Empire of the Ants (35 page)

A few hundred metres further on, Jason trod on something that crunched. When he shone a light on it, he saw it was the thoracic cage of a skeleton and let out a loud scream. Daniel and Augusta swept the light from their torches all around and discovered two more skeletons, one of which was the size of a child. Could it be Jonathan and his family?

They set off again but soon had to start running when a massive rustling announced the arrival of the rats. The yellow of the walls turned to the white of lime. At last they arrived exhausted at the end of the tunnel and found themselves at the foot of a spiral staircase leading back up.

Augusta fired her last two bullets in the direction of the rats, then they leapt up the stairs. Jason still had enough presence of mind to note that this staircase was the opposite way round to the first and that you turned clockwise whether you went down or up.

The news that a Belokanian had just turned up in the city caused a sensation. Everyone said she must be a Federation ambassadress come to announce Chli-pou-kans official attachment to the Federation as its sixty-fifth city.

Chli-pou-ni was less optimistic than her daughters. She was suspicious of the new arrival. Supposing she were a rock-scented warrior sent from Bel-o-kan to
infiltrate the subversive queen’
s city?

W
hat's she like?

She's more tired than anything. She must have run all the way from Bel-o-kan to do the journey in a few days.

Shepherdesses had caught sight of her wandering about in the neighbourhood, exhausted. She had not emitted anything for the time being and had been taken straight to the tanker-ant room to replenish her reserves.

Bring her here. I want to talk to her alone but I want guards to stay at the entrance to the royal chamber ready to act when I give the signal.

Chli-pou-ni had always longed for news of her native city but now that one of its representatives had turned up, her first thought had been to consider her a spy and kill her. She would wait until she saw her, but if she detected the least rock-scent molecule, she would have her executed without the slightest hesitation.

The Belokanian was brought to her. As soon as the two ants recognized one another, they fell together with their mandibles wide open and engaged in the smoothest of trophallaxes. At first, they were so moved they could not emit.

Chli-pou-ni let out the first pheromone.

How far have you got with the investigation? Is it the termites?

103,683rd told how she had crossed the eastern river and visited the termite city, that it had been destroyed and that there were no survivors.

What's behind all this, then?

According to the warrior, the true culprits for all these incomprehensible events were the Guardians of the eastern edge of the world, animals so strange you could neither see nor smell them. They appeared suddenly out of the sky and everyone died.

Chli-pou-ni listened carefully. However, added 103,683rd, that still did not explain how the Guardians of the end of the world had been able to use the rock-scented soldiers.

Chli-pou-ni thought she knew. She explained that the rock-scented soldiers were neither spies nor mercenaries but a clandestine force responsible for monitoring the level of stress in the city organism. They stifled any information that might worry the city. She related how the killers had assassinated 327th and how they had tried to assassinate her.

What about the food reserves under the rock floor? And the corridor in the granite?

Chli-pou-ni had no answer to that. It was precisely the double mystery she had sent spy ambassadresses to try and solve.

The young queen offered to show her friend round the city. On the way, she explained to her the fantastic possibilities offered by water. The eastern river, for example, had always been considered deadly but it was only water. The queen had fallen in it without dying. They might one day be able to go down the river on leaf rafts and discover the northern edge of the world. Chli-pou-ni got carried away. There were probably Guardians of the northern edge who could be incited to fight those of the eastern edge.

103,683rd had not failed to notice that Chli-pou-ni was full of bold projects. Not all were feasible but those which had already been put into practice were impressive. The soldier had never before seen such vast mushroom beds or greenfly sheds, or rafts floating on underground canals.

But what surprised her most was the queen s last pheromone.

She asserted that if her ambassadresses were not back within a fortnight, she would declare war on Bel-o-kan. In her opinion, their native city was no longer fit for the world they lived in. The very existence of the rock-scented warriors showed that it was not facing up to reality. It was like a frightened snail. Once it had been revolutionary, now it was outmoded. Someone had to take over. Here in Chli-pou-kan, the ants were making much faster progress. Chli-pou-ni considered that if she took over as head of the Federation, she could develop it quickly. With sixty-five federated cities, her initiatives would be ten times as effective. She was already thinking of conquering the waterways and setting up a flying legion using rhinoceros beetles.

103,683rd hesitated. She had intended to return to Bel-o-kan to tell of her journey but Chli-pou-ni asked her to give up the idea.

Bel-o-kan has set up an army
^‘
to avoid knowing'. Don't force it to know something it doesn't want to know.

The steps at the top of the spiral staircase were made of aluminium and did not date from the Renaissance. They ended in front of a white door bearing another inscription:

And I went in till I drew nigh to a wall which is built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire: and it began to frighten me.

And I went into the tongues of fire and drew nigh to a large house which was built of crystals.

And the walls of the house were like a tessellated floor made of crystals, and its groundwork was of crystal.

Its ceiling was like the path of the stars and the lightnings.

And between them were fiery cherubim.

And their heaven was clear as water.
(I Enoch)

They pushed open the door and went up a very steep corridor. The ground suddenly gave way beneath their feet as the floor pivoted. They fell for so long that they got over being frightened and felt as if they were flying. They were flying!

Their fall was broken by the huge, close-meshed net of a trapeze artist. They felt about in the dark on all fours. Jason Bragel found another door, not with a code this time but with a simple handle. He quietly called his companions, then opened it.

old
man
: In Africa, people are sadder about the death of an old man than about that of a new-born baby. The old man represented a wealth of experience that might have benefited the tribe whereas the new-born baby had not lived and could not even be aware of dying.

In Europe, people are sad about the new-born baby because they think he might well have done wonderful things if he had lived. On the other hand, they pay little attention to the death of the old man, who had already lived his life anyway.

Edmond Wells,
Encyclopedia of Relative and Absolute Knowledge

The place was bathed in a blue light.

It was a temple without a statue or image.

Augusta remembered Professor Leducs words. The Protestants must certainly have taken refuge there in former times when the persecution was at its height.

Beneath wide freestone vaults, the room was vast, square and very beautiful. The only decoration was a period organ at the centre. In front of it was a lectern bearing a thick folder.

The walls were covered in inscriptions, many of which looked more like black magic than white, even to the uninitiated eye. Leduc was right. Sects must have succeeded one another in the underground refuge, but in olden days there would have been no pivoting wall, no trap and no trapdoor with a safety net.

They could hear the murmur of running water, but at first could not see where it was coming from. The bluish light was coming from the right, where there was a sort of laboratory full of computers and test-tubes. All the machines were still switched on and it was the computer screens that were producing the glow lighting up the temple. 'Intriguing, isn't it?'

They looked at one another. None of the three had spoken. A light came on in the ceiling.

They turned round. Jonathan Wells was walking towards them in a white dressing-gown. He had entered through a door in the temple on the other side of the laboratory.

'Hello, Gran! Hello, Jason! Hello, Daniel!'

They all gaped at him, speechless. So he was not dead! He was living here! How could anyone live here? They did not know which question to ask first.

'Welcome to our little community'

'Where are we?'

'You're in a Protestant church built early in the seventeenth century by a famous architect. I think this underground church is his masterpiece. There are kilometres of freestone tunnels. And, as you've seen, there's ventilation along the way. He must have put in shafts or made use of air pockets in natural galleries. We don't even understand how he went about it. And that's not all. There isn't only air, there's water, too. You must have noticed the streams crossing the tunnel in places. Look, one of them comes out here.'

He showed them the source of the constant murmur, a sculpted fountain behind the organ.

'Throughout the ages, people have come here to find the peace and quiet they needed to do things requiring, let's say, careful attention. Uncle Edmond found out about it from an old book of magic spells and decided to work here.'

Jonathan came closer, looking unusually calm and relaxed. Augusta was amazed.

'You must be tired out. Follow me.'

He pushed open the door through which he had appeared a little earlier and led them into a room containing several divans arranged in a circle.

'Lucie!' he called. 'We've got visitors.'

'Lucie? Is she here with you?' exclaimed Augusta happily.

'How many of you are there here?' asked Daniel.

'Until now, there were eighteen of us: Lucie, Nicolas, the eight firemen, the inspector, the five policemen, the superintendent and myself. In short, everyone who has bothered to come down. You'll see them soon. Please forgive us but it's four o'clock in the morning for our community right now and everyone's fast asleep. I was the only one who got woken up by your arrival. You made a bit of a racket in the corridors, you know'

Lucie appeared, also wearing a dressing-gown.

'Hello.'

She came forward, smiling, and kissed all three of them. Behind her, silhouettes in pyjamas stuck their heads round the door to see the 'newcomers'.

Jonathan brought a big carafe of water from the fountain and some glasses.

'We're going to leave you for a little while to go and get dressed. We always have a small celebration to welcome newcomers but we didn't know you'd turn up in the middle of the night and we need to get ready for it. We'll be right back.'

Augusta, Jason and Daniel did not move. There was so much to take in. Daniel suddenly pinched himself. Augusta and Jason thought it was an excellent idea and did the same. But reality is sometimes stranger than a dream. They looked at each other in bewilderment and smiled.

A few minutes later, they were all sitting on the divans together. Augusta, Jason and Daniel had come to and were eager for information.

'You mentioned shafts just now. Are we very far from the surface?'

'No, three or four metres at the most.'

'Can we get out into the open again, then?'

'No, no. The church is built just under a huge, flat rock made of granite. It's the toughest thing going.'

'It's got a hole as thick as your arm in it, though,' added Lucie. 'It used to be a ventilation shaft, too.'

'Used to be?'

'Yes, the passage is used for a different purpose now. It doesn't matter, there are other lateral ventilation shafts. We aren't stifling in here, as you can see.'

'Can't we get out?'

'No. Not that way, anyway'

Jason seemed deeply concerned.

'But Jonathan, why did you build the pivoting wall, the trap, the floor that gave way and the safety net, then? We're completely trapped.'

'That was precisely my intention. It took a lot of time and money but it was necessary. When I first arrived in the church, I came across the lectern. Besides the
Encyclopedia of Relative and Absolute Knowledge
I found a letter from my uncle on it addressed to me personally. Here it is.'

They read:

'Dear Jonathan,

You decided to come down in spite of my warning, which means you are braver than I thought. Good for you. Your mother told me you were afraid of the dark and I gave you a one in five chance of succeeding. It takes willpower to overcome that kind of handicap and willpower is what we are going to need.