The Project 01 - White Jade

straightened . She played her light over the carving . She reached up and felt around it.
    " Nothing. "
    " Try pushing it. " She leaned into it with both hands.
    " I think it moved a little. "
    " Push harder. "
    She pushed. The carving slid into the wall, stone against stone. There was a harsh grinding sound . S omething heavy mov ed and rumbl ed under the floor. The statue of the garuda turned in a ponderous half circle until it fac ed west . It hesitated, then moved forward along one of the channels, uncovering a dark opening in the center of the temple floor.
    Carter walked over and looked down into the opening. A narrow flight of stone steps descended into blackness. A stale odor of ancient dust and decay drifted up from below.
    " I ' d say we just found the way in. "
    Selena shuddered. " It reminds me of a bad dream I had once. "
    " Do we have a choice about going down there ? "
    " No, I guess not. What if that statue moves back and seals the entrance? "
    " If the entrance was closed they had to have some way to open it from below, or another exit. "
    " Yeah, " Ron said, " but this stuff is old. What if it doesn ' t work anymore? "
    " Then we ' ll blow it open. " Nick patted his pack . H e had enough C-4 to take out the entire temple.
    They started down the stairs. The steps were steep and narrow. They descended to whatever waited below . B lack, cold rock absorbed the light .
    At the bottom they stepped onto a ledge hanging out over a bottomless abyss. To the left, a wide passage led into the mountain, cut straight and square and lined with white stone. Another labrys was carved over the opening. Wooden torches, long cold, jutted at intervals along the walls in heavy, dark brackets that might have been iron or blackened bronze. The business end s w ere tarred with a sticky, brown substance.
    " We might be able to use these , " Carter said. He took out matches and pulled a torch from the wall. " S ave the batteries. "
    The torch lit easily. It burned bright and made little smoke . T he light of the flames thr ew an eerie , flickering glow back from the white walls of the hallway. Nick handed it to Selena, took down two more. One for Ronnie, one for himself. He was about to start along the passage, but Selena stopped him .
    " This would be a good place for a trap. "
    " Why? "
    " It ' s too easy. Anyone who made it past the statue and down the stairs would think the hard part was over. That ' s a good time to spring something. "
    " What kind of trap? "
    " Spear traps were popular in the ancient world. You step on the trigger and a mechanism throws spears or arrows at you. Before you know what ' s happening, you ' re dead. Sometimes there ' s a false floor. It drops away and you land in a pit full of poison spikes or some other nasty surprise. Another trap makes something big and heavy fall on you or roll over you or seal you in somewhere. The Egyptians liked those. We ' d be squashed like a bug. "
    " What do you suggest? " He eyed the innocent looking corridor.
    " The spear traps should be relatively easy to spot. There have to be openings in the walls or the ceiling or even the floor, although they might be concealed. It ' s the floor traps or ceiling drops that worry me. If we can see a trap, we can probably trigger it or find a way through it. If not, we ' d better be damn careful. Look out for ramps where something might come rolling dow n, or anything different about the walls or ceiling or floor. "
    " You make it sound like walking through a 3D minefield. "
    " That ' s a good way to think about it. "
    They entered the passage. Puffs of white dust rose from their footsteps and Ronnie sneezed. It echoed down the ancient passage.
    Carter was strung tight . T here was a sour taste in his mouth. This was Afghanistan all over again, except the enemy had been gone for thousands of years and the technology was from another time. It was old, but it could kill you as fast and as dead as anything from today ' s whiz-bang arsenals.
    They moved slowly, scanning the floor, ceiling and walls for signs of traps. Every fifty feet he lit a torch , trying to dispel the feeling he was walking in a dark dream.
    The passage curved. " Think we have a trap? " Ron nie said.
    T hree skeletons lay on the floor ahead . F ragments of old cloth and leather h ung from yellowed bones pierced by t hin wooden spears . M ore spears lay scattered and splintered about. Those bones had been there a long time.
    Selena pointed at the walls on one