D. Thomas - Backlash

The noise from the river was dramatically reduced when the pair stood directly in the corner, allowing for a more natural conversation.

“This rope is garbage,” Lewis stated plainly. “We’re trapped if we can’t find another way up these walls.”

“I think you bruised my hip with your hard head,” was all Gonzalez said at first, gently rubbing her aching side.

Lewis smiled and massaged the top of his head. “Sorry about that. You make such a cute hat though.”

Gonzalez blushed, then pointed to a small pile of ancient lumber near the center of the room. “Any chance we could build a ladder with that?”

“I left my hammer and nails in my other pants,” Lewis said as he patted his pockets.

Gonzalez’s eyes lit up and she exclaimed, “I know what the bars are for!”

Lewis followed her gaze to the pile of lumber. He was about to ask what she meant, when he finally caught on as well. “You are a genius !” he half-shouted as he patted her on the back.

They hauled the boards over to the corner where the river disappeared through the bars. Then, as neatly as possible, they slipped the boards down into the water, letting the pressure of the current hold them in place against the bars. The bars and boards together now formed a dam.

The water level quickly rose past the banks of the short section of river and began filling the room. By the time Lewis and Gonzalez had their diving gear back on, the water was already up to their knees. It was quiet now that the water was above the area where it poured through the bars, allowing the pair to converse quietly as they waited for the water to float them upward. Much of the next hour was spent talking about past diving experiences, passing the time as they slowly worked their way towards the top of the triangular shaft.

Two of the three walls continued straight, all the way to the ceiling, but the third opened into a small alcove about ten feet before meeting the roof. The moment they were high enough, Lewis reached up, grabbed the ledge and pulled himself into the alcove, straining with the weight of his dive gear after floating weightless for so long. He quickly removed the heavy equipment and turned to help Gonzalez, who had already pulled herself up as well, and was now standing next to her removed gear, tapping her foot and staring at an imaginary watch as if she had been waiting for hours. Lewis laughed then turned towards the back of the alcove, shining his dive light all around, hoping to figure out how to turn the water off before the entire chamber filled up and they both drowned.

Lewis’s light revealed four distinct serpents engraved in the rocks forming the back wall. Four hemp ropes ran through holes in the floor and ceiling next to each of the serpents. The first snake had a keyed tail, matching what Stonewood’s group had found back before the cave-in. Two of the four ropes next to that carving were cut. The bottom of each of the cut ropes must have been pulled into the floor below. The second and third serpents were similar, except that they had their keys sprouting from their back and head, respectively. The final one had no key at all; instead it had two heads breathing fire at each other.

“Wow,” Lewis said quietly. “The snakes look exactly like Miller said they would.” He gave the first rope a gentle tug. “The good professor didn’t say anything about these ropes though.”

Gonzalez remained quiet as Lewis took in the details. She silently followed Lewis from one station to the next, eventually noticing she was standing in an inch of water. “Quinn,” she said with a calm voice, “we may be running out of time.” She looked back towards the triangular shaft that was now under water, worry evident in her voice as she asked, “Do you suppose there is any hope in diving back down to remove the boards?”

Lewis looked down at his feet and shook his head as he replied. “I doubt they’d budge with all this water pressing them in place. Besides, we may need our last tank of air to get out of here.”

Lewis then gave a running narrative of the four serpents as he went back through them, trying to figure out what to do next. According to Miller, these were special symbols he had seen only once before, in the Money Pit at Oak Island. They weren’t traditional runes at all, but rather encodings meant to look like simple cave drawings to the average passerby. The first serpent coincided with the locked state of the Archive, which appeared to be the active mode given the fact that they couldn’t get out; and, it was the only one with some of its ropes cut. Nobody had seen the next two anywhere in the cave, but Miller had found them in his strange map of the system. He believed one would reverse the flow in the main channel, while the other could be used to control the flow somehow, allowing items to be shipped back to the pool where Lewis and Gonzalez had entered. The water level could then be increased to float the items all the way up to the top of the domed ceiling where Pierre had climbed. The final engraving represented the unlocked state of the Archive.

Miller had also warned that the control system was designed to be used by Curators alone, and was undoubtedly set up to trap and kill anyone who wasn’t familiar with its proper use. Based on the way the ropes felt, Lewis believed each supported a large rock hanging somewhere below their feet. Cutting the rope would allow the rock to drop, setting things in motion. The important part was cutting the correct rope.

The key-tailed serpent had the first and last ropes cut. As he described this part to Gonzalez, Lewis suddenly bolted to attention, his brain finally grasping the fundamentals of the system. He talked rapidly and excitedly. “Miller said the Curators were very intelligent, and even adopted a sort of computing system from the Phoenicians based on wound strings inside a box.”

Gonzalez stared blankly before saying, “This may not be the time to geek out on me about some old nerds and their archaic computer.”

“No, that’s not what I was getting at. I think the computer is the solution to this whole system. Computers speak using a series of ones and zeros, which is called binary. The drawing you saw with the serpent had the Roman numeral IX beneath it, which we know as the decimal number 9. In binary, this would be represented as 1001. I believe the ones correspond to the ropes that need to be cut.”

Gonzalez slowly shook her head. “So, what ropes do we cut to get out of here?”

Lewis had a quizzical look on his face as he responded. “Well, that’s the tricky part.” He went back to rubbing his head as he waded through the now waist-deep water to the final serpent. “Miller told me something about a thirteenth astrological sign written next to the two-headed beast. Thirteen is 1101. The part I’m unsure of is which direction the number should be read. Traditionally we go left to right, of course. However, the engravings seem to me like they go right to left if you think of them as “open the door”, then “load the treasure”, and then “close the door.” The 1001 doesn’t help us however, because it reads the same in either direction.”

Gonzalez was not convinced and was about to get back into her dive gear when Lewis pulled out his handy multi-tool and quickly sliced through the first and last ropes. She inhaled sharply, hearing the scraping of rolling rocks reverberate through the wall. “Quinn…” quietly escaped her lips at the end of the inhale.

“The first and last parts are the same in either direction, like with the 9. The fact that we aren’t covered in boiling oil or punctured with a thousand flaming arrows lends support to my theory.” Lewis smiled a quick smile then returned to the ropes. He was sticking with his right to left hunch. Gonzalez squeezed his left hand as he raised the knife in his right. He returned the firm squeeze as his knife sliced through the old rope. A loud clanging sound echoed through the cavern, followed by a splash as the boards floated to the surface. After a dull thud somewhere behind the wall, the water started to drop.