Empire of Ruins by Arthur Slade

Author:Arthur Slade
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780375983597
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Published: 2011-09-13T06:00:00+00:00

The Solution for Closed Doors

Miss Hakkandottir carried a canvas bag up the steps of the Egyptian temple and paused at the entrance, resting her metal hand on the huge paws of the sphinx. Despite more than two thousand years of rain wearing down the statue, and vines that had worked their way into the cracks, she could still make out the lion-shaped head and the eyes that stared out over the ruined city below. The door to the temple was in the mouth of the sphinx.

What clever builders the Egyptians were to carve the temple into the side of a black mountain formed from hardened lava. The hundreds of steps leading to the entrance were a wonder. The sphinx itself must have inspired terror and awe in anyone who saw it.

She and her soldiers had been camped on a flat area of the ruins for over two weeks. Behind her, soldiers continued to cut away the forest to make more room for their white tents, set up in neat rows. Piles of green bush burned along the edges of the expanding territory. They hadn’t been bothered by any natives since their arrival. Rifle fire had kept the first group of inquisitive tribesmen away. She’d learned that lesson in Africa. Shoot one and the rest will flee. It would take the natives weeks to regain their courage, and by that time her task would be done.

Guild soldiers had spent the first week cutting away the overgrowth around the temple, revealing the black stone door that was the main entrance. The door had proved impossible to open; they had smashed it with hammers to no avail, had even worked a team of horses to death trying to pull the rock away. How had Alexander King managed to open the door on his own? There had to be a secret lever to push or some other ancient trick.

Fortunately, in this modern day she was able to bring along her own final trick—dynamite. She opened her canvas bag and tied a bundle of dynamite to the center of the door, then added two more bundles for good measure. Then she ran the fuse halfway down the long stone stairway and lit it herself, watching as it burned along the stones and toward the dynamite. The soldiers took cover, but she stood out in the open to watch the explosion. The mountain actually seemed to shake, flocks of birds shooting into the sky, and she imagined animals and savages shuddering for miles. A beautiful sight; the explosion was immensely satisfying.

Miss Hakkandottir was the first to climb up through the dusty air to where the stone door had been shattered into black shards. That will teach you to stand in my way, she thought. She stared into the darkened chamber, then picked up a shard and threw it inside. It landed in shadows.

The Chinese man, Zedong, had likely known the easy way to open the door, and had she realized there would be such an obstacle, she wouldn’t have pushed him out of the airship at five hundred feet.

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