The Milestone Protocol, Ernest Dempsey [100 best novels of all time txt] 📗

The two men stood in the largest underground chamber Kevin had ever seen. From the base of the enormous pyramid all the way to the ceiling was at least five hundred feet. The tip of the megalithic structure reached up to about thirty feet below the shaft cut into the rock overhead—which made this pyramid taller than even the Great Pyramid in Egypt. The enormous man-made cavern stretched out the length of three or four football fields in every direction.

“Incredible,” Kevin gasped. “Simply incredible.”

“Yes,” Magnus agreed.

“How did they get this rock here?” Kevin asked as he approached the pyramid’s foundation at a corner. “This did not come from the archipelago.”

“No. It didn’t,” Magnus confirmed. “It was brought from far away. We suspect the Mediterranean. That’s the best guess our geologists can come up with based on the composition of the stone."

“How did ancient people from thirteen thousand years ago move so much heavy stone over such a great distance?”

Magnus grinned as he would at a child asking where babies come from. “That, Dr. Clark, is just the beginning of the mystery. Come with me.”

The Swede marched across the smooth-cut rock floor, along a path marked by lights propped up on tripods every ten feet or so. Hundreds of other floodlights blazed from various points on the walls, casting their bright glow upon the mysterious megalith.

Kevin noted an entrance in the center of the base where the light trail stopped. The two men turned left into the opening, where Magnus paused for a second. Long cords ran along the floor into the passage, delivering energy to bright lights radiating within.

Magnus looked sternly at the archaeologist. The look dismantled Kevin, making him uncomfortable in a way he didn’t know he could feel. “What you are about to see will change everything you’ve ever believed about the ancients.”

“Okay,” Kevin said. “I’m ready.”

Magnus only offered a scoffing snort, then turned and strode into the tunnel.

The passage slanted down at first, descending another fifty feet into the mountain before leveling off. Kevin looked around at the smooth stone walls and the ceiling overhead. They were lined with hieroglyphs unlike anything he’d ever seen. Images of ancient peoples in strange clothes and ceremonial outfits lined the surfaces on the left and right. Magnus was walking so fast that Kevin didn’t have time to carefully analyze any of them. He would have given anything for just an hour or two in the corridor, but he knew that soon he would have all the time in the world to research and learn how to interpret the new symbols and stories painted in intricate detail on the walls.

The men passed two doors on either side, and Kevin slowed just enough to look inside. Golden treasures glimmered in the rays of tripod floodlights, casting shimmering yellow reflections onto the walls, walls that were also covered in myriad symbols and images portraying either stories or prayers or both.

As the two men reached another downslope in the passage, a strange humming sound reached Kevin’s ears. It was low, almost undetectable at first, but as they proceeded deeper into the pyramid, the sound grew slightly louder.

“What is that noise?” Kevin asked when they reached the next level below.

“Power,” Magnus answered simply.

“Power? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Magnus looked over his shoulder as he turned right at a bend in the corridor. “The pyramid wasn’t the only thing we discovered in this place. At its center, we discovered the largest sample of Quantium ever seen by mankind. One of our groups, the Ahnenerbe, found an extraordinary section of the stuff during World War Two, but they were unable to fully understand and harness its full potential. Here, everything was just as our ancient ancestors left it. This place remained untouched and unseen by humans for millennia.”

They walked another forty feet down the corridor and then stopped at the next turn, where the path angled back to the left into the center of the pyramid.

Kevin didn’t have an expression that accurately displayed the astonishment he felt at the sight through the next passage.

The hieroglyphs along the walls were glowing, illuminating the entire corridor on their own and in vibrant colors.

Magnus strolled through the hall of lighted images while Kevin spun around in circles as he shuffled his feet, trying to keep up.

“How is this possible?” Kevin wondered.

“These glyphs were painted with liquid Quantium mixed into the paint. We believe it wasn’t a functional decision by the ones who built this place, but we’re still studying that, along with why they didn’t use the same technique on the outer passages.”

The path angled up at the end of the corridor and opened into an enormous chamber. Instead of angled walls, as one might suspect, the room was square, full of the same glowing hieroglyphs as in the previous tunnel.

Kevin surveyed the massive space, scanning the walls first before directing his vision to the center of the room, where Magnus stood at the end of the ramp next to a massive, pulsing blue cube.

“Come, Dr. Clark,” Magnus said. “It’s time.”

47

Svalbard

Sean watched the two gunmen next to him with an aloof expression on his face. If they knew he was observing them, they would have reacted. He could have killed those two in half a breath, and probably taken the others out as well, but that move could have risked the lives of those on his side. Then there was the issue of getting onto the next elevator. It was easy to assume that ID cards would be used to get through the next security checkpoint, but if a code were required, that would stick Sean and his team at a barrier they could not pass.

The elevator stopped at the next floor, and one of the guards opened the gate.

Sean steered his loader off the lift and down a corridor toward a wide steel elevator door. He followed two guards while Tommy maneuvered his loader off the lift, bumping into the rails twice before getting it straightened