The Swords of Babylon

CHAPTER FIFTY SIX

All of a sudden, Kinimaka saw the branches of the towering, crackling tree of lightning stretching towards him. He was instantly reminded of Nikola Tesla’s tree of energy description. He flung the Shadow Elite man aside, thinking he was the source, and backed away fast. But the blazing tendrils continued to test for his presence, as if sensing something. Then one of the stalks shot towards him like a spitting arrow, striking his back. Kinimaka squealed, not ashamed to do so.

“What the fuck!”

Hayden fell in beside him. “Oh crap. Now we’re in trouble.”

“Why?”

“That lightning bolt just struck your sword.”

Kinimaka stared in horror as the whole soaring column leaned toward him.

Dahl stood transfixed as the lightning tree bent over toward the swinging cable car. He screamed for Olle, and when the Swedish translator stood up, he was grasping both of Alexander’s swords in his hands.

“Thought they might come in useful,” he started, and then saw the astonishing display of earth energy. “Ah,” he mumbled. “Ah… Torsten…”

Alicia scooted across the rock-strewn floor as the energy tower, containing all the Earth’s elements, bowed down to the ground, a dazzling supplicant. Lomas brandished one of the swords. She picked up the other. Fear and wonder kept her rooted to the spot. Here was a primeval force that could tear the world apart. Here was real power, real might. The kind of display that might persuade a man to worship the gods.

Then the earth energy gathered its white fire and flashed straight at the swords held by Alicia, Lomas, Hayden, Kinimaka and Akerman, surrounding their blades in a writhing wreath of flickering flame before exploding and firing upward in a shining column straight through the top of the tombs, now channeled from their original purpose by the earth energy inherent in the swords and re-tasked toward something new.

Alicia watched in awe as the column of light reached its apex and then veered away.

Drake held the sword aloft and felt the energy exploding. Above him, beyond the rim of the pit where Mai and Yorgi’s faces peered down anxiously, he saw fires illuminating the skies. The dark night was sunstruck. A wondrous array of crackling and sparkling lights swept the black curtain aside, a spectacular aurora borealis. Was it the end of the world? He didn’t know, but had foresight enough to thrust the sword higher, its tip now clearing the top of the pit.

Instantly, the world ignited. Vivid bolts of lightning blazed brightly and blasted toward the Earth with the sound of a thunderclap. Vital energy struck and channeled through the entire length of the sword, then flashed down from the hilt to be totally consumed by the bottomless pit of Babylon. A stunning symmetry of shining energy surrounded Drake and the sword, mini bolts of lightning crackled in his hair, between his fingers, across the tops of his boots, but he remained unharmed.

“It’s a goddamn lightning rod,” he said, amazed. The other six swords were the same, but infused with less power. They attracted the energy and sent it to their more powerful cousin.

The pit of Babylon devoured every spark of power like a hungry black hole. Nothing stirred down there. Nothing existed. Drake remembered Patterson saying that even the pit itself might be an earth energy vortex. But now he knew better.

It was a negative energy vortex, consuming everything and anything that was thrown at it.

Except for Matt Drake. With the help of his friends, he climbed and pulled himself up over the edge of the pit. The sword still flickered, expending the last of its force below, so Drake held it out over the black hole until the lights chasing along its blade finally diminished and the skies were reclaimed by the night.

Together they sat for a while, mourning the death of Professor Patterson and rejoicing that the world was now safe, but, most of all, worrying about the fates of their friends and team mates.