The Golden Elephant
Tomb of the Mad Emperor
"Oops," Annja Creed said as she felt something give beneath the cleated heel of her Red Wing walking shoe.
The floor of the passageway was caked inches thick in dust. Annja couldn't see the trigger. She had sensed more than heard something like a twig snapping.
Already in motion, Annja dived for the floor. She heard a grind, a rumble, a rusty creaking. Then with a hefty metallic sound something shot from the stone walls above her.
Catching herself on her hands, Annja looked around by the light of her bulky hand lantern, which lay several feet ahead of her. She spotted three bronze spears spanning the two-yard-wide corridor a yard above the floor. They were meant to impale any unwary intruder. That included her.
Annja shook her head. "Emperor Lu may or may not have been crazy," she muttered. "But he sure was paranoid."
The echoes of her words chased each other down the slanting corridor, deep into the earth's dark recesses.
Cautiously Annja wiggled forward. As her weight came off the hidden floor plate the spears began to retract into the walls. By the time she reached her lantern they had vanished. The stone plates that c ... read full excerpt from: The Golden Elephant ebook
