about the tree of life, what about the tree of the gift? Or the gift itself ? Ribbsley said their god punished them for giving it to the beasts, but what was it?’
Sophia’s irritation faded as she concentrated on the text. ‘I’m not sure. It had something to do with making use of “tiny mountains of fire”—’
‘The volcanic vents. We got that.’
‘Literal, if not very poetic. There’s also what looks like “earth sky fire”, whatever that means.’
‘Sky fire - lightning?’ Chase suggested. ‘Or an aurora. You get them at the South Pole, right?’
‘Yeah,’ said Nina. ‘But “earth” seems like a modifier. How would you get an aurora in the earth?’
‘I have no idea.’ Sophia tapped the picture. ‘But there’s more here about these mysterious “beasts”. Apparently, the Veteres brought them with them to Antarctica.’
Chase snorted. ‘Well, that scores a ten on the stupidometer.’
Nina’s response was more thoughtful. ‘These beasts were a threat they were trying to escape . . . but they brought them along anyway? And then gave them God’s gift?’
‘Thought that was me,’ Chase said, grinning. Both women ignored him.
‘It doesn’t make a huge amount of sense,’ admitted Sophia. ‘What sort of gift could you give an animal that would arouse God’s wrath?’
Nina shook her head. ‘Unless it was a Jesus chew-toy, I can’t think of anything either.’ She picked up the LIDAR image. ‘I just hope that whatever it is, we’ll find out down there tomorrow.’
‘Feet dry at oh-seven seventeen,’ Larsson announced.
The BA609 was retracing its journey from the previous day - and, somewhat to Nina’s annoyance, with the same passengers. Baker and Rachel were going with Trulli to locate and recover Cambot, but why Bandra had insisted on coming along, other than to add to his ever-growing list of grievances, she had no idea.
Still, so long as he didn’t do anything to interfere, she could tolerate his presence. And the fact that he had let her take the front seat was a small sign of his acceptance of her authority, however grudging.
She donned her sunglasses and looked ahead. The location of the ice field and the crevasse was immediately obvious; a cloud of spray was still rising up from the latter, drifting westwards in a long plume.
‘Okay, first thing,’ said Trulli from behind her, ‘we need to see if Cambot’s still in the same place. Pehr, swing over the ravine and take a look.’
Larsson transitioned to hover mode, descending into the ravine. The hole through which the water was still gushing was somewhat larger than it had been the previous day, a section of the ice cliff above having sheared off as the escaping jet ate away at it. Through the spray, Nina could see fallen chunks of ice strewn everywhere, water flowing past them towards another, lower plain in the distance.
‘All right!’ Trulli exclaimed. ‘Cambot’s still where he was yesterday.’ He pointed; Nina spotted the robot wedged against the other side of the canyon, encrusted in ice and frost.
‘Looks like it’s frozen in,’ said Chase. ‘Bring any pickaxes?’
‘Better than that, mate. Got some gas!’ He patted a red metal cylinder in one of the cargo racks. ‘We can just melt the ice right off him, no worries.’
Larsson ascended and circled the previous day’s landing site to look for signs of the ice’s having been weakened by the draining lake. There were no new cracks evident, but he still landed cautiously, leaving the rotors running until he was sure the plain wasn’t going to drop out from under them.
The team made their way back to the drill site. Trulli and his assistants had detached the cables from the submarine by remote control and reeled them back in the previous day, so the manhole-sized opening had completely frozen over. However, it was plain that the water level had lowered beneath it; the ice covering the shaft was semi-translucent, revealing a circle of darkness below. ‘Shouldn’t take long to break through,’ Chase decided.
‘How are we going to see how low the water is?’ Nina asked. ‘I don’t suppose you brought another robot with you, Matt?’
Trulli put down a heavy insulated pack on the ice and unzipped it. ‘Afraid not, but I’ve got something that’ll do the job. Bit crude, but it’ll work.’ He took out a small digital camcorder in a plastic housing designed to protect it from the cold and wet. ‘We’ll just lower this on a string! If I set the gain for low-light conditions, it’ll give us an idea of how big the cavern is as well.’
‘Quite the
Trulli gave Nina an uncertain look. ‘Is that good?’
‘Surprisingly, yes,’ she told him, raising an eyebrow. ‘She actually complimented someone. I don’t know if you should feel honoured or worried.’
‘I wouldn’t let her pat you on the back, put it that way,’ Chase added.
Baker used one of the gas cylinders to melt through the ice capping the shaft. Frozen lumps dropped into the darkness below. Splashes followed, but only after a few seconds, and quite faintly.
Trulli rigged up his improvised probe, setting it to record before lowering it down the shaft on a length of line marked with a red stripe at one-metre intervals. Nina counted them off; the camera passed twenty metres with no trouble, clearing the bottom of the shaft. Thirty metres, forty, now below the roof of the chamber proper. Trulli paid the line out more slowly. The camera housing would float; as soon as it reached the surface, the line would go slack. Forty-five metres. Forty-six, forty-seven . . .
‘How deep was the lake?’ Chase asked. ‘Must be near the bottom by now.’
‘About twenty metres,’ said Nina. ‘So sixty metres below us, more or less.’ She checked the line again. Fifty- one metres, fifty-two—
‘Whoa,’ Trulli said. He hesitantly lowered his hands, then raised them again until the line became taut. ‘That’s it, we’ve reached water. Just under fifty-three metres.’
‘So only about seven metres still to drain?’ Nina asked. ‘It’ll be empty sooner than we thought.’
‘The drainage tunnel must have got wider.’ He raised his hands further. ‘Okay, hopefully if I swing it a little bit, the camera’ll turn enough to get a three-sixty of the cavern. Then I’ll pull it back up and we’ll have a look.’ He slowly twisted the line in his hands, then began the laborious process of returning the camera to the surface.
Once it was recovered, he removed it from the housing and opened its LCD screen, then rewound the recording to the point when the camera cleared the bottom of the ice dome. With the water gone, the amount of light coming through the ice was quite surprising. At the bottom of the screen, Nina could see the lake’s surface, the current clearly visible as the water surged towards the hole drilled in the base of the dam. Knowing the depth of the remaining water gave her a sense of scale that the sub’s cameras had failed to provide. The dam was indeed a quite impressive structure, making up in sheer size for what it lacked in complexity.
So what about the city?
The camera continued to descend, still swinging, but to her growing irritation the image only panned over the dam and the valley sides. She wanted to look
The image bobbed for several seconds before levelling out as Trulli pulled the line taut. Nina held her breath as it swung round. Even though it was barely above the water level, it should still reveal
The movement slowed. She almost groaned. The camera was going to swing away again before she saw anything—
‘Stop!’ she gasped. Trulli froze the picture.
The camera
It was a building, so tall that its top disappeared into the overhanging ice, towering over everything around it.
A temple.
She stood, eyes wide with amazement as she faced the others. ‘We have to get down there. As soon as we can.’
22
