormous five-ton dropstone fell out of a recess in the ceiling—just inside the entrance—blocking out the sunlight, filling the entire tunnel!
Then, to their horror, the gradient of the tunnel gave the massive block life.
It immediately started sliding down the slope—toward them— forcing West’s team forward and downward.
‘Move!’ West called.
They all started running down the tunnel, away from the great sliding stone, side-stepping warily around all the ceiling holes they had to pass under.
The great stone slid quickly forward, chasing after them, an unstoppable pursuer, driving them toward—
A cliff edge.
Thirty metres down the slope, the tunnel simply ended at a gaping black abyss. The tunnel did not seem to continue in any way beyond this dark void. This, it appeared, was the absolute end of the tunnel.
The stone kept rumbling down the tunnel behind them.
West fired a flare into the dark void—
—to reveal that they were standing at one end of a gigantic subterranean cavern shaped like a giant cube, easily fifty metres long and at least ten storeys high.
Their problem: their tunnel opened onto this cavern right up near the ceiling.
The sliding stone kept coming.
Then, by the glow of the hovering flare, West saw the floor of the great cavern thirty metres below him.
It was flat and bare, made of sand.
But there was something wrong about it—it was too flat, too bare.
West kicked a nearby stone off the edge and watched it sail down to the floor of the cavern.
The stone hit the floor.
It didn’t bounce.
It just landed with a splonk, embedding itself in the goopy sand-like surface. And then it went under, seemingly swallowed by the semi-liquid surface.
‘Ah-ha, quicksand,’ Zaeed said, impressed. ‘The entire floor is quicksand. . . ’
‘God, you’re just like Max,’ West said, snapping round to check on the fast-moving stone behind them—ten metres away and about to force them into the quicksand-filled chamber.
‘This trap system doesn’t waste any time, does it?’
But then, turning back to the massive square cavern, he saw the answer—a long line of handbars had been dug into its ceiling; a line that ended at a matching tunnel at the opposite end of the cavern, fifty metres away.
Of course, more dark and deadly trap-holes were interspersed between and above the handbars.
‘Lily, here. Jump onto my chest, put your hands around my neck,’ West said. ‘Zaeed. You got any intel on these handbars?’
Zaeed peered back at the sliding stone: ‘I found a reference once to something called the High Ceiling of the Sand Cavern. It said, “Walk with your hands but in deference to he who built it, avoid those of its Creator.” Imhotep III built this system, so I’d avoid every third handgrip.’
‘Good theory,’ West said, ‘but since I don’t trust you, why don’t you go first and test it out. Now move.’
Zaeed leapt out onto the handrungs, swinging himself along them, avoiding every third one.
Once he’d survived the first few metres, West scooped up Lily. ‘Everybody, follow us.’
And so with Lily gripping him around the neck, West reached up and grabbed the first handbar. . .
. . . and swung out over the ten-storey drop to the quicksand floor.
It was an incredible sight: five tiny figures, moving in single-file, all hanging from their hands, swinging fist-over-fist across the ceiling of the immense cube-shaped cavern, their feet dangling ten storeys above the floor.
The last in the line was Pooh Bear, who leapt off the doorway-ledge a bare moment before the five-ton sliding stone came bursting out of the tunnel, filling the entire passage before falling clear out of it!
The huge square stone thundered off the edge . . . and tipped . . . and went sailing down the sheer wall of the cavern before it splashed into the quicksand with a great goopy splat.
Then the stone settled in the quagmire and sank below the surface—grimly, slowly—never to be seen again.
West gripped each handbar firmly, swinging himself and Lily down the length of the