by Chris Fox
4
Memories
Blair seized the leather seat ahead of him as the jeep bounced up a narrow trail that no sane person would call a road. They were in the last vehicle in the caravan, which helped lessen the terror. He could see the two jeeps ahead making the same trek, and the logical part of his mind said that if they made it, then he would too. At least he wasn’t driving.
That fell to the beefy soldier with the Russian accent. Yuri, he’d introduced himself as. His silver sunglasses made him look like some emotionless android, the pistol strapped to his thigh making it very clear that he was the threat in most situations. Blair had never seen anyone like him anywhere near a dig. People like that with equipment like this were expensive. Nobody spent that on science. Nobody.
“Towns like this are so small they don’t even have names,” Bridget said, resting a hand on his forearm to get his attention. He resisted the urge to pull away. Blair would be damned if he was going to let her know how much she still affected him. “They might have a car that the whole village uses, or a few motorcars.”
“They’re farmers,” he said, realizing it as he spoke the words. Fields of corn covered most of the ground where the few buildings did not. The stalks were shorter than the ones back home. “All the way up here. I can’t even imagine how much work that must be at this altitude.”
“It’s amazing what they get by with.” Bridget gave him a warm smile. She hadn’t removed her hand. “They’re extremely self-sufficient. In fact, they export food into Cajamarca. They live below the poverty line, but the whole community helps ensure no one goes hungry. It’s remarkable.”
A flock of sun-darkened children sprinted alongside the vehicles, laughing. They waved enthusiastically, one boy with a crooked smile meeting Blair’s gaze. He found himself waving back, smiling in spite of himself. He really did have a lot of be grateful for, not the least of which was the massive deposit that had shown up in his bank account the night before. He’d paid off twelve thousand dollars in credit card debt this morning, finally freeing himself from years of not quite making ends meet.
“How much further to the site?” Blair asked. He didn’t want to admit it, but the three-hour trek from Cajamarca had been devastating to his back. If he never saw another road like this, it would be too soon.
“About a half hour to base camp,” Bridget answered, finally removing her hand. She gave a softer smile, a child who’d gotten away with something. “The jeeps will stop at the camp. Then we need to hike down into the ravine where the pyramid was discovered.”
“That’s not too far from this village,” Blair said, pointing up at the ramshackle structures perched even higher up the hillside, “or the smaller one I can see up that way.” The place was about half the size of the village they’d just driven through. “How do these people not already know about the pyramid? I can’t imagine word not leaking out if it’s as large as the pictures indicate. Everyone should know about it.”
“Steve made me promise not to tell you specifics. He wants to see if you can determine why this place was never discovered until now,” Bridget said, her smile becoming more of a smirk. She’d always known exactly how to play to his ego, and that he wasn’t going to let Steve show him up yet again.
“Okay, keep your secrets for now. I guess I’ll just have to figure it out for myself,” Blair replied, shifting his gaze out the window. The foliage had thinned as they gained elevation, but stunted trees still dotted the roadside. Like the corn, they were smaller than they would have been near sea level. Flocks of bright-green parrots perched in many of them, as numerous as the pigeons back in the states. That, too, surprised him. He’d expected them near Cajamarca, but he didn’t think they’d be tenacious enough to live up here.
The sky was an unrelieved grey. Those clouds almost felt close enough to touch, which made sense. He’d bet the high peaks of the Andes trapped them in the same way the Sierras did back in California. Unwilling to glance at Bridget, he stretched the silence as he studied the terrain.
“Blair,” Bridget finally said, dropping her gaze as he turned to face her. “Listen. I know it isn’t fair asking you to help Steve. I know how you feel about him and his role in how things…ended. But I didn’t know who else to turn to. I’m scared. You’ve always been so dependable—”
“Dependable? Seriously?” Blair snorted, breaking into laugher. It felt good. He wiped a trickle of sweat from his forehead. “I can’t believe you led with the reliable friend card. You’re a shitty salesman, Bridget. Steve was my friend way before I introduced the two of you, and while he might be the world’s biggest ass, he’s also brilliant. He’s contributed a lot to our understanding of Mayan culture, and he might do even more at this site. I want to be a part of it because I think you’re right when you say we’re about to make history. That’s why I came. Not for you, and certainly not for him. So drop the whole remorseful ex thing. You’ve got more class than that.”
“You’re right. I didn’t realize how bad that sounded until the words were out. I know you didn’t come for me. I’m sorry,” she said. Her shoulders slumped and hair screened her face. It was possible she even meant it.
“Don’t apologize. I don’t want to hear it. If this is going to work, it needs to be strictly professional. Why don’t we start with you telling me what the hell is going on? How about some details instead of cryptic hints? What’s wrong with Steve?” he asked, dropping his voice as he glanced at the soldiers in the front seat. Neither seemed aware of them.
“I’ll start at the beginning,” she began, finally meeting his gaze as the jeep labored up a particularly steep incline. Blair’s stomach lurched, but he stubbornly ignored it. “We were approached by the Peruvian government. They sought out Steve because of his work at Tikal and Norte Chico. They figured he was the best qualified to lead a team and gave him a blank check. We were told we could bring whoever we wanted as long as we got them here within three days.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Just under a month,” Bridget admitted, eyeing him sidelong from under the protective screen of hair.
“You waited a month to bring me in?” Blair asked, suppressing the surge of heat in his gut.
“Steve wasn’t willing, at least at first,” Bridget said. Finally, she looked directly at him. “He still respects you, but he doesn’t think very highly of your current career path. He wasn’t sure we’d need you.”
“So he thinks I’ve lost my edge. What changed his mind?” Blair asked, eyes narrowing.
“I did,” Bridget replied. She waved her hand to dispel some of the dust wafting through the window. “I reminded him that the three of us worked better together, that you think of things everyone else misses. Steve is stubborn, but when he realized he wasn’t ever going to be able to open the room in the central chamber, he finally admitted he needed your help.”
“Central chamber?” Blair asked, straightening in his seat. “What have you found in there? Is there writing, or is it purely utilitarian like the Great Pyramid at Giza?”
“There are symbols everywhere, Blair. The kind left by an advanced culture, one which knew more than anything else in the ancient world, despite predating it by millennia. Hell, they may even know more than we do. We don’t know why they disappeared, much less what they knew at the height of their culture. All that remains is this one structure,” she said, eyes shining with the same wonder she’d had whenever they’d discovered something. It drove a knife through his innards. Damn. He missed this part of her.
“On the phone, you said Steve was acting strangely,” Blair said, shifting the topic. He couldn’t handle the old Bridget, not right now. He needed to focus on business. Stay professional.
“I’m getting there. We spent several days exploring the outer structure before we descended to the central chamber. Like you pointed out, the pyramids at Giza are completely barren on the inside, no writing of any kind. This one couldn’t be more different. Every wall is covered in el
aborate hieroglyphs like nothing we’ve ever seen. They’re more Egyptian than Mayan but don’t really belong to either. Steve thinks this is the history of their entire culture. Though, of course, we can’t be sure until we translate it. If his theory is correct, we may have just found the parent culture that could have given rise to legends of Atlantis. They could have inspired the Egyptians, or might be responsible for Angkor Wat.”
“He may be right, at least about this being a record. If the glyphs from the pictures you sent cover the interior, we could be looking at centuries of their recorded history,” Blair agreed, grabbing the seat again as the jeep lurched over a rock that would have broken the axle on his Ford. “It’s too soon to theorize about them being a parent culture though. This isn’t the X-Files, Bridget. I seriously doubt aliens are behind this…any more than they are the construction of the Egyptian pyramids.”
“You’re only saying that because you haven’t seen it,” she teased, shooting him a wink. “This place is going to blow your mind.”
“I’m sure it will,” he said, still off balance, and from more than the bouncy ride. How was it that she could still affect him like this? Anger and sadness boiled up, but he pushed the awful mix right back down into his stomach. Stay. Professional. “You were telling me about Steve.”
“Sorry. I got distracted. Anyway, Steve became convinced the key to understanding it all lay in the central chamber,” Bridget continued, the leather seat creaking as she shifted. “He started spending entire days down there, hours and hours. That’s when I first noticed the strange behavior. Steve has always been very…attentive. But he started ignoring me. Unless I went down to that chamber, I didn’t see him at all. Even then, he barely even looked at me.”
“You didn’t consider that he might just be excited about a monumental discovery?” Blair asked. Was she that narcissistic? He remembered her being better than that.
“It’s more than that, Blair. I know it sounds like I’m overreacting, but I promise you, I’m not,” she protested. Her gaze rose to meet his as her mouth tightened. “He was excited, sure. Especially in the beginning. Who wouldn’t be? But he barely eats or sleeps. Or bathes. All he’s done for weeks is work. His mood has deteriorated to the point that he snaps at anyone who interrupts him. That isn’t like Steve and you know it. I’ve seen him driven, but this? It’s obsession on a level I can’t even begin to understand. I know this is going to sound odd, but it feels…unnatural…like he’s a drug addict or something.”
“Unnatural? Bridget, I don’t understand the problem or what you think I can do about it. Steve and I aren’t exactly on good terms, and even if we were, what do you want me to do? Offer therapy?”
“You’re taking this lightly, but you haven’t seen him. You’ll understand when we get there,” she said, face going pale. She crossed her arms over her chest, huddling down into her seat as she stared out the window.
5
Arrival
“Holy mother of God,” Blair wheezed. It was the only appropriate reaction when confronted with, well this, regardless of his lack of religious beliefs. The structure dominating the valley below was otherworldly, a stately matron next to the uncouth mountain peaks that flanked it. The pictures had failed to capture the majesty, the foreboding. This place had been the center point for an entire civilization. He was certain of it. It was a focal point that must have taken generations to construct.
The smooth black slopes dipped down at a precise angle, absolutely perfect. Each jet-black slab was unbroken. There were no visible cracks or seams. Hell, the entire thing might have been carved from a single block of stone. The jet black had a mirrored sheen, kind of like the banks of solar cells springing up on houses all over California. The thing drank in the late afternoon sun, a gaping black hole in the center of the ravine below.
He took a cautious step closer to the edge, the frigid updraft almost mocking. It was such a long way down—a two-thousand-foot drop to the valley floor, itself nine thousand feet in elevation. Its effects were palpable, and not just the vertigo or the animal inside of him screaming to flee. The trembling of his legs and the rapid shallow breaths that just couldn’t quite get enough oxygen were constant reminders both of the altitude and his fear of it.
None of that mattered now. He slid forward another foot, kicking a puff of dust over the edge. “I just can’t believe it. That has to be, what, a thousand feet tall?”
“Eleven hundred,” Bridget corrected with a smile, joining him at the ledge. She threaded her ponytail through the back of her cap, donned a pair of sunglasses, and then turned back to their escort. Two of the three jeeps had already moved off to the base camp erected on the south ridge, but the third idled nearby. “Thanks for the ride, Yuri. You can head back to camp. I’ll bring Blair down to the site and introduce him to everyone.”
“Is good,” the beefy Russian said with a nod. He romped on the gas, and the jeep shot away in a cloud of dust, leaving the two of them at the mouth of a very narrow trail threading down into the valley. It ended near the base of the pyramid. Bridget was right. The structure was more advanced than anything in premodern culture; yet, if the dating from the sediment was correct, it had been constructed in the Mesolithic. Before man had learned to farm or write. Before they’d formed anything beyond primitive tribes. Its existence destroyed everything modern anthropology took for granted. The accepted theory of Egyptians being the world’s first pyramid builders had been shattered. The whole field would be in chaos for years.
“What is it made out of? The Egyptians used limestone, but that’s too dark to be any variety I know. Shale? No, that would be too soft. The rain would have eroded it. Obsidian, maybe? No, that would have flaked off,” Blair muttered, shaking his head. He removed his sunglasses and cleaned them on his shirt.
“The outer surface is solid marble. Black marble is rare, but it exists in a few corners of the world. We’ve just never seen something of this size,” Bridget said. She waved away some of the dust left in the wake of the jeep.
“The weight must be incredible. How would they have gotten it this far up into the Andes? There’s no source of marble for fifteen hundred miles. Even if there were, how could they have moved it?” he asked, glancing at her.
“Let’s see how long it takes you to figure it out. Steve got it right away,” Bridget taunted, elbowing him in the side with a playful grin. He was too awed by the pyramid to be baited.
“They must have quarried it from one solid block—a piece that was already here. That’s why it’s built in such a remote location. They just carved it where they found it. It’s the only possibility that makes any sense,” Blair said, grinning in spite of himself. It was good being back in the field. He’d missed the wonder of exploration, of seeing the remnants of ancient peoples and trying to piece together their lives.
“First try. That’s why you’re so amazing,” she said, kneeling to tighten the laces on her hiking boots. He glanced down the trail, skin turning to gooseflesh. He knew he needed to go down, but did it have to be right this second?
“I still think the location is odd, if we use any other pyramid-building culture as a template,” he said, caught up by the majesty of the gleaming structure below. “The mountains around the ravine shield it. It could only be seen from the air or by pilgrims who could handle the hike up here. Every other pyramid was built as a monument. Kings wanted them to be found. Why hide this one?”
“Maybe they feared equally impressive tomb robbers, or maybe this was the only chunk of black marble they could find. Perhaps that material was important for some reason. In either case, the culture that constructed this place was clearly advanced,” Bridget said. She hefted her pack from the rock where Yuri had left their luggage, the wind tugging at her loose cotton shirt, exposing a simple black strap over her shoulder. Didn’t she feel the cold?
“Advanced? In what ways?” he asked, prying his gaze from the pyramid and dragging it back to Bridget. He grabbed his pack, grunting as he fi
t the straps over his shoulders. Why had be brought so many books? He had a damn tablet on his desk at home.
“The structure is in perfect alignment with the cardinal directions, just like those at Giza. There are pictographs on the lowest part of the base that perfectly mimic our solar system. They’re just like those at Teotihuacan, and they include all eight planets,” Bridget explained, approaching the mouth of the trail.
“That’s incredible. We didn’t even find Saturn until Galileo in the sixteen hundreds. How the hell did they look that deep into space? They must have had an advanced telescope,” Blair theorized. The question was maddening because, barring the discovery of such a device in the structure below, they might never know how the ancients had observed the night sky.
Astronomy was the hallmark of every ancient culture. The more advanced their astronomy, the better their math. Every advanced culture mankind had discovered had been fascinated by the cosmos. This culture was as far removed from predynastic Egypt as Egypt was from the present, and yet they’d shared that same love of the cosmos, passing it on to their descendants for over thirteen millennia.
He had to get down there and see it, so he took a step down the trail. The rational part of his mind knew it was a good three feet across, but the terrified kid still remembered the episode in the Grand Canyon. “Jesus, you didn’t tell me I was going to have to climb down a goat trail to get there. How many people did you lose on the way in?”
“Take my hand and stay close to the wall. I know you don’t do well with heights, but you’ve been through worse. Remember China? That little cliff we had to jump? This isn’t nearly so bad,” Bridget said, offering an encouraging smile. That smiled dimmed when he ignored her proffered hand.
