“Nah, we were lucky — just got an adrenaline rush when I saw you go over. You OK?”
“Fine now, but praise the Lord, Ms. Jennings was right about these suits — you don’t need to take them off to use the bathroom.”
They stood on the edge of an abyss that dropped away into impenetrable darkness. Raising her chin and breathing deeply, Aimee could feel a slight breeze blowing up from the depths, carrying with it a hint of rich mosses and humidity. She stood a little back from the edge; there were two things that made her feel uneasy — swimming in the ocean at night and darkened heights. Even though it was much warmer now, she shivered as she remembered the time five years ago when she attempted to leave a downtown building late one evening. While waiting for an elevator to take her back to the lobby from the fourteenth floor, the double doors had slid open to reveal a shaft without the car. An empty black doorway which led into nothingness. Aimee, daydreaming, had stepped forward and had only been stopped from plunging hundreds of feet to her death by a watchful security guard. She had been nauseous for days afterwards.
Twenty feet across the gap the cave continued. Aimee watched Monica crack a glow stick, shake it to get maximum illumination and then drop it over the edge. They all held their breath and waited — and waited. After a while, when the stick had obviously passed out of range of their vision, and no sounds of it hitting bottom could be heard, Monica turned to the group.
“OK, climbing down is not a good idea,” she said.
The HAWCs increased the illumination on their torches and the strong lights showed what looked to be piles of clothing or packs on the cave floor over the gap.
“That’s them; they’re over there.” Aimee had stepped forward, her excitement at the chance of finding Tom alive overtaking her fear of the chasm edge. Alex put his hand out to gently hold her upper arm and looked over her head to Monica.
“We need to get over there, Ms. Jennings.”
Monica was already looking up at the ceiling to formulate a route. “No problem. I’ll cam-crawl across the roof and secure a line to the far wall. We can rig up a rope jerry-bridge and relay everyone over. Give me about ten minutes.” With that she stripped off her pack and removed a belt containing an impressive array of equipment. “About time I got to try out this new gear.”
Aimee thought she knew a little about rock climbers and their equipment. Many Saturday nights had been spent with a pizza, a bottle of red wine and the Discovery Channel for company. She had watched in awe as Edurne Pasaban of Spain, followed by the Italian Nives Meroi and Yuka Komatsu of Japan — three women — had broken the K2 mountain’s curse on women and climbed to the top of the feared peak in the Himalayas. She had marvelled at how these small women had ascended the 28,000 feet in freezing conditions while weighed down with all their equipment. She wished now she had paid more attention. However, she did remember the cams — devices with two or more half discs with small teeth that when operated sprang open and expanded into cracks in the rock. They were the tools of trade for rock climbers and mountaineers the world over. Monica’s version was slightly different and consisted of four spring-loaded cams with a trigger that looked like it could be easily operated one- handed.
Aimee watched in disbelief as Monica crawled and swung across the cave ceiling, placing cams along the way connected to a soft, twisted fibre rope. In no time she dropped lightly to the cave floor on the other side, still not even breathing hard. It was a simple matter then to set up the jerry-bridge. This was a basic construction that opened in a V shape with hardened plastic plates at the bottom where the V joined. You could simply walk across, placing one foot in front of the other.
Aimee felt her legs go weak at the thought of stepping out onto a rope bridge that was little wider at the base than her own foot. She hugged herself and thought: are we having fun yet? She looked up at Alex; he was absolutely calm and she drew strength from his presence.
After securing the ladder on both sides, Monica crossed back to test the bridge’s strength and give the team a quick demonstration of how to cross safely. She stood before them now with her hands on her hips. “OK, this is extremely safe; the bridge ropes are of a kernmantle construction which means they are soft to touch but have enormous tensile strength. Where you will be stepping is a polymerised plastic plate — I guarantee it will not break and actually increases strength under stress.”
She looked at Alex. “We’re good to go.”
Aimee drew in a shuddering breath, took her place in the line and focused on the pile of clothing over the chasm.
Alex nodded to Mike and Tank. They crossed without problem, and while Mike waited on the opposite edge of the crevasse to offer any assistance, Tank trotted ahead to provide some initial recon and some forward cover. The two medics crossed next, followed by Matt, Aimee, Silex and Takeda. Alex took one more look back the way they had come. Strange, he didn’t understand enough about his newly amplified senses to know exactly what they were telling him, but he could feel a presence behind them. Was it Benson? He looked forward again and past the group into the caves; there was also something there. Maybe it was the lost group he was sensing. It was confusing; he needed to stay cool, stay focused. He crossed the bridge and ignored the prickling sensation on the back of his neck.
“It’s all torn up.” Aimee dropped the thermal undershirt back onto the pile of clothing. Belts, backpacks and piles of ripped material, even boots were strewn around. She was shaking her head. “Why would they rip it up? Why would they even take everything off?”
“Disorientation, cerebral oedema, even severe dehydration — a hundred things can cause all sorts of aberrant behaviour, Aimee. Come on, we’ll find them.” Silex had put his arm around her and rubbed her shoulder. She looked at him and nodded.
“Thanks, Adrian, you’re probably right. I’ll be OK.” She went to rejoin the team but he held her and gave her arm a little squeeze.
“Are you sure, Aimee? I’m here if you need me.” His bald head bobbed at her and he was close enough now for her to smell his breath. She compressed her lips in a tight smile, nodded again and pushed out from under his thin arm.
“Check this out, you guys,” Matt exclaimed from further down the cave tunnel. There were more of the ancient glyphs carved into the dark stone of the cave wall. Monica and Aimee stopped as the HAWCs and Silex continued on a few more paces. “These are of a similar style to the ones back at the cave opening. Monica, look at this, it’s that same symbol I showed you before; the seal of the two brother warriors — the twins.”
Monica came and stood next to him. “What’s it all say?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Damn, if only we had that other guy from Central America.” Monica elbowed Matt in the ribs and he laughed.
“Well, I can see the symbols for the brothers and also for that eye and coiled ropes which is the symbol of the deceiver god — the
“I wonder where they all vanished to?” asked Aimee.
“I’ve been wondering the same thing. And I’ve been wondering a few other things about those two warriors,” Matt replied.
The medics, Margaret and Bruno, had joined them now, and Matt turned to them. “You know, this could be just coincidental, but there is an ancient Mayan myth about the creation of the universe that described their version of heaven and earth and the gods and creatures within it. It also featured two brave twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, the sons of the blood moon. In the myth, they travelled deep below the earth to their Hades, a place they called Xibalba. Like a lot of ancient races, the Mayan myths were thought to have been handed down from even earlier populations. What if the legend of the brothers wasn’t all myth? What if it was one of those stories that was passed down over the millennia and was never a myth at all but the documentation of an actual journey below ground by these two warriors.”
Matt was breathing heavily, and he sucked in a deep breath before continuing. “Aimee, you asked where they all vanished to. I’ve been thinking about that as well. This could be another population disappearance. These
