Ruins Read Free Page B

another, she finally switched her flashlight on again, although she still heard the sounds of clumsy pursuit behind her. Back in the direction of the opening she saw flickering orange lights splashing against the walls, and guessed that the armed men had taken to striking matches and cigarette lighters to find their way after her.
    Cassandra had the advantage—for now. She had been down here before, she had a flashlight, and she had a vague idea of where she was going: back toward the center of the pyramid.
    But she had no place to go from there.
    Going deeper inside would only drive her more firmly into the trap. She had to think, use her wits to out-smart these men, whoever they were. No problem.
    She took out the microcassette recorder and rewound it, hoping that her breathlessly dictated directions and notes could help her to retrace her path to the strange chamber that had remained hidden for centuries. Maybe she could hide there until the men gave up looking for her.
    Right. No problem.
    The strangers might just post a guard at the outer doorway, then return better equipped to hunt her down. They could search relentlessly until they found her and gunned her down in a corner of the ancient ruin. Worse still, they could just lie in wait for her until she staggered out in a few days, nearly mad from hunger and thirst.
    She couldn't think about that. Survive for now. She kept moving.
    Cassandra pressed the play button, listening for directions on her microcassette. She heard only a faintly crackling hiss. Her words had been erased! Something had blanked her tape.
    "Dammit!" She groaned and added another item to the list of things she didn't understand but couldn't think about at the moment. Well, the route was fresh enough in her mind that she could find her way without any other assistance.
    She had to.
    The corridors of the outer pyramid wound down-ward on a slope, littered with fallen limestone blocks and rough debris. She stumbled, scraped her hands against the rough walls, but kept moving. Moving. She heard another gunshot.
    Why did they keep wasting ammuni-tion? The men couldn't possibly have a good shot at her. Maybe they were just spooked by the echoes of their own footsteps. Frightened men with guns were the most dan-gerous kind.
    Finally, Cassandra found the smooth, vitrified walls of the inner temple and knew she had nearly reached her destination—though what she intended to do there was another question altogether.
    Casting her flashlight beam ahead, she discovered the small opening she had recently excavated. It looked like an open wound....
    No. It was an escape hatch.
    Gritting her teeth and panting for breath, Cassandra crawled onto the pile of rubble and squirmed into the hole like a snake. Before, the opening had seemed too cramped, too constrictive. But now panic propelled her forward. The rocks scraped her elbows, her shoulders, but she didn't care.
    She fought her way over the rubble barricade into the isolated chamber and dropped down. Her feet echoed on the floor—a floor that was inexplicably metallic.
    The passageways became oppressively silent again.
    Her flashlight beam reflected off polished surfaces, curves, and spheres with a geometrical perfection that should have been far beyond Maya capabilities.
    The light flickered, as if her batteries were rapidly dying.
    Another volley of gunfire echoed through the wind-ing labyrinth far behind, separated from her by walls of stone. Then more shouts came, much louder, possibly nearer—but she couldn't be certain due to the reflective rock of the twisting corridors.
    Inside the weird chamber, Cassandra was in totally unexplored territory. She rushed ahead to the final descending passage, the spiral ramp at the exact core of the pyramid. The steep tunnel looked as if it burrowed well beneath ground level. Without pausing to think, she hurried down it, moving farther and farther from her pursuers.
    A faint wave of hope splashed across her mind. She