Due to a ravaging, worldwide drought over the last decade, a secluded lake exposes an ancient secret.
Philanthropist Simon Jonassen embarks on a quest of world consequence, hiring a team of mercenaries to deliver him safely past the boobytraps of th...
Captain Allan Edgars gazed at the underwater structure from the shoreline. He licked his lips. This is it. After all these years. We've finally found the ultimate treasure!
Scores of hoses snaked into the murky depths, attached to dozens of syphoning systems that chugged and clanged and pumped out the water in the receding lake. Had it not been for the ravaging, worldwide drought of the last decade, the lake would be full, and their quarry remain hidden.
Allan surveyed the surrounding caldera, the barren wasteland like another planet. Not only was there no wildlife present, he failed to spot even a sapling or the tiniest of weed. A rotten stench emanated from the stagnant water and oily mud.
When the first of the granite markers emerged from the ebbing water, and a hazy outline of a cave mouth appeared at the bottom of the lake, Allan barked orders at his men. "Let's go, you maggots. Get hot. We go in twenty. Mr. Jonassen has waited three years for this moment and paid us well. Let's not make him wait any further, shall we?"
"Do you think your team can handle this, Captain Edgars?" Simon Jonassen inched forward.
"The magnetic energy around the site is the most I've ever seen. Satellite and Lidar scans all came back negative. Too much interference." The fact drew Allan to the site with a gravitational force of a black hole. This discovery, if it lived up to the details Simon gave him and the research he'd done on his own, would cap his career and make him wildly wealthy. He spat on the ground. "Mr. Jonassen, ain't nothing me and my men can't handle. This serpent demon's boobytraps are of no concern. Hell itself won't stop us."
Simon stared into the shimmering water, sucked into the inky depths of the maw that screamed up at them from the bottom of the lake. More granite markers rose from the water, giving the appearance of jagged teeth around the cave entrance.
Simon faced Captain Edgars. "The boobytraps aren't what I'm worried about."
[368 words]
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