Chapter 9. Where is the door?
That question had an unexpected reaction on the youth. With his hair-raising and goose bumps on his skin, he started reading the last chapter.
Note of Mike
Sequence: 2958443183
The key has been found, not so the door. I appeal to an expert in numerical incoherence for him to help me decode such mumbo-jumbo. He asks me time. I demand him his help and that he accelerates the process. He accepts for an astounding sum of money.
Twenty-four hours later, I receive his call. He tells me he has found twenty coincidences with the sequence I asked him to investigate. He sends me the result by e-mail and only one of them calls my attention. It’s number fourteen. I decide to dismiss the rest of them since I sense they aren’t important at all. Telephone numbers, IP address of some computers, dates irrelevant for the investigation, etc.
Requested numerical sequence: 2958443183.
Matches:
14. Pyramid of Keops: Coordinates: 29 °58´44´´ N 31° 8´3´´ E
The exactness is total. The questions that shake my head are too many. What relation can exist between the Pyramid of Keops and the death? Why do they hide? Is it the door to the underworld?
Following the same behavior pattern I’ve had so far, I decide not to inform anyone about such discovery, and without thinking it twice, I book the first flight to Cairo.
It’s the sixth time I travel to Egypt, but differently from the other, this is the one in which I am the most nervous. I arrive with the twilight. The anxiety about getting into the Great Pyramid impedes me from eating anything. That night I can’t sleep either. The following morning I get on the first mean of transport of the day and I travel to the necropolis of Giza. The heat is suffocating and the lack of hunger of last twilight takes a toll. I’m dizzy, and for a moment I think I’ll faint in the middle of the queue. Once inside the pyramid, I search any hint that can lead me to the door. For several hours I go over every centimeter of the place. I can’t spot anything. I start wondering whether it has been a good idea to travel to Egypt without documents. A bit frustrated, I finish the visit. The following days, I decide to go accompanied by expert Egyptologists in order to find that answer that keeps me restless. With all of them, the result is similar. Finally, and in spite of myself, I come back home.
Maybe the pyramid still hides some unexplored place…
«I have to go back to Egypt.» The last page of the book was almost as intriguing as every single enigma and mystery cited in it. His grandfather’s investigation was incomplete. Josef closed the book and remained lying on the bed for several hours, unmoved to the passing of time. Suddenly, as moved by a supernatural energy source, he got up putting an end to his ramblings. He picked the book and walked up to the chest. He typed the password and it opened. Very carefully, he placed it inside and took out the small fluffy vulture out from it. He smelled it and sighed. «The vulture belonged to your father. When you were a little boy, your mother used to make you sleep with it,» Henry told him during his last visit. He put it in its place again and rummaged among the very many papers and newspaper cuts. «There it is,» he celebrated.
Chapter 45
The now fugitives run at top speed along the endless corridors of the Sinz Palace. Seconds before, and when everything seemed lost, Beiler had thrown a strong ray over Cabolun’s helmet, leaving him semi-conscious for a moment. They took advantage of that moment and they got out of the control room. «You’ll die.» The corridors rumbled as he walked past. Finally, and after having run for several meters, they reached the outside and they went to the craft at top speed. They closed the mechanism to prevent anyone from entering it and they went to the control cabin.
“It doesn’t work,” the captain said.
“How can that be possible?” Palac asked frightened.
“Cabolun must’ve blocked it. We’re trapped!”
The novice looked out of one of the windows and saw how his father gave instructions to some of the soldiers who were at the esplanade.
“There’s only one option to escape,” Beiler said. “Come on! Quickly! Follow me!”
Palac followed Beiler’s orders and ran fast after him. They went to the bottom part of the craft and they got into one of the rooms. Seconds later, both midarians appeared on a desert and arid place. The Spores315’s transport cabin had taken them to the south of Mida, at hundreds meters away from the plistor mine. That was the place whose access, due to accidental circumstances, had been denied.
Cabolun started to go up towards the control room, where he entered with stealth. «Where are they?» To his surprise, Beiler and his own son had escaped. Seconds before he used the transport cabin to get inside the craft, they had used it to abandon it.
“What are we going to do?” Palac asked as they walked to the entrance of the cave.
“Wait outside,” he ordered. “I’ll come for you in a moment.”
Beiler entered the mine and all the workers greeted him without suspecting the reason for his visit.
“I’ve come with the novice.”
“You know he’s not welcomed here,” the foreman of the den said.
“It’ll be just for a moment. I want to show him something.”
“All right,” he answered reluctantly.
None of the workers of the mine had forgotten the incident. The young midarian took one of the hoses that aspirated plistor and when he was about to place it on the tank, he stumbled and the pipeline started to move violently in every possible direction. The material got in touch with one of the lights and provoked a huge explosion. The damaged was terrible. That incident stopped the production for four days.
“Hello,” Palac said crestfallen.
None of the miners greeted him back. All of them looked at him with resentment, but the captain’s presence seemed to intimidate them. The foreman got out of the mine. He seemed to be communicating telepathically with someone. Beiler realized about that and pulled the novice strongly.
“We can’t lose any more time,” Beiler said. “Cabolun will soon inform our people about the incident and when he does so, everybody will come for us.”
They went down a narrow stone stairway until they were at the same level of the river of plistor. The noise was deafening. From the Rijan’s guts, the precious material emanated vigorously.
“Be extremely careful. If we fell into it, we’d instantly die.”
They walked some meters following the river course, until the path finally finished. They only had the side of the mountain from which plistor emanated in front of them.
“Now what?” Palac asked nervously.
“Trust me.”
Beiler hit the wall strongly and some fragments of stone fell onto the floor. A panel was revealed. «It’s a Ralex door.» Palac thought without stopping at any time. The captain of the midarian army entered the password and the wall disappeared in front of them showing a new room. Inside it, a transport cabin was secretly kept.
“No one knows about its existence. Everybody thinks that there’s only one single cabin capable of travelling to other planets in Mida. Your grandfather’s confided the secret to me before leaving to Racot.”
At a very few meters, Cabolun along with a dozen loyal fighters stopped in front of the wall through which they had entered the cave. «Where have they gone?» He thought at seeing there was no possible way for them to escape. He looked at the river of plistor and shook his head aware of the fact that such end was unthinkable. He observed around him in detail until he noticed the panel that had been revealed on the wall. He pressed the combination hastily and the wall disappeared at once. There was nothing. The room was completely empty. Once more, they had managed to escape.
“Sir, shall we go after them?” One of his loyal soldiers asked pointing to the cabin.
“No!” He answered sharply. “Sooner or later they’ll have to appear. Stay here. I’ll go back to Nalactia to guard the other cabin. If they want to come back… these are
the only two possible entries to Mida.”
Chapter 46
«Breaking news. A new wave of earthquakes shakes the world once more. This time, the affected countries are Vietnam and Turkey. The amount of victims is still unknown.»
“Please, Margaret, change channels,” her father ordered with a serious expression.
The girl did as he said. The channel now chosen showed a documentary told by a prestigious Canadian journalist.
«According to the information given by the WHO, and comparing the main causes of death in the world in the latest years, a significant rise in the deaths provoked by cancer has been noticed. Nowadays, it is the main cause of death, having already surpassed the ones for ischemic cardiopathology. The numbers are alarming. Thirty per cent of the world’s population will die due to that disease. What is even more alarm…»
“Is there something else done on television apart from communicating misfortunes?” Josef asked.
That afternoon he was visiting his friend. He had gone there to visit her father since he had recently been in hospital due to stomach problems.
“That’s nothing new, Josef,” Margaret’s father answered. “That’s what sells,” he coughed and made a slight grimace of pain. “The main channels have been broadcasting these topics on prime time for years.”
“Every time I switch on the TV, I get depressed,” he said grabbing the remote control from his friend and turning the appliance off.
“You grow older, Josef,” the girl’s father said tapping his shoulder. “Over time you’ll see how your manias increase and some of the things you now consider normal, they won’t seem such to you,” he added looking at his daughter.
“I agree with my father,” she smiled. “You’re becoming a grumpy old man.”
“Well, guy, I’m going to bed,” he said getting up from the sofa. “I haven’t completely recovered from the gastroenteritis yet.”
“Get better.”
“Yes, dad, go and rest.”
“Thank you for visiting me,” he added as he left the room.
Josef told her friend about the conversation he had had with Henry. «The number tattooed on my arm coincides with the coordinates of a planet.» She was amazed at the discovery, but what the librarian didn’t know was that she was going to amaze him much more. Margaret waited patiently until he finished talking.
“I also have something very important to tell you about that number,” the young girl said as she set aside the golden hair that covered her face.
Josef looked at her caution. He did not know what to say. She bent her head and so she left it for several seconds. Finally, she straightened it and their eyes met.
“The other day I was looking a t the photos we had taken in our trip to Egypt, and when I put them in the program to retouch them, I noticed a detail that called my attention.”
“Which one?” He asked bending forward. His heart started to accelerate.
Margaret took the remote control and switched on the TV.
Trip to Egypt
She selected the file and started to look up the photograph. «I should’ve bookmarked it,» she thought lamenting since there were two thousand three hundred and six images on the file. Ten minutes later and resisting the comments of a desperate Josef, she found it.
IMG_894.JPG
On it, it appeared Josef smiling in the Pyramid of Giza. When she showed the properties of the image, his heart started beating even faster.
Coordinates 29º58´44´´N 31º8´3´.
The librarian startled at looking at the screen. He could not believe his eyes. Her friend had reached by chance to the end of his grandfather’s investigation. She had found the door to the underworld. For some seconds, he remained in silence. Suddenly, he started to feel anguished. His hair stood on end out of fear at remembering the dream that he had been having every night since his visit to the Pyramid.
He now was going down the steps of a narrow stone stairway at top speed. Without stopping, he walked straightforward to the panel located on one of the walls and, after leaning on it, a new room appeared out of the blue. Hidden in the dark, he looked with stealth at some strange beings in the middle of it. One of them pointed to him and…
“Josef!” She shouted for a third time.
He came back from his dreaminess and looked at her. He did not know what to say. He had told her nothing about what he saw when he fainted in front of the sarcophagus yet. Even less had he told her about those dreams he had been having after that.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m…” he hesitated “…a bit dizzy,” he answered to muddle through. Immediately after, he sat on the sofa.
Later, he told her that that coincidence was reflected on the last chapter of his grandfather’s book. He also told her about his frustrated trip to Egypt and about his desperation to find the door.
“Don’t be so whimsical,” Margaret said. “The best investigators in the world have been studying the pyramids for hundreds of years. So far, they haven’t been able to find the reason for them having been built. Do you think we’re going to solve the enigma?”
“I once read the theory of a man who thought the pyramids were spaceships that had been left on the Earth. Beings from other worlds would be using our planet as their own scrapping. And what if this coordinates were showing one of them?”
“You’re hopeless every day,” Margaret answered holding back her laughter. “A spaceship made of stone?”
Josef got up from the sofa and walked to the door. Once there, he turned around and stared at her with weak eyes.
“We could spend hours here discussing this topic, but I need to find that door. My grandfather died without achieving his aim, so I’ll pack because I’m leaving to Egypt.”
The door closed before the girl could reply.
Chapter 47
Planet Tuvla was undoubtedly one of the most hostile existing planets. A sea of lava covers almost all the surface except from a tiny island which refuses to succumb to magma. On this small piece of land, there is a transport cabin installed. Actually, it is one of the first ones installed. Its construction was very complex and catastrophic. Several midarians died when falling down the abyss of lava. Yewut never revealed to anyone the reason why such creation was installed there.
“The heat is scorching!” Palac shouted when getting out of the pyramid.
The aluminum of his gloves started to get deformed and he decided to find shelter. Beiler did not seem to be affected and walked around the surroundings for several minutes. He even dared peep out from the top of the cliff to see the tongues of flame that crashed against the rock. Finally, he returned inside the pyramid and told the novice to follow him.
“Where can we shelter?” Palac asked pointing to the panel of the transport cabin.
“Difficult answer,” the captain answered visibly distressed. “To jut out on a planet we need its leader approval. Otherwise, we’d probably be killed.”
“I’ve got it!” Let’s go to Racot, there we don’t need the authorization of any leader since their inhabitants are weak.”
“Impossible,” he answered with no hesitation at all. “He would appear there instantly. Several of his monitors exclusively show images of that place. We can’t face him. His strength is much more powerful than yours and mine together. Besides, you still don’t know any of the midarian skills.”
Palac shook his head no. He closed his eyes and focused all his energy on a small stone which was at several meters from them. He opened them again and a small ray emerged from his guts without even altering its position. Beiler stepped back some steps astonished. Although it hadn’t been extremely powerful, its execution did show power.
“How…? Who was the one that…?”
“Crizal,” he answered with haughtiness, “the one who trained my grandfather.”
“Who’s Crizal?” Beiler asked thoughtful. “When were you with him?”
“I used the Golden Pyramid to search grandpa�
�s learning memory so that I could benefit from it. You must admit it… as far as I could see he was who approved your designation as the captain of the midarian army.”
“I remember it now! You mean the Cyclops of Zelapon.”
“That one. Do you know who I saw in my grandfather’s niolar?”
Beiler shook his head.
“I saw your mother… Plisalet.”
“Where?” He shouted. “Where is she?”
Palac looked at him with fear. The captain started to shake him violently waiting for his answer.
“In Zelapon.”
Plisalet was indecisive and terribly grieved. «You have to do Mida a last favor,» Yewut had told her. «I won’t see him again,» she answered. Her son looked at her waiting for an explanation.
“Bei, I have to leave,” his mother said for the third time.
“When will you come back? Just tell me when…”
“I think this is a trip with no return… my sacrifice will save our people.”
“Can I know where to find you?”
“It’ll be better if you can’t. Yewut will take care of you as if you were his son. That’s the deal.”
Beiler clenched his fists and cursed once again about his mother being the tradable currency used for the learning. Without thinking it twice, he approached the screen and pressed a new destination.
Chapter 48
“It must be here,” Josef muttered terribly hot.
He was in Cairo. He had travelled with a small carry-on bag; he almost had not taken enough clothes to change them. «I have to reach as soon as possible.» It had only been twenty hours since his visit to Margaret’s house. Ten minutes after having left her speaking alone, she called him. «I’ll go with you.» They now were in a narrow alley in the west part of the city. A worker of the hotel had given them Akil’s telephone number. He was the guide that had guided them in their previous visit to the pyramids. The man had happily accepted to receive them at home. They had impersonated journalists who were chronicling the life in the city after the recent civil war.
The World's Game Page 24
