The Lost Archive

Chapter 34

Italian Alps

            Determined to be the first, Federico Rossi insisted on being the first to squeeze himself through the crevice while Baptiste stayed behind to ensure that no one ran off while they were in the cave. Heidi was the second and Sam the third to squeeze through the narrow passageway which switch backed back and forth and a jagged pattern.

            “Be honest,” Sam whispered in her ear. “You were looking for a way to get away, huh.”

            Heidi half turned her head and smiled sweetly. “Of course not. Samuel Becker, how dare you think I would abandon you?” As a response Sam half shrugged. Heidi smiled again. “You do that too much.”

            Sam started to shrug again but caught himself and kept walking. Metal dinged against the wall and he turned his head back to see Will carrying his own backpack ahead of him. “Did you bring the Device?”

            “Well, yeah. It might be useful.”

            “Will,” Sam said condescendingly while shaking his head. “That thing was only useful as a cypher. I highly doubt it would bring us all the way here just to give us another clue and take us somewhere else.”

            “You’d better hope it doesn’t,” Jean-Pierre whispered menacingly. Sam had no doubt what would happen if Federico Rossi was disappointed. He tried as hard as he could to think of a way to ensure they survive the day but everything that came to him was almost immediately shot down as it left too much to chance or too many holes.

            To comfort himself, he slid his hand along the smooth wall of the passage, neither flaking off or chipping. It almost felt like marble.

            Heidi suddenly stepped out of his view and he copied her before walking into yet another cavern, this one much smaller than the last stretching only twenty feet across and a dozen feet from the opening to the passage to the far wall. He played his light upwards and saw the ceiling hung above their heads about ten feet up, rounding off in a rough dome similar to the first. Yet the most remarkable feature of the room was the polished marble doors that stood in the far wall, the Roman Eagle and the SPQR carved into the door.

            “It’s real,” Rossi whispered giddily. “It’s real and it’s just beyond that door.”

            Sam half expected a loud bang and then nothing at this moment, seeing as they were no longer needed. He cringed and, accepting his fate, closed his eyes. I’m sorry, he thought. Sorry for all that I should have done but haven’t done, sorry for all I did do but shouldn’t have. Sorry that my journey ends here. And sorry that I couldn’t save my best friend or this amazing girl.

            But nothing happened, no bang, no flash.

            “Mr. Becker,” Baptiste said, standing near the door. “You and your compatriot are required again.”

            Sam opened his eyes and, acting like he wasn’t just accepting his own death, moved to the door. Upon closer inspection he saw a thin layer of dust on the stone, and a circular indentation in the center with a familiar peg and groove. “Will, bring the Device.”

            “Bet you’re glad I brought it now,” He grumbled, and shuffled forward, pulling the Roman Antikytheran Mechanism out of his backpack and handed it to Sam who gently slid it into the slot, just as he did on Crooked Island.

            As soon as the device was all the way in, he pushed it a little further and watched as the peg behind it retracted into the stone door. Clanking from heavy gears, long hidden within the walls, erupted and two large crank poles dropped down from either side of the walls.