endless black tube. After walking on for another fifteen minutes, Ariella noticed the color of the rock had begun to change. She walked up close to her father and pointed to the tunnel wall. “The rock looks lighter now.”
“I think the darkness is starting to lose its grip,” Lev whispered. “Everyone stop. Turn off your lights.”
The others looked around in confusion but did as Lev instructed. They were enveloped in darkness as soon as they turned off their lights. Soon, their eyes began to adjust, allowing them to see what Lev had suspected. Ahead, where the tunnel made a slight curve, a diffuse bluish light was barely visible, making the dark walls around them appear lighter.
Despite his fear, the prospect of discovery ignited John’s curiosity. It was a curiosity mixed with dread, like the feeling one gets when they see a car accident up ahead on the highway. He didn’t want to go any farther, but he couldn’t stop himself. “What do you think the source of that light is, Professor?”
Lev switched his light back on. “Your guess is as good as mine. Let’s keep moving.”
As the others fell into step behind him, the creeping sensation of impending doom took hold, but Leo shook it off as they continued deeper into the cave. Walking down the sloping floor, the light continued to grow in intensity until finally they rounded a ninety degree bend and suddenly stopped. To their utter amazement, a bright, light-filled space lay beyond.
Leo pushed down a sudden urge to run and breathed in deeply before taking a few hesitant steps to the end of the tunnel. Casting a glance back at the others, he turned to face the light and stepped into an enormous glowing cavern.
Lev followed and stood transfixed at the entranceway. “This place is massive, Leo.”
Ariella pushed around them. “Oh, my God. It’s huge.”
The rest of the group inched their way out of the tunnel and stared in silence while their senses adjusted to the unexpected radiance of the mammoth space. Right away it was obvious that the color of the rock had changed dramatically. Instead of the black coal-like surface of the tunnel, the walls of the chamber they were now standing in were light blue and had a luminescent, opal-like quality to them.
Leo touched Lev on the shoulder and pointed to the wall next to the opening of the tunnel they had just come through. The initials,
“What do you think GB means?” Lev asked.
“I have no idea,” Leo said, “but evidently someone has come through here before us.”
John leaned closer and saw the faint outline of an inscription below the initials. He reached out and brushed his hand across the lettering.
“Can you read it?” Ariella asked.
“No, but Leo probably can. It’s Latin. I think learning that language is kind of a job requirement for Jesuit priests.”
Leo moved around John and studied the inscription. “It says …
“Let it alone for now, Father,” Lev said. “I have a feeling time is growing short.”
Leo reluctantly pulled himself away from the wall and joined the others as they explored the cavern. Walking over the level floor toward the center of the chamber, they looked up along the smooth curving walls and saw that they were in a perfect dome that towered at least six stories above their heads. A total of four dark tunnels intersected the cavern, matching the four points of the compass, while directly under the uppermost point of the dome was a raised platform-like structure created from angled white stone. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they had just stumbled into something not found in nature. The cavern was different from anything that existed in wild caves, and each new discovery was making it more and more apparent that this space had been created by someone or something with a plan.
A low-intensity bluish glow seemed to pulse from the walls with the regularity of a heartbeat as the team looked at one another with a sense of wonder. Leo’s mind reeled. This hollowed out area looked more like a cathedral than a cavern. The raised formation in the center even resembled an altar.
Watchful of their surroundings, the group continued to listen for the sound of anything approaching as they cautiously made their way under the top of the dome. They were astonished when they looked up and saw luminescent patterns that appeared to represent constellations of brilliant white stars all around them. The star-like pinpoints of light covered the entire surface of the cavern’s walls and ceiling, like those projected onto the curved interior dome of a planetarium.
“This place is magnificent,” Lev said.
“It’s beautiful,” Ariella added, turning in a circle as she gazed at the glowing ceiling full of diamond-like stars.
Leo placed his hands on his hips and looked toward the top of the dome. “There’s something not right about the location of the constellations.”
“They’re reversed,” Lev said. He pulled at his beard and squinted at the placement of the stars above his head. “We’re looking at the stars as they would appear to someone at the edge of the universe looking toward the earth. This is a view of our heavens from very far away.”
“Yes … that’s it,” Leo said. “This view of the stars is the opposite of what we would see from our vantage point looking up into the sky from the earth.”
“My God, it seems like every new discovery we make is another puzzle.” Alon said. He was becoming more confused by the minute with all this talk of reversed views of stars. “How could anyone on earth know what the stars look like from the edge of the universe?”
“Any modern astronomer could figure it out,” Lev said, “but judging by the look of that tunnel we just came through, I have a feeling this place is probably millions of years old. Ancient man had no knowledge of astronomy or distant galaxies, so looking at it from a biblical point of view, I would have to say that this is a representation of a view of the earth from heaven above, a view only God would have had of the world when this cavern was created.”
“But the code specifically pinpointed this area as one reserved for Satan here on earth,” John said. “Why would God’s view be represented here?”
John’s last observation jolted Leo. “Of course! God’s view. I think we’re looking at the stars as Lucifer did when he was still one of God’s angels … before he wanted to rule heaven and was cast out by God.”
“You think this was created to give Satan the view he once had before the war between heaven and hell?” Ariella asked.
“Yes … I mean … this is just a theory, but I believe that Satan is recreating a scene here on earth that he can never see again from heaven. As strange as it may seem, for some reason, he’s using God’s view to house something of great value to him.”
They all stood in awed silence and continued to gaze upward, absorbed in the spectacular star-filled ceiling, while Ariella walked ahead and ascended some glistening stone steps to the raised area in the center of the cavern. She continued to study the ceiling and the surrounding cavern before she looked down at the floor and let out a gasp. “Everyone, come look at this.”
The others raced up beside her and were shocked when they looked down at the floor beneath them. It was transparent, the color of black polished onyx with hints of cobalt blue infused throughout. They were standing over a crystal abyss, and the effect was dizzying, like being in a glass-bottomed boat and looking down into the deep blue of the ocean with no bottom in sight. The solid void seemed endless, making it impossible to tell how far the magnificent gem-like stone continued into the depths of the earth.
John bent down and ran his hand over the smooth surface of the floor. There was no dust; the area was as clean as an operating room. Dropping to his knees, he pressed his face close to the floor and peered down into the translucent depths below. “Wow. What’s that?”
The others crowded in around him and stretched their necks, straining to see.
“Yeah, what is that?” Alon said.
