Read Oracle for Free Online Page B

Anansi,” interjected Professor.
    “ Yes, but more often the spider is seen as a creative or wise force. Her webs are the ideas that hold the universe together.”
    Dorion pondered this for a moment, then asked, “Is there a connection to Arachne of Greek mythology?”
    Jade was surprised at the physicist ’s insight. “Not a direct connection, but you find a lot of these archetypes throughout history. Spiders have always been seen as magical creatures for their ability to spin intricate webs. It makes sense that ancient peoples began to see them as a symbol of creation.”
    The conversation fell off as the robot succeeded in lifting itself out of the shaft, giving them an unrestricted view of the chamber. There were more murals, many with familiar themes, but nothing else—no artifacts and certainly no evidence of human remains.
    “Well,” Acosta said after a long silence. “It’s not everything we could have hoped for, but it is certainly a remarkable find nonetheless.”
    Jade wasn ’t ready to admit defeat however. “Send the robot down the shaft,” she told Hodges, and then turning to Acosta, added. “What if this was a sacrificial well? We might find a lot more at the bottom than at the top.”
    “ Like a Mayan cenote? But why would they seal it off?”
    Jade didn ’t have an answer for that, but Acosta evidently did not require convincing. “Mr. Hodges, can you take us down?”
    “ No problem,” replied the robotics expert, and then amended, “unless you need to go more than a hundred meters. That’s the limit of Shelob’s cable.”
    “ It’s much more likely that we’ll hit groundwater and have to turn back. But since we’re here, we may as well have a look.”
    Water, Jade knew, would not necessarily mean it was—metaphorically sp eaking—a dry hole. The Maya made extensive use of sacred cenotes—limestone sinkholes—for sacrificial purposes, and some of the greatest troves of Mayan artifacts had been discovered therein. There was a growing body of evidence to support the idea that the Teotihuacanos had performed ritual human sacrifice, though not of the heart-wrenching variety that would later be performed by the Aztecs, but not all offerings were blood sacrifices. The Maya would throw valuable artwork into cenotes—jewelry and golden sculptures—to appease their gods.
    Jade mentally began assembling a shopping list of equipment she would need in order to dive. Professor could help her with that; the former SEAL had been her dive-master in Japan, and had a lot more expertise in the water than she. Maybe his intrusion would prove fortuitous after all.
    The camera view swung around to show the top of the shaft, and after a few more minutes of maneuvering, the robot lowered itself into the tunnel and began descending. Jade found herself straining to catch some glimpse of what lay at the bottom of the long shaft, but it remained an impenetrable black dot at the center of the screen.
    A spot of illumination appeared at the center of the darkness.
    “ Does anyone else see that?” Jade asked.
    “ Could be the light reflecting off water,” Professor suggested.
    As the robot continued deeper, past the opening leading back to the chamber where the group was watching and down into parts of the shaft that had not been revealed by Dorion ’s muon detectors, the spot of brightness grew more intense. Meanwhile, the tunnel walls became more irregular. It was still too perfectly vertical to be naturally occurring, but it seemed to Jade as if the craftsmen who had carved out the passage had gradually lost interest in maintaining perfect symmetry.
    “ Fifty meters,” Hodges reported. “This sucker is deep.”
    The descent went on for several more minutes until, just as the cable was almost played out, the robot reached the far end of the passage. The source of the reflection however remained maddeningly indistinct; a bright spot directly below. Hodges tried moving the camera, but the bright spot