Prologue

Wolfgang Geiger heads up a team of archaeologists to locate and open the ancient temple of Emilheim, in the icy wastes of Scandinavia.

The server clicked and a window opened on the computers screen. Zeblon Murray waited patiently as the cursor swirled slowly in the centre of the window. Then there was a light ping as the connection was made. The WorldChat screen was suddenly filled with the hard, glaring face of Herr Oberst. His cold steely blue eyes staring straight ahead with no visible sign of emotion.

“We have found it!” Young Wolfgang Geiger said in a thick German accent as he stepped toward the screen. The young, blonde man struggled to catch his breath, and buckled over with his hands resting on his knees. He had run flat out across the encampment when he heard that Zeb had finally managed to connect. 

Stand up straight, and don’t compress your lungs. He thought to himself as he remembered what his sister had told him years before. He stood bolt upright and faced the monitor. “We found it two days ago, Sir, but have not been able to connect until now. We have cleared the site of all ice and rubble, and the team is preparing to breach the seal and enter as we speak.”

“No!” Herr Oberst stiffened only slightly as he spoke. “Do not attempt to enter the tomb until I arrive.”

Wolfgang stiffened and stared at the monitor. The face he saw on its screen regarded him coldly. Herr Oberst did not so much as blink as he processed what he had just heard, and his expression remained frozen on his hard face. After a moment, he sighed and clenched his jaw. His eyes flickered to his left as though he had noticed something off-screen.

“Extraction team will arrive in two days.” He said, leaning ever so slightly toward the screen. “Do not attempt to open that chamber.” He paused for a fraction of a moment before continuing, “If you do, you will not live to regret it.” He cut the communication, and the window closed leaving only the ExCom logo floating ominously in the centre of the screen.

Wolfgang turned and looked at the faces of his team. All of them were as confused as he was. They stood in silence as the sound of the arctic wind beating at the tent filled the air. Outside, the wind had picked up and was growing stronger. There had been reports of a massive snowstorm further up north, but thus far the weather at Tordvastnet had held up.

“Is he like a robot, or something?” Tracey asked as she followed Wolfgang out of the tent. “I half expect to get some lecture about living tissue over metal endoskeleton or some s**t.” The American girl’s movie reference brought a brief smile to Wolfgang’s face, and then it was gone. “Do you think he is for real?”

“I don’t know Trace. All I know is that he scares the crap out of me. Let’s just get this job done and leave this all behind us.”

Thirty metres away from his ‘office’ was the internal communications hub, which was more a tent full of radio equipment. He had to get hold of Olivia Holden, the team’s excavations manager onsite. 

The radio crackled on Olivia’s desk in the excavation office. 

 “Olivia, do you copy?” Wolfgang’s voice came through. Mika started. The young Serbian had been dozing at the desk. “Olivia, do you copy?” Wolfgang repeated.

“Wolfgang, Mika here. How can I assist? Over.” He said in his best ‘radio voice’. Mika was a glorified porter in his own mind, since we was simply there to carry stuff around, so this opportunity to answer the radio perked his confidence a little. 

“Mika, is Olivia...?” The radio crackled as Mika listened.

“Please repeat?” 

“Is Olivia nearby?” This time it was clear. 

“She is at site, sir.”

“Doing what? She is supposed to be in her office...” The radio fuzzed for a bit. “... she doing?” the last part sounded like a question, but Mika was unsure.

“Please repeat, sir.” The wind was picking up and he was quickly losing signal. 

“What is she doing at the site?” Wolfgang’s voice suddenly came through loud and clear. 

“They are preparing to break the seal, sir.”

“No! They must not open it. Go to her now and tell her not to open it.”

“But Sir...” 

“Go! Now!” Wolfgang cut him off, and leaped out of the chair he had been sitting in. “We have to get over there. Now!” He stormed out of the tent. Olivia was moving ahead of schedule as she always had. She was the best archaeological excavator in the world. So good in fact that she never followed a schedule, her dig time set the schedules.

 “S**t!” he swore as he ran across the encampment toward the lot. As he neared the lot, Mikael arrived on a snowmobile. “Mikael, I need your snowmobile!” He jumped on and started the engine. “There is no time to explain, sorry.” He called as he sped off across the snow.

The icy air stung his eyes as he pushed the mobile as hard as he could manage. He could smell the engine overheating, but he held the throttle hard. Up ahead Tordvastnet was approaching fast. Wolfgang knew that he would have to circumnavigate the frozen lake, but he had ceased to give a damn by the time he arrived on the shore. There was a brief screech as the underbelly of the vehicle scraped along the rock that lined the shore. The vehicle lifted into the air for a second before crashing down on to the ice. As he landed, the rear of the snowmobile swung out. He swiftly yanked it back in line and continued across the lake. On the other side of the lake he could see the excavation camp, but there was no movement. No signs of activity at all. The vehicle lurched left as a portion of ice gave way beneath it. The momentum launched the snowmobile over the edge of the broken ice, and Wolfgang gave a sigh of relief. If he had fallen in the ice with the snowmobile it would not have ended well. When he reached the edge of the lake he drove the snowmobile into the camp and slowed down.

“Olivia!” he called, and listened. “Olivia!” he called again, louder this time. When he received no reply he drove through the camp and headed for the dig site, which was a kilometre away from the western banks of Tordsvatnet Lake. The camp was empty.

When he arrived, his blood ran cold. Everywhere he looked he saw wreckage, pieces of snowmobiles, tools and equipment, interspersed with dark red patches in the snow. He stopped the snowmobile at the nearest patch and stared blindly at the carnage that lay before him. In the distance he beheld the great doors of Emilheim, with their ominous runes that held promise of doom for all mankind.

“Wolfgang!” a voice called in a whimper. He turned and saw someone lying beside an overturned snowmobile, half concealed by snow. It was Olivia. Wolfgang ran over to where she lay and began digging her out of the snow. She shivered violently as he gently lifted her out of the snow. 

“Libby! What the hell happened here? Where is everyone?” he asked as he set her on the snowmobile. She stared up at him as he brushed the snow from her face. 

“Dead.” She said weakly. She was severe in shock and breathing irregularly, and Wolfgang knew he had to get her to a doctor. Then suddenly she screamed, and began to shake violently, frantically trying to grab the handlebars of the snowmobile with her snow-numbed hands. In her panic she lost her balance and fell onto the ground. Wolfgang rushed around to help her up, and as he set her back onto the seat his blood ran cold.