Then, in a kind of majestic slow motion, it crested—rising and rising and rising—before it crashed down—smashed down—right on top of the wreck of the supertanker. The 600-foot-long super- tanker just vanished in an instant, swallowed by the immense wave.
As the leading edge of the tsunami crunched down on the seabed, it made a boom that was beyond deafening.
But it wasn’t done yet.
Now the mighty tsunami rushed toward the shore as a ten-storey-tall body of deadly foaming whitewater.
It swept in through the Vertex’s entrance at outrageous speed, blasting through the entry hall, rampaging down the avenue of columns, heading for the base of the step-mountain that Jack and the others were still ascending.
Jack hustled up the hill of steps as fast as his legs would carry him.
‘Keep running!’ he yelled to Lily and Zoe, eyeing the eerie red glow leaking over the summit of the step-mountain above them.
Moments later, Jack leapt up onto the topmost step and beheld the space beyond the step-mountain.
He glimpsed a vast cavern and a fantastical landscape—a wide lake of molten lava that was dotted with towers, bridges and even a stepped pyramid—but the first thing he saw before him were three parallel descending staircases, all leading down to a series of multi—arched aqueducts that rose above the lava lake.
Next to Jack, a wide rectangular vent opened onto the three descending staircases, as if designed to spurt some kind of liquid down them.
An ominous gurgling sound echoed from within the vent. . . and Jack saw a reddish glow rising up from it.
‘Something’s coming up that vent . . . ’
The roar of the tsunami blasting into the entry hall behind them was as loud as ten jet engines.
The glow inside the vent grew brighter.
Things were happening too fast.
‘We have to choose a staircase!’ Zoe yelled.
‘But which one!’ Astro called, staring at the three staircases. Each descended for about fifty metres before ending at a small horizontal ledge that separated each staircase from its matching aqueduct.
‘Screw this!’ a CIEF man yelled as he and two other members of Wolf’s team bolted down the nearest staircase, the right-hand one.
‘Get back here!’ Wolf called after them, but they didn’t hear him.
‘Damn it,’ Jack said. ‘Which one . . . ? ’
‘The left one!’ a voice called firmly from beside him.
Lily. She held something in her hand.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Wolf glance at the Neetha warlock. The warlock shook his head in an ‘I don’t know’ gesture.
‘Okay, kiddo!’ Jack shouted. ‘We follow your lead! No time for explanations! Let’s move!’
Jack, Lily and Zoe raced for the left-hand staircase and hurried down its steep stone steps. As he charged down it, Jack noticed that the stairway was guttered.
That was a bad sign. It usually meant some kind of deadly liquid flowed down it...
Wolf followed them, accompanied by the warlock.
Astro, Rapier and the rest of Wolf’s CIEF force raced after them, taking the same downward staircase.
Two CIEF men hesitated, unsure, and remained atop the summit of the step-mountain.
Their hesitation killed them—for a moment later, the tsunami came crashing over the summit in a furious explosion of whitewater.
Like an ocean wave smashing against a coastal rock, the tsunami exploded over the stair-mountain in a starburst of spray, spray that hurled the two hesitant CIEF men off it and out into the lava lake beyond it.
As the initial spray of the tsunami rained back down to earth, a huge body of frothing water came surging over the summit, carrying the carcass of the supertanker within its mass and hurling the great ship clear over the top of the step-mountain!
The great rusted hulk of the supertanker groaned as it rolled over the summit of the step-mountain and dropped into the lava on the other side, landing to the right of the three parallel staircases with a massive glooping thud.
The rest of the tsunami came to rest a few feet below the summit of the step-mountain, swirling and roiling on the ocean side, contained for now.
‘Holy moly . . .’ Lily gasped as she hustled down the left—hand staircase, which—like the other two staircases—had been protected from the tsunami by the wide vent at the summit.
The reason why became clear a moment later.
They came bursting forth from the vent at frightening speed: twin bodies of knee-deep molten lava that surged down the middle and right-hand staircases, contained by their gutters and descending fast.
The left-hand staircase, however, remained clear.
Agonised shrieks rang out as the lava caught up with the three CIEF men who had taken the right-hand staircase.
The pouring lava melted their shins, causing them to drop into the superheated fluid. Their clothes caught fire; their skin bubbled; then their hands and forearms liquefied, becoming grotesque mixes of skin, hone and blood; they died screaming, watching their own bodies deform horrifically.
Everyone on the left-hand staircase had the same realisation at once: if they’d taken either of the other two staircases, the lava would have got them. There was no way they could have outrun it.
Somehow, Lily had made the right choice.
In any case, they were finally inside the Third Vertex—and thanks to the waters of the tsunami, they were sealed inside it, safe from their enemies outside.
At the bottom of the steep guttered staircase they all leapt over a narrow gap onto the next horizontal ledge—a kind of intermediate platform between the three staircases and the next three aqueducts.
Jack spun to look back at the staircases behind him.
Long fingers of glowing-hot lava oozed down the other two staircases, dropping off their ends in thin lavafalls.
Lily had made a crucial choice, literally a choice between life and death.
Jack turned to take in the motley crew around him. It hadn’t escaped his notice that he was now inside a Vertex with his enemies, people who had tried to kill him on several occasions.
It was certainly a strange situation.
On the one hand, there was himself, Zoe and Lily, looking something like a family.
On the other was what remained of Wolf’s assault force: Wolf himself, the warlock of the Neetha, Rapier, Astro and seventeen other CIEF troops, all of whom were covered in sand and blood after the disastrous frontal assault out on the seabed.
‘Nice choice, young lady,’ Wolf said to Lily. ‘I’m very curious to know how you figured that out.’
Lily just glared at him. ‘Don’t speak to me. You killed Wizard. You’re a horrible man and I hope you die.’
Wolf feigned hurt. ‘Now, now, don’t be like that . . .’
Rapier whipped up a gun and aimed it at Jack. ‘Father, we should kill them now—’
The head of the CIEF trooper standing beside Wolf exploded. There was no sound of a gunshot.
Shot in the back of the head from long range, the man’s face just blew apart, spraying blood all over Wolf, before his body fell off the high aqueduct and sailed down into the molten lake below.
Shwap! Shwap! Shwap!
More bullets slammed into the aqueduct all around the gathered group. Another CIEF man was hit and fell to the platform at Lily’s and Zoe’s feet.
Someone was firing on them!
And they were completely exposed out on this high platform.
‘There!’ Jack called, spotting two snipers on the peak of a huge step-pyramid in the middle of the cavern.
A pair of black-clad Japanese snipers.
‘They’ve got people in here . . .’ Astro said in disbelief.
‘Return fire!’ Jack called, ignoring Rapier and loosing a burst from his MP-7 at the snipers. ‘We can all kill each other later, but right now we’ve got to get off these bridges! Go! Go! Get to that tower up ahead!’
A five-
storey-tall tower rose out of the lava lake about a hundred yards ahead of them, between them and the snipers’ pyramid. It appeared to be built entirely of stone in the ornate style of a Japanese palace. And so far as Jack could see, it was the only source of cover from the Japanese snipers on the pyramid.
Another CIEF trooper snapped backward, his head spraying blood. As he spun with the impact, Jack saw that the man had been trying to raise a long-barrelled Barrett sniper rifle. Then Jack saw the other dead trooper at Zoe’s feet . . . and noticed the long rifle on his back.
‘They’re taking out our snipers!’ he yelled. ‘Zoe! Get that gun before it falls!’
As bullets impacted all around them, Zoe dived to the ground and snatched the dead man’s Barrett just before it fell over the edge.
‘Cover fire!’ Jack called to the remaining CIEF men. But they all baulked, confused at following the orders of their enemy.
All except Astro.
He obeyed immediately and joined Jack in firing up at the Japanese snipers.
Now covered, Zoe knelt, taking careful aim through the Barrett’s telescopic sight, and . . .
Bam—!
She fired, and one of the Japanese snipers on top of the pyramid was thrown backwards in a puff of red.
‘Gotcha.’
Wolf was yelling at his men: ‘Stephens! Whitfield! Do as he says! Get a laser on that sniper position! Rapier! RPG!’
‘Lily!’ Jack turned. ‘Which bridge do we take from here!’
Now he saw the object she was holding: Zoe’s Canon digital camera.
It was the same digital camera Zoe had used to take photos at the First Vertex and which she’d later used in Africa to solve the circular maze of the Neetha.
Lily was looking closely at a certain photo, and after analysing it, called, ‘The right-hand one, then the middle one, then the left-hand one!’
‘Right, middle, left—okay!’ Jack called, leading the way, racing out onto the right-hand aqueduct-bridge.
Like the descending staircases earlier, each aqueduct-bridge featured guttered edges and downward-sloping steps, only they were not as steep.
The first step of each aqueduct-bridge, however, concealed within it a knee-high vent that opened onto the guttered bridge itself; a vent, Jack figured, that spewed forth molten magma like the big one at the top of the descending staircases had.
He was right.
As soon as he’d taken a few steps down the right-hand aqueduct-bridge—at some point stepping on a concealed trigger stone—blazing-hot lava vomited out from the step-vents on the other two bridges.
Running down the high rail-less bridge, Jack looked out at the sets of bridges and stairways ahead of him, always in groups of three, always parallel—and suddenly it all became clear to him.
This place is one big series of booby-trapped bridges and staircases. You get three choices every time, but only one choice is safe. The other two get flooded with lava when you’re a few steps down them.
The name of this Vertex suddenly took on real meaning: the Fire Maze.
Following Lily’s directions, the combined force hustled along the aqueduct-bridges, with Zoe exchanging fire with the remaining Japanese sniper atop the pyramid.
Each time they raced down one bridge, the other two bridges would flood with fast-flowing knee-deep lava.
Without Lily’s predictions, there was no way they could have negotiated the booby-trapped bridges. How she was doing it—or more precisely, which photo on the camera she was using—Jack didn’t care, so long as she kept choosing correctly.
As they ran across the high narrow bridges under heavy fire, he was also glad that he and Zoe had Warblers. The CIEF men didn’t and two more of them got hit and fell to their deaths.
At the end of the last aqueduct-bridge, the combined group came to three more parallel descending staircases.
‘The right-hand one!’ Lily called.
At the same time, the CIEF man named Whitfield called out, ‘Sniper position is lased!’ He was aiming a handheld laser unit up at the summit of the step-pyramid.
‘Got it!’ Rapier answered, hefting a lightweight Predator rocket launcher onto his shoulder and firing it.
The RPG shoomed into the air, trailing a finger of smoke. It banked at wicked speed around the tower in between their position on the staircase and the sniper on the step-pyramid, before it thundered into the sniper’s nest and detonated in a billowing explosion, blasting the Japanese soldier to kingdom come.
Safe now from sniper fire, the group rushed down the stairs and stepped over onto the base of the tower—where the first thing Wolf’s people did was turn their guns on Jack, Zoe and Lily.
‘Stand down!’ Wolf called, stepping forward. ‘They’re not here to threaten us. On this occasion, we actually have the same goal they do: finding the Third Pillar and laying it.’
His men slowly lowered their weapons.
The two sides gazed at each other, standing awkwardly apart.
Wolf appraised Lily closely. ‘The famous Miss Lily. We haven’t met in person till now, hut we did speak on the phone once, when you were in Africa. How did you know which bridges were safe?’
‘Lucky guesses,’ Lily said curtly.
‘Indeed.’ Wolf smiled ruefully, seeing the situation for what it was: he needed Lily and the knowledge she possessed to successfully navigate the maze system. ‘Dare I propose a truce—a temporary one, naturally—at least while we find ourselves in this maze together? Since our goals are identical and our enemy is the same.’
Lily frowned, unconvinced.
Wolf said, ‘If I kill you, I effectively kill myself. And I’m not into mutually assured destruction.’
‘All right . . . ’ Lily said.
Wolf glanced at Jack.
‘A very temporary truce,’ Jack said evenly. ‘Kiddo, a word.’ He took Lily aside, huddling with her and Zoe.
‘Care to let us in on the secret?’ he said.
She held up the digital camera and clicked on one particular photo. It was the shot Zoe had taken of the golden plaque inside the First Vertex at Abu Simbel, the plaque that listed the names of all six Vertices:
Without saying a word, Lily subtly pointed at the bottom edge of the plaque’s frame. It depicted an odd series of lines that were clustered in parallel groups of three, and through which a single line safely threaded its way.
‘Well, I’ll be,’ Zoe breathed.
‘Clever girl,’ Jack said.
Lily said, ‘When I saw the parallel stairways and bridges from the entrance to this place, all in groups of three, I knew I’d seen a pattern like it before. This pattern.’
Lily abruptly clicked off the photo. Wolf was approaching.
‘You can keep your secrets, little one,’ he said. ‘But we can’t afford to linger. The clock is ticking and we have a Pillar to lay. Lead the way.’
And so, flanked by their armed rivals, Jack, Lily and Zoe made their way through the deadly network of bridges and walkways that guarded the Third Vertex of the Machine.
At every step, they were presented with a triple choice of parallel paths, a choice that Lily made correctly.
Through the tower, over the step pyramid, even down through a set of sunken trenches buried below the waterline of the lake.
Whenever they came close to the surface of the lava lake, they had to cover their eyes with goggles or anti-flash glasses and wrap wet cloths or bandanas over their mouths—the simmering heat of the lava was enough to cause their skin to peel. If they stayed too close to it for too long, it would sear their skin, essentially cooking them in their own bodies.
‘Why doesn’t this lava solidify and crust over?’ Zoe asked, wiping sweat off her brow as she walked.
‘We must be near a volcanic rift,’ jack said. ‘The heat from below is keeping the lava in a semi-liquid state.’
‘Why doesn’t the lava eat away at these bridges?’ Lily said. ‘I thought lava ate through everything.’
‘Th
at’s the ultimate mystery in all this,’ Jack said. ‘Whoever built this place, built the Machine. We’re talking about a super-ancient civilisation, one that was advanced enough to see the Dark Sun coming and create the Machine to repel it. These bridges and towers and whatever “stone” material they’re made of, were built by that civilisation, too, and they were clearly able to make them lava-proof.’