Jake Atlas and the Tomb of the Emerald Snake Page 16

  I had to spring outwards – a straight drop would have smashed me into the dam wall. I kept my arms flat against my sides, and my legs tight together, but I still hit the water hard, sinking among a swirl of bubbles.

  I kicked to the surface and let out a scream. “It’s freezing!”

  It felt like I’d jumped into a bucket of ice. How could the lake possibly be so cold? It was in the middle of a desert!

  “Oh, man up,” Pan said. She splashed me, treading water. Her hair was slicked back, and the last of her dark make-up had washed from her face.

  We swam breaststroke, hoping to avoid splashes that might be seen by the police or the mercenaries. Neither of us were strong swimmers, and it was over a kilometre to the sunken island. I wished we’d taken off our boots, which had filled with water and were weighing us down. If we tried to remove them now we’d end up splashing around and draw attention to ourselves. We had to keep going as best we could.

  As I swam, I reached down to make sure my utility belt hadn’t come off. It hadn’t. The gadgets Sami had given us were still in place.

  The lake was incredibly clear. Sunlight trickled through the water. Streaks of silver shot through the rays as schools of tiny fish nipped between boulders strewn about the bottom of the lake.

  As I continued to swim, I thought about what Mum had said before she left. She’d refused to let us join her or consider the idea that we could be hunters. She didn’t trust us, didn’t believe we could stay alive. This wasn’t just our chance to save Dad. It was our chance to prove we could do this job and save our family.

  I’d grown used to the cold by the time we got near Biga, but my arms felt as if they were about to tear away from my shoulders, and my legs like they were cast from lead. Pan was struggling too, grunting with each stroke.

  If Biga was shaped like a head with a big nose, we were fifty metres out from its chin, paddling towards its nostrils. I couldn’t see Mum or whatever boat she’d taken, just the black motor-dinghies used by the snake lady and her mercenaries. I wondered how they’d avoided the police to get there, and then remembered what Mum had said about how the snake lady’s powerful organization was able to do whatever it liked.

  Dark figures moved around the island, appearing around boulders and vanishing again behind rocky rises. I heard drilling and a sledgehammer pounding stone. The sounds gave me fresh strength, because Pan and I knew something that those snake people didn’t: they were looking for a tomb that wasn’t there.

  We kept swimming to the tip of Biga’s nose. The lake there was maybe twenty feet deep, the bed a mess of broken boulders.

  “I think we’re above the sunken island,” Pan said.

  Treading water, I raised my hands and flashed them five times – our signal to Sami.

  A needle-thin beam of light shot from the cabin on the dam and hit the water about ten feet from us. It shone for barely a second, marking the location of the Temple of Isis on the submerged island.

  We swam to the spot and looked down through filtering beams of sunlight. The bed was flatter there, where parts of the temple had been taken away and carried off to their new home.

  I slid a breathing tube from my utility belt, and twisted the mouthpiece. Green LEDs lit at each end, indicating that we had five minutes’ worth of oxygen. After that we had no plan, no back-up.

  I prayed we’d read the clues correctly.

  Three black-suited mercenaries appeared on the shore of Biga, examining the boulders. More than ever, we needed to get underwater.

  I nodded to Pan, shoved the tube in my mouth and dived.

  33

  The pressure grew stronger as we swam deeper. It felt as if a giant was squeezing the sides of my head. It’s not easy to go down deep. Your body fights against you, trying to rise back up. The effort of each stroke drained my already tired limbs. I sucked harder on my breathing tube, hoping the oxygen would give me strength.

  If we couldn’t find the tablet – whatever it was – after five minutes, it would all be over. We didn’t even know for sure that the tomb was down there. The lake water had been as clear as glass from the surface, but as we swam deeper our strokes swirled up sand from the lakebed. We could see just enough to tell that the boulders weren’t boulders at all. They were chunks of carved stone, parts of the temple left behind after it had been cut up and moved to the other island.

  Pan grabbed my arm and pulled me towards a pile of the blocks. I didn’t have to be smart like her to see that the round stones were the remains of a column. One was carved with rows of hieroglyphs and an image of Osiris and Isis holding hands.

  We were close.

  I slid Sami’s tomb tracker from my belt. It had only one button. As soon as I pressed it, a yellow beam shone through the water and across the rocks. Gripping the device, I swam around the temple, directing the light at every boulder and cracked chunk of rock, until…

  There!

  A patch of the lakebed lit up blue in the tracker’s beam. At the same time, the tomb tracker gave off an eerie low moan, like whale song. There was something there, beneath the sand.

  We could have acted cooler right then, but excitement got the better of us. We swam to the spot and frantically dug away at the sand and rubble. The more we scooped up, the murkier the water became. Sand stung my eyes and blurred my vision. It was hard to keep digging. I kept floating up, and lost time and energy swimming back down.

  And then – red lights.

  The signals on our breathing tubes changed from green to flashing red. We were running out of oxygen.

  We dug faster, shovelling sand. My hand struck something hard, and Pan felt it too. The impact sent up another cloud of sand.

  The red lights flashed faster.

  We had to get back to the surface, but there was a chance we’d be spotted by the mercenaries.

  The red lights stopped flashing. The only air left was whatever we had in our lungs.

  There was only one move left. I knew it and Pan knew it, and we both went for it at the same time. I reached for her utility belt, but she took it out first.

  The bomb.

  She pulled a wire from the end of the device and jammed its clip into a crack in one of the temple blocks. The bomb floated up, but the wire kept it anchored. I typed the code into the screen and numbers flashed up.

  Five seconds.

  I grabbed Pan, trying to get clear of the bomb before…

  Too late.

  Force from the explosion thrust us upwards among a rush of sand and swirling stones. A rock hit my forehead and the water clouded with blood. It was as if we were in a washing machine, spinning around and flipping over. I lost sense of which way was up. But then I knew, because I was sucked down. I had no breath. I needed to get up!

  I tried, but the force was too strong. It was as if the giant that had been crushing my head had stepped up his attack, gripping my ankles and yanking me to my death.

  The lake sucked me to the ground, and then through the ground – through a hole that the bomb had blown in the surface of the submerged island. We’d just found the legendary Tomb of Osiris, hidden for thousands of years. But right then I hardly even realized.

  I splashed into a pool of water, which made no sense. I was underwater, how could I have landed in water? I just had time to gasp a breath before what felt like a water cannon fired at my face, driving me back under the pool.

  I splashed away from the waterfall and looked up. Water was rushing through a hole blasted in a stone slab – the door to the tomb. I was underground now, at the bottom of steep stone steps that led from the entrance. The passage that was filling fast with water.

  We’d broken in, but so had the lake.

  34

  “Pan?” I screamed.

  Lake water filled the stairway from the tomb entrance. It rushed down a passage that led deeper under the submerged island, drowning the gods carved on the tomb walls.

  “Pan!”

  Shrieking, she plunged through the entran
ce. The force of water carried her down the steps and straight into me. We sank, but I managed to drag her back to the surface. Her eyes were wild and confused, shooting around the watery darkness.

  “We’re in the tomb!” I cried, yelling above the roar of falling water. “But it’s filling up, Pan. We have to find the coffin fast.”

  Water poured through the entrance in a torrent, lashing at our legs and rising. I wiped my eyes, tried to see down the passage that led further into the tomb. If we stayed there, the water would lift us up the stairs and back into the lake. We could swim back to the surface. We’d survive. But if we went on deeper underground, we might not make it out.

  The mummy was down there, and the tablet. Without it we had nothing to trade for Dad, and maybe Mum too.

  “Wait here!” I yelled to Pan. “I’ll check it’s safe.”

  Of course it wasn’t safe, and Pan knew it too.

  “No way I’m owing you my life,” she said. “Come on.”

  She led the way into the darkness.

  We moved as fast as we could, trying to stay upright in the fast-flowing water. The passage ended at stairs that led even deeper beneath the submerged island. In a rush of fear I grabbed Pan and pulled her back. The further we went, the harder it would be for us to get back out. But she shook me off and carried on down the stairs.

  We barely stayed upright before the force of water knocked us over, sending us shooting down the water slide. I sank under again at the bottom, then burst back up, swearing and shivering.

  “Come on!” Pan called.

  She was already off down the next passage, heading even deeper into the tomb. The flow of water swept us along the pitch-black tunnel. It spat us out into another chamber and we fell screaming to the pool at its base. The water was rising fast. I turned, treading water, trying to make sense of our surroundings. This chamber was huge and high-roofed, with no other exits.

  It was the end of the tomb.

  Chinks of light shone through cracks in the ceiling, and water sprayed through the gaps. Zigzag fissures spread across the chamber walls. The force of the flood was crushing the tomb!

  All around us, objects bobbed in the water – painted chests, wooden chairs covered in gold, ancient baskets and linen sheets. Grave goods.

  “Pan,” I yelled. “This is the burial chamber.”

  She wasn’t looking at the treasures. She was staring at the walls. The parts that we could see were carved and painted with images – not of the snake this time, but of lands and seas, like pages of an atlas.

  “That’s North America,” I said, recognizing the shape of the land mass. “And that’s Britain there.”

  “Britain? Jake, that’s impossible.”

  Pan swam closer. “The Ancient Egyptians didn’t know about these places. They didn’t travel further than Greece.”

  I didn’t really care. We were here for one thing only; to find the coffin, to get it open and get whatever tablet its mummy held.

  Somehow.

  “Wait here,” I shouted.

  I dived down. Just enough light filtered through the water to see vague shapes under the surface. The grave goods that didn’t float – stone statues and boxes of jewellery – sat on the chamber floor around a large golden box. The sarcophagus! It looked just like the one in the first tomb, but bigger. And its lid was on. Did that mean the coffin was still inside – with the mummy and the tablet?

  I burst back to the surface. “Pan! It’s here!”

  If she heard, she didn’t react. Her gaze remained on the chamber walls. “Jake… These maps don’t make any sense.”

  “Come on, Pan!”

  I yanked her under with me and we dived to the sarcophagus. I swam around its side and pushed the lid. It was heavy, and my arms were weak from swimming.

  Pan came alongside me and we heaved hard against the slab. The lid scraped open an inch and a fat bubble of air escaped. Inside, something floated up and bashed against the lid, causing the slab to slide further from the sarcophagus. It was the coffin. It was there!

  I thrust my hands deeper into the gap and pulled. At the same time, Pan pushed. I don’t know where we found the strength, but after everything we’d been through we weren’t going to give up now.

  The lid scraped back another inch and then came away. I swam back as the slab plunged past me and thudded to the chamber floor. A white blur shot from inside and headed to the surface.

  We followed it up, gasping as we burst to the surface. The coffin bobbed and swayed on the water. It was unlike anything I’d seen before, so stunning that for a moment I forgot all about how close we were to death. The entire casket was made of crystal, and decorated with carvings. There was some sort of script on the sides. It looked a bit like hieroglyphics, but the picture symbols were mixed with lines and shapes, like maths equations. Only one image was cut across the top – the symbol of the snake eating its own tail. Carved across the width of the coffin lid, it gleamed in the light that fell through cracks in the chamber ceiling.

  “Jake,” Pan called. “It’s crystal. But the Ancient Egyptians didn’t have crystal.”

  “Pan, we have to get this open and find the tablet.”

  I swam around the coffin, running my hands frantically over the top and sides to feel for the edges of the lid. There was a groove, but I couldn’t even get my fingernails into the gap. It was as if the lid was superglued to the rest of the coffin. I could make out the dark shape of a corpse inside, and something green and glinting. Was that the tablet that the snake lady was after? If so, it was trapped.

  I swore and punched the side of the coffin. “It won’t open!” I yelled. “It’s sealed, somehow.”

  “Jake, the coffin can’t be crystal, it’s—”

  “I don’t care, Pan! We’ll have to get the whole thing out of here and find a way to open it outside.”

  The water had risen past the chamber exit. We’d never get back to the entrance with the coffin. I wasn’t even sure we could get there without it.

  “There’s no way out!” Pan hollered.

  I remembered Mum’s words in the tomb at Giza. There is always a way out if you clear your mind and think.

  Above us, the cracks in the chamber ceiling widened. Water streamed through harder. The coffin bobbed, went under, popped back up. I forgot all about my fear. I was in that zone again, my eyes shooting around the watery chaos, my mind working at sudden speed, forming a plan.

  And then I had one.

  “The coffin!” I cried. “The coffin will save us.”

  “Not unless we can get it out.”

  “No, I mean the coffin will get us out.”

  She didn’t ask how, and I’m glad. If I’d had to explain, I’d have thought the plan was too crazy even to try.

  The water carried us higher. Thick streams poured from above as the ceiling continued to shatter. The chamber couldn’t take the pressure. The lake was destroying the tomb. But maybe it could save us.

  If we could break through the ceiling, we’d get out. It was cracked, but it was still rock. We’d never be able to smash through by ourselves.

  “Jake?” Pan screamed.

  “We need to get higher!”

  I tried not to panic, but it was impossible. If this plan failed, we were dead.

  The light through the cracks grew brighter as we neared the ceiling. We were five metres from the top.

  “Grab the coffin!” I called.

  Pan did what I said, which made me feel even worse. She trusted me to save her life. A spike of doubt caused me to yell something stupid.

  “This might not work and we might die!”

  “What?” Pan screamed.

  “We have to pull the coffin underwater, as deep as we can.”

  I grabbed hold of one end of the casket, clutching it in a bear hug. Pan pushed the other end up, so the coffin flipped and went underwater vertically.

  It tried to get back to the surface, but I clung on, pulling it deeper. The body inside pressed
against the crystal lid. I glimpsed the murky outline of a face and again the green, glinting thing that seemed to be attached to the corpse. The sight gave me strength to tug harder, my scream coming as a burst of bubbles.

  The coffin was fighting too hard.

  Now!

  We let go and the casket shot up like a torpedo. It fired to the surface just as the water touched the ceiling. Thick crystal smashed against fractured rock, and the roof shattered into pieces.

  I braced for another explosion, jagged rocks shooting through the water. Instead the ceiling spread apart slowly, like clouds after a storm.

  The coffin rose through a sunlight spotlight, its crystal sides sparkling. Pan and I followed in its wake, kicking until we burst to the surface of the lake.

  We trod water, filling our lungs with air. The coffin floated a few metres away, the snake carving shining so brightly it was as if the mummy was glowing. I screamed in delight – delight to be alive, to have the coffin, and not to have killed my sister with my dumb plan.

  Pan splashed me with water. “That was so stupid.”

  “Grab the coffin,” I grunted. “We can use it as a raft to get to the shore. We have to find a way to get it open.”

  The shore of Biga was barely fifty metres away, but it seemed like miles. We were too tired to swim another inch. It was all we could do to clutch the side of the coffin as we drifted to the rocks.

  “We did it, Jake,” Pan said. “We got it.”

  We had, but what now? I doubted we had the strength to smash the coffin open, but maybe we didn’t need to. The tablet was trapped inside. We just had to hide the coffin until the snake lady freed Dad. There were gaps between the boulders on the shore. Could we get it up onto the rocks and into one of those hiding spots?

  Pan pressed her face to the coffin, trying to see through the thick crystal. “Who’s in here, Jake? This is meant to be Osiris, but Osiris was a god. How can a god have a body? And those maps on the tomb walls, and this coffin… Ancient Egyptians didn’t know how to make crystal. There’s something else inside this coffin, too. You see something green? Is that the tablet? What do you think they even are, Jake, these tablets? Why are they so important to the snake lady?”