The Mine

The Mine is a short story written by Matthew Reilly, released online and available to read on his website.

Synopsis

A severely wounded soldier, his legs completely flattened, is carried by his comrades out of a mine screaming in agony. Coldly observing this is General Washington Haynes, who tells the person standing next to him that they need expert help, and to call his girl.

In a private jet over the desert outside Mexico City, archaeologist Dr Jessica Chase and her colleague Kenny "Little Kenny G." Georgeopolous have just signed a non-disclosure agreement from the U.S. government. Chase is an expert on the ancient pre-Aztec city of Teotihuacan, and has a talent for deciphering their hieroglyphics, which is what led the Breslin Corporation to sponsor her archaeological digs. Now Breslin Corp's chairman, the rich and eccentric Leonard Breslin III, has asked that she and Kenny come and speak with him.

When their plane lands, Chase and Kenny find themselves in an aircraft hanger where Breslin and Haynes await. After Breslin explains that the government wants their help, Haynes clarifies that it regards some stone tablets they found, leading the pair down a set of stairs going under the hanger. During the descent, Chase spots four injured men in a ward, including the soldier with the flattened legs. They are brought to a laboratory containing rectangular tablets with ancient symbols. Though Chase agrees to help try to translate them, she demands to know what's going on, and so Haynes shows her to the entrance of a Teotihuacan mine.

As Chase and Kenny inspect the entrance, Haynes divulges that they are in southern Nevada, leading the archaeologists to theorise that it might be Xutu, the mythic Teotihuacan prison. Wanting their help to open up the site, Haynes has them and a group of Delta soldiers buddy up and tied together with rope before they enter the mine and descend a well-shaft. Once at the bottom, Lieutenant William "Tank" Kowalski demonstrates a trap mechanism that causes a large section of the ceiling ton slam down. Moving on to the next passage reveals numerous carved animals in the walls - including the giant carnifax-rodent species that the Teotihuacan supposedly used as guard animals - and Kowalski reveals a stake-filled pit trap mechanism.

As the group presses on, Kenny quietly Chase asks if she noticed a note in the lab earlier mentioning the Visitor's Stone, a relic supposedly gifted to the Teotihuacans by a otherworldly individual and which could grant immortal life. Chase confirms that she did, and though uncertain that the Stone even exists, realises that the American government wants it if it does.

After passing a few more traps, the group eventually arrives in an underground cavern containing a gigantic pyramid, and Haynes explains that the entrance can only be opened if the tablets are fitted into their accompanying slots in the correct order, with Breslin asking that Chase and Kenny figure out the sequence. Once they are out of earshot, however, Breslin tells Haynes to have them killed once the entrance is open. Despite her efforts, Chase's first attempt at ordering the tablets is wrong, and though she is dropped into another pit, the rope tying her to Kenny keeps her from falling far enough to be impaled on more stakes. Additionally, Chase spots the body of her former professor, Hans Ziegler, whom she realises Haynes brought in before her. As soon as she is hauled out, Chase immediately makes another attempt, this time the correct one.

As she gets a glimpse of what's behind the door, Chase and Kenny are flex-cuffed by Haynes' men, whom the General order to throw the archaeologists into the first pit trap. Breslin nonchalantly tells the pairs that his deal with Haynes requires secrecy and thus they cannot be allowed to leave the mine alive. As they are led away from the pyramid, Chase tells Kenny that she saw the Visitor's Stone inside, and figures that Breslin, Haynes and an elite few others want its gift of immortality.

As they approach the tunnel, and look back to see Haynes's men securing the Stone, Chase recalls the traps and realises they aren't in a mine; it's a vault. Warning Kenny to be ready to run, Chase points out that the traps were designed not to keep out intruders, but to keep something from getting out. A scream and Kowalski's severed head landing next to them prompts the doctors to look back and see a number of Rodentus carnifex emerge from the pyramid, one of which kills Haynes.

As Breslin and the remaining Delta soldiers start fleeing, a pair of the creatures rush over to attack Chase, Kenny and their captors. As they begin their flight, a trap is set off and the Rodentus are caged with one of the soldiers. The second soldier sets off a second trap that launches one of the carvings down their sloped path; it misses the humans and hits a pursuing creature instead. In the carvings' chamber, the pursuing Breslin triggers the pitfall, and while the soldier falls, Chase and Kenny's reflexes save them. Breslin and the last Delta soldier, with the Visitor's Stone in hand, hold the archaeologists at gunpoint and get ahead of them; though he threatens them not to follow, Chase and Kenny decide that they have a better chance against the billionaire than the Rodentus'.

Both pairs rapidly climb back up the well-shaft, but before the Delta-man can cut the rope, Chase pulls him down the shaft to the creatures and tackles Breslin at the mine entrance, who drops the Stone. Breslin reaches for the Stone, but is yanked back inside as the Rodentus emerge from the well-shaft. Chase stops and looks back at the Visitor's Stone, but instead of going back for it, she throws a grenade she took at the entranceway before closing the surrounding airlock, and when the grenade explodes it collapses the entrance to seal the creatures inside, while also destroying the Stone.

Chase and Kenny leave the now-abandoned hanger and eventually come to a highway, hitchhiking a ride to civilisation. During the ride, Chase reflects on the obvious question as to how the Rodentus could had survived trapped in the sealed pyramid for so long. The answer: in her brief glance into the pyramid, Chase spotted a trickle of condensation that ran over the Visitor's Stone and formed a puddle, from which the Rodentus had been drinking for hundreds of years...

Characters

• Dr Jessica Chase
• Dr Kenny "Little Kenny G" Georgeopolous
• General Washington Haynes
• Leonard Breslin III
• Lieutenant William "Tank" Kowalski
• Professor Hans Ziegler
• Coleman
• Reiger

Animals

• Rodentus Carnifex

Trivia

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