“Here…” Caleb Crowe’s voice was weak, half-choked with the thin air in the passageways under the Great Pyramid—or wherever they were after nearly seven hours of wandering this labyrinth. They had walked for miles. Winding passageways hewn from the bedrock, doubling back and forth, descending for hundreds of feet in places, then rising again. There were arched bridges spanning over yawning crevasses, and sections where they climbed spirals staircases around tower-like spires thrusting out of the impenetrable darkness below. It always seemed they heard sounds of distant splashing, as if from waves lapping against the foundations.
At first, Caleb had been surprised and relieved at the lack of water. He remembered reading essays on the geological makeup of the Giza plateau, and the speculation that even if there were tunnels or chambers below the pyramids, they would likely be full of water due to their proximity to the Nile and its annual flooding. But apparently the builders had constructed these chambers to resist seepage, or they had drainage tunnels out of sight.
His interest in geology, however, quickly waned as they proceeded deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, pausing only to remote-view the way, each of them occasionally getting glimpses of the ancient past, of robed men and women solemnly proceeding along these very paths. Just snatches of visions, unable to see the purpose to these chambers, or the destination of its early travelers. But they had seen other things: passageways where the floors would have given way or where sliding walls would have imprisoned them after a false step. Rooms where the ceiling was supported on gears that would release and flatten anyone who stepped inside.
They bypassed all of these traps, avoiding death at every turn.
And now, after climbing a steep staircase, they had arrived at the top of what seemed like an enormous rounded pillar. The lights couldn’t probe anything above or below, and there was only one bridgeway leading away into the gloom. In the center of the floor there stood a huge block, inscribed with hieroglyphics and carved images. Caleb stared at it for a thoughtful moment. “This is… I don’t understand this at all. Why should this symbol be here?”
“What is it, Dad?” Alexander had his flashlight highlighting the image of a baboon holding aloft a disc, flanked by royal serpents. The rest of the mural, painted around the immense block, depicted what appeared to be a scene of metallurgy: an ibis-faced man holding a hammer and a long spear, thrusting the lance into a cauldron. On a nearby table, a rectangular sheet of what seemed to be a book, except it was dyed a deep hue of green. The same god-man was bent over it with a quill, inscribing words of power.
“Down here, this section I get.” Caleb pointed. “Here’s Thoth as a smith. Creating, in this panel, a spear- head. In the other, a tablet. A book.”
“The Emerald Tablet.” Alexander said it reverently, fearful of speaking about it in this ancient place—with what might be its first-ever depiction.
But then Alexander saw that Caleb had shifted his flashlight higher, to where the symbol of a god holding two staffs stood in profile, a sphere on his head. Above him, an inverted triangle, and at the top, a coiled serpent caught in a net, its head pinned to the triangle with a long spear.
Xavier Montross had circled around the pillar, giving it little attention, instead eyeing the darkness all around them, as if imagining it concealed a multitude of monstrosities, guardians ready to descend upon them.
“We don’t have much time,” Montross said. “Can we skip the sightseeing?”
Caleb shook his head. “This is important.”
“Yes, yes,” Montross said, finally taking an interest in the carvings. “Our friends, the dragon and the lance.”
“Marduk and Tiamat,” Alexander said, remembering what they had been talking about earlier. “The war god killing the dragon-goddess. Stealing her Tablet of Destiny thing.”
“Yes,” Caleb said, “but it’s astounding that it’s being depicted here, in this ancient passageway beneath the Giza complex. And at a place of seemingly great importance.” He glanced back toward the stairs, ruminating on the series of tests and challenges, the deadly traps and diabolical puzzles they had managed to solve only with the aid of their psychic abilities, glimpsing the past and seeing the way ahead.
He shook his head with wonderment. “This is the crucial lesson. This is what the acolytes were meant to understand, this is the reward for everything we’ve just gone through.”
Montross made a snickering sound. “Bit of a letdown, if you ask me. Risk-reward ratio way out of balance. It’s a nice picture and all, but—”
“But it’s everything,’ Caleb said calmly. He pointed at the god-figure below the triangle. “That’s Ra. Marduk, if you will. But the placement of his symbol, below an inverted triangle, implies to me something about
“But,” Alexander said, “Marduk wasn’t created after the dragon died, he killed the dragon!”
“True…” Caleb continued staring at the pillar, and his flashlight beam trembled. “But instead of implying that he, personally, was created by the incident, what if it means something else?”
“Like what?” Montross was still glancing around nervously as if expecting something horrific to come slithering down the air shaft and drop on them at any moment. Or the walls to close in or the ceiling to collapse.
Caleb rubbed his chin in thought. “The symbol for Marduk, there with the two scepters, can also mean something literal. Something astronomical. The planet…”
Montross whipped his head around. His eyes went wide. “Mars.” He approached, showing real interest now. “Yes, yes. This, taken a certain way, matches my vision. Your visions too, Caleb. Cosmic history wrapped up in myth. The epic disaster. A conflict that destroyed a planet-sized body out beyond Mars, leaving the current asteroid belt.”
“And something else,” Caleb whispered, pointing again to the triangle. “It’s almost as if this is saying that conflict created Mars itself, and yet…”
“That’s not right,” Montross said. “The myth could even read that Mars the planet acted as Marduk and influenced Tiamat into some kind of collision, if you believe cosmic catastrophic proponents like Immanuel Velikovsky. But it may have been something else, and its destruction may have created—what, a civilization on Mars?”
“Or its moons,” Caleb said thoughtfully. “Depending on how long ago we’re talking, we know Mars had abundant water—oceans and polar ice—millennia ago. But also, its moons—Phobos and Deimos—are highly unusual, with irregular orbits, perplexing lunar craters and other inconsistencies. As recent as the ’60s, some scientists seriously considered the conclusion that they were hollow. Artificial.”
Montross smiled suddenly, pointing to the two scepters of Marduk. “Phobos and Deimos. Translation from the Greek:
Alexander shifted awkwardly, glancing at the dark passage behind them. “What about going back? Finding the upward shaft and climbing up to the Great Pyramid? I think I saw a way in there.”
“And then what?” Montross snapped. “Just waltz out the main door? They’d be on us in seconds.”
“We could wait it out? Hide inside the pyramid somewhere.”
Caleb shook his head. “Not with Nina out there. And especially not if her… kids show up.”
“You mean
Caleb looked away. Reached for Alexander and squeezed his shoulders reassuringly. “I don’t know what to think about them yet. But I’ve gotten some visions, and I’m… worried.”
Alexander nodded. “I’ve been seeing them too. For a long time, I think. Without knowing who they were or why I was seeing them. I wonder, were they glimpsing me too?”
“Probably,” Caleb said. “If they’re as good as you.”
“Again,” Montross said, his voice rising. “Can we proceed? I say we move on ahead, scout out where this infernal labyrinth winds up. There has to be another exit.”
“Tell that to the minotaur,” Alexander said.
Caleb glanced toward the darkness. “This may be it, and there’s no other way out. The path of the initiate was from the Sphinx to the Great Pyramid. Everything else is mere confusion and more tests of the candidate’s resolve.”
Montross stared at the shadows ahead of them. “No. There’s something else. Another way out. I’ve seen it.
