Cassie steps up to the mirror and she uses the melted rectangular piece of gold that Vita Longa provided for her and she holds it up to the mirror. Harris took out a flashlight and shined it through the gold.
There was a light of pure gold that shined off the fossilized gold and it hit the mirror with intensity. The mirror began to change colors as well, taking the color of pure gold itself to match the gold rectangle in Cassie's hand.
"That should take care of it," Cassie said with uncertainty but tried to hide it in her voice.
She steps away before the ground beneath her suddenly shakes. Her first thought was an earthquake before she realized that she was shrinking. She was confused at first before she deduced that she wasn't sinking, the ground was lowering beneath her like an elevator.
"What's happening?" Derek asked, the potato sack still covering his head. "Can I have this sack off my head, please?"
Harris looked at Heisenberg, who nodded. He removed the sack personally from Derek's head and watched in amusement as Derek's face lit up with confusion. "We're riding an elevator."
"At least that's the only thing we're riding," he smirked after regaining his posture.
The elevator ride was taking its sweet time descending down into the surface of the earth and she knew this because the pressure in her ears was starting to building up. She winces in pain and tries popping her ears by holding her breath but it wasn't doing anything. The same thing was happening to the other mercenaries.
Cassie turned and used this opportunity to count her enemies.
There's Heisenberg, Harris, Marcel, the Ukrainian, and the Three Mercs. That's seven, and I count at least twelve mercenaries, which totals up to a kill count of nineteen enemies altogether. I'm unarmed of any gun so I have nothing but my wits to rely on. I'm not handcuffed like my three friends are and they are always being guarded by the three mercenaries. The twelve mercenaries are each armed with an assault rifle, an AK-47 and they have thirty rounds per mag so thirty times equals three hundred and sixty bullets aimed at me.
Heisenberg saw Cassie studying him and the mercenaries.
Cassie Drake, he said in his mind, I wonder what's going on inside your head? If you're planning how to escape, I've already predicted that you might try to escape and I can't wait to challenge you.
It had taken quite a while for the elevator to lower itself down and when Cassie looked at her wristwatch, only ten minutes have passed since the elevator went down but one thing that caught her attention was the fact that her ears should've been bursting from barotrauma but the ear pressured remained the same, like a rock sliding in the same direction on thick ice.
What's going on? If the elevator is being lowered then we should've been ten minutes underground and needing submarines to prevent our ears from getting pressurized.
She looked at the faces of the others and realized that none of them were convulsing in pain from barotrauma. She tilted her head, wondering what was going on.
How is it possible? She kept asking herself, How are our eardrums not bursting from the pressure. Her eyes went wide for a brief second but she dropped her lids over her eyes to make sure nobody spotted her making a realization.
I saw that, Heisenberg mentally said as he studied the young blonde woman, You realized something, didn't you?
Cassie sighed and looked away, licking her lips in anticipation.
I can't believe, it's all an illusion. Her eyes open up and she licks her lower lips again. That's where Vita Longa got their idea of illusions from. The reason is that alchemists used illusions back then when they were at the top of the world. I've encountered dozens of Marcel's illusions on the boat and in Italy in the tomb of Hermes Tri-Something. These Vita Longa guys aren't original, they're using smoke and mirrors, just like this elevator is. The reason the pressure is the same in our ears is that we stopped but the elevator continues to send out vibrations to make it appear that we are still descending into the earth. Classic but if this the case then that means there must be some kind of trapped set.
She looks around the room, her hazel-green eyes looking around the room for some kind of potential trap. If there was one thing that she knew, it was that the best traps are ones that are activated by their victims. This means that there is a trap in this room and the alchemists were expecting that the people riding this elevator activate it without them knowing.
If the trap is in this room, I just have to find it.
"Drake," Heisnebger called from the other side of the elevator, "I can see in your eyes that you know that something is off. The reason we're keeping you alive is that you're a seasoned explorer and you know what to do in situations like this. Please…" he crossed his arms over his chest and bowed his head, "Enlighten us and tell us what you were thinking."
I got careless and let him know that I've done this before. I guess I have no choice but to play along. "There is a trap in this room," he said, "This whole elevator is a trap."
The mercenaries looked at Cassie with determination. Derek could see it in Cassie's eyes that she was determined as well. Not going to look weak in front of her dangerous enemies but ready to strike when the opportunity came.
"How do you know this is a trap?" one mercenary asked abruptly.
"Calm down, man," Zwei held up a hand to his ally, "Drake here has had the most experiences when it comes to lost cities so if she says there's a trap then there is, and if there is a way to disarm, then we better listen to her."
"And if she tries to screw with us?"
Eins draws a gun and aims it to the back of Derek's head. "I think she'll get the message clearly."
All eyes suddenly drew onto Cassie as they expected her to give an explanation as to how to get out of this mess. Cassie glared at them, Eins in particular, vowing that once she got the upper hand, she was going to hurt Eins for pointing a gun at her Derek. Anger makes her think irrational but she was a rational person so she pushed that anger to the side and started searching around the elevator for the trap.
She searched around the bookshelves, pulling each book from a place and Heisenberg instructed for several mercenaries to help her out.
Three mercenaries helping me out, which means that 360 bullets had been cut down 270 at least.
She pulled out all of the books and placed them on the table in the center of the vibrating room. "Well," she pants as she rests her forearms on the tower of thick textbooks, "If there is a trap in here that is activated by the victims, then that means it is hidden in plain sight. If I were you, mercenaries, I'd stay right where you are and don't move unless I instruct you to."
"And if you screw with us?" the same merc asked?
"I think the female mercenary already showed what she was going to do."
She watches her step as she moves back to her original spot and searches the elevator. Her eyes look from left to right, dozens of possibilities running through her mind like cash money thrown in Time Square.
Hidden in plain sight but the way to getting inside Ys is also hidden in plain sight. What could it be?
Her eyes look up to where they were supposed lowered from the lab. The cave they walked through was still there on the wall but one thing that she spotted was the position where the mirror was supposed to be. She moves to the opposite end of the lab to get a better look and her suspicion is confirmed.
"Up there," she points, "The mirror that we shined the gold piece with, a new path opened up. We missed it because we've been so focused on waiting for this elevator to go down when the entrance was up there this entire time. That is classic misdirection. It's like those illusions you see on Youtube. There are eight or nine people tossing balls to one another and then you're asked how many black shirts got the ball in contrast to white shirts. You're so focused on the question that your eyes follow the ball around the room that you don't notice the guy in the gorilla walking past the kids."
"Smart," Hesinebrg said, referring to the alchemists.
"Thank you," Cassie said modestly, "I try not to show off too much with my intelligence."
"Climb up there, Drake," Heisenberg ordered, "I know that you're a competent rock climber."
Great, now I'm his errand girl.
"If you say so," Cassie said casually as she held out her hands like she was doing a dramatic presentation. She touched her hips and noticed that she was missing several things. "I require climbing equipment with me. Preferably my grappling hook and piton that the three ass-lethes took from me."
Heisenberg looked at the Three Mercs and nodded. Drei returned her grappling hook while Zwei tossed her climbing piton.
"Thank you," said politely. She turned towards the wall and subconsciously stretched like a bear lumbering. She arches her back and bends forward.
Drei and Zwei stared at Cassie's butt. Derek felt like passing out. He had this habit of passing out of excitement whenever he saw 'Cassie'. In Iceland, he and Cassie got naked (no sex involved) and he passed out multiple times at the sight of seeing Cassie naked.
Cassie wraps her grappling hook around her belt loop and plants her piton in another loop before she moves towards the wall and starts climbing as soon as her hands found handholds.
"Such a shame," one mercenary said, "The only pretty girl has to leave."
Eins glared at the mercenary. "She's prettier then I am?"
"You're pretty," the mercenary said as he blushed, "But she is beautiful."
Eins aimed the gun from the back of Derek's head and over to the mercenary's. He showed no sign of fearing what was about to come. "I have half a brain to kill you right now."
"Where's the other half of your brain?" he asked with a smug smile and made several mercenaries behind him chuckle.
They're going to end up shooting each other, Cassie thought as she climbed up. She noticed that the pressure in her ear was returning to normal as she got closer and closer towards the new path in the wall. Once she reached a place with no handholds, she pulled out her grappling hook and threw it up. It hooked onto a sturdy part in the wall and she used it to climb up. She was about thirty feet below the new path before she started running out of handholds. This is where the piton came into play. She jammed the piton into the wall and climbed up to another handhold. She did this several times before she reached the top and climbed inside the rathole.
"It's a shame she has to sit on something so beautiful," Zwei said to his companion, continuing to admire Cassie's butt.
"Whatever," Drei said, not interested.
"Don't try anything," Heisenberg warned, "We still have Lowell and company in our possession. You have ten minutes to report back and I'm wearing a wristwatch."
"So am I," Cassie shouted down below, "Asshole," she muttered, "You're no Walter White, especially if Harris is supposed to be Jesse."
Cassie moves through the rathole, which was barely big enough for her to fit through one hundred percent.
I could use this narrow rathole opening to my advantage, especially since only one person can fit through at a time.