Black Onyx Duology by Victor Methos Read Free Book Online

one of their streets. I took it down like thirty feet and then turned back last time.”
    James took out his thermos and took a long swig of tea before replacing it and saying, “Time’s wasting gentlemen,” and headed out first. Dillon let George go next and he followed them into the maze of ancient buildings.
     
     
    The streets weren’t covered in snow since the entire city was protected by a dome. They could easily maneuver and there was enough room for all three of them to walk side-by-side and maybe have enough space for a few more men.
    The buildings didn’t have any windows but they did have entrances without doors. James stopped at one and glanced inside.
    “Dillon, look at this.”
    He poked his head in. The interior was laid out like a modern apartment. Tables, chairs, and even rugs. A vase was up on the table and Dillon, carefully, stepped inside. The vase was the same white material as everything else. He took off his glove and lightly touched it. It was warm to the touch.
    “Um, guys, this thing’s warm.”
    James stepped inside and took off his gloves and touched it as well. “Amazing. It feels almost like…something is running an electric current through it. It’s the warmth you feel with a doorknob that has an electric lock on it.”
    Dillon walked into another room. It was the bedroom. The bed was n’t soft. It was a hard, gray material that felt uncomfortable. There was nothing else here. He went around to another smaller room and found a table with things strewn across it. He felt an overwhelming sensation of history just now. He was looking at something, an arrangement, that someone had left over six thousand years ago. And no one had seen it since. His stomach was all butterflies.
    On the table were what appeared to be tablets made out of that white material. He ran his finger on it…and it moved.
    He jumped back. He waited a moment and then walked close and took out his thermos and used the cap to run across the tablet. It left a mark and when he ran it over again, it erased the mark. It was a tablet used for writing.
    There were several of the tablets and most of them were filled with writing he didn’t recognize. “ James, come in here please.”
    James came in and stood beside him. Dillon wrote his name on the tablet.
    “They had writing,” James said, barely able to contain his excitement. “Dillon, they had writing!”
    “ Look at all these.”
    He showed him the tablets with the writings on them. James stared at them a long time in silence. “This is mathematics. Look at this arch and the symbols underneath. That’s the catenary equation. It’s a graph of the hyperbolic cosine function. This is advanced geometry, Dillon.”
    “Gentlemen ,” George shouted from outside.
    The two men looked at each other and then ran out of the building. George’s light was across the city now and they ran to it. He was staring up at a t ower. It seemed at least five, maybe six stories tall. They stood in front of it. It was covered with symbols.
    “I think it’s the tallest building in the city,” George said.
    “Is there an entrance?” James said.
    “I walked all the way around, I don’t see one.”
    Dillon walked to it and pulled out his own flashlight, holding it up to the symbols. They were diagrams and long series of squiggly lines and curves. He touched the tower. It was warm, like the vase.
    “I think we’ve done enough for today,” George said. “Let’s go make camp before nightfall. We can come back tomorrow.”
    Dillon didn’t move. Something about the tower…it was electric. He was about to push on it when he felt James’ hand on his shoulder.
    “He’s right. We don’t want to be caught without camp at night here. Let’s go.”
    Dillon turned back to the tower, staring up at it as he took a few steps and then turned and followed the men out of the city and onto the bridge leading to the surface.

12
     
     
     
     
     
    Dillon warmed his hands by the fire in