He was almost a dozen metres down the southern face of Giant’s Shoulder, shivering in a cold night breeze, when his comm chimed. He called out to Teso and Kolum, his Uvovo accomplices, to stop lowering, then answered the call.
‘Greg Cameron here.’
‘Hello Greg, it’s Catriona. Just thought I’d call you before the shuttle leaves.’
‘Ah, thanks Cat, that’s, um, very thoughtful of you.’
‘So, what are you up to this evening? Sounds like you’re outside…’
‘Oh, just studying some pillar carvings, y’know, trying to figure out if they’re ritual or ceremonial…’ He felt himself break out in a cold sweat, more from the gnawing sensation of vertigo, suspended there in the high darkness with a handilamp hanging from his neck, lighting up the rock face right in front of him.
‘Just a moment,’ said Catriona. ‘Are you… dammit, you are! – you’re climbing down the side of Giant’s Shoulder in the middle of the night. Are you completely insane?’
Greg sighed. In the aftermath of the shooting yesterday he had showed Catriona the scans revealing the passages and chambers beneath the temple, and together they had started planning how to reach the opening that led inside. But Cat had been ordered back to Nivyesta, leaving Greg to pore over the scans and and an assortment of pictures of Giant’s Shoulder dug out of the files. Then came news of the bombings, which seized his attention for the rest of the day.
‘Look, I’m fine, I’m safe, the equipment is the best and I’ve got friends helping me,’ he said, exchanging waves with the two Uvovo smiling down at him. ‘I’m more worried about you, to be frank.’
‘I’m okay. Did you get hold of your mother and your brothers?’
‘I did, and they’re all well – no one was anywhere near Founder Square or the Ros Dubh sports centre, but there’s been no word from Uncle Theo since yesterday…’
‘Greg, I just wish you’d give up this midnight expedition and wait for daylight.’
He smiled, thinking – Ah, she really does care. Things are looking up.
‘Och, don’t worry, Cat,’ he said. ‘I’m strapped into a body harness with about a thousand D-rings and plenty of that Uvovo heavy-bearing line…’ He gave the line a playful tug. ‘Safe as houses…’
Which was when the composite strap junction at his back snapped. He yelled as he swung to the right and down, head dipping. Through his cold terror he was aware of his lamp slipping off and falling away into the blackness, but most of his attention was on trying not to slip out of the loops that still gripped his legs and left arm. The two Uvovo called down in fearful voices but he tried to reassure them – then cursed when he realised that he had dropped his comm. By now he had worked himself into a more upright position, holding on to the safety line with a gloved hand.
Gods, Cat was right! I must be mad to be doing this…
He glanced down and started to tell the Uvovo to haul him up, then paused, staring at a faintly glowing spot on the rock face a few feet below. He stared, held his breath and listened… and, just on the edge of audibility, heard a tiny voice calling his name. Catriona! He laughed shakily – his comm must be lying on a ledge or in the tangle of a cliffside bush – and shouted to her to wait a minute or two. Quickly, he rigged the loose strapping onto the safety line with toothhooks to take some of the load off the damaged strap junction, then told the Uvovo to lower him. Slowly he descended towards the glow, which he now reckoned might well be sitting in a niche in the rock. Then he came level with it and saw his comm, resting in a tangle of dry, dead roots that spilled out of a sizeable gap in the cliff face.
Reaching in he grabbed it and saw that Cat had disconnected. Quickly he sent a note saying that he was okay, then activated the comm’s little torch and shone it inside the opening. He stared in surprise for a moment, then chuckled – beyond the opening was a small passageway sloping down towards the front of Giant’s Shoulder. The opening was just wide enough to crawl into, which he did, pausing halfway in to undo the harness then shout to the Uvovo to pull it up. When he told them he was exploring a cave they became agitated, imploring him to return.
‘I’ll be perfectly safe,’ he yelled back. ‘Just get the replacement harness from stores and listen out for me.’
‘Old places are dangerous, friend Greg,’ came Teso’s strained reply. ‘Please be very careful.’
‘I will be, don’t worry!’
Then he turned his attention to the passage. It was quite narrow and low, just a little over average Uvovo height. The walls were smoothly worked with even curves, as was the opening through which he had entered. Shining his torch further down he could make out another similar aperture, but choked with coils of redthorn as well as the decaying detritus of dead plants. This had to lead to the opening he had seen on the Heracles scans, and which he had intended to find tonight.
Perhaps this will be safer than hanging about in the air, he thought as he tugged out his forest blade and attacked the tangle of vegetation.
The passage went on for another ten metres or so, blocked at regular intervals by bushes or creepers that had taken root in the soil-caked floor near the openings. He was sweating freely by the time the passage turned back the other way: the water-worn vestiges of steps were just visible under the layers of dirt and decay. Insects glimmered and settled in the slim beam of his comm-torch, which chimed just as he started hacking at another wall of desiccated twig. It was Cat. He took a deep breath and answered.
‘Hi, Cat!’
‘Right, what the hell happened?’
‘Eh, nothing serious, just juggling with my comm…’
‘Dammit, Greg, I… was worried…’
He heard the catch in her voice and instantly regretted the offhand remark.
‘I’m sorry, Cat, I’m okay, just had a wee fright when a clip broke. But I rigged a repair and I’m now inside the rock face of Giant’s Shoulder and making my way down a passageway.’
‘Is it safe?’ she said. ‘What does it look like?’
He gave a brief description and assured her that he was not in any danger.
‘Aye, well watch out for doubletails – they nest in dark, dank places.’
‘And they’re usually found further to the north than this,’ he said. ‘But I will keep my eyes open, I promise. When’s your shuttle flight?’
‘Less than an hour.’
‘I’ll call you when I reach the opening,’ he said. ‘Or wherever this is leading to.’
After murmured goodbyes, he thumbed the torch back on and resumed chopping away dead foliage. Another thirty-odd minutes later he had hacked, kicked and torn his way through several barriers of roots, creepers and bushes, most of it dead growth. His exertions had raised wafts of dust which clung to his clothes and hair, working its way into the creases of his hands and face – he felt indescribably grimy and often coughed in the hazy gloom. But beyond the last clump of vegetation he came to a level landing and a large square door in the rock. Opposite the door was a semicircular window that was blocked by a curtain of heavy-leafed creeper, some of which had spilled inside.
Beyond the dark threshold of the door was a pitch-black corridor. With his torch lighting the way, Greg followed it inwards for about twenty paces before encountering a double row of pillars that completely blocked the way. The pillars were square and the rows were set close together in a staggered formation that obscured what lay further on. Frowning, he called Catriona.
‘Took ye long enough,’ she said.
‘I’ve been doing a bit of pruning,’ he said. ‘Have you ever seen square pillars in a Uvovo building?’ As he spoke he took out a small field cam and took a few pictures.
‘No, never.’
‘Well, I’m looking at some now.’ He described them for her, then examined their tops and bottoms. ‘The dirt and dust buildup is solid around the bases but up at the ceiling there’s a definite gap, as if the pillars slid down – maybe this is some kind of primitive stone portcullis… wait a second, what’s that?’
After probing the gap around one pillar he had pushed it to see if there was any give, and immediately a sequence of four glowing symbols had appeared on its face, one by one down its length, and faded away. A moment later the sequence repeated itself and he swiftly took more pictures while describing what was happening.
‘What do the symbols look like?’ Cat said.
‘Nothing like any of the glyphs that the Uvovo use, now or in the past.’ He bent down for closer study. ‘They’re composed of straight and curved lines, some crossing others, some not.’
‘Could be ideograms,’ she said. ‘But what kind of technology can embed glowing characters in stone and still be functioning thousands of years later?’
‘Aye, those ancient Uvovo sure had a few tricks up their sleeves…’
Suddenly there was more light in the passage as several triangular symbols lit up on the adjacent pillar.
‘Why have you gone quiet? Greg, what’s happening now?’
‘Seven triangles have appeared on the next pillar… wait, the one at the bottom has gone out so there’s six…’
‘Hmm, odd. Has it come back?’
‘No, and another just went out, the top one, when the four symbols went through the sequence.’
‘Hang on, the Uvovo use the triangle to symbolise an imperative demand for an answer so those other four ideograms… must be some kind of question you have to answer before all the triangles are gone… I think…’
‘So how do I answer the question?’
‘No idea – how many triangles are left?’
‘Two.’
‘Get out of there, Greg, now!’
He dived away from the pillars and dashed for the entrance. As he did, a rumble came from the surrounding rock then cracking sounds and a cluster of heavy impacts. Dust billowed out and settled on his shoes and trouser legs.
‘Greg, are you okay?’
‘I am,’ he said. ‘And now I’m going back inside for a look.’
‘If I could reach through this comm…’
‘There’re more pillars, Cat, about fifteen paces in this time.’
The new obstruction was identical to the first but pristine, no windblown dust or dry leaf fragments nor insect remains.
‘Don’t touch it, Greg – in fact, don’t even go near it. Promise me you’ll go back up and wait till morning. Then you can speak with Foyle at the Institute and get hold of one of the Listeners to see if they recognise those symbols.’
‘Aye… okay, Cat,’ he said, retreating to the entrance. ‘Maybe you’re right. I’ll head back up top, get some rest.’
‘Good, you sleep well and I’ll… send you a message when I’m home.’
‘Okay, safe flight.’
For a few moments after the line disconnected, Greg stood there, smiling thoughtfully, wondering where this thing with Catriona was going – if it actually was going somewhere. Then he shrugged.
Hard to be sure now that she’s away back to Nivyesta, he thought. As for this puzzle… perhaps I’ll wait for Chel, see what he thinks of those symbols, and when I’ve got something solid, then I’ll tell Foyle at the Institute…
He shone the comm torch back along the corridor one last time, peering at the pillars in the dimness. Then he saw something he hadn’t noticed before, that the walls were covered in the familiar Uvovo raindrop pattern, incised lightly into the stone. Except that here the drops were depicted sideways as if they were streaming into Giant’s Shoulder.
And there was something else, an extra detail he had never seen before; every drop had a round dot in it, making it resemble an eye, and the more he stared the more they really did look like eyes, hundreds, thousands filling either wall, rushing into the heart of Giant’s Shoulder.
Chel, old friend, he thought as he produced his camera once more, I hope you can help me figure out what this means before I have to hand it over to the Institute!