Serpent

'You could drive a car through this!' Gamay exclaimed.

'There are legends of underground highways that ran between villages. I always thought they were simply exaggerations, that some of the locals had seen natural tunnels and mistaken them for artificial ones. But this . . .'

They were brought to a halt where a section of fallen roof blocked the way, and turned back to the main chamber, stopping first to explore a side passage. They entered a miniature plaza whose rectangular tiled floor was surrounded by real columns, not stalactites. The vaulted ceiling was smoothed and plastered, as was the wall, which was adorned with murals of red figures in profile.

'Incredible,' Gamay said. 'Is this some sort of underground temple?'

Chi walked along the walls squinting at the figures whose paint seemed as fresh as if it had been applied the day before.

'The figures are Mayan, but, then again, they are not,' the professor whispered.

Pictured was a procession of profiled figures carrying goods on shoulders and heads. Vases, baskets of bread, gold containers, odd shapes that could have been ingots.

'The boats again.' Gamay pointed out merchant ships and war vessels similar to those carved into the walls of the structure Chi showed her earlier.

A whole story unfolded as they walked along the walls. Ships coming in. Unloading. The goods being taken off in procession. Even a painting of a man holding a list, obviously a teller. Soldiers standing guard. It was an ancient documentary of some great event or events.

Their attention turned to the center of the room and a large round stone pedestal supported by four heavy columnar legs. On the table was a cut box of purplish crystal-specked stone, similar in appearance to the temple structures on the summits of Mayan pyramids.

Gamay bent low and looked through the square opening in the side of the box.

'There's something inside,' she said. She reached in with trembling fingers, lifted out the object, and set it on the mirrored surface of the table. Chi had found more castor branches to replenish the torch, and it burned brighter than ever.

The device, for that is surely what it was, consisted of a boxy wood housing inset with a metal wheel which in turn was strengthened with cross braces. Within the wheel was a large gear that apparently rotated around a central axle, and meshed with its teeth were several smaller gears.

'What is it?' Gamay said.

A machine of sorts.'

'It looks like . . . no, it can't be.'

'Don't keep me in the dark, Dr. Gamay'

'Well, it resembles something I've seen before, an artifact taken off an ancient shipwreck, made of bronze as this appears to be but terribly corroded. It was thought to be an astrolabe, a navigational device to determine the attitude of the sun and stars. Someone did a gamma radiograph. They found gear ratios that related to astronomical and calendar data. It was far more complex than a simple astrolabe. There were thirty gears, all enmeshed, even a differential gear. It was basically a computer.'

'A computer. Where did you see it?'

She paused. At the National Museum in Athens.'

Chi stared at the machine. 'Impossible.'

'Professor, could you give me a little more light here, where these scratchings are?'

Chi brought the torch so dose the flames almost singed Gamay's hair, but she didn't care.

'I don't know much about Mayan writing, but this isn't it.'

It was Chi's turn to examine the inscription. 'Impossible,' he repeated, but with less conviction.

Gamay looked around the chamber. 'This whole thing, this cloistered basilica, your underground freeway. They're all impossible, too.'

'We must get this analyzed as soon as we can.'

'I'm with you on that one. There's a slight problem.'

'Oh yes,' Chi said, remembering where they were. 'But I think we're almost out of the caves.'

Gamay nodded. 'I felt the fresh air, too.'

Chi tied the front of his shirt into a makeshift sack to carry the artifact, and they headed back to explore the main chamber: An enormous wooden ladder almost perpendicular in its steepness soared into the darkness above. The ladder was made of bark-covered saplings, logs really, about as thick as a Mayan's thigh and approximately twelve feet wide. The saplings were lashed to tree trunks that were braced horizontally at right angles against the face of the rods Running up the center of the ladder was a partition that acted as a hand railing.

The ladder was an impressive engineering feat, but time had taken its toll. Some of the round steps had slipped and hung at angles. In places supports had snapped, and the ladder sagged. The wood seemed sturdy enough to Gamay The fact that the steps and bras were lashed together with vines bothered her. In her sorry experience vines dried, cracked, and broke. Her confidence was not inspired when the bottom step detached itself from the ladder as she put her weight on it.

Chi craned his neck toward the invisible summit of the ladder.

'We'll have to approach this scientifically,' he said, examining the construction. 'This whole thing could fall at any moment. The support up the middle may give it some stability. It would be something to hang on to. Maybe you should go fast. If it holds for you, there should be no problem with me.'

Gamay appreciated Chi's gesture, although she didn't agree with it.

'Your chivalry may be misplaced, Dr. Chi. Your dances of making it to the top are better than mine. If I go first and the ladder breaks, you'll never get out of here.'

'On the other hand, the ladder could break under my weight, and we'd both be out of hick.'

Stubborn Mayan. 'Okay. I promise to go on a diet later.'

Gamay stepped carefully over the bottom rung to the second sapling and gradually put her weight on it. The rung held. Reaching up for higher rungs so as to spread her weight, she began to climb. She purposely avoided looking at the vines, fearing that they might part from the pressure of her glance.

About six rungs up she stopped. 'The air is coming down the ladder,' she said brightly. 'Once we're at the top we should be home free.'

She took another step. The ties snapped on one side, and the end of the sapling came free to hang at a slight angle. Gamay froze, afraid to breathe. Nothing else fell. As slowly and deliberately as a tree sloth she resumed her climb. The ties held until she got midway, where the ladder sagged, putting further stress on the suspension. Another log snapped free and dangled off to one side. One horizontal support came completely loose and crashed to the cave floor. She was sure the ladder was about to collapse. Yet it stayed intact. When the swaying stopped she resumed her climb.

She could have been on the ladder fifteen minutes or fifteen hours. It was hard to tell. But she made steady progress without mishap until she was only a few rungs from the top. Good God, she thought, looking down. The ladder must be almost ninety feet high. She had left the light from Chi's torch behind long ago. From where she was perched it looked like a distant star.

Gamay reached up and to her great relief felt stone instead of tree bark. Even more carefully than before, not wanting to kick a log free, she slithered over the rim to safety. She lay on her back and offered thanks to the Mayan ladder builders, then rolled over on her stomach and called softly down to Chi.

The torch waved back and forth and went out. Chi was on his way up and would need both hands free. She didn't really think he'd have any problem until she heard the noise.

Calunk Then clunkityclunk.

In her mind's eye she could see the thick loglike saplings break loose and tumble to the bottom of the ladder. She expected that would be the end of it, but then she began to hear more dull dunks. A terrifying sound, because it indicated that the incident hadn't ended with one log. A chain reaction was under way If she had weakened the vines with her weight it would require only a slight pressure to snap the supports and send the rungs crashing to the floor More thumps and dunks echoed in the darkness. The noise grew louder. It was evident from the racket that, rung by rung, the ladder was collapsing.

She lit the cigarette lighter and held it over the edge. Maybe the tiny flame would show Chi how close he was to the top. That is, if he weren't buried under a massive log pile.