The Hunt for Shambhala

29

Decker led the way past the destroyed stone gate and followed the dry river bed as it snaked around to the right and disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel beyond. Raising his flashlight he swept the beam over the dusty, cracked channel carved by millennia into the cave floor.

“Looks like this is the right place,” Diana said, looking down at the dry river. “This must be where Stanhope found his glowing water.”

“Maybe,” Decker said, “but it sure as hell isn’t here now.”

They walked deeper into the underground canyon and then their flashlights fell on the two enormous statues either side of the river. “Woah!” Riley said. “Check these babies out.”

Selena and Diana shared a glance, but Selena spoke first. “They’re some kind of gods, I think — but I don’t recognize either of them.”

Arjun Johar stifled a gasp as he stepped forward. “They are similar to Brahma and Vishnu, and yet different. Is this really happening?”

“It is,” Diana said. “It really is.”

“This is going to be the archaeological discovery of the century, Lena!” Riley said. “And on our first bloody mission too!”

“On your first mission?” Decker said. He stopped dead in the middle of the tunnel and turned to face them. “I thought you said you were old hands at this sort of thing?”

“Ah, well…” Selena said.

“Something about making ancient discoveries being your bread and butter — wasn’t it?”

“Yes, er… this is the case, in a manner of speaking.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we’re old hands at searching for things, mate, but this is the first time…”

Decker joined in and finished the sentence along with the Australian: “the first time we ever found anything. I get it.” He shook his head and sighed. “So you’re not professional treasure hunters at all and I’ve been risking my life with a bunch of crazy amateurs, right?”

“You catch on quick, mate,” Riley said with a mischievous wink.

“We are not amateurs, Mr Decker,” Selena said. “I am a professional curator engaged in the hunt for ancient relics and artefacts and I have discovered countless objects for the London Museum of Archaeology.”

Decker shook his head. “And I never even heard of that place.”

“It’s very small,” she said. “Nice and tucked away in a quiet part London.”

“A quiet part of London where no one ever goes,” Riley said.

“Countless objects, huh?” Decker said to Selena.

“Yes, only this is my first major discovery of an ancient site believed previously to be mythical. Clear?”

“I guess so,” he said, feeling like he was in third grade again. “Tell me,” he continued, changing the subject. “What are these statues doing here?”

When Selena spoke it was as if she was in a dream. “They’re guarding the kingdom…”

“If that’s true,” Charlie said with a sigh, “they’re not doing it very well. Look — footprints.” He shone his beam down to the dust in the dry river bed at the base of the statues and drew their attention to a jumble of messy prints and scuff marks.

“Either the rats around these parts wear really massive boots, or Madan was right here in this part of the cave system very recently,” Riley said.

Selena moved forward and shone her flashlight on the statues, particularly on the swords. “This sword almost conforms to the finest examples of Sino-Tibetan ironwork,” she said, mesmerized by the object in her flashlight beam. “And yet it’s different… older and yet more refined somehow.”

Riley Carr interrupted the eerie silence. “Over there,” he said, sweeping the beam a little further along. “Looks like we have our first decision to make.”

“What is it?” Selena asked, turning and lighting him up in her beam.

“Get that buggering thing out of my face, would you, Lena?”

“Sorry!”

“What is it?” Decker asked.

“A fork in the road,” said Riley.

They peered through the dusty gloom to see the tunnel diverge into two smaller pathways leading away into the darkness. They moved forward a few yards and now Riley’s flashlight beam joined Decker’s as they studied the two tunnels.

“Looks like Madan went that way,” Riley said, picking up some more scuff marks in the dusty floor.

Decker took a deep breath and followed the footpaths with his beam until they too vanished in the darkness ahead. “Just me and the plane,” he muttered to himself shaking his head. “A nice little cargo business…”

“What was that, Mr Decker?”

He turned and saw Selena had left the statues behind and was now right beside him.

She glanced up at his face and gave him a smile. “Did you say something?”

“I said let’s get on with this,” he said, returning the smile.

“Oh, good,” she said quietly. “Because I thought you were mumbling about your bloody plane again.” She winked at him and moved on ahead.

Decker opened his mouth to reply but shut it again. He was learning that no one got the better of Professor Selena Moore.

Following the river further they reached the first sign of human hands since the statues — a stone archway carved into the mountain itself. The river had once flowed through it but they all stopped dead in their tracks when they felt a gust of icy wind blow rush through the door and strike them like daggers.

“That’s freezing!” Charlie said.

Johar nodded. “We’re getting closer.”

Diana moved forward. “Look — there are some words carved into the plinth over the archway.”

“More of the same symbols,” Riley said.

Decker turned to Diana. “Can you translate them based on what you saw in Stanhope’s journal?”

She stepped forward and stared at the carvings. “Yes, I think so. The first one says Travellers, and the one at the end means Shambhala, for sure. This one has been damaged…”

Selena sighed. “Is it still translatable?”

Diana stared at the symbols for a few moments. The rest of the team kept a respectful silence in the eerie tunnel as she tried to remember what was in the journal and how she had translated it. “Perhaps… I think it means guardian. These symbols are telling us that we must get past the Guardian of Shambhala if we are to reach Shambhala.”

“It does indeed mean guardian,” said a voice from above.

Decker and his friends spun around in the darkness and shone their beams into the air but they were already surrounded by Madan and his men. They had not seen them because they were standing on a rock ledge which ran around the canyon near the door several metres above their heads.

“You bastard, Madan!” Decker said, reaching for his gun.

“Tut-tut,” Madan said. “Drop your weapons or my men will cut you down dead like dogs in a second.”

“He’s got us, mate,” Riley said. “Check out the kit on those arseholes.”

Decker saw what the Australian was referring to — Madan had at least a dozen men and they were all armed with MSMCs, a lightweight Indian-manufactured submachine gun chambered for five mil MINSAS cartridges. At this range, not even Riley’s Remington would be enough to take out more than one of the men before they were all dead.

Decker sighed and dropped his weapon, and the others reluctantly followed his lead. “This is one great big pile of crap you got me into, lady,” he said to Selena.

“Don’t blame me! You could have told us to bugger off at any time.”

“Oh, that’s great — I offer the Avalon to help your ass out and now it’s all my fault!”

“Please, please…” Madan said. “Ladies and gentlemen — calm yourselves. You are about to witness the greatest event in the world, and you are arguing about simple trivialities.”

“Fuck off, Madan,” Riley said bluntly.

The Indian laughed. “Whose idea was it to invite an Australian?”

Riley lunged forward. “You son of a bitch…”

More laughter from Madan and his men.

“What do you want, Mr Madan?” Selena said, her commanding voice cutting through the noise.

“I want greatness, and I will have it — but first I need some assistance persuading the guardian to let me into Shambhala.”

“The guardian?” Charlie said, turning to the others. “You want us to fight the guardian?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Madan said. “However, the guardian is not a man, but a challenge… some kind of statue that looks almost like Lord Vishnu. We have already seen it and it is impressive. It looks very dangerous, so I am glad to have found several volunteers who will sacrifice themselves as we work out how to pass the challenge.”

Madan turned to Kaleka. “Take them!”

The armed men clambered down from the upper level and quickly took the Avalon crew’s weapons. At gunpoint, they then marched them forward though the archway and down a short tunnel until they reached a strange inner chamber. It was a small hollowed-out cave at the bottom of a short flight of steps, at the bottom of which were several dead bodies covered in poison darts.

Beyond the corpses, the guardian was as Madan had described — a large statue of a god vaguely resembling Vishnu and yet different somehow. He was meditating on a giant lotus flower and two of his hands were in his lap while the other two were held outwards in a welcoming gesture.

“Excuse my men,” Madan said, indicating his fallen servants. “They learned the hard way that the steps are lined with poison dart guns. Through a process of trial and error we have determined that the only way to get through to the statue is to run as fast as possible and then jump into its arms.”

“You murdered three men finding that out?” Riley said.

“These men gave their lives as a sacrifice to a greater good.”

“You disgust me,” Diana said, taking a step back toward the tall Australian.

“I don’t understand,” Selena said, lifting her eyes away from the dead men. “You said you can get through if you run very fast, so where are the men who got through?”

“They vanished into thin air,” Madan said.

“I’m sorry?”

“They disappeared in the arms of the statue, Professor Moore,” he said with a sigh. “And left nothing behind them except their screams.”

“So you’ve killed more than three of your own men…” Riley said.

“I told you they sacrificed themselves… see for yourself.”

Madan ordered Kaleka to select a man and the giant Indian hauled a smaller man from the gathering near the entrance to the chamber.

“Please… not me! Mr Madan, please!”

“Run toward the statue, Ahuja,” Madan said serenely. “He will not harm you.”

“No… no!”

“Or perhaps you would prefer it if I had your entire family extinguished?”

The man looked at his colleagues but none met his gaze. “I can do this…” he mumbled. “I will be the first to show the way.” He peered down the corpse-lined steps and hesitated.

Kaleka stepped forward and pushed the muzzle of his gun between the man’s shoulder blades. “No backing out, Ahuja.”

“Need I remind you, Ahuja,” Madan said, “that Kaleka here knows over forty methods of torturing individuals… think of your children.”

“Over fifty,” Kaleka corrected him quietly.

The man’s face drained of any hope as he realized his fate was inescapable. After a short prayer, he turned to face the statue and took a deep breath. Now it was his turn to go, and he would be the first man to see Shambhala.