The Atlantis Code (61 page)

The men handed Gary into willing hands, then clambered aboard themselves.

Natasha watched them go. In less than a minute, the cavern had been evacuated. She turned her attention back to the caves ahead just as World War III seemed to open up.

Leslie stood at the far end of the room next to a glass case under a mosaic of colored pebbles. The mosaic showed the First Son standing on a meadow top holding out His arms to call men and women from a dark forest filled with demons and ugly beasts.

Lourds read the symbols beneath the mosaic out loud. “ ‘May we all be called back home again soon.’ ”

A box of pure beaten gold sat on a small table. There was a note. Lourds shone his flashlight on it and read it quietly.

“Can you translate that?” Murani demanded.

“Yes.”

“Then do it.”

The note was short and to the point. “ ‘Here lies the Book of Knowledge. We took it from God’s First Son, who came to the Garden to shepherd us. We pray that God forgives us of our sins.

“ ‘When the Tower fell after we built it to ascend into Heaven, hard times followed. We warred with ourselves because we no longer had a common language. Only a few of us were able to learn this tongue again. We swore that we would never teach it to anyone. But the book is God’s, and there will always be those who assume they can be as powerful as God.

“ ‘They are wrong.

“ ‘After we sank into the sea, only a few of us remained within the caves. Already we’re growing sick with a mysterious malady which has followed us into the depths.’ ”

“Can a sickness survive this long?” Gallardo asked.

“No,” Murani said. “Besides, you have other problems to worry about.”

“More than likely any bacteria or viruses succumbed to barotrauma,” Lourds said.

“What’s that?” Gallardo asked suspiciously.

“Given that these chambers are dry, and that some of the people survived—at least for a time—the caves became a huge hyperbaric chamber. That is to say, the oxygen in the caves became more pressurized. Any time you dive below one hundred twenty feet for an extended length of time, the same thing happens. That’s why divers have to decompress and come up slowly. Or they have to use a decompression chamber, also called a hyperbaric chamber. Barotrauma results from pressure changes inside the body that don’t equalize during a dive.”

“I take it you knew a woman who was into diving,” Leslie said sourly.

Lourds couldn’t for the life of him figure out how Leslie could even possibly imagine being jealous under the circumstances. But there was no doubt she was. He’d seen it—and dealt with it—far too often. And, actually, she was right: He’d dated a woman who had been a diving instructor. A very beautiful, articulate diving instructor in Greece.

“They got sick from being underwater,” Gallardo said.

“Yes. Men have attempted to live underwater in different places—such as Jacques Cousteau’s Conshelf habitats, Sealab, and Aquarius. Dealing with saturation diving, and that’s what the survivors were subjected to in a sense, can cause aseptic bone necrosis, the loss of blood to bones. Possibly the arms and legs became gangrenous.” Lourds was silent for a moment. “It would have been a painful, hideous death.”

“Is there anything further in the note?” Murani asked.

Lourds resumed reading. “ ‘I know that I won’t live much longer, possibly only a few days, but I want to leave this warning for any who find this Book. God willing, the island will never rise again and our sins will remain buried in the ocean. But I have learned that God will do as He wishes.

“ ‘So if you have found this Book, if you can read my message, which is written in the old language that God took from us, heed my warning: Do not read the Book. Put it in a safe place until God returns for it and takes this burden from us once more.’

“It’s signed, Ethan, the Historian,” Lourds finished.

“Back away from the Book.” Murani waved his pistol.

Reluctantly, Lourds gave ground.

Murani put the pistol in a pocket of his robe. He approached the box, removed the lid, and reached inside. When he pulled out the Book, Lourds was truly surprised that the cardinal didn’t burst into flame or vaporize on contact.

The Book of Knowledge was far smaller than Lourds would have guessed such a volume would be. Surely nothing that important would be—or
could
be—contained in such small dimensions. It might have been twelve inches wide by twenty inches tall, and no more than three inches thick.

How could all God’s knowledge be contained in such a book?

Trembling, Murani opened the Book. At first, the page looked blank. Then it filled with symbols. They appeared so quickly that Lourds felt certain he just hadn’t seen them at first.

Murani stared at the text. He looked angry, frustrated, and dumb-founded. He glanced up at Lourds and held the Book out.

“Read this,” the cardinal commanded.

Lourds did, but the symbols played tricks on his eyes. They seemed to move and weave, and it was hard to hold them still.

“ ‘Know you that this is the Book of God, and that His Word is holy and without—’ ”

Murani snapped the Book closed. “You’re going to teach me this language, Professor Lourds. The fact that I can’t read it myself is the only thing keeping you alive at this moment.”

Lourds couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

“Gallardo, stay with him,” Murani ordered. “Lieutenant Sbordoni, we need to see if we can get back out of here.”

Lourds gave a last look at the books as he was forced up the steps. He hated leaving them. He wanted to look at more of them. But Gallardo put a hand in the middle of his back and shoved again. Lourds barely prevented himself from falling.

Back in the Chamber of Chords, the détente between the two factions of Swiss Guards had reached critical mass. Lourds knew that in a glance from the way Father Sebastian stood protected within one of the groups.

“Cardinal Murani,” Sebastian said, “you need to turn the Book of Knowledge over to me.”

Murani looked belligerent. “And if I refuse?”

“Then we’ll take it from you,” one of the Swiss Guards, the one with the cleft chin, said. “I’d rather not do that.”

“Thank you, Martin,” Sebastian said. “God knows His own.”

“You serve the Society of Quirinus,” Murani said to the Guard. “You’re supposed to help me.”

“To recover the Book for safekeeping, yes. But not so that you can read it,” Martin said. “That Book has done enough damage. It should be put away where it can’t do any more harm.”

“This Book can strengthen the Church,” Murani said. “It can bring us closer to God.”

“No. It will bring God’s wrath down on us,” Sebastian said. He held his hand out. “Give me the Book, Cardinal Murani.” He paused. “Please, Stefano, before your zealousness brings about the end of us all.”

For a moment, Lourds thought Murani might honor the request. Then the cardinal took out his pistol and shot Sebastian before the Swiss Guards around him could close ranks.

That touched off the bloodbath that had been waiting to explode.

When the bullets started flying, Lourds ducked away from Gallardo, who started firing as well. Staying as low as he could, Lourds ran for Leslie and grabbed her by the arm. He ran down the incline to the pit where the library was hidden. It was the safest place he could think of to wait out the gun battle. Swiss Guardsmen dropped all around him.

Murani opened the Book again, and his face—even amid the gunfire—was triumphant.

The cavern filled with noise; then it swelled with it as the cacophony exploded in echoes that doubled and redoubled the auditory assault. Lourds felt the ground tremble beneath his feet and froze beside a tall stalagmite that offered brief shelter from the storm of bullets.

“What is it?” Leslie asked. “Earthquake?”

“No,” Lourds replied. “Harmonic vibration. The cavern is an acoustic chamber designed to pick up and magnify sounds.”

The susurration of water all around them grew louder.

A sinking feeling manifested in Lourds’s stomach. “No,” he whispered. “I think whenever Murani opens that Book, he sets off something even he can’t control.”

Horrendous crackling filled the air and momentarily drowned out the gunfire. Then the walls fissured and split. The hungry sea lying outside the stone walls sprayed inside with enough force to knock men down.

Water covered the cavern floor, then sluiced toward the waiting hole in the center of the cave.

“No!” Lourds shouted hoarsely. He started to go toward the pit, but Leslie grabbed him and held him back.

“There’s nothing you can do!” Leslie screamed. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

After everything he’d been through, after everything he’d survived, Lourds could only watch helplessly. Exhausted, he dropped to his knees as the water level swirled and became a whirl pool that drained directly into the library.

Leslie pulled at him. “Come on! Get up! Get up or we’re going to die down here!”

Lourds forced himself to his feet and staggered into a run for the cave entrance. Ahead, the survivors of the gun battle were in full flight as well, but several of them still fought.

Even as he ran, Lourds was grimly aware that the water level was rising too fast. With every step he took, he trod deeper and deeper in water. He leaped and vaulted dead bodies as he held on to Leslie’s hand.

She screamed in terror.

“Save your breath,” Lourds told her. “We can make it out of here, but not if you can’t run.” He was lying. With the way the water was rising, he didn’t think either of them would survive. They’d be drowned like rats.

Ahead of them, Murani stopped and pointed back at Lourds. Water swirled around the cardinal’s waist. Although Lourds couldn’t hear the man over the gurgling rush of water, he knew the cardinal was commanding his men to get him.

The bearded Sbordoni and three of his men turned and ran back toward Lourds with Murani.

Lourds cursed and nearly fell as a tidal sweep of water slammed into his back and shoulders and toppled him from his feet. The salt brine stung his eyes and nose. Panic filled him for a moment as his feet slid out from under him. Then he found solid footing again and forced himself forward and above the water line.

Sbordoni, the other Swiss Guards, and Murani were there to receive him. They grabbed him roughly and yanked him into the next cave filled with the wall carvings.

All of it
, Lourds thought in shocked dismay.
It’s all going to be lost.
He barely noticed the pain of the handcuffs biting into his flesh or the strain his captor put on his shoulder sockets by yanking on him.

Then he thought of Leslie.

Glancing over his shoulder, he was horrified to see that the men had left her behind. She was struggling in the water and was making almost no headway. The water crept up her body.

Lourds put his feet on the ground and tried to pull away from the man who was dragging him.

“Stop!” the man ordered.

“You can’t just leave her!” Lourds bellowed. “She needs help!”

“You’re an idiot!” Sbordoni yelled. “If you go back there, you’re going to die!”

Lourds continued fighting. Then the Swiss Guard officer slammed the rifle butt into his head and nearly knocked him out. Lourds’s legs went limp and slid out from under him. The man continued dragging him through the water, his once jaunty goatee now limp in the general flood.

Lourds tried to concentrate, but his thoughts swam inside his aching head. He finally got his legs working again and set his feet once more. Sbordoni ground to a halt and spun around with his rifle butt raised again.

Lourds struggled to shield himself, certain he’d be knocked unconscious this time. Instead, the guardsman stiffened suddenly and sank down. Lourds caught only a glimpse of the hole in the back of the man’s head before the guard disappeared underwater.

“Lourds!”

Recognizing Natasha’s voice, Lourds searched for her. He couldn’t see her anywhere. There were too many hiding places amid the wall of rocks.

“Get him!” Murani screamed at the other two Swiss Guards.

The men started for Lourds, but both went down, neat bullet holes in their foreheads, before they reached him.

Murani, the Book of Knowledge tucked up under his arm, drew his pistol and pointed it at Lourds. Before Lourds could move, a harsh crack sounded, and Murani pirouetted and dropped into the water.

The Book!
Lourds thought. Then he turned back to Leslie. Somehow he’d managed to hang on to the flashlight. She was barely staying above water as she swam amid the roiling sea.

“Hold your hands up!” Natasha cried out.

Lourds held his hands up without thinking. He concentrated on how he was supposed to save Leslie when it didn’t look like he was even going to be able to save himself. He kept the flashlight trained on the young woman.

His hands jerked suddenly, then came apart when the chain between the cuffs shattered. The sound of a rifle shot echoed within the chamber.