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“This is a work of art,” Logan says, circling around the table to inspect every inch of the sculpture. “Centuries-old, as ancient and beautiful as his guardians outside… Same artist, I reckon.”
“So you think the jolly demons outside are there to protect him?”
Smith regales us with one of his rare conversational pearls. “Nothing else of value in here, Doctor?”
“Nothing else?” Logan gapes, shocked. “This is the discovery of the century! The beauty, the craftsmanship it must have required to sculpt something so magnificent—”
“All right, Professor,” Smith interrupts, “no need to get all worked up. I was just wondering if we should search for a hidden treasure chamber or something.”
For the first time, I notice the room is a dead end: stone walls all around and nowhere else to go. Logan seems to realize it at the same time I do, because he spins on his feet to examine each of the walls in turn. I follow his lead and brush my fingertips on the stone of the left wall. The entire surface is carved with decorations similar to those on the pillars outside. But while the two side walls are flat, the one at the back has a wide, square recess in its middle. Just tall enough to fit a man.
That’s where Logan stops his focus and beam of light.
“Well, well,” Smith says. “What do we have here… If it doesn’t look like the entrance of a secret passage.”
In synchrony, we all approach the blocked opening.
Logan traces its corners with his fingers. “Definitely a separate slab,” he says. “There must be a hidden mechanism somewhere to activate it.”
I cross my arms and raise a skeptical eyebrow. “Really? Kind of a heavy door to move without a power source.”
“Indeed,” Logan agrees. “A stone like this must weigh at least twenty or thirty tons. But, contrary to booby traps, secret passages were pretty common in ancient buildings. They were triggered by a wide number of counter-weight mechanisms that relied on simple balance principles to move even the greatest masses.” Still searching the stone with his hands, Logan adds, “All we have to do is find the switch.”
“If you say so,” I reply, even more skeptical.
Arms crossed over my chest, I lean against the side of the cave to watch Logan in his fool’s errand, but as my shoulder comes into contact with the wall, the rock doesn’t stay put.
A carved disk about ten inches in diameter sinks inward, then stops with a loud click.
And then the stone door begins to move.
11
LOGAN
The stone beneath my hands starts to tremble and… move!
“Oh,” Winter gasps next to me.
“What did you do?” I ask.
“Nothing,” she says. “I was just leaning, and this piece of rock sunk back.”
I grab her face and stamp a kiss on her forehead. “You found the switch!”
Eyes wide and shocked, Winter blinks at me.
I awkwardly let her go, clearing my throat. “Err, yeah. Great work.”
I pull back, and we stare in silence as the massive stone slab rises slowly and gently from the floor, sliding upward into a cavity in the rock ceiling.
Beautiful. A simple lever, moved ever so little by pressure at a secret spot, most likely throwing additional weight onto the hidden counter-balances, and causing the monolith to be lifted from the ground.
The search for the mechanism could’ve taken us ages, assuming we ever found it, but with Winter’s lucky stumble… here we are.
With the door now open, we encounter yet another dark passageway. I don’t walk in right away, my excitement so intense I’m petrified on the spot. What lies beyond? Could it really be a secret treasure chamber? What riches will we find? And what if there’s nothing? Doesn’t matter, Logan, a lost civilization is already the greatest discovery of the century. Like finding a whole new pyramid site no one knew about, not just a mere tomb. Why am I so nervous, then? Because, ah, the possibilities…
“Are we going to check it out or what?”
