- "But you're fucking Jack West Jr. You found the Seven Ancient Wonders and the Six Sacred Stones. You're the fifth greatest warrior, the guy who won the Great Games and you didn't come this fucking far just to come this fucking far! You never give up, even when you're hanging by your fingernails with all the odds in the world stacked against you!"
- —Lily to Jack
The One Impossible Labyrinth is Matthew Reilly's seventeenth novel, and the seventh story to feature Jack West Jr as the main protagonist. It is the final novel in the Jack West Jr series.
Synopsis[]
THE END IS HERE
Jack West Jr has made it to the Supreme Labyrinth.
Now he faces one last race-against multiple rivals, against time, against the collapse of the universe itself-a headlong race that will end at a throne inside the fabled labyrinth.
AN IMPOSSIBLE MAZE
But the road will be hard.
For this is a maze like no other: a maze of mazes. Uncompromising and complex. Demanding and deadly.
A CATACLYSMIC CONCLUSION
It all comes down to this.
For it ends here-now-in the most lethal and dangerous place Jack has encountered in all of his many adventures. And in the face of this indescribable peril, with everything on the line, there is only one thing he can do.
Attempt the impossible.
Summary[]
Note: the progress Jack's team makes within the Supreme Labyrinth does not run at a concurrent pace with the teams outside. Events that take place out of chronology with Jack's journey through the Labyrinth are in italics.
Picking up minutes after The Two Lost Mountains, Jack West Jr, Lily West, Zoe Kissane-West and Easton are set upon within moments of entering the entry tunnel of their gate into the Supreme Labyrinth by a pair of Vandals left behind by Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster. In the brief scuffle, a trap is set off, forcing Jack's group down into a cavern dominated by a giant stalactite attached to five bridges leading to all five of the gate tunnels. Confronted by a silverman on their bridge and with greystone pellets threatening to trap them, Jack and Zoe send Lily and Easton ahead while they and the four "palemen" confront the silver automaton, and while the specialised bullets do not pierce it as easily as a bronzeman, they are able to stun it. However, as they are climbing down a well shaft in the stalactite, General Garthon Rastor, whose team is only minutes ahead, fires RPGs at the stalactite to bring the whole structure down before heading through the closing exit door. Though Lily, Easton, Jack and one of the palemen make it, the other palemen and Zoe are unable to get off the stalactite in time, falling into the chasm below. Though Jack is distraught at his wife's death, Lily urges him on, and they barely make it through the exit before it closes.
At the Labyrinth's gates, Alby Calvin, Aloysius Knight and Rufus manage to get some distance from Sphinx's army of automatons by using the downed Black Raven's remaining ejector seat, but they are scattered upon landing, and Alby and Knight are captured by Jaeger Zwei. With the battle winding down as Rastor's V-88 Condor is destroyed, Rufus watches as the Knights of the Golden Eight begin organising the force's withdrawal, and hears on a radio scanner Jaeger Eins mentioning preparations to head to the Labyrinth's surface point near the Red Horizon Star-4. Reuniting with Sky Monster once they are gone, Rufus reveals that he knows where their enemies are heading, as Star-4 is part of a series of Russian oil rigs, and so the two pilots set off to rescue their friends and locate the surface point. Over the next several hours, the world becomes more chaotic as Sphinx's forces ring the Siren bells over more major cities worldwide, and a Russian carrier group loyal to Sphinx makes its way into the Red Sea.
Following up on a lead obtained by Zoe from the Pope's office about Albano's Emissary possessing the Orphean bell - needed to awaken those from the siren sleep - Iolanthe Compton-Jones, Brother Bertie de Montreuil and David "Nobody" Black arrive in Castel Gandolfo and locate a secret vault belonging to the Catholic Church. Within, they discover that the location of the bell is inscribed upon the crown of Priam; while the original crown no longer exists, there is a replica on a statue in the remains of the ancient city of Troy, which is not in fact where most people believe it is. As a team sent by Chloe Carnarvon arrives, the trio hide themselves away, and learn that Chloe is unaware of the original crown's destruction, giving them an advantage over Sphinx's subordinate.
Meanwhile, Pooh Bear, Stretch, Sister Lynda Fadel and Dr Tracy Smith make their way to Salzburg, one of three locations where several families of the Four Legendary Kingdoms are heading for the enactment of the Storm Cellar Protocol while Sphinx is in the Labyrinth averting the Omega Event. From the communications they intercept, the group learns that Sir John Marren, a longtime friend of Sphinx and the royal banker to the Four Kingdoms, is organising the sheltering of the royals, and so kidnap him when he arrives at the European shelter.
Back in the Labyrinth, despite a brief moment of weakness in which he considers giving up, Lily rallies Jack to continue the mission despite the loss of Zoe. Going along the only available path with the Emperor's Route closed, Jack and Lily find they must select the correct path out of six tunnels ahead. Consulting the clues tattooed on Imhotep's mummified skull, they realise the true scope of the clues, and Lily volunteers to check the path they believe to be correct before proceeding. Before Jack, Easton and the remaining paleman - dubbed "Smiley" - can move to join her, Dion DeSaxe and his team of squires burst out from their tunnel, having gone in the wrong direction due to lacking the knowledge needed for the Labyrinth. The variously deformed squires are dragged back into the tunnel by something with gold claws, while Dion jumps onto Lily's balcony. Before Lily can kick him off, Dion threatens her with a grenade. Remarking that he had only glanced at the "goldman" while the squires looked directly at it, Dion tries to shoot Lily in the head, but misses because of the warbler Lily has on her. Lily then beats Dion thoroughly and kicks him off the ledge with the live grenade, which kills the cruel King of Underworld mid-fall.
As they traverse the Endless Tunnel over several hours, Jack once again becomes despondent by Zoe's death, and Lily is forced to rebuke him and remind Jack of what he's been teaching her her whole life to encourage him on. Eventually they come across a still goldman and a semi-melted Order of the Omega monk. Recalling Imhotep's clue about not speaking in their presence or looking them in the face, Jack examines the monk and realises the damage was caused by one of the many mysterious crimson orbs lighting the way, which melted the squires and monk. Moving past the goldman, the group are attacked by two more Vandals; Jack kills one, but the commotion awakens the goldman, which rips the other Vandal in half before Jack and the others flee ahead. They then continue walking for several more hours until they come across a fork in the tunnel.
Iolanthe's team have arrived at the true site of ancient Troy on Tenedos Island, which as Iolanthe explains was not a city, but a vault containing various relics and that the legendary invasion of Troy was in fact an attempt to rob Priam's vault. With the Zampieri family that owns the land with the vault gone to the shelter, they are able to enter the vault and locate the Priam statue. Unfortunately, Chloe had already sent people to the vault due to being uncertain about the original crown's fate, and Chloe taunts her former employer over a speaker by revealing that the answer to the Orphean bell's location is London before setting off an explosion in the vault.
Meanwhile, Pooh Bear's team start making their way to the royals' American hideaway at Raven Rock with their prisoner. Marren gloats that they will fail and refuses to reveal the master list of royal families and military people involved, but reveals that the transition into Sphinx's regime will take place at the White House.
Rufus and Sky Monster arrive on the coast of the Red Sea near the Red Horizon Star-4 oil rig, discovering the extensive forces protecting it and spy the captive Alby and Knight at a temporary airfield, guarded by squires of the Golden Knights.
Determining that they must keep using the "sinister" left fork, Jack, Lily, Easton and Smiley press on through the Endless Tunnel until they reach the doorway to an open space, where Easton is hit in the shoulder by a sniper left by Sphinx. They then encounter a trap set by Rastor using a captive Vandal and a crimson orb; a sniper shoots the orb taped to the Vandal's back to release the "liquid fire" in an explosion they cannot avoid. Only by Smiley moving in front of them to protect them - as per Easton's earlier directive - are they saved. They move through the doorway to find themselves on the edge of a large City-Maze with a castle at its center out in the open sun. Spying a giant throne reaching upward from that castle, Jack and Lily are confused as they believe they are only halfway through the Labyrinth. They witness Rastor firing an RPG at the castle in an attempt to bring down the Throne of Life; while Sphinx laughs that he has electromagnetic protection from such weapons, Rastor retorts that Sphinx underestimates the lengths he is willing to go through.
16 hours earlier, Sphinx, Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza and their three Golden Knights arrived at the City-Maze and triggered a mechanism that caused it to rise to the ocean's surface near Red Horizon Star-4. Leaving Jaegers Seiben and Acht to keep their rivals from reaching the castle, Sphinx, Mendoza and Sechs proceeded on through the maze. After 12 hours, Seiben and Acht were brought down by High Brother Ezekiel and his Omega monks, who then slowed Sphinx's progress by destroying a bridge into the castle. Once they finally got inside, Mendoza used his tattoo clues to guide their path up to the Life Throne, but as soon as they reached the top of the castle, Rastor arrived and began his attack as the monks felled Sechs.
Following his retort, Rastor fires RPGs at the wall around the City-Maze, causing seawater to flood in, with the oil rig and Russian aircraft carrier being caught up in the flow. Though the carrier gets stuck on the wall's lip, a falling helicopter separates Jack from the others. Making matters worse, Rastor throws a clump of greystone into the flooding waters, turning most of it to stone and creating a brief path to the castle as more water continues flooding in. With Lily knocked unconscious, Easton injured and Smiley near-defunct, Jack rushes out on his own to reach the castle, and hears a pair of Omega monks mention Ezekiel's plan to topple the throne with RDX charges so that they can proceed into the deadlier half of the Labyrinth and reach a second throne, the Throne of Death. Coupled with the Imhotep clues, Jack realises that there are two thrones; the Emperor's Route would have led to the Throne of Death, and the Throne of Life is just another option at the halfway point. As Sphinx nears the Life Throne, Jack uses a destroyer's cannon to blow it apart and thwart him. All the parties rush to get to the entrance to the second part of the Labyrinth; Rastor and his troops take the lead, followed by Sphinx and Mendoza, then Ezekiel and one remaining Omega monk, and finally Jack, now on his own since the others are unable to follow, particularly since the sea is now beginning to flow into the Labyrinth.
Minutes before the seawall fell, Alby and Knight were brought by helicopter to Jaeger Eins on Red Horizon Star-4, who is eager to torture them by using the filament weapon previously used to cut off Alby's hand. As the oil rig started to fall into the city-maze, Alby snagged the filament weapon and freed himself and Knight, and accidentally excised a large portion off the bottom of Eins's face before kicking him into the rushing seawater. Stuck hanging from a secured-in-place chopper, Alby and Knight witnessed Jack heading further into the Labyrinth as a Russian chopper readied its weapons at them.
Nine hours after beginning the journey into the Supreme Labyrinth's second half, an exhausted Jack emerges at the entrance to a four-sided cavern with maze-like trenches running across the floor, walls and ceiling, which his adversaries have already started navigating. Jack lapses into a brief sleep, but when he awakens he finds himself at gunpoint by Ezekiel and his remaining monk, having decided to return to the maze entrance for rest. But as Ezekiel's companion fires, the bullets are miraculously repelled, and the monk is hit and killed by a maghook fired by a newly-arrived, still-alive Zoe. Ezekiel is then beaten by her and forced to swallow greystone powder from his hourglass and some water before being kicked off their ledge. To Jack's astonishment, Zoe is not alone; Lily and Alby are also present.
Zoe recounts that she managed to use her maghook to arrest her fall, and after climbing up to the door blasted her way under it with grenades before making her way through the Labyrinth to the city-maze. As for Alby and Knight, the chopper they had been confronted with was actually flown by Rufus and Sky Monster, who had then opened fire on Jaeger Zwei. Once the two groups met at Lily and Easton's position, Zoe arrived, and after acquiring some diving gear, she, Lily and Alby set off to join Jack. Now together, the quartet begin traversing the four-sided maze, of which the walls rotate at semi-fixed intervals.
At the Tenedos Island vault, Nobody is able to suppress the switch that controls the demolition charges, but warns that the moment he lets go it will go off. Bertie volunteers to take his place since he doesn't believe he has much time left in his life anyway. Though saddened at her mentor's intent to sacrifice himself, Iolanthe examines Priam's crown and learns that the Orphean bell is within one of two obelisks that once stood in Heliopolis, and realises that Chloe is heading for the wrong one. Using a secret door, Iolanthe and Nobody leave, while Bertie lifts his finger from the detonation switch, dying in the subsequent explosion. As they head to the location of the correct obelisk in New York's Central Park, Nobody asks Iolanthe on a date; though she believes she does not deserve someone like him, Iolanthe is reassured by Nobody that her appearance and who she once was don't matters, and so she accepts. After toppling the obelisk and retrieving the Blue Bell, however, a pair of choppers led by Chloe arrives.
En-route to Washington, D.C., Pooh Bear and Tracy begin to bond - to Stretch and Lynda's surprise and amusement - until their plane is remotely hijacked, their enemies having been somehow alerted by Marren. Landing outside Raven Rock, they are forced to release Marren, but as Stretch predicted this situation, they set off an explosion that destroys their plane and distracts their enemies momentarily, allowing them to open fire on them.
After Zoe and the others head off to follow Jack, Knight, Rufus, Sky Monster and Easton use their newly-acquired chopper to destroy and chase off the remains of Sphinx's forces on the Red Sea's coast. When Knight wonders if Jack and the others are still alive in the Labyrinth, Sky Monster believes that if anyone could finish this mission its Jack, recalling how they met in Basra.
As they approach the end of the four-sided maze, now just ahead of Sphinx and Mendoza, Rastor sends his last two men to kamikaze Jack with even more of the crimson orbs. While Jack is waylaid escaping the explosion, Sphinx and Mendoza get ahead of them, but Jack knocks out the latter when they arrive at the top of the Tower of Judgement. Opting to follow after Rastor and Sphinx first, Jack uses a gold cage that is lifted up into a shaft. The cage stops mid-way up, and Jack finds himself before a colossal goldman statue, and is stunned as a voice penetrates his consciousness. Mendoza, still unconscious in the cage, is quickly deemed unworthy by the voice and killed. Jack, however, is deemed worthy enough to proceed due to the purity of his intent to allow people to live their lives (Rastor and Sphinx's intentions of destruction and rule were considered pure in their own way).
Jack asks the gold colossus what it is and the purpose of all the trials. The colossus answers that it is a consciousness of the ones who built the universe, and whom seeded life on Earth, along with six other planets. The universe can only continue existing if life continues to advance to a sufficient level, and while the other six worlds have fulfilled the requirements to avert Omega, humanity has not yet proven itself. The gold colossus then permits Jack to continue, who is carried by the cage to the final section of the Supreme Labyrinth. Finding himself in a gigantic "stadium" rising out of the Sinai Desert, Jack is immediately assailed by sniper fire from Rastor, intent on keeping him and Sphinx from reaching the Throne of Death.
At this time, Iolanthe and Nobody are being chased by Chloe's choppers through New York, and the team at Raven Rock take down Marren and a few of their enemies, using a fallen Golden Knight's ring of command to usurp control of the present bronzemen. Still having his warbler, Jack chooses to believe that Max Epper's invention will be able to deflect Rastor's high-velocity bullets and charges forward, and following a brutal struggle throws the mad General over the side of the bridge. Sphinx takes the opportunity to run ahead to the final castle, and he and Jack race to climb the final pinnacle. As Zoe, Lily and Alby arrive to assist, Rastor returns, but Jack finishes him off by jamming a crimson orb into his mouth, which detonates and blows apart Rastor's head.
Jack and Sphinx arrive at the top at the same time as the sky begins to crackle with celestial energy as the Omega Event nears. With only a few seconds to spare, Jack manages to sit upon the Throne of Death first, which initiates a quantum pulse that begin halting the Omega Event. As he feels the pulse tearing apart and reassembling every fiber of his being, the voice of the gold colossus tells Jack that he is being reborn and that all will now obey him. Once the pulse is finished and the Omega Event successfully averted, the dumbfounded Sphinx asks Jack asks how the power feels. In response, Jack tells the Trismagi to be still, and learns that every order he gives will now be obeyed without question as Sphinx has no choice but to accede to his power.
As they are being chased, Iolanthe starts ringing the Orphean bell, which begins awakening the sleep-struck citizens, and Nobody ends the pursuit by tricking Chloe's choppers into flying into the Brooklyn Bridge, destroying them and killing Chloe. Pooh Bear's team, meanwhile, have managed to acquire the master list and used a siren bell to knock out the royals within the Raven Rock shelter. Knight and Sky Monster's group arrive at the Labyrinth's throne to pick up Jack and the others, and once everyone begins reporting in, Jack notes that its time for them to start cleaning up Sphinx's mess.
Once the victims of the siren bells are awoken, the next several months sees the world learn of the historic events that have taken place, Jack's heroics in saving the world from the Omega Event, and the actions of Sphinx, the Catholic Church and the Four Kingdoms. Thanks to the master list, the royals and their subordinates are arrested, and Sphinx is sent to Erebus for a life sentence, guarded by all of the bronze and silver guardians. As years pass, the various locations of Jack's adventures - such as the secret cities, iron mountains and vertices - become popular with archaeologists and tourists. Lily goes on to become a cardiac surgeon and Alby a world-renowned physicist, with the two eventually getting married and starting a family; Pooh and Tracy also marry, with Stretch serving as the former's best man; Iolanthe and Nobody live together in Jamaica; Lynda leads a purge of the Church's corruption; Knight and Rufus find the pursuit of fugitive royals a lucrative new part of their bounty hunting business; and both Easton (now a hero to his people) and Sky Monster settle down and start living near Jack's farm.
As for Jack, while he has become world-famous, he avoids the spotlight as much as possible as he keeps a quiet life with his friends and family, and almost never uses his ability to command with absolute authority (known only to his teammates), usually only to help weed out royal sympathisers from within the world's governments to help mediate peace.
Characters[]
Jack's Labyrinth Team[]
- Captain Jack West Jr
- Lily West
- Sergeant Zoe Kissane-West
- Easton
- Alby Calvin
Remainder of Jack's Team[]
- Captain Aloysius Knight / the Black Knight
- Rufus
- Ernest Sheperd / Sky Monster
- Iolanthe Compton-Jones
- Professor David Black / Nobody
- Brother Dagobert 'Bertie' de Montreuil
- Captain Zahir al Abbas / Pooh Bear
- Lieutenant Benjamin Cohen / Stretch
- Sister Lynda Fadel
- Dr Tracy Smith
Labyrinth Adversaries[]
- Lord Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster
- Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza
- Jaeger Sechs
- Jaeger Seiben
- Jaeger Acht
- The Vandals
- King Dion DeSaxe
- General Garthon Rastor
- High Brother Ezekiel
Other Adversaries[]
"Flashback" Characters[]
Mentioned-Only Characters[]
- Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe
- Mephisto
- Max "Wizard" Epper
- Garrett Caldwell
- Julius Adamson
- Lachlan Adamson
- Marshall Judah
- Giovanni Zampieri
- Jennifer Fraser
Historical Figures[]
Animals[]
- Peregrine Falcon (F. peregrinus)
- Labrador (Domestic dog - Canis lupus familiaris)
- Poodle (Domestic dog - Canis lupus familiaris)
Locations[]
- Egypt
- Sinai Desert
- Gates to the Supreme Labyrinth
- The Supreme Labyrinth
- The First Cavern
- The Endless Tunnel
- The City-Maze
- Castle of the Tree of Life
- The Four-Sided Maze
- The Tower of Judgement
- Chamber of Judgement
- Stadium of the Death Throne
- Castle of the Tree of Death
- Red Sea
- Cairo
- Cairo International Airport (mentioned only)
- Giza
- Great Pyramid of Giza (mentioned only)
- Sinai Desert
- Italy
- Rome (mentioned only)
- Castel Gandolfo
- Lake Albano
- Aragon Castle (mentioned only)
- Turkey
- Tenedos Island
- Zampieri Estate
- Tenedos Island
- Austria
- Salzburg
- Vienna
- Hohensalzburg Fortress
- United States of America
- New York State
- New York City
- John F. Kennedy International Airport
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Central Park
- Brooklyn Bridge
- United Nations Building (mentioned only)
- New York City
- Maryland
- Washington, D.C.
- The White House (mentioned only)
- Andrews Air Force Base (mentioned only)
- Washington, D.C.
- Pennsylvania
- Raven Rock Mountain Complex
- Philadelphia (mentioned only)
- Massachusetts
- Boston (mentioned only)
- Illinois
- Chicago (mentioned only)
- Texas
- Dallas (mentioned only)
- Houston (mentioned only)
- California
- Los Angeles (mentioned only)
- Stanford University (mentioned only)
- California Institute of Technology (mentioned only)
- New York State
- Australia
- Mexico
- Mexico City (mentioned only)
- Panama
- Panama City (mentioned only)
- Brazil
- Rio de Janeiro (mentioned only)
- Venezuela (mentioned only)
- Switzerland
- Zurich (mentioned only)
- Geneva (mentioned only)
- France
- Lyon (mentioned only)
- Marseille (mentioned only)
- Mont Saint-Michel (mentioned only)
- First Iron Mountain (indirectly mentioned)
- Aiguille du Midi (indirectly mentioned)
- Second Iron Mountain (indirectly mentioned)
- Bavaria
- Munich (mentioned only)
- Germany
- Katterbach Kaserne (mentioned only)
- Spain
- Rock of Gibraltar (mentioned only)
- Altar of the Cosmos (mentioned only)
- Rock of Gibraltar (mentioned only)
- Hungary
- Budapest (mentioned only)
- China
- Hong Kong (mentioned only)
- Macau (mentioned only)
- Taiwan
- Taipei (mentioned only)
- Philippines
- Manila (mentioned only)
- Indonesia
- Jakarta (mentioned only)
- Thailand (mentioned only)
- Morocco
- Tangiers (mentioned only)
- Nigeria
- Lagos (mentioned only)
- Kenya
- Nairobi (mentioned only)
- Algeria
- United Kingdom
- England
- London (mentioned only)
- Ireland
- Trinity College (mentioned only)
- England
- India (mentioned only)
- Iraq
- Basra (flashback only)
- Israel
- Jerusalem
- Temple Mount (mentioned only)
- Fourth Iron Mountain (indirectly mentioned)
- Temple Mount (mentioned only)
- Jerusalem
- New Zealand (mentioned only)
- Russia
- Moscow (mentioned only)
- Novodevichy Convent (mentioned only)
- Moscow (mentioned only)
- Pacific Ocean
- Jamaica
- Nobody's Estate (mentioned only)
- United Arab Emirates (mentioned only)
Gallery[]
Covers[]
Misc[]
Trivia[]
- This books is the first to mark the definitive conclusion of one of Reilly's series; at present, the Shane Schofield series is considered to be ongoing despite having no new stories in ten years.
- The "seven sentient worlds" mentioned by the Gold Colossus is a reference to Reilly's first novel, Contest, in which there are seven sentient races in the universe (though that novel excludes counting the Guides' race).
- This novel introduces the fewest new named characters of any follow-up novel Reilly has written, at only three.
- Additionally, these new characters either only appear in a flashback (Sumil Gupta) or are only mentioned in passing (Giovanni Zampieri and Jennifer Fraser).
| Seven Ancient Wonders • The Six Sacred Stones • The Five Greatest Warriors • The Four Legendary Kingdoms • The Three Secret Cities • The Two Lost Mountains • The One Impossible Labyrinth | |
| Jack West Jr and the Hero's Helmet • Jack West Jr and the Chinese Splashdown | |
| Jack West Jr • Lily West • Max Epper • Zoe Kissane • Pooh Bear • Stretch • Sky Monster • Alby Calvin • Iolanthe Compton-Jones • Mae Merriweather | |
| Coalition of Minnows • Halicarnassus • Commander-in-Chief's In Extremis Force • Sky Warrior • The Four Legendary Kingdoms • Jack's Team • Trials of the Super-Ancients | |
| Matthew Reilly • Shane Schofield Series • The Tournament | |