reach of the blazing light of the Pillar.
But then, with a great thunderclap, a thick column of laserlike white light blasted downward from the Pillar and shot down the shaftlike abyss, rocketing toward the core of the Earth.
Jack couldn’t watch it properly—it was just too bright.
Then with startling suddenness, the laser retreated back up into the Pillar and the pyramid, and just as quickly as it had sprung to life, the event was over, and the cavern was dark again—save for the pathetic light of Jack’s amber flares.
Uncovering his eyes, Jack peered up at the massive pyramid, staring in awe at the ancient mechanism.
Then he saw the Pillar.
It was pulsing with light, its liquid core throbbing with a soft luminous glow.
And then, slowly, gradually, a strange kind of text began to appear on every surface of the Pillar—white symbols on all of the Pillar’s glasslike surfaces.
Jack recognized the symbols instantly.
The Word of Thoth.
The mysterious language found in Egypt and decipherable only by the Siwan Oracles: Lily and her twin brother, Alexander.
Then he recalled the reward that went with the placing of the first Pillar.
Knowledge.
These symbols conveyed some kind of wisdom, highly advanced wisdom.
Knowledge that nations would kill for.
He reached out to grab the Pillar. No sooner had he touched it than—shnick—there was a soft slicing noise and the pyramid’s clamping mechanism released the Pillar into his hands, now glowing with its pristine white Thoth symbols.
Jack examined it, and immediately noticed that a small pyramidal section of the Pillar had been removed, excised, from its upper end.
Jack looked up in wonder—and saw that the great inverted bronze pyramid was now whole again. Somehow, during the dazzling light show, it had taken a section of the diamond Pillaras its capstone, thus completing its perfect triangular shape.
“Nice…” Jack said, gazing down at the newly formed pyramidal void in his Pillar.
“Wizard,” he said into his mike. “This is serious shit…”
“Don’t I know it.”
Jack tucked the glowing Pillar into his rucksack. “Well,” he said, “all things considered, that was really kinda painless.”
“Yes, which is most unusual for us—”Wizard began, only for his radio signal to cut off abruptly and be replaced by a long droning monotone.
Jack’s blood turned to ice. This wasn’t a simple loss of signal. That would produce static or hash. Tone meant something else.
He turned and saw Wizard at the edge of the balcony, holding his hands out, palms up. Beside him, Zoe was waving Jack over hurriedly.
Jack dashed back across the bridge, holding his rucksack like a football under his arm, keying his radio as he ran. “Astro! Lily! Alby! You guys still on the air?”
No reply.
Only the flat monotone.
He reached Wizard and Zoe. Wizard gazed at the Pillar nestled in the rucksack. Zoe, however, went straight up to him.
“Jack. All our comms have just been jammed. Someone else is here.”
THEY ROSE out of the lake on every side of the two Zodiacs—armed men in black wet suits and scuba gear, brandishing MP-5 submachine guns.
Twelve of them. Frogmen.
“Shit!” Astro cursed. “The moving sonar signal from before. It wasn’t a croc. It was a man.”
“Quiet, you,” the lead frogman said evenly, his accent all Eton. “Guns down and put your hands in the air.”
Astro and Pooh Bear complied.
British troops, Astro thought. Probably SAS or Royal Marines. He spun to glare at Iolanthe, but her face was a mask.
The British frogmen clambered up into the Zodiacs, their black wet suits dripping, their guns glistening.
Pooh Bear instinctively pushed Lily and Alby behind him.
The lead frogman went to Iolanthe, removed his mask and rebreather. He was young, square-jawed, with a pockmarked face. “Lieutenant Colin Ashmont, ma’am. Royal Marines. We’ve been waiting for you. And, as ordered, monitoring Captain West’s radio signals till we heard the Pillar had been placed.”
