Page 38 (1/2)

At the sight of that symbol, Henriksen could not hide his elation Olivia did not sht she looked flushed and heard her exhale as if she were trying to steady her breathing Corelli’s face glea theuard down But as long as Perkins and his goon squad ith theet dragged into the shadows and have their throats cut

He nudged Jada "You all right?"

"Is that a joke?" she asked, one eyebrow arched

"I’ mood"

"That’s a first," she said

After a few ainst hiot turned around"

She didn’t have to explain what shewhat her father would have said if he could have seen her exploring the fourth labyrinth with his traitorous wife and his rival

"It’s not over yet," he said "What matters is how it all turns out"

Jada nodded, but her knitted broed she was still troubled "That’s not all that ive her no co At the bottom of the steps, a tunnel opened to the left, and they entered a complex series of alleys, forks, corners, and dead ends that vexed them for nearly half an hour until Jada forced them all to stop and just listen It wasn’t what they heard that showed theht path, however, but what they felt Air e combination of natural caverns andthe drafts they found a side passage off what they’d thought was a dead end and were on their way again

When they reached a sloping tunnel that see but jagged edges of stone that would barely function as steps, there was soed ahead nevertheless They had to descend as if cli the sharp striations of stone Drake clutched his flashlight in one hand and used the other to steady hi a fall would mean torn flesh and broken bones He scraped his left knee and right forearht when he

"Where the hell are they?" Henriksen asked aloud as they clah the treacherous terrain

No one asked who "they" were Henriksen wasn’t the only one who had expected to fall under attack by now, but Drake didn’t let himself surrender to the temptation to think that the Protectors of the Hidden Word had abandoned their duty Unlike the others, which had the dry stillness of age, this labyrinth felt alive to him Aware They were there, he felt sure

In the narrow confines of that tunnel, cla stones, he felt al of people ahead of and behind hi trapped beneath tons of earth in the cave-in of an Aztec tomb seven years earlier had been a rare exception--but his heart began to ha at him His body ached for open sky and fresh air the way it did when he went diving and stayed under the water too long, and he didn’t like being jammed into a place so vulnerable to attack with no way to defend himself

When he heard the commotion ahead and below--the thu racked back on assault weapons--his need to get out of that sharp-toothed tunnel only grew He could hear the soldiers lanced down, he realized he was alht in front of hied rocks and stepping into an open chamber Corelli and Henriksen and the mercenaries on point were already out of the tunnel

"What is it?" Jada asked from behind hilanced down again, watching as she swung her flashlight around

"Diyu," she said, almost to herself

"It’s hell," Drake replied

But it wasn’t until he reached the bottoged walls and a peaked ceiling like some kind of primeval chapel--that the reality of it struck him There were stone altars with the carved faces of Chinese de one pitted wall, massive iron hooks had been driven into the rock face The wall and floor were stained a horrid copper brown, caked with centuries of spilled blood and viscera The place breathed with the anguish of tortured souls If it was not quite an abattoir, it was the nearest to such a place Drake had ever entered

"Oh, my God," Jada said as she came in behind him

Drake flinched at the sound of her voice The othertheir own surprise but most too hardened to the worst cruelties of humanity to react Drake hoped he never beca to a sacrificial altar

Sluices had been carved around the edges of the table to carry blood away It ran like a gutter down the side of the altar and across the floor, into a spill-off cut into the far wall, next to the cave’s exit

Horrified as he was, Drake felt ice fill his veins as he remembered the map on the wall in the Chinese worship chamber on Thera

"This is just one room," he said "There are others--maybe a lot of others"

"Nate, look at this," Jada said

He turned to find her shining her flashlight on a wall painted with horrible i men with horns and brutish faces--Minotaurs--and a woman with a veil over her face who had to be Diyu’s version of the Mistress of the Labyrinth Despite the Chinese characters painted on the wall and the difference in visual style, the es and those they’d seen before had to do with the huge chalice or vase in the mistress’s hands Seven slaves knelt in a se an anoint for the chalice, and she see to hand it over

Henriksen and Olivia calanced back at them and saw Olivia nod once, as if she’d just confirmed an earlier suspicion, and then she turned away, uninterested Henriksen lasted only a er before he, too, had moved on

The mural hadn’t surprised them at all

"Is that supposed to be Daedalus’s honey?" Drake asked

"That was ht," Jada said

Massarsky sidled up next to the out"

Drake spun to see that he was right; Perkins had ordered his people forward Henriksen and Corelli were vanishing through the exit from the torture chamber already, and Olivia followed Like the soldiers, she had her gun drawn and now held it at her side He wondered if seeing this bit of Diyu had unnerved her She didn’t seem easily shaken

"Thanks," Jada said

Massarsky nodded, but he wasn’t paying any attention to the the flank, whichDrake reached for his oeapon--a ten-milliuard on the holster He hesitated only a ?" Jada whispered

"Making sure I’oing to be a ‘moment’?"

Drake nodded "There always is"

He and Jada hurried after Olivia, ducking through the low exit The others had gotten a distance ahead, and only the scuff of their boots and the bouncing bea tunnel Drake picked up the pace He heard Massarsky and the others behind the as they, too, made better time