Seven Ancient Wonders Read Free Page A

waterfall of swampwater came blasting out of the upper hole, forming a curtain of water in front of him, before disappearing into the matching hole in the floor.
    Had he jumped, the rush of water would have taken him and Lily down into the unknown depths of the lower hole.
    ‘Careful, brother dearest,’ the team member in front of him said after the water had passed. She was the only woman in the group and a member of the crack Irish commando unit, the Sciathan Fhianoglach an Airm. Old call-sign:
Bloody Mary.
New one:
Princess Zoe.
Her brother, Big Ears, was also a member of the SFA.
    She reached out and caught his hand and with her help he leapt over the cross-shaft and, with Lily between them, they took off after the others.
     

     
     
    The Water Chamber (The First Gate)
     
    The low tunnel opened onto a chamber the size of a small chapel. Incongruously, the floor of this chamber seemed to be made up of a lush carpet of green grass.
    Only it wasn’t grass.
    It was algae. And beneath the algae, water—a rectangular pool of perfectly flat, undisturbed water.
    And no crocs. Not a single one.
    At the far end of the chamber—beyond the long placid pool, just above the waterline—were three low rectangular holes, burrowing into the far wall, each roughly the size of a coffin.
    An object floated in the pool near the entrance. West recognised it instantly.
    A human body. Dead.
    The third and last Sudanese man.
    Breathless, Wizard came up alongside West. ‘Ah-ha, the First Gate. Ooh my, how clever. It’s a false-floor chamber, just like we saw beneath the volcano in Uganda. Ah, Imhotep V. He always respected the classic traps . . .’
    ‘Max . . .’ West said.
    ‘Ooh, and it’s connected to a Solomon’s Choice of spike holes: three holes, but only one is safe. This is some gate. I bet the ceiling is on rollers—’
    ‘
Max.
You can write a book about it later. The state of the water?’
    ‘Yes, sorry, ahem . . .’ Wizard pulled a dipstick from a watertesting kit on his belt and dipped it into the algae-covered pool. Its tip quickly turned a vivid red.
    Wizard frowned. ‘Extremely high levels of the bloodworm
Schistosoma mansoni
. Be careful, my friend, this water is beyond septic. It’s teeming with
S. mansoni
.’
    ‘What’s that?’ Big Ears asked from behind them.
    ‘It’s a microscopic bloodworm that penetrates the body through the skin or any exposed orifice, and then lays eggs in the bloodstream,’ West answered.
    Wizard added, ‘Infection leads to spinal cord inflammation, lower-body paralysis and, ultimately, a cerebral aneurism and death. Ancient grave robbers went mad after entering places like this. They blamed angry gods and mystical curses, but in all likelihood it was the
S. mansoni
. But at these levels, gosh, this water will kill you in minutes. Whatever you do, Jack, don’t fall in.’
    ‘Okay then,’ West said, ‘the jump-stone configuration.’
    ‘Right, right . . .’ The older man hurriedly pulled a notebook from his jacket pocket, started flipping pages.
    A ‘false-floor chamber’ was a fairly common booby trap in the ancient Egyptian world—mainly because it was very simple to built and exceedingly effective. It worked by concealing a safe pathway of stepping-stones beneath a false layer of liquid—which could be anything really: quicksand, boiling mud, tar, or, most commonly, bacteria-infected water.
    You defeated a false-floor chamber by knowing the location of the stepping-stones in it.
    Wizard found the page he was after. ‘Okay. Here it is. Soter’s Mine. Nubia. First Gate. Water chamber. Ah-ha. Five by five grid: the sequence of the jump-stones is 1-3-4-1-3.’
    ‘1-3-4-1-3,’ West repeated. ‘And which spike hole? I’m going to have to choose quickly.’
    ‘Key of life,’ Wizard said, consulting his notebook.
    ‘Thanks. Horus, chest.’ On command, the falcon immediately whizzed to West’s chest and nestled in a pouch there.
    West then turned to the