Seven Ancient Wonders

The ceiling started lowering!

The entire ceiling of the chamber—a single great block of stone—began rumbling downwards, descending toward the flat green pool!

The intention was clear: in about 20 seconds it would reach the waterline and block all access to the three low rectangular holes at the far end of the room.

Which left only one option: leap across the concealed stepping-stones and get to the correct rectangular hole before the lowering ceiling hit the waterline.

'Everyone! Move! Follow me step for step!' West called.

And so, with the ceiling lowering loudly above him, he danced across the chamber with big all-or-nothing jumps, kicking up splashes with every landing. If he misjudged even one stepping-stone, he'd land in the water and it'd be game over.

His path was dictated by the grid-reference Wizard had given him: 1-3-4-1-3, on a five-by-five grid. It looked like this:

West came to the far wall of the chamber, while his team crossed it behind him. The wide ceiling of the water chamber kept lowering above them all.

He eyed the three rectangular holes cut into the end-wall. He'd seen these kinds of holes before: they were spike-holes.

But only one hole was safe, it led to the next level of the labyrinth. The other two would be fitted with sharp spikes that lanced down from the upper sides of the rectangular holes as soon as someone entered them.

Each of the spike-holes before him had a symbol carved above it:

Pick the right hole. While the ceiling lowered behind him, about to push his team into the water.

'No pressure, Jack,' he said to himself. 'Okay. Key of life, key of life . . .'

He saw the symbol above the left-hand hole:

Close, but no. It was the hieroglyph for magic. Imhotep V was trying to confuse the flustered, panicking explorer who found himself in this pressure-filled situation and didn't look closely enough.

'How's it coming, Jack?' Big Ears and the girl appeared beside him, joining him on the last stepping- stone.

The ceiling was low now, past halfway and still descending. There was no going back now. He had to pick the right hole.

'West. . .' someone urged from behind him.

Keeping his cool, West saw the symbol above the centre hole .

. . . and recognised it as the hieroglyph for ankh, or long life, otherwise known to the ancient Egyptians as 'the key of life'.

'It's this one!' he called.

But there was only one way to prove it.

He pulled his falcon from his pouch and handed it to the little girl. 'Hey, kiddo. Take care of Horus for me, just in case I'm wrong.'

Then he turned and crouch-dived forwards, rolling into the centre hole, shutting his eyes momentarily, waiting for a half-dozen rusty spikes to spring down from its upper side and punch through his body—

—nothing happened.

He'd picked the right hole. Indeed, a tight cylindrical passage opened up in the darkness beyond this hole, bending vertically upward.

'It's this one!' He called back as he started ferrying his team into it, pulling them through.

Big Ears and Lily went first, then Wizard—

The ceiling was four feet off the water's surface.

Fuzzy and Zoe clambered up next.

The final two troopers in West's team rolled into the hole and last of all went West himself, disappearing into the rectangular hole )ust as the lowering stone ceiling rumbled past him and hit the surface of the water chamber with a resounding boom.

The Slipway and the Second Gate

The tight vertical passage from the spike-hole rose for about 50 feet before opening onto a long tunnel that sloped upward at a steep angle, boring up into the heart of the mountain.

West fired a new amber flare up into the tunnel.

It was the ancient slipway.

About the width of a car, the slipway was effectively a long straight stairway flanked by two flat stone trackways that abutted the walls of the tunnel. These trackways had once acted like primitive railway tracks: the ancient miners had slid giant containers filled with waste up and down them, aided by the hundreds of stone steps that lay in between them.

'Fuzz,' West said, peering up the tunnel. 'Distance?'

Fuzzy aimed a PAQ-40 laser rangefinder up into the darkness.

As he did so, West keyed his radio: 'Noddy, report.'

'The Americans aren't here yet, Huntsman,'' Noddy's voice replied, 'but they're closing fast. Satellite image puts their advance choppers 50 klicks out. Hurry.'

'Doing the best we can,' West said.

Wizard interrupted: 'Don't forget to tell Noddy that we'll be out of radio contact for the time the Warblers are initiated.'

'You hear that?'

7 heard. Noddy, out.'

Fuzzy's rangefinder beeped. 'I got empty space for ... 150 metres.'

West grimaced. 'Why do I get the feeling it isn't empty at all.'

He was right.

The ascending slipway featured several traps: blasting waterfall-shafts and some ankle-breaking trap- holes.

But the Eight just kept running, avoiding the traps, until halfway up the inclined tunnel they came to the Second Gate.

The Second Gate was simple: a ten-foot-deep diorite pit that just fell away in front of them, with the ascending slipway continuing beyond it five yards away.

The lower reaches of the pit, however, had no side walls: it just had two wide yawning 8-foot-high passageways that hit the pit at right angles to the slipway. And who knew what came out of them . . .

'Diorite pit,' West said. 'Nothing cuts diorite except an even harder stone called diolite. Can't use a pick-axe to get yourself out.' 'Be careful,' Wizard said. 'The Callimachus Text says this Gate is connected to the next one. By crossing this one, we trigger the Third Gate's trap-mechanism. We're going to have to move fast.' 'That's okay,' West said. 'We're really quite good at that.' They ended up crossing the pit by drilling steel rock-screws into the stone ceiling with pneumatic pressure-guns. Each rock- screw had a handgrip on it.

But as West landed on the ledge on the other side of the pit, he discovered that the first step on that side was one large trigger stone. As soon as he touched it, the wide step immediately sunk a few inches into the floor—

—and boom! Suddenly the ground shook and everyone spun. Something large had dropped into the darkened tunnel up ahead of them. Then an ominous rumbling sound came from somewhere up there.

'Shit! The next Gate!' West called. 'Swear jar . . .' Lily said.

'Later,' West said. 'Now we run] Big Ears, grab her and follow me!'

The Third Gate

Up the steep slipway they ran, keeping to the stairs inside the rails.

The ominous rumbling continued to echo out from the darkness above them.